Survive the Zombie Apocalypse
Text4Dead is a text-based homage to the popular Valve series “Left 4 Dead”. It is an ongoing Interactive Fiction project being built in Inform 7, a natural-language Interactive Fiction design suite.
Text4Dead requires Java. Get it here, then click below to start playing:
| Play Text4Dead Now! |
Playing the Game
How to Play: Take a weapon and a medkit, look for arrows and go the directions they point to find the saferoom! Shoot the hordes that attack you, reload if you’re out of bullets, assist your downed buddies, heal them if they are hurting.
Doesn’t Work?
If you try the link above to play Text4Dead and find that you are getting a blank frame or a frame with an “X”, try updating to the latest version of Java. If that continues to fail, your security settings may be preventing Java from launching. Check your browser documentation to learn how to enable Java.
How “Done” is the current version?
Text4Dead is nowhere near complete; it’s an ongoing project, currently in open testing. The game can be played from beginning to the first saferoom in the subway basement.
There’s not much flavor to the text yet, you’ll find yourself navigating some empty-feeling spaces; this is a chance to showcase the unique gameplay of Text4Dead in bare form. As more and more of the game comes online, the text will follow.
What it has:
- A text-based doppelganger of the first level of the original “Left 4 Dead” – The Apartments
- Three intelligent buddies that will fight with you, assist you and the others, heal you and the others, and work with you to find the saferoom
- A number of “horde” enemies that will spawn in randomly, seek you and your buddies out, attack you and your buddies
- A set of four weapons with unique damage values and ammo counts
What’s missing:
- Different enemy types, such as hunters, boomers, smokers, and witches
- Helper weapons, such as pain pills, pipebombs, molotovs, gas cans and propane tanks
- Doors to keep the zombies out
- Backup pistols to use in case primary weapons run dry
- Crescendo events, such as car alarms and noisy machines
More Notes about the current version:
- Do not attempt to use the SAVE and RESTORE commands – these do not currently work.
More Notes about Text4Dead:
- Text4Dead plays inside your browser and requires Java. It has been tested on both Windows and Mac OSX using Firefox and IE7.
- Text4Dead uses GrimJim’s BLORBFork of Russoto’s zplet, recompiled to support Java on Windows and MacOSX.
Hi! enjoyable game. I grew up on Infocom games so am used to text based adventures.
I heard you were looking for beta feedback so I hope this is helpful:
I got completely stuck in a room because I was down, and my cohorts were down in the next room. Spent about 25 turns lying around and shooting the occasional horde, and my friends eventually died. I stopped playing. It seems unrealistic that I can’t get up on my own. Maybe make it take 2 full turns if someone doesn’t help you? Also, I was expecting hordes to drop supplies, or have the ability to search rooms for supplies. One medkit each is kind of useless if they’re used right away.
Also, maybe a “follow” command? I know that independent pathfinding and intelligence is relatively novel in gaming, but having the whole team scatter all the time seems unrealistic given the apocalyptic setting. Maybe have team members say, “I’ll check the south,” before they run off, and then have them report back when they see you?
Given the pace of the scrolling, I’m not sure if the “look” command should take a turn. It’s too easy to get disoriented and people are constantly looking, right? In old games look was always a free move to reorient yourself before deciding what to do next.
anyway, yes it is fun and enjoyed and will replay. thank you!
also, (sorry)
if there are 3 hordes and 2 of them are dead, it gets tiresome not to be able to say shoot horde, and to be asked if we wanted to shoot the dead ones. Also, shouldn’t cry for help be an option? I hear my friends call for help when they are down but I can’t seem to.
Hey Frank,
Thanks for the feedback! Definitely true that I don’t want folks spending 25 turns waiting for help that isn’t coming! Call for help is a great idea as well.
I had a chat with another guy about scrolling and “look” being free. I’ll absolutely get that in right away; it’s easy to lose your place and forget what was in the room!
Glad you enjoyed it, more good stuff is coming soon!
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