Lords of Xulima dev reveals steampunk strategy game They Are Billions

Numantian Games, developer of the thoroughly old-fashioned CRPG Lords of Xulima, has revealed a new game. No, it's not a fantasy RPG: it's a post-zombie-apocalyptic real-time strategy game set in a steampunk universe. They Are Billions looks pretty intriguing, it'll be out this Fall/Autumn, and just look how many zombies the game can fit on-screen at once:

Numantian says, of that impressive horde:

"The world is full of infected creatures…they roam, smell, and listen. Every one of them has their own AI. Make noise and they will come—kill some of them to access an oil deposit and hundred of them will come to investigate. We have created our custom engine to handle hordes of thousands of the infected, up to 20,000 units in real time."

Which, I think you'll agree, is loads.

There'll be two game modes, Campaign and Survival, with the first offering "dozens of missions with different goals: building colonies, tactical missions, rescue missions", and the second asking you to survive for 100 days on a randomly generated world. There will be a Spelunky-style weekly challenge in Survival mode, with the best scores being saved onto a leaderboard.

As for how the game will play:

"This is a real-time strategy game, but don’t get too nervous. You can pause the action to take the best strategic and tactical decisions. In Pause Mode, you can place structures to build, give orders to your army, or consult all of the game’s information. This game is all about strategy, not player performance or the player’s skill to memorize and quickly execute dozens of key commands. Pause the game and take all the time you need!"

They Are Billions will be out in Autumn/Fall, but you can look at the Steam page while you wait.

Tom loves exploring in games, whether it’s going the wrong way in a platformer or burgling an apartment in Deus Ex. His favourite game worlds—Stalker, Dark Souls, Thief—have an atmosphere you could wallop with a blackjack. He enjoys horror, adventure, puzzle games and RPGs, and played the Japanese version of Final Fantasy VIII with a translated script he printed off from the internet. Tom has been writing about free games for PC Gamer since 2012. If he were packing for a desert island, he’d take his giant Columbo boxset and a laptop stuffed with PuzzleScript games.