Con Artist has been busy with The Last Stand: Union City for some months now and we must say it’s starting to look very promising. The game will have many features compared to the previous game, including an experience and levelling system. Since we’ve been out for a while, we’re going to sum up all the information released up till now by Con Artist. At the bottom of the page you’ll find the link to play the Alpha version of the game!

The Last Stand: Union City, the third installment in the Last Stand series is currently in production and will be released in Q1 2010. It will take place during the first few weeks of infection in Union City. Taking the role of a survivor who holed up in their apartment during the initial spread of the infection, the player will be forced to venture out and make their way in the city. Escape will be the ultimate goal.

During your travels you will encounter other survivors, they will help you get a grip on what’s happening, tell you their situation and in some cases join your fight. Union City itself is a living city with day and night passing as you travel, it’s once living citizens will be driven dynamically, no street or building will play the same each time you enter. The game will have two seperate game modes – Run ’n’ Gun and Survivor. The Run ’n’ Gun game mode will be more in line with the original games and have a focus on action and lessen the RPG elements. Survivor on the other hand will have common survival problems such as hunger, need for sleep and conservation of ammunition to deal with. Much of the story and gameplay will be identical in both modes.

Your character’s vitals are the core set of stats that keep you alive. They include Health, Stamina and Nourishment and Sleep. Depending on which game mode you’re playing, you’ll have all or a few of these to worry about. Health and Stamina are present in both games and determine your character’s life and how active your character can be respectively. Nourishment and Sleep are only available in the Survivor game mode, so you’ll need to make sure you eat and sleep. Not doing so will affect all of your skills gradually and may even kill you if you’re not careful.

Each character in the game will have a set of attributes that will determine a number of factors throughout the game. They affect things such as your carry weight, health, melee damage, firearm accuracy and how much food and water you need. The base attributes are: Strength, Endurance, Intellect and Precision. There are 14 Skills available, with each one falling under the influence of one of the base attributes. If the player has a high Strength for example, all of his/her Strength Skills will recieve bonuses.

As you progress through the game you’ll earn experience (XP) and work your way through levels. When you hit a level, you will be provided with skill points. There will be bonus skill points available to your most used skills, this is to replicate your character “getting better” at a task by repeating it. You can choose to assign your skill points to the most used skills or put them into any other skill and not recieve the bonus.

That’s all information available at the moment, below you’ll find a Q&A which might answer some more questions:

Will this be 3D, Isometric, 2D or what?
It’ll be mostly 2D with only left and right movement, there won’t be as much depth. Have a look at this early mockup of an empty room, it allows for easy prop implementation and for rooms to be resized and made easily. Furniture and other props will sit in the foreground and background.

Will I be able to save my game?
Yes. At this stage I’m working towards having a number of save slots.

Is the main character coming back?
Yes, but not as the main character. You will create your own character.

Will there be classes?
Kind of, the ‘background’ you choose will determine your starting skills. You can of course create your own custom “background” however.

Will there be vehicles?
At this stage, no.

Can we customize weapons?
Weapons will have attachments to improve their properties, I’m still figuring out the best way to implement this though.

Is there a time limit on how long you can play?
There will be events that will affect how long you can play, but the game has a very different structure. It may take hours to finish as opposed to 30 mins.

What kind of melee weapons will there be?
I’m aiming to have an “anything you can pickup” kind of approach to melee weapons. So everything from hammers to table lamps.

How will survivors work?
You’ll meet other survivors, some may choose to travel with you. When they do, they’ll fight along side you, following you through the world.

Click here to play the alpha version of The Last Stand: Union City

New information has been released on the long-awaited new game in the Bubble Tanks series by developer Hero Interactive. There has been quite some progress lately and the entire team is on the project now untill completion. Don’t get too excited yet, there’s still plenty to do and no release date has been mentioned yet. Hero Interactive has posted a Q&A which you can read below!

Q: Is Bubble Tanks Arenas the same as Bubble Tanks 3?
A: No. BT3 is not BTA. Arena’s is a different game that has a slightly different spin on the game. Bubble Tanks 3 will be more similar to the standard BT fare.

Q: Is BTA multiplayer?
A: No. I think multiplayer would be awesome and some day we may have the money, time, and knowledge of how to go about it.

Q: What makes BTA different?
A: BTA allows you to make and share your own bubble tanks. You can also make enemy tanks and arenas. You can store saved content on your computer or you can upload your creations to our servers and share them with the world. You can also download other people’s creations. Rather than being able to float around the world freely, this will be a more intense game played inside arenas. An arena is a series of bubblefields with some sort of challenge, usually to defeat all the enemies within a set amount of time (ex. Defeat all the enemies in 10 bubblefields in 5 minutes). You will be able to die in an Arena which will bring you back to the Arena select screen, in BT2 death wasn’t possible. Completing Arenas will earn you new parts for your tanks, increased size, etc…

Q: Do you know the release date for BTA?
A: No. There is no release date set yet. Stop asking.

Q: Can you tell us how far you are through the game development process?
A: No, we don’t know the exact percentage. We can decide to add or change things up until we release, so we’re never 100% sure if we’re going to make the project larger. Also, if we discover a huge bug right at the end, it could push us back a week or so. We just don’t know.

Q: Can you release a demo at least?
A: No. There is not going to be a demo for BTA. Making a demo would take far too long and add weeks to BTA’s development time. We can’t just release the tank creator. It doesn’t work that way.

Q: Is BTA going to be free to play?
A: Yes. There are no paid-for expansions. All the content will be free.

Q: Will BTA have Extra Content?
A: Yes. Enemy and Arena creation are likely to be part of the Extra Content version. Please note: The money we receive from EC versions of our games is what is making BTA possible!

Q: Will there be a limit to how big I can make my tanks?
A: Of course. Size wise, you can make them pretty huge by the end of the game, larger even than the BFT from BT2. You also have Gun Points and Bubble Points. Weapons and abilities cost GP. The more GP you have, the more you’ll be able to purchase bigger weapons and dish out more damage. Then there is BP- the more bubbles and parts you use, the more BP you’ll use. BP is used to help keep the complexity down on the tanks, otherwise we’re sure some tanks would get out of hand and crash people’s computers.

Q: Do you HAVE to create your own tanks?
A: Nope! We’ll have plenty of pre-built tanks ready for you and the game will recommend tanks that are perfect for you. You can even modify and edit our pre-built tanks.

Q: Will BTA save my progress?
A: Yes, the game will automatically save in between arenas.

We surely can’t wait for Bubble Tanks Arenas, but that’s all for now. Stay tuned for more information.

Welcome and we’re glad you’ve found us or still visit us from time to time. We hope you’re ready for some exciting news. It’s time to blow off the dust that has been accumulating here for almost a year and prepare for a new start. After many months of total silence from our side, we will be back covering the latest free online flash game news!

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