Inspiration

We wanted to explore a different type of survival experience — one where survival is not just about staying alive, but uncovering a mystery. Many survival games focus on one world, but 30 Days After is built around surviving through multiple apocalypse scenarios, each with its own story, threats, and challenges.

What it does

30 Days After is a story-driven survival adventure where players must survive 30 days and 30 nights in a post-apocalyptic world. Players gather resources, hunt, fish, build and upgrade shelters, manage hunger and health, defend against threats, and uncover clues about what caused civilization to collapse.

How we built it

We designed the game around a clear survival loop: explore, gather, build, prepare, survive, and uncover the truth. From there, we expanded the idea into different apocalypse worlds with unique enemies, environments, final events, and story clues. We also created visual concepts for the map, UI, characters, enemies, mood board, and color palette so the game feels consistent.

Challenges we ran into

The biggest challenge was keeping the scope realistic while still making the game feel exciting. We wanted multiple apocalypse worlds, but each one needed to connect to the same core gameplay loop. Another challenge was balancing survival difficulty so the game feels tense without becoming frustrating.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We are proud of creating a survival concept that combines resource management, base building, exploration, and mystery. The 30-day structure gives the game a clear goal, while the story clues and different apocalypse worlds make players want to keep going.

What we learned

We learned that a strong game idea needs more than just a cool setting. The gameplay loop, player journey, visuals, and production plan all need to support each other. We also learned how important it is for every feature to connect back to the main experience: surviving 30 days and uncovering the truth.

What's next for 30 Days After

Next, we would like to prototype the main survival loop, starting with one apocalypse world. After that, we would expand the shelter system, add more enemies and resources, and build out the mystery through journals, audio logs, and Day 30 events.

Built With

• chatgpt