Rod Green is a zealous, proud, card-carrying undeadist, and he's prepared to fight -- to the death -- for the equal rights of zombies across this nation's shopping malls, busy streets and suburban neighborhoods.
Green asserts that zombies are simply "misunderstood" and humans are "big bullies," said with much the same bravado as a big-cat trainer with his back to an open tiger cage. Unlike certain tiger trainers, however, Green may have a point, and he's set out to prove it with Brainsss, the first title from his two-person independent development studio, Lonely Few.
Green, previously of BioWare, and his partner, Yeong-Hao Han of former Pandemic Studios fame, have been working on Brainsss for two years and plan for it to launch on iOS devices in late March, Green tells Joystiq in an exclusive interview.
Brainsss isn't a typical zombie game. Keeping with Green's social beliefs, in Brainsss you play as the undead, trying to "persuade" humans to become zombies as well. Zombies do maul humans, "in the cutest way possible, of course," Green says, and they then become part of the players' undead army. The more humans your zombie converts, the more professional people you can persuade to join the undead cause, including police officers, hazmat workers, soldiers, fire fighters and the like.Green calls Brainsss an RTS for the touch platform, and compares it to Pikmin's adaptation for the Wii and the original Syndicate's "persuadatron" mechanic.
Brainsss is shooting for a launch window near the end of March and will include 20 levels for $2.99. Every week after its launch, Lonely Few will release new, free levels, totaling to at least 50, all for just the initial game price. If that goes well, Lonely Few will introduce paid DLC as well.