Breathing Life into the Mundane Pt. 2

Survivors,

A while back we wrote about breathing life into the mundane — the philosophy behind making Birmingham feel grounded through physics, object interaction, and the small tactile moments that add up to a believable world. Picking up an apple. Throwing something. The way an object falls.

We’ve had a couple of public tests since then, and a few hundred players have had a chance to get their hands on these systems. The verdict? Good foundation, now get going and make more! So today, we’ll share a handful of specific interactions that, taken together, push the feeling of surviving in medieval Birmingham.

Onward and Upward — Climbing Ladders

Let’s start with what players have been wanting: ladder climbing. In God Save Birmingham, players can freely move ladders to wherever they want and climb them. Getting ladder climbing to work at arbitrary positions and angles was quite a challenging task, but that work has now largely paid off, and we believe it will give everyone a truly unique ladder-climbing experience.

Naturally, even English zombies aren’t going to politely wait while you try to ascend the ladder. Getting attacked mid-climb is very much a thing, and we made sure to depict what happens when that scenario occurs.

Physics being physics, we also had to ask ourselves: what happens when the ladder itself is the problem? Gravity, of course.

Infiltration — entering through windows

Another action Pre-alpha and Alpha testers wanted was the ability to enter structures through windows. Front doors aren't always an option. Or even if they are, they aren’t always a great one. So now ground-floor window entry is an available interaction: approach a window, check it isn't boarded up, climb the ledge and haul yourself through.

Steam post image

Water interactions — drink & wash at the creek

The beautiful creek that runs through town now does more than look pretty. Players can crouch at the waterline to drink directly, triggering the full lean-in animation where the character scoops water up with his hands into his mouth.

A separate wash interaction lets you clean off sweat, dirt, and blood (yours and/or zombies) in the running water.

Imagine having to wash yourself like this in the middle of a downpour, now that we’re introducing weather. It’s a reminder that we should all go hug our indoor plumbing today.

Bonus – The Chickens

Who doesn’t like chickens? We certainly do. So while chicken interaction isn’t exactly crucial (though one never knows, does one?), we spent some time bringing our Brummie chickens to life.

They now have three distinct behaviors: flee, lay eggs, and be grabbed.

Get too close and they scatter–panicked burst, chaotic pathing, full farmyard drama.

We also made it so these amazing birds can squat and produce eggs that can be picked up, eaten, cooked, or left to rot.

The third behavior is the one everyone on the team has spent too much time “testing.” You can grab a chicken. It struggles. You can then chuck it — to the ground, into its coop, wherever feels right. It will land perfectly every time, minus a feather or two lost mid-throw.

It serves no narrative purpose and we're keeping it.

Each of these animations are small on its own. But stacking them — drinking from a creek, falling off a ladder, slipping in through a window, and disrupting a yard full of chickens while running from a horde — starts to feel like you’re moving through a real place. And that's the goal. It's been the goal since day one.

More to come as we push toward the next build and to the next public test. Thanks for following along!

-ODS Team