It’s been a long time coming, but I’ve finally done enough work on Zafehouse 2’s second combat prototype to post a couple of screenshots.
As I mentioned in a previous update, the original combat implementation was ground into a fine, code-tasting dust and packed away, replaced by an infinitely deeper (and juicier) solution that uses firing arcs.
Entering into combat hasn’t changed – you still click on the event in the event window – and the representation of the room is similar too. The difference is that zombies are no longer shown as one large group, they’re now broken up into individual flesh-eating nasties. Weapons have also evolved, the far/close/melee profiles exchanged for variable firing arcs and shot modes. For example, the shotgun has a wide firing arc and shoots pellets in a spread, but it can only fire once per turn and has a short range. A submachine gun on the other hand has a medium firing arc and range, but you can shoot up to six bullets at one or multiple targets. Keep in mind that each bullet fired in the same turn reduces the accuracy of the shot that follows it.
Hit the jump for an additional screenshot which show projectiles in flight. Yes, I said projectiles.
If you take a gander at Zafehouse 2’s media section at the official Zafehouse website, you’ll notice a bunch of fresh screens from the latest build of the game. Combined, the shots demonstrate combat, the day/night cycle, trade window, furniture destruction and a heap of UI updates over the first gameplay video.
All the thumbnails can be clicked for larger versions, if squinting isn’t your thing, and I can assure you they want to be clicked. By you. Right now.
I don’t have anything super huge to divulge this update, but I can say that, after many requests, I’ve added outside movement to Zafehouse 2. This means instead of taking a turn to move from one edge of the map to the other, it’s looking closer to five or six turns, as you dodge between buildings and the inevitable (and darn hungry) undead.
Currently, you can only move to entrances and zombie “hotspots”, as I didn’t really see the need to position survivors outside in the middle of nowhere. If someone can give me a really (really) good reason why it should be any different, I’ll think about it.
Implementing outside movement required me to confront my fear of A* pathfinding and, while it was a tortuous and many times frustrating endeavour, my work paid off.
This isn’t a video. But there will be something video-like in this spot (or close to it) this Friday.
I’ve been working on a pet project, Zafehouse 2. It’s the sequel to Zafehouse, a free zombie survival simulator I coded in seven days during my stint at Kotaku AU. It was moderately successfully, and then indie games site Rock, Paper, Shotgun got a hold of it and an even larger audience got a taste of Zafehouse’s flavour of lo-fi, undead fun.
The popularity was great enough to prompt development of a sequel. After a false start, Zafehouse 2 became properly tangible, and even playable. There are screenshots, even, and like, news!
The goal this week is to post a video of combat on Playwrite, my other blog, and here. Hopefully I can introduce a couple new people to the awesomeness that is Zafehouse.
It’s been a long time coming, but I’ve finally done enough work on Zafehouse 2’s second combat prototype to post a couple of screenshots.
