Thoughts about Zombies ate my Nation
by Mark · 07/28/2007 (4:37 am) · 10 comments
In my previous blog I posted a fun little video I made to pump myself up for the idea of Zombies ate my Nation. I'm still getting pumped up just thinking about the idea.
After watching a lot of Mars Attacks videos, with Danny Elfman's score thumping in the background, the style of the game became obvious to me. It has to be just as crazy as Zombies ate my Neighbors was - this was a MUST.
But something had to change... Something did not settle very well with my gut feelings. Should this be the classic 2D style? Or 3D? With 2D, I run the risk of the game being boring - as we already played Zombies ate my Neighbors. I also run the risk of 3D - being a low budget sloppy mess. I decided I HAD to give 3D a try. It just seems practical.
I already looked around online to check out some art assets, and of course I came across the well known 3DRT.com. I checked out their zombie pack, and was absolutely sold! They come WITH torque .DTS objects AND they are already animated, for just 84 bucks.
www.3drt.com/3dm/characters/zombie/zombie-swarm-shots.htm
Not only that, but the style and animations of the package fits incredibly with that "Mars Attacks" kind of over the top humor.
I couldnt believe my luck!!!! The Zombie for the game is already made! I just have to cough up 84 bucks and I already have my first characters in the game!
But now I face a problem = There are so many unique characters from the original game. How lucky can I get to find the exact characters I need, with the same polycount, with the same animation style, and the same visuals? I need miracle, or my other option would simply be contract work with 3D studio services (and we all know how expensive that can get).
I was also thinking deeply about the music. I simply need good music. So, I went to MySpace and did a music search for "Zombie", just to see what magical music groups I could find. Much to my dismay, I absolutely fell in love with a group (or 1 girl army) called Zombie Girl.
profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=38953951
GREAT! Now if I can make this game look decent, I can ask this girl and swoon her into making some special tunes for this special project - with a profit reward of course.
Right now I'm just trying to piece together things in my mind. This project is probably going to be a huge undertaking, but I have the feeling if I can get this bad boy off to a decent start and generate enough interest, I'll gather some incredibly talented folks to make this happen.
The truth is I'm not a simple thinker, and I have heard time and time again to start off with simple games. This is just impossible for my brain to process. I can't dream of releasing some mundane project. I just can't do it. I'm not in this for the bucks, I'm in this to blast electricity into the brains of gamers.
I try to think of simple games, then proceed to say "it would be cool if it had this, and you could do this, and if this happened, and if this cutscene happened." It just keeps getting complex.
So Zombies ate my Nation... I wonder how this is going to work out. I still have a spikey haired kid with 3D glasses, a chick with a pony-tail, steroid induced hockey masked men with chainsaws and far more to think about.
I think it's time I start getting the pen and paper out, plan things out and see how far the zombie head rolls....
After watching a lot of Mars Attacks videos, with Danny Elfman's score thumping in the background, the style of the game became obvious to me. It has to be just as crazy as Zombies ate my Neighbors was - this was a MUST.
But something had to change... Something did not settle very well with my gut feelings. Should this be the classic 2D style? Or 3D? With 2D, I run the risk of the game being boring - as we already played Zombies ate my Neighbors. I also run the risk of 3D - being a low budget sloppy mess. I decided I HAD to give 3D a try. It just seems practical.
I already looked around online to check out some art assets, and of course I came across the well known 3DRT.com. I checked out their zombie pack, and was absolutely sold! They come WITH torque .DTS objects AND they are already animated, for just 84 bucks.
www.3drt.com/3dm/characters/zombie/zombie-swarm-shots.htm
Not only that, but the style and animations of the package fits incredibly with that "Mars Attacks" kind of over the top humor.
I couldnt believe my luck!!!! The Zombie for the game is already made! I just have to cough up 84 bucks and I already have my first characters in the game!
But now I face a problem = There are so many unique characters from the original game. How lucky can I get to find the exact characters I need, with the same polycount, with the same animation style, and the same visuals? I need miracle, or my other option would simply be contract work with 3D studio services (and we all know how expensive that can get).
I was also thinking deeply about the music. I simply need good music. So, I went to MySpace and did a music search for "Zombie", just to see what magical music groups I could find. Much to my dismay, I absolutely fell in love with a group (or 1 girl army) called Zombie Girl.
profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=38953951
GREAT! Now if I can make this game look decent, I can ask this girl and swoon her into making some special tunes for this special project - with a profit reward of course.
Right now I'm just trying to piece together things in my mind. This project is probably going to be a huge undertaking, but I have the feeling if I can get this bad boy off to a decent start and generate enough interest, I'll gather some incredibly talented folks to make this happen.
The truth is I'm not a simple thinker, and I have heard time and time again to start off with simple games. This is just impossible for my brain to process. I can't dream of releasing some mundane project. I just can't do it. I'm not in this for the bucks, I'm in this to blast electricity into the brains of gamers.
I try to think of simple games, then proceed to say "it would be cool if it had this, and you could do this, and if this happened, and if this cutscene happened." It just keeps getting complex.
So Zombies ate my Nation... I wonder how this is going to work out. I still have a spikey haired kid with 3D glasses, a chick with a pony-tail, steroid induced hockey masked men with chainsaws and far more to think about.
I think it's time I start getting the pen and paper out, plan things out and see how far the zombie head rolls....
About the author
#2
07/28/2007 (8:31 am)
Man those guys at 3drt have been busy - some good - if not expensive 3d models in there.
#3
Chris
07/28/2007 (5:25 pm)
Zombie games always seem fun and I respect that sometimes thinking simple is hard with a 'dream', but. If you truly want to work on that dream you should learn the essential skills necessary in doing that. Relying on content created by others will ultimately lead to failure, but stay pumped and focus your energy into learning while creating :)Chris
#4
Good luck with the game :)
07/28/2007 (9:30 pm)
Those zombies look a lot like the Forsaken from World of Warcraft. I guess thats a compliment because I love WoW's art style.Good luck with the game :)
#5
In case you're looking for weapons, don't forget about the Armory over at Low Poly Coop. You can download the pack of weapons (some finished, some not), and for the finished models, they come pre-exported to .dts. It might not be as over-the-top comical as you'd hope for, but it might work as starter models (or perhaps you could deform the geometry a touch to make them fit your cartoonish style). Baseball bat, lead pipe, and shovel are some of the closest to what you might want.
Screenshot of models
So yeah -- if you can use them, great -- if not, that's okay too. I at least wanted to give you some starter art if you didn't know about them.
I look forward to watching your progress -- I'm always on the lookout for a good Zombie game. :)
Cheers!
--clint
07/30/2007 (6:17 am)
That looks really great!In case you're looking for weapons, don't forget about the Armory over at Low Poly Coop. You can download the pack of weapons (some finished, some not), and for the finished models, they come pre-exported to .dts. It might not be as over-the-top comical as you'd hope for, but it might work as starter models (or perhaps you could deform the geometry a touch to make them fit your cartoonish style). Baseball bat, lead pipe, and shovel are some of the closest to what you might want.
Screenshot of models
So yeah -- if you can use them, great -- if not, that's okay too. I at least wanted to give you some starter art if you didn't know about them.
I look forward to watching your progress -- I'm always on the lookout for a good Zombie game. :)
Cheers!
--clint
#6
11/12/2007 (10:54 am)
I was thinking, when your fighting the zombies, If you get bitten your health goes down (duh) If what killed you was a zombie bite, then you become a zombie your slef. Then you get to roam the game as a zombie killing and infecting other ppl. for some reason you get powers from the zombie god and cant be killed as a zombie. you can either, look for a cure for the zombiism, or roam the street as the walking dead feasting upon human flesh and making more zombies.I've only seen 3 zombie games were you can become or already are a zombie. i would love it if you made being a zombie in this game possible. I think its a great idea.
#7
04/30/2009 (10:45 pm)
Wow
#8
12/10/2009 (4:52 am)
Make sure you put a lot of effort into the gore, II haven't seen a torque game with exessive gore yet... YOU COULD BE THE FIRST! 
#9
Or even my old favourite local band, Horror Story:
http://www.myspace.com/horrorstory
If I remember rightly, they released one of their early cd's for free download. Hmm, really should go catch up with them.
Will be keeping an eye on your concepts and blogs.
For inspiration, I suggest looking at Zafehouse:
http://www.zafehouse.com/
Stubbs The Zombie.
A board game called "Zombies!!!" Which is rather groovy:
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/2471/zombies
http://www.twilightcreationsinc.com/zombies/
01/13/2010 (9:39 pm)
ZOmbie Girl is definitely a very cool chick. Might I suggest checking out Horrorpops too?Or even my old favourite local band, Horror Story:
http://www.myspace.com/horrorstory
If I remember rightly, they released one of their early cd's for free download. Hmm, really should go catch up with them.
Will be keeping an eye on your concepts and blogs.
For inspiration, I suggest looking at Zafehouse:
http://www.zafehouse.com/
Stubbs The Zombie.
A board game called "Zombies!!!" Which is rather groovy:
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/2471/zombies
http://www.twilightcreationsinc.com/zombies/
#10
Don't just wing-it, write a Game Developement Plan.
Break it down to bite size pieces.
When you've assessed your personal abilities to do parts of the work, then start the actual work you can do.
When you have a good start and can demonstrate what you have so far, people may gain interest to help you.
Great ideas for games are pennies a dozen, so be sure to stick to your GDP, avoid feature creep, show us a demo to gain interest and hopefully we can get to play another great Zombie game.
Looking forward to playing it, I like the Gore as much as the next Zombie smasher =)
01/21/2011 (5:20 pm)
Beware of "feature creep".Don't just wing-it, write a Game Developement Plan.
Break it down to bite size pieces.
When you've assessed your personal abilities to do parts of the work, then start the actual work you can do.
When you have a good start and can demonstrate what you have so far, people may gain interest to help you.
Great ideas for games are pennies a dozen, so be sure to stick to your GDP, avoid feature creep, show us a demo to gain interest and hopefully we can get to play another great Zombie game.
Looking forward to playing it, I like the Gore as much as the next Zombie smasher =)
Torque Owner Ian Roach