The Typing of the Dead: Overkill rose from the grave

Blitz Games Studios' The Typing of the Dead: Overkill, a shooter/typing instructor hybrid, almost wasn't released due to the studio's financial woes, former Blitz project manager Ollie Clark told Giant Bomb.

In June, Blitz began turning Sega's House of the Dead: Overkill into a typing game, releasing it within six months along with multiplayer content. However, the game almost didn't see its Halloween release because of Blitz' troubles. According to Clark, he found out that the studio was going into liquidation on Sept. 12.

"I went and spoke with a colleague of mine, Tom Weston, who was the company manager of business affairs at the time," Clark told Giant Bomb, "and just spoke to him and said ‘What are the chances of getting this game out?' And he said ‘Not a chance.' That would normally be the end of it. We would do what studios do when they go under, which is go down to the pub and drink our sorrows away."

Some members of the team reformed under Clark's side project, Modern Dream. Weston and Clark then set up meetings with Sega to give them a chance to conclude the title's development. After discussions with the former-Blitz team, Sega agreed to let the them finish the game, offering them space at a local development studio. Giant Bomb reports that Overkill's development only experienced four days of downtime during the tumultuous period.

Based on Sega's zombie splatter series, The House of the Dead, The Typing of the Dead: Overkill launched for Windows PC via Steam in October. To dispatch oncoming zombies, players are required type out letters, words and phrases.

The game received a cooperative multiplayer mode and a new word palette themed around the works of William Shakespeare with a recent content add-on. Words and phrases from Sega's Football Manager title were also included in the game with the Football Manager of the Dead Lexicon Pack.