I Have a Slightly Different Dream

I have a dream that one day the ultimate zombie story will be told, in video game form, and also as a novelization of that video game. Let it be a zombie action/survival-horror/RPG/strategy game with base building, recruitment, and team gameplay.

I have a dream that the game is mine. It is based on the remake of Dawn of the Dead and you can make a character using micro-transactions to buy gear. The mall is just one of the locations. And the graphics and controls will be top tier, like the best AAA shooter titles.

I have a dream of lots of guns, which you can customize, wicked melee weapons, multiple types of zombies including a fat one that explodes, a skinny evil woman zombie, and a horrifying zombie baby swarm.

I have a dream that the ultimate enemy will be other players, other survivors in the zombie wasteland. And you can take the survival horror with you on your iPad or Android tablet.

I have a dream of 64 player death match, open world sandbox, base-building, battle-racing, zombie party mystery.

I have a dream today!

I have a dream that we will stop accepting substandard zombie games, films and literature, and the genre will finally achieve the greatness to which it aspires, to finally tell the story that I want to tell about zombies. The story about man's inhumanity to himself and the fear of cannibalism, the decay of society as the world breaks down, and the realization that all men are equal in surviving the horror of my unique vision of the apocalypse.

I have a dream of rhythm mini-games, vehicle hi-jacking, a robust trading system, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. powers, and lots of quick time events. The more the better. Customize haircuts. Wear hats. Scrounge the ruins for batteries for your lowlight goggles. Crash helicopters into gas stations.

I have a dream today!

I have a dream that one day all the zombie games that came before us will be in a museum, side by side, and my zombie game will be unequivocally the best. Everyone will be super pumped up for my game, which is the real ultimate zombie experience, not like all those disappointing pretenders. You will be able to craft healing potions, fortify your bases, scavenge for crossbow bolts, and creep through zombie-populated streets.

I have a dream that you can loot stores. Kidnap your enemies for ransom. Siphon fuel from abandoned vehicles. Get married in-game. Play a furry zombie hunter. Use bitcoins to buy in-game trade items to buy a Tom Savini sheriff skin. Download the prequel comic.

I have a dream that we will have holiday events in-game and our first expansion will add a steampunk island. No, dieselpunk. With Nazi zombies. And a castle. And you can choose to play as a zombie too. Like one of the alpha zombies that is smarter and faster and can fly helicopters.

I had some other stuff in my dream, but my alarm for my Minecraft game just went off and my friends will never stop making fun of me if I don't help them build our volcano base today. I may not live to see my dream realized, but I will make the website and send you the fiction I have written based around JSOC commando Captain Hunter Hawk. You can skip over the sex scenes.

And when you finally see my game (tentative title Zompocalypse: War of the Z) in Steam, and you notice the cost, you will paraphrase the words of that famous negro spiritual, "Free to play! Free to play! Thank god almighty, the ultimate zombie game ever conceptualized is free to play!"

– Zack "Geist Editor" Parsons (@sexyfacts4u)