Last Year

[Puruzi10]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zPhDWWGbaNU

About this project

Overview:

• Genre: Asymmetrical Multiplayer Survival Horror
• Player count: 5 vs 1
• Platforms: PC
• Rating: M 17+
• Launch: Fall 2016
• Perspective: First Person

Game Synopsis:

In Last Year you’ll experience the nightmare together as you and 5 friends struggle to survive against one player that's playing as the Killer. Explore familiar territory based on classic horror movie locations including Camp Silver Lake and East Side High. You’ll play the roles of 5 stereotypical high school characters while co-operating to complete objectives and survive.

When playing as the Killer you’ll utilize game-changing Predator mechanics to help you hunt down and eliminate your victims before they have a chance to escape. Players will sneak and slash their way through a suspenseful atmosphere that keeps them on the edge of their seat as they compete to be the top Killer or best Survivors.

What is the goal of the Killer?

The Killer wins when all 5 Survivors have been eliminated.

What is the goal of the Survivors? What do they do?

As a survivor your goal is to escape from the scene in the truck. To be able to drive the truck you'll first need to complete a series of objectives, like searching for the keys and gas and fuelling it up. You can also win by killing the Killer but it is far more difficult and requires proper team work.

For survivors, completing objectives doesn't have to be done in the same way every time or in a specific order. For example, the keys to the truck are located in the office cabin but the gas is in the maintenance shed on the other side of the camp. You'll need to decide if the whole group should move together and protect each other, or split up and accomplish the tasks quicker but put yourself at greater risk of attack.

Choices...choices..choices..

If the Killer disables the camp generator then all the lights go out. Now, in that same situation, you need to find a flashlight first to help you find the keys and gas because everything is dark.

Only the Nerd can repair the generator so if you want the lights back on you have to make a choice. Do you split up and let the Nerd go fix the generator while the others search for gas and risk the nerd getting Killed by going alone? Or do you stick together and protect each other? If the Nerd gets killed then the lights will be out forever since nobody is left to fix it, so the only possible way to find your way around would be to use flashlights now. Do you send the Jock to protect him? What about the medic? If the Killer decides to target the medic and she dies then nobody is left to heal the group. You need to think carefully about when to split up and when to stick together. Protecting each other and hiding is essential.

Call for backup

If the Survivors reach a phone they can call the police . This allows the first player that died to come back as a Police Officer responding to the scene. But, if the Killer cuts the phone line then The Nerd is still the only one who can fix it. If the Nerd dies and the Killer cuts the line you'll never be able to make the call.

Five playable survivor classes:

Each survivor plays a role like assault or medic, and each role has a unique set of abilities that help the group work together and stay alive.

• Amber - Scout Can spot the Killer and display his position on the map for other players to see. Can also spot supplies on the map easier than the rest including flashlights and weapons. Weak against attacks from the Killer.

• Chad - Assault Offers protection to the other players and can melee attack/stun the Killer, giving the other survivors a chance to escape. Strong to withstand attacks from the Killer.

• Nick - Technician Fixes phone lines, generators, picks locks, hot wires vehicles, and anything else that needs to be repaired. He has a pet rat named Rasmus that you can play as. As Rasmus you can travel through small passages to unlock doors from the other side and provide spy-cam style intel on where the Killer is. Very weak against attacks from the Killer.

• Sam - Medic Heals wounded players to full health.

• Troy - Support Also offers protection and can also place traps for the killer which deals damage and slows him down. Can melee attack/stun the Killer same way as Chad.

How does Predator mode work?

In movies the Killer always appears when the victims least expect it. Nowhere is safe. The same goes for Last Year. Survivors can never fully "out run" the Killer because the Killer can spawn his or her self almost anywhere they want. It works like this: Say you are a Survivor walking through the halls of the high school. If the Killer spots you from afar he can't just chase you down and attack you because Survivors run faster than the Killer can. Instead, the Killer needs to try and take you by surprise and attack you from up close. To get into the perfect attack position he's able to unspawn and go into Predator mode if he isn't within your line of sight. Once he's in predator mode he can move super fast, way faster than survivors can, but he can't attack. He can, however, watch you and study your movements.

At this point the killer can spawn back in behind a door and wait for you. (Theres a limit to how close the Killer can spawn in near survivors). As soon as you walk past, or open the door then BOOM, a sudden axe to the face.

Won't it be repetitive for the Killer to pick players off one by one?

The Killer could take a completely different approach and try to kill the whole group at once. Instead of attacking once the survivors walked past (which would essentially give him a chance to successfully kill one Survivor and cause the remaining group to flee) he could hide behind the door and wait for the whole group to enter a room. Once the group is inside the room he could lock the door behind them essentially trapping everyone inside with nowhere to go. Equipped with a chainsaw you could imagine how things might go in this scenario, but if the Killer only had an axe then there would potentially still be hope for the survivors.

There are so many choice and strategy aspects involved for both sides. As Survivors you'll need to decide when to split up and when to stick together, and as the Killer you'll need to plan your attacks and choose the right weapons that fit your tactics and strategy.

Isn't the Killer overpowered then? How do the others survive?

Killer's strengths: Able to spawn/unspawn and position his/her self to make the perfect surprise attack. Can always find and track down the Survivors.

Killer's weaknesses: Can't run as fast as the Survivors. Requires attacking by surprise or luring victims into vulnerable situations.

Survivors strength: Able to run faster than the Killer and hide inside the numerous environment locations (lockers, under canoes, closets). This makes Survivors completely invisible to the Killer, even if using Predator Mode.

Survivors weakness: Extremely weak and easily killed when facing the Killer in close range melee combat.

As a Killer you'll need to use strategy by attacking your victims at the right time. You can't just chase your victims down in an open field... they're faster than you. Instead, you need to hide in the shadows and surprise them where they least expect it. It's a action oriented hunt down experience. As a Survivor you need to keep running, hiding, laying traps, and completing objectives to stay alive.

Years ago I played an amazing multiplayer game called the Ship. I remember hiding in the basement behind the door of a sauna and luring someone in there. As soon as they came in the door I turned around and locked them in and turned up the heat, essentially killing them. It was so satisfying. The sense of being able to lure and trick someone, or outsmart them, is the essence of what I want Last Year to be.

Welcome to Silver Lake Summer Camp

The first environment is Silver Lake Summer Camp, a camp located 50 miles from the nearest town. As the teenagers you’ll start alone and in complete darkness. You'll be on the run with no weapons or resources and you’ll need to find your friends and work together if you expect to survive.

Welcome to East Side High School

In East Side High you'll sneak your way through the halls at night. All the typical locations are there: gymnasium, cafeteria, auditorium, classrooms, workshops, offices and more. You can even use the schools PA system to broadcast taunting messages throughout the school.

Choke Points

Another aspect to the game is something called choke points. These are time challenges where the Survivors will barricade themselves behind a door to try and reach a new area of the map. To reach the new area you'll need to pick the locks but you'll have only 30 seconds to pick it and escape before the killer is able to break open the barricade and storm inside for a multi kill.

The Killers

Tools of the trade

There are 5 different Killers you can play as and each Killer has a different type of weapon and play style. Each time you play as the Killer you will get to choose which one to use. Weapons are assigned by Killer type, but they can be changed if you find one laying around in game or taken from Survivors. Certain areas like the auto shop class are most likely to have usable weapons than places like the principles office or counsellor cabins. If you're looking for weapons you'll need to think about the most likely places to find them.

Each playable killer has a different weapon and set of abilities

The chainsaw lets you deal huge amount of damages to a large group of players at once, but it's slower to use. It's ideal in cases where you manage to trap a group of Survivors in a small room. Machetes on the other hand deal much less damage but are faster to use. Whether you plan to stalk your victims one by one, or lure them all into a death trap, you will determine the type of weapons that suit your play style and tactics.

more info at https://www.google.co.in/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0CB4QFjAA&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.kickstarter.com%2Fprojects%2Flastyear%2Flast-year-5-vs-1-multiplayer-survival-horror&ei=GeOGVPu6Nc-VuAS56YCgDg&usg=AFQjCNFU7UW8rn-bSbx66Mkeqgm83vScuA&bvm=bv.81449611,d.c2E

[SpearHea:D]

That looks interesting .

[Big Boss]

Very nice OP

[dylanjosh]

Very interesting stuff. Will keep an eye on this

[Puruzi10]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qEDK8AHZfkM

Looks amazing

[Walker]

Interesting premise. Hope it works out well.

[Puruzi10]

Guess what...this game has been over funded

And double than the goal

[Puruzi10]

Update: The developer of Last Year has offered an update on the situation, saying “The owners of Friday The 13th feel one of Last Year’s Killer designs looks too similar to Jason so they submitted an IP infringement to Kickstarter to take our page down… I’m changing the mask of that particular character and re-uploading it so we can get it resolved and move forward!”

Jason Voorhees won’t be returning from his decades long vacation from video games for another nine months and he’s already claimed his first victim. Last week, the Kickstarter page for the indie slasher game Last Year was taken down and replaced with a claim of a copyright violation submitted by the rights holders of the Friday the 13th film franchise.

For the unfamiliar, Last Year is an asymmetrical multiplayer horror game that raised a massive amount of money — over $114,000 — on the popular crowdfunding website last year. In it, a team of player-controlled teens is hunted by a masked murderer who is controlled by another player.

The problem with that description is it could also be used to describe the recently announcedFriday the 13th game.

There’s plenty room for two asymmetrical horror games about masked psychos hunting down teens, but one look at the concept art for Last Year and it’s immediately clear they’re using F13 as a source of inspiration. The bad guy that’s featured in the art (see above) that was used to raise all that money on Kickstarter could easily be mistaken for Jason.

[Puruzi10]

 

 

Recreating the 90s, New website, CMF, and more

Hey all!

I wanted to share an early behind the scenes look of some cool stuff happening since the last update. As you already know the inspiration for Last Year comes is based on classic high school character cliches and set in classic movie locations. At the start of the project, when it was basically just an idea kicking around in my head long before the Kickstarter happened, the original plan was to set the game in a 1980s summer camp and all the characters would be dressed like campers and camp counsellors. Once I actually started digging into design ideas for the setting and characters it became clear there were a lot more interesting opportunities for building on stereotypes and environments from the late 90s....and being a 90s kid myself I felt I had a lot more experience growing up around similar types of characters. This is how the year 1998 was chosen for when the game takes place and that shift in the game's era is also when game became much more than jsut a “camp killer” game, it became what you see today on Kickstarter: A much broader teenage slasher that takes place in a variety of familiar locales including the highschool, suburbs, and the mall. Today I wanted to share a look into the research and creation process of recreating characters of that era starting with Chad for the execution and trapping prototype that I'm currently working on.

Here is a quick side by side showing the original chad concept and a work in progress of the in game character model.

I recently showed this character work in progress to a friend and the first thing they said was “I just wanna punch Chad in the face!”. That confirmed to me it's on the right track of conveying Chad's arrogant, bully type of personality. Theres a certain degree of interpretation when sculpting from a concept so balance has to be found between how 1:1 the character should look to the concept vs creating what actually works and looks good in the game engine. Here is how the the head sculpt starts out before hair, eyes and textures have been added:

An interesting thing with these types of movies is the actors always seem to look older than the age they are supposed to be playing...at least in the ones that are somewhat comical and self aware. An 18 year old character could be played by a 25 year old for example. Thats a bit of the idea here as well...he doesn't necessarily look exactly like an 18 year old, but just similar enough to pass as one in a film.

For the costumes a lot of effort has been going into designing the right clothing style too. The concept image usually gives a good overall impression of silhouette and style but it doesn't give a lot of information on details like fabric, wrinkles, and material properties. Thats where photo refs are being used. Below is the concept and then various jacket photos that are used as a reference guide to help give the detail information needed when sculpting.

jacket concept

Game model result

The jacket is your classic letterman/varsity jacket with leather arms, a felt base, elastic around the neck and wrists, and various collegiate and sports patches. Originally, Marvellous Designer (a 3d modelling program for fabric and clothing) was used for building the base jacket model and technically it felt realistic but for this particular character it required hand sculpting the model to accurately capture the way these jackets look and feel.

The same goes for the jeans below. The concept gives a good overall impression of the outfit but lacks specific photo and wrinkle detail for sculpting so photo refs are used in conjunction to give a proper sense of fabric folds, details and texture variation.

gives impression but lacks detail

detail reference for game model

game model results

Above is work in progress of the in game legs. For the jeans it's quite challenging too because using any old type of jeans won't really capture the effect of a 90s guy. 90s jeans are a lot more distinct because they're straiter/baggier than something you'd see today. They kind of hang down and have longer vertical folds. The shoes haven't been textured yet so they won't look solid white in the final version but this is the shape and design. They'll be black/white just like a good old worn out pair of converse. My goal is attention to detail by researching the right fabric and fashion styles of the time to properly convey the distinct 90s feeling and make you feel like you are in a movie..more so to say just throwing on a pair of generic looking jeans. Every aspect is being thoroughly researched, refined, and tweaked until it becomes convincing for that era.

Not final textures, these are just solid colors applied to a base material to get a sense of color palette. It'll have proper looking felt/leather/jeans material types when finalized. Another larger close up:

New website!!

The new last year website is almost done too! Heres a preview of how the new home page looks. There are still a few small things I'm tweaking before getting it online (still temp text and blank spots in places) but it is going to function as the primary hub for all the news updates, behind the scenes, and community very soon. All the other pages are done and in the final tweaks phase. The new site will also serve as an additional funding platform for people who only have Paypal or other methods and were not able to pledge on Kickstarter originally.

[ALPHA17]

Good job man, great dedication to keeping the thread up. Cheers!

[Puruzi10]

Good job man, great dedication to keeping the thread up. Cheers!

Thanks

[Puruzi10]