God Save Birmingham devs picked its unlikely locale after seeing it on YouTube

Merry ol' England is teeming with culture. Yes, a worrying chunk of it may have been nicked from lands further afield, but the country responsible for The Beatles, Shakespeare, and putting a pie between two slices of bread and calling it a sandwich is surely capable of standing on its own two feet. From London's mixed architecture to the towering highrises of Manchester, the country's largest cities are veritable metropolises where you'll undoubtedly get stung for the price of beer. Then there's Birmingham. Despite being the UK's second-largest city, Birmingham is broadly considered the nation's ugly duckling. When Ocean Drive Studio announced God Save Birmingham, the jokes wrote themselves. 'A zombie game? In Birmingham? Just try walking down the high street' - lots of chortling and belly rumbling ensued. As it transpires, the studio's method for choosing Brum over its more… picturesque counterparts was equally unorthodox.

Shaping up to be a real best zombie game list contender, God Save Birmingham plonks you in a medieval recreation of its eponymous city. Here, you'll be throwing all sorts of stuff at the undead legion as you strive to survive in the then-market town. Jamie's already sold on its realistic physics and general vibe.

A few months after its gameplay reveal aired, it finally got a new pre-alpha trailer at Gamescom. Here, we see our unfortunate hero cooking up a storm, bludgeoning zombs with a satisfying crunch, and launching barrels at his assailants. It's still very early days, but I've honestly never seen Birmingham look so good. (*Chortling and belly rumbling*)

Speaking to IGN at Gamescom 2025, creative director Hyeonseong Cha is asked the million-dollar question: "Why Birmingham?" The short answer is that Ocean Drive's modest size made recreating the likes of London, Berlin, or Paris untenable. The expanded answer, though, is far more interesting.

After striking off the big guns, the devs "did another round of research to find a city that's still famous, still around, and was around in the middle ages, but of a more manageable size that they could handle. During that process, they found a YouTube video posted by the Museum of Birmingham. While they watched it, they felt that would tremendously help them create the city for the game, and that's how they decided on Birmingham."

So, to the likes of Stoke, Luton, and Croydon, if you want your ends represented in videogame form, get on socials.

God Save Birmingham enters Steam Early Access in 2026. You can wishlist it now here. A pre-alpha test has also been announced, which you can sign up for here.

In the meantime, check out more of the best survival games and best medieval games you can joust through today.

If you're especially gassed for God Saves Birmingham, or have any other ideas for where the devs could've set it, hop into our community Discord server and let us know.