Posts:

I put off learning shader graph in favour of shaderlab and now I’m questioning why?! Over the last week or so I’ve been working on a new and improved toon shader. Why? Because there were some elemtns of game play I wanted to introduce that was not possible with an unlit shader (shaders that does not take light into effect).

Part of the reason I avoided creating a new shader for so long was because I didn’t know how to keep the clean toon effect with strong handdrawn elements without taking away from that feeling. But after the painstaking transition over to Unity’s URP (Universal Render Pipeline), I started playing around with Shader Graph and found that it was actually far easier to experiement with than the older shaderlab.

Day/Night Cycle

Now, combined with my new environment manager, I can easily control the time of day with a slip of a slider, which not only controls the color and brightness of the sun but also the direction. It’s so easy now to transition between the sun and moon, making for great spooky night time zombie smashing.

Spotlights!

I also started experimenting with spotlights for use with potential things such as torches, down lights, and other environmental effects. I was able to create a gradient of brightness while maintaining the toon banding seen below.

So what do you think? I’m always keen to hear your feedback. Do you like it? Hate it? Join the discord and share your thoughts. There are no wrong answers.

In an effort to get a working Zombie Jack build in the hands of others, this week I improved the options screen and added some video options. I’ve added all common resolutions, and if I missed any I’ll just add them in later. But if you have any feedback regarding odd display sizes, feel free to mention it on the discord.

I took a little break this week from working on Zombie Jack to give the website a slight update. It’s still early days, but I felt like showing off a little bit of ZJ gameplay in the form of a video banner.

Next on the ZJ to-do list is to fix some bugs, yay, and add a Power Swing ability. I’m still striving to get a playable version of the game out there as soon as possible. So. Much. To. Do.

It’s been a while since my last video and I decided to give you all a quick update on what I’ve been working on the past couple of weeks.

I am very excited and happy to announce that the Zombie Jack Steam store page is now live! You are now able to check it out and your wishlist. It fills me with tremendous joy to finally have a presence on Steam. Now comes the hard part – finishing the game.

The Rustbox Games official Discord server is here! If you’d like to stay in the know, follow the development of Zombie Jack, or just hang out, you can find us on our Discord.