Hello everyone!

My name is Cenelder, and I am the character artist for No More Room In Hell 2 (NMRIH2). I wanted to update everyone on our progress thus far, as well as outline some key features and additions to our player characters. But first, since this IS a zombie survival game, let’s kick this blog off with some information and screenshots on our undead friends!

For No More Room in Hell 2, we really wanted to think about the theoretical science behind our zombie disease, how that would manifest, and how we could translate our reasoning into fun and interesting enemy types. We decided to break down our zombie virus into 3 key stages of progression with very different archetypes.

The Runner

The first stage of the zombie virus is known as a Runner. When a fresh victim becomes a zombie, their body amplifies production of testosterone and adrenaline, and quickly burns away all of their body fat converting it to muscle mass. This increases not only their strength, speed, mobility and sight, but also their aggression. Their movements become twitchy and they appear anxious. They have increased visual acuity, and will chase down anything they see moving, and their increased mobility and speed will make sure that they get there quickly regardless of obstacles. Luckily, this stage doesn’t last long, as it requires constant feeding on human flesh, and they burn through their muscle mass within a few days time.

The Walker

If a runner cannot consume a steady source of ill-equipped human survivors, eventually their muscles deteriorate and they transition into the Walker stage. These are a more traditional, Romero influenced slow moving zombie. They can summon short bursts of speed during attacks, but are generally limited in their movement capabilities. The clarity of the runner’s eyesight has somewhat receded, but their sense of hearing has vastly improved. They will be drawn from great distances toward gunfire and other noises. This can quickly overwhelm survivors with their sheer numbers.

The Shambler

The final stage of the zombie disease is the Shambler. Highly decrepit and decayed, zombies in this stage are highly contagious and emit a very distinct foul odor helping them to easily distinguish the scents of the living from the dead. Upon smelling living flesh, they emit a high pitch screeching noise that will attract Runners and Walkers to their location. Filter masks are suggested when engaging Shamblers to reduce chances of infection, although steering clear all together is preferred. Destroying a Shambler can create a biohazard in the immediate area.

The Children

And of course, we also have zombie Children. They tend to stay fast and limber for much much longer than adults due to lower calorie requirements, and a reduced effect on their undeveloped hormonal system. While the immature hormonal system prevents them from burning out quickly like their adult counterparts, they are not nearly as strong, fast, or agile.

So What About Character Customization?

A lot of people are asking about player customization. YES! We DO have player customization planned! I don’t want to get too in depth with our player customization yet (we will be discussing customization in depth in an upcoming blog), but you will be able to customize the look and clothing of your characters. We have some really cool reward structures that we are pretty excited about that will showcase your dedication to slaying zombies.

Zombies will have have randomized clothing as well! Not only will this affect the visual look of the zombies, but we can do things like add helmets that make them more resistant to melee head trauma, or body armor to increase their resilience. All of this will be generated by a random number generator that we can customize per map, and yes, that means that fully armored Runners are a thing to be feared! (*And balanced pending play testing)

We’ll keep this blog active as a window into our progress and development in the coming days.