I haven’t made a shooter in ages, but I got hold of an idea for a 3D shooter environment that just won’t quit badgering me to create it, so I’m doing it as best I can.
There are only four of us on GoDD™ duty, meaning that Dick does the engine, Claude does the textures, models and sound, and Barbara does the level editing and detailing, such as particles and gravity effects.
It’s my job to write the map and install the monsters, if any, and that’s what I’ve done — at least for the first four hours of gameplay, I have.
The game, “Zombie Insurrection”, starts out real simple, as you’d expect from one of my games and as you’d expect from zombies in general.
The first level, called “Level 0”, is mostly designed for your introduction to GoDD™ Engine movement, and is also intended to gently increase the difficulty, in order that you might teach yourself the gameplay.
It will definitely help you to get the rock n’ roll rhythm you need to keep up, if you’re to ever finish the game sometime in the next year and a half.
So, once you get to the suburbs of Shandara, the capital city of the Empire of Atlantis — that’s right, this is the video game equivalent of “Empire of Atlantis”, my board game — you really have your work cut out for you.
There are hundreds and hundreds of zombies everywhere, and they’re mad as hell and boiling over onto the streets, and in general, being most unpleasant and disrespectful of the space — downright obnoxious.
Makes you want to do to them what you do to sheepherders. Waste ’em.
You’re in luck, because your immediate task is to clear out all the pockets of resistance, where zombies have gotten control and dominated the scene, which is absolutely everywhere, in all corners, more or less endlessly, until finally, they’re all gone.
When that’s all done and you’ve mopped up the mess, you need to now find The Level Boss, before he can bug out of town and get to his hideout in the South, after which he orders the military to “Drop the Big One” on the capitol building and the palace, thus wiping out the whole rest of the government in one blinding flash, leaving him in charge and governing from his heavily fortified hideaway in the South.
Once he’s out of the Capital, he’s out of range, so your first job is to stop the bombs, which will be coming from the Rocket Launch Site that you’ll find on the EAST side of the map, which I haven’t gotten to just yet — still in design mode, but I have the launch tubes and the tunnels laid out with some connecting track.
You can’t get there right away, at least not from here, you can’t. You’re presently in the Northern Capital, at the Capitol of the Capital. Um… “Capital” is the city, “Capitol” is the building.
I’ve built both of them already, and I’m starting to fill them up with model and texture details such as windows, furniture, lights, fixtures and appliances.
Not too much detail, just enough to get the FEELING of being there across to you as the OPERATOR of your Avatar.
The Avatar, or PLAYER, is already fully immersed in the game, and lives there all the time. At some point, the PLAYER will become aware of you, the OPERATOR, and that’s a spooky moment.
So a lot happens in Level One, mostly of a definitely destructive nature, but the good thing is, you never use a gun.
All your weapons are magical, and emanate from hand gestures — no guns, no knives, no hatchets, no RPGs and definitely no assault weapons.
Just Hand Magic, which happens to be the most powerful magical tool in this or any other universe.
Magic is when you follow and use the Actual Universal Laws, not Human Physics & Math, and if you do manage to master the various magical weapons, you will find yourself eventually at the end of a very large Level One, which could take several hours to get all the way through.
Level One ends pretty much in a free-for-all brawl with the Level Boss and his Minions, and once you get through that, you’ll end up in Level Two, which looks pleasant and harmless at first.
There are surprises up ahead.
In Level Two you have to START to find the way to the hideaway, but that’s not going to be so easy, because you have to GET to the ENTRANCE to the hideaway first, which means traversing a whole lot of territory, in which are roaming large bands of zombies, all of whom are after YOU, and then you have to figure out how to get past the GATE.
Good luck on that. I made the game and it takes me a while to figure out how to get through the GATE this time.
Actually, all the areas are puzzles, mazes and problem-solving situations, combined with a split-second determination of “next-nearest target”, which is what you MUST use when confronting multiple zombies.
It gets worse when there are also dogs. My dogs are vicious attack chihuahuas. No, actually, they’re Dobermans, as you’d expect.
When it comes to evil, vicious demonic creatures that attack you without warning, I’m definitely not shy about introducing them and giving them a place in the game.
Might as well learn to handle them where you can do no harm.
How about some urban fighting?
I set the zombies to see you at quite a distance, especially in the urban areas, so as you run around, you’ll be angering and exciting not just dozens, but hundreds — and maybe even thousands — of zombies to come after you and destroy you.
Just kidding about the thousands. There can’t be more than 900 zombies in any one level — it’s not an engine thing, I just like to keep things simple.
Oh, wait, I just remembered that in Level 3 there are around 4500 zombies, but it’s nowhere near enough.
How many zombies are “enough”? Just one more.
You should be able to fight your way through Level 3 in less than a week, if you work at it every day.
Playing the Palace
You can use your Power of Resurrection to continue the battle, but you DO lose points every time you die.
Sometimes it’s better to just let the zombies win for a moment, get back with some distance, and throw some ranged weapons at them.
You might want to save your ammo until you really need it, but hitting the “9” on your keyboard will switch to Weapon 9, which is your autofire weapon, roughly equivalent to an Uzi 9mm SMG in firepower and RPMs — rounds per minute.
You also have a PYRO weapon at Number 5, a BOOMERANG on 2, BOMBS on 3,
The object here is to strategize your struggle, once you figure out how the domains work and get the rhythm of zombie waves.
Improvise, Adapt, Overcome.
Those are your main moves, and how you manifest those battlefield ideals is entirely up to you.
That’s the thing. Everyone handles this differently, and there is no “one single way” to win the game. Lots of different strategies will work, if applied with patience and due diligence.
The zombies are set to face the PLAYER and to attack relentlessly. I hope that’s okay.
You are equipped with ten fabulous weapons, which default to zero when you take rebirth in the level.
The object of the game is to get through the game. There is no other object, but along the way you will collect ACTUAL BLESSINGS and real Higher-Being Effects.
The game doesn’t DO anything, it merely suggests, and the Higher Self can take the indication or not.
There are “Buffer Effects” from playing any game, but they are magnified greatly in this one.
What that means to you is that you can get Higher-Being Effects from playing “Zombie Insurrection”, but you’ll have to work at it.
I’ll keep you updated on developments. Right now, I’m busy with the detailing and the zombie placement and combat.
I’m working concurrently on a Capture the Flag — CTF — version of this game, where the caps are blue and red, as usual.
Capture the flag is always red against blue, even when your teams are wearing arm- rags instead of cool and groovy hats.
Anyone who doesn’t dig hats is definitely not cut out for Capture the Flag or Fortress games … too bad, they’ll miss out on a lot of great fun.
Note that I prefer nonviolent games with magical gestures to anything with percussion or projectile or any of that sort of modern warfare gumbo.
Give me a whirling ball of plasma over a blade or pistol anytime! Zap with style, with grace, with elegance — use magic.
The greatest magic of all is gesture magic, so learn it as you play, and remember that it works in ALL worlds, not just in cyberspace!
If you have any ideas you’d like to see happen in this game, lemme know. Meanwhile, I’m having a ball putting in hundreds and hundreds of zombies, making the game almost impossible to start, let alone complete.
I knew you wouldn’t want it any other way.
See You At The Top!!!
gorby