Rebuild takes place in an apocalyptic world taken over by zombies. You may think this makes for a very typical zombie game where you just fight wave after wave of zombies trying to survive. Well, you would be wrong. Rebuild, just as the name states, is designed to challenge the player to focus on “rebuilding” the apocalyptic world. I was lucky enough to be able to interview Sarah Northway, the game’s designer, and she informed me that the initial problem was to not make a cliché zombie game. She faced the challenge of turning a game type that had become very popular and putting her own twist to it.
Rebuild this city!
Rebuild is the first of the series and is a turn-by-turn game, where each turn consisted of one day. Each action you make requires a certain amount of days to complete, thus making it important to be strategic in how you allocate your people. One cool thing about this game is how Northway is able to take the focus off of just fighting the zombies to also focus on gaining food and keeping your people satisfied. This game forces the player to completely change their strategy from the other typical zombie games that are out there, from fighting to surviving.
When I asked Mrs. Northway why she decided to make Rebuild, she gave me a few reasons. First was the pure fact that she loves zombies, who doesn’t? Second, she likes the “how-do-you-survive” strategy, which is what seems to draw this game away from other zombie games. Finally she explained the simplicity of developing the game to me and how “zombies are easy dumb baddies to program into a game, and a trope that everyone understands which makes the game easier to get into.” When I took a step back and reflected about Rebuild, all of that makes sense. The game seems like a very simple game to construct, there isn’t very much animation, but the story line and the different actions keep the player engaged. This could also be considered a “time killer” as well, since the game is easy to pick up and dive into.
Mrs. Northway generously gave me the chance to play the most recent game in the Rebuild series on Steam called, Rebuild: Gangs of Deadsville, which is the third in the series. This game is similar, but has a lot of different twists. As I played the game I found out that the game became a lot faster pace. The days are now not a turn-by-turn thing, but a more continual cycle allowing the player to pause on any day in particular. But the main difference is the fact that this game has now become a multiplayer game, whether its with another human or the computer, Mrs. Northway has instilled the extra feature of having to survive with (or in some cases against) another “gang”. This new addition of having multiple factions fighting for survival in one city is interesting to me, and has definitely put its unique twist on the series.
Level up your citizens!
I then asked Mrs. Northway what inspired her to make these changes, was it because of fan feedback? Or was it something she had planned on from day one? She did mention that some of the additions, like having a bigger tech tree and more resources, were stuff she wanted to add from the beginning; but she had so much feedback from the other two games that all the ideas tended to mesh together. This is what is so cool about the gaming community, the market is completely for the fans! Those who play the games have such a huge influence on the games that they are almost able to create games just by suggesting ideas to the developers. The history of games also follows along this path as well. Other games throughout history have been made to entertain people, and essentially give the people something they enjoy. The way Mrs. Northway used her fans’ ideas to develop the game is just another example of how games came into existence.
Finally, I asked Mrs. Northway what her idea of a game is. She told me how she and her husband, also a game designer, have different views on what makes up a game. Her husband believes that a game can be either a linear story or a “visual exploration”, a free-roaming world. Mrs. Northway believes that for something to be a game it needs to be like a puzzle or some sort of challenge to force the player to learn and improve skills. These are both very interesting views on what makes a game. From viewing the games that we have played this month, it seems as though the games all do a couple things, to entertain and teach. These seem to be the reasons that games were invented in the beginning, and throughout time they have just built upon those ideas. For something to be entertaining it needs to capture the audience’s attention, thus making exploration and puzzles a hook for the curious human species. So, for me to describe what makes up a game, I would combine both Mrs. Northway’s and her husband’s answers and say that games are forms of entertainment allowing the audience to explore and challenge themselves physically and mentally.
To bring this review back full circle, Rebuild (both the first and the third edition) provide this kind of entertainment. The fact that you have to allocate your resources and people to defend and feed your city/gang fulfills the puzzle aspect. Then the story of the random zombie attacks and how your gang of misfits got to where they are fulfills the narrative side. Rebuild ended up being a very easy game to pick up, since almost everyone is able to relate to the idea of survival. It also became a very addicting game because it has multiple ways to win and provides a constant challenge. Since the game has multiple ways to beat the game, this allows for a high play-again rate meaning the audience won’t be bored with only one challenge. The Rebuild series is definitely worth a try, it will give anyone who wants to get a taste of a zombie apocalypse their fill.