I was kind of vague about the ragdoll system in 12/7, because even though it looked great, it was very volatile. essentially, after closing the game, it would somehow almost forget how to work, and need to be corrected slightly (changing scales). i have since had to remove it from the game for the time being. Don't worry though, I will add it back in later. the problem is with the scaling of my rig and its bones. essentially, when i made kreese, i made him exactly 10 meters tall, with him being supposed to be scaled down by a factor of .2 to 2 meters. the problem is that i made the rig around this height. the rig is 10 meters tall, just shrunk down (inside blender) to 2 meters. godot somehow knows the original scaling, and there is nothing i can do to sort of adjust the rig. I will have to delete the rig, shrink the mesh, and then make a new one, which, while annoying, does at least make things simple and give me 1 exact size to work around while modelling.

I have redone the bullet system for the gun. My system was needlessly complex, and even though it had some cool features, they were not cool enough to outweigh the shortcomings. I started with a hybrid hitscan + physical bullet (when you look into games, almost 0 actually use this system). basically, a raycast would go out for some arbitrary distance based on the gun, and then it would spawn a real physical bullet, and push it downrange at the correct muzzle velocity. this naturally would account for gravity, wind, drag, etc. as well as things like semi realistic ricochets.

i replaced that system with the much much more common hybrid hitscan + hitscan-renderred physical bullet. Essentially, the bullet is actually a series of raycasts sort of teleporting across the screen every fraction of a second. the first hitscan/raycast is longer than the others, and then it sort of spawns the hitscan system out of its end. The hitscan system is much more robust, and can still have a mesh or small decal following it at realtime. basically, it still has realistic travel time, drag, gravity, etc. but they are more "added in" than they are "innate". this system is much more common and much more optimized, and will be especially noticable when i add grenade shrapnel.

lastly, i added bulletholes to the game. theyre pretty basic, just a decal, but the class for this stuff is actually pretty complex and cool, so i could eventually add things like spawning wider/narrower bulletholes based on caliber, spawning taller/shorter bulletholes based on angle of impact, spawning diff textures based on material, and even adding a parralax effect to make it seem like the bullethole actually pushes into the object.

there is also a penetration system added to the game (or at least added much easier) with this new system. if it hits something, i can have that "something" contain a penetration strength, which fights against the bullets own penetration and velocity. then, the bullet can run some code, and actually pass through it at a reduced speed and potentially affected travel path. this is actually extremely easy, because the bullet can simeoultaneously know where its going as well as what it is currently in/hitting (not possible with old system). and just ignore the thing it is currently hitting when detecting for collisions on the way to its new path.


PS: just remembered that i added a "unaim" code thing for the guns which can be called when sprinting or whatever. it is currently used for swapping the gun between grenade launcher and gun mode, so that you do not sort of travel through the gun.

the game is in a cool state right now.

added ragdolls and began work on enemy models.

added reloading from loose ammo and locked magazines (tube magazine for shotgun can be changed in armory, but not ingame) etc.
also adapted the GL to use the loose ammo system.

next on menu: GL sights and zeroing(?)
scope interaction (different reticles)
flashlight interaction (on/off across multiple flashlights)
Chambering logic refining

Added grenade launcher to kreese game. its pretty cool how fast it was. there were some problems involving animations competing, but that only affected manual operated guns and was fixed easily. pretty fun just shooting grenades around xd

while getting ready for a long, boring day at work, i decided that i would make a list of goals to complete just sometime in the future.

those goals were:
Add equip/dequip animations
Add a new "manual" fire mode for bolt, lever, and pump action guns
Add architecture for the Grenade Launcher attachment type
Make grenades dequip your gun and have a in-hand model

and Begin adding hands/arms

I expected my friends to greet me as soon as i got home so we could all play some tarkov, but i ended up being solo for a while.

in the 3-4 hours i had to myself, i managed to add equip/dequip animations and architecture (the animations are just for testing, polish will come later. the functionality is there. you cant reload/shoot until done equipping, and you cant swap weapons until done dequipping.)

i also added a new pump action shotgun based on the remington model 870 Marine Magnum, added the "manual" fire mode

oh, and i fixed about a million bugs on the way. instance_weapon_data wasnt working correctly, basically, it is data for your unique weapon instance, containing the magazine, attachments, if it has a round chambered or not, etc. this is for when you equip/dequip guns as well as when you drop them for others to pick up. the fire_mode of that gun was incorrectly assigned when spawned for the first time, so i fixed that. i also fixed a bunch of things related to weapon swapping in general, allowing you to swap weapons in a more efficient and reliable way.

ive started to dip my toes into the grenade launcher attachment, but meh, tarkov calls :p

im happy with my progress in this time. already, my system can support potentially thousands of firearms, and it also has cool equip/dequip animations.

I've been playing some arma reforger and escape from tarkov lately with friends, and it has given me a chance to think of what i am missing in my game so far.

My goal for the end of this year is to make the finishing touches to my gun system in order to "finalize" it and make it ready for me to add in the 250 or so guns i have made for this game.
right now, the gun system is pretty nice and complex. guns are very optimized, and are made up of several parts that are all reused by the engine to save storage. on top of this, all guns have a robust attachment system that is similar to tarkov's (includes subattachments and sub-subattachments and such.) allowing me to have various upgrades like new handguards for existing guns.
On top of this, you have a very interesting optic system, allowing you to have an infinite number of "positions" for your gun to be, based on attachments and things. like point-firing, aiming down your iron sights, aiming down scope #1, scope #2, etc... This can also potentially work in reverse, giving you an infinite number of "hipfire positions" you could have (this would be to replicate SPT-REALISM MOD's method of several rest positions for your arm stamina)

on top of this there is also the realistic magazine system where drums, extended mags, and normal mags are all real items that can be aquired and inserted into compatible guns by the player, and actually show up visibly.

all we are needing is the following additions to the gun system. most important of these are the ones that involve new variables that are dependent on each gun. Once all of these criteria (or at least the ones with variables) are satisfied, i can start adding in all the guns that i have made for this game. I am saving the addition of these 250 guns till the end because i dont want to have to go back for each gun and add a variable for whatever new thing i add.

anyways we need the following:

Reload segmentation: instead of having a singular reload animation, i ultimately want to replace the reload animation with several animations that are all sort of laid together. Then, if something happens, like you swap your weapon, you can remember the state of your reload, and pick up where you left off. Not only is this appreciated by players (especially in a zombie game), but it also allows me to change the length of each individual animation portion based on skills and equipment. If you have a very good, ergonomic gun, but a very bad, cumbersome rig or bandolier, it will be extremely hard to unbutton your bandolier, retain your old magazine, and place in your new one.

working interactions with attachments: If you press t, it will toggle your flashlight or laser attachments. if you press mouse3 or mouse4 or whatever, it will interact with your scope attachment, zooming it in or out. the foundations for this system exist but the code is faulty right now.

support for multi-chamber weapons: my gun system is centered around open bolt as well as magazine fed guns. a multi chamber revolver or double barrelled shotgun wouldnt function correctly.

bolt action/pump action support: my gun system is centered around select fire or semi automatic weapons and does not correctly support bolt/pump actions (though, this can technically work with the current system)

more calls for animations: my gun system needs more calls for animations. this includes equip animations, dequip animations, as well as things like quick reloading, or animations that may play (and need to complete) in between firing.

more interaction with the chamber and ammo of the gun: self explanatory, but i would like to add chamber checking, weapon racking (retaining bullet) etc.

on/off attachments: attachments that have multiple values for stats based on their position or something, like a folding stock, or even a multi-setting gas block. these need functionality to be able to be toggled on/off by some logic that is not the same as the earlier "interactions with attachments" such as folding the stock in your inventory.

jamming: tbh, not sure if i like this in zombie games.
durability: tbh, not sure if i like this in zombie games


pretty much everything else is already implemented.

Its 11/12, i worked on the game this past couple of days. the core of everything is mostly better serialization and deserialization. right now (well, technically before) the game was geared towards a kinda hardcoded, temporary gun system where you couldnt drop or swap them besides inside of the loadout menu. I added some architexture for serializing guns, so for example, when you die, your guns attachments and current ammo in the magazine would get saved for people to pick it up or view it on your body. there is a lot more to do, mostly with multiplayer stuff, but we are getting somewhere




It’s 10/31, Halloween. I worked on the game a bit more, I’ll keep it simple. I added a system for multiple sights, sort of like tarkov’s system. A scope or any type of sight adds a new point to this array of positions, rotations, etc. essentially you can have 3 scopes, all with different physical locations, meshes, lights, whatever, and different zooms, rotations, etc. it’s pretty great


its 10/29 and i have been working on the game on and off for the past couple days. This month has been shitty, but things are getting better. I got a visit from the FBI and midterms/finals were in the same week. I am still really unable to gauge my energy. It feels so sporadic and spontaneous. sometimes it feels like i have months of no progress followed by months of good, steady progress. Sometimes, it feels like that progress is super unsteady and unsustainable, with me working on the game from like 10 am to 5 am in nearly one sitting. Anyways, i have been feeling a lot more bored and unsatisfied with games. i played some unturned and barotrauma this month, and also tried checking out tarkov, enlisted, arma reforger, RO2 and RS2.

Anywho, the progress has been really good. I've kind of "remastered" the gun system, but more like peeling it open, adding a new thing, and sealing it back up. I make better use of resource files now, so its super easy to add guns and have their detail update everywhere. I have added in a progression/loadout screen that works, and added a system that allows attachments and subattachments sort of like tarkov. As well as the gun overhaul, i also did some basic optimization, and made progress towards basic progression systems (ie kill 10 zombies, unlock AKS-74UN)

I feel like the coolness of what i am doing hasnt really hit me yet, because of how i am working, kind of making the foundation before i fill it out (even though i like the act of filling it out more). The attachment system is really nice and really easy to add in. Its crazy that i could theoretically just add 30 different scopes and have each of them work, no problem.

i'm almost to a point where i can freeze adding new features, and finally fill out the game, but it feels far away. My latest goals are to finish the FPS-unique part of my game, because my gun system is unique to my game, and i kinda have to keep the flow and memory of how it works alive. this includes making final changes to the attachment system: ie, category-based new features. This would be things like letting a suppressor change the weapon sound to the suppressor's sound file, or allowing you to use multiple canted optics seamlessly.
then, i need to knock out the inventory system. this would be a huge leap for game progress, because it would make ammo effectively infinite
afterwards, i'd like to revisit the armory, the vehicle controller, and begin work on the enemy/friendly ai. after that is the fun part of adding 200 guns, 200 attachments, and somehow making them all worth using




As of 9/6/2025, i havent worked on the game in 2 days. I've opened it, looked at it, spinned some of the models around in the 3d viewport, but that's about it for this past while, and that is kind of how I roll, skimming through life until i get sudden burning passion for the game and spend 3 days without sleep working tirelessly on it. Looking back at my own little journal, progress has been a steady heartbeat or something. college has started again, and work is as present as ever, but most of my time has been soaked up in 2 games i enjoy: squad and escape from tarkov

9/4/2025 i poked at the game before work, adding a head to the game (belonging to a friend of mine), and toyed with the idea of head swapping and customization in general. eventually, i wanna mess with vertex groups and make it so you can change the shape, width, etc. of everything.

8/21/2025 i worked on the main menu. this was a breakthrough for me. i knew how to things to the end of the game. new guns, new maps, whatever, but i had no clue on how to add things "behind" the menu i had at the time.


8/17/2025 was around the time i spent a couple days working on a little side project of mine, an extremely small game. i learned some things like savefiles.

8/11 was a giant update at 5 in the morning. i added an entire new cosmetic layer to guns. magazines, drum magazines, extended magazines all reacted perfect. if you had a drum mag in your backpack and reloaded it into the gun, it would play the correct animation and show the correct mesh.

the month of july was spent in a sort of "rest", just doing some composition and shader stuff. i got some of the animations to work around this point, most importantly, the color of hell was changed from red to green on july 7th.

the month of june was spent all sad after a breakup on my bday

may was spent working on tanks, inventory menus, guns

april was spent working on guns (first import, so attaching the textures and UVs, basic systems) , interact systems, trench digging, etc

March was when it all started. hipfire guns, some basic recoil stuff, crouching, jumping. zombies. multiplayer (just the basics)

The game all started on march 10th 2025 or so. first playtest was march 14th.