Zombie Hunter, Inc. News

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This January the team worked on fixing development issues we found when preparing the last release. We realize that our cutscenes should be done using Unity Timeline - this both makes it easier for us and helps us preview the final result without running the game. So Egor was doing just that for a few weeks. He also retopologized our main character, to reduce the model's massive polygon count.

Andrii worked on zombie optimisation. Our large level "Streets" had a very poor performance and we had to do something about it. In the end we found two issues: IK on zombies was eating a lot of performance and Reflection Probes produced stuttering when exploring the level. We fixed the IK and are still working on Refpection Probes.

Finally, the Katchur brothers Dmytro, Ivan and Vitalii created two amazing cars, while I worked on testing various ideas for our next level - The Sewers.

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Zombie Hunter inc update is live. We've added the first proper level into the game. It now tells a short story of an IT guy trapped in a zombie apocalypse.

You will have to battle your way to the roof of the building, where you will be picked up by a helicopter.

Beware of zombie firefighters - if you are too slow - you are dead!

The build features two new locations with insane details, one new zombie type and one new gun - M60. Belive me - you WANT to try it).

Next update will bring back bandits and firefights with smart enemies. We also plan on adding our first mission with dynamic goals and emerging scenarios, stay tuned!

Also, due to popular demand, we added two options screens, one for changing graphics quality and game resolution and the second one for changing controls.

Hop in, zombie hunters! And have a Happy New Year!

Just like we promiced, an update is comming closer to the end of this year. In it, you will find a complete intro "Tutorial" level, a "Hub" level, where you would always would go back to between missions and a number of improvements to the large "Streets" level.

There will also be a new zombie type and a bunch of new items, including a new gun - M60.

The main player character model was completely replaced for a much more story-appropriate model.
Now you play as a shy IT guy running away from a zombie apocalypse with the help of Bob - the head of Zombie Hunter incorporated - a gang of zombie mercenaries for hire. Your house was overrun by zombies, while you were asleep. You need to get to the roof, shooting and looting in the process, and wait for Bob's chopper to come save you.

The update will also include settings menu, amon other things, which many of you have requested. You will be able to change graphics settings there and set up controls to suit your playstyle.

We plan on increasing the game's price 20% with this update, so now is a good time to buy it, if you want to save.



Wait for a more detailed review when the update is ready - see you there!
The Maya Gameworks team

It seems that the next year we will still be working as a team of 4 without a publisher support. Thus we plan on adding enough content to the game so that players can actually start visiting it regularly and providing us with constant stream of feedback.

To do that we will be adding a hub area - the main headquarters of Zombie Hunter, incorporated - "Bob's office". It is a large abandoned industrial building, turned gunshop, where the Zombie Hunter, inc gang resides and flies to their various missions from. Every adventure will start from this area.

We decided to use Midjourney as our 2d concept artist, both to save costs and to give use enough unique ideas that our hub looks awesome. Here are a few concepts we chose as our final references:

The tricky part would be to make the actuall gun purchasing area both functional and pretty. It needs to have a single gun per square, so that you can walk close to it, pick it up and test it. We won't have a standard system where you buy things via a menu. Neither we would have a system where you buy things by clicking on them. No, you pick up a gun, any gun, then you can go to the shooting range to test it. You can see it in your inventory, play with it, do whatever you want. If you change your mind - you can put the gun back, where you took it. If you like the guns you picked up, you come to your boss and pay for all of them.

The tutorial level will end up with the player on the roof of a building, waiting for Zombie Hunter, inc helicopter to rescue them. We want the player to exit onto a roof that was rebuilt as a restaurant:

and then move onto a more industrial-type roof:

where helicopter would pick them up.

Dmytro, our artist, is already working on rooftop elements. Here is one of them:


While Egor, our senior artist, is working on Bob's office:


We also plan on expanding our Streets level. It will include adding buildings, cars and a construction site. If you want to get a glimpse at why it takes so long for an update to be release, check out this twisted lorry:

We are striving to add objects into our game which bring realism to another level. Objects, you are unlikely to see in other games. The best source of models is photogrammetry. However, quite often photogrammetry models are of very poor quality, due to not having enough photos to build the model from. Then we will rebuild the high poly model from scratch, while using the textures from the photogrammetry model to have the best of both worlds: the amazing color textures and mathematically accurate normal maps and models that make sense, when you shine light onto the object. And that is not all, afterwards you need to remove lighting and shadows from the object (so that it looks consistent when being lit in-game), build roughness and metalness textures and assign propper materials. Here, the cabin of the lorry uses carpaint shader, while its tent uses silk shader to have this awesome anisotropic highlight.

So that's our plans for 2024. Thanks everyone who supported us all these years and have a happy new year!

Development of the game continues as an Early Access title. After talking to steam support we realized that this would be the best course of action. We are sorry for any confusion our announcements caused.

The next update is scheduled in a few month. Sadly, as we a re a very tiny team making an ambicious title, I cannot promice major update sooner than 8-10 months from now.