A tweet from John Smedley is causing a stir in the zombie and survival MMO H1Z1 . Could it now go faster than expected?
After months of rather sparse information, there is news about the early access of H1Z1. It is supposed to take place on Steam, cost $20, and give players a taste of what SOE has been working on since the beginning of the year. However, so far, there has been no set date.
H1Z1 – Quick start delayed by half a year for quality reasons
H1Z1 is essentially a Planetside 2 mod that a team of MMO specialists from SOE worked on while waiting for the actual project, a MOBA game, to kick off. They chose the zombie genre because the devs are fans of zombie classics and current TV series like “The Walking Dead.” Competitor games like Day-Z probably wouldn’t be removed from the hard drive either. The hardcore team from SOE (including ex-professional CS players) are infected with the zombie virus.
What began more or less as a pipe dream and a practice exercise quickly gained a life of its own. Fans became interested in the game, a fan base quickly formed on Reddit, they were on trend, and had struck gold. Ideas flowed to the developers, and their imagination ran wild. Crafting was to come into the game, they conjured up recipes, wanted to combine zombie survival with a persistent MMO world, focusing entirely on group dynamics – with hundreds of players per server and a continually expanding world. And various rule sets would also be possible.
In short: It was running. Work was progressing quickly. After all, the team consisted of veterans from Planetside 2. They knew the Forgelight engine inside out, didn’t need PR, wanted to develop, sought early contact with the community and then they got carried away and mentioned that the early access would start in May. They would later bitterly regret that.
They did not keep the deadline, decided to postpone, not wanting to present players with a half-baked game even in early access. SOE acknowledged the increased attention, said they wanted to do H1Z1 right, not to present players with something unfinished, continued to work behind the scenes, and wanted to live up to their reputation as a “triple-A” studio.For six months, fans have been waiting for an early access date for H1Z1. Now things are starting to look firmer.
Cheerful tweet probably resulted from a good meeting
John Smedley, the head of SOE, tweeted that they have nearly completed the list of tasks they set for early access. They are very satisfied, the work has paid off.
We are nearly done with the H1Z1 early access list of stuff we wanted to get in. Real happy with where we are at. Glad we spent the time
— John Smedley (@j_smedley) November 22, 2014
In a Reddit thread, other key figures from the game commented. Technical Director Tom Schenck mentioned that they had a very good “technical weekly meeting.” Community Manager Greg Henninger also hinted that things might move quickly now. Fans should not expect that they would go back into hiding again.
H1Z1 is being developed for PC and Playstation 4. However, Playstation players will have to wait a bit longer. A comprehensive preview of the game can be found here.
