The most exciting part about the rapid success and evolution of DayZ is that the first playable alpha build will be available for players before the year ends. The sky is the limit for Hall’s upcoming game and the biggest challenge for him may be to narrow down the list of ideas to determine what makes the cut in the early versions of the game.
In chatting with PC Gamer, Dean “Rocket” Hall excitedly shared what can only be described as an unlimited amount of potential for the future of DayZ. In the interview, Hall discusses the issue of hackers in DayZ and the importance of making the standalone game more secure, the Minecraft-style release plans for the game, a target date for the first playable (and purchasable) build, running the standalone game alongside the DayZ mod for ARMA 2, the eventual addition of mod support and ideas for destructible (and constructible) environments.
Even though DayZ built its success as a mod itself, albeit a buggy and incomplete one, as a standalone game it understandibly will not be releasing with mod support of its own at first because of the fixes, programming needs and release plans for the title. It will however, support mods eventually once the game is fine-tuned.
Hall later explains that DayZ was initially intended to be a short-term experience simply about surviving as long as possible, but it’s grown beyond that where clans have formed, legends have been made, and stories have been shared. The goal now with DayZ is to explore what happens beyond simple survival after the zombie apocalypse.
As for the setting of the standalone DayZ game, it will begin much the same as the mod in that it’ll be based in an augmented version of Chernarus, but could grow to include things like villages, malls, underground structures or even islands, some of which could be purchased as map packs.
In the long, long term, Hall would ideally like to see DayZ continue to grow and evolve into something like EVE Online has where the players control the universe and the stories that happen within are generated by the players just as they are currently with the community already embracing the ARMA 2 mod.
DayZ represents an exciting experiment as its being shaped by what the community has embraced and what they’ve voiced as desired features, fixes and updates for the game. More on that later!
Hall plans to go to PAX to do some recruitment for artists and other devs who can help program specific ideas he has into the game so stay tuned for more in the coming months as we learn more about the plans and progress of DayZ.
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Source: PC Gamer
