The Adventures of Zomboy to be revived next month in commercial remake

• Announcements by Jack Allin
• Published:

Enhanced update of 2012 "bite-sized" post-apocalyptic freeware Flash game coming December 19th to Steam

Zombies are terrifying, but have you ever stopped to consider what life – or at least, undeath – must be like from the zombie's perspective? What might they be thinking? Okay, "braaaaaainnnns," sure, but besides that. Well, if you missed finding out in the 2012 freeware Flash game The Adventures of Zomboy, you'll soon get a second chance in the upcoming enhanced commercial remake. 

There isn't much in the way of plot to reveal, as the whole point of the adventure is to find out why you've woken up "scared, confused and smelling like a corpse." You play as the titular zomboy, just a lad who's really a very nice and peaceful, passive fellow, at least until he gets hungry. Fortunately, in the "not-too-far-off-future" post-apocalyptic desert where the game takes place, brains are actually provided in cans, so there's no terrorizing hapless living survivors to worry about. After parking your RV at a "camp set around a gas station," your goal is to discover more about the life zomboy once led, as well as what's happened to the world and perhaps what the future holds. To do that, you'll need to chat with various other characters and help them out with quests so that they'll help you to progress in your own in turn. 

As with its freeware predecessor, The Adventures of Zomboy is a traditional point-and-click, third-zombie adventure presented via charming hand-drawn graphics, though in the 2024 "reawakening" there have been some notable improvements. Rebuilt from the ground up in a whole new engine, the updated version now sports higher-resolution graphics and brand new animations, along with achievements, more interactive items, and several quality-of-life changes, including an autosave feature. The basic premise remains the same, however, and to succeed you'll need to need to carefully explore your surroundings, make assumptions and witty observations, collect and combine items to solve puzzles, and question the other camp inhabitants, such as a sad little girl and a barista, a gardener, a salesman, a guard and a drunk. There's also lots of reading material available in the form of "books, magazines and newspapers, which will help you understand what's going on." Expect a "bite-sized" experience in more ways than one, as the full game shouldn't take longer than an hour to complete, and will be budget-priced accordingly. 

There isn't long to wait for you to eat some brains while teasing your own, as The Adventures of Zomboy is due to launch on Steam on December 19th for Windows PC.