Author Archives: Logan

Zafehouse: Diaries has been updated to v1.2.1! While balance tweaks and bug fixes feature prominently in this patch, we couldn't help but add some great new content and provide you with tools to alter the difficulty of all scenarios to your liking.

Firstly, the new options screen. We've reworked the graphics and functionality of this screen and added a page where you can change a variety of in-game settings, including how quickly zombies enter the map and how many start inside locations. You can boost the distribution levels of food, medicine and ammunition and prevent survivors from hurting each other because of bad relationships.

These options affect No Survivors, Road Kill and Deadline, so be sure to review them between games. Of course, you don't have to touch these values at all, allowing you to enjoy Zafehouse: Diaries at the intended difficulty.

Now, let's cover the new stuff. We've added the Museum as a location, somewhere you'll want to spend time exploring, especially if you have a taste for exotic ancient weaponry and equipment. The police station now has its own dilemma, which if you overcome successfully, will give you a constant stream of intel regarding the location of zombies around the town.

Finally, you can head over to the church, where there's a chance one of your survivors will let go of their prejudices.

Full patch notes and download instructions can be found on the Screwfly Studios forum.

Good news -- we've just released a massive new patch, bringing Zafehouse: Diaries to v1.2.0. And when we say "massive", we mean it!

Along with the usual tweaks, balance changes and fixes, v1.2.0 introduces an entirely new game mode called "No Survivors", protection items to keep your survivors safe and sound, new items including the submachine gun and backpack and loads more.

First, let's tackle No Survivors. You've been asking for a truly endless game mode and here it is! The biggest change you'll notice in this new mode is that you start with just one survivor. Don't worry, by searching the town or using a flashlight or beacon, you can find / attract survivors to boost your odds. Each survivor brings with them prejudices, items and even injuries, so you'll need to carefully consider their inclusion. And, when the group reaches its capacity of five, it's not you who decides who should go -- your survivors will make that decision for you!

If you do reject a survivor, they'll retaliate by stealing equipment, sabotaging barricades and setting traps, so be careful!

You won't encounter the likes of the super zombie, lynch mob or the girl and her dangerous relatives either, but that's only because No Survivors presents its own set of tribulations. You'll have to track down resources, set up safehouses and try and keep zombie levels down by patrolling and sniping. If you don't, locations will slowly be overrun, after which you won't be able to access them.

We've also done some reshuffling of the game mode selection screen. Each mode now has its difficulty level clearly displayed and hovering over a mode will reveal additional information about it. The Classic mode has been renamed "Deadline" and represents the most challenging of the three. Road Kill is the default, normal mode while No Survivors is the easiest.

On the item front, protection gear makes its debut. This includes hockey masks, ballistics vests, motorcycle helmets, hard hats and many more. You don't have to worry about equipping your survivors individually, just have these items with you and they'll sort themselves out. Protection gear provides defence against melee and ranged attacks, but the more damage they take, the more they'll wear out and eventually fall apart.

A new weapon also makes an appearance -- the submachine gun. It uses 9mm ammo and is a nice weapon to take with you on assaults. It's not very efficient however and you'll find it goes through rounds very quickly. We've also added a backpack by popular demand, a rare item that will make hauling equipment around a little easier.

Overall, difficult has been reduced in all modes, so new players should find the game a little easier to get into. That said, Deadline (formerly Classic) remains a very challenging mode to win.

For a complete changelog and the download link, head over to our forums.

Zafehouse: Diaries has been updated to v1.1.9. For this patch, we've focused on user interface and performance enhancements that should make playing the game a much smoother experience.

The biggest change is the addition of map annotations. This means you can now mark and add notes to any location on the map, just by right-clicking on it. Can't remember which locations you left supply caches? Now you can leave yourself little reminders.

Tired of moving survivor tokens individually? We've added in a mass-selection feature, which you can use by holding down the left-mouse button over the map and dragging. Include the tokens you wish to select inside the rectangle, release the mouse button and then just left-click on the location you want to move those tokens to. It works pretty much like it would in a real-time strategy game.

For the diary, it's now possible to bookmark pages. Above the left-hand page of the diary you'll notice four small paper tabs. Hover near these and they'll drop down, after which you can click on one to bookmark the current open pages. By default, the bookmark name is the page numbers, but you can type in your own title if you want. To delete a bookmark, just right-click it.

The Movement screen has also seen several improvements. You can sort items based on type, and they'll be ranked from best to worst. Order selection has also been revamped with new graphics.

Finally, game performance and memory utilisation has been improved across the board. Saving and loading is now much faster, text rendering is incredibly quick and late-game turn resolution should be a lot snappier. Those are just the big-ticket tweaks; we've nipped and tucked a great many parts of the codebase.

Full patch notes and download instructions can be found on the Screwfly Studios forum.

Patch v1.1.8 for Zafehouse: Diaries is now available. This patch improves a number of areas of the game and adds a solid dose of content, including a new dilemma, Overwhelmed, and showering, an idle task.

The custom occupation editor has been expanded on, making it more flexible than ever and we've even implemented weather effects to keep things interesting.

The Overwhelmed dilemma has a chance to occur when your group faces staggering odds after breaching a location. You'll be able to retreat to, hopefully, a safe location or, if you're feeling lucky, try your hand at more heroic options.

Getting around during a zombie apocalypse is not the cleanest affair, so your survivors will accumulate grime and if left idle, will now occasionally wash themselves. Doing so will provide them with a small morale boost.

We felt the towns of Zafehouse: Diaries were drier than they should be, so now it'll occasionally rain and storm. As you'd expect, noise doesn't travel as far under these conditions, so be sure to take advantage of the weather when you can!

Several dilemmas, including the Lynch Mob, Moby Dick and the Girl Scout Family, now feature an assessment of your survivors' chances if you decide to fight. As a result, it should be easier to make more informed, strategic decisions regarding these encounters.

Finally, for users with high-resolution displays, a scaling option is now included so that game takes up most the screen. It is currently experimental, so if it doesn't work as expected, let us know so we can tweak it!

The update includes several other tweaks, fixes and improvements, all of which are mentioned in the patch notes on our forums.

Direct purchasers and GamersGate customers, the patch can be downloaded from our support page. For Desura and GOG users, please use the facilities provided by these services to update the game. Note that updates from these distributors may be delayed while the patch is approved.

Great news everyone! Zafehouse: Diaries is now available on GOG for just $US9.99. It's been hard keeping this news to ourselves, so we're glad we can finally share it with you!

Exclusive to GOG purchasers are two wallpapers and an extensive, graphical PDF manual containing hints and tips for the latest version of the game so if you've yet to pick-up the game, this is a great way to get it with a few special goodies.

Please note however that we can only provide keys for other services, such as Desura, if you buy directly from us.

We still have plans for Zafehouse: Diaries in the coming months, so be sure to follow us on Twitter or like our Facebook page to stay up-to-date!