Whenever something strikes a nerve in the gaming industry, it doesn't take long for the world to find out, and the competition to find some way to cash in. This couldn't be truer with the recent "early-access online multiplayer permadeath survival game" craze (add bonus points if it has zombies). At the forefront of it all, DayZ is already a daunting project - and it looks like it's about to get even bigger.
Following the saddening news that DayZ creator Dean Hall would be leaving Bohemia Interactive, many fans seemed ready to throw in the towel. But it was recently announced that the development team behind the zombie and human survival hit would be growing to nearly double its current size. While this doesn't exactly promise a stable lifespan for the title, it certainly does shine a positive light on future developments.
This news comes as part of the development team's weekly progress report. While much of the report delved into different bug-fixes that are in the works for update 0.37 (due out Wednesday, March 5, 2014), Dean Hall also gave some insight into what players could expect from the game's next phase of development. Building upon one of the fundamental features that gamers have come to love, he plans to implement more survival elements into the game over the month of March.
Rather than survive on beans and soda alone, a cooking system is currently in the works. Cited as being inspired by the cooking system in Project Zomboid, players will finally be able to make use of those gas canisters that are found littered about Chernarus to power heat sources such as stoves. Not only will these implements take time to heat up, but the temperature will need to be monitored to ensure that the food is cooked through and doesn't burn.
Building upon this, he also hopes to make it so that food will cool over time and in some cases require another bout of heating in order to be edible (an example of the increased difficulty Hall had spoken of in the past). As a game that is in a constant state of evolution, it's good to see the development team addressing the expected alpha stability issues while also looking forward to the new content they plan to implement.
DayZ could very well have been a disaster upon release of its alpha. Even in its current state, many glitches and odd design decisions lend to occasionally silly and broken gameplay. Regardless, the game has managed to spark a survival revolution and continues to grow each day, having surpassed 1 million sales. It may be far from the perfect game, but even in its rough, current state, DayZ has something that few games seem able to emulate.
Is the doubling of the development team a sign that, even without Dean Hall, DayZ could stand a good chance of survival outside of alpha? Should the development team work towards a more stable project before attempting to implement brand new gameplay systems?
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DayZ is currently available as an early access alpha on PC with a beta release expected in 2015.
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Source: DayZ Blog