Zombie Game Prototype

tl;dr at the end of post.

Just like I said in my first blog post, here's a prototype of what my zombie game will look like (To be named.)

Prototype Download (Direct link, press F1 for controls, escape to quit)

Yes I know, it's really dark. I had my monitor set to brightest when I was making this.

What is it all about? Zombies of course, but it's not planned to be the simplest zombie game ever built. (More on that in a future blog post.)

In that prototype, I demonstrate the desired lighting engine.

<PICTURE TO COME LATER, try the prototype to see it for now. It looks way better in action anyway!>

It's all done in GML, but since in version 8.1 all GML is interpreted at runtime, any engine built without a DLL will be extremely demanding. What happens for now is I design the level using the room editor (In the full game, the "level design" will be entirely procedural), then parse through every block (8x8) that makes up the level (They're all aligned to a grid) to find continuous walls. Every continuous wall is stored in an array and later used to draw line of sight blockers for the player, leaving half of the wall visible. The same walls are used to pre-render the light sprites so they don't provide light through walls, effectively illuminating half of the wall and making it visible.

There are also other systems at work, like the weapon system which has an extreme level of customization possible, which means almost any weapon idea can be made juste modifying variables. There is the zombie AI, with node based pathfinding but since it's GML again, it's too slow and unusable. In GM:S, it will get compiled so it will become viable. Expect zombies to track you by scent, sight and hearing.

Don't be scared though, the level changing (Blue rune spinning) won't be used in the real game. Instead, you will have doors and elevator. All will be seamless.

tl;dr: Prototype showing lighting engine, find continuous walls to optimize LOS blocking, customizable weapon system (Not by the player yet), zombies will track by scent, sight and hearing. Blue rune is temp way of changing level.