How to make the perfect zombie survival game?

In all honesty, i do love zombie related stuff... It makes for a great premise for a game, but we have yet to be served the perfect formula. Whats the pinnacle of every zombie appocolypse?... Absolute dread, scavaging and a natural if hopeless human instinct for survival.

What are some elements you would need to see in the perfect zombie survival simulation?
Im thinking...

-A nice city sandbox (including contryside etc)

-Day / night cycle. Scavaging food, ammo etc would always be encouraged by daylight, maybe have the zombies ala I Am Legend in that respect.

- Randomness! Not being able to count on food or ammo drops in stores would heighten the tension. Also L4D does a great job at sudden zombie attacks.

-Not just fodder. Id love to see a suprise attack by even one zombie to be a thing of dread, leaving you wounded and limping if you werent prepared.

-Infected! If you do get bitten or scratched, you will zombify within a few days unless somehow cured. (Hospitals or drug stores could come into play here)

These are just some thoughts on a game that i really feel needs to be made.
What would you love to see added?

The zombies have to be dumb, but there has to be a lot of them. Also, the double tap rule. I want to shoot one in the chest, have it fall down, and then come back to life when I try to pass by.

Customization of weapons, Duct tape a knife to your rifle to make a bayonet, strap a garbage can lit to your chest for protection, stuff like that.

Being able to change outfits would be sick

Making it sort of RPG style, not with gaining silly abilities but improving your zombie slaying skills as you go along.

Multiple types of zombies with different abilities, like L4D but more and more often

The zombies have to be dumb, but there has to be a lot of them. Legendaryscmt

Making it sort of RPG style, not with gaining silly abilities but improving your zombie slaying skills as you go along.

unityskater

In all honesty, i do love zombie related stuff... It makes for a great premise for a game, but we have yet to be served the perfect formula. Whats the pinnacle of every zombie appocolypse?... Absolute dread, scavaging and a natural if hopeless human instinct for survival.

What are some elements you would need to see in the perfect zombie survival simulation?
Im thinking...

-A nice city sandbox (including contryside etc)

-Day / night cycle. Scavaging food, ammo etc would always be encouraged by daylight, maybe have the zombies ala I Am Legend in that respect.

- Randomness! Not being able to count on food or ammo drops in stores would heighten the tension. Also L4D does a great job at sudden zombie attacks.

-Not just fodder. Id love to see a suprise attack by even one zombie to be a thing of dread, leaving you wounded and limping if you werent prepared.

-Infected! If you do get bitten or scratched, you will zombify within a few days unless somehow cured. (Hospitals or drug stores could come into play here)

These are just some thoughts on a game that i really feel needs to be made.
What would you love to see added?

Witchsight

The only thing I don't agree with would be making them I am Legend related. Plus that just makes them vampires. Mrbojangles34

i love all these ideas, but there is one idea that i hate about the left for dead formula that i would love to see removed. That is the repetiveness of the zombies. atillaballer

I think there should be a single player about a person trying to live through it. And also a co-op about maintaining a research post.

I was discussing some ideas with my bro of how they could make L4D3 be a lot better than the first two games...

The problem I have with L4D is that while the game is so unpredictable with attacks and item placement, it is so linear with where you go. The safehouses are always in the same location.

My idea is to have maybe 4 possible random locations for a safehouse, and the players have to rely on the visual clues to actually track down where the safehouse is. The city would actually be more open, but still with some locations cutoff from overturned trucks and stuff like that, to account for some sort of border. Picture more of an open world type environment, but limited in size. Once they reach a safehouse, they open up access to the next portion of the city.

I know this is kind of veering off topic, and more of just ideas for L4D3, but I thought my two cents might fit on this thread.

The only thing I don't agree with would be making them I am Legend related. Plus that just makes them vampires. Mrbojangles34

If you love Zombies, read World War Z. The zombies in that book are kinda dumb but if they made a video game around the concepts in that book...it could go down as one of the scariest and greatest games of all time. There is nothing like running for your life, trying to survive and being SUPER scared all at the same time....no game has delivered an experience like that

[QUOTE="Legendaryscmt"]

The zombies have to be dumb, but there has to be a lot of them. Witchsight

Making it sort of RPG style, not with gaining silly abilities but improving your zombie slaying skills as you go along.

unityskater

If i was to make a zombie survival game i would choose rockstar for my development team. It would be open-world instead of the get from point A to point B or the stay alive in 1 place type of games. I would want TONS of zombies in the game to just create tons of epic gaming moments, slow and fast types to feed both sides of the zombie debate. Destructible environments where you could like blow open a building and have it come crashing down onto the streets killing loads of zombies. I would want real weapons in the game that are customizable with scopes, stalks, clips, lasers, etc, not just the generic assault rifle shotgun sub machine gun no name guns. A story driven game that is new and creative not a virus from a big company caused a plague of mindless brain eaters. Split screen co-op as well as 4 player on-line. Vehicles vehicles and more vehicles, tanks, cars, trucks, helicopters, boats. I can't think of anything else off the top of my head but if i do i will come back and edit.

If i was to make a zombie survival game i would choose rockstar for my development team. It would be open-world instead of the get from point A to point B or the stay alive in 1 place type of games. I would want TONS of zombies in the game to just create tons of epic gaming moments, slow and fast types to feed both sides of the zombie debate. Destructible environments where you could like blow open a building and have it come crashing down onto the streets killing loads of zombies. I would want real weapons in the game that are customizable with scopes, stalks, clips, lasers, etc, not just the generic assault rifle shotgun sub machine gun no name guns. A story driven game that is new and creative not a virus from a big company caused a plague of mindless brain eaters. Split screen co-op as well as 4 player on-line. Vehicles vehicles and more vehicles, tanks, cars, trucks, helicopters, boats. I can't think of anything else off the top of my head but if i do i will come back and edit.

ZzZEVOLUTIONZzZ

I heard Rockstar were going to make a Zombie game a few years ago, but it got canned. But man your idea is intriguing.

When I think of a zombie game I think of something like Zombieland. Think of Red Dead Redemption or GTA's Free Roam. You can help each other do things, or turn on them and attack them for ammo and food. There really aren't to many true zombie games, sure there are games with zombies in them, but not about them alone. L4D2 is to A to B and way to much ammo. As someone else said Rock Star would be the best option for making a game like this. Also maybe do something like APB was going to do? Kinda of like an MMO on Xbox. You can randomly run into random people while playing single player. To be a very good game though, it would have to be very limited ammo and health/rations. Of course it would need Co-op. What zombie game/movie would you be by yourself? Overall I think a Zombie game would be really good if it had most if not all of the things that people mentioned throughout this thread.

I am getting tired of the virus made zombie. I would go with a super natural made with other creatures.

- One important thing about zombie game is being in buildings. Blocking off windows is common. Indoors is something that is not common in Sandboxes.
- Along the same ideal is I would make so the player can travel by more than just the main roads. Like Alleyway and through buildings.
- I would have the is a way that they can change the environment and have the changes stay. If the player block a door then the door will be block when he/she return even if the player is being chase by a pack of zombies.

I want to play Dead Island.

- One important thing about zombie game is being in buildings. Blocking off windows is common. Indoors is something that is not common in Sandboxes.
- Along the same ideal is I would make so the player can travel by more than just the main roads. Like Alleyway and through buildings.
- If the player block a door then the door will be block when he/she return even if the player is being chase by a pack of zombies.

wiouds

Yes, the biggest change to the usual sandbox game would be... Most if not all buildings should be enterable, and barricadable. Thats alot to ask, but it would heighten the realism.

Barricading should be a very important aspect as well, so that you cant camp forever, unless you find the perfect base. I would want there to be a chance of your barricades falling if enough Z's are clawing at them though. Then its off to the roof, or through a window if things go way south.

Most of all, i want this game to be difficult. I mean, i am hoping for more deaths than survivals, something that is fun to play just to see if you can make it a bit longer this time.

[QUOTE="ZzZEVOLUTIONZzZ"]

If i was to make a zombie survival game i would choose rockstar for my development team. It would be open-world instead of the get from point A to point B or the stay alive in 1 place type of games. I would want TONS of zombies in the game to just create tons of epic gaming moments, slow and fast types to feed both sides of the zombie debate. Destructible environments where you could like blow open a building and have it come crashing down onto the streets killing loads of zombies. I would want real weapons in the game that are customizable with scopes, stalks, clips, lasers, etc, not just the generic assault rifle shotgun sub machine gun no name guns. A story driven game that is new and creative not a virus from a big company caused a plague of mindless brain eaters. Split screen co-op as well as 4 player on-line. Vehicles vehicles and more vehicles, tanks, cars, trucks, helicopters, boats. I can't think of anything else off the top of my head but if i do i will come back and edit.

BlueCoopsy

I heard Rockstar were going to make a Zombie game a few years ago, but it got canned. But man your idea is intriguing.

They're putting Zombies into one of the RDR expansions coming up in the next 6 months or whatever.Mrbojangles34

I want different game mode like:

- Story mode: this is the main SP/Co-op that has the story
- Survival: a game to see how long a player or a team can live
- Research helper: a player or a team is to help a team that is researching what is going on. Such as keeping their work area safe, gathering up subject, get any odd item they need, and/or helping them escape/relocated if something happen.
- Quarantine where: a player or a team act as a solider that job is to maintain a quarantine line
- Cleanse: the player or team is apart of the army as they clean up the city.

Most of the mode should have many extra choose to make during set up, such as:

- How to drop the zombies: head shoots only, head shoots is a instance kill and enough shoot would drop the zombie, random target location.
- The amount of ammo that can be found. You can have it where ammo is very rare or to the point that ammo is almost raining from the sky
- The size the zombie groups
- If a player can be infected or not.
- if there are other survivers.

I thought dead rising was perfect. The zombies played just like the were supposed to in that game.

Now take that and create a free-roam world, add some co-op or turn it into a MMO and it would be gold.

Have factions that made it humans vs zombies in multiplayer matches.

keep a dark, scary theme that keeps u moving

Yeah, these seem like great ideas. The game would have to be a massive undertaking from a major company though. Without the monetary and labor resources, I really don't think a gameof the scale you are talking about would work. I would really love to see something like this.

I really like open ended games with Western RPG elements, I also like building empathy with the character. In the early parts of Fallout 3 I really started to appreciate the environment my character was playing in. I think that a zombie, apocalyptic game would really be a popular hit amongst many video game players.

Ok ok ok all of these ideas are GREAT! However, the biggest problem for any game is that in most cases, a good deal (possibly the majority) of ideas are canned because there is a lack of time and funding in order to incorporate them into the game. Therefore, having all of these ideas will do absolutely nothing unless you have the appropriate amount of time (years) and funding (millions) to complete the game as you originally intended it to be. The fact of the matter is that this is pretty much the case for most games and probably will be for the rest of existence. Having said this, there probably never will be the perfect zombie game because people just can't wait to start making money off of games. Now, let's say that there is a company with enough funding, time, man power, and communication skills (large teams need great communication) in order to complete this zombie game. Here is what I would want:

1)I would love it to be hosted in a gigantic city. I want to be able to go into every single building as well as climb everything like in Assassin's Creed. If there are 40 story hotel/casinos, I want to be able to go into every single room, including the following: casino, show rooms, offices, vault/s, etc.

2)I want to be able to use anything in sight that a human can physically hold as a weapon. For example, I want to be able to use a roulette wheel, tire iron, pencil, tv, box cutter, headphones (strangling), etc. as a weapon.

-Also,we need to be able to use stationary objects as weapons for special attacks, such as table saws, balers, wood chippers, etc.

3)Able to drive every single vehicle I see (and I want there to be 30+ models of cars. I want to as well be able to fly small passenger planes and helicopters.

4)A military base to be incorporated into the game, on the edge of town, like Nellis Air Force Base and Las Vegas.

5)Able to choose fast or slow zombies in a "fun mode" but have both incorporated into story mode.

6)Realistic graphics and nothing cartoon like.

7)Design forts, utilizing existing building and scraps, or creating your own brand new one entirely. For example, you could occupy a house with layers of electrical fences and also have 15 foot wide trenches surrounding them with mines on the bottom.

-On top of this, multiplayer would practically be a necessity. Online play with up to at least 12 players. Also, we should be aloud to upload the forts online and share with others.

-We can also create our own maps and put our forts on them. Download others maps and put your own or other's forts on them. Etc, etc,

I'll stop here lol. In the end, designing forts is what I would love to see most.

Yeah, these seem like great ideas. The game would have to be a massive undertaking from a major company though.Samslayer

Ok ok ok all of these ideas are GREAT! However, the biggest problem for any game is that in most cases, a good deal (possibly the majority) of ideas are canned because there is a lack of time and funding in order to incorporate them into the game. Ghost_702

In order to cater to everyone youre right, it would be a massive undertaking (but really no less than building something like GTA 4 from scratch... though thats not to be scoffed at). But something like a think tank, or huge community brainstorm to distill the ideas into the horror staples would make it much easier to focus on the neccesities.

If we want realistic, can we have the protagonist able to suddenly know how to hotwire every car or fly every plane? Of course that all depends on the kind of experience we want (everyones taste so far is similar, but a little different).

Browser and tile based gameslike Urban Deadshow that you can have a very tense Zombie game that doesnt cost millions, its just very cohesive and well thought out (and also proves that an MMORPG would work great). Of course it would still need a seasoned company to pull it off right, but im sure it could be done without totally breaking the bank.

I love the idea, and everyone here has great things to add. However this game will be lacking one thing, a narrative. Or rather, an overall goal. There wouldn't really be any objective besides scvanging and trying to survive. Unless it was on some sort of timer, just survive for however long you can. But the game would never have a good resolution.

Maybe I'm just too big of fan of game stories than most.

One thing I like to see in zombie games is the ability to use tools from your environment to beat down on the undead. In my opinion it adds a better feel than just shooting at them with automatic guns the whole time.

you should be able to scavenge from every house, shop and bulding you see. and you should be able to stay in one house and board up the windows and doors with planks of wood and whatever you can find in the house and store you scavenged items at the house so when zombies attack you have to choose between staying and fighting to be able to save all your supplies or spree and leave you supllieless would make for some great tension

Mrbojangles34 well that is a problem, but then again maybe the point of the game isn't on storyline. Why do people play tower defense games? To see how long they can last? What about Nazi zombies? To see how long they can last. So you don't really need a storyline, though a story may be good, but for this kind of game if their would be a story then there would have to be seperate mode called survivor where all you do is try to survive.Rickystickyman

If you look at one of my post before, I said a story mode. I have not played a game that start before or durning the first moment of the outbreak. I would love a story to start there. Another reason that I would love a story mode is that they can stage the game better that way. MP is nice but they are most of the time not as well stage as single or Co-op.

Lots of really great ideas ITT :D

If you love Zombies, read World War Z.

RaccoonChump

Yes.. have been meaning to get this book for a while now and have heard its a really good read.

I really enjoyed the Stephen King book "Cell", which is basically his take on the whole zombie theme.

I would like to see a story based game where you start off with only a small percentage of the population being infected, you then recruit people you meet along the way and create a team of survivors.

I also like the idea of having other groups of survivors who you come across and battle with for resources; such as guns, safe houses and vehicles.

[QUOTE="Rickystickyman"]Mrbojangles34 well that is a problem, but then again maybe the point of the game isn't on storyline. Why do people play tower defense games? To see how long they can last? What about Nazi zombies? To see how long they can last. So you don't really need a storyline, though a story may be good, but for this kind of game if their would be a story then there would have to be seperate mode called survivor where all you do is try to survive.Mrbojangles34

Having an actual story line..

Yeah that would be great i also agree with the RPG elements this would make it more satisfying as it progress.

Well it's better to learn how to use a gun in real life than a video game. And simulation you get to die over and over again, but in real life one shot only.Perfect is impossible all games have cons..even the one's rated a 10.

-One's perfect (you need medical supplies, food, water, transporation, Trustworthy people, weapons, ammo) Like a timezone on how many days and go further go the supplies will began to be harder and harder to find. Moving to town to town avoiding big citiies. and a a kind of sim that makes the character loyality and feelings about you. Once you get infected you die but you get a new peson to start. That's all I got.