Dead State - Design Update: The Reality

The latest Dead State update talks about changes in the zombie genre over time vs "the reality":

With all the debate about gun stats and what kills zombies the best lately, I thought it was time to bring the discussion back to why we’re making this game. In the last decade, the zombie genre has morphed from a horror genre into a gunchuks and teenage revenge fantasy fulfillment vehicle. The zombies are no longer scary, but moving targets for whatever badass weaponry people hope to get some use out of after gun show buyer’s remorse. There’s this pervasive personal delusion that a crisis situation is going to unleash someone’s inner hero and they’re going to run around the ruins of modern civilization dual-wielding shotguns and yelling “come get some” like it’s an endless game of drunken paintball. The everybody’s stupid/unprepared/panicked/sheeple but me mentality is in full-effect in the modern zombie fan scenario.

Here’s what it would actually be like (and what we’re aiming for in our presentation). Imagine yourself outside your usual supermarket. It’s the middle of a sunny day. There are only a few cars in the parking lot. You hear a lot of birds, but no automobiles, no people talking, no music – none of the white noise that makes up the average human soundscape. It’s quiet in a way that modern man cannot fathom, stripped completely of the drone of civilization.

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More information.

my heart melts

So it's not because making games is cool?

"You hear a lot of birds, but no automobiles, no people talking, no music – none of the white noise that makes up the average human soundscape. It’s quiet in a way that modern man cannot fathom, stripped completely of the drone of civilization."

Modern man has never been in a forest or outside the city? That's depressing.

being in nature is obvious and you have that mindset when you are in it
but there's few people these days that live/exist in nature
if the world was a zombie palace it would indeed be a quiter place with moments of chaos thrown in.

I think it's different when it's that quiet in an urban area. We are used to a certain level of noise in cities. A very quiet area in a city would probably feel very creepy.

Love his description of the scenario if you continue and read the whole thing. Reminds me a lot of the comic book The Walking Dead. Which is a great thing IMO.

I like their design goal, but it's the kind of goal that would take better production values to get across right - I think. That level of immersion is incredibly hard to achieve with an indie budget and an isometric view. But, if the mechanics support such harsh conditions - it would be enough to engage me on a mental level. I don't need the adrenaline rush to enjoy myself.

If more money was invested they probably would have to be more commercial, so it's not like it automatically would make it better, sometimes it can be the exact opposite..

The graphics looks a lot better than FO 1-2 or X-com, and people still find those types of games immersive.

I'm really curious how this game will turn out, more so than any other game right now.. I mean how often do we see something this original + it's PC only

vurt said:

If more money was invested they probably would have to be more commercial, so it's not like it automatically would make it better. The graphics looks a lot better than FO 1-2 or X-com, and people still find those types of games immersive.

I'm really curious how this game will turn out, more so than any other game right now..

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I didn't say it would be better - I just said I think it's a hard vision to achieve with the kind of means at their disposal.

Ah, they are safe: they issued objectives for the game and through this site logics, this voids the assessment of success/failure by checking against the objectives they set for the game. That is a fine move.

Slightly different observation than the OP.

Horror genre morphing into a duck shooting carnival? Not really.

The survival genre morphing into a duck shooting carnival, absolutely.
Survival genre was all about surviving and in this context, a threat to life is frightening. If the threat is zombies, then it switches horror.

That is much more the characteristics of survival that were destroyed in the morphing, not really the horror attached to zombies. Scarcity of goods/ammo, vulnerability of the character, asymetrical combat etc
They got rid of one by one. Mostly because players did not like them. It was good for an exotic experience, once in a while, refreshing, but a lot of gamers prefer to wreak havok, the feeling that war is hell and reveal heroes, that surviving makes a hero out of a common man.

As I read through their site, it is what they want to reintroduce, what makes survival a tedious and frightening experience as people are left alone and must face what they truly are. I dont think a large budget is needed as it was achieved in the past and it is known that games with a certain level of technology can deliver the experience. As it costs less to deploy this level of technology today, execution is the prevailing factor.

They will alienate the players who expect the lastest technology environment, which does not mean they wont be able to to instill the right atmosphere.