Week 1 Pixel Game: Original Plan

 

2.5D Pixel Game: Original Concept

Week Beginning: 5/10/2020

Project Week: 1

Game Title:   "Student Vs Zombies" (Working Title)

Written By: Keir Mackenzie

Images sourced from Google Images

Brief Description

This videogame is set in the present day, in 2.5D pixel art style, with an angled top-down view. The setting is a modern university campus and the player is a student who has survived the first wave of a zombie apocalypse. The game challenges the player to battle wave on wave of continuously spawning zombie hoards that are on the hunt for flesh and food. The possible objective of the game is....

-  survival mode - seal off the campus?

-  rescue mode - rescue a fellow student to escape?

-  eliminate the zombies and cause of zombies (cure)?

-  enclosure of zombies trying to break out

The Back Story

In 2026, World War Three had been avoided by an last ditch agreement between governments. For a few years, this peace held out, then initially unnoticed, zombies began to roam the streets at night in a few UK towns.

It wasn't until the summer of 2026, that an outbreak of a zombie hoard appeared in broad daylight on a modern university campus, killing almost everyone in its wake. The university lecturers were the first to go down and the campus echoed with horrifying screams as the zombies devoured their flesh! Students had left the site for their summer break and were mostly unaffected by this invasion. All social areas and offices went into the only logical form of lockdown of this kind of threat.  Nuclear lockdown.

It was unknown  what caused this invasion - was it radiation or a virus or chemical warfare? But it lasted for weeks on end until a news network outlined a strategy showing that it was possible to survive and continue normally without going into lockdown (until they got attacked while live on air by a swarm of twenty or so zombies.) The university planned to reopen gradually for the start of term in September with limited on-site teaching and on-line access for most of its students.

The first group of students to return to the campus include the main player. Initially everything seems fine and there is no threat, then in freshers week, the trouble begins...and it becomes a fight for survival.

Initial Gameplay & References

The game is inspired by the visual styles of Pokémon and Zelda in terms of open world and level design, while the gameplay is inspired by the gameplay of Left For Dead 2, Terraria and top-down battle royale and team deathmatch ".io" games.

As the player, you have to kill off zombies while collecting items and weapons to stay healthy and persevere through each wave of zombies. The player has to maintain a presence all over the campus as zombies will spawn in neglected areas.

The character that is being played could have two choices to begin with; male or female. The male character has a greater strength, but the female isn't as strong. Yet her stamina lasts longer and she is more efficient.and accurate. 

(For future versions of the game, one feature could be that the female can use her special ability called "focus" to highlight things that the male wouldn't consider to battle the hoardes that have taken over the campus, while the male gets a strength and speed buff.

Another optional feature  could involve the player unlocking different characters or clothing and accessories by escorting lost and frightened students to a safe-room in a security locked student hall with all the windows boarded up and the stairwell blocked off from the main floor to the second floor with unnecessary furniture from empty rooms.)