The State of State of Decay

In a new blog entry on the official website, Undead Labs’ Jeff Strain brings us up to speed on the “State of State of Decay” by summarizing their goals for the zombie-infested action RPG, the focus they’re putting on sandbox gameplay, the post-apocalyptic survival struggles we’ll have to deal with, and more. Promising stuff:

Having land mines implies you need to make them, since the apocalypse puts a dent in manufacturing. What would making land mines require? Well, a machine shop, and expertise. Needing good old fashioned know-how brings us to a system of skills and abilities. Being good at something feels good, and being able to save the lives of your friends is good for morale. Ah right, morale. Wouldn’t mental health be an enormous issue, after the apocalypse?

One thing that’s good for morale is keeping busy. People would feel better if they could accomplish missions, if there were stories to be told and other survivors to rescue and a goal to shoot for, something beyond just surviving another day. So we brought in the best story teller we knew and got to work.

All the tiny elements filled out the original broad strokes until we had a clear picture of what State of Decay could be. We’re making a game, but we’ve also balanced that with reality. The real world isn’t a shooter, where you just kill everything that moves with effectively unlimited ammo. When a real disaster strikes, you worry about food, health, exhaustion, and morale. In reality, an apocalypse would mean no more factories making weapons and vehicles, and we’d all have to live by the old song: (Use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without.) And out here, you don’t take stupid chances every other minute because more than anything else, you want to live to fight another day.