Zombies Postmortem
Is it really possible to do a postmortem on Zombies? Aren’t they undead? This must be one of those deep philosophical questions. In any case, it’s time to discuss what went right and what went wrong with the latest game.
What Went Right
I was really happy to see people commenting on the game. Sometimes, when you’re deep in development you begin to suspect that the game you’re working on is the worst game EVER. It’s this weird bubble of delusional despair that somehow makes its way in your direction. I’m happy to see that I was wrong. In fact, if I knew how much people cared about some features, I probably would have worked harder. In any case, thanks for all the feedback.
Also, I managed to finish the damn thing! Yay! I don’t know if you remember, but the Zombie game was supposed to be a one-week project after Pandora came out. I kept delaying it until it stretched on for 10 months, but it’s done now. This is very important to me, because I have a deathly fear of abandoning projects.
Before I started this blog, I (like many beginners) was working on a giant RPG. I had been programming for years, but I never had a complete game to show for it. I would keep jumping from project to project, leaving unfinished games in my wake. This kept on happening until I bumped into Kloonigames and decided to make a game in one week – that changed my life.
That’s why I was afraid to cancel the game, even after it stretched out longer and longer. I was afraid that if I did, I wouldn’t believe in my ability to complete things any more.
Finally, despite all the pain and suffering along the way, I feel like it’s a pretty neat game. A bit too close to my other work to be completely comfortable, but I still have fun playing it. That, to me, is a sign that I did something right. It might not be the most innovative game out there, but I did a good job on the fundamental design. I learned a lot too.
What Went Wrong
I’ve already talked about the amount of time the game took. The underlying problem was a lack of vision.
My original idea for the game was 4 guys holed up in a house against a zombie horde. I thought that it would be fun to have a game built around barricading yourself in and holding out until dawn. Somewhere in the middle, though, I added the ability to capture spawn points and it turned into an RTS.
The problem with this was that I no longer had any concrete goal that I was trying to reach. Searching for fun gameplay was like clinging to a raft and looking for land. I had no idea when I would reach my destination.
The above sense of being lost was also demoralizing. I had no idea how far along I was, just that I had to keep trudging forward. At some point, I spent so much time on the project that abandoning it was unthinkable.
Lessons Learned
- When prototyping a game idea, don’t be afraid to kill the prototype if it doesn’t work out
- Have a clear vision for the game
- Work on games that you’ll feel proud to sink a year into
There are also some things dealing purely with design and implementation:
- Do a better job of teaching players how the game works – better tutorials, tooltips, etc.
- Spend more time on making the interface natural
- Pay more attention to graphics and sound
- Have the game tell a story via campaign mode
Thank you again to everyone who played the game and commented. I was hyped to hear everyone discuss the game. I’m recharging my batteries now, but the next project is already brewing in my head. I’ll tell you guys more when I have something definite.
Attack of the Paper Zombies
March 4th, 2010 at 10:57 pm
“Sometimes, when you’re deep in development you begin to suspect that the game you’re working on is the worst game EVER.”
Ya I get that feeling alot haha. And I have the same problem of having like 20 unfinished projects at a time.
However I think that all of your games have been great so far so whatever you are doing is working. Looking forward to the next one.
March 5th, 2010 at 5:56 am
i think the game is freaking awesome!
i think the tutorials and interface are perfect… it’s the perfect distraction and reminds of an evolution to the swarm game… both of which remain to be the most played games on my computer….
thank you for sharing this game with us…
what’s the next project?
March 5th, 2010 at 8:16 am
There are some good things about the game that I feel your postmortem didn’t adress:
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1) The game’s difficulty is challenging but not impossible: you feel that every decision matters (especially with the build points) but you never feel that you are in a catch 22.
2) The feel of the game changes as you work through a mission. The challenges you face change as the missions go on, which means that the mission is not a repetition exercise.
3) There is no “I win” weapon in the game for either side (although the hive takeover comes pretty close). Even the siege gun has its drawbacks.
Thanks for making this game. Although I agree that there is a huge space of unmade games to explore (PacMan clone #38521 anyone
March 5th, 2010 at 10:03 am
It is not very challenging once you figure out how to play. There is a strategy that makes this game quite easy, but time consuming (even if he built it to prevent that.)
March 5th, 2010 at 7:18 pm
Thanks, pwn monkey and yiggort. The next project that I work on will be a collaboration with an artist that I hooked up with. We’re brainstorming right now – it’s going to be awesome! Should be done in a month or so.
March 5th, 2010 at 7:19 pm
Thanks for the good points, Anonymous. I feel like a did a good job designing the gameplay on this one. The mutation idea can probably be made even better if there was a game that zoomed in on it.
March 5th, 2010 at 7:21 pm
Chris, are you referring to the teleporter-siege gun strategy? I wanted to fix that thing, but didn’t have enough time. It was right there on my list when I had to ship the game.
Next time, I’ll do better with stuff like that. I have to boost my design to the next level.
March 6th, 2010 at 1:09 am
I really like this game. The build points system, combined with the mutations made it feel more like you’re getting somewhere without tipping the scales so far that it’s too easy to be entertaining. With swarm, I found that once you got a couple upgrades, you got all the upgrades so the game was over and you could only really just toy with your opponents. Also, giving the zombies mostly defensive upgrades was good, because it means if you blew 8 bp on a siege gun, only to have it overrun and deactivated, your marines can draw back and pretty much hold position, even if they aren’t upgraded.
One thing that I thought might have been fun, though I’m only just learning to write code so I have no idea how difficult it would be, was user generated levels. The randomly generated levels are fun, but being random they have some draw backs, and I have had some ideas about level designs that I’d like to see/make myself. Then again, that would require a whole level building interface as well. Overall, it’s a sweet game, and I can’t wait to see what’s next.
March 6th, 2010 at 8:47 am
A level editor is a great idea. The reason I didn’t make on is because it would require a bunch of user-friendly UI and stuff. The way I made levels was via developer commands in-game and hacking XML files.
March 9th, 2010 at 7:43 pm
“Before I started this blog, I (like many beginners) was working on a giant RPG. I had been programming for years, but I never had a complete game to show for it. I would keep jumping from project to project, leaving unfinished games in my wake. This kept on happening until I bumped into Kloonigames and decided to make a game in one week – that changed my life.”
Funny; our first names are the same and we have problems finishing games. Joy of developing alone! It sucks though, now that I have so much motivation to do this alone, I don’t have as much time and college is quickly approaching. But I’m expecting to have more down time during college.
March 9th, 2010 at 9:54 pm
I think that most people who are just starting off have trouble with completion – writers have the same problem, for example. I think that the cause is a mismatch between ambition and skills.
I think that I had more free time during university to work on my own stuff than now. Where (and what) are you studying?
March 9th, 2010 at 10:33 pm
I am attending Devry in July to study either GSP (Game design and simulation) or MDD (Multimedia Design and Development). I’m taking a free class at Devry right now for introduction to the GSP.
My reason for being stuck is because I have only taken math up to Algebra 2 because I am not that great at it. So I was leaning towards the MDD degree but now I’m starting to believe I won’t be happy there. Though I was told the GSP and MDD are pretty much the same program.
Any advice from a fellow developer like your self would help me out a lot!
March 9th, 2010 at 10:49 pm
Well, my history is that I’m a self-taught programmer. I got a classical CS degree from university, but I already knew C++ at that point. Not that C++ is the only thing that I learned there, heh. That’s coloured my perception of these things.
What are your education goals? Are you planning to work in the game’s industry? How good are you at learning on your own?
March 9th, 2010 at 11:21 pm
Well I’ve always wanted to get some friends together and start a development team, but we all know that’s hard to make a living off of until you get it going. So I was planning on working with an existing team in the industry or anywhere that allows me to put my creative juices into new games. I’ve learned a lot on my own – computer trouble shooting/general usage when I was really young(i am the go-to guy for tech support amongst my friends), started “coding” back in grade school with basic HTML and CSS, moved on to a little scripting app called AutoHotKey, then to GMK in the Game Maker program. I’ve also covered Photoshop and pixel art on my own, learned how to play the guitar, building a computer, and basic electrician skills. I’m really a DIY kind of person so, a simpler answer to your question is: I learn very well on my own, though I become more efficient faster with formal lessons.
March 10th, 2010 at 8:58 am
Being able to figure stuff out by yourself is a very useful skill; more important than a degree, for sure. It sounds like you could learn game development by yourself, even without school.
One thing that you should consider is doing an internship at a game company. I worked at EA while I was at university, which was very beneficial. Thankfully, I got this experience before graduating and choosing a job.
Working there made me realize that making games at a large corporation was incompatible with my love for the medium. I wasn’t passionate for the stuff that I was working on and game development studios expect lots of unpaid overtime to boot. What this would have amounted to is that I’d be demoralized at work and wouldn’t have the time to create my own stuff.
Fortunately, a general CS degree allows you to do a lot of things; many of them unrelated to programming. Before the EA stint, I had dreams of starting my own studio (who doesn’t =). I was planning to work in the industry, but I didn’t have a good idea of what that meant.
So, my advice is to see if you actually like working for a game company. Try to leave yourself enough wiggle room if you change your mind. It’s very hard to get a non-game job with a narrow degree.
March 10th, 2010 at 6:06 pm
By the way, what’s Algebra 2? Also; electronics skills are awesome – I’ve always wanted to build robots.
March 10th, 2010 at 10:10 pm
Algebra 2 comes before pre-calc.
March 10th, 2010 at 10:54 pm
So, what do you learn there? Linear algebra?
March 11th, 2010 at 11:26 pm
Eh, variables and equations; matrices, systems of equations, graphing on a coordinate plane. I’m great with all the variable stuff, I just find it hard to memorize all of those damn equations and knowing when to use them.
March 12th, 2010 at 6:23 pm
Ah, linear algebra; I had some trouble grokking it too, at first. It’s hellishly useful for 3d programming though.