The Walking Dead Social Game was originally scheduled for release in April but it’s been pushed back indefinitely while the development team fine tunes it.
“I know there’s a lot of interest in the answer to this one. To be frank, we got excited about the project during development and started adding more features, which extended the development timeline,” explains Mac McKean, AMC’s SVP for Digital Media, on the AMC website. “While we don’t have an exact date yet, I can tell you that the game is about to enter a closed testing phase in limited areas in the next couple weeks. The global public launch will be sometime later. We’ll know better exactly when a worldwide launch will happen once we’ve gotten some results from this more intensive testing period. When we have information to share we’ll keep the Facebook group and The Walking Dead blog up-to-date.”
The game will be accessible to a facebook audience while staying true to the series. That includes featuring weapons like Shane’s semi-automatic, Rick’s Python, Glenn’s machete, and Andrea’s screwdriver. Weapons like the shotgun can also double as a bludgeon. Of course, the real violence will be dished out by the zombies. “We’re going to have zombie feasts, so when you die you’re going to get eviscerated,” says Studio Director Stephen Griffin. “As a player, if you do well, you’ll get the decapitations and so forth. But I don’t think it is gratuitous. We think it serves a purpose to making it feel more like the show.”
It will launch with more content than other facebook games have after a year and continue to be updated when the game goes live. “It’s free to play,” assures McKean. “But similar to many Facebook games out there, you can buy premium items like energy and weapons using Facebook Credits.”
