With my actions completed today, Zombies at War enters, finally and officially, a closed-alpha state. What does this mean? Well, if you already have an account - nothing! If you don't, then go sign up for one!
The "closed" part of the alpha means I'm limiting the number of new accounts. I need to make sure that my servers can handle the traffic. The "alpha" part means the game's far from finished. But as a developer, I can only see so much. I need you all to find the little bits that I haven't found yet.
One of the big reasons this took an extra month or so is because of my apprehension on releasing it. It doesn't matter how much work or love you put into something, you're always worried everyone is going to hate it. (I just hope some of you give me helpful tidbits instead of just hate!) And, with enough people playing, in a few months (end of summer perhaps), I can open the alpha up, and move into beta.
Things are looking good, and I hope you all have fun!
Friday, March 25, 2011
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
Closer, finish in sight
I had a semi-productive two weeks. The tutorial is now finished, and all should work well. It's probably not the best-looking, as it needs pretty pictures and font enhancements. But I'm at least making progress. A few days ago I thought up a great way to code the closed-alpha system for limiting the number of players and controlling it. I had forgotten it up until that last sentence.
Can't stop to talk now, much to do. Hoping (deeply) that I can get the closed alpha released before the next two weeks end. I'm going to do my best.
DAMNIT, and I forgot about user profiles. Gotta find time for that, too.
Can't stop to talk now, much to do. Hoping (deeply) that I can get the closed alpha released before the next two weeks end. I'm going to do my best.
DAMNIT, and I forgot about user profiles. Gotta find time for that, too.
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
Switching gears
With work ramping up, taking away from the little time I have to work on Z@W, I've not had much progress on the 'final' polish. Some work, yes, and while everything is working and functional, some things are ugly and are in need of added love. Also, it's been brought to my attention by a friend and tester that I'm in dire need of a tutorial. So with that, I have decided to downgrade Zombies at War from pre-beta status to alpha status. Also, this development cycle is going to be focused on creating a tutorial and short intro-adventure for new players to get a grasp of the game and be pointed firmly in a direction within the game. The idea is to make the first intro-adventure take 5 days of casual play, less if you are REALLY bored and more if you play less than my estimations.
With all of that being said, the game will also be closed off to new players. When I am finished with the new code, the game will be opened up to 100 new accounts and no more. Initially, anyway, this closed alpha will allow me to (assuming I get 100 players) focus on the little things I didn't see. Hopefully some of these players both try to break my game and tell me how they did it, but it's my hope that most of them just _play_ the game and report to me what they honestly thought about it. Best case, I have 100 players that like my game and everything goes great. Worst case is I now have 100 players that never will play my game again and I'm back to square one. Time will tell, and I've a bit of work to do.
With all of that being said, the game will also be closed off to new players. When I am finished with the new code, the game will be opened up to 100 new accounts and no more. Initially, anyway, this closed alpha will allow me to (assuming I get 100 players) focus on the little things I didn't see. Hopefully some of these players both try to break my game and tell me how they did it, but it's my hope that most of them just _play_ the game and report to me what they honestly thought about it. Best case, I have 100 players that like my game and everything goes great. Worst case is I now have 100 players that never will play my game again and I'm back to square one. Time will tell, and I've a bit of work to do.
Monday, January 24, 2011
The final push
So I just realised that I never actually posted an update over Christmas about minions. that's unfortunate, for I was fairly proud of my minion code and how it turned out. Essentially, minions are little fighters that you can find my converting humans into zombies. You have limited space for minions, and you can get more (easier) as you level up and raise your wisdom to it's cap.
Minions can be trained on their own and fought with other minions, and they are used in fights. Your minion fights your opponent's minions, and the winner of those two goes on to fight with it's master against the opponent. Meaning that if your minion is better than the zombie you're fighting's minion, your minion will fight with you against the other zombie! Meaning that a player with a stronger minion has a MUCH better chance of winning in a fight. I have big plans for minions, stay tuned on that front.
This cycle provided little new for the average user. This update was mostly administrative in nature, and on my end I have more control over the forums and other little bits of the game that I'd normally have to go directly to the database to do. Such a hassle, but no more!
I won't bore you with the other details of that update but instead push to the final push, the final update before I (hopefully) can consider the game (officially) in beta. Yes, I test the game at beta.zombiesatwar.com, but that's only because I was too lazy to create alpha.zombiesatwar.com and then change it later. It's a beta, it's just more of an alpha-ey beta-ey ... thing.
This cycle is all about polish. Images will be moved around, text will be changed and moved around, little bits of debug code will be cut, things will be polished and fluffed up so the game looks good. It's been getting a bit dirty with the changes I've made, and during build phases I'm not too good at keeping the beauty in there.
Also, if I have time, I'm going to implement the ability for users to sell weapons and armor on the market. And more administrative, but that's more for me and not for anyone else.
I'm real nervous, and I hope people like the game in a few weeks when I start to actually tell people about it. Fingers crossed!
Minions can be trained on their own and fought with other minions, and they are used in fights. Your minion fights your opponent's minions, and the winner of those two goes on to fight with it's master against the opponent. Meaning that if your minion is better than the zombie you're fighting's minion, your minion will fight with you against the other zombie! Meaning that a player with a stronger minion has a MUCH better chance of winning in a fight. I have big plans for minions, stay tuned on that front.
This cycle provided little new for the average user. This update was mostly administrative in nature, and on my end I have more control over the forums and other little bits of the game that I'd normally have to go directly to the database to do. Such a hassle, but no more!
I won't bore you with the other details of that update but instead push to the final push, the final update before I (hopefully) can consider the game (officially) in beta. Yes, I test the game at beta.zombiesatwar.com, but that's only because I was too lazy to create alpha.zombiesatwar.com and then change it later. It's a beta, it's just more of an alpha-ey beta-ey ... thing.
This cycle is all about polish. Images will be moved around, text will be changed and moved around, little bits of debug code will be cut, things will be polished and fluffed up so the game looks good. It's been getting a bit dirty with the changes I've made, and during build phases I'm not too good at keeping the beauty in there.
Also, if I have time, I'm going to implement the ability for users to sell weapons and armor on the market. And more administrative, but that's more for me and not for anyone else.
I'm real nervous, and I hope people like the game in a few weeks when I start to actually tell people about it. Fingers crossed!
Monday, December 13, 2010
Battle to the (un)death
If you've been watching, I posted an announcement to the announcement board a week ago describing the changes made this cycle. I've spent the remainder working on cosmetic changes, laying out the groundwork for the next cycle, and working a bit on the user profiles (which still need a lot of work. Also, disregard the pony.). So if you didn't already know, this cycle was primarily about the battler, and secondarily about a couple small horde updates that I didn't get to in the last cycle.
The horde updates numbered two. One was the ability to transfer the owner of said horde. It's free and it's the only way the owner of a horde can leave said horde. The idea just popped into my head of allowing the leader of a horde to leave without relinquishing command...but Ill cross that bridge when I decide to go down that path. If I do. Anyway, the second update was the scripted creation of a new horde. It's also free (though as beta approaches it's going to cost some in-game funds. Probably brains and/or bunch of cash, we'll see), and gets you your own subforum and horde. It all should work fine, I tested it out a few times and nothing was amiss. I debated doing it manually (that is, a user requests a new horde and me or another admin actually creates it), but decided that a scripted was is better in the long run. Besides, it's just a bunch of database inserts...so why bother doing it manually?
And now, the battler. This update focused on a facelift, revamp, and addition of weapons and armor.
The revamp of the battler focused on a battle simulator. This probably isn't coded in the best way...but for the time being it's the exact same as the battler. You put in the name, level, and other stats of each player and you can see how the battle turns out. It's basically what it sounds like. This can serve as a springboard for future changes to the battler, and allow a place to test changes without screwing with the battler in the alpha/beta.
The facelift of the battler was, also, what it sounds like. Text is a bit bigger, the winning conditions don't look so small and silly, and everything is, in general, bigger, brighter, and better. I'm still open to suggestions, but I think it's way better than it was, despite not looking much different.
And last, but not least, weapons and armor. In a nutshell, they work in battles now. If you've been battling similar-stat players, you've noticed "zombie rage", which increases your attack power by one each round you attempt to attack until you do damage > 0. This is calculated AFTER your weapon and armor is calculated. So if you did 5 damage now, and your opponent attaches a 20 armor and you attach a 15 weapon, you'll zombie rage for roughly one round until you do one damage. This way makes sense to me, so we'll see how it goes.
The next update should be fun, and much easier for me to code than the previous ... three cycles. Minions! Little mindless zombies for you to train, fight with other mindless zombies, and use to battle other (less mindless?) zombies in your quest for supremacy. Should be fun.
The horde updates numbered two. One was the ability to transfer the owner of said horde. It's free and it's the only way the owner of a horde can leave said horde. The idea just popped into my head of allowing the leader of a horde to leave without relinquishing command...but Ill cross that bridge when I decide to go down that path. If I do. Anyway, the second update was the scripted creation of a new horde. It's also free (though as beta approaches it's going to cost some in-game funds. Probably brains and/or bunch of cash, we'll see), and gets you your own subforum and horde. It all should work fine, I tested it out a few times and nothing was amiss. I debated doing it manually (that is, a user requests a new horde and me or another admin actually creates it), but decided that a scripted was is better in the long run. Besides, it's just a bunch of database inserts...so why bother doing it manually?
And now, the battler. This update focused on a facelift, revamp, and addition of weapons and armor.
The revamp of the battler focused on a battle simulator. This probably isn't coded in the best way...but for the time being it's the exact same as the battler. You put in the name, level, and other stats of each player and you can see how the battle turns out. It's basically what it sounds like. This can serve as a springboard for future changes to the battler, and allow a place to test changes without screwing with the battler in the alpha/beta.
The facelift of the battler was, also, what it sounds like. Text is a bit bigger, the winning conditions don't look so small and silly, and everything is, in general, bigger, brighter, and better. I'm still open to suggestions, but I think it's way better than it was, despite not looking much different.
And last, but not least, weapons and armor. In a nutshell, they work in battles now. If you've been battling similar-stat players, you've noticed "zombie rage", which increases your attack power by one each round you attempt to attack until you do damage > 0. This is calculated AFTER your weapon and armor is calculated. So if you did 5 damage now, and your opponent attaches a 20 armor and you attach a 15 weapon, you'll zombie rage for roughly one round until you do one damage. This way makes sense to me, so we'll see how it goes.
The next update should be fun, and much easier for me to code than the previous ... three cycles. Minions! Little mindless zombies for you to train, fight with other mindless zombies, and use to battle other (less mindless?) zombies in your quest for supremacy. Should be fun.
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
Hordes of you, the undead
Today I released the horde update, which as awesome as it is it's still underwhelming for you, the player. Can't make hordes yet and can't transfer ownership of the currently-existent hordes, but that's first up on my plate for the next round of updates.
Updates which are coming to a close here very soon. I'm tentatively planning on the game being out of alpha and into open beta on February 7, 2011. That's two weeks later than I initially envisioned, and a month and a half later than I'd have liked. But I'd rather give myself enough time to polish and fix bugs and make things not look shoddily done than to have it out sooner but look bad.
So what's next? Well, this is sort of a slower development period which will allow me to finish up a few things that I've been meaning to finish and get ahead of myself. This time, I'm going to finish up the things I missed in the horde update, and a big battler revamp. New formula, new look, and weapons and armor included in the battle calculation.
I'm not sure if the zombie rage is going to apply before or after the weapons do. if it's before, you'll go a few less rounds before doing bits of damage. If it's after you'll continue to do more damage as you do damage. I'm also making a simulator to aid the alpha tester (s?) in tightening down the battler.
Then, if there's time, I'll get started in minions.
Updates which are coming to a close here very soon. I'm tentatively planning on the game being out of alpha and into open beta on February 7, 2011. That's two weeks later than I initially envisioned, and a month and a half later than I'd have liked. But I'd rather give myself enough time to polish and fix bugs and make things not look shoddily done than to have it out sooner but look bad.
So what's next? Well, this is sort of a slower development period which will allow me to finish up a few things that I've been meaning to finish and get ahead of myself. This time, I'm going to finish up the things I missed in the horde update, and a big battler revamp. New formula, new look, and weapons and armor included in the battle calculation.
I'm not sure if the zombie rage is going to apply before or after the weapons do. if it's before, you'll go a few less rounds before doing bits of damage. If it's after you'll continue to do more damage as you do damage. I'm also making a simulator to aid the alpha tester (s?) in tightening down the battler.
Then, if there's time, I'll get started in minions.
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
You have ... stuff!
So last night I rolled out the latest changes to Zombies At War. This time it was items. Food items, weapons, armor, and a system to expand upon that as the game dictates. It took me a bit longer than I anticipated, and the switching of jobs in the real world didn't help that along any. However, the next bit of code and next upgrades should happen much quicker as time goes on.
The way it is RIGHT NOW, items work. At least, the ones you can buy work. You can eat 10 foods a day and purchase as many as you want (might consider limiting it if I run low on DB space, but for now I don't see a reason to limit). Foods per day resets at the daily reset (just checked to make sure as I broke the reset earlier for a few hours).
Weapons and armor can be purchased and used, but cannot be sold and have no effect in battle. I'm planning a revamp of the battler and are PLANNING on putting in weapons/armor functionality then ... but that may change and I may enable weapons and armor sooner rather than later.
Speaking of sooner, this brings me to the next upgrade - hordes! The next big upgrade to Zombies At War will be Hordes. Think a guild in RPG parlance. Same idea, different name, my implementation. I haven't planned out the sprint yet, but once I do I'll be able to see if it's something that's doable in two weeks or if it'll take longer. Here's to hoping it doesn't take two weeks and i can work on other things, too.
Thanks for playing, see you all in two weeks!
The way it is RIGHT NOW, items work. At least, the ones you can buy work. You can eat 10 foods a day and purchase as many as you want (might consider limiting it if I run low on DB space, but for now I don't see a reason to limit). Foods per day resets at the daily reset (just checked to make sure as I broke the reset earlier for a few hours).
Weapons and armor can be purchased and used, but cannot be sold and have no effect in battle. I'm planning a revamp of the battler and are PLANNING on putting in weapons/armor functionality then ... but that may change and I may enable weapons and armor sooner rather than later.
Speaking of sooner, this brings me to the next upgrade - hordes! The next big upgrade to Zombies At War will be Hordes. Think a guild in RPG parlance. Same idea, different name, my implementation. I haven't planned out the sprint yet, but once I do I'll be able to see if it's something that's doable in two weeks or if it'll take longer. Here's to hoping it doesn't take two weeks and i can work on other things, too.
Thanks for playing, see you all in two weeks!
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