Title Screen

This is the title screen I put together

Week 9 into 10 Work Schedule

Liana & Hannah: Refine survivor array to fix randomization issue, update machine gun firing rate, and make instructions clearer to players (with addition of pictures).

Xaio & Mike: Work on a title screen that can work with the game. Use Corinne's ideas as a starting point.

John & Corinne: Keep the presentations (Sell, Scrum, and Journal) up to date, and implement data from playtesting into charts/graphs.

We're also at the point where we need 40+ playtesters, so everyone get as many as you can, post on facebook, email family, whatever is needed to get this done on time. Playtesting will begin on Saturday by noon, giving each of us 2 full days to find people.

Week 9 Sell Presentation

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1_ewQSSVvW12u0d5g3LLVu0AZs4KxFPIleDI2q8sSp2M/htmlpresent

Here is the link to our beta version.

We implemented our artwork into the beta version. We also implemented three different weapon choices (pistol, shotgun, machine gun). We also decreased the frequency of the survivors. We made the slower zombies take two shots to be killed now.

Finally, we created levels. After the player reaches a certain point level, the enemies speed up.

www.lianapenadesign.com/instructions.html

Updated Background Art

Here is a screenshot of the new art work I made for the background scene of our game.

Here are three preliminary sketches for title screens:

Week 8 into Week 9 Work Schedule

Week 8

Liana and Hannah: Continue with coding
John and Corinne: Update presentations
Mike: Come up with with new more creative ideas for game.
Xaio: Redo character artwork

Reminder to everyone, make sure to have people playtest the game for Monday!

Shoot For Their Lives - Initial Playtesting

We've uploaded the initial playtesting version. We've linked our questionnaire to it as well.

http://lianapenadesign.com/instructions.html

Weapons of Mass Destruction

These are some weapon ideas to include to add more variety. for these weapon ideas to work well, a few aspects need to be changed. 1. The firing method would have to be changed to mouse clicks so that the player can fire at an angle instead of just straight up. 2. These weapons work well against larger groups so there may need to be an increase in the number of zombies on the screen at once. 

These weapons that would be supplied in the bottom left corner, supplied by the survivors, at different point milestones. Only one can be held at a time, however if the players picks up an item while they already have on in their inventory, they will put the item from their inventory down, and pick up the new one. In other words they will swap what they have for what is available. These weapons are activated by right clicking. All weapons would eventually stop by either running out of fuel/energy, or just breaking after a set amount of time has passed/damage is done.

Tier 1
Main Weapon- Pistol
Tire- Bounce around and hits a few zombies for small damage
Trash Can Lid- Flies straight and cuts few zombies heads off
Trash- Put across battlefield, slows zombies
Water Jug (like a water cooler)- Splash, zombies slip and fall

Tier 2
Main Weapon- Machine Gun
Chain Saw-Would crawl around (pulled by its own chain) similar to tire bouncing around, hitting several zombies, doing medium damage
Saw Blade- Flies straight and cuts  off several zombies heads
Barbed Wire- Put across battlefield, slows and hurts zombies
Barrel of Acid- Splash, zombies slip and fall, AND take damage

Tier 3

Main Weapon-Auto Shotgun
Wrecking ball- swings through, hitting many zombies doing large damage
50 cal. sniper- shoots straight through all zombies in its path, (only has 1 bullet)
Laser- Permanently slows zombies (cripples legs), and damages them
Grenade-Kills zombies in immediate area, damages zombies withing radius x, cause ground to shake making most zombies lose balance and fall

Zombie Look Example

This is probably the best description of what we're looking for as base zombie models.
I know that we're looking for a cartoony style, but it should be based on these ideas created by Left 4 Dead 2. So for our game (from left to right) Brute, Fat Zombie, Fast Zombie, Standard Zombie.

Game Production

Week 5: Come up with idea for a game that fits the scope of this class.

Flash selected as program to work with.
Vertical Shooter Style game (Space Invaders style)

Survivor vs Zombies theme selected by majority vote.
Title: Shoot For Their Lives!
Team Name: Digital Dungeon

Update the Game Design Document to reflect what was chosen.



Week 6: Begin development of the prototype, everyone contribute code that can help develop the game. Write a questionnaire for when we begin play-testing. Set up, and update, Production Journal whenever someone completes a task. Begin work on Scrum presentation, and updates to the Sell presentation.


Week 7: Continue work on the game and develop better artwork to fit the game style. Fit people to Alpha test the game, follow Dr. Diefenbach's instructions on what should be done. Continue to make updates to Sell presentation that will reflect what feedback was received from Alpha testing.




more updates will be posted as time goes on

Questionairre

Here is our questionnaire for the game:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dGsyUXUyRnFiV2JkVTlXWFlVNXdMTHc6MQ#gid=0

Game Design Document

Shoot For Their Lives!

Corinne Cook, Hannah Deters, Xiao Fu, Michael Sawin, John Novak, Liana Pena

Overview

“Shoot For Their Lives!” is a vertical shooter PC game that puts the player into the role of a survivor whose goal is to defeat the zombies. Players can choose to battle the zombies alone or play in multiplayer mode. Once in multiplayer mode, players can choose to help each other or battle it out to see who can live the longest. Using different weapons and protection, players gain points by killing the zombies and advance through multiple levels battling to stay alive.

Story

When zombies first appeared on the streets of metropolitan areas, people couldn’t believe what they were seeing. They were unstoppable. Humans were being hunted through the streets and killed in their homes. The military fought hard, but was unable to defeat the overwhelming horde of undead. The number of remaining survivors dwindled, as did humanity’s hope. Now, with just a handful of survivors scattered across the globe, a few desperate humans have decided to take their lives in their hands and fight for the last of humanity’s hope. But the zombies are closing in, and the fate of all the survivors rests in your hands.

Characters

During the gameplay, the player(s) play as survivors. Survivors must use their weapons to fight off the zombies and stay alive.

• Survivors: Survivors are normal humans fighting against the attacking zombies. They have three weapons of choice: a pistol, a machine gun, or a shotgun. In addition to their weapons, they also have the added bonus of a protective fence. Though the survivors have the advantage of moving quicker than the zombies, their damage is not always as significant.

• Zombies: Zombies are the villains of the game. They too are able to shoot in their defense in order to try and prevent the survivors from winning. There are four different types of zombies, the standard zombie, the fat zombie, the zombie dog, and the brute zombie. Most of these zombies move at a much slower rate than the survivors, but their firing rate increases as the game progresses. Their goal is to destroy and kill the survivors so they can take over.

Powers/Damage Chart

Character	Speed	Damage
Player	100%	See Weapons

Standard Zombie	50%	100%
Fat Zombie	30%	100%
Zombie Dog	100%	100%
Brute Zombie	70%	200%

Weapon	Ammo	Firing type	Reload rate	Damage	Accuracy
Pistol	infinite	single bullet	2 sec	100%	100%
Machine gun	45	3 shot burst	2 sec	50%	80%
Shotgun	20	3 shot scatter	5 sec	200%	Widespread

Controls

This game will feature controls that are slightly different than a normal Flash game. We also plan to have the option for two players to play at the same time (see multiplayer). Controls for both players will be displayed here.

Player 1 Controls
[a][d] for left and right movement
[w] to shoot
[1][2][3] to cycle weapons

Player 2 Controls
[left arrow][right arrow] for movement
[up arrow] to shoot
[7][8][9] cycle weapons


Other Controls

[Esc] Menu
[P] Pause
[I] Inventory

Level Design

The level design features a top-down camera angle. There is a fenced-off area on the left side of the screen where the survivors of the zombie apocalypse are taking refuge. The zombies come in waves from the right side of the screen and approach the fenced area, and their goal is to kill the remaining humans. The player’s character is at the bottom of the screen, with a fence separating the character from the zombies. The fence protects the player from the zombies, but it also prevents the player from moving up, limiting the player’s motion to left and right.

Graphics

The game will be created in Flash, so all the graphics will be done in either Adobe Illustrator or Adobe Flash. We will be creating vector graphics that have a humorous feel to them. We will design a clean and understandable interface so the users will be able to navigate our game easily.

Sound

The sound for our game is going to be fairly simple.  We are going to have a low-key, stylized (like an old 8-bit game) soundtrack playing in the background that has a creepy monster attack sort of feel to it.  Also, if there are ambient sounds present in a particular level (rain, creaky doors, etc) they will also be a part of this background track.  We will have a specific sound for a zombie getting hit and another for a survivor getting attacked.  This way the player will have some auditory feedback in addition to the visual as to how well they are doing.  

The game will also have different sounds for each of the different weapons the survivor has available to him/her.  The pistol, machine gun, and shotgun will all have unique sounds so that the player knows exactly what they’re firing with at all times.

Multiplayer

While there may not be co-op in the prototype, there are plans to have multiplayer incorporated as this project goes on. Multiplayer will be accessible from the title screen with a 1P and 2P option.

The multiplayer will be very similar to the single player experience. Two players will be on the screen instead of one. The amount of zombies will be slightly increased, and the amount of lives will be decreased as well.

If the player chooses 2P mode, they can have the option for a head-to-head mode in which they will compete for points, or a co-op mode where the players will work together to keep the survivors behind the fence alive.

Special Content (unlocks)

There will be useable items that will appear on the playfield that can help the players for a limited amount of time, or a one time use.

• Limited Time ItemRapid Fire: Getting this item will increase the rate of fire temporarily to give the player an edge.
• One Time UseNuke: A player can use a nuke to clear the playfield of all zombies currently on screen

Inspiration

The art style for our game will be vector graphics with a humorous edge. We have four basic zombie types:

• Standard zombie
• Fat zombie
• Zombie dog
• Brute zombie

While we currently do not have finalized designs for each type, here is a general idea of the feeling we are hoping to achieve:


                 

Level Design

Today our team sat down and hammered out a definitive level design.

The survivors stay on the left behind a protective fence as the zombies approach from the right. The player can move left or right, but is unable to move in the y-axis.

Here is a rough comp of what our levels will look like: