For those wanting a closer look at the upcoming Build 33 Creative Mode, Twiggy is currently streaming an early build of it!

EDIT: Stream over, view past broadcast here! Welcome to Twiggyville.

http://www.twitch.tv/sirtwiggy/v/8411655

Expect bugs, crashes but creative fun.

For those wanting a closer look at the upcoming Build 33 Creative Mode, Twiggy is currently streaming an early build of it!

EDIT: Stream over, view past broadcast here! Welcome to Twiggyville.

http://www.twitch.tv/sirtwiggy/v/8411655

Expect bugs, crashes but creative fun.

Today we come to you with an awesome new mode for Build 33 that should have an explosive impact on the Project Zomboid modding and mapping scene, as well as providing a fun new way to play the game.

Creative Mode is something we first experimented with in the dim and distant past, but came back to mind when we were looking at the speed of our own map production and the tools that we use. The Louisville map we’re building is very ambitious so, alongside EasyPickins’ awesome existing mapping systems, we started to think about ways we could populate our world more quickly.

At the same time in development, meanwhile, TurboTuTone’s awesome furniture decoration system arrived on the scene for Build 33 – while General Arcade and EP’s work on Steam Integration meant that Steam Workshop was also suddenly in the offing.

Put them together, and what have you got?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-EhAwjexVXQ&feature=youtu.be

When we started Zomboid, and agreed upon a static map for the game, we (perhaps optimistically) anticipated hundreds of maps for players to download to provide almost unlimited amount of exploration. Despite there been some amazing map projects already released, this didn’t quite happen. The learning curve for the toolset, the drudge of copying files, the exporting and all the rest made it an intimidating process.

Creative Mode, we hope, takes all that away. It lets you build maps faster, have fun and work as a team. In essence, it lets you edit the map in any way you can imagine. You can use any buildings or other map pieces available: whether you’re subscribed to them on Steam Workshop, copying and pasting them from the existing PZ map or creating them yourself.

It’s a mode that lets you, as an in-game Zomboid character, create extra buildings, districts, even complete towns and cities. What’s more, absolutely anything can be shared to the Workshop – at the moment via an external app, but soon straight from the game itself. Coming back the other way, anything you’re subscribed to will automatically be available to place within Creative Mode.

Furthermore, Creative Mode works completely in online multiplayer, so players can join forces to build an entire town on their server – before using it as a fun and engaging place to die from zombies. Split screen support isn’t currently coded, but will certainly be something we look into as we refine the system.

In terms of Build 33 – the first version of Creative Mode will cover only the essentials: containing basic house construction, furniture population, landscaping and so on. As we roll it out further, however, we’ll provide additional tools that will let you create neat road systems, sidewalks, gardens, fences, levels of erosion and all that fun stuff.

It’s our dearest hope that by empowering everyone and anyone to make map content and share it via the Steam Workshop, and in making the process of building as fun and as co-operative as we possibly can, we’ll foster a new community of building-obsessed doozer players and a flood of new map content. Every player’s game world could potentially be many orders of magnitude bigger than the current Zomboid map, and potentially completely unique to them, or their server and their community.

Then if all servers have their own unique maps, who’s to say we couldn’t see about giving them an option to have their borders connected one day? With Build 33 the Zomboid infection will be easier to spread than ever before. Exciting times!

OH, AND….

Before we go something else that happened last week and was a bit exciting was that Mike Laidlaw the Creative Director of the ace Dragon Age games at BioWare streamed some PZ – and provided what was an excellent guide and tutorial for the game. It seems Twiggy has some competition! You can view his butterknife and bacon adventures here. Byeee!

Today we come to you with an awesome new mode for Build 33 that should have an explosive impact on the Project Zomboid modding and mapping scene, as well as providing a fun new way to play the game.

Creative Mode is something we first experimented with in the dim and distant past, but came back to mind when we were looking at the speed of our own map production and the tools that we use. The Louisville map we’re building is very ambitious so, alongside EasyPickins’ awesome existing mapping systems, we started to think about ways we could populate our world more quickly.

At the same time in development, meanwhile, TurboTuTone’s awesome furniture decoration system arrived on the scene for Build 33 – while General Arcade and EP’s work on Steam Integration meant that Steam Workshop was also suddenly in the offing.

Put them together, and what have you got?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-EhAwjexVXQ&feature=youtu.be

When we started Zomboid, and agreed upon a static map for the game, we (perhaps optimistically) anticipated hundreds of maps for players to download to provide almost unlimited amount of exploration. Despite there been some amazing map projects already released, this didn’t quite happen. The learning curve for the toolset, the drudge of copying files, the exporting and all the rest made it an intimidating process.

Creative Mode, we hope, takes all that away. It lets you build maps faster, have fun and work as a team. In essence, it lets you edit the map in any way you can imagine. You can use any buildings or other map pieces available: whether you’re subscribed to them on Steam Workshop, copying and pasting them from the existing PZ map or creating them yourself.

It’s a mode that lets you, as an in-game Zomboid character, create extra buildings, districts, even complete towns and cities. What’s more, absolutely anything can be shared to the Workshop – at the moment via an external app, but soon straight from the game itself. Coming back the other way, anything you’re subscribed to will automatically be available to place within Creative Mode.

Furthermore, Creative Mode works completely in online multiplayer, so players can join forces to build an entire town on their server – before using it as a fun and engaging place to die from zombies. Split screen support isn’t currently coded, but will certainly be something we look into as we refine the system.

In terms of Build 33 – the first version of Creative Mode will cover only the essentials: containing basic house construction, furniture population, landscaping and so on. As we roll it out further, however, we’ll provide additional tools that will let you create neat road systems, sidewalks, gardens, fences, levels of erosion and all that fun stuff.

It’s our dearest hope that by empowering everyone and anyone to make map content and share it via the Steam Workshop, and in making the process of building as fun and as co-operative as we possibly can, we’ll foster a new community of building-obsessed doozer players and a flood of new map content. Every player’s game world could potentially be many orders of magnitude bigger than the current Zomboid map, and potentially completely unique to them, or their server and their community.

Then if all servers have their own unique maps, who’s to say we couldn’t see about giving them an option to have their borders connected one day? With Build 33 the Zomboid infection will be easier to spread than ever before. Exciting times!

OH, AND….

Before we go something else that happened last week and was a bit exciting was that Mike Laidlaw the Creative Director of the ace Dragon Age games at BioWare streamed some PZ – and provided what was an excellent guide and tutorial for the game. It seems Twiggy has some competition! You can view his butterknife and bacon adventures here. Byeee!

Hi everyone, here’s your regular Monday dose of Zomboid – which can be read here, or bitten/scratched into your skin before becoming infected, entering the blood stream and recoding the entirety of your brain with these very words repeated again and again, alongside a hunger for human flesh.


EasyPickins is making good progress tying the Steam integrated MP packages provided by our friends at General Arcade into Build 32. As such he’s currently finishing up on the systems that will let clients connect to PZ servers using their Steam accounts, let server admins ban players by Steam ID and allow Steam avatars and profiles pop-up in the ‘players’ list in-game.

This will also, of course, allow for the ‘Invite Friends’ function so you can drag buddies up and onto whatever server you need some camaraderie upon. If, meanwhile, you’re of the inclination to create your own server then the other half of EP’s current schedule is in creating a proper dedicated-server package that anyone can download from Steam, or install using SteamCMD.


A large part of Build 33 will be in adding context and flavour to Project Zomboid. The radio and TV broadcasts will introduce the first few layers of our back story in the opening weeks of survival, while a new degree of safehouse customisation is also on the cards through Turbo’s furniture movement and rotation system.

Another aspect of this [particularly aimed at SP playthroughs, but also present in MP] will be in making our world feel a little more ‘lived in’. Currently West Point and Muldraugh feel a bit cookie-cutter: doors are uniformly shut, houses are clean and it all seems a little uniform and airless. As such Will is currently working in cahoots with RJ to add some texture to the Knox Event through subtle randomised events.
Nothing is coded just yet, and as such is clearly subject to change or reprioritisation, but we want to gently evoke a feeling that there was once normal life here and that one day disaster struck. As such we would like televisions and radios left on in homes, evidence of home-dwellers who had particular careers/hobbies through the items and books they left behind, cold rotting meals left in ovens, general detritus left on the floor, and even occasional entirely empty houses that were not being lived in at all.

Playing around with locked doors, and what internal and external doors were potentially left open when the occupants left in a panic, is also likely to be a big player in this new push for zed flavour. You wouldn’t necessarily expect every item you find to be in 100% condition either, so soon some baseball bats will be more reliable than others.

We will also be looking to include randomised discoveries for later days in your survival experience while our NPC system is still waiting in the wings. We’re thinking pre-barricaded houses that have succumbed to zombies, burnt out buildings and already looted homes. Then, of course, there’s all those dead bodies lying in pools of blood next to empty whiskey bottles, modified weapons, nail-bats, Spiffo plushie collections and bottles of bleach.

Likewise part of this push will also be in refining world events. We’re going to look into giving Helicopters, arguably more of a pain after Build 32, on-board snipers to take potshots at zombies for example – while the imminence of the electric shut-off could be foreshadowed with flickering lights, regional brown-outs and intermittent supply for a few days. This would mean Muldraugh could lose power, for example, but West Point keeps it on in MP.

As mentioned before none of this is set in stone, but we hope that it gives a fair indication of the direction we want to be heading in once Build 33 descends upon us all.


A quick notice that Project Zomboid developers and various esteemed community colleagues will be attending this year’s EGX in Birmingham (UK) 24-27 September. We’ll have the game playable on the show floor, and will also be looking to arrange a community meet-up in a nearby Wetherspoons on the Saturday (options are limited at the NEC).


At the behest of Comrade Connall, we just wanted to wave the PZwiki in your direction. It’s a great site, but in need of contributors and edits as PZ continues to evolve. If you fancy helping out then inquire within.


Ooh, new Twiggy "General Tips" vid!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=99CpYMCCGNE


This week’s featured image from Minus_kot over on Steam. Fancy getting zombie stuff every week and at other key moments generally pertaining to Project Zomboid development? Click right here.

Hi everyone, here’s your regular Monday dose of Zomboid – which can be read here, or bitten/scratched into your skin before becoming infected, entering the blood stream and recoding the entirety of your brain with these very words repeated again and again, alongside a hunger for human flesh.


EasyPickins is making good progress tying the Steam integrated MP packages provided by our friends at General Arcade into Build 32. As such he’s currently finishing up on the systems that will let clients connect to PZ servers using their Steam accounts, let server admins ban players by Steam ID and allow Steam avatars and profiles pop-up in the ‘players’ list in-game.

This will also, of course, allow for the ‘Invite Friends’ function so you can drag buddies up and onto whatever server you need some camaraderie upon. If, meanwhile, you’re of the inclination to create your own server then the other half of EP’s current schedule is in creating a proper dedicated-server package that anyone can download from Steam, or install using SteamCMD.


A large part of Build 33 will be in adding context and flavour to Project Zomboid. The radio and TV broadcasts will introduce the first few layers of our back story in the opening weeks of survival, while a new degree of safehouse customisation is also on the cards through Turbo’s furniture movement and rotation system.

Another aspect of this [particularly aimed at SP playthroughs, but also present in MP] will be in making our world feel a little more ‘lived in’. Currently West Point and Muldraugh feel a bit cookie-cutter: doors are uniformly shut, houses are clean and it all seems a little uniform and airless. As such Will is currently working in cahoots with RJ to add some texture to the Knox Event through subtle randomised events.
Nothing is coded just yet, and as such is clearly subject to change or reprioritisation, but we want to gently evoke a feeling that there was once normal life here and that one day disaster struck. As such we would like televisions and radios left on in homes, evidence of home-dwellers who had particular careers/hobbies through the items and books they left behind, cold rotting meals left in ovens, general detritus left on the floor, and even occasional entirely empty houses that were not being lived in at all.

Playing around with locked doors, and what internal and external doors were potentially left open when the occupants left in a panic, is also likely to be a big player in this new push for zed flavour. You wouldn’t necessarily expect every item you find to be in 100% condition either, so soon some baseball bats will be more reliable than others.

We will also be looking to include randomised discoveries for later days in your survival experience while our NPC system is still waiting in the wings. We’re thinking pre-barricaded houses that have succumbed to zombies, burnt out buildings and already looted homes. Then, of course, there’s all those dead bodies lying in pools of blood next to empty whiskey bottles, modified weapons, nail-bats, Spiffo plushie collections and bottles of bleach.

Likewise part of this push will also be in refining world events. We’re going to look into giving Helicopters, arguably more of a pain after Build 32, on-board snipers to take potshots at zombies for example – while the imminence of the electric shut-off could be foreshadowed with flickering lights, regional brown-outs and intermittent supply for a few days. This would mean Muldraugh could lose power, for example, but West Point keeps it on in MP.

As mentioned before none of this is set in stone, but we hope that it gives a fair indication of the direction we want to be heading in once Build 33 descends upon us all.


A quick notice that Project Zomboid developers and various esteemed community colleagues will be attending this year’s EGX in Birmingham (UK) 24-27 September. We’ll have the game playable on the show floor, and will also be looking to arrange a community meet-up in a nearby Wetherspoons on the Saturday (options are limited at the NEC).


At the behest of Comrade Connall, we just wanted to wave the PZwiki in your direction. It’s a great site, but in need of contributors and edits as PZ continues to evolve. If you fancy helping out then inquire within.


Ooh, new Twiggy "General Tips" vid!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=99CpYMCCGNE


This week’s featured image from Minus_kot over on Steam. Fancy getting zombie stuff every week and at other key moments generally pertaining to Project Zomboid development? Click right here.

 
It’s a brief Mondoid this week we’re afraid as the majority of the team are fresh off the plane from the wedding of PZ coder Romain ‘RJ’ Dron deep in the French countryside. More of which, if you don’t mind sentimental fluff, later.

But first… the stuff you’re actually here for.

While work continues on stuff for Build 33 and beyond, the released Build 32 is now in spit and polish mode. EasyPickins, in particular, has been committing fix after fix for the issues that the community has reported. We’re currently on Build 32.16, with another soon to come. God old .16 was notable, however, because it came packaged with a neatly updated system that’s accurately conveyed by the following image of a nearly naked bearded man in the process of fighting fire.



The new Extinguish Fire interface lets you target a 2×2 area, and will automatically choose the best option from any extinguishers, sandbags and water sources you’re carrying to put out flames. This will let you put out fires in burning safehouses and on burning friends – although you’d be wise to catch fires early before they have a chance to spread. There’s only so much extinguishing material you can carry, after all.

In the meantime we’ve also been tying the work done by General Arcade into the game to bring Steam MP integration to the main build – testing, finding potential hang-ups and liaising with the guys about them. Again, we anticipate this to come in one of the more final 32 builds so people don’t have to wait until the glorious ascent of 33.

And finally, the sentimental fluff, that we hope you’ll forgive us for. We’re really proud of Project Zomboid and what it has become, but undoubtedly the very best thing to have come from it has been the friends we’ve made along the way and the amazing community that has formed around it.

This was no better experienced than at the beautiful wedding of Romain ‘RJ’ Dron and his new wife Celine this weekend – two people who were once complete strangers, but through PZ are now close friends. The fact that one of many high spots over the weekend was handing over a huge list of congratulation messages from TIS forum members should come as no surprise. [All conducted via secret DMs, so apologies if people were missed out!]

So, big love and congratulations to Mr and Mrs RJ – and it’ll be a better, and less emotional, Mondoid next week we PROMISE.



Oh, and check out Twiggy’s new Day One Survival PZ tutorials. They’re ace.
 
This week’s featured image from Akamai over on Steam. Are you interested in receiving PZ Mondoid, Update and Changelog newsletters alongside these fine leather jackets? Click right here.

 
It’s a brief Mondoid this week we’re afraid as the majority of the team are fresh off the plane from the wedding of PZ coder Romain ‘RJ’ Dron deep in the French countryside. More of which, if you don’t mind sentimental fluff, later.

But first… the stuff you’re actually here for.

While work continues on stuff for Build 33 and beyond, the released Build 32 is now in spit and polish mode. EasyPickins, in particular, has been committing fix after fix for the issues that the community has reported. We’re currently on Build 32.16, with another soon to come. God old .16 was notable, however, because it came packaged with a neatly updated system that’s accurately conveyed by the following image of a nearly naked bearded man in the process of fighting fire.



The new Extinguish Fire interface lets you target a 2×2 area, and will automatically choose the best option from any extinguishers, sandbags and water sources you’re carrying to put out flames. This will let you put out fires in burning safehouses and on burning friends – although you’d be wise to catch fires early before they have a chance to spread. There’s only so much extinguishing material you can carry, after all.

In the meantime we’ve also been tying the work done by General Arcade into the game to bring Steam MP integration to the main build – testing, finding potential hang-ups and liaising with the guys about them. Again, we anticipate this to come in one of the more final 32 builds so people don’t have to wait until the glorious ascent of 33.

And finally, the sentimental fluff, that we hope you’ll forgive us for. We’re really proud of Project Zomboid and what it has become, but undoubtedly the very best thing to have come from it has been the friends we’ve made along the way and the amazing community that has formed around it.

This was no better experienced than at the beautiful wedding of Romain ‘RJ’ Dron and his new wife Celine this weekend – two people who were once complete strangers, but through PZ are now close friends. The fact that one of many high spots over the weekend was handing over a huge list of congratulation messages from TIS forum members should come as no surprise. [All conducted via secret DMs, so apologies if people were missed out!]

So, big love and congratulations to Mr and Mrs RJ – and it’ll be a better, and less emotional, Mondoid next week we PROMISE.



Oh, and check out Twiggy’s new Day One Survival PZ tutorials. They’re ace.
 
This week’s featured image from Akamai over on Steam. Are you interested in receiving PZ Mondoid, Update and Changelog newsletters alongside these fine leather jackets? Click right here.

That's right, it's on the official main branch now! Excite!

This Mondoid is a bit long for Steam, so check it out here!

http://projectzomboid.com/blog/2015/06/32-unleashed/

The changelist for build 32 can be found here:

http://theindiestone.com/forums/index.php/topic/14590-iwbums-build-32/

(We'll try and prepare a complete formatted changelist in next day or two)

If you have any problems with the new build, post up on our forums or our discussions hub here. The comments won't let us reply to you directly :)

Enjoy!