I recently stumbled on hordes.fr. It is a French web game where players form a community to try to survive a zombie infestation. During the day, players spend their action points trying to scavenge useful items and construct fortification and every night, at midnight, zombies attack. The interesting twist is that zombies get stronger (more numerous) every night in a way that makes it impossible to survive indefinitely but make it a challenge to survive the longest time possible. I wonder if people are aware of other games using such dynamics.

Tetris?

Touché :-)

I would refer to a multiplayer online game. Preferably persistent but that is optional.

Also, the zombie attack is the perfect setting for this kind of game, but what other settings could exist ?

Some Tower Defence games can work this way (just see how many waves you can survive). Between waves, you spend your resources to build/upgrade your defences or your hero. It makes for good coop with a smallish group of players.

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Original post by Yvanhoe Also, the zombie attack is the perfect setting for this kind of game, but what other settings could exist ?

Any kind of magical creature (war3 tower defense), alien (Space invaders, or AVP had a coop survival vs alien horde mode ;)), animal (STALKER has you fight off waves of mutants) or even humans could be used for waves of attacks.

Dwarf Fortress? I think that's the title. The very box reads "loosing is fun," and is designed in such a way that you cant win, rather, fight for as long as you can before the inevitable defeat.

Very cool concept! In any of the war games, by the end of the server most players are dead but that's a completely different feeling than what you are describing.

Other themes where this might work ...

Alien Invasions! The clock could be years and your players are leaders of earth trying to work together to build defenses to save all of humanity from the next wave of attacks by the aliens that want to take over earth.

Shipwrecked! Your players are from the same plane/ship that has crashed on a deserted island. But within the forest of the island are creatures and every night they come out of the forest and attack.

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Original post by Yvanhoe Touché :-) I would refer to a multiplayer online game. Preferably persistent but that is optional. Also, the zombie attack is the perfect setting for this kind of game, but what other settings could exist ?

If you are interested in trying to incorporate this idea into an MMO you could make it so that in order to mine for a certain item the player had to be "king of the hill" for as long as possible. The longer they remained king the more mining they could get done.

Call of Duty: World at War, Nazi Zombie maps.

They have the same concept. There is no end. You just have to survive as long as you can, and try to do better next time.

Other settings that could work well, infection defense. Either you trying to defend an area from an outside source, or being the infection attempting to keep itself from being wiped out. The longer you survive, the more points.

The infection could be just about anything, from biological functions in the human body, to a planet defending itself from alien invasion.

Tides are also another option. Build your sand castle and try to keep building it as cool as you can before it gets washed away in the rising tide's waves.

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Original post by Daivuk Call of Duty: World at War, Nazi Zombie maps. They have the same concept. There is no end. You just have to survive as long as you can, and try to do better next time.

I've been playing a map of that every night with my brother for awhile now. It's a good system. I especially like stealing kills from him early on.