Broken Lines: The Dead and the Drunk

My Role: Lead Programmer and Game Designer
Time on project: .75 years (spring 2020 – winter 2020)
Average team size: 5-7 people
Available At: Steam, Xbox, Playstation
Publisher: SuperGG.com, Blowfish Studios
Platform: Windows/OSX/Linux/Xbox/Playstation
Input: Keyboard + Mouse / Controller
Engine: Unity 3D
MetaCritic Score: 76

Main Contributions:

  • Game framework:
    • Performance optimizations in order to include more enemies on screen.
  • Combat:
    • Designed and implemented the zombie enemies.
    • Setup enemy AI using the plugin Apex Utility AI.
    • Further designed and developed the three weapons arch types to allow for differing utility when fighting an enemy that does not care about cover.
  • Animations:
    • Setup root motion animations for the zombies.
  • Organizational:
    • Managed up to 3 programmers throughout the development of the project.
    • Participated in the localization process with communication directly to the localization team.
  • Pipelines:
    • Setup and handled the localization process using the I2 Localization plugin for Unity.
  • Community:
    • Monitored our Steam- and Discord socials, and support-inbox to provide support for our players.
    • Streamed the game during several social events.

Theme and Gameplay:

Distraught with their situation the squad turns to the bottle for the night. As they get together by the campfire their local contact Izkor arrives with a plea for help. Izkor’s family is in trouble after a traditional ritual went horribly wrong. Soon thereafter the soldiers finds themselves caught between intoxication, their masked enemies and something far worse rising from the soil.

The Dead and the Drunk was a major content update for Broken Lines, that added a short campaign with some added randomness compared to the main game. The campaign is themed around zombies and keeping hordes of mostly melee enemies at bay while maintaining an effective firing line. Mechanically the biggest changes were to the enemy behavior where the zombies don’t take cover or panic but are instead slowed by suppression. The enemies also differ more from each other than the masked enemies did, with the inclusion of “Spitters” that stands back are spits slowing effects on the ground and “Chargers” that will run in a straight line pushing any obstacles to the side and that can only be killed from the back.

Furthermore the soldiers no longer has composure that the player needs to keep high through supplies, but instead have a blood lust that is driven by their killing of the undead, which can be counteracted by drinking some booze in between missions. Should this blood lust become too high, the soldier will run off into the night, never to be seen again.

The Dead and the Drunk campaign is linear compared to the main game, with no mission selection at all. Instead the enemy positions are partially randomized to allow for increased replayability. The initial squad weapon loadout is also selected at the start of the campaign with further loadouts being unlockable.