Video Game, book, and movie reviews, random opinions, politics, news, development information, heck...just about everything!
It's been a week and here's some new info and a screenshot!
Published on July 21, 2008 By FinalSonicX In Game Development Journals

Hey everybody! It's been a little over a week since I last posted an update and I wanted to first apologize for the long wait. my birthday was last week so I spent most of my time out with friends and family. I also saw The Dark Knight, which was pretty much the best movie in the last couple of years (and most certainly the greatest comic book movie so far). but that doesn't mean I've been slacking off! I've made some pretty serious progress since the last time I updated my blog.

One of the biggest and most exciting announcements I have is that I've convinced my friend to help me out with the task of creating all of the art assets to be used in the game! my friend has already finished multiple icons to represent the various items you will hold in your inventory! he has about a dozen guns and a couple of other weapons and items like medkits already done. now I just need to code in a few numbers and get the GUI working properly for the inventory and you guys will get to see some of the cool stuff he's made. we might even give you guys a sample of our work some time this month.

I've also updated my Title so that it will be called (tentatively) "Blood holiday: The Flesh of July". not bad eh? thanks to my friend derbal for suggesting that I mix the two titles given by others.

Another big step forward is that I have successfully completed the algorithm for loading maps and scenarios. now all I need to do is implement it in the actual game, which should be about as easy as flicking a switch and re-arranging a couple lines of code. once that's in the game, it should be very easy to edit my test simulations whenever I want to.

And the last big step forward I've made is that I finished adding my text updater, which will give the player an update of all of the events that happen during gameplay. it also has a scrollbar that should theoretically allow the player to scroll up and see the entire event log for that session. the text updater will inform the player of the results from attacks, special events, the effects of items, dialogue or ambient sounds (such as zombie moaning), and other things.

so as promised, here is the new screenshot:

http://img133.imageshack.us/img133/598/bloodholidayguiprealphahj5.jpg

enjoy! and please remember, the above screenshot is a WORK IN PROGRESS and in no way represents the final product. note that "Debug Man" is my character's name and the reason you can't see me on the board anymore is because I was eaten by zombies

so in the coming days I'll be returning to my previous level of high productivity, and I'll be working on integrating the file loader, tweaking the civilian AI, finishing the quick sheet (the big black box on the right side of the user interface, which will give the player an analysis of the player's condition), implementing loading and saving games, and expanding the test map.

please leave a comment expressing your thoughts or opinions on the progress I've made (or just the game in general). I'm always interested in reading what people have to say!


Comments
on Jul 25, 2008

if u cud have 100 zombies in a hoard it would scare me a lot like if u go into a house and its ZZZZZ everwhere and then you go back and ZZZZ there too! ARGH!

 

Also if u cud set up a turrent to shoot the zombies.

~Fruity~

on Jul 26, 2008

well the map is going to be a lot larger and there will be a whole lot more zombies. at least numbering in the hundreds, hopefully going up into the thousands marker.

 

as for turrets, I probably will not include it in the initial release. There will be guards however in a few places that hold their position and shoot anything in their line if sight (potentially even the player), so they're sort of like turrets.

on Jul 26, 2008
Looking very nice.

Turrets can probably just be manually gunned. Guards are fine for the effect, but turrets could be included if the player needs a little extra firepower.
on Jul 28, 2008

what are all them bottons on the screen for? like how do u use construction or survivial in the game? also when will it be done.

 

~fruity~

on Jul 28, 2008

construction is just another way of saying barricade construction. thus when you're standing in front of a door or window and you have the proper materials (like wooden boards, a hammer, and nails), then you can click on construction, then click on the nearby square you want to barricade

this will increase its health and thus keep the zombies out for longer. if the building is big enough and there aren't too many survivors inside (zombies can smell or hear lots of humans), then chances are pretty good that if you barricade most of the entrances, you can hide inside of it. zombies won't bother attacking barricades unless they can see you, smell you, or hear you.

it might also help if you want to form a "safehouse" that you can use to sleep in or store various items you might not want to carry around. by heavily barricading it and then using a side or back entrance that zombies won't notice, you can easily stay safe from zombies for a long time. you can use this time to rest/heal, reload, etc.

stealth allows you to try to sneak around. zombies might not see you if your sneak skill is high enough and so you can safely sneak around them (just dont get too close or they automatically detect you).

throw is for things like grenades.

talk will eventually be used for quests and things like that. in the initial release it'll probably just be used for specific dialogues and for random conversations with survivors.

look can be used to click on a square or item and it gives you a description of what it is.

first aid is used with bandages or other medical supplies to heal yourself, treat wounds, slow the infection, etc.

repair and science can be used to "beat" the game (there are multiple ways to do this). I can't be too specific because you're supposed to figure out how to do it on your own.

pick locks is used for unlocking locked doors (requires lockpicks)

drive will be implemented much later on but you can use it on cars to see if they have the keys still in them and gas and all that. if the car still works, you can use the car to fast travel along the roads. the higher your drive skill, the farther you can go.

survival will be used in some areas of the game for gathering food in the wilderness and such. just click the survival skill and you will spend your term foraging for berries and other things. you can also get medicinal herbs in this manner.

pick up picks up items on the ground, open/close are used to interact with doors.

the character sheet displays a detailed analysis of your character and what he/she is capable of doing. the journal is used to keep track of quests (it will eventually track all of your quests, but right now it will just keep track of when you figure out a way to beat the game and the ntrack your progress on that). the inventory button opens up your inventory where you can see what you're wearing and what's in your backpack.

the reload weapon reloads, attack attacks the target square, and use can be used to activate certain things in the gameworld (or use the item held in your off-hand, like an andrenaline syringe or something).

end turn ends your turn.

on Jul 28, 2008

and as for when it will be done, it's difficult to say when exactly it will be done. the alpha will be ready pretty soon, but I don't want to release until I get a beta working. how long it takes inbetween alpha and beta depends on how many bugs pop up and how quick I can finish mapping the world. the mapping will take a while, at least a month to get a satisfactory size, but you can help shorten it by submitting your own custom made environments and such. read Zombie Game Update 2 and 3 for details.

on Jul 31, 2008

all of those things sound cool!

if u are running from a hole lot of zombies and u have to use PICK LOCK to unlock a door then OPEN to open the door and then CLOSE to close the door how do u lock it again so the zombies cant just open it?

it woud be great if u could lock the doors and keep the zombies out while u look for things.

 

 

on Jul 31, 2008

hey I hadn't thought of re-locking doors...

I'll definitely implement that somehow! maybe a special command that's typed into the chat bar like this "lock" then you click on the door to be locked.

thanks for the suggestion!