I played Left 4 Dead until about 3 in the morning last night, then watched 28 Days Later and the original Dawn of the Dead. And in that 7AM-stupor I have decided that the best game I could possible conceive of would be a zombie game. I suppose this is a thread for anyone who's ever thought "y'know what would be awesome?", but I just seriously need a place to write this all down. My mind is overflowing with good ideas.
My perfect game would be a multiplayer zombie survival-horror game. It would take place in a small section of a large city (LA, maybe, but shrunken to the size of a single GTAIII island). Game time would be one day post-zombie breakout. Players would start on opposite ends of the city with no means of common (ie. fourth wall) communication available; possible communication would include finding a walkie-talkie, using a CB, talking, and yelling (difference being how far the voice travels in the game). Every physical action would deplete the user's breath state, where full is breathing normally and empty is out of breath. Running, holding your breath, shooting, would all deplete this meter.
The zombies would have massively increased heart rate, which means that when not actively chasing people they enter a very slow, shambling, unaware state. In this state they behave like classic zombies, but whenever their dulled senses detect a human nearby they act like running zombies. If the player is bitten, there is a percent chance that he/she will start to become infected. Infection takes place over a course of 5 minutes wherein the player can hear his/her heartbeat slowly rising. In that 5 minutes, the player needs to find some arbitrary drug like Tylenol or Advil, which will acts as an antidote but also causes drowsiness, shakiness, and lack of energy.
Players would need to procure basic ingredients to survival, as the goal of the game would be to survive for X number of days until the zombies starve to death. Hunger, health, and sleep would all be things that the user needs to work around. Wherever the player chooses to bunk would need to be well-fortified, and defensive construction would be a major part of the game.
Non-necessary doors could be broken down into wood which could be used to fortify necessary ones wherever the user needs. Boards could be placed strictly on the door (to preserve structural integrity) or around the corners of the door to prevent the lock from breaking and the door from swinging open. While power is still on in some parts of the city, zombies naturally exit their "hibernation" at night and so leaving lights on is a bad idea if the windows aren't completely boarded up.
All players assume characters who have not had any form of firearms training, so any guns that ARE found are prone to jamming, ammo is scarce, reloads are longer than normal, recoil is higher, and steadying your hands is difficult. Guns are not the primary tool again zombies, and are considered a last and risky resort if you can't put a door between you and it before it eats you.
No HUD, no radar, no crosshairs. The inventory system would work in a 3D slot/weight system where both physical size and weight of items are important to consider. The number of actual zombies in the playing area would be finite, although it would be almost impossible for any number of users to kill close to half of them.
That's it, pretty much. I'm not sure if this justifies its own thread. We'll see.
