Sep 11, 2020

Devlog: New Location, Abilities, and Enemies

The Unliving - FrozenYogurt

Hi, Necromancers! Although you haven't heard from us for a while, we have been working on The Unliving throughout this whole Summer. So here's what we've been doing lately.

The Capital – Location Concepts

Our art team has been creating The Capital – it's the 3rd location you'll lead your undead armies through in The Unliving. This ancient city rises high to the skies, embodying the strive of its inhabitants to reach the heavens – albeit, its shiny facade hides a dark foundation. The location is still in the work-in-progress phase, but we can share these concepts to give you a general impression:

And this is one of our early concepts to outline the layout of this level:

Necromancer's Abilities

We've been also working on several abilities that Necromancer will be able to use to give you more variety and options to choose from when you lead your army of the undead against the Church of Zolar and more otherwordly foes. Here are some gifs showcasing the latest abilities that we have come up with:

Fireworks – an ability that detonates nearby bones that drop out of the undead upon taking damage.

Phantasmal Army – сreates aggressive wraiths from the Echoes – remnants of the life-force that spawn upon the death of each creature.

Blood Tide: Forms explosive goo from the blood spilled by the living.

Swamp Enemies

In the meantime, our 2nd major location – the Swamps, needs to be populated by a new set of creatures to fight and interact with. That's why we have been digging through the hundreds of visual references, drawing and throwing away dozens of concepts – all to create the most visually interesting creatures and make them exciting to look at. They are the Mirefolk (melee), the Slinger (ranged), the Mirefolk Warrior (pulls enemies), the Dryad (summoner), the Ashbringer (fries his enemies, but has no VFX just yet to showcase that), and the Commander (focuses his attack on Necromancer) unit concepts. These all are just drafts and will require more work in the future.

Miscellaneous

Several of the following tasks are still in the stage of research and development, so we won't be able to show you much just yet:
– A brand new mechanics of distributing Combat Resources – the ones that will be spawned during the combat and picked up by the player to amplify the abilities of Necromancer and his units;
– Gamepad controls implementation and balancing. We need to make The Unliving work smoothly with the gamepad – basically all of them;
– We are experimenting with the health drain and restock system which is still a bit of a tricky thing. As the health of the Necromancer is tightly knit with his combat powers, we need to invent something really interesting rather than just a plain health-bar.

That's it for now, Necromancers! Keep your scythes ready for more content in the future. Sorry, that it takes so long, but as you can see, we are doing our best to give you the game which is captivating and fun in the result!

Important notice. Our game is still a work-in-progress – features and content demonstrated in our devlogs can be amended, substituted in favor of another content, or become completely unavailable in the latter stages of development. We hope for your understanding.

Don't forget to add The Unliving to your wishlist:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/986040/The_Unliving/
___________

Follow The Unliving on Twitter

– on Facebook

– on VK

Join our Discord community

The Unliving – official website

Our game art outsourcing studio

Team17 on Twitter

Team17 on Facebook

Team17 Discord community

___________

May 29, 2020

Announcement Trailer and Team17 Partnership

The Unliving - Josh_Team17

We're thrilled to announce we've partnered with Team17 to bring you The Unliving!

The Unliving is a dynamic roguelite action RPG with strategic elements. You'll raise the dead as a fearsome Necromancer and lead your undead legions into an endless fight. Burn cities to ash with devastating magic spells, fight bosses and turn your enemies into morbid servants along the way.

Rest your freshly risen bones and watch the new trailer here:

Key features for those who have just discovered The Unliving:

Turn enemies into your undead army: Each fallen foe can be resurrected and made members of your army, their unique abilities added to the arsenal of your undead legions.
Die and rise again: The ability to defy death itself! Each mortal strike is merely a setback. As a roguelite you'll need to learn lessons from each death so that each time you rise you're more prepared than ever to conquer the land!
Conquer uncharted lands: The world is randomly generated for each run and is richly populated with an array of creatures, artifacts, secret rooms and deadly traps. You'll go from raiding quaint villages to even wading through swamps.
Unravel the mysteries of necromancy: Gather the lost memories of the Necromancer piece by piece through artifacts, notes and even forcing answers out of enemies. You'll work to uncover the grim truth of The Church.

Add The Unliving to your wishlist:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/986040/The_Unliving/

We’ll be sharing more information on The Unliving in the near future, but until then, follow our social channels to keep up to date with the latest news!

The Unliving Twitter
The Unliving Facebook
The Unliving VK
RocketBrush Studio Discord
Team17 Twitter
Team17 Facebook
Team17 Discord

Sep 27, 2019

Devlog: Enemies

The Unliving - alex

Hi, Necromancers!

This is our debut full-scale devlog and it is entirely dedicated to the enemies that you will encounter in the game.

The world of The Unliving is merciless and unfair, yet it maintains its fragile equilibrium – you don’t need to save it from the mighty villains or ungodly monsters striving to destroy it. On the contrary, it is you who are the main threat to the existing state of affairs here. Thus, a major part of the opponents does not actively seek a conflict with you at first. We set their behaviour so that they prefer minding their own business after they spawn at the location:

Yet, you should not just sit back and relax. Even peaceful peasants gathered together can patrol surroundings to help their neighbours if needed or cut off your path to retreat. In addition, our peasants can deftly throw their pitchforks that can inflict a lot of damage if you don’t dodge them. Actually, we try to implement certain abilities for all our units in addition to giving them an interesting basic attack: Rangers can tactically retreat, and a Blacksmith, if you don’t stun him in time, will bring down the burning hammer onto your army.

Although we haven't yet approached the “morale” system of the creatures during the development, still many of them learnt to flee in panic when overwhelmed by your hordes of the undead. Sometimes these “deserters” run onto the other groups of hostile mobs, joining forces against you in the next encounter – it's pretty surprising and fun when it happens. But sometimes, instead of running to their allies, they can bump into their own enemies – yes, we have implemented the faction system that will sometimes allow you to pit your opponents against each other. Now we think about making this panic system to calculate that the mob should run to his allies instead of retreating in random directions.

The corpse of the enemy is good enough reward for the Necromancer, but sometimes you can also get hold of some gold or restore health from it.

But do not anticipate that absolutely every enemy will scatter in fear as soon as you arrive. Some large and ferocious opponents are made to fight you to the last drop of their blood. For example, a werewolf being in a continuous fight only becomes stronger with each hit:

Why are werewolves protecting the peasants all of a sudden? You will find the answer only within the lore of the game

All creatures (except summoners’ servants) spawn at the location only once, when location is generated. The composition of each group of enemies and the number of creatures in it are randomly selected within our framework. Given this contingency factor, as well as the fact that those groups can use complicated routes to patrol locations, you can’t foresee the exact time, the place and the type of opponent you will bump into, even if you have already passed this very place several times before. Killed opponents never respawn, but you can always raise them as the undead. The appearance of the undead unit, as well as its capabilities, entirely depends on the type of its “living” form.

Yes, you can have even an undead werewolf in your army – this is completely okay because you resurrect literally everything you kill

We’ve made huge progress working on the intelligence, capabilities and the appearance of the opponents that you will face in the game. Now we are preparing for the new challenges waiting for us ahead, while you can anticipate our next devlog where we will most likely cover the environment topic. In the meantime, keep your scythes sharp, Necromancers!

P.S. This is the recent redesign of creatures

---
Share with friends and follow our game news and updates:

Discord Server
Twitter
Facebook
VK

Jul 16, 2019

Answers to Frequently Asked Questions

The Unliving - FrozenYogurt

1. What is The Unliving?
The Unliving is a dynamic rogue-lite action RPG with strategic elements, where you play as a Necromancer and turn killed enemies into your own army of the undead.

2. Is the game already released? Where can I play?
The game is still in development and is planned to be released in Early Access in the first half of 2022. Before that, we're going to release a demo on Steam. In the meanwhile, you can add The Unliving to your Steam wishlist

3. Is this game free?
No, but you'll have to pay only once when buying the game – we won't ask any additional purchases within the game from you.

4. Can I play on my mobile device or consoles?
First of all, we will launch the game for PC and consoles. Only then we hope to begin working on the version for mobile devices.

5. Will there be Beta / Early Access?
Yes, the Early Access release is planned for H1 2022

6. Which languages will the game be translated into?
The game will be translated to about 10 languages - look for future updates.

7. How can I support this project?
Your reposts and retweets on social media are very helpful, as well as adding the game to your Steam wishlist

8. Which engine and programming language the game is being created at?
Unity, C#

9. Is there a story in The Unliving?
Yes, we are preparing a lot of interesting stories that will gradually open to you in the process of playing the game.

10. Will there be a co-op / multiplayer?
One day we would like to see some kind of multiplayer in the game, but for now, we are all focused on more basic goals.

11. What about controller support?
The game will support the controller, yes.
ᅠ
12. Will there be any microtransactions in the game?
No, all in-game content will be fully available after the game is purchased. In the future, we may be releasing large paid DLCs, but the main content and regular updates will be available for free to everyone who purchased the game.

13. I have a weak PC, will I be able to play? (system requirements)
We have yet to commence full-scale testing of the game. To figure out roughly whether your PC can handle the game, you can try to test similar games on it.

14. I am a streamer / YouTuber – can you give me a key?
Please, write to us to games@rocketbrush.com and add a link to your channel.

15. What about skill tree and character progression?
You can combine the artifacts that you find and change the abilities of your hero according to your play style. The traditional skill tree is not planned at the moment.

16. Can I customize my character?
We are thinking about this, but at the moment you can't

17. Can I build a base?
Nope

18. Will there be friendly NPCs?
At the moment there will definitely be a merchant from whom you can buy various useful things for your adventures. It is possible that there will be other characters as well

19. How many different creatures there are in the game?
We plan to create about 25 types of various opponents, not counting small living creatures. All of the enemies can be resurrected in their unique undead shape, with the exception of creatures not of the flesh.

20. How much time will it take to complete the game?
In The Unliving you have a thousand reasons for which you can lose and start over, but sooner or later you will be lucky enough to complete all levels to the end without dying. One such successful passage takes about one hour of real-time, but it won't allow you to open everything in the game, so the total playing time can take dozens of hours.
ᅠ
21. How will game saves work?
In the event of a power failure or a PC shutdown, you can continue the game from the location where you left off. In addition, there will be no in-game saves. If you die, you will have to start over.

22. So does the permadeath makes me lose everything I collected?
No, with each attempt you will gradually discover new artifacts and accumulate in-game currency, which can be spent on gaining advantages during the next attempt. Thus, over time, your capabilities will expand along with your gaming experience.

23. Will there be different classes of heroes?
At the moment we have planned only one main character. Perhaps more heroes will appear in the updates.

24. Is this a Slasher / Tower Defense?
No. The Unliving is not a slasher, as you get a lot of tactical thinking to do with your squad/army in order to complete the level. If you lose all your undead adherents due to the tactical mistakes, you will hardly be able to win the game.
It's not a Tower Defense or "Reversed Tower Defense" either, as you get to control not only your army but directly your hero, traveling through different locations, including forests, swampland, and deserts.
ᅠ
25. How is this game different from The Binding of Isaac / Overlord / Right Click to Necromance / Undead Horde?
First of all, we must say that The Unliving is a very unusual game that is extremely difficult to compare with others. When solving problems during the development process, we constantly encounter a situation where there is simply no place to borrow a solution – there are no similar games. But if you need more specifics, then:
- Unlike Isaac – you have a huge crowd of the undead here and many more enemies. You will have to use tactical thinking rather than fighting in one-on-one duels with the monsters;
- Unlike Overlord – we don't have linear gameplay, but a rogue-lite with procedurally generated levels. Also, our game is more about fighting rather than completing quests and puzzles;
- Unlike RCTN – our game has a much bigger scope with more mechanics, locations, monsters, and abilities. Also, we have the main hero.
- Unlike UH – besides the huge difference in visual style, our game is focused on dark and grim narrative; it is also a rogue-lite, not a linear game. The mechanics of The Unliving allow the player to control the undead units directly and use their abilities. There are also artifacts that change your undead units in The Unliving that affect the gameplay with every run. We also put a lot of effort into creating the lore and developing the plot through indirect storytelling – you can check our previous devlogs to read more about it.

26. Have you thought about theme in-game events?
This is a good idea and we think that it would be nice to arrange something like that, for example, on Halloween :)

27. In which stores the game will be released, besides Steam?
We are interested in putting our game on to as many storefronts as we can, but at this moment we certainly will release it on Steam in the first place

28. What do you think about Kickstarter?
At the moment we have no immediate plans, but everything might change.

29. Where else can I follow your game news and updates?
Discord
Twitter
Facebook
VK

30. Who you guys are?
We are RocketBrush Studio - a Cyprus company and a multicultural team representing more than 8 nations.

31. Is this your first game?
This is our first in-house project. Prior to this, our studio used to help the other developers create their projects and we continue to do so – we provide game art outsourcing services and create game graphics, videos, etc.

32. Do your developers get paid for their work on The Unliving or do they work on a rev-share basis?
All our team members are professionals and receive full payment for their work on the project

Jun 14, 2019

Devlog: The World of The Unliving

The Unliving - alex

Hi, everyone! Today we would like to tell you where the story of The Unliving unfolds and who you will have to deal with during your journey.

Our game is set in a dark fantasy world of hunched overworked serfs, noble-blooded yet debauched aristocrats, and the ever-looming iron fist of Theocracy. This is the world in which an earnest prayer could cause a miracle – but nonetheless very distant from a utopian paradise. The world touched by the other kind of magic: ferocious and unforgiving one.

What can you expect from the story? A plot centered around Necromancer and necromancy; a narrative of commanding hordes of Undead and the price one has to pay to truly understand the Dark Arts – the themes we put a lot of effort to present at the level no game did before. We chose to use indirect storytelling techniques – which might be familiar to many of you from the Dark Souls universe or the film Memento. The big picture and the true reasoning behind the events will gradually unfold as you progress in the game and hunt down scattered clues. We also work on populating the environment with little details telling you their own stories. And there are lot of those in this world! Each new walkthrough will gradually uncover a new piece of the 'plot puzzle' and, eventually, shed the light on who is actually pulling the strings in this story.

Our Hero’s journey will be a challenging task. He will have to lead the undead hordes through eldritch swamps and sealed dungeons, through forsaken and crumbling ruins and grandeur streets of the capital in The Heart of the World. We are planning to populate 5 types of areas with 30 different types of species, each of which can be resurrected as a unique undead creature with its own abilities!

The role of the main adversary in the game is given to The Church – a human faction, creation of which was guided by the image of the late Roman Empire with its belligerent imperialism; and by the epoch of the Holy Inquisition with its omnipresent terror. However, humans are not the only foe you will get a chance to clash with.

And, sometimes you will encounter opponents that cannot be overcome just by brute force, they would require wits and quick tactical thinking. But we believe that eventually you will to take down even the most terrifying of your enemies in The Unliving. Take down and raise them to fight for your cause. The cause only Death has a shot at.

Thanks!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/986040/The_Unliving/