Content in ZPOC is based off of a voxel – a cube of single color much like a pixel. 32 of these in each direction make up a Vlock. Thousands of these Vlocks will eventually make up every game object – from the character you move to the brick wall against which you smashed the skull of yet another zombie. Bridging that gap, however, has proven to be quite tricky.
Building a single Vlock is easy – we’re using a program called Qubicle. It’s nice when designing a single piece of a wall or a roof tile… but not so nice if trying to build, say, an entire wall with windows, curtains and the occasional door. So a new tool was created for the designers (see picture), allowing them to click-place Vlocks onto a three-dimensional map-type layout. It worked, though it didn’t really save any output. Why, you ask? Because we never really discussed how to get from Vlock to map…
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