It’s Valentine’s Day! While we can’t send out wilted flowers to everyone or buy you all brain-shaped chocolates, we can give you some of Doug’s sweet art as a token of our infection.
Studio
Link Crawl: Class3, Class4, And More!
It’s been a really exciting week for all of us here at the Lab! On Thursday, we spilled the beans about our partnership with Microsoft, announced our target console, and gave some early details about our plans to release not one but TWO games — code-named Class3 and Class4.
We’ve had a lot of fun watching the coverage about these announcements. Here are some of the highlights:
…in the past three years, we’ve crushed, shot, sliced, exploded and generally obliterated more virtual zombies than we could ever possibly hope to count throughout the fullness of time…That’s exactly where Class3 — a temporary codename, mind you, and a direct reference to Max Brooks’ seminal Zombie Survival Guide — sets itself apart. – Joystiq
Joystiq actually created four separate articles about the news, including an interview with Jeff and a gallery of Doug’s kick-ass concept art. One piece is exclusive to their site — can you spot it?
We want to create the definitive zombie survival experience,” Strain told us in an interview. “It hasn’t been done yet, and we think that there’s a tremendous game there to be made, and we want to be the ones to make it. – 1up
Keep an eye out for 1up’s exclusive posting of one of my personal favorite images. If an outbreak ever hits Seattle, this is where you’ll be able to find me.
And that wasn’t all folks had to say…
Undead Labs and Microsoft Game Studios to Create Zombie-Survival Franchise on Xbox 360
Online Game Developer’s Inaugural Open World Title to Be Published by Microsoft Game Studios
SEATTLE – 3 February 2011 – Undead Labs, the premier developer of online world games for console gamers, announced today development of an original zombie-survival franchise in collaboration with Microsoft Corp. Developed by Undead Labs and published by Microsoft Game Studios, the inaugural title will be an open world zombie-survival game scheduled to launch on Xbox LIVE Arcade for the Xbox 360® video game system from Microsoft.
“Undead Labs is thrilled to work directly with Microsoft to bring Xbox 360 players an outstanding zombie-survival franchise,” said Jeff Strain, founder of Undead Labs. “Our mission is to create original online games that truly feel at home on the console platform, and Xbox 360 is a fantastic platform for online console gaming. We plan to create an ambitious open world XBLA game and use its gameplay, setting, and technology as the foundation for a full online world game.”
Code-named ‘Class3’, the Xbox LIVE Arcade game is designed to let zombie fans answer the ultimate question: What would you do in the face of the zombie apocalypse?
Marketing Horror!
Today I came across some of the original concepts for the Undead Labs logo. Now of course I have to bury the concepts that didn’t make the cut, because conventional marketing wisdom says that we shouldn’t ever show them because we might risk “confusing the consumer.”
Ugh. The word “consumer” makes me think of buying toilet paper and shampoo at Safeway on the weekend. But if you are interested enough in what we are doing to hang around on a website for a pre-release zombie-survival game, then you’re not a consumer; you’re a gamer, through and through.
And I also suspect that, rather than being hopelessly confused and helpless when exposed to the complex horror of logo concepts that we decided weren’t just right, you might think it’s kind of cool to actually see how we decided on the final Undead Labs logo.
Gamers. I love those guys.
There’s No “I” In “meaT”
It used to be that when I told people what I did for a living I often got the response “So you play games all day?” That was always such an odd question to me. It’s like asking an architect if he stares at buildings all day. As I’m sure you’ve guessed, no, playing games doesn’t magically make them reproduce into more games (but how awesome would it be if it did?!). Making games is work. If you’re doing it right it’s fun work, but it’s still work.
Not only is our industry young, it’s constantly evolving in order to keep up with technology. There are no blueprints, no guarantees, no foolproof methods when it comes to making a game. Sounds risky, right? Well, it is. So, with all these unknowns, what is the recipe for success? For me, the answer is talent, experience, and passion. In a word: Undead Labs.