Dev Diary: Enhanced Zombie AI, tight invector Integration and more.

This is a super exciting week! Every week these days just seem so exciting. I’ve made big enhancements and integrations with the Zombie AI and Invector’s shooter template. While still in need of improvement, I can now move on to other important tasks like Interface and actual level design.

Zombies can now damage the player

Now that zombies can attack and damage the player, the tables have turned. The sweet spot was I only needed to add 3 lines of code to invector’s Agents. All it really amounted to was the rigidbody name so I could use tag based bodypart identification. I’m sure there’s a more elegant way based on hit coordinates, but this was an easy trade off. Note, invector “does” do bodypart damage, but only asa damage factor.I wanted to know what was hit to apply localized damage to that area for added effects like limps and crawling.

Feel the Burn!

With damage integration out of the way the path is wide open for all sorts of menacing weapons and animations. Invector has a great “damage type” feature. It’s a string with so much power. Zombies can now be set on fire and animate accordingly. Because damage types can be any rudimentary string, I can change hit particles and a slew of other effects based on damage. This leads the way to zombies dancing when they are on fire and other interesting and comical effects.

Zombies damage the player via animation curves. So if you step out of the way, you may not get hit. This will become a critical component in surviving in the arena.

 

V bot stares in approval.

Line of sight just got a whole lot more dangerous

It used to be as soon as you ducked behind an obstacle or another zombie was attacking, they’d lose sigh and drop into an Alerted state. Now the zombies will remember they’re chasing you for a set amount of time and won’t give up so easily. Perfect for the arena. I fixed this by putting a timer on the state change so it will keep the player in mind for a little longer.

I gave a test run with 3 zombies, who all had variable chase speeds to great effect. Even with things in the way, zombies were relentless in their pursuits. It made the game so much more exciting and dangerous feeling.

Hopeful Delivery

This is a game in the early development stages. Despite this, I’ve been working on the core mechanics for about a year now. I’m hopeful this will initially be released on IOS and Android by October. I’ll of course be supporting the game for at least a year or longer depending on the popularity. I’ve been constantly updating Super Panda as I learn new things or have to fix a gnawing bug.

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Thank you. For your support.