For those who are a fan of Saga of the Dead series, it all kicked off with Evil-Dog?s smash hit Road of the Dead. Since 2010, Evil-Dog has earnt over six awards on Newgrounds.com from the Saga of the Dead games. As a special treat for those who are fans, I?m here with Evil-Dog, the programmer and creator of Road of the Dead 2 who has generously answered a series of questions about his new game.
When did you start production on Road of the Dead 2?
It started a while ago, somewhere around July 2012 I think. Yeah?a long time ago, I remember thinking we?d release it for October 2012 for Halloween. Haha, I?m terrible at evaluating how much time stuff takes to make. It didn?t help that the project got blown way out of proportions.
Was a sequel originally planned when developing Road of the Dead or was it because of the popularity of the first game?
Well, the first thing to say about that is that when we created the story, I knew it would eventually involve many games telling the entire story, because I love that kind of stuff, a big story told through different games, movies, etc. I don?t quite remember if we knew there would be another Road game when making the first Road of the Dead but we knew the story didn?t end there, it?s pretty obvious when you see the ending. The game?s popularity made it clear that a sequel had to be done though. However, the Road of the Dead 2 game we have today isn?t the sequel we had planned at all. That planned sequel is now Road of the Dead 3 where we continue John Creasman?s storyline.
What skills have you picked up since releasing Road of the Dead in 2010 that have helped help you develop this time around?
Programming is a never ending learning process so everything I work on is a little bit more baggage in my brain. I couldn?t say I picked up any particular skill but I can say I have optimized the engine massively to run Road 2 with a lot more stuff going on. Basically, I took a slow running game, made it run much faster, then packed it with enough stuff to make it run slow again.
Creating a game like this is definitely needed help from others in departments such as art and voices. Has working with others on Road of the Dead 2 taught you anything new and was the experience with other talented people a pleasant one?
Working with talented people is almost always pleasant as I admire artists and what they do. I think I?m one of those ?friendly? programmers. Working with co-author and partner SickDeathFiend is always (99% of the time) a great pleasure as I love his style and our minds work similarly. As far as learning through that process, I?ve learned that voice actors are slaves to be overworked. Just kidding, I?ve sent them many batches of lines to do. I guess the lesson here is to really plan ahead and prepare all the lines to be done at once, when possible. Sometimes though, it?s not really possible to plan ahead that much, as features are added in the game and as you realize where some content is lacking.
Based on the development videos and Live streaming, it looks like Road of the Dead 2 is going to be bigger and deadlier. What?s new this time around?
Yes! We can safely say that Road of the Dead 2 is at least twice as big as the first one. Code wise, it?s over 3 times as much code, Road 1 had roughly 20 000 lines of code, Road 2 has about 65 000 lines. It has about twice as much game modes, voices, music tracks, zombie types, it?s got a new zombie AI, new aggressive mutant behaviours and a full campaign editor to make your own campaigns. It?s just much bigger in every way conceivable.
Have any of the enemies or obstacles been changed to better accommodate the new gameplay style?
The zombies are more aggressive. As you go a bit slower with your hummer, they cling more frequently to your vehicle and climb on your hood. We?ve also added mutants sometimes grabbing your arms from the side window. We also did small things like shooting up fire hydrants with your gun to use the water to extinguish the fire on your engine.
Tell us a bit about the two new protagonists we?ll be playing as. What are their backstories and how did they end up in a Jeep together?
You play as Diane and Cocheta, two soldiers who decide to ignore the military orders as chaos is clearly out of control and attempt to escape the city on their own. Diane has been in the city fighting the outbreak for almost a week, when Cocheta finds her, she has just been in a crash with her squad, they all got devoured and she?s fighting for her life. Cocheta arrives with his hummer, saves her and takes her with him. Diane is a strong woman but in the circumstances, she?s willing to follow Cocheta who just saved her life. Cocheta doesn?t believe that the military can win so he?s going west to escape the city by himself. Cocheta arrived in the city only a few days ago. They?re both capable soldiers with a strong will. More of their backstory will be revealed in future games in the Saga.
Aside from the two new protagonists, are there any other characters we see or hear?
Without giving any spoilers, General Sherman is present in the game?s story and another key character is introduced briefly. There is also another character that will play a bigger part in a future game. John Creasman also makes a special apparition
I?m sure developing these characters has given you a few opinions on them. Who would you consider to be your favourite out of all of them and why?
I love Cocheta for his no nonsense sense of direction and purpose. He usually knows what he wants and how to go about it. I also like General Sherman a lot, even from the first game, although he didn?t have a huge part except radio communications, I still had his backstory and character in mind. He?s a man with honour who knows when it?s time to sacrifice for the greater good. I never intended to write black and white characters, I like my character with a very blurry line between good and evil and I think Sherman portrays this very well in the Saga.
In Road of the Dead 1 the Military were a major threat and would pull every attempt to stop you. Now that they?re friendly, what does Road of the Dead 2 have aside from zombies to replace the Military threat?
What happens in Road 2 is that we made the zombies more aggressive to compensate for the lack of soldiers shooting at you from a distance. The other major change is that the mutant zombies and the alpha mutants are now extremely aggressive and active and will track you down and hunt you as packs and really make your life difficult. To us, the mutants are road 2?s hellfire helicopter pounding on you.
Let?s talk about the zombies, are they more deadlier? Do they have any new abilities that give us more reason to fear their undead wrath?
Overall, they?re just more aggressive. One new thing they do is if you drive close to them, there?s a chance they?ll leap forward and take a few steps fast toward you to get on your hood. Mutants of course are in a whole new league now and will ruin your life.
Were there any features that you wanted into the game but were never put into the game and why were they not included?
Yeah we wanted to have a desert run mode where you would drive in 3D in the desert and shooting zombies and save civilians. But in the end it was a technical challenge we didn?t have time to accomplish. The campaign editor almost didn?t make it in the game but we thought fuck it we?re doing it! It was a huge addition.
One of your development entries included the picture of an Alpha Mutant, who is it and what does it do that differentiates itself from the normal Mutants?
All the mutants are just different genetic reactions to the virus. So rarely, zombies will mutate into mutants and sometimes into alpha mutants, called alpha because they?re very aggressive and usually followed by a few regular mutants. They?ll bash your hood and damage your vehicle if you let them.
Road of the Dead 1 had some challenge modes which offered a new way to play the game after The Great Escape, what challenge modes do we have for Road of the Dead 2 and how do they change the core gameplay?
We have some of the same game modes but also some others that focus on some new features of the game: Rescue Op lets you shoot at zombies from a hovering helicopter to save civilians, Mutant Meltdown lets you battle with lots of mutants at once and F.U.B.A.R. is the closest mode to Road of the Dead 1?s story mode where you battle the military who are against you.
What would you say was your favourite part of creating Road of the Dead 2?
Like with any game, the best part is when everything starts falling together into a coherent game. Then you get to test it and actually enjoy playing what you created. That?s a very nice feeling. I also like writing the dialogs in games, that?s a pretty interesting part too.
And your least favourite part?
The last 10% that takes 90% of the time, debugging, testing, etc. I had some serious bugs that kept coming back, it was really painful.
Saga of the Dead is certainly expanding, what plans do you have for the series after Road of the Dead 2?
I plan to try to port Range of the Dead on flash so people can experience this little part of the story. We also wanna port Road 1 and 2 on mobiles using Unity3D and possibly work on a bundle for steam, that would be nice. We also have many games coming in the Saga, Streets of the Dead, Defence of the Dead, Range of the Dead 2, Lab of the Dead 2, Road of the Dead 3, Trail of the Dead and others, we have so much planned it?s not even funny.
Is there anything else you want to say? Any points you wanted to make but my questions haven?t covered them?
I?d just say that releasing a game is a very stressful moment for a game developer, it?s the moment when all your efforts culminate into a success or a failure, relative to your expectations, which in my case are usually pretty high. Just wanted to share that.
Road of the Dead 2 is already out, click here to play. [http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/624102]
Click here [http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/550714] to play the first Road of the Dead.
For more information on Saga of the Dead and more of Evil-Dog?s games, visit Evil-Dog's website. [www.evil-dog.com]
For more, visit My Blog [http://previouslyongaming.tumblr.com/]