SYNOPSIS
Welcome to Ground Zero. This project started conceptually several years ago as a prequel to the Fallout series of CRPGs from Black Isle Studios, but has gradually morphed into a unique setting for which we are experimenting with new themes and game mechanics.
Taking on the role of a survivor in the decades immediately following nuclear holocaust, you will navigate an expansive, continally developing game world, and attempt to play a hand at life in the wasteland. Leveraging the dynamic abilities of Doom 3, there is virtually no pre-written plotline to follow or puzzles to solve. Our goal is to establish an enthralling framework for highly generative gameplay that relies on the player's creativity and role playing skill. Enter the world from several points and find your path as a mercenary, trader, criminal, or simply sit back and watch... but do not expect the world to wait for you.
HELP WANTED
We are seeking one or two dedicated texture artists to really bring this world to life. We are also looking for 1-2 environmental/prop modellers to create a library of assets which conform to concept designs and documentation, and at least one more dedicated coder to help develop A.I. and gameworld event systems. Check out our website and forums for more detailed information about what's in the pipeline.
If you are interested in these positions, please come by our forums or email our Project Manager Jonathan at jlambvo@gmail.com
NEWS
MUSIC ADDED TO DOWNLOADS
July 15, 2007
We've added all the original music scored thus far for Ground Zero, contributed by the excellent Blaise Douros and Chris Guti (MrBumble). Check out the Downloads section and click the "Music" link!
THIRD PROTOTYPE RELEASED!
December 25, 2006
In this prototype, you can explore a procedurally generated city, populated by hostile "raiders" (represented by Doom 3 zombies). You have several weapons at your disposal to engage the enemy in a form of turn-based combat called "step-based," which is broken into individual actions.
Press "Q" to toggle step-based mode on at any time. When not visible to hostile characters, or when you are far enough away, you may press it again to return to real-time. In step-based, characters may only move and shoot on their turn. Each action is assigned an action point cost, so characters must wait longer to act again after more "expensive" actions. When every character's action points have been depleted, a new turn begins and AP are replenished.
WHAT THIS PROTOTYPE IS
The main purpose of this release is to demonstrate our ability to generate a game environment with no pre-compile, based on variable inputs.As a basic example in this release, you can set the average height and number of buildings to spawn, how much damage has been inflicted on the city, and the strength of hostile forces (which is expressed through the number of enemies and their personal skill level). A dynamic pathnode system is used by the computer controlled characters for long-range navigation, which can be generated and altered on the fly. In the future, this system will be used to represent the growth and development of settlements over time, and to randomly generate levels for the wasteland that separates them. Towns will rise in population and technology level, rebuild the ruins of pre-war civilization, and evolve in cultural style as each of the three gameworld's factions gain influence. Our first step toward this goal is to allow the player to navigate on a world map between several cities like the one in this prototype, which develop and interact with each other in a simple Civilization-style game.
WHAT THIS IS NOT, KNOWN MAJOR ISSUES
Performance is greatly improved over our last release, but we are continuing to research methods for increasing framerate and reducing the number of hiccups. Load times are currently VERY long, so be patient! This does not graphically represent our artistic vision for the gameworld in any way. All models and textures are placeholders and have a great number of glitches. The squarish, grid-like appearance of damaged buildings will go away with proper art assets. Characters, weapons, and environmental props will all recieve a complete facelift at some point. The pathfinding system is a first draft and obviously needs a lot of work. For now, we "simply" needed to make sure that the AI could navigate across a randomly generated city and make its way up a 10 story building to the player. There are numerous glitches in small-scale navigation, and characters will appear to be floating in the air at times. The finished game will be violent and combat heavy, but it will not be the main focus of gameplay necessarily. In future releases we will be working intensely on actual role-playing aspects. All of the skills listed on the character sheet will be more or less equally useful, or cut.
INSTALLATION INSTRUCTIONS:
Download here!
Unzip the groundzero.bat, Ground Zero shortcut, and "groundzero" folder into your Doom 3 directory. If the shortcut does not work be sure to check that it is pointing to your Doom 3 install path
SECOND PROTOTYPE RELEASED!
June 6th, 2006
The second public prototype of Ground Zero has been released! Prototype 2's main showcase is a demonstration of our early constructor toolset. Constructors can be placed like brushes in the Doom 3 editor, which at runtime then spawn complex groupings of other entities (such as characters, walls, lights, debris, weapons, other props, and even other constructors). These entities can inherit determinate and randomized attributes from their constructor, but function as discrete objects once spawned. Combined with Doom 3's dynamic capabilities, constructors can be used to generate things as simple as a single wall or randomized items on the floor, to entire cities complete with interactive props and characters.
In this mod, you begin somewhere in the area surrounding Springhill, which is occupied by a hostile force of raiders. Each time the map is loaded, you will find a different city in front of you: the size, appearance, and location of structures; the number, strength, and position of enemy fighters; the composition of barricades and furniture; the possibility and distribution of weapons and ammunition.
Also new in this release are a number of combat system improvements. The crosshair has been fixed to always indicate precisely where the character is targeting, and there are now visual indications of projectiles that are deflected or absorbed by armor. Most significantly, target visibility now impacts an attacker's chance to hit; even partial cover or simple angling of the body offers some protection. Luckily nearly every object in the environment is moveable, so look both ways before crossing the street and take some cover with you!
Lastly we are of course showing some of our new architectural models and designs, sound effects, and music. Please be patient until we replace the Doom Guy and zombies with new, highly customizable characters, which should start to make an appearance in our next release.
INSTALLATION INSTRUCTIONS:
Download here!
Unzip the groundzero.bat, Ground Zero shortcut, and "groundzero" folder into your Doom 3 directory. You'll also probably have to alter the shortcut to match your install path, but the .bat works just fine on its own and Have fun!
NEW TEAM MEMBERS!
March 28th, 2006
The Ground Zero Team would like to send a warm welcome to our newest members! Lev Rozner, Concept Artist, Christian Guti, Composer, and Doug Litos, Modeller/Animator.
FIRST PROTOTYPE RELEASED!
February 4th, 2006
The (currently quite gray and threadbare) town of Springhill has been inhabited by evil radioactive bandits, and you must clear it out with nothing but your trusty sidearm, flashlight, and fists!
In our first public play test you will get a glimpse of the "step-based" combat system we're developing, as well as the method for crafting Ground Zero's environments. We even managed to sneak in some new music from composer Blaise Douros. Please be sure to read over the included manual (located in the plug-in folder) which should answer most immediate questions, as well as the known bugs document for various code and graphic errata. Keep in mind that this is a VERY early release and only scratches the surface of our final vision.
This is the first of many public releases we'll do over the course of development. We would like to keep the public in the loop throughout production, so please come by the forums to leave feedback, suggestions, questions, or even to discuss problems that have come up in your own projects. We feel that collaboration and open doors are important in cultivating a strong mod community and innovative game design in general.
WEBSITE LAUNCH!
January 14th, 2006
After many delays we finally have an official website. Please look around at the gallery and register on our forums, where you can find more gameplay design details and work-in-progress. In "About Us" you can read background information on people who have contributed to the project thus far. The "Development" section will gradually be fleshed out with milestone dates, progress notes, tutorials, and team member soap-box rants. We will be releasing an early combat system prototype by the end of the month, which will also include some of our custom models.
We are looking to acquire some additional talent as production ramps up:
1. 3D environmental artists. Due to the dynamic nature of Ground Zero, virtually the entire gameworld is constructed with a "tileset" approach using static meshes. We need 3D artists to bring environment concepts to life with modular designs that can be arranged in a variety of interesting and unique ways.
2. Character modellers/animators. Work with concept artists to create a library of custom character models with new animations for both unique and randomly generated NPCs, targeted at next-generation hardware.
3. Programmers. Help implement challenging but exciting gameplay mechanics using C++ and DoomScript, including an abstract strategy game engine that determines global conditions, a complex character relationship and reputation system, and a fresh world interaction interface.