The Beginning | Devlog #1 | Project SAFEROOM

nice video!

The shooting animations at the last section look like the generic unreal engine slop you see on steam.

Looks really awesome so far! Only criticism I can give is to try and make the reload animations as "out of the way" as possible. I always find it frustrating when a reload animation covers the centre or centre horizontal third of the screen, it stops your vision in front of you and is just generally annoying. IMO reload animations should take place off to the side, so there's as little obstruction to the player's view as possible.

Stop focusing on the art, you're bogging yourself down on delivering polished content and making sure your designs work. Leave the art for the end. It's fine to have art test with scenes, but absolutely do not start making level concepts starting with the art.

Good luck on your game development journey, guys! I'm excited to be part of this adventure with you.

Already loving it ! I'll be following this journey as long as you guys are working on it. PLEASE DO NOT QUIT

Awesome video. Really good devlog. I like the concept and really enjoy this genre of games. So this is right up my street. Have you thought about using PRAS procedural recoil system for your weapons ?

Just played left4dead again recently

I am excited for you guys Goodluck on you dev journey

your voice is similar to Jays from the Kubz Scouts 😁

YEAH! Massachusetts represent!

The flashlight cone is too small and the weapon takes a lot of screen space

The #1 thing you have going for you over l4d is not graphics, but the lack of any corporate push. If you guys flesh out the shooter mechanics, interactions, optimisation (make this game able to run on a potato), and don't let scope creep get the better of you, you guys could be pumping out tons and tons of levels during development and have a solid shot at l4d's success. L4d2 still has such an active community thanks to its level count + mod map support giving it heaps of content and its platform accessibility. That formula with a fresh look and a few fresh tweaks would hit pretty hard. I'd always wanted to make a l4d2 inspired title of my own but excited to see this come to fruition.

Goodluck guys! I'm a Game Dev and College Professor in the Worcester Area. It's always nice to see local devs trying some interesting stuff in the indie space.

Looking good! I'm not that interested in the game per se (not that into shooters, multiplayer or zombie games) , but I'm very interested in the journey. Consider me subscribed!

The street size issue is why people suggest working on small POC parts of the game and refine later. If you only had 1 street and 2 building on each side, once you were playing you'd know and it would've taken an hour or less to resize the initial POC map.

I've subbed, very excited to see the progress. These types of games have been my favorite since COD W@W introduced me and Call of Duty to zombies.

Hello guys.
I think you can improve the torchlight, because at the time you recorded the video it seems to me a bit too claustrophobic, in a way that's almost annoying.
I was thinking that maybe you could create a less bright area around the torch because in this way your eye can more likely passively gain information from the surroundings without directly pointing in one direction.
In this case the claustrophobia would continue to be a major factor because you would still directly look objects to make sure they're there.

Here a couple of little thingis I think: Bullet hole effects should be bigger, bullets create big holes, also the sound design for shooting should be louder, I know game is in early beggining, just some recomendations I thought!

Keep the great stuff <3

I really hope you guys continue working on the game till completion no matter what

Hey - try to change the cadence of your sentences - every sentence you speak has the exact same cadence. This will help in general when you have to talk to people, which you’ll have to do a lot.

How do you guys work on the project together but on different computers?

Hey man, your project looks really good. I've also started my game devlog journey. Good luck to you! I hope we both succeed.

The motion capture is really neat!!

You'd like to see games like Contagion or No More In Hell for more inspiration and for design too. Good luck guys!

dope stuff, look forward to seeing the zombies!

i'm starting my journey myself, for now its just for fun and learn, its really nice to see anothers people start, best of luck for you guys

Will you be having flashlight inertia?

What if you let players turn into zombies when they die so the can temporarily smack their friends around as a silly mechanic. Also you could have a gamemode where players have limited time to find a vaccine before they turn.

Are you guys using procedural recoil or baked in with animations? The recoil for the AK seems a bit much, but could maybe be tweaked

Maybe add some shakescreen when shooting

Wow, the environments look so good and aren’t overly cluttered or complicated like a lot of L4D2 custom maps, you guys are really nailing the creepy liminal space aesthetic of Valve maps. Dark and abandoned in a hurry. It’s also like Silent Hill

Boston love! Born and raised 💪

Great Stuff!! Good luck with the project

This looks very promising! I'm another indie dev working on a fast paced arena FPS. I've got tons of Unreal experience, with the majority of it being multiplayer experience. If you guys ever need help with anything multiplayer, whether that's how to achieve something or optimizing, or anything regarding FPS game feel, feel free to reach out! I love helping other people in Unreal as much as possible!

@Broken Chair Studios

If I was you I would be thinking in this aspect. Just want to see your studio succeed.
1. The lights are still on in your game, does that mean the zombie outbreak just happened?
2. Maybe have a kickass intro making it realistic to power grids.
3. Have a current zombie outbreak timer on levels related to everything I said above. Kinda like how Dead Rising did but instead how long the outbreak has been going for.

I hope this finds your studio in good health. If you need a game tester let me know. I'm also on my Game Dev learning journey.

I'm a simple man. I see a devlog, I click! This looks very promising! Can't wait to see more!

It's not until you start developing a game you realize just how big a feature "working doors" really is.
Looking good, will be watching for this one

Will we be able to add mods?

Fantastic DevLog! I wish you both the best! As a left 4 dead & cod zombies fanatic, I am excited to see what y'all create!

Well shoot… looks like I’m along for the ride now!

The idea of the project is cool but you need to concentrate more on the gameplay than the art. Yeh very cool animations but it takes time and then the game is just "gun simulator". First do the "main" things of the game like useful items, enemies, combat system, environment and if they attach together great, you've got your game more juicy!
I know that i'm a litte bit to critic but I want to give some advices:
- make enemies that are mechanically interesing
- it's ok to put the good old zombie that chases you but put options on taking them out!
- the juicess of the game isn't completed and there's already a online multiplayer? DAMN I know it's a co-op zombie survival but one step at a time man

Good juice making! 🐶👍

I loved how you want to keep the scope of the game centered in the coop and closed-open areas, this is a great decision that was taken. But I would recommend blocking the levels first and maybe creating a tool to help place the streets and buildings, cuz is better to lose 2 weeks of building this tool than 1 or 2 months of refactoring some levels.

this looks sick, cant wait to see the next devlog. good luck guys!

OOH this is amazing and i really look forward to this game releasing. I am a beginner in developing games and this just warms my heart and motivities me to keep going. as you continue making your game be sure to make every little thing smooth and have cool details and designs that will perk up the excitement!!

Best of luck! As someone in their 30s now, this is the era of games that I sorely miss. Something that makes these games so special is the mod support/workshop. I know you are a small team, but would highly consider mod support to prolong the life with custom maps etc.

Hello, fellow animator here. I think you should move the camera a bit more forward. Try only showing the wrist or 1/2 of the forearm since it looks awkward to look at and it clutters too much of the center screen. Goodluck on your game development. We need more zombie games like this again.

It will be famous One day keep my words in your mind and go back to me and ask 'How?' Hard Work=success

This looks really cool, are you guys coding in blueprints or c++?

I hope everything goes like how you want it and that your game succeeds.
Good luck :)