More ToD Design stuff

Good stuff in here.
We should start putting this kind of thing on the blog as well.
Answered, in order:

Building settlements is a sweet idea, and will add to the "sandbox"
feel of the game.
We should probably develop that last, though- I think there's already
enough complexity to sell this beast as a budget title.
Maybe it could just be a very simple system, along the lines of "bring
this number of settlers, this amount of money, and this amount of raw
materials to this landmark, and you can start a settlement here. Then
bring this new amount of stuff to the settlement, and you can improve
it to level 2." Level 1 would let you buy basic supplies and weapons,
Level 2 would give you a second tier and unlock a Pub (save point),
and so on.
In fact, if we just make it very simple like that, we could even fit
it into the current theoretical "questing" system. An NPC encounter
would tell you that [given landmark] would make a good spot for a new
town; then you go collect materials, etc.

The permanent stuff-loss is something I've considered a bit. I think
having some sort of penalty for doing poorly is a good idea (otherwise
the zombies cease to be scary), but I also like the aforementioned
idea of having a Very Sturdy Carriage.
The game is more about figuring out how to transport your fragile
settlers and cargo than it is surviving yourself. It still has the
"risky" feel when you exit a town for the wilds and won't have a save
point for a while, but without actual perma-death (which I don't
really like).
The ability to develop new settlements in some way would offset the
danger somewhat.
NEW IDEA: Let's add "warehouses" to the towns. They would work as
stash boxes for extra gear. This way if you wanted to experiment with
a new carriage build or go do something you knew was especially
dangerous, you could stash your most important artifacts and things
there first.
Good compromise?

Cows and Dogs should definitely be able to be attacked by zombies. And
yes, they should also definitely have a chance to become infected.
Infected meat makes for an interesting risk/reward choice for the
player- do they keep the meat and risk infection, or do they ditch it
and risk starvation/desertion?
I also really like the idea of using Dogs as sentries, and the fact
that they will run from zombies, while Cows will not. I wanted to give
Dogs a second use to balance their less-meat-producing status, but
didn't want to turn them into attackers. This is a good third option.
I feel like zombies would not necessarily bother distinguishing
between humans and animals, thus the "go toward nearest food source"
logic. Also makes for simpler logic programming (don't have to add
another logical branch concerning what type of character is closest to
the zombie).

Building limited weapon slots into the carriage is an interesting
idea... Would the weapons still be placed as blocks in the
Inventory/Rearrange screen, or would they be slots on the actual core
of the carriage? I can foresee line of sight problems if we do the
latter.
I'm assuming what you mean here is we just limit the number of weapons
the player can attach to their carriage, which is fine. Just have a
little indicator of "available heavy weapons/current heavy weapons,"
"available medium weapons/current medium weapons," et cetera, on the
inventory/rearrange screen.
Extra weapons past the limits will have to be disconnected from the
carriage in order to exit the inventory screen (an alert box will be
displayed telling you what's wrong).
And yes, I dig the idea of having the heavy weapons be manually-operated only.

Adding weight as an important variable is awesome. I don't really want
to have to worry about "weight limits" imposed upon the carriage (part
of the fun is the freedom to, say, build a really tall tower atop your
carriage and see how it handles), but having to think about how your
carriage moves about when you load it up with a zillion blocks is
interesting and awesome.

As far as game states go, are you suggesting that the player never go
out onto the Travel/World Maps? Just have a straight sidescroller,
with different areas to travel to laid out in a line?
I think it'd be much easier to develop levels if we didn't have
constraints like "the level must start on the left and end on the
right." I think a non-linear layout to the map would also help us
develop a bit of content at a time- we can design a modular level, and
then place it wherever we like on the overland map, and then later
decide to change its placement (or even remove it altogether, or add
to it) without having to consider the connection to other areas.
A non-linear maplike world layout will also allow the player to
backtrack to a specific town or puzzle at any time, without having to
go back through every subsequent level (which is terrible).
Plus it gives it a more Oregon Trail feel. Which is good.
Basically, by Encounter I mean "switch to sidescrolling mode." And
there will be a sidescrolling level, and then it'll be done and you
can go back to traveling uneventfully on the map for a while.
Also, this way we can handle smaller, less interesting events (Timmy
got sick) in text boxes without having to represent them graphically.

I really, really don't want minigames :P
I just generally dislike minigames- unless done really well, in very
specific circumstances, they are jarring and annoying to the player.
I think we've already got enough different activities (fighting
zombies, hunting, questing, trading, puzzles, dungeons, rearranging
the carriage, plotting courses) without having to resort to squeezing
in unnatural extra ones.

I want zombies to fall apart, too.
I am not, however, sure how we should make this happen.
The problem is how to animate the zombies once limbs are lost. The
previous solution I've used is to animate each part of the zombie
separately, making separate sprite sheets for each, and then stacking
them.
Unfortunately, I have no idea if this actually worked, as I never got
to see the finished product (as I can't preview multiple animations
stacked atop one another, I was kind of creating them blindly).
So right now, I know I've sent you these zombie animations. (Check
attachments on previous emails- the huge sprite dump I sent a while
back.) The bonus to them is that they came with all kinds of different
head types- I made a bunch of head tops and jaws, and they were all
compatible with each other, so even though you only had two types of
zombie bodies (two different colorations of the same basic form), you
could have upwards of 40 unique zombies. And we could indeed make
these into ragdolls, too.
The downside to them is that they are old and I would like to make all
new art for Trail of Dead. Buuuuut I really, really so do not want to
go through animating each arm, head, jaw, body, and leg separately
again.
So I guess you should try putting them together and layering them, and
see how they look, and we'll go from there.

I love crafting, but again, I think we have enough here. Too many
different gameplay types in the same game is death. So I vote No on
crafting stuff. At least until we have core gameplay in the bag and
decide we have tons of extra time.

I have also been considering Ammunition. I was thinking of including
them in the design doc as a second type of Supplies (besides Food). I
decided against it in the name of Fun over Realism, but I'm not
entirely set against it.
I just don't want the player to suddenly run out of ammo and be
completely screwed. I suppose there is always the Gauntlet as a
defensive tool...
Perhaps if it is simplified enough, it will be fun.
I'm thinking another basic supply block type (a crate labeled "Ammo")
that you have to store atop your carriage like everything else. All
weapons run on the same generic ammo type, but perhaps some weapons
use it up more quickly (a mounted machine gun will go through it like
popcorn, and a big cannon will use a chunk at a time). And then we
have, say, 1000 count of ammo per box.
So it's POSSIBLE to run out of ammo, and you still have to worry about
storage, but it's not so annoying that it becomes a major concern for
the player.

The catapult idea (it can launch any sort of object, and does damage
according to weight) is super cool.

The dungeon ideas are great. Definite win.

Oh, and we definitely need multi-level parallax scrolling. :D
IT IS MY FAVORITE!

Okay, more later. And both this and your reply to the design doc
should go on Frosty Rig.

Reply to ToD Design Doc (from Travis)

I'm going to type this as I'm reading.

Some thoughts, I love the idea's thus far. Some ideas I'd like to add is possibly the ability to build an establishment. You can build a small shanty town out of survivors, and donate money to build it. Kind of like an RTS, the more you build it the better defense it has(less odds of attack), it also obtains more shops. For example a shanty town only has essentials, food, small round ammo, and such. As you contribute to it it can develop things like a carriage shop to add weapons and a pub to recruit mercenaries. However to build this town you must collect non-zombie people which will rarely occur in the wild, and will often occur(about 3) around destroyed towns. This might be hard to implement but is something to consider adding in later. As much as I like the idea of being able to lose your assets perminently I believe there should also then be a way to slowly develop new assets. From experience I know once you lose something perminently you might just start from a new save or start over completely.

Love the idea for food. I think that Cows and Dogs should be able to get attacked by zombies, and if killed by the zombies they aren't edible(infected meat). I think Dogs should also have sentry ability, they'll start barking when a zombie gets near(just off screen), also dogs can evade zombies. However Dogs give less meat, whereas cows give more but are completely stupid and there only brain function is eat and follow and occasionally make Mooing noises(we can add comedy here xD). Zombies shouldn't target animals as they crave human, they simply kill any animals that are obstructing their fleshy feast.

Weapon blocks, I think that you should have certain types of weapon blocks. Maybe Heavy, medium, light. Heavy will be cannon's, catapults and other large weapons like that. Medium will be things like lases/rail guns, steam blaster(aw yeah), flame throwers. Light weapons will be machine guns, riffles, turrets. You'll have 1 heavy slot, 2 medium, 4 light perhaps. This limits you from putting 10 flame throwers on your cart and having no competition. Heavy weapons will be operated by you, medium and light weapons are controlled by mercenaries.

Adding to your block idea, I can actually give each indepented mass and density. This also allows for a weight based inventory. and THIS also allows for dynamic momentum of the carriage. Everything you carry adds mass to your carriage, this will slow acceleration but also fortify your momentum(SMASH!!).

I disagree with the idea of encounter game states. I think you should move from town to town in your carriage and things will happen randomly as you travel or as triggered. I think there should be another gamestate for hunting though, but while zombies are present on the screen you cannot hunt till they are dead.

Minigames. Fixing your carriage=minigames? Adding blocks=minigames. Adding blocks should require wiring, and you should have to play a game like entanglment, you have to match up pipes to carry colors from one side to the other, matching them up to the pipe on the other side respectively. You must make do with the peices you are given however you can rotate them as much as you want. Depending on the weapon you must connect more or less wires. You can optionally pay a decently heafty fee to have a mechanic do it(a button at the bottom of the screen will say "hire mechanic $X".

Zombies bodies will fall apart upon death. This may have been a given, but what I plan to do is have rag doll zombies. Create a bone structure that fits all zombies, when you hit them and collide with the body they will ragdoll, then stand up and continue trying to kill you. If you hit a joint hard enough you can sever a limb. If you deal enough damage you can kill them, then destorying all joints, and shattering into a mess of limbs and torso. You can pick up these zombie parts with the gauntlet and store them. Perhaps you should be able to, thus allowing you to craft corpse cubes(or junk blocks) and/or corpse balls. Maybe some weapons can use zombie parts as ammo, if you have a catapult you can launch any object with weight restrictions, this will include dynamic trajectory paths so mass can effect distance.

Some of the dungeons should be destroyed historical buildings and land marks. Also an amusement park. You can ride your carriage on a roller coaster track!!

This all sound incredible, and within my ability. Though it will probably be a 2 year development. I say we'll need to consider leaving room for any technologies that come out whilst developing. Such as consider distributing this game on a new Xbox platform, and utilizing its technology. Though I don't think this will happen. I really think we've unraveled some new tech to be implemented, and I'm confident if we implement all of this we will gain public eye. If you look at some popular games for XBLA, theres a zombie side scroller shooter that took off like crazy. Really there's nothing that cool implemented in the game other than multi-layer parallax scrolling, which isn't too hard(first appeared on atari).

Lets get this thing going.

Trail of Dead Design Document! Hopefully

Here's a little bit about how I think the whole Trail of Dead thing will work:

1. The Necrocarriage

This is basically the star of the game. This is largely how the player will interact strategically with the world, customizing it to their liking and tinkering with it in order to solve problems and progress. It will be the player's avatar in the world.

We want the carriage to be physics-reactive, but also simple to upgrade/build upon. I suggest that it be made of a number of discreet "blocks" that can be attached to one another and then, once out of the "upgrade mode," stick together as one sprite object.

To this object we attach rotary joints for the wheels, as well as a "pod" representing the player's cockpit, and away we go.

We also want to be able to buy and attach "hot points" to the carriage, which we can mount various weapons upon. Weapons will require hired mercenaries to be dragged onto them, at which point they will work automatically when zombies are within their range in the direction they are facing.

In addition to purchased/found weapons, players can also place mercenaries upon empty carriage blocks. If there's nothing between them and a zombie, they too will fire upon them, with whatever hand-held weapon they are holding, given that the zombie is within range and approaching from the direction they are facing.

Finally, the player will have one last line of defense: the Gauntlet. This will basically be a limited cursor with which the player can interact with the physics environment. Its range will only extend to a certain point past the center of the carriage, but within that range the player will be able to pick up and/or interact with different things in the environment. They will be able to reposition settlers, supplies and mercenaries on the fly, fling away attacking zombies, and move objects to solve puzzles.

Trail of Dead will be challenging in the sense that it will be relatively easy to lose one's cargo and party, but will be difficult to actually "lose." Player death will only occur when either 1. the player's actual cockpit pod is destroyed (difficult, because this means every block in the way must have already been destroyed, and at that point zombies are well within Gauntlet-flinging range) or 2. every colony/town on the map has been destroyed by zombies (difficult, because zombie town defense battles are triggered by player presence). This will give the player the feel of a "roguelike" game (permanent loss of resources is a constant and very real threat) without the frustration of losing all progress and having to restart.

1a. The Gauntlet. As stated above, this is a limited-range cursor that allows the player to interact with the physics environment. With it, they can:

-Pick up and reposition objects in the environment, including settlers, mercenaries, supplies, blocks, weapons, environmental objects, zombies, cows, dogs, artifacts, etc. They can even attach/detach settlers, mercenaries, cows and dogs to the carriage! Other objects must be attached/detached on the inventory screen.

And if the player accidentally flips their carriage, this is how they will right it!

-Manually fire mounted weapons by clicking and dragging away from the target. A line will appear showing the weapon's angle of fire. When released, the weapon will fire where it is pointed.

-Reposition and activate artifacts. When activated, the artifacts will have unique effects, such as:

--A meat bomb, which serves as a lure

--A lantern, which lights dark passages

--Zombie repellent, which repels zombies for a certain time

--An ancient robot drone, which acts as a free mercenary

--Dog/Cow spawners. Who knows how they work?

...and more!(?)

The Gauntlet will be chained to the carriage with an actual chain. It will also be limited in code to a certain radius range around the cockpit.

2. The Town Screen

Towns will be the "safe havens" for the players. They will serve as places to save the game, resupply, take onnew settlers, hire mercenaries, buy new weapons and carriage parts, rearrange the carriage, and plot a course on the world map. As such, they will require a few different screens, linked to a single hub screen.

Screens needed:

2a. Town Hub screen. This will be put together out of regular game objects, and will in fact double as a physics environment in the case of a "zombie horde attack" on the town- basically a little tower-defense-like side mission that has you defending the town from an oncoming horde. Victory will result in some added rewards, such as extra money or supplies, free mercenaries or settlers, or even a special weapon or artifact to mount to your carriage. Defeat will result in the destruction of the town. These zombie horde attacks will only randomly occur when the player visits the town, and the player will have the option to flee from them (thus forfeiting the town!).

Otherwise, during normal use, the hub screen will simply link the other screens that the player can use while in town. These screens will be represented by different buildings, and clicking on the buildings will result in the player visiting those screens. For example, the shopping screen will be represented by a little trading outpost, while the carriage-building screen will be represented by a garage.

The player will exit the Town Hub screen and return to the Map Travel screen by driving their carriage out either side of the screen.

2b. Shopping screen. Represented by a Trading Post in the Town Hub.

This is where the player will buy supplies, carriage parts and weapons, hand-held weapons, mercenaries, and settlers. It will need a few different tabs for all of these different categories, but in general will consist of a list of available purchases (along with their cost) alongside a list of currently-owned inventory in that category.

Dragging and dropping items from the Player Inventory List (on the right side of the screen in any shop tab) to the Shop Inventory List (on the left) will sell the item, giving the player the listed price in cash for it.

2bi. Supplies will come in two different basic flavors: Meat and Wheat. Wheat will be cheaper but bulkier, as all supplies will have to actually be fitted upon the carriage, whereas Meat will be a little more expensive but much more compact. Meat will also be the more easily-obtained resource when hunting out in the wilds. However, Meat will spoil over time, and rotten meat can lead to zombie infections! To offset this danger, players can also purchase meat in the form of Cows and Dogs. Cows and Dogs will follow behind the carriage (or, if the player chooses, ride on top), will feed themselves by scavenging/grazing while on the world map, and can be slaughtered for meat when supplies run low. Cows will provide more Meat than Dogs, however they will also be more expensive.

2bii. The Carriage Parts and Weapons tab will include everything you need to change the structure and defenses of your carriage. It will have a list of parts and weapons available at this town, as well as a list of parts and weapons you currently own. "Equipped" parts and weapons (those currently tagged as attached to your carriage) will not be available to sell. The list will include various mountable weapons, different functional artifacts (such as a lantern, or some single-use zombie repellent), as well as different types of blocks to build your carriage with.

Mountable weapons will include different caliber cannons, machine guns, and even wacky things like catapults and laser cannons. They can either be manned by a mercenary, in which case they will automatically fire and reload, or micromanaged and manually fired and reloaded with the Gauntlet.

The four types of blocks are: Wood, Junk, Stone, and Metal.

Wood blocks are the cheapest and can float upon water (allowing the player to bypass certain dangerous bridges and cross rivers with ease), however they are also by far the weakest, and can succumb to zombie attacks easily.

Junk blocks can also float, and are slightly stronger than Wood, however they cannot be bought in towns- only found in the environment and carried back to a garage.

Stone blocks are strong, sink readily in water, and are more expensive than Wood.

Metal blocks are nigh-indestructible, sink quickly, and are by far the most expensive.

2biii. The Mercenaries tab will include "regular" mercenaries, "special" mercenaries, and hand-held weapons for said mercenaries. Regular mercenaries will be generic and cheap to hire, but will need to be fed Meat or Wheat or will desert your carriage.

Special mercenaries will come in a few different flavors, and will require a premium to hire, but will only take the standard amount of Meat/Wheat to feed, and so will be more efficient to defend your carriage with once you have some cash.

Special mercenaries will be things like Snipers (who will exclusively be able to use the longer-ranged sniper rifle hand-held weapons), Berzerkers (who will, when placed on the ground, automatically run towards and hack zombies to bits with axes, and will be extremely resistant to infection), and Steam Knights (who will come with their own set of super-durable steampunk armor, and will follow your carriage around wreaking havoc upon the zombie hordes). Other mercenaries might even give you special abilities, such as the Trader, who gives you better prices when buying and selling (but cannot defend himself, like a settler).

Hand-held weapons will be usable by mercenaries, and will be able to be dragged-and-dropped from the purchasable list (and/or the currently-owned hand-held weapons list) to the currently-owned mercenaries list in order to equip them. Weapons will come in a variety of attack powers, ranges, and rates of fire, but will fit into a few different categories (so that we don't need to make new sprites for each):

Handguns (low to medium range, low to medium damage, medium to high accuracy, low rate of fire, low to high clip size, high reload speed)

Sub-machine guns (lowest to medium range, low damage, lowest to low accuracy, highest rate of fire, medium to highest clip size, medium reload speed)

Rifles (medium to high range, medium to high damage, medium to high accuracy, low to medium rate of fire, low to medium clip size, low to medium reload speed)

Assault Rifles (medium range, medium damage, low to medium accuracy, medium to high rate of fire, medium to high clip size, medium reload speed)

Sniper Rifles (highest range, medium to highest damage, high to highest accuracy, low rate of fire, lowest to low clip size, lowest to low reload speed)

Melee weapons (no range, low to high damage, high accuracy, low to high rate of fire, no clip size, no reload speed)

2biv. The Settlers tab will show you settlers that you can take on at the current town ("hiring" them is always free), as well as their intended destination.

The left-hand side list will show you currently-carried settlers, their current statuses, and their intended destinations and bonus fares. Settlers will cost nothing to hire, but will have to be fed Meat or Wheat regularly or will starve and die.

Settlers can also be stricken with various maladies while on the road, which will show up in their statuses. Some maladies will cause a chance to die randomly every once in a while, some will slowly erode their health, some will make them be impossible to move without killing them, and of course they can be zombie-infected, which will cause a chance to randomly turn into zombies (!). Basically, if a settler is struck with some sort of malodorous condition, it becomes risky to continue carrying them on your carriage. They must either be left behind (by dragging and dropping them into the environment during an encounter or dragging and dropping them into the "discard list" from your inventory screen) or dropped off at a town (in which case the player still gets the settler's fare) as soon as possible.

Settler Statuses will include the settler's current health, as well as any maladies they are stricken with.

Intended Destinations are specific towns or landmarks that specific settlers wish to be carried to. If the player succeeds in carrying a settler to its intended destination, they will be rewarded with extra fare for that settler (called a bonus fare). If a player decides to drop a settler off somewhere besides its intended destination, they will be given fare based on the remaining distance to their intended destination.

For example, let's say a settler is picked up at town A and wants to go to town C (which is 100 miles away). If they successfully reach town C, the player will be given the regular fare of 100 (based on the distance between A and C) plus a bonus fare of, let's say, 25 percent (25), for a total of 125 fare. If, however, the settler gets sick and the player drops them off at town B, which is a good 40 miles from town C, the player will only receive 60 fare total (the original distance, 100, minus remaining miles to target, 40, and without the bonus fare). If the player decides to veer wildly off course and travel to town D, which is actually farther from town C than town A was, the player will make no fare by dropping the settler off at D. So basically the formula is: Fare = Original Distance - Remaining Distance, minimum 0; unless the intended destination is reached, in which case it is: Fare = Original Distance + (Original Distance * Bonus Rate). And Bonus Fares can be calculated with (Original Distance * Bonus Rate).

2c. Rearrange Carriage screen. This will be represented by a garage on the Town Hub screen, and will allow the player to rebuild his carriage and rearrange all of the different characters and supplies in his travelling party. The screen itself will be have a grid on the left ~two-thirds of the screen and a tabbed list of the player's inventory on the right.

Within the grid, just everything currently "equipped" to the carriage will be graphically represented. Objects can be dragged and dropped onto the grid from the inventory list, at which point they will gain a "check mark" on the inventory list (to show that they are accounted for).

Blocks, when placed next to the Core Block (which is centered on the grid and is connected to the Player Cockpit), snap to it and are considered a part of the carriage proper. When blocks, weapons, settlers, mercenaries, artifacts, and supplies (including Dogs and Cows) are placed next to already-connected blocks, they too are considered connected.

While some objects, such as settlers, mercenaries, and supplies, can be attached to or detached from the carriage and moved around during encounters via the Gauntlet, others (blocks, mounted weapons, artifacts) can only be attached/detached on this screen or the player's inventory screen.

Everything (minus objects that take no space, such as hand-held weapons and special mission objects) must be placed upon the grid in order for the player to exit this screen. The arrangement on the grid represents how the player's carriage and accompanying party will appear during encounters.

If an object is not connected to the carriage on the grid screen, it is considered disconnected. Disconnected mercenaries, dogs, and cows will still follow the player's carriage, but most objects are only considered to be in the player's inventory while within a certain radius. If they are outside this radius when an encounter is ended (by the player exiting the "exit side" of the level), they are considered "left behind" and removed from the player's inventory.

Objects can also be removed from the player's inventory by dragging and dropping them into the trash bin (in a lower corner of the Inventory screen) and confirming via a text box.

Mercenaries, Artifacts and Mounted Weapons can be made to face the opposite direction by right-clicking on them. Otherwise they will default to pointing away from the player's cockpit.

2d. World Map screen. Represented by a Travel Agency in the Town Hub screen.

This screen allows the player to view the entirety of the world map - every stretch of landscape in the game, encompassing all towns, landmarks, encounter areas and dungeons. It will be represented as a sketchy sort of 2D road map.

On this screen, the player can scroll around the entire world map, see the intended destinations of all of their different settlers, see special "quest" markers, see towns/settlements/colonies, and chart a path around the map (which will then show up on the player's Map Travel screen).

2e. Save screen. Represented by a Pub in the Town Hub screen.

Here, the player can save their progress.

3. Map Travel screen. This will be one of the main screens of the game. On it, the player can see a top-down cartographic representation of the surrounding area (much like a zoomed-in section of the world map), an icon representing their party, a linear path showing the route they plotted on the World Map screen, and icons representing known towns and landmarks (either ones that they started the game with knowledge of, or ones they have traveled within a certain radius of).

From here, players can:

-Visit their Inventory (going back to the Rearrange Carriage screen),

-Visit the World Map (going back to the World Map screen),

-Go Hunting (going to a special Encounter screen),

and

-Travel the world (clicking on a part of the Travel Map makes the party travel towards it, and scrolls the Travel Map along with it, keeping the party icon centered).

While traveling on the Travel Map, players can enter towns, landmarks, and dungeons; they can also randomly be subjected to random encounters (which they must escape from by exiting the same they would a town, landmark, or dungeon: by driving off one of the sides of the level). Random Encounters are usually zombie attacks, but they can also be encounters with extra settlers or mercs, or even random quest-givers!

Towns are already covered above.

Landmarks, dungeons and random encounters all count as Encounters, and bring the player to the Encounter Screen.

Some random events are experienced through text boxes while still on the Travel Map. These are known as Minor Encounters, and generally involve a settler coming down with a malady, a mercenary deserting because of lack of food, or some other small event.

4. Encounter Screen.

This is the true "meat" of the game. This is where players will be surviving zombie attacks, solving puzzles (both designed by us, such as the gates you described or a broken bridge at a landmark, and generated by the nature of the game, such as figuring out how to safely bring a herd of cows over a hill while zombies are attacking), rescuing settlers, talking to NPCs, etc.

During an encounter, the player sees all of their carriage, inventory, and party (as they arranged in the Rearrange Carriage screen) from a side-scrolling view. Free-roaming objects, such as Mercenaries, Cows and Dogs that were not connected to the carriage, are placed on the ground and are now animated. Other disconnected objects become physics-reactive and affected by gravity. Supplies placed above a "basket" of carriage-connected blocks, for example, will fall into the basket and be carried along when the carriage begins to move.

Disconnected objects placed upon the ground will be left where they are. If a player does not pick them up via the Gauntlet and place them atop the carriage, or at least drag them within a close radius of the carriage, before exiting a level, they are considered left behind and are deleted from the player's inventory.

Encounters can only be exited by leaving an "exit side" of the level.

Sometimes the player will begin at one end of the level, and the exit side will be the opposite side. Sometimes (such as during random encounters) the player will start in the center of the level, and can exit through either end of the level. Sometimes (like at puzzle landmarks, or when running into a non-violent special encounter) the player will start at one end of the level, but can exit through either side (so that they can come back to a tough puzzle or one they don't have the appropriate items for, or so they can ignore an optional special encounter).

4a. Zombie attacks. Encounters generally start one of two ways: either the player has entered a landmark or dungeon, or the player has gotten caught in a random encounter. Zombie attacks can occur during any of these types of encounters.

Players will generally be alerted to a zombie attack by sound first. Zombie moan sounds will accompany a change in music (possibly) as the zombie horde moves within a certain radius of the player's carriage.

Zombies will either be placed by hand (within a designed landscape or dungeon), generated in a horde at the start of a random encounter, or generated occasionally from corpseballs placed within the encounter level.

Players do not necessarily have to defeat all zombies in order to progress through the level, but zombies cannot be moved past (though one could, theoretically, build a bridge over them), and so defeating them may be necessary to exit some encounters.

Zombies will automatically shamble towards the nearest food source (settlers, mercs, cows or dogs) until they are within attack range. They will then attack the nearest food source until it is dead. If they are near a dead food source, they become distracted by hunger and will eat it until it has been completely devoured, at which point they will begin to shamble towards the next nearest food source. If they are killed, they stop moving.

Settlers, mercenaries, cows, and dogs that are attacked by a zombie have a random chance to become infected.Infected settlers and mercenaries have a certain chance every once in a while to turn into zombies themselves! This can happen either during an encounter or out on the Travel Map (which then spawns a special random encounter with a zombie or two on your carriage!).

Infected cows and dogs produce infected meat. Infected meat has a chance of making anyone eat it become infected! Players should watch for signs of infected meat and jettison it poste-haste (unless, of course, it's the only food they have for their party...)

While zombies crawl inexorably towards the player's carriage, the player's party will fight back!

Mercenaries will fire automatically on zombies within range and coming from the direction they are pointed. If they are attacked by a zombie from the rear, they will turn around and begin firing in the new direction.

Cows and dogs will flee from zombies, running away from them when they are within a certain radius.

Settlers will sit and wait to die.

The player can fight back as well, by:

-Steering the necrocarriage around the battlefield (with the cursor keys, WASD, or the left control stick).

-Using the Gauntlet to pick up and reposition mercenaries and settlers, and pick up and fling away obstacles and zombies (with the mouse or right control stick).

-Using the Gauntlet to manually fire mounted weapons and reposition and activate artifacts (with themouse or right control stick).

4b. Puzzles. These will be hand-designed, unique encounters generally encountered at landmarks or at the entrances to dungeons (though some will be randomly encountered as well). In general, some sort of physics object will block the player's party's progress, and they will have to manipulate the environment with their Gauntlet, the environmental objects, and the objects in their inventory. Doing so will remove the obstacle and allow the player to progress further.

These encounters can generally be exited at will; the side of the level that the player spawns at is one of the exit sides of the level.

4c. NPC Encounters. These will be small levels involving a short conversation with an NPC (non-player character). In general, the NPC will ask to be taken along with your party (thus becoming a new settler in your inventory) or ask you to retrieve an item or settler from a faraway place (thus creating a quest icon on the map).

4d. Going Hunting. Meat can be obtained while away from settlements by pressing the button on the Map Travelscreen to Go Hunting. This will spawn a random encounter with a random attack- not from zombies, but from some other wasteland denizens. If the creatures are killed, Meat blocks will be spawned from them and can be picked up and placed in the carriage.

Hunting encounters can be exited from either side of the level, but the player's party will be spawned in the middle of the level.

4e. Dungeons. These will be unique, hand-designed levels composed of a few zombie attacks, puzzles, and other encounters strung together. They will be found as landmarks on the World and Travel Maps, and as such will be represented by icons. Quests will sometimes take players to dungeons. Reaching the ends of dungeons will generally reward the player with special items, such as artifacts and weapons, as well as piles of cash.

5. Main menu. What we need here is a "Continue Game" button, a "Load Game" button, a "New Game" button, and a "Credits" button, in that order. Continue and Load will be grayed-out while there is no game saved, for example the first time the game loads up.

6. Pause menu. This occurs when the player pauses when on the Encounter or Map Travel screens. What we need here is a "Resume" button, a "Load Game" button, and a "Main Menu" button, in that order.

...Okay, I think that might be everything. I'm sure we'll think of more stuff and hack some stuff away. Let the funtimes begin!

Also I'm posting this to the blog.