For this week’s peek, I’ve rounded up a couple of posts I’ve made recently that contain info on Zafehouse 2. If you missed them, then I’m sure you’ll find this interesting. If not, feel free to read them again!

Movement is pretty streamlined at the moment. The amount of actions a survivor can perform is determined by their location. Clearing an unexplored or retaken room and entering/leaving a building takes one turn. Moving from any one room to another room within a building takes one turn, so long as the path between the rooms is clear. Barricading all the doors in a room takes one turn, while combat can occur over multiple turns. Each turn is around 15 minutes, and the entire game occurs over the course of 24 hours. So you’re looking at about 96 turns in total, but there are ways to reduce/increase this number through perks and events. Basically, I’m not sure how vehicles would fit into this. It might be the basis of a scenario though.

Zombies won’t be the only enemies you encounter, but combat currently is purely with the undead. Events will come up that ask you to deal with other survivors, either by incorporating them into your group, giving them supplies or, if you’re feeling evil, killing them. It’s possible that an expansion might include combat with humans (or even animals) but the AI to do this would be a task in itself. As you can imagine, zombie AI isn’t massively complex. :)

Buildings will only have multiple rooms, yes. I was contemplating multiple floors, and it’s still a possibility, but it’s very low on the list (mainly for technical reasons). There’s already quite a bit of tactical decision-making and I’m happy with the balance right now. As for survivors in rooms – that’s the core gameplay! Making choices about which building (or buildings) to hold up in for the final assault, which doors to barricade, how many supplies/weapons to leave in caches (as your survivors have limited carrying capacities) is what it’s all about. :) Also, the shotgun is no longer the be-all, end-all of weapons. Some are better at taking out zombies when they close in on a building, some are better at picking them off through barricades, and others are superior when they’re right on top of you. That’s why survivors can carry two weapons. For example, a bolt-action rifle is great for the first attack, but you’ll be dumping it quickly once they’re at the door for an SMG, and then when they bust through, you’ll have the shotgun or machete ready.

There’s a lot of backend stuff that’s been done. Most of the work now is content-related (writing event text and actions) and getting the combat system working (it’s probably the most complex part of the game). I could release something, but it’d be like playing Solitaire with the numbers missing on the cards. :P I plan to release a demo at some stage, but it won’t be for a few months. Sorry!

Continue reading ‘Zafehouse 2 feature sneak peek #2: A collection of comments’

Posted in Zafehouse 2

I only just found this review of Zafehouse at ThanksForPlaying, though it was written more than a year ago. I think it does a great job of summarising what the game is all about.

There’s one section in particular I got a lot out of, which I’ll replicate here:

The big thing is when you play the game is that its plot sneaks up on you. At least it snuck up on me. Which is very odd being that there is no plot. None. No scripted events, no expository notices during gameplay, no radio transmissions, nada. So how did a plot sneak in when I played? The game is so basic, so lacking in story direction that I made it myself. I couldn’t help it. These people I controlled all had names. Except for the three I start out with I saved all of them. They were all people who I began to fill in their lives.

My original 3 fighters all took control. They had the best guns, they always had the most ammo, and they always were the first on the front lines. They cleared houses and buildings valiantly, they saved the weak and bashed the undead. Then Robert got bit. He was hurt and fevered. Delirious from the attack George and Harry brought Robert back to the house. The house that in my mind’s eye was the house I now live in. Robert was laid down on the couch and Harry patched up the injured arm. Robert said he was fine and demanded to go back out to search for more survivors. So the three of them went out. They found so[me] water and so[me] ammunition, and then came back. Robert wasn’t looking any better. He was still sick, and getting worse. It was only a matter of time and they all knew it. It was a necessary betrayal but even so had anyone survived that horrible night, none would have forgiven themselves.

George and Harry confronted Robert at the front door of the house. They refused to let him pass.

I think I’ve mentioned it before, but the real game behind Zafehouse only became apparent to me when other people started playing it.

So, once again, I’d like to thank, profusely, anyone and everyone who has played Zafehouse. You honestly are my motivation and inspiration.

Posted in Zafehouse

Tags: diary games, reviews, survival horror, Zafehouse, Zombies

No, no. This isn’t another post about Zafehouse 2. It is zombie-spiced though, and you can’t be sad about that.

There’s a story (it’s a little advertise-y) over at the Wall Street Journal about a fellow called Robert Smith? (the question mark is part of his name, it seems), an assistant professor at the University of Ottawa. He’s putting out a book soon on infectious diseases that’ll include a chapter called – wait for it – “When Zombies Attack!: Mathematical Modeling of an Outbreak of Zombie Infection“.

Gets me randy, it does. A bit from the WSJ story:

If you go for a cure, “unless the cure was 100%, which it would never be in reality, you can’t turn all the zombies back.” You wind up with “this equilibrium where people are always switching back and forth” between human and zombie. Entirely unsatisfactory.

Cure? Pfft, we know there’s no cure. Luckily, it seems there’s another answer:

…the students were interested in a mathematical technique that looks at intermittent pulses of activity. So they modeled a human counterattack that came in multiple waves.

“While aggressive quarantine may contain the epidemic, or a cure may lead to coexistence of humans and zombies,” they concluded, “the most effective way to contain the rise of the undead is to hit hard and hit often.”

The best part? You don’t need to buy the book to check out the research, the chapter is available free as a PDF. I just skimmed it and the amount of numbers mixed with letters mixed with insane is, well, insane. But the References section is packed with everything from Romero and Brooks to Mikami and Pegg, so the pedigree is super-fine.

Be warned, it’s dense as heck.

Posted in Zombies

Tags: maths, news, science, statistics, Zombies

Here’s the first in what I hope is a series of sneak peeks at the fun, and somewhat corpulent, contents of Zafehouse 2. I wanted something entertaining to kick things off and so, I’m pleased to introduce the booze bomb.

First, a bit of background. In Zafehouse, you had to collect water to keep your survivors hydrated. Water didn’t serve any other purpose, and it’s not surprising that it was a neglected resource. I wanted to change that in Z2.

Now, water has been replaced with alcohol, everyone’s favourite beverage.

Alcohol is collected like ammo, barricades and medicine. You’ll find plenty of bottles in houses and stores, but not so much in police stations or hospitals. Alcohol can be used to make Molotov cocktails, to douse and burn suspicious-looking corpses, to steady the nerves and, if consumed in copious amounts, to uh, waste the undead.

Let me explain. Imagine John finds himself alone without a bullet or weapon to his name. The necrotic, animated remains of his friends and family are bashing down his bedroom door and, it goes without saying, things are looking grimmer than a 24-hour Brady Bunch special. What’s our doomed John going to do?

Continue reading ‘Zafehouse 2 feature sneak peek #1: The booze bomb’

Posted in Zafehouse 2, Zombies

Tags: games, undead, vb .net, Zafehouse, Zafehouse 2, Zombies

If you’re not a regular user of the 4e Power Toolkit, you might be unaware that there’s been four – yes, four – updates to the app since v0.5. I like to address minor bugs and even small features that can be implemented quickly, hence the rapid pace of releases.

Here’s a complete list of changes.

=v0.5.4 beta=
* The “Racial” option in the power type dropdown of the Power Creator now displays the correct output
* Default filenames will now be stripped of HTML tags

=v0.5.3 beta=
* At-Will, Encounter and Daily powers at levels 2, 6, 10, 16 and 22 are now grouped together as Utility powers when exported as HTML in the Class Creator
* The Power Creator will no longer obscure controls when resized
* Powers can once again have ranges without attack subtypes
* Added Beast as an attack subtype
* Racial powers now read as “Racial Power” instead of just “Racial”
* Added No Action as an action type

=v0.5.2 beta=
* Added Daggers, Tomes and Totems to possible implements
* Fixed a crash with PDF exporting

=v0.5.1 beta=
* Changed the width of powers to 3.25in (~298px) to match the size of the PHB format
* Class Creator export dialog now provides a default filename

Not groundbreaking stuff, but there might be a change or two in there that prompts you to take another look at the Toolkit.

Posted in 4e D&D, Advice/Tools, Dungeons and Dragons

Tags: 4e, 4e power creator, 4e power toolkit, d&d, tools, vb .net

Just a quick note to say I’ll be sitting on a panel about fanboys, games journalism and critiquing at Freeplay today. It starts at 3:30PM in the Experimedia room of the State Library of Victoria, and should run from about an hour to 90 minutes – depends on how much Red Bull I’ve had.

The event itself runs from 14-15 August, so if you’re in Victoria and find yourself outside the State Library around these dates, go check it out. Tickets are $20, which isn’t so bad when you consider the price for conferences such as GameConnect are much steeper.

Posted in Industry news

Tags: events, freeplay, games, victoria

Found this while cruising for a portrait for my 4e D&D character (A Revenant… something). Just one of many reasons why deviantART is the bomb.

House of the Undead [deviantART]

Posted in Zombies

Tags: art, deviantart, house, hugh laurie, humour, left 4 dead, valve

Here’s a ten-minute clip of Joe Larson’s text-based ASCII Portal – a “demake” of Valve’s dimension-sodomising FPS. I’m a sucker for ASCII games, as my previous exploits will reveal. So you can understand that parts of me oscillated at extreme speeds when I copped an eyeful of this video. It’s the good kind of eyeful though, not the sort you see staring into the fetid void that is your laundry basket, or watching an episode of Dollhouse.

A fantastic feat to be sure (especially the ASCII rotation… that just blows my mind), and one I’ll check out properly at my earliest convenience.

Video: ten more minutes of Joe Larson’s ASCII pOrtal [Offworld]

Posted in General

Tags: ascii, ascii portal, nethack, portal, rogue, roguelike, wizkill

What do you get when you combine one of the greatest writers of the Victorian era with Football Manager 2006? I’m glad you asked:

He was always looking for ways to chide me, so I assaulted him with my cane from underneath my sheepskin jacket, to which he welped in delight. He wasn’t fucking right in the head. Thus, we walked into the shit-smelling changing room, and, gathering around what passed for men in the Stanley team, I made a speech, in my usual pleasant and fragrant tones:

“Put them in ovens men, yes we’ll shit on their faces, beat them to crisps and chop them up and bake them.”

They walked out disturbed, but were in the hypnotised frame of mind not to aggravate my temper – they knew me too well, but little did they know I was planning a special holiday at the end of the season, involving knives and Catholic priests in the Amazon rainforest.

Read more Dickensian-inspired footballing. It’s not exactly Great Expectations, but then, what is?

Posted in General

Tags: charles dickens, diary games, football, football manager 2006, humour

Sorry for the lack of updates folks.

I’ve been pretty busy at work lately, and I decided to spend what little spare time I had on the 4e Power Toolkit. I wanted to get the class upload out the door – the longer I left it, the more momentum it lost.

But that’s done now. I don’t plan any major updates to the 4ePT for the time being, so I’m back on Zafehouse 2.

It’s in an odd state at the moment. There’s plenty of core functionality in there, but I feel like it’s missing that extra bit of spice – a quality to really separate it from the original Zafehouse. I’m still trying to nail down what that quality is, but if you have any suggestions, feel free to mention them.

So far we have survivor personalities (and less survivors), the barricading of individual doors, a larger map with randomised building types and sizes, improved perks, getting bitten has more of an impact, an improved events window, survivor conditions (insanity, fear, crippled, etc) and much greater control over the resources you receive.

The objective of the game hasn’t changed much, but there’s now a purpose – collect survivors and supplies and then barricade yourself for a final attack. Your choices, both in resources and the treatment of your survivors, will determine your fate.

So it’s definitely better in many, many ways. But I think it needs more love.

Posted in Zafehouse 2

Tags: games, survival horror, vb .net, Zafehouse, Zafehouse 2, Zombies