Zam

[Alex.]

Zam is the latest thing I use to kill my time with It started as an answer to this thread, and will essentially be a top-down zombie shooting game. Here's what it looks like so far:

Not much to do yet except walk through the world and bump into AI-less zombies, though it's coming along pretty well. The map is randomly generated for each play, but I may also add in a story mode with fixed levels sometime later down the road.

Zam will borrow some elements from the classic Shadowrun (Sega Genesis), namely doing odd jobs for different mutant factions all while dodging the zombies that roam the surface world. This would of course earn you money to spend on beer, ammo, etc.

You guys have been terrific at giving me ideas for previous games, so as always all opinions are welcome

Edit: A small webpage I put together for it: Zam - Zombies and Mutants.

 

[Miner49er]

Hey, anything with Zombies in sounds like a good game to me!!!

Now, this has got me thinking about combining Zombies with the classic Amiga Game; Alien Breed.

Wow, how cool would that be?

Nice and simple game engine (graphically at least). It could also require some quite nice logical thinking: eg I need to get to that building but there's a horde of zombies there, but if I create a distraction I could make it.

Multiplayer could be good as well.

Hmmm, I'm learning SDL (which seems mega easy so far) but don't have many ideas, maybe this could be it!

OR as an alternative to an Alien Bread rip off, maybe a GTA (top down) rip off with zombies...

My mind is racing!

 

[mindlord]

OR as an alternative to an Alien Bread rip off, maybe a GTA (top down) rip off with zombies...

GTA would have been 1000% cooler with zombies!

 

[Alex.]

Alien Breed looks amazing, and it seems like the first ones were released for free by Team17, how nice!

I was thinking about making a separate racing game using this engine, but having cars you can get in and mow down zombies with sounds good -- a bit like the Big Daddy cheat in Age of Empires haha ;D

 

[Gruntfuggly]

The link to the other the thread is broken (or is that one of these forum bugs?)

Looks good Alex - how does the zoom work? Is it automatic?

Will keep an eye on this one...

 

[Imerion]

Looks cool!

I like that you will borrow elements from Shadowrun. I really enjoyed that game. Perhaps you could borrow some ideas from Dead Rising as well. I guess it would be hard to implement, but one of the cool things with Dead Rising was that you could pick up pretty much anything lying around and use it as a weapon. Another nice thing you could borrow from there is a survival mode. Survive 15 minutes in a small level full of zombies. Could be fun.

As for a more original idea, how about adding some simple base-building to that survival mode. In the middle of the map, there is a house which the player will have to keep zombie-free for 15 minutes. (Or for 5 minutes at a time, with a few minutes rest between each Zombie-attack). And in order to do this, the player can construct traps, barricades, place allies on the map, etc. Like a combination of Zombie Survival and Tower Defence. Perhaps you could use some some code from Sqdef for it.
I guess that would be a lot of work, but Ill mention the idea anyways.

Also, another quick idea. I see you have a limited vision on the screen. How about making that dynamic, so if you equip a lamp you can see further and if you stand close to light-sources in the environment you can see what's around them. That would give the game more of a horror approach.

 

[Parkydr]

I don't think you need to do any more to it, anything with zombies and mutants has got to be perfect

 

[Tag5]

I'm loving the sound of this game. Some proximity/trigger mines to be included if you setup traps.

 

[jbrodack]

i already saw one pic on your site but nice to see a more full announcement. since I had made a thread requesting a zombie game a while ago I'm really looking forward to this. I should have a lot of ideas for this a bit later.

for now make sure to include some sort of survival or defense mode. these are even better when you're able to get things like weapon upgrades.

anyway looking forward to this as all your games have been great.

 

[Alex.]

Hey, thanks for your replies and ideas everyone!

Looks good Alex - how does the zoom work? Is it automatic?

Yeah, it zooms out when you move around and zooms in when you`re standing in one place. When I`ll get a little more work done on it, I`ll post a preview build so you can see how it feels.

As for a more original idea, how about adding some simple base-building to that survival mode. In the middle of the map, there is a house which the player will have to keep zombie-free for 15 minutes. (Or for 5 minutes at a time, with a few minutes rest between each Zombie-attack). And in order to do this, the player can construct traps, barricades, place allies on the map, etc. Like a combination of Zombie Survival and Tower Defence. Perhaps you could use some some code from Sqdef for it.

This could add a very nice new dimension to the game. Defense turrets, mine fields... The mutant bases where the player can find jobs will have some form of defense, so in a way they will also work as safety havens.

Also, another quick idea. I see you have a limited vision on the screen. How about making that dynamic, so if you equip a lamp you can see further and if you stand close to light-sources in the environment you can see what's around them. That would give the game more of a horror approach.

Buying more light would be a good upgrade to spend your credits on. As it is right now it`s very cheap to draw (and even boosts performance, nearly halving the total draw area), which unfortunately wouldn`t be the case for individual light sources.

I don't think you need to do any more to it, anything with zombies and mutants has got to be perfect

No robots though, yet!

 

[quote]

I'm looking forward to this .
Would be great if you could implement the light source idea, sounds great!

Seeing as you have limited the vision to give that horror feel, don't you think the colours are a bit too bright and cheerful?

Or is the limited view idea to make it more jumpy, not to give the idea of darkness?

 

[Alex.]

You got it Pandora, the limited view is to make it more jumpy and to give it an equal viewing radius all around. I know the colours are a bizarre choice for a horror game, but I`m going for a fun cartoony style and I think they will work out well.

I have a pre-alpha Gp2X build, you can get it here: http://artraid.com/alex/zam/ (copy-paste the url)

And by pre-alpha, I mean pre-alpha - you can move around, shoot the still zombies, and ask for new maps. I plan to keep posting progress builds as I go along, please do not upload them to any archive sites since they`re little more than interactive screenshots.

 

[quasist]

Maybe zomies should have more contrast sprites? Maybe magenta clothes? And shots making sight radius bigger for a moment.

 

[Magic Sam]

Hi,

I have a pre-alpha Gp2X build, you can get it here [...]

I've tried the pre-alpha build this morning, and the game is nice, even in this early stage of development
I like the dynamic camera but the controls are weird, is it intended to create panic when we will be surrounded by zombies ?

As always, keep up the good work Alex !

Bye, Magic Sam

 

[Alex.]

Thanks for your suggestions guys. The scene now zooms out half-way when you shoot even if you don`t move, and the controls have been changed to the Payback scheme:

Pad - move
X - move forward
A - move backward
B - shoot

 

[Magic Sam]

and the controls have been changed to the Payback scheme:

This is much better like that, thanks

I only have one little suggestion: could you make the trees of a slightly different colour than the grass please ? I thought I was going to walk over some grass but I found myself bumping against a tree, and I wouldn't like that to happen while being chased by an army of hungry zombies

Bye, Magic Sam

 

[Magic Sam]

Hi,

CODE
http://artraid.com/alex/zam/Zam_2009_03_31.gpe


Thanks for the trees

Nice to see the zombies moving too !

Bye, Magic Sam

 

[Alex.]

Hey, you found it

Watching the zombies move around reminds me of a little toy truck I used to have that bumped into walls and randomly changed its direction to keep going. I remember it used a handful of D batteries.

 

[Magic Sam]

Hey, you found it

I check your website every morning for updates

Here are some humble thoughts about how I'd like the game to be:

ARCADE mode:

ZAM: Zombies and Mutants

--> 2 kinds of enemies: zombies and mutants...

Zombies: dark colours (grey, black, brown), as if they were dirty, just coming out of their graves. (Could you make an animation showing them actually coming out of the ground, or is it too far fetched ? )
Zombies are slow, stupid but strong. They have short range attacks, they punch and bite you.
If they bite you, you turn into a zombie for a short time. You can cure yourself with an health pack and be a human again (à la Metal Slug 3...)

Mutants: brighter colours (green, yellow, orange, etc.)
They are fast, intelligent, but weaker than zombies. They have long range attacks. They throw toxic liquids at you (in slow motion, so you can dodge them). If they touch you, you turn into a mutant for a short time, until you cure yourself with an health pack.

When you are a zombie, you do more damage to the mutants than to the zombies. When you are a mutant, you do more damage to the zombies than to the mutants. When you are a human, you do less, equal damage to both kinds of enemies. You have to master this twist of gameplay to score big points.

Enemies drop items when they die: health packs, ammo, bonuses, mysterious crates (à la Worms), which can help you, or not You can pick up different weapons: handgun, shotgun, rifle gun, etc., each with pros and cons... You score points when you kill enemies, combo points for multiple kills in a row. The game is over when you run out of health points, then you go to the hiscore screen. The game could be wave based, or time based, with an always increasing number of enemies.

What do you think of these ideas ?

Bye, Magic Sam

 

[Tag5]

I like it.