Zombie Armageddon is an upcoming Xbox Live Indie Game from citizen12 studio. Expected to released in February 2010 this tower defense strategy game is planned to be $3 (240 Microsoft Points). As rookie guardsman Lt. Jacob Hanson, you’ll lead your troops and rescued civilians through 11 progressive levels of zombie mayhem, or choose to face an unlimited "Onslaught" mode to tax your defensive strategies and intestinal fortitude.
Trailer
Game Details
"My first day on the job just happened to be the day the world ended."
Meet Lt. Jacob Hanson, fresh-faced US National Guard "butter bar." His audio letters home to mom are his only link to the world he knew---a world free of zombie dogs and fanatic undead. Thrust into command when his revered Captain Pitts is taken by the massing hordes, Hanson must lead his remaining troops---and the civilians they've rescued---to the safety of the harbor and a waiting ship. Will they make it out alive before an increasingly organized and sophisticated undead army overruns their defensive position?
· Story mode: Innovating within the tower-defense genre, Zombie Armageddon puts you into the action as Lt. Hanson, the terrified but resolute newbie thrust into a leadership role when the Field Manual, and everything else, goes straight to Hell. Will you discover what happened to Captain Pitts and who is out there organizing the scabby hordes?
· Game play: Zombie Armageddon innovates on the classic genre in several ways.
· Humvee deployment: Defenses can be deployed only via your Humvee, which ventures out from the safety of HQ to set up positions and deploy upgrades. Choose wisely: the deeper you send your team into enemy territory, the greater the chance they will succumb to your ghoulish foes.
· Civilian Rescue: As if fighting off hungry undead weren’t challenging enough, civilians are trapped in various places around the city. Only you can make the hard choice between tactical defense and mission of mercy.
· Building Height: Taller buildings give you greater tactical advantage, but the best positions are sometimes the hardest ones to get to. Your ability to identify and take the best locations will mean the difference between success and a short career.
· Tower Demolition: See a tall building behind an inferior position? Call out your Demolition Squad to make your own opportunities. Be careful, though. The zombies won't stop attacking while you're busy playing with dynamite.
· Onslaught mode: If you just can't get enough of those undead hordes, try your hand at Onslaught mode, where you never see the same map twice! Zombie Armageddon will continue spawning wave after wave of zombies until they can reach your HQ and feast upon your tasty brains. When you’ve been torn apart by the horde, the only thing you’ll have left is bragging rights to High Score.
Screenshots
About the Developers
It wasn’t always tasty brains and rotting corpses. James Osborne and Joshua Lindquist formerly developed realistic vehicle simulation games as lead software engineers in the ACES Game Studio at Microsoft. After hours, the two gamers wanted to see if a dungeon crawler game Lindquist had developed could be adapted to the XNA Game Studio platform and made into a tower defense game.
By September 2009, Osborne had formed an indie game studio and teamed up with Lindquist, who had taken another position within Microsoft Game Studios. GP, a longtime friend of Lindquist's, was added to the team to help with the art and game design.
GP is a moonlighting New Jersey school teacher better known as "Lord Ashram." Lord Ashram has been a member of the award-winning game design group The Lordz (http://www.thelordz.org/) for many years, and helped create the popular, ground-breaking Napoleonic Total War, American Total War, and Napoleonic Total War II modifications of the Total War series. He also maintains the popular wargames site "Lord Ashram's House of War" (http://lordashramshouseofwar.blogspot.com). This wealth of experience informed his game design and extensive gameplay tuning.
The team decided that the game should have a progression of levels and a story to bind them together. Osborne, who had spent time as an aspiring screenwriter in Hollywood, penned the story of Lt. Jacob Hanson and his sudden call to duty, then collaborated with GP to create the nearly 10 minutes of cut scene footage for the game. GP's distinctive, classic comic-style art, together with Lindquist's performance as Hanson, took the game in a whole new direction and convinced the team they had something special.
Steve Hinan, another ACES veteran and founder of Sunshine Game Studio, was the final addition to the team. Initially responsible for translating the environment art into professional-quality models, Hinan used his artistic sense and leadership skills to improve and polish nearly every visual element of the game, creating a coherent art direction that helps the game stand apart.
The team chose to develop Zombie Armageddon for Xbox LIVE Indie Games because of Microsoft's support for indie game developers and the ease with which the game could be developed and published. They used Microsoft's free XNA Game Studio development kit and Visual Studio 2008/Visual C# Express for development. Adobe Creative Suite 4 was used to create the cut scenes and 2D art. Much of the audio for the game was obtained by permission through SoundSnap (http://www.soundsnap.com). The team--- some of whom have never met in person---used Windows Live Messenger, email, and text messaging to coordinate their efforts.
citizen12 studio is located in Kirkland, WA. For more information about citizen12 studio, visit http://citizen12.com.
Zombie Armageddon is an upcoming Xbox Live Indie Game from citizen12 studio. Expected to released in February 2010 this tower defense strategy game is planned to be $3 (240 Microsoft Points). As rookie guardsman Lt. Jacob Hanson, you’ll lead your troops and rescued civilians through 11 progressive levels of zombie mayhem, or choose to face an unlimited "Onslaught" mode to tax your defensive strategies and intestinal fortitude.
