Devlog: Trees, Plants, and More
Welcome to my first game development log. In this series of logs I’m going to break down my work on a month-to-month basis showing you my methods and progress on my beloved game, Zombie Jack.
What is Zombie Jack?
First off, you might be asking what is Zombie Jack? It’s a co-op couch-party game for you and all your friends where you must fight the undead with whatever you can find. Sporting goods, chairs, broom, whatever you can find. Pick it up and start swinging. Why? Because the best games are the ones you share with friends (and have zombies).
While the game is 3D, the camera only movies from left-to-right on a rail (more on this in future logs). Here you can see a basic mud-map used to position the first couple of assets.
Pine Trees
I started this month off by creating some 3D assets for the first level beginning with the pine trees. Rigged with bones and animated in blender, this tree sways gently in the breeze adding a bit of motion and life to the background. This single model can be reused and scaled randomly to add a bit of variety.
Notice the change in design from the original 2013 concept versions. This change is to better suit the current style of the game.
Tall Grass
I wanted to implement some obstacles as well as dress up the levels a little and one thing that came to mind was tall grass. Tall grass you can squish! When players run through it they will be slowed, which I believe will make for some interesting navigational decisions when trying to avoid enemies.
Modelled and animated in blender, painted in Krita, and then imported into Unity. There I finished it all up with a simple grass script that lets you squash the plant when you run through it as well as apply a slow to the player.
Picket Fence
Next I needed some boundary assets. The fencing around Jack’s house was the next to come. I thoroughly enjoy painting wood-grains. I don’t know why, I just do.
That’s it for this devlog. Thanks so much for reading. If you want to stay up-to-date with my progress you can subscribe to the newsletter below. Also feel free to drop a comment. Thanks again! Have a good one.
Very cute game! Party game is amazing! Looking forward the next share!
Is your blog also use wordpress.com? I could not find the button to follow you(already sign up the newsletter^_^).
Hi Sadi 🙂 Thank you very much. Yes it is a WordPress blog, you can follow it either by signing up to the newsletter below or you should be able to find it on the WordPress website if you search for Rustbox Games. At any rate, thanks so much for following! 😀
This is cool! I like how you painted the fence, any tips for someone who isn’t that good with art stuff?
Thank you and yes! Turn your weaknesses into strengths. When deciding on what art style to use for Zombie Jack I went with what I would describe as “scrappy and sketchy”. Basically embarrassing the imperfect and turning bad art into a style. Here is an example of one of the first models for the game. I did kind of get good at drawing wood grains but the rest of my art is scrappy. 😛
Woot! Gratz on devlog #1. I’ve played Overcooked with friends and have a blast. I think a zombie-survival couch-party game sounds awesome. What’s the focus of the game (humor, horror, etc.)? Your trees, grass, and fence look kewl.
I like the layout of your devlog, some text broken up by pictures/gifs, it makes for an easier read. I would recommend adding links to things that make sense. For example, you mentioned Krita, which I’m not familiar with and wasn’t sure what it was until wood-grain UV picture comment.
Keep on questing!
Thanks WeirdBeard! Appreciate the feedback. I’ve added some links and I’ll also keep that in mind for future posts. Zombie Jack will be lighthearted and hopefully a little humorous. But I plan to tackle that later and focus on making it fun and playable first. 🙂 Thanks so much for dropping by!