Southampton Game Jam 2023 sponsored by Exabyte Games

Exabyte Games headed to Southampton last weekend to sponsor a Game Jam - an event held at the University of Southampton! CTO Ben Clothier, developer Ross Popovs and QA tester JJ Snedden were all in person for the 3-day hackathon between 3-5 February where attendees assembled teams and whipped up their own video game. The theme was 'Roots', demonstrated by both Ben and Ross in a game they coded on unity at the event.

"The first annual Global Game Jam® was held 30 January - 1 February 2009 to much critical acclaim and success. With over 1,600 participants in 23 countries, with 307 games produced around the theme of "As long as we have each other, we will never run out of problems. The GGJ has continued to grow every year.

Each GGJ edition has a theme distributed worldwide through the local organizers at the start of the jam. Participants start to work in teams, brainstorming and creating games around the theme. The theme is decided by the "Theme Committee": a team of game industry professionals that discuss different themes and options for a period of time (often for a couple of months) before the jam occurs. " - Global Game Jam

The Southampton Game Jam 2023 welcomed nearly 100 gamers to create their own game in a fun and supportive environment. Our very own developer Ross was one of the Game Jam organizers as part of the Digital Arts and Game Dev society. "The Game Jam was a blast - both to organise and to attend. It was great seeing everyone's creativity given the theme of the game jam was "Roots". There was a fair share of burrowing games, but also other interpretations of the theme including our own Ben's game about 'Root Vegetables'. Overall we had over 90 attendees and a dozen of fantastic games - I am happy that both Exabyte and the Digital Arts Society at Southampton got involved and I hope that next year's game jam will be even bigger!" - Ross

For those unable to join the event in person, the team also hosted a Discord server for people to collaborate and share their progress. However, if you were one of the lucky ones to grab a FREE ticket to the event, there was free pizza and drinks on offer; not bad for a day’s work!

Take a look at some of the games made on their official Game Jam page.

Announcing Final Outpost 1.3

We're excited to share that Final Outpost 1.3 is OUT NOW! With new features such as the all-new skill tree, overhauled weather system and native leaderboards and achievements, this major update offers new challenges to players and introduces an exciting element of competition.

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NEW SKILL SYSTEM

Upgrade the capabilities of your citizens with the SKILL TREE in Final Outpost 1.3. Earn skill points by killing zombies and ensure the survival of your citizens by guiding them from novice to warrior as you play.

INVENTORY - In the beginning, your citizens don’t have the necessary tools to transport heavy loads. Unlock inventory skills to increase the carrying capacity of your citizens and see them bring home vast quantities of resources.

MOVEMENT - Continuous labour and intensive training can improve the movement speed of your citizens around their Outpost. In turn, citizens become more productive, bringing back resources more efficiently.

NOISE - Novices generate more noise when killing zombies. Train your citizens to become silent killers over time, attracting less zombies to your wall.

DAMAGE - Whether you decide to train your citizens in knife-handling skills or make them sharpshooters, they will become more accurate with every skill unlocked, dealing more damage to zombies.

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NEW WEATHER SYSTEM

Experience ALL-NEW WEATHER EFFECTS in Final Outpost 1.3. Brave the snow during winter, droughts during summer and even the occasional lightning strike during a violent storm.

Harsh winters remain a challenge in 1.3 with a reduction in crop yield. Snow becomes yet another hindrance to the production of food in your Outpost.

The introduction of rain and thunderstorms poses a new threat to your Outpost. Lightning strikes loom large during storms and occasionally cause a fire within your walls, reducing a damaged building to ashes.

Like winter, summer droughts will weaken the yield your farmers are able to achieve. Dehydrated soil will make many crops die and it becomes crucial to re-deploy farmers to the forest in search of wild animals.

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LEADERBOARDS & ACHIEVEMENTS

With native integration of Game Center and Play Game Services, Final Outpost 1.3 brings a brand-new way to track your achievements and view leaderboards. Whether you’re killing your first zombie or have already completed the skill tree, players can now compete among friends and fight to become the best in the world. Join our Discord server here to join in the fun.

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AND THERE’S MORE…

• New main menu artwork

• Improved knife fighter AI

• Added option to change behaviour of the fast-forward button

• Citizens now search for a new place to sleep if their house is demolished

• Citizens will now adjust sleeping position if their house is upgraded

• When loading up a game, the camera now positions itself on the most important part of your Outpost

• The save panel is shown when returning to the main menu from the game

• Knife fighters now get redistributed automatically to a new wall when it is built

• Tweaked brightness during the night

• Saw now only requires level 2 workshop

• Citizens release at 7am is now staggered slightly

• Improved worker positioning on wall

• Many, many bug fixes

Announcing Final Outpost 1.2

Final Outpost 1.2 is OUT NOW on Android & iOS!

Download now on the Google Play Store and App Store.

WELCOME TO FINAL OUTPOST 1.2

This huge new update was built entirely from scratch, bringing many new features and improvements to your Outpost. Here’s what we’ve changed.

==STONE RESOURCE==

• Upgrade your buildings with stone! - reinforce your walls and increase your capacities even further

• Miners obtain stone from mines with pickaxes

• Store stone in a new building type

==NIGHT TIME IMPROVEMENTS==

• Added the ability to fast-forward during the night

• Avoid attracting zombies - you can now command your snipers to cease fire

• Knife fighters can now be reassigned between walls

• Snipers now have a moving laser sight

• Citizens now sleep in housing and do not consume food during the night

==NEW FEATURES==

• Experience the winter - introducing cycling seasons and harsh winters that reduce farm productivity

• Added 15+ new building levels

• Added support for 5 new languages - German, French, Italian, Spanish & Russian

• Light rendering and realistic day-night-cycle

• Citizens now find their own way around your Outpost using pathfinding

• Added loading screen

• Added audio settings and more to the main menu

• You can now skip the tutorial

• Tactical Packages can now be purchased - ensuring that you don’t miss out on your resources

• Reworked game saving - more game state is retained more frequently

==CHANGES AND IMPROVEMENTS==

• Many balance changes to hunters, scavengers, building upgrades and more

• New visual effects for noises from knives and gunshots

• There are no longer three different types of metal scrap

• Snipers can now go on walls

• Changed font

• Farmers no longer walk on top of level 4 farm buildings

• Tutorial tweaks

• Removed guards and pistols

• Added metal sheets to the top bar

• Menus are now larger in 4:3 aspect ratio

• Top bar now shows all three bullet types

• Added resource consumption indicator when building construction begins

• Improved UX when making purchases in the tactical menu

• Top bar improvements - visualise the time with a radial indicator

• Resource gain indicators include the corresponding icon

• Job progress bars now animate and look sharper

• Your most hungry citizens are fed first

• The arrival of outsiders is less predictable

==FIXES==

• Rubble no longer gets stuck at 100% removed

• Zombies do not stop at the wall with knife fighters unable to target them

• Ammo stores cannot be duplicated

• Many issues related to citizen movement animations resolved

• Snipers should now attend their positions every night