Dead Matter

Muska

Muska

Muska

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Norton Canes
I searched but couldn't find a thread on this...

It an early access FPS, zombie survival open world game... but wait before you click away...

This looks like a cross between Escape From Tarkov & what DayZ should perhaps have been, built on Unreal Engine. Some really interesting mechanics for moving items, gun play looks like it's taking a good leaf from the book of Tarkov and the base area stuff seems interesting too.

https://playdeadmatter.com/

Here is the latest Dev vlog. It's worth having a scan through a few others as the team seem quite dedicated to their vision for this game. I see the potential and I've backed it, against my better judgement of such practice...

Closed Alpha is due out in June, early access on Steam 2021.
 
I get the apprehension. Previously I've backed Squad (result), Star Citizen (questionable but I'm happy), Escape from Tarkov (result) and of course DayZ (terrible for years, modding community seems to be saving it) If nothing else at least I will take the hit so you guys don't have to! :D

New Dev blog update is out:

JUNE UPDATE
06/13/20
June Update
Hey Survivors!

We have an update regarding the current state of development, as well as where we are in terms of the June release. This is a bit of an all in one update, and we’d like to thank everyone for showing us patience as getting this update out has taken quite a bit of coordination on our end to get out before the 14th.

Development Update
We’ve been getting the game ready for the Closed Alpha, dozens of bugs and critical issues have been getting squashed. While we’re not likely to get every single issue taken care of before the launch of our Closed Alpha we want to make sure that the Closed Alpha is palatable so we can get feedback on core gameplay mechanics rather than being in a state of constant firefighting after we push.

Quest and NPC Dialogue System
One of the things that we have been working on getting implemented for the Closed Alpha is the Quest and NPC dialogue system, as well as basic human NPCs to go alongside that. While we won’t have wandering NPCs on day one, Dead Matter will feature safe-zones that contain NPCs that you can interact with. We’ve built a flexible questing system that’s built on a set of simplistic rules, and the best part about that is we believe that this is an excellent opportunity to take some feedback from the community on Quests as well as NPC dialogue trees. If you would like to learn more about the Quest/Dialogue system or you would like to suggest a Quest, check out this thread on the forums: https://playdeadmatter.com/forums/index.php?threads/suggest-a-quest.575/

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Survivor Player Mesh
Payton has been overhauling the player mesh in preparation for the Closed Alpha, you will be able to tweak many elements of your appearance such as your facial hair and a variety of features. Here are some profiles that Payton has provided for this update including different variants of the player mesh, there is also an overhauled version of the female mesh in the works.



Click the image above to see the full album!

Trading System
In addition to the NPC dialogue and questing system we have implemented a new trading system that allows players to trade with each other while also allowing players to trade with NPCs. We’ve still got a few more kinks to work out with the system but we’re quite pleased with it thus far.

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Please note we still need a bit of work on the visuals but the system largely works at the moment.

Map Expansion
Our Closed Alpha will actually be launching with a much larger region than we were initially anticipating. The playable area will be roughly 7.5km x 7.5km with a new region that has yet to be revealed in a Development Vlog or Blog. Until now. Check out a few screenshots from the region below:

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For the full album Click Here

There's also been some progress made on the safe areas that will be in the game, as seen here:

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For the full album Click Here

We've mainly expanded the playable area based on feedback from our backers raising concerns that the initial map size might be too small, rest assured that we've heard you and have acted on the feedback!

Release Schedule Update
We are currently not on track for a June release due to external factors that we need to get taken care of before we push the release. These factors are mostly out of our control but do need to get taken care of to push the game into Closed Alpha.

We’re not anticipating that this will push us past the end of July and we will be making weekly updates until the Closed Alpha is released to keep you guys briefed on what the current situation is, we will be pushing the Closed Alpha as soon as everything is ready to go. It is coming very soon, and we genuinely appreciate your understanding and patience on the final lap. We apologize for any inconvenience or negative impact that this may have but we have obligations to make sure that we have all our bases covered and that is currently what is taking a bit longer than we had anticipated.
 
Latest blog update:
JULY 3 UPDATE
07/03/20
July 3 Update
Hey Survivors,

We have another weekly update for you on our road to the Closed Alpha. Thank you all again for your continued patience and support while we work to get the Closed Alpha in the hands of our Backers.

We have updated the contact details on our IndieGogo page, and we now have a support email [email protected] for any help and support questions regarding Dead Matter.

Closed Alpha
Unfortunately we're still working on clearing the roadblock stopping the release the closed alpha. However, progress is being made and we're constantly working to clear the issue and make the best use of our time we can while that work is being done.

Development
Kyle has been working on a code pass for the ATV and player-made containers such as buildable crates that players will be able to attach locks to. He has also been working on triggers that will snuff out campfires if there is a lack of oxygen such as rain or heavy snow, and switching seats while still in a vehicle (passengers will be able to interact with empty seats to move to them). He has also gotten key distribution set up on our website so backers will be able to access their closed alpha and game keys when they are available. More details to come on that as we get closer to release!

Disclaimer: the following clips were recorded in a development environment with many gameplay features turned off (such as hand animations, full player models, etc.) while features are being developed.


Gunschlinger has been working on polish passes for the campfire and bird AI.

The Level Designers have been working on polishing and detailing the world overall. Metamoth has been working on detailing the caves, wilderness areas, many of the houses, and utilizing some new furniture setups throughout the map.

Dogtooth has been continuing his work on the player and NPC models and has started work on jerseys and other clothes for players.

Yitz (Marquis) has been working on some more safe areas that players will interact with NPCs as well as more rural areas of the alpha map. The NPCs that survive in Dead Matter have managed to secure a foothold in many much-needed facilities on the map so they can continue to survive the outbreak. Players will find plenty of people to talk to, learn about, and gain the trust of in order to (potentially) gain some access to what they have.

The safe areas:

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The not-so-safe areas:

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Hax has been working on gunshot tails (sound effects) implemented for many environments. Check out the example below:

Note: This is a test environment and the clip is intended to showcase sound effects, so the map does not represent the state of the closed alpha map and includes visual effects for development that will not be present in the game.

Alright everyone. that wraps up this development update. Thank you all for your continued support, and we look forward to your feedback and chatting with you all.

If you're not a backer already and want to support the development of Dead Matter, you can back the project at the following links:

IndieGogo

or

https://qisoftware.ca/store

Even if you can't, or aren't comfortable with backing just yet, spreading the word to your friends and talking about the game helps all the same.

Thank you all again for your patience.

Plan accordingly,

Regi

I'm still hopeful for it, I like the direction it's taking and I don't mind backing a slow burner (Star Citizen anyone...) If they get the feel of Tarkov with open world survival right I'll be happy. Some of the considerations around power to buildings I quite like too.
 
I can't remember if there is a single player element to it. I know there will be quests, ala Tarkov & building your base/stronghold.

I know what you mean about MP though, these games seem to attract a somewhat toxic & kill on sight element to them.
 
Update from 17/07:

JULY 17 UPDATE
07/17/20
Hey Survivors,

Much like last week, I'll just jump right into the update. Thank you all so much for your continued patience and support!

Anything shown on this blog and on the vlogs is a work in progress.

Closed Alpha
Roadblock is nearly resolved! We have also implemented additional measures to prevent it from coming up again, especially after we launch. We're now fully focused on making sure that we've got all our key infrastructure in place for the launch of the Closed Alpha and we will be announcing a new date in the near future once we know for certain that the roadblock has been resolved. We really appreciate the patience everyone has shown us thus far and we're excited to dive into the Closed Alpha with our players.

Development
(not developmemt)

Nik Between being busy with moving, I've been working on perfecting the character LipSync system, which was a bit of a side project over the last couple of weeks for me. Currently we have audio pre-processed externally which we then bring the data into Unreal Engine 4 for playback, this means that we do not have to capture facial animation data, externally process and clean it up while maintaining a result that's considered acceptable.

I've also been working on polishing the character creation menu. Character Creation V1 as seen in Vlog 2: https://youtu.be/ulZJqPBTWnY?t=80 was out of date, especially the UI. We've also further tweaked our attributes perks and skills as well as how they interact with your character since our previous implementation. The only thing that is currently missing is appearance customization which I will be working on over the weekend.

Kyle has gotten lockable vehicles ready in time for the alpha, implemented an in-game feedback menu that will allow players to effortlessly send feedback directly to the development team, added server whitelisting, implemented Nomad's fortifications into the game, added safezone measures that force the player to lower their weapons when entering a safe area as well as making them invulnerable to damage while in safe zones, polished the random vehicle spawning system, as well as numerous bug fixes and polish-passes on other aspects of the project.

Nomad has continued polishing the fortification and utility assets that were shown in last week's post. These are the locked and unlocked variations of the security bar and chains:

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The water collector has also gotten another art pass that includes an upgrade to add insulation to protect your water source from freezing temperatures. He has also added a small portable heater that can be used to regulate the temperature of player greenhouses year-round

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Gunschlinger has been polishing animal behavior, including the bear AI shown in previous update posts.

Rizz has added a unique variant of the katana that players can find in the world that looks worthy of any mantel.

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Dogtooth has been working on blend maps for emotes, speaking transitions and emotions, fitting more player clothes to the models, and high poly models for the jersey.

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Yitz (Marquis) has added the gun range. The gun range has been something shown as a testing ground for weapons in past updates, but now it has been polished and added for players to test the weapons of Dead Matter!

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Yes, that is a fire alarm trigger. And yes, it does exactly what you think it does. Dead Matter's premier self-loading-target-range!

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Alright everyone.

That wraps up this development update. Thank you all for your continued support, and we look forward to your feedback and chatting with you all.

If you're not a backer already and want to support the development of Dead Matter, you can back the project at the following links:

IndieGogo

or

https://qisoftware.ca/store

Even if you can't, or aren't comfortable with backing just yet, spreading the word to your friends and talking about the game helps all the same.

Thank you all again for your patience.

Plan accordingly,

Regi
 
Latest update

JULY 31 UPDATE
07/31/20
Closed Alpha
I'm ecstatic to be able to tell you all that the dreaded Roadblock has been removed!

We are now wrapping up the necessary work to finalize the changes we needed to make. The 14-day countdown will begin toward the end of next week once we have confirmation from IndieGogo of the campaign end date. Once the countdown has begun, we will begin inviting our Partners to test the Closed Alpha before we start rolling out keys to our backers.

Important: After the countdown has ended, backing through IndieGogo will no longer be available. Those interested in backing and getting access to the Closed Alpha will still be able to back via https://qisoftware.ca/store.

We are also opening up Partner Applications again!

Interested Streamers and Content Creators can apply be contacting one of our Community Staff via private message after joining >Our Official Community Discord Server<. Applicants are required to have their relevant accounts (YouTube, Twitch, Twitter, etc.) linked to their Discord accounts in order to verify their legitimacy. We are looking for creators with at least 5k followers or subscribers, or outstanding Dead Matter content. We're looking forward to hearing from you!

Development
Kyle has been hard at work smashing bugs with the dedicated server systems, getting vehicle keys implemented so they work with motors as intended, improving the character creation experience, and setting up a readme for server owners to assist with server configuration.

He's also implemented the ability to hit and damage the Infected with car doors. Driver beware: this will damage your doors and potentially shear them off, leaving drivers open to attack inside their vehicles.

To play sound on these clips: right click -> show controls -> click the speaker button to unmute. Please remember that these are a work in progress, so sounds and animations are not final.


Nomad has polished up the home security system panel from the Kickstarter era. Similar to the fire alarms shown off in previous updates, players will be able to see the status of the alarm on the pan itself and turn it on and off if they have the code handy.

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He has also begun work on another player base trap - the lawn mower trap:

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Constructed from salvaged wood, a cannibalized lawn mower engine, and some sharp metal bolted to the top of the shaft, this whirling deathtrap is a welcome addition to deter unwanted guests. Be careful, though - the trap starts immediately when activated, so players will want to be prone before starting the engine.

Rizz has reworked the baseball bats to bring them to a more uniform quality and add more capability for modifications. Note: the gray models in the back of the image are works in progress.

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Hax spent the last week overhauling the first person hands, optimizing the glass materials, and adding a second mode to the "Shooter's Challenge" on the Shooting Range. He has also added weather support to the soundscapes on the map:

To play sound on these clips: right click -> show controls -> click the speaker button to unmute. Please remember that these are a work in progress, so sounds and animations are not final.

F34R, another of our animators, has completed some new animations for melee weapons:

Alright everyone. That wraps up this development update. Thank you all for your continued support, and we look forward to your feedback and chatting with you all.

If you're not a backer already and want to support the development of Dead Matter, you can back the project at the following links:

IndieGogo

or

https://qisoftware.ca/store

Even if you can't, or aren't comfortable with backing just yet, spreading the word to your friends and talking about the game helps all the same.

Thank you all again for your patience.

Plan accordingly,

Regi

14 day countdown to closed alpha release due late next week.
 
Those looking for information on the forum, join their discord, there have been quite a few communication on there.

However I agree, it's a complete shambles that could have been anticipated.
 
It was mentioned in the update blog posts on their website and on the discord channel.
However that's of little use if you're not able to get on the site either way.
 
Posted by one of the developers on Discord

@everyone
As I'm sure you all have noticed, our site is down once again. At peak last night, we were fielding over half a million requests per minute, and even now site load is way higher than anticipated. We are doing everything in our power to get the site back online. However, we do not currently have an ETA on the website coming back up - the people who handle our backend are not all available to work on the site right this moment, though as soon as they can be, they'll be back to work on it. Once the site is back up, and we can verify that backers are getting and redeeming the keys we have assigned on the site, we will distribute more.

- We will post another soft announcement (without pinging everyone) once the site is back up, and post an update on Twitter to the same effect. We cannot guarantee when this will be, unfortunately.

- Due to the spam and general vitriol being posted on our forums, we have also locked it down to read only for the time being. Much like our community Discord server, this is to provide the community with a way to get news from us via the announcement channels/threads.

- Due to technical limitations and Valve's requirements, backing will be closed for the forseeable future. This will allow us to get a concrete number of keys for distribution, and fulfill the needs of Valve for providing all the keys we were promised for the Closed Alpha. Once we have moved past the current situation, we will reevaluate where we stand and may in the future be able to offer an avenue to obtain access to the Closed Alpha, but for the time being we cannot guarantee if or when this will happen. As a result of this, people will no longer be able to back into the closed alpha. Any refunds completed before and after this will be final. Refunded pledges will not be able to buy back into the alpha afterward.

- Moving forward, we're going to be making some changes to how our official community outlets are handled. We will post more details about that in the future.

- All current backers will get keys as promised. All we ask is for your continued patience while we recover, get the site running, and get keys distributed. We sincerely apologize again for the inconvenience and the frustration this alpha launch has caused our community and backers as a whole.


We know this post probably isn't what you want to hear from us. Some of the information regarding not being able to provide access to the CA in the future was news we only just received from contacts at Valve, and runs contrary to everything we had told you prior to today. It feels awful having to tell you this, and we know is just going to fuel even more vitriol about the current mess we've made for ourselves, but we think it's more important to just tell everybody now instead of leaving things hanging until afterwards.

We will provide further updates as we can.
Click to expand...
 
How are people getting on with this?

My PC has developed a problem so while I've been able to redeem my key some time ago I don't have a working computer to use it with :(
 
The latest weekly news update was posted yesterday :confused: They've been weekly throughout April, have I missed a communication saying they're ending?

I've not checked this out since an initial look. I've not seen a reason to go back to it yet, although I would love it to turn into something decent in the future.
 
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