I met another remote worker from Germany, and we were discussing what we do. She searched my project by name and to my surprise, there is already a YouTube video posted of Zombie Guard 2.
I would rather the game not get this much attention early on, so I may suspend it until there are more features. I have adequate feedback of the first missions.
Gatling Gun
Quad Blaster (placeholder art)
Flamethrower
Recently I finished some new weapons. But more importantly, I have decided on how to proceed with the game as a whole...
I will permit the player to gain experience and level up, to gain skill points to spend on various perks. Some of these perks will be used to increase the maximum rank of certain types of weapons, upgraded with in-game currency. Plus missions are going to be selected through a new menu system that is currently in development.
It took a lot of effort to contemplate these decisions. I do not want to choose the wrong option, especially when it comes to how multiplayer will fit in through the new missions menu. I think I solved it.
The five weapons have been added, these are just the interesting ones worth showing as animated clips:
Poison Bubbler - permanently poisons a zombie to do damage over time
Sniper Rifle - a bit slow, but penetrates all zombies and does a lot of damage when upgraded
The Air Vortex Cannon - sucks in zombies into one space.
Suggestions for Zombie Guard 2 have been arriving in my Gmail inbox. Even though some are just a sentence of two, I am still very satisfied that people are playing long enough to reach this part of the game that redirects a browser to compose an email.
The most common suggestions are more weapons and to my surprise: multiplayer. I am glad, because these are the two features I wanted to emphasize from the beginning. So, I will continue on the right track.
I will not proceed with the hexagon map mentioned in my previous blog entry. So, while contemplating design I drew more weapons and background art with an Asian theme.
You can see some of the watercolor references I used, turned into my vector-like style.
I almost never name layers in Clip Studio Paint because I have a bound key to "select layer", so I never have to find it in the long list on the left.
I have uploaded an unlisted early access build to the Google Play Store. This just showcases the first 20 minutes of the game.
I am experimenting with a hexagon grid for missions. In the corners will be boss fights which are the primary objective.
The first 20 minutes of the game features a linear story, but I want to avoid this for the rest of the game. There should be choices and more flexibility in the types of missions that the players want to attempt.
So, a lot has been achieved in the past 3.5 months, but a lot more needs to be done.
