Kickstarter project: Dead Years: Zombie Survival with your dog!

DEAD YEARS is an Indie Open World Zombie Survival Game for PC/Mac/Linux. Survive with the only friend you have left, your dog!

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Dead Years is a zombie survival RPG game for PC/Mac/Linux. It is a role-playing game, combining realistic survival, fast-paced combat and epic exploration. It takes place in an open-world environment where urban and natural landscapes raise as the omen of the disappearing human rule. In this captivating adventure, you are bound to explore and understand this new world, where a daunting race of enraged zombies, as well as a sneaky pack of hungry wild beasts, unite in their flaming desire to devour you.

However, you are not completely alone! By your side, a faithful friend – your dog - , will help you fight back, survive and adapt. Your relentless will to live, your wit, agility, and strength, and even your creativity, are the only guarantee for you both to survive.

Dead Years is a zombie survival game. It takes place six months after the initial outbreak. An unknown disease radiates from every bit of the living and the undead. It has infected more than 99% of the population, reducing their intellectual abilities to an absolute zero, but making them highly thirsty for your flesh. Beyond the human race, the flora and fauna were deeply affected by the lack of pure air and water.

A mysterious and thick smog cloud seems to appear in particular places, giving you an even harder time to survive by reducing your visibility, audibility and clear thinking. The urban areas are destroyed and scarily silent. The atmosphere is loaded with the gurgling sounds of the wandering zombies, mixed with the familiar yet macabre whistle of the wind. The entire ecosystem is unbalanced and fragile, bringing chaos and uncertainty.

In this open world environment, you will be able to navigate through several destroyed towns and villages, deserted wastelands, ghostly highways, gloomy forests, chimeric deserts, and more. You will be able to investigate all urban and natural structures, and look for secure shelter whenever you need it. The main story will lead you to different parts of the map. However, you will have numerous opportunities to follow on various side quests that can potentially bring you valuable experience and knowledge, as well as very useful abilities and tools. In this open world environment, you are free to go whenever you like, tackle the story your way and evolve at your own pace.

Each decision steers you in a different direction and you will have to bear the consequences. You will meet other survivors, and it will be up to you to trust them or not. Your judgment can drive you to great rewards or great danger. Your ability to analyze, to learn new crafts and to innovate can open new dimensions in your every-day survival techniques.

Fight back! You will have no choice but to be quick and agile. Your combat skills will evolve according to your chosen style – go melee with scavenged or handcrafted weapons, or use guns to keep zombies at bay. Or combine both! The ability point system will allow you to make a personal combination and try out different play styles. Do not forget you have a friend with you! Your dog will level up with you, and will have its own ability-point tree. You can train him to be a sneaky assassin and aim for thezombie’s head, or to be a fearless face-to-face combatant. Become a lethal team as you make your way through hordes of hungry zombies.

Scavenge and loot! Be strategic! Armor and weapons do not spawn in random treasure boxes. You will have to use your wit in order to find them, but most often, to craft them yourself. Your surrounding will offer you great materials to do that, but you have to be creative and you have to practice, so that your armor holds strong under theraging teeth of the zombies. Adapt your equipment to your play style – wear heavy armor for melee fight or light gear for hit-and-run. Make sure not to go out there wearing a t-shirt. One and only one bite can end you!

Look for a shelter, on the rooftop of a city building or deep in the woods, where you will be able to build a nice and secure home. It will be yours. This will be a great place to craft weapons and armors, to sleep or just to spend some time with your dog. Improve your home and practice your abilities there thanks to the main and side quests that will bring you special items throughout your adventure.

Be aware of the reversal of day and night, as light or darkness can each be your savior, depending on your survival tactics. Keep track of what you eat and drink – it may be the perfect time to remember your new-year resolution and adopt healthy snacks! The dishes may be quite different from what you use to savor. But if you’re smart enough, your body will be intelligent enough to adapt. Even in the darkest world, there will always be some nutritious goodies to concoct (mm, bacon...). They will keep you strong and conscious.

Humans are almost gone, but they have left many traces – knowledge, tools, dwellings, ideas. Each location hides the potential to teach you something new, or to provide useful items. Observe and analyze, without forgetting that you can only carry a limited number of items. Among the physical traces, you can discover many stories, many shattered lives that draw the picture of a heartbreaking catastrophe. Remember that every zombie was once a human being, a loved-one and a friend. However, do not assume that those who still have human disguise also have merciful hearts.

There are two ways for you to obtain weapons and armor – you can loot them, or you can craft what you need, using the materials at your disposal. Both methods require strategy and observation.

Visit strategic locations and explore every hidden corner. Try to remember how humans were – they loved to stash more or less useful items, and to nurture their dark side of obscure fears and dreams. Think out of the box! Things are often quite versatile and can be recycled into an improvised weapon, or some neat armor. Also, you will surely come across some ex-humans who still have in their possession practical guns, knifes, etc. Do not miss the loot, you might get pretty lucky.

Scavenge and craft, everything can be useful – urban furniture, clothing, housing objects, and even expensive works of art in the city gallery. Do you want to be a survivor and have some fun with the zombies? Be creative and invent your own weapons and armor, test them, refine them, and then celebrate your wit! Do not forget to send us your celebration videos!

Your combat style will be your own, and this is what will distinguish you. You can choose to develop your defensive and offensive stance on different levels, thus producing a battle mixture that suits you the most. The ability point trees on your disposal will help you trace your path and chose your fight identity. The same goes for your dog friend. Not only you can decide how to train him so that he completes you well, but you can switch tactics in the middle of a battle (but will you be able to save in the middle of a battle?). The more you play, the more experience you gain, the moreability points you will have. Invest wisely!

Learn to survive, a separate skill-point tree is dedicated to crafting. It covers everything from basic survival to weapon and armor crafting. You can choose the skills that attract you the most and develop them. Or you can mix a little bit of everything and have a good general knowledge. The more you practice, the better you become. Each skill offers you new outcomes in your day-to-day survival, fights, scavenging and exploration.

Food and water: As you wake up six months after the initial outbreak, the world is an open wound. Viruses and bacterias are flooding the ground, polluting the water and, thus reaching the flora and fauna. You have to learn how to determine whether a plant or an animal is good to eat, and if not, how to prepare it. You will also need to examine water. The zombies are not the only threat- be careful of what you put in your body. Of course, you can brew some super power smoothie.

The landscapes vary and have their own advantages and risks. Can you handle being chased by a horde of zombies in an endless swamp, where you have nowhere to hide? On the other side, once you have reached the hills, you can find multiple hiding places and practice your surprise attacks on the unsuspecting zombies. And let’s not forget the cities, small villages, forest cottages, etc... Watch your back and do not get too comfortable. We will make sure that you do not lose your focus! Explore the rich diversity of landscapes and use what they may offer to fight, train, chill, craft, hunt...

The clear blue sky is not always there. You will have to get a little soaked, a little cold, a little lost. Weather will change when you expect it the least, and will bring youdifferent conditions, visibility, audibility, and even some new spices on your food! But whatever the weather, there is one axiom – zombies and hungry animals can’t wait to meet you. Hmm... delicious...

The Shelter -  find a safe place for you and your dog! Barricade it and use it for any purpose you like. You can bring in useful objects. The shelter will be the only safe place you have in this chaotic world. It can be in the city, in the forest, in the mountain, or you can have many – nobody would mind it! Right?

The survivor (male or female): You – a lone survivor – find yourself in the midst of a chaotic and scary new world, where you have to adapt as quickly as possible. You are healthy and strong. Try to stay this way as long as possible! You begin a journey of adventures, struggles, and self-exploration. The only thing standing between you and your goals is a bunch of carnivorous beings. However, you have the ability to learn many new things that will be helpful during your journey – from impressing combat skills to useful crafting, and necessary survival expertise.

The best news – you will not be alone! Your dog is part of the team. He will save you countless times and he knows how to fight zombies. He is quick, stealthy, deadly, and he looks less appetizing for the zombies. He also gains his own skill points. Teach him the abilities you want. Have him fight at your side in face-to-face in melee combat or train him as a stealthy assassin running in the shadows, and aiming for the zombie’s head. You will always be out there as a team, both working together and helping each other.

And what about the zombies? Well, they are everywhere and they have different sizes, shapes and stamina. Their thirst for your flesh pushes them to the extreme of their force. And they won’t be the kind of zombies you kill with a kitchen knife. Some will be slow, most will be fast, but all of them will be flesh-hungry. You have to be agile and you have to know where and how to hit so you do not get hurt.

And here is an important news for you: one and only bite turns you into one of them! Wear armor at all time! Be extremely careful and be ready for some very hard zombie fights, where analysis and good strategy are the only exit out. Some zombies will stand out by their force and malice driven by their thirst, but also by the interesting quest opportunities and unique loot they offer. Look out for them, they seem normal, but are pretty voracious!

Zombie Sketches:

As a survival RPG game, Dead Years does not leave behind the action and adventure elements, thus inducing an upbeat rhythm into the gameplay. The wide-angle camera view displays an expanded landscape, while maintaining a full visual and sensibleimmersion into the story and the action. Terrain exploration interweaves with adrenalin-rush combat, rewarding scavenging, and unexpected story outcome.

Striving to get close as possible to real-life survival, Dead Years offers various combat, survival and crafting skills, and lays out an interactive and dynamic environment. Beyond choosing your own combat style, you will be able to engage inscavenging and assembling weapons, armor, and tools. Each developed skill opens new horizons into the gameplay and the possible story outcome.

You have the power to choose the fighting style you prefer and train your dog to complete you. Create you fighting combinations and soon enough zombies will not stand a chance! Your dog will follow you closely, or will go away on a solo mission. His presence will be in great help for foreseeing and eliminating unexpected danger. He will have different combat modes that you could switch at any given moment. As for yourself, you can swap weapons quickly and adapt to the current fight – differentmelee and range weapons will be at your disposal.

Dead Years is developed by the indie video game studio ZeroByte. The team is made of three friends gathered by their passion about video games and art. Also, very important and inspirational members are our three super ferrets – McMurphy, Popcorn and Banitcki – all of them, nurtured and cherished by the entire team.

Dead Years is a dream for us. It's the game we always wanted to play. We are extremely enthusiastic about the project and we invest all of our time into it. Our goal is to make sure Dead Yearsis the best zombie survival game you play. Nothing less.

This is where we need your help! By supporting Dead Years you make sure that we have the resources to keep going. Every single dollar will be spent to make the game better. Thanks a lot for your support!

Special thanks for buying us pizza, for great feedback, for sounds effects and more to: Herbert Boland, Gorgorot, robinhood76, Ben Bonac, slave2thelight, paresh, pgi, unfa, runirasmussen, Kendel, qubodup, lebcraftlp, netaj, Dave Welsh, gutek, monotraum, Dj Chronos, Luke Sharples, halgrimm, motion-s, insinger, cmusounddesign, stair, moggi, jmorrisoncafe330, woodingp, zimbot, ekvelika, cognito-perceptu, Pergolesi, nextmaking, bluebloomers

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Risks and challenges

Risk 1: It's a lot of work!
Dead Years will be a huge game, with tons of zombies and a vast vibrant open world to explore. It's a lot of work! But the good news is, this is the game we have been dreaming of making and we're working seven days a week to make sure it will be just perfect! All the content you see has been built in three months with a limited budget, now imagine what we can do with your help!

Risk 2: It's cold in Canada!
Yes :(

For more info, or to make a pledge, click here!