Realistic Zombie Apocalypse! Community Input Needed!

General
1

As the name says, I’m starting a Zombie Apocalypse! My idea was to have it as close to wilderness survival as possible, then add the zombies last. I would like to have the Forum’s opinion on a few things:

  1. 2D, 2.5D, or 3D?

  2. Campaign/Missions?

  3. Real Time Weather and Day/Night cycles?

What. I want to add:

  • Need to Eat,Sleep,Drink, Be warm, etc.

  • Noise attracts Zombies

  • Loot stores

  • Randomly spawning Lootable stores

  • Build-able makeshift Weapons

  • Skeptical on his one, but a Radio to talk to other survivors (users) via Radiowaves (internet), you need to tune to a specific frequency to chat, if the frequency is off by .1 or so, jarbled words of the conversation show up

  • Plus suggestions by the community!

I want to make it appeal to as many people as possible, so if you have any ideas, post them!

Also, If you want to help with the project, I’m always looking for help!

#Update #1

I’ve just created a small, basic list of characters you will meet in-game: SPOILERS

  1. Name: Marcus Jones

Gender: Male

Age: 47

Past Job: Janitor

Distinguishable Features: Chemical burn on right arm

  1. Name: Madison Kubik

Gender: Female

Age: 33

Past Job: Nurse

Distinguishable Features: Small Scar on left Leg

  1. Name: Edward Warsbury

Gender: Male

Past Job: Retired Sailor

Age: 62

Distinguishable Features: No pinky on left hand

Name: Sasha Henderson

Gender: Female

Age: 27

Past Job: Teacher

Distinguishable Features: None

Name: Jenny Curran

Gender: Female

Age: 37

Past Job: Maid

Distinguishable Features: None

Name: Todd Mensford

Gender: Male

Age: 31

Past Job: Homeless Person

Distinguishable Features: Weak right leg

Name: Robert Winslow

Gender: 29

Past Job: Stay at home Dad

Distinguishable Features: None

Name: Ami Farra Fowler

Gender: Female

Age: 30

Past Job: Neuroscientist

Distinguishable Features: None

Name: Jack Levi

Gender: Male

Age: 16

Past Job: None

Distinguishable Features: Large scar on cranium

Note: Is the brother of Jill Levi

Name: Jill Levi

Gender: Female

Age: 16

Past Job: None

Distinguishable Features: None

Note: Is the sister of Jack Levi

Can you find the hidden Easter Eggs in the characters?

#Update #2

I’m finishing up the Character list, and i’ve decided a few things:

  1. You start out as a character, then when that character dies, thats it for that character, no respawning, they’re dead. You respawn as another saved survivor. You can recover items from the fallen though.

  2. They’re will be a non-linear style of play; Grand Theft Auto kinda. The missions are optional and not necessary for exploration (but their will be rewards for completing quests!)

#Update #3

I’ve decided to go with Top-Down view for the game,

Finished a basic Quest Log, Might change the structure around a little bit

http://picpaste.com/image-S5UFNCie.jpg

2

3d would be cool but i didn’t think codea would handle that well. But I wouldn’t know I haven’t done 3d. I like more of a campaign, Seasons would be cool like winter/summer

3

First, I would figure out what Codea does well, and not so well, and work to its strengths. Full 3D is pretty hard and requires good understanding of meshes etc.

Unless you are an experienced programmer, I would start with something way, way simpler.

4

I didn’t think 3D would work so well either, but I just like to put a lot of options on the table.

5

Lol, I didn’t notice it was you, CodeaNoob, sorry to doubt your abilities :">

6

@Ignatz, I’m just starting to pick up 3D, so if I even did 3D, it would be a slow process, learning while doing it, and glitchy. You’re tutorials are helping a lot, but i’ll keep it up there so I have some more motivation.

7

I would maybe start in 2D to get the game mechanics right. I’m happy to help if you need it.

8

Thanks @Ignatz (I might have to take u up on that offer)

9

I dont know how you would say this… But it would be awsome if your view was from the top .

10

I think there is a certain charm to 2D games, especially on the iPad. If 2.5D means an angled floor giving a limited depth, it would be really cool. B-)

Looking forward to this already!

11

@CodeaNoob Top-down 2D or 2D, 2.5D or 3D will be very hard, and besides the difficulty of rigging and animations it will be quite slow. You may be able to optimise it a fair bit but I would stick to 2D! I’m sure I spoke to you before about a zombie game, I’m open to help!

12

I’m still fond of isometric 2.5D, though working out the planes for tall objects can be a bit of a bug bear.

13

@Jessevanderheide, Top-Down view?

14

@Codeanoob Yes! I think it would be awsome if you could do that!

15

And i think it would be better to not make a campaign only game i would make a openworld w game where you would meet survivors that you can help while traveling across city/land

16

“Im starting the Zombie Apocalypse!” - @CodeaNoob (I took a screen shoot of this for the post World War Z trials for evidence as to who started it all)

Top down 2D seems the best to me.

Maybe include infection for the player character and npcs?

Day and night cycles +1

I like the idea of the player character having a “base camp”, and then having a surrounding randomly generated environment. At first you’d only have a few survivors in the camp but as you save people your population grows but while still keeping the small town feel.

Then, some of your population can be infected through adventuring and the morale choice of what to do with them becomes a common game mechanic.

When you wish to leave the camp, you can gather a small party of villagers (who may or may not come back) to venture forth into the wild unknown!

As for the day and night cycles, i support zombies being stronger in the night but there being valuable resources that you can only obtain in the night for the high risk high reward factor.

Edit: I love the idea of noise attracting zombies and I say no to a campaign mode.

17

I’ve been fiddling around with a top down “Contagion” game that’s really based off an old educational game I played in Apple II days. In my case, I’m turning it into a sort of “XCOM lite” in which you dispatch agents to “cities” (glorified rooms connected by “airports”) to deal with outbreaks of contagion.

For me, I’m going with just top-down with a few pseudo 2.5D elements. It makes setting up rooms quickly and keeps my limited knowledge of mesh use from being too much of a handicap.

18

@Mark, have you played “Plague Inc.” On the AppStore? It seems like the same kind of thing you’re talking about

19

I remember you talking about this on Skype… I REALLY wanted to play it, and I still do.

If you need any help, you can ask me.

Cryptic Sidenote: 3D might not be so hard in the rigging aspect in the near future…

20

@CodeaNoob Yep. Played it and was dissatisfied. Lots of glitz, but unsatisfying gameplay (Worst of all, I kept handily beating it on the hardest setting. I hate it when that happens.) So I started thinking of this old educational program about plotting routes using trains, and wondered what it would be like to extend it to planes + disease. In my concept you have to go out and capture infected victims to develop vaccines to specific diseases, then send out agents to squash outbreaks. Fail to keep your agents in motion checking on things, and you end up with city after city overrun before you’re even aware of an issue. And it’s all more action than strategy.

Think of it kind of as a hundred rooms of Smash TV connected by airplanes.