Dead State Interview

There’s a new interview with Dead State’s mastermind Brian Mitsoda over at Enthusiacs, which covers a broad range of subject: inspirations, gameplay mechanics, the game’s story structure, the possibility of seeing DLC in the future and more. Here’s a snippet:

Wastey: Will the player experience a day/night cycle in the game?

Brian: Yes. The game starts in the morning and ends in the evening. You go to sleep to start a new day. Night combat is an option, but it’s much harder to see and hit your enemies. Time passes while traveling or working in the shelter. Over time, allies will get fatigued, so keeping them out for too long is not advised. Every day, each ally needs food. Allies get injuries that sometimes require rest. Sometimes they get sick, sometimes they get depressed, and sometimes they just don’t want to go out. Some mornings, strangers might arrive at the gate of the shelter.

Occasionally, something at the shelter becomes such a big issue that a major decision must be made, such as figuring out a policy to handle low morale in the shelter. Every day brings new challenges in Dead State. If you’ve played the first 7 Days, that’s the tutorial week, and the easiest week you will have in the game.

Wastey: Loot and items, it’s assumed, will be finite resources, correct? Will players be able to do anything to alleviate that concern? i.e. Growing their own food, using more natural resources and so on.

Brian: Yes, constructing upgrades to the shelter can offset morale and food loss. You can build a garden and grow food. You can build a watchtower and assign allies to guard the shelter, which makes people feel safer. You can upgrade your car to use less fuel. You can look for wild sources of food or fish. There’s a whole lot of ways to boost your supplies aside from scavenging, but it’s impossible to get by without having to occasionally brave a hostile area, because that’s the easiest way to get the resources you need. You won’t be able to just hunker down in the shelter 100% you’re just delaying the inevitable really bad day out in the field.

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Wastey: Now, will the game have a defined narrative (beginning, middle, end), or a continuous flow of survival until the inevitable end?

Brian: There’s definitely story beats spread throughout the months in the shelter, but we’re more open in structure like the original Fallout. Most people have only played the first week so far, which is a tutorial week and is much more linear than the final game so that we can teach the player the basics of running the shelter and scavenging.

Much of the game depends on the allies you have, the people you meet, how many supplies you have, and what decisions you make. There are some events that everyone will have to face, some that will only occur as a result of your choices, and then there are some that are random and may happen at different times to each player. The best thing to do in our game is to carefully monitor your allies and supplies, explore as much as possible, and be sure not to piss off your subleaders too much.