My First Project: Dead Harbor, a Zombie FPS Demo

#1 This already looks close to a game. Visually there is also not so much missing, the scenery feels authentic. I cannot see any major issues, so pretty good job so far.

#2 I like the AI controlling of the zombies. Did you wrote this or is it UAISK or some thing?

The fog is a good idea to clip the scene in short range to get more fps.

The design is also nice, but i think the interiors are a bit dark, maybe try to increase the ambient light a bit.

What is the goal of the game? Survive as long you can? Or kill all zombie and get the next round/level ?

I also think you have too many health kits in the level, so the player have it to easy.

Great work, hope to see more soon :)

#3 Looks fun...looking forward for further updates!

#4 Hooray Zombies not knowing how to use stairs is still a thing!

Also, is it just me or does that one zombie look like Steve Jobs was dug up and re-animated?

Good work so far.

#5 Thanks for the input everyone.

@Dioun, thanks, that gives me hope!
@Kory, also thanks, maybe I won't be scrapping this just yet.

@D Fasel, I forgot to mention that yes that is UAISK. I had worked on stationary AI that would run after you when you got close but was taking so long and UAISK works great and is flexible enough. I agree on the Health kits. I noted that while making the video.
The original idea for the game was to have NPCs in the houses that you had to save, while a group of no-good human survivors had holed up in a hillside bunker and were using the zombie outbreak as an excuse to commit murder and what not. They would show up, well armed and mess with you, eventually having to be dealt with at the source. I had other ideas but really right now I think I should stick to simple mechanics.

@Chris, heh, the zombie does wear Steve Jobs clothes. Good call. He's a demon zombie by kippyjoe.
www.turbosquid.com/FullPreview/Index.cfm?ID=708770&stgURLFragment=3d-models/...

#6 @Jason It looks like he's also wearing glasses and has that toilet-seat haircut, also the steepled fingers while he runs helps my case.

#7 I really like the organic feel of that outdoors street with the building facades. Too many games these days are still build on right angles and flat ground.

#8 Second what Daniel said. That was the first thing i saw. Realy cool to be not flat! Forgot to say that in first post.
I most use UAISK also for my games or prototypes. You can do alot with it and improving is not a big thing, when you need more.

#9 Maybe the games these days are build on flat ground on right angles, because it is like that in reality in most cases, so that cannot be the criteria.

#10 Maybe. Most Australian cities and suburbs aren't flat/right-angled, and neither are most European places I've been. But I didn't mean to say it was more realistic, I meant to say it was more interesting. I guess 'organic' was a bit ambiguous.

#11 Looks quite good. Keep up the good work!

#12 Jason@ It looks great, keep going with it.

If you wanted the AI to path around obstacles and up stairs, might consider enabling recast. With a few tweaks UAISK can use A* path finding, always finding shortest route.

Maybe some more visual differences between the weapons damages too ... like the shotgun could be kicking them back further. I thought the sounds and animations for it looked fine too -

And more visuals, like blood splatters or something. Had me wondering while watching how to tell if you did enough to kill them, besides the death animation.

Hope that helps, something constructive ... regardless, it looks great and has a lot of that "The Walking Dead" feeling.

#13 At Jeff: Do you have a working UAISK with the recast? If yes, im sure a lot ppl would be happy when you could share that. This is the only thing I really miss in UAISK.
Ok, I have to say, I never played around with that. :)

#14 UAISK is a very neat tool. The problem is indeed when the AI gets stock at doors, behind furniture or at corners or at lower ground and cannot find its way around to get to higher ground. Stuff(issues) that I have also seen in AAA games from time to time.

I suspect that the recast or walkabout plugin might be a very quick and cool solution to such issues. I have seen the walkabout video and it seems very promising. Or just lay down a fixed path for the AI.

If one makes dungeon crawls one can always lower the attention range for the AI :O)

#15 In DayZ, which this game has some resemblance with, the AI also has troubles getting up stairs aso. I agree with @Jeff you'd probably want to use A* for that. UAISK is imo not finished for most applications; it's a good start but needs to be modified and extended to match with your requirements.

Keep up the good work @Jason! :)

#16 Nice job!