40 replies to this topic

[dark_master4]

2013-01-24 update: New blog post regarding streaming the making of the game and car controls!

Hey GMC! I come to you to get the feedback I need for my next full featured game. I currently have a feature list, but I want to expand it to meet the players' tastes and wants. Post your ideas and opinions.

Also see the second list for points to discuss about!

As a quick description, it's an open, seamless world zombie game where you have to search the randomly generated map for supplies and weapons while trying to find a way of ending the spread of the apocalypse.

Here's the link to the dev blog which contains a prototype -> http://cookiesdev.blogspot.com/

Here's the list as of now (Will update when it gets changed):

• Zombie survival game
• TDS (Top down shooter, subject to change for 3D FPS/TPS if I manage to get this thing funded.)
• Scale of 1' per 8 pixels with camera zooming depending on needs
• Realistic lighting system with field of view
• Zombies have basic path-finding
• Zombies have more difficulty hearing you through walls
• Open world with one goal: Beat the final boss (Getting there will be hard and require preparation)
• Randomly generated endless world
• Snowy areas that drop your hunger bar faster to keep up the heat
• Desert areas that drop your thirst bar faster due to sweating
• Entirely persistent world (You leave a car there, it will never dissapear)
• Cities scattered across the map, each having their own power source that can break and be repaired
• Electric system for each house
• Lockpicking and car hot-wiring
• Sewers under cities
• Subways under big cities
• Alchemy
• Drugs
• Alcohol
• WoW-like inventory
• Small inventory on the player himself, based on what type of bag he's carrying
• Cars with physics and accessible trunk for inventory space
• Somewhat realistic weaponry
• Weapon customization
• Relatively hard to find ammo
• Weapons upgrade system (Laser sight, scope, mounted flashlight, muzzle suppressor, silencer, etc.)
• Explosives (Grenades, mines, rockets)
• Crafting (Basic combining stuff)
• Building fortifications
• Day>Night cycle (48 minutes per day)
• Weather effects that affect physics and sound propagation
• Very simple story with one goal (Given at game start) and multiple ways of achieving it
• Your "class" determines your starting equipment
• Perk-like skill system for character progression (Possibly with a small skill tree for each skill)
• Point based health system instead of number based
• You can bleed if heavily damaged and get infected by zombies
• Thirst and hunger management
• Clean water is hard to find since every water source will be infected
• Making loud noises attracts zombies
• Zombies can break down doors (Maybe windows)
• Rotating view

Features that are not confirmed but posted as ideas (Please discuss):

Destructible environment
The plan is to only have player made barricades, doors and windows be destructible.

Possible character mutations (Vampire, ghoul, werewolf, etc.)
In an "expansion" of the game.

Hesitating between WoW-like inventory and Diablo-like inventory
The plan is a list-based inventory with a size limit and weight affects your speed in various ways.

Item durability
For now, I've decided agains't item deterioration.

Car customization
In addition to paint colour, you will be able to make a number of performance modifications.

Edited by dark_master4, 24 January 2013 - 07:05 PM.

[Yal]

I'd like to see lots of zombie variety. Take a few memorable zoo animals, zombiefy, and use as variation from the cannon fodder ones. I'd also like to see a level INSIDE a zombie blue whale (they're the size of a bus).

[morfin]

• hard to find ammo,
• bleed and cripple effects,
• "fog-of-war" (just so you cant se zombis that the charakter cant see)
• electric system
• items brake after time/use
• zombies can smell you and cant hear past walls.
• more like a diablo inventory insted of a wow. (it so "ugly" then you have alot of big things in it.(<-wow's invent system))
  maby add wight to items to.
• difrent whether with effects (like if its raining its easier to sneak away from zombies but you cant see in normal range)
• lockpicking and computer hacking (comupter hacing to find special places and maby electronic locks)
• "pimp" and repair equipment & cars/bikes
• dynamic walls (you can destroy walls/fences etc)
• secret military lab's

Edited by morfin, 31 July 2012 - 07:26 PM.

[dark_master4]

I'd like to see lots of zombie variety. Take a few memorable zoo animals, zombiefy, and use as variation from the cannon fodder ones. I'd also like to see a level INSIDE a zombie blue whale (they're the size of a bus).

I like the idea, like zombie elephant mini boss and obviously zombie dogs defending an abandoned house.

Also, level inside a zombie would be possible, there is an endgame and it's a relatively large zombie monster that contaminates the tap water. Once you weaken him, you could get inside and have a different challenge. Noted.

• hard to find ammo,
• bleed and cripple effects,
• "fog-of-war"
• electric system
• items brake after time/use
• zombies can spell you and cant hear past walls.
• more like a diablo inventory insted of a wow. (it so "ugly" then you have alot of big things in it.)
• difrent whether with effects (like if its raining its easier to sneak away from zombies but you cant see in normal range)
• lockpicking and computer hacking
• "pimp" and repair equipment & cars/bikes
• dynamic walls (you can destroy walls/fences etc)

Hard to find ammo would be an obvious thing. You don't find ammo in every car trunk and every house.
There is already bleeding included in the HP system, I'll make it a point. You can also get infected if a zombie bites you.
I don't see how fog of war could get in here, care to explain?
Electric system is a great idea! Adding.
Depends on the item... Guns could have a reliability stat that goes down with usage. Maybe.
Zombies can spell you? Explain please. Can't hear past walls = more difficulty hearing you past walls.
Diablo 2 or Diablo 3? And the WoW inventory is ugly with big things in it or Diablo?
Weather effects. Adding to the list. Less friction on cars when raining or snowy, less zombie attraction when raining.
Lockpicking is almost a must. Adding. Computer hacking? What use will there be to computers?
Modifying cars might be a good idea, but adding in the maybe list. Equipment, there's already such a system.
Destructible walls is in the maybe list, check for discussion point.

[morfin]

I'd like to see lots of zombie variety. Take a few memorable zoo animals, zombiefy, and use as variation from the cannon fodder ones. I'd also like to see a level INSIDE a zombie blue whale (they're the size of a bus).

I like the idea, like zombie elephant mini boss and obviously zombie dogs defending an abandoned house.

Also, level inside a zombie would be possible, there is an endgame and it's a relatively large zombie monster that contaminates the tap water. Once you weaken him, you could get inside and have a different challenge. Noted.

• hard to find ammo,
• bleed and cripple effects,
• "fog-of-war"
• electric system
• items brake after time/use
• zombies can spell you and cant hear past walls.
• more like a diablo inventory insted of a wow. (it so "ugly" then you have alot of big things in it.)
• difrent whether with effects (like if its raining its easier to sneak away from zombies but you cant see in normal range)
• lockpicking and computer hacking
• "pimp" and repair equipment & cars/bikes
• dynamic walls (you can destroy walls/fences etc)

Hard to find ammo would be an obvious thing. You don't find ammo in every car trunk and every house.
There is already bleeding included in the HP system, I'll make it a point. You can also get infected if a zombie bites you.
I don't see how fog of war could get in here, care to explain?
Electric system is a great idea! Adding.
Depends on the item... Guns could have a reliability stat that goes down with usage. Maybe.
Zombies can spell you? Explain please. Can't hear past walls = more difficulty hearing you past walls.
Diablo 2 or Diablo 3? And the WoW inventory is ugly with big things in it or Diablo?
Weather effects. Adding to the list. Less friction on cars when raining or snowy, less zombie attraction when raining.
Lockpicking is almost a must. Adding. Computer hacking? What use will there be to computers?
Modifying cars might be a good idea, but adding in the maybe list. Equipment, there's already such a system.
Destructible walls is in the maybe list, check for discussion point.

edited the original post as answer.

[dark_master4]

Oh, okay then.

The fog of war you're talking about is already dealt with in another way. The walls block line of sight, similar to the game Nox. (Or that game -> http://www.mojang.com/notch/j4k/l4kd/ )

Zombies will mostly rely on their eyes and ears, I guess smelling will just be implied.

Big things won't be items you can store (Vehicles for example) so you won't have big things in a little square. Also, the number of squares will be limited (For example, a large gym bag will be 10 slots, backpack will be 7)

Electronic locks is a good idea, but I still don't see how an internet would be useful. At best, I'd put in kind of a BBS thing like when internet started.

Secret military lab is already part of the plot.

[dark_master4]

Look up my blog for a prototype of what the game could look like!

http://cookiesdev.blogspot.com/

Edited by dark_master4, 18 August 2012 - 04:56 PM.

[spaz_orientation]

This looks great (and surprisingly similar to what I want to make xD)

I'm downloading the prototype now... lets have a look see...

I am so impressed by this :D

Feedback:

• I think the camera controls would work better if the orientation of the world (ie, the rotation of the room) stayed upright while the character faced the mouse co-ordinates. WASD could be used to, obviously, move in the cardinal directions instead of being respective to the orientation of the room. That said, your controls are unique and I like that. Uniqueness will make you stand out.
• A cross-hair of some description would be nice. I found it somewhat confusing when I was shooting the caged zombie if I was actually well aimed or not.
• Visually, I find the line of sight rather sharp. a blur would be a great addition but I understand that it is a low priority right now
• Don't allow the player to see behind him. If you've played the game "Project Zomboid", you will know that one of its best features is its line of sight. Your character cannot see behind themself and it put you on edge as to if the zombies are there or not. This is a great way of heightening the tension. I would move the character up and prevent vision behind him.

I can see a LOT of potential here and I would love to help in any way possible

Cheers,
Spaz

[spaz_orientation]

Also, the siren system in L4D (where the horde is attracted to a loud noise like a car alarm) is a great game mechanic. Especially if you can set of these sirens as a means of drawing zombies away from you. Similarly, an item such as an air horn could be used to draw zombies to the player.

[SEC]

- Slow motion kill-shots
- Grenades
- Land mines
- Slow motion
- Zombies kick down doors, break glass, and (eventually) break drywall.

[vidokas]

panic, depression,
dying from cold
broken lungs,
thirst, hunger

[spaz_orientation]

I like the line of sight. I took me a while to realise it was antidepth and actually coming out of the visuals

Nice work there!

[dark_master4]

@spaz_orientation:
Camera controls... Well I thought about it and putting the player in the middle of the screen makes him lose precious view distance. And also, doing it like that allows for easy sniper mechanics! I'll wait until the game has progressed more to decide which view to use. It's easily changed anyway.

No crosshair. Laser sight / iron sight will be upgrades for weapons.

I'll see what I can do about the blur now that I'm using (the faster) GM:S. Maybe I will have processor power to spare!

Obiously, the goal of having a rotating view is to prevent the player from seeing behind him. That's the reasoning behind rotating view. If the player is in the middle of the screen, then half the screen is useless at all time. Kinda worthless if you ask. The other option would be to make the player rotate around the screen to use most of it, but it would be extremely hard to control using a mouse.

About line of sight, what do you mean "anti-depth"?

Thanks for the feedback!

@SEC
I'll think about slow motion... It doesn't integrate really well in multiplayer games...

Grenades and landmines are obvious features. They won't magically attract zombies though!

Zombies will surely kick down doors after a bit of work, maybe windows, but I don't think having them break through walls would be a good idea.

@vidokas
Panic and depression would be kinda hard to put in the game without making the player feel unfairly impaired... Any suggestions about that is welcome!

Dying from cold also is a hard one... I don't think I'll have permanent snow, but there will be cold moments. With thirst and hunger, there already will be enough character management going on, adding cold or emotions would probably be too much.

Yes, thirst and hunger are already features.

[spaz_orientation]

Sorry, by antidepth I meant how it appears that the "shadows" created by objects obscuring your line of sight are actually coming out of the flat 2d visuals.

Cheers,
Spaz

P.S. Any way people can help?

[speedchuck]

Mini-bosses, in addition to the final one. I read the list, and it sounds impressive, but I think it would be cool if there were some bosses in certain areas that guarded really good weaponry. And also special types of zombies, as in Left 4 Dead 2. That would be pretty cool. Don't make any that incapacitate you, of course, because this isn't a team game. Good luck!

[SEC]

I'm interested now... Is this top-down, 3D, 2.5D...? I think the perspective matters quite a lot.

[spaz_orientation]

Have you downloaded the prototype? Give it a play. it will explain a lot

[AddisonSherwood]

sounds like DAYZ mod interested to see how it goes

[spaz_orientation]

sounds like DAYZ mod interested to see how it goes

Except top down

[dark_master4]

I will be releasing car physics soon. Stay tuned!