MH-Zombie
17APR 22 Update
Music volume now affects beginning and end menu music as well as in-game music.
Civilian killing is now three-strikes and you’re out, with a counter on the MPD.
Map has MGRS grid squares, and the mission brief references them.
Thanks again for all your bug reports, suggestions, and requests!
6 APR 2022 patch
5 April 2022 (first update)
Invert Y de-select inverting horizontal inertial look.
Cloud acting like a solid object.
Changed:
Upgrade notice now flashes on the left multi-purpose display (MPD) until 'ok' selected in map view or mission menu, or until upgrade is started at the FARP.
Tutorial completion no longer required to start the game.
Added:
Separate Controls menu, with added option to invert look separately from cyclic.
Start Options Menu Statistics page.
Start Options Menu Badges page.
Welcome to MH-Zombie!
Fast forward to Spring of 2020: I was playing a lot of Battlefield 4 and running into the same frustrations from Battlefield 3. I figured there had to be a game like the one I had imagined back in 2014 by now, and searched through Steam and the App Store for one. ARMA II seemed promising, but to my surprise I was unable to modify the controller layout, which was an absolute dealbreaker for me. DCS World was interesting too, but they had no helicopters I was willing to fly, and it was very technical, where I just wanted to jump in and start shooting things.
So, I decided it was time to consider another try at making my own game. I wrote a proposal outlining the basic features and function of the game by priority, complexity, and difficulty (as far as I could imagine, having no actual development experience), and got to work researching a good starting point.
About that time, the pandemic hit. I had written the proposal on my work computer over the course of a week or so during my lunch breaks, so when we were given the order to go home and work from there, I emailed it to myself. We were all confined to our rooms, and most of my Army staff work was put on hold until we knew what the rest of the year would look like. It was the perfect opportunity to take advantage of my newly increased free time. I found a tutorial on how to start a helicopter game in Unity (it was an early access course, and the developer never completed it), and I build on the very basic flight model and C# scripting/Unity knowledge to start the beginnings of the game you can now play today. Along the way, I used Youtube, Reddit, StackExchange, and assets from the Unity Asset Store when I got stuck or couldn't find the answers in the Unity documentation.
By July 2020 I thought I would have a releasable game no later than October, but my little brother was never satisfied with the builds I sent him to playtest, and I continued to add features and improvements over the course of the next year and a half.
When I finally completed all of the basic features I thought the game should have as an improvement on the AC-130 game model (to include everything in my original proposal), I released it. But rest assured, there is more to come. There is another map on the way, with at least one more game mode, and as I gain experience and knowledge, the game may morph into another game altogether, with the original maps still available as an 'Arcade' mode.
Anyway, thanks for your time, attention, and support; several of your suggestions are already being integrated into the game, and I look forward to your feedback as I continue to improve MH-Zombie!