Massive Map Updates Revealed In Exclusive Project Zomboid Dev Interview!

Okay. [music] So, to start this

interview off, uh, can you please go

ahead and introduce yourself to

everybody watching and give us a brief

overview of your job of the Indie Stone?

>> Yes. So, my name is Eton. I'm the art

director of Project Zomboid. My job is

to make sure that the game retains uh

its distinctive visual identity and to

expand it both in terms of quantity. So

more of the same and also in terms of

quality. So more of the same but better

stuff. My job also consists in finding

the right artist that will be able to

realize that vision. Um obviously to

train them also to help them align

because when you have like a group of

artists working together you really need

them to speak the same language in a

sense. But plainly speaking, I supervise

the 3D, the 2D [music] assets, also the

environmental design, the animation, the

UI, videos, anything visual really is

under my supervision and I also

contribute uh directly in all those

fields in some capacity in general to

create target quality assets. [music]

>> Brilliant. Okay. And can you tell us a

bit more about your experience in the

games industry and how you actually came

to work on projects on boys?

>> Yeah, so it's going to be quite fast.

Uh, Project Zombo 8 is my first game.

Uh,

>> okay.

>> Before that, uh, I've been working on

Project Zombo 8 for five or six years as

an official developer. And before that,

I was a model for a bit more than 3

years. So, I worked on a map called

Sherbor. I also worked on the boat mod

called Aquatar. I collaborated with

Ibros and Atheran who is now like

another like official developer of

Indistor. uh but prior to this I work in

the film and video industry in different

capacities. So I have worked as a

director, an editor, writer, VFX

supervisor, even the first assistant uh

mostly in advertising, documentaries, a

little bit in fiction as well. But at

TIS precisely, I was first hired as a

mapper and then I got promoted as a

project art director and now I am main

art director.

>> Fantastic. I I have to say as well just

Sherborg was like an absolutely

fantastic map. It was really cool to I

remember playing it on back on build 41

and thinking like wow it's really cool

to see something like so different to

the vanilla style map. It was really

just a completely different feel

entirely.

>> I really appreciate that. My only pain

in in this whole shoo mode story is that

I could not finish it because I was

hired to work on the vanilla map. But uh

there might there is some interest in

the community to carry on the this work.

So all hope is not uh yeah there is

still hope.

>> Okay, brilliant. I'll I'll keep tabs on

that. Definitely let me know if it comes

to fruition because I think a lot of

people will be interested in uh playing

that classic. So with the release of

build 42, we saw a pretty big overhaul

to the existing mold draw area. Are

there any plans right now to give other

parts of the map a similar makeover

experience?

>> Yeah, so when we [music] released B42

Unstable, um my goal was to to test the

water to see how the player base would

react to bringing like a higher level of

quality in terms of details um and if it

would be deployable across the entire

map. So I used the south of Mjo as a

testing ground. I mean, notably the

police station, the rusty rifle bar, the

the school of the church were the the

places I really like added details and

tried to make it much more alive and the

reaction was overwhelmingly positive. So

based on that, I devised the plan to

hire the right people and the right

amount of them to convert the rest of

the map. So right now it's the first leg

of this glow up, let's say.

>> Okay. Um but we have revamped Rosewood,

Riverside, West Point, Faras Lake, Monro

and Eron. The rest of the the towns like

Brandon, Irvington or the the lake

region and obviously Reville will be

revamped as well, but this is like a

first step towards that.

>> Okay, fantastic. That's really good to

hear and I think a lot of people will be

very very excited to explore some of

those locations once they get um

overhauled. So, thank you for for

sharing your plans on that. It wasn't

just a glow up to the existing map

spaces that we saw with build 42. We

also got several new towns like the ones

you mentioned, Brandenburg and

Irvington. What made the team decide to

expand out to the western reaches of the

playable map space?

>> Well, before jumping on that question,

would you would you mind if I explain a

bit the the vision of how the the what

the glowup intends to do for the

players? Would that be

>> Sure. Absolutely. Yeah.

>> So there is like three core uh ideas

that um we we try to follow during the

glow up. So the first one is to for lack

of a better word to abolish copy pasta

to to make sure each building is treated

individually which means that you know

like every building, every yard, every

parking lot will have like a different

configuration and provide a different

set of advantages or weaknesses. the the

us the usual configuration of every uh

house lot in the game would be you have

like a main house, you have some sort of

a garage and you have like a certain

level of fencing around it. Now it's

completely different. like you're going

to find like every time you're going to

go to a house, you're going to find that

uh maybe you have a basement there.

Maybe the basement can be accessed from

the outside or maybe uh behind the house

there is some sort of like a a dead zone

which I'm going to come back to just a

bit later. When you play the game after

the glow up, you could stay in like a

really small location and not be bored

in any ways and still find [music] new

things to do. So really like being very

specific about each building to to be

honest like naming the streets goes in

that direction. We want every house to

be a [music] place that people can

identify and come back to which is going

to make the project zom geoger much

easier in the future. I know you did a

video about that.

>> I did. Yeah, that was a lot of fun

actually. And I think it's really cool

that you touched on the street names as

well because like not only does it make

things like Geogesser much easier and

give it more personality, but it also

serves to actually let people know where

they are so that they can communicate

with their friends in co-op and

multiplayer and sort of tell them like,

oh, I'm on this street and this is where

I am right now.

>> Exactly. Yeah. The the second core is in

the same line. needs to to make sure

that each POI when I mean POI I mean

like it can be an entire town or it can

be like Dixie or places like that.

>> Mhm.

>> We want to make sure they all have their

own flare and be identifiable like just

at glance. So for instance, Riverside is

now represented as a rich town a [music]

bit in the style of the Hamptons while

West Point is more like a blue color

town and is more like a residential

sprout of an industrial complex nearby

like the the AMZ steel factory.

>> Yeah. And Mro is more like [music] your

typical side of the highway kind of

mushroom town. So that that would be the

second point. But the the third point is

[music] we wanted to make sure we spend

as much time on buildings and main POIs

as we do uh on what I call dead zones.

So for me a dead zone is going to be the

area behind a backyard or like a parking

lot and you know on the side of a liquor

store. And instead of just having like a

patch of [music] grass, you would have

like uh maybe some abandoned furniture,

you know, out in the open and maybe some

beers and things like that which would

represent like life happening before the

apocalypse where maybe teenagers would

be like smuggling beers from the liquor

store and you know getting drunk and I

think this is like really important like

to give consistency in the connective

tissue in between those POIs if that

makes sense.

>> Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. And it's

environmental storytelling too, right?

Like it will it those little things like

you mentioned like the [music] the

bottles outside of a liquor store like

how back on the grass like you know it

does tell you that kind of story like oh

someone was out here they were having a

good time they were partying like you

know and that kind of environmental

storytelling I think would go really

well with project zomboid and there is

some of it already in like for example

we take the um oh it's the farmstead

with it's got like the prison cells

underneath it with the the blood in the

pen and everything like

>> Yeah, there's a really really cool um

example of that, but I definitely feel

that those like you say those dead zones

could benefit from similar things.

>> Yeah, you you you can expect the entire

map to receive the same treatment. And

so any building you will go in will have

some sort of a handmade um curation, you

know, like you it's going to have its

own style, its own story, and sometimes

like the cult form, maybe some mysteries

[music] as well. Yeah.

>> Okay. Brilliant. Thank you very much.

So, if you're if you're happy now, we're

going to move on to that uh that other

question, which was just just as a quick

reminder, was what made the team decide

to expand out to the western reaches of

the playable map area?

>> Yes. So the main reason was that uh with

the introduction of vehicles I I have no

I I could not tell you on which guild it

was but that was a while a while ago at

this point. Uh it was uh it was clear

that one of the high points of PZ was to

plan long trips. So you would find the

car, you would try to fix it to some

extent and you would fill the trunk and

maybe the seats with [music] food tools

or whatever in order to move from where

you are. I think this uh semi-nomadic

style is essential to the survival you

know jaw of games. So the the western

expansion was to give objective to the

players to [music] visit other play

other places but also in case they have

to excise themselves from a place you

know whether like they they burned their

house or there was there were too many

zombies or they got attacked by other

players in multiplayer. You want you

want them to be able to make long

long-term plans and and so make the

mistakes that come with that if that

makes sense.

>> Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. And I I I really

like the focus on the nomatic play style

as well because like it I think it's so

many people's like favorite way to play

is to get set up in a town and then go

like you say go on that long journey, go

on that adventure and some of the best

stories come from things like that. So,

it's really cool to hear that the team

are supporting that kind of play style.

>> Yeah. And also like because we have

started distributing resources a bit

more like you're not going to find

everything everywhere. Well, it depends

on which town and it's going to change

in the future. But we we want players to

be incentivized to go from one place to

another if they want to develop their

their skill set or their crafting

abilities. [music] So for instance,

right now if you go to rest point you're

going to find more fishing gears that

you're probably not going to be able to

find in Mulro. I mean you might find

that in some garages or like yeah places

like that but you you will be more

likely to find that in West Point for

instance.

>> Sure. Yeah. Fantastic. So do you feel

that all of those new locations have fit

nicely into Project Zomboy's world or

are there still some tweaks that [music]

the team wants to make to them?

>> Yeah. So the the there are some areas

that we made in the early days of B42

that feel a bit uh disjointed from the

rest of the map at the moment. So this

has been the product of expanding in a

way [music] where the direction the art

direction was not entirely clear and

also you have to take in account the

fact that B41 was such a hu a huge

success for us that [music] we could

also like have more ambition and we

could be a bit more bold in the approach

uh of the the map making. So over the

last year we have course corrected quite

a [music] bit and then we should have

like a much more consistent development

of the map. Like something I really

don't want is to end up with like an

amusement park type of map where the

player would be you know it would be

pushed to go to a location just to do I

don't know blacksmithing for instance.

>> Yeah.

>> So this is still an ongoing discussion

but you can expect some of those

locations to be either [music]

better integrated or revised entirely.

Okay, fantastic. So, we've got some some

changes planned ahead of us. That's

really cool. I'm sure there's stuff to

look forward to. So, I have to ask about

Louisville now because it's currently

the only location in Project Zomboid

without underground spaces. [music]

Now, we've been teased with big plans in

former blog posts, but what can you tell

us about what's coming for Project

Zomboy's big city? [music]

>> Yes. So this is a bit of a touchy

subject but

>> in essentially so we will receive very

significant changes in the future and

obviously most of which are too early to

discuss now but one thing I can confirm

is that we will amongst other things

develop a system because it's it's

clearly something that the players would

really like appreciate like having the

ability to to reach an area. It it would

be true also of rooftops

>> like we something we have developed with

the glow up is the ability to go from

rooftop to another right now it's still

a bit clunky because we are still

missing the ladder mechanic will come at

some point

>> but yeah in general I mean to come back

to Louisville

will feel much more like a big American

city and be much closer to real life

again I I I don't want to to spoil

anything just yet um But when Louisville

was first developed, it was again before

the success of B41 and some decisions

that were made uh at the time they don't

relate to the ambition we want to have

now.

>> Okay.

>> So yeah, there will be a lot of uh a lot

of changes on William. Oh,

>> okay. Brilliant. And I appreciate you

giving us some insight into that. I

really like the the concept of a sewer

system, particularly with a city like

Louisville, because you [music] know,

Louisville is so busy. Louisville's got

so many zeds wandering through it as as

a city is [music] expected to have. But

having an alternative method of travel

that might be a little little bit

easier, but also come with its own

difficulties like a sewer system would

be really really interesting to see. So,

I'm I'm excited to to see how that

manifests in the in the game world.

[music]

>> Yeah, I think it would allow the players

to um travel across we in a much easier

way, but with the the risk of opening,

you know, the sewer gate and finding

like a horde of zombies. So, it would be

like easier to travel, but probably with

a higher risk involved.

>> Yeah, absolutely. It will be interesting

to see how how it comes to fruition. But

Project Zomboid has always had a very

close connection to its modding scene

and some have even been hired by the

Indie Stone directly like yourself and

Aateron. Are there any map modders that

we might know currently working with you

on the team?

>> Yeah, we we made an announcement uh like

a few months ago on the newcomers of the

team. Um three of them you might know.

Uh like you have Melo who has made the

map short rest and also the Oazis if I'm

not mistaken. Yeah, like he also made

quite a lot of custom tiles and his tie

pack is integrated in many uh many

modded [music] map. We also have Erica

who did Telesville and also she did a

bunch of custom tiles. Dylan who did a

version of Acron prior to the vanilla

one, Grape Seed, Pit Stop and Blackwood.

And finally, we have Alukin who has a he

has a different profile as the three

others. Uh he was not a mapper portrayed

originally. Um and he's like um [music]

a talented 3D and 2D artist. So he can

help us cover different aspects of the

map and time making. I'm really really

glad to have them with us like they are

extremely talented and they they have

all of them are self taught. So, you

know, having them around and having them

deploy the quality [music]

uh across the whole map is like

fantastic to see. Like it's like seeing,

you know, you feel a bit like uh like,

you know, you're giving some directions

and then they are making it even better

than what you envisioned. And I mean,

it's the best situation you can be in.

>> Yeah. Fantastic. And I I have to say as

well, like I'm you mentioned um Dylan's

maps in there. Blackwood was like one of

my all-time favorites because

>> it felt [music] again it felt so

different to what we see in the game

world and really put like a lot of

detail into a very condensed space. So

like I was a big fan of that map for

sure. So it's great to hear that he's on

the team.

>> I'm sure Dan will appreciate hearing

that. [laughter]

So, while we're speaking about hiring

from the community, what can you tell me

about the newspaper articles, posters,

and flyers that we've seen since the

launch of Build 42 and the impact that

it's had on the game world itself?

>> Yeah. So, one of the first thing I

wanted to do as an art director was to

[music] find and channel the the best

elements of all the what you could call

the peripheral content of PZ. One good

example is uh yeah it's indeed it would

be various various was doing great

YouTube videos and images uh using PC

models and over the last 2 years maybe

three at this point [music] he he

developed like a style that like a

rendering 3D rendering style that

enables us to give life to every area.

So [music] you're going to find some of

his work in posters, in flyers, in

videos, uh, newspapers. But yeah, this

is one of the thing like we're really

proud of. It makes the law of PC gel

together, you know.

>> Yeah.

>> And it opens so many avenues for the

future in terms of like visual law

development. One of the thing I love the

most about his work has been and also

the work of Stuart Jones who [music] is

our in-house graphic designer is uh like

movie movie posters like we have way

more like on billboards like uh or

inside you know like you're going to

find the the room of a of a teenager and

you're going to find like old movie

posters new ones like it's really cool

like I mean

>> okay fantastic one of the ones that I

really like as well that I always

remember seeing is the the image in the

newspaper of uh the guy standing there

with his backpack on at an airport like

looking at the departure board and it's

all like just delayed, cancelled,

cancelled. And I think like images like

that serve to tell a story of the world

around you, right? Of what happened

before you got there. And [music] it's

really cool to see that coming in at a

time that we're also getting those

environmental storytelling elements

worked on with the map. I think it's all

going to come together really nicely. So

yeah, really cool.

>> It really makes the the the the universe

of PC feel bigger when you have like as

you're saying like someone like waiting

at the airport and seeing all the

flights canled. It suddenly you're like,

"Oh, okay. Well, it explains why people

are still there." You know, it gives a

sense of what was happening just before

the outbreak.

>> Yeah. Aside and aside from anything as

well, it feeds into those conspiracy

theories that the community has about

how the virus actually started. Like I

know obviously one of the big ones is is

Spiffos was responsible for it and it's

really cool to see how people have

linked these newspaper articles to like

other individual events that have

happened in the in the timeline and have

come up with these like really complex

conspiracy theories. So it's it's really

awesome and I I hope that we see a

little bit more of that and more hinting

at mysterious parts of the game world.

>> I will not comment any further.

>> Yes. Yeah. No, I 100% understand. Uh, so

moving away from questions about the map

itself for a minute now. Um, am I right

in saying that the new lighting system

that was introduced with Build 42 was

actually your work and what were you

hoping to achieve with this new setup?

>> Yeah, so it's not entirely my work. It's

it's the work of several people um,

including Tim Baker and Lei, our game

director. To be precise, they what they

coded was the new light propagation

system, which is quite old. I mean

older, meaning it's it's a few years old

at at this point. The the point of this

system was was to allow the light to

bleed inside of buildings. My

contribution was the implementation of

this system in the game properly. So I

created most of the assets. I tuned the

color temperatures. I worked on the

general atmosphere. So the the idea was

to provide like a proper nighttime

gameplay. So having pitch black darkness

at night. I mean depending on the moon

cycle and things like that, but also

enhance the you know this feeling of

dread of being stuck outside in the

darkness with zombies around. I thought

it was really important for this kind of

game. Another aspect was to make sure

the lights would convey the atmosphere

of the '90s. So you get that very

idiosyncratic orange hue, you know, of

the sodium lamp. I think people really

enjoyed that because it reminds them of

for for for the one that were alive at

this time

or like the movies from the 90s, it

doesn't matter. But like it it's it's a

very significant like visual cue of oh

this is

>> this is the '90s. [music] But the

general ambition behind improvements

like this is to create like um memorable

moments uh for the player. Like if you

happen to be walking down the main

street of Riverside, let's say, and at

night, and suddenly the electricity

shuts down, I think you will remember

that, you know, it will be like a fairly

like a stressful moment. But inversely,

if you find a generator weeks after

there is no electricity and the first

time you you you're able to put power

back to your house, I want people to

feel warm and cozy and I want them to

feel like they they found like a refuge

if that [music] makes sense.

>> Yeah, absolutely. And I think uh another

just touching on another aspect of that

was um I remember actually having my

first experience exploring the

sanatorium after it was built with a

handheld flashlight and that just felt

so eerie on account of like the lighting

and how that how that sort of like

seeped into the area in really small

amounts and you all you had was this

flashlight otherwise. And like

experiences like that are so enhanced by

lighting. So it's it's yeah it's really

interesting to learn about what was

behind the [music] mentality there.

>> Yeah. Like in a similar fashion the work

that that was done on the the snow

overlays for winter is the same idea.

It's like once you reach winter we want

people to have like some sort of like a

feeling of achievement and you know like

feel that the world the world is

evolving with them. So the like some

people were mentioning the fact that

working so much on the light was uh well

if not unnecessary it was some were

saying pointless because

>> the light was going to go down anyway

but it's like yeah but it's going to

come back in once you build your own

base and once you you start developing

your your your refuge. So yeah, I'm just

going to mention something about the

light because this is a comment that has

been done that has made quite a few

times. In the early implementations, we

didn't have any way to let light seep

through the the curtains or the or even

the doors. Uh so in the middle of the

day, you could be in a room that would

be entirely pitch black and for many

people it was unrealistic and that was

correct assessment in my opinion.

>> Yeah. So this is not going to come

immediately but we are developing some

sort of a simulated global elimination

but it's not like a a voxal based global

elimination that that you can see in

other game but it's it's a way for us

like to to show that during daytime like

for instance if you go into a room and

you have some curtains but it's daylight

outside you're going to have like this

warm light that is filtered through the

curtains depending on the colors and we

have like prototypes that with that that

work and which are really cool, but

again it's a bit early to to mention

that.

>> Awesome. Okay. Well, I'll look forward

to that. Um, now alongside the the

lighting system itself, I'm also aware

that you've worked on visuals for

firearms. Have you found this

particularly challenging knowing that

much of the Zomboid community are such

gun enthusiasts? [music]

So yeah,

personally I don't know much about

firearms. Uh but but fortunately, you

know, we have Christian that you

interviewed recently who is both like

ex-military and uh

>> Yes.

>> Yeah. I think you could say he's a gun

enthusiast as well. So the development

of the new weapons was fairly

straightforward like thanks to him. But

you know, we also wanted to make the the

models like believable, but we had to

make sure we were not copying existing

models for legal uh issues. Obviously,

you know, we have plans uh to add more

in the future, but I I don't want to

spoil anything just yet. I think I will

uh I will let Christian mention that

when the time comes. But what I can say

is that the the reven gun gameplay uh

that Patrick brought, the technical

director, worked on gives us way more

tools to to make the weapons more

impactful. So now we have like

projectile tracers, uh like better

muzzle flash implementation. So like

shooting feels more impactful. The the

current tech we have could also allow

for even more cool effects like

functional lasers. Right now the the

lasers are just like a a red a red bit

like on the FBX on the model.

>> Uh we also could have traces ammunition.

I really want them to to be included in

B42, but it was out of scope. But uh

yeah, it's this will be possible with

the the tech we have.

>> Okay, interesting. I think a lot of

people will be very interested to hear

about the plans for for firearms

especially. [music] Now, I suspect that

this may be a bit of a tricky one, but I

do want to ask about the visuals for

fire effects in the game, just because

it's been a bit of a pet peeve for me

ever since it was changed. It looks a

tiny bit out of place right now. Is

there any rationale behind this change

that players might be unaware of?

>> Yeah. All right. I'm going to have to

take the blame on this one. Um,

so, okay. So, first let me provide a bit

of context. So,

>> in um I think it was build 34. Um, Mash

did a mission of Mash, who was the the

art director before me, did a mission to

upscale by a factor of two all the all

the ties. When she did that, some ties

were were missing, including the effect

ties. So, the fire we had u [music] up

until very recently, not only was not

scaled properly, but it was also like

the the wrong resolution and it didn't

really work. Um, and so it really didn't

look good with the the all the new B42

visual nicities, but at the same time,

we we have a plan to have like a fire

rework, and it's it's been announced

like a long time ago at this point, but

because of the development of

multiplayer, we we had to put a hold on

the the fire rework. So I had to find a

solution to to make the fire look better

without putting too much strain on the

developers because other things were

more had higher priority. So uh right

now the the fire looks the way it does

because um I I saw that it would it

would not work with four frames like

originally it was only four frames.

[music] So I wanted to go for 30 frames

and the problem is that in the the way

we display animations has well [snorts]

without getting too technical it has a

particular sampling. So the sampling is

how the image is displayed precisely

like uh if people use Photoshop then

they will know what I'm talking about.

And so the fire looks way too smooth and

also it's the first effect we added to

the game if I'm not mistaken that has 30

fps. So it looks very very alive

compared to the rest. It's a bit like

the water, you know, the water can can

look a bit out of place.

>> Yeah, [music] absolutely.

>> So, but we are going to develop more and

more this kind of uh animated sprites.

Like for instance, I want to have like

water sprinklers in gardens. I want to

have like smoke on top of chimneys on

houses to to show the present.

>> Oh, okay.

>> So, so I think at the moment, well,

first of all, it's a band-aid. uh it's

not going to stay like that, but there

will be more and more like realtime

effects and which is a good thing. It's

going to make the the environment feel

more alive. But yes, I I will apologize

for for the for the fire. I I I did read

all the comments. You know, it's the you

know when you do something good for PZ,

you have many people like praising you

and when you do something they hate.

>> Yeah.

>> You will hear about it. So [music] yeah.

>> Yeah.

>> I I will do better. I promise. Yeah, I

can I can I can understand. I mean, I

think it's fair to say that, you know,

like or at least people will be able to

understand that it wasn't at the top of

the priorities list with all the stuff

that was coming with build 42. There's

so much with that new update that I can

understand if fire effects weren't the

top of the table.

>> Yeah. Like to be honest, I think if we

were to revert to the old fire, people

would be complaining about that as well

because even though it doesn't fit

entirely the game right now, the old

fire didn't fit the game at all. [music]

Like I mean it was not on par with the

rest of the game. So you know like you

choose your poison I guess.

>> Yeah. Yeah. And and that's the thing as

well with a community as large as

Project Zomboid like people are going to

have different opinions about things and

I think um being a content creator I see

that probably just as much as you guys

do which is the divisiveness in the

comments sometimes of my videos. Like

some people will feel one way and some

people will feel a completely different

way. So it's

>> yeah it's it's just the way it's going

to be. But it's it's good to learn about

that. And it's good to know that there

will be some change coming at some

point. So I'm going to ask you a bit of

a should we say a a bit of a wishful

question here. If you could implement a

single feature for Project Zomb, what

would it be and why? Yeah. So for me

like the obviously I'm not going to talk

about NPCs because it's [laughter] uh

like it's it's it would be a terrible

idea to to speak about it right now.

[laughter]

>> Um but obviously NPCs would be nice but

yeah the first thing I would implement

is whole migration.

>> Ah okay. Yeah, like in my opinion this

is one of the main missing piece to

provide almost unlimited gameplay like

um it would justify way more like

building fortifications, fencings, you

know, like if there was a hole coming to

your base, you would maybe you would

have to suddenly be silent like turn off

all the radio, the TVs or whatever like

the generator maybe and you know maybe

having to hunker down in the basement

and uh and possibly having to exit in a

hurry and leave can go to an outpost you

made in whatever town in the west or the

aspect that the the original team really

nailed uh in Project Zombo was the

zombies.

>> Yeah.

>> And so I wish we could have more of

those of of this like more of those

zombies in a in a way that would make

the game play um more varied and more

exciting and more more scary, more

dangerous, you know. I think that would

be a good thing.

Just to be clear, there is probably

quite a lot of people in the PC

community that love also the coziness of

the game and they might love that, you

know, having like a hold of 200 zombies

coming to their very nice and and pretty

base.

>> So, yes, it's something I would like to

add, but I I I do realize that we would

have to be careful on how we implement

it.

>> Yeah. And and it's it's interesting as

well because I think the game has

already a lot of the supporting features

that you would need for something like

that. For example, you know, you you

talk about how people love these nomadic

play styles and, you know, packing a go

bag in a vehicle that's ready to go at a

moment's notice for when you need to

leave. You know, as you say, setting up

an outpost with maybe like jarred food

rather than, you know, refrigerated

foods. you know, it's it's doesn't need

power to run and and and again creating

more more need and desire for those base

fortifications as well. I think horde

migration could do one hell of a lot for

for the long-term play. So, yeah, it's

interesting to hear that. It's one of

your favorites.

>> Yeah, even in multiplayer, it would uh

it would create new gameplay mechanics

like our play style like [music] every

base would need to have like a scout.

someone who checks if there is not a

horde coming to your base and if so

maybe try to um to you know steer it

away just like in the walking dead.

>> Yeah. Yeah.

>> So

>> yeah um that's that's one of my I I

didn't stick with the walking dead long

past um long past when they got to

Alexandria but I will I will say that

that was like one of my favorite moments

was like how they [music] had to guide

that try and guide that horde a

particular direction. And I think it

also would give players in Project

Zomboy multiplayer the chance to

communicate with one another because if

one group sees a horde coming towards

Mold Draw, they can let other people

know because they'll be aware that

people are living in that area. So

that's Yeah, it's quite interesting.

Okay, so um before we wrap up this

interview, what are your favorite

examples of zombie media?

>> Yeah. Uh I'm not going to to be super

original. Uh, I would say, yeah, I would

say 28 Days Later it remains a classic

for [music] me.

>> Yeah. Yeah.

>> Um, I do like the the sequels, but uh I

have to say like the the first one felt

more organic and human level than the

others. Um, especially the the most

recent one. And [music] um, yeah,

otherwise I would say The Walking Dead,

but not necessarily the TV show, but

more like the the comic book.

>> Okay. Yeah.

>> Yeah. I saw um it's interesting you

mentioned 28 Days Later actually because

I saw a uh a post recently that I didn't

realize about this was that during the

the filming with the scenes that were

made in London itself where uh he's

walking the streets very like early on

and nobody's around they they actually

that was like true guerilla filming.

they had to go out and just at the crack

of dawn like 4:00 a.m. in the morning

and try and work around people just

walking through London which I found so

interesting because nowadays London is

absolutely packed. So it's

>> yeah it just an interesting little

tidbit that like I really enjoyed about

that. Well, there is a cool anecdote

about that which is that uh when I was

15 [music] 16 years old, I was doing my

first short movies with a friend of mine

and uh this scene particularly uh we

recreated it in in not in the the city

where where I come from where you you

wake up like very early in summer uh and

on a Sunday morning and you can shoot

like uh almost like completely empty

empty empty spaces. [music] It was a big

inspiration uh in my journey as a as a

filmmaker. So yeah.

>> Oh, fantastic. So um I just obviously I

just want to say thank you again for

taking the opportunity to sit down with

me today and for talking to us about

some of the upcoming plans for for

Project Zomboid. Are there any final

messages that you want to convey to the

project on community at this time?

>> Yeah. [music] Yeah. Um

I think it's I think it's important to

say that uh when we make design uh art

or technical decisions there is never

like an ill ill intention like a

negative intention towards the

community. Mhm.

>> For instance, there was a lot of

complaints about the removal of Echo

Creek from the spawn locations and

without reopening that topic like we are

following a plan and some decisions some

decisions can run quite deep and um we

there is never like an intent to damage

the play style or you know the player

base in general. But because the the

development of project Zo is very

exposed publicly, sometimes we have to

bite the bullet. We know that people are

not going to love the the decision, but

we think that the the end result they

they will really like that.

>> Yeah.

>> So, I guess my message, if I [laughter]

have a message, uh would be to thank the

community for the feedback because it's

so valuable like to to have like a

constant um feedback on everything you

do in in a very close uh very short time

capacity.

>> Mhm. Um, but I I hope we we can have

like a bit of credit that ju just the

credit that we are never going to be

intentionally damaging the player

experience. I think uh

>> yeah that I don't think the the

community should ever come to that

conclusion.

>> Yeah. Yeah. And I mean it's it's it's

sometimes it is easy to feel that way as

well when you're very very passionate

[music] and and that's the thing with

project zomboid is you've got people

that have been in the community for

upwards of 10 years in some cases now.

>> So naturally emotions will run high at

times but I think it's important to

remember that you know developers are at

the end of the day someone who is sat

behind the computer right they are a

person as well and sometimes it can be

easy to forget that. So, I think that's

a really good message to to take away.

Um, I do just want to say thank you

again for your time.

>> We'll we'll close things up there. I'll

just remind everybody that's watching

this that if you have any additional

questions or comments on what you saw

today, um, please feel free to put them

down in the comments below. Uh, and I

will ask very nicely for to uh to just

give those a once over once this video

goes up. See if we can get back to any

questions from the viewers. Thank you

again. Uh, it was fantastic to talk to

you.

>> Thank you. Bye-bye.