2008 · Motion Twin · Simulation · Survival

Die2Nite

Browser-based game where you play a survivor in a town of 40 players, where you will have to work together to survive the longest possible against the relentless waves of zombies attacking every night.

Released: 15 July 2008
Platforms: Browser
Genres: Simulation Survival Zombie
Developers: Motion Twin
Publishers: —
Perspective: Bird view / Isometric Text
Themes: Survival
Country: France

About

Die2Nite was a browser-based, multiplayer survival game created by Motion Twin. Gameplay took place in real-time, with the objective being to build a town that could survive as long as possible against assaults from hordes of zombies at 23:00 server time, with the hordes growing exponentially each day. Due to Adobe Flash's support ending, the game was shut down in 2023, although Motion Twin made the game's assets public in order to facilitate the creation of fan made versions of the game.

Keywords

zombies
teamwork

Media

The articlegameplay, story, development, reception

Gameplay

Each town consists of 40 players. The main goal is for the town, and the individuals, to survive for as long as possible.

Each day, between 23:00 and 23:15, zombies attack the town. If the number of zombies exceeds the town's defense rating, any additional zombies enter the town, where they randomly attack citizens and terrorize or kill them. If the town's gate is not closed by 23:00, then the town's defenses are useless, and every zombie attacks the town. The number of zombies exponentially increases after each day, making the destruction of each town an inevitability.

Development

After a beta-test period, the original French version, Hordes, was officially released on 15 July 2008. From 1 to 3 December 2008, the game experienced major server problems, which was later referred to as "Armageddon," as all towns were destroyed. However, it was later revealed that Armageddon was actually a planned event, intended to bring major content updates to the game. The first version of Die2Nite, the official English version of the game, was released on 1 December 2010. An official Spanish version, titled Zombinoia, was also been released.

On 2 November 2023, Die2Nite was shut down, as were Motion Twin's other web games. However, Motion Twin provided public access to the game's assets in order to support fan recreations, and a fan group called the Eternaltwin project has developed a remake called MyHordes.

Reception

Hordes received a score of 16/20 on the French video game website Jeuxvideo and 13/20 on Gameart.eu. Quintin Smith gave a mostly positive review of the English Beta version on Rock, Paper, Shotgun, remarking that the "size of the playerbase is perfect" while noting that the fact that the town's gates can only be opened from the inside leaves "potential for passive-aggression".