BAF: Andy Hodgettes

Andy Hodgettes from The Indie Store held a talk on his new game: Project Zomboid. Its a Zombie apocalypse survival RPG  where players have one life and must survive by any means necessary, for as long as possible. The difference about this Zombie game is that it from an isometric view in a pixeled style, allowing much more content and freedom. Players can essentially do whatever they want and create their own content and then share this online.

Hodgettes argues that games like Red Dead Redemption and Skyrim claim to be sandbox, where players can be free and do whatever they want, but this is untrue, players have to follow the set missions and side missions or eventually the game becomes content-less and stops. this is a good point I think, as players also must be the character Dragon born character, you may think there is character selection but its really more of a skin selection. In Project Zomboid player can do anything, smoother their tutorial giving wife with a pillow, and if they do, there is no tutorial. players must then face the invasion without help and advise and completely alone. This I also found

an excellent feature as your choices you really are stuck with and as their is only one death life seems much more precious and players are therefore much more cautious and this adds huge amounts of tension.

Also he made the point that because the graphics are simple, it has a mine-craft quality, players can create their own content that is ass good and fits the rest of the game. If you made something in Skyrim it would never be as good quality as what the animators and game asset makers make. this makes your home and experience more personal and therefore the game much more emotional.

Weather or not Hodgettes is passionate about 2D or bitter that 3D has taken over (or that he isn't working on one) is unclear, but I think the idea and presence of this game looks fantastic and will be tenfold improved when Multilayer becomes available (firstly local and eventually global). Player could then work in groups and even have the choice to tell the others is they've been bitten or hide it and I think this idea of creating a society within a Zombie Apocalypse game is very exciting and will prove very popular.