Contagion, the spiritual successor to Half-Life 2 mod Zombie Panic: Source, has been successfully funded through Kickstarter. Donations to the PC survival horror game's development passed the goal of $50,000 earlier today.
"We want to thank everyone for helping us reach our goal so quickly from major Press, Youtubers, those building their fanbase, and others sharing the game all over the globe! We owe you a great deal and will be working just as hard as we always have (for most of us it's all we do after work with the support of our friends and loved ones)," the developer said in an update on the game's Kickstarter page.
In Contagion, players take on the role of either human survivors or the zombies trying to eat them. The humans must scrounge up any weapons and ammo they can find throughout the map to fight off the advancing zombies. The zombie players, accompanied by an A.I. horde, try to wear down the survivors. Ammo is limited and each dead survivor becomes a zombie, so humans must quickly complete their objectives to avoid being overwhelmed by the infected.
The game will be released with at least three game modes. In Extraction, the human team must escort NPC's to safety while the zombies try to kill them. Escape mode tasks the survivors with accomplishing a few objectives and then making it to an exit point. Hunted is a free-for-all mode in which players battle over dwindling supplies in hopes of being the last man or woman standing. The objectives, items, and zombie spawn points are randomized in each map to increase replayability.
There are still 11 days left in the Kickstarter campaign so Monochrome is hoping to be able to hit some of their stretch goals. They'll be able to expedite the Mac and Linux versions if they hit $75,000. Earning $100,000 or $125,000 will allow Monochrome to develop a survival mode called Flatline and a vehicle-based Cruise mode, respectively, along with new maps, characters and weapons. The final goal of $250,000 will help Monochrome pursue console versions. Monochrome says they plan to do all of these things regardless of whether they hit these stretch goals but "knowing we can afford the work involved as well as the ability to set deadlines it sure doesn’t hurt."
Contagion will hit Steam Early Access on October 25th. Players will be able to buy the in-development version of the game for $15 and get all of the updates, including the final build of the game, for no additional charge. After the game officially launches, it will be $20 to purchase.
YouTube personality PewDiePie got some hands-on time with Contagion recently and posted the video footage today. You can check it out below.
