Z-Day - MMOFPS... with Zombies xD

[Sou1Co11ector]

The Z-Day game is being developed by Arrowhead Games, not sure if this is the same Arrowhead Studios who also developed Magicka, but let's hope it is.

The game is currently in pre-alpha so there is still a lot of work to be done. They have some screens on the site, but they don't reflect the final feel of the game as there is still quite a bit of polishing and dev work that needs to be finished.

ZDay is currently being developed using Torque Game Engine Advanced (TGEA).

The game will be in released in 4 stages, each stage will be a game itself - working up to the final stage which will be a full MMOFPS.

Z Day is an Online 3D FPS Zombie Survival game (also known as a "MMOFPS"). Players are thrown into the centre of a post apocalyptic city after a deadly virus outbreak has occurred. Furor city, once inhibited by the human race, now is home to thousands of blood thirsty infected humans on the prowl for any remaining survivors?

With the virus enhancing the physical abilities of the infected, players will be no match for them if playing alone. ZDay will require excellent teamwork, bravery and skill as players attempt to survive in the infected-filled city.

Players will have to work together to clear out buildings, search for supplies, barricade doorways and survive. Barricades can eventually be broken, so hiding in one building with only a few supplies will not turn out pretty in the end?

Players will also have an element of RPG styled gameplay as strength and hunger levels will be present. Strength reflects how much players can carry in an inventory and the speed in which they will be able to travel. Carry more ? travel slower. Players will have to run the risk of leaving items behind or work as a team and share supplies amongst each other?.The possibilities are endless!

Just like any other human, hunger is an important stat players will have to keep a close eye on. Failure to keep energy at a suitable level will cause speed reductions and will impact the survival rate a player will have out on the streets. A slow and sluggish player is no match for a sprinting, hungry infected being.

Players who unfortunately get bitten or mauled by the infected, or come in contact with infected blood will slowly notice the way their character behaves changes. Unless players can find and use an anti-virus in time, the infection will take them over and they will lose control of their character, as it inevitably becomes one of the infected.

As well as other players and the infected you will find other characters, some friendly and some not. Some will help you, some will hinder and others will simply try to kill you. Use your survival instincts, build a survivors' base, form a search party to go out on supply runs for food, wood, anti-viruses, weapons, more survivors etc. Gather up, meet friends and work together for survival...Teamwork is a must...

The game will be in released in four stages, each stage will be a game in itself. Each stage will involve taking the previous stage and adding more to it - working up to the final stage which will be a full MMOFPS.

Might be a fun game to try once it's out as it seems you won't be able to kill zombies by yourself and you need buddies and supplies to do that. As mentioned there will be some RPG elements to the game, so it might be fun.

I don't think it will match up to Dead Island, but time will tell.

Here are some videos

 

[Terak]

As far as I know the development is dead. I started following these guys a while back, but they haven't made much progress.

Last news update: 4 October 2010:

ZDay - Lost Behind Enemy Lines

Well it's certainly been quiet on the ZDay development scene. For the past 8 months or so the Dev Team has been all busy with work, study, school and general day-to-day stuff. If we were getting paid for developing ZDay we would have sacked ourselves by now.

A large part of the problem is that ZDay has grown to such a point that it really does require a team effort to move forward, so when most of the lead developers are not able to dedicate time to ZDay development grinds to a halt. There is only so much an individual developer can do before they require help or input from the other developers.

We've also had a bit of a turnover in the members. Braveheart, our founding member left the team some time ago (although he does visit the forums). Watson has also been missing in action since before Christmas. Bryger has dropped off the scene and Arrowofdarkness turned out to be a false start, although I must admit he didn't get much direction as he joined at a time when we were at our quietest. Dswal had to leave due to school commitments.

While we've had a few offers from people to join the Dev what we really need are people to join with a reasonable amount of experience in games programming or modeling. Unfortunately the game engine we're using, Torque Game Engine Advanced (TGEA) has now become somewhat old-tech and to make things worse you can't even buy licenses for TGEA anymore, which means that any new coders would have to already have their own copy of the engine.

The new Torque Engine - T3D is out which is much more advanced in both terms of NextGen-ness and editors that make building maps so much easier. Because of this we've been having difficulties attracting new developers with the right skill set. Everyone wants to use the latest and greatest.

So in all ZDay has become lost behind enemy lines, left to fight the hordes with only a few disheveled and time-weary developer's left to support it, the slow infection of apathy and vision lost spreading inevitably through it's tired veins.