Development Update #6

Hello everyone!

Welcome to the sixth development update for Haunted: Attack of the Dead Men. This update will be focused on Map 6, but I will also (briefly) cover some changes planned for the next demo update, which will (hopefully) be released next month.

As with the previous levels I've covered, let's start by looking at where this one is located. If you've read the other development updates, you'll know I have a handy map of Osowiec that I base my levels on, so again I have circled the point of interest:


Here we can see the area between Fort III (the location of the soon-to-be Map 5), and both the station and Fort I (where Maps 7 and 8 are). There are a couple of roads running between these areas, and a couple of buildings towards the station. Another point of interest is the track coming out from the station, which could be a train yard of some kind.

But aside from all this, it is hard to tell exactly what else is there. So, I've used a bit of my imagination to fill in the gaps. This is a World War One game, but so far there's a big part of World War One that's currently missing from - No Man's Land. So that's what I decided to fill this map in with - in fact, that is actually the name I gave it. Here's a few screenshots:







If you get bored of mud and barbed wire, you can also pay the train yard a visit. Is this foreshadowing?

And as in last month's update, I felt it was easiest to convey the atmosphere of the level with a short video:

As you can see, this is more the sort of feel you'd expect from a classic World War One game - barbed wire, waterlogged artillery craters and trenches, dead trees, dead men, and endless mud. But there are a few important new features which should be pointed out. I have had yet more feedback on the level design since the last development update, which I have tried to address in the new map.
Some players find it hard to navigate certain maps, especially big outdoors areas with lots of places to explore. Being No Man's Land, we again have another large open map, so I needed to be careful how I designed it so that it is easy to navigate. Alongside the breadcrumb trails of items to pick up, which I mentioned last time, there are some new environment set-pieces to help you find your way through this map - these signs.




These signs are in both Russian and Polish - after all, Osowiec is part of Poland, which at the time was controlled by Russia. It wouldn't make sense for these to be in English! However, I know that most people playing the game won't understand either Russian or Polish, so for important signs I have included icons next to the text, to make it clear what the sign is pointing to.

It's not just signposts you will find throughout the various levels though. You will also find signs above important doors, as well as indoor signs that point to different rooms in the indoor levels.

It's a little difficult to see in this screenshot, but in-game you will see that this says "Station" like the signposts did




This looks useful!

Some of you with a keen eye will notice that parts of the map aren't quite so brown and muddy. This is another feature I have included to help with navigation - texture variation. Map 3 had a lot of green, which made everything look the same. To avoid having this problem again, I have blended between the green grass from the level you've just come from and the muddy look you'd expect in No Man's Land. This means that if you get lost in this map, keep going towards the muddy areas and you'll be heading in the right direction.

And finally, another problem players had with Map 3 was getting stuck in the "hedge maze" area. This was mostly because there was only one entrance and exit to that area - in Map 6, there is no single path forward. You can choose whichever way around you want, but you will still need to find a key to finish the level. If you follow pretty much any stretch of barbed wire, you will find a hole in it somewhere.

So, with that out of the way, what's this about another update to the demo? Well, if you remember the roadmap from The Long Road Ahead, my plan was to get Map 5 out of the way and then address some of the issues with the demo. I have decided to shake this up a bit, and do these tasks the other way round - that way you all get to enjoy some of the changes I've already made, as well as the other changes I am about to discuss, sooner than expected.

Here's what I'm planning to include in the demo update:

• New signs in Maps 2 & 3 to help with navigation
  
• Texture variation in Map 3 so it is less green
  
• Opening up of the "hedge maze" in Map 3
  
• New scenery in every demo level. More details on this will be in the release notes
  
• Balance changes for medium difficulty
  
• Better enemy and item placement to make combat more engaging
  
• Improved telegraphing of secrets
  
• New map names
  

That last point is worth emphasising. Up until now, each of the level names have been fairly bland - "Fort IV", "Marshes", "Fort I", "Station" and so on. I have thought about this again, and decided to spice them up a bit. Here's a preview of the new names for the demo levels:

• Map 01 - Welcome to Osowiec (unchanged)
  
• Map 02 - Revenant Garrison
  
• Map 03 - Poisoned Marshes
  
• Map 04 - Halls of Despair
  

And, why not. Here's the names of the other levels I've made (or started on):

• Map 05 - Resurrected Keep
  
• Map 06 - No Man's Land
  
• Map 07 - Engines of Chaos
  
• Map 08 - Hopelessly Outmatched
  

Of course, these names aren't final and I may tweak them again later.

Anyway, that's all for today, I hope you enjoyed reading this update. Stay tuned for v1.2 of the demo, which will hopefully be released in a few weeks. And once again, thanks for reading!