Version 0.4 of Zed’s Dead is now available to try. This version includes a whole bunch of new features:

• user accounts and unlocking of more advanced characters
• continually-running ‘Open Access’ games which players can drop in and out of
• several types of guns and character skills
• in-game levelling-up of characters
• food, medikits and ammo which you can find by searching buildings, cars, etc.
• team bases. Destroying the opposing team base ends the game. Games also have a fixed time limit of 15 mins.
• gun bunkers which defend the team bases
• all-time high score tables for each ‘Open Access’ game

Download version 0.4 (Windows)

What I have worked on
I have an efficient multiplayer isometric shooter game in place, with a master-server/lobby and a system for hosting games locally or on a publicly-accessible server. The map maker works pretty well. The game needs a lot more graphics. However, it all runs nicely and is pretty light-weight in terms of server load so it’s feasible to run lots of game instances on a single physical server.

What I have tried and why they weren’t ideal
The first version (0.1) ran exclusively on a player’s local network rather than on the public internet – I had in mind a LAN game with phones as controllers. This limited the mapsize to one screen, and to be honest is too limiting in terms of maximising the audience… the fact is, most people want to play online, and making a game LAN-only is too limiting.

The second version (0.2) incorporated a multiplayer lobby, larger scrolling maps, and hosted games on my Linux server – so this allows online multiplayer games. Game instances started up on request and the requesting player set the various game difficulty settings, zombie amounts, etc. This worked better, but is still focusing on casual, instanced gameplay and if there’s no-one else setting up a game when you hit the lobby, there’s not much of a reason to stick around. You can download version 0.2 here (Windows only).

Directions?
Casual multiplayer games with instanced servers can be great (think King Arthur’s Gold), and so can casual multiplayer games with a more persistent-world/MMO style (e.g. Realm of the Mad God). It’s important that players get some sense of levelling up/unlocking stuff.

What I’m currently leaning towards is:

a game lobby that gives you a choice of several maps to join – these maps are basically running 24/7 rather than starting on-demand. you’ll get added to whichever team currently has fewest players. Each map will have predetermined difficulty settings. So there’s a mix of maps and settings available to choose from, and it’s very easy to pop in and play with no setting-up decisions.

You unlock characters over days/weeks based on accumulated score (which is scaled by difficulty of settings on map), but you’ll level up each character from zero in each game you join.. dying+respawning loses some of your level but not all. There can be a persistent per-map high score table.

There will probably have to be some AI-controlled characters filling out the teams if there aren’t enough human players. This is quite challenging to implement, however there’s probably no way around it.

there can be a way of uploading maps to run as test zones on-demand, and of requesting that these get added as official maps.

Not an MMO then?
Open-world MMO is cool, although it reduces the ‘just join and play’ appeal. I’m leaning towards *not* adding MMO-like world persistence. I have done quite a bit of work on zone servers etc. so I’d be confident of segmenting a single open-world into zone servers, for everyone to play in one world at once. To take this approach would make the game a larger undertaking, there’d be considerations of equipment, crafting, etc.. it would certainly add a different dimension to the idea. But it would also take away some of the simplicity of play, as well as being a lot more work.

Just a quick update on progress. Following some trials of the 0.1 alpha, I have refocused the game on full internet multiplayer, rather than LAN-only multiplayer. This involved a lot of refactoring. I have also (for now) removed the use of smartphones as controllers, and I have replaced websockets with UDP networking – this is important if the game is to run well on the public internet.

Features implemented in the past 2 weeks:
– master/lobby server running on a Linux box at psychicsoftware.com
– nodejs-based gameserver, also running on the Linux server, with game instances spawned on request by the master server
– scrolling map which can be up to about 5000×4000 pixels in total size
– login/game startup/choice of options/lobby chat
– gameplay includes players, zombies, bullets, re-spawning and a basic scoring system

I am also planning to have game sessions hostable by players (rather than only on my server) – I’m looking into NAT-punching in order to get that working from behind players’ routers. These game sessions will be able to use any maps that the players have designed in the game’s map-designer component, or that they have downloaded from the (planned) online maps respository.

Dammit, we need a picture. Here’s a picture!

.. and there’s a new Facebook page if you’re that way inclined:

OK, so there was this biological warfare experiment that went wrong. The head science guy running the experiment was called Zed. Before you know it, there’s thousands of brain-dead infected people swarming everywhere trying to eat people. We call these zombies “Zed’s Dead”.

Zed’s Dead is a multiplayer isometric LAN shooter. The focus is on quick, fun competitive multiplayer play: pick your teams, pick your map, set the game parameters, and go!

Current game modes:
– Survival: teams earn 1 point per second that they have at least one character alive
– King of the Hill: teams earn points for standing close to the Flag.

One person needs to start up the game as Server, and pick a map.
Other people run the game as Client.
Controls: WASD or Arrow Keys to move; point and click with the mouse to fire.
Anyone who doesn’t have a computer can use their Android or iPhone (using Chrome or Firefox) and will get to play using twin joysticks (left joystick to move, right joystick to fire). Just point the phone’s browser to the URL displayed on the game server’s team-picking screen. Phone users can look at any of the computer screens to see the actual game world while playing.

The game runs using your LAN – so you all have to be connected to the same network.

Download the game here [alpha 0.1]: This is an early early alpha. Seeking feedback and comments please!

Windows:
[Download Windows Alpha 0.1]

As you’ll see, there’s also a map-making component. To make your maps usable, they must have 2 player spawn points (one for each team), 1 or more zombie spawn points, and 1 Flag which is used in the king-of-the-hill play mode.