Halloween with Fred: The Zombie That Just Won’t Stay Dead
Halloween is creeping closer, which means it is time to dig through the wonderfully strange corners of Outworldz and resurrect a few old friends.
And this one is very difficult to keep dead.
Meet Fred’s Animated Zombie.
This isn't the sort of zombie that stands in the corner of your Halloween build looking menacing while everyone ignores it.
Fred apparently looked at that idea and decided zombies needed a better job description.
This zombie walks.
It attacks.
It makes noise.
You can hit it.
It falls apart.
It puts itself back together.
And, naturally...
YOU CAN RIDE IT.
Because why run away from the zombie when you can climb aboard and drive the thing around?
A Zombie With a Few Tricks Left in Him
Fred designed the zombie as an animated wandering character using his Prim Animation Compiler system.
The animation sequence includes standing, attacking, walking with alternating left and right steps, reacting to hits, taking a particularly nasty hit, and finally falling completely to pieces.
But death is apparently only a temporary inconvenience.
After enough abuse, the zombie collapses into scattered pieces on the ground.
Wait a bit...
...and he puts himself back together.
Then off he goes again.
There is something wonderfully Fred about engineering an undead creature that even death can't persuade to stop working.
Go Ahead. Hit Him.
The zombie actually keeps score as people interact with him.
Clicking him causes a hit reaction and eventually does enough damage to trigger the full death animation.
Head, arms, body — down he goes.
Then the zombie reassembles himself and resumes wandering around.
It makes a great interactive Halloween prop because visitors aren't simply looking at something spooky. They're causing things to happen.
And probably clicking him repeatedly just to see him explode again.
We know how people are.
But Wait — There's a Ride Me Button
This may be my favorite part.
Right-click the zombie and choose RIDE ME.
Your avatar climbs aboard, and suddenly the shambling Halloween decoration has become transportation.
Fred's script turns the zombie into a controllable vehicle, allowing you to steer him with your arrow keys.
So while everyone else is arriving at the Halloween party on broomsticks, motorcycles and dragons, you can make your entrance...
piggybacking on a zombie.
I think that wins Halloween.
When You Get Off, It Gets Even Better
Getting off your undead transportation doesn't simply end the ride.
The zombie falls apart.
Then he reassembles himself.
Then he walks back home.
Because apparently Fred even taught the zombie to clean up after the party.
The Engineering Behind the Silly
That's what I particularly enjoy about discoveries like this in the Outworldz archives.
They're funny, but underneath the humor is some genuinely clever scripting.
The zombie combines prim animation, sounds, physics, vehicle controls, randomized movement, interaction, damage scoring, roaming boundaries and a home position into one wonderfully ridiculous project.
Fred didn't just explain how to use it, either. His original tutorial documents how the animations are recorded, how the physics base is constructed, how the sounds are added, how the riding position is created and how the scripts work together.
It's one of those projects where you can play with the finished creation — or dig into the code and learn something from the way it was made.
That has always been part of the fun of Outworldz.
Build something.
Take it apart.
Learn how it works.
Change it.
And occasionally ride it around while it makes monster noises.
Resurrect Something This Halloween
There are years and years of creations tucked away at Outworldz, and Halloween seems like an excellent excuse to start opening some of those old crypts.
Fred's zombie certainly deserves another walk among the living.
Just remember one important rule:
If you manage to kill him...
don't celebrate too quickly.
He's getting back up.
https://outworldz.com/Secondlife/posts/zombie/