Dear players who have long followed our studio’s interactive titles, we are thrilled to announce that our first original large-scale AI-produced zombie apocalypse interactive movie game officially launches at 8:00 on September 12th.
Thank you for your continued attention. As a small team that has been dedicated to interactive movie games for three years, we have finally delivered our first story-driven game that meets our own standards. We hope you enjoy it.
While fully AI-generated works may not be widely favored right now, after nearly three years of playing interactive movie games, I can objectively say: *Survivor's Notes* is well worth your time.
Now, I will hand over the floor to the lead director and chief writer of *Survivor's Notes* for our traditional developer note.
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## Survivor's Notes Director’s Creative Journal: Thank You for Stepping Into This Apocalyptic Tale
I’m Ximing, an ordinary film practitioner. I finished the screenplay for the film version of *Survivor's Notes* seven years ago. Though it tells a zombie apocalypse story, its core ultimately circles back to human connection and emotions between people.
Pure love is profoundly touching. I’ve long admired a 17-year-old film, *My Girlfriend Is a Cyborg* directed by Kwak Jae-yong. The cyborg girlfriend played by Haruka Ayase can be summed up with a few keywords: cold, pure, protective. I wanted to create a similar female character in my own writing, and thus Bai Yuan was born.
Before the era of AI video generation, our production capacity could never support a large-scale apocalypse project like this. I once thought this story of *Survivor's Notes* would gather dust on a hard drive forever. Then a new technological age arrived.
I’ve always believed large AI video models are first and foremost production tools. Their upper limit hinges on the creator’s aesthetic vision, visual literacy, storytelling skills and directorial thinking. One thing is certain: creating video with AI will only grow simpler, visual spectacles will become more abundant, and audience aesthetic thresholds will keep rising. At that point, original ideas will gain greater value, and the barrier to producing multi-threaded narratives will fall. Interactive movie games, where players take the lead and hold the reins of fate, may gradually become a common form of entertainment.
Towards the end of 2025, I was brainstorming concepts for an interactive movie game. *Superhero Dispatch Center* gave me great inspiration: superheroes are a familiar genre for global players, naturally packed with gameplay and dramatic tension. Most domestic interactive movie games launch primarily on Steam. Since we target a global audience, we needed a story premise easily understood by players worldwide. That brought me back to the long-shelved script of *Survivor's Notes*.
There are countless classic zombie works, and the genre is already well-known across the globe. I wanted to tell a zombie apocalypse story set within Chinese cities, from the perspective of a Chinese creator. Together with Mr. Liu Yao, I redesigned the worldbuilding and script outline to fit the scale and narrative structure of an interactive movie game. I wove plenty of Eastern elements and an extensive cast of characters into the story, transforming *Survivor's Notes* beyond its original thin film draft.
At that point, I had decided all visuals would be AI-generated. Faced with such a massive story scope, I was unfamiliar with the practical workflow of AI video production and felt deeply anxious. It was not until my partner ED built character and scene assets based on my story settings, and we co-produced an 8-minute demo reel, that I first believed this story might actually come to life.
After that, I pushed forward project production. At the start, we used frame-to-frame and multi-parameter generation workflows. The process was extremely cumbersome. I invited Director Fan Xiangnan to join the direction team. Fan and I had to draw storyboards first, generate each shot one by one, then edit everything together. Progress was glacial. Soon after, Seedance 2.0 launched. It is truly a landmark large AI video model. It unlocked new possibilities for many shots that were previously hard to make, greatly boosting shot expressiveness and production efficiency.
I quickly halted the original production pipeline and researched new workflows tailored for Seedance 2.0. What followed was an extremely grueling phase: facial distortion issues, long queue waits, repeated revisions. The team often pulled all-nighters to finish shots. We even remade all the footage we had already completed.
The project truly stabilized in April. After Seedance 2.0 opened API access, our output surged dramatically. Director Fan Xiangnan also optimized workflows for Seedance 2.0. Five team members worked on shot production for *Survivor's Notes*: Zeng Luobo, Sisaan, Xiao Hao, Feng Kehao, and Ling Yao. My daily work was drafting new scripts and giving revision feedback on their newly rendered footage; they completed their assigned script tasks each day. ED handled asset creation and visual design. Team member Zeng Luobo not only produced shots daily but also composed over 90 tracks for the game (the full album will be released on NetEase Cloud Music).
The pressure was overwhelming during that period. As an old quote goes: “Since accepting this commission, I have worried day and night, fearing I may fail the trust placed in me.” ED, the five teammates and I forged ahead blindly, learning, experimenting and summing up lessons as we went. From April to July, we barely had any real rest, watching the sunrise together for four straight months.
There is a line in *My Girlfriend Is a Cyborg*: “I can feel your heart.” Similarly, we hope players can feel the dedication and sincerity of our small team while experiencing *Survivor's Notes*.
Many characters in this game use licensed real-life likenesses. Li Boyan portrays Shi Wuchan; Mianmian plays Song Yici; Zeng Luobo plays Luobo; cos creator Linlin plays Linlin. Several friends from daily life also acted as extras and zombies. For this project, Li Boyan traveled back and forth between Hengdian and Ningbo more than twenty times, joining our all-night story brainstorming sessions and discussing characters and visuals with us.
Starting in August, video production for *Survivor's Notes* was mostly finished, and we partnered with the ShengShengWu voice acting team for dubbing. Even with AI-generated visuals, I believe human voice acting endows characters with souls. We are honored to have Ms. Zhao Mengjiao, the voice actor for Chi Meng and Xian Shen in *The Legend of Qin: Bad Guys*, serving as our voice director and voicing Bai Yuan and Luobo. Mr. Liu Liu took on the role of voice production manager, alongside more than 30 talented voice actors contributing performances.
The voice team and I insisted on full human voice acting for every role, including supporting characters and background voices. We wanted this AI-visual interactive movie game to retain as much genuine human emotion as possible.
*Survivor's Notes* launched on Steam on September 12th. A full playthrough runs roughly 12 hours. It is far from perfect, and there are bound to be rough edges. Still, it represents our earnest attempt crafted over months, at this moment when new technologies are opening up creative possibilities.
We cherish this story, and we are grateful to every player willing to step into this apocalypse. We hope *Survivor's Notes* delivers a unique cinematic and gaming experience.
There is a small hidden easter egg after the true ending. If you wish to discuss the story。