User:Struggleduck/sandbox

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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. Project Zomboid is set in 1993, with the game starting by default on July 9; however, the start date and time can be changed in the game settings.

Gameplay
In Project Zomboid, the player aims to survive for as long as possible in an apocalyptic and zombie-ridden area around the city of Louisville, Kentucky - referred to as 'Knox Country' - 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, the type of trait that is chosen also will influence where exactly where will the character spawn (e.g. a firefighter has a higher chance of spawning in a fire station if the chosen town has one). 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 player can level skills through activities and reading skill books and magazines. 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 the Louisville metropolitan area. The towns of Muldraugh, West Point, and Louisville are loosely replicated in the game world alongside other fictional locations, such as Riverside. The world becomes more desolate and decrepit as time progresses, with water and power grids being shut off within a month, 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.

The modding community are also very active in this game, further allowing for customization of gameplay. The mods range from minor, quality of life changes such as a visible stamina, hunger and water bars, to complete overhauls of mechanics and gameplay. These mods can be found in the Steam Community Workshop. The community for this game also actively update the wiki for players to help understand the game.

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.

Beginning
The game was first released on April 25, 2011 as a tech demo. It is written in Java for its portability, using LWJGL.

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.

Continuation
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. Following this release, the game has been actively updated over time, with numerous overhauls to the gameplay and sound, as well as a removal and subsequent reintegration, of multiplayer. The game is now in a "fully released" version, but news features additions and bug removals still happen regularly. The developers also actively communicate with the players, releasing blog posts every two weeks, on Thursdays, known as Thursdoids. These can be about updates, servers, changes or removal of bugs in the next build or mod showcases.