Everyone at the Hackathon Turned Into Zombies

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Inspiration

I thought of this game's concept during the opening ceremony. 500+ people cramped in a single building made me imagine that many people might catch the flu virus that has been going around.

What it does

You can play as Byte in a simple and short hack and slash game.

How we built it

The game engine used is GameMaker. Each mechanical aspect of the game was coded using GML (GameMaker's language). Assets were pulled from various copyright/royalty-free sources.

Challenges we ran into

Being new to creating games and GameMaker, I didn't know what type of game to make- nor did I know how to implement anything. A lot of Googling was done to fix bugs and learn how to implement certain features. I had trouble with creating the maps, having player statistics update correctly, switching rooms, and collision layers/depth values. I wished that I could add more features, but they were too ambitious for the time span and my knowledge of GameMaker. Fortunately, the engine was easy to pick up and understand.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

I'm proud that I managed to finish the most important functionalities of the game: Switching from room to room smoothly, character statistics updating correctly, camera and attacks feeling smooth. This game is also something that could only be created and inspired by from this hackathon. Most of all, I am proud that I started and finished the project at all, because there was a lot of early panic with little ideas.

What we learned

I learned how to use GameMaker at a fundamental level. There are many functions within GML, and I tried utilizing the most important ones.

Sprite Animation
GameMaker layer and collision properties
Importing external assets
Variable cross-referencing using GML step, create, alarm events
Coding functionality in GML
Dialogue boxes
HP, Experience systems and visuals
Room switching

What's next for Everyone at the Hackathon Turned Into Zombies

I wanted to implement features like particle effects, better animations, detailed maps, more levels, potions or food, pause menu, title and ending screens, skills, more engaging combat, and a lot more. I'm interested in expanding on these things post-hackathon, and also exploring different genres of games and multiplayer genres. Because the game was done at a very basic expectation, I felt like the game was missing a lot of depth.