[TheMCP]

Splitting this conversation from over in the uDevGames 2008 thread.

Janichsan, on March 11th 2009, 09:45 AM, said:

uDeadGame could be fun, but doesn't play very well.

TheMCP, on March 11th 2009, 08:11 PM, said:

Could you elaborate? Doesn't play well as in doesn't run smooth?
Could I get some system specs if thats the case?
Or doesn't play well as in you didn't get the gameplay and were expecting it to do things
it didn't do, or it did things you didn't expect it to do?

Janichsan, on March 12th 2009, 02:55 AM, said:

It's the gameplay. First of all, I find the maximum viewing distance is far too short.
I assume that might be intentional, nevertheless, it makes the level layout slightly confusing since you
can easily miss a fork in the path. Furthermore, you see your enemies only when you almost run into them.

The controls are too sensitive – some slider to adjust that might help.

And last but not least, I found it to be difficult to select a specific target for the zombies to attack, especially when the target is moving.
That probably is result of a combination of the too sensitive controls and the humans' rather high movement speed.

Thanks for the feedback, mouse senstivity and gamma controls were on the to do list before there
was even a name for the game, but after making and testing the game for two months enjoying
the game with its slick mouse action and a deadline approaching they were dropped.
Mouse sensitivity controls will come in an update. Gamma controls? Maybe to a small degree.

Z key for zombie time will slow down time and all movement of characters, so you can get a target easily clicked.
Once activated the scrollwheel adjusts the amount of slow motion, so you could play the whole game
in a fairly slowed down state, if you can't cope with the action in real time and/or have a heavy mouse hand reflex.

R key for rush and you won't even have to target anything, the zombies will find the nearest targets and eat them.

Combinations of mouse and keys are part of the skill set the player must learn to master the game.

Yes the view distance is nice and short, else there would be no surprises, no tension and no challenge.
Its not a shooter where you need to see what you are capping with a pistol from 300 yards
and there is no danger to the player so bumping into anyone at the last second is not an issue.

If you can see everything from a distance, like say in Blood Gulch, well you could just
stand still the whole game and click things or press R and not have to put any effort in.

The camera has freedom to roam around the entire level with no danger at all.
On levels with doors the zombies are used to open up the level and finding out what's
behind them and learning to deal with that is the challenge. On others, finding out
what is in the dark, and learning how to deal with it is the challenge.

There are no real "forks in the path" on any level for you to miss, there's just enough
twists and turns to make it so that its not a completely straight run to the end,
the living have somewhere to run if they need to, and there's a bit of adventure and
exploration instead of a done to death "walk forward and kill things" game play.

Any time you reach any branching, its obvious if you are paying attention, and
it all pretty much goes either to a dead end or a loop back where you came from.

If you get horribly lost, you can have the zombies come to you if you can't find them,
and/or set them to searching and follow them to where the next meal is if you can't do it for them.

Keeping your horde and its attacks organized enough to maintain successful balance of
loss and gain is another essential learning element of the gameplay.

Here's a video of the first level
It takes less than four minutes to complete, I hardly click anyone.
The second guy on the level runs away, no big deal, its not like he has any place he can escape too,
sooner or later he'll turn up again, and be cornered or surrounded by the undead.
So as soon as he's outpaced my zombies, I tell them to stop and clear the front of the hotel,
then we go around back slaughter everyone, and then I head to the last guy on the level.

Easy as taking fresh warm organs from babies.

[Janichsan]

TheMCP, on March 12th 2009, 02:55 PM, said:

Z key for zombie time will slow down time and all movement of characters, so you can get a target easily clicked.
Once activated the scrollwheel adjusts the amount of slow motion, so you could play the whole game
in a fairly slowed down state, if you can't cope with the action in real time and/or have a heavy mouse hand reflex.

R key for rush and you won't even have to target anything, the zombies will find the nearest targets and eat them.

Okay, I couldn't really figure out what the zombie time was for, but that explains it. I also simply used the zombie rush in the end, but that felt rather unsophisticated and unstrategic for me. I also noticed a couple of times that while rushing most zombies just attacked the closest enemy while other enemies stood safely a bit further away and picked off the zombies while those were still busy with their first victim. That's why I found rushing to be not that advantageous.

Quote

Yes the view distance is nice and short, else there would be no surprises, no tension and no challenge.
Its not a shooter where you need to see what you are capping with a pistol from 300 yards
and there is no danger to the player so bumping into anyone at the last second is not an issue.

If you can see everything from a distance, like say in Blood Gulch, well you could just
stand still the whole game and click things or press R and not have to put any effort in.

That basically confirms what I assumed: that the short distance in intentional. However, in my opinion it's just too short. Trying to hide some surprises in the dark in one thing, not seeing anything that is further than three steps away another. I don't want a clear view up to the horizon but a couple of metres more would help.

Oh, yes, one addition: "fork" was probably not the right word, I mainly meant all the crooks and nannies were enemies could hide, for instance in the third level. I more than once missed one of those niches and only noticed that an enemy was hiding there and was now slaughtering my zombies.

But not to sound too negative: the intro and the title track is very cool.