The Adventures of Zomboy
is a 2012 point-and-click Adobe Flash game designed by Arctic Arcade. During the outbreak of a mysterious disease, hematologist Dr. David Seaver develops a vaccine called ADV, which resurrects its recipients as zombies. Later, one such zombie, a boy dubbed "Zomboy," wakes up in the trailer in which he has taken up residence, hungry for brains. He eats one in a can, expressing a whirlwind of emotions that spurns him on a quest to recover his memories, interacting with and helping several people along the way, also constructing a map in the process.
A sequel has been announced, but that has yet to materialize-as of 2019, it's on the studio's back burner.
The Adventures of Zomboy provides examples of:
- After the End: Implied. The story takes place after a huge outbreak exacerbated by ADV.
- Amnesiac Hero: Zomboy's main quest is to get his memory back after he loses it. He spends the game searching for answers, retrieving all seven pieces of a map, and eventually reading his diary.
- Because You Were Nice to Me: The girl thanks Zomboy for giving her the keys to the bus by offering to teach him some words and drawing a copy of his map piece (though both will have to wait until the next day).
- Eat Brain for Memories: A limited version. At the start of the game, the player has to give Zomboy a can of brains to eat. After he consumes a brain, it causes him to realize his current state and prompts him to question who he is and eventually look through his diary to jog his memory.
- Eye Colour Change: Zomboy's red eyes change color to white when he eats a brain in a can.
- Friendly Zombie: Zomboy is a kind and helpful zombie who helps various NPCs in his quest, befriending a girl around his age who teaches him to read again, fixing the leaks in the coffee shop's water supply, and giving a gardener some fireflies so she can garden in the night.
- The Ghost: Dr. David Seaver MD, the inventor of the ADV vaccine. He's not seen at any point during the game, but you can read about him in news articles. He was accused of being a Mad Doctor and caused debate among his peers (with some hailing his discovery and others questioning his ethics) when he stated that humanity was "one step closer to cheating death itself." He was last mentioned attempting to contain the zombies and going missing prior to the events of the game, so it's unknown if he's even alive.
- Hooking the Keys: A variant. The girl is trapped outside of the school bus in which she and her father have taken residence, and the keys are stuck in a sewer. Zomboy must use a fishing pole to retrieve them.
- Nameless Narrative: With the exception of Dr. Seaver, virtually no one is given a name in this game. Zomboy's real name is never revealed despite his quest to retrieve his memories.
- Our Zombies Are Different: The zombies are people resurrected by the ADV vaccine, capable of movement and very limited reasoning, becoming aggressive like your normal flesh-eating zombie. But it's also implied that when they eat brains in cans, which increases their brainpower, they can become friendlier like Zomboy, albeit at the cost of their memories. However, they can still revert back to their instincts at times, such as when Zomboy bites a drunk man at the dumpster to get a map piece.
