Good morning everyone! Pandemic Express is officially live on Steam! So let's get onto a whole bunch of important information and updates!
Launch Trailer
The launch trailer is now live on Youtube and Steam. Check it out right here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VCb-Jd7pEDo
1+1 Promo (Extra Key For a Friend) promo live
For the first 3 days if you buy the game, you get an additional copy to give to a friend!
Friend Invite System bumped to URGENT in the roadmap
We heard everyone loud and clear and bumped the Friends System up in the roadmap. Checkout the latest one:
Launch Discount is 34%
The game is below $10 at launch
Additional 10% Coupon Discount
If you own one of these tinyBuild games, you get an additional 10% off: Graveyard Keeper, Streets of Rogue, Guts & Glory, Lovely Planet, SpeedRunners Clustertruck, Party Hard 1 or 2.
Producer's Note
Producer's note on Pandemic Express' journey from Battle Royale to Zombie Escape
This was probably the most bizarre development cycle I've ever had the pleasure to be part of. We started off over 2 years ago trying to make a Battle Royale. Much like everyone at the time. We spent a lot of time iterating on the idea of a more melee focused battle royale, and quickly realized that the fun of looting in an open world doesn't really match well with the idea of using primarily melee weapons. Especially when vehicles are involved.
Having played a lot of mods back in the day (the team played the original DayZ mod, the original Battle Royale, and a ton of older Counter-Strike mods), we started experimenting. The initial idea was to have a Battle Royale-style game where fallen players would come back as zombies. While fun, it was really confusing and we had to add ranged weapons back to fight off swarms.
In a fun twist, we saw players organically teaming up while fighting off the swarms. And that was fun. So we pushed it further with putting all survivors -- without any weapons -- into a train station, and randomly infecting one of the players.
Then we saw a problem with the "goal". Zombie Escape style mods are typically made in corridor-like environments where the path is clear and has logical chokepoints. We had an open world and wanted to maintain the feeling of desperate looting like you have in survival shooters.
So we opted for a "goal" - a train. Because everyone loves trains and zombies. A train spawns at another station, and is clearly marked as a goal for survivors to get to - by running, sliding, driving -- all while looting through the open world. When survivors are on the train, it starts moving.
At this point, the zombies start to respawn in front of the train at strategically placed spawners. This gives survivors a feeling of constant onslaught as swarms of zombies attack the train.
I believe the strangest and most satisfying feeling of Pandemic Express is how non-stressful it is. You get to shoot off zombies after intense scavenging, and when you die, you don't really "lose". You get to experience something different in the match. And you also get to tear through your (5 seconds ago) previous teammates. Because they deserve it.
If you haven't tried mods like this before - we invite you to try Pandemic Express. It's a different experience, and we hope you like it as much as we do.
As always, any coverage is highly appreciated and feel free to reach out for additional keys, media materials, or whatever's on your mind.
Thanks
Alex Nichiporchik
CEO @tinyBuild
For press inquiries contact pr at tinybuild.com
Enjoy Pandemic Express
https://store.steampowered.com/app/939510/Pandemic_Express__Zombie_Escape/