Escape From Zombie City

[SplinterGU]

ogg is more expensive, it's a fact.

[tmoney]

caanoo version now available:  http://dl.openhandhelds.org/cgi-bin/caanoo.cgi?0,0,0,0,27,512

PC version now available: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=IP00ZK3L

[Mr Matsusaka]

Yippiee!

[FreeYourMind]

Yuuuuuuhhhuuuu, let's essstreeennnnattteee myy caanooo, oleeeee  :D

[Mr Matsusaka]

I've played for more than one hour until I finally beated the pendant demon. As always I loved the characters. The ninja character is the shit! Very nice stuff. I think this game could make it perfectly in the genesis/supernes era.

I've found a couple of things: fisrt, using the keyboard it's hard to run. Whith the pad is ok but with the keyboard you need to push the button too fast. Second, when a zombie hits you it sounds a zombie screem, but also when the octogone hits you!

There will be more side histories? Will be all the character playable in the final version? The music is original?

[tmoney]

thanks a lot!  i appreciate the feed back.  i will make an adjustment to the running mechanic.  part of the difficulty is probably related to the fact that i sped the frame rate up for this version, therefore you have less time to "double tap" a direction to run.  the "Octolith" plays a role in the larger story that the WIP only scratches the surface of, but it is intentional that when you touch the octolith, it hurts you.

This was just part of one story, each of the 12 suspects will have a story in the final game.  the previous WIP was part of a different story.   I've always enjoyed old school beat 'em ups like the turtles and simpsons arcade games, but the "replayability" of those games is low because you always go through the same levels in the same order and fight the same henchmen and same bosses.  So this is my attempt to remedy that.  By creating a level layout that you can choose your path, as well as having different stories and bosses to fight, i'm hoping to make EFZC as "replayable" as possible.

yes, there are 20 playable characters.  in any given story, a handful of them will not be playable because they are significant to that story, for example, a culprit of his/her own story will not be playable in that story.  as in the WIP, you'll start with the 3 police officers as the characters you can choose, but you'll be able to ask others to join you.  you'll also be able to unlock the other 17 characters so that you can start a game with them.  I was thinking of making a store where you could buy characters for points earned from killing zombies and beating bosses.

and the music, yes that's original.  guitars are real guitars, everything else is programmed. 

thanks again for the feedback! :)

[Noivern]

dude, your game is really fun to play! karma!
My feedback:
Add some health pack to recover hp but few of them, so we need to be care anyway.
Sometimes is a little annoying when zombies "grabs" you. It's a little hard to be free then and normally results in a zombification. Perhaps, i'm too bad lol.
I don't remember if it's implemented, but in the sewer, it will be great if you add 2D Audio, so you could listen the zombies behind you (the ones in the darkness) accuratelly.

[tmoney]

dude, your game is really fun to play! karma!
My feedback:
Add some health pack to recover hp but few of them, so we need to be care anyway.
Sometimes is a little annoying when zombies "grabs" you. It's a little hard to be free then and normally results in a zombification. Perhaps, i'm too bad lol.
I don't remember if it's implemented, but in the sewer, it will be great if you add 2D Audio, so you could listen the zombies behind you (the ones in the darkness) accuratelly.

thank you, your feedback is welcome :D!  i do have plans to include "health packs," but i decided to post the wip before i took the time to implement them.  i actually intend to have 2 variations on the health pack idea, one will be important to one of the stories, the other will be for humors sake.  i've found it's a tricky thing to balance the zombie attacks.  my intent is that it's not too difficult to handle one or two zombies, but if you get grabbed by a horde, you are in serious trouble.  currently, your best bet is to run either up or down if you are grabbed and can't get away, the zombies range is much more limited along the y-axis.  certain characters are better at fighting off zombies at close range.  i hadn't thought about the 2d audio, that's a good idea.  i will definitely try and make that happen...  i have a lot of work still to do before i'm done :-\

[Noivern]

Just keep the good job, at your own speed, but you must finish someday.
There were lots of projects that died before they were released.
And it's funny, me talking about difficulty: all people who played my game complained about the difficulty xD

[Mr Matsusaka]

Me I think the difficulty it's ok. It force to the player to learn to survive by playing the game few times. Plus, the difficulty is something very personal, some people will say it is hard, other will say it's easy... The best is to set it in your way.

The problem with the Octogone it's that when it damage you can hear a zombie screem in the same waay when a zombie damages you lol I guess that's because you play the sound from the main character.

Yeah! I remember there was a different story in the previous demo, with a gigant robot or something like that. I'm happy to hear all that will be recorvered and mixed with the current stuffin the future.

The music it's really nice. One of them is really catchy and atmospherical. It makes you want to play the game again. Very good stuff as always.

[FreeYourMind]

I love the game, it remember me the simpsons arcade, the dificult is ok (a little easy, but is ok).

I have some sugestions (the game don't need them to we awesome, but don't matter :):

1 - Put Transparencies in closet objects of the scroll (windows of the veicles).

2 - Animations in the objects of the scenario, like the old computers.

3 - A Zoom effect i map.

4 - Another way to open doors, i don't understand the color swith's to open the doors)

5 - Another button to talk with zombies, L or R buttons, because A interfer with shoots when we don't want to ask them.

6 - Another's items in the scenario, like cats running and screaming, dogs, etc.

It's all for the moment  ;D

[Mr Matsusaka]

(a little easy, but is ok).

Do you see? Some people will say it's hard and other not. ;D

3 - A Zoom effect i map.

I don't know if this is possible or not, but it would be nice to be able to check the map in the pause menu. Also, it would be nice to mark in the map the people we have already met. Just in case you don't remember where they are.

[tmoney]

I love the game, it remember me the simpsons arcade, the dificult is ok (a little easy, but is ok).

I have some sugestions (the game don't need them to we awesome, but don't matter :):

1 - Put Transparencies in closet objects of the scroll (windows of the veicles).

2 - Animations in the objects of the scenario, like the old computers.

3 - A Zoom effect i map.

4 - Another way to open doors, i don't understand the color swith's to open the doors)

5 - Another button to talk with zombies, L or R buttons, because A interfer with shoots when we don't want to ask them.

6 - Another's items in the scenario, like cats running and screaming, dogs, etc.

It's all for the moment  ;D

i will take a look at making objects which are in front of you transparent and see how that works.  i kind of like not being able to see exactly what's behind every corner, but some objects, like the dump truck, are pretty obstructive.  i'll be honest, i'm probably not going to animate many objects just because of the time, it definitely would be fun, but it's probably not going to happen.

now with the doors, is it a language issue? or is it just too unintuitive?  i do have another idea for the doors which would involve giving you a set of keys which you would have to select the matching key to the lock on the door based on the shape of the key.  so instead of matching colors, you would be matching shapes basically.

i'm not sure what you mean by zooming in the map. and Mr Matsusaka, you can check the map from the pause menu unless you are in a building (or in the sewers), but on any street, and in the mall, you can pause the game and see your exact location on the map (in the previous wip, it would show which street you were on, but not your exact location).

the reason i did not map anything to the "R" or "L" buttons is that i find those buttons to be very awkward to press on the wiz.  but i think you are right, i think i will separate the talking onto another button to avoid the conflict of trying to do an action with the random walking of NPCs.  that will also free me up to make it so you don't have to be right on top of the NPC to start a conversation, i think i'll just make it so that when you hit the "talk" button, it will show a list of the NPCs who are on screen at the moment, and you'll be able to select the one you want to talk to.  that would also allow me to make it so you can still talk to people who have already joined you when new dialog questions are unlocked.

Mr Matsusaka, i like the idea of marking characters who you have already met on the map. i'm not exactly sure how i'll implement it, but i'll add it to the ever expanding to-do list.

and just so you guys know, i am planning on making it so you can save your game.  that's probably one of the last things i'll do, just so that i know everything that will have to be saved for the save state.

oh and i almost forgot, superior versions of both the caanoo and PC versions, as well as the wiz version are now available on the projects page.  the wiz and caanoo are the same as the current versions on openhandhelds.org, but the PC version is more stable than the one i originally posted.

[FreeYourMind]

The zoom effect for the map, it's only for visual questions, not for functionality, when the map appears and desapears (when you go to stage), mixed with a fade effect for example.

About the colors, i just press the colors to open the doors, but i don't understand how it works ;)

[Mr Matsusaka]

FreeYourMind, you have to press the colors in the same orther they tell you in a text whitch can be found on top of the color menu.