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[hube]

A little update on Zombygon. The camera has been changed - it is now at a mix between top-down and 3rd person where the player can control rotation with the mouse but is still oriented above the character.

We've been working on adding puzzles and interactive components to the game. The story was fleshed out some more and we finally have a clear goal in mind for completing the alpha stage of the game.
 

[YellowLime]

Pretty cool graphics, I wish I knew how to do 3d stuff like that

I assume that the camera won't be bumpy in the final game, right? Even if you change it to "absolute" top view, the environment would still look as if constantly zooming in/out whenever the character walks over irregular terrain (but you probably knew that)

[Quarry]

I love the "hacky" method you used to make the ground look lowpoly, does it cost less with textures?

[Satori4]

I got no words to describe how cool this is. Keep on guys!

[Seiseki]

This is really cool, but it doesn't look like zombies would fit in with the environment/theme at all..
I for one would be more interested in a wildlife survival game with super natural elements, perhaps humanoid monsters that do not necessarily have to be zombies, but have smarter AI, move faster.

I guess the theme is kinda set in stone with that name though, but this feels so original and adding zombies to the mix would just bring it down a notch.

People love zombies though, I love zombies. So you're bound to get some attention if you do it well.

[hube]

@yellowlime exactly the camera will smooth out but can't be absolutely fixed as there is some variation in topography around the island.

@Quarry thanks, it took a while before I felt the illusion was good enough but this lets us use unity terrain and unity trees and that greatly simplifies the creation of more islands.

@Satori thanks!!

@Seiseki you won't be disappointed with our enemies then. I did not think of the supernatural... We may need more survival type activities but for now we have too much TO-DO's on the list.

[hube]

Small update - you can see the new camera here - a combo between 3rd person and top down. We're still debating whether we should free up the cursor to move vertically but remain horizontally fixed and rotating the camera with horizontal mouse movements. Thoughts?

I haven't synced up with the latest code base so the animation is still rather stiff. Showing the new door keypads. Ignore the white lines - they're just some debugging stuff.

[hube]

Did some work on a new location today. Still feels like it needs some tweaking.

[hube]

Wandering around our level, something always felt missing. The interior locations were great but getting around the island wasn't the greatest. I sat down to play some Dear Esther a few days back and as I wandered their gorgeous island it hit me... We're not guiding the player very well... giving the player an open forest with some minor obstacles he can easily surpass leaves the level dry and uninteresting. Cliffs. We need more cliffs. Feels better right away. Now I have to go turn those doodles into 3D objects.

[hube]

no bridge yet but its coming along.

[Brayzen]

This looks wonderful. Really like the graphical style a lot!

It'd be good to see some of the gameplay (particularly combat) soon - I think it's always important to get the game "playing" fairly early, unless you prototyped it already.

[hube]

Brayzen - you are absolutely right We are focused now at finalizing the gameplay. We had a basic prototype with enemies which is getting polished up so that we can show this game to some people and start getting feedback.

Right now we're improving AI, working out spawn points, and creating more UIs for the player to interact with objects in the game.

[hube]

The AI is being coded to be more illusive. I'm finishing up the new spawn location and working on this computer interface. The computers in the game will mainly be a source of information - we want to make an email/messenger interface where you can view chat logs that give you insight and clues. We're also toying with the idea of a 3d printer to generate items, resurrect the old floppy to store the blueprints. We'll see. That leaves the player collecting raw materials to create anything he needs.

This week I also tweaked the covers on the buildings. Previously we would just cover the inside of the room from sight but the player could still see the layout. Now I've covered up the entire thing and the effect is much better. Builds suspense. You really don't know whats behind the door... especially if you're in the underground portion where you have no idea how far it could go.

New building covers


Finalized a building


As soon as we get the AI down I'll pick up fraps and post a video. Oh also in the news we've applied to showcase Zombygon at Gamercamp in Toronto. That event is not till November 2nd but it has now become our deadline.

[Yinyamina]

I really like how the rooms disappear as you enter a new one.   

[hube]

First glance at power generator controls. Now I need to figure out the best way to make them affect what is going on in the building, which means I have to switch the ambient light off, add lights throughout the scene and make this click. There's also some equipment that will be affected but that shouldn't be too hard.

The underground bunkers aren't that bad, being separated from the outdoors exiting them happens through elevator but our other buildings are outside so I need to keep the light out of them maintaining the light in the forest. If anyone has any ideas on an approach in Unity3d I'd appreciate it.

[antoniodamala]

cool

[Brayzen]

First glance at power generator controls. Now I need to figure out the best way to make them affect what is going on in the building, which means I have to switch the ambient light off, add lights throughout the scene and make this click. There's also some equipment that will be affected but that shouldn't be too hard.

The underground bunkers aren't that bad, being separated from the outdoors exiting them happens through elevator but our other buildings are outside so I need to keep the light out of them maintaining the light in the forest. If anyone has any ideas on an approach in Unity3d I'd appreciate it.

First thing that sprung to mind was layers. I haven't used them much personally but I know that you can add certain objects to certain layers to avoid having certain components act on them. This link might help: http://docs.unity3d.com/Documentation/Components/Layers.html.

Perhaps you could have an "interior" layer which is ignored by the "sun" or whatever your outdoor light is called? Again, I've never tried this but thought it may be worth a shot

Looking excellent so far!

[hube]

I think I have a potential solution worked out but it is fairly complex. I am separating my outdoor wals from my indoor walls, but then indoors I also have to separate nearby rooms because the lights will seep right through the walls into the room next door. I'll have to have about 5 layers so that no adjacent rooms are on the same one and then cycle them around. This could work.

Here's a render of before and after we added point lights.


Can't wait to get a flashlight in there

[Quarry]

Eeriness++

[rocket5tim]

The game looks better and better every time I see it!  One thing you could add to help tie the player to world would be a shadow under him, without it he looks a little floaty.