Welcome back production blog for sprint 4 of ZIEF! My name is Justin and I’m excited to share all the amazing work our team has been creating for the project! For everyone who is new to the production blogs, ZIEF is a tactical zombie stealth game in which a player is dropped off in an infested zone where they can complete a variety of missions. Our team has been working diligently to create as many of the mechanics and props to complete the vision of our designer Christian. You can learn more about Christian’s vision by reading his designer blog here. 

Sprint 4 marks the halfway point of our production cycle. During sprint 4 we focused on populating more of our buildings and adding verticality to our modular sets. Our programmers have also been working on implementing quality of life improvements including an inventory system, zombie hordes and gun reloading animations. The modeling team has continued working to make our world feel more lived in by creating props to be placed around the levels. While our level designer has shifted to creating finalized levels for players to explore. 

Modeling:

As the game is supposed to take place in an abandoned city we’ve always had the vision to add multiple floors to buildings. Part of our modeling team has been working  on modular sets for upper floors so our level designer can start implementing verticality to the game. We’re also adding more store fronts to the modular sets to make the buildings more distinct from each other. The rest of our modeling team has continued to make more props to be placed around the level. We also have models completed for radio towers and substations to add more mission variety around the levels. You can check out the completed work by our modeling team in the images down below!

Programming:

This sprint our programmers have been focused on making animations, zombie hording and an inventory system for players. Our goal for the zombies is to have zombies that players can shoot and kill as they explore the levels. But ZIEF is primarily a game with stealth mechanics. In order to make the stealth mechanics more prevalent our programming team has been working on making hordes of zombies that will encourage players to choose sneaking over fighting. We also want players to feel like the mechanics of the guns feel fluid. Our programmers have been working on creating reload animations for the guns in the game. For some missions players will move around levels picking up items to complete objectives. Items have weight and will slow down player movement as they pick up more items. To give players more control over what they’ve picked up, our programmers have implemented an inventory system. Players will now be able to remove items they pick up. If a player becomes overburdened and their movement speed slows, players are able to remove items from their inventory to better escape the zombies. Check out examples of these systems down below!

Level Design:

As our production is winding down our level designer has begun creating finalized versions of the buildings that will make up our game world. The finalized buildings have all the props and pickups in place for the players to interact with. In order to fill the game world we will have multiple layouts of the same building type throughout the map. While exploring players can come across one layout of a grocery store and encounter a completely different layout in a different section of the map. By using different layouts we can increase the variety of building types and make the world feel like they’re in a different location. Check out the completed work from our level designer down below!

Conclusion:

Our team has continued to complete an impressive amount of work. This sprint our team had a total of 175 points assigned and they completed 133 points. During our next sprint we will continue to refine our game loop so players can play through an entire mission from start to finish. We also plan to create a currency system so players can purchase attachments to adjust the stats of weapons. Look forward to more from the world of ZIEF during our next production post!