Dead Island

I find your ideas intriguing and would like to subscribe to your newsletter.

That's a fascinating play mechanic. Someone on your team gets bitten. Now, you know that at some point in the future they are going to turn against you, but for now you need as much help as you can get to keep fighting off the zombie hordes. If you let them into the safe house with you at then end then everyone dies, so you are going to have to kill them before then (if they don't turn by that point). So... how long do you let an infected teammate stay with you before turning on them? That would definitely be an interesting mechanic.

Hobbes2099 wrote:

I saw the trailer like 8 times and only until I saw the re-edited version going "forward" do I notice the expression of the mother who is happy her child wakes up for only a fraction of a second before realizing "my daughter is now a zombie".

And notice that's the moment where she lets her guard down just long enough to get swarmed herself.

tanstaafl wrote:

I find your ideas intriguing and would like to subscribe to your newsletter.

That's a fascinating play mechanic. Someone on your team gets bitten. Now, you know that at some point in the future they are going to turn against you, but for now you need as much help as you can get to keep fighting off the zombie hordes. If you let them into the safe house with you at then end then everyone dies, so you are going to have to kill them before then (if they don't turn by that point). So... how long do you let an infected teammate stay with you before turning on them? That would definitely be an interesting mechanic.

Hobbes2099 wrote:

I saw the trailer like 8 times and only until I saw the re-edited version going "forward" do I notice the expression of the mother who is happy her child wakes up for only a fraction of a second before realizing "my daughter is now a zombie".

And notice that's the moment where she lets her guard down just long enough to get swarmed herself.

"Zombie Panic" does the infected/bitten thing well, it's nice, but since it's wrapped in a clunky mod it's hard to tell how well it would work in a moodier setting. Still, not knowing whether the game is multi or singleplayer or both, not much that can be guessed at the moment.

Hobbes2099 wrote:
MannishBoy wrote:

How does the mother come up with a chef's knife in a resort hotel room?

You're obviously having the boring type of sex.

Giggity!

ccesarano wrote:

On zombies in general: y'know, for being such hungry creatures, it seems zombies never really devour anyone. They take one or two bites, but then everyone's still in shape enough to run and chew after you. What the Hell man? Why isn't there a minimum of zombies and most everyone else completely chewed up?

It's the virus trying to spread itself as much as possible. The zombies don't actually need to eat. They don't need anything. The only thing they want is to chew on people. Sometimes you'll see zombies eating a corpse for a long time until there's nothing left because once they have something to chew on they're too stupid to stop, but that's only if they haven't been distracted by any other living people. As soon as someone shows up, they turn all their attention on that person.

In most zombie films they also only seem to feed on the living, so it's possible that as soon as their victim dies they lose interest.

Bottom line is that is was a successful trailer. Weather you liked it or not this thread has more responses than most games and the conversation is only about a TRAILER.

But now we've reached the point of meta-conversation, which tells me the hype won't last much longer. And then, the meta conversation about the meta conversation is just not that interesting. In fact, I bet most people will just skim this post.

Also, has anyone linked to this? If not, why not? Is it because IGN sucks and nobody reads it? I know I only found it because I went to the Dead Island Facebook page.

MechaSlinky wrote:

Also, has anyone linked to this? If not, why not? Is it because IGN sucks and nobody reads it? I know I only found it because I went to the Dead Island Facebook page.

This is the first I saw of it, but I rarely go to IGN.

Anyway, it sounds like they really are trying to capture the same emotion as the trailer. Here's hoping they can pull it off. I want to say that it could be a major step in presenting video games as a mature medium, and it might have that potential to some degree. But successful at this lofty goal or not, it'll be swept under the rug regardless strictly for being a violent video game.

I hope it is good, and am happy it is co-op. Definitely on my radar now.

That IGN article has me torn...

Melee only zombie game with degrading weapons? Great! Nothing to increase the fear of the combating zombies than a chance your baseball bat breaks and you have to run away screaming for a new weapon.

Leveling up RPG mechanic? ...not so sure about that one. What that tells me is you will most likely be rewarded for killing MORE things rather than LESS things. Therefore it will be possible to grind on the zombies (hehe) and less likely that running is a good gameplay option, which really should always be your first instinct when zombies are involved. If the level up mechanic is tied to level completion and survivability instead of zombie kills that's a big win. "New combat abilities and animations" are a bad sign, though.

Story Driven? Great!

I'll be looking forward to hearing more about it.

MechaSlinky wrote:

Also, has anyone linked to this? If not, why not? Is it because IGN sucks and nobody reads it? I know I only found it because I went to the Dead Island Facebook page.

People still use that website?

I heard about this over at /Film. David Chen, the grand poobah of the slashfilmcast (great movie podcast), was pimping how great the trailer is as a cinematic experience:

http://www.slashfilm.com/watch-incredible-dead-island-video-game-trailer/

I am definitely interested. The games and movies coming out this year are getting me excited. It is shaping up to be an epic year.

P.S. Best video game trailer since...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ccWrb...

tanstaafl wrote:

I find your ideas intriguing and would like to subscribe to your newsletter.

Thank you. I'll be here all week.

That's just the frustrated game designer in me screaming to get out. If I ever win the lottery, I'm dropping everything to make a game. I've added this to my "things to do before I'm 99 years old" list.

I foresee two main scenarios:
a) the martyr; Players can remain true to the cause, let people know they've been infected and become cannon fodder to help others survive longer. A "go on without me!". People will be allowed to play Titanic's soundrack while giving their motivational speech.

b) the douchebag; Players will keep the fact to themselves, waiting for the moment to attack and wreak havoc when least expected!

Regarding the RPG element... well, for me this mechanic seems to work against immersion. You kill 12 zombies, a bright flash and a GUI notifies you that there's 3 ability points to be placed in your skill tree!!!

How about after certain amount of uses will "organically" improve. After 10 jumps you jump 10 pixels higher, after 1,000 damage points with blunt objects you hit faster, harder. If you make it a marginal improvement over time, a player would naturally gravitate towards a specific way of gameplay:
run (longer duration), jump (longer distance) and smack a zombie in the head with a pool chair (more damage)! When you grab a fire axe, you need to "improve" your "swinging" skill. Since you've "improved" your strength, you do plenty of damage with the axe, but you can still improve accuracy, speed, recovery from swinging the axe. This in turn could help you improve machete or katana skills. So on and so forth.

And yes, ANY self-respectable zombie-apocalypse game needs katanas.

Man... I really wanna make a game...

So much discussion over a trailer. The game's probably not going to be much good anyway.

heavyfeul wrote:

P.S. Best video game trailer since...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ccWrb...

Except in this case, the game developers seem to actually be going for the serious, melancholy mood, whereas Cliffy B was just feeling emo after his 18 year old girlfriend dumped him during Gears development and listening to the Donnie Darko soundtrack on repeat

WipEout wrote:
heavyfeul wrote:

P.S. Best video game trailer since...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ccWrb...

Except in this case, the game developers seem to actually be going for the serious, melancholy mood, whereas Cliffy B was just feeling emo after his 18 year old girlfriend dumped him during Gears development and listening to the Donnie Darko soundtrack on repeat :P

Still a great trailer though. I will admit that the Dead Island trailer is much more skillfully crafted. Both are emotionally evocative, but the Gears trailer relies on the juxtaposition of the song and the action. The Dead Island trailer has an actual story and a dramatic structure. Simply brilliant.

I'll be honest...I choked up a bit. I'm a Dad.

Uh oh, I smell a "best video game trailer" thread brewing...

The Assassin's Creed series has always had awesome trailers. There was also one for the upcoming Star Wars MMO that was quite excellent.

Chalk me up for that sick feeling too.
I get the power, but don't need those nightmares.

Burnt Toast wrote:

Gah. What a trailer.

I'm an old fart too, and consider myself fairly jaded in many respects. Nevertheless, I'm also noticing that as my own kids grow, seeing children in horror or violent scenes gets me more and more. Not in an "ooh powerful, dude" way. More like nausea.

Dead Island movie anyone?

This trailer has gone insane to get a movie rights deal after a couple of days.

I'd love to see this work like Condemned:Criminal Origins. You may have to fight, you're not a a badass. Binding chainsaws to kayak paddles turned me off from DR2; hopefully with this you're just someone trying to keep himself and possibly his family alive.

There have been a number of games were you're physical attacks serve only to temporarily ward off danger and not eliminate it. Be very interesting to see how this develops.

It's occurred to me that they setting is a great choice. A bit like the classic shopping mall, a resort island is somewhere dedicated to pleasure and self indulgence.

Also the lack of clothes somehow makes everyone look more vulnerable. I found the zombie in the white bikini a little disturbing.

Higgledy wrote:

I found the zombie in the white bikini a little disturbing.

I was so afraid you were gonna say hot.

kexx wrote:
Higgledy wrote:

I found the zombie in the white bikini a little disturbing.

I was so afraid you were gonna say hot.

That would be disturbing.

MrDeVil909 wrote:
kexx wrote:
Higgledy wrote:

I found the zombie in the white bikini a little disturbing.

I was so afraid you were gonna say hot.

That would be disturbing.

I was tempted to say 'and hot' as a joke but she really wasn't.

MannishBoy wrote:

Dead Island movie anyone?

This trailer has gone insane to get a movie rights deal after a couple of days.

Dead Island movie rights not yet sold [update]

I think I'm liking the memes more than I will like the game:

I'm not crying; there's something in both my eyes!

Ok that's just ridiculous. I can't stop laughing....

Oh man, I so needed that laugh today.

WipEout wrote:
heavyfeul wrote:

P.S. Best video game trailer since...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ccWrb...

Except in this case, the game developers seem to actually be going for the serious, melancholy mood, whereas Cliffy B was just feeling emo after his 18 year old girlfriend dumped him during Gears development and listening to the Donnie Darko soundtrack on repeat :P

Cliffy B was dating an 18 year old?