Fact Sheet
Developer: EmirGames Emir Cerimovic in France, Douai Release date: Early access on Steam the 17th July 2018 Platforms: PC only for now / Mac later Possibly PS4 and XboxOne if funds are sufficient Website: almost-alive.com Price: 11.99$ in early access Social: Steam, Patreon, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube
Description
Almost Alive is a tactical role playing game in a mad post apocalyptic world with an awesome real time combat system! Forge your character physical and mental abilities by recovering your memories trough vengeance in a crazy post apocalyptic world full of mutations and mysteries and decide of the human kind fate after your brutal survival journey.
“Men had enough of money dictatorship, they decided to fight mass propaganda using capitalists tools of information warfare. To fight back, the leaders in the shadows released a virus that unfortunately mutated. To contain humans turning into beasts the established order used the final instrument: the world was ravaged by nuclear fire and any remaining form of life was struggling for survival.”
Features
- Unique fast paced, tactical and versatile combat system : Use covers, traps and advanced tactics to fight smart opponents or reflexes and movement to fight swarm type mutant hoards.
- Multitude of approaches and huge replay ability : Choose who you side with or go fully solo if you’re a psychopath. Help, manipulate, betray allies, etc…
- Fully hand drawn 2.5D game : Every animation was drawn on paper, each draw scanned and reworked on computer, giving the game an unique identity!
- Make an unique build based on 6 archetypes with over 115 skills, 98 traits and madness making each character unique: Acts have consequences on the story but also on your character sanity.
- Destroy everything or sneak behind enemy lines : Sneak, steal, talk, drug, throw, trap, lock-pick, barricade, breach…
- More than 192 weapons, 106 armors ,18 throwables, 18 drugs, 100 items…
- Depending on collected funds :
_Epic arcade style boss battles
_An open and dynamic world including world events that unfold with, or without you
_Mad Vehicles for fastest world map movement but also to fight bosses.
_Full real time strategy squad commands with an advanced squad-based tactical AI
_Multiplayer and console portability
History
I am Emir Cerimovic and Almost Alive is eight years of drawing, coding, game designing… all done by myself. I decided to make this game and have been drawing, animating, learning how to code, and building this game with passion to have all the elements and details I want.
Inspired by classic role playing and tactical games with high development standards like Fallout 1&2, Jagged alliance 2 or Wastelands, Almost alive was my dream of the perfect tactical role playing game with a great real time combat system that features character mental sanity as one of the core elements of the game. You can explore a huge world, make friends, use or steal them, find tons of loot, make traps, sneak, destroy everything, fight smart enemies or mutants using your character skills and abilities… The simple looking real time, fast paced combat system is hiding a highly complexe engine using tons of information from your character sheet, the objects your character is using and other elements like your character moral or his sanity in order to decide of timers for a successful aim, recoil of a weapon, the maximum accuracy when walking or running while gunning, the effectiveness of a cover, etc…
Videos
WATCH ALL VIDEOS ON MY YOUTUBE CHANNEL!
Screenshots & Artworks
DOWNLOAD ALL SCREENSHOTS AND ARTWORKS HERE
Logos
Contact
To request a demo build or for press, inquiries and thoughts, please contact me at cerimovic@hotmail.com
Q&A
I get asked a bunch of questions repeatedly so maybe I can predict your next questions!
What was it that inspired you to make this game?
Video games are a perfect merge of randomness (fate for the believers) and choices made by the player, which is potentially what everyone experiences during his whole life. Therefor video games have the potential to fully be art pieces. Creating games is one of the most beautiful art forms while being intellectually challenging, they are an awesome tool for making people think.
Naming a game is almost always one of the most difficult tasks, why Almost Alive?
For several reasons, first because of the humankind that is almost alive in the destroyed world, then because the main mutants, raptors are infecting humans turning them into something almost alive, and also because of something the game story is gonna reveal and I can’t say more, but this is one of the biggest hint on the main story line. And finally for the purpose of the joke : “I am not making an AAA game, I am making an AA game…”
What sort of thought process went behind the artwork for this game?
Characters, animations, scenery, terrain, locations, comic style cut scenes, everything is hand drawn! I always thought that 2D graphics can’t be outdated and will give the game an unique identity! While 3D games get outdated very fast and are insipid.
What was the major challenge in developing this game?
Time! Time is something you can’t control. I can do everything in the game but It takes a lot of time, if I want to make the game as good as I want and finish it in 2 years, I will need funds to pay people to help me and work on some parts of the game.
Any in-game secrets that could be easter eggs for players to discover?
There is already tons of easter eggs : items names or description, quests, character names, behavior, etc… that are references to movies, music or other games I love, I just couldn’t name them all, there is too many of them and there will be way more.
Will there be a single player campaign?
The game in it current state is only single player! So the campaign is going to be the main focus, although the campaign story might change depending on how much funds I can collect. I got three full stories depending on how much money I can invest into game development.
Did you really make all this by yourself, is that even possible?
Yes, it is. I am an artist passionate about drawing, I worked on animations during months 14 hours per day then learned coding and coded the game 14 hours per day… It’s an exhausting work, but the result is worth it, right? Luckily I got some precious help from Chris Pickering who made the music for the game, who helps me “englishing” the game and gives me marketing advice! Mike Moman also helped with his awesome voice for the intro and the trailer!
When is the game going to be released?
The game release date is going to be fixed once I got some collected funds. Ultimately there will be either three games, one after another, or it will be straight forward the third game if funds are sufficient. Anyway you can expect a first Almost Alive game release around end of 2019.
Is this a Fallout clone?
Fallout was a huge reference and one of my favorite games, but so is Mad max, Wastelands or books like Malevil or Metro 2033… I love post apocalyptic stories but also awesome tactical games like Jagged Alliance 2 or more recently Darkest Dungeon. Any game or movie or art is inspired by what you live and like. The role playing aspect of Almost Alive, the rich and funny dialogues are the closest to fallout. The whole combat system is way more intuitive and complexe while being in real time.
What engine is the game made in?
I used Unity, it’s constantly evolving and as an artist that became coder I was looking in the time I started working on Almost Alive something easy to access with a huge community.
Is Almost Alive a Fallout and Diablo baby?
Almost Alive is a full RPG with an intuitive but very complexe real time combat system with that Diablo arcade feeling when you are in a middle of huge battles, it will even be better when swarm type ennemies a la zombie will make it into the game.
How do I play the game in it’s current state?
You can buy the game on Steam or support me on Patreon and get access to all new Almost Alive versions and of course the final version once the game is done!
Do you really harvest wasteland orphans organs for funds?
Yes but only after we have raped them… No it’s just some (very) dark humor folks…
What are your personal favorite games?
My favorite game is most probably Jagged Alliance 2, characters relation ships, humor, infinite possibilities with your mercs management and Arulco liberation made me replay that game a hundred of times…then Fallout 1 and 2, Fallout tactics for multiplayer, STALKER or Wastelands 1 and 2 and Gods will be watching, This War of mine, Papers please, Darkest Dungeon, Battle Brothers more recently…
Any personal message?
Almost Alive is an Indie game, it is challenging and will make you think while having high development standards like AAA games used to have in the 90’s. It’s not a game for everyone but that will and is already reaching people that are desperate with the actual game industry. To finish I will quote a player talking about Almost Alive :
“The art style of the game is unique, detailed, and it feels very credible in the holistic sense. the pencil-on-paper style of the character art achieves something few games ever have: it allows my imagination to create a more rich conception than most artists could draw.
it feels very much like an interactive comic book, with total player agency.”
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