How I Made...
Doomed Rescue
The Game's World
The game's world was built using Unity's Terrain Tools. It was designed so that the player is driven towards their next goal using visual cues and audio narrative (the "inner voice" and the Comms' "orders" module). The player is gradually exposed to the plot but is also free to explore the vast "island".
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The map included here is not exposed to the player. It was only used for design time. The red circles on the map denote "Zombie Zones" which are special areas on the map that spawn zombies when a user steps inside them. Experienced players can spot these areas if they're careful as they contain barely visible, semi-transparent twinkles close to ground level.
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From the starting point of the game, the player can see a pillar of smoke rising from the other side of the river. Passing to the other side is possible only from the bridge, where the first task awaits...
Live Real-time Map that Follows the Player
Setup of the MiniMap Camera
I used a second, orthographic camera, stationed above the player and rigged to follow the player's location while maintaining own height and orientation. The camera renders its output to a target texture which is then used in a material on the map module of the Comms device held by the player.
Check this out!
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I also made a video tutorial based on this technic and inspired by a question that I answered on Unity Answers forum.
A culling mask is used to hide the action from the map and include only relevant items.
HUD Compass
My game designer (me) wanted a cool scrolling compass to be included in the HUD. So the developers (me again) went on to design and develop it. It's made out of a frame, a mask (to hide the moving parts) and two identical tiles that interchange positions as needed, as seen in the gif.
Compass Parts
Logic Design
No software project is complete without at least one
whiteboard sketch!
Audio Editing
Creating and mixing audio for the teaser video wasn't a simple task. I recorded all of the voice bits myself, got some free rotor sounds and background music and edited all in Audacity.
For the radio beeps I recorded my car's security code module, so now every time I start my car I am reminded of the this game :-)
Testing Ground
Before throwing my Zombies into the game I had to make sure they behave as expected. So I built this simple scene and had them track a moving target in different scenarios.
Also, I came back to this scene from time to time to make sure my Zombie prefab is working as expected.