Northgard creators swap vikings for zombies with top-down Darksburg

The axe-weilding pillagers of Northgard ought to be used to the seasons changing by now, considering it's the crux of the wolf-killing strategy game. But a particularly harsh winter now befalls them, because all their programmer daddies and mummies are off to work on another game. Darksburg is a top-down action game for up to four players in which you’ll be killing zombos instead of befriending Norse giants. We don't know much about it, but we do know there's a friendly, playable werewolf.

They haven’t shown any of it, you see, apart from this unsatisfying gif.

All we know is that the city of Darksburg has a problem with zombie waves, and videogame players are the obvious solution.

"They will have a roster of characters to choose from, each featuring a unique set of skills and backgrounds, from the compassionate (but not overly so) Sister Abigail and the cheerful innkeeper and zombie slayer Runolf, to the sardonic bounty hunter Rose and the escaped werewolf (and man’s best friend) Varag."

That’s all we got. Saaaad. If this was any other bare bones email about top-down undead hi-jinks, I’d probably have kicked it out the window. But developers Shiro Games are responsible for some good ‘uns. Apart from the tentative clan warfare of Northgard, they also made Evoland and Evoland II, a series about wandering through the history of the JRPG as one of its own tropey heroes. John wrote our Evoland review and called it an “excellent gimmick, rendered so very well”. I hope they can pass that same magic hand over the 4-player zombie re-murder sim.

There's no release date for it yet, but we might find out more at Gamescom this August. If you're good.