• Register
Post news Report RSS Early Development Update #3

Status of our first PAx-Rush Sprint. Updates on the code - squad movement. Early pics of houses, new zombie concept, new weapons. First question for the community!

Posted by on

Things are looking good! Friday was the end of our first sprint and we did a really good job out of 16 tasks we completed 12 of them. The other 4 have been pushed back to Sprint 2 starting on Monday. 75% completion is pretty great in my book when we are all working on this in our free time and this is our first push to really start structuring the project timelines better. On top of this we are actually ahead of schedule with the audio which we weren’t planning on having completed until next sprint. We are already getting some of the completed music and SFX and will start implementing them in the game this Sprint. So all in all, even with a little slippage I think we are on a good track!

Three of the four tasks we slipped on are in my admin boat. One was finalizing some of our design documents which we are still working through with our lead designer, Scott. We have most of the core things done but there are still a few pieces we are finishing up. The other task was finalizing things with our new development partner we have yet to announce. This is mainly because we are still finishing up some of the design components and we haven’t been able to detail what exact parts they will be helping us with. For the final task we are needing to get some software licenses and I am just getting things sorted out in that department so we should have them this Sprint.

Now with all that out of the way I wanted to get to our first Community Input request! Throughout the next several weeks we will occasionally asking you for input on different things and this will continue through our Kickstarter and on to full production. We want to be really transparent and have all of our fans and supporters be able to contribute to the project as we aren’t just building this game for ourselves but for all of you too! With that said our first request for you is “What are your ideas for the name of this game?” We started out, internally, simply calling it DigiZ (we actually still reference it this way often). Once we had a better vision defined and wanted to start putting some information out there we came up with Zpocalypse Tactics because of the turn-based nature of the game. Now that we have moved away from turn-based into the real-time with pause sphere we thought we might need to change the name. So what are your thoughts?

Chris got even further with the squad based controls adding in functionality to multi-select survivors and start to get them moving as a group. We are working on a way to have smart movement where groups use intelligent decision making to try and move in and end in the same formation they began. In addition to this we are trying to optimize the flow of the actors so there is less bumping and repathing around one another. Finally we are working on smoothing movement when in a formation and determining where you actually wanted to move so if the squad formation you started in does fit within a certain room it adjusts the formation as appropriate.

After all this great early progress he made on the squad movement, all of a sudden he got a big ice storm in his area and lost his power. So for the good part of the week he has been without power. We are keeping our fingers crossed he gets his power back soon as he has a lot of work to do! (And of course we want him to be warm :D) The good news is Chris was already ahead of schedule getting started on his Sprint 2 tasks early so while the power outage has been a bummer it hasn’t really put him behind our current plans.

With the art I always like to do a little review from last week. I had mentioned the houses that Ryan was starting to work on. This week I have a little sneak peak of them! The other great thing is you can start to see just a little taste of how we plan to add randomization to level with all the different houses he built out. These still need a little work for getting the decals onto them but I think they are already looking really great and are a nice change of pace from the purely urban buildings we’ve been doing so far.

New this week we are starting to work on some parks to go along with those houses and further add a little variety to the urban landscape. Adding in a little more green and some nice open space to be able to really see all those zombies coming from all directions. I should have a screenshot for you of the areas in game next week!

Our last slip from this Sprint was here in the art area and that would be completing the new zombie model. The good news is Kieran has some time set aside to get this finished up early in Sprint 2 so I’m optimistic we’ll catch up with art this Sprint. In the meantime I’ve got another new zombie concept to hold you all over!

Some of the other things Kieran has been working on is getting more of our weapons put together. They come along a LOT quicker than a character model for good reason. So this week we’ve got a new set of pistols and the classic fire axe!


As always we look forward to your comments, especially now as we need your input on names!

Post comment Comments
Cnaff
Cnaff

Wow, clearly a lot of talented individuals on the team. Definitely keeping an eye on this game!

Reply Good karma Bad karma+4 votes
Kieran88
Kieran88

Thanks for the support!

Reply Good karma Bad karma+1 vote
Post a comment

Your comment will be anonymous unless you join the community. Or sign in with your social account: