This week is mostly full of development environment improvements to make tweaks and balances in future updates easier. However, I did squeeze in some features and fixes some might find interesting. Happy slaying!
Features – Ambient night sounds. – Switch Pro controller support.
Adjustments – Inventory boxes more clearly show empty and full slots. – Redefined keyboard controls. – Environment lighting and colours adjusted.
Fixes – Fixed issue with blood decals suddenly disappearing. – Fixed a bug where a player dying in the start position froze the game over screen.
Had a little extra time so I decided to tackle some larger features and release a second update this week. My two favourite things about this update are the rumble support for gamepads! Finally, woo! And a much-needed rework to the inventory selection system. Enjoy!
Features
Zombies bleed with unique zombie blood. Ew.
Added rumble support for gamepads.
Redesigned and improved inventory selection and management.
Hello Survivors. This week’s update includes a new energy management system, now with sweat. Zombies’ appearances have been randomised as well as their movement speed. Watch out for the fast ones! A few major and minor bug fixes too. Happy hacking!
Features
Energy system with attack/movement penalties and sweat indicator.
Zombie clothes and appearance are randomised.
Adjustments
Zombie movement speed is slightly randomised.
Fixes
Fixed issues with frame rate affecting special effects.
Fixed zombies getting stuck on their dead brethren.
Welcome to the first of many (hopefully weekly) updates. These updates apply to all closed-beta users and focus on many bug fixes and interface improvements.
Bug Fixes
Fixed player/camera movement issues when playing at high FPS.
Fixed inconsistent flash effect on items and charge indicator at high FPS.
Fixed players being able to hurt themselves with weapons.
Fixed issue where player resurrection circle was not appearing.
Fixed mouse cursor not hiding while the game is running.
Fixed an issue with jittering health bar regeneration.
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.
