Seeing as how Xbox Live Arcade now has free developmment, I'm going to start working on a prototype game to submit to the microsoft XLA service so I can get free dev tools and make an Xbox Live Arcade game.

It'll probably be a top-view zombie shooter with a huge neighborhood and city and geometry wars/untertow style shooting.

Any support would be welcomed.

You may see a bit less of me as soon as I get into active development as well.

PS: This is in main because its about the undertaking, not the actual project.

Good luck.

Sounds cool. I can throw in loads of suggestions.

-When a zombie dies, spending XX amount of time in it's blood will infect you. Makes sense right? It'd make mass zombie battles a bitch.
-Some vehicles?
-Mounted machine guns
-Storyline of you being a survivor and you live in a rebel base, though this is just an arcade game so meh.
-Able to search bodies, zombies and humans, for supplies.
-A dog companion that you can direct to distract zombies.

Though some of those may be over complicated for simple an arcade game.

Sounds cool.

I hope this works out. =]

Quote from MiniMan

Sounds cool. I can throw in loads of suggestions.

-When a zombie dies, spending XX amount of time in it's blood will infect you. Makes sense right? It'd make mass zombie battles a bitch.

I may have this. This'd prevent camping pretty well.

-Some vehicles?

I'll very likely do this. But they would only be effective at transport, unless you have a turret attached: too many zombie would slow you down loads.

-Mounted machine guns

Will do. I'll also have a few stationary turrets.

-Storyline of you being a survivor and you live in a rebel base, though this is just an arcade game so meh.

Nah, I'm gonna have an opening crawl saying that you woke up from a medication-induced sleep and the world was filled with zombies, ala 28 Days Later.

-Able to search bodies, zombies and humans, for supplies.

Way ahead of you.

-A dog companion that you can direct to distract zombies.

Meh, I can't really do that, that'd require too much AI, and I can't quite do that yet.

Ash, grab there attention by inventing something the game world hasn't seen before, but in a simple sense.

How do you think little big planet was created? a little independent gaming company had a intuitive engine, something that wasn't so run of the mill.

Quote from Nodbarnacle

Ash, grab there attention by inventing something the game world hasn't seen before, but in a simple sense.

How do you think little big planet was created? a little independent gaming company had a intuitive engine, something that wasn't so run of the mill.

I can't. I'm not an awesome programmer.

that's not what I mean, it can be something really simple.

never mind.

Quote from Ash

Seeing as how Xbox Live Arcade now has free developmment, I'm going to start working on a prototype game to submit to the microsoft XLA service so I can get free dev tools and make an Xbox Live Arcade game.

It'll probably be a top-view zombie shooter with a huge neighborhood and city and geometry wars/untertow style shooting.

Any support would be welcomed.

You may see a bit less of me as soon as I get into active development as well.

PS: This is in main because its about the undertaking, not the actual project.

Lol, I'm doing the same. It costs money to be in the XNA Creator's Club though. Only the development is free.

Also, post the project in the video game section.

@Nod:

Well, noone's had a zombie game that captures what makes zombie movies like Dawn of the Dead and Day of the Dead great.

Emotional storyline, believeable characters, and lots of sex.

Wait.

Storyline:

1. Wakes up, being marauded, as you said.
2. Gains weaponry, etc. and fights through the zombies just to survive.
3. Tries to figure out what is happening and why.
4. Figures it out and searches for the cure.
5. Finds out it was made already but the lab was overtaken by zombies.
6. Search for the lab, find it.
7. Have the end being the "cure" is not as expected with an incredible plot twist... maybe the "cure" is a nuclear bomb or killing yourself? Your call, be creative.

Not sure if this has been a storyline before, sorry if it has. I'm not up to snuff with all my zombie/undead films and games.

I got more ideas.

-Have the blood spread out from the body, of course it stops sooner or later.
-Dont litter the place with mounted guns, only during something like a huge zombie invasion
-Maybe have a hideout you can customize and store shit in?
-Hand to hand First Person zombie punch out for when they surprise you like they pop out of a closet?
-Give the zombies the ability to attack to just hurt you, and knock you over at which point you stay layed down and can only use your secondary weapon and then eventually you can get up. Like Left4Dead
-Wake up in a hospital type of area, hospitals+zombies= massive scariness
-Flashlight, for the below idea
-Areas like underground tunnels where you need the flashlight, and have it only light up an area in front of you.

If it's good I'd buy an Xbox just to play it. Does Xbox have to approve of it then make it available or something?

Actually, there has been a storyline like that: Halo gets rid of the zombie-like Flood by killing all sentient life, and Return of the living dead ends with the characters calling the army, and the army's ''contingency plan'' is a nuke.

Just an idea, but you could have your character travel around the country/world and fight invasions in different cities, so you could have different levels and environments. You could have a world map that showed how serious the situation was in each city, and it could get worse over time or something. Then you would travel there via helicopter/plane/etc
Also, from this map you could potentially firebomb entire cities