One of the biggest mobile games ever gets a surprise 4X city-builder sequel, and its dev is "absolutely not" confident in its $2 price tag: "It's a huge gamble!"

gamesradar.com:

One of the more low-key successes within the 4X grand strategy genre was 2012's Plague Inc., which received even more attention during the unexpected and unfortunately timely period of the COVID-19 pandemic. Since the release, game creator James Vaughan released a sequel called Rebel Inc. and has now launched his next game, which aims for an optimistic take on the post-apocalypse

In a report from Game File (paywalled), designer James Vaughan looked back on the unexpected success of Ndemic Creation's previous strategy games during chaotic times, what led to his newest game — After Inc. — and its optimistic view of rebuilding the Earth after tragedy.

"I have had quite a lot of people worry that our games tend to predict the future," said Vaughan to Game File.

2012's Plague Inc., as the name implies, is when you take control of a global pandemic, where you make the moment-to-moment decisions on how a catastrophic disease plays across in the world. Much like an increase in viewership for the 2011 film Contagion, Plague Inc. ended up seeing a massive surge in popularity in 2020 for those with a morbid interest in playing a game about viruses while in lockdown from an actual global pandemic.

After Plague Inc., Vaughan released Rebel Inc., a grand strategy game about the political choices made with growing insurgencies across the world. It also found success and a lot of common ground as unrest grows in the present day. But for his next game, After Inc., the creator wanted to make something less bleak and more about building a better world following the end of a zombie apocalypse — which is out now.

"The world is lush and beautiful. The survivors have endured hardships but they are alive and able to rebuild," said Vaughan. "[The] only downside is the zombies, but that's nothing that can't be solved with some nails stuck in a cricket bat!"

Currently, the game is out on mobile devices for $2, which Vaughan stated in the Game File report is "a huge gamble" for the studio –