Weekly Interview: "The Mortewood Plaza" feature

Every week, Gamer's Guide To Life will be hunting down and interviewing modders on their works - mainstream, unknown, up-and-coming and interesting mods are put on display as the author(s) answer questions regarding the mod, their line or work and providing deep philosophical insights into the universe, life, metaphysics... In the end, you get to discover or play an awesome mod, every week. Plus, you learn something. And learning is fun.

The town of Mortewood was chosen to be the test for Project H.O.P.E, an apparent cure for cancer. Couldn't be happier, right? Well, the cancer might be cured, but it does turn everyone else into a zombie. Oh, and for some reason, there are a lot of guns in Mortewood. Guns + Zombies = Fun. We spoke with the one-man team of Dec Doyle, aka dec1234.

GGTL: Give us your explanation of the mod.
Mortewood is basically my personal dream zombie game. It is planned to be nearly all zombie games and others crammed into one. It will feature so much stuff to basically keep the players interested and no server or game will ever be the same. I want it to be something that someone can play alone, with friends, on-line and always give them something new to do and try. Things included are a single-player story and Campaign, Multiplayer co-op, deathmatch and various other gamemodes you would expect from most other games, tonnes of weapons to try and play with. Loads of maps and areas to battle with on other gamemodes. Loads of gibs, blood, gore, hacking, slashing and unrealistic owning of the undead. MANY zombies including male, female, torso, child and a few other secret ones still in the works. And vehicles. The more I write this the more things I remember that I added too this mod!

GGTL: Where did you get the idea for this mod?
It's been my dream since I first played the game "Zombies Ate My Neighbours" as a child. An amazing game that made me dream of one day creating a zombie game that I could play. The ideas for this one specifically is from a selection of sources. Think up the best zombie movies and games in your head and my answer is yes, the ideas come from them. Obviously with my own included but they do give me the help and inspiration.

GGTL: How did you get in to modding?
I first started with Battlefield 1942, making a personal mod called Battlefield Infection. This little zombie mod was the basic of Mortewood. After that I moved onto working with Halo 2 on xbox until I eventually found my way to the amazing Source engine. I spent around half a year learning all the tools and just began work on my dream.

GGTL: Just how much gore will there be?
Plenty. Everything you have seen so far is so "Alpha" that it doesn't even count as a place-holder. The gore will be unrealistic, stupid and damn fun.

GGTL: Is it sandbox, or a linear story?
Both. Sandbox is a choice, something I feel all games should have. Just a place to practice, try weapons or just blow off steam.

GGTL: What's the best weapon?
Wait and see.

GGTL: Who is the 'Old man with the shotgun'?
He is an old dude with a shotgun, stricken with partial blindness and a hatred for "them skateboard-ning, rap-scalling teens", who snapped when his wife of 35 years was eaten and will stop at nothing to ensure revenge is dished out on the undead. Cheesy, I know - but I like it.

GGTL: What locations can we expect?
All the basics you would expect and then a few more unusual ones. Zombies on a space station, and so forth.

GGTL: Give us a few of the 8 types of zombies.
Male and female fast and slow zombies. Child zombies, Torso zombies. These are the obvious basics but the rest will be revealed later in time. I show all my weapons all the time so I want to keep something secret.

GGTL: Can you give a tentative release date?
End of 2010 early 2011 for the first playable demo or beta.

GGTL: Are you pleased with community generated around the mod so far?
Unbelievably. Nothing more to say.

GGTL: What other mods have you played/do you like?
ZPS, 1187, Orion, Outbreak Condemned, Raindrop, GE:S.

GGTL: Have you taken inspiration from any other mods?
ZPS as a choice of engine.

GGTL: What's the plan for the future? (ie. DLC or a sequel?)
Loads of DLC that I will add for around 1-2 years after the final release, until I hopefully get a job in the industry. Which - besides Mortewood - is my dream.

If you'd like to follow all the news on the mod, click here. Stay tuned for another interview next week at Gamer's Guide To Life!