God Save Birmingham News

Welcome back, Survivors!

In our previous dev log, we talked a little bit about why we chose Birmingham, England, as the setting for God Save Birmingham. Our goal has always been to create a medieval world that feels as authentic as possible, and through extensive research, we found that 14th-century Birmingham was the perfect backdrop for our survival game.

The 1300s were a historical time, shaped by the Black Death, and Birmingham at the time was a growing market town. We’ve spent time digging into historical records, old maps, and academic sources to understand how people lived, what they ate, and how the city was structured. We even found a model of medieval Birmingham to help visualize the layout!

(Courtesy Birmingham Museums Trust's YouTube video)

All this research isn’t just for show—it actively influences how we design the game world. Here are a few ways historical accuracy is making its way into God Save Birmingham:

• Landmarks & Architecture – We are recreating notable locations like St. Martin’s Church, Moor Hall, and the Marketplace, ensuring they are as close to their historical equivalents as possible.
  
  
• Population Realism – The number of survivors (and zombies) in the game isn’t infinite—we’re basing it on the estimated 14th-century population of Birmingham. Every infected person you encounter was once part of that medieval town.
  
• Food & Animals – Within the game, you’ll only find food that would have actually been available in medieval Birmingham. That means bread, cheese, eggs, turnips, and more! You’ll also come across animals like chickens, which were commonly kept for their eggs and meat.
  
  
• Everyday Items – From bedding and tables to tools and cookware, we’ve researched the everyday objects people used in 14th-century Birmingham to make the world feel authentic. You’ll also find historically accurate lighting sources, like rushlights, an inexpensive type of lamp made from animal fat and reeds.
  
  

We’re committed to making this world feel as realistic as possible, but we know there’s always more to learn. If you have any knowledge of medieval Birmingham—whether it’s historical sources, family research, or just cool facts—please share it with us within our Steam discussion board! Your input could help shape the game even further.

Let us know your thoughts, and stay tuned for more updates!

Thank you,
God Save Birmingham Team

Hello, I’m Hyeonseong Cha, a programmer and Creative Director of God Save Birmingham.

We’ve been working hard on God Save Birmingham since we first introduced the game last year. Today we’d like to tell you a little more about it and share our plans for 2025.

A short description of God Save Birmingham would be, “a zombie apocalypse survival game in a medieval European town”. When I first played survival games like Don’t Starve or Project Zomboid, I found it difficult to survive even a single day, and the experience of overcoming such a difficult environment was very memorable and satisfying. My hope is that we can create a game like that, and bring a similar experience to fans of the genre. So when you step into the world of God Save Birmingham, you’ll find yourself in a truly desperate and challenging scenario.

[One of game’s unique characteristics is an aim-based strike system.]

[Battles with zombies are intense, but the other survival activities won’t be any easier.]

Zombie apocalypse settings are one of my favorites across any media. But while there are a lot of different games that feature zombies, they’re not often that classic slow-walking kind that I like most. The terror they create as the horde closes in… the tension as a crowd of them grabs hold and goes in for the bite… These are the thrills I love most about the genre. It’s tricky to capture that type of enemy and bring them to life in a game, but we’re embracing that challenge head-on.

[Another unique feature: our zombies’ procedural grappling system.]

One of our goals from the beginning was to recreate an entire town in a virtual space, and build apocalyptic survival gameplay around it. We’ve put a huge amount of time and care into achieving the right historical feeling and geographic scope. Sometimes that’s meant compromising on our loftier ambitions (as we’re a pretty small team), but we’re confident in our ability to deliver a setting with the kind of depth and size players have come to expect.

We ultimately chose to recreate a medium-sized city in medieval Europe and researched a bunch of them. In the end, Birmingham in the 1300s fit the criteria we were looking for.

You may have seen Birmingham or other communities like it in other media with a more fantastical tone. But what we’re trying to present is something that reflects a grounded, realistic picture of day-to-day life in that time and place. In our research, we’ve strived to be as faithful as possible to the location and appearance of the various churches, manors, village centers, and other infrastructure that existed in Birmingham in real-life history.

We’re also working to recreate the typical household items, food, and tools of the time accurately (or as close as we can get within reason), to really convey the textured feeling of what it would be like to try to survive a disaster scenario back then.

[A bed of straw offers a comfortable place to rest.]

We’ll be releasing a video soon to share what we’ve been working on, and we’re planning to showcase the game through game shows or other channels so people can have a chance to experience it for themselves. We believe there are a lot of people out there who are both fans of zombie fiction and nerds for medieval history, like we are. And while the game is still in a pretty early stage, we’re really looking forward to the day when players can get their hands on it, explore the world we’ve built, and share feedback that can make God Save Birmingham even better.

I’m happy to finally share a bit of our thoughts and plans for the game, and we’re working on some other ideas for how we can keep players up to date with the game’s development. We still have a lot to share with you, so we’ll be back soon!

[Cologne, Germany, during Gamescom 2024 – In the Cologne Cathedral, with a grateful heart.]

Thank you,
Hyeonseong Cha, Creative Director




DISCORD | X/TWITTER | FACEBOOK | INSTAGRAM | YOUTUBE | TWITCH

https://store.steampowered.com/app/3073940/God_Save_Birmingham/

Survivors,

Our team brought God Save Birmingham to Gamescom and PAX West this year for its grand debut! We were excited to reveal it, as well as bring a playable demo for those who visited our booth.


And, to be honest, we felt flattered by how much interest and enthusiasm you showed even at such an early stage, telling us you were really drawn by what the game is about. Seeing how players came by to check out God Save Birmingham was encouraging for the small development team (which started off with only 2 people, now grown to 6 very recently).

[Here you see Hyeonseong Cha, God Save Birmingham's director]

What we shared at our booth is only the humble beginning. Many players told us how impressed they were, and we hope to continue to wow you as we share future development progress in the future.

If you weren’t at the events, there is no need to feel like you missed out. As with all our games, we will stay true to our development philosophy of shaping our games with our community–and that means there will be opportunities for you to get your hands on God Save Birmingham and share your thoughts!

Stay alive and safe until next time, as we all carry on until salvation finds Birmingham.



- ODS GeeK

DISCORD | X/TWITTER | FACEBOOK | INSTAGRAM | YOUTUBE | TWITCH

https://store.steampowered.com/app/3073940/God_Save_Birmingham/

One peasant and his pitchfork versus the zombie horde looks to be the concept behind God Save Birmingham, the recently-announced survival crafting game from Ocean Drive Studio. With a short alpha trailer dropped this week at Gamescom and a recently-posted Steam page, God Save Birmingham will be a "physics-based" game set "in a painstakingly recreated medieval market town."..
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