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4. Product Design
Everything about this game should be maximally funny, whether that is gameplay mechanics being stupidly unrealistic or the story just being downright dubious.
For example,
The game is intended to be a shorter, to-the-point experience. And while challenging, should be remembered for its immersive story and humor; first and foremost we are trying to tell a complete, interesting story.
The idea is a basic one: and that is to have music reflect the state of the game; I'm not really sure what game doesn't do this. The music should be foreboding while exploring outside of your abode, and welcoming inside of it -- except for its the end of the week, where things are a little more ominous as the day progresses. The villagers should have some unique variation of the main village theme, making each villager feel like they filled a missing piece in the village. Music should, ideally, also be composed for important story beats, although these tracks should be much shorter.
Quick interjection from Aidan:
Hey guys! As i start to compose music i wanted to touch base with you all about what kind of vibe and tone were going for. For the more animal crossing sections we’re shooting for more ambient and chill stuff (not unlike the animal crossing OST). For the combat sections, I’m planning on going full metal gear rising/astral chain/ devil may cry. I play guitar and am learning bass so that part will be a non issue, although if you’d like to collaborate on these tracks feel free to reach out, I’m very open to whatever talents you guys may have and open to whatever direction you’d like the song to go in. I will soon have a doc prepared that’ll have examples so that it’s pretty clear about what vibe we’re going for, but just to make it clear, it’s more of a suggestion rather than a hard and fast rule
https://docs.google.com/document/d/14v0qtnFAvR_CB-6VeLdKOaN9MN4NmANJOAplHaIbC3s/edit
UI SFX: https://kenney.nl/assets/interface-sounds
Animal Crossing (GameCube) graphics with the visual fidelity of Project Zomboid and low res textured games like Rune Factory: Tides of Destiny. A filter like in the first image is paramount. The game has only the date and time displayed in the UI. For the matter of health UI, there will be minimal to no health UI and it will be mostly diegetic. Dynamic objects (e.g. players, zombies) outside of your field of view will be fully occluded outside a small radius and static objects (e.g. the environment) will only be visible with a certain radius (so Project Zomboid). In classic Animal Crossing fashion, the playable character will be a human, and everything else is a furry or whatever. I also like the aesthetic of Metal Gear Solid 3 for the top-down perspective.
The game takes place in a forest, so the landscape is pretty consistent, but still allows for some variance in visuals, such as having more mountainous, or plain areas. I don't want to control this part too heavily.
The player is in charge of building an abode, located in the mountains, and defending it from zombies with various guns. The player should feel tense during these encounters, but the overall feel of the game should be hilarious apropos of its selling point.
Good food (i.e. things) will stand the test of time and is worth sharing. Shorter: Good food is worth sharing.
There's been a zombie virus ravaging the whole world. But you live a comfortable, remote life as the only human in an animal-world infested by zombies, and you don't mind, since you have your comfort food. All it really takes is defending your house with your trusty pistol every once in a while. Notwithstanding, you're pretty physically unfit because of this sedentary lifestyle.
Some funny-looking zombies steal your nasty-tasting-food reserves, leaving you food-less. You venture out to the woods in search of the thieves; on the brink of starvation, you find a small forest base with one inhabitant: Nom-Nom. Nom-Nom teaches you how to cook zombie meat and progressively discusses his plan to cure the zombie-virus as the game progresses.
He says, clarifying that there is a scarcity of tasty food, leading to an evil entity to convince the world to give up searching for it and, instead, consume one another, inflicting the world with an insatiable hunger. He thinks that he, and those that are also not-zombified, can kill this zombie god and free those who have become zombified. The only issue is how. Nom-nom explains that, like you, he's survived off of really good food: zombie-flesh meals. He'd cook for the zombies if he could, but claims that they'd surely eat him alive before they realized that. He think he's caught wind of a group of scientists nearby who were developing a special type of food that can be mass produced, something that might be able to cure this hunger.
As you kill, fend off, and cook zombies, you rescue scientists Bibi & Bubu, Squaggle, and a special third one that heals you. Each of these animals, after being saved, gives you a piece of their research (i.e. part of a cheeseburger recipe), which Nom-Nom can synthesize, and sets up their respect shops: Bibi, the gun seller; Bubu, fishing supplies; Squaggle, player upgrades, and then that healer who heals.
After collecting all the pieces of the recipe, you think that you may have assembled something that can kill the zombie god: a good cheeseburger. You assemble the legendary hamburgun, which you use to kill it.
After its defeat, the story should end with the notion that you've freed the world from its curse, but that this new lease on life still needs to be distributed.
Tom Nook character that you first meet in the village. His name is Nom-nom and he's always hungry...
From Hayley Davis:
I was just thinking, like Timmy and Tommy, instead of one shopkeeper, there would be two. Idk why, but I imagine them a bunny twin sisters---but they don't have to be. One would be ultra pink and girly and the other one would be more dark and macabre. The twist is that you would buy/sell guns from the girly one (idk i just imagine her being like "✨Yay bullets~! Guns~!✨") while the dark one buys/sells more daily life items (fish hooks, bait, seeds), I'd imagine she'd phrases things super ominously ("Plant seeds and fish baits... One creates life, the other lures in death. Choose wisely."). Just a concept that's been stuck in my mind since I looked at the issue 😭.
Squaggle, who upgrades the character.
A Kapp’n-like character can be found on a boat while fishing, he can also sell you illegally modified versions of fishing supplies. I’d figure he’d have an appearance like tortimer (from the same game), but he’d actually be crazy.
A cosmetics character would be way out of scope imo but cool
The Zombie Crossing Wiki was written by Matthew Brown. Zombie Crossing was directed by Matthew Brown (@mushakushi) and Aidan Mayhue (@AidanMayhue).