As the excitement of Minecon passes and the dust settles, new indie news can at last rise up from the din of sandbox success. During the convention proceedings, a public PC demo (Linux and Mac versions coming soon) for Twindrills’ SNES-esque co-op zombie blatting game Zombie Grinder was released. Grab a buddy, load that bazooka, download it and give it a spin.

As the demo warns on startup, this is a pre-alpha build, intended mostly for showing off in LAN format. There’s a master server running, meaning that if you don’t have buddies to hand you can play on public servers, but as with most cooperative games, you’ll probably be best served if you’re rolling with a couple of friends. Here’s some slightly solo outdated gameplay footage, from a build a couple of months ago.

Grim, serious and modern this ain’t. No twin-stick shooter setup here. Aside from the silly hats (a modern trend in gaming I highly enjoy – more games need amusing headgear!) and a user interface shamelessly lifted from earlier Source-engine games, this could pass as a long-lost cousin to Zombies Ate My Neighbors. Pure 90s over-the-top sillyness. Even the gore doesn’t feel gory – random bits of cube-headed zombie meat and splats of green keep this feeling comparatively clean.

The game is still early in development, but this demo shows a lot of promise. Keep an ear to the ground here at DIYGamer for more news on this retro zombie revival. Oh, and in case anyone was wondering? The final game will be freeware.

[Zombie Grinder]