[Indie Spotlight] Unveiling the team of Zombie Clash - A journey of strategy, resilience and dreams

Ever imagined leading an army of bionic zombies? Based on strategic real-time card battles, Zombie Clash: Lastday Dual resurrects the vibe of '90s SLG games. Formed by a group of strategy game veterans, Happy Ape, the development team behind Zombie Clash: Lastday Dual, is approaching its 10-year milestone. "Our team has been together for nearly a decade," said Leon, the chief producer of this game.

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The closed beta test for Zombie Clash is currently live in Indonesia. Try it now!

"The essence of strategy games runs through our veins."

"We've been focusing on making strategy games for over 10 years, and will still stick with this specific genre in the future."

Happy Ape is really made up of strategy game enthusiasts. Immersed in the gaming industry for over a decade, they are among the earliest gamers in China and have been growing up with classics such as the Civilization franchise, Total War, and Age of Empires II. "It was around 2015 when we decided to leave our previous company and started our own business." At that time, strategy games on mobile like Clash of Clans were really trendy. This newly established team decided to carry on their "strategy" gene and embarked on their expedition into this genre.

"We drew inspiration from games like Clash of Clans and Harry Potter Magic Awakened when creating Zombie Clash," said Leon, "we were all loyal fans of Clash of Clans, but did feel that there was much that we can do and innovate in terms of gameplay."

"But then the pandemic struck..."

"The whole gaming industry in China was heavily hit by the pandemic, especially for us small developers with products in the middle of the development process."

Right when Zombie Clash went halfway through, the investors decided to discontinue funding for the team, leaving everything in a hot mess. What was worse, the team just made the decision to shift the game from the 2D style to 3D, and they needed money and workforce. "On one hand, we had to reduce our workforce. On the other hand, the game was undergoing adjustments and we were facing a sharp increase in development workload." Luckily, with the efforts of the team, the upgrade from 2D to 3D was successfully completed within 2 months, and the development process was again back on track.

What's next?

“We're still fine-tuning the game, and there's still much room for growth.”

From this regional closed beta test, the team would really love to know players' feedback in terms of the core gameplay. “Currently, we're mainly focused on the PvP aspect, but it can expand into large-scale PvE scenarios, like multiplayer boss battles. It can also branch out into team-versus-team, like 2v2 matches. There's potential for future features like guild systems and interactive activities.” Leon talked about the team's vision for the future development of this game. The adventure awaits, and Happy Ape is just getting started.