Last December we hosted the H1Z1 Showdown, which was a remote tournament where 75 of the top Battle Royale players fought against each other for a chance at H1Z1 fame and glory (and the opportunity to create an in-game item skin). What is the craziest thing you’ve seen happen in H1Z1 ? We get to imagine what life is like at the end of the world? Are you a leader or a follower? What is your role – are you part of a community or are you building a community? What do your last days look like? It’s a balance of humanity and survival. You are no longer an accountant or a cook… you are a survivor. It tests us at our foundation and allows us to get rid of any labels and redefine ourselves. Why do you think so many people love the zombie apocalypse?Įnd-of-the-world scenarios are very intriguing because it is an automatic world reboot. We are working with our community through Early Access to create a unique world that puts players in that survival mindset we want to capture the emotion and feelings of being one of the last remaining humans on Earth. H1Z1: Just Survive combines massive scale and community, and adds a layer of zombie, survival and progression to create an authentic post-apocalyptic experience. How does H1Z1: Just Survive stand out among them? There are quite a few zombie and survival themed games around. We are working on mechanics that allow and encourage organized play, player-hosted games, and player-run tournaments, which will set the foundation for King of the Kill’s competitive future. We want to empower our players to create their own competitive experiences and we have the in-house expertise to create structured organized play and turn it into world-class competitions.
Beyond events like the Invitational, our main focus is on the development of organized play. We know that competition is at the core of H1Z1: King of the Kill, but it became even more apparent at TwitchCon. Perhaps the biggest takeaway from the Invitational was how that level of competition resonated with our players. We were very happy with last year’s H1Z1 Invitational at TwitchCon – we were the most-watched event at the show with more than 118K concurrent viewers and the tournament was a huge success. Is that a sign that H1Z1: King of the Kill will be developed as an eSport? The H1Z1 Invitational hosted at least year’s TwitchCon turned out great. And in reality, development is never really complete both H1Z1: Just Survive and H1Z1: King of the Kill will continue grow and develop until launch and beyond through game updates, new features, and more. From zombie appearances to zombie AI, to player characters to animation, nearly everything has evolved in the game since H1Z1’s Early Access launch last year. We treated everything in H1Z1 more like a placeholder because we wanted player feedback to help mold the game into the final product. When we first launched H1Z1 on Early Access, we had a little bit of everything but nothing was in its final state. We are able to get real-time feedback, make refinements on live features, and make impactful changes to the game.
How else has H1Z1 changed and grown since it entered Early Access?ĭeveloping a game in Early Access has allowed us to better understand and communicate with our players. Separating H1Z1 into two titles lets each game grow in their own distinguished ways with dedicated development teams, which is really great for the player communities. When you think about progression and character investment, those decisions really differed between what we now call King of the Kill and Just Survive. On the development side, design decisions were diametrically opposed. Those that leaned towards Battle Royale want a fast-paced, high-intensity shooter, so we created King of the Kill. Those that favored the survival game, now known as H1Z1: Just Survive, are looking for that gritty, survival experience – they want an immersive experience with a focus on crafting, scavenging and base building.
Over the course of development through feedback on social channels and the forums, as well as in-game analytics, we started to notice that two distinct communities were forming with unique needs and desires. We released H1Z1 on Steam Early Access in January of 2015. What led to H1Z1 being split into two games, and can you tell us what the differences are?
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