Dear post-apocalyptic fans! We present for your attention the fourth chapter of the developer diary for the game Last Frontier, with a report on the spring of 2015.
Light a small campfire, take out your stashed individual ration pack, and get your old receiver ready to listen to the familiar radio signals. Here we go!
DEVELOPMENT PROGRESS
Spring turned out to be a rather hot one — across many areas of development, the long-awaited transition to new tasks finally took place.
We worked intensively on introducing game items, creating the corresponding models and inventory art for the first sets of weapons, armor, helmets, gadgets, medicine, and quest items. For the starting location, the majority of the spot graphic content is awaiting its turn to be introduced; the creation of a special zone for holding players who break the game rules has been completed; and the writing of text for 70% of the total number of various terminals has been finished. The introduction and discussion of new interface windows continues, along with the steady creation of graphic content for the maps of the snow-covered surface. For the first alpha version, all the planned musical compositions have been created, and work has begun on recording ambient sounds.
In addition, the game engine was updated and the toolset optimized, which slowed down the pace of introducing new graphic content into the game a little; however, by the end of June we plan to assemble and launch the first playable build of Last Frontier with the current work, which will allow us to actually test the game mechanics.
An example of inventory art for jumpsuits and armor sets. Click to open in full size.
An example of inventory art for the first set of weapons.
An example of inventory art for various game items.
CAFE OF SCOUNDRELS, CAFE OF LOWLIFES
At the moment, the creation of the storyline for the personal quests of the second city is practically complete. Unlike the starting location (more details in the second chapter), the survivors of this Aleut village were not lucky enough to shelter from the nuclear winter in an isolated bunker — the settlement had to endure nuclear war, post-war devastation and epidemics, the onset of the Cold, countless attacks by mutants and rampant banditry, as well as significant competition from other cities.
Thanks to its geographic location (the starting section of the global map — Saint Lawrence Island, located in the very heart of the icy “Crust”, where a huge number of trade routes are concentrated), it became possible to weave in several story lines, not limiting ourselves to just the single flavor of a shabby Aleut village. Players face a choice: either take the side of the locals, also interacting with a group of small traders and a stern clan of hunters, or join the numerous pragmatic gang that runs the most popular Bar in the whole area (mentioned in the first novella, published in parts on our Twitter).
Such eclecticism (hunters, traders, locals, bandits) and the fairly dark tone of the location make it possible to gradually raise the level of bleakness and cruelty of the post-nuclear everyday themes being touched on, bringing the content for the start of the game closer to the planned overall bar, and in addition, they serve as an excellent aid in creating interesting characters.
COLD TRAIL
As usual, the diary chapter closes with a selection of promo materials. We invite you to read the second part of the “Life in the Vault” brochure, take a look at the updated “Questions and Answers” section, and check out the new concept art — before you is the female version of the Koptilka armor and various modifications of the KS-1 Jumpsuit: the KS-1C Security Jumpsuit and the KS-1L Improved Jumpsuit; among other things, we present for your attention the game’s promo art, done in landscape format.
Click to open in full size.
In the near future, we plan to present you with a fragment of the game’s soundtrack, prepare an article devoted to the sparse plant world of the post-nuclear wastelands, begin publishing the second novella, and return to filling the informational sections of the site with new materials.
Stay tuned — there’s a lot of interesting things ahead!
13 June 2015