This week in Zombox development.....primping up the environment with some more exterior props, as well as adding some sounds!



PS: vibe, it'll be playable on Mac with Unity's web player.

These simply improve every time.

Lots of new Zombox updates this week!

Here's a sample of the changes:

-broken bridges, dead end streets and building fences added to the environment.
-lots of new items added to the world, including rotten/fresh food items, ripped/clean clothing items. The stats of each item is dependent on its quality. A rotten apple, for example, will not replenish as much HP as a fresh one. The game now features over 650 unique items to find and purchase.
-eating/drinking functionality has been added to the inventory panel, and animations corresponding to each action are triggered when you feed your character
-stats are displayed in numeric form in the inventory window
-an HP bar pops up momentarily for anything (props or zombies) damaged in the world, so you can see how many hit points it has left
-the main character now gets bloody when injured.

Here are some images and an animated .gif showing these new features:

More updates to Zombox this week!

-XP system
-Medkits/ammo items
-inventory GUI updated to show ammo counters

Here are two .gif animations and an image showcasing the above changes:

Plenty of new updates to Zombox over the last couple of weeks.

The zombie AI system was completely re-hauled. Instead of having perfect knowledge of the player's whereabouts, zombie intelligence is now sight/sound based. Zombies won't attack targets unless they can see them, and will wander towards nearby sounds. This means you can do things like distract zombies with sound while heading in an opposite direction, or sneak up on zombies from behind. Zombies will also try to break down the doors of a building if they feel there is a viable target inside.

Zombie swarming was also greatly improved to prevent pesky zombie-to-zombie, zombie-to-player and zombie-to-prop intersections.

Other improvements to the game involve preventing weapons from being able to hit zombies/props through walls, and adding an in-icon ammo counter for active items.

Here are some .gifs showcasing some of the above changes to the game. The first two animated .gifs show zombies chasing the player and breaking down the doors of the building the player is inside. The third .gif shows some of the improved swarming (sped up to 200%), and the fourth .gif shows the active item ammo counters (as well as what happens to the icon when the player runs out of ammo).

Zombox now features building construction!

Players can now create their own fortifications for fending off the zombie attacks.

Also, I'm working on implementing a crafting system, so players can use debris found throughout the world to construct the objects necessary to create walls and doorways.

Click here to read more about the latest changes on the devblog. Or, view the following animations to see the building system in action!

Is it inappropriate to ask about a potential release date?

Hopefully sometime in May!

(Jan 23, 2012 04:12 PM)zombox Wrote:  Hopefully sometime in May!

Cheers to May!

Be sure to leave yourself adequate time for beta testing, and polishing.

Fantastic! This is really looking fantastic... but that's now sounding like me being a broken record.

One thing I haven't determined: is this an endless kind of game? Is there a beginning, middle, and end? What is the motivation for the player, or perhaps the primary gameplay motivation? Seems like there is so much to do and collect, so perhaps it's best to leave this a mystery until the game is released

(Jan 24, 2012 11:10 AM)funkboy Wrote:  Fantastic! This is really looking fantastic... but that's now sounding like me being a broken record.

One thing I haven't determined: is this an endless kind of game? Is there a beginning, middle, and end? What is the motivation for the player, or perhaps the primary gameplay motivation? Seems like there is so much to do and collect, so perhaps it's best to leave this a mystery until the game is released

This is something that I'm still debating.

There will be NPCs, there will be quests, there is going to be an overarching "story", but not necessarily a beginning/middle/end. More of an ongoing saga that you can choose to participate in or ignore.

That's all I'll say for now

More updates to Zombox this week!

New weapons can be crafted, building supplies can be gathered from fallen debris, the construction tool has been updated with repair/destroy models, and new particle effects have been added.

Watch this video to see all the new features!:

Been keeping an on this one and I have to say I'm really impressed with the progress. Great work!

This week's Zombox update:

- more craftable items! Pipe bombs, molotovs, crossbows with explosive and flammable projectiles, and more!

Here's a .gif showing the molotov in action.

Here's a .gif showing the fire bow in action.

Here's a .gif showing the pipe bomb in action.

Here's a .gif showing the boom bow in action.

- now you can barricade doorways! Barricading a door gives it some extra HP, which makes it harder for zombies to knock it down. Here's a .gif showing the player barricading some doors.

- a new food system requires the player to eat at regular intervals, to prevent starvation. Here's what the food notification icon looks like (top right corner):

Are you adding any fun mechanics to the food system, or is it mostly a "don't let it hit 0" type of element? There's a lot of opportunity to add *fun* to this, to reward the player for keeping it high, instead of a punishment for letting it hit low. Such as, having above "50" gives bonus to speed and damage, whereas anything below 20-50 is normal, and perhaps below 20 you start to see a penalty.

I'm only suggesting, if you're adding this concept as a feature to enhance the fun of your game, make sure it's fun!

Thanks for the update and best of luck!