[I may update this as details shift into place during development]

[I just slapped this together for now]

What is Organ Trail?

Organ Trail is a zombie packed homage of the beloved educational game from your childhood: Oregon Trail. We have faithfully recreated it as if it were on the Apple II. It’s just as hard and just as ridiculous. “A fire in your station wagon has destroyed 1 bullet.” There are all sorts of new zombie themed references and situations thrown in. If you would rather see it… go play the free flash version we made over a year ago.

What is the Directors Cut?

We put out the free version and got over 600,000 user in one year. The number one demand was to put it on mobile. So we are doing that now. We ran a Kickstarter and got all the money we need. In order to justify selling the game, we are now adding tons of new content while remaining true to the original.

What platforms will it be on?

iOS (iPhone/iPad), Android, PC/Mac Standalone. We are shooting for Steam but we haven’t been approved yet. Fingers crossed.

When will it be released?

We are currently shooting for late May maybe June? We have never done this before so there is a good chance this is TERRIBLY WRONG. So please put up with us while we figure out how to actually release a commercial product and support a newly formed studio.

Can I still get dysentery?

Yes.

How much will it cost?

We are aiming for $2.99 on mobile and $4.99 on PC/Mac. As much as I would love to give it away for less, we decided it would be cooler to make the Directors Cut so amazing that the fans feel good about paying a little more than the average mobile title.

Shut up and take my money!

People keep asking if they can still donate. While we have no official means to do that. If you are feeling generous and wish to support us on our wild ride of potentially going broke; we do have a donate button on our website. Otherwise, just share the game with your friends and wait for the Director’s Cut to release. And thank you. Seriously. You are the best.

What’s new? (aka why would I pay for it?)

While we aren’t announcing every new feature yet; here are a few:

New UI for the touch interface

All sorts of new scavenging/shooting/zombie killing mechanics

Boss fights!

Extended friend killing mechanics (so cool!)

New art and a great new Soundtrack

More interactivity

New event system that gives you more heartbreaking apocalyptic decision making action!

Car upgrades

1 or 2 secret awesome extra modes

probably more stuff!

What’s all this about a Kickstarter?

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/hatsproductions/organ-trail-directors-cut

Who are the Developers?

The Men Who Wear Many Hats are Ryan Wiemeyer and Micheal Block. We are the primary developers and we wear many hats; in that we do a lot ourselves. We currently make games in our spare time but that is slowly becoming a full time thing. We currently have two contract artists, Benn Marion and Tim McMahon. Our entire soundtrack and sound design is being done by Ben Crossbones. We are badly paying them almost nothing. So hopefully the game sells well enough that they don’t hate us. We are all based in Chicago.

What is the Design Focus?

Okay, no one actually asked this but I think it’s important. I am trying to balance a few pillars of our design. Those being:

Stay faithful to the source material

Give zombie fans something to love (Easter eggs everywhere)

Facilitate self-authorship

Don’t be cheap with the zombie thing

That last one is about making sure we aren’t just cashing in on zombies the way lost of people seem to. We know zombies are over done. We know it’s a cliche. But people love zombies (me included.) And I am really going to try and make this game address actual situations that you would find interesting and difficult in an apocalyptic setting. We like focusing on the human element as well as the shoot’n-zombies-good-ol-time element. It’s hard… because we are balancing an amount of humor with the heavy stuff. And ya know… and we only have so much we can do with the Apple II limitations; but I love a challenge.

What are you making it in?

Unity

Feel free to ask more in the comments or ask me on twitter @HatsProductions