Game Feed

Glowing Onez

by nasKo

How do, all.  CRAFTING CONSOLIDATION At this point the main element of the Build 42 update that’s been holding stuff back has been the substantial crafting overhaul that’s been underway. When we set out with B42 our main ambition has been to fill out the crafting potential of the game to vastly expand the end game by providing players the ability to build a community and replace a lot of the items that currently require looting to obtain to give players the ability to run servers and game worlds indefinitely without needing to respawn loot. We’ve made good progress towards this end but the more time has gone on we’ve realized that aiming to achieve these goals are holding back Build 42’s entrance to an Unstable beta release. While it’s definitely achievable, and will be realized in time, stubbornly holding things back until we get there it only going to delay people getting a hold on all the other cool stuff in the Build that they’ve been waiting for. As such we’ve decided it would be ...

D'ya Like Them GrappleZ

by MadDan

LIFE’S A DRAG Something that, clearly, was fundamental to Build 41 was the new animations system – and thus far for Build 42 we haven’t mentioned any improvements to this. Importantly, it should be underlined that his work isn’t in the internal test build yet (and is certainly unconfirmed as a part of 42 when it first enters an Unstable beta) but we’re far enough along now with work done in this area that we’re comfortable to talk about ‘Zac’s GrappleTech’. Right now in Build 41 all the animations work perfectly fine in their ‘solo’ states. This is when one player character, or one zombie, is doing its thing individually and not interacting with others around it. Where problems can arise, however, is when that human/zed interacts with another human/zed. Bites, pulldowns and shoves happen ‘to the air’ around their target rather than the character model itself. This generally works fine enough but can also lead to feelings of graphical non-interaction, game events not being explained to ...

Zaumby Thursday

by nasKo

Hey all, here again for the March Thursdoid. Lots of stuff from lots of different areas of the game this time, we do hope you enjoy. STRIKE A POSE We’ve mentioned the fact that Build 42 will have a variety of readable materials that you can loot and inspect, but we hadn’t shown them off in-game as quite frankly they didn’t look great. They were crammed inside our existing Survival Guide UI, and it really wasn’t going to bat for us. We didn’t really want to create a load of individual images that wouldn’t be readily translatable into other languages either, and become a massive timesink for our art department who are already pumping out loads of vital stuff elsewhere. So, clever Aiteron got onto the case... So what is this? Well, it’s a secondary UI API system – and with it both ourselves and modders can create readable text UIs in easier and more flexible ways, and what’s more reuse templates for them too. Techie bit: currently, 4 Java elements have been added: Base, Text, Texture, Tex...

Leapdoid

by nasKo

{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/4460946/a58ac8f6b03f02876a287fa86bc2da61425961fb.png Hey all, a good mix of things this ‘doid. Fun gameplay stuff, and a chunk of info we wanted to flag for modder-awareness and the more tech-minded amongst you. (Feel free to skip that bit to get to the more enticing gun stuff from Fenris that’s become its first application.) Onwards, then. HUNKER INNA BUNKER Permanent underground structures are being added to the internal build’s map for testing. As discussed before some basement locations will be randomised to add surprise flavour to your looting, but there’ll be plenty of ever-present locations that will likely be survivor favourites for taking over and making your own. Here’s a fun example, which also very clearly demonstrates the effectiveness of B42’s tech upgrade that governs the realistic spread of light. It really is very dark down there, and with that very claustrophobic and scary… Another aspect of the underground structures is sound, and now we’ve got mor...

Hmm, Upgradez

by nasKo

{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/4460946/cfe1b25a7e5c49bc62802bb62b5d7f3c91a50797.png It’s been a really big week for us, as we merged the second-to-last element of Build 42 into the main codebase across the rest of the team – which is the long awaited tech upgrade which brings a whole host of improvements to the engine. It’s currently being tested and the feedback has been super positive so far. This said, it’s also brought over lots of small bugs, visual glitches, and issues with new depth map clipping items incorrectly. Nothing over-dramatic, but enough stuff to keep testers and coders alike fully occupied. This is where a lot of our brains have been at recently, so we thought we’d give you an update on the engine as it now stands while testers run around kicking its tires – alongside some videos they have made along the way. Likewise, we also have some examples of some of its new capabilities that we will be able to explore in future – perhaps during the Unstable beta, perhaps beyond. So, a run-...

Zleigh Ride

by nasKo

{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/4460946/471f9d0e9b404d8e0fd517b79c92eb6fc7c3324f.jpg Happy winter religious festival if you celebrate it, or if you have it in a month’s time, or just if you think it’s nice because you get a few days off while your neighbours drown in eggnog! Here’s the December news round.  CRAFTING TEAM UPDATE With the last Thurzdoid some people arrived at the mistaken impression that in normal b42 play, the iron ore deposits would exist on the map and be the primary source of metal for crafting. While we’re not ruling this out in the long term, and it’ll certainly be the only source of metal to be found within the wilderness map (more on this later), the primary logical source of metal would always initially be found within the now abandoned civilized world itself.  {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/4460946/836e4e317b4860311911113b51ecfb50df95221b.png {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/4460946/bd626ce8d85a9ad48a13bc678220e51a060b5e7d.png For several builds now, players have been able to dismantle various metal...

Project Zomboid shows off exciting upgrades for long-awaited build 42

by editor@pcgamesn.com

Project Zomboid is perhaps one of the most aptly named games I can think of. The beloved zombie survival sandbox game has been a labor of love for developer The Indie Stone since 2011, and celebrates ten years on Steam this month while still maintaining its early access status. Yet, it's clearly found success; with an impressive 94% 'very positive' Steam rating across more than 190,000 reviews in that time, the ambitious game has certainly found a loving audience, and now we've just been given a big update on what Project Zomboid build 42 looks like. Read the rest of the story... RELATED LINKS: Project Zomboid build 42 will allow spooky basements and sewers Project Zomboid Build 42 will make the map a lot bigger Project Zomboid update 41.73 lets you store gas in bottles

One Door OpenZ

by nasKo

Yip yip, hello. Let’s dive in. SWING BOTH WAYS Another exciting addition to the build 42 tech upgrade branch has just dropped. The tech upgrade branch is what contains our optimizations, improved view cone, basement/skyscraper technology and now… an immersive improvement that we’ve wanted for a long time, that could potentially lead to many cool additional gameplay opportunities that weren’t possible before.  That’s right, kids, doors have now entered the third dimension. Where before doors would just flip instantly on the tile the moment they are opened or closed, now they are animated and use the tech branch’s depth buffer. This is obviously a huge improvement for immersion, but could potentially lead to cool new mechanics in future (note, certainly not b42’s initial release) like opening doors at different speeds, doors being left slightly open, peeking, bashing open, one-way fire doors and such. While easy to overlook, our doors are pretty much unchanged since the 0.1.5d days yet a...

Cellar Door-doid

by nasKo

{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/4460946/47bda1b1ce7fdf2396e4aedf6e394e40745a7ccf.png Evening all, here we all are again. Let’s take a stroll through the development Event zone. Crafting Overhaul Recap Now the vast infrastructure overhaul of the crafting systems has been merged and opened up to the rest of the gang, we’ve had a crack team of coders working solidly on implementing the various new post-apocalyptic profession tech trees, workstations and recipes that will provide for a vast amount of options for crafting and building in B42. As a summary for anyone who isn’t up to date on our overall goals, the crafting overhaul is intended to provide the following things to Zomboid: Give Zomboid a more feature rich end-game. At present, long time players of the game often find they run out of objectives once they get a well-stocked and secure safehouse. We want to provide many more objectives a settled survivor can undertake to improve their safehouse, or indeed a community of players. More things to ...

Sky High

by nasKo

So… hmm, where were we? Okay so, recent weeks have seen two mega-merges into our trunk internal testing build. The first was latest from our MP team, to top up the central development branch with their latest from their ongoing server work to flag up any unexpected issues and to get a few gameplay systems back online in MP. The second was the guts of the long-awaited crafting revamp from Turbo, which means that the functionality for all our primary crafting stations is now in – and it’s a matter of banging heads together and integrating everything we’ve had stacked up for it. To this end we’re pleased to announce that we’ve hired yet another stalwart individual from the modding community to aid us in this quest. We were thinking about the different modders who could give our crafting team a little extra grunt, we have so many amazing ones after all, but the offerings of Soul Filcher stood out as being produce of exactly the sort of brain we needed. We’re really happy to have Soul offic...

The Connection Is Made

by MadDan

{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/4460946/b000af9b92dc41033559acd4850509f5feb91be3.png Hey everyone. Jumping straight in with an update on the new and improved crafting system this time around if that’s okay with y’all. As we’ve talked about in previous Thursdoids, a large part of the crafting overhaul revolves around creating a unified, powerful and expansive system for machines, crafting stations and appliances. This covers all the different things you find around the world, and those crafted by yourself and your friends. A primary piece of this puzzle has been in the creation of dev systems and methodology that allow for the hugely swifter implementation of far more varied/interesting crafting and devices – which in turn is a big thing for modders, and for the nu-medieval post apocalyptic society gameplay we will now cater for. This has also been built, however, with a framework that will allow for a wide variety of other gameplay aspects – some of which will be a part of the initial 42 release, w...

NEW CHARITY SPIFFO!

by nasKo

{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/4460946/8400026d0cdf8b4d6fd82c251447ea1c7b404f35.png The Indie Stone are pleased to announce another crowd-sourced Spiffo plushie through our friends over at Makeship – this time raising money for a cause that’s dear to all our hearts. First off, let’s meet the raccoon himself. INTRODUCING… STEADFAST SPIFFO! {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/4460946/59aee7c57560fb78a02c3fc62b3ae6beb77c8a3a.png They came for him… they still come… but he will NEVER yield. He is: Steadfast Spiffo. Spiffo is BACK, with maxed out levels of adorability. With his roomy camping backpack filled with useful survival supplies, sturdy axe, and many utility belts, he’s prepared for anything… and for a limited time, can be added to inventories as YOUR companion in the apocalypse! Face down the odds. Fight the fight. Survive against the horde – all accompanied by a plushably grizzled hug-raccoon! Interested in putting down money for Steadfast Spiffo? Then visit the crowdfunding page over on Makeship! We’ve timed ...

BagZ of fun

by nasKo

{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/4460946/d67f157909f5147584da2672e4814ac4e51c6e7e.jpg Let’s have a dig into what’s happening in everyone’s favourite apocalypse. (Although other apocalypses are available. First off a quick check-in with three of the four main pillars of Build 42 – the pillars in question being crafting system revamp, MP improvement, the depth/performance/lighting tech upgrade, and finally animals – which will have to wait till next time as RJ is only very recently back from his summer hols. Turbo has been finalizing his machine and crafting station systems for a check-in next week, after we decided on some ways to maximise their utility for both our own devs and modders and give them as broad and solid a foundation as we can. The results are exciting and the design process for machines and the numerous crafting stations continues to expand these systems over the new tech tree and across existing devices over the entire PZ map. (Stuff like gas stations, wells, water pumps etc will als...

Knox Event: 30 Years On

by nasKo

{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/4460946/a90228b2bb85a4f478f66286bda9a0ddaf5c8f1f.jpg Today marks a day in history. It is EXACTLY thirty years since the Knox Event broke out on 6th July 1993. Our thoughts are with everyone impacted on this sad anniversary. To commemorate this we are allowing everyone to relive the experience IN REAL TIME on the Twitters. Please follow @TheKnoxEvent to experience a textual timeline of what manifested three decades ago, albeit (one would hope) with a little less inevitable death than the real thing. TECH UPGRADE Okay so this week one of the four pillars of the next main PZ build is going back into the spotlight. We’ve seen good progress backstage in crafting, MP improvement and animals/wildlife – but it’s the engine upgrades that’ve given us something cool and visual to show off this week. The tech improvements will be supplying basements, the 32 floor limit and new light propagation system – but clearly a primary focus of it all has been with performance. Using 8×8 t...

Great moments in PC gaming: Building a little server community in Project Zomboid then dying six times in a row

by Katie Wickens

Great moments in PC gaming are bite-sized celebrations of some of our favorite gaming memories... Read more.