Kickstarter

About Undead Escape

               Undead Escape is set in a small farming community called Whispering Hills. A local biomedical research facility, BioPhage Inc,  set up shop on the outskirts of the town. The company was detested by the locals, so to try and win their favor BioPhage Inc started providing free medical services to the local community. Unbeknown to its patients, they were also conducting secret experiments on them at the same time; subjecting them to a new super drug the company developed called VX-14. The viral vaccine was supposed to be a new cure for HIV but the FDA wouldn’t approve it for human testing since lab results on rats showed an increase in appetite, decreased brain function and increased aggressive responses to normal stimuli. This was the reason why BioPhage chose Whispering Hills as the site for its secret test site, but the results were worse than they could have imagined.

             There are 8 pawns in the game; each one is a 3D figure molded from zinc and modeled after the characters and zombies found in the game. The box, board and cards for Undead Escape will be printed in CMYK 4 color process with an Aqueous coating for protection. Each character in Undead Escape will also come with a character card that displays their picture and a short biography.   

Playing Undead Escape

               You take on the role of 1 of 4 characters, trapped in the local Food-n-Mor grocery store after fleeing from a hoard of zombies. At the back of the store is a small office, just big enough for one or two survivors to hide out but between you and that office are the undead. Your goal is to get through the store, avoiding or killing zombies along the way and break into the locked office, the first character to reach the office wins.

            Undead Escape is a Roll and Move game but it doesn’t play like a normal Roll and Move game. You have two die to roll and two characters to control. The first character moves along the game board on one of the dies rolled but you also control a “twin” zombie character that moves on the second die. So you not only control your own “hero” character trying to survive the hoard, but you play as the hoard itself, attacking other players at will and attempting to prevent them from beating you to the safe house.

            There are also special cards that can be picked up along the way that help your character move further across the board, hinder them by making them move back, or pick up items that give your character extra points that can be used when attacking or being attacked by a zombie. There is also a special deck just for the zombies that can increase the number of spaces they can move with the roll of the die (although we recommend only putting this deck in play to extend the game time of shorter games with fewer than 4 people).

How Undead Escape Was Created

               The idea for Undead Escape came to me from a project I was working on for a Game Design class while attending the University of Advancing Technology. I had to come up with an idea for an original video game and I settled on making an original dungeon scroller with a story built around a zombie apocalypse. Part of the assignment was to play test the idea by turning it into a working pen and paper game, play testing it with friends and family to see how the mechanics of the video game version would pan out. This is where Undead Escape received its start. Play testing the game with friends and family lead to the home made creation of a prototype, which I made myself by hand, with a letter help from my computer and printer. The next couple of months were spent play testing the game with more friends and my fellow co-workers before it really started catching on. Card decks were changed, rules were rewritten and the story behind the game board itself was given a make-over with biographies for the characters. After about a year’s worth of development and play testing sessions at work and at home, Undead Escape grew into a game that was fun to play and very addictive. It was at this point that I decided to turn my new addiction into a full production game that I could share with the world.

            Since this was my first game I spent a lot of time researching how to make a game, how to sell your idea to companies, and how easy it was to fail. Along the way I came across many companies but it was Grand Prix International that I decided to go with for producing the game. They were able to give me a quote that was reasonably priced and unlike other companies I have looked into, they are able to produce all the custom pieces that I desire for the game. They also helped me find the perfect artist for the game in the form of Illustrator Brian Smith of BetterForBrian.com. He shares my interest in the game and in zombies and has been a blessing in the creation of art for the game. Everyday Brian gets closer and closer to finishing the artwork for the game, and the dream comes closer to becoming a reality.

Where You (The Backer) Comes In

               This past year has been a great and wonderful journey for me and the creation of Axial Fire Games LLC, but it’s not over yet. I want to share this experience with the Backers of Kickstarter by offering the game here before going retail. The money donated through Kickstarter will help pay for the final costs of the artwork Brian is currently designing, and the rest will go to pay for the first shipment of games from Grand Prix International.

When Rewards Will Be Delivered

               I tried being as realistic as possible with the estimated delivery dates although it is hard to foresee what the future holds. Rewards will be delivered as close to the estimated dates as possible, but I will do everything I can to deliver them early whenever possible, Backers will be notified of any delays as soon as they occur (but hopefully there won’t be any).

Kicking it Forward

              As part of the Kicking it Forward campaign, We solemnly pledge 5% of the profits from the finished product back to the Kickstarter community to help fund other people's dreams.

http://kickingitforward.org