It seems that the next year we will still be working as a team of 4 without a publisher support. Thus we plan on adding enough content to the game so that players can actually start visiting it regularly and providing us with constant stream of feedback.
To do that we will be adding a hub area - the main headquarters of Zombie Hunter, incorporated - "Bob's office". It is a large abandoned industrial building, turned gunshop, where the Zombie Hunter, inc gang resides and flies to their various missions from. Every adventure will start from this area.
We decided to use Midjourney as our 2d concept artist, both to save costs and to give use enough unique ideas that our hub looks awesome. Here are a few concepts we chose as our final references: The tricky part would be to make the actuall gun purchasing area both functional and pretty. It needs to have a single gun per square, so that you can walk close to it, pick it up and test it. We won't have a standard system where you buy things via a menu. Neither we would have a system where you buy things by clicking on them. No, you pick up a gun, any gun, then you can go to the shooting range to test it. You can see it in your inventory, play with it, do whatever you want. If you change your mind - you can put the gun back, where you took it. If you like the guns you picked up, you come to your boss and pay for all of them.
The tutorial level will end up with the player on the roof of a building, waiting for Zombie Hunter, inc helicopter to rescue them. We want the player to exit onto a roof that was rebuilt as a restaurant: and then move onto a more industrial-type roof: where helicopter would pick them up.
Dmytro, our artist, is already working on rooftop elements. Here is one of them:
While Egor, our senior artist, is working on Bob's office:
We also plan on expanding our Streets level. It will include adding buildings, cars and a construction site. If you want to get a glimpse at why it takes so long for an update to be release, check out this twisted lorry: We are striving to add objects into our game which bring realism to another level. Objects, you are unlikely to see in other games. The best source of models is photogrammetry. However, quite often photogrammetry models are of very poor quality, due to not having enough photos to build the model from. Then we will rebuild the high poly model from scratch, while using the textures from the photogrammetry model to have the best of both worlds: the amazing color textures and mathematically accurate normal maps and models that make sense, when you shine light onto the object. And that is not all, afterwards you need to remove lighting and shadows from the object (so that it looks consistent when being lit in-game), build roughness and metalness textures and assign propper materials. Here, the cabin of the lorry uses carpaint shader, while its tent uses silk shader to have this awesome anisotropic highlight.
So that's our plans for 2024. Thanks everyone who supported us all these years and have a happy new year!
Development of Zombie Hunter inc will continue as an Early Access title
Development of the game continues as an Early Access title. After talking to steam support we realized that this would be the best course of action. We are sorry for any confusion our announcements caused.
The next update is scheduled in a few month. Sadly, as we a re a very tiny team making an ambicious title, I cannot promice major update sooner than 8-10 months from now.
Zombie Hunter inc will now be developed as a new Steam title
Today we announce that Zombie Hunter, Inc Steam store page is closing. No, this does not mean that game development will stop. Unfortunately the reality of modern game development is such that you cannot find a publisher and or be financially successfull releaseing a game that was in early access for many years. Especially if early access itself was unsuccessful. Nowardays the number of wishlists on Steam is king. We tried to revitalize the game with the latest update but it did nothing.
Therefore, we will be creating a new Steam page for Zombie Hunter inc and game development will move there. If you have a copy of Zimbie Hunter inc - contact us at cubrman@gmail.com and I will gift you the new game once the first release comes online.
Mike
Zombie Hunter inc has been reborn
For a long time Zombie Hunter inc was silent, but deep underneath a gargantuan task has been accomplished.
The game was completely overhauled: everything from camera controls to models, textures, sounds and animations was upgraded to a new sky-high level.
Ground-breaking helicopter camera adds a new dimension to gunplay and world exploration in top-down shooter genre. If you enjoy true innovation in games - you would love this new mechanics. This innovation provides you with a rare treat: the pleasure of learning unique shooter controls which is rewarded with delicious headshots. Playing a top-down game on mouse and keyboard and especially on a controller has never felt better.
A large area of Washington was meticulously recreated in 3d as a new level in Zombie Hunter inc., rich with details and modern photorealistic graphics. Explore a large intersection, infested with zombies and ruthless bandits.
Enjoy every shot you land on each zombie with impressive gun feel that will make you forget about the concept of time.
Delve into the world, where every sound is so meticulously crafted, it changes depending on your location, your surroundings and the distance it has traveled.
We return with a bang, and we're just getting started!
A glimpse at the Inventory UI
This year I am lagging with a game update, mostly due to a rollercoaster of events that occurred in my life. A sizeable update is coming in a few months, but, for now, enjoy the early inventory look (if you open this news page and click on the image, you will be able to see it in full size).
The first video is out.
Get a taste of Zombie Hunter inc's revolutionary aiming system in a video of our recent dethmatch playthrough!
Please tell me what you like/dislike about the game - I am all ears!
[previewyoutube="VGSPOUE3WpA;full"]
Early tests of Zombie Hunter inc start now.
Over the course of 2019 I did everything I could to bring the game to a playable state and improve it's overall quality even further. Even though there is still much to be done, I am happy to say that early tests are now possible and if you are interested, please contact me at cubrman@gmail.com. There are no zombies (yet), which means that you cannot really play this game alone for now. All you can do on your own is run around and shoot buildings. However, the network code was implemented in the game since the very start, which means that we will be able to play a classic multiplayer deathmatch to fully test the game's unique aiming system.
I would highly appreciate if you could join our tests, as I badly need your feedback for the unique aiming system that the game has. It requires quite a bit of calibration and polish before it will be fully fledged and right now I've completely exhausted my brain trying to improve it. I need your constructive criticism to continue improving this most important part of the game.
The next year will be fully devoted to adding zombies and creating a playable single-player mission.
Test Level 80% done.
The Test Level is slowly approaching it's final form. I have accomplished a large body of work over the last year and I want to share with you a few screenshots that report the progress.
I am pleased to tell you that the game is running at 70 FPS with no notable optimization (which means I might speed it up even more in the future).
That is not all though. I've made quite a number of models that will be used in the interior areas or used as gameplay items (guns/armor). They are not in the Test Level yet, but I will show them separately below.
Guns:
Armor:
Interior and miscellaneous items:
I would love to just say that the game is already playable but it's not. Unfortunately there is quite a number of things that still need to be done before I can release the demo. The estimated date right now is next Christmas. I've come a long way and I want to ensure the quality of my demo is as best as I can make it, I cannot allow myself to cut corners when it comes to quality.
Test level progress
Hi everyone,
as I already wrote, creating models is one of the most time consuming task of all. Below you will find a report of what I was able to create since my last announcement.
As you will see, there is still quite a long way to go before the Test Level is complete. I will try to finish it before end of summer 2018 and so far there is a decent chance I might make it. Note that no single object in the level has all the details I have planned for them, especially roads.
The test level is actually a real crossroads from Washington, which I modeled from Google Maps' pictures. Try to find it if you can!
Please treat these screenshots as a progress report rather than the sample of the game's graphics. I've spent very little time on Post Processing, the scene has only one light source and there is still quite a few tricks I have hidden up my sleeve to boost the game's graphics up to 11.
I was surprised to see that Unity handled all of my 4k textures quite easily (there should be around 40-50 of those already, most buildings have 2k just for one wall, sometimes 4k for one wall). The level takes around 40 seconds to load right now. This time might go up to 60-70 seconds when the test level is done. In the future these loading time should be brought to a minimum as there is a Unity "Virtual Textures" plugin that massively speeds up texture loading times.
Hope you enjoy the screenshots and stay tuned!
Click the image to enlarge:
First house fully modeled and painted.
Just finished texturing one of the houses for the test level and decided to post it here. This is the kind of quality you should expect to see in the game when it's done.
