Hey everyone! This one is big, nights just got teeth. The zombies got a full top-to-bottom rework: how they appear, how they move, how they sound, how they die at dawn.
Five faces of the dead
Iskarn now has five distinct undead tiers in rotation. A baseline brute, a fragile runner, a bloated tank, a plague-carrier trailing toxic spores, and a rune-marked elite that shows up rarely enough that seeing one actually means something. Each has its own silhouette, tempo, and voice, you'll recognize them by ear before you see them.
(Previously only three ever spawned, a quiet bug hiding the two most dangerous tiers since forever. They're all back in play now.) Night falls, dead rise
When night begins, zombies emerge from the ground across the world you've explored. Hands clawing up out of a dust-and-ember mist, low rumble, the works. The more of the map you've seen, the more threats scattered across it. Try to outrun the danger by sprinting into unexplored forest? The world spawns more silently ahead of you. No safe corridors.
Wait for the light
At dawn, every zombie burns. They writhe, collapse forward, crumble into charcoal in a puff of warm smoke. A quiet "curse breaks" chime plays. Then the day is yours.
The small things that add up
- Zombies without a target stay completely still. Classic "statue in the dark" feel instead of aimless wandering.
- Their chase posture reads like a predator now: arms reaching forward, torso leaning in, hips twisting with the limp gait.
- Rendering got optimized along the way (character parts batched, shadow casting simplified). Solid FPS gain on crowded scenes. That's it for devlog #3! Next up probably the combat rework, followed by proper horde waves. If you're interested in following development more closely :
Discord: https://discord.gg/MEBzGzRz5Q
Trailer : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rBPSXqBWwaU
Steam : https://store.steampowered.com/app/4586360/Iskarn/ And if you haven't already, wishlist Iskarn on Steam, it really helps !
More from Iskarn Demo
Other announcements
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