Last couple of weeks we made some progress on different aspects of the basic concept. During this time we already introduced a big mechanic, being pickups. This week we are proud to announce that all abilities are implemented. We also have some minor changes which we will get to later.

Abilities

What are abilities?

Well, each player has an energy bar, this energy bar fills up by converting zombies, picking up pickups or making zombies explode. Once the bar is full, which you can tell by the color of the bar, you are able to cast your characters unique ability. The ability will immediately be used and your energy bar will be set to 0.

How do you use abilities?

To use the ability we provide another controller scheme down below. As for tactical usage: We suggest using the ability when in danger of losing the game, when needing that small edge to win or when you are crushing the other team and want to make fun of them.

How does this affect gameplay?

Games become longer and more tactical thinking is required. Now the game changed from “Oh look the enemy team sent a wave of 20 zombies that I can’t kill because I’m out of ammo.” to “Haha, he sent this massive wave of zombies in my direction, I bet he doesn’t suspect me using my ability!”

Animations

 Ofcourse we are working on some animations, with the first few ready now. This animation (top) will be the idle animation. The character is supposed to wobble on the beat of the music in the final version of the game. The other animation (bottom) will be the soundwave when you shoot.

Minor other changes

UI

We changed the UI a bit. You no longer need to watch the side of the screen to see your ammo or pickup effect. All of this information together with the new energy bar is now visible right on top of your player character.

Pickup effects

We noticed last week that the effects of the pickup did not go away after a certain amount of time, this is now fixed. Each player can hold 1 pickup effect until he picks up another one or the one he has now dies out.

Playing field

Also the textures for the playing field are finished and applied to the meshes we showed last week. We hope to show you gameplay within the new scene soon. Here's a comparison:

Oh and one more thing

We got together and made 2 builds for you this week! One build for 1v1 and the other for 2v2. So, finally grab 3 friends instead of just one and play this game with 4 for double the fun! If you want to see the whole 2v2 match we played at our desks be sure to check it out here.

Testing our game and leaving a comment on our page is greatly appreciated. We can take these comments into consideration while working on this gem. Keep in mind, each build we put online, in these weeks, is not a finished version of our work.

We look forward to hearing from you, and we’ll see you next week!

Group 12 out.