If all goes well, there will be an alpha promo version that you can play in Unity's Web Player this Friday (ie, play in your browser with the Unity add-on). Then in the spring, once the game gets closer to release, I'll be doing a closed Beta. After that, I hope to release the final version in May.
Eventually I probably will, but I don't have a video camera at the moment. Everything is touch + drag. In older videos on the Youtube channel, like this one, you can see the dual joysticks on screen for the iOS version. The joysticks adapt to your finger position (ie, they'll drag around screen following your fingers if you go outside of their original bounds). Left controls movement, right controls aiming.
No current plans for multiplayer, nor will it be feasible to implement it into the current engine. That being said, if Zombox does well, maybe I'll make a sequel with a multiplayer focus. I have all the assets, would just need to re-write the core.
I really like the idea behind this game; I'll definitely be following your progress on Twitter I, for one, am glad that there will be no multiplayer, as it'll allow you to focus on a great singleplay experience. Sorry if this has been asked before, but do you plan to have a durability system in place for the weapons? I'm fine either way if the mechanics are well made, but I'd like to know.
The requirements are very low. If your computer is the equivalent to an iPhone4 or greater, it'll run fine. It runs at about 400fps on my machine
The only reason I ask is because this type of game can feel too "easy" if it's possible to get the best weapon in the game, and then just keep using that one weapon. It is, however, difficult to know without having tried the game, and even more so when it's a work in progress. Even when a game does implement durability, it's a slippery slope because if items degrade too quickly, it'll be very frustrating for the end user. Thanks for the speedy reply; it really does impress in an industry where developers big and small often ignore their audience.
Weapons do not deteriorate over time, but each weapon has multiple quality types. For example, an axe is a weapon type, but within the game you can come across damaged axes, broken axes, normal axes, special axes, super axes, etc. Each weapon's quality will be reflected in the amount of damage it can do. Same goes for other non-weapon items. A broken helmet might only offer half the defense bonus as a normal one. Within the actual game world, you won't find any high quality items just lying around, but you'll find plenty of broken/damaged/normal items, that will eventually be upgradable. The upgrades themselves will take a lot of work to earn though. They'll be purchasable from other NPCs, or earned by using a weapon to kill a certain number of zombies. So, don't worry about feeling like the game will be too easy. The game is actually *quite* difficult. In earlier stages of gameplay, when the character hasn't found/purchased enough weapons/defense to properly protect himself, engaging with zombies *at all* means that death is almost certain. The player has to work hard to get to the point where he can really be considered a zombie slayer. And to put things into perspective, one of the best melee items in the game, the super katana (displayed in a few of my youtube videos)...will cost the player over $5000 to purchase in game. That's the equivalent to killing about 4500 zombies. There will be other ways to earn money than just killing zombies, though...to avoid it feeling like a total grind. Sorry for the info dump, but I thought it may be of interest!
I certainly found it interesting. Sounds like a good system for circumventing the need for durabiliy, which can scare off potential players. The levels of gear made me think of another question; will you level up your character, as well as your gear, and gain skill bonuses or abilities? Just trying to get a read on what the game will be
Yep, if you check out the last update posted in this thread, you'll see the basis of the leveling system has been implemented. With each level, the player will be able to choose different upgrades/abilities to add to their player.
You say that some things'll be quite expensive. What if you could find something like coupons around town to ease that? They'd function like real life coupons, so you'd get 25% off of any pistol at bullseye guns. Or any pants at the pant store. Or anything at a store. Any thought about weather? Rain and snow would be cool to have, but fog would be awesome. It could cover a lot of the screen but a little around your character, and if you were to go in a house, the inside would be clear, but you couldn't see anything but gray outside. Also; any thoughts on quests for an item or money? I.e kill 20 certain zombies, get 45 gold, and a special knife? Sorry for the huge idea dump always, I'm pretty excited for this.
Good ideas...or maybe you complete a quest for someone and they give you a discount on their goods. Rain's in the game, haven't thought much about snow though. As for fog, unfortunately things like fog kill performance on mobile devices, and I'm already squeezing as much as I can out of the iPhone to get it to play this game at a reasonable rate, so fog is a no-go for now. Already in the works
Game looks great! Any chance you could give us a possible release date/tell us how far the game is from being comepleted? Oh and if you need a beta I'm all up for it.
Cant wait. I love to see a dev that is so active, which is why I love indie games, and iPhone is probably the biggest place for indies.
Plenty of new updates to Zombox over the last couple of weeks. The zombie AI system was completely re-hauled. Instead of having perfect knowledge of the player's whereabouts, zombie intelligence is now sight/sound based. Zombies won't attack targets unless they can see them, and will wander towards nearby sounds. This means you can do things like distract zombies with sound while heading in an opposite direction, or sneak up on zombies from behind. Zombies will also try to break down the doors of a building if they feel there is a viable target inside. Zombie swarming was also greatly improved to prevent pesky zombie-to-zombie, zombie-to-player and zombie-to-prop intersections. Other improvements to the game involve preventing weapons from being able to hit zombies/props through walls, and adding an in-icon ammo counter for active items. Here are some .gifs showcasing some of the above changes to the game. The first two animated .gifs show zombies chasing the player and breaking down the doors of the building the player is inside. The third .gif shows some of the improved swarming (sped up to 200%), and the fourth .gif shows the active item ammo counters (as well as what happens to the icon when the player runs out of ammo).
