Sprint 1

Sprint 1 came and went so quickly it almost makes my head spin. From getting the team together to getting my GDD up and going and answering a thousand questions along the way, I never would’ve expected how it would feel to be the design lead. It’s humbling to start understanding the pipeline from this end and start to see how my decisions affect the rest of the team. That being said, this is a design blog, so let’s dive into what Z.I.E.F. is supposed to be. (All pictures here on this post are just reference and none are of the game, just ideas of what I’m shooting for)

Game Overview

Z.I.E.F. or Zombie Infestation Extermination Force, is supposed to be a tactical, stealthy, first person shooter similar to GTFO where the player is encouraged to think about their actions more than just running and gunning. GTFO was a game I was introduced to a couple years ago and I loved the way it dipped between sneaking around looting and triggering waves of enemies. It really kept the gameplay exciting and constantly moving forward without being entirely about chaotic swarms. I feel like zombie shooters in general haven’t dipped much into this kind of gameplay and I felt like it was a good place to start.

In Z.I.E.F. you play as an advanced, near-future soldier tasked with going into infected hotspot zones to retrieve technology, reactivate systems, and destroy the infected. You’ll be dropped into these zones via helicopter and be given a specific extraction time. You can choose to stay and try to complete more mission objectives and risk being overwhelmed by infected, or get out and live to fight another day.

The premise of Z.I.E.F. was something I thought up a while ago trying to also find a premise that was different from the usual “desperately try to survive the inevitable zombie horde end”. I thought, what if the zombies weren’t so much as a world ending thing anymore, but more a new hazardous part of the environment? What if you weren’t so much hoping to survive the zombies as you are the means to their end? I thought this could be a fun flip on the formula where the player comes from a position of power instead of being put on their heels.

Moving the Player

A big difference between Z.I.E.F. and GTFO is the map layout. Z.I.E.F. will be outdoor maps where GTFO was all indoor. That means I’ll have to work a bit harder to make the player move around the map. The first and biggest way I plan to do this is with the objectives. My goal for each objective is to pull the player around the map. The balance I want to strike with it is making the objectives far enough away from each other that it makes the player travel while also filling their time in between objectives with interesting gameplay so that it doesn’t get boring. The zombies will provide some of that interest but also get the player to move around by pushing them away from areas that are densely populated. This push from the zombies and pull from the objectives should make for some good variety in how the player navigates the levels.

Moment to Moment Gameplay

The goal with the gameplay is to transition the player between tense stealth and exciting run and gun. It’s fun to shoot a lot of zombies but I think it’s also fun to give the zombies a bit more threat. The player will usually start by trying to be stealthy to avoid attracting large crowds of zombies and maybe stealth killing small batches. Eventually, the player should be pushed into a situation where they’re forced to face a horde of zombies. They’ll run into buildings or alleyways, whatever they can do to get a bit of a better angle to handle the horde. I’m hoping to balance the player’s ammunition so that they can handle one and a half big hordes with the ammunition they start with. This will allow them to trigger the horde and still survive, but force them to scavenge for more ammo and be more careful afterwards. This should also enhance the stealth as it raises the stakes a bit more by leaving the player more vulnerable.

Extractions and Mission Rewards

Players will be given a specific extraction time when they start any mission. If players miss the first extraction, they’ll be given a new extraction time later. If a player misses the 3rd extraction window, they’ll be overwhelmed by infected. What first inspired this was the extraction window in Deep Rock Galactic, where once players finish the main objective, they’re given a timer to get back to the ship or face being left behind. Mine is a little different as it’s set from the beginning of the mission and allows for multiple chances to extract. I like this specific extraction window because it then allows time to be another resource the player is allowed to manage. For a more tactical shooter like I want this one to be, I think this is good and provides another layer of depth to the gameplay, making stealth cost actual time as opposed to a lot of games where it’s made to be simply the most resource efficient. Having multiple extraction windows I think also adds more potential for risk vs reward for the player, giving them the option to extract early or stay longer. To play more into this, I’m also designing each objective to have some way to complete either side objectives or get rewarded for going over the main objective. This will be tied together with making the objectives move the player around the map, setting it up so side objectives are those additional points of interest. I think this adds another layer of decision making for the player that should help to keep the gameplay fresh even after a number of runs.

(These pictures I drew myself. I know, the artistry is breathtaking)

UI

Some work that I did specifically this sprint was getting rough drafts of the UI made up so that everyone would 1) Have more of an idea of what the gameplay would feel like and 2) Give more information as to what the player should be seeing on the various different screens. I started with the in-game HUD as I had a pretty solid grasp as to how that looked in my head. I did my best to make all the information the player needed readily available without getting too in the way. I also put all the more frequently needed information towards the bottom of the frame like ammunition, weight, type of gun you’re using, and your noise radius. At the top I put things like the time of day and the overall objective, as the player wouldn’t need to read these quite as often. For the Mission Select screen I liked the idea of an overworld map to help sell the illusion that the player was going to these different regional areas. The maps the players play in will be walled off from the rest of the world, so they won’t be able to see anything outside of it. This gives the player, I think, more grounding and context for where they are even if the two are directly linked. I also liked having the mission objective and the infection density shown for missions that are selected so players have an informed decision of what they’re getting into. For the Equipment screen I looked towards Call of Duty’s loadout screen. That’s where I got a lot of inspiration as I thought it did well to show what the player had, what they could get, and what the stats were of each item they chose. The Mission Rewards screen is a bit less inspired and I’m still chewing over how I think the final design should look. I know the player should be told the objectives they completed, the bonus objectives they completed, and how much money/points they earned for doing so, but beyond that I’m still debating. Maybe a kill count would be a fun stat to show, perhaps time spent running, number of headshots made, all these things I think could add some more flair to the end screen and possibly add to what the player makes at the end of the mission.

Design Up Next

While I do have a pretty solid vision of the main gameplay elements and the loop as a whole, the game still has a lot that it needs to really flesh out the gameplay. These are little things that keep the gameplay interesting and make sure the player isn’t repeating the same actions and patterns too often. Locked containers in the environment that a player has to find a key for or maybe complete a minigame to open. Environmental events like maybe dangerous weather, car alarms going off, or roaming zombies can also fill in the gaps here keeping the player on their toes. These are just examples of things but overall these are things I’m considering will need to be added to the game to really flesh it out and make it a deeper, more engaging experience.