Zombica, a zombie survival RTS sandbox (concept)

[Funfy]

Cheers all, I had a discussion going in the mod workshop but it was brought to my attention that it might be in the wrong place. About 2 years ago I started designing what I thought would be a great addition to the (albeit saturated) Zombie game market. It hasn't really been done before as far as I know so I happily undertook the design and development tasks of developing a prototype of a zombie survival strategy game. Basically the game is a sandbox where you control a group of survivors, build a safe haven, salvage items, craft items, defend your haven at night, and ultimately (hopefully) survive to eliminate the zombie threat. What makes this concept unique is the approach I am taking to the units within the RTS. Each of the units will be individuals (like in X-COM) where you have control over their equipment and control them, but they also react to their environment, have basic needs, have morale ratings, and have individual stat lines.

I know that there are a lot of people who frequent these forums and so I wanted to throw the idea out there and see what you thought. Thank you in advance for your feedback and happy gaming,

[tommo8993]

Well seen as we both want the same thing I think it would be awesome, also imagine
world war z meets hearts of iron???

[Funfy]

Hey Tommo,
Sorry for the delayed response. Holidays and development efforts have been taking up most of my time. If I had to pick some mainstream games that I would site as inspirational for the project I would have to say Day Z mod for the survivalist aspects and Company of Heroes on the RTS side. But the game isn't going to be a cookie cutter of any RTS that's out there today.

Do you play a lot of strategy games or just a fan of zombies?

[wuweird]

It sounds like a team-based Project Zomboid[projectzomboid.com], which isn't a bad thing.

[Funfy]

You could put it that way. What we found with Project Zomboid was that it was very intensly focused on interacting with the environment at a very granular level. Zombica is going to be a little higher level given that you are controlling a whole haven of survivors and since it is a persistent RTS we didn't want people to get frustrated with micro management. It's been a bit of a balancing act to include interactivity but maintain the strategic level.

When I played Day Z I felt that it helped to have to find food and water over time. It added a sense of purpose to each salvage mission. That is something that you find in a very few RTS games but will be incorporated into Zombica.

Cheers,

[ItzHawkie]

sounds like just the zombie game ive been looking for tbh if done well and the art design isnt as horrid as some indie games ive seen i would defnitely play/buy it.
i would love to see the game in action if you ever post any videos be sure to link them here.

good luck with the game what we need are more unique zombie games i allready want to play this game =)

[Funfy]

Thanks Hawkes :) I'll definitely post our video here after we record it. We have a rough prototype completed of the game but we decided to do a re-design on some of the features. I could post a few snapshots of our artwork though. We do have a professional graphic artist on this and all of the units are being or have already been created by professional artists.

[ItzHawkie]

引用自 Funfy：

Thanks Hawkes :) I'll definitely post our video here after we record it. We have a rough prototype completed of the game but we decided to do a re-design on some of the features. I could post a few snapshots of our artwork though. We do have a professional graphic artist on this and all of the units are being or have already been created by professional artists.

that'd be cool if you could post them im intrested in seeing what the art's going to be like graphics arnt a selling point for me but id be lying if i said really poorly done graphics turn me away from games.

also i dont know if you thought of this yet or if its allready been suggested but making a steam group for everyone intrested in your game would be a cool thing to do so you can easyly update it with announcements on how devlepments going and have more disscusion threads going about various things

[Funfy]

Sure. I'll post some on Zombica.com tomorrow. We do have a steam group but I'll have to check with the admin on if it's public. It's "Zombica ZBCA". That will be our main steam hub for game updates. I posted this thread to get some feedback.

[wuweird]

My advice after watching the ongoing Project Zomboid fiasco would be:

1) If you don't know how to code, hire someone who does

2) Code repositories aren't just a good idea, they're essential

3) Lock your studio door at night

4) Make it obvious that you actually plan on completing the game

Nail those 4 and you'll beat PZ to the punch :)

[ItzHawkie]

引用自 Funfy：

Sure. I'll post some on Zombica.com tomorrow. We do have a steam group but I'll have to check with the admin on if it's public. It's "Zombica ZBCA". That will be our main steam hub for game updates. I posted this thread to get some feedback.

Cool ill check it out tommorow then and join the group if/when its public.
this game sounds like its going to be aton of fun

[Funfy]

引用自 wuweird：

My advice after watching the ongoing Project Zomboid fiasco would be:

1) If you don't know how to code, hire someone who does

2) Code repositories aren't just a good idea, they're essential

3) Lock your studio door at night

4) Make it obvious that you actually plan on completing the game

Nail those 4 and you'll beat PZ to the punch :)

Lol. Funny you should mention that. I am a programmer and have other programmers that I will be involving. I am one of those paranoid types and so when I got serious about this project (remembering the break-in that caused the PZ code leak) I leased a secure office which remains locked at all times. Development servers are offline most of the time (for security purposes) and we do remote backups of all of the code.

This is definitely more than a passing thought on a game (tons of people have had the same passing thought). I intend to be the first to complete development of it. As I do release videos, screenshots, interviews, demos, I will be relying heavily on the feedback of members of the steam and other communities to make this the best it can be. One thing that recent history has taught me (need I reference War Z here? I was an early War Z adopter and lived through the pain of that) is that if you want to be a successful and good game developer you need to LISTEN TO YOUR CUSTOMERS.

Anyway, 'nough said,

[Funfy]

Zombica group should be public for those steam members wishing to join. Cheers,

[zedudedaniel]

I've never seen any strategy game that actually included your character's mortality. So all the strategy will simply be an event you can do with a person (if you've established some sort of command). You won't be able to see what is happening with the scavengers you sent out unless you come with them