Still Running is in a bit of a rough spot, as are many more developers at this day and age.
The market is tough, and publishers are being more careful than ever.

After years of working on Morbid, I've really wanted to get back to my roots.


But unfortunately, just an idea, pitch, design, prototype.. those aren't enough anymore.
We need to be able to show to our publisher, that there's demand for another ZKW title.

So I'm asking you, please comment / react / anything, if you'd like to see ZKW dug up from the grave with yet another game in the franchise.

My plan was originally to shadow-drop another ZKW when Still Running turns 10 years old in just a couple of months. But we're not going to survive that long.

So now's your time to show us, and the publisher, that you want it.

Enjoy the couple of concepts I uploaded here, and if you want to see my face and my face talking about this same subject, feel free to check out this video from YouTube:

Oh boy has it been like a forever since I've done one of these..

- The profile servers of ZKW are down. For the first time in the history of ZKW, you can't register a new profile, or login to your existing one.

- We updated our website yesterday. The website itself was working nicely after the update, and the news of ZKW were loading in correctly. So I figured everything would work as intended.
Well, nope. The profile handling side of things stopped working, and I'm sorry for this everyone!

- I'm working on a solution right now! Hopefully, I can get this mess cleaned by the end of the day, and this'll all be like a bad dream of sorts. That happened during the day. Those exist.

- I'm going to update this announcement as soon as the servers are back on track and things are working. Until then, hold on to your hats!


- Everything seems to be working as expected again! Thank you for your patience!

Google has been looking for apps that use older development tools within them, that may cause the app to have some sort of an security issue, since 2016.

Until now, Google has only blocked these apps from being updated (if they haven't updated the development tools that had the security issue in the first place) but now, Google is actually starting to remove any apps from it's Play Store that still have the outdated development tools in use. Including ZKW-Reborn.

Unfortunately, there is basically nothing I can do to stop this from happening. The only thing that would prevent this, is to update ZKW in the Play Store, but that is quite simply too late for that. Since the game was made with a really old version of GameMaker Studio 1, bringing the game up to Studio 1.4, and then Studio 2 would be a-LOT of hassle in itself, but it'd also require a ton of other development tools to be updated, as well as (obviously) making sure everything worked as they should.
Even if I did this, I would also need to update every other platform the game is on (iOS, Windows, Mac) since it is a cross-platform multiplayer afterall, and updating only one version would cause serious issues within the game.
And, that's not even all there is. The server is also made in GameMaker, meaning that I'd need to update that as well.
All in all, all this would take me something like 6 months to make, which at this point is too late, since the removal will be happening in less than a month.

As far as I know, anyone who has previously installed ZKW-Reborn on their Android device, will still be able to re-download it, activate any in-app-purchases (such as Full Version) and play the game to it's fullest. With the exception of not being able to purchase any more ZKW-Points or anything else with real money within the game.

With that said, I will still keep the multiplayer servers up and running. Android version is still bringing in more money, than Steam and iOS combined, so I'm not too sure how long I'm going to be able to keep the servers up. But I'll try my best to keep them running as long as there are players around.

I'm sure I'm going to piss a-lot of you guys off, but trust me. I'm pissed as well. ZKW-Reborn was the first game I ever released with Still Running, and Android was the first platform I ever released a game to. ZKW-Reborn kept me alive for the longest time, and the community of the game has been super passionate, and I appreciate that.
ZKW-Reborn wouldn't exist without you guys.
Still Running wouldn't exist without you guys.

Thank you.
Hail ZKW-Reborn. Have fun while it still last's. Let's make this final month of ZKW-Reborn the biggest in years!

https://youtu.be/u3fR9Dd3kl0

Originally posted by Morbid:

"When the world was young they emerged from the depths of our minds.
The Deep Ones—as we now know them—were born alongside our own consciousness.
When we first heard them whisper inside our heads, offering us great power and wisdom, we couldn’t resist."

is an R/T-rated isotopic soulslike, where you battle against the darkest parts of human psyche,
manifested as horrendous nightmarish monsters. The game will have dark stygian steampunk aestethics,
Lovecraftian horrors, and plenty of Cronenbergian gore.

You are a Striver of the Order of Dibrom, the last beacon of hope for humanity.
You have been purposely trained since your birth, to be sent out to the world, to take down the Deep Ones,
horrendous physical manifestations of the dark side of human psyche.
All fighters chosen before you have failed in their mission to destroy the Deep Ones.
One by one, they have fallen for their Highlords, whom have turned them into their foul servants



It's still the early days of the game, and we're not 100% sure yet if we'll be able to make the game.
It all depends on whether we get a funding for the project or not.

Help us make this game into reality, share the video to your friends, and let them know about the game!

Just realized I haven't yet invited you to the party! So feel free to do so, all the cool kids are there already, so be one of the cool kidz! (I'm there too..)


Well, why not? We're talking about The Walking Vegetables there, what the future holds for the game, ZKW, and generally all kinds of things! Just make sure you're not an jackass first, mkay?

In the channel you can also suggest any ideas you might have for the game, what we should do with it, if something needs to be fixed and so on. The whole team will be there too! :)

[OLD POST]
The online servers are having some serious issues right now.
Do not worry, I do intend to keep atleast one server up and running for now, so this is not me bombing the servers.

I'm trying to get everything fixed, but this may take up to 24hours. Please stay frosty everyone!

There isn't much I can tell you about this project just yet, but I'll tell you a story.

When we started working on The Walking Vegetables, we knew we'd at one point make another sequel for ZKW. We wanted to keep this as a secret, and tell you guys about it after TWV was done, and we were happy with the game.
Unfortunately, TWV wasn't as successful as we'd hope for. We can't work on games for full time anymore, which means that there will have to be compromises made.

We will still be finishing The Walking Vegetables, as we have tons and tons of cool ideas on what to do with that game. Yes, there will be a mobile version of the game within the next few months, so that more of you could give the game a chance, and maybe support us by purchasing the full version. There will be online multiplayer as well, and much more.

After all this, we'll start working on ZKW-Aftermath. With that said, we're basically already working on that game, as we're already planning on where to go with the new ZKW installment.

Everything you know and love in ZKW-Reborn will make a return. And there will be a ton of new features (a campaign mode, just to name one) and improvements. But there will be one HUGE difference with the new game:

This time around, I won't be making the game within the old ZKW engine, that I used with every other ZKW installment. Why? Because it sucks. Hard.

Instead, I'll be using the engine that was made for TWV. Because of this, the way the game is displayed will change from side scrolling game, to a "2.5D top-down view" such as in TWV. With this change however, we're able to make MUCH more complicated levels, with MUCH more detail in them AND! Get this! AND! I can actually make an AI, that WILL find the player! Wether it'll be the dumb bots who try to revive dead player, or dumber zombies, they. will. find. you.

There are some huge reasons why we're doing this. First of all, I used over six months building the engine alone. I made everything very flexible, and easy to add new stuff in mind. In ZKW-Reborn, it took me four hours to add a new weapon. In TWV however, it only takes a couple of minutes.
So basically, with this we're able to cut down some serious development time, and just concentrate on making the actual game, instead of working six months on the engine.
We would also had been changing the perspective of the game anyways, so it just makes sense.
Plus, since we'll start working on the actual game after TWV is done, it'll mean that we'll basically have a working online multiplayer on launch.

I'm very proud of the engine I made for TWV, and I do not want to throw it all away for nothing. Do not worry though. Recycling the engine does NOT mean that the game will feel like just a re-skinned TWV. It won't. The gameplay will be the same as on every other installment of ZKW, just turned up to 11.

Anyway, we already have tons of very cool and interesting ideas for ZKW-Aftermath, and since we now actually have a whole team working on a ZKW game (instead of just me) I'm sure we can be able to make something incredible.

Right, I think that's all for now.
I'm glad to see so many of you old ZKW fans still around here, and I hope we can bring you the sequel you all deserve. Actually, I know we can. ZKW-Aftermath will be an amazing game.
Thank you for sticking around all these years. Now I feel like I can get back to working with ZKW again. I feel like I have something more to give. I'm very excited about ZKW-Aftermath, and I hope you guys are too. (but seriously. In case you haven't, CHECK OUT TWV! Seriously! Give it a chance. You won't be disappointed)


https://www.facebook.com/StillrunningGame/

https://twitter.com/StillRunningZKW

A year of work, a year of our lives, and it all comes down to this.
I'm too stoked to write you guys anything too much (and also, it has been a looong day, so I'm very tired)

Anyways, yeah. The Walking Vegetables has just been launched on Steam today!

Have fun everyone!

http://store.steampowered.com/app/704840/The_Walking_Vegetables/

Yeah, about that. I sort of may have lied about being back. I mean, I'm back for sure, but maybe not in the way you guys were expecting.

First things first, this announcement is actually not about ZKW-Reborn.
I have something else to show you guys..

The Walking Vegetables - Steam page

It's vegetables. Yes. You read it right. Moving on?

Nnno. It does not mean that. In case you haven't noticed, the profile and multiplayer servers are still running (see what I did there) and I'm still around, answering your questions and helping people out. So no, I will still support ZKW-Reborn. Afterall, I worked on that game for 6 years. I'm not just going to throw all that away.

What this DOES mean however, is that (again, if you've been living under a rock) I do not have any future plans for ZKW-Reborn. The game is finished in my eyes, and even though I had some big plans for future updates, I was not able to complete them, as I've been getting better and better with coding during the development of ZKW, and as it stands now, some of the code in the game is outright awful. If I were to make any big changes into the game, that would basically mean that I'd have to re-write the whole game from scratch. And that's not a really easy task to accomplish.

Ah yes, shall we move on now?


Is a game I've been working on with a friend of mine for the last year. It was supposed to be a small brainfart of an game, but then again, that's exactly how ZKW started it's life. Except, with one crucial difference.. Actually, two.

1. First of all, I'm not alone this time. Just think how good The Walking Vegetables can be, if I was able to make ZKW on my own basically? Now, I have two more people working on The Walking Vegetables full time! More on that later.. Stick with us..

2. Me. Yes, I actually did just do that, I listed myself here.
My coding skills have drastically improved from the times of ZKW. Even from ZKW-Reborn. I'm able to do things I couldn't even imagine doing when I worked on ZKW. Alright, I think that's enough for me to brag about myself..


Thank you!

So as I was saying, The Walking Vegetables started it's life as a brainfart. I wanted to do something else than ZKW, make something fresh for a while. I called a friend of mine, who I actually have worked with maaany years back. He told me he had this idea, this idiotically chaotic idea. Vegetable shooting. Shooting.. Vegetables. Because logic.
It was so stupid idea, of course we had no choice but to make it happen!

We started to work on The Walking Vegetables as a small free time project kind of a deal. Days went by, and I was asked to visit this local game event.
I rushed into one of those supermarkets, and got myself this shi..y clone xbox one controller, and made the game to work on a gamepad for the event.
I went there, and showed The Walking Vegetables.
And you know what?
People actually liked it. I mean, for god sake, one guy played it for over an hour and asked me where can he buy the game?
I didn't know what was going on. But later that day, I called my friend. Told him, that we had something in our hands.. Something much, much bigger, than we ever imagined (still talking about the game here guys. Stay in topic)

Thankfully, we realized that, and started to act on it.
Months went by, and we had tons of fun. Still Running team also grew to three people during the development. We got ourselves an in-house composer, who started to work on those radical tunes that can be heard in The Walking Vegetables.

Oh yeah. Sorry, I have this habit of turning everything into a wall of text.

The Walking Vegetables has a live Steam page that you guys should be checking out!
From there one can find even more of me blabbering about the game, and check out the radical gameplay trailer, and an actual animation that was made for TWV to tell everyone the deeeeep storyline behind TWV.


The Walking Vegetables - Steam page

And again, thank you all for sticking around! I've said this many times, and will continue to do so, but you guys are the reason why I'm making games. Stay awesome people!