We’ve added a bunch more art and information to the Zombocalypse Kickstarter! We’re focusing more on showing the RPG elements of the gameplay because that’s what’ll add the replay value to the game. There are a bunch of weapons and upgrades and perks to equip and your experience accumulates over time so you build up a character instead of just playing random one-offs. There’s only 16 days left for the Kickstarter, so even if you can’t back us please share the link with your friends! If we don’t meet the goal in 16 days, we don’t get any money at all and that would be tragic. I’m really excited to work on this project and can’t wait to officially get cracking on the art for it. :)

Here’s a collection of new art-stuff I threw together for the Kickstarter. First up is another character, a mysterious guy in a suit:

“Caught in the midst of the zombie apocalypse, he is trying to escape the city just like our other characters. However his background is much more mysterious and convoluted. We know he is experienced and skilled with handling all types of weapons, and boasts a very focused demeanor, one that only a man on a mission would exude. However it’s not quite clear what his true motivations are…that’s up to you to find out.”

Ooooo, how mysterious! I did a zillion color swaps up just to see how he’d look in various colors but in the end we went for the classic black suit in the top-left. I always like to mess around a bit with different looks just incase we hit something unexpectedly brilliant!

Next up is some rough ideas for levels. First up I’m just playing with color swapping art elements that are already there to make scenes that feel different, but in the final thing we’d have a bunch of custom art and details for each level. I wanted to make sure we’d have different color schemes so it wasn’t just “green trees, grey sidewalk, blue sky” for every level:

And finally I did up some diagrams to show our weapon, upgrade, perk, Kill Combo, etc. trees because we felt like the Kickstarter needed more instant visual “look how much STUFF we have!!!” appeal compared to the initial Kickstarter that was primarily just blocks of text.

First up is the weapon upgrades:

Each weapon upgrades 5 levels and then you get a gold version of it. I was thinking I could do some cool glowing effects with Additive Blending in-game that’d look pretty sweet. It’d be nice to also add details to the weapons as they upgrade, like scopes on the top or larger ammo clips sticking out etc. I have ideas for how to have little bullet shells flying out of the guns and stuff that I haven’t tried before but I’m eager to see how it’d look.

And here’s a ton of ways to mow the zombie hordes down:

I like the Perk system we’ve got going on a lot, I think it’d add a ton of replay value to the game:

Since you can only choose a few at a time, the combination you pick will change how you approach slaying the hordes of zombies. Choosing “One Man Army” + “Commando” + “Knock Out” means you could chill in a clear area of the map and just slay the crowds to your sides, but you’d still have to be careful not to get hit. Whereas choosing “Recon” + “Bulletproof” + “Juggernaut” means you could dash through the crowds with your machete hacking them down like a Wolverine berzerker barrage. And an “Assassin” + “Overkill” + a Perk that increases the damage your Kill Combos do would mean you’d want to focus more on letting the screen fill up with a crowd so you can rack up combos instead of picking zombies off one by one so you can use your Kill Combos to their full potential!

Last up is the Kill Combos, which let you radio for help after killing enough zombies in a row. These’d be fun to animate because I could use the whole screen for them, having missiles drop in and huge explosions and all that jazz:

So there you go! Once again, please help spread our Kickstarter link around so we can get the funding to make this game! I’ll heart you forever haha :)

- Jeff