When chatting to lord of the vampires Brian Mitsoda and valkyrie warrior Annie Carlson during arranging their Gaming Made Me their post-Obsidian plans, they mentioned they were doing an indie-game. Which I decided to post another time, when there was more info. This week, they announced they were called DoubleBear and would be making an Indie RPG using the Age of Decadence engine. Which I decided to post about another time, when there was more info. And then they started talking about what their game was on the forum, being a freeform RPG with a zombie theme. And I decided to post about another time – another time called RIGHT NOW. All the currently available details beneath the cut…
If you don’t know them as a lord of vampires or a valkyrie warrior, you’ll probably know Brian as a designer/writer for Vampire: Bloodlines (which we interviewed about here). Annie worked on NWN2 at Obsidian writing on Neverwinter Nights 2: Storm of Zehir. They were clearly planning on working quietly for a bit, but ended up breaking cover yesterday…
Was hoping to save this for a rainy day, but it is cloudy here in Seattle today, so here we go. As the speculators have correctly guessed, yes, DoubleBear’s first game is indeed a Zombie RPG, which we have fondly referred to as a ZRPG internally. Before people start running in all kinds of directions with that, here’s what I will confirm:
-Set during the breakdown of society as emergence of zombies causes widespread panic and disorder.
-Slow, shambling zombies. Spreads like a virus/bite transmission. No, you are not a zombie, that would be stupid.
-Serious examination of a national crisis or natural disaster. Humans and a lack of order are a bigger threat than the undead. Think Hurricane Katrina, Children of Men, Dawn of the Dead NOT Resident Evil, Return of the Living Dead, zombie shooter-type games.
-Game is about survival. Scavenging resources, exploring the area, dealing with other survivors, and managing a “shelter” of sorts are the main focus of the game. More on this later.
-Game is open-ended. There are characters and events that could happen, but the story depends on where you go, what you do, and who you meet. Of course, there’s a lot more to this and we’ll go into more details as time goes on.
In other words, sounds a lot like Fallout with zombies. Or rather, more zombies.
As noted by the forum’s bhlaab , before the game was actually confirmed as a zombie RPG, Mitsoda did talk about some hypothetical ways a zombie RPG would be interesting…
A zombie RPG could definitely hold a lot of potential. I think the best time frame to set it in is the period shortly after society starts to break down from the zombie outbreak. You’re not stuck in the “what’s going on?” phase of Night of the Living Dead, and you’re not so far out that most of the survivors have succumbed and the only people left are in isolated bunkers like Day of the Dead. Dawn of the Dead, I think, is a good place to start – there’s still quite a few people left, some pockets of law and organization, and people still have hope that someone will roll in and save them.
Some zombie discussions involve people discussing their “zombie plan”, which is their plan of attack should a zombie outbreak occur. Some people take these very seriously – way too seriously. I’ve seen a lot of them that involve “getting my family and friends in cars, hitting the Costco, and holding up in there until it blows over.” Well, that sounds ideal, but what about the fifty other people that thought of that? Seems like now you have other people AND zombies to contend with. Say you all come to an agreement about sharing the space – what about that one person that looks bit? They’re traveling with someone else – do you tell them, “sorry, you’ll have to leave your mom outside?” I think the thing that is interesting about the concept is the human factor. Zombies are slow and somewhat easy to dispatch, but humans might shoot at you. Zombies are predictable, humans aren’t.
I’m wondering what kinds of places seem like a safer bet than heading for the Costco or the mall or the military base. What are the “hidden” places that no one would think about looting, but hold enormous amounts of resources to help weather a zombie apocalypse. Some thoughts are:
Shipping containers/warehouses – Pro: There could be anything in there. Con: See Pro.
Farms – Pro: Most of them are set up to be self-sufficient, full of food. Con: And someone might still be living there.
Private Airfields – Pro: Most people don’t even know where they are and they have gas tanks. Con: There’s not much there outside of gas.
The Zoo – Pro: Some of the food is quite edible by humans, even if it’s gross. Con: Some of the animals may have gotten out.
I’m excited by this. I’ve been wanting a single-player zombie-themed survivalist RPG since the time I played Urban Dead. It’s a big job for a small indie team, but there’s all the potential in the world here. We’ll be watching it closely.
We also like the name “Doublebear”.
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Sounds intriguing, wish they’d been able to keep it quiet until they had something to show but no plan ever survives first contact with… Umm, I’m sure I’m going somewhere with that analogy.
Whenever I see sincere, itchy-trigger-finger “zombie plan” threads, I can’t help but feel that that kind of obsession over foolish things is the reason the planet is a mess in the first place. x-D
It’s like the graffiti in L4D: “I LOVE IT NOW I CAN SHOOT ANYONE I WANT”
Yeah this sounds really cool. I’ll be on the lookout.
Also, everyone knows you simply stay inside your house in the zombie apocalypse. Any self-sustaining survivor should already have everything they need to survive – barricade supplies, food, fuel, guns, etc.
I HAVE NO CONVENIENTLY-SKILLED COMPATRIOTS FOR A ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE
Okay, I know the theory behind combustion in petrol / diesel engines and wings, as well as lots of stuff about integration. My friends do economics, social anthropology and nothing respectively.
We’re boned.
This sounds great.
I’m especially excited about the people that are doing it, and as a smaller indie project maybe they can really pull it off, in a super unique and interesting way :)
I think I need storm of zehir now.
Mitsoda? I’m hooked.
Demo of Age of Decadence in four weeks?
OH MY CHRIST YES.
One can only hope it actually is a revolution in the RPG, as advertised.
This sounds great. Hopefully it will be done right. Especially the scavenging/survival part. Like needing to eat/sleep/dispose of bodily waste. I think RPGs need difficulty settings that alter that kind of stuff so you can choose to play survival horror, or traditional “I only need food if I’m injured and I never need to sleep”.
Also, an RPG combat system against zombies sounds tricky. If one bite is lethal how will that be handled? I suppose you could have a stamina meter and once the zombie(s) tire you out you can’t defend yourself from a bite anymore? Gonna be interesting to see how the game works indeed.
I’ve never understood why some people are so obsessed with zombies.
It’s one of those geek chic affectations. Pirates, ninjas, zombies, monkeys. Any of those, if well done, can be very effective, but for some reason people think they’re cool in and of themselves, and the more of them you have (and the more you combine) the better. At first it’s cute in a nerdy way, but it quickly becomes annoying as hell, like all affectations.
Zombie RPG? Original and awesome! And i just started to play Urban Dead again. Its been great.
It’s the zombie apocalypse. Bring dice.
@JulianP:
It’s the walking dead, for fuck’s sake. How can you not love that?
ANIMATED CORPSES THAT EAT YOUR BRAINS.
That’s why.
Everybody should learn skills for the forthcoming zombie apocalypse. I plan to make fetching zombie-skin hats.
Zombies: I suppose so.
Any chance of a ZMMO?
It’s the zombie apocalypse. Bring dice.
I loled.
Age of Decadence is vaporware, and there’s no reason to believe this zombie game is ever going to be released either.
@JulianP
It is peculiar, isn’t it? Still, this particular wave of zombie affection has produced a few good games (amidst the inevitable throng of also-ran crap) so I suppose it’s not all bad. I’m getting pretty sick of the zombie theme, though. I’m hoping a new fad strikes soon.
None of which is to say this game won’t be good, it certainly has the benefit of being a different take both on RPG’s and on the zombie theme. After this, though, can we please stop it with the zombies?
When there aren’t many people left alive, I plan to set up shop and sell “Brorn” – the tasty alternative to brains.
You see, because there’s brains. And there’s “Brorn”.
(Getting the ads in early)
Meat Circus’ post on why Zombies are so cool is exactly why the affection’s gotten old.
I knew I was in for a treat when I read it was being made by Vampire Bloodlines designer/writer. Then I read the description and got REALLY excited. My only concern is the whole “indie” part, seems like they’re biting more than they can chew. Oh well, let’s wait and see I guess
I’m still waiting for that Age of Decadence Combat demo Vince said they would think about developing.
A proper survival horror rpg in a simplistic and thus moddable engine, you say? Made by the indie seperatist element of Obsidian you say?
What’s that you say? Oh thats just a tube of smarties in my pocket. Honest.
Zombies are awesome
This is fact.
@Jochen
Someone didn’t read the thread.
Annie is good people — I was in her WoW guild for a while. :D
So will be this be on the PC or consoles?
For some reason I think this game would be best if it were ASCII type of game. RUN FROM THE F@#$@#$ Z!!!! I dunno that’s just me ;P