2D zombie survival game with a twist!

[benreeves]

Hi guys! I'm a long-time Clickteam user, but this is the first game that I'm certain I'll publish.

Currently available to wishlist on Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1813200

It's a side-scrolling zombie survival sim. Your job is to keep 5 different characters alive for one hour.

Here are your five characters (Harry, Ruby, Michelle, Dinky, Hoang)...


There are zombies walking around, and the zombies can infect the other NPCs, gradually causing a chain reaction.

There are a few main mechanics to the game:

Looting objects...



Using those objects to barricade a door...



• Switch between your 5 main characters at any time (they all live in completely different parts of the world)
• You can barricade any door (from either side) with items you've collected/looted
• You can ask NPCs to follow you, to keep them safe
• You can stun zombies by whacking them with the same items that you use to barricade doors
• Zombies can't infect anyone while they're stunned (around 7 seconds)
• Zombies will slowly infect anyone they touch
• Zombies will try to break down your barricades
• You can pick up as many items as you want, but your walking speed will slow down
• Most items are breakable, so you can only whack them over a zombie's head a limited number of times
• Zombies and NPCs will interact even while you're on a different screen



It's quite a simple concept, but hopefully it'll create a lot of fun as you try and prevent your main characters from becoming zombies for a whole hour.

For example, it's actually in your interest to keep the NPCs safe, because that'll be fewer zombies to worry about! This should create some interesting strategies.

You'll also get a score at the end, based on how many of your 5 characters you kept alive, and how many NPCs were infected.

I've worked on this game for about 6 months (3 years ago). Then I took a huge break. Now I've started working on it again, and I'm about a month in.

I think it's maybe 55% done? We'll see. Let me know what you think!

You can follow my progress here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6k...baAvq3Q/videos

And here: https://www.instagram.com/masterofzilch/

Thanks for looking!

[MuddyMole]

The presentation is really great.
Normally, I'd say you don't need to stress so much about exactly how your zombies look, at this early stage in development - but apparently one of the keys to marketing is to start early, and you're right that it's hard to market a zombie game with no zombies! Don't ask me though - I know nothing about marketing / sales.

My initial thought was that an hour seems like quite a long time, and I'm not sure there's enough to it, for it to stay interesting that long - it seems like maybe more of a coffeebreak game, to be played in short bursts?
It would be nice to be able to make better use of NPCs too. Right now, it sounds like the main reason to have them follow you is that they can't turn into zombies if they're with you. I'd probably put a cap on the amount of items the main character can carry, but allow them to hand items to NPCs to carry as well. And probably have some rudimentary AI that lets them use items too - so if you give an NPC a baseball bat, they will use it defend themselves.

[NaitorStudios]

Loved the art style!
Seems like it's going to be a very interesting game

[Linky]

Wow! that looks so cool!

[benreeves]

Thanks everyone!

MuddyMole, I think you've made some really good points. I've thought a lot about the "1 hour" thing, and I guess it'll take a lot of tweaking and balancing of the game mechanics to make it work. There are some surprises throughout the hour, which I hope will keep players engaged, plus lots of rooms/locations to hopefully create opportunities for some interesting strategies. I guess we'll have to see!