https://itch.io/jam/bevy-jam-2

This is our submission to the jam.

In our game you are a survivor of a zombie infestation, hiding in a small shelter in a vast wasteland. The shelter is surrounded by nothing but zombies as far as you can possibly go. Inside the shelter you are safe, but to survive you need food and water. There is an on-going rescue operation and occasionally the army air-drops crates with food, water and other items. The problem is that they are being dropped in random places in the desert and getting them is dangerous. The dangers include dehydration, starvation and of course getting bitten and infected.

The goal of the game is to survive and eventually get evacuated. Toward this end you will have to build and maintain various devices by combining the items found in the desert. These include improvised weapons and explosives. One of the devices you can make is a signaling gun. If you shoot it, after 5 minutes a helicopter will come and evacuate you. But it will also attract a lot of zombies, so you will have to survive those 5 minutes. The only way would be to fortify the landing zone a lot before calling the helicopter.

Items can be collected and moved in your backpack, but it has limited capacity. So you have to be strategic about what to take and where to store it. Best storage place is the shelter. It includes a small workshop, where you can craft new devices. There you can also recharge batteries for various devices you install in the desert. But to be able to travel far, you may chose to store some supplies in the desert. For that you can use the crates from airdrops.

You will die if:

1. You get completely dehydrated
2. You stave to death
3. A zombie bites or scratches you
4. Explosion blows you away
5. You catch fire... so play with fire carefully

You start with 100% hydration. It drops over time. The rate of dehydration depends on your circumstances.

If the hydration level is below 60% and there is a bottle of water around (in the crate, in your backpack or in the shelter), you will automatically drink it and restore 30 pp of hydration. So if venturing in the desert make sure to bring some water with you... and bring some more back to your shelter.

You can survive without food a bit longer, but eventually starvation will kill you too. The nutrition works similar to hydration.

You start with 100% nutrition. It drops over time. The rate of starvation depends on your circumstances.

If the nutrition level is below 60% and there is a food ratio (in the crate, in your backpack or in the shelter), you will automatically eat it and restore 30 pp of nutrition.

The zombies in the desert are rather stupid, but they make up for it with their numbers. If undisturbed, they will roam around mindlessly. But if they see you, they will run toward you and attack! The zombie will spot you only when you are in front of it (180° FOV) and no further than 100m (bad eye sight I guess).

They are not very fast and you can out outrun them. Just don't get surrounded! Here is how fast things go:

If a zombie gets closer than 1m to you it will bite with a 60% chance of infecting you. Infection is worse than death. Game over!

So you might think it's easy to stay out of their way or just outrun the zombies. Well, the problem is that zombies are attracted to noise. So be quite! But then another problem is that an excited zombie roars. And they get excited whenever they see you (you sexy thing) or when you hit them without immediate kill (see the Fighting Zombies section later). That means, that triggering one zombie will likely attract a whole lotta' more. It's really best to avoid them at all cost.

The sound level drops by 6 dB per doubling of distance (sound level = base level - 6 dB * sqrt(distance)). Zombies can hear sounds louder than 5 dB and will go toward the loudest sound they heard, until they hear something louder, reach the source of noise or spot the player. Examples:

A zombie can hear the player walking from 6m, but running from 55! So walk, don't run. Unless you are running from zombies. In that case good luck to you.

Say a zombie heard another one roaring 200 meters away. The noise level was ~15 dB so it will start walking toward the noise. While walking, it heard a bomb exploding 1000m away. Since the noise level was only about 10 dB (due to the distance), it will continue walking toward the roar. But if another bomb goes off just 800m away (~30 dB), it will abandon the roar and go toward the explosion. So strategic noise making can save your life! Just make sure to bang as far away from you as you can.

TLDR: Don't.

If you are desperate, you can try shooting zombies with your crossbow. If you hit a zombie, there is a chance you kill it immediately and - what#s more important - quietly. The chance is 100% / square root of distance (in meters). So from 2 meters the chance is 70%, but you are unlikely to get that near, unless a zombie is charging at you. That might be your last chance to survive. Sneaking behind up to 10 meters seems doable, but then the chance is only 30%. The maximum range of the crossbow is 100m with a 10% chance of instant kill.

If you hit the zombie, but without killing it, it will roar and you will squeek. See above.

TODO: Shooting mechanics, bolts TODO: Explosions and flames TODO: Moving around in the desert, carrying capacity, actions, map, compass

When in the desert, the player character can:

• Walk
• Run
• Duck (when not moving, they are ducking)
• Look around / aim
• Throw items or shoot (depending on item held)
• Use items (place bombs, turrets)
• Look at the map
• Interact with objects in the environment (open crates, pick stuff up, enter shelter, etc.)

The character is controlled with mouse and keyboard.

TODO: Game controller support

TODO: Touch screen support

Click to set target to walk to. If the character was ducking, they will first turn toward the target and then start walking. Changing the target while walking will result in smooth turn.

Double click to run. Same as walking, but faster and makes more noise.

Once the target is reached, the character will stop and duck.

Press space to stop and duck or resume movement toward the target.

The player can carry up to 5 items in their backpack. Items can be selected with numerical keys 1, 2, 3, 4 or 5. Selected item will be held in hand and can be used (some of them) u, dropped d or thrown (see aiming below).

Dropped items will remain on the ground as long as player is close by. If moved away and lost from sight they will be lost in the sand forever. So better use crates to store useful stuff for later.

Next to an airdrop crate press o to open it. A crate can contain up to five items. Items can be removed or stored in the crate. Crates and items in them never disappear and are visible on the map. Using crates is an important element of the strategy.

Items from an open crate can be picked using keys 6, 7, 8, 9 or 0. If there is space left in the backpack, picked item will be immediately stored there. If not, player will be prompted to chose one item from the backpack to swap with the picked item.

Items from the backpack can be stored in an open crate the same way. First pick an item from the backpack. If the crate is full, select item to swap.

Performing any action other than exchanging items will result in crate getting closed. Press o again to open it.

Press w to take the crate apart for wood. If there were any items in the crate, they will be dropped on the ground. After selecting a wood item from the backpack it can be used u to assemble the crate back. This way crates can be moved around and placed more strategically.

When standing in front of an item dropped to the ground, press p to pick it up and place it in the backpack. If the backpack is full, one item will have to be swapped.

Right click to stop and turn toward point. Hold for aiming. While aiming the distance to the target is displayed. The camera follows a midpoint between the target and the player, so it's possible to observe wider area around.

Left click while aiming (i.e. holding the RMB) to throw or shoot. This can be useful for making noise and drawing zombies away or killing them.

Any item can be throws and if it hits a zombie, there is a chance of killing it. The chance is very small, so do it only if you are absolutely desperate.

When holding a crossbow you can shoot bolts. They have a slightly better chance of killing a zombie, but it's still very risky. If you run out of bolts, you will throw the crossbow. Good luck with that.

The player has a map, accessible with m. This will zoom the view out a lot and rotate it so that the north is on top. On the map your position is marked, along with all the shelters and crates. If you discovered the contents of a crate or a shelter, you can see the inventory by hovering the mouse on it. Also the sentry and defense turrets will be marked, along with their status (red if zombies are around). Also the bombs you placed in the desert etc. Zombies are not visible in the map.

While looking at the map the player is ducking. The time goes on and so are zombies, so make sure you are safe. Best look at it in the shelter.

In the desert they are underground shelters. You start in one of them, but if you venture far, you can find others. Enter or exit the shelter with e. Inside shelter you can store items from the backpack and craft new items.

While in the shelter you are perfectly safe... except from hunger and dehydration. But if there are zombies roaming around, better stay inside.

A crate from an airdrop will contain 3 random items. They can be:

• Electronic components
• Battery pack
• Mechanical components
• Fuel
• Water
• Food
• Explosive

Crate itself can be disassembled for wood.

Player can carry items to the shelter, where they have a workshop. Combining items produces new items.

Can pick up, carry and drop one other object. Battery lasts for 1 minute (empty) or 30s with an object.

electronics + battery + mechanical components

After 10s timeout makes noise for 1 minute. Then the battery dies out.

electronics + battery

electronics + battery + explosive

proximity bomb + mechanical components

When exploded or on fire, sets other nearby object on fire. Doesn't explode on it's own. Has to be placed next to a bomb. Can cause a chain reaction if multiple placed close by.

fuel + explosive

wooden parts + mechanical parts

Set of 12.

wooden parts + mechanical parts

Detects movement and notifies the player.

wooden parts + electronics + battery

Shoots zombies. Can run out of bolts.

sentry tower + crossbow + bolts

• Game states

  • Running in the desert
  • Sheltering
  • Paused
  • Game over (killed)
  • Game over (win)

• Make zombies movement backed by physics system

• Make player movement backed by physics system

• Design document

• Graphics

  • Ground texture
  • Player
  • Zombie
  • Bolt
  • Crate
    • Parachute
  • Bomb
  • Sentry tower
  • Defense tower
  • Incendiary device
  • Explosion
  • Flame
  • Drone

• Crafting system

• Items in crates

• Items in shelter

• Items in backpack

• Zombie attack

• Sounds

• Zombie hearing