Hello! Welcome to my first ever blog post. I’ve been saying that I’ve been working on a video game for awhile, but I never posted much aside from small teasers here and there. So, I want to fully announce my game, Dead Road: End of Humanity!! I don’t have a release date for it yet (nor too much to show unfortunately), but I can confirm that it will be free and coming to steam / itchio / whatever other platform I can put it on without forking over a ton of money :D
After a post-apocalyptic event causes the extinction of humanity, an angel, Naomi, is sent down to Earth to clean up the mess left behind. As Naomi, you will explore and clear three separate areas of the zombie infestation: Flora Hills, Haven Street, and Veronica University Lab, with the choice to speed through and finish the job quickly, or take your time uncovering the secrets behind the infection. Explore the civilian’s attempts at surviving together, the rich’s desperation for self preservation, and the worker’s struggle with their endeavors to find a cure in this action adventure game. I don’t want to reveal too much so that's all you’re getting in terms of story (for now)! I did put some concept art and development screenshots at the end of this blog, so feel free to take a look at that! More will be uploaded in the image gallery section of my site which may or may not be done when this is uploaded.
I was very inspired by horror games, specifically Resident Evil 2 Remake, with how its side collectibles (such as magazines and notes) managed to tell an interesting story unrelated to the main plot. I thought to myself, what if I made a game that was only that? Then soon enough, I added onto that by coming up with the apocalypse/angel idea. Initially, I wanted the angel main character to have more of an androgynous look, but I was not very proud of the results. Then I saw an instagram reel of a girl with really pretty braids, so I used that to draft a design which was very similar to what you see in the final. My original plan for the game was for it to be 3D, but I wanted to scale it back to be a much more feasible project–which lead me to changing her full set of braids to a bun and two braids, which is much easier to animate in 2D (especially as someone with zero experience in animation, not to mention specifically sprite animation). And so, Dead Road was born!
In terms of gameplay, it's a very simplistic top down action adventure game. Your goal is to simply get rid of all the zombies in one area, with opportunities to pick up objects along the way. Although I was very inspired by horror, with the protagonist being an ethereal being and the goal being extermination rather than survival/self preservation, I decided against making it a horror game. I want players to focus on trying to unpiece the story, rather than worrying about having limited storage for items, or complicated puzzles, or what could be on the other side of a door. I also want the game to be easily replayable, so I have 4 endings planned, each encouraging exploration. It could even be a fun speedrunning game, as I plan on having a visible timer and possibly even a leaderboard (but no promises on it being global just yet lol).
Currently, I have a game design document that is about 90% finished, with only some remaining story details needing to be finished and reviewed. Despite that, things are very much subject to change, so my blogs are not 100% representative of the final product. I started coding on the baseline features needed to make the game function, including movement, collision, and sprite animation application. The game is fairly simplistic in its design, so I should hopefully be able to figure everything out swiftly. Once the baseline features are finished, I can get to work on the game itself! There are some future concerns, such as how I’m going to compose the music and deal with the large amounts of sprite work needed for each room, but I’ll update on the progress of the game on this blog as it goes along.
I am so so so so soooooo excited to share this story with you guys!! This idea has been brewing in my head for over a year now, and I couldn’t be more hyped to release it. My favorite kind of art is art that makes you feel, and leaves you thinking even days after. I hope this game resonates with people that way. I love video games so much…they make for such interesting pieces of art because you can interact with it. Ever since I was a kid I would always make up ideas in my head, and I’m glad to finally make my dreams come true. So yeah thanks for reading if you made it this far :))) Stay tuned for more updates! I may also write blogs on things that are unrelated, basically whatever is on my mind. So yeah i love you all
