Zombie Lane: what the game is, where it comes from and how to play it today

What is Zombie Lane?

Zombie Lane is a social farming and survival game. A zombie outbreak has overrun a neighborhood, and your job is to protect your house and your land, make them thrive and look after the people around you. It was made by Digital Chocolate, a studio based in Helsinki.

Day to day it mixes four things: fighting zombies with a limited supply of energy, growing and harvesting crops, rebuilding your home and its surroundings in stages, and doing missions for the characters of the neighborhood, plus visits to your neighbors.

One warning about the name: more than one game is called Zombie Lane. This page is only about the Digital Chocolate game.

Where does Zombie Lane come from?

Zombie Lane first came out on Facebook in 2011 as a free game. In November 2011 a free version followed for iPhone, iPod touch and iPad, essentially the same game as the Facebook one with small differences. An Android version from Digital Chocolate also existed, again free.

In 2014 the company RockYou obtained the license to Zombie Lane, along with three other Digital Chocolate Facebook games, and hired their developers. This page does not say whether the Facebook version or the original apps can still be opened today, because that is not something we can confirm.

What is this edition, and what is it not?

This is an independent browser edition run by FB Games. It is free and in beta, and it runs on a server of its own at zombie.fbgamesweb.com. It is not the official Digital Chocolate site, and it is not the Facebook game or the phone apps.

You need an account of your own: a username and a password, with an email address optional. There is no sign-in with Facebook or other social networks, and there is no guest mode, so you register before you play. Your progress is stored on the server and tied to your account, so you can pick it up from another device by signing in. Progress from the original Facebook game or the apps is not imported: everyone starts from scratch.

Playing costs nothing. The game does not sell its money; you earn coins and cash by playing, and anyone who wants to help keep the servers running can make a voluntary donation, which is handled through a support ticket.

What do you actually do in Zombie Lane?

You defend your land. Zombies wander around, notice you when you get close, chase you and wreck crops and fences, and every attack, repair and harvest costs a little energy that comes back over time. You grow crops that take anywhere from a minute to many hours to ripen, and you rebuild your house, garage, old car and dog house in stages.

The game has 101 levels and 357 missions handed out by characters such as Rob, Frank the farmer, Jerry Lee, Daisy, Kevin and Dyson. Four adventure zones open between levels 10 and 25: the Circus, Downtown, the Crash Site and The Cure. You can also visit neighbors, help them, send gifts and claim a daily bonus.

The numbers behind all of this, from energy to crops to weapons, are in our how-to-play guide.

What is still unfinished in the beta?

Zombie Lane is in beta, so bugs can appear. Some adventure zones and some windows are not finished, the guardians of the adventure zones do not have their behavior yet, seasonal events are missing, and part of the artwork still shows neutral silhouettes. The energy pack labeled FREE shows “Coming soon”, and a few long waits do not display the time remaining.

If something fails, open a ticket in Support while you are signed in and attach a screenshot. Those reports are how the beta gets better.

How do you start Zombie Lane in three steps?

Step one: open the game's site and choose Create account and play. Pick a username, add an email if you want, and set a password of at least 8 characters. Step two: sign in, choose a male or female character, type a name of up to 20 characters, pick a skin tone and clothes, and press play. Step three: follow the tutorial with Rob. It has seven steps and ends when he hands you a shotgun.

From there the first missions take over and tell you what to do next.

Where should you go next?

Each question has its own guide. How to play Zombie Lane has the numbers: energy, crops, weapons, zombies and neighbors. The Zombie Lane private server guide explains the server, the account and support. Zombie Lane without Flash covers browsers and loading problems, and Zombie Lane on mobile covers Android and iPhone. The Zombie Lane download guide explains why there is nothing to install, and games like Zombie Lane compares it with similar titles.

If some other page offers a file or a money tool under this name, it did not come from us. The download guide shows how to tell.