http://projectzomboid.com/blog/index.php/2012/12/happynewyear/
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Happy New Year to you all from all of us at The
Indie Stone. Will is currently indisposed with the birth of his sprog –
no word as yet on whether he has a little Willie… or a baby girl, but
until then I’m afraid you’ll have to settle with a blog post written by
me (Binky) and Mash. So sit back, lower those expectations, and we shall
begin.
Right then. Er… what shall we talk about? And also, how are we going to identify who’s saying what?
“Andy: Mash: ”, proposed Marina as she delicately typed away in a Skype window, “though I suppose I’ll need to use capitalization and proper punctuation if that’s the case”.
“Marvellous”, replied Andy although in reality he didn’t and simply typed that response into the ‘add new blog’ page on WordPress while Marina was typing stuff in Skype about how my format is a stupid idea and really we should be doing it interview style – like all the other blog posts.
“Sadface”, said Andy using an emoticon suddenly realising that he ought to have clarified that “Andy” is “Binky” and “Marina” is “Mash” just in case it wasn’t apparent.
Sorry about this – this all goes so much better when Will does it. Let’s move straight onto something about the new map. Over to you, Mash.
“Well, I think one of the modern facts of North American life is that we’re surrounded by brands and all of these brands are advertised. It clutters things up.”
*Andy nods, like a proper interviewer*
“In Project Zomboid, part of how we create a full world is to create its own brands. In previous updates players have already seen Spiffo’s and Seahorse cafes but in the future, players can look forward to visiting their local pizza chain franchise, Pizza Whirled. Or stopping in for a Slurp-Burp at Zippee Market convenience stores”
Wait, what? “Slurp-Burp”? Uhhh…
“I’ve just made that up. Making up this stuff is one of my favourites bits of PZ world-building. Another aspect of…”
Woah, slow down there. I’ve got to put the picture in to accompany this bit…
Right then. Er… what shall we talk about? And also, how are we going to identify who’s saying what?
“Andy: Mash: ”, proposed Marina as she delicately typed away in a Skype window, “though I suppose I’ll need to use capitalization and proper punctuation if that’s the case”.
“Marvellous”, replied Andy although in reality he didn’t and simply typed that response into the ‘add new blog’ page on WordPress while Marina was typing stuff in Skype about how my format is a stupid idea and really we should be doing it interview style – like all the other blog posts.
“Sadface”, said Andy using an emoticon suddenly realising that he ought to have clarified that “Andy” is “Binky” and “Marina” is “Mash” just in case it wasn’t apparent.
Sorry about this – this all goes so much better when Will does it. Let’s move straight onto something about the new map. Over to you, Mash.
“Well, I think one of the modern facts of North American life is that we’re surrounded by brands and all of these brands are advertised. It clutters things up.”
*Andy nods, like a proper interviewer*
“In Project Zomboid, part of how we create a full world is to create its own brands. In previous updates players have already seen Spiffo’s and Seahorse cafes but in the future, players can look forward to visiting their local pizza chain franchise, Pizza Whirled. Or stopping in for a Slurp-Burp at Zippee Market convenience stores”
Wait, what? “Slurp-Burp”? Uhhh…
“I’ve just made that up. Making up this stuff is one of my favourites bits of PZ world-building. Another aspect of…”
Woah, slow down there. I’ve got to put the picture in to accompany this bit…
“Another aspect of branding is advertising - we’re surrounded by them”, (adverts I think she means), “in
real life, and I think part of the reason the PZ world looks a bit too
clean is that there aren’t advertisements littered around, blaring their
messages at you.”
Can I just take a moment to say that “Pizza
Whirled” is a brilliant name for a Pizza chain? Tell me about the
process of coming up with the brands.
“I think this situation would call for a
clever pun, but I’m afraid I’ve used up all my punning powers on names
for shops/restaurants in the game. If the internet has taught me
anything, it’s that EVERYONE (yes, EVERYONE) loves puns”
You could have said that we just hap-pun
across the… oh wait you’ve literally just made exactly the same joke in
Skype and now it’s going to look like I’ve ripped you off. Um.
Companeeebody knows where the — no, that’s awful. So. Anyway. Armed with
this dizzying array of incredible brand names, what sort of thing are
you doing with them?
Oh
cool – an advertising billboard. And “Citr-8″ is a lot more believable
as far as a fizzy drink brand is concerned than the original “pop” and
“fizz” branded cans that I made back at the start.
So basically, lots more of this sort of thing?
“We just can’t get punough.”
Really, Mash? Really?
“…I have a feeling I’m coming across as insane.”
Don’t worry, I’m not including all this stuff – I’m restructuring it all so it sounds dead professional and that.
“Puns aside, I think things like
running to a local Zippee Market, rather than a generic corner store,
for supplies is one of those things that add flavour to the game without
the player really noticing. It may not be cars, or multi-player, or
any of the other most-requested features, but it helps create the
Zomboid world… and so maybe, just a little, makes that world just a
little more immersive and rich.”
I completely agree – Muldraugh (and the
surrounding areas as we expand) needs to feel like a real place, not
just a collection of buildings sprayed into a world. One of the reasons
we wanted a designed world as opposed to a random map was for precisely
this sort of reason. You’re spending time in a real place that we’ve put
together ourselves. We want the world to have personality in just the
same way that we want characters to.
“Of course, not all the personalities
will be as silly as the ones we’ve mentioned, it’s just that those are
the most pun. I mean, fun.”
Oh dear.
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