DayZ Creator Under Pressure

It’s no secret that the modern audience is an impatient one.  Movies, games, music, books…  In every facet of life people are rushing to acquire the latest thing produced and enjoy it to its fullest.

That makes life very difficult for the people who are producing those materials.

DayZ is the wildly popular zombie survival mod created for ARMA 2, and that very success is now proving to be a huge source of stress for the mod’s creator, Dean Hall.

He and a team of fellow zombie apocalypse creators have been slaving away to turn the mod into a full game, and a standalone game at that.  The daunting task has left him stressed and haggard but it is the modern audience that is the largest source of discouragement.

As Dean stated,

At my Army Discharge medical this week, they noted I now have high blood pressure. Some things in life just aren’t worth worrying about. I’ve been getting hammered by a massive amount with requests for information about DayZ release, interviews and my reactions to this and stuff and such – but for my own sanity I retreated and have kept to myself.

Putting together a game is an arduous process under ideal circumstances, and especially with the added pressure of blatant cash-in on the concept The War Z being released (and its landmark–terrible release before it was pulled from Steam) the pressure to deliver a solid and enjoyable final product is mounting.

The stress is starting to have noticeable effects on the development of the game itself. Dean Hall and his team failed to put out an update on their progress that they’d promised, ostensibly because the sheer “depressing” pressure they’re all under has hurt their ability to focus on the game’s actual creation.  Needless to say, failing to deliver an update did not reduce the pressure on them.  Dean said he’d return to giving such updates once the dust settles a bit and he can do so without being deluged with insistence for more.

Keep your eyes pealed for news about DayZ and its standalone, but remember that game developers are people, too.