Well, it’s 2013 and the world hasn’t ended — but the stand-alone version of DayZ which was supposed to be out before the end of the year hasn’t happened, either. So what’s the score?

“Put simply, DayZ Standalone isn’t here because we had the chance to go from making a game that was just the mod improved slightly, packaged simply, and sold – to actually redeveloping the engine and making the game the way we all dreamed it could be,” explains Rocket in a new blog post. “This blew any initial plans we had dictated to pieces.”

Rocket explains that a closed beta test is to begin “imminently”, with 500-1000 users testing the architecture and stability of the game. One of the major overhauls that the delay has given them time to accomplish is the inventory system, which Rocket describes as “groundbreaking”.

“You scavenge for items now, as individual parts, picking up pieces rather than piles, looking for cans on shelves or under beds. The new system opens the door for durability of items, disease tracking (cholera lingering on clothes a player wears…), batteries, addon components, and much more. If you shoot a player in the head to take his night vision, you will damage the night vision. The changes to this inventory system are huge.”

Check out the development blog for the full details or — if you’re getting bored of running around in Chernarus — why not check out our explorations of other possible DayZ maps?

Source: DayZ Dev

Dean “Rocket” Hall of DayZ fame has mentioned a console release for his zombie apocalypse baby before, and now that work is progressing on the stand-alone game, he’s even more certain.

“I personally think that, assuming we don’t majorly screw up, once the PC development has stabilized and sales have been good – a console port would be very likely,” he told Joystiq. “So, do I think a console port will happen? Yes. But not until the PC is done. And by ‘done,’ I mean finished its creative process.”

What about the stand-alone version, originally slated to release this month? “We really don’t know, it’s still our target,” said Hall. “But the architectural changes are scheduled to be complete next week. These are still on track to be completed then. But we don’t entirely know what effect these changes will have, if any, on everything else. So there could be a massive amount of unforeseen work that comes out, we just don’t know until it’s done and we test.”

“The changes we’ve been making are so fundamental to the game that estimates can be a bit of a stab in the dark.”

Source: Joystiq

In DayZ’s case, familiarity doesn’t breed contempt so much as rob the world of its lustre, providing an easier pathway lined with the bones of your previous incarnations. Familiarity in DayZ, then, turns the weak into the strong, sending them map-wide in search of challenges that recaptures a slumbering mind. From raiding the North West Airfield to becoming self-proclaimed leaders of the sniper capital elect, Stary Sobor, Chernarus’ challenges are many, but they are never infinite. Chernarus’ challenge, like its world, decays over time.

Lucky, then, that a mod begets mods in this PC ecosystem, ensuring those looking for it can recapture DayZ’s uncertainty, plummeting onto new islands where survival and player-driven horror are renewed. From the cold of Namalsk to the palm trees of LingorIsland, we’ve ventured forth with Makarov in hand to bring back postcards from these uncharted regions across Chernarus’ ocean.

Dean “Rocket” Hall has taken to the official Day Z development blog to outline to major changes they’re implementing behind the scenes of the stand-alone game. In the post, Hall explains that the move to a client-server model is “a massive departure” from what they’re currently using, so much so that he claims it is, essentially, an entirely new version of the engine.

“Release will be on Steam,” claims Hall, “using many of Steam’s key features such as delta patching, VAC, server browsing technology. Patches to steam can be deployed by the click of a button in our build pipeline thanks to new technology developed by Steam, that is making our process extremely easy and exciting.”

Hall also discusses the change to a more streamlined UI, completely re-thought controls, cleaner, more responsive animations and the way that server and client handle decisions. Minecraft is cited as an inspiration multiple times during the post, with Hall claiming that lessons are being learned from the Mojang title that will enable players to feel more engaged with their environment.

What do you think, banditry fans? Want a bit more Minecraft in your Day Z?

Source: Day Z Dev

Just yesterday we reported that ‘DayZ Bounty’, a website dedicated to running a specific Chernarus server where you could earn cash for kills, was set to launch. Today, Bohemia are gearing up to put the kibosh on the bounty-hunt before it even begins.

In an email sent to PC Gamer, DayZ Production Assistant Matthew Lightfoot at Bohemia slams the idea as “undermining” the spirit of DayZ and commercially exploiting it. “The DayZ development team and Bohemia Interactive is not involved or has had any contact with with DayZ Bounty and it’s creators,” reads the email. “While we fully support modifications created by the community, to improve the gaming experience for players of DayZ and ArmA II, we do not support their creators putting a cost on them. As commercially exploiting their small additions to DayZ undermines the work done by the original team.”

“We believe that the elements of gambling that DayZ Bounty introduces challenges the basic game design aspects that DayZ is built upon. It changes the focus of DayZ from being a creative, enjoyable, gritty gaming experience to a game that is based almost solely on financial gain and that is not something we want to be associated with.”

“We will be contacting the owners of the DayZ Bounty website directly over the coming days, to ask that they cease their activities in their current form.”

Source: PC Gamer

Ever wished you could make money from killing other people in DayZ? Sounds like a dream come true for many, and DayZ Bounty are trying to make it happen.

To take part you need to sign up to the site, download the kill-monitoring application and play on their own custom version of Chernarus, but the rewards are many and financial: every ten zombies gets you a penny, and every bandit player you take down gets you 25 cents. Take down The Outlaw — the bandit with the most kills — and you’ll get $5, plus whatever they were worth when they died.

How does this thing sustain itself? Well, you buy lives — in bundles of $5, $10 and $15 respectively. Bohemia are yet to give their official blessing to the project and the whole thing is in alpha, but head over to the website and check it out.

Source: PC Gamer

Astronomically popular ArmA II mod Day Z has received an unexpected patch, with a long list of bugs fixes and content updates to make the game more fair and more fun. I say ‘unexpected’, as many community members didn’t expect the mod to be kept up to date this close to the release of the standalone game.

The list is quite extensive, so if you’re interested click on through the jump below to check it out. Most of the changes seem to focus on making the game more realistic and to take care of some glitches that players would use for unfair advantage. For example, being unable to create axes out of thin air, being unable to consume food and water if it isn’t in your inventory, and switching skins will no longer fix broken legs or take away your pain shakes — and most of all, no more bashing Alt+F4 to log out instantly. Seems fair to me!

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The island of Chernarus continues to (re)take shape in the upcoming stand-alone version of Day Z, expected to release before the end of the year. The development blog has released nine new screenshots, showcasing redesigned interiors and some new locations designed specifically for the stand-alone version.

The shots include a sneak peek of an entirely new area, “created on the map by Ivan and Martin, the two developers at Bohemia who are currently being held in Greece. They conducted a revamping of the map to add some new areas, tidy up bugs, and rebalance the placement of ponds, fountains, and such.”

“Ivan was a big fan of DayZ, and the key architect behind the original Chernarus map – so we’re excited to get the map back out into everyone’s use. The usable area of the map is actually extended by their work.”

We’re warned to expect a bunch of new screenshots soon showcasing some of the Take On Helicopters content that the developers are bringing into the game, including military helicopters, fire engines and police cars.

The official DayZ developer blog has been updated with the first pictures of what the newly-revamped building interiors for the stand-alone version of the game will look like.

“Our artists have been very busy, methodically going through all buildings in Chernarus and adding interiors,” writes Dean ‘Rocket’ Hall. “The task can be pretty difficult, when the buildings where made interiors were not considered so it an be a challenge for the artists to make the interiors both look correct and work properly.”

Creating interiors for all the buildings is conflicting with the team’s need to scale back graphical lag. “Most focus has so far been on the buildings that are situated outside of the center, but focus now is turning to doing interiors for the city buildings. This is complicated by our desire to dramatically increase performance, and given the scene complexity inside cities we need to balance this with the desire to increase building scavenging opportunities inside the cities.”

Head over to the official developer blog to check out a slideshow of the interiors.

Source: DayZ Dev

The creator of Day Z, Dean Hall, has spoken about the game’s release schedule as well as Bohemia’s update plans for the future. At the moment, the current plan is still to release a solid base of an alpha in November or December, with regular updates following.

“I think the most important thing is we deal with hacking, bugs, duping, new content, tidy up some of the features and expand them a bit. I think if we can get that base – by the end of November or December – then that means January and February will be really happy, fun times,” he told VG247.

“Code-wise, the updates will be quite well planned – like Minecraft updates ended up being with update Fridays and all that. I think with content, the content will come out as it’s done. I think if it’s done and it’s tested, we’ll roll it out.”

Source: VG247

You know what I love? Dying. In those games where death is both probable and permanent, death might not be the victory I was striving for, but its inevitability gives a sense of intensity and foreboding while I still live, and a powerful narrative closure once it overcomes me.

Several games of late (and countless games throughout the years) have depended on the inevitability and permanence of death to create powerful, gripping experiences. Most recently, I’m thinking of DayZ and FTL…

DayZ developer Dean ‘Rocket’ Hall has been facing the crowds at the Eurogamer Expo in London over the weekend, and naturally his DayZ panel turned largely towards the subject of hacking.

“Hacking is the issue,” said Dean, explaining that literally every second post on the DayZ forum is a complaint about hackers ruining people’s day(Z). Every second post on his Facebook wall is about this as well, he joked, saying “Even my mum knows that there’s a problem.”

Dean also spoke on optimising for the stand-alone release of the game, discussing details such as removing calculations for the individual bones of each finger in each hand of each player and zombie. There’s also going to be a strong focus on getting sick, with Dean revealing that Bohemia has been motion-capturing vomiting animation and is even trying to figure out what will happen when your character needs to poop. Yes, really.

PCGamesN has a great roundup of Dean’s talk, so head over there for the full details.

Source: PCGamesN