Progress Report – ZPG Closed Alpha Push

Hi everyone. We’re back with another ZPG monthly update. First thing’s first, we want to inform everyone that the decision has been made to push the ZPG Closed Alpha release date. The ZPG Closed Alpha release is now slated for March. This also effects the Open Alpha release, but by what amount depends mostly upon how well Closed Alpha goes. So – we know what you’re thinking: How the…what the…who when??? Here’s the break-down:

1. Steamworks Works – Throwing a game on Steam for people to download isn’t rocket science. We upload it, you download it. For ZPG we are striving for more than just that. There are several services Valve offers that we certainly want ZPG to leverage, some being: matchmaking, Valve anti-cheat (VAC), voice, achievements, Workshop integration, and more. If we were using the Source Engine instead of Unity3D, it would make things much easier for us from the perspective of integrating these services. But, having said that, just because things are very tricky, does not mean they are impossible. We are feature greedy for ZPG, so we want to integrate as many of Valve’s services available through Steam as we can (plus a bag of chips). So we are making it work. The Closed Alpha push is the TLC needed to make this a potential reality with the ultimate goal of making ZPG a completely seamless experience.

2.

We breifly mentioned an Artificial Intellegence (AI) system we are using for Zombie Playground back in Update #20. To get into more detail, it is a system that plugs into Unity3D called ‘RAIN{one}’ and is made by a company called Rival{Theory} (http://rivaltheory.com/). Upon digging into Rain{one} for ZPG, we found we had some questions, comments, and workflow ideas, so we attempted to contact Rival{Theory} in order to hopefully begin a dialogue. As it turns out, that was the best thing we could have done. Not only are they great folks, but now we are working together to make this game as awesome as it should be. Who better to give the keys to the car than the person who actually made it? The team at Rival{Theory} was so jazzed, they have decided to actually trump themselves, and incorporate an even more robust AI system for Zombie Playground. They will first be removing RAIN{one} from our current ZPG build in order to replace it with their newest endeavor, a previously unannounced techonogy called Sentio. Sentio is a much larger platform which does include RAIN technology. Since the Sentio technology is still super secret, super safe, we’ll be releasing specifics once we’re given the green light. You can check it out here: http://rivaltheory.com/sentio. Showcasing this new technology in Zombie Playground sounds just amazingly cool to us, and we hope you’ll feel the same.

As a side note, we thought we would also post up an ‘abridged’ Programming Completed Tasks List. If interested, you can find it here: http://www.zombieplaygroundgame.com/forum/discussion/299/programming-completed-tasks-list-abridged

All of us here at MB are committed to making Zombie Playground a game that is, above all else, fun to play. We have been spending the bulk of our time getting ZPG to feel good, responsive, and steadily inching towards that ‘fun’ thing. Gameplay is our A-Number1. The game absolutely has to feel good and be fun before we’ll be satisfied.

3D Sculpts – More Janitor Love – !SPOILER ALERT!

We’ve got more Janitor 3D sculpt love for you today; one of which is an exclusive ‘not yet revealed’ Janitor. So, here’s your SPOILER ALERT, close your eyes and DO NOT scroll down if you don’t want to know!

But can you really stop your mouse wheel from scrolling down on it’s own?? CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE!

Non-Spoiler Janitor

SPOILER JANITOR

You can discuss these images here: http://www.zombieplaygroundgame.com/forum/discussion/297/zpg-3d-sculpts-more-janitor-love-spoiler-alert

Two-Hand Weapons – Concept to 3D Coolness!

So there is this guy who likes to draw. Luckily he comes on our ZPG forum from time to time to show everyone his crazy skills, and illustrate his dedication to inventing cool ideas for Zombie Playground. You might know him from our ZPG forums as ‘GillBates’, but upon unmasking the moniker, we discovered his real name is Jomaro Kindred. Well, if you’ve ever seen his stuff, you probably know what’s coming next. This guy absolutely rocks! So much in fact, that we yanked him aboard the ZPG train! (don’t worry we reinserted his arm afterward).

We think it’s just incredible to make relationships like this through a game idea and a forum, how cool is that!? There’s nothing better than bringing a community member on board who is as stoked about ZPG as we are. Jason Chan and Jomaro teaming up on concepts is the coolest ever. So, with no further ado, here is a very small taste of the many new weapon ideas from the man himself, Jomaro Kindred. The first image you’ll see is a selection of his two-handed weapon concepts, followed by their conversion into the 3D realm. Much love also goes out to our 3D team for getting these models spot on to Jomaro’s concepts! Good work guys! Please also look up some of Jomaro’s additional character concept art on our ZPG forum, and on his own site (http://kindredconcepts.com/), we promise you won’t be disappointed. And who knows, you just might see…

Enjoy the art and rock on Jomaro, you are awesome! We heart you! CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE!

Two-Hand Weapon Concepts

Two-Hand Weapon 3D Conversion

You can discuss these images here: http://www.zombieplaygroundgame.com/forum/discussion/298/zpg-2-hand-weapons-concept-to-3d-coolness

New Music

Last but never least, indeed we do have a new sound clip from Zombie Playground to share called ‘Zombie Rider.’ Shawn Lee is a composing animal, completing over 10 tracks for ZPG. So get out your headphones, jack up the volume and have a good listen; there’s a lot of creepy-cool subtlety on the build-up of this one, and we’ve left you just a taste of the crescendo’s payoff. Feel free to give Shawn a shout out in the comments! Enjoy.

As always, if you’d like to join us on our ZPG forum, please head over to http://www.zombieplaygroundgame.com/forum/. Expect another ZPG update around this same time next month! We wish you all a jolly, safe holiday season and a Happy New Year! Full steam ahead.