I want to start by thinking Mark Cooke, the gameplay programming lead for Zombie Apocalypse, for taking time to answer some questions for us on the same day that the game released on Xbox Live Arcade.
Question: How did the idea for Zombie Apocalypse come about?
At Nihilistic we have a lot of horror fans among the staff. We wanted to build a small horror game for the downloadable console services. There are also a lot of old-school shooter fans here so combining Zombies and horror with a game like Robotron felt like a good fit.
Question: Could you describe Zombie Apocalypse for anyone who hasn’t seen it?
Zombie Apocalypse is an arena shoot em’ up where you fight off hordes of zombies with an arsenal of eleven weapons. Zombies are cut to shreds while you try to survive and score big. There are seven gameplay modes, nine zombie types, a boss, and seven arenas to fight in. The game supports up to four players shooting cooperatively, offline or online, in their attempt to survive the zombie apocalypse.
Question: How large was the team that created Zombie Apocalypse and how long did it take to develop?
The development team on Zombie Apocalypse was around 20 people, though not everyone was working on the game fulltime. The development time was about 18 months.
Question: When you first set out to Zombie Apocalypse was it always planned to be a 3D two stick shooter?
Yes, absolutely. We wanted to infuse some horror, gore, and of course zombies into the twin stick shooter genre.
Question: Looking back on Zombie Apocalypse what are the things that you are most proud of?
The moments that I enjoy most in the game are when you are playing with your friends on the same console and are trying your best to get a high score. The amount of coordination required to survive the later missions, called “Days” in the game, becomes really apparent as you play. Sharing weapon power-ups and making sure to get all of the uninfected rescues as a team is both a lot of fun and a challenge.
Question: Was there anything you were hoping to get into Zombie Apocalypse that did not make it?
There is always more content that a developer designs than they have time to create. We have many location and zombie ideas we would have loved to have put into the game but couldn’t this time around. One addition that I personally would love to add into the game is a tropical island arena populated by voodoo zombies.
Question: Now that Zombie Apocalypse has released are you planning another XBLA game?
We don’t have anything to announce right now about future releases but are excited to see what players think about Zombie Apocalypse.
Question: How fun or challenging was it to implement the Achievements?
The most difficult thing about creating achievements is coming up with a set of them that work well together and offer a range of difficulty. If all your achievements are too easy to obtain players will quickly lose interest and not want to collect them. If they are too difficult, you lose the sense of reward for most players. So we tried to create a good balance of achievements for players to try for.
Question: Can you give us some tips or strategies for Zombie Apocalypse?
They key to reaching a high score is to raise your score multiplier using the chainsaw grapple. That special attack not only cuts a zombie in half instantly but it also gives you an addition x3 to your multiplier. There is some risk involved with the attack, it leaves you vulnerable briefly, so you have to be careful when using it and not get surrounded by zombies while you are tearing a zombie apart.
