Before the holidays we went to try Zombie Army 4, the title of Rebellion Developments that will hit the shelves (physical and virtual) during the month of February. On the occasion, we were also able to exchange a few words with two of the developers behind this new work, that is Jordan Woodward (Level Lead Designer) e Shariqua Wahid (Designer), who answered our questions. Here is what they told us!
How did you come up with the idea of including zombies in Sniper Elite in the famous Nazi Zombie War DLC?
As you know Zombie Army was born as a Sniper Elite DLC. In reality it all started as an experiment (long before I joined the company): "let's try to put zombies in the Second World War and see what happens". It worked.
Did you expect such a success, after the DLC and the trilogy, that you could get to the development of a stand alone version? Was it already in the plans?
Yes, we had a solid fan base from the previous two games, and our fans wanted more, it seemed to be of interest to them. It was certainly a very different universe, a sort of cult horror. Basically we released the game as a standalone just to please the fanbase, our idea was only that of a DLC. Zombie Army 4 was born precisely from this mixture: we remained faithful to the previous games but we listened to the opinions of the fans, trying to improve every single content.
What does the transition from DLC to standalone game entail, and what did such an important transition entail on a technical level (but also of gameplay)?
It wasn't really a DLC but a spin-off game, but what I can say is that we definitely had to explore some details in more depth. Among these is certainly the plot of the game, necessary for Zombie Army 4.
How long did it take to work and test the game, especially in teams, to understand the right dynamics and get it out on the market?
We definitely had to try a lot of mechanics thoroughly with the entire development team and external teams (to get a different perspective). We played practically every day, as much as we could, to understand what to fix and what to expand. We then did larger organized playtests to get feedback.
This also emerges in the game: in the first scenario we could not communicate with each other and it was difficult to play, while in the second scenario, with active microphones, we could coordinate better.
Of course, we want the players to discuss with each other, to find strategies. What skills to take, what to improve and how to coordinate. In short, the game is very focused on the team and works much better when the team talks and works together.
Zombies are now everywhere in the media and are undoubtedly part of the team of classic monsters: why did you choose them, and have you ever thought of inserting other monsters (such as werewolves or vampires)?
I don't know why zombies were originally chosen, but maybe it was all about what happens if a Nazi comes back to life from the dead. Sure we could explore the horror world further, werewolves are not a bad idea, and so are vampires. Surely on our part there is a strong love for horror, especially the one related to the cult (comedy series movies), and we could certainly deepen the theme.
In fact, we have seen how the Special Edition has a statue of a zombie shark inside it, close to films like the Shark.
The inspiration for that statue came both from the label that Rebellion owns dedicated to comics, 2000 AD, and from the IP he owns of Hook Jaw (inspired in turn by the Shark), and from wanting to create many easter egg all game interior and many tributes to horror movies and films. Precisely for the occasion we have seen many horror films such as Dead Snow, Overlord, Resident Evil, all to take inspiration for the game.
