Project Zomboid
Project Zomboid is an open world isometric survival horror video game in development by British and Canadian independent developer The Indie Stone. The game is set in a post-apocalyptic, zombie-infested world where the player is challenged to survive for as long as possible before inevitably dying. It was one of the first five games released on the alpha funding section of the gaming portal Desura. In 2011, The Indie Stone were subject to a high-profile setback within the indie gaming community following the theft of two laptops containing the game's code. Since then, "Project  Zomboid" has appeared on Steam Early Access and continues development to this day. "Project Zomboid" is The Indie Stone's first commercially released game. The latest stable release is Build 41, released in December 2021, which includes animation and combat overhauls, new audio and music, the city of Louisville, KY, and revamped multiplayer by General Arcade. Gameplay. In "Project Zomboid", the player aims to survive for as long as possible in an apocalyptic and zombie-ridden area of Kentucky - referred to as 'Knox County' - which has been quarantined by the government.The player can choose their character's appearance, occupation , and traits before selecting to spawn within one of four starting towns. On top of avoiding zombies, the player has to manage their personal needs (such as hunger, stress, fatigue, and boredom) to stay alive through resting, scavenging for supplies, and using survivalist techniques. The game uses the traditional Romero style slow-moving zombies, though certain zombies are faster than others, and sandbox mode includes a setting for 28 Days Later style "sprinter" zombies. The game features a variety of preset difficulty modes, along with a sandbox mode, which allows the player to customize their game's settings such as  zombie population, virus transmissibility, and the rarity of loot. 'Knox Country' - the playable region in "Project Zomboid" - heavily bases its locale on real life Kentucky. The towns of Muldraugh, West Point, and Louisville are loosely replicated in the game world alongside other fictional locations. The world becomes more desolate as time progresses, with water and power grids being shut off followed by the erosion and overgrowth of the region's structures. Additionally, the game features a set of fixed 'challenge' scenarios, some of which are set on separate, smaller maps and/or feature unique gameplay elements, like an endless winter storm  or a zombie horde which tracks the player after one in-game day. Development. According to the developers, the game has been something they "always wanted to make" and their "dream game" although they felt that they would be unable to due to time commitments. This changed after the success of Minecraft, which showed them "another way to develop a game" that would produce quicker result. According to the team, the main inspiration for the game were zombie movies as opposed to zombie video games. The game was first released on April 25, 2011 as a tech demo. It is  written in Java for its portability, using LWJGL. As of November 8, 2013, "Project Zomboid" was released on Steam's Early Access. In February 2014 the Indie Stone released a multiplayer version of the game publicly for the first time. Early setbacks. In June 2011, soon after the game's release as a paid pre-alpha tech demo, the game was leaked, and unauthorized copies spread to many other websites. The unauthorized version of the game enabled downloading from the "Project Zomboid"s servers with the press of an 'update now' button, regardless of whether the user already had the latest  version. In order to avoid paying for these downloads, The Indie Stone took the customer-only paid version offline, and instead, released a free "public tech-demo" for download the next day. On October 15, 2011, the flat of two of the developers was broken into, and laptops containing large amounts of the game code, which had not been backed up externally, were stolen. This resulted in severe delays to the game development. Due to this setback, they gave a presentation at Rezzed entitled "How (not) to make a video game", going over some of the lessons they have learned  since starting the project.