ID:265110
 
Right now, I've got a BYOND program on my computer called Situation Normal. It has a house in the middle of a map, where players spawn, and a one-square-wide ribbon around the edge of the map, where a horde of zombies spawn. The zombies attack the house (and players therein) in waves. The players are armed with guns they can fire in any of the eight directions, 2-3 shots per second. A single shot through the center of a zombie kills it. If a zombie catches a player, the player dies.

Right now, I don't consider this program a game... the framework is there, but there's no real goal and very little point. I could add a scoring system to the scenario pretty easily, and that would improve things a little bit... but even that wouldn't make it as much of a game as I'd like it to be. With the basic engine in place, anything else I code/design is going to be based around the goal of the game, whatever that proves to be. I've run through several ideas, but none are really jumping out at me as the obvious choice.

1. Extermination - There's X number of zombies in the game (or a total of X will spawn before it runs out), and the players have to kill all the zombies to clear the level/win a round.

2. Containment - The zombies are trying to get out of somewhere (town, a lab, the quarantine zone), and they must be prevented from doing so.

3. Escape - The zombie horde is between the players' starting point and the point of rescue... players must evade the zombies/break through their lines to get out.

4. Rescue - A number of helpless "civilians" are scattered across the map, and must be collected/rescued before the zombies take a bite out of them.

Actually, after writing that last one, I think I have my idea. A suburbia-type map, that starts out with a few zombies in each corner, the player start zone in the center, and many, many human NPC types in between. When a zombie "bumps" a human, it becomes a zombie as well. The goal of the players is to wipe out all the zombies while protecting the NPC humans. Players lose the round if all the NPCs die, or if zombies penetrate the building in the center of the map (human starting point, which will be a hospital or lab or something.) They win if all the zombies are wiped out, actual points assessed based on how many humans are still alive.

Go ahead and post your thoughts on what goal would make for the most interesting game.
How about instead of players dying, they turn into zombies?
In response to Nadrew
Nadrew wrote:
How about instead of players dying, they turn into zombies?

That was my first thought too... that would be a very interesting multi-player game.

I would make something like this a short staged scenario game. Start off with the players trying to make it to a house and board it up (a la NOTLD). Those who make it there alive will then spend the rest of the game night reboarding areas the zombies tear down, and shooting them in the head when possible. Lighting them on fire would be fun too ;-)

The goal will be to last until morning, when the remaining players are rescued. Those who die become zombies themselves, of course, giving them the goal of catching as many players as possible.
3. Escape - The zombie horde is between the players' starting point and the point of rescue... players must evade the zombies/break through their lines to get out.

An interesting variation on this might be to make it so that players have a series of sub-goals to accomplish... restoring power, repairing their means of escape, etc.
In response to Leftley
Leftley wrote:
3. Escape - The zombie horde is between the players' starting point and the point of rescue... players must evade the zombies/break through their lines to get out.

An interesting variation on this might be to make it so that players have a series of sub-goals to accomplish... restoring power, repairing their means of escape, etc.

I like that... better yet, make them cooperate a bit. Have a few tasks that require more than one person to perform. If they fend for themselves instead, it will be a rockier path.
In response to Skysaw
I'd like a mix of the reboarding houses and suburbia map. The players can run from the zombies, possibly leaving living NPCs behind to become more zombies, and seek refuge within a house. They can fend off zombies from the house, but perhaps there could be a reason to go outside (and give a reward for the risk). There could be victims hiding in other houses that need to be rescued, zombies left to destroy, etc.

I think that a purely open environment might be harder to balance if there are only a few players. On the other hand, a purely indoor game might leave too many players with little to do. (There is only so much house surface area.)

PS: <insert Sam Raimi lines here>
In response to Skysaw
Team work is good, otherwise players might be inclined to use those ...weapons... on each other. One player runs to get the zombie antivenom from the lab, another runs to get more ammo, a third has to go and make sure the side doors are locked up...etc...

Also, a more interesting environment would be good. Place them in a city or something where they have to find certain locations to complete certain missions. Kinda like spacetug, only with more randomization. (Random starting locations, and maybe random building types (base structures stay the same, but items inside change randomly).)
Lesbian Assassin wrote:
Actually, after writing that last one, I think I have my idea. A suburbia-type map, that starts out with a few zombies in each corner, the player start zone in the center, and many, many human NPC types in between. When a zombie "bumps" a human, it becomes a zombie as well. The goal of the players is to wipe out all the zombies while protecting the NPC humans. Players lose the round if all the NPCs die, or if zombies penetrate the building in the center of the map (human starting point, which will be a hospital or lab or something.) They win if all the zombies are wiped out, actual points assessed based on how many humans are still alive.

This last idea sounds the most fun to me. You could combine it with the boarding up the house idea, so there is .

Aggressive players can go out to rescue NPCs and reduce the number of zombies that will eventually gather at the central area.

Defensive players can stay back and build up defenses, boarding over doors and windows, setting zombie traps (watch that your NPCs don't get too near) , and the like. Of course, you have to leave the central area for the best weapons and materials. ;)

A wide variety of weapons and ways to slay zombies are a must for this genre. :)
In response to Shadowdarke
Shadowdarke wrote:
A wide variety of weapons and ways to slay zombies are a must for this genre. :)


Like a giant board with a nail in it!
In response to Nadrew
Nadrew wrote:
Shadowdarke wrote:
A wide variety of weapons and ways to slay zombies are a must for this genre. :)


Like a giant board with a nail in it!

I am(or was) an avid fan of the Biohazard series, although the recent ones have failed to get my attention. I alwease thought that a team version/multiplayer version of that game would be absolutely wonderful. I like the idea of having to survive til dawn, since it gives a clear goal but it doesn't limit your options as to how you want to survive. You could board yourself up in a warehouse, with a grenade on you and a flame thrower aimed at the door. Or mayby you fancy adventuring, and you could lure zombies into their demise by torching a building after you lure zombies into it.

Variety is a must; Not just in weapons(like the wooden club, the flamethrower, the double-barreled shotgun, and the alltime favorite among the elite Biohazard fans, the knife.), but in utility. If you can cure someone before they are zombified, it adds to teamplay and fun. If you can barricade doors by moving furniture infront of it, it adds to the fun and to strategy. Etc.

There could be different modes:

Zombies vs. Humans
In this mode, humans get turned into zombies when bitten and not treated within a short time period. Whichever side dominates after a certain time period has won(or whichever side gets all of the players with them)

Breakout!
In this mode, humans must struggle to break out of a city full of rapidly closing, bloodthirsty zombies. The humans would start in the middle, and work their way outwards. The game ends if over half the population of humans gets outside of the city, or the population is turned into zombies.

Extermination
In Extermination, the goal is for humans to rid the city of zombies. The humans start outside the city, and work their way in, killing any zombies they come across. If the humans are all killed/zombified, they loose. If they manage to clear the entire city for zombies, they win.

Find the zombie!
One human out of all the players is selected, and zombified. The goal is to shoot the zombie(for the rest of them). If you shoot the zombie, you become a zombie and they become human. You both respawn in your respective home areas. The zombie can also kill, and the same thing happens. The person with the most 'frags' after a certain time period wins.

Anyways, those are just some thoughts. I've been wanting to play a game like this for a long time.

Hope some of my ideas are usable.

Alathon
In response to Nadrew
Nadrew wrote:
Shadowdarke wrote:
A wide variety of weapons and ways to slay zombies are a must for this genre. :)


Like a giant board with a nail in it!

I am(or was) an avid fan of the Biohazard series, although the recent ones have failed to get my attention. I always thought that a team version/multiplayer version of that game would be absolutely wonderful. I like the idea of having to survive til dawn, since it gives a clear goal but it doesn't limit your options as to how you want to survive. You could board yourself up in a warehouse, with a grenade on you and a flame thrower aimed at the door. Or mayby you fancy adventuring, and you could lure zombies into their demise by torching a building after you lure zombies into it.

Variety is a must; Not just in weapons(like the wooden club, the flamethrower, the double-barreled shotgun, and the alltime favorite among the elite Biohazard fans, the knife.), but in utility. If you can cure someone before they are zombified, it adds to teamplay and fun. If you can barricade doors by moving furniture infront of it, it adds to the fun and to strategy. Etc.

There could be different modes:

Zombies vs. Humans
In this mode, humans get turned into zombies when bitten and not treated within a short time period. Whichever side dominates after a certain time period has won(or whichever side gets all of the players with them)

Breakout!
In this mode, humans must struggle to break out of a city full of rapidly closing, bloodthirsty zombies. The humans would start in the middle, and work their way outwards. The game ends if over half the population of humans gets outside of the city, or the population is turned into zombies.

Extermination
In Extermination, the goal is for humans to rid the city of zombies. The humans start outside the city, and work their way in, killing any zombies they come across. If the humans are all killed/zombified, they loose. If they manage to clear the entire city for zombies, they win.

Find the zombie!
One human out of all the players is selected, and zombified. The goal is to shoot the zombie(for the rest of them). If you shoot the zombie, you become a zombie and they become human. You both respawn in your respective home areas. The zombie can also kill, and the same thing happens. The person with the most 'frags' after a certain time period wins.

Anyways, those are just some thoughts. I've been wanting to play a game like this for a long time.

Hope some of my ideas are usable.

Alathon
With all of these great ideas I would just use them all. Make it point based so that after each particular round you gain x number of points. Then at the end, the points are added up and the winning team is the team with the most points. Players can be either the zombie or human team. You could also make it so there are different ways of winning each match, therefore the more difficult way you win by the more points you receive. I was playing Counter Strike today, it kind of gave me some ideas.

Wall04
In response to Alathon
Extermination
In Extermination, the goal is for humans to rid the city of zombies. The humans start outside the city, and work their way in, killing any zombies they come across. If the humans are all killed/zombified, they loose. If they manage to clear the entire city for zombies, they win.

There's two problems with this: 1) it gets easier as it goes along, and 2) doesn't anyone remember that zombies are undead? They can't be killed, only hacked up; they'll come back again unless you're very thorough, and even then the powers of evil could heal their limbs back together (those who think healing magic is never used by evil, or is harmful to evil, are full of crock =P).

In any case, Lexy, I'd suggest that you don't make zombies as one-hit-kills. Make a shot hit a random extremity -- left leg, right leg, left arm, right arm, head, torso -- and then have the zombie react accordingly. If they're limbs, they'll actually be blown off. What's more fun: blowing a zombie's legs off and having it crawl towards you until you deal the death blow to its face, or having a zombie just give in without a fight once you blast it? Naturally, if you blow off the zombie's head or blow a hole through its torso, the zombie dies. For game purposes, a zombie dying would just be returning to the outside of the map and starting its journey again.

Another thing about zombies is that they are traditionally very slow, but once they are in the vicinity of living flesh they become possessed with frightening speed. You could take that into account, allowing zombies to suddenly lunge several tiles at 15 or more pixels per tick when near a player -- if the player can get a shot off, good for him/her; otherwise, it's to the mindless march.


I like the "survive until dawn" ideas brought up by other people -- since zombies are eternal, you can't kill them, since more and more will keep coming back. So, I believe it'd be better to just have a time limit, and then make the zombies grow in strength and intensity towards the dawn.
I say don't give the each of the humans a gun... I say place them all in a house that may contain a gun, other various weapons of varying degrees of usefulness in repelling a zombie attack, and plenty of other items that may be of help (boards, nails, flashlights, etc)...

The game should revolve around a timer/point system... The player's main goal should be to survive until dawn...with side bonuses for things like taking out zombies and also for things like successfully boarding a window or saving a stranded human or whatnot...

The humans will need to work together...but at the same time they'll be competing against each other for points... A winner will be declared at dawn and will be the person with the most points...

In response to Leftley
Yeah, I was thinking about this at work tonight... the name Situation Normal suggests a little bit more than a town besieged by zombies... maybe even a Black Mesa/Area 51/Warehouse 23-style hidden complex?

I'm definitely going to have to think this through before I do anything on top of the movement system...
Okay, I think I'm going to split up the more attractive ideas and make them as separate games. I'm going to start with the simplest (cabin in the woods, survive until sunrise), and go from there to either a suburban setting with NPCs to rescue, or a high tech government facility beset by zombies and other monsters that need to be contained before the players can escape.

For the cabin in the woods game, I think I'm going to go with the title "Shoot'em In The Head", as that reflects the simple "splatter" nature of the game. If "Dead by Dawn" wasn't already the subtitle of Evil Dead II, I'd use that, but oh well... if it wasn't, I probably wouldn't even have thought of it. For the more complex, goal-oriented game, I'm going to use the "Situation Normal" title.
In response to Lesbian Assassin
Sounds cool ;)
In response to Lesbian Assassin
Now all you need to do is host it! And not take it away from use like a certain few other games ::cough::Miner League, World of Lexy Quest series::cough:: ..
In response to Lesbian Assassin
Lesbian Assassin wrote:
Okay, I think I'm going to split up the more attractive ideas and make them as separate games. I'm going to start with the simplest (cabin in the woods, survive until sunrise).

You know, there's a game idea that appeals to me... it would be like a chatroom where we could get together and, you know, chat once in a while. But things would HAPPEN in it. Like zombies suddenly attacking. Then we would have to stop chatting and play for a bit, to hold them off. Then when they went away we could go back to chatting, until it started to pour, and we had to put buckets under all the holes.

Z
In response to Zilal
Zilal wrote:
Lesbian Assassin wrote:
Okay, I think I'm going to split up the more attractive ideas and make them as separate games. I'm going to start with the simplest (cabin in the woods, survive until sunrise).

You know, there's a game idea that appeals to me... it would be like a chatroom where we could get together and, you know, chat once in a while. But things would HAPPEN in it. Like zombies suddenly attacking. Then we would have to stop chatting and play for a bit, to hold them off. Then when they went away we could go back to chatting, until it started to pour, and we had to put buckets under all the holes.

Z

I love it! Sign me up!
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