Topic: Platform Shooter Project: ZOMMIES:ATTACK!

I'm currently working on a platform shooter called ZOMMIES:ATTACK! (working title). Everything is in it's earliest stages, so nothing yet is permanent. I thought I'd make a post about it here and see what people think of my ideas so far and get some new ideas for the game.

So far the story is:
There was a nuclear war and the world is in ruins. You and the other survivors are now stuck with a new war, a war against the zommies! (Zommies refers to the term that the mad scientist Dr. Nohbrane uses to refer to the monsters that now have free reign of the city.) Radioactivity left over from the war has been mutating creatures into monsters of all sorts, and causing people to become zombies. You and some of the other soldiers (and Dr. Nohbrane) are in a giant airship flying to an (as of yet) undecided location, shooting down zombies in the graveyard below, when a dragon attacks the ship and you crash land in the graveyard. Pieces of the ship and the soldiers within are scattered all over the land, and you are stuck with the main wreckage of the airship and Dr. Nohbrane. Nohbrane tasks you with retrieving the missing pieces so he can repair the ship. But first, he wants to make sure that you haven't suffered any brain damage in the crash, and wants to make sure you still know how to use a gun and whatnot. Thus begins the tutorial level.

Most of the enemies will be zombies of various sorts, but there will also be many other kinds of monsters. The action won't be all running and jumping and shooting, however. Right now, there will be Tank levels and Capture the Flag levels in addition to the regular ones. In capture the flag levels, you are tasked with protecting your base from zombies, and trying to remove the zombie creating radioactive generator at the other end of the playing field. All of the levels will be mission-based, as well.

What do you think so far? And I'm also looking for ideas for monsters to put in the game.

Aw, I thought it would be about killing undead communists...

people would know I would come to this theard (lol), anyway sounds good but to make it good you got to put heart into it and maybe copy a few ideas from here and there like from nazi zombies or some other popluar zombie game (unless you want it more original) and you MUST put a endless mode!

Haha, I may have to add some of those now!

The dragon seems to be an odd edition.

I was going to say the same thing. If you're going for a mish-mash of genre staples, then fine, but be aware it can be difficult to make that work properly. If not then I'd have to say that dragons don't really fit in the mainstream idea of a post-zombie-apocalyptic world, and it might be a good idea to change that.

Out of interest, how are you making the game? Which platform are you aiming for? (I'm assuming PC). Are you coding from scratch, or using a game-making utility?

I can't think of any great ideas for you at this stage. What you've got so far seems interesting and I'm sure you'll think of new ideas along the way - it's probably actually a good idea to get started without a set plan for the game (within reason) as it's good to have the flexibility to make extra inclusions if you think of cool new features.

I'm working on Game Maker, and coding from scratch. This is more than just a zombie apocalypse, I'm looking to include lots of monsters, from science-fiction, fantasy, or just new stuff that I've made up.

EDIT: Also, you are correct, this is for PC.

I'd like to give you some of my ideas but they're from my PWP game >_<

EDIT: Just came up with an idea (off the top of my head though), soccer zombies, they pop off their own heads and kick them at you, then the zombie head latches on to your body with its teeth and gradually chews away at you.

I like it so far, the plot is clever and the airship intro seems like a good excuse for some exploring / explaining.

I just had a new idea for a boss last night, a giant floating eyeball (dubbed "Seeyou"), who fires lasers from his pupil. You will battle him on the way up a rickety old skyscraper, and you must avoid his lasers and shoot from broken parts of the building. You also must defeat him before he destroys the building. What do you think?

That actually sounds really cool.

I've been doing a lot of design sketches lately, so I'll post those soon. In the mean time, here's a new enemy design I came up with the other day:

It's called the Deadsaurus, and they will roam the city in the game.

Also, I'm currently using pixel art (in the 8-bit style) for my graphics, but I'm not sure whether to continue using them or to switch to HD (handrawn, of course) graphics. I'll get a screenshot up soon to give you an idea of what it looks like at this point.