Ludo Zombies documentation

1 What you get

Ludo Zombies is a Ludo-style board game for the browser: four zombies race around the board to the center. It has four game modes (Classic, Quick, Teams and Custom), three CPU levels, a guided tutorial with the zombie guide Zed and an interface in 14 languages.

You play against the computer or with friends on one device, taking turns. The game is local: it has no online matches, accounts or servers, so there is nothing to host except the files.

The package has these parts. Upload only the contents of game/ to your website.

START-HERE.txt
CHANGELOG.md
MANIFEST.json
DOCUMENTATION.html
documentation/index.html
game/
source/
THIRD-PARTY-LICENSES/

2 Installation

Ludo Zombies is plain HTML, CSS and JavaScript. It needs no build step, database, PHP or account.

1. Unzip the package on your computer.
2. Open your hosting File Manager or an FTP program such as FileZilla.
3. Upload the contents of the game/ folder to the folder where the game should live, for example public_html/ludo-zombies/.
4. Open the address of that folder in your browser. The game starts with a Tap to start screen.

3 Requirements

• A current version of Chrome, Edge, Firefox or Safari, on a computer, phone or tablet.
• JavaScript enabled. No plugins or extensions.
• Any static web host. HTTPS is recommended.

The game makes no requests to other websites: fonts, images and sounds are all inside the game/ folder.

4 How to play

Roll the dice, then move one of your zombies. Bring all your zombies to the center of the board to win.

• Tap or click the dice, or press Space, to roll. Hold the dice for a stronger throw.
• Tap or click a zombie that can move, or press its number key from 1 to 4.
• Roll a 6 to leave the base and to roll again. Three 6s in a row lose your turn.
• Stop exactly on a rival to send it back to its base. Skull squares and starting squares are safe.

The full rules are in the How to play window of the game. In the Custom mode you can change them.

5 Screens

The numbered marks on each screenshot match the list below it.

1 2 3

Marks on the screenshot

1. 1 Game logo and tagline.
2. 2 Play button. It opens the game modes.
3. 3 Sound, How to play and Options buttons.

1 2 3

Marks on the screenshot

1. 1 Back to the previous screen.
2. 2 Learn to play: a guided one-minute tutorial.
3. 3 Classic, Quick, Teams and Custom modes.

1 2 3 4

Marks on the screenshot

1. 1 The board with the four bases.
2. 2 Dice panel with the turn and a hint.
3. 3 Scoreboard: zombies that reached the center.
4. 4 Speed, sound, settings and menu buttons.

1 2 3 4 5

Marks on the screenshot

1. 1 Sound, music and voices.
2. 2 Language.
3. 3 CPU difficulty.
4. 4 Accessory for your zombies, unlocked by winning.
5. 5 Color symbols for color-blind players.

6 Settings

The Options window is available from the start screen and, with the gear button, during a match. The game pauses while it is open.

• Language: 14 languages. The game starts in your browser language, or English when it is not available.
• Match pace: normal or double animation speed.
• CPU difficulty: easy, normal or hard.
• Accessory: a bandage, goggles or a scrap crown, unlocked with your first, third and fifth win.
• Color symbols: adds a heart, leaf, star or drop to each color.

The Sound window has master, music, effects and narration volumes, a mute button and a switch for the character voices.

7 File map

8 Customizing

Edit the files in source/. The file map and paths below refer to that folder. Run npm run build inside source/ to copy your changes into game/ before uploading.

• Texts: edit the file of a language in source/js/lang/.
• Colors of the four players: edit PLAYERS in source/js/01-core.js.
• Music: replace source/assets/audio/zombie-theme-polargames.mp3 with your own file of the same name.
• Default volumes: edit the volumes values in source/js/02-audio.js.

const presets = {
  classic: {
    pieces: 4,
    goal: 4,
    startOut: 0,
    exit: "six",
    extraSix: true,
    threeSix: true,
    // ...
  },
  quick: {
    pieces: 4,
    goal: 1,
    startOut: 2,
    exit: "oneSix",
    // ...
  },
};

The rules of each mode are in source/js/rules.js. For example, the start of the list looks like this:

9 Languages

The interface comes in 14 languages: English, Portuguese, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Dutch, Polish, Turkish, Russian, Indonesian, Japanese, Korean and Chinese.

The tutorial voice is recorded in English, Portuguese and Spanish. In the other languages the tutorial text is translated and the voice stays in English.

The translations were prepared with machine translation tools. If you publish for a specific market, ask a native speaker to review the texts your players see.

1. Copy source/js/lang/en.js to a new file, for example source/js/lang/sv.js.
2. Change I18N.en to I18N.sv and translate every value. Keep the {name} style markers.
3. Add a script tag for the new file in source/index.html, next to the other language files.
4. Add the language to the LANGUAGES list in source/js/i18n.js.

10 Saved data

The game saves in the player's own browser, with no server. It remembers:

• The chosen language, volumes and settings.
• Unlocked accessories and number of wins.
• The match in progress, so it can be continued later.

All keys start with ludozombies:. Clearing the site data of the game address removes them.

11 Licenses and credits

The game code is an original work of Polar Games and uses no third-party code library. Two third-party components are included, and their notices are in THIRD-PARTY-LICENSES/:

• Fredoka (web font): SIL Open Font License 1.1. File: game/assets/fonts/Fredoka-OFL.txt.
• Font Awesome Free (14 menu icons, written as path data in js/menu-icons.js): Creative Commons Attribution 4.0.
• The illustrations were made with image-generation tools, the sound effects and the tutorial voice with ElevenLabs, and the music track was supplied by Polar Games. They are licensed to you with the item under the CodeCanyon license you bought.

Keep THIRD-PARTY-LICENSES/ and the font notice with your end product.

12 Editing, publishing and optional tests

source/ contains the complete editable game and its assets. game/ is the separate ready-to-host copy. To update it after editing, use Node.js 20+ and npm run build inside source/. This copies files without compilation or minification; no dependency install is needed for that command. Alternatively, manually copy source/index.html, css/, js/, assets/ and DOCUMENTATION.txt into game/.

1. Install Node.js 20 or newer from nodejs.org (Windows and macOS installers) or with your Linux package manager.
2. Open a terminal in the source/ folder.
3. Run the commands below. The first time they download a test browser.
4. If npm is not found, close and reopen the terminal after installing Node.js.

cd source
npm ci
npx playwright install chromium
npm test
npm run build

The commands below install the optional test dependencies from the lockfile, test source/, and update game/. The build overwrites matching files in game/; keep your edits in source/. If you delete or rename a source file, remove the old file from game/ and your host as well.

Some internal names come from the engine this game was built on and are kept so that saved data and tests keep working: for example the meows setting, the CAT list in js/02-audio.js and the game.fish text key. They are ordinary working code; everything the player sees refers to zombies.

13 Updating

When a new version is available, you can update without losing your changes.

1. Compare the new source/ folder with yours, file by file, and copy over only what you did not change.
2. Upload the files that changed.
3. Clear the browser cache so players receive the new files. Their saved progress is kept.

Clearing the cache without losing progress

Progress is stored in this browser, not on the server. Clearing cached images and files, or doing a hard reload, keeps your progress.

Computer: press Ctrl+F5 on Windows and Linux, or Cmd+Shift+R on macOS. Phone: in the browser settings, choose the option to clear cached images and files.

Do not choose cookies and site data, or clear site data, for the game's address. That deletes the local save.

14 Troubleshooting

• No music at the start: browsers allow sound only after a tap. That is why the game begins with the Tap to start screen.
• No sound effects or narration: check the mute button and the volumes in the Sound window. The tutorial voice exists in English, Portuguese and Spanish only.
• The page is blank: upload the contents of game/, not the folder itself, and check that index.html is next to the js/ and css/ folders.
• An old version still shows after an update: clear the browser cache as described in the Updating section.

Open the browser console (F12) and copy the first red error before you contact support.

15 Frequently asked questions

16 Support

Questions and custom work: write to the support address in the footer of this page.

Support request

When you write to support, include the browser and device, the game version, the page address, the steps that caused the problem, a screenshot and the first error shown in the browser console. Never send passwords, payment details or secret keys.