Stream Showcase

I don’t know about you guys, but I really enjoyed summer! It was a blast, and lasted longer than usual here in the UK. Now the rainy season has hit and we’re back to holing up inside. That is, the half of us that aren’t holing up in the high street shops in any case! But I digress… Let’s talk shop!

I spent pretty much all of my Horde day putting together more presentable versions of the livestream zombies; finishing all of them but the wheelchair zombie. That one had to be finished during some down time throughout the week. I’m pretty happy with the results though, they’re certainly good enough to use as reference material when looking for artists! And I’m going to aim to get them into the game by the end of this week. Let’s go through them!

First up, we’ve got the hockey zombie. You saw this guy last week, but they were the first zombie we made on stream, and probably got the most screen time as I needed to relearn how to draw! I particularly liked the idea of using the stick as an arm, rather than have them hold it, so thanks to whoever came up with that. I also added some scuffing where the mask was broken, and of course, the puck to the chin that I forgot about on stream!

Our next guy is this little chef. This was my favourite in the stream, and is still my favourite now. I was surprised I managed to pull off the little mouse, as I had a strict “no animals” rule, that I completely failed to adhere to, but even without him, I like the way this guy developed. I’d like to have done a better job of the fork impaling them, but I like the frying brain, and the outfit, plus whoever suggested the cookie cutter bite mark was a genius!

Wheelchair zombie! I should think of a more politically correct way of referring to them… Ok, I wasn’t as happy with the final result here compared to the others to be honest. It was rushed and as I mentioned, I drew him in down time, which is also when I’m sleepy and not as competent at things… I think I improved the wheelchair a bit though, and changed up the expression to emphasise them being out of control, but ultimately, I didn’t really zombify them. They’re just… green. Maybe I’ll come back to this one and try work on it some more. Who knows?

Next up is our little scout friend here. While I like this guy, I also don’t think he looks very zombie-like, an opinion echoed by Suzie. I tried giving him the stitches, some bite marks, and roughing up his bag a bit more, but I’m still not convinced. I also tried adding a hole in his cheek with skull showing through but that destroyed the cuteness completely. Any ideas on how to add zombie to him, let me know in the comments!

And finally, the hipster. I had a lot of fun playing with this one, I reshaped the head to add to the beard and spent way too long colouring plaid. But my favourite addition is the brain spilling out with a moustache and pipe. I’m really trying to fill up on as many tropes as possible with this guy. Still got the covfefe coffee from Cafe Neuro, and the record being thrown at a largely useless angle.

That covers the zombies we made on stream. I omitted Bill Murray for legal reasons, on the technicality that he was a ghost and I’m drawing zombies, and the dog, which was more of a tack on, and not something I was developing. I do have to give a quick shout out to WeirdYetCool from the stream however, who messaged me afterwards with a zombie dachshund, putting my feeble on-stream attempts to shame with a few simple lines! Check it out:

Very cute! Feel free to send in any ideas or fun doodles, I enjoy seeing what you guys make!

And finally, just because I couldn’t let them go to waste, these guys debuted on the stream, but were in fact made before as practice:

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Hopefully you can guess if you’ve ever met them, but these guys are based on frequent guest stars, Suzie and Richard. I’m pretty happy with the likeness of both, though whether they make it into the final game design has yet to be decided!

So, what do you guys think? Do you like them? Do you hate them? Do you have any improvements or suggestions for new zombies? I’m happy to hear from you about any of the above, or about anything else for that matter! Drop me a comment below to weigh in!

I now need to get down to the business of adding these folks to Horde, so I’ll speed thought the rest. Most of the week was spent putting together another Nintendo Switch demo for SockMonkey, with more features available, which I managed to get out with time to spare, and, in a-hobby-a-week, I tried my hand at some woodworking DIY, and put together a bigger cage for our rescue hamster, Monster. We built it out of a bookcase we snagged on Freecycle (picked up without breaching social distancing rules I might add!), some timber and some wire mesh. Suzie helped out, making a little hut to hide in, and helping pin the mesh to the top frame, and now Monster has a much-improved home!

There are slats on the left side for the plastic partitions in his old cage to slide into, so that it has some familiarity, as well as providing housing for his wheel and water bottle, but at the moment he’s still in the old cage, as we want to make sure we’re around when he’s first using it in case he finds an escape point! We tested it last night though, and he seemed content, until he started climbing across the mesh ceiling… Some hamsters are never satisfied!

Matt out.