It would seem that the bad times are firmly behind The Indie Stone now. In a major development blog update, they’ve confirmed a content-lock on a variety of significant upgrades to the game. They’ve just got some balancing, bug-fixing and tuning to do before delivering the next playable build – the first in months – into the hands of would-be zombiepocalyptic survivalists worldwide.

At this point, it should be fairly clear that they’re using the Zombie Survival Guide as their primary design document, and offering all the options and features you could hope to find in a proper survivalist RPG. Securing a house against zombie incursion sounds easy, but it’s a complex and expensive process. Doors and windows don’t just need barricading, but also blacking out with thick curtains to avoid the light (or a glance of a human at home) attracting zombies, and multiple lines of defense must be established.

It’s all possible in the upcoming version, too. A character with a high enough carpentry skill and the right tools and resources can build fortifications from scratch. A character with less skill and resources can tie sheets together to make a makeshift rope to escape through an open window with, if their poorly-secured house gets overrun. A lot of common sense changes coming, too – anyone who asked ‘why do I have to nail this door shut when I could just drag this wardrobe across it?’ has been answered.

Project Zomboid is currently in alpha, and is available to preorder at a significant discount via Desura. Despite problems with hackers, pirates, lack of development backups and even outright burglary, this game just refuses to die. Given the impressive lineup of features in just the next upcoming alpha build, I’m really glad it didn’t.

[Project Zomboid]