Don’t worry, I’m not dead. I just didn’t feel like blogging for a while. Sorry to both of you. Let’s see, what have I missed. Well, Donkey Kong Country and Zelda: Ocarina of Time have hit the Virtual Console, that’s pretty big. My friend Albert got an Xbox 360, so I finally can play someone I know online. And I played a ton of games on my vacation like King Kong, Shadow of the Colossus, Donkey Kong Junglebeat, and Suikoden IV. So now that we are up to speed, it’s time to check in with this months edition of the Year of the Pig Project Update!

As you are aware, this month was all about research. I have watched a lot of zombie movies, read a couple of books, and have come away with a ton of ideas of what to do, and what not to do. Let’s start with the movies…

Night of the Living Dead
Dawn of the Dead (original)
Land of the Dead
Return of the Living Dead
The Dead Next Door (obscure 8mm zombie indie)
Zombi 2 and 3
Dead Alive

I still have some more to watch like…
Zombi 4 and 5
Astro Zombies
Electric Zombies
Hell of the Living Dead

Needless to say, I am pretty well versed in the zombie genre. In fact, I am pretty burnt out on them. Luckily, movies like Zombi 3 were so bad, they were downright hilarious. Out of all the ones I have seen, I would recommend that one for all the laughs. It’s the Ninja Turf of the zombie genre.

There are a lot of things I thought about after watching these films. First of all, I think the whole zombie mythos is pretty saturated with social, political, and economic commentary. This is one thing I want to do different with Zombie Trail. I don’t want to push some idealistic message of equality, or even a condemnation of capitalism. That stuff has been done too many times. Basically, I want all the obvious messages to be pushed by the NPCs you will meet on your journey. In other words, you will meet other humans along the way that will tell you their own theory of the cause of the zombie outbreak. All the typical doomsday, black magic, terrorist attack excuses will be covered. But what I really want to convey, is that ultimately these people’s ideas don’t matter when it comes to the issue of your survival. You will need to look to the future, not dwell in the past.

Basically, what I’m trying to say, is that my story of surviving and hoping to revive civilization is a concept that should be taken at face value. It will allow me to not only lampoon the tired messages given in zombie films, but to even lampoon idealistic and/or nihilistic philosophies that I don’t like. It will be a fun satirical romp, with no message. Or at least, the message that I am tired of morals presented in stories.

Also, I read a couple of books. Now mind you these books weren’t your typical narrative, so I did do a lot of reading different parts out of order. I read the Zombie Survival Guide, and The Undead and Philosophy: Chicken Soup for the Soulless. The ZSG gave me a lot of practical ideas of how events could transpire in a zombie infested world. And Undead and Philosophy gave me some ideas as to why we fear the undead so much. I really got a lot out of the ZSG, and can see myself referencing it for the remainder of the project.

Now finally, and I am getting a little ahead of myself, but I want to quickly discuss a possible direction I am thinking of going with game design. In regards to the group of people that will be in your “party” in the game, I considered how important different members abilities could dictate in game performance. I could possibly track attributes for each party member like shooting accuracy, strength, endurance, and so on. As the story progressed, the characters could improve their abilities. Basically, like an RPG. This is something that initially intrigued me, it could be more of a Zombie RPG with Oregon Trail inspirations, rather than Oregon Trail with zombies.

There are pros and cons to both. By making it an RPG, I would basically add miles of depth to the gameplay. Players could spend time customizing their party with different weapons and armor, in addition to the already existing resource management. This would be a double edged sword, as I know a lot of casual gamers out there wouldn’t be overly wild about that much depth. Keeping the RPG aspects out would be a greater experience to those casual gamers out there who just want to relive the Oregon Trail with a dark twist.

So, dear reader, send me your opinion. Would you rather see an involved Zombie RPG, or a simpler Oregon Trail with Zombies?

So that’s my progress made this month. I still haven’t gotten the chance to sit down and play the crap out of Oregon Trail, but given that I’m already considering a change in direction, I guess that’s not such a bad thing. Scheduled for March is writing up scenarios and events. I will need to write the stories our characters will be in (including locations and routes), and write the majority of the possible events that will transpire. Oh by the way, now that the Chinese New Year has taken place, it really is the Year of the Pig. Or as apparently most places call it, the Year of the Boar. C’est La Vie.

In case you are wondering, I haven’t forgotten about my lofty idea: The Year of the Pig Project. As promised, the last day of each month this year, I will shed more light into the process of this year’s ultimate goal, making a video game from scratch. Hit the jump for more…

This month’s goal was simple, but took a lot of thought. Come up with the idea for a game. I wanted it to be original, and I wanted it to be something I felt confident in undertaking (no Gears of War graphics). I have the idea for my game, and to be honest, I am pretty excited about it. Almost everyone I have talked to about my game idea, has not only been supportive, they have also been excited. I am getting ideas from friends about as fast as I can write them down.

First of all, have you ever played The Oregon Trail? If you are anywhere near my age, the answer is probably yes. It was one of the only games I could play at school that I actually enjoyed. If you aren’t familiar with it, check out this video. As with most things on the Internet, you can always find a nerd who uses crazy hand gestures to explain something for you.

Here’s my concept. The same resource management and path decision strategy elements of The Oregon Trail set in a Zombie infested post-apocalyptic world. Still with me? I know what you are thinking. It doesn’t sound very original, I mean I am seemingly ripping off an entire gameplay concept. But bear with me. The basic storyline is that it has been several months since the initial zombie outbreak. In the Romero timeline, it would be somewhere between Dawn and Day of the Dead. You and your friends have been safely hiding in that time, but your food and medical supplies are wearing thin. Rather than roam from abandoned town to abandoned town and ravaging random supplies, you decide to head to a rumored safe place. I haven’t worked out all the story elements yet, but the basic idea is that your party wants to eventually arrive at a place where society is trying to rebuild.

This is where the contrast of Oregon Trail pays off so well. Originally, The Oregon Trail game was a colorful tale about hope and the beginning of modern civilization. My game will be a fun little juxtaposition presenting a dark (but still humorous) tale of despair and the possible end of all civilization. Ultimately of course, you have the hopes of returning to civilization, but I won’t spoil the endings, I’ll let you play the game yourself.

As mentioned, the gameplay will be very similar to The Oregon Trail. Like the original, you will be managing food, gas, ammo, and direction and speed of travel. Multiple stories and game scenarios will be featured depending on the difficulty you choose. The greater the difficulty, the greater potential for a higher score. It will be dark on the surface, but I plan on putting in a lot of humor and random zombie references. There will always be the possibility of someone in your party getting bitten by a zombie. You will have to decide whether to kill them immediately, and lighten your load, albeit morbidly. Or continue in the hopes that a cure awaits at your destination. You will have to pick your rate and direction of travel, and random events can occur that determine your outcome. I haven’t yet decided on a name, but as a placeholder, I am just referring to the game as The Zombie Trail.

Now, what lies ahead? January’s goal has been reached, what’s in store for February? Research! I plan on watching (almost) every zombie movie ever. Yes, there are some out there I haven’t seen. Also, I plan on reading The Zombie Survival Guide and World War Z. Finally, I plan on playing The Oregon Trail dozens of times. As I said in the original post, this project is not about getting as much done in as little time as possible. It is more about consistency and good planning. I probably won’t even start coding until May.

Leave me some comments. How does my idea sound? Would you play this game? Any ideas you want to add? Do you also like the taste of brains?