God Save Birmingham News

Survivors,

I hope you’re just as excited as we are for PAX East this week! We can’t wait to see real players get hands-on with the game and share their feedback with us real time.

That said, we realize traveling to Boston to attend an event is not in the cards for everyone right now, so we captured a full playthrough of the actual PAX demo build. This is a raw look at the game: 22 minutes of straight unedited gameplay.


[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
If you are able to come by our booth at PAX, this should give you a sneak peek at what it takes to survive the full 30-minute demo. ;)

We’re working to make a playable demo available on Steam for everyone, so stay tuned and follow us here and/or socials! And if you have any questions or thoughts on the video, feel free to leave comments on the thread.

-ODS Team

Hey Survivors,

We’re back—and we’ve got some news!

It’s been a minute, but today we’re coming in hot with something you won’t want to miss.

First up: the brand-new, IGN-exclusive trailer for God Save Birmingham is LIVE!
Step into a brutal reality of 14th-century Birmingham, where you awake as the lone survivor in a city overrun by zombies—and they aren't your only enemy. This new trailer gives you a raw look at the gritty survival gameplay that awaits.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube](Just a heads-up: the game is still in development, so what you see isn't final—but it is awesome.)

Next stop: Boston!
We’re heading to PAX East (May 8–11) with a PAX-exclusive playable demo of God Save Birmingham!
If you're going to be there, swing by our booth, say hi to the devs, and be one of the first to experience the improved game hands-on.


More updates are coming soon—so stay locked in by wishlisting the game on Steam now and following us on our socials below.

We’ll catch you soon!

- ODS Team

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

Dear Survivors,

We are so excited to talk to you today about something that is a huge part of our game: physics mechanics.

Physics-based mechanics have always been an integral part of God Save Birmingham from the very beginning. It was important to us that it be a key component of the gameplay experience and the sense of immersion. The realistic interactions between characters -- whether they’re human or zombie -- and the environment are what makes our game feel engaging and dynamic.

[h3]Physics-Driven Gameplay Mechanics[/h3]

It’s always been one of our highest priorities to make physics actively shape your gameplay. You can interact with practically every object you encounter, whether it’s lifting, pushing, or throwing. Even your inventory is a factor, hindering your movement when encumbered or aiding your speed when empty. No detail has been overlooked on our quest for depth and realism.

Explore the world and use your imagination; you’ll be astounded by the freedom of what you can do. Need to clear a path? Move obstacles out of the way! Need to block zombies? Stack furniture to barricade a door! Want to reach a high ledge? Use a table or chair to climb up! Players and zombies can even trip over objects around the world, so watch your step!



[h3]Challenges in Implementing Physics[/h3]

Integrating an advanced physics system hasn’t been without its challenges, though. While game engines have come a long way towards supporting physics, developing a seamless and bug-free system has still been demanding.

Ensuring every object has accurate collision shapes, weight, density, and friction values is a meticulous process. Unlike typical static world design, where small overlaps or floating objects might go unnoticed, God Save Birmingham requires precise physical placement, increasing the workload for our designers. To streamline this, we’ve developed specialized tools that help make this process more efficient.


[h3]Inspirations from Other Games[/h3]

Playing immersive sims like Half-Life, Portal, and Dishonored -- pioneers in physics engines -- was a huge inspiration for me to include physics in GSB. I have fond memories of being able to freely pick up, push, and throw anything in the game world. In particular, the Magnesis skill and Ultrahand mechanics in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom were incredibly impressive with their intuitive object manipulation and how they contributed to the gameplay.

We’re developing God Save Birmingham hoping to incorporate that same level of physical freedom, but now in a zombie survival game.


[h3]Future Enhancements[/h3]

One of the features we’re most excited about integrating is a weather mechanic. Imagine all the possibilities! Fog, rain, a little sunshine (you know, your typical Birmingham weather) — all of it creating new challenges or offering new opportunities. Rain might make surfaces slippery, impacting movement. Lightweight objects might be pushed about by strong wind.

As we continue working on GSB, it’s our goal to implement physics, along with other environmental and survival simulation elements, as fully as possible into the game’s systems. If you have any ideas, feel free to share them with us!



We can’t wait to see how players use these systems creatively, and we look forward to sharing more as we continue improving the game.

Hyeonseong Cha, Creative Director

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




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