ZFG is now playable and has just been released as an in-development title. You can download and play it for free from GameJolt at http://gamejolt.com/games/action/zombie-fluid-game/28315/

To play simply download the zip file to a location of your choice, then unzip it. Once unzipped you can launch the game from the ZombieFluidGame.exe file by double clicking.

Quick video on getting to grips with the controls and the map generation options: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lXt4TRgd2mo&feature=youtu.be

ZFG is still in active development and has been so for a year. As such the game is for the most part functionally complete.

Infection spread: Initially the world is populated with primarily human AI alongside a small numbers of zombies that will differ depending on the selected starting scenario. When the zombies attack the human AI, they will have a set chance per attack to cause an infection. The infection will slowly draw away from the human’s health until they die. If an infected human dies for any reason they will become reincarnated as a zombie adding to the growing hordes. As the infection is contact based, it spreads in an interesting manner depending on the distribution of humans and whether or not they have guns to defend themselves.

Zombie Hording: Zombies don’t currently become attracted to each other and will typically ignore their own kin. But because they are all attracted to the same things they will typically coalesce into large hording masses around any detectable stimuli. Say for instance you or other AI cause any loud noises, any nearby idling zombies will become quickly attracted to the general vicinity in search of their next feast. In addition, if any zombie sees some potential prey they become excited, grunting and groaning with particular enthusiasm, letting others nearby know that there is a meal up for grabs.

Human AI behaviour: The AI humans that initially dominate the map, much like you, don’t fancy being torn apart by a mindless horde of rotting flesh and teeth. As such depending on their type they will fight, flee and even work together to stay alive and fight back against the threat.

Persistent World: The map in all its entirety is constantly being simulated with physics and AI. At no point are zombies and AI being artificially spawned into the game just out of view. Instead any actions and decisions you, or any of the AI make, will affect the way in which the game progresses. Use up all the ammunition in an area or if it becomes too hazardous to stick around then you had better get moving to somewhere better.

Physics simulation: The physics was created from scratch and whilst it could do with some improvements it still allows for thousands of both AI and environmental entities to be simulated across the entire map. It also provides the ability to have a great variety of projectile, fuel and explosive based weaponry.

Future development will result in some additions and improvements.

Multiplayer: I think it goes without saying that multiplayer, especially when involving zombies allows game to become much more fun. This aspect of the game is already being tested with success so far on small scale. It is just a matter of allowing the current system to transmit the necessary information for other clients to render what is going on and then cutting down on any and anything that doesn’t need to be sent to that client to reduce bandwidth requirements. Servers will be easily creatable by anyone, the more powerful the server (or even your own computer) the larger a map it can simulate and the better your connection the more people will be able to join you. Exactly what those numbers will be won’t be determinable until it is ready. Connecting will be a case of just providing an IP address and port number of the server you want to connect to. Many gamers will be already familiar with this method thanks to games like Minecraft.

Meaningful AI interaction: So although what is happening in the game is interesting and there is loads going on in the environment, the player’s interactions are currently limited to either running from or killing zombies. As such I will be improving the core gameplay content so that it is, in itself, strong rather than accompanying the main attraction, being the way in which the AI and persistent map work together emergently. One aspect of this will be making the AI more interactive, so you would be able to tell them to follow you to a safe location or accompany you whilst you both battle the hordes. I’m also contemplating the idea that they may approach you and ask for or even provide help much in the same way you would to them.

Dynamic scenario based objectives: Leading on from the improved AI interactions I intend to provide some actual gameplay objects that may be related to initial starting scenarios chosen. These objectives would be dynamic and totally optional but would add a more humanising element to the AI, on top of what they currently are which is zombie food. For example after a set amount of time a radio callout may be heard describing what sounds to be an aerial extraction, your object could then be to find intel on the extraction site and get there with as many survivors as possible before it is too late. This could then feed into the already existing survival rating, increasing it as a simple reward. Further examples could be to accumulate and protect a group of survivors at a fortified location or to clear out infection in a specified area. There is plenty of variety in potential scenarios and objectives and I think that they would do a great deal to make the gameplay more meaningful.

General Improvements: So all the visual and especially the sound assets for the game are placeholder, not to say that they are terrible but there is plenty of room for improvement, although there is the possibility for users to create their own content packs. I still intend to either hire an artist or put in a bunch of time into making everything much more aesthetically pleasing. On top of this there are a couple of areas in the physics system that I would like to fix and expand, such as being able to have rotation for rectangular objects, this could lead to the addition of vehicles of some sort in the future. And of course even with the massive increase in efficiency recently there is almost always somewhere that can be improved, some of which are already in my sights.

Keep up to date on development news by following me: @ZombieFluidGame.