As my first Ludum Dare draws to a close, I am quite pleased with what I came up with.

City of One is a game about the lone survivor of zombie apocalypse. You must explore the randomly generated city and kill all the zombies while keeping stocked up on food and ammo. Along the way, you can upgrade your skills and find new guns for your shooting pleasure.  The game is quite difficult but can be mastered if you have good time management, memory, and reflexes, much like many older arcade games. The game also features a high score tracker – let me know what high scores you achieve (you get doubled score for finishing the game! )

I made all the graphics and sounds, of course, in a style similar to older games. I think this adds a lot to the game. I hope you all enjoy it!

Download it here. It’s made in XNA, so you might need to use the installer, but otherwise I think the .exe will work.

Safe, for now...

Here, with approx 20 hours left, is my current progress with CITY AS ONE.

Basic but dreary. Reminds you of why you are here

You play the role of a survivor of the zombie apocalypse, trying to explore the city, forage for food and ammo, find new weapons, and ultimately, destroy all the zombies of course. The main drive behind the game is the constant decrease of stamina that slows your character down. The only way to counteract this is through eating food, but you can only find food as fast as you can move, so you better get hunting. Ammo is also an issue, although it doesn’t seem like a big deal – until you run out. Throughout the game, there are opportunities for player progression through the discovery of new guns and leveling up, which allows you to improve your chances of survival in several ways. The game is a huge challenge to play but can definitely be played well, much like most old arcade games.

Notably, the game features a minimap, a randomly-generated 2D city, and smart zombie AI that spreads out, jumps out at you, and sometimes aimlessly wanders (much like the real thing!). I hope that I can finish off the music and city generation so that this game can be completed by the deadline. Wish me luck!