Hello unreal devolopers, trolling users and even admins. I’m currently working on a zombie based game and well I want you’re opinions should it be something along the lines of black ops inf rounds survival or a mix with that other game modes like left 4 dead story line. What type of things can the player achieve and do, example can the player climb, is there melee weapons, how fast should the player die to one zombie and multiple zombies.
How fast are the zombies going to be, can they climb, are there going to be just plain slow zombies, how fast should they die. These are all examples of what I’m looking for just to see what type of dream zombie land you guys would imagine if it hit the fan. Also ideas on how many players there should be and if there are any perks special attributes the player can achieve and any thing that might become a bigger threat than a zombie!
I already have a good set of ideas for the game on how i want it to play but wouldnt mind directong my thoughts with some of you’res. Currently working on a weapon system, got the inventory cleaned up and easy to understand now. Now I’m going to work on weapon types and projectiles .
Also if any one is interested in my plan they are welcome to pm me for further discussion. Thanks for you’re time fellow game enthusiasts I hope plenty will join in.
Follwing on from Luftbauch, dismembered naked sentient zombie breasts that are very slow moving but hard to kill ie; a grenade or full magazine clip, and zombie bees…Zombees?!? that are fast but easy to kill, and if you were feeling creative Naked Zombees with rigged breasts that are a bit harder to kill than regular Zombees.
and circus zombies, knife throwing zombies, juggling zombies and a fat bearded lady zombie, and a zombie Zombeekeeper.
Eibmoz - a reverse zombie, it start out a zombie and slowly gets more human if a human bites it, starts out slow and gets progressively more fast and intelligent and dangerous until it reaches human state where it just wanders off to live in a yurt and reflect on its new sense of self and mortality.
I tend to find that unless you are doing a Day Z clone, it is better to make the zombies noticeably slower than the player but fast enough that they can catch a player who gets lazy. They should take several decent shots from a pistol or two headshots, whilst limbs can be blown off, preventing them from moving or attacking. Just my thoughts.
I can give you my opinion as I solely play “Zombie/Survival Games” on steam and have one of my own designed on paper . . .
First off, you want to have a new idea. Something that has not been done yet to take the current zombie genre to the next level. If you simply just take a mixed bag of available gameplay options from other games and compile them you will have a unique game mode, but it will become tired quickly. Thanks to so many unprofessional developers in the past your zombie game will be coming out of the door with negative attitude towards it simply because “oh look another zombie shooter -_- . . .” and so having something different that is fresh will help you get past that firewall.
Next, you want to come up with an actual story or lore to the zombie infestation. So many games have this DayZ “You figure it out” attitude towards thier development and in all honesty it just makes the developer look lazy and uninspired. You want a theme to hook your gameplay mechanics to so that there is a feel of immersion more than just controlling a player with a keyboard. It does not have to be a monumental novel of a story but just a core synopsis of what the player is actually going through in the game and why. Without that people result in griefing as a natural alternative to boredom, which has been done to death in Zombie games.
When it comes to the type of gameplay versus the zombies I would suggest trying to find an even ground between DayZ and Left 4 Dead. Having a walking simulator is not only a huge waste of time and resources but never works. Players always naturally gather in the “high population” areas and so it may be wise to build your game mechanics on that assumption instead of having lots of level space with no real use. If you go the other route and choose a Left 4 Dead style gameplay than I would suggest you try to give some space and options for the player to wander outside of an “On Rail” shooter experience. A good zombie game to me is one where you have to move from resource to resource continuing your survival. A game that relies on you bunkering into a corner and just hosing down mobs of zombies can get boring very quickly just as having to wander for 30 mintues in any direction to get to the next weapoins cache can also be. So I think you get my point. You want a good middle ground between “downtime” and “oh ****” time when in combat.
Alot of the questions you have about the core mechanics such as: zombie damage, player movement, ect. are going to depend on both the story/lore of the game and how hardcore you want the experience to be. One thing I can say for certain that I despise in survival games is “fake realism”. What do I mean by that? Consider games like WarZ: They have a thirst and hunger bar that depletes in less than an hour and will instantly kill you (hyperrealism) but you can shoot a player in the face with a 7.62 round and it does like 20% damage followed by them autohealing with the press of a button (complete lack of realism). So my point here is to make sure your game theme or style MATCHES the gameplay mechanics. Do not make your game look hyper realistic and with true to life weapons if you are going to use fantasy style mechanics and likewise do not use hyper realistic game mechanics if you plan to use fantasy style art and design (Plants vs Zombies for example).
One last thing I owuld mention is to streamline the UI as much as possible. In a survival game having character control is required. If the player dies or loses because of user interface holding up thier controls it can really ruin the experience and feel like cheap deaths. Since you are working on the inventory system right now I would suggest a few things that most zombie games do not do properly. Allow the player to move even with inventory windows open and always give a “one button” exit ability so if they are engaged by zombies they can instantly get back to combat irrelevant of what UI window is open. Behing stuck in an inventiry “bag” while being shot at or eaten in a panic can really make me stop playing a game, especially if there is loot involved that can be lost (otherwise seen as wasted time).
I hope these suggestions help you draw out a sketch of where your prject is heading and what you want to produce with it. We really need some good SCARY zombie survival games out there in my opinion so having a dark themed immersion may be a design route.
Well I was thinking about adding either a mod support controlled by me or should I add it to the options for the game? I could also make a small selected few zombies actually be naked for the fact the clothing could have wore off etc… the mod support would be to effect all players with updates on what they mod, must be submitted and reviewed too.
A zombie game where zombies run from you, because you are the monster hunting them.
They are living their un-lives in peace, and the “humans” comes and destroys that peace in the name of “survival.”
I cant believe this is the third time in less a week I have to say this but please don’t post links to nudity or sexually explicit material as it breaches forum rules.
What about a ‘hive mind’ zombie. Zombie(s) that control the dead rather than are undead. They blend in with their hive and determining which is the hive mind is the key to survival.
