If there's one thing the world probably doesn't need, it's more zombies. Between film, games, television, and even books, the undead are everywhere. But the games that have come out so far—including everything from Left 4 Dead to Resident Evil—have largely failed to address one of the most powerful and intriguing aspects of a zombie apocalypse: survival. Undead Labs is looking to change that.

Ars spoke with studio founder Jeff Strain about Undead's upcoming projects, which include an open-world zombie survival game on Xbox Live Arcade.

Undead recently announced a partnership with Microsoft Game Studios, which will see MGS publishing the XBLA zombie game, currently codenamed Class3. Though details are slim on how the game will actually play, it's being described as both an action game and an open world game.

"Our core mission is to build a game around the question, 'What would you do in the face of the zombie apocalypse?'" Strain told Ars. "We want to give you the freedom to test your own survival strategy. Having great action gameplay is a core part of that, as it is in any good open world game. A third-person camera; direct, responsive controls; player-controlled aiming—these are what define the way the game plays from moment to moment."

But according to Strain, what will make Class3 different from most straight-up action games is its open-ended nature. It won't be a linear, mission-based experience. Instead, you'll be forced to make your own decisions and figure out what needs to be done. And these decisions will all be focused on survival, which, Strain explained, is one the main draws of the zombie genre.

"The genre does not endure because zombies are particularly interesting monsters to fight—compared to, say, dragons or giant robots—but instead because we emotionally connect with the notion of bands of human survivors trying to work together to survive against a common enemy in the face of societal collapse," he told Ars. "This is the strength of the zombie genre, and this is the foundation of the design for Class3."

The game will feature co-op play, both online and off. When playing online, you'll be able to visit your friend's world, and vice versa. But Undead is also working on something much more ambitious, a massively multiplayer zombie survival game appropriately known as Class4. It, too, will be coming to a game console, and Class3 will serve as a testing ground for its much larger sibling.

"Building an online world game from the ground up specifically for console gamers is not only a substantial technical challenge, but also an enormous design challenge," explained Strain. "Before we commit to that path, we want to make sure our game is fun to play. Being an online world game is simply not sufficient to guarantee that a game is fun.

"We want to build a community of zombie-survival and open world game fans, put something awesome in their hands in a reasonable time frame, and then integrate the community into the design process for Class4 so we can build an online world game with confidence that it will be fun. The Xbox Live platform is the ideal channel for that."

Strain wouldn't reveal any sort of release window for Class3, though he did say that the development cycle would be comparable to that of most XBLA games and that it began six months ago. He also wouldn't say much about the story. The game begins directly after a zombie apocalypse, and figuring out just what happened is actually one of your main goals. Well, that and staying alive.

More importantly, though, Strain discussed just what kind of undead forces players will be up against. Are they going to be fast, 28 Days Later zombies? Or the more common, slow and shambling hordes?

"Why, both, of course!" he told Ars.