It seems to me that zombie fatigue has started to set in for a lot of people. People are tired of seeing zombies in every game, which leads to me an issue. I’m working on the world building for my next project a post apocalyptic survival game with the working title of Day 0. The original plan was to have most of the danger coming from nightly attacks by the hunger zombie like creatures. They were mutated people rather than the walking dead but I’m not sure if I want to go the zombie route anymore.

So I’m looking for ideas and suggestions on what to what to make the hunger so that they aren’t so zombieish.


Here's a brief high level idea of what I’m looking for them to be like:
• The Hunger are part of the terrors of the waste faction known as the forsaken.
• Driven by base instincts
• Practically blind rely on their sense of smell and hearing.
• Drawn to life with a nearly insatiable hunger.
• Nocturnal, thrive in the darkness and night. But can still be found during the day but in smaller numbers.
• Can only be killed by destroying their core or heavy damage to their bodies.
• Infectious they have a way to infect/corrupt/infest survivors turning them in to the hunger if it takes hold within a few days.

Here are some initial creatives in the style of a survivor journal:


Day 1: I came across a gruesome corpse today. They poor guy looked like he’d been torn apart by wild animals. His eyes were the scariest part they were a dull white with greenish veins and something had caused them to harden. But whatever happened to him looked like it had been a long time ago.

Night 1: I managed to find shelter for the night by barricading myself in the dilapidate shell of a building and I’m glad I did. I was awoken in the middle of the night by the sound of something hammering on the wall. It scratched and the clawed at the walls and bashing itself against anything that looked weak. I couldn't see it, I didn't want to I just tried to stay as quiet as possible while it wailed and roared in anguish and frustration. The dawn’s sun drove it off.

Day 3: Another night of restless sleep. More of those things I’ve name the hunger appeared last night. I think there must of 3 or 4 of them last night. I've shored up my crude shelter but I don’t think it will hold much longer. I need a weapon or someplace more secure to stay. I’ve made a crude axe out of what I could scavenge. If I run now will they follow?

Night 4: I made a run for it. I spent all day traveling and spent the night in the trunk of abandoned car. Most of the creatures didn’t follow but at least one did. It managed to break a small hole through the seat of the car leaving me with a few nasty gashes from its claws before I could hack its arm off. Luckily that was enough to drive it off. I won’t be doing that again. I was fortunate to get away with a few nasty gashes and a splattering of its tar like blood.

Day 5: I came across a group of bodies in the second floor of a building. It looked like they had been hiding out up there for a while. I wonder if there is anyone else still alive. The scene was more gruesome then the one I found a few days ago. Most of the people had been torn apart but two were different. Their skin was pale and they were split in half like human shaped cocoons. Had something bursts its way out of them? Was it the same creatures that have been chasing me? Or was it something else?

Day 6: I’ve been feeling like shit all day. I think the food I scavenged from the hideout yesterday must have gone bad.

Day 7: I found a warehouse today that looked like it would be a good shelter but when I went in to it to investigate I almost screamed in panic there was at least a half a dozen of what I can only assume is the Hunger milling about inside it. They stayed mostly to the shadows. I thought they would notice me for sure but even the ones that moved in my general direction didn't seem to see me. But at last I got a good look at them. They were short the tallest maybe 5’5”. Their skin a cracked yellowish brown and their limbs were long and thin. They all also had some kind smooth black growth on them surrounded by thick black veins.

Day 8: I feel numb my skin is almost ashen grey. It’s happening to me isn’t it? I’m becoming one of them. I’ll be hollowed out and become a hunger. Why? Why did this have to happen to me?

Below are some images for the style of world I’m building:

That could be vampires, aliens, demons, or even mutant insects. From the journal entries though it sounds specifically like a contagious disease.

Here's a brief high level idea of what I’m looking for them to be like:
• The Hunger are part of the terrors of the waste faction known as the forsaken.
• Driven by base instincts
• Practically blind rely on their sense of smell and hearing.
• Drawn to life with a nearly insatiable hunger.
• Nocturnal, thrive in the darkness and night. But can still be found during the day but in smaller numbers.
• Can only be killed by destroying their core or heavy damage to their bodies.
• Infectious they have a way to infect/corrupt/infest survivors turning them in to the hunger if it takes hold within a few days.

It seems to me that your requirements describe the familiar characteristics of Zombies.

If you want to name them something else, I don't see why not, but if you really want to get away from the 'Zombie' label, then you need to change their characteristics to be less Zombie-like...

I kind of agree with Swiftcoder. Skin them any way you like, give them any name you like, but what you've described will still feel like zombies to people. L4D and Resident Evil may call their creatures zombies, but their basically just human mutations with a nasty rage problem. In L4D they actually are the walking dead, but in some of the RE games the zombies aren't corpses at all (Majini from RE5). Even Dead Space felt like a bit of a zombie shoot 'em up to a certain extent.

My real question is; are people really sick of zombie games? I think maybe they're sick of bad zombie games (since there are so many), but I don't think the genre is losing fans.

If you really want to avoid the zombie genre consider removing some of the basic requirements for your creatures.

"Driven by base instincts"--This can easily apply to most zombie critters, but also to numerous other things. How bout a behavioral pattern of some sort? Maybe a learning curve as the game progresses (Think Jurassic Park--the raptors learn to open doors, OMG WE'RE SCREWED!!!). I know this learning curve happens in some zombie games, but usually in a drastic way (zombies go from claws to rocket launchers in one level). It's always a bit unnerving when you're playing a horror game, you see the bad thing, it sees you, you ready to shoot it down as it inevitably charges right at you like all the rest... and suddenly it runs away. Consider a zombie ambush that actually feels like it was set up by the zombies and not the game designers (I Am Legend vs L4D Zombie Rushes)

Practically Blind--Is a pretty standard zombie feature, that's why the swarm is always following the protagonist. I'm a fan of this trope, but it's another thing you may want to discard if you want to avoid the zombie genre. It does make for some awesome storyline (High School of the Dead does some amazing things with blind zombies).

Drawn to Life--Definitely drop if you want to avoid the zombie genre... why not give your nasties a modicum of intelligence and give them a reason for wanting to kill anyone unlike them. "Mutant good! Normie bad!" Is the simplest level, but also consider what it would be like if your creatures were of a hive mind of some sort.

Nocturnal--Again... very typical zombie trope. They always move in larger groups at night.

Can only be killed by 'Removing the Head or Destroying the Brain'--I quoted Sean of the Dead if you didn't notice... probably enough said on this factor.

Infectious--It's very rare to find a zombie game that doesn't feature this.

Either just go with what you've got (it looks great and sounds interesting so far), or you'll really need to make some drastic changes to your game to avoid it being a zombie type game, which in my opinion is totally fine. I'm not sure where you heard that zombies were losing popularity. Walking Dead, Resident Evil, Day Z and many other zombie things are still insanely popular.

Or are you more worried that you're game will simply get lost in the ocean?

Firefly made their zombie's fly space ships, deform their own flesh and sowing the flesh of their victims as their clothes to the usual zombie trop and called them reevers, I bought it. Reevers made sense as a monster separate from zombies even though they had almost all the other infected zombie characteristics. Consider the flaws of humanity as a whole and exaggerate the ones you choose. Zombies in a lot of ways are meant to represent our rampant consumerist world. Consider what your monster is meant to represent. The player connects with a monster when they see aspects of themselves in that monster.

Zombies in a lot of ways are meant to represent our rampant consumerist world

Wow, I had never thought that far into it... :/

Some quick ideas (but as others have told, your base ideas pretty much implies something zombie-like):

1. Make them fast.
2. Do away with the "mindless walking swarm" trope. Make your creatures able to actually plan attacks, hide, do sneak attacks, jump...
3. If they are fast and flee you can get away with the "only killed by bazooka" trope. They may still regenerate, but slowly - and they flee to safe place for that.
4. Give them high-level controlling mind. I.e. for each swarm of zombies there is some evil mind controlling them and using them for his own goals (evil scientist, alien, mutant...)
5. Make the "infection" active high-tech process - like injecting certain drug and then adding mind-controlling device.

Something you might explore is the apocalyptic environment, every creature is shaped by their environment. Southern States zombies are usually connected with superstition and voodoo witch doctors. Desert walking dead are often linked with its history of the dead were considered and worshiped aka mummies. Presumably your environment went through some horrific event to look so barren and decayed and the dead would have been handled a certain way during or after this occured, this could have a major influence on the characteristics of your monster's as well.

Lastly I think with almost every monster, the question of immortality looms which could be a consideration in the construction of your non-zombie.

My suggestion is to look at sources like Resident Evil and Fallout. There's also some good advice here, e.g. drop at least one zombie attribute and add something new. Personally I feel that cannibalistic + infectious + no pain + headshot only are the most obvious zombie attributes.

5. Make the "infection" active high-tech process - like injecting certain drug and then adding mind-controlling device.

It would be interesting to have a 'zombie-type' swarm who only inflict non-lethal damage. So that they may drag you back to their master's layer and he injects you with the zombie-infection that makes you completely compliant and unafraid of pain. *chuckles* sounds kind of a like a mix between I Am Legend and G.I. Joe : Rise of the Cobra.