Stacking and shield switching…

Posted in GUI, Items, Zombox on February 8th, 2013 by Tyson Ibele

So, I made a fairly substantial change to the inventory system in Zombox this week…

Now you can stack similar items on top of each other! This will allow you to carry many more items (so long as they are within your carrying weight limit — which I also doubled for each character), and make it a lot easier to quickly craft large numbers of things. Also, single-use items like pipe bombs, molotovs, bear traps, etc, will be easier to carry around in bulk. Each slot has a 99 item limit, which should be more than enough for all of your toting needs. When an item socket contains a stack of items, clicking once will grab the top-most item, and double-clicking will grab the whole stack. This makes it easy to quickly move stacks around.

This new system required a complete rewrite of all the existing inventory UI code, so it’s what I spent the majority of my Zombox development time this week doing…but in the meantime I also added another feature: players who are holding a shield in their passive item slot can now manually switch it from front to back (by pressing on the passive item socket). This will give players a strategic advantage in many situations. For example, if you’re trying to unlock a door but have zombies coming towards you, switching the shield onto your back will give you added protection.

Below are two animation…one showing how stacking works and the other showing how shield switching works!

 

 

Item weight….

Posted in GUI, Items, Zombox on September 22nd, 2012 by Tyson Ibele

Small update this week!

All items now have a weight (although many light items have a weight of zero), and each character can only carry so much. This will make choices about which items you choose to carry with you more important.

Also, Susan is now able to use guns, and Roy can now used 2-handed weapons. The consequence is that Susan cannot carry as much as the other characters, and Roy’s 2-handed melee attack is much slower than the other characters’ 2-handed attacks. The reason for this change is that I found the no-gun/no-2-handed-weapon limitation that those characters previously had to be quite annoying during gameplay, rather than challenging. By taking away the item restrictions and replacing them with a more flexible restriction, it’s more fun to play as those characters.

The following images show where the item weight data is displayed in the character inventory, as well as the Fitness Center upgrades — one which now allows you to increase the amount of weight you can carry:

Passive items…

Posted in Characters, GUI, Items, Zombox on September 15th, 2012 by Tyson Ibele

As mentioned in the last update, I’ve been working on the new passive item system and now it’s fully implemented.

As a reminder, passive items are stat boosters that can be swapped in and out of the main passive item slot at the top of the screen.

There are 39 passive items in total right now, which fit into the following categories:

Shields: These block or dampen attacks that hit them. Each shield has different properties…some shields just block attacks, some block and deflect damage onto the attacker, some can be used to shove attackers onto the ground, etc.

When using a 1-handed weapon, the shield is held by your left arm in front of you. When using a 2-handed weapon, the shield is carried on your back. Since the shield only protects the area that it covers, how you carry it affects what part of your body it protects.

Watches: These affect the speed at which different things occur in the game. For example, some watches speed up your ability to pick locks, others extend the length of time special attacks remain activated before requiring a recharge, etc.

Music Players: The adrenaline rush from listening to awesome tunes with these players while fighting the undead hordes gives you damage/defense boosts, at the cost of electricity.

Health Monitors: Breathing monitors, heart rate monitors, step counters….these various monitors measure your vitals as you move throughout the environment. The more steps you take, the more bonuses these monitors will provide for you. Depending on which one you’re using, they can earn you HP, XP or both based on the distances you walk.

Bracelets: These bracelets of various shapes and sizes give you a health boost each time you successfully land a critical hit on a zombie.

Necklaces: Necklaces offer a variety of stat boosts. Some increase critical hit strength, some boost defense, and some allow firearms to shoot through multiple targets. Necklaces are sort of a ‘catch-all’ for cool passive bonuses that don’t fit into other categories.

Armor: From wrist guards to historical pauldrons, these armor pieces offer the player various defense boosts.

I also created a lock pick item that can be used to open any locked items in the game. Pete is the only character that can pick locks without using it. A backpack item has been added as well, which allows you to increase the size of your inventory when you start the game, you only have 4 available inventory slots, and must purchase the backpack upgrade to unlock all 12 slots).

I also implemented some of the other upgrades from the upgrade menu….for example, the upgrades which allow zombies to drop HP boosts when killed instead of just dropping coins.

Here are some images and .gifs which demonstrate some of these new features.

Sneak peek of what’s to come…

Posted in GUI, Items, Zombox on September 1st, 2012 by Tyson Ibele

I’ve been changing some things and working on a new ‘passive item’ system.

Passive weapons and items are equippable items (similar to certain special types of in-game clothing) that offer a defense/stat boost. You don’t have to do anything other than place them in the passive-item socket to reap their benefit (hence why they are considered passive).

Current types of passive items include shields, protective pads, music players, bracelets, watches, necklaces and more.

So for example, if you have a shield equipped, zombies that hit the shield won’t be able to do as much damage. If you have elbow pads equipped, you’ll have an overall defense boost. If you have a heart rate monitor equipped, you’ll regain a certain amount of HP for walking certain distances. Etc etc… Each one offers a unique benefit to the player, and you’ll be able to swap them in and out like any other socketable item so you can strategically choose the best situation to use them in.

Below is an image showing where they’ll appear in the layout.

 

 

Special attacks…

Posted in Characters, Items, Zombox on August 25th, 2012 by Tyson Ibele

So as I implement all the character upgrades, I’ve been re-thinking a few of them.

One of the changes I made this week was having the special attacks occur after you charge your weapon with zombie hits, rather than at random intervals. This has the benefit of making special attacks a reward for fighting skill, while also allowing the player to strategically decide when to use them (because after you charge your weapon, you won’t go into special-attack mode until you tap the weapon icon).

Here’s an animated .gif showing how this works (the overlay text is for illustration only):

Upgrade integration…

Posted in Characters, GUI, Items, Zombox on August 17th, 2012 by Tyson Ibele

So I’ve been working on getting the upgrade system actually implemented into the game.

The upgrade menu can now be opened by clicking your character in the inventory panel. The various categories in the upgrade menu can be examined by clicking the arrows to the right and left of the category name at the bottom. The actual upgrades for each category can be examined by clicking the arrows under each upgrade animation.

The main guy in the upgrade animations is no longer nude, and instead he adopts whatever clothing your character is wearing.

Also, I’m about half-way done implementing all of the actual upgrades into the game. There are now special attacks you can perform, all kinds of stat bonuses, special items to get, etc…all purchasable with upgrade points within the upgrade menu. And in case it wasn’t clear, every time you gain a level from earning XP (by killing zombies, performing quests, etc), you get a new upgrade point you can spend in the Upgrade Depot.

The following animated .gifs demonstrate how the animated menu looks, and a few of the special attacks (special hand attacks, special 1-handed melee weapon attacks and special 2-handed melee weapon attacks)

 

Books, crafts and upgrades…

Posted in GUI, Items, Zombox on July 7th, 2012 by Tyson Ibele

This week I worked on a few different things…

  • You can now find dozens of books around the city of Zombox. You can read books by dragging them onto your character in the inventory window. When read, a book will reveal a crafting recipe to the player.
  • When you craft something, or when you read a book’s crafting recipe, the recipe will be added to the new quick-craft panel. The quick craft panel can be opened by pressing an empty slot in the crafting window. In the quick-craft panel, you’ll see all of the recipes that you’ve learned, and if you have the ingredients for a specific recipe in your inventory, its icon in the quick-craft panel will be enabled. If you click an enabled icon, the corresponding recipe ingredients will be added to the crafting panel. This makes it easy and fast to craft things.
  • Some items and weapons can now be ‘upgraded’ in NPC stores. If you find something damaged or broken, you can upgrade it to repair it. You can also upgrade some items past their default condition to special conditions like ‘new’, ‘shiny’, ‘special’ and ‘super’. These upgrades will greatly increase things like damage and/or critical hit values.
  • You can now build storage chests to store your items in.

Click the images below to see animated examples of the above!

More craftables….

Posted in Items, Zombox on June 23rd, 2012 by Tyson Ibele

I’ve been working on some new craftable items/weapons!

So far in the game there are 30 craftable items….I’m also working on a horticulture system where you can craft food planters and grow vegetables to eat. Click the following icons to see animated .gifs of the item in action!

Here is an image showing the various food planters:

Vehicles, items, and locations…

Posted in Items, Procedural world, Zombox on April 28th, 2012 by Tyson Ibele

This week in Zombox update news:

I’m going to be adding several new vehicles to the game. Here’s what their base (ie…untextured) models look like:

I’ve also added a bunch of new findable items:

And finally, a new location! This is the survivor encampment where the game begins.

Groupies, Guns and Gratuities…

Posted in Characters, Items, Zombox on March 17th, 2012 by Tyson Ibele

More updates to Zombox this week!

NPCs can be convinced to join forces with you. They will do their best to follow you around and attack nearby zombies.

NPCs can also use guns now. However, if they’re standing too close to their target to use a ranged weapon, they will switch to a melee weapon.

You can rob NPCs by shooting at them and then holding them up with your gun. When scared, NPCs will throw their hands in the air and give you their money (be careful though, because nearby NPCs will come to your victim’s defense, and/or your victim will attack once you take what they have).

Here are some .gif animations to show the new features!