Zombie Shooter: words are the bullets

The work: 11 April 2026 · Written 1 November 2026 · Entry 5 of 17

On 11 April 2026 the project got its first game beyond the race: Zombie Shooter. The idea is simple. Each zombie carries a word, every correct letter you type fires a bullet at it, and a finished word means it falls.

Letters are bullets, words are kills

The design rule is that every correct letter does something. A correct letter fires a bullet, so the screen answers each key press at once. A finished word defeats the zombie. This turns typing into the whole control scheme: there is nothing else to press.

A wrong letter does not break the game. It is shown, and it costs you accuracy, but it does not stop you. This follows the same idea as the race: mistakes are counted, not forbidden.

Twenty levels and bosses

The game has 20 levels with growing waves of enemies, and bosses that you defeat by typing whole sentences. The levels grow harder as you go.

Why a game at all

Short repeated practice is what builds typing skill, and games are the easiest way to make people want to repeat. The game later moved to a new engine, which is the story of a later entry in this log.

Reading the screen

The word is written above its zombie, and the next letter to type is highlighted. Letters you have typed change colour. When several zombies carry words that start with the same letter, a correct letter hits the nearest matching one, so a word close to you can be shot by a letter you meant for another. Up to four players share the same screen and the same zombies, and everybody can type the same enemy's word.