Some recent feedback on Zombie Road and a leaderboard that gets new scores every day has me thinking about Zombie Road 2…again. I need a new digital project that isn’t web related and I think revisiting the game is the way to go.

If you haven’t played Zombie Road, please give it a try. It’s a little arcade shooter game I made a couple years ago in a effort to learn Game Maker. The game turned out better than I had hoped and thus is still getting downloads and plays today.

So what to include in a Zombie Road 2?

Seeing the daily scores and getting some screen shots to see how people are playing Zombie Road have me thinking along the lines of a “tournament” or harcade edition. To me that means a timed game to see how many points you can get. Of course, since Zombie Road is built on randomness, the whole control needed for a fair tournament is thrown out the window — but I still like the time limit, so it’ll probably be there.

The other addition would be scoring combos. In Zombie Road now there aren’t any bonuses, per se, you just get points per kill. In a sequel I’d like to see points for skill. That could mean changing kills together in some way to earn more points or different points for different guns…that type of thing.

I also jotted down ideas for a puzzle and collection aspect to the game. Maybe collecting items in sequence or just in quantity does something, like a smart bomb or something. Or maybe Tetris-like pieces rise from the floor and you have to move them from Point A to Point B to gain points…or maybe just to gain cover. Dunno there…

I’m also thinking that a ZR2 would be a one room affair. No more board-to-board, but there would be levels that are defined by how enemies enter the room or behave.

Some of the more minor (and easier) things I’m looking at addresses the lack of music and resolution issues that exist in Zombie Road now. I also want to make more use of the on-line score submission to create different challenges. Of course, maybe a ZR2 doesn’t need too much thinking, after all, Zombie Road right now continues to deliver some fun.

Give Zombie Road a play and let me know what you’d like to see…what’s missing…what would be fun…whatever