Zombie Apocalypse

[Holokauston]

BenT >> I agree there has been much talk and now it really needs momentum

Someone needs to sit down and "make the game" in their head and put it to paper so to speak, I'm all for democracy and compromises but if no one steps up to lead it will die a slow death in the dream/planing stage, to start someone could take a look at which people are willing to work with which engine etc then take the one that seems best and say sorry to the other guys but offer them a spot to help if they want anyway, then sketch down some basics, write down for ex. what functions you need, start making preliminary ideas as how to solve these problems(and see what is possible and what isn't, be realistic).
Get someone to do some concept art, concept art is a great tool for every one not only the people working with the graphics because you can show a glimpse of the feel you are going for and gives the projects something "tangible".
Find out what format for graphics you will use, see who can help with that, see who can work on sound/music etc and then kick it in the butt to get it going, you can always change things later on but you wont know what needs to be changed until you get there

 

[ashadocat]

I don't take any suggestions as criticism, if we don't listen to the community the project will fail.

I think the Pandora's control's are well suited for top down shooters but could also work well with fps.

I would like to see a semi-realistic art style, with important objects like guns ammo and zombies as real and background objects cartoony and cell-shaded. I think this art style would give it a unique appearance that when people see they think I know that game.

I also think that the game play should be primarily fps but with a skill buy system, for example, you aren't much of an fps player so you choose a skill that makes your bullets "auto aim" or nudges your cross hair towards the target but if you are good at fps's you can spend those points on more ammo or health.

for game play I'd like to see a combination of defending your main fortress against zombies in an onslaught and going on hit and run missions to get supplies from the nearby zombie filled town.

I'm going to make a full write up later but feel free to post what you would like to see in it. we don't exactly have direction right now but we're going to work on that, hopefully it will pick up once I get a dedicated wiki up.

sorry about taking so long to get the new wiki up, I've been having some mysql issues.

 

[plopperz]

I don't take any suggestions as criticism, if we don't listen to the community the project will fail.

I think the Pandora's control's are well suited for top down shooters but could also work well with fps.

I would like to see a semi-realistic art style, with important objects like guns ammo and zombies as real and background objects cartoony and cell-shaded. I think this art style would give it a unique appearance that when people see they think I know that game.

I also think that the game play should be primarily fps but with a skill buy system, for example, you aren't much of an fps player so you choose a skill that makes your bullets "auto aim" or nudges your cross hair towards the target but if you are good at fps's you can spend those points on more ammo or health.

for game play I'd like to see a combination of defending your main fortress against zombies in an onslaught and going on hit and run missions to get supplies from the nearby zombie filled town.

I'm going to make a full write up later but feel free to post what you would like to see in it. we don't exactly have direction right now but we're going to work on that, hopefully it will pick up once I get a dedicated wiki up.

sorry about taking so long to get the new wiki up, I've been having some mysql issues.

Love the cartoony idea it would help set it apart from similar games (as long as it isn't too much like TF2). If we want it to be our "flagship" game (mario for nintendo, sonic for sega, etc.) then we need to have unique characters and gameplay. I think the controls are better suited to FPS than top down. We could also do it 2.5D like payback did.

 

[Dutch_Cap]

What's that Quake 3 mod with cell shading called? We could easily borrow code from that. A cell shaded style should make the texturing much easier, I think. Though I believe cell shaded rendering is a bit more resource intensive than regular rendering (somewhat ironically, because it looks simpler).


Personally, I still think we should go 2D, with an isometric pixel-art style. This is a pretty good example. It's simple to make, I think it looks really cool, it's very distinguishable. Also, it'd be pretty easy for anyone to add their own graphics. This is supposed to be a community-based game, after all. It'd also be a nice nod to Pandora's emulator background.

Also, FPS controls always feel clumsy to me without a mouse (which is possible with pandora, but not very practical). Pandora's controls are perfect for a top down shooter, though. The left stick could control movement, console style. You point your stick where the guy/gal should go. The right stick could be used for aiming. This should allow FPS-style strafe moves, with controls that work much better with the joysticks IMO. (Note that this can also be achieved with a 3D engine like Quake 1/2/3)

 

[ashadocat]

how about we do a top down isometric shooter? with controls like you mentioned but from an isometric point of view. I'm thinking isometric grand theft auto with zombies. if were going to do 2d I don't think it would be imposable to make it mmo. we could use fife for the engine, even I can edit python so that's a plus.

I think using a 2d engine would make it infinitely easier for more members of the community to help with it. it would really be community powered then.

we need to decide exactly what kind of game we want before we decide though.

 

[plopperz]

Isometric is a great idea. If we did it in the same style as that example, it would look better than a FPS

EDIT: Hiroe: What? Isometric top-down? How does that work? Also, we would need to get someone to code in networking into FIFE. I might look around for a similar engine which supports networking. I think we'd all like to have a GTA style sandbox game (without all the needless violence and sex) I think I'd like to go 2D now.

 

[NaN]

how about we do a top down isometric shooter? with controls like you mentioned but from an isometric point of view. I'm thinking isometric grand theft auto with zombies. if were going to do 2d I don't think it would be imposable to make it mmo. we could use fife for the engine, even I can edit python so that's a plus.

Yes, isometric, with graphics and a perspective like this image I linked one post ago.



Edit: I'm Dutch_Cap, but I got tired of that name. It was funny the first ten years, though.

 

[ashadocat]

I'm seeing some definite preference for isometric tds. we still need to decide on what we want in the game, help me out here people.

 

[plopperz]

I'd like to have MMO (If not possible, Single and Multi Player but with an emphasis on multiplayer.) sandbox style, NPC cartoon like Zombies, many weapons, vehicles, in-game economy, progressive stats, urban environment (maybe some rural on the edges),lots of quests or missions to complete, Safe Zone, Cover system (I know, not gonna happen), maybe an ingame computer to check player stats. And thats all I can think of at the moment.

Also I think we need more than one person leading this project, I suggest Hiroe, Dutch_Ca..... err NaN (damn that's going to confuse me) and of course myself
But we shouldn't do that until we have a definite idea and is going into the development stage. Otherwise we'll end up disagreeing again. So in the mean time I guess you're still the only one in charge Hiroe.

 

[NaN]

Correct me if I'm wrong:

Not very controversial:

• LOTS of zombies
• Shooting stuff
• Multiplayer with deathmatch and other game modes
• Different classes
• Vehicles

A little controversial:

• Single player
• MMO
• Different classes

More controversial:

• RPG-ish or RPG elements. In the poll most people prefered stats with passive progression. Other possibilities include quests, a DM-like interface for controling zombies.
• Strategic elements. Most people want barricades. Other possibilities might be sneaking, ways to influence zombies, classes that play a more supportive role, like healers, security systems that can be hacked, etc...
• Adventure-like elements. NPC's with dialogue trees, items, trade, quests that focus on solvings puzzles.

I want a GTA-like isometric shooter with huge hordes of zombies. I want RPG-ish elements, like stats with passive progression and different classes with different play styles. Custom classes would also be cool. I want large worlds with lots of things to find and do. I want NPC's that I can talk to and trade with. Vehicles are a must. I want lots of strategic elements, like baricades, stealth, security systems that can be hacked to open/lock doors, (de)activate turrets. I'd also like chemicals that lure zombies, an ability to sense where the zombies and players are coming from. I want singleplayer and multiplayer with a couple of people. MMO would be very cool, but may suffer from technical difficulties and not enough players.

Moving on to even less realistic ideas, I'd like the characters and vehicles to consist of voxels (volume pixels). This would make them 3D, but made up from very small cubes. I think this would fit pretty well with an isometric pixel-art surrounding. You could do lots of cool things with this, like shooting off any bit of a zombie. If you also model the inside, this would look awesome. In theory you could also generate zombies in different states of decay from a single model. They could range from having most of their skin to being little more than a skeleton.

 

[plopperz]

I actually agree with all of your ideas (well, except for classes, which ironically you placed under not very controversial). Are you all used to MMO's like WoW? I think that they're best when there are 50-200 people online (which is what we could expect). Easy to find people that you know. It would be like the boards but fun!

 

[JakeK]

I'm no dev but I'll chuck in my opinion as well.

I'm glad to see that the isometric cartoony like top down shooter has been embraced like I mentioned not too long ago (maybe not so much isometric but I like that idea).

What I would like to see in the game:

- Free-roam through a city.
- Buildable base (my most wanted thing)
- Multiple vehicles
- Multiple weapons
- Materials that are needed to construct base
- Missions
- If multiplayer, have a number of missions that can be done in a certain city (yours or theres) only by more than one human player
- Single player emphasis because the Pandora won't have the people (plus location etc etc) to really fullfil an MMO.

 

[plopperz]

I just thought of another reason for single player, since it's portable, we're not always going to be in a WiFi Zone.

 

[ashadocat]

The only way I think the game can be as dynamic as I want is to have all the npc's in one area (an island or research base). players would gather teams (or parties) and go on salvage missions. these salvage missions would not be mmo but small scale multyplayer. you select a zone and put any salvage you find in a truck or plane or whatever. you can only go on one salvage mission a day so your encouraged to get as much as you can. salvage missions should be able to last several hours. during this time you could barricade of a house and use it as a base of operations. when you return to the island you can cash in your salvage to buy stuff like ammo and vehicles. I'd like to see it take place some time in the future, with cyberware and powered armor. you should be able to go on solo salvage missions and have the results count towards you online profile.

 

[NaN]

Oh, I also think the game should be scriptable, I'd prefer python. Parts of the game that aren't critical to the speed should be written in the scripting language, so that people in the community can modify them more easily.

 

[plopperz]

hmmm.... trapped on an island with zombies, I like it. Would be fun if it was on an island in the south pacific. As for you salvage missions, if it was MMO we could work that into the game as a daily quest, so you could do that but wouldn't be your only option. Scrap the future idea, it's been done countless times and sounds a bit too halo-ey.

@NaN: Love it! Would truly show that the Pandora is Open-Source, and it would constantly be getting bigger and better.

 

[ashadocat]

I believe our preferred isometric engine (fife) already supports python. A single server hierarchy is too closed for any decent community based system unless we actively take community mods and implement them. your right it does sound a bit too halo'ey. I guess I've just been playing too much shadowrun

 

[plopperz]

Just by looking at some screenshots of games made in FIFE, it looks like I COMPLETLY underestimated this engine. If we can somehow implement networking then this would be perfect. Anyone know how hard it would be to do?

 

[BenTolputt]

OK, we're starting to actually make some decisions (though I see some lingering doubts in one or two posts). IT would appear that there has been a large shift in the tentative design so far. To summarize what I see coming out of this:

Single Player (tentative) game presented in an isometric format (cartoon vs realistic look does not yet look to be settled). There seems to be no argument about some gameplay elements listed below:

• Zombie Hordes
• Vehicles
• Base Building / Barricades

It's looking less & less like you need me (though I feel my commentary helped move things along). Given the current requirements - I would look at an engine like FIFE for this. It provides the isometric base for what you're after. You do not seem to need either my 3D graphics or 3D modelling skills for this. In fact, if you are going "cartoony" or "pixel art" as has been suggested, my skills in the art department are not even applicable. Given my focus on 3D graphics, my skills as a developer are simply that of a good coder (that's right - no false modesty from me ), as I have no FIFE experience (though I am somewhat familiar with it having looked at it last year and tried to convince them toward an LGPL license).

Now there are three things that need sorting out (aside from sorting out any "tentatives" from above). They are to work out the artistic style (cartoon, dark/gothic, realistic, etc), work out what gameplay elements you actually want (not "lots of zombies", more "Syndicate-style isometric shooter with limited weapons focusing on strategy over raw fire-power to take out the zombie hordes" - be specific!), and start creating concept art & interfaces (REALLY important to get things rolling).

Once you've started sorting this out - you can then start the actual in-game art & coding. Work out where you want to go before you start the journey - otherwise you end up going around the block multiple times

--BenT

 

[plopperz]

I thought we had Multiplayer/MMO and possibly singleplayer.
Anyway, I'd like to see a raw shooter with lots of stuff (weapons, vehicles, buildings etc.)
Like to see cartoony but could live with realistic (aslong as it's not too dark)