Year Zero is a massivly-multiplayer online game (mmo) that has been in the design stages for the last 5 years. It is not the project of a large developer or professional company. It has been the project of a few friends. Now I am opening the developement to the community at large. That being said of course the core team of developers have the final say in all.

Year Zero is based in a post apocolyptic world starting when a virus starts to decimate human population centers. (deeper background info to come.)
The introduction of the game takes place at the moment when the player first encounters the zombies. This area is a introduction area for the player. There will also be groups of other players with them. After the introduction the main segment of the game starts 2 years (TDB) after the introduction. After this time most of the world is in ruins.

Play how you want.-
The game takes a heavy emphasis of team work. However a player will not have to team up to play by any means. Its just easier when your being attacked by hordes of zombies! However, a line person can often get by on stealth..Play however you like

Interactability-
A core mechanic of Year Zero is the worlds interactability. The player will be able to pick up many different items and use them as you could in real life. For example, need a safe place to rest for the night? Pick up some nails, a hammer, and some plywood and start covering the windows and doors! Or find a safe house already created by a long dead player. Or alternativly take apart that safe house and make your own in a more defensible position! This is a core mechanic of the game and can not be thrown out. We design around this concept and design for a target technology that can support this- weather one year or 10 years in the future.


Become the enemy-
Get bitten? You have the opportunity to actually become a zombie and hunt down other players!

Realistic environments-
Year Zero is set in the modern day US and we wish to make it as realistic as possible. However gameplay still trumps realism any day. The keyword here is suspension of disbelief.
Players will start in seattle (and possibly other locations.) but will spread out from there to other areas of the western US. The game world can be expanded via content patches later on.

Open development-
Most game mechanics and overall design of Year Zero is fully open to the community and public at large. Let us know your thoughts, ideas, and suggestions!


Its a MMO, but not in the traditional sense.-
Its a MMO on a smaller scale. It is a dying world after all! Instead of the usual thousands_ players running around player limit per server will be sevearly capped. With more smaller servers. This will help make the world more believable. Who would want a hundred jumping toons in a area thats supposed to be mostkly dead anyways?

MMOFPSRPG (WTF?)
Year Zero has more in common with a traditional FPS then a RPG. However it will make use of some traditional RPG elements such as the ability to customize avatars and create items. On the FPS side, Year Zero will be played from first person perspective primarily, with a secondary third person used mainly to see what your avatar looks like (this feature is still TBD. We may throw the idea out and go with a "changing room" feature seen in many other MMOs. Also players will have specific skill sets that differentiate them from other players. For example skill at sniping, first aid, or vehicle jurry rigging.

Zombies? YAY! Is there more?
Yes, there is a lot more. Zombies may be a big feature but is is not the only focus of Year Zero. Players will not only have to fight off hordes of zombies to survive, but survuve each other as they rebuild the world literally from the ground up. Build player controled towns and control areas of natural resources. Build trade routes between these towns to trade these resources. Then hire out players or NPCS to guard these towns and their trade convoys! Or attack them! Year Zero is about the survival and rebuilding of human kind.