GRAVEYARD SHIFT
ROLE
Programmer, Designer
DESCRIPTION
Graveyard Shift is an orthographic zombie wave survival game. It was created as a college assignment to show off our programming skills. The game could be anything, but it had to take place on one floor of a building. To give the illusion that zombies were constantly coming up the stairs to the office to attack the player, I made it so the player couldn't have access to the stairs that were hidden from view.
Engine
Unity
Timeframe
10 weeks
GENRE
Orthographic Wave Survival
PLATFORM
Computer (PC)
The Inspiration
I thought of a concept where you are an office worker that has to work the night shift or “Graveyard Shift”, and then you start to get attacked by waves of zombies that come through the doors. I thought that this is a great concept because I can implement ragdoll physics on the zombies, the zombies themselves would be smart AI trying to chase the player, and the office could have objects that are destructible. You could gain points for shooting zombies and possibly lose points for equipment that was destroyed, and the objective is to survive. I also asked for audience feedback on what elements they would like to see be put into my game, as I wanted to make a game they would enjoy.
My Responsibilities
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I was responsible for researching the project and making sure that I created functional scripts
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To ensure the level's design wasn't too big or too small so that the player was always moving away from zombies.
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I had to make sure that the movement and shooting felt responsive as the mechanics of the game were simple, therefore I wanted it to be perfect.
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To animate the zombies and make sure that they moved at a pace that maintained the nature of a zombie, but also kept the player engaged.
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To create prototypes and test provisions of each stage I programmed.
Project Goals
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I wanted to create a zombie survival game that takes place on one floor, that would be easy for the player to learn, but hard to master.
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I also wanted to create a game that was exciting for the player. I wanted there to be a learning curve, by creating easy beginner waves and then gradually making them more challenging.
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To make the game interesting enough for the player to want to continue playing it and progress through the levels.
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To create a meta for the game by giving the player multiple characters to choose from that have different abilities. This also created the ability for DLC to be released in the future.
Greyboxing and Early Concept Ideas
When creating the greybox idea, I had to stick to the brief and make the game on one floor. I wanted to make a space that was big enough for the player to run around, and also big enough for me to create an office space that seemed realistic, but not so big that the player might get bored. I will find the right size space to do this by testing my game. In the screenshot below, I have shown that the enemy AI is a green shade and the player is a light blue. The reason for this is so that it is easy for you to tell the difference.
I want my game view to be orthographic, as I haven't created a game with this style of camera before, and I think it would be an interesting design, as I don’t think many games have been developed like this. With an orthographic camera, the benefits are that the further away the object is from the camera, it will still be perceived as the same size as objects close to the camera.
Challenges I Faced
Day and Night cycle
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When creating the game I faced a few challenges, one was that I kept having difficulty with the day and night cycle. I was trying to get it so that the cycle worked correctly and didn't proceed through the cycle too quickly.
Zombie Waves
To make the zombie waves in my game, I created scriptable objects which were named "waves". This allowed me to control how often I wanted the zombies to appear, how many to send, and also randomly choose between all the different types of zombies I had made. I think that it worked really well, as it allows me to make each wave progressively harder for the player.
Character Selection
I had an idea that I would love to implement a character selection screen, even though I know it wasn’t in my questionnaire, I had a sudden thought that a lot of zombie survival games have characters you can choose between such as Left 4 Dead. I feel like I could give each character a different weapon, which would then make playing the game more fun, and also provide the player with different play styles. I really love this idea and I want to implement it into the game.
Conclusion
The game has finished development, however, there are opportunities for me to add more content, such as new characters or maps. I'm extremely pleased with what I have created and everything I have set out to achieve has been met.
PHOTOS OF PRODUCTION PROCESS
Game Design Documentation
Want to Know More?
Feel Free to Read The Design Process of Graveyard Shift