Rise of the Dead! (still WIP in 2017)

[Nash]

Rise of the Dead will be a sandbox-style zombie-survival mod for GZDoom and Skulltag. You will play as a survivor in a town infested with zombies. Help will only arrive within the 7th (in-game) day, so until then, you must find the will to survive. You will need to scour the town for weapons, food and equipment.

In single player mode, you'll play for points, and there will be plenty of ways to rake in points besides killing zombies. There will be mini games and side missions that'll earn you points and some stat boosts should you complete them. It has been undecided what kind of side missions will be available.

You will be given free roam around the town while waiting for the helicopter to arrive on the 7th day. Should you miss the helicopter on the 7th day, the town will be nuked, the game will end and you'll suffer a huge score reduction. And the bad ending.

In coop multiplayer mode, players must work together to survive for 7 days. Those who die will be brought back to life, but with a huge score reduction.

This is still in very early stages, and there is still a lot that needs to be designed and thought of. I am working on this mod during whatever free time I have, so I'm going to really take my time on this.

Here's a list of planned gameplay features:

- Sandbox-style gameplay for GZDoom! Roam around the town freely in search of food, equipment, and weapons so that you will be able to stand a chance against the horde of the undead.

- Drivable vehicles to help you get around town faster. I'm not done with this yet, but I've already done a semi-working version of drivable vehicles in another test WAD. I just need to find the time to incorporate it into this mod.

- A wide array of unique zombie sprites - I plan to create as many unique zombies as possible. Male, female, young and old, fat and thin, and in different clothing and physical state. I don't want the player to face the same zombie a thousand times throughout the game. Inspired by the unique zombie models from the game Dead Rising.

- Real-time day and night cycle! As you can see in the screenshots and in the gameplay footage, this has already been fully implemented and works perfectly. Zombies will be stronger and faster at night. Still to-do: Raining and thunderstorms.

- Semi-realistic gameplay. I can already hear you Doomers whining, but this mod is about survival after all. I don't plan to alter much in the health and damage department; but there will be elements like hunger and stamina. Failure to eat will result in you losing health gradually and die of hunger, while low stamina will result in lower melee damage and speed, and possible immobility. However there will be a huge gameplay adjustment in the inventory department; you can only carry two weapons. If you find another weapon, you have to discard the current weapon. Your inventory space will also be limited, so you can't just stockpile your food and supplies. You'll have to decide what to take and what to leave behind.

- Fully customizable gameplay. You will be able to alter how fast time flies in the game, enable/disable hunger and stamina, and a bunch of other stuff so that this mod will be more enjoyable. Don't like the game's default gameplay settings? Create your own game rules. I'm not sure how this will be handled for multiplayer though. Maybe disable customization for multiplayer?

- Lots of weapons. I plan to make it so that you can use almost anything around you as weapons. Planks, bricks, chairs, paint cans, computers, record players; just about anything can be imrpovised into a weapon. Here's a list of the weapons already done (or partially done; meaning that the graphics already exist in the WAD but the DECORATE hasn't been written yet):

---

melee:

combat knife
steel bat
katana

handguns:

pistol

shotguns:

shotgun
sawn-off shotgun

machine guns:

SMG
minigun

special weapons:

grenade launcher
rocket launcher
flame thrower

- Enhanced visual effects. Lots and lots of particle effects that'll make you forget you're playing Doom at all! You can see some in action like the new blood effects, explosion and smoke particles in the screenshots and the video. Also, oozing blood on walls and floor blood splats!

So enough of all that boring text. How about some screenshots and a YouTube video showing some early gameplay footage?

Click on the screens to see a higher res version!






Higher res version of video can be downloaded here (11 MB).

[oODemonologistOo]

That looks awesome... Is that a Katana I'm seeing there?

Hmm also, will there be just zombies of same type or some variety as well? Axe zombies are a little overused.

Anyway Good Luck with this project.

[Nash]

Hmm also, will there be just zombies of same type or some variety as well? Axe zombies are a little overused.

Yes, as I've said in my original post, I plan to get rid of the Blood zombies and sprite/model my own. There will be as many unique zombies as possible, so you won't see the same sprites throughout the game. There'll be zombies from children to the elder, male and female, and different clothes and physical beings.

I plan to just model them in 3ds Max and put them in the game as pre-rendered sprites. Or I might stop-motion some of my friends and edit them to look undead. I haven't thought about this much yet - but what is for certain is that I'll ditch the over-used Blood zombies.

[Captain Ventris]

I think there shouldn't be too much ammo, so that guns are a luxury. After all, the focus is survival, not clearing out the town.

Also, will the zombies get bored of chasing you after a while? It would be lame to have to hide out from 10,000 groaning zombies for 10 hours. It would be way too arcadey. I'm hoping the days can be set to be loooooong, like, 2 hours or something absurd. Also, will the spawning spots for weapons and such be random?

Nighttime needs to Suuuuuuuuuuuuck. Fear of darkness is a basic human thing. Play on it. Perhaps have some other rare supernatural creatures come out at night? Werewolves? Zombie dogs? Something that means you'll be crouching in a corner with a bat, staring at the door and eating twinkies in tense silence, forcing the player to rush indoors when the sun sets. Perhaps have the HUD warn you of the approach of night?

Will there be other enemies then zombies? Like some sort of demon or something that can pop up rarely or in certain situations, or will it just be zombies?

Will the zombies have different characteristics, NOT dependent on their appearance? For example, I don't want to expect the exact same thing every time I see a fresh, fat zombie. Have several different versions of each appearance of zombie, so any group of them is unpredictable and varied, so that you can't assess them at a glance. It will give the player pause before fighting.

This city needs to be huge. I mean, gargantuan. Enough for hours of gameplay to not become repetitive.


Possibly have to construct make-shift weaponry? Like Notrium.

Could you customize what state you start in? Like, you could start wounded and tired, or something?

It needs to not be easy to settle down anywhere. Eventually, you will have to flee where you are to go somewhere else. Make sure the zombies can get inside buildings!

At the same time, insure that the player CAN have a refuge, even if it will eventually get over run. Perhaps it won't get taken out if the zombies can't find you?

Possibly the ability to build barriers of junk?

Don't let the player get all James Bond! Fighting the Zombies needs to be a risk, from which the player must eventually flee.

Make sure there are A LOT of side missions, all sorts of ways to effect the city as a whole, like cause buildings to burn down, or light huge fires or what not. All sorts of ways to alter the experience.



On all that, if you want help with enemy DECORATE, or just ideas, I could try and help!

[Nash]

Interesting points and suggestions, Ventris. Let's see...

Also, will the zombies get bored of chasing you after a while? It would be lame to have to hide out from 10,000 groaning zombies for 10 hours. It would be way too arcadey. I'm hoping the days can be set to be loooooong, like, 2 hours or something absurd. Also, will the spawning spots for weapons and such be random?

Zombies stopping the chase should be very easy to do with DECORATE. Neat suggestion. The gameplay customization feature will allow you to set how fast time passes in-game if you want a game to last longer, or even an infinity mode where the chopper will never come, and you just keep on playing until you die or get bored. Yes, spawn points will be randomized.

Nighttime needs to Suuuuuuuuuuuuck. Fear of darkness is a basic human thing. Play on it. Perhaps have some other rare supernatural creatures come out at night? Werewolves? Zombie dogs? Something that means you'll be crouching in a corner with a bat, staring at the door and eating twinkies in tense silence, forcing the player to rush indoors when the sun sets. Perhaps have the HUD warn you of the approach of night?

I'm not sure about stuff other than humans. Dogs, maybe. This mod is supposed to be set in a typical modern real-life setting. The HUD displays the current time and number of days passed, if you looked at the screenshots. As for the other stuff like inducing fear on the player, I'll have to think about that. I kind of wanted the mod to be more arcade-oriented...

Will the zombies have different characteristics, NOT dependent on their appearance? For example, I don't want to expect the exact same thing every time I see a fresh, fat zombie. Have several different versions of each appearance of zombie, so any group of them is unpredictable and varied, so that you can't assess them at a glance. It will give the player pause before fighting.

This will all depend on how will the workflow be when I start creating the new zombie graphics. If I can pump out zombie graphics easily, then I might consider this.

Possibly the ability to build barriers of junk?

Not sure how to implement this, but it does sound like a good idea.

Make sure there are A LOT of side missions, all sorts of ways to effect the city as a whole, like cause buildings to burn down, or light huge fires or what not. All sorts of ways to alter the experience.

There will come a time when I'll sit down and decide what side missions will be available so you don't get bored running around killing zombies. I've thought of a mode where you can to run over as many zombies as you can in your car within a limited time. I also thought of hostage rescue-style missions. But nothing else yet. I'm open to any ideas you might have.

[oODemonologistOo]

Hmmm you can make zombies poison you when they bite you and connect it with a mission. For example, there are some cures for these diseases at some buildings or labarotories and your mission is to collect them all before the night or something like that. The reward of the mission would be a permanent cure device but needs to recharge itself once every 3 minute.

[Nightmare Doom]

A Few suggestions...

1. can you add the bloody hand/katana sprites when you slash zombies with it like in shadow warrior? I think the same thing could apply to other melee weapons.

2. As for the sawed off shotgun, can you rip the Blood shotgun (actually from Blood not ZBlood or the one from the "Blood Shotgun" thread) from scratch and make it 100% accurate (everything from the sprite length to the shell landing casing sounds) just like the Duke shotgun on there?

3. Can you make the levels larger rather just one small area that is hard to maneuver around? (like doing large cities, shopping malls which pays homage to dawn of the dead, military bases, survivor strongholds, suburban neighborhoods, country sides, small towns, etc)

4. Can you add everysingle gib/gore sprites (from Blood, Shadow Warrior, Duke Nukem 3D, ROTT) hence making the most goriest mod ever?

5. Can you add more Zombies rather than just the zombies from blood? which you could rip the bloated butchers maybe even the choking hands from blood on there aswell (maybe even creating more zombie sprites from scratch...)

6. As for melee weapons can you add the chainsaw, circular saw, lawn mower (Brain Dead refrence) on there?

7. Perhaps you could rip some of the weapons from redneck rampage (the pistol, double barrel shotgum, rifle)

[Wills]

This looks like an excellent start. As Ventris said, the city needs to be HUGE. Building barriers is also essential to making gameplay fun; nothing's quite as nerve-wracking as trying to find a way to escape as zombies slam against your makeshift walls. It also might be scarier if there are fewer zombies in the day, but they suddenly start hording at night. Different parts of the city would be fun to have - imagine spelunking through the sewers, or jumping roof-to-roof hundreds of feet above the pavement (falling damage should be on).

[przndoom]

hmmm looks good in this stage may i give out some suggestion lol


iono if you planned to change the area or not, but maybe make the place that seem like a hide out ( since you shooting for semi-realistic) such as a wearhouse...a tunnel or closed passage way...goverment base..or racoon city XD lol

i like the idea how u want a hostage thing going.its intresting and maybe fun to try out

(i know you wanted a town thing too, yeah but this suggestion maybe be a backstory or something like that...im just throwing thoughts XD )
i got this idea from "i am ledgend" ( it was okay..but ppl say its super great and that killed it for me) like after a certain time they go back or something calls them back (evil overlord or something blah blah) and you can go into a city maybe and scavange items..ppl..supplies...or need to do a mission like get ummm get a scientist who knows whats going on or something (R .E idea)...something like that

and the blockade is a good idea..like gather crap and maybe spells, if magic is involved, or a device that turns a fixed amount of zombies to your side or deform them for a fix amount of time.....or maybe biological weaponary/robotic thing if you want something like R.E ( i got some monster allys ideas ..but its to early to put it in XD)


i like the idea alot and i always wanted to do something similar to this but i dont have the tools XD..just ideas
hope i helped out keep up the good work! hope to see great things!

[Caz]

The level itself looks pretty boring, but it's in progress so you still have time to improve it.

As for a suggestion, it would be cool to turn into a zombie once you die in coop mode and either kill other zombies or try to get the player.

[Captain Ventris]

I'm not sure about stuff other than humans. Dogs, maybe. This mod is supposed to be set in a typical modern real-life setting. The HUD displays the current time and number of days passed, if you looked at the screenshots. As for the other stuff like inducing fear on the player, I'll have to think about that. I kind of wanted the mod to be more arcade-oriented...

A typical modern real-life setting. With zombies. You know, zombies are about as common in real life as werewolves, actually. Not that I'm saying you should put werewolves in, just possibly something a little different. Maybe mutant zombies with pincers or something, lol. Perhaps doppelgangers that crawl out of mirrors. Zombie dogs would be much more tenacious, quick, and heedlessly vicious, providing a nice opportunity to run the player off. Who the heck knows? You don't need to do this to necessarily to scare the player, just to keep thing royally unpredictable. Attacks can come from anywhere, so you need refuge, but at the same time, you'll eventually need to make a run to the zombie-infested HEB to get some chips.

"Uh, oh, low on food".

RUNRUNRUNRUNRUN

"Whew. Okay, Twizzlers, and some ham. HOLY WHARGARBL, THIS ISN'T HAM, IT'S A STILL LIVING ZOMBIE ARM."

RUNRUNRUNRUNRUN

Day Two.

What I meant with the image of hiding inside looking at the door, was just making night suck so badly, that you dash inside when the sun begins to go down, so that if you aren't inside, there is a royal chance of getting jacked up. Then again, you could make the enemies worth more points at night, so there is incentive for both sides of the deal. I like points, points are good. However, the fire-spitting demon birds aren't. Hmmm...

If you make this too arcadey, your day/night, starvation, and stamina stuff could be wasted, merely forcing the player to occasionally eat a chunk of bread while he stands in the middle of the town square mowing down hundreds of zombies with a chaingun.

Putting in the food and energy dependencies already moves this away from arcade-style gameplay. Couple that with an intention for focusing on side-missions, semi-realism, etc. The combat may be quick and arcadey, but unless you want to waste the potential of the proposed and awesome features, I don't think the overall game-play could stand to be run n' gun mindlessness, except when you are actually running and gunning, on the way to something requiring thought.

I'm all for blistering fire fights against a giant group of zombies, but without enough variation and considerations, it's just Hell Revealed with Yogurt.

This will all depend on how will the workflow be when I start creating the new zombie graphics. If I can pump out zombie graphics easily, then I might consider this.

Well, what I was proposed was entirely independent of that. I mean, when you see a fat zombie graphic, you think:

I wonder if this is a Fat Zombie that spits acid.

I don't know, it might be a Fat Zombie that throws you around.

Or is it... since they all look the same, being variants.


Just that the same set of graphics is used for variant zombies, to keep things fresh. So, for 5 zombie graphics, with 3 variants a piece, you have 15 enemies, without extra sprite work. Plus, as I mentioned before, you wouldn't be able to instantly assess your enemy and leap into the fray. You need to consider if you can make up for any surprises the group might hold.

Remember to use a lot of sound-blocking lines, or the entire city will come after you every time you pop a cap in somebody undead.

Are you going to use the old "If the zombie bites you, you can turn into one!" thing? Possibly force the player to seek out antibiotics or something, to prevent turning into a zombie. It would add another risk. It doesn't even need to be a mission, just a general risk or something.

[oODemonologistOo]

Are you going to use the old "If the zombie bites you, you can turn into one!" thing? Possibly force the player to seek out antibiotics or something, to prevent turning into a zombie. It would add another risk. It doesn't even need to be a mission, just a general risk or something.

Read my post above

[wildweasel]

It looks good so far, but I'm naturally going to suggest that you find some better weapon graphics - the Duke and SW stuff is not really very nice to look at anymore. I might be able to dip into my ever-expanding archive of weapons to find some better stuff for you.

[Captain Ventris]

Are you going to use the old "If the zombie bites you, you can turn into one!" thing? Possibly force the player to seek out antibiotics or something, to prevent turning into a zombie. It would add another risk. It doesn't even need to be a mission, just a general risk or something.

Read my post above

Meh, I spent 15 minutes typing that post. I didn't want to rewrite any of it once you posted. XD

[Demolisher]

Hmmm..
I've always had a craving for zombie flesh .

like the night/day thing.
Footsteps would be cool.

if it is for Gzdoom, you can put models in the game. (Even hudmodels if you wish)
which would make the game seem almost lifelike.

Support the if coop player dies, turns into a zombie, and is forced to watch through the eyes of a zombie attacking the player before he, she is revived.
The player is revived upon the death of that zombie. This would prevent suicidal attacks. if all the players are dead, then they respawn in their hideout, or a temporary 'safe' area.
Just an idea...

Score deductions for teamKilling, or killing friendly NPCs.