Lab of the Dead

**Lab of the Dead** is a casual "pet" simulation game similar to that of Tamagotchi (or gotchi for short) following the story of Allen C. Tyler, a surviving scientist, bunkered in an abandoned facility with a group of surviving military personnel led by Captain Wood. The facility strangely has a storage room full of specimen infected with the zombie virus and Allen, being the only scientist, takes it upon himself to research the psychology of the undead.

The gameplay consist of the player giving objects, food or using weapons on a zombie and Allen noting the response. The responses can vary depending on the specimen's **mood**, **humanity** or **hunger**.

Zombies tend not to like having weapons used on them, and doing so will lower their **mood** and make them more aggressive. It should be noted that in the game, the player is in no danger and zombies cannot break from their chains. Giving zombies food or giving entertaining objects will help calm down zombies, making them more open to experimentation.

Zombies also eat, and they eat a lot. Specimen have a **hunger level** the player can manipulate. Giving zombies food will lower their hunger and make them less likely to simply attempt to eat their plaything. Starving zombies by giving them inedible items and ***(Verification required)*** hitting them in the stomach will make them more aggressive and more likely to destroy items.

While zombies may literally be a shell of their former selves, some **humanity** can be seen within them. And this very humanity can be brought out by giving specimen objects, particularly objects the specimen likes. Specimen can be researched in the menu to reveal what objects appeal to them more. Increasing a specimen's humanity will get them to interact with objects in a more human way, and reveal more about their psychology.

There are 3 basic reaction each weapon, object or food has: **Passive**, **Neutral** or **Aggressive**. Most objects or food items tend to have an **Advanced** reaction the player can study. revealing the extent of the zombie brain. These responses are triggered by specific mood, hunger and humanity levels of the specimen. A more docile zombie is more likely to use an radio passively while an hungry specimen is more likely to simply try to eat the object. Advanced reactions are more complicated, and require a object to be fully research before it can be found for that specific object. Researching an object will reveal its requirements for the 3 basic reactions while researching it more will unlock the advanced reaction and reveal its requirement. Advanced reactions require all basic reactions to be observed for that specific object and mya sometimes require a second requirement such as a previous encounter with another object. While a single specimen does not have to complete all the basic reactions, instead you could have those reactions observed in other specimen, a specimen will have to complete the secondary requirement in order to compelete the reaction. You can't for example, rely on a previous specimen to have completed a task then have another do the advanced reaction.

The player can also upgrade Allen's research skills. There are 6 research skills to upgrade which makes experimenting on zombies and finding new results much easier.

* **Increased Research Speed** will speed up the time it takes for Allen to research objects, with a fully upgraded time of a few seconds.
* **Increased Research Reward** will increase the amount of RP the player receives for reactions.
* **Decreased Research Cost** will reduce the amount of RP required to research new object.
* **Increased Humanity Control** will increase the amount of humanity raised or lowered by a reaction.
* **Increased Hunger Control** will increase any specimen's hunger level raised or lowered by a reaction.
* **Increased Mood Control** will increase any specimen's mood level raised or lowered by a reaction.

Throughout the game, the player can research **Alpha Tapes** and **Alpha Notes** left over by the previous occupants of the abandoned facility, referred to as Alpha Team. The Alpha Tapes/Notes slowly reveal the story of Alpha Team and the origin of the zombie virus. The game's story progressess as you research tapes and notes, use enough objects and discover new reactions. Each stage of the story requires a certain number of objects used, new reactions discovered and tapes/notes recovered to move onto the next. Story stages are seperated by Allen's logs and sometimes cutscenes which provide information on the world after the fall of Evans City and Wood's group. Each stage also comes with new objects and some with new research skills to more efficiently experiment with the zombies.