Kickstarter projects aren't always the runaway success that Tim Schafer and Double Fine had with the Double Fine Adventure adventure game, which raised over $3 million. So introducing a Kickstarter means something different has to be done to win over the consumers now developers are jumping on the crowd sourcing platform, and Zombie Playground seems perfectly placed to do that by offering a different take on the over-saturated zombie genre.

Zombie Playground is an online RPG where players play as kids, in a school, fighting a zombie invasion. The premise is that as kids, players get to experience what it's like to fight a zombie invasion scavenging for weapons and moving across classrooms to survive.

Despite being a game with kids, it's not built for the age group. Undoubtedly kids will be able to play the game, but the developers are keen to stress the atmosphere is that of a child's nightmare and will include "horrific monsters, visceral combat and a unique atmosphere." Zombie games like Dead Island are an open world, and give players lots of survival options and sometimes remove the sense of urgency. A school, even when outside, will be cramped and claustrophobic.

Kids are the protagonists because the zombie outbreak represents children imagining situations where they're doing cool things (such as firing guns). The game is a third-person, action RPG, with co-op mechanics. It's built around teamwork, and what the developers described as "battle tactics." Of course levelling up means new abilities with new weapons, items and clothes. Clothes seem to bring meaningful bonuses as well, rather than being purely aesthetic. Players can also specialize, though the developers didn't detail how or in what areas.

Every play style is supported, from close quarters to long-range combat. Characters can play multiple roles and "fill the needs of the party." It almost sounds like an MMOG where players are looking for players to play specific roles, such as a tank or DPS character.

Of course players can pledge, and get rewards which increase as the donation value increases. Notable rewards include the standard digital edition for $15, a digital soundtrack for $30, the Collector's Edition for $50, access to the closed alpha for $200, a fast track to future characters for $1500, $9000 gets players a painting of themselves as a former principal of the school which will also be shipped, along with an invite to the developer's Halloween Party in San Francisco (though travel is down to the backer), while $9900 gets the school named after the backer and $10000 means players are the principal of the school (and likely in-game at some point).

Zombie PlayGround is set for release on PC, Mac and possibly Linux around March 2013.