Posted February 27, 2023 by cawlgames
Its been a while! I have been doing lots of engine work and getting distracted by life stuff, so I didn't get as much time to work on my game as I would've liked, but things are finally starting to pick up again now! There are some new assets and tons of new mechanics.
For example:
Later on the building "points" will be changed to "real estate value" and they will be computed in a slightly more complex way, but this is a good start for now.
Zombies
The zombies are treated as rigid bodies, with some of the physics logic stripped out for efficiency, which gives them a hilarious "bounciness", as they slip and slide all over the place (see video). I actually really like this for the zombies, since it makes them seem inhuman and ferocious, but when I implement civilians I will probably go with a non-physically simulated body that can turn on a dime and is entirely moved by script. That should make them act a bit more human and reduce the chances of them splatting into the side of a building at full speed, loony tunes style
Building deletion
I do have one gameplay dilemma that I am a bit stuck on, so if anyone has any ideas then pls share
Because you get points based on building placement, a key gameplay restriction is that you can't delete buildings once you have placed them.
This has one main problem: its too easy to fuck up
Unlike in Islanders, in my game roads and building access are important. Civilians need to be able to reach your buildings by road, otherwise you won't get a benefit from them. It is fairly easy to accidentally place a building that blocks a crucial road access point, or makes half of the map inaccessible, and then fucks up your entire game. On the one hand you could chalk this up to "user error", but this doesn't feel like a "fun" way to lose. Some alternatives I thought about that wouldn't work:
NB: Another problem is that you might be able to block the zombies entirely with a giant wall made out of buildings. I already encountered this problem with the 2D version of the game, so I'm gonna use the same solution - check when placing buildings if it will block the path from zombie spawn to the train station, and prevent placement if so.