Imagine yourself trapped in a world where the only rule is to survive. You and a small band of survivors are surrounded by the dead, and they are hungry. This is the setting for the debut title of Round Table Games; "Last Alive".

Last Alive will feature focused multiplayer with special care taken into developing the interactions between players. Whereas most companies make a single player game and tack on multiplayer as an after-thought, Round Table Games is doing the exact opposite.

Before we delve too deep into the game, I would like to take a few moments to talk about Round Table Games and our relationship with Tactical Gamer.

Round Table Games was formed on the basis of providing quality PC games to the PC gamers. What actually started the company was a discussion about the lack of love for PC gamers by the mainstream game companies. During the discussion our CEO/Founder said "To hell with them. We should make our own game and put the things in it we have been asking for". Just like that, Round Table Games was formed.

The current team features some great talent from all over the world working hard to make a game they would like to play, and hope that everyone else will too. We have dedicated artists, coders, and modelers all working towards creating a very unique and very personal PC game.




Last Alive is a zombie first person shooter/RPG. It will feature an open ended world, with near limitless possibilities. All of the gameplay will be player driven and non linear. Because of this, there is potential to have player created cities released in patches, as well as world expansions later on down the road. Because it is non linear, there will be a very small storyline. It will be on the players to move the plot forward, or keep it where it is. The way it works is; throughout the game players will find evidence and information about what has happened. This can be newspaper clippings, diaries, graffiti etc. Some of these pieces of evidence will contain clues as to how one might get rescued. Be it radio, car, boat, etc. The group will then have to decide on if it is worth the risk to try and track these down, and what they should do if they dont find them. Alternatively, the group may just decide to stay put and kill every zombie in the state. The choice is yours. The world and the game are what you make of it when you play.

The game will be running on the Esenthel Engine. This engine will allow us to realize our goal of a large, ever changing game environment.

Here are a few of the features for the game. These are not all of them, but they are the core features:

*Day/Night Cycles - We will be working hard to make the game world believable. Besides, whats more terrifying than trying to collect supplies and watching the sun go down?

*Dynamic Weather - The atmosphere is everything in games. It adds substance and brings the player into the world moreso than any other aspect. Having it dynamic and random makes it feel more real, and can allow for some very tense moments as well as interesting gameplay.

*Gore - Lets face it, everyone likes shooting zombies. And what better way to know they are dead than the splatter of what used to be a head on the wall? The gore, however, will not be over the top or stylized. We are looking to make it look, feel, and sound believable. Ok, maybe some head shots will provide some unique after effects. Can't be serious all the time.

*Food and Water - Yes, you will need both to survive. This is an aspect of gameplay that players will need to keep in the back of their heads as they progress. Sure, you can barricade yourself in and start blasting away at zombies but eventually you will need food and water. Players will have to figure out how to preserve what they have and how to get more. Finding that 10 mouths to feed is becoming too much? It might be time for someone to have an "accident" with the zombies. Or it might be time to move farther away from your safe house in search of supplies. It is up to you.

*Barricades - Players will be able to use wood, sheet metal, and other objects to form barricades and fences to give themselves somewhere safe to call home. This is also an integral part of the game. Tired of fighting zombies to go to the gas station next door for food? Build a fence around it and your safe house to make a yard. Be careful though, they wont last forever.

*Weapon Crafting - In a real zombie apocalypse situation, if you find a chainsaw are you really going to put your shotgun down? NO! You are going to grab some duct tape and attach the two together to make the best zombie killing machine ever invented. Players will be able to do just that here. Attach items to weapons, weapons to weapons, whatever your twisted/inventive imagination can think of.

Featured below are some images for your viewing pleasure. There is some concept art, and a few renders. As time goes, we will have more and more to show you. Also bear in mind everything is still very much WIP:

Concept Art:







Weapons:












Characters:





All of us at Round Table Games hope that all of the information above, and the pictures of our current work have given you all something to look forward too. We will be constantly updating and posting on our progress.

If you would like to contribute, or become a part of the growing Development team, please feel free to apply via PM or post. We are always looking for new people to jump in and lend a hand.

Any questions about the game, the company, or positions available will be answered here, so post them up!


Round Table Games - It's all fun and games until it becomes a console port

Visit Us On The Web At: http://www.roundtablegamesonline.com

(02-26-2011 06:04 AM)Dredge Wrote:  It's all fun and games until it becomes a console port

Haha.

Very nice concept art. Looking forward to seeing more.

Wow! I love these type of games were you have to do stuff to survive like in the Stranded series and the gamemode on Garrys Mod - GMStranded, very cool.

I am really looking forward to the release of this game - i love everything about it, amazing models, zombies, shooting and it being a role playing game. I can't wait to play it!

You attach weapon+hands to point in Game::Player skeleton or otherwise ?

Sounds very interesting. I really hope you can pull it off.

Will this be more of the horror or shoot em up zombie game. It seems that zombies has become a lot less scary and a lot more comical gore-filled viollence. Scary zombie games are few and far apart.

I like the screen's.

Also the weapon crafting idea is a very good one. For some reason people seem to think that finding guns in a zombie apocalypse (and more importantly ammo) is easy. Somehow I doubt people would be leaving their guns behind if a zombie invasion began.

Exactly it runewake! I also hate how players are forced to choose between a shotgun and chainsaw. I say to heck with that, I would tape it together and make the best zombie killing machine ever!

It will have horror aspects, as well as good ole fashion shoot em up. I don't want to go over the top and have heads popping off with blood fountains ala Kill Bill. Our main drive is "realism" in a sense. We want it to feel real, and provide emotional connections. Thats also why we are looking to have small groups of players as opposed to mass player counts. Make it interesting, and make it personal.

We are trying to also make it tense. With the consumables there will be a limited supply in certain parts of the map so players will need to regulate it amongst themselves. But, there is room for players to turn on each other when supplies run low. Did I piss off zombieboy13? Is he breaking the windows to let them in? Was he serious about getting me back? What is that sound I hear now? The horror will be somewhat self inflicted. Paranoia is hard to do in a game, but if its done well the game will be amazing! Thats what we are working on. Koniu, was that a question to me? If so I am unsure as to what you are asking exactly.

Glad to see the response here, and very glad we are using this engine. All of the us working on the game have been drooling over Esenthel since we read about it many months back.

If anyone is interested in helping out, by all means jump on board. We will take anyone that wants to work on it.

Good. I look forward to playing it.

Some destructible "holes" that could be made in walls would be cool. While zombies would not be able to break through say a brick or concrete wall running through a wooden one to get to fresh meat would be cool.

Also, an idea that I have never seen employed is sewers. They would be a good way to get from place X to Y without having to worry about being backstabbed by desperate survivors. However it would be dark and zombies crawling out of the sewers or dropping into them could make it extremly dangerous.

Finally, I would suggest adding some looters or just survivors that are hostile to the players (even if they are other players). First because it adds a whole new problem: Do you kill them or do you attempt to befriend them? It would also add ranged enemies that might attempt to raid a players food stores or simply keep them out of certain areas.

I like where this is going. If you need any suggestions or a tester then just ask me. I'd be glad to help.

I will definitely be hitting up the Esenthel community when it comes time for Alpha/Beta testing.

Give me model of hand please
Good stuff m8.

Charactes is very, very nice, but for what need you this concept art?

1. To show people what style the game is going for and give them something to look forward to.
2. To know what to model.