Harrowfield: start to finish
Updated 17 October 2026, mid-afternoon. Your ask: a walk through what we're working on now, and the order from the start to the finished game.
We're in G1, the "is it fun?" gate, building the feel build. That's the first version where you shoot Dead Island 2 Walkers with EFT guns in first person, aimed at 31 October to 5 November. Every gate ends only on its measured bars, an outside check and your word.
The whole journey
doneThe prototype · September
The browser prototype settled what the game is: the North Star, its pillars, 19 part designs and 284 decisions. On 1 October you moved it to Unreal 5.8 with Lyra and the Game Animation Sample. The design carried over; the code didn't.
mostly doneG0: can this engine carry the game?
- Done: the dedicated server, the server re-tracing every shot, first person, agents driving the editor, results stamped with their provenance, version pins.
- Still to prove: 500+ zombies at 120 fps in 4K, ten players on your PC, and a friend joining through Steam. These run early inside G1 (D below).
nowG1 Fun: is the base loop fun, solo and duo?
A raid on the lit street with zombies, gunfeel, movement and parkour, melee, Tarkov's health, rescue, pings, co-op sized for ten, one extraction, and a test save. Five phases, in order:
- The feel build · now to about 5 November. The AKS-74U on the real shot path, then four more EFT guns you can switch between (Glock 17, M870 on slugs, SR-25, AKM, and your M4A1 build). Up to six Walkers that chase, swing and die, with their own voices and Tarkov's flesh impacts. You play it and say whether it feels right.
- Shots from the swayed barrel, then the zombie rewind · about 7 to 15 November. The shot leaves where the barrel points on screen, as in EFT, and the server rewinds zombies to where you saw them. Both are needed before online play.
- The Walker slice, finished. Its real AI, hearing, pathing and 21 attacks; the body-zone health; a packaged acceptance run. Then the other bodies and zombie types.
- The three unproven premises, moved early. 500+ zombies at 120 fps in 4K as soon as one crowd Walker exists; a friend joining through Steam (the laptop can play the friend); ten players measured with the horde.
- The rest of G1. About 18 zombies and the escalation beat; melee and takedowns; seven body zones, treatment, downed and revive; loot, the grid, the stash and saves; extraction and the debrief with its welfare screens; settings; the lit street, fear and the sound mix; the squad HUD, reconnect and the spectator view; then the exit run, ending with your "another?".
laterG2 Loss: does losing gear create tension, not rage?
Raids that survive crashes and reconnects, and gear you can really lose. Proximity voice with mute and block. Parkour wave 2 (ladders, drainpipes, wall-climbs, two-storey roofs). Route states per raid (barricades, fires, flooded basements, power on or off). Some zombies wandering set routes. Walls that dull sound for zombies and players alike.
laterG3 Persistence: does the between-raids loop hold?
The durable stash on the cloud save, one trader and a working economy (simulated first). Hideout rooms that change raids, and squad projects that change a persistent town. The Atlas map, unlocked by exploring. The runner, the first special zombie. Hunger, thirst, infection, and the three progression layers. The world story, Still Here, begins. Two or three more streets built.
laterG4 Scale: does it hold at 4, 8, then 10 players?
Threat, loot and revive tuned at 1, 2, 4, 8 and 10 players, and chained raids up to 120 minutes. The rest of the sector. Zombies that sense light and noise, alert each other, and come in readable kinds. Armour classes, dragging, parkour wave 3, radio events (supply drops, a crashed helicopter). At the very end, the first hostile human squad.
laterG5 Presentation: does Harrowfield feel real?
The dense town at final quality: a full day and night, weather and storms, the seafront and sea, the flagship lighting, item cards, the radio and dialogue. Then, each only if the one before proves a real choice: crafting and repair, tides, boat extraction, the tram, bicycles, driving.
After G5
New sectors over the years, and very rare companion pets near the end (odds shown, never paid).
What we're working on now, in order
- The fire path's last fix, then its tests · from about 16:00 today. An outside review found the server could refuse a legitimate burst of shots inside one magazine. The fix is written; it builds and tests when the Days Gone export ends, then its planted-bug proofs run into the night, then a last outside check and the merge.
- The Walkers' first build. Written, reviewed and fixed. It builds after the fire path merges: the first time a Walker chases and swings at you in the editor.
- The gun switch. Its plan is on its last review round. It grew from 3–4 to about 12 days of work, mostly for reconnects and timing, and I kept the full scope.
- The four other guns' kits. Their numbers are ready from Tarkov's data (C-197, C-198); their first-person kits come in the kit session's morning slots.
- The Walkers' voices and the flesh impacts, then the feel build in your hands.
Who's doing what this afternoon
| Who | What |
|---|---|
| Kit session | The Days Gone decompile's export, alone on the PC until about 16:00. |
| Gameplay | The fire path's rate fix is written; now the gun switch plan's draft 4. Builds and proofs from about 16:00. |
| Zombies | Done for now; waits for its build window after the fire path merges. |
| Workbench (laptop) | Re-checking the part skills against every decision since early October, the weapons one done first. |
| Me | Reviews, decisions as calls, the docs, and the PC's schedule. Today also: the editor bridge update and 125 GB of disk freed. |
How quality is held
- Feel first: the gun, movement and the first zombie must be great before anything is added. You play early builds and judge them.
- One zombie fully right before the horde (D-99).
- Measured bars, not adjectives: 120 fps in 4K with the horde, slowest 1% under 10 ms, server tick at p99 8 ms or less.
- The server decides every outcome. Every change ships its server and client halves together, with a two-client test.
- Every test proven by a planted bug, and risky changes get an outside review, a check and a fix pass.
- Real reference content: EFT's guns and data, Dead Island 2's zombies and voices.
- Quality is never traded for frame rate without your say.
Biggest risks
- Frame rate with the horde is unproven. The look assumes 120 fps in 4K with 500 zombies. Tested as early as possible.
- Online play is unproven. Steam's join, NAT and relays. Tested on the laptop after the feel build.
- The PC is the bottleneck: one heavy job at a time. Code is written while builds wait, kit work gets fixed slots, and planted-bug proofs run at night.
- Disk is fine now: E: has 196 GB free after today's cleanup.
Only you (nothing blocking today)
- Play the feel build when it's ready, and say whether it feels right.
- A few frames of Dead Island 2's Walker biting, for the inner mouth.
- Your preview retest: the O hold with a capture, and Esc from play.
- Be at the PC for one firewall prompt, and one quiet frame-timing sitting.
- The Steam sign-in on the laptop when we reach the online test.