COATS - A game about desperate research [+Demo!]

[anothergoblin 5]

 

Want to get a better look at the game? Check out this video.

 

We were featured in the Official RPG Maker Blog!

 

We're also on Facebook!

 

"Coats" (as in Labcoats) is the game about a group of researchers doing their best to find

a solution to a worldwide epidemic turning people into monsters.

Skinless, hungry, vicious monsters called Skins.

 

You play as Randal, Chief of Staff at one of the last remaining research facilities in the country.

Seeing living people is rare, yet you are one of the fortunate few who not only meet people

every day - but you have to manage them, as well.

 

Together, you go on a journey through the greatest disaster in human history,

to find a way to deal with the Skins - once and for all.

 

You can check out the Intro Video here.

 

 

Release: The first complete release of Coats is scheduled for September 28th.

Genre: Modern RPG Management Game.

Average Demo Time: About 6-10 Hours.

Game Progression: Working on the last parts of the game

Recruitment: None at the moment.

 

 

Features:

- Guide Randal on his journey to rid the world of the Skins, one way or another. How will you deal with them?

- Research, in all it's glory! Autopsies, field observation, live specimens, theories!

- Engineering! Can you keep your facility running in the face of adversity?

- Road trips! Will you make it on the road?

- Meaningful choices! You can't save everyone, but you can make a difference.

- Opinions! Sometimes it does matter what you think.

- Get to know your crew! Everyone has a story.

- Several different endings depending on your many choices.

 

250+ Maps.

500+ Switches.

180+ Variables.

30+ Common Events.

1000+ Conversations.

 

 

 

Story / Setting / Purpose:

You play as Randal, who just got his promotion to chief of staff at his very own research facility. He's kind of an introvert, but both decisive, witty and professional. He's a scientist, and he knows his responsibilities. During his first week at the research facility, the Skins attack. The Skins is the latest disease-scare to come to town, but it seems, this time, it could be a real pandemic. It is a disease that makes people lose their skin and go insane, turning them into nightmarish monsters of muscle and bone. Randal has personally feared the day the Skins broke through the military blockades that had previously held them out. Now they're infecting the entire city, and Randal is given one order from the higher ups - isolate the facility.

 

As the chief of staff on one of the last functioning research outposts in the city, Randal and his people have been locked inside a quarantine. Randal wants to help people outside, but he also has a responsibility to those inside the facility to keep them safe. Now Randal can do two things: Either wait for the quarantine to solve itself (either through the military presence dies off completely or they actually beat the Skins back) or he can do his job and research. Obviously, Randal keeps his professionalism close to his heart - he decides to go ahead and research the Skins, to maybe find something that can allow him to fight back.

 

Character Bios

 

 

You play as Randal, but you get to interact with a lot of people along the way. Here's a little summary of the most important characters:

 

Randal - Chief of Staff, scientist, introvert. Main character. Everyone's boss. Polite, witty, welcoming and friendly. Still, he manages to scare people. Who can perform an autopsy on a Skin, and still not have their heart beat just a little faster...?!

Porter - One of Randal's old work friends, reassigned to stay at his facility. A kind young man with more wisdom than his age allows. Compassionate and thorough.

Sgt.Kendel - Responsible for the military presence at the facility, Kendel takes care of the soldiers. She makes sure the perimeters are in check and that breaches are sealed. She's tough and hardened, but still cooperative.

Lissa - Randal's main lab assistant. Empathic, dedicated and eager. Kind of a science geek.

Tanya - Randal's secretary, tossed into the facility by the last minute by her aunt (Randal's boss). She's having some trouble adapting to the facility.

Miguel - A man from outside the compound who sought refuge. Randal decided to save him. Miguel can move in and out of the facility with ease, and is the only one perceptive enough to scavenge supplies from the outside. He's a great asset, even though he's severely paranoid and "twitchy".

 

 

 

Inspiration and Influences 

Most inspiration come from I Am Legend(2007), Day of the Dead (1985) and 28 Days Later.

Some inspiration was taken from the research facility shown in the first season of The Walking Dead TV-series as well.

 

Credits:

Using RTP basics, Futuristic and Modern Tileset (official) and my own artwork.

Using a few image placeholders for the Sleep Screen, Research Screen, etc. These backdrops will be OC equivalents in the third iteration of the game.

I have conciously made sure to use as much of my own work as possible. There are no outside scripts, I want this to be a future reference of what I can do on my own.

 

Original Artwork:

The game will contain completely original illustrations in the completely finished version of the game.

With the help of our own MewSkitty ( butterlux.deviantart.com ) we've begun a process of turning every illustration used in-game into an original piece.

This will be an ongoing process.

 

Screenshots:

 

 

 

 

Edited September 30, 2013 by anothergoblin

[anothergoblin 5]

Allright, time for a big update!

Second iteration of Phase One is complete! This is a big step in the development, meaning I will start production on Phase Two; an entirely new part of the game.

So, releasing the entire reworked Phase One of the game. Please enjoy and leave feedback!

 

RTP Included (Larger size)

 

RTP Not included (Smaller size, need the RPG Maker VX Ace RTP)

Edited March 5, 2013 by anothergoblin

[Ocedic 249]

Hey, as promised I reviewed your game. It can be found in the critique here:

 

http://www.rpgmakervxace.net/topic/13177-review-coats/

[anothergoblin 5]

Hey, as promised I reviewed your game. It can be found in the critique here:

 

http://www.rpgmakervxace.net/topic/13177-review-coats/

 

Thank you so much, this is superb feedback! This confirms some of the things I've worried about, and gives me a few new things to add. I've thought about adding more random events, but a way to monitor Skin activity, various degrees of danger, etc... these are all great ideas. I will definitely look into it.

 

These are all things I will add to my to-do list on the third iteration. Thank you, I really appreciate it, and so will future players (hopefully)!

[EternalShadow 28]

Not bad at all. Very interesting, just could do with - as Ocedic pointed out - more variables and random events.

[anothergoblin 5]

Big update, people! Get the new demo here (RTP Not included)

Instead of just telling you about the new features, I'll show them.

 

Scavenger map - When you send Miguel to scavenge food, you can now choose what area to send him to.

 

 

 

 

Rats - There are rats in the supply room every now and then. If you catch them, you lose less food!

 

 

 

 

Reinforce Plus - When there are a lot of Skins out there, you will get an option to further reinforce your perimeter personally, by picking up the rifle and taking a few shots yourself.

 

 

 

 

Surveillance - You can scan the immediate area and predict how big an attack you're going to suffer the upcoming night. Useful for planning defenses!

 

 

[Ocedic 249]

Wow, I love the features. I will definitely give it a whirl at some point. Glad you used my rats idea xD

[anothergoblin 5]

What can I say? I honestly appreciate feedback, it's easy to get blinded when you work on a game for a long time. The idea of making the everyday chores more interactive was a good one, so I expanded on it!

Now I'll just add some more dialogue for Porter and Presley, then I'll finally get to work on Phase Two

 

EDIT: Fixed the dialogue with Porter and Presley! Updated the Demo link.

 

Download (RTP Included)

 

Download (RTP Not Included)

Edited March 11, 2013 by anothergoblin

[RetroExcellent 369]

This game looks crazy interesting. I love when an rpg steps away from the normal and expected. This looks like it will be truly great and I plan to give it a go very soon.

[anothergoblin 5]

Currently testing the new battle system for Phase Two.

In Phase Two, there will be times where you simply cannot sneak around the Skins - you have to face them, head on.

Since you can't run from them (they never tire), you have to make due with taking them on from a distance.

The system is about keeping enemy speed down (so they don't get to you too fast) while chipping away at their strength.

The player can either aim for headshots to deal plenty of damage, aim for their legs to slow them down or fire body shots to both slow them down AND deal damage.

There is also an option to steady your aim, which doubles the effect on the next attack, and adds a little bonus depending on how large your party is.

 

The enemy recuperates some speed and strength each turn, so if you neglect their speed, they'll be on you in no-time. If you neglect strength, you won't kill them in time.

You can choose which character you want to keep in your party. Each character has their own signature move, which has a 20% chance to trigger each turn. This move is unique to each character, and differs depending on what action you've taken.

Say, you got a sniper. You tell your party to aim, and the sniper's ability triggers. He gets a perfect opportunity for a headshot, and he takes it, further lowering enemy strength.

If instead you'd have told your party to fire low, he might've slowed them down instead by taking an extra shot at their legs.

Here's some screenshots!

[anothergoblin 5]

Contest? Lottery? Opportunity?

Allright, so I'm in the meat of Phase Two at the moment. Randal has to gather up old teammates, and find some new ones. It's the biggest part of the game, and I figured I might as well do something extra fun with it.

So here's my offer - At the end of April I'll give one tester (that's you guys) the opportunity to add a character to the Coats pantheon. I have final say, of course, but overall design, inspiration and input will be all you.

You can't decide what'll happen to the character, or what he/she will do. That's up to me. What you will get is an opportunity to toss a character into this world and see what happens.

Kinda fun, right?

 

So, if you've tested the game and want to have a shot at designing your own character, just post a reply with some feedback and end the reply with something along the lines of "I'd like to add my own character". Something like that.

Just trying to keep things interesting

[anothergoblin 5]

Sorry for the late update, hade some trouble logging in on this site.

There's an updated demo available (RTP included).

This takes you a bit beyond Phase One and introduces you to the second part of the game and shows you a bit what to expect.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/81167540/Coats%20-%20Demo.exe

 

Good luck!

[Ocedic 249]

Love the progress on this game. I will try it sometime and do an official review. Or I may hold off until the game is complete.

[anothergoblin 5]

Love the progress on this game. I will try it sometime and do an official review. Or I may hold off until the game is complete.

 

It'll take a few months, probably, but it's coming along. With my new illustrator, the placeholders are also slowly melting away. I'm about halfway through Phase Two, story-wise.

I can also mini-announce that the game is going to feature animated sequences (!!!). One for Phase One, one for Phase Two and possible one for each ending (there will be several, not saying how many).

Exciting times!

[anothergoblin 5]

New demo coming up at the end of the week, most probably. The story is coming along great, and I'm quickly getting to a large milestone. So... perfect for a demo!

[anothergoblin 5]

And here it is! New Demo, RTP included!

[Oollie 2]

I'm going to try this out! Looks interesting

[TJBartlemus 1]

Found a glitch in version posted March 10th. When going back outside after final autopsy, you can still initialize shooting sequence. But by doing so the screen fades to black and freezes. Just something to be aware of.

 

Other than that I really enjoyed what you have so far. Keep up the good work!

[anothergoblin 5]

Found a glitch in version posted March 10th. When going back outside after final autopsy, you can still initialize shooting sequence. But by doing so the screen fades to black and freezes. Just something to be aware of.

 

Other than that I really enjoyed what you have so far. Keep up the good work!

 

There's been plenty of updates and bugfixes since that version. Didn't know about that one though, and I've fixed it. I had forgotten to make autopsy unavailable after the final session, and when people go back to do the event again it confuses the system, since all switches are off. Weird. But fixed, so thanks for pointing it out!

 

Glad you're enjoying it! It's still a work-in-progress in many ways, but it's getting there. It's a big project though.

[anothergoblin 5]

UPDATE!

 

Phase Two Engineering will be a lot like Phase One Research - but you get a lot more control. Every person you've gathered will be able to be assigned to one of two possible tasks depending on their skills. Perimeter Defense, Trapping, Farming, Lab Equipment, Engineering or Scavenging are possible skills. Here's a few examples of what I've done so far, and what you can do:

 

Farming -> The more people you assign to Farming, the better they get at growing and harvesting plants, which will yield more Food and give you more plants. Rain increases crops further and Heat Waves can ruin everything.

Scavenging -> You can send out people to scavenge packages. You get a certain percentage of completion towards that package depending on how many people you have assigned to scavenging. The more people who scavenge over a longer time, they gain experience and can be sent to gather better packages.

Lab Equipment -> You gain raw materials from scavenging, which can be refined into proper lab equipment. The more experienced your crew is with lab equipment, the more useful Materials can be. Don't put too many people on it though, raw materials is necessary to do other things as well, like trapping.

 

Working on trapping and perimeter defense at the moment, this is just what I did this very day. Carry on, people!

[Kargan3033 8]

I'm intrested in this, I'm download the april 26 release I'm defent taking a liking to this game, sort of reminds me of a cross between resident evil and the old X-com dos games.

[Kargan3033 8]

Well my beta testing has been slow going due to real life issues but so far I have not encountered any bugs, the game is pretty damn good.

 

Well done Anothergoblin.

Edited May 13, 2013 by Kargan3033

[anothergoblin 5]

Finished the basic Security, Equipment and Progress-functions. Also started to add some bonuses to the Scavenging system - there's now a chance to get some extras when you open Scavenging Packages...!

[Xaiyeon 16]

I played the demo and it's very nice. Hardly any glitches (have not stumbled upon any), but it could use some events in between the days. Great job so far, love the dialogue and features -b.

Edited May 18, 2013 by Xaiyeon

[anothergoblin 5]

More updates!

Working on adding some flavor to scavenging (beer flavor, to be more precise!). During scavenging you can now pick up refreshing beverages that boost your worker's morale.

Also added mercenaries that you can hire as extra security guards. They show up about once every three days when there's no current contract going on.

If anyone got any more ideas of fun things to add, don't be scared to shout out.

 

Apart from that, I'm also working on the Coats standalone-website. Got a pic of the work-in-progress here: http://imgur.com/vD5E2b3

Exciting times, my friends!