Category Archives: News

Zafehouse: Diaries has been updated to version 1.2.3! This patch introduces an Item Editor to the Custom Content Manager, so you can create your own weapons, tools, food, medicine and protection gear and have it appear in-game. Better still, you can compile your own item "packs" that you can share with your friends.

Don't worry -- you can still add items via regular C# modding and, in fact, this is still the only way to create more complex items.

We've done our best to make the editor as robust as possible, but we understand that once players get their hands on it, issues are likely to appear. So please bear in mind that it's a work-in-progress and we'll be watching the forums closely for bug reports and suggestions.

v1.2.3 also includes a number of fixes and tweaks, all of which you can read about in the full notes on the forums.

We're pleased to announce the release of patch v1.2.2! The update focuses on adding more content to No Survivors, as well as providing extra options during the mid-to-late game in all three modes. For Steam users, v1.2.2 includes 12 unique achievements to get stuck into!

Players of No Survivors will have to contend with a group of ex-military troops setting up shop somewhere in town. They won't be present immediately and even when they do arrive, they won't stick around forever. If you do manage to locate them, you'll have the choice of fighting them -- and snagging their cache of top-shelf equipment -- or leaving them alone. Be warned, they might seek explosive retribution if you provoke them...

Fortifying a location now allows you to build further upgrades including a fence, sniper's nest and watch tower. The fence adds another barrier between you and the hordes, protecting your barricades from attack and giving your survivors the peace and quiet they deserve. Fences also allow you to move out of surrounded locations, so you'll want to build one as soon as you can. The sniper's nest boosts the accuracy of your snipers, while the watch tower lets you see zombies far and wide.

You'll find powerful outdoor traps have been added to your defensive repertoire, so you can kill and maim zombies before they even get inside. These traps can be placed at any time, regardless of how fortified a location is.

A new occupation, the Mayor, makes an appearance. He won't be killing zombies by the truckload or performing heart surgery on your wounded survivors, but he has intimate knowledge of various locations around town and when tasked with searching them, can quickly uncover everything inside, including clues.

Finally, we've done a fair bit of balancing and tweaking. You'll find combat against enemy survivors is more consistent and rifle weapons have had their effectiveness improved against living targets.

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

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.