It’s about time for a proper progress report for all our fans out there. So, what is really going on with Dead Meets Lead right now?

What’s done.
We have implemented all the maps, all weapons, menus, achievements system and almost every other “subsystem” (including of course the technical ones, such as renderer, physics and AI systems). Basically, we’re at the verge of moving out of alpha, and getting started with the beta testing. We’ve had alpha testers over almost every week for months now, and we’ve learned a lot about what has been good in the game, and we’ve had a chance to fix those things that were not.

Previously we’ve stated that there will only be two weapons, a sword and a blunderbuss. This has changed in the later versions. You can now purchase some really cool weapons for points you earn by completing maps. And for those of you who were skeptical about slaying zombies with a melee weapon, meet the rage system: For every zombie you kill, you gain a little bit of rage. When you have enough rage, you gain a rage level, which in turn makes the captain stronger in several aspects (attack speed, damage, run speed etc.). This opens up for some really interesting gameplay, it’s just a great feeling slaying your way through the hordes of zombies and feeling the tempo increase and adrenaline pump. This system was actually in place at the time of the gameplay trailer, but the effects weren’t implemented at that time. So just to give you a hint of what’s possible, check out the captain raged up through the roof at the top of this post.

We’ve also updated the looks of the game in several aspects. Above all, the terrain on the maps change as you progress towards the end of the game. In the early areas it’s more of a tropical, almost relaxed, feel, but as you venture deeper into the island it gets darker and more malevolent.

What’s left to do.
The two major parts we are working with right now, except all the ongoing stuff like balancing, optimization, tuning and bug fixing, is cutscenes (yes, we are going to have a few cutscenes in the game :) and our sound engine.

In summary, it’s all going according to plans and we’re getting closer to being able to set a release date each day now!