I Made a Game with Zombies in It!
Developer(s)Ska Studios
Publisher(s)Ska Studios (Xbox Live)
Microsoft Studios (Windows Phone)
Designer(s)James Silva
Programmer(s)James Silva
Artist(s)James Silva
Composer(s)James Silva
Platform(s)Xbox 360, Windows Phone 7, Windows, Linux
ReleaseXbox 360
August 16, 2009[1]
Windows Phone 7
November 29, 2011
Windows, Linux
November 11, 2021[2]
Genre(s)Multidirectional shooter
Mode(s)Single-player, Multiplayer

I Made a Game with Zombies in It! (officially stylized as I MAED A GAM3 W1TH Z0MBIES 1N IT!!!1), is a zombie-themed multidirectional shooter video game for the Xbox 360, available through the Xbox Live Indie Games service. Released in 2009, it was developed by Ska Studios and was designed entirely by company founder James Silva, previously best known for the Xbox Live Arcade game The Dishwasher: Dead Samurai.[3][4] The game was developed using Microsoft XNA, though its tongue-in-cheek description claims it was made using "Hypermagic Engine 3.0 and the Megacore X parallelization processor." The game's title makes excessive comic usage of features of Internet writing, such as leetspeak, overuse of exclamation marks, and typographical errors.

Gameplay

The game features one to four protagonists viewed from an aerial perspective. Using two analog sticks, the players shoot droves of attacking zombies while collecting power-ups, with the objective of surviving until the game's background song ends.[5][6] The game is timed by a 13:37-minute rock-style background song sung by Silva himself[7] with lyrics about the game itself.[8] The song, which shares the same title as the game, was made available for download on the official Ska Studios website.[9] The song was also released through the Rock Band Network, about a year after the game's release.[3][5] Silva said Xbox Live's indie game price point inspired him to make "a $1 experience that delivers." He did not expect it to be a success, and that he was "half-expecting it to fail for being too stupid of a game."[4]

Reception

The game was ranked 2009's most popular Xbox Live Indie Game based on connectivity.[3][10] It sold 160,000 copies by January 2010, making it the top-selling Xbox Live Indie Game by more than 40,000 units.[3][11] Zombies went on to sell 200,000 copies by March 2010 and jumped to 308,000 in sales by August 2010 [12] making Silva roughly $215,000 after Microsoft's 30 percent revenue fee.[11] The game became a favorite with critics, and was noted for its quirky sense of humor and theme song.[3] IGN ranked it the best independent game of 2009.[13] IGN writer Erik Brudvig said the game was extremely entertaining and "somehow about as insane as its title," despite the simple controls.[5] I Made a Game with Zombies in It! won the 2009 Inside Gaming Award for Best Indie Game.[8]

References

  1. ^ "I MAED A GAM3 W1TH Z0MB1ES!!!1". Xbox Live Marketplace. Microsoft. August 16, 2009. Archived from the original on March 29, 2010. Retrieved March 29, 2010.
  2. ^ "I MAED A GAM3 W1TH Z0MB1ES 1N IT!!!1". Steam. Valve. November 11, 2021. Retrieved November 20, 2021.
  3. ^ a b c d e Hatfield, Daemon (January 25, 2010). "I MAED A #1 IND1E GAM3". IGN. Archived from the original on January 29, 2010. Retrieved March 29, 2010.
  4. ^ a b Reynolds, Matthew (October 21, 2009). "James Silva ('Dishwasher', 'Z0MB1ES')". Digital Spy. Retrieved March 29, 2010.
  5. ^ a b c Brudvig, Erik (August 28, 2009). "The Best Way to Spend a Dollar". IGN. Archived from the original on August 31, 2009. Retrieved March 29, 2010.
  6. ^ Acevedo, Paul (17 February 2012). "Z0MB1ES!!1 (on the phone): Xbox Windows Phone Review". Windows Central. Retrieved 15 February 2016.
  7. ^ "James Silva talks dishwashing, Zombies and XNA". Archived from the original on April 20, 2010. Retrieved April 7, 2011.
  8. ^ a b "2009 Inside Gaming Awards - Best Indie Game Winner". Machinima. YouTube. December 14, 2009. Retrieved March 29, 2010.
  9. ^ Silva, James (August 26, 2009). "Download I MAED A S0NG W1TH Z0MB1ES 1N IT!!!1". Ska Studios. Retrieved March 29, 2010.
  10. ^ Hryb, Larry (January 10, 2010). "The Top 20 LIVE Games of 2009". MajorNelson.com. Archived from the original on January 14, 2010. Retrieved March 29, 2010.
  11. ^ a b Graft, Kris (March 2, 2010). "I MAED A GAM3 W1TH Z0MB1ES 1N IT!!!1... And Sold 200K Units". Gamasutra. Retrieved March 29, 2010.
  12. ^ "GAM3 W1TH Z0MB1ES Infects Rock Band Network". Ska Studios. 23 August 2010. Retrieved August 23, 2010.
  13. ^ "Best Indie Game: I MAED A GAM3 W1TH Z0MB1ES!!!". IGN. December 14, 2009. Archived from the original on March 8, 2010. Retrieved March 29, 2010.

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