Welcome back to our behind-the-scenes dev series! In this one, we’re talking guns, because let’s be honest, it just wouldn’t be ZERO Sievert without them.
We sat down with Pepo (Underdog Studio Director & Creative Director) and Crimmerz (Gameplay Programmer) to see how the team is making the weapons feel satisfying in ZERO Sievert 2.
Making Guns Matter
Pepo, who’s been in the industry for 20 years and is a huge shooter fan, explains that getting the weapon system right is so essential for ZERO Sievert 2.
To test and refine the guns, the team builds special “gym" levels, which are basically shooting ranges with different materials (metal, wood, glass, concrete, plaster and even flesh), enemies, or whatever they need to test at that time. For the materials. they check that every surface reacts differently when shot:
Concrete chips and cracks
Wood sends chips flying
Glass shatters with that satisfying sound
Metal sparks and rings
Flesh shows realistic exit wounds
These effects are dynamic on both 3D objects and 2D sprites. Enemies can take localized damage (headshots and neck shots look different) and when they die they leave blood splatter. And of course, the crows are back to clean up the bodies, just like in the first game.
The team also wants to expand to destructible and interactable environments in the future, with physics props like shootable barrels and other interactable objects.
Recoil & Weapon Feel
Next, we catch up with Crimmerz, who’s been working on the recoil system. The goal is to take everything that felt good in the original ZERO Sievert and add more depth through sub-systems:
Separate horizontal and vertical recoil
Different attachments that affect each type differently
More variety between weapons
And much more!
Instead of complex per-gun recoil patterns, they’ve gone with a linear curve system for now. This makes it easier for players to learn and master each weapon. The system is very flexible though, as we can crank the recoil up to ridiculous levels for testing.
And because ZERO Sievert 2 is being built with modding in mind from the start, the community will have plenty of tools to customize and experiment with recoil, weapon behaviour, and more.
Watch It Now
if you'd rather watch the update than read it, you can check out the full video now here:
If you have any questions of feedback, let us know in the comments! And thanks for checking out our latest update.