[Brian]

For this week’s update, I’d like to introduce some of the ZRPG team, in their own words and art. Here’s Oscar and Joey.

You may all know me around here, so no need for lengthy introductions. I'm Oscar, the lead artist of ITS. I've done some modeling, all the textures and levels for AoD, and now I'm working in ZRPG, modeling and texturing locations and props. Sometimes I get some help from some contributors, but for now it's mostly me doing all that stuff. You saw some of my work in the props and the library, which were shown to demonstrate the quality of the graphics we're aiming for. But they are not the true stars of a zombie RPG, the undead are. And for that, we present you Joey, character artist extraordinaire:

Hi there. I occasionally make characters for ZRPG, but other hobbies of mine are promising Oscar that I'll finally make some characters for ZRPG, and coming up with excuses for why I didn't make any characters for ZRPG this week. I've got a portfolio at http://www.joeyspijkers.com/ , if you're curious, but don't tell Oscar or he'll notice that I'm doing other stuff when I could be working on characters for ZRPG.



Since I'm not all that interesting, let's talk about characters for ZRPG. Since the team is rather small, we can't do a lot of characters. It's so small, in fact, that we're only going to do two, a male and a female version (personally, I like to call them Zombob and Zombette). That means, for example, that all male characters will share the same face [About the faces, we are going to have a couple of variations. Perhaps a scarred one, and definitely an old guy one, just like AoD – Oscar]. We're hoping that you won't notice with the camera zoomed out as much as it will be. Luckily, we can still make variations, through clothing, accessories and haircuts [Note: and facial hair and skin tones]. I'd have loved to be able to show you that, but we don't actually have any assets that can be swapped here yet. Expect an update specifically about all that when we've got a fancy and varied assortment of moustaches.

What's also worth noting is the difference between one version of Zombob here being alive and the other being undead. We've got alternative textures for every piece of clothing, so that zombies look more ragged than the humans, and are more easily distinguished from them.

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Thanks, guys. We’ll continue introducing the team next week. Feel free to leave feedback or praise for them in the comments.

[Tuomas]

That looks really good! Hi, Joey!

[One Wolf]

Noice.

[Plalito]

Pretty nice, looking forward to seeing more.

[inhuman]

The colours looks cartoony but unless the environments will be realistically coloured, this isn't a problem.

The zombie face and the blood looks bad, though. Also, outfit of the zombie version is too tidy. Just applying a blood stains on the same model doesn't look convincing.  Tears, maybe one end of the shirt hanging over the pants, and the face is too... tame.

And, where are the cuffs? You don't get a shirt without cuffs.

[Gareth]

Very cool.

[Scott]

Hi there. I occasionally make characters for ZRPG, but other hobbies of mine are promising Oscar that I'll finally make some characters for ZRPG, and coming up with excuses for why I didn't make any characters for ZRPG this week. I've got a portfolio at http://www.joeyspijkers.com/ , if you're curious, but don't tell Oscar or he'll notice that I'm doing other stuff when I could be working on characters for ZRPG.

Spoken like a bona fide indie games artist, and no doubt!  One thing I've been wondering about reusing avatars, can you arbitrarily make an avatar slightly (5-10%) bigger or smaller in-game?

Regarding the model, regular sheriff looks pretty sharp, if a little saturated.  Perhaps an alternate zombie head with a more gaping mouth would be a good idea?  The blood distribution is all right, but perhaps it should be more rust-coloured and ugly, like it dried there two weeks ago.

[Bjergtrold]

It's good work, but I still have some criticism to dish out.
It's a zombie apocalypse. NOBODY has clean clothes. The live cop should have a shirt with dimmed colors like the zombie. And the zombie's shirt should be more worn still, and (i agree with the previous poster) the blood might work better if darker.
And last thing, isn't the head a bit feminine? Maybe it's the pear shape of the face, maybe it's the lips. I'm not sure.

Other than that, it really looks cool.

[inhuman]

Looking at it again, the crotch area is too short. The legs should join after about 3/2 of the current length down from the belt.

[Gareth]

One thing I've been wondering about reusing avatars, can you arbitrarily make an avatar slightly (5-10%) bigger or smaller in-game?

Yes.

[Oscar]

Thanks for the comment guys. Something you have to remember is that the game uses an isometric perspective, just like AoD, so many of the things you see here won't be noticed. Thanks for the suggestions, we'll consider them.

[Anonxeuix]

Looks nice!

[GhanBuriGhan]

*whacks sarcasm-o-meter*
Only a single male and female model, really? What's the degree of customization possible then? I. e. I assume sunglasses, hat, radio in the model above are accessories, but how about clothes? Just retextures of what we see here, or can you have models for trenchcoats, leather jackets, muscleshirts, bare chests, shorts, sandals, etc.?
The model shown is very nice, btw. A bit more decay for the face, maybe? Although, i assume from a 3/4 perspective we won't see much of that because of the hat anyway...

[Scott]

A nice, recognizable zombifying facial effect would be to draw deep grooves on the face texture.  Imagine a 60-year-old hobo screaming with rage and the creases around his nose and mouth and neck filled with grime.  And bug the eyes out a little.

[Oscar]

*whacks sarcasm-o-meter*
Only a single male and female model, really? What's the degree of customization possible then? I. e. I assume sunglasses, hat, radio in the model above are accessories, but how about clothes? Just retextures of what we see here, or can you have models for trenchcoats, leather jackets, muscleshirts, bare chests, shorts, sandals, etc.?
The model shown is very nice, btw. A bit more decay for the face, maybe? Although, i assume from a 3/4 perspective we won't see much of that because of the hat anyway...

By male and female model we mean BODY model. Of course there will be models for different types of clothing. We won't go down from AoD in this regard.