Review Fix chats with Dan Niculescu about his new game, “Zombie Attack” and gets the inside scoop on his influences and designing a shooter on the Adventure Game Studio engine.
Review Fix: What was the inspiration for the game?
Dan Niculescu: The first, and most obvious one, is Doom, my favorite game ever. I’ve played it to death, finished it more times than I can count and have had more disturbing nightmares because of it than any other reason, but hey, I love that game. The other big inspiration for Zombie Attack is The Binding of Isaac, recently released by half of team meat, Edmund McMillen (with programming help from Florian Himsl). I’ve had great fun with that game and was wanting to make something inspired from it and then BAM! The Bake Sale announcement goes up and I have to enter. So, what I basically did was take some gameplay ideas from TBOI and mix it up with quite a bit of games from my childhood and adolescence (Doom, Quake, Duke 3D, etc.). That’s the recent inspiration anyway. The roots of the game go back to an idea I had about seven-eight years ago, when programming in Turbo Pascal: to make a text-mode shooter based on Duke Nukem 3D. It was called Zombie Attack.
Review Fix: Seems like there are a ton of zombie games out right now. What makes yours unique?
Niculescu: Well, despite its name, because zombies are only 3rd of the game, really. There are a lot of other monsters and atrocities just waiting to chew on your giblets. Also, I’d like to think the retro, text-mode inspired aesthetic (if it can be called that) and the fact that very little of the “zombie lore” actually made it into the game make it a little different from mainstream zombie games – you don’t have to fashion weapons from 2x4s, you don’t have to take care not ton get bitten or infected, etc. However, I ran with the name because I always felt it was catchy and it feels like finally fulfilling a promise I made to my kid-self in the past – that I’d get this game done.
Review Fix: What’s your favorite part of the game?
Niculescu: Game-progression-wise, I’d have to say the 3rd episode, where, spoiler, kids, you go to hell. That was such a fun part of the game to do, trying to think of the most unfair enemies and the craziest weapons. Coding-wise, I’d have to say that the first few weeks of development were very fun, as I kept piecing together the engine – every day brought with it new features and watching them work in a game you made is probably one of the best feelings out there. The first few hours after I’d implemented grenades and explosions, every time I’d blow stuff up, I’d giggle.
Review Fix: What are your goals for the title?
Niculescu: The main goal from the start was for it to be fun. If it’s not fun, then I might as well have not made it. After release, this is still the main goal, for people to enjoy this game, and for it to hopefully be one of the reasons (no matter how tiny) why the bundle is having success and getting that money to charity. On a personal level, this game represents a major triumph for me as my first fully-fledged, 100% completed game that I’m actually happy with. On a more personal level, this game is somewhat an exercise in the “am I the only one?” thing that you see over the Internet. Am I the only one who loved these types of games growing up and who still finds enjoyment in iterations of them today?
Review Fix: What was the creation process like? Was it difficult to use Adventure Game Studio for a shooter?
Niculescu: Honestly, for the most part, it was great. I had a lot of fun putting this together and pushing AGS to its limits. I wish I had been a little more clever about the way I programmed everything, but overall, I’m pretty satisfied with the whole process. Making the core engine was fun and exciting, scribbling design notes and sketches during boring lectures was also quite stimulating, and reading the first reports from my testers was scary as all hell. My testers were amazing with their critique and suggestions, their help alone is responsible for half of the game mechanics. As for the difficulty of using AGS, I’ll be the first to say it’s the best tool that I’ve used so far. Very versatile, but what really caught me was how easy it was for me to get into the scripting language. Really, the only time when I really hit an “engine limitation” wall was not when implement gameplay, but when I’d reached the GUI control limit while making the stats GUI.
Review Fix: What do you want people to enjoy most about this game?
Niculescu: The gameplay mainly. If they like the one-or-two jokes in the writing as well, great. If they also get all the retro references and whatnot, that’s also great, but I just hope it’s a fun video game for people to play, enjoy, and, hopefully, come back to in order to unlock some more stuff.
Review Fix: Any plans for a port to a handheld or iPad?
Niculescu: Unfortunately, not at this time. I’ve already started making another engine for a RTS/Economic game with AGS, and I doubt the game, with its pretty high number of keyboard controls will translate well to a handheld. But who knows, I’d love to make such a game one day.
Review Fix: How do you want this game to be remembered?
Niculescu: I don’t know. I guess I only really want it to be remembered; either for its flaws or its positives, but I’d like for at least a few people in the world to get a bit of enjoyment out of it. That is, after all, why people make games, isn’t it?
For more info on “Zombie Attack” click here
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