Zombie Survival

Hello! 👋🏿

The genre of zombie survival games feels like it has reached a type of perfect formula. A formula that has been honed and sharpened over the course of many games.

CDDA, Zomboid, 7 Days to Die, State of Decay, and even a Minecraft Modpack have contributed great things to this particular sub-genre. But when it comes down to it, all of these games share the same feeling of being incomplete. Whether that be the cause of poorly fleshed out mechanics, dated technology, or cycles of development hell, not a single one of these games can claim the crown.

In fact, it feels like the crown hasn’t even been crafted for anyone yet. This formula that I brought up haphazardly, it morphs. It changes forms and color when you don’t look at it. Every time you turn your head back to stare at it again, it looks slightly different. I consider it a bit of a mirage. There can’t be a king of this sub-genre because the idea of categorizing all these games together is itself flawed. The taxonomy is non-sensical.

Some of these games are voxel-based. Some have height map terrain. Others are 2D. Others are 2.5D. Some are isometric.

Can the terrain be destroyed? Is there a hunger meter? How many zombies are on screen at once? Can you build? Do trees get cut down? Can the walls of your shelter break? Are there meta-events over time? Do the zombies mutate? Is there magic?

When you really sit down to think about it, and compare all the different zombie games you’ve likely played or have been exposed to in your life, you find out very quickly that they are all so vastly different. Very few of them can be compared to one another. But I’ll tap on the sign of genre in a different blog post.

Audience

The first thing one must do when thinking about making a game is asking who is going to play it. And to know that, you need to have a good idea about not just your players but also your peers. What gameplay do your hypothetical players love and hate about games that are within your genre? What qualities do you imagine your players cherishing?

For Zombie Survival games, I’ve lumped audiences into 5 groups. Naturally, like genres themselves, these groups are not clear cut. Certain games overlap into multiple.

1. Hyper Detail - Zomboid, Kenshi, SCUM & Vein
2. Survival Crafters - Rust, Ark, 7 Days to Die
3. Casual Apocalypse - Unturned, Surroundead, State of Decay, Dying Light, Dead Island
4. Socializers - Day Z, Warzone
5. Roguelikes - CDDA, Deceasedcraft, Dwarf Fortress, Rimworld

It would be messy to explain why I group them this way, but once again, taxonomies are for a different blog post. So for me, the audience I’m going after are Hyper Detail, Casual Apocalypse and Roguelikes. In particular, I’m going after Zomboid, CDDA and Dying Light players. With an audience in mind, I can also begin to shave off certain features that I likely won’t need.

Instead, I can begin to struggle with features my peers have that I don’t expect to need. For example, Project Zomboid has a very strong emphasis on agnostic survival after 6 months. When the power cuts off, all the clothes are worn down into scraps and gas stations stop pumping a lot of work has been done to make sure you aren’t necessarily just waiting for death. With Build 42, Zomboid has added animals, blacksmithing, and all types of stone-age crafting methods.

But, is that necessary for my game? Unlike Zomboid, my game DOES have a way to end without you dying. And so, are long term survival features something that I need to consider beyond a passing interest? Maybe.

For another example, Dying Light splits up their Zombie features between day and night. During the day, you get the typical walker. Dumb as a bag of rocks and twice as heavy. But at night, they turn into well honed predators that can chase you across rooftops. The relief for this gameplay are safe-zones. Areas with blacklight that stop the nocturnal creatures from following you in.

But, do I have those kinds of safe-zones? Well… no. And I have no intention of adding them. Safety is relative for my game, not an absolute. So does it make sense to have creatures that chase you so doggedly? Things that have more stamina than you have, and can navigate the environment just as well as you do? No. No I don’t think it does.

For whatever game you’re crafting, I expect you to run through a similar vein of thought. What do your peers do and should you follow in their footsteps? Or perhaps you should tread your own path?

NPCs

I think most would agree that Project Zomboid is the gold standard for Zombie Survival. But even as the gold standard, it’s obviously flawed and incomplete. Many features have been promised for Zomboid across the years, but none more anticipated than NPCs. Oddly enough, for the amount of fanfare players seem to have for this hypothetical feature, very few engage with the question of “are they a good idea?”

While most players echo a want or need for a Kenshi style world simulation for NPCs, this creator, JanDoedel bravely asks the question and gets half-baked defenses for development time being spent on that feature.

“Disable it in the options.” “It would be immersive.” “They already promised it.” “Each playthrough would be different.”

The sentiment is half-tied to a mistake the developers made in promising a feature before knowing the full scope or identity of their game. Zombie Simulation just is too vague to not end up cramming the entire kitchen sink into it. This is one of the many reasons why, even after 12 years, Zomboid still isn’t even on version 0.5 yet.

The other half is tied to the fantasy that every young and ambitious game designer has before they open the engine for the first time. “What if I combine everything I like from every game? Won’t that be the best game ever?”

It might sound like I’m against NPCs, but that’s actually not the case. I do think there’s a case to be made for Kenshi style NPCs, Factions, Reputation and Areas of Control in game. But every coin has a second side. In exchange for filling the world with NPCs, you lose space for the crushing and desperate loneliness. A feeling that few games other than Zomboid can provoke. Nothing ends the feeling of dread you have more than your NPC companion answering a door that was supposed to remain closed.

Even one of the Godfathers in this genre, CDDA, tends to make their worlds so lively that, unless you don’t know where to find them, you never truly feel desperate or alone. Not only can you recruit companions, but you can trade and join factions as well. The more you know and understand the game, the less time you’ll spend with that isolated feeling. This is not the case in Zomboid. No matter how many times you play, when not undertaking an absurd challenge, the feeling that lurks behind your familiar and machine-like movements is that of loneliness.

Kenshi, for those who haven’t played, is easily one of the most unique games in its weight class in that every NPC in the world is simulated. Nations rise and fall when you aren’t looking. Key characters can wander into enemy territory and wipe an entire town out. Roving bands of over 40 characters engage in lengthy combat with another band of 40 characters, littering the ground with their amputated limbs and dead bodies.

And despite it all, the end game between Kenshi and Zomboid is exactly the same. Yes. In the end, when you get automated resources, a base that’s locked down and armed to the teeth, a faction of your own that dominates every other, it’s literally the exact same situation you end up in. Unlike Zomboid, Kenshi is finished. And the game ends when you put it down. So, it’s worth asking the question again. NPCs, are they a good idea?

Naturally everything is in a bit of a gray area, isn’t it? Let’s say you want NPCs. Not so few that they become glorified trading outposts like 7 Days to Die, but not so many that they get in the way of the isolation like Kenshi. What would that look like? 2 companions and the occassional bandit? Is it engaging to set up a trap to catch a bandit and stop them from looting your base? Is it worth it to witness as players try their damnest to exploit your game so that it can never happen to them?

I don’t think so. For me, if there are NPCs they simply cannot roam the world with a sane mind. In CDDA, there is an enemy type called a Feral Human. They are treated as a zombie, but have enough of their mind left to open doors. There are many kinds of feral human, but generally they all end up in this category. “But Luther-” I can hear you already. Is that even an NPC? Well, no. It’s not…

Anyways, would you look at the time!

Cya! : Luther~✌🏿