update 15th july 2009

You’re in a garden surrounded by tall buildings. It’s dark but there are distant noises that sound like groans and screams. Walking toward an alley you peer and see a figure. It sees you, makes an unearthly sound and starts sprinting towards you; it’s orange eyes glowing and fixed with an expression of mindless rage. It strikes out at you and you leap out the way running for your life toward the main road. But the road is filled with more and more of the creatures. All their eyes glowing orange. All fixed upon your destruction. You see a car on the road, its doors wide open, the keys in the ignition, you jump in and drive before they can drag you away. As you drive you knock down every creature that stands in your way. You drive because your life depends on it. You drive toward the bridge and just hope that this is one road that hasn’t been mined.Welcome to my newest map. There’s no hurry. You can wander around at your leisure. That is if you can survive the persistent zombie attacks. The street lamps glow through the rain but this remains the darkest level. The eerie quality of a dull twilight adds to the nightmarish quality of the horror that surrounds you. You may decide you don‘t want to hang around. It may be a little… intense.. You may want to head for the tunnel that leads… well… Let’s not spoil things eh.

I’ve added an effect called Iron Sight. This basically means you can look right down the barrel of the gun and see what you’re shooting at through the crosshairs. You can turn iron sight off and off according to your preference but it might make aiming your handgun a little easier when you know you have a zombie in your sights.

But I haven’t just been adding this map and playing around with weapons aiming. I’ve also been creating and coding a brand new creature by the name of Zombo. This is an affectionate nod to the character recently created by Al Ewing and Henry Flint for 2000AD. The creature is also inspired by Hell Knight from Doom the movie. The look of the creature bears some resemblance to both Hell Knight and Zombo but has its own unique characteristics.

My next step is to create the city centre. This is going to be partly inspired by London’s west end and filled with bright neon lights, bars, and restaurants and night life. I needed to build something that would offset the oppressive dark atmosphere of this level. I’m hoping that this next area will be my most detailed.