He’s published his work on the Zafehouse forums so if you feel like playing the game in Russian, or translating it into a language more compatible with your brain, please check it out!

Link: Zafehouse (multilingual) [Zafehouse forums]

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Well, except when I use native GDI calls to paint instead. Actually, now that I think about it, GDI+ doesn’t do a heck of a lot for Zafehouse 2 anymore.

Now, this change raises a number of questions: Why not use Direct3D for the entire process? Why change APIs in the first place? Isn’t the Direct2D API in DirectX 10+ basically what you’re describing?

These are all fair questions, and I’m going to try to answer them.

Why not use Direct3D for the whole shebang?
Because I’ve already done a lot of groundwork for image rendering that replacing the engine wholesale would add a lot of time to the development process. Considering the game is already years overdue, I doubt anyone would be excited about the news of me delaying the game just to rewrite a chunk of code that doesn’t need to be rewritten. It all works fine, I just needed something more powerful than GDI+ to get the heavy lifting done.

Why move to Direct3D in the first place?
Primarily, it was a question of speed. Secondarily, I wanted to improve my knowledge of the DirectX API, having already implemented my own xWMA audio engine, which relies on the XAudio2 API. So the game already depended on DirectX, through the managed SlimDX wrapper.

Isn’t what you’ve described basically Direct2D?
It kind of is, and I could have just used the Direct2D API to quickly accomplish the GDI/GDI+/Direct3D fusion. Except Direct2D is a god-awful API. That, and Direct2D requires a DirectX 10-compliant graphics card to run, as well as Vista or Windows 7. It’s bad enough Z2 needs a DirectX 9.0c-compliant card now, and I didn’t want the make the situation worse. By writing my own routines, Z2 remains compatible with Windows XP and graphics cards circa 2005. Which is pretty good, all things considered.

How does it work?
In technical terms, Zafehouse 2 generates a couple of D3D-compatible textures from PNGs for compositing purposes at startup. This takes a couple of milliseconds. We also create some device independent bitmaps for direct blitting, but we don’t have to worry about that.

Whenever compositing is required, the game sends the textures to the D3D renderer, paints them to an off-screen surface, downloads the data into system memory, and then blits it directly to the GDI+ graphics object using GDI calls. In the case of Intel chips, we lock the surface and perform the blit directly. In the case of NVIDIA/AMD cards (which use dedicated video RAM), we copy the surface to another surface in system RAM using GetRenderTargetData, and then blit directly from that surface.

The reason for the two different paths is because it’s faster to copy directly on Intel GPUs as they don’t have dedicated video RAM so, essentially, locking the rendering surface is like locking another chunk of system RAM and doing a direct copy which, as you can imagine, is faster than copying it to another surface in system RAM and copying from that.

For cards with dedicated RAM, locking the video surface directly is actually slower. GetRenderTargetData is heavily optimised for these chips, so doing a surface to surface copy followed by a blit is actually pretty fast, even on crappy low-end NVIDIA/AMD cards.

The result is a GDI/GDI+ based graphics engine that offloads compositing (so alpha-blending and overlays) to video hardware. This means we can make use of hardware acceleration, as GDI+ is completely software driven.

It’s true that copying data from video RAM to system RAM is a bit of a performance hog (and I’m sure there are more than a few coders out there shaking their heads), but in practice it’s much, much faster than even the most heavily-optimised GDI+ routines.

What is GDI+ good for then?
Rendering text. My god, it’s great at that. I actually implemented text rendering via D3D in my renderer, but it looked like garbage. GDI+, on the other hand, looks amazing, as it supports a number of quality features D3D’s Font class does not (hinting, gamma correction, etc). So, I’m happy to take a minor performance hit to keep text rendering in software.

GDI+ also makes alpha-blending images easy, but the performance hit is quite nasty, even with double-buffering and razor-accurate dirty rectangles. Credit where credit’s due – it’s simple to use but not at all a great performer.

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Welcome to the new-look Zafehouse 2, or Zafehouse 2.5 to help separate it from previous efforts. The game is based entirely around manipulation of a dynamic journal. Chapters keep locations, events, supplies and survivor information nicely contained. A special context-sensitive entry system allows you to configure events, lock them in, and then accelerate time. When something occurs, time will stop, allowing you to react however you see fit.

Survivors will report in as they return from their adventures, meaning you must rely entirely on them for information. Figure out who to trust, and you’ll do fine. Piss everyone off, and you’re all doomed.

Expect more shots and info in the coming weeks.

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It grew, exponentially, until it wasn’t what it needed to be – a successor to Zafehouse. It became its own game, a game I didn’t want to make.

Consider it the first prototype.

A little side project – a 2D map generator – I’d been working on while hacking away at Deadshed suddenly became the new Zafehouse 2. It was closer to the game’s original vision, just with more stuff. Lots of neat features were added to this generator, until it started turning into a game.

And then I got suckered into building three combat engines, which culminated in a solid tactical 2D game. I’m actually happy with the result, and I have no doubt a fun game of some description could come of this project.

But again, it wouldn’t be Zafehouse.

After spending weeks contemplating the future of the game, I decided to follow my gut. As painful as it was to do, I shelved the Zafehouse 2 codebase and accepted it as the second prototype.

I then started on Zafehouse 2.5, scavenging a couple of chunks from Zafehouse 2 – the audio engine, random name generator and a few miscellaneous bits and bobs.

Yes, I’m essentially starting Zafehouse’s sequel from scratch, again. But the clarity of thought, purity of design, experience and elegance I’m bringing from Deadshed and Z2 are worth their weight in blood-stained gold. I’m finally happy, completely, with the direction the latest incarnation is taking and, for the first time in at least a year, I’m really enjoying working on the game. The inspiration and passion have returned, and these are by far the most potent qualities a developer can bring to a title.

So there you have it – an honest assessment and lowdown of the current state of the project. For everyone who’s stayed with the game, I can’t begin to thank you for putting up with the sparodic updates and procrastination. This year’s been hard on the game industry, particularly in Australia, both emotionally and financially. It’s good to be able to once again take a firm grasp of the fundamentals, the primal drive for doing this thing, and wield like a dwarven berserker would a mangled hatchet in the face of a stalwart, somewhat insane orc army.

As for tangibles, expect screenshots and gameplay details in the New Year. Until then, enjoy the holidays. :)

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One word: Work. Real life has kind of gobbled my time, just as I was making headway on Z2. It could be argued that I should be able to make time for the game, and that’s true, to a point. But Z2 needs large blocks of time spent on it for system implementation; chipping away at this sort of thing will only result in a “bitsy” game. It needs elegance, and that can only come from a holistic approach.

I will say that I’m seriously considering redoing combat. Again. The current system, while neat, takes away from what Zafehouse is all about. The game right now is about combat, and Zafehouse was never a combat simulator. I won’t be working on combat though once I get back to Z2. I’m keen to get the relationship systems up and running, as well as the survivor and safehouse stuff.

Combat will once again take the form of an event log, like the first game, but it will have a little more depth and interaction to it. But I want to stress that strategy and preparation are key in Zafehouse, not tactics. The current combat system does nothing to support this.

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A few things, though:

1) It’s a demo! There’s probably 10 minutes of gameplay in this thing, tops. It’s just a taster, a sample. It’s not meant to be a whole game. I desperately wanted to let people know that yes, the game is still in development. The demo is also a platform to deliver feedback on the general feel and direction. Try not to nitpick, but don’t hesitate to offer a comment or two.

2) Read the readme! It contains a list of requirements. Before you start posting that you can’t get it working, make sure you’ve installed all the necessary software and are running the correct operating system. It should go without saying I can’t provide support for anyone running the game under emulation (WINE, VMWare, Mono, etc).

3) Speaking of reading, look at the demo tutorial! If you just jump into the game and are completely lost, be it on your own head. If you read the tutorial and still can’t make heads or tails of things, go ahead and fire some questions.

4) The download is around 8.5MB… just in case that’s going to bust your download limit for the month.

5) Performance. It’s not as fast as it could be, especially when you have a lot of overlapping awareness arcs. Optimising comes much later when the rest of the game is solid.

All I can think of for now. Will probably update this post as I remember stuff.

Download: Zafehouse 2 combat demo

FAQ

When I run Zafehouse 2.exe I get an error about reading game values
Download this replacement executable: http://downloads.zafehouse.com/zafehouse2/z2fix.zip. It should fix the problem.

When I run the game, I get an error about the audio subsystem
To fix this, you’ll need to install the following files:

SlimDX runtime
The latest DirectX 9.0c runtime (note that Windows Vista and Windows 7 do not come with DX9 by default, and having DX10 is not enough!). You can also try the end-user runtime
Microsoft Visual C++ 2008 runtime
Microsoft Visual C++ 2005 runtime

I’m still getting errors!
We can track down the exact problem using Dependency Walker. If you’re not afraid of a little techiness, download DW, run it and then drag the SlimDX.dll in the Zafehouse 2 directory into the program’s open window. It’ll tell you straight away what’s missing!

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So, if you’d like to keep abreast of developments, sign up to the Zafehouse Twitter feed: http://twitter.com/Zafehouse. For major features or changes, however, I’ll be writing them up here on the blog where there’s more than 140 characters to play with.

For those who haven’t been following Twitter, I’ve finished implementing the new, saner firing code and am charging ahead with the tutorials and general polish.

Not long now…

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The code also did something unexpected but extremely neat – zombies fade into view as they move adjacent to a survivor, so it looks like they’re coming out of a fog to attack you. It’s quite terrifying.

I know a lot of this sounds like gobbledygook as combat has changed so much since the initial video, but I wanted to let everyone know ZH2 is definitely alive. Well, as alive as a zombie game can be. Once you play the combat demo, it’ll all make sense. Trust me!

I’m moving onto the firing code tonight, because it’s been bugging me for a while now. I’m trying to figure out an elegant solution to adding bursts into the existing system, but I’m concerned I’ll need to rewrite it. Which would suck, as I’ve already rewritten it once.

Ah, to refactor or not refactor… that is the question!

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Fiddling around with the firing logic too. At the moment, survivors try to guess how many shots it’ll take to kill each zombie in their line of sight, starting with the weakest. I thought it was cool until someone pointed out that it’s not realistic. At all. It’s also annoying when a survivor guesses a zombie should take two shots to kill, they fire those two shots and… one of them misses. Cue unexpected flesh-munching.

What (trained) people usually do when they fire a gun is use bursts. The new firing logic will go “Okay, I’m going to fire x rounds at the closest, weakest zombie I can see. If it dies, move onto something else. Otherwise, fire another burst”. The x is determined by the weapon and experience level of the survivor.

Once the combat demo is out, I’ll be curious to hear how people find the auto target selection/shooting done by survivors. I wanted to add more control, without entirely sacrificing the feel of the first game.

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As I mentioned in a previous update, the original combat implementation was ground into a fine, code-tasting dust and packed away, replaced by an infinitely deeper (and juicier) solution that uses firing arcs.

Entering into combat hasn’t changed – you still click on the event in the event window – and the representation of the room is similar too. The difference is that zombies are no longer shown as one large group, they’re now broken up into individual flesh-eating nasties. Weapons have also evolved, the far/close/melee profiles exchanged for variable firing arcs and shot modes. For example, the shotgun has a wide firing arc and shoots pellets in a spread, but it can only fire once per turn and has a short range. A submachine gun on the other hand has a medium firing arc and range, but you can shoot up to six bullets at one or multiple targets. Keep in mind that each bullet fired in the same turn reduces the accuracy of the shot that follows it.

Hit the jump for an additional screenshot which show projectiles in flight. Yes, I said projectiles.

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I’m personally a little giddy about how it’ll all play out, and I reckon you’ll be pleasantly surprised yourself with the revamped combat. It has a flavour all its own, one I’m quite proud of. The instant it’s all working, expect a shiny video.

I will be working very, very hard to release the game this year, and extra super hard to squeeze it out a demo before the end of June.

Z2 has benefited enormously from the input of (what I hope are) fans, and it is a better game for those lovingly suggested modifications. In particular, kulik242 seems to have a direct connection to my brain; many of his suggestions adding the final pieces to my own, half-formed ideas. I think it’s wise to listen to those on the outside, the external observers, because distance is a magical thing in the creative realms.

In the meantime, if the survival horror simulation itch just won’t go away, check out Zafehouse: Infection, a user-made mod of the original Zafehouse. It’s got me thinking Z1 could do with a refresh sometime in the future…

Once Z2 is done, of course. :)

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I know, sad faces incoming.

I’m going to take this opportunity to relax and recharge so I can come back and redouble my efforts on the game and the 4e Power Toolkit. Speaking of the 4ePT, I’ve started work on a localisation manager that should make it a cinch for people to translate the app into other languages. I’ve done about 40% of the groundwork, and hope to have a new version out in January.

As for Zafehouse 2, I’m in the process of adding perks and rewriting the combat engine. The first one was always going to be a prototype, and now that I have a better idea of the direction the game is heading, I can solidify this aspect of the design. The new combat engine and screen will be more interactive, dynamic and pretty, and will introduce a new concept – firing arcs.

But details can wait until 2010. ;) Until then, happy holidays and enjoy the break!

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The mod includes the following changes:

- Infection is now contagious, but there is a small chance to heal it.

- Weapons can be loaded automatically, and when giving a range weapon to someone, is it automatically loaded with one box.

- Barricades higher than heavy block survivors movement

- It is possible to weaken barricades to recover some supplies

- Survivors fighting alongside family members [survivors with the same surname] get an attack and defense bonus

- A survivor can only be cured once per hour.

If you’d like to help flap out, or just give his version a whirl, head over to the progress log on the forums, or check out the list of planned changes and ideas.

Zafehouse Infection V1.00 – Fan edition – Progress Log [Zafehouse forums]

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Zafehouse 2′s first scenario, called “Patient Zero”, starts you off with two survivors. Both are civilians without intrinsic perks or abilities. They call a lone, 3-4 room house their base. The supply situation is grim at best. Sure, medicines, barricades and even weapons would be great, but if they plan on coming out of the apocalypse unscathed, they’re going to need something special.

They’ll need someone who knows what the hell they’re doing.

To satisfy this desperate requirement, the scenario allows you to recruit up to four additional survivors, for a total of six. If you stick to raiding houses and stores, then your group will slowly fill with civilians, just as green behind the ears as your original duo. But, if you’re willing to take a few (properly prepared for) risks, then a grizzled cop, knowledgeable doctor or calming priest could call your cohort home.

Let’s pick out the cop to show how expert survivor recruitment works. You’ve gone and raided a few homes and collected a pistol, a few bats and a machete. You’ve scavenged a couple of meds and have enough barricades to insulate your main party from your forward scout if things turn gruesome. You distribute your weapons, hand over your bandages to your scout, and move your guys outside the police station.

You’re as ready as you’ll ever be.

Searching a large and important building like the police station is a dangerous affair. During the start of the outbreak, it’d have looked an appealing sanctuary for the scared masses… including those already infected. It’s not the hive of undead activity the hospital is, but it remains an active breeding ground for zombies. In fact, unless you bust in with a squad of shotgun-wielding crack commandos, someone’s going to die.

Or worse, become infected.

But, these are the choices you have to make. Surely the experience of a seasoned constable is worth the risk of losing someone? The final assault will be more easily weathered with their collected mental and physical prowess. Is that enough to justify leaving a survivor behind as zombie food?

It’s entirely up to you.

If you do go ahead, you’ll need to clear at least 50% of the police station. After this point, you’re guaranteed to find a cop hiding out somewhere inside the building. It could be the very next room after the 50% mark, or it could be the last, frenzied clearing of a undead-packed gaol cell. If uncertainty makes you nervous, you can always improve your chances by splitting up and clearing rooms faster.

You know, if you think your survivors can handle a dozen zombies solo.

When the cop does show up, you’ll be glad you went to the trouble. Unlike the frightened novices you’ve collect so far, cops come equipped with a firearm, a combat perk and a unique “group” bonus. As long as other survivors stay near them, they’ll benefit from their leadership and perform better and last longer.

More details of each survivor type will be released once they’re finalised. Sufficed to say, you’re going to want a couple in your final group… unless a gory slaughter at the hands (and teeth) of a horde of hungry reanimated corpses tweaks your knobs.

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For now, Firefox and Chrome love it, and that suits me just great. Go take a look!

Zafehouse [Official site]

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That is until now.

In the original game, medicines had one function – to heal injured survivors. For the sequel I decided to expand on medicine’s role, and it was posts from curious players that helped inspire its more involved place. Said posts would ask “What do antibiotics do, and how can I use them?”, referring to the text that appears sometimes after you raid a building. Sadly, this text was simply flavour, and those “antibiotics” just went to your medicine pool.

Things have changed in Z2.

Players have a number of priorities in the game: gathering supplies, finding survivors and keeping the zombie count at manageable levels. The biggest two however are the physical and mental health of your survivors. You’ll have to monitor stamina, tenacity and injuries and make sure no one falls unconscious, goes insane or dies. Currently, if a survivor drops below 50% of their maximum in any health-related statistic, they run the risk of copping a serious disability, which will trouble them for the rest of the game (or their life, whichever ends first).

Painkillers, sedatives and stimulants can ward off and, when the inevitable happens, minimise the effects of permanent disabilities. Bandages are technically a “drug” as far as the game is concerned, but their functionality is limited to healing a single level of wounds. Drugs, on the other hand, have multiple uses… and drawbacks.

For instance, if a survivor becomes crippled, their movement speed outside is reduced, and their aim is affected. You can temporarily nullify these cons by taking painkillers. Painkillers can also be taken by a non-crippled survivor, where they provide a temporary health boost that reduces the survivor to a near-death state once they wear off. Crippled survivors cannot benefit from this special bonus – the painkillers already have their job cut out for them.

Drugs sound great, right? Not so much if used in excess. All drugs have a cooldown, so you can’t just stuff your face with stimulants when its raining zombies during the longest night of your survivor’s life. All drugs impose temporary cons when their cooldown is up. Finally, the game keeps track of how often you take each drugs and, if you tempt fate long enough, you’ll develop an addiction or worse, suffer an overdose.

I’m talking about drugs in Z2 right now because that’s what I’m working on in the game. Next, I plan to flesh out some of the survivor events, which will involve work on the newly coded “Situation Tracker”. It’s kind of like L4D AI Director, though I wouldn’t start comparing the two games. :P

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Currently, you can only move to entrances and zombie “hotspots”, as I didn’t really see the need to position survivors outside in the middle of nowhere. If someone can give me a really (really) good reason why it should be any different, I’ll think about it.

Implementing outside movement required me to confront my fear of A* pathfinding and, while it was a tortuous and many times frustrating endeavour, my work paid off.

I also took the opportunity to give the underlying graphics engine (which isn’t so much an engine as it is one of those tiny electric motors you get in a toy racecar) a boost. The game now supports double-buffering of the pixel kind, which has improved drawing performance by a metric arseload. Scrolling around the map is now smooth as buttery silk, even considering the sledgehammer-like approach I have to 2D visuals (read: amping the crud out of GDI+)

It’s time now in Zafehouse 2′s development for me to work on the meat and potatoes… or the “actual game” as it’s called in some parts. Which means details should get juicer, and the gameplay videos tastier as time goes on.

Again, thanks for bearing with me. There are moments when I wish I had whole days (weeks even) to commit to the title, instead of the couple of hours a night I have now. I’m not at the point yet where I’m willing to sacrifice my social life. :)

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With the video out, everyone has a more grounded view of what will be in the game and its presentation.

There’s so much I’d like to do, but the video has really made the issue of feature creep hit home. It sneaks up on you so easily. You get into a pattern of putting a feature in, adding a new one to the list… but not making any actual progress. I think everyone would prefer if Zafehouse 2 was a complete, polished game, rather than a heap of disjointed, unfinished chunks that simply “showed potential”.

There’s also all the time in the world for expansions and patches. :)

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Here’s the first of what I hope will be many videos demonstrating Zafehouse 2′s gameplay. The focus this time round is combat, of which you’ll get a quick glimpse. The video isn’t hosted here because the dimensions don’t fit on the page, so clicking the image above or the link at the bottom of this post will take you to my sister site, Uudders.

I’m sure the video will bring about more questions than answers, so don’t hesitate to ask away. A few notes:

* The game is played at a resolution of 1024 x 768 so the video didn’t turn out massive, which means the controls are a little cramped. The game supports any resolution a monitor can produce, so don’t worry about that.

* The text might be a little hard to see, but should be readable.

* Yes, these guys are firing weapons with no ammo. I didn’t think the combat video would be very fun if everyone was running out of ammo. :P

* Nothing in this video is final! Weapon damage, zombie strength, all that stuff is undergoing a lot of tuning!

Can’t think of anything else right now, but I’m sure things will come up. For now, enjoy the vid!

Zafehouse 2: Gameplay video #1 [Uudders]

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And I did it. My fingers are looking a little nubby, but hey, I can always learn to type with my toes.

Of course, it’ll need tuning, and bells and whistles, but the functionality is working great. I’m really pleased with the zoomed-in room, it adds another, much needed layer to the proceedings. I also took steps to “compact” zombie activities… while each zombie is individually simulated, I don’t think you want to read 15 lines of combat log every time they try to bite you. Instead, zombies will pick tasty targets, and attack in packs. So, the combat log is verbose when reporting on your survivors, but succinct when it comes to the undead.

The more immediate pay-off for this work is that I’m reasonably confident I can put up a video this week of combat. Consider it a gift for those who have stuck with me through the game’s development!

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