Jazon and the Dead
Jazon and the Dead
Jazon and the dead is a top-down action adventure game played like a twin stick shooter with puzzle elements. The combination of puzzle and action gives the game a unique twist. The visual style in the game is inspired by comic books, which gives it a dark and gritty feel. The tone is inspired by 80- and 90's B horror films.
Everything is produced and owned by 2nd studio (The company I worked for at the time). We developed a playable teaser that was released alongside a crowdfunding campaign in 2016, however the campaign felt short of its goal and the project is now shelved. The playable demo is now downloaded more than 15.000 times on Gamejolt and itch.io.
My work on the project
I’ve worked on “Jazon and the Dead”, a zombie action-adventure game planned for consoles. We were using the Unity3D engine, with C# scripting to do the magic 🙂
It was my responsibility, as the only primary programmer, to handle all the coding part of the development process, like implementing new features, importing animations, keep things nice and clean, and of course fix the bugs we might encounter on our way.
What is the game about?
Jazon and the Dead is a style-rich, blood-splashed, top-down, action-adventure game that mixes brain-twisting puzzles with an engaging narrative, dark humor and a hip 80's vibe. The game's stark comic book visuals set this game apart from others in the genre.
Jazon and the Dead is heavily inspired by old horror and B-movies (Night of the Living Dead and Braindead), with visuals influenced by comic book artists such as Mike Mignola, Charlie Adlard and Frank Miller.
As the game starts, Jazon wakes up disoriented in the restroom of a bar, and he doesn't remember a thing. As he leaves the bar, he finds a ruined world ruled by zombies and scumbags.
As Jazon travels across the wasteland, he must discover his past to save the future. Along the way he meets Zoey, a wasteland veteran who just wants to forget about her history. Together they visit the oracle in the mountains, who foresees a prophecy leading them on an epic odyssey to save humanity from complete annihilation.
The vertical slice demo we made, was meant as a playable demo, to show off the style and game mechanics of the game.
The game trailer
Quotes from the industry
Tim Schafer - President & CEO, Double Fine
"What if Full Throttle had zombies and was made in Denmark?"
Brian Fargo - President & CEO, InXile Entertainment
"Nice visual style guys.... looking good."
Javy Gwaltney - Game Informer
"The game's gorgeous visuals do a good job of making it stand out"
Jacob Wood - IndieHangover
"With a B-movie vibe and fantastic graphic novel style aesthetic, Jazon and the Dead looks incredibly polished."
Download the playable demo
You can download the playable demo of the game on itch.io: https://2ndstudio.itch.io/jazon-and-the-dead
