Base Game : Small Town

Concept

You arrive on the edge of a small town. You have recently escaped a horde of Old Dead. Only one other of your group survived, but they are injured. You were forced to flee without your belongings, so you only have your satchel with you.

You and your companion are in desperate need of food, water and medicine. You take shelter in a small building on the edge of town.

It is up to you to enter this town, explore and find what you need to survive.

Mechanics

Hunger/Thirst System

The game will track your hunger and thirst throughout your play. You will need to find food and drink to help stave off the effects of depletion. E.g. decreased movement speed when hunger is below 20%

Health System

This game allowed for up to 4 health issues. Once this reaches 0 you will have a limited countdown to use a healing item. You can lose health by being caught by a Dead, environmental hazards or illness. Health can be restored using healing items.

Farming System -  Crops

The game will track your crop conditions, allowing for up to 4 issues which will effect the quality of the food harvested. Your crop health will decline if you forget to water it, or if animals get into the crop. This can be mitigated by building fences or make a basic irrigation system etc.

NPC Trust System

NPC’s are scarce. Trust of strangers is scarcer. You will need to build trust with NPC’s in order to get upgrades, skills and other key or special items. Sometimes you might just need food and warmth, trust can help you get it.

The Dead

There is no direct combat in The Dying Days. The Dead cannot be killed again, only avoided. Every human carries the infection, whatever it is, and once you die, you become the Dead.

Old Dead

These are Dead who have been dead a long time, skin rotted away to reveal strange fibrous thread tendrils beneath. They are slow, but persistent. If one senses you they will follow you until you either find a way to barricade them into a room or building, or they catch you. No one knows how they sense you, but some thing it has something to do with the “threads” inside them

New Dead

These are Dead who have more recently died. They look more like fresh corpses. These rely more on their physical senses than the Old dead, and will give chase if they see or hear you. They are fast and they are strong and if they catch you they will do serious damage. But they are easily distracted by noise or bait.

Areas of Interest

Edge of Town

4 small residential buildings on the edge of town, containing a small amount of lootable items. There is an initial safehouse where you and your companion stay at the start of the game.

Main Street

Main street is a mix of shops and small business, eg pharmacy, general store etc, and some small residential buildings. More looting options. This is also where most of the NPCs in the base game reside.

Farm

You meet a farmer who teaches you how to farm. He is close to death and after he teaches you he hands you the key to his house and walks off to get as far from the town as he can before he dies.

This area becomes your safe house.

What will be in the full game

Please note that while I call these expansions they will not be paid for DLC, they will all, eventually make it into the game. (I just like the word expansion)

These are expansions I have planned and intend to be in the full game when it comes out. I will be releasing a Demo game first of all. But these are expansions to the Dying Days I would like to add to improve gameplay and make the world larger and more interesting.

• Wild Expansion
  • adds berries, apples, rabbits and bees to the game
  • adds a new location (Orchard) to the game
  • adds seasons to the game
  • Adds new NPC and  interactions
• Preservation Expansion
  • adds canning, drying and preserves to the game
  • adds new NPC interactions to the game
• Farm Expansion
  • adds more crops and animals to the game
  • adds a new location (Garden Center) to the game
  • adds new NPC and interactions to the game
• Moonshine Expansion
  • adds new alcoholic and non alcoholic drinks to the game
  • adds new NPC interactions to the game
• Environmental Hazards Expansion
  • adds random environmental events to the game that can impact gameplay
• Town Expansion
  • adds new locations (Gated Community, Trailer Park, Junkyard, Service Station, School) to the game
  • adds new NPCs and interactions to the game
• Pet Expansion
  • adds a pet to the game

NPCs

(available in the Demo version, subject to change in the full version, there will also be various new NPC's with each expansion to the game)

Companion :- Your companion at the start of the game. You can talk with them and get a sense of the world.

Pharmacist :- The first NPC you meet in town, used to illustrate the NPC trust system, and also to trigger the Dead tutorial

Farmer :- The old farmer will give you the farming tutorial and seed, teach you about how to get seeds from rotten vegetables and how to grow and harvest. Then he will give you the key to his house and leave so he is far enough away from the town before he dies

Housewife :- A lady with two young children, waiting for her husband to return from a hunting/looting trip. The husband and some other townsfolk travelled to the nearby reserve or city looking for supplies. She is making do, but is clearly starting to struggle.

Boy :- Housewife’s child who wants to learn to hunt so he can provide for his mother and sister - does not trust easily

Girl :- Housewife’s child, trusts easily, just a general small child.

The Future of The Dying Days : Small Town and Future Game Ideas

The Dying Days - Small Town

Once the Demo goes live, and I see what response I receive I will be making the decision to try and entirely self fund the project  or crowd source, likely on Kickstarter.

Self Funding : risking long waiting for players, and potentially loss of interest in the project -- though I intend to take the build slowly in the 'expansions' I mentioned above to make sure I'm not overwhelmed. But real life can takes it's pound of flesh and the longer the game process takes due to real life bills etc. can affect game production.

Kickstarter : if successful, enough money to not need to worry about how i will afford assets like artwork, plugins etc. The risk here is over promising a complete game in perhaps a shorter timeframe that I cannot meet due to other life commitments. I am a solo creator on this project, there is no team to fall back on to help. But the fact that I will be able to provide a better player experience with the funding received might be worth that risk.

The Dying Days - Wilderness Reserve

Pit yourself against the wilderness and survive in the Wilderness reserve. Learn to hunt, explore the reserve, the guest lodge and the old summer camp site. Be careful though, the Dead are not the only dangers out here.

The Dying Days - The City

Enter the city, where life is still fast paced even in the aftermath of the apocalypse. Dead roam the streets in greater numbers, but the loot you can still find in the city might just make it worth your while.

Use of AI Assets

I will be upfront right now. I have used AI to generate the images of the NPC's and some mockups for this game. I have done this as I am but a penniless creator and cannot afford an Artist. 

My hope is that my Demo might inspire people to back this project in a crowd funding drive I intend to do so that I can replace the current AI generated images with one's made by actual artists, as well as add expansions I may need to buy tile-set assets for things i cannot edit myself to keep everything cohesive.

But I did need visuals to show proof of concept, and AI was my cheapest option. So please don't avoid the game because of that, help me turn it into something good and worthwhile. Help me afford the artists to turn this game from what you see here, to something great.

I will attempt to do my own art once the gameplay demo is done, but i am not a good artist and do not want to scare any of you away.

How I made the Game

I have made the game using RPGMaker MV.

I have used the following tile-sets

- Rural Farm tile-set - Celianna

- Futuristic tile-set - Celianna

- Ancient Dungeon tile-set - Celianna

- Modern Tile-set - Luneara

- Zombie Tile-set - Luneara

- Pop! Horror character sheet - Vexed Enigma