Surviving The Wastelands
AUTHOR: Gronk
On Friday, September 23, a detailed Survivor Diary was discovered near the Undead Labs office in Seattle. From the author’s references to his years of work as a video game artist, we’ve been able to ascertain that these are the writings of one John Gronquist.
The following excerpts provide insight into his personality, his life history, and the conditions he faced during the aftermath of the zombie apocalypse.
Read on to learn his story…
March 20
I can’t believe how much this guard tower is starting to feel like home. It’s only been a few weeks since we hoisted the recliner up. It’s starting to feel like my old living room, only instead of late-night horror movies, I’ve got the real thing. It’s all zombies, all the time.
There’s no electricity at the moment, but I still brought a TV up here for shits and grins. It’s sitting unplugged in the corner, and makes a great foot stool.
The rest of the camp is perfectly happy with me spending most of my time up here. We don’t have enough manpower to cover all the guard posts, and I’m one of the best shots in the camp. Who’d have thunk that a handful of years in the military in my youth would help me score the safest spot in the apocalypse?
Was that really me, all those years ago? It’s starting to feel like some other life I heard someone talking about while I was busy keeping an eye out for runners or screamers.
I spent four years in the Air Force — two stationed in the hills of Germany and two in San Antonio. In Germany, I learned respect for quality beer and mustard. In Texas, I learned respect for cheap beer and pico de gallo, and met my wife of 21 years. I hope her and the kids are doing okay out there. God knows she’s more capable of handling this than anyone else I know.
April 27
We finally got the power grid stabilized! The new batteries we grabbed from the boat store were the key — those babies should last us at least a year before they burn out.
It’s nice to be able to charge my laptop again. I can’t believe I still have the thing! It was just laying in the back seat of my car, which is now hanging out of the window of a mini-mart four blocks from here. May as well be four miles with the size of the horde that’s out tonight.
May 2
Got my laptop back from that damn thief, Dunniway. He snagged it a few days ago but failed to realize that there’s no wi-fi around here. I think he’s been sneaking extra whiskey rations.
I fired it up and took a trip down memory lane. My favorite programs, all intact. Photoshop, of course. My old friend, 3D Studio Max. Maya. Flash. After Effects. God, I was such a junky for anything related to making games.
I got into the industry by painting and teaching myself 3d modeling. I got some freelance work, one thing led to another, and bang — I’m no longer doing database programming. I’m a professional artist!
I’d worked on a number of great projects too, starting with Total Annihilation (ironic, considering our current situation.) I spent my days modeling and animating tiny tanks and robots, and it was amazing. I’d go to work each day and all I’d hear was, “Hey John, can we make that robot bigger, and maybe do some sort of flamethrower effect for it?”
Ha. I’d give anything to get my hands on an actual flamethrower.
May 7
Almost screwed the pooch today. Was engrossed in a game of Dungeon Siege and a handful of zoms got past my watch. Luckily, McMillan and Dunniway managed to catch them before they got their mouths around anyone at camp. Guess I’ll be giving them my beer rations for a month — they did just save all of our asses.
Still, this game is pretty dang fun. I created most of the UI and cinematics, and even got to model and animate a bunch of stuff for it. A little bit of everything.. I’ve always been a sort of Jack of All Trades. I love figuring out how things work.
Crap. Our scouts are coming back, and they’re dragging a horde behind them. Gotta go…
June 19
Rough day today. We’re running out of ammo, so we’re having to look for supplies farther and farther from base. Everyone know that we’ll eventually have to leave, but we’ve put so much work into building this thing up. Having to leave “home” is almost more painful to think about then all the crew we’ve lost over the last few months.
On the plus side, we scored an Xbox360 when we were out scavenging! We were so excited that it took us less than five minutes to get that thing up and running. Had to keep the sound down, obviously. Had an even harder time keeping our voices down during our Halo matches.
I casually dropped that I’d worked on FX for Halo 3 and did modeling and sky painting for Halo: ODST.
I’ve now become Target #1 in all our slayer matches for being Braggy McBraggart. Good times.
July 11
Happy birthday to me. Dunniway says that the giant mob of zombies hanging out at the foot of my tower are celebrating. Yeah, that’s a nice thought. At least they can’t climb ladders.
July 12
When I woke up, I realized that I was alone — the camp buggered out in middle of the night, headed for safer ground. Thanks a lot, guys.
Maybe they’ll come back for me, but I wouldn’t, so I hope they don’t. I’m glad I grabbed the satchel full of silencers and a case of ammo last night to restock my tower.
July 13
Lucky day. Some idiot drove a truck through town, pulling away half the horde. If I was a different kind of guy, I may have popped him and “borrowed” his truck.
July 23
Trying not to use too much of the battery left on my laptop, but I can’t help it…it’s the only link I have to my old self.
Today, I found some concept art and bits of design from when I tried starting my own game company.
Heh. If I had more juice in this thing, I might even try and finish one of these games. Not much else to do up here except wait for the zombies to pile up.
August 5
I couldn’t stand not having power. Food I could live without, but electricity is the only thing keeping me sane.
They thinned out a little last night, so I made my move. Snuck down the ladder, grabbed a big bag of dog food, a case of beer, hooked a lead wire from the batteries and wrapped it around my waist. I even managed to bring the Xbox back to my tower. You do crazy things when you’re desperate, I guess.
What do you know? My TV foot stool has a new purpose now.
August 10
I ran out of dog food the other day. Not wanting to deal with the zeds, I held out as long as I could. Got too hungry, so I snuck out again and went exploring. Came back with a case of noodles and another blast from the past: an Undead Labs hoodie I’d found in someone’s closet. We’d finished Class3 about a week before the outbreak hit.
Oh, the irony…
October 2
The power line got pulled loose by one of those damn stiffs. Stupid screamer got wrapped up in it, and shrieked like an animal until I used my last round to put it out of its misery. Now half the damn town is clustered around my tower again, and I’ve got no way to shut them up. If I don’t die of starvation, I’ll probably go crazy from the moaning.
October 4
The guy with the truck came back today. Don’t know what he was thinking, driving straight into the mob. Gotta give him credit, though — he managed to take out half of them before the truck got stuck. They pulled him out, and that was that.
I can see the keys through my rifle scope. As soon as it gets dark, I’m going to sneak down and make a break for it. Here’s hoping that there’s gas in the tank…
October 30
After a hellish drive, I managed to find the new base! Most of the old camp is here. They were shocked to see me, and said they’d left suddenly that night. By the time they realized they’d left me behind, they couldn’t go back — too many zeds to deal with. I was pissed, but when Dunniway told me that he’d heard news about my family, I forgave them. Can’t hold grudges in this kind of world. People need to stick together.
To show how sorry they were, I got treated to a bowl of hot stew. It was some canned crap. The meat was dry, but after living on dog food for weeks, it was the best thing I’d ever tasted.
November 7
I miss my family. Going to make my way towards their camp tonight. Wish me luck.
As a parting gift, I gave my laptop to Dunniway. I’m not sure how he plans to do it, but he told me that he’s thinking of restarting the Internet with it. Wish him luck, too.
Signing off.
Gronk
(Emily’s note: If you just can’t get enough Gronk and would like to know more about him, be sure to check out Jeff’s introduction.)
I really hope we can be that “Different guy” and pop that guy with the truck and steal it from him
i actually met another person who knows about the game while playing dead island
i would have through you’d definitely be able to shoot people in this game, otherwise it wouldn’t be called “open world” or “sandbox”
Another well established and experienced team member at UL! Loved the post Gronk, creative and entertaining.
RE: I was thinking as far as varying up your zombie looks maybe different demographics. For example, making some child zombies (uber creepy!), little people zombies (is that’s politically correct?), or athletics zombies (sporty or body builders).
I know that can make things harder on the engine by having so many variances but just some ideas.
Also, I was wondering about the looting. I am a big fan of looting in games with that rpg element. Your game isnt a straight up rpg but still similar enough to have that. Will their be rare and useful loots from places and zombies? Like pieces to beef up defenses or weapons and maybe ammo.
Finally, have you guys looked into Dead Island? I heard it sold 2 million copies. Pretty good I think. I have tried it out and it looks good. Have you guys looked into it. It has some good features that I am definitely liking. Good looting system, co-op play, and talent tree skills (which is interesting).
What are your thoughts?
Hey I have read every article dice December 2010 and I love this game I love ya if I was older I would help ya but I’m 14 and Hispanic most Hispanics don’t lie games or even zombie but I just want ya to know that every race is down with ya and I also want to ask if every zombie will die with a bullet to the brain love this article love undead labs love the thrill of surviving since I was 6 I waS watching my cuz play resident evil and I was horrified but I grew older and more aggressive and now I love killing them. Love ya true fan plz respond would mean the world to me peace -Chris
atta boy, I’ve been up here with em since the first article, but trust me plenty of mexicans play videogames. it’s not something reserved for certain races, do what you want to do, not what others want. your life kid ;]
Wonderful! that post was better then many of the books that I have read! Very well written! I hope there will be more like it to find in the game.
Really long but definetely worth reading XD
Good luck with your new job^^
When you wrote that they left you, I was thinking wow! What jerks they were!
Then I thought wow! What a jerk you must have been XD
But no, it was an honest mistake. . . probably. Just another reason to keep your pistol in it’s hip holster in Zedland.
Hey everyone who comments on these articles the undead lab fans we need to spread the world about undead labs like in website and on xbox live I have in mom hut xbox my bio talks about this game, this game is always getting put down I read alot of articles from other website all saying that these guys are out of there minds and that pisses me off I say we spread the word that this game is possible as long as they get support they will see no reason to stop making it people this is the time of change in zombie games that I have been waiting for since I played the last stand so if u want to help write a comment of a website that talks bad about it and I’ll go write a comment why it is possible. And I know they can make a mmo on xbox it’s easier on pc but as u can tell these guys don’t want easy I’m also making a channel on YouTube supporting the game So make sure to subscribe and start watching my videos
Hey i think i took something from the article and I think it might be hinting the release date when he said “We’d finished Class3 about a week before the outbreak hit.” I was thinking the whole time maybe he means a week before March 20 which was the start of his journal so maybe thats the release date right there lol someone please tell me if this is true.
I was also wondering the same thing
March 20 is only when he started his journal. It doesn’t say the date of the outbreak.
it said a few weeks though so maybe a month total making it like february 20 i guess
Ooh, only heard about this game yesterday, very interested considering I’m a zombie fan geek as I would put it. haha
So I’ve made an account now to show my support. Nice diary, looking forward to more updates.