Update on the ZA update

The Zombie Armageddon patch is now going through peer review in Xbox LIVE Indie Games.  This update includes some new features, including:

Bonus Multiplier -- now when you elect to send multiple waves (by hitting the Y button), you'll get a bonus multiplier to your Leadership score.  Of course, you'll have to contend with multiple waves of undead coming at the same time.

Easier Challenge on Casual Difficulty -- Flummoxed by the difficulty curve on "Now What?"  Love those cut scenes but just can't get the hang of tower defense?  Well, we've got the solution.  Zombie Armageddon has a new Casual difficulty level which should be give even your grandmother a shot at making it all the way through Story mode and learning the fate of Lt. Hanson and company.

Mo' Money!  -- Yes, that's right.  We've upped the starting $$ to give players more breathing room to experiment with different weapon types and upgrades.  Now there's no excuse not to whip out the grenadiers and snipers.

No Unit Restrictions on Casual -- We've removed the unit restrictions on Casual difficulty.  Now you can break out the HEPB and other advanced units on Level 1 if you're so inclined.  The zombie hordes won't know what hit them.  Note that this only applies to Casual difficulty level.  For the other difficulty levels, you still gotta earn it.

Bug Fixes! -- Believe it or not, a few minor bugs managed to slip through.  Our loyal customers filled us in and we crushed them with celerity and aplomb.

The bugs, that is.  Not the customers.

We'll keep you updated on our progress through the Peer Review process.  Until then, dismissed!

Zombie Armageddon Week 1 Sales

Everybody loves pictures, so I’m going to lead with a few.



These are the Week 1 charts for downloads and sales of Zombie Armageddon, our zombie-themed tower defense game for Xbox LIVE Indie Games.  We did a fair amount of pre-launch PR work, including a facebook page and word-of-mouth “buzz” building.  That effort was pretty successful in that there were a number of “key” people who had heard of Zombie Armageddon prior to launch.

On launch day we sent out a PR email announcement and free codes to a number of folks at various key places like XBLA & XBLIG Ratings, xnPlay, and gaygamer.net.  We had prepared a Press Kit with info about the game and the developers, as well as assets for inclusion in online posts.  In short, we had done a pretty thorough job of getting an indie PR campaign going.

On the game front, we had done a lot of work to balance and polish the game.  It’s come a long way since the limited alpha we ran late last year.  With the bugs from our peer review fixed and automated testing ensuring that the game was solid, we thought our chances for a solid showing in Xbox LIVE Indie Games were pretty good.

And while our Day 1 results looked good, the charts show that things went downhill from there.  We knew we had a problem when the early customer ratings were averaging 3 stars.  We thought the game was better than that.  Also, we could see that the quantity of ratings coming in was significantly less than the numbers for other games like Avatar Showdown.  

Now that the game has been out for a week, we’ve started getting some feedback from people on why the game isn’t knocking people’s socks off.  The top three reasons are (in order, I think):

1. Graphics/visuals


2. Difficulty level


3. Zombies

While we made a conscious decision to go with the cartoon-style graphics in the cutscenes, that style hasn’t really resonated with folks.  It’s been criticized as “MS Paint”-quality.  This is one of those things where you go with something and it works or it doesn’t.  We’re not saying that the critics are wrong, but we aren’t going to go redo the art direction there.  We still like it a lot.  Evidently our sales are going to suffer some because of that, but so be it. 

The difficulty level is something we intend to address in a title update.  We went back and forth on this in development, but even though we added an Easy difficulty it’s not the one that the game uses by default and the option to adjust difficulty isn’t very discoverable.  Even with the extensive balancing it’s still not where it needs to be for the people who are trying the game.  And for the hardcore tower defense players out there we still will have the Reckless and Suicidal difficulty levels.

The last problem is hard to accept.

But… zombies may (MAY!) not be as popular as they once were.  We absolutely love Zombies here at citizen12 studio, but with the proper grief counseling and a fully stocked fridge we may be able to accept that not everyone feels the way we do about our decomposing reanimated friends.

Bottom line is we’re disappointed by our Week 1 sales.  No question.  But we’re taking steps to address some of the things we think will help make it a better and better-selling game.  We draw the line at firing the zombie team, though.  After all, nobody wants armies of unemployed undead walking the streets…

Share your thoughts!  Do you have thoughts about what works and what doesn’t in Zombie Armageddon? Comments are open.

In case you’re wondering, I used Excel to make the little graphs based on the data feed we get from Microsoft.  If you’d like a copy of the spreadsheet for your Xbox LIVE Indie Game, just email me at james (at) citizen12.com.

Surviving the Armageddon: Rifle Squads!

Ten HUT, soldier!

Listen up, and listen up good! Unless you want to be a warm, pink, squishy picnic lunch for the zombie hordes, you have got to understand how best to use your squads to defend yourself in your trip across the ruined city to the harbor. Knowing the enemy is important, but so is knowing your own men... knowing their strengths, their weaknesses, and how best to use them. So listen up, and I'll explain to you the basics of your Rifle Squads, Grenadier Squad, and Science Squads.  Since a lowly grunt like you can only understand so much in a day, today we will start with the most important squad at your disposal... the Rifle Squad!



RIFLE SQUADS

The most critical squad for holding back the zombie hordes is the Rifle Squad. These dedicated soldiers pack good firepower and are relatively inexpensive, and are instrumental to your survival.

There are two key points to always remember about your Rifle Squads. First, remember that they can only effectively engage a few enemies at a time, making them especially efficient at killing the biggest, baddest, and meanest enemies... but not as good at splattering the endless hordes! Second, Rifle Squads will always target the enemy closest to your base. These guys' sole objective is to keep the baddies back, so place them with care, and an understanding of who they will target first!



Rifle Squads can be upgraded, from Light Rifle Squads to Rifle Squads, and then to Reinforced Rifle Squads. Each upgrade allows them to shoot faster and do more damage as the men are armed with more and heavier caliber guns. Reinforced Rifle Squads are particularly effective, as they have better range as well... so as quickly as you can, get your men into those Reinforced Rifle Squad bunkers and fire away!

At this point, you have an important command decision to make. Reinforced Rifle Squads can be upgraded again, but you have to pick which path to take. They can either be equipped with a Machine Gun, which is fantastic for mowing down the onrushing walls of moaning monsters with its huge rate of fire. Or they can be designated as a Sniper Team. Sniper Teams are armed with heavy caliber sniper rifles that will drop anything they hit. Unlike other Rifle Squads, Sniper Teams will target the toughest enemy within range, rather than the enemy closest to your base. They have fantastic range, and if carefully placed on a tall building with a good line of sight, Sniper Teams can make short work of the largest monsters as they lumber towards your base... especially the vile creatures who lead the zombie hordes! However, because of their slow rate of fire and their ability to only target a single enemy at a time, Sniper Teams often need to be supported by other squads when the larger, faster hordes attack.

Both Machine Gun Squads and Sniper Teams can be further upgraded with superior ammunition for more effective killing. Machine Gun Squads can also get Supercooled Housings, which allow them to fire at a faster rate. Sniper Teams can be upgraded with Extended Barrels and Auto-Acquisition Scopes, enabling them to reach out to the very ends of the boards and kill anything that moves.

That's it for today, soldier... it's enough to keep you alive for the first night, at least!  Next time we'll discuss those high-explosive happy maniacs who will save your bacon... the Grenadier Squads!