- The final days are upon us! - 25 April 2026
Don't wait for the rapture. The #PostApocalypticFestival is happening in just a few days! And I'm stoked! #Protozed is going to be part of it. It's happening on Steam from April 27 – May 4. Big shout-out to Red Rover Interactive, the organizer and creator of #EnginefallI'll be putting together a dev stream to show all the latest and greatest during the festival.Thanks!Scott
- Dec 2024 Update - Happy Holidayz!! - 30 December 2024
Happy holidays friends! I hope you all are having a family-filled, wholesome time at the end of 2024! We're getting closer to an alpha 1 release but still not quite there yet. Here are the highlights: The floor plan generation system is officially in beta. (IE: No active major bugs) The map generation system is also in beta and we now see loading statuses and related percentages (IE : Placing Roads( 72% ), Populating Foliage ( 20% ), Generating house floor plans ( 100% ) Animations have been added for reloading Dev Updates For Nerds ( Curated descriptions lifted from p4 repo ) Floor Plan Generation Fixes: Room mismatches & Improper layout generation Custom Animations and Montages can now be driven by Efz Action Manager. Reload Animation implemented updated house 3d models and assets to be more run-down/dirty efz actions can now hook into UE GAS for replication purposes reload anim monta…
- October 2024 Update - Animations & Optimizations - 31 October 2024
Hello there protozed fans & friends! Recently, I noticed some performance hiccups so the past couple of months have been lots of optimizations. I know I know, it's not terribly exciting but the good news is - were back up to 90+ fps. Anyways, here are the updates: https://i.imgur.com/mvUzZs0.gif Physics-based animations for zeds are now in place. It's small but it gives a little more life to the animations. You can see what I mean in his arms as the zed is knocked back. Interaction/looting mechanics SFX and animation I've added a dedicated “constructed” collision channel. This allows for unreal's PCG framework to properly place foliage types inside/outside of houses. Also, this further enhances the masking tech I've implemented for reducing draw calls. This was mentioned in the last post but for anyone interested, here is a diagram of how that works. The blue spaces are defined per insi…
- craft & consume!!! - aug 2024 update - 1 September 2024
Hello friends! I've been hard at work on Protozed. hope you all are doing well! Overall, my plan is to have an early alpha demo build by end of November. Won't be anything like the final product but I'm itching to make something i can share with my brother at least! :) Been working on crafting mechanics and survivor action logic. Here you can see the player opening a can of food, and then eating it. Here the Crafting recipe is very simple. Open Canned Tuna. Also, you see a new player action, consume https://i.imgur.com/BpGW9t0.gif Tooltip showing possible crafting recipes and what you're missing Here you can see my new IK logic at work. Still very WIP but how he holds the rifle is dynamically driven by IK. https://i.imgur.com/x8C55fU.gif I've implemented new logic for floor plans, removing the need for "door frame" and "door window" modules during the configuration/generation process. B…
- Loot all the things! - July 2024 Update - 23 July 2024
I'm about to head out for summer vacay with family so my post is coming a little early but here's what's up. "Identification" system is in place. I say "identification" because its more a "it takes time to discover ruffle through everything in the cabinet" system. This speed can be affected by various things including traits, stress, exhaustion. (But you will not have to worry about it at home base) Runtime Attachment Modification System https://i.imgur.com/jrHopVS.gif What you see here is the ability to modify attachments via a transform gizmo. This will enable modders to easily tweak meshes and how they attach to each other. The mesh you brought in doesn't quite look right? No problem, scale it, rotate it, translate it and save it. (This feature won't be allowed without admin/debug mode on) Here's the Deployment screen preview. It's in early development but this is the deployment scre…
- June 2024 Update - 1 July 2024
Hello Friends! Its been a busy month for me personally but I'll at least post what the perforce changelog looks like. New Features: Implemented ultra-dynamic weather system. Added real-time mesh pro and virtual texture functionality. Enhancements: Improved floor plan loot generation. Updated instanced dungeon tester. All item buttons now perform actions. Added notifications for sim HUD. Fixes: Fixed context menu issues. Resolved various Lua tweaks and issues. Improved mesh loading setup. Removed RPI plugin and vertex painter examples. Testing and Debugging: Added debug editor widget for loot generation testing. Implemented force roll loot on dungeon tester. Have a good one! Scott
- ProtoZED May 2024 DevLog Update - 1 June 2024
Hey hey hey! It's been a busy month! Here's the squeeze. Terrain Generation is now dynamic and layer based. Similar to the step-based generation system in Rimworld, it has 5 generation steps ... for now. This will let anyone hook into the generation process and inject their own logic. CityLayoutGen RoadGen HouseLayoutGen FloorPlanLayoutGen NaturalTileGen World Item Visualization I'm using intelligently-hashing Master InstancedStaticMeshComponent Manager to render items. This will allow rendering of thousands of items with minimal performance impact. Serialization The serialization/save system is working out well. World Inventories are now re-implemented so every 100x100 is a ground tile inventory. Of course we are not creating them if there are no items in that ground slot :) Terrain data saves and reloads properly. Both tiles and vegetation. (The construction system has been serialized…
- Builders be building - April 2024 Update - 30 April 2024
Hello friends! April was a busy month for me personally but i managed to get some good work done in the past couple of weeks. Below you can see a preview of the UI and building system for placing structures. Buildings can be loaded from custom XML, specifying the mesh and texture to use. Here we have the colony and pawn task system at work. Essentially, there is a colony "brain" that will assess all tasks and assign them out based on priority, ability, and distance using a sort of "Utility-based AI" system I'm calling Motive AI. ( Some of you might have seen a simplified version of this in action for my itch.io title code monkeys ) Lastly, here is a EARLY preview for health system. This is super alpha but i thought this was pretty cool. All of these body parts are also defined and loaded via XML. All clothing/skin materials on characters have a invisible blood mask on them that we can u…
- Dev Update - March 2024 - 29 March 2024
Hey! I've been working on NPC's and stores for the past couple weeks but I'm not ready to show anything just yet. Lots of code/background architecture stuff. Hopefully, i'll have something for show&tell next month though! I've put some more polish into the item inspection window seen here: As well as Timed Actions. For any of you Project Zomboid modders out there, the technical concept works nearly the same and will have the same principles when creating your own actions. The example I've got working now is reload/unload: Until next time! Scott
- Attachment System nearing 1.0 !!! - 28 February 2024
Actually its nearing 2.0 for me because I had to rework/redesign the system right after I got it to 1.0 but REGARDLESS - it is almost done! This attachment system will allow nested items ( think tarkov attachment system ) While the example here is a gun, the system will work for any item and any attachments so modders can create complex and unique items. Maybe a bat with attached spikes? Or a grenade with a loud squeaking rubber ducky? Come here zom zom zom! :)
- Protozed January Dev Update - 30 January 2024
Hello Friends! I’ve been hard at work on the inventory system as of late. I have an early preview of the inventory system style to show but keep in mind, it is early draft and subject to change. I’m using a customized version of ArcInventory, which provides a solid, modular framework to build the complex inventory and item architecture I’m going for. For those interested, I’m also including a rough design diagram of the itemstack and how attachments/sockets work. You’ll notice that there really is no limit to how far an item can be stacked. ( Think Tarkov’s attachment system ) As a final note, here is how the procedurally generated neighborhood is working. I’m using unreal’s PCG functionality to generate the surrounding foliage, Dungeon Architect generate the layout of the neighborhood and my FloorPlan generator to handle layouts of rooms and furniture in the houses. https://i.imgur.com…
- Infinite Floor Plans! - 2 December 2023
Hey there.... The Floorplan generator is essentially in a complete state. Or at least beta I would say. Content for the floor plan generator engine is really the only thing left. It can handle various sizes, multiple rooms with required props & decorations, and all done with C++ and ISM so generation time is FAST. Blueprint spawning will happen Post generation (Doors, loot containers, etc), after the entire level has been loaded and as players near houses/buildings. Also, modding support is coming along swimmingly. Image, Audio, and Mesh(.fbx) files can all be loaded at Runtime. There's way more to talk about but that will come next month! Thank you for your continued interested and support! Scott
- Sept DevLog Update - 9 September 2023
Hello fellow walkers...I bring you a voiceover-less video. Been hard at work but not much to say so i'll just show instead of tell. Vehicles Foley Footstep Sfx Vegetation System Floor Plan Generator Version 99999....only 9999 more to go https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GTGogh1gCfc
- July Dev Update | Utility AI / Motive AI - 14 July 2023
Much progress has been made on Protozed's colonist/survivor AI implementation. They will be following the design paradigm of "Utility AI" or "Needs-based AI" Check out more details here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y0UUmnMfg2w
- Protozed Changelog #300-319 - 21 May 2023
hello friends Here's some of my latest comments to my source control for any of you interested geeks/devs out there: updates: world grid item spawner working implemented simple interactions mass: mass-based montages working now modified mass navigation processors to handle path points added mass zombie nav path points added api bp to retrieve path points async and cache path requests/results plugins: added coro plugin added ai grid player finder plugin
- DevStream - Simple Interactions System - 13 May 2023
Hey guys, I upped the production quality on my dev streams (hopefully) - Let me know what you think. In this video, I talk and think through how interactions will work in ProtoZED from a user experience perspective. You'll see some of my thought process and what leads me to go the route of zero sievert's implementation. #ProtoZED is a coop extraction looter-shooter with #projectzomboid style combat. This game will focus more on shorter sessions when out gathering supplies (extraction shooter like #zerosievert & #tarkov ) and keeping your survivors' needs managed while at base (colony sim management like #rimworld). I am a #unrealengine solo dev that has been working on pieces and parts to this game for years now. This is my labor of love and I am very excited to be putting all of these pieces together into a cohesive experience.
- DEV Streams! (& Inventory UI Update) - 26 April 2023
HEY HEY HEY! Here's the cool stuff: COOL GIF Tarkov style inventory. LETS GO!!!! I'm working on the save system for it now. ALSO : I've started doing Dev Streams on Twitch. https://www.twitch.tv/scott_hf I also post the streams on youtube if that's more you're style. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pRN-cY5SuwI HAVE A GREAT DAY~! or else...
- ProtoZED TinyDevLog #2 - 19 April 2023
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NKbK5PA40Xs Exclusive sneak-peak into construction and base building mechanics inspired by #projectzomboid #rimworld
- Protozed DevLog #2 coming soon - 6 April 2023
Hey guys. more details to come but i've been hard at work creating, tweaking, adding new features. i've got a topdown system working for placing walls. soon it will require your survivors to come and build it, instead of it just appearing. more to come later! here is a full list of changelog from my perforce : added base-building features -only has walls setup at the moment vat animations working properly now for zeds added ability to set max hit targets for melee attacks against zeds aggro sounds now play player combat sync comp knows if it hit a zombie increased zombie sight range cleaned up old moveit code fixed sound attenuation added to project but not yet implemented: hfu mood/stat plugin character wound/injury system blood splatter system
