Hey so it’s been whole week since I decided to give these things an official time and sure enough it’s that time so here’s this week’s update.  It’s been a little while since I gave a progress update, so I thought it would be good to start this week off with a list of things I’ve fixed over the last 3 weeks.

• Re-engineered large portions of the weapons system.
• Did a first pass on implementing a the Pump Shotgun.
• Did a first pass on implementing dynamite.
• Did a first pass on implementing  the Tommy Gun
• Added bullet decals
• Added bullet impact effects
• Added infestation bars to buildings.
• Added a cool-down counter to buildings
• Fixed NPC navigation issues
• Added really simple blood splatter effects to zombies.

With this post I’d like to start doing something new, which is to take a deeper look at one small part of the game that I’ve been working on recently. So let’s go ahead and take a look at …

The Tommy Gun

Tommy Gun WIP
by JimmothySanchez
on Sketchfab

 

There’s going to be a bunch of unique building-specific weapons, but I also need a collection of generic weapons that can be found anywhere. These are intended to be low damage weapons that players use while looking for better weapons. The Tommy Gun is one of these default low damage weapons that can be found anywhere.

I went with a Tommy Gun for the default Machine gun because I felt like it has a lot of character. I like the look of it and I dig  the classic gangster vibe. I feel it’s instantly recognizable as a machine gun by the player, and it being a more retro-styled weapon conveys to the player that there are probably better guns out there.

I’ve turned the damage down on the primary fire so that it takes a few hits to stop a zombie and I turned the accuracy way down, so it’s a bit of a “spray and pray” type weapon. I may wind up turning the accuracy up a bit because right now it fires all over the place, but I’ll have to think about it. Right now I kind of enjoy its lack of accuracy.

When it came to actually creating the model, I started with a mesh from the Unity asset store. It was very minimal and had a pretty cartoon-y texture. It was clearly made for purposes other than a game like Zeds. With a few modifications to the mesh, UVs, and a total re-texturing job, I was able to re-purpose it and I think it will fit my aesthetic quite well. Keep in mind this is still definitely just a first pass at getting this gun into the game. The final version will probably look and feel quite differently from what is presented here, but this should be a good indicator of where I’m heading.

I’m trying my hand at animated gifs again. Based off of the feedback I got last time, I’m going to try presenting them differently. Hopefully they will look better and load faster this time. Check them out!