Hold the line, wave after wave. A top-down zombie survival shooter — planned, not yet built.
SAS: Dead Zone is a DESIGN VISION — a wiki for a game we haven't built yet. It's a top-down twin-stick zombie survival shooter in the classic Newgrounds mold: one (or two) SAS operators dropped into an overrun city, holding a position against escalating waves of the dead. Between waves you spend your kill-money on bigger guns, armor, perks and deployables, then dig in for the next assault. Endless waves, boss zombies, four loadout classes, drop-in co-op, and a leaderboard for the highest wave survived. This page lays out the vision — the horde, the arsenal, the classes and the maps — so it's ready to build.
STORY & LORE
The Outbreak
A containment breach at a research site turns a city into a Dead Zone overnight. Command can't send an army — they send YOU: a Special Air Service operator, or two if a friend joins. Your orders are simple and grim. Hold. Buy time. Thin the herd. Extraction is always 'inbound.'
The Loop
Each wave, the dead pour in from the edges of the map and you cut them down for cash. Survive the wave and a short BUY PHASE opens: spend at the crates on new weapons, ammo, armor, perks and deployables. Then the next wave hits, bigger and meaner. Every few waves, the ground shakes and a BOSS arrives. There is no finish line — only the wave counter, and how high you can push it.
Could Be A GameMaker Game
Most games on the site are hand-coded single-file HTML5 canvas builds. A content-heavy shooter like this — dozens of weapons, enemy types, particle-heavy carnage, tuned wave tables — is exactly what GameMaker (GMS2) is built for: sprite pipeline for real animated art, the object/event model for enemies and pickups, rooms as maps, and built-in collision and particles. GMS2 exports to HTML5, which drops straight into the portal's iframe. The one wrinkle is the Arcade SDK (leaderboard, achievements, tokens): it's a JavaScript/postMessage bridge, so a GameMaker build would wire it up through a small JS extension that calls window.parent.postMessage for submitScore / unlock / awardTokens. Very doable — worth prototyping the SDK bridge first.
CHARACTERS & ENEMIES
The OperatorYou — SAS, alone in a dead cityHEROTop-down, twin-stick: one stick (or WASD) moves, the other (or the mouse) aims and fires. Reload, swap weapons, drop deployables, and don't let anything reach your back. Pick one of four classes before the drop.
Second OperatorCo-op — a friend drops inALLYThe whole point of the genre. A second player joins for local co-op (or the vision extends to online). Shared cash pool, revives, and complementary classes — a Medic + Heavy back-line, a Recon scout — turn a desperate defense into a real fireteam.
NecrosisThe thing the outbreak was hidingBOSSA bus-sized mound of fused corpses that arrives on boss waves — tanky, spawns lesser zombies, and hits like a truck. The recurring apex threat, scaling harder each time it shows up. Bring the rocket launcher.
HOW IT PLAYS
Twin-Stick Survival
Move and aim independently — keyboard+mouse or a gamepad's two sticks. Enemies come from all sides, so it's about kiting, positioning, and never getting cornered. Reloads leave you vulnerable; manage them.
Waves & Boss Waves
Zombies spawn in escalating waves — more of them, tougher variants, faster. Clear a wave to bank the cash and open the buy phase. Every fifth wave (roughly) is a BOSS WAVE with a named horror plus its escort. The run is endless; the leaderboard tracks the highest wave you reach.
Cash & The Buy Phase
Kills drop cash (headshots pay more). Between waves, walk to the crates and spend: new weapons, ammo refills, body armor, perks, and deployables (auto-turret, barbed barricade, proximity mines, a med station for co-op). Nothing carries between runs — every run is a fresh scramble up the tech tree.
Loadout Classes
Pick a class at the drop: ASSAULT (balanced, cheap upgrades), MEDIC (heals and revives, weaker guns — a co-op anchor), HEAVY (extra armor and an LMG, but slow), or RECON (fast, crit-focused, loves the sniper). Class shapes your whole run.
Headshots, Gore & Juice
Newgrounds energy: chunky hit-feedback, ragdoll gibs, blood decals that stay on the ground, screen shake on the big guns, and a satisfying ka-CHUNK on every reload. Headshots are worth aiming for — more damage, more cash.
Deployables & The Fortress Fantasy
You can't out-shoot infinity, so you build a killbox: barricades to funnel the horde, turrets to cover your flank, mines on the chokepoints, a med station to hold. Reading the map and fortifying it is half the game.
THE HORDE
Concept art — eight zombie types, from the shambling basic to the Necrosis boss. Variants get faster and tougher on later waves.
BOSSTHE ARSENAL
Concept art — ten weapon tiers, bought and upgraded during buy phases.
LOADOUT CLASSES
Concept art — pick one at the drop; it shapes the whole run.
WAVE STRUCTURE (CONCEPT)
Endless escalation. Numbers are a starting-point vision to be tuned once it's built.
| Waves | Feel | New threat |
|---|---|---|
| 1–4 | Warm-up | Shamblers, first Runners |
| 5 | ★ BOSS | First boss + escort |
| 6–9 | Ramp | Bloaters, Spitters, Armored |
| 10 | ★ BOSS | Tougher boss, tighter buy money |
| 11–19 | Grind | Screamers, Hazmat, mixed hordes |
| 20 | ★ BOSS | Necrosis proper |
| 21+ | Endless | Everything, faster, forever — leaderboard territory |
MAPS (CONCEPT)
| Map | Hook |
|---|---|
| Downtown | Open crossroads — attacks from four streets |
| The Mall | Tight corridors and chokepoints to fortify |
| Quarantine Zone | Fences and gaps you can barricade into a killbox |
| The Lab | Where it started — hazards, and the Necrosis home turf |
BUY-PHASE MENU (CONCEPT)
| Category | Examples |
|---|---|
| Weapons | The ten guns above, plus tier upgrades |
| Ammo & Armor | Reserve refills, body armor plates |
| Perks | Faster reload, more move speed, headshot bonus, life steal |
| Deployables | Auto-turret, barbed barricade, proximity mines, med station |
PLANNED ACHIEVEMENTS
Ideas to register with the site once the game exists (TIX rewards TBD).
| Achievement | How |
|---|---|
| First Blood | Survive wave 1 |
| Dug In | Reach wave 10 |
| Last Man Standing | Reach wave 25 |
| Trophy Hunter | Kill Necrosis |
| Gunsmith | Own every weapon in one run |
| Fireteam | Win a co-op boss wave |
| Cauterized | Clear a wave using only the flamethrower |
| Untouchable | Clear a full wave without taking damage |
VERSION HISTORY
- Design vision only — the game is not built yet. This wiki captures the concept so it's ready to develop.
- Established: top-down twin-stick zombie survival, endless waves + boss waves, cash/buy-phase economy, 8 enemy types, 10 weapons, 4 classes, deployables, 1–2 player co-op, high-wave leaderboard.
- Open production question: build it in GameMaker (GMS2 → HTML5) for the content pipeline, wiring the Arcade SDK via a JS extension — prototype that bridge first.
- All art here is concept art, to be replaced with real in-game sprites once development starts (version B onward).