English Mobster
June 28th, 2009, 04:21 AM
I've been thinking about a totally multiplayer zombie game, tentatively called "Horde". While it is currently being developed (by myself) for the iPhone, I'm planning to make another computer version once the iPhone version is done, learning C++ along the way.
My ultimate aspiration has always been to start my own gaming company, and I feel this is a great step towards that. Team Fortress was almost completely made by a 3-man team, after all.
Anyway, this post is probably going to go into tl;dr territory. I would like to have some input as to potential features, so you can go ahead and make suggestions if you don't feel like reading it.
Basically, all you need to know is that there are 2 separate teams fighting off zombie hordes and killing each other over ammo caches.
Long part begins here.
PREMISE:
Two teams of 4 start off with a limited ammo/health supply in 2 separate safehouses. Each safehouse is equipped with 1 bigfuckinggun to kill the zombies with, but the gun will quickly chew through ammo, and thus should only be used in emergencies.
The fun REALLY begins when you run out of ammo and have to leave the safehouse and take on the zombies outside to get to ammo caches. Each team should run out at about the same time, and it is recommended that 3 of the 4 teammates leave the safehouse to get to a cache while the last keeps the zombies from taking over their only safehouse.
WEAPONS CACHES:
Once the team arrives at a cache, it takes 30 seconds for 2 people to deplete the cache entirely (1 minute for a single person), stuffing all the ammo into their backpacks while the third keeps the zombies from killing them. Then they have to get back to the safehouse and it will be replenished completely with health and ammo.
There are only about 3 caches per map, so the first team to get there and stock up will use up the cache, making it so neither team can use it. The teams will then be fighting over the caches as well as fighting zombies.
LOSING A SAFEHOUSE:
Having your safehouse overrun normally means instant death. There WILL be a LOT of zombies inside your safehouse, and they will now have any guns that you had inside, making them MUCH more dangerous, as they can now shoot at you. Your bigfuckinggun, if it had ammo in it, will now be used against you, and there is no safe base of operations for you to use.
Or is there?
If you can make it to the other team's safehouse, kicking them out, you can then have all of THEIR supplies, and they will be the ones without a safehouse (normally not being able to hold out for long). Safehouses are your life preserver, as they are the safest places to be, protecting your hides from zombie assaults.
DEATHS:
Any player killed will have a "grace" period, and will be prone on the ground until another player can use up a health pack to revive them. This holds true for players killed by other players and by zombies. Each time a player is revived, it uses up one of the health packs, which can only be restored at a weapons cache.
If a player is not revived in time and is found by a zombie, the zombie will infect them, and the player spends the rest of the game being... well, being a zombie.
BECOMING AN INFECTED:
As an infected, you have a slightly different HUD, which is much more "organic" feeling (think of the Flood biomass from Halo at the corners of your screen). What is normally used to locate the location of weapons caches now shows the locations of humans. Damaging a human will regenerate your health.
You are given an infinite number of respawns, and you respawn in a wave with the rest of the horde.
WINNING:
Your objective is to kill the other team OR to live long enough to be picked up via helicopter. While there may be other gametypes considered for a PC version (if it is made), the iPhone has very limited memory, so this one gametype is the only one on the drawing board for now.
IPHONE-SPECIFIC:
CONTROLS:
There will be a "virtual gamepad" at the bottom of your screen. This will have buttons for shooting/grenades, melee, pretty much everything. Also included in this is your GPS, which locates weapons caches (or humans if you've been infected).
Shaking the iPhone reloads your weapon, and tilting it lets you dive out of the way of an attack.
If you are grabbed from behind by a zombie (the only attack they can do which will skip the "grace" period and turn you into one of them right away), you can shake the iPhone to get it off of you. Once it is off, your character will automatically flip the zombie over its head, throwing it to the floor and killing it.
GRAPHICS:
Obviously, the iPhone doesn't support full 3D graphics, L4D-style. It would be too memory-intensive. So instead, I've gone for a style VERY similar to the "Castle Crashers" game for the 360's arcade. You've played it, right? Of course you have. It's fun.
If you don't have it/never played it, SHAME ON YOU. But the graphics look like this:
http://endsights.com/wp-admin/images/castle-crashers.jpg
You'll notice that it isn't 3D, but it is 2D sprites which can move in 3 Dimensions. I'm going for a similar style in the iPhone version of Horde, since will be less intensive on memory.
OTHER IPHONE FEATURES SUPPORTED:
-Voice chat
-I need suggestions for other features to include
I DO have an Apple Developer account and the ability to upload apps to the App Store/put them on the iPhone or iPod Touch.
I've made a couple apps for the iPhone, but they were all just for messing around and never meant for public release. I made a crude scientific calculator for use in my Algebra 2 class, as well as my first game with working AI, a "Pong" rip-off called "Kitten Pong" (which, as its name implies, involves you hitting a cute kitten across the screen with a baseball bat, laughing manically as it cries for help with every hit).
My ultimate aspiration has always been to start my own gaming company, and I feel this is a great step towards that. Team Fortress was almost completely made by a 3-man team, after all.
Anyway, this post is probably going to go into tl;dr territory. I would like to have some input as to potential features, so you can go ahead and make suggestions if you don't feel like reading it.
Basically, all you need to know is that there are 2 separate teams fighting off zombie hordes and killing each other over ammo caches.
Long part begins here.
PREMISE:
Two teams of 4 start off with a limited ammo/health supply in 2 separate safehouses. Each safehouse is equipped with 1 bigfuckinggun to kill the zombies with, but the gun will quickly chew through ammo, and thus should only be used in emergencies.
The fun REALLY begins when you run out of ammo and have to leave the safehouse and take on the zombies outside to get to ammo caches. Each team should run out at about the same time, and it is recommended that 3 of the 4 teammates leave the safehouse to get to a cache while the last keeps the zombies from taking over their only safehouse.
WEAPONS CACHES:
Once the team arrives at a cache, it takes 30 seconds for 2 people to deplete the cache entirely (1 minute for a single person), stuffing all the ammo into their backpacks while the third keeps the zombies from killing them. Then they have to get back to the safehouse and it will be replenished completely with health and ammo.
There are only about 3 caches per map, so the first team to get there and stock up will use up the cache, making it so neither team can use it. The teams will then be fighting over the caches as well as fighting zombies.
LOSING A SAFEHOUSE:
Having your safehouse overrun normally means instant death. There WILL be a LOT of zombies inside your safehouse, and they will now have any guns that you had inside, making them MUCH more dangerous, as they can now shoot at you. Your bigfuckinggun, if it had ammo in it, will now be used against you, and there is no safe base of operations for you to use.
Or is there?
If you can make it to the other team's safehouse, kicking them out, you can then have all of THEIR supplies, and they will be the ones without a safehouse (normally not being able to hold out for long). Safehouses are your life preserver, as they are the safest places to be, protecting your hides from zombie assaults.
DEATHS:
Any player killed will have a "grace" period, and will be prone on the ground until another player can use up a health pack to revive them. This holds true for players killed by other players and by zombies. Each time a player is revived, it uses up one of the health packs, which can only be restored at a weapons cache.
If a player is not revived in time and is found by a zombie, the zombie will infect them, and the player spends the rest of the game being... well, being a zombie.
BECOMING AN INFECTED:
As an infected, you have a slightly different HUD, which is much more "organic" feeling (think of the Flood biomass from Halo at the corners of your screen). What is normally used to locate the location of weapons caches now shows the locations of humans. Damaging a human will regenerate your health.
You are given an infinite number of respawns, and you respawn in a wave with the rest of the horde.
WINNING:
Your objective is to kill the other team OR to live long enough to be picked up via helicopter. While there may be other gametypes considered for a PC version (if it is made), the iPhone has very limited memory, so this one gametype is the only one on the drawing board for now.
IPHONE-SPECIFIC:
CONTROLS:
There will be a "virtual gamepad" at the bottom of your screen. This will have buttons for shooting/grenades, melee, pretty much everything. Also included in this is your GPS, which locates weapons caches (or humans if you've been infected).
Shaking the iPhone reloads your weapon, and tilting it lets you dive out of the way of an attack.
If you are grabbed from behind by a zombie (the only attack they can do which will skip the "grace" period and turn you into one of them right away), you can shake the iPhone to get it off of you. Once it is off, your character will automatically flip the zombie over its head, throwing it to the floor and killing it.
GRAPHICS:
Obviously, the iPhone doesn't support full 3D graphics, L4D-style. It would be too memory-intensive. So instead, I've gone for a style VERY similar to the "Castle Crashers" game for the 360's arcade. You've played it, right? Of course you have. It's fun.
If you don't have it/never played it, SHAME ON YOU. But the graphics look like this:
http://endsights.com/wp-admin/images/castle-crashers.jpg
You'll notice that it isn't 3D, but it is 2D sprites which can move in 3 Dimensions. I'm going for a similar style in the iPhone version of Horde, since will be less intensive on memory.
OTHER IPHONE FEATURES SUPPORTED:
-Voice chat
-I need suggestions for other features to include
I DO have an Apple Developer account and the ability to upload apps to the App Store/put them on the iPhone or iPod Touch.
I've made a couple apps for the iPhone, but they were all just for messing around and never meant for public release. I made a crude scientific calculator for use in my Algebra 2 class, as well as my first game with working AI, a "Pong" rip-off called "Kitten Pong" (which, as its name implies, involves you hitting a cute kitten across the screen with a baseball bat, laughing manically as it cries for help with every hit).