According to DayZ creator Dean Hall, we will likely see an alpha build of the standalone DayZ client by the end of the year. For those of you who don’t know, DayZ is a mod to a lesser-known military shooter called Arma 2 that stresses zombie survival realism. Supplies are scarce and players spawn with absolutely nothing on them and zombies everywhere. The game has existed in the modding space for a while now, but is slowly making the transition into being its own standalone game.
According to Hall, releasing by the end of the year isn’t just a hopeful goal, it’s a must if the project is ever going to get off its feet. “It has to be out before the end of the year,” Hall said in an interview with Eurogamer at the Eurogamer Expo. “Not just because we’ve committed to it, but in order to achieve what we have to do. It has to be. There’s no ‘we hope it is;’ it has to be. And it’s going to be cheap.”
Part of this urgency comes from other games that are attempting to clone the Day Z formula. However, according to Hall there’s nothing he can do about it. “[I] could stand up here and be very critical of anyone who does a clone copy of the game. What would that actually achieve other than making me look like a dick? It’s not going to result in a better game.”
So instead, the DayZ team will just have to beat out its competitors by being the best realistic zombie survival horror shooter with MMO elements there is.