23: Onslaught of the Electric Zombies

[Fengol]

surely though, you can parse the sound through an 8 bit filter?

[herman.tulleken]

Personally, I like the retro theme. It would be interesting how far it can be pushed.

But I do think you might also loose out on milking the zombie aspect if you do not also include a little bit of "organic" sound (not necessarily screams), I mean, if it is too techno. The "appeal" for zombies as monsters is after all that they are smelly, slimy, disgusting things that want to kill you (inside a computer or out ;-) [I also take a cue here from how they are portrayed in the game].

Also, in the end it won't be so much the quality of the sound as the "timber" that will establish your theme.

Anyways, that's my 2c on the matter.

- The poison example is a bit of a tricky point. I'm actually going to be implementing quite a lot of different enemies with some rather exotic attack types, and I really need something like poison effects to be quite clear *without* subjecting the player to a tutorial dialog when it happens.

See what you mean here...and I guess you will have a similar problem with every type of monster. (And maybe it is not a big/real problem in the first place).

ht

[Nandrew]

I definitely want to do a good job of the sound, so I'll be taking these comments into consideration for the next version. I'll see if I can start with some more sounds that mix organic and retro-electro. So far, it's sounding like something that could easily be done wrong, so I'm going to approach it cautiously.

Hopefully, I'll be able to pull it off to satisfaction.

[dislekcia]

Could you make Marauders take off health according to distance from them? That would make hunting the bastards down a little easier.

[Nandrew]

Hey, that's a pretty cool idea. It would add an element of skill otherwise not present in the hunt. I'll try it out.

[Agrajag]

I love your game. It's feeding very nicely off my minesweeper addiction. The tutorial is implemented well too.

One thing that I think it could use right now is music. Or, not really music as much as ambiant beaty sort of stuff. Something with a very arcady puzzle type vibe, like in Peggle.

[vii]

Ok, I tried this last night... Dammit, it's addictive as all hell! STOP IT! AAAAH!

I'll be testing it out a bit more to get some advice for you... so far it's quite fun.

[herman.tulleken]

;-))

PS- when you discover and kill all the snipers, the five second warning still comes up. [I know I had them all, because of the diagnostic tool].

ht

[Nandrew]

Awesome score! And a game bug is hunted down as a bonus -- sweet. ;)

I'm glad you guys are enjoying the experience: I'm looking at giving the next version another week of dev, and there will be a lot more content to play around with then. :)

I'd also like to introduce my artist, Heldjinn ... I know the bugger's lurking around here somewhere, so presumably he'll take this as a cue to say "sup" at some point.

[Karuji]

I spent too much time playing this last night. Been trying out different combos to see which gets the highest score.

Got to say I HATE poison.

And more releases please, must fuel the addiction.

[Nandrew]

Awesome!

Oh, hey, I've also updated the first post with Comp-23-related stuff. I'd like y'all to read through: some of the spiel I've written will most likely interest (and benefit) other Comp 23 entrants.

[dammit]

Downloading this and losing a few hours of my life (no doubt) this weekend to it :)

In the mean time, this

- Second corararallyarly: (IMPORTANT) I think that working closely with other projects and doing a bit of cross-marketing can be mutually beneficial, and I'm interested in seeing how the entrants in this competition can hold each other up. To this end, I've already been chatting with Gazza about putting an advert for Electric Zombies into his game's quit screen (and vice versa) if the comp deadline permits him finishing Gears JRPG. D's *also* mentioned putting a generic "marketing screen" into all of the competition entries which could point to a central hub of the games and broaden the audience further. Chippit may also be scribbling up some code for a "showcase" on Dev.Mag, which could be the destination for this pointery. There's a few possibilities here, and I'd like to pursue at least one of these avenues.

sounds like a series of brilliant ideas. I'd also suggest for those using facebook, sharing everyone "fan pages" with our own contacts, as well as linking the fan pages to each other. Same with twitter :)

[Chippit]

...Chippit may also be scribbling up some code for a "showcase" on Dev.Mag, which could be the destination for this pointery. There's a few possibilities here, and I'd like to pursue at least one of these avenues.

Gawd damn. I see what you did there. Now you know I'll have to do it. You tricksy bastard.

[dislekcia]

Gawd damn. I see what you did there. Now you know I'll have to do it. You tricksy bastard.

High five Nandrew. High ****ing five.

[Chippit]

YOU WERE IN ON THIS TOO! IT'S ALL A CONSPIRACY!

Edit: I think I need an angrier avatar. This one negates the effects of capslock simply by being serene and purple.

[Evil_Toaster]

YOU WERE IN ON THIS TOO! IT'S ALL A CONSPIRACY!

Edit: I think I need an angrier avatar. This one negates the effects of capslock simply by being serene and purple.

You won't like him when he's angry...

[Chippit]

AWESOME.

[Nandrew]

D:

[Evil_Toaster]

\O/

[dislekcia]

Yay! Made it to CyberGod status, 26k :) Got a different ending to the zombie king one, awesome!

Quick question: Do you level up at specific score points? If so, could this be made graphically obvious? Might be a great push to players to make them do risky things to clear a level and get that bonus.