Blogs - Jamieleets

OP at Lifeofdead.net

Hello there lovely zombie hunters!

So today I want to talk a little bit about some of the plans we're having for Life of Dead. Originally we knew we wanted to make some form of Zombie game, and preferably an MMO at that, but everything else was up in the air - Will it be sandbox scavenge/survival? Will there be safe zones for the player or is it always dangerous? Will there be player v player and will this be set in certain areas or always an imminent threat? We had a lot of questions to solve.

So we started off drawing some designs for a player look, and we ended up with this:

We're aiming for everything about him to be customisable. Hair style and colour, skin colour, face style, clothes style and colour etc. We feel customising your guy is important, we want you to let everyone know who are you and what you stand for in this apocalyptic mess. We're also planning on incorporating "accessories" - pieces of clothing that you can wear over the top of your normal clothes, but further details to come on them shortly.

Now for the actual game play concept. Obviously in such early days this is not set in stone, but the main bulk of the idea is running the roots of a 2D MMO Thriller, where players will find themselves in an Apocalyptic setting, having to fend for themselves amongst zombies and other players while completing quests and levelling up to improve their skills and/or traps. We're still finalising all the details, but I'll let you in on some of the features that we are currently discussing:

Dynamic and persistent maps allowing the environment around the player to change based on actions made by them and other players. For example, if you run out of ammo and your fists aren't cutting it, you can smash a window and use the shards as projectiles or like a knife. Or you may find yourself in a server-wide event, such as defeating outrageous mutations of the apocalypse which may smash parts of the town, causing damage to buildings, which can further be repaired if the community gathers the correct materials and tools.

Along the same path as this, we're thinking of dynamic seasons where the map will change slowly over time, to give effects of snow gradually falling or subtle colour changes from summer through autumn.

We're also toying with the idea of an economy, where players can craft items and sell them in shops that they've rented. These shops would require raw materials to craft items, which can be scavenged in the derelict parts of the environment, or found stuck in zombie corpses, etc.

Like most things at this stage, these are all concept ideas and it would be great to get your opinions on what you think would make a fantastic game, which of the above ideas you really like and which of them sound like something you don't really care for. As always, you can leave a Reply below, or on our Facebook or Twitter, or send us an email!

Happy hunting!