Good news!

Good news!

I actually really enjoyed playing this game. There were some good reviews and people playing it seemed to find it nice as well. So I've decided to invest a few bucks to get some really good artwork done via fiverr (maybe around 50 bucks). I think investing in a few nice images (scene/background, player and zombie) and a bit more of story and levels might even turn it into a little free game. 

Just a reminder of how it looked before:

Initially I thought I could put it on Steam once it is done, but even for free games a fee of 100$ is due (though you can recoup it later if your sales are above a certain limit which isn't really relevant since it is free); but I might just stick with itch.io and leave it there :)

I am trying to capture a bit of progress here to remind myself of how far the game got so far already.

Last week, when travelling to the South of UK, I have started writing on the story and the character a bit more and some general "flow" of the story.  Right now, the plan is to have 3 levels with a specific intention: Level is setting the vibe, getting the story going. Starting at the character's house. Level 2 is the escape from the hometome (a Phoenix, Arizona vibe) to the military base. Level 3 is the crahsed helicopter, being overwhelmed by Zombies somewhere in Hawaii.

More detailed outline of the game and the story:  

Level 1: 

Night, watching "dooms day preppers" on TV, drinking cheep beer. A shabby home, bit dirty and messy. Wife "Joe, there's an odd man knocking on the door. Will you have a look please" Flickering of the TV at night. Moaning of Joe. "Jeez, Marie, will you stop the paranoia. There are no such things as Zombies." (I have a Breaking Bad - Hank Schrader voice in my head right now)

"Just stop your crappy TV Show for one Minute, OK?"

Another moaning. Switched off the TV, Flickering stops, room even darker.

Player walks to the door..

Text box (maybe alternative answers)  "guess there are such things as Zombies, eh?" Better grab my gun under the sofa and shoot them down."

"Marie - Grab your toothbrush - we gotta run. And cover your ears, I might need to blow some brains out"

Zombies slowly trying to go through the door. 

End of sequence. Instruction: Press spacebar to blow out some zombie brains.

Screen black. voice "...in other exciting news, a horde of undead are going wild downtown. No one knows why but people wonder if it's the 5G Network, Covid vaccination or some kind of religious thing. We do have some Images but be warned, some may find these Images distressing." 

Loading screen with more text and story: Though Joe's gun and his muscular statue came in handy in the escape, his wife Marie didn't make it. Clinging too hard on some of her belongings, the hord got to her. A pitty indeed, as she wanted to grab the only valuable belongings that she had: A pack of cigaretts and some golden teeth from her first husband. Some might have called it grave robbery, but for Marie it was justice. Payment for all the mourning she had to endure....

Joe shot all Zombies down and gave his bloody, dead wife a last kiss. He could  not honor her last words "don't leave me behind" - as his own life was a bit more precious than a few more seconds with her.

His plan to escape this apocalyptic madness is to get to the military base where he worked for 2 years before he was discharged (some called it "inapproriate behavior towards women" but he wouldn't call it that way), grab a helicopter and fly to Hawaii. Solid plan.

Interesting shooting feature this level: Because of the layout of the room and the amount of colliders, I am going for a small gun with only one bullet at a time (as opposed to level 3 where each 5 kills the amount of bullets doubles making it incredibly hard not to kill yourself).

Level 2

The streets of a place somewhere in Phoenix, Arizona. Crashed car, tipped over trash cans, the street is in disarray. On the side, Joe's favorite "international" restaurant "Ruby" (which offered a variety of specialites, ranging from Ribs, to Popcorn, Chicken, Pizza and Chinese food) - one of those cheap restaurants that offer a bit of everything and that would be a disgrace to anyone who has the slightest idea about food. A restaurant with a red-ish light/ambience light that casts a light onto the street. A street with a few shabby bungalows and a sign of a sports club "Be fit - do sports".  A few indirect light sources, maybe a street lamp casting bright neon light. 

(Picture in development)

Interesting shooting feature this level: Not decided yet. Maybe a shotgun this time? or something completely new? Maybe granades?

Level 3 

Who would have guessed, the heli crashed and now there are zombies in the jungle oh no. Mystical blue/violet colors are never a good indicator for a vacation in the jungle. The helicopter must have crashed somewhere in Hawaii. 

Joe remembered that the other reason for his discharge from the military was the drunk driving of a tank. No one would have noticed if he hadn't crashed into the only place on site which offered chilled beer and ribs. A shame and a joke at the same time that someone like Joe would be the one who would need to survive this apocalypse and possible re-populate planet earth. IF he can find a way out of this jungle hell.

Interesting shooting feature this level: The more Zombies you kill, the more bullets you instantiate, making it increasingly hard to no not killyourself (which ironically somehow would fit this low-IQ, low achieving but somehow likeable character).

Memo to myself: I am not looking forward to refactoring the code. Really not at all...Let's procrastinate and push some pixels and colliders around for now. I am also still seaking help for getting the rotation of bullets relative to the player's rotation (but I might just go with the illuminated lightbulbs for now - they kindof became a thing, a feature).