Today, MobZombies was submitted to this year's Wired NextFest. The original MobZombies project was written several years ago with the Processing alpha, so it was time for an update. To go along with our submission, I created a new prototype in Processing using the OpenGL library that didn't exist back in the days of Processing alpha.

The prototype uses the arrow keys for control, but of course the finished version will use GPS tracking of the player in real-world space to control their position. The goal? Stay alive and avoid zombies. This time around, you've got some bombs to help out (use the space bar). You'll get another bomb every ten seconds, but I'm thinking it'll be better to spawn a bomb you have to run and pick up every ten seconds instead of just giving it to you for free.

Some things to consider: I had some cool 3D camera zooming effects in there before, but I am having some issues getting the GUI text readout stuff to draw properly in screen space, so I had to eliminate that fancy stuff until I solve that puzzle. Also, the zombie behavior is rather primitive at the moment. In the future, that's gonna be cleaned up and we plan to have several kinds of zombies, each with unique behaviors.

Please give the prototype a shot and give us your feedback so we can make it better! Thanks.

Windows version

OS X version

Thank you to my pal William Bredbeck for making the rad sprites!

--- Update 3.21.06 ---

You now get 4 hit points before game over. You've got a blood trail to show you how much damage you've taken. Not really happy with how the blood trail looks yet so that needs work.

Bombs are more powerful. Are they powerful enough yet?

Zombies explode into little zombie parts. I realize that with zombies comes the expectation of buckets of gore so this is a small step in that direction. I think the exploding zombie parts ought to splatter blood too... maybe if they had sort of a bouncing around effect to them, this could happen each time they hit the ground. But overall, I need to work out a proper blood splattering system. I think it will help with the player blood trail too. Just from doing some extreme tests, it seems like Processing + OpenGL has a lot of overhead for just drawing sprites, so it seems pretty do-able to have the playing field pretty splattered with blood.

Functionally, there are rough spots left to iron out. Everyone's suggestions have been great and I will continue to iterate on this prototype with them in mind.

--- Update 4.14.06 ---

Small update... changed Game Over so that zombies continue to move around after you die. Put in a short timer delay before a new game can be started (by pressing space bar).

I bring you finely crafted feedback*:



1.) The bombs are cool, but they're not quite as satisfying as I'd like. For instance, I can drag a big ol' herd of undead around and then drop a bomb, but it won't blow up nearly as many as I'd expect. Since there doesn't appear to be a shortage of ravenous zombies, blowing up more in a single burst doesn't seem game-breaking. Besides, everyone likes explosions. It's true!



2.) Adding pick-up power-ups may add a deeper layer of strategy. That could be where the bigger bombs are, or something that makes the zombies move slower or freeze them in place, etc. It depends on how arcadey you'd like to be, and you'd have to be able to "pick up" items from a few feet away in case the game decides they're within a wall or someone else's car.



3.) This conveniently relates to both 1 & 2. I don't mind the bombs respawning every few seconds or so. Perhaps different types of bombs could be the pick-ups. This way, there's the safer but less effective route (regular bombs that respawn on a timer), and the riskier but ultimately rewarding route (big bombs that may be in a mob of zombies).



Wow. That's a wee bit longer than I expected it to be. Overall, the game is pretty cool and fun so far, and I'd love to see the GPS version running. Seeing someone play that would be a riot as they desperately try to avoid the invisible zombies.



*fineness not guaranteed

Yeah - ditto what he said - cool prototype!

I've been playing Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter. When you die in the 360 version, the game continues on around, as you see your corpse fall. So if you threw a grenade or ordered an airstrike just before you bit the bullet, you get the satisfaction of seeing the explosion come through.

I'd love to see the same thing in this prototype - leave a bomb just before you are eaten by zombies, and you still get the satisfaction of seeing some flying undead corpses.

the bombs don't kill enough of the zombies, nor leave any nice zombie splats. game over after one touch by a zombie is too abrupt. I'd definitely make it so you take damage, lose body parts, leave blood trails, and then of course have your brains consumed.

thanks for the feedback. definitely gonna get more powerful bombs in there. actually, my original idea concerning the bombs was that they'd be a more of a liability to the player... their blast radius would be such that in the real world, you'd have to sprint for a couple seconds after dropping one to avoid getting stung by it.

zombie splats are definitely in the works.

i agree that game over after getting hit once is way too abrupt. i'm thinking instead of having a lifebar, the heavyness of your blood trail could indicate your health level.

The score goes away too quickly when you die. Although I know my high score was reflective of my amazing skills, I didn't see the exact number. I assume there will be a high-score board eventually?

I realize the keys won't be used in the end, but the control was still a bit weird. I kept expecting the right arrow to turn me right, not move me right.

Introducing some kind of decoy would be interesting. Like, perhaps you encounter other humans, and you can choose to either save them (which would give you some sort of benefit) or sacrifice them to earn you some time while the zombies tear your ex-friend to pieces. I'm sure this could be worked into the cell phone idea somehow.

As in "real life", you would have some time after you get bitten by a zombie to kill a few last zombies. You know - before you turn into one yourself.

Overall, it is very fun and I played for much longer than I should have

*UPDATED*

see above