ㅤ
ㅤWelcome, Survivor!
I hope you're doing well!
In today's devlog, I'd like to talk about how the full release went, what we're doing right now, and what's coming up in the near future.
I'd also like to officially welcome all the new Survivors that joined us after the full release. These devlogs are something we do a few times a year to put the most important information and related events into one place and convey them to the community (which you're now part of, yay!).
So, without further ado, let's get started!
YAZS launch was awesome!
We can all agree the launch was a success! A lot of you have returned to check what's new, but we've also gained 100,000 new players in the launch week! We've also managed to have almost 10,000 concurrent players on Steam, which, while not the highest peak in YAZS history, is still a very large number!
Thank you all for being there with us! We hope you're finding all the additions we've prepared for you in version 1.0 fun. We thank you for your patience as we prepare the finishing touches on bugfixes and improvements you've been asking for, and we hope you'll stay with us to see what we've got in store for the future.
ㅤIt's been a great awesome 3 years of development so far. Let's hope for the best in the future!
By the way, special thanks to everyone who decided to leave us a positive review - these are crucial in making the game visible these days and grant us the powers to support the game further!
Support for additional languages coming soon!
As we promised before the full release, we're looking into adding support for more languages. As mentioned previously, we're but a small indie team, so we can't add and support every possible language to the game. But! We still can try our best to support most of the ones you've been asking for!
In the case of all supported languages, we're paying for human-made translations, and we're working closely with a localization quality assurance agency to make sure everything is translated correctly.
We're happy to announce that we're working on adding the support of the following languages:
- Italian
- Traditional Chinese
- Turkish
- Ukrainian
These language versions / translations will be added to the game in one of the upcoming updates. This will push the total amount of supported languages to 14! We hope you're looking forward to it!
We've been receiving reports of some translation errors existing in the game, but we're working hard on fixing all of these issues and polishing the remaining translation inconsistencies.
Addressing the popular feedback!
In the last weeks we've received a lot of feedback on the game - thank you! A number of changes applied in the recent updates were also addressing some of it, as well as implementing changes you suggested. We hear you, and we'll continue our work to improve the game to the best of our abilities!
We've just released the 1.0.1 update, which - counting the hotfixes - is the 5th update after the full release. You can read about the changes made to the game in these updates on their news posts:
- 1.0.1 / 1.0.0c & 1.0.0c2 / 1.0.0b / 1.0.0a
In these updates we did some changes to the mission system to make it less random and give the players more control over which one they would like to play. There are some things we've failed to convey properly, like the mission system being optional content if the player prefers to not do them, as well as the Survivors' missions serving as a gateway/roadsign to unlock more content and the story missions. All in all, we will most likely introduce more changes to the mission system with the upcoming bigger updates.
One thing to consider when talking about balance is that the feedback we gather is often contradictory. That one Survivor/weapon/ability that you find "the worst" and "useless" is often someone's elses favorite or even best-in-slot go-to choice. This is why we always take all the feedback that the community gives us and compare it with the numbers and in-game use and effectiveness statistics we gather. After some time, we take all of the above to check what might be underperforming and what is overperforming and change things accordingly. This is why balance updates aren't usually the content of hotfixes or tiny updates in-between version updates. We also take the time to analyze which options are strong - but not fun to play with - and look if there's something we can do about those.
Please rest assured that we'll continue to work on giving everyone the best possible and balanced gameplay experience, as well as working on things that you find irritating and distracting and which aren't just sneaky enemy attack patterns but design flaws and inconsistencies we can address.
Plans for the next major updates!
The game is released, but we're far from stopping, and as promised, will continue to support it with updates. Most of the planned features consist of things we've said in the past that we'd like to add, as well as most of the features our lovely community has asked for.
While we don't have a set-in-stone roadmap of things that we'll definitely add in each of the upcoming major version updates, we will be prioritizing the things you've asked for the most in our last community survey, as well as increasing the gameplay depth and polishing different in-game systems.
Some of the planned features for the near future consist of, but aren't limited to:
- More meta-progression for the general skill tree / higher max Survival Level.
- An addition of synergies between different damage types / elements.
- Prestige system that allows restarting meta-progression with some elements saved.
- Additional gameplay systems to increase both the replayability and the gameplay depth.
- Higher difficulty levels and other tougher challenges for the worthy!
And yes, we know - many of you want us to add multiplayer. As described in our FAQ, this isn't an easy feat to achieve. Multiplayer modes are notoriously difficult and time-consuming to implement correctly. We still can't promise anything. There are things we need to take care of first to create a good base on which such a feature could be theoretically built upon. There's also the core problem of making all the currently available in-game systems work well in multi-player scenarios: stay fun and bug-free. There is a good reason many of even the most popular games in this genre don't have multiplayer modes or have had them introduced many years after their full releases. If only there was a simple "add multiplayer" button, but alas, it can only be crafted properly with lots of time, blood, and tears.
Anyway, let us continue to work together to make the game even more awesome with new content updates!
Public Beta branch on Steam!
Just wanted to quickly remind everyone who might have missed the news post, that we've opened a public beta branch here on Steam.
We will be pushing the latest updates to this branch first before releasing them fully, as we want to first test the changes in a controlled environment with people who would like to help us out and make sure everything is working just right.
If you'd like to take part in the tests, be sure to read this news post on how to join the tests, what to expect from it, and where to read about the upcoming changes:
- https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/2163330/view/699900155194770424
Just keep in mind that there might be bugs, balance issues, and incorrectly working features ːyazs_pigeonː
New awesome bundles with our buddies!
While we haven't been adding many new bundles recently, there are a few new ones for you to check or let your friends know about, in case they'd want to complete their collection of games. These are:
https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/83886/Brotato_x_Yet_Another_Zombie_Survivors/
https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/83887/Deep_Rock_Galactic_Survivor_x_Yet_Another_Zombie_Survivors/
There's also a new game bundle which works a bit different, as it's a complete package, so you can't buy each game separately. This one's a good deal for people who are yet to get YAZS (and Wanderburg!):
https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/87333/Yet_Another_Zombie_Survivors_x_Wanderburg/
If you haven't given these gems a go, be sure to at least check them out!
Nintendo Switch version is on the way!
We know some of you are waiting for the Nintendo Switch version to play the game on the go, and we apologize for the delay in terms of release.
The development is currently wrapping up, as we fix some remaining quirks related to this platform. All that will remain will be for the game to pass the certification process, which can take an unspecified amount of time, but we're hopeful it won't take long.
Please note, that YAZS will be a Switch 1 title. As for the dedicated Nintendo Switch 2 version, we still can't say when and if it will be done, as we haven't yet been accepted into Switch 2 developers program. We'd love to make one but can't promise anything, as this is something outside of our control.
Saying this, the base Switch game should still reach higher FPS marks when playing on the Switch 2 model due to its much greater hardware specifications (we won't be limiting the maximal framerate). We're of course working on making the gameplay as smooth as it's physically possible on the base model as well, no worries!
Thank you for your understanding!
New Awesome Teammate!
A short while ago, our team has been enlarged by one additional member: Marcin (yet another one!).
Marcin joined our team as a dedicated 3D artist, which makes him our first 3D artist ever (yes, we somehow managed to exist all these years with just Andrzej, who's a 2D art wizard).
If you're enjoying the atmosphere of the Camp, he's the one who helped in making all the various visual tweaks and lighting magic to make it look as good as it currently does!
Here's a few words from him:
Hi, everyone! My adventure with gaming began back when bars still had arcade machines, as very few people could afford a computer, and getting hold of such equipment was extremely difficult.
Later, I became fascinated by machines such as the Commodore and Amiga, and games like Flashback and Another World have stayed with me for a long time.
However, the real revolution came when I bought my first PlayStation console; the 3D world in games such as Resident Evil, Tomb Raider and Metal Gear Solid was a massive technological leap forward, and I fell in love with 3D graphics, so not long after, I decided to learn how to create them.
That’s how my adventure in the industry began - it’s now been over 15 years - and I’ve become a fully-fledged 3D professional, working both in graphics software as a 3D Artist and in game engines as a Level Artist and Lighting Artist.
ㅤ
Yet another old-school gamer with years of experience behind his back!
We hope you're looking forward to his work for this and our other titles.
Be sure to leave him a welcoming comment - he'll read all of them!
Thanks for sticking with us!
We're always grateful to have such an awesome community. It is your support that drives us forward. Keep sharing your feedback, ideas and suggestions - let's keep improving the game together!
On a quick note, we've recently updated the demo version of the game on Steam and are in the process of updating/releasing the demo versions on console platforms as well so that your friends can give the game a go to decide if it's something they'll enjoy.
See you next time!
ㅤStay awesome,
ㅤㅤKalafiorek @ Awesome Games Studio