I can guarantee you that a zombie survival game called God Save Birmingham wasn’t on your “Video Game Announcements 2024” bingo card. It’s set in 14th-century England and tasks you with fending off the rampant zombie hordes of a population that’s succumbed to a mysterious case of reanimation. Perhaps that’s because there aren’t any Maccies or TK Maxxes at the local Bull Ring yet.
As the only non-zombified Brummie, you have to do survival game things: forage for food, craft tools and weapons, hunt for food, and build a nice little shelter to shelter yourself in. Birmingham itself will be home to markets, closed forges, and St. Martin's Church in the iconic Bull Ring Market, apparently.
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While I wouldn't say the trailer above shows any of this, the game aims to create “physics-based mechanics” that allow you to outwit the horde. The Steam page mentions stacking furniture to create barricades, using low fences to trip zombies, or simply mutilating them so they're more crawly and less slithery.
The game is being developed by Ocean Drive Studios, who started out working on it with a team of two, before expanding to a team of six. Their plan is to do some beta testing, before launching it into Early Access for a few years. When it will launch into Early Access is unknown, but they predict it will feature “a quarter of the entire city” to explore. The first year of Early Access will therefore be spent finishing “the city itself” and its “survival challenges”, before the next year will be spent “creating light narrative elements”.
Honestly, I'm getting tired of survival games these days. I don't feel like building things out of planks of wood anymore! But I have to admit that I'm intrigued by a game set in 14th century Birmingham, a city I have no family ties to, but have visited several times for a wedding, a get-together with friends, and because the city hosts one of the most prestigious badminton tournaments in the world. Maybe that's how I trace the city's history? By sitting in front of my computer and erecting little barriers to trip up zombies.
You can track the game's progress on Steam.