I've had this idea for a while now, largely influenced by the film 'I Am Legend', with the original idea being a game based on the film. Basically, the game would start you in the middle of a city (let's say New York, as in I Am Legend). You start from nothing, being extremely vulnerable, and go on to collect weapons, build and reinforce your home with traps and barricades, collect vehicles and add upgrades to them.


At the start of the game, the city would appear undamaged, but the infection would be made apparent, i.e civilians running/hiding, shops closed down, litter building up in streets, cars abandoned etc. As the game progresses, and the survivors become fewer and fewer, the appearance of the city should deteriorate, with foliage overgrowing, buildings falling into disrepair.

From the start of the game, the main objective is survival. You will need to eat, drink and sleep, possibly do some things to prevent boredom, i.e Hunting. You will start with a very small shelter that won't protect you for long, so your objective is to find a suitable shelter and some supplies for the first few days. As the game progresses, you will have the option to move to better shelters.

The other survivors eventually become infected, get killed, or join groups/colonies and build their own shelters. These people could also be recruited by you, with you providing them shelter and supplies in exchange for their help. As the game progresses, these survivors become more and more scarce, until there are but a few groups left in the whole city. The 'colonies' formed should all have unique reactions to the player, with some being hostile, some being welcoming, others cautious etc. These colonies could also interact with each other, with the hostile colonies raiding other colonies for supplies, or trading between colonies.

During the night, the infected will come out from their hiding places and will hunt any survivors/animals this is when you should return to your shelter for safety. There is a small chance some of them may find you, so you should plan ahead in case this happens, by using traps, planning an escape route and having a weapon handy.


In a sense the game would kind of be like minecraft, but much more advanced.

More soon. . .

Are the infected people zombies, or something like that? Because if it was a more normal sickness they wouldn't have any motivation to hunt at night. Humans have pretty bad dark vision, we're much better daytime hunters because of out keen color vision.

Are the infected people zombies, or something like that? Because if it was a more normal sickness they wouldn't have any motivation to hunt at night. Humans have pretty bad dark vision, we're much better daytime hunters because of out keen color vision.

They're kind of like 'vampire mutants', sensitive to UV light. In the film that is. They could be modified for the game, since the story doesn't necessarily have to be based on the film. That's just where my idea came from.

I think - and this is coming from a lowly writer, not an experienced game designer - that having the "vampiric mutants" be purely nocturnal beings would hinder the design (or at least require careful consideration). For example, does the game have it's own, constantly progressing day/night cycle (assuming it's not a linear, scripted experience)? How fast does it change? And are the gamers really supposed to do all of the survival stuff in the day and then just wait and hide during the night? It sounds like a lot of downtime, which gamers don't like. If the creatures have the capability to strike wherever, whenever, then the game becomes more dynamic and there's a real sense of constant dread and peril. Forward thinking gamers would constantly check their surroundings, take note of entrances/exits (always having an "out"), perhaps set traps, etc., while the average gamer would run around aimlessly doing things and likely be under even more duress, which is cool.

I've always considered myself in the market for a good survival type of game, but I don't think I've found one yet. I do have a copy of Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, which seems like it would fit the bill, but I have to admit that I still haven't played it (I've had it for some time - years; my excuse is that I want the Subsistence version that doesn't have a fixed camera). Maybe if that rumored MGS HD compilation is a reality, I could pick that one up, because the Subsistence MGS3 is rare/expensive (assuming they use the superior Subsistence for the collection).

Also, Ubisoft's I Am Alive was on my radar as a potential post-disaster survival game that seemed interesting, but it's been through so much development turmoil and restructuring, and now Ubisoft isn't even releasing it on disc (it supposedly is coming digitally) - the developers believe that Ubisoft has no faith in the title.

I was going to add a feature list, which would have made it clear about the day day/night cycle. I was planing on that, yes. Sorry that wasn't clear. As for the lack of action during the day, I should have mentioned, the infected will hide inside during the day, in dark places and possibly in areas outside, away from direct sunlight. That way, there is still the danger to the player during the day. If dynamic lighting and shadows were implemented too, that could mean as it gets later, there is more danger. There is the possibility of violence from the colonies too, groups of 'bandits', maybe even some wild animals. During the night, the general idea would be that the player sleeps, or they take their chances outside, maybe even attempt to shoot a few from their shelter.

Yeah, I would think there would still be danger during the day. You would have to go into buildings to get stuff, and there would be mutants possibly in there that you would have to kill. There would also be bandits that would be especially active during the day. During the nighttime, I would suggest you could hunt mutants. It would attract attention, and you wouldn't want to do it at your shelter, but you could set up places to do it. You could also build things and fortify your shelter. This sounds a bit more like an MMORPG.


Always looking for vending machines and joysticks...

I like this idea, but make the mutants less uber than the film, because in the movie they could move REALLY fast and could rip holes in the roof, or was that just debris from the explosion hitting the roof?

But anyway, back to the point.

I suggest making the mutants still powerful in terms of durability, but make them a little less agile and strong, but maybe more in towards the game they get stronger.

My 2 cents:

you could have a day/night cycle, with each part of it having a different set of mechanics/gameplay rules. During the night you would get a hell lot of vampires strolling about, making the streets very dangerous. This would force the player to be more stealthy, move inside the buildings etc.. This would be encouraged by the fact that during the day all of the vampires are indoors - turning many buildings into inacessible death traps, but with some great items/resourcs to be found. On the other hand, during the day the streets would be (sparsely) populated by surviving humans, who just like the player would take shelter in buildings only after dusk. You could still apply stealth when dealing with humans, but generally most of the encounters, both indoors and outdoors, would probably end up being brutal and more direct than confrontations with vampires.

Hope that helps!

Building on Domx's suggestion (having something different but equally important to do by day and by night) it should be easy to keep the player busy and active, without idle "downtime", and to just skip the boring parts:

• by day: acquire supplies and resources you need to survive the night
• by night: save random people in distress to keep them as friends
• by day: participate in NPC-promoted raids to remain a valuable member of the survivor community
• by night: be attacked by monsters (waking you in your sleep with ample warning)
• at all times: let the player travel instantly in a map view, switching to the normal mode whenever there is a significant encounter
• at all times: impose a deadline (cure yourself before turning into a zombie, evacuate the whole tribe before being bombed by the military, escape town before being surrounded by too many zombies, kill the source of the infestation before it grows too strong, and so on)

In a sense the game would kind of be like minecraft

What? How is minecraft anywhere like what you described?