7 Days To Die Now On Kickstarter

Fun Pimps has turned to Kickstarter to fund their survival zombie game 7 Days To Die. They're hoping to raise $200,000 dollars through the service by August 15th to fund their ambitious open-world title.

7 Days is set in the aftermath of World War 3. The few surviving humans are being afflicted by a disease that turns them into zombies. The players are survivors living in Navezgane County, Arizona. They'll have to eke out a life in the zombie-infested world.

The player will have to find food on a regular basis. They can grow crops or hunt animals. Alternately, players can rummage through settlements to find supplies. It's safest to do this during the day when zombies are at their weakest and slowest.

The zombies will be out in full force at night so it's best to hunker down. Using items that they've scavenged or mined from the countryside, players can create defenses like landmines, autoturrets and motion detectors. Melee weapons and firearms are also craftable so you won't have to fight zombies with your bare hands. Through this daily struggle for survival, players will earn XP that can be used to upgrade their skills.

The aspect of the game that's most excited to me is the voxel-based world. Players can rip the world apart with explosions or build up their own custom structures. The game uses realistic physics so you have to make sure that you're constructing buildings properly. Unsound buildings will come crumbling down if put under stress. You can see some of the construction and destruction in the pre-alpha footage released earlier in the month.

On top of all the previously mentioned features, Fun Pimps is promising DayZ-like multiplayer in which players can team up against the undead or terrorize each other. Leaderboards will track each players' performance. Players will also be able to create dedicated servers with custom worlds and rules. Story quests will encourage the player to seek out new areas and better loot. It seems that, whether you want a large-scale multiplayer experience or solo journey, 7 Days will have you covered.

As I've said since 7 Days was first revealed, the game is ridiculously ambitious. It's promising more than Kickstarter projects that earned over $1 million. However, Fun Pimps says that the average team member has "over 14 years of experience in game and software development" and that they're completely committed to seeing the project through.

"This is truly the best example of vision, meets passion, meets talent, meets experience that we’ve all had the privilege to be part of. We’re in this for the long haul and won’t quit until it ships."

The developers are targeting a May 2014 launch for 7 Days. Backers can get access to the beta and alpha tests of the game, however. Fun Pimps previously said that the alpha would be available in July but no date has been announced yet.