Well, I've been thinking about what sort of project I'd like to start for the summer, and I wanted something quick and fun that I could code over a few weeks to learn a few concepts. Namely, I want to start up a project in C++ or C# to get a better grasp of one of those languages (currently I program mostly in Java.) I got to thinking about zombies. In most zombie games I am aware of you are either : a) Killing lots and lots of zombies. or b) Running and hiding from zombies. These are both very fun elements, but I began thinking about a game type that would be along the lines of: Priority I: Survive as long as possible. Priority II: Save as many people as possible. Priority III: Kill as many zombies as possible. Where each priority contributes an order of magnitude to your score. Furthermore, I want this game to automatically generate content, having a "systems-based" approach to game play. I began looking at the "zombie infection simulation" as a base: Zombie Infection And I got to thinking: what if I made a game that had a mechanic similar to Zombie Infection Simulation, with hundreds of humans running around an automatically generated city, where the player is one of the humans, who must do all in his power to stay alive? My idea for gameplay: You are a lone human placed somewhere randomly on the map. You only have your fists. At first, only one person is infected in a distant quarter of the city. Slowly, panic will spread, and AI charachters will begin herding around, running away from the zombies, and impeding your movement. Eventually, the infection will begin growing at an exponential pace. Your goal is to: 1. find a place to safely barricade (using 2D physics objects) 2. find some kind of weapon. 3. Save people. (not sure how to do this yet) 4. Kill zombies 5. Survive as long as possible. The basic implementation would be this: Top-down 2D with sprite-based graphics. AI controlled by boid flocking behavior (I have a lot of experience with this). XML-driven map and entity system for automatic generation of a city to be infected. Box2D based physics. Any critiques welcome.

How long does it take to finish playing one game?

What is the most exciting thing to do in the game as you imagined it?



Instead of letting the zombies slowly spread, I think you could make it such that zombies start at the border and they simply keep spawning (in addition to infecting healthy people). What do you think about this:

Design: Zombie Aquarium

In this game you are a mermaid in an aquarium. Some visitors fed the fish green cheese and they start to turn into zombie fish.

Objective:
1) Save yourself
2) Save other fish
3) Save zombie fish

The Aquarium:

o The Aquarium has many connected chambers.
o All of the chambers have open tops where naughty visitors could throw in green cheese.
o Chambers are separated by gates that the mermaid can open and close at will
o Fish swim in the tank without a destination. They swim to an adjacent chamber if they swim through an open gate
o The mermaid could herd healthy fish by swiming behind them.
o Fish turns into a zombie fish if it comes upon a green cheese and eats it
o Fish turns into a zombie fish if it gets tagged by another zombie fish
o When a zombie fish swims to a gate, the gate gets loose and will eventually open.
o Zombie fish will chase normal fish.
o A fish that is being chased will swim faster.
o Zombie fish prefers to chase the mermaid.
o A zombie fish that is isolated in its own chamber will return and become a normal fish after a while.
o When the mermaid picks up a green cheese she can throw it out of the tank.
o When a green cheese hits a visitor it KO's the visitor.
o The number of naughty visitors naturally increase.


Mermaid's Aquarium Friends:

o Star fish
o Squid
o Shark
o Shrimp
o Jelly fish
o Sting ray
o Crab
o Octopus
o ...etc

All of them can turn into zombies.

Thanks for the links. I'd never heard of the game before checking them out.

I think this idea has a lot of fun potential.

One thought I had is that you'll have to be careful in terms of situational awareness. In the Zombie Infection Simulation you can see the state of things at a glance, but if you bring it more to a character level this may not be the case depending on how you scale and detail the 2d city.

In terms of saving people maybe you can just touch them and have them automatically follow you. There's a game for the PS3 (can't think of the name) which has this mechanic. It's played out top down on backgrounds that are based off of Google maps, and the goal is to run around touching people and forming these huge, long chains while simultaneously avoiding the monsters.

One cool variant might be more strategic. What if the people were a bit more individuated in that some panicked, some fought back and some hid? You could wander the city fighting off zombies and "tagging" civvies, who would then follow or fight alongside you. Depending on the pace, you could form moving walls or even formations which move in lock step with your character (so that he becomes a super character). You could then park / barricade these folks at different points around the city.

If you had room for inventory, maybe you could park these folks in locations they could defend with limited stores of ammo, food or fuel. You're then winning the city back a few blocks at a time, controlling space with the survivors you find. Of course, zombies would be attacking these locations and wearing them down so you'd ultimately be looking for a more permanent solution.

If you throw in even more individuation among the civvies (scientists, builders, soldiers, etc.) you could create build choices, allowing for more strategy. Of course, you could also individuate the zombies, maybe even mutating things like their speed, attack radius (spewing infected blood?) or pathfinding over time.

Quote:

One thought I had is that you'll have to be careful in terms of situational awareness. In the Zombie Infection Simulation you can see the state of things at a glance, but if you bring it more to a character level this may not be the case depending on how you scale and detail the 2d city.

The idea is that your "situational awareness" will intentionally be very low. Perhaps you can have some idea of the layout of the city, but you shouldn't have an all-encompassing vision. Its supposed to emulate the feel of a zombie outbreak. You're supposed to be hiding and barricading, not knowing which way the zombies will come from.

Quote:

In terms of saving people maybe you can just touch them and have them automatically follow you. There's a game for the PS3 (can't think of the name) which has this mechanic. It's played out top down on backgrounds that are based off of Google maps, and the goal is to run around touching people and forming these huge, long chains while simultaneously avoiding the monsters.

Oh, I heard of that game! That's a very good idea.

Quote:

One cool variant might be more strategic. What if the people were a bit more individuated in that some panicked, some fought back and some hid? You could wander the city fighting off zombies and "tagging" civvies, who would then follow or fight alongside you. Depending on the pace, you could form moving walls or even formations which move in lock step with your character (so that he becomes a super character). You could then park / barricade these folks at different points around the city.

Also sounds good. I was imagining some people might not be too friendly, and other people might simply be downright useless.

Quote:

If you had room for inventory, maybe you could park these folks in locations they could defend with limited stores of ammo, food or fuel. You're then winning the city back a few blocks at a time, controlling space with the survivors you find. Of course, zombies would be attacking these locations and wearing them down so you'd ultimately be looking for a more permanent solution.

Hmm. Perhaps you should be able to just pick up ammo and drop it off at certain locations, which survivors will automatically be able to use.

Quote:

If you throw in even more individuation among the civvies (scientists, builders, soldiers, etc.) you could create build choices, allowing for more strategy. Of course, you could also individuate the zombies, maybe even mutating things like their speed, attack radius (spewing infected blood?) or pathfinding over time.

Now this is becoming too much like an RTS.

You can try out a simple demo I made to test boid AI with box2D physics here:

Zombie Demo
(right-click save as. Requires Java 6)

The red guy is a human, who randomly walks around the screen unless pursed by a zombie, in which case he will panic and run. 100 Zombies mill about randomly until they see the human, and they will chase him until he is out of range. The human grows white as his panic increases.

I'm going to basically re-create zombie-infection simulation in this method before continuing, and then I will begin fleshing out a real game.

[Edited by - Thatotherguy on May 6, 2009 6:53:07 PM]