Zero Projekt Update

Brother None

Brother None

This ghoul has seen it all
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A new update from FIFE-based indie RPG Zero Projekt.<blockquote>After yet another silly season, the Zero-Projekt proudly presents some new informations about our work and the current status of the development.

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loadingscreen </center>
Our new framework...
Our technical division made some very good progress which not only bumped our motivation to the next level but also the project itself. The biggest step was the development of our new framework which allows us now to not have to rely on the FIFE demo client (which has a completely different mission, so this step was important).
With the new framework we can not only develop faster, but also more flexible as it already has the shape of a 'real' game client - and debugging is much easier.

In the meantime, the FIFE project released 2008.1 which allowed us to even improve the framework with the new features of FIFE - like the update to guichan 0.8.1 and the greatly improved version of the editor client.

Here are some of the highlights of our technical development:
* object interaction (PC - NPC; PC - objects like doors / lockers etc.)
* testcode for the new renderers FIFE provide (generic render, cell highlighting or floating text render - which are more flexible to e.g. realize a falloutish cursor highlighting by painting a red hex :) )
* maplogic module to give maps individual interactive objects (NPCs etc.)
* integration of the ruleset module in all necessary areas of the code
* first combat visualizations
* prototype for Drag'n Drop
* FSM-AI (Finite State Machines)

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The framework loaded the worldmap, developer IDE in the background </center>
For sure, it's still a lot of work to do - but we created the most solid basement we ever had. We also celebrated commit #500 in our SVN repository - which boosts our motivation even further.


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Anniversary: commit # 500 </center>
Graphics & animations

In this sector, we mainly polish our current animations and develop new animationsets. Furthermore, we are migration our graphical content to a new render setup for blender, which will improve the lighting and shadows. Last but not least we work on the content we need for the planned demo ;-)

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A special request of our story department... ;)

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NPCs: blacksmith & villager </center>

combat in Zero
One of the best examples of the capabilities of the new framework is the integration of the combat system. For now not all connections to the ruleset are done, but still - we can fight on the maps. :)

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PC vs. NPC</center>
New team members

Not only the main work has developed nicely - the structure of the team did also. We'd like to introduce our new python programmers Giselher and Helios2000, as well as Grayfox - who joined the story department and currently focus on the story for the demo.

additional media

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Drag'n Drop


Some blood - and more important - the well known log messages are a must for Zero, too ;)


Exploring a new map


New textures for the EiRi</center>
 
Indeed, I was surprised by this animation too. If the whole game will be of this quality level I'll gladly pay for this. Looks way better than Fallout 3 to me.
 
Yep, it looks very cool, but what is most important in 2d sprite engines, is the overall art direction and mixing all these sprites into consistent scene. This is very, very hard to achieve, and some screens suffer from this:

http://www.nma-fallout.com/forum/album_page.php?pic_id=3023

although there are shadows here, it looks like the house and the lockers aren't 'integrated' with the ground well.

I do not know on what stage of creation these locations are though. But overall - looks very impressive.
 
Looks quite interesting. It's quite strange to see a old-style 2d isometric game these days.

Refreshing though.
 
That could be the real Fallout 3, well almost. I would be more than happy to pay for this (and buy via steam if possible, you can download it a million times if you want).

And the ghoul/whatever looks very nice, the animation is so smooth (except for the right hand it seems to twitch a little, but that's just minor).

All I can say is keep up the good work and release it so I can throw money at you guys :D
 
Wow... I'm nearly chocked up to tears guys .. Thanks for your motivating feedback - the whole team is very happy about your statements :)

And thanks again to Brother None - for the incredible fast news coverage. :)

@scypior

Yes, you are damn right. It is very hard to achieve a consistent look - that's why we have already our 4th blender setup for lighting & shadows. The main problem is that you can't really work with some kind of dirtmap because the map objects have to be generic - not fixed to one particular setting (in case you don't want to produce redundant images - which we do).

Most of the objects shown on the screen you posted aren't rendered with the new setup, yet. The best result we have for now is the player character - who uses softshadows and integrates nicely with the map floor.

@topic

We just wanted to inform you that we've setup an webclient to our IRC channel on our website (http://zero-projekt.net), which you can use to easy contact us "live" - if you have any further questions or just want to have a little chit-chat with the developers of Zero.

Also, there is some new media we have released, as a kind of a little "thank you all" - Enjoy :)



Screenshot of a simple & silly but yet funny mini game



Charakter running with a revolver in his hand



Reload of the G3 (version from 1957)
 
Looks neat, but Zero Projekt looks far ahead of OpenAnno. It actually doesn't have the typical FIFE demo look, and when I first saw screenshots of ZP I didn't recognize it as a FIFE project.
 
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