TLDR: Finally after 8 years a new update for Zombie Outbreak Simulator on iOS! Get it on the App Store now!

The last release for ZOS on iOS was eight years ago in 2016… 😳

In that time, Zombie Outbreak Simulator for both iOS and Android have degraded. First some things stopped working on some devices, then on more devices. While the iOS version still partly worked, the Android version broke to the point where Google delisted it. It’s been not great for a while… 😢

I’ve now fiiiiinally found the time to get back to working on ZOS to fix the problems and get the apps running properly again. I started with fixing up the iOS version, and that update is now finally released. More details below if you’re curious!

While originally developing ZOS for iOS over 2011-2016 I had built up a bit of a collection of various iOS devices to test with.

The newest I had from back then was an iPhone 6S from 2015. When I decided to get back into releasing an update I figured that I should get a new device for testing, so my first step was a trip to the Apple Store to get an iPhone 15 (I started this a few months ago, before the iPhone 16 came out).

I then fired up my ten-year-old 2014 Macbook that I hadn’t used in years. I expected to have a few updates to install and then I’d be on my way… but nope 😢 It turned out my old Macbook could only upgrade to macOS 11.7 (Big Sur), but I would need at least Xcode 15.0 to be able to build and publish app updates to the store, and that would require at least macOS 13.5 (Ventura). At that point I could even open my old version of Xcode either…

So, another trip to the Apple Store later I had bought a new Macbook, and could finally get started!

I then opened up my old project in Xcode. A lot has changed in 8 years! There were so many build errors for things that were now broken – hundreds and hundreds of errors. I’m not even sure what the total was, as it would give up after displaying several hundred. I’d then have to fix those in order for it to reveal the next several hundred problems. One sad part of this process as I was working through each issue was that there were a few third-party services I had used back in the day (eg for tracking down crashes and bugs), which turned out to have gone out of business since I last used them 😢

Eventually I got it to build and run on my iPhone – with only 1583 warnings remaining! 😆

Once I had it building, the first and biggest problem was that the online google maps didn’t work properly! Zombies and people would run around, but the map itself would just come up as grey.

This turned out to be something that had changed in google maps. I later found an old email from google last year saying that the super-old version of the maps API that I was using would soon stop working and I needed to upgrade.

After applying a few upgrades and figuring out what had changed in the latest version of google maps, this turned out to be not too hard to fix, and I had the online maps working again!

With the maps working, the next issue I had to sort out was the screen layout. Back in the old days of the iPhone 6S, phone screens were rectangles. These days, there’s all sorts of notches and dynamic islands and rounded corners and things.

iOS seems to ‘trick’ old apps into thinking they’re running on an old device and then displays that in a cropped rectangle, and so on an iPhone 15 the old app looked like this:

After rebuilding the app with the latest version of Xcode, now everything filled up the whole screen:

However this didn’t work either. There was stuff being clipped off by the rounded corners. And the menu button at the left side was hidden behind the camera / dynamic island.

To make things easy I decided to crop the screen to the safe area inside the rounded corners, which also clears the dynamic island:

This looked pretty good most of the time, but sometimes the home bar would get in the way of buttons at the bottom of the screen (back in the iPhone 6S days and earlier, iPhones had physical home buttons!). So I decided to crop off that area as well:

I might revisit this at some point, to maybe have the map fill the whole screen but then move the info and controls inside the safe area. However for now this was the easiest way to get something working!

After a couple of other minor updates it was time to submit the update to the App Store for review… and then cross my fingers…

I haven’t had a lot of luck with submitting ZOS for iOS to Apple in the past, and this time was to be no exception: a few days later and both apps were rejected… 😢

There were 3 issues which caused the 2 apps to be rejected.

The first one: For the last approx 8 years, the description on the App Store for both apps has said “over 1.2 million downloads across iOS and Android!”

When I submitted the update I updated this to the new number – now over 3 million downloads! – and thought that would be fine. But nope!

This was Apple’s complaint about that, for both apps:

This comes across as really petty and insecure of Apple to not allow a mention of their competitor Android! 🙄 Plus it’s been like that for the last 8 years!

Oh well, not much I can do about that when I’m playing in Apple’s walled garden, so I changed it to say “Over 3 million downloads!” and moved on.

For the second rejection: There are 2 versions of ZOS on iOS – Zombie Outbreak Simulator (which is free with limited features and in-app purchases to upgrade to the full version), and Zombie Outbreak Simulator Pro (which can be purchased up-front for the same price as the in-app purchases in the free version).

Since the last update 8 years ago, both apps have had the same icon:

This time Apple decided to reject the Pro app as spam for having the same icon:

To fix that I added a ‘PRO’ down the side of the Pro icon, and Apple were fine with that!

For the third rejection: The free version of ZOS includes a couple of places where you can choose to watch a video ad to unlock some extra features (instead of paying for the in-app purchases). A lot has changed in the way ads work on mobile in the last 8 years, but surprisingly the ads were still working on the old version of ZOS.

Most mobile ads involve some kind of tracking, to be able to know something about the player and show them more relevant ads. Apple is now very strict about allowing tracking, players need to be asked for permission to be tracked. When submitting the update I filled in the info to say that the app included some ad tracking – I wasn’t sure if that would be enough or not. It turns out it wasn’t, I also needed to include a prompt in the game itself to ask the player for permission for tracking. In the end this turned out to be pretty simple to include.

With those 3 fixes done I resubmitted the apps for review. While usually apps get reviewed within a few days, for some reason this process took over 2 weeks this time!! Oh well, at least both apps did finally get approved in the end!

You can go get the update for Zombie Outbreak Simulator on the App Store now!

Now that the iOS version has been fixed and released, it’s time to get onto fixing the Android version!

cya!

We are currently working on Land of Hope and Gorey, a new zombie adventure game. We will be showing the game at PAX Rising at PAX Australia in October this year, and are working towards a release in 2019.

We are now looking to hire a 3D Animator to help bring our characters and creatures to life.

Land of Hope and Gorey is built with a combination of hand-painted 2D backgrounds and objects made by our concept and environment artist Chris together with 3D models of characters and creatures by our 3D modeller Carly. You’ll be working closely with Carly, and also with the rest of our team (Jonathan, Blake, Brian and me) to integrate your work into the game.

Carly uses Maya for modelling, and we are using Unity as our game engine. If you’re experienced with these tools that would be great, but if you use other tools that’s fine – we’ll figure out some way to work them into our workflow.

I expect this role will be part-time, and/or in your spare time around something else – but I’m open to whatever works for you.

Binary Space is based in Perth, Western Australia, however the position is open to anyone in the world – you can work remotely. Our writer/designer Jonathan is based in the UK, and in the past Binary Space has also worked with people in Adelaide and Melbourne – all thousands of kilometres away.

If you’re interested, please send me an email at jobs@binaryspacegames.com with the following:

• Links to some examples online of your best work. If you have a portfolio of several projects, point out a couple that you are most proud of, or that you think are most relevant to Land of Hope and Gorey.
• Your resume (in PDF format – or a link if you have it online).
• In your email, describe why you’re interested in this position.
• Also let us know if you’re comfortable with both rigging and animation, or are focused on just animation.

I encourage people from any background or experience level to apply. You’ll need to have created something before to be able to show some examples of your work as mentioned above, but it doesn’t need to be commercial experience. You just need to be awesome! :)

Thanks!
Saxon

Update 27th August: Thanks to everyone who applied! This position has now been filled.

Back in 2012, the Australian government announced $20 million in funding to support the local game development industry. The plan was to spend $10m over 2012-2013 and the other $10m over 2014-2015.

In 2013 I decided to apply for funding from the first round, to make an Android version of Zombie Outbreak Simulator. My application was successful (thanks Screen Australia!) and I received $30k of funding just before the end of 2013. I hired two people to help me, and we released ZOS for Android in November 2014.

However, also in late 2013 there was a change of government, and at the new government’s first budget in May 2014 they decided to cut the remaining $10m left in the games fund. I still received my funding that had already been committed, but no new games could apply for funding.

In June 2015 a senate inquiry into the games industry was commissioned, and in April 2016 the inquiry released its report recommending the games fund be reinstated. The government is supposed to respond to senate inquiries within three months, but instead it took 642 days, publishing its response a few days ago. The response rejected the recommendation to reinstate games funding. Australian game developers were less than pleased… :|

A lot of other people have written great responses to the decision, but I thought I’d take a different angle. Most articles I’ve seen go along the lines of “wouldn’t it be great if the government supported games?”. I’m instead going to write “the government did support my game, and it was great” :)

As I mentioned, back in 2013-2014 the government gave me $30k to make ZOS for Android. Was this a good deal for Australia?

Firstly, out of the $30k I received, $21k went straight back into the Australian economy to Australian employees and contractors. I hired two people (creating two jobs), and two contractors (marketing and legal advice). The government received some of their money straight back from me in income tax on those two employees, and the contractors would have paid their own tax too. However the other $9k did go overseas to Facebook in Ireland, spent on Facebook ads for the game when it was released.

Zombie Outbreak Simulator was first released on iOS way back in 2012. The Android version was based on the iOS version, but much improved with the help of the funding I received. Across both iOS and Android, ZOS has recently reached over two million downloads, with over 1.5 million of those on Android.

And here’s how sales have gone for ZOS over the last nearly 6 years:

ZOS on Android alone has earned $185k. In October 2016 I released an update to ZOS for iOS which ported across all of the new stuff built for ZOS for Android, resulting in a marked increase in sales. Since then ZOS for iOS has earned $55k. In March 2016 I also added rewarded video ads to the game, which have earned an extra $40k. All up, that’s $280k that the game has earned so far, off the initial funding of $30k. Almost a 10x return!

Although my tax return isn’t due for another few months yet :), once I submit it I will have paid well over $30k in tax back to the government on the profit made from Zombie Outbreak Simulator. So although the funding I received was a non-repayable grant (all amounts less than $50k were offered as grants, larger amounts were loans), the government has received its money back in full and more. So that’s a win for Australia! :)

Also, only approx $10k of this income was from players in Australia. That means around $270k of export income – new money now in the Australian economy from overseas. Another win for Australia! :)

What have I done with the money? I’ve spent some of it on various expenses – some boring ones like tax and accounting, some fun ones like supporting local game dev events as well as computers, phones and tablets for dev and testing, and some necessary ones like more marketing and revenue sharing. However I’ve saved up a decent chunk of it, and I’m now using that to fund the development of a new game – a zombie adventure game called Land of Hope and Gorey. I’ve hired an awesome team of five people, including four people here in Perth – Chris, Blake, Carly and Brian. That’s four new part-time jobs – a third win for Australia! ;)

Was $30k of funding all it took to get this result? No. ZOS for Android was based on games that Jay and I had been working on since 2009. Before ZOS for Android I’d put in over 2,500 hours of work and made a fantastic profit of $120, and Jay had put in over 1,800 hours too. I did another 700 hours of work on ZOS for Android and only paid myself $700 out of the funding I’d received. I didn’t just ask the government for a handout, I put a lot of my own time, effort and money into it too.

Is a $280k return on $30k of funding a typical result? No. Games are incredibly high risk, and most will fail. A handful of games will achieve modest success like ZOS, and an even smaller number will be fantastic breakout successes. To achieve a consistent outcome from game development requires a portfolio approach – developing lots of games, so that the successes pay for the failures. Individual game developers can’t afford to invest in tens of multiple games simultaneously, but who can? The government can :)

Would I have made ZOS for Android anyway, even without the funding? Probably – I had wanted to for some time, since players kept asking for it. However it definitely wouldn’t have been as good. The approx 10x increase in sales on iOS when I ported the Android features over to iOS shows how much better the Android version was – all due to the features I was able to afford to build because of the funding. So could the industry fund its own game development? Yes, and the industry has still been growing despite the lack of government support. However it could grow faster with support.

Although the federal government isn’t offering any support, what about state governments? Film Victoria has a very strong program of support for game developers. As a result 40% of Australian game developers are in Victoria, even though Victoria has 25% of the population of Australia. The South Australian government recently announced a $2m package of support for game development.

However Binary Space is based in Perth, Western Australia. In 2016 the WA Labor party offered support for the startup and gaming sector while seeking to be elected, but once elected their new industries fund announced in 2017 failed to mention game development. Screenwest is currently undertaking a review of screen industry funding, even though they have always had a policy of refusing funding to “computer games for entertainment purposes only”. Still, I know that Let’s Make Games and other local game developers have been talking with the government and Screenwest for some time about the merits of the games industry. So I’m hopeful that in time we’ll receive some recognition and support from our state government.

To finish up, I’m really grateful that ZOS was funded by Australia, and that this funding together with hard work and some luck meant that ZOS achieved some modest success. And I’m also really proud that through that success I’m able to fund a new game, for Australia! :D

cya!
Saxon

In May last year I announced that I was working on a new zombie game. I then spent the next 6 months hiring an awesome team to make that happen. Chris came on board as concept artist in June, then we announced that we were making a zombie adventure game and Jonathan joined as writer/designer and Blake joined as programmer/designer in August. In addition to concept art Chris took on 2D art for the new game, Carly joined as 3D artist in October, and Brian joined as music composer and sound designer in November.

As the team came together we began working on the new game – starting with a bunch of random ideas and prototypes to figure out what the game could be. We settled on the name for the new game – Land of Hope and Gorey – and came up with the overall concept.

After the UK suffers a self-inflicted apocalypse, Hope Andrews crosses an undead-infested land with her new BFF — a zombie called Dave.

We set ourselves the goal to have a demo to show at the 2017 Perth Games Festival (PGF) which was to be held on the 25th of November. The PGF is a local event held each year in Perth (where most of us are based), where a bunch of local indie game developers show off their work to over 1,800 visitors across the day.

Around October we switched from prototyping to focus on building the demo for PGF. For a while there I wasn’t sure if we’d make it, but it ended up coming together just in time, with the final build put together at midnight the night before PGF. I was really thrilled with the amazing job that the team did in making the demo that we showed at PGF!

It was really cool to see people playing the game at PGF, with many people playing right through to the end of the approx 15 minute demo. In hindsight the demo was probably a bit too long, as we often had people waiting to have a go even with two laptops running the game. We also got heaps of really great feedback – many thanks to everyone who played!

On our stand we had a third screen with a demo showreel showing a few videos of the game, as well as some of Chris’s concept art, so people could get an idea of what the game was about while they walked by. If you’d like a sneak peek of Land of Hope and Gorey, here’s the video. We didn’t have any audio on this preview when we were showing it at the PGF, so I’ve just overlaid a couple of tracks of the music that Brian made for the demo. Keep in mind that this is a very very early preview of the game – there’s a lot that we’ll be changing!

Thanks also to Brendan from GameCloud who interviewed me at the PGF – you can see his Land of Hope and Gorey interview on GameCloud for some extra details about the game.

Since PGF we’ve been working on the first act/level for the game, which builds on what we showed at the PGF. We’ve kept a few things we liked and thrown out a bunch of things we didn’t :)

We’re going to start posting more stuff about the game during development, so if you’d like to keep an eye on progress follow us on Twitter or like us on Facebook. There’s also a mailing list you can sign up to at the Land of Hope and Gorey page, if that’s your thing.

cya!
Saxon

I’ve spent the last eight years working on Class 3 Outbreak and Zombie Outbreak Simulator. These games have over 1.8 million downloads on Android/iOS, and on the web have been played over 9 million times by over 3 million people. I announced a few months ago that I’m starting a brand new zombie game.

We already have Jonathan as writer/designer, Chris and Carly as artists, and Blake as programmer/designer. We are now looking to hire a Music Composer to help bring the game to life.

We are creating a zombie adventure game, reminiscent of the old-school adventure games like Monkey Island and Space Quest IV that I played and loved back in the early 90s. There’ll be zombie-smashing action, but also just as much emphasis on a great story, solving puzzles, and humour.

I am looking for someone who can compose all of the music for the game. This includes coming up with a consistent overall feel for the music, while tailoring it to the theme of each section of the game.

I expect this role will be part-time, and/or in your spare-time around something else – but I’m open to whatever works for you. We are also looking for a sound designer – maybe you’d be interested in both roles?

I am based in Perth, Western Australia, however the position is open to anyone in the world – you can work remotely. In the past Binary Space has worked with people in Adelaide, Melbourne and the UK – all thousands of kilometres away.

If you’re interested, please send me an email at jobs@binaryspacegames.com with the following:

• Links to some examples online of your best work. If you have a portfolio of several projects, point out a couple that you are most proud of, or that you think are most relevant to this new zombie game.
• Your resume (in PDF format – or a link if you have it online).
• In your email, describe why you’re interested in this position.

I encourage people from any background or experience level to apply. You’ll need to have created something before to be able to show some examples of your work as mentioned above, but it doesn’t need to be commercial experience. You just need to be awesome! :)

Thanks!
Saxon

Update 7th Nov: Thanks everyone who has applied! We received 38 applications for this and the sound designer positions – 17 combination sound designers / music composers, 17 composers, and 4 sound designers. This position is now filled.

I’ve spent the last eight years working on Class 3 Outbreak and Zombie Outbreak Simulator. These games have over 1.8 million downloads on Android/iOS, and on the web have been played over 9 million times by over 3 million people. I announced a few months ago that I’m starting a brand new zombie game.

We already have Jonathan as writer/designer, Chris and Carly as artists, and Blake as programmer/designer. We are now looking to hire a Sound Designer to help bring the game to life.

We are creating a zombie adventure game, reminiscent of the old-school adventure games like Monkey Island and Space Quest IV that I played and loved back in the early 90s. There’ll be zombie-smashing action, but also just as much emphasis on a great story, solving puzzles, and humour.

I am looking for someone who can take charge of all the sound requirements for the game. This includes designing the overall tone and feel of the game audio, and either sourcing or creating sound effects as required.

I expect this role will be part-time, and/or in your spare-time around something else – but I’m open to whatever works for you. We are also looking for a music composer – maybe you’d be interested in both roles?

I am based in Perth, Western Australia, however the position is open to anyone in the world – you can work remotely. In the past Binary Space has worked with people in Adelaide, Melbourne and the UK – all thousands of kilometres away.

If you’re interested, please send me an email at jobs@binaryspacegames.com with the following:

• Links to some examples online of your best work. If you have a portfolio of several projects, point out a couple that you are most proud of, or that you think are most relevant to this new zombie game.
• Your resume (in PDF format – or a link if you have it online).
• In your email, describe why you’re interested in this position.

I encourage people from any background or experience level to apply. You’ll need to have created something before to be able to show some examples of your work as mentioned above, but it doesn’t need to be commercial experience. You just need to be awesome! :)

Thanks!
Saxon

Update 7th Nov: Thanks everyone who has applied! We received 38 applications for this and the music composer positions – 17 combination sound designers / music composers, 17 composers, and 4 sound designers. This position is now filled.