District 9 mockup/ideas
 

Well, a while ago I posted about a horror/zombie server. I still haven't even tried to do anything about it, as I'm not really interested in putting that much effort into Graal. Anyways, I have been coming up with ideas for the server nonetheless that I thought I'd share.

Because this isn't 3D, trying to give the right mood and setting is pretty hard. So I figure there would be a lighting-type implementation. It isn't actually lighting though, but actually the players perspective. Everything outside of the player's eyesight will be blackened(indoors). The actual physics involved in rendering the perspective will be the same as the player having a flashlight on their face. The difference between this being perspective and lighting effects is that other players will not have any effect on the blackness, so you won't see another player's 'lighting'. I've attached some mock-up's of what this would look like.

As far as what happened to create the whole setting... a nuclear disaster, yada yada... You start out in a bomb shelter. Because of the blast, the town will be completely wrecked, and will have something like a snow falling constantly. The radioactivity has mutated the DNA of those who it has killed bringing them back to life as zombies... but at the same time, also completely mutating humans and animals into completely different monsters. Anyways, you get the idea.

As for gameplay, it'll be a mix of many things. Inside, movement will be much like Metal Gear Solid games. You will be able to sneak around and press against walls to peak around the corner(moving your viewpoint around the corner, letting you see more) and such. Puzzles will be involved also, depending on the area and building you're in. You will be able to only hold one of each type of weaponry, as for the types they are as follows:
Melee weapon(knifes, bats, swords)
Light firearm(handguns,uzi's,bow)
Heavy firearm(machine guns,rocket launchers,crossbow)
Projectiles(anything you can throw, fruit, ninja stars,grenades)
So, if you have a knife and decide to pick up the bat, you have to switch them, leaving the knife behind. Things will differ between each weapon, such as available ammo. So even though a rocket launcher is awesome... I wouldn't think too fast about leaving your AK behind for it when the AK would probably be much easier to find ammo for. Also, weaponry will be nearly anything you'd think about to use as a weapon. Pipes, bats, anything 'detached' and that can be used more than once(exceptions are for projectiles. You could use things like CD's, bottles and such as long as you find more to supply yourself).
There is also a fear-factor. The more hideous a create you encounter, the more it will rise. Also, things like being frightened will make it shoot up. It will slowly lower(think of it as your heart rate, as I would say I'd use a electrocardiogram for this) back to normal. But... if it goes too high, you'll get an adrenaline rush. This will raise your melee weapon's strength, your speed, and other factors. While this helps you, once your adrenaline runs out you will be tired out for a while.

As for the purpose of the game, it's solely to survive. There is no 'beating' it. All you can do is simply roam around doing whatever you can. Explore abandoned buildings and perhaps find a nice weapon hidden in there, or some other rare item. Find underground hidden areas where you can fight against others(much like spars), find hidden shops. Everything will be hidden because just like you, other people(like shopowners), need to hide and survive. Inside buildings, gameplay will be a lot different. Gameplay indoors will be a lot different than outside. Indoors, it will be more sneaky, one on one/two/three. Also, the stronger monsters will most likely be found inside. The insides will be where most quest-like objectives will be found, mazes and such. Outdoor however, there will be lots of zombies and monsters, and it'll be more like a free-for-all match. Just run and gun.

Anyways, things are sketchy, and I don't think I'll ever do anything with this as the perspective along would be most likely impossible to script. I'll post any ideas I have in this thread. Well, here are some mock-ups(sorry, no GUI's or sprites yet... I may add them later). First and second is just the perspective walking down the hallway, the third is what it'd look like peeking around a corner.

Save this for 3D playerworlds...really

Rofl, if and when they ever come out. Also, prices will probably be high. I doubt 3D production will ever be as much as Graal2D's is.

Thats true...but if you make it offline stefan might buy it from you ;)

I don't have the computer to work with any 3D, and I'd hate not to be able to play my own idea :)

Anyways, if what I want for this server is actually possible, I might actually attempt to create it. Though it'd take a lot of resource(lots of graphics, and really good scripters) to make it happen. It is really something I'd love to see happen.

I say again, the Chzo Mythos series would be an excellent area to draw inspiration from. The serious proves, even with low quality graphics and .midi for music, games can be great and seriously f*****g scary.

This is exactly what I'm going to try to do(well... if I ever attempt it). That's what my perspective system is meant for, adding a sense of mystery. Not knowing what's behind you, around the corner(I might remove the peeking around corners), behind the pillar right in front of you. If I tried to make a horror server without the perspective thing, it just wouldn't be the same, so I wouldn't even attempt it without it.
At first I wasn't even going to give it a second thought, but after thinking up the perspective thing, I don't think it's a bad alternative.

Nox had a similar perspective where shadows were cast around corners.

Pretty sure they will. The technology wont be used much otherwise.

Dusty, will there be any options for being able to play as these disgusting mutations you describe? That'd be pretty cool.

I was thinking about letting yourself get 'infected' but I have no clue how I'd incorporate that into the gameplay.

Are the zombies going to be slow like typical zombie horror films or fast like '28 Days Later'?

It depends. Since there are going to be different mutations, there can be slow and fast zombies. It'll be completely dependent on the area you're in. If you're in a difficult building, the zombies will most likely be faster, but if you're in an easy, beginning part of the game, they'll most likely be slow.

Ah, I see. Well, I'm extremely fond of the idea in all cases :)

Quick health GUI mock-up. Please ignore the ugly face graphics, I put all the work into the skull then got tired of pixeling by the time I got to doing the face. It fades into a skull depending on your health(I'll probably include a bar under it for accuracy).

Really nice :O could happen when you dies etc.. :o

The game of life!

This whole idea is a pretty nice concept and I like that fear factor idea of yours. The light might be tricky like we discussed but I still think it's possible.

The skull crumbles when you die! ^_^

A little mock-up of the starting screen. I'm not really that good or experienced with photoshop that much, so excuse the crappyness of it. But you get the idea I'm going with, but in Graal, it would be flickering as the streetlights go on and off, as well as the presence of snow-like fallout falling down.

I also had the idea of the front of a club or other district-like area, with neon lights on the front of a run-down building with big red letters District 9, flickering on and off.

neato, keep it up

For you or anyone else looking to create a 2d horror server please check out Clock Tower for SNES.

Played it, but it doesn't help overcome any problems we might have trying this on Graal. The way they did the game was designed perfectly for horror, especially the perspective. Graal isn't quite the same.

Bumping this 'cause...
http://img101.imageshack.us/img101/7...ffects1nx8.jpg
This is an actual script and it works in real-time and doesn't lag that much(500MHz with 8mb video RAM). All I need to do is invert the polygon(and work in the light climbing up the wall bit).
:)

I'd actually be able to add an option that would let you change the accuracy of the check. That way people with slower computers would be able to sacrifice the accuracy of it and still have gameplay, while people with faster computers will be able to have more accurate checks.

I actually tried to make a server like this, in the dark :O One of my fast failing projects, but you actually did it lol.

Didnt think that whole light stuff was possible :P sweeeet

Really great job on the script. I really like the idea, keep up the hard work!

Nice.

Thanks to Zero for helping me invert it! :)
http://img255.imageshack.us/img255/6...ffects1mm8.jpg

Really nice

Sweet, is it possible to make the npcs darker too?

ive been playing with this earlier, its so much fun xD Seriously shows the power of the graal engine sorta

Shouldn't the light shine a little on the pots?

Lol, the script as it is is very tax-worthy on the CPU. All it does is detect walls, though I could make it shine over vases... but that would be pointless to script because it will have custom tilesets that won't have vases.

Also, I'm going to script it so NPC's not in your field-of-view will be completely invisible. Only reason I made the polygon slightly transparent was because I thought it was a bit boring to show all black with just some floor showing.

Ok cool, not flaming you at all, great work!

I think you should add a little bit of "view" all the way around the character to add a scare factor when a zombie suddenly attacks from behind. Instead of you suddenly realizing your health is depleting and not seeing the zombie behind you, you would be able to see the zombie right on top of you at the very last second. :)

Also maybe you could not make the view so bright. It kinda seems like the guy has flashlights for eyes. Or you could make it so that your character could start off with only a flashlight and just make a gani with the guy holding the flashlight.

A flashlight would seem logical since it wouldn't be that bright with eyes. But I don't know about having sight around you even if it is just a bit. Maybe if a zombie attacks from behind you can have it where the zombie's head bites your neck and you can see its head on your shoulder.

Well I plan to have anything in like 2 tiles visible as long as it's not behind a wall or such. I can't describe this as a flashlight or such because then I'd have to script you to see everyone else's light and it'd be a huge mess.

Unless it's going to be dark outside too you could still make flashlights, and like make the lights inside coming from a window or such.. not that you get some holy light from nowhere.

Well it's not really light, it's your perspective. And this script would only be implemented inside(unless the onwall3(poly) is implemented...).

I figured, but still a light from nowhere?
Make it dark outside, and black inside with lightsources from outside... Then you could also buy a flashlight..?

There's no light coming from no where? It's like any other server where insides are just lit. The blackness isn't shadows, but just area out of your viewing area. Think of it like a camera in a 3D game. To call it a light would mean everyone else would have light projected from them and then you'd have an overwhelming script trying to work with everyone's light. The only reason I want to implement this is to emphasize the horror of not knowing what's around the corner, or behind you and such. With this system you can literally walk up to a corner in the hallway and never see the monster that's sitting right around the corner until it pops out.

I know, but it kind of ruins it in a way..


"It's like any other server where insides are just lit."
They suck.