Corpse Crew Alpha Version 0.4A (Want your input)

[Cleveland Mark Blakemore]

I have "Corpse Crew" (working title) running and playing, with lots of glitches, using a single map. There is full physics interactivity like Penumbra Overture although it mostly consists of opening drawers, lockers, doors and stacking things to get up somewhere.

I figure I can do this, I have kind of gotten it to proof-of-concept stage. The graphics at present look somewhere between Half Life 2 and Bioshock. They're not quite the latest and greatest but they're pretty darn good for something produced by one person. I am buying some more assets online to make up for the fact I don't have an artist working on this thing with me like I did Grimoire.

Like most people who achieve a proof-of-concept, I have seen that this game could be great. If I finish Grimoire this year and follow it up with Corpse Crew before December it would be one huge accomplishment for me.

I have seen that it can be completed by me working alone with no outside help of any kind from anyone.

At present I feel I have gotten the game mechanic wrong. It is too structured and I feel it could benefit enormously from being unstructured. It requires a lot of contrivances and it would be better doing away with the contrivances and making it freeform like Fallout 3. In fact, instead of what I have at present, I think what I need is a survival horror world like Fallout 3 except with zombies.

The barricading is good. It gets old when you have to do it in the same building again and again each night. I am wondering, what if the game were freeform and you found yourself in situations where you had to build barricades but it was not a fixed mechanic at a central location? For example, what if every night the zombies attack in giant generated waves but they attack you wherever you are and you must survive, wherever you are? If you want to barricade, you can. If you want to run, you can. You might be able to hide or climb but each night the zombies go into a frenzy and you have to survive it. During the day they are much reduced and less of a problem.

P.S. I have this game running on my (deliberately) crappy old graphics card, the ATI Radeon 800 and it looks better than any commercial game I have ever had running on it, seriously. I tried it on a much higher end graphics card and it looked amazingly good. I can guarantee this game will run on any card and look decent, no matter what.

P.P.S. The limit on zombies is about 36 active at once onscreen before there is some lag, but that's on my older machine. Newer machines it might be able to support many more with instancing.

 

[Satori (original)]

Why don't post the fucking Alpha so we can give you informed critisisms?

 

[Korgan]

Why don't post the fucking Alpha so we can give you informed critisisms?

 

[Wyrmlord]

Are the zombies sensitive to sound?

What I mean is - if you drop a plank, or walk on creaking wood, would the sound from it be heard by enemies who would start following the general direction of the sound?

This is a mechanic used in a German game which stands as the most technologically advanced game to date - and it works brilliantly because there are situations where even the rustling of leaves causes soldiers to quietly signal their buddies and start moving quietly into the forest.

 

[sheek]

I'll give it a try.

You are probably better off posting this in the RPG or Design or Strategy section of this site, where you get fewer 4chan tards.

 

[Cleveland Mark Blakemore]

... and the reason I am posting here asking for ideas is that it was this site that gave me the link that kind of inspired me ...

http://kotaku.com/gaming/features/armch ... 202152.php

.. note that there have been many attempts at zombie survival horror games and Resident Evil has certainly been successful but it never really had that freeform, make-your-own-story emergent gameplay. That's what I'd like to create. I want the start to be random, the end to be random, nothing in-between fixed. I want it to be single player (after much thought) and with the single player adventure game feel of Penumbra Overture.

 

[Kingston]

It's pretty hard to say anything about the game based on your description alone. Either show us some gameplay in video form or post the alpha. Most people here probably don't think you even have this game working at all. A few screenshots might help.

Is the basic idea of the game to repair and prepare during the day and surviving at night?

Edit: How did you like Penumbra? I think it's one of the greatest games ever (well, overture and black plague, requiem was shite). I hope you can get even slightly close to the level of fear that was present in that game.

 

[Cleveland Mark Blakemore]

It's pretty hard to say anything about the game based on your description alone. Either show us some gameplay in video form or post the alpha. Most people here probably don't think you even have this game working at all. A few screenshots might help.

Is the basic idea of the game to repair and prepare during the day and surviving at night?

That's it in a nutshell. And I am scared to put up screenshots and allow people to start ripping into it for the graphics when I still consider my initial map to just be my testing and development playground until I really sort out the gameplay.

P.S. Penumbra Overture is clearly the standard by which all future single player adventure games should be judged, in my opinion. Glad to hear you also liked it that much, figured Codexers would say games like that are for fags and people who don't deathmatch. I play Penumbra on a running basis, finishing one game and starting another, never really stopping. A lot of things I like to go back and experiment to see what other things I can find.

 

[Satori (original)]

And I am scared to put up screenshots and allow people to start ripping into it for the graphics

Because people here really give a shit about graphics, right?

 

[Jasede]

The real CMB is not scared of anything.

 

[sheek]

You said it's playable, so can you upload it?

You said it's an alpha, fine but based on these posts I don't have a clear idea what you do in this game. How is the game split up? Part strategy mode (day time?) part FPS action? How do you control your character, first person or what? Are there levels of increasing difficulty but where you do the same kind of thing, or is there some kind narrative that drives it.

Screenshots wouldn't help if what you need input on is gameplay.

 

[Double Ogre]

Don't bother, Cleve. You will never outdo L4D anyway.

 

[Major_Boobage]

Obvious trolling is obvious.

 

[Cleveland Mark Blakemore]

Are the zombies sensitive to sound?

What I mean is - if you drop a plank, or walk on creaking wood, would the sound from it be heard by enemies who would start following the general direction of the sound?

This is a mechanic used in a German game which stands as the most technologically advanced game to date - and it works brilliantly because there are situations where even the rustling of leaves causes soldiers to quietly signal their buddies and start moving quietly into the forest.

No, at present you can fire your gun behind their head and they won't notice until you intercept their field of vision. I am using a pieslice to project their sensor range. They find you at nightfall because they cheat - I pass the player position to the A* pathfinding routines to plot their waypoints.

But frankly, that's an awesome idea. Even better if the simple sound of your footsteps broadcast a signal to all enemies within X distance. That might put a premium on hiding like in Penumbra.

I currently have FPS style 1-2-3 weapons to shoot everything with and now that I got it running I know it's not what I want. I want it more like Penumbra, in fact I'd like it to require a ton of ammo to take down even a single zombie, which would be much more realistic. That way the player would have to constantly think instead of just another twitch shooter. Maybe have to blow up propane tanks (I have an awesome model I am using in the game now) or cars (I have them blowing up but no wreckage like FO3 yet) or some other strategic planning but I hate shoot-n-run-n-grenade it gets boring in a very short timeframe.

 

[Kingston]

I want it more like Penumbra, in fact I'd like it to require a ton of ammo to take down even a single zombie, which would be much more realistic.

The part in Black Plague where you have to lock one of the Tuurngait in a fridge was so damn awesome. You are shitting your pants running away and at the same time you have to come up with a plan that works.

 

[Cleveland Mark Blakemore]

You said it's playable, so can you upload it?

The last time I uploaded the alpha of Grimoire it was put on sale in Russia as shareware.

Screenshots wouldn't help if what you need input on is gameplay.

Exactly.

It's all first person. I had third person but I took it out. Kills the illusion. Also it looks pretty crazy to see your player figure standing there with physics objects floating around him.

 

[Major_Boobage]

There is no alpha, you are a trolling alt. retardo.

 

[Cleveland Mark Blakemore]

I want it more like Penumbra, in fact I'd like it to require a ton of ammo to take down even a single zombie, which would be much more realistic.

The part in Black Plague where you have to lock one of the Tuurngait in a fridge was so damn awesome. You are shitting your pants running away and at the same time you have to come up with a plan that works.

The sequel was better than the first but too short. That part where the Tuurngait saws off his own head and then starts chasing you around until you freeze him was pure brilliance.

For me, Penumbra is what computer games are all about. The other stuff is amusing and even fun but Penumbra is what made me want to pay for a game.

I had high hopes for Call of Cthulu but it turns into an action run'n'jump halfway through which was awful. The beginning was scary as hell wandering around the little city.

 

[Cleveland Mark Blakemore]

There is no alpha, you are a trolling alt. retardo.

... but you wonder why I don't want to post an alpha version. I'm sure you'd provide plenty of great feedback.

Screenshots next week, I'm starting on a brand new map.

 

[Satori (original)]

So you're not going to post the alpha so we can give you our input and this thread was just a blog post? Go fuck yourself.

 

[Darth Roxor]

The best part of both Penumbras was the very end of Overture where you find the up-to-date miner manifesto. It almost made me shit myself. The whole game you wander around the mines thinking you are totally alone (maybe except for Red), and then you find a paper that was written recently. A brilliant effect, I must say.

 

[sheek]

Is there a strategic element, for example in managing food supplies and decontaminated water, medicine, searching for ammo during the day or stocking up on fuel? That is what appeals to me in the zombie genre, far more than exploding heads. Having to travel longer and longer distances to find fuel as the nearer sources are used up... hiding a weapons cache somewhere as a precaution etc.

 

[Cleveland Mark Blakemore]

So you're not going to post the alpha so we can give you our input and this thread was just a blog post? Go fuck yourself.

I would bet money that within 15 minutes of posting an alpha version here, the assets would be ripped out, the zombies replaced with spinning dicks and it would be torrented as "CLEVE BLACKMOORES MASTERPIECE" HAWHAHWHAHWHAHWHAW

 

[Cleveland Mark Blakemore]

Is there a strategic element, for example in managing food supplies and decontaminated water, medicine, searching for ammo during the day or stocking up on fuel? That is what appeals to me in the zombie genre, far more than exploding heads. Having to travel longer and longer distances to find fuel as the nearer sources are used up... hiding a weapons cache somewhere as a precaution etc.

At present, no. I am working on the crude GUI but it's nothing close to FO3. I have an inventory grid that comes up, only a prototype. Adding FO3 style inventory management might be a start, definitely the workbench is a good idea to make new things from scrap.

My idea at present is to merge :

FALLOUT 3 + PENUMBRA OVERTURE = ULTIMATE ZOMBIE SURVIVAL HORROR GAME

... my engine can support much bigger environments than Penumbra, too.

 

[Satori (original)]

So you're not going to post the alpha so we can give you our input and this thread was just a blog post? Go fuck yourself.

I would bet money that within 15 minutes of posting an alpha version here, the assets would be ripped out, the zombies replaced with spinning dicks and it would be torrented as "CLEVE BLACKMOORES MASTERPIECE" HAWHAHWHAHWHAHWHAW

And why does that matter to you if you know that it's not true? Quit giving a fuck about what other people (read - morons) think; be your own man.