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Welcome to my WIP For “Call Of The Dead”

Final entry can be downloaded from here

http://www.mediafire.com/file/zfyiznonzzm/Call of the Dead by Jammy-Soft.zip

The concept is based on the best mini game I have ever played. The Mini game you unlock once you complete ”Call of Duty World at War”. For those who don’t know it, you and your mates have to defend a house from ever increasing zombie hordes.

I have chosen a spooky abbey close to where I grew up called Kilwinning Abbey as my location.

real


I have made a fair 3D map of its grounds. More work could still be done, however I have spent the first week on it and now need to start on game play. If I have time later, I plan to polish it a bit.

3ds max shots


DBP shots


I plan on using the zombie, ghost and skeleton as bad guys and weapons from the dark matter collection, mainly to save time again, when polishing the game I might change them.

Tools
Internet explorer – for research.
Digital Camera. – for textures.
3Ds Max - for 3D Modelling.
Dark Matter Vol. 1 – Some Models.
Paint shop Pro X – for editing pictures.
Dark Basic pro (including some plug-ins) - for programming.
Sound Matter, Sound Essentials Vol2, Music studio 2004, Microphone – For music and sound.

Some problems & Solutions
Girlfriend - Don’t tell her about the entry.
Horror concept - Make it as scary as Scooby Doo and NO Gore.
Time – Use pre made models and plug-ins to cut corners

Anyway - I hope to give a weekly update of progress.
You can see better quality and more screen shots here
http://entertainment.webshots.com/album/570419921fthtge?vhost=entertainment

Good luck and have fun everyone.

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Whoa! Ambitious or what! I must say though, that church does look quite real =)

Good luck solving your problems mate and can't wait to try your game!

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Wow, that looks like it will be fun, just make sure you dont pop the 30MB limit.

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Never played the mini game, but it reminds me of a zombie mission from Time Splitters 2. Is this going to be first person, or third?

Good luck with your entry.

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hmmm, seeing all these entries have started to worry me lol, I hope you put in as much time programming it than you do making the models ^-^. It's a good start, i remember playing a mini-game like it before on newgrounds. In Belfast as well they created a game like it within 8 weeks which you had the ability to stack things up against doors etc.. to stop the infected getting in.

Shall be a good mini-game if you implement it right.

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Omg, you just hit my "Very Inspired, infact so inspired i have to start my own project like yours" button

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Please finish this?

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I would love to play a demo when you complete this!

Keep up the great work!

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Looking good. You have a big task ahead of you. I thought of doing this sort of game until there was the rule "no gore". But if you can pull it off this game will be awesome.

One thing watch the textures on the pews. they are heavily distorted. Unless it is supposed to be wood. It is hard to tell from the screenies if it is wood or the stone texture. Probably just finish uv mapping them and they will look a lot cleaner.

Vorg1

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Week 2

Thanks for the encouragement everyone, this competition seems to have captured the communities imaginations and there are many great looking entry’s.

flashing snall - Think I will be close to 30 meg, but definitely not over.
Josh Mooney - never played Time Splitters 2, it will be first person (one less model to make)

Dragon Knight - Have many ideas to make it a good game including barricades, but due to time restraints, will make shooter first then add what features i can.

bergice - no better compliment can be given - thanks.

Profit - I will finish a game in the 6 weeks and enter compo, but i know this will have potential for further development.

MIDN90 - Hope to post a demo on week 4-5 (think we had 6 weeks, nearer the deadline anyway.

This week I have added zombies from Dark Matter and AI, using dark AI. Collision with Sparkies collision. Guns from Dark Matter - modified to have arms and move. I have made it less dark to try and not make it too scary for the compo.

Here are some new screen shots.



My main problem at the moment is that I can’t get sparkys collision to scale with the zombies (you can only shoot their legs). Think i am going to have to spend some time scaling them in 3dsMAX. or make invisible hit boxes.

edit - Vorg1 I had to redo the pews - due to collision problems and they are wood. I know I am cutting it close with the no gore rule – and will fully understand if I am disqualified. However it was the best game I think of. By using TGC own models and death animations (they just fall down) with no added blood or guts and not making it too dark I hope to stay within the realms of acceptable decency(though it won’t be as much fun). Thanks for the advice.

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If the worse comes to the worse, make all the zombies be rabbits and youre shooting a flower gun.... =)

Seriously, this looks like a very good game and am looking forward to the demo !

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Just remember visuals do have an impact on your score. Minigames dont need to have realistic textures. If you went in a slightly different direction and simplified the environment and characters into a cartoonish style, they would flow together a lot better and allow you to add some more interesting features to the world that might not be seen in a realistic game. If you're going to go for realism, go all the way, as right now it looks like a bit of a mixture between bad polygons, no smoothing groups, and blurry textures. Of course they might just be temporary models, I havent read into your post that much to see.

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Ruccus, I think your first sentence contradicts your second sentence.

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...ah!

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Not really, all Ruccus is basically saying is that you should be consistent with whatever graphics style you choose. While it's not important whether you decide to go with cartoony or realistic, you should stick with one style because your overall graphics choice will be taken into consideration when it comes time for the game judging.

Anyways, looks great Jammy! Those are some awesome scenery and church models, if only you had time to model your own zombies to use instead of using DarkMatter's.

The only suggestions I have as far as visuals would be maybe some sort of shadows under the trees and objects. I know your game is probably supposed to take place at night, but the rest of the graphics look so bright it would make more sense to have some sort of shading there, even it was just a dark ghosted plain textured with a circular shadow.

And as said before, maybe updating things such as the church pews that have severe texture stretching.

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Right, Im basically saying pick one style, and do it well, as opposed to kind of going half-assed with semi-realistic semi-cartoonish textures.

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Wait... No firefox?

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Week 3

Wow great response again guys,

Monk – Liked the idea of bunnies and flower guns was going to make you collect Easter eggs then realised, I would still get disqualified.

Ruccus – I do understand visuals will be part of the point system. Unfortunately I am not a great artist and realism is much easier than cartoon, as you don’t have to draw, just take photos and edit them. I would have loved to make it more “Sam and Max” and less “Max Pain”, but put simply, I can’t. I will continue to try and improve visuals throughout the compo. As for “bad polygons” – will fix any I see. “No smoothing groups” – Don’t know what they are. Blurry textures - Yea probably.

Midn90 – Thanks for making Ruccus clarify his statements.

Josh-Mooney – ....oh!

gbark – I am trying to be consistent and constantly updating visuals as ideas come. Thought about plains for shadows, but think it would add a lot more objects and i feel performance is already an issue as i want hordes of zombies. Tried to use dark Lights for mapping but have never had any success with complex scenes – see bellow.

jeffhuys – Yea, Internet explorer. I have found it loads faster, feels and looks more polished, never had issues with it not displaying pages properly and integrates better with Windows. Firefox`s perceived benefits of security are no longer valid as it has become so popular hackers now seem to be targeting it more and more.

This week I sorted the Zombie collision gave them health and implemented animations for idle, moving, attacking, being hit and dyeing. Played about with the visuals a bit. Tried to use dark lights and this was the result.




Checked the forums and other people have had the same problem, but just stated they fixed it, not how. Anyway, spent some time on that and then had to move on. Guns now move differently and fire at different power and speeds.

Here are some more screenshots.





Next week I hope to make a frontend, define some levels , create a narrative and a goal to the game. Hoping to make 13 levels in total of ever increasingly hard un-dead and perhaps a boss or 2.

What do you think are the best FPS controls?

At the moment I have WSAD, LMB fire and space to jump. Was going to make SHIFT Run. Was also going to use ARROW KEYS for movement and RMB jump.

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Why in one of the screenies, are you shooting a Zombies crotch?

I really can't wait to play a demo of this, it just looks really fun!

If the judges disqualify this, its kinda silly coz it doesnt look that bad, but then again, I havent played it yet...

Keep it up =)

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Get them where it hurts

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Hmm, looks good, but you could make it more scary by improving the ambience.

Aka, maybe lightmaps, s-shadows on the zombies, decrease ambient light and change amb color to more "bluish", and make some lights and light sources.

But still good.

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You have done a splendid job with modelling the abbey. There is just the right amount of spookyness in it. FPS is usually not my cup of tea but I will certainly try this one when it's finished!

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<-- Monk you read my mind, aye i believe this shall be a fun game to play.

Question though, will there be more levels or shall you be focusing your energy all into this one level cause of the time constraints. Also if so are you going to keep fixing up the game after the competition?

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Week 4 (Click the download and try this week’s demo.)

Still getting a good response, thanks, though no one answered my question about controls

Monk – hope it will be fun, please download, Try and respond to the demo i have attached.

Diggsey – thats the idea

Bergice – Have played more with the visuals – liked your idea of blue tinge.

Mireben – Thanks, everyone likes different things, i have not created a FPS before and it has been good fun so far.

Dragon Knight – only one level I’m afraid, even with that I’m cutting it close. Continued development will depend on the response to the entry. I have many ideas for further levels, features and game play. However I have put a project on hold, at the moment, which I hope to sell and would like to learn more XNA before my free trial runs out.

This week I have played with the visuals again, made a frontend, added a HUD, Implemented health and ammo, developed the story and tidied up it all a bit.

Here are some more screen shots.





The last 2 are not yet used in the game – but I like them.

Attached is a demo of where I am just now, It is not near finished yet, Need to Add different types of baddies, Make game finish, Add sounds, Refine levels, More options, add running and walking and tidy it up more.

The Keys are WSAD or arrows to move.
Space or RMB to jump
LMB fire
1,2,3 or mouse wheel to choose weapon.
Esc to quit

Feedback I would like is your system info and FPS. Level your health go’s to 0 and max level before you got bored. Any Ideas for improvement – remember only about 2 weeks to go.

e.g. Quad core 2.8, G-force 260, 2 gig ram, steady 65 fps, Level I die 6, level I get bored 5, You should make an end level boss.

Thanks

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I really can't remember my specs i do know my computer is overheating, fps 66 except between levels then it drops to 20 for a second or so, You need timer based movement, level i die quit at level 8,level i got bored 4, Reason i was bored not enough variety and i could play the game with only the pistol and fight a hoard of 10-20 zombies without taking damage, You should make an end level boss.

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I got on average 66 fps apart from level starts

I have 2.4 ghz quad core
4gb ram
2 x 9600gs graphics

Have you put a 60 fps limit on it? cos I would expect it to be faster than that.

I stopped at level 4 for my lunch but was starting to get bored there. Some variation would liven it up =) Great start though!

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Wow - what good pcs you have,
White Fang 12 - was thinking about timer based movement and has put it in now, should have used it from the start. Have made pistol less powerful and other guns more powerful. I’m sure you only died at level 8 because of the boredom.

Monk - yes, I have frame limit at 60, Though, I was thinking about using "VSyncOn" in the set display command, don’t think you need a frame rate better than your monitors refresh rate, not used vsync on yet, as though I have now put in timer based movement it is still frame based animations.

Interesting, that we all got bored about the same time. Means I can have a couple of levels before changing baddies.

The slow down at start of levels is because Dark AI has to sort out my sloppy spawn code, which causes baddies to spawn in the same place. I will sort it out, with a check to see if a space is free before the spawn.

Thank you both, for your time and insights. I will put in an end level guardian of the chalices. Probably just a bigger, faster and stronger baddie.

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You gotta be kidding me, I cant run away fast enough as it is! Maybe a sprint button is necessary...

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actually i quit at level 8

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Ok, since i really like this game i am gonna give you some constructive critism:

Level:

You need to work alot here!
Basically it looks like a doom 1 level, add more detail, higher texture quality, and make it more exciting. Its really boring because you cant really do anything there.

Maybe add some ladders, doors that can be locked and opened and when you lock them the zombies will try to destroy it, then you can rebuild it maybe?


Zombies:

I noticed that sometimes the zombies didnt react when i shot them, they just stood there... Try to improve them and make them more scary.


Gameplay:

Love that your arms will move after the camera slowly, nice effect, but basically it gets really boring after some time and i was just running around shooting zombies, this is not fun at all. Use the tips i gave you on level design and enchance the gameplay.
And, you shouldnt be the one to hunt the zombies, the zombies should hunt you, so it would be better if you made something that forced or made the player to stay inside the buildings or the areas of gameplay instead of just wandering around the graveyard. It should be like waves like in nazi zombies, wave 1: 10 zombies with low health and slow speed come from 4 different angles and spawns outside the gameplay area.

level 2: Double this and increase the zombie skill.
And make a function so this will automatically happen next level instead of coding it all.

The player should struggle to survive, not just run around getting bored.


Ambience:

The ambient light is waaaaay to high, make it 5-15 or something and then scatter lights around the area where it would be reasonable to put them.

http://images.xbox360-tribe.org/news/07.04.16/left4dead_5.jpg

That is left 4 dead, you can see that they have several light sources. Their ambient light% is about 15 i guess but the lights that are there increases it. Inside it is often really dark but the player is given a flashlight to see where he is going. Maybe you could add a torch that lasted for a few minutes before you would have to find a new one? You will need sounds ofc, a graveyard ambient sound will fit this game perfect. And maybe add some zombie horde sound for each wave so you feel the zombies are coming!



Hope that helped, really good game!

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Might not help you, something i did really quick:



In that situation, with the right sounds, lights and music the player will feel comprimized, trapped and scared.

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week 5 (only days left to go)

Monk - have made a sprint key - but you can’t shoot when sprinting and made walking slower to balance it out a bit. (Thinking of making you go even slower when walking backwards.)

White Fang 12 - quitting at level 8 still gives me a lot of encouragement, only planning 13 levels and have added more to keep you occupied.

bergice - great comprehensive advice, though remember time is running low for the compo.

Level - yea I agree it looks a bit basic and i could do better though wanted hordes of un-dead and it to run on modest pc’s. Was going to use Dark Physics which would be great for making it interactive, and might with future development, but again, for this compo, I wanted it to run on modest pc’s. Things like ladders make using dark AI more difficult (though not imposable) and due to time won’t be able to do that. Your ideas for you defending the church from the un-dead were sort of my original ideas, but again due to time I changed it. (Choreography takes a lot of time). Future development will go that way though and i still want breakable windows.

Zombies – un-dead now react to being shot - though not till later levels and there are now different un-dead.

Game play - in this version you will be the hunter, but I agree about how you should be hunted, un-dead progressively get harder. This week is all about tweaking game play.

Ambience - still working on this, thanks for your ideas

Whew - thanks for all your time, and am glad you think it has potential.

This week I have tweaked game play and added un-dead, walking, sprinting, music, a score system including time bonus, death and winning. Here are some more screen shots.





In the next few days, I hope to finish adding sounds, Tweak game play, add more to front end ( like instructions, high scores, credits and story) and work a bit on the overall ambiance of the game then submit it on time.

Thanks again for all your help.

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I tried the alpha release demo, finished four levels. It is really good work, but here are a few observations.

There is some technical problem because sometimes the whole screen flashes white for several seconds. Does it happen only on my computer? I have a pretty strong laptop with GeForce video card. I saw this flashing mainly in the intro sequence when the camera is auto-flying around but in a few cases it happened during the game as well.

I didn't like it that new zombies spawned behind my back. I know it is necessary for this kind of game, but it is annoying when I think I have cleared an area and suddenly the screen flashes red, indicating an attack from behind. (At least it is indicated, took a while until I realized what that red edge means.) In the final version, could you add a sound effect when a zombie is creeping up behind you, so that the player can detect and quickly turn around? Or is the player supposed to keep turning all the time to notice new enemies?

Is it intentional that the gun pulls up when you shoot? I suppose it makes it more realistic (back-kick effect) but it is not pleasant on the long run that I had to pull the mouse downwards always to make a new aim.

On the other hand, I liked it that you can shoot zombies from a distance, when they are standing still and have not started to attack yet. This might be a bug but it makes life easier for such hopeless shooters as me.

All these, however, are minor things and the game is still very good as it is. It will be even better with sounds. I like the atmosphere of the game, the modelling, and the intro which shows the player around the grounds was a very good idea.

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I have an idea for you:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BjMiDZIY1bM

The music from that is
Jonathan Coulton

From what i remember it's one pound for the song and you can use it for non-commercial use hehe just reminded me of your game when i was listing to it.

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Mireben - The white flashes are not a technical issue and it should hopefully become apparent what they are, when accompanied by the sound of thunder. Yes zombies will make sounds - but will still hopefully creep up behind you. The kickback on the gun is intentional, and I like it. I’m glad you like the game so far and hope you play the finished entry.

Dragon Knight - Will look into the music. I already have music, but am far from happy with it at the moment.

Thanks for the heads up.

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The lightning threw me the first 8 or so times as well Mireben. It possibly is too bright, and basically blinds you for a couple of seconds. On purpose or not?

Anyway, it still looks like a good game, New demo? =)

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I like that the lightning blends you, if you are in the middle of a battle when it happens you will become disorientated and it will be more of a challenge.

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This is the second game I'm waiting for to be finished...

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Ooops, sorry that I didn't recognize the lightning. It would have been obvious with sound. Keep up the good work, we still have a few days.

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I tried the alpha release 1, and I must say I'm very impressed. It kept at a constant 66 FPS on my system (3.0 Ghz Dual Core, 2GB RAM, GeForce 9800GTX+ 1GB). I do have a few suggestions though:


It kept me entertained for a while; up to level 11. It's not really very hard though, because I never died and ended up quitting with more health than I had started with, so maybe the enemies should do more damage.

The supported resolutions are a bit strange. You chose to support 1024 x 768, which is nice because I have a 4:3 monitor, but if you support multiple resolutions, why not 1280 x 1024? It's a fairly common resolution, and is generally what I run things at.

I found myself using the pistol all the time, because it was the best weapon. It never ran out of ammo, and it could fire as quickly as you could click. If you click fast enough, the pistol has a machine-gun like speed and can mow down anything.

I know you said no gore, but some kind of confirmation that the shot did indeed hit something would be nice. doesn't have to be bloody or gorey, but a puff or smoke or a spark appearing where the bullet strikes would be nice so you can tell if it hit or not.

It seems like the character is only able to jump about 5 or 6 inches off the ground, and while it doesn't affect the gameplay negatively, it just seems a bit odd.

The lack of a pause button is kind of annoying. I had to get up to let my dog outside at about level 6 and instinctively reached for the escape key to pause it, and ended up having to restart when I came back.

Despite all the complaints I have, I found it genuinely fun, and actually enjoyed it more than the Nazi Zombie mode from Call of Duty World at War. I think the biggest problem it suffers is the lack of sound, which you're going to fix. Some quiet spooky background music and nice sound effects will go a long way boosting the atmosphere of the game.