Urban Dead App
In case you don’t know, Urban Dead is a browser based zombie apocalypse game. You play as either a Zombie or a Survivor (and of course if you die as a survivor you turn into a zombie). If you are a zombie you wander through the streets looking for lost survivors to eat or safehouses to break in to. As a survivor you hunt the living dead and try to keep your barricades up and therfore ruin the zombies’ dinner plans! You only get 1 Action Point every half an hour (up to a maximum of 50), this means that this isn’t a game that is going to sap your life (e.g. WoW or Achaea) but is a game you play a little bit each day. It doesn’t have any graphics (other than a simple grid map), but the charm of this game lies in it’s extensive meta-game, it’s simplicity and of course the chance to do a little bit of role play.
Anyways, I found that in dangerous times (e.g. safe house under attack) I would be refreshing the page very often (I even set it up a homepage link on my iPhone) so that I could be sure that the safehouse was still, safe. This of course is quite inefficient as most of the time nothing has happened, plus I would usually have to go out of my way, opening up a web browser navigating to the site, closing it down again etc. So I thought it would be better to make an app that would do all the leg work for me!
So I bring to you my Urban Dead App (Windows only, Sorry!)
This app will let you check your current status (AP, HP, Number of Survivors, Number of Zombies, Barricade Level), not only that but each “refresh” will be logged so you can look back on previous stats plus see things which that stats wont show you such as if anyone has talked in the room or if a flare went off etc. Now the most important thing is that with this app you can set a timer and it will then automatically refresh every x minutes and if a stat change is detected (other than AP obviously) it alerts you with a balloon tip box in the bottom right of the screen.
There is a few of known issues with the current version, first of all it is not threaded so while refreshing it may appear to hang (sorry! I do plan to get that sorted). Secondly occasionally it wont be able to get a response from the urbandead server if this happens it will display the message “FAIL” in the stats boxes, don’t worry if this happens, just hit refresh again. (If it persists in showing the FAIL message after lots of refresh attempts then something else is wrong, maybe your internet connection is down?). Lastly the zombie count only goes up to 10, after that it displays >10, I will fix that soon, so make sure you check back here for updates!
Let me make one thing clear though, this is NOT a bot app. It does not allow you to (automatically or manually) control your character, it only reports on your current status. The in Game rules alllow it and I checked with Kevan Davis) the creator of Urban Dead) that it would be OK to release this app.
I would very much like you to send any comments, suggestions, bug reports etc to me (you can email me: urbandeadapp [at] gmail.com or you can of course leave a comment on this blog). I imagine as this is the first release that there will be quite a few kinks, so make sure to check back here for updates. You can also subscribe to the RSS feed to my blog, or the RSS feed for posts about the Urban Dead App here
Nice work tom, any chance of a Linux Release?
What did you code it in?
Coded it in C# .NET. I will definitely look in to making Linux and Mac versions once I have finished ironing out the bugs in this version.
Nice one :P
Works on Windows 7 in any case
Hi! I was in a building when you announced this. I think it’s a great idea. I’ll let you know if I like it. I’m gonna share it with my friends and teammates too…if it works like you say, it should be a very needed adddition to the game.
Thanks!
Doreen W. aka Mall Brat Lola/Anime Princess GoGo
Hey Tobeon. I love the app. It gives me a lot more peace of mind while hiding out in ruined buildings ;) I also love that I can run several instances of the app – right now I’ve got three going, one for each of my primary characters.
of course, if you were to add the ability to take a specified action when circumstances change (i.e., a balloon tip box for changes in barricades or number of survivors, an email or SMS for changes in HP or number of zombies) that would be amazing – but i’m not complaining.
thanks for the great work!
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