Scheming Through the Zombie Apocalypse is an episodic Point-and-Click adventure game set in anthropomorphic animal society. The series is being developed by Entertainment Forge, published by GrabTheGames for PC via Steam, and published by Ratalaika Games
for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One. So far the series consists of two episodes: The Beginning, which initially released in June 2018 on PC and September 2019 on console, and Caged, which was originally planned to release in 2020 but was delayed until April 16, 2024.
This game is scheming through examples of the following tropes:
- The Alleged Car: Hank's van looks like it was salvaged from a scrapyard yet still manages to put out decent performance.
- Betting Mini-Game: Other than scavenging, supplies can be earned by challenging other survivors to a dice rolling minigame and succeeding, though bad luck means that you can also lose what you bet.
- Bloodless Carnage: The European release of the series removes some of the series' bloodier imagery in order to fit with distribution guidelines; comparing the original cover art◊ with the international cover art◊, blood has been removed from the zombies' mouths, and one animal that was originally dying and leaving a trail of blood with their fingers has already been converted into a yellow-eyed zombie.
- Guile Hero: Hank prefers to use his skills as a salesman to convince others to help him and Larry out instead of risking his own life.
- Insistent Terminology: Hank has a habit of calling the undead horde "weirdos" instead of zombies.
- Mission Control: The protagonist duo assumes it for the scavengers who agreed on going along with their inane deals.
- Non-Action Guy: The protagonist duo are these - instead of scavenging themselves, they prefer to guide the allied scavengers from the safety of their van.
- Our Zombies Are Different: They're undead Funny Animals with yellow sclera.
- Recruiting the Criminal: The focus of Caged, as seen in its promotional trailers and demo, is Hank and Larry offering to let some convicts out of jail in exchange for them doing the scavenging.
- Video Game Caring Potential: Depending on how honest you are, the scavenging may turn out either successful or fail miserably. If you decide to withhold information that a zombie is closing in on the spot so your scavenger doesn't chicken out and escape with only a little loot, not only may you lose the scavenger's trust but even the scavenger themself (and of course the loot). While certain course of actions may seem risky, like attracting the zombie's attention and driving off to lure it away, as the scavenger may get away with keeping all the loot for themself or fall victim to another zombie, it may also be the thing that gets the job done successfully.
- World of Funny Animals: The society of this universe is basically Earth-like, just with stereotypically cartoonish anthropomorphous animals replacing humans.
- Zombie Apocalypse: Naturally the game takes place during one, as the name implies.
