A cozy little apocalypse

hello world! I’m making a little zombie survival game for iOS. It’s called Nookvale, and apparently my idea of a relaxing personal project involves being chased home. 🙂

I’ve spent a lot of time in Project Zomboid. I love how a simple trip for supplies can turn into a whole story. You leave with a sensible plan, check one more building, and suddenly getting home is the most important thing in the world.

That feeling is where Nookvale started. My goal is a much softer, cozier and more approachable take on zombie survival. If you’re wondering whether it’ll be a detailed survival sim, that isn’t the direction I’m aiming for. I want room for exploring, scavenging and a little danger, without having to manage every tiny detail of staying alive.

A cozy little apocalypse. With some fairly uncozy neighbours.

It started with one little block

The first playable version was called Before Dark: a small district, a little survivor and a nearly empty hatchback. Looking back at these screenshots makes me smile. Here is a house. Here is a road. Here is an enormous box explaining that you are in trouble.

But there was already a place I wanted to explore. From there, I kept adding a little more personality: greenery, different buildings, rooms that felt lived in, and a home worth running back to.

The bugs also live here

Between the nice screenshots, there have been disappearing buildings, flickering car panels, and a street layout that couldn’t fit its mall and decided the roads weren’t happening either. The shopping centre was, technically, closed.

Those are fixed now. Every little problem teaches me something, usually while introducing me to three more things I don’t understand yet. 🫠

Making it feel a little cozier

I keep coming back to the mood of this little town. A warm sunset, a rainy street, a small light in the dark. I want it to feel inviting enough that you almost forget about the zombies. Almost.

I’ve also added a gentle tilt-shift effect to help with that miniature, cozy feeling. It’s completely optional: you can toggle it on or off in the menu. I like the extra coziness, but you get to decide 😛

I’ll save the proper lighting breakdown for another devlog. For now, a couple of little moments from the current build.

Starting with shapes in Blender

My starting point is Blender: modeling the buildings, cars and characters, figuring out their shapes, then bringing them into the engine to see how they feel in the game. Something can look lovely on its own and suddenly feel completely wrong next to everything else. Back to Blender we go.

For this first post, I had a little fun arranging the models with some studio lighting. You can switch between materials and clay to see the simple shapes underneath.

The town, piece by piece. I want these buildings to be easy to read from above, but different enough that you start recognising your way home.

A very questionable car dealership. Tiny, chunky, and probably running on whatever fuel I forgot to bring.

Our little survivor and some deeply unhelpful company. Simple shapes, lots still to explore.

Still learning, every day

Nookvale is very much in alpha, but it’s running on my iPhone now, which still makes me ridiculously happy.

My hope is to make a small world you get attached to. Somewhere you can enjoy wandering around, have a few unexpected adventures, and feel a little relieved when you make it home. There’s a lot to figure out, and I’m learning as I go.

For now, it’s just me doing the art and development, one little step at a time. I’ll share more of the process in future devlogs. No need to open every cupboard on the first visit :)

I hope you enjoyed this first look! You can follow the little updates at @nookvalegame, or watch the first gameplay Reel.

If you’re enjoying this little adventure and fancy supporting Nookvale, you can leave a tip on Ko-fi ☕

Thanks for following along, my friends!
Luca