• Register

LINK-DEAD is the follow up to the succesful 2d multiplayer shooter Soldat made by Michal Marcinkowski. This game has been created thousands of years ago by Odin, the god of war himself. While hanging on the World Tree for days upside down, tortured, without bread or water, he had a flash of insight. A game that will conquer ALL. Mighty viking warriors used it to train their battle skills before riding into deaths hands. To achieve victory, slay the enemies, conquer their homeland and make slaves of their women. This game brought the viking men pride and fame and thanks to it they reached eternal glory and now live in Valhalla sitting besides Odin's throne. Today, Michal Marcinkowski is bringing that game back for you mortals to play it! Odin has blessed him with Divine Inspiration and serves as a guide in the process of creating the best and most awesome game ever made! This game will rock, it will make a MAN out of you, it will kick your ass!!

Concept

Link-Dead is about…

  • Grunts
  • Guns
  • Machines
  • Hackers
  • And ultimately, war

It can be best described as a team-based realistic side-view combat. General mechanics are that of a 2d side-scrolling shooter (eg. Soldat) with mouse-driven combat.

Gameplay and setting

Not so distant future. A war has begun, between men and machines, both in cyber-space and in the real world. The player takes part in this struggle as commanding officer of a team of soldiers and hackers.

Two teams fight each other. Both are located in underground bases. The surface world is the urban world we know today but ravished by many years of war. Each map consists of the underground and the outerworld. The outerworld is where mainly robots fight, it is a dangerous place to be in. Soldier can control robots, droids, terminators, gun turrets, drones, sentry guns etc. They will be controllable via computer terminals located in the underground bases. Terminals and enemy networks can be hacked into - to open, vaults, doors, move elevators, disable sentry guns and gain command over the enemy robots!

Find out more

  • View media
  • View media
  • View media
  • View media
  • View media
  • View media
Post article RSS Articles

Here it is.

This release took over 40 days and nights because practically every aspect of the game has been changed or tweaked. This is a brand new game you have here. If there was something you didn't like about previous versions check this one out.
First of all the whole movement system has been changed. I have closely watched parkour and tried to get that feeling of free urban running into Link-Dead. I'm sure this game beats Mirror's Edge 2D in this aspect alone. There are lots of new animations and moves. But what is most important is that they are really easy to do. You just need to know how to jump [SPACE] and point your mouse at the direction you want to go.

This is explained in this video tutorial "Moving over or under obstacles".
The second cool thing is melee weapons. There are new animations for handling them, like striking, blocking and THROWING! You can play with two new weapons: the Spear of Destiny and a mining Pickaxe. Impaling a dude against a wall with the spear was the thing I was so excited about a couple weeks ago. There is no game of this kind that allows you to do this.
Watch this video to see how the Spear works (you might need to watch in fullscreen to see the full effect):


Third thing is I added... lots of cool little things you can do that me and other players love. You can customize your avatar. Not only can you change the color of your clothes, skin and hair but you can also change the hair style, attach a cool waist chain, cape and different styles of helmets!

Next thing that personalizes your gameplay are HUMILIATIONS.
You can now piss on your enemy.

Imagine him dying in agony on the floor, screaming for help. You step in front of him and take a leak on his head. You have to play the game to see this.
The other humiliation is HEAD COLLECTING. No further explanations, see this on the video below:


Other things worth mentioning are:

  • New inventory system with much larger icons; allowing to put armor on any limb you want
  • New weapon, the classic old AK-47!
  • Interface improvements (eg. HUD clip and nade icons)
  • Hotkeys to quickly patch or turn on cloak
  • New unarmored Einheriar soldier

  • Self-Destruction device
  • A new animated, much easier to use, hacking-style Main Menu
  • New in-game help with map collision help (press [F1]!)
  • New map Nuclear Plant (click for overview)

Have fun!

PS. If you still haven't got access to play the Link-Dead Alpha version you can buy it right now on Desura. This will give you access to all alpha versions of Link-Dead + give you the opportunity to part of the development of this game.
Last but not least, here is the complete changelog. Especially read the [movement] section as it explains all the changes in controls.

Changes 1922-1969:

MM wrote: [general]
- Mutant Men are now known as Wasteminers
- Ubermen are now known as Einheriar
- new unarmored Einheriar character
- upgraded Irrlicht to version 1.7.2 (fixed some image memory issues)

[maps]
- added new map Nuclear Plant
- added destructible glass wall effect
- more lighting and shading on Warehouse map
[gameplay]
- added droppable physics weapons and grenades
- added gun falls out of hands on death
- gun in hand is collidable with bullets & explosions
- gun can be shot out of hands if soldier is tired (high fatigue)
- if out of ammo gun becomes melee weapon
- added pickup time for every pickable item
- picking/disarming laser/sticky grenade takes up to 3 seconds
- picking items from soldier takes longer (over a second; more if soldier is alive)
- added Humiliations: acid piss for Wasteminers & head trophy for Einheriar (use action menu [E])
- soldier attachments and hanging parts (cape, hair) are loadable from inventory
- armor falls off when damaged entirely
- stuff can be picked up while jumping or climbing (not just standing)
- added resting gun against obstacle to reduce recoil
- both teams have the same weight class thresholds
- remote detonator has 1 sec activation time after falling
- laser tripwire does not activate on all Wasteminers
- fatigue is calculated now from actual movement displacement
- soldier gun collides now with other soldiers
- wound effect is calculated using lowest health limb instead of average of limb healths

[balance]
- armor takes 25% less damage from non-piercing projectiles
- IED is 10% stronger
- Baldr sniper rifle is 200% weaker

[visuals]
- fixed gun angles on leg, holster and back
- fixed grenade placement on hip
- fixed small sprite glitches and limb placements on mutant and ubermen
- fixed back elbow visuals
- smoothened jump forces
- new jump up animation
- changed fall animation
- modified stand animations
- added empty clip falls down when reloading gun
- clip is drawn on "clip-in" sound
- added flying garbage on explosion
- larger fatigue and energy indicators
- Beast Friend is smaller
- more blood on shot
- bullet graphics is much brighter
- added laser blink effect
- changed plazma spawn graphic
- armor in HUD uses more intense blue
- particles are brighter on shaders on

[interface]
- added hotkeys for backpack items [1,2,3,4]
- new main menu and context menus look & behaviour
- remote IED's are detonated from nade pick menu now
- up/down movement arrow is displayed below player
- stance icons are displayed also below player
- map help lines are drawn when tutorial is shown [F1]
- added (blue) ladder lines to map help lines drawing
- only one option to heal ALL with medkit (via hotkey)
- right mouse button now removes item from inventory
- rearranged inventory and item sizes
- added context key help messages (on/off [F1])
- energy bar outlines if energy is being used
- pie menu always starts at middle of screen
- darker pie menu background
- HUD isn't drawn when pie menu is open
- item attachments are drawn as icons in pie menus
- added fist icon to change weapon menu
- new (placeholder) team pick art
- added team descriptions on team pick menu
- added radio commands in action menu
- added clip & nade icons to HUD

[bugs]
- fixed collision on edges made on half-tile space (many Warehouse map bugs)
- fixed item scavenging ranges
- fixed stall on first use of ladder
- fixed fall hands animation
- fixed weapon positions being at death position not in in corpse
- fixed going upstairs when pointing down
- fixed double medkit in Mutant inventory shop
- fixed "MEDIC!" text appearing even after patching
- fixed backpack items not being counted in soldier weight
- fixed not able to detonate remote when carrying no grenades
- fixed explosion penetrating walls
- bot paths always generate now without need to delete file
- fixed grenade passing stairs
- fixed smoke not being emitted from grenade with other attachments
- fixed IED laser being seen on top of FOV
- fixed infinite healing bug
- fixed cloak affecting other sprite rendering
- fixed bone breaking in ragdoll

[effects]
- added hands grab ledge sound
- different louder ladder sounds
- new ladder and wall sliding sounds
- added climbing sounds (when not sneaking)
- added falling death scream
- particle sounds added (eg. shell sounds, wall parts)
- step sounds are heavier & there's more walking dust on heavier weight classes
- fall sound uses ground material sound

[inventory]
- new Wasteminer weapon AK-47
- added self-destruct device for Einheriar (detonates owner and his inventory)
- added Wasteminer mullet & fringe
- added Wasteminer chain accessory
- added color pickers in inventory
- Einheriar armor is fully optional
- added 5 new helmet types for Einheriar

[configs]
- config file for GUI "Base/GUI/gui.cfg"
- renamed inventory_subtype to inventory_id in config items
- armor hit spark color is configurable in armor config

[other]
- optimized sending floats over network (half size)
- optimized map line drawing
- bots now aim when shooting
- bots now run by default
- improved ragdoll collisions
- limited ragdoll speed on death

[movement]
- rolling on landing prevents fall damage
- possible to drop down platform when reloading/changing weapon
- gravity is 40% lower
- increased jump forces
- dropping down from platform or stairs is immediate
- climb on platform is performed using [left or right]+[up] keys (previously just [jump])
- platform or ledge is grabbed by tapping [up] key
- increased air control force
- side jump can be performed immediately after side jump land when holding [jump]
- can climb up without waiting for grab animation to end
- faster stand/run change
- fall damage height is larger
- climbing speed when walking is 2x faster (still slower than normal cause it is stealth)
- dropped 10-20% of useless frames in climb animations (makes climbing faster)
- added sliding against wall (hold [left] or [right] when falling against wall)
- jump force from ladder or wall is 2x stronger
- jumping off ladder is done with [jump] key
- jump forces for weight classes are more differentiated
- turning in air is not delayed
- new fast climb animations over 2-3 tiles height (for light & medium class)
- jump on cliffs/ledge climbs over
- sliding down corner works independently of facing direction
- added backflip when ran onto big slope
- ascending ladder move is faster
- added running up wall (pointing mouse above)

[editor]
- fixed sketchmap load crash
- fixed menu item placement bugs

Recoil management & destructible glass

Recoil management & destructible glass

News 1 comment

The next Link-Dead release will have a feature called "gun resting" which will help you manage recoil of the weapon. Take a look how it will look like.

Armor for both teams - done

Armor for both teams - done

News 3 comments

Both teams now have fully customizable body armor. Check out the cool new pixel graphics for them.

Development Update Jan 21/Jan 31 2011

Development Update Jan 21/Jan 31 2011

News

Update from my devlog from the past 2 weeks. I was working on new Parkour elements in the game, player color and attachment customization and new gore/melee...

Link-Dead build 1922 released

Link-Dead build 1922 released

News 1 comment

Kill an unsuspecting enemy from cover... Introducing remote detonator bomb attachment, booby trap attachment, fatal wounds and more.

Post comment Comments  (0 - 10 of 77)
felipehc
felipehc

I miss this game so much, by far the most realistic/brutal 2d game.
MM, come back to this master piece, please!

Reply Good karma Bad karma+1 vote
dave_5430
dave_5430

Why the **** did I even bother paying for this if you fuckheads aren't even going to finish ANY of your projects?

This'll be just as dead as soldat and Berserker, you guys suck.

Reply Good karma Bad karma+3 votes
MasterionX
MasterionX

IDK about Berserker but KAG and Soldat aren't dead -_-

Reply Good karma Bad karma+1 vote
IndieBase
IndieBase

Yeah the instant i found out you are only paying to get the alpha i got a refund instantly, **** this guy.

Reply Good karma Bad karma+3 votes
FiredFox3
FiredFox3

Money, Money, Money -_-

is not cool. use f2p -_- or free..

Reply Good karma Bad karma0 votes
Derschlact
Derschlact

Most freemium games suck because most don't give you good stuff when you don't pay for the perks. What the hell would you make premium content in Link-Dead?!
If it was free, they would have to make money off donations.
Your argument is invalid.

Reply Good karma Bad karma0 votes
FiredFox3
FiredFox3

Cry of Fear, Black Mesa , Grey - FREE
LAMER! Go home!

Reply Good karma Bad karma+1 vote
stinkytaco
stinkytaco

lol! so we are not even buying the full game?

Man, I bought both soldat and KOG because they where good deals.

This is not a good deal, and the last Michel M game i conciter purchasing.

Very stupid idea for funding.

Let this turd sink people, we really do not need any other developers following this absurd buisiness model.

Reply Good karma Bad karma-1 votes
Flyingpeanuts
Flyingpeanuts

You're a nincompoop. It's 5 bucks, or rather, it's not supported anymore, multiplayer's gone, it was on donate basis only when it was important.. I guess messing around's fun, but

Reply Good karma Bad karma+1 vote
PenultimatePanda
PenultimatePanda

Yeah I bought this a long time ago still annoyed that people might still buy it without knowing its dead. I still don't think he has called this officially dead on his blog or anything else either.

Also I wouldn't call Soldat or KAG great deals (well depens how early you got KAG). I bought both of them twice though because they are excelent and the high price is partially to supplement the free versions which I think is a worth reason for the high price.

Reply Good karma Bad karma+1 vote
Flyingpeanuts
Flyingpeanuts

" I still don't think he has called this officially dead on his blog or anything else either."

He's made it [very] clear it's [in] stasis. Don't make silly assumptions.

Reply Good karma Bad karma+1 vote
Post a comment

Your comment will be anonymous unless you join the community. Or sign in with your social account:

X