Team Outbreak: Gamelog, Week Three
Week 3 (Nov 4) – detailed movement; zombie AI
For this past week, we decided that we need to further develop both the player movements and the zombie AI. However, after the alpha playtesting, we found that the movement scheme that we had chosen to implement for our avatar was received in two different ways (in about an even split between all playtesters). In one group were those who didn’t have a problem with the movement as it was and found it to be fairly straightforward. The other group seemed to want more cardinal movement. By that, they wanted the avatar to move left on screen with the A key and right on screen with the D key regardless of the direction the avatar is facing. As of now, we have the left and right movement relative to the direction of the avatar. So with this in mind, we decided to push back the development of the avatar movement until we can make a firm decision on how we want to proceed with it.
The other feature, improved zombie AI, was straightforward and makes for a better representative experience for our intended game feel. Instead of rushing straight at the player from the start, a zombie will idle in its starting location until it either hears a gunshot from the rifle or the player wanders too close. As pointed out by many of the testers, they really wanted some more zombies to be populated on the map and/or a way for them to respawn after they’ve been killed. So in future builds, we will try to incorporate and balance this in such a way that will enhance the overall experience. Also, better level design will help to further this goal.
Finally, we’ve implemented a few miscellaneous things that weren’t necessarily part of the goals that we had set for this past week. We have a rough version of the secondary weapon (the bow) working. You can fire at most three arrows before you must retrieve them and firing the bow will not alert any nearby zombies. We’ve also created a title screen and a way to restart without having to refresh the entire game. This should streamline gameplay and future playtesting. And we’ve starting working on some atmospheric elements. There’s a flickering street lamp that will be used to guide the player through the city once we’ve created some better level design. Plus, there are some sounds that we have started adding that should help create the feel that we’re looking for.
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