Would you play a game like this?

[King Of Noobs]

First of all, I'm a Game Design major at Savannah College of Art and Design. I transferred here 8 months ago from an engineering program. My current goal is to complete and ship a game before I graduate (Fall 2014). So, I wanted to take a theme and figure out how to revive it. So, here's this idea: Zombie Survival.

Okay, so it doesn't sound like much. All the major companies are doing hugely narrative games with okay game play. This game would focus more on the mechanics rather than any sort of story...oh...and zombies would be hard as hell to stay down. Here are some points I've been conceptualizing:

• Zombies are hard to kill (without a decent headshot)
• Zombies can be dismembered
• Zombies can track a survivor's scent
• Zombies will keep trying to do their thing without a particular limb
• Zombies will react to sight, sound, and smell
• Singleplayer (want to work on AI stuff) first person
• Other survivors can be your friends
• Other survivors can be your enemies
• Other survivors will react to your patterns
• Other survivors will be fighting and reacting to other survivors
• World will be based on a grid (like a city)
• Every building can be entered, barricaded, and broken into
• The world will be procedurally generated on each play-through
• PERMADEATH
• Survivor stats: Health
• Survivor stats: Sleep
• Survivor stats: Hunger
• Survivor stats: Hygiene?
• Survivor stats: Broken bones?
• Survivors can wear any clothing found in-game
• Perks that can be obtained after surviving each day?
• Zombies mutate into variants after so much time?

This would be a much slower game more akin to ArmA II mod DayZ and complex as various rougelikes (ex. RougeSurvivor). If it works out right, every single encounter would be a hair raising moment. I'm considering putting together other elements to make a background for each play through, but we'll see.

The objective is for the player to survive. All survivors (including the player) will have to manage their character stats. This means finding food, safe place to sleep, and trying not to exhaust themselves in a stressful situation. Other survivors will be fighting for the same resources so the very friends you could make can be your enemies. Zombies would be slow but powerful and could mutate as time goes along (faster, more agile, perhaps a tank of sorts, better tracking, etc). Survivors will also have to watch their scent (hygiene?) otherwise zombies will track them to their homes.

Graphics wise, I hope to lean towards a more realistic style. I also want the players to shit themselves if they turn around and a zombie is right there The world wouldn't be too large though, so that should give a little more leeway to bringing out quality.

So what do you think? Would you buy a game like this for maybe $10 on Steam?

Should probably note that if you vote, please elaborate on your reasoning and what you'd like to see

 

[labowsky]

http://projectzomboid.com/blog/

 

[Legodian]

Sounds like something I would buy/play based off of the ideas although obviously I can't just go off of ideas but you have some awesome ideas that could lead to an awesome game.

 

[Spitfire'd]

Project Zomboid and DayZ. You already have two great games that players love doing something extremely similar.

I don't say that to discourage you though. There's obviously a market for it. If this is the game you want to make, by all means go for it! It sounds like the type of game I would want to play.

Recognize this though: What stands out for DayZ hasn't been the zombies and the AI, even though that is and will be very important this game has become distinguished due to the players. The game itself is an impressive framework, but it's what the players have done within it that has made it what it is.

Penny Arcade likened DayZ to Freelancer, and I think that's a great comparison. It would be another game worth studying a bit.

If you can make a framework that has a similar opportunity for players to take ownership, then go for it. If you do let me know, would be happy to help test a bit in my limited spare time.

Best of luck!

 

[King Of Noobs]

I'll definitely check out Zomboid and Freelancer when I get the chance!

That's what I've been noticing in DayZ as well. I personally feel like DayZ makes for a beautiful multiplayer experience. Hopefully they'll start cleaning once they're done experimenting =]

It's very neat seeing how players react to each other. For this project, I kind of want to employ that the other survivors (AI) can be just as or even more dangerous than the zombies. In particular, pretty much every time 1 or a small group of players decides to raid a city. The big trick is trying to nail it in a single-player all first person experience. I have no experience in network programming so that'll be for another day XD The other trick is figuring out how difficult to make the game without driving away the players. I want the player to be aware that death is frequent, but survival is possible...just...hard :biggrin:

Now that I think about it, I may have to study rouge-likes a ton more in depth. That difficulty line is going to be rather...difficult lol.

I've already been dabbling in the CryENGINE and its AI system which has been tons of fun so far. Definitely have my work cut out for me.

At this rate, as long as I have a few maybes and affirmatives, that's all the motivation I need to push this forward. Even better yet, my team isn't going to be going through any major publishers (which means low costs! WOO!) which means we can make it to how we (and the players) want it.

Depending on how the others feel, I personally would like to document the process and show it to gamers. It would be pretty cool to see everyone's reaction to different stages of the process. If there are some positive reactions to this, I would be more than happy to start a thread (or a series of ones...ehhhhh maybe just 1...less clutter) here in eGO =]

 

[Spitfire'd]

I'm not a programmer, I don't know anything about that kind of stuff, but I would love to follow the process and see more of what all goes into it.

To capture the thrills of a high-intensity MP city raid (like those seen in DayZ) and put that into a single player - that is the challenge of all challenges. If you can do that you will have a surefire hit!

Be careful what all you share too though, I'd be scared of another developer seeing what you're doing, duplicating it and pushing himself faster and essentially stealing your product.

 

[King Of Noobs]

Just took a look at Project Zomboid. That pretty much nailed it lol. We'll probably still work on this project. The aspect that would probably make this most different is doing it in a first-person style with quality 3D graphics. With the mechanics driving tense moments, the graphics would as well. Smaller maps means more resources to dedicate to everything. Haha, if anything, putting these all together makes for an awesome overall project goal!

Yeah, that's very true since this is all public. We'll see though. Haha, if a developer did get their hands on this, they would most likely go to a publisher to get funded. Then the publishers would probably take elements out and put some silly narrative in that would ruin the entire aspect of the game. It's all speculation, but it's something I'd imagine. If it were to happen though, at least this would still make an awesome portfolio piece for everyone on the team XD

 

[Shruikai]

Yeah you have good ideas id play it/buy it

 

[bodayga]

you should make it a mmorpg. make it kinda like walking dead :thumbup: where you have different communities fighting for resources , or combining strengthes to survive. but dont charge 14.99 a month though. bring back 10 dollars a month.better yet make it free to play like alot of these shooters that are out and just have a store where people can give you all their money :thumbup1:, ill be happy to help you take it ... for a small fee

 

[King Of Noobs]

Haha, I suppose it could be something like an mmorpgfps or something like that. Probably would destroy the world with all of the complex stuff if I turned it into an mmo XD

If I did an mmo, I would definitely strive for a $10 monthly model. $15 a month can get obnoxious after a while In regards to the whole micropurchases, I'm not all that big into them. It's way too easy for a developer to make a bunch of crappy things and then try to get the players to buy crappy stuff. I'm a firm believer of buying once and it's for life kind of thing Not the model of a great business, but something some gamers like to see.

In regards to not doing an mmo, I'm aiming for Indie style pricing. Unfortunately, I'm $80,000+ in debt because of federal loans Depending on the team size, gamer input, it'll be in the range of $5-10. Obnoxiously priced games annoy the crap out of me.

When all said and done, I'd like to have a motto like Razer has: "For gamers, by gamers". Every project will be dealing with gamers directly in some form or another (woo feedback!). I love this community tons...so no better place to start =]

So, with the whole Single Player Hardcore Zombie Survival thing going on here are a few questions:

1) Anything you guys would like to see? I'm open to any suggestions!
2) Any holes you guys might be worried about?

Positive/negative feedback will help me plan through the pre-production in concept designing. I'll know what to look out for and emphasize

 

[King Of Noobs]

Well hot damn. DayZ is becoming a stand-alone game developed by Bohemia. This should be very interesting. I wonder how they're going to take on it =]

I'm personally hoping they keep to the multiplayer aspect. It's great what they're doing and it has beautiful potential. Also, that would still give me room to do my single player idea XD We'll have to see what happens.

 

[King Of Noobs]

Check this out!: http://undeadlabs.com/class3/

Looks like these guys are focusing more on the society aspect of survival. There are all kinds of neat ideas on their forums. Still nothing on my idea in doing a first person immersive experience and focusing on an individual personal level. Looking forward to them finishing up =]

In other news, I've been working on AI scripting which has been tons of fun! I'm considering typing up tutorials for things that I find. I also have 17 pages of random ideas,notes,etc for my project...in horrible hand writing Oh! And a napkin. Maybe so it isn't so easy for others to interpret, I might just scan them as is and post them

 

[GreenBeret]

I might but im not a big fan of permadeath and the hunger and hygiene thing is a bit much imo

 

[Naku_vamp]

First of all, I'm a Game Design major at Savannah College of Art and Design. I transferred here 8 months ago from an engineering program. My current goal is to complete and ship a game before I graduate (Fall 2014). So, I wanted to take a theme and figure out how to revive it. So, here's this idea: Zombie Survival.

Okay, so it doesn't sound like much. All the major companies are doing hugely narrative games with okay game play. This game would focus more on the mechanics rather than any sort of story...oh...and zombies would be hard as hell to stay down. Here are some points I've been conceptualizing:

• Zombies are hard to kill (without a decent headshot)
• Zombies can be dismembered
• Zombies can track a survivor's scent
• Zombies will keep trying to do their thing without a particular limb
• Zombies will react to sight, sound, and smell
• Singleplayer (want to work on AI stuff) first person
• Other survivors can be your friends
• Other survivors can be your enemies
• Other survivors will react to your patterns
• Other survivors will be fighting and reacting to other survivors
• World will be based on a grid (like a city)
• Every building can be entered, barricaded, and broken into
• The world will be procedurally generated on each play-through
• PERMADEATH
• Survivor stats: Health
• Survivor stats: Sleep
• Survivor stats: Hunger
• Survivor stats: Hygiene?
• Survivor stats: Broken bones?
• Survivors can wear any clothing found in-game
• Perks that can be obtained after surviving each day?
• Zombies mutate into variants after so much time?

This would be a much slower game more akin to ArmA II mod DayZ and complex as various rougelikes (ex. RougeSurvivor). If it works out right, every single encounter would be a hair raising moment. I'm considering putting together other elements to make a background for each play through, but we'll see.

The objective is for the player to survive. All survivors (including the player) will have to manage their character stats. This means finding food, safe place to sleep, and trying not to exhaust themselves in a stressful situation. Other survivors will be fighting for the same resources so the very friends you could make can be your enemies. Zombies would be slow but powerful and could mutate as time goes along (faster, more agile, perhaps a tank of sorts, better tracking, etc). Survivors will also have to watch their scent (hygiene?) otherwise zombies will track them to their homes.

Graphics wise, I hope to lean towards a more realistic style. I also want the players to shit themselves if they turn around and a zombie is right there The world wouldn't be too large though, so that should give a little more leeway to bringing out quality.

So what do you think? Would you buy a game like this for maybe $10 on Steam?

Should probably note that if you vote, please elaborate on your reasoning and what you'd like to see

welp guess day z has inspired everyone to do what im already working on, great now if i ever make it im just gonna be "coping"everyone else despite the fact i started working on it like 6 years ago

 

[King Of Noobs]

Good to know! I knew going into this that it would be for a niche market...but I don't mind. As long as I'm doing something unique and there are players out there who want to play it...that's all I need for motivation =]

Yeah. That's the crappy part about the industry. It's all about who can finish and go public first (to market or not) =/ And actually, I got this idea from a rouge-like called Rouge Survivor =] DayZ kind of just pushed it a bit.

If you have the idea down, you should go find people and put a team together! I can tell you first hand that there are students who are dying to find something worth while besides social/mobile games XD

 

[Wargaming13]

I like realistic games so yeah.

 

[Naku_vamp]

Good to know! I knew going into this that it would be for a niche market...but I don't mind. As long as I'm doing something unique and there are players out there who want to play it...that's all I need for motivation =]

Yeah. That's the crappy part about the industry. It's all about who can finish and go public first (to market or not) =/ And actually, I got this idea from a rouge-like called Rouge Survivor =] DayZ kind of just pushed it a bit.

If you have the idea down, you should go find people and put a team together! I can tell you first hand that there are students who are dying to find something worth while besides social/mobile games XD

i live in Wv im one of like 6 people that even know how to use a computer properly -_- let alone do anything with it, i rage quit my schools computer science program im not even going to school this semester as its a complete waste of time im working two jobs and moving to Washington so i can go to a school that will actually teach me something, if im gonna be paying bakc student loans for ever i mine as well learn something out of it

 

[Naku_vamp]

Good to know! I knew going into this that it would be for a niche market...but I don't mind. As long as I'm doing something unique and there are players out there who want to play it...that's all I need for motivation =]

Yeah. That's the crappy part about the industry. It's all about who can finish and go public first (to market or not) =/ And actually, I got this idea from a rouge-like called Rouge Survivor =] DayZ kind of just pushed it a bit.

If you have the idea down, you should go find people and put a team together! I can tell you first hand that there are students who are dying to find something worth while besides social/mobile games XD

my inspiration came from well no actual zombie game, more or less spawned from what i felt dead island shouldbe but also games like minecraft (more technical aspect than actual gameplay) but it plays out like day z alot in my mind but expanded in a diffrent way like zombies are around and are a real threat but at the end of the day its people you have to watch out for

 

[King Of Noobs]

Ouch. That's no fun =( I've ditched my physics/software engineering programs for a more creative outlet. My time there was fun, but I didn't want to be limited to what the professors wanted. I wanted to be around people and create things that wouldn't be owned by the college. Not to mention some of my professors and I didn't quite see eye to eye about the significance of games. Silly old traditionalists.

Very cool! I've gotten my ideas through Red Orchestra, ArmA, and a plethora a zombie games. After playing a whole bunch over the last few weeks, it feels like zombies games are all the same. =/

In other news, I've been learning a lot about AI scripting in the CryENGINE. They're definitely not perfect, but it's fun to play with. I'll try to put together a PDF and an explanation of what's going on later this week. =]

 

[Lokonopa]

i live in Wv im one of like 6 people that even know how to use a computer properly -_- let alone do anything with it, i rage quit my schools computer science program im not even going to school this semester as its a complete waste of time im working two jobs and moving to Washington so i can go to a school that will actually teach me something, if im gonna be paying bakc student loans for ever i mine as well learn something out of it

I live in WV... Charleston... and know how to use a computer .

Yes I would play a game like this. I personally like the FPS aspect... but I love the 3rd person view like Zombiod, reminds me of my youth playing Ultima Online.

Can we get an amen to bullet time and zombies