Why Early Access?

“Zero Hour: Deadfront is a co-op survival shooter, and the only honest way to tune one is with a full squad of four strangers playing it. We can build waves, weapons and upgrade cards on our own — but pacing, difficulty and how a run feels when it falls apart is something we can only get right with players in the game. Early Access is how we get that, and how the people who care about this kind of game get a say in what it becomes.”

Approximately how long will this game be in Early Access?

“We're planning on six months to a year. The game is already complete as a loop — you can play full runs, with friends, from the first day — so Early Access is about depth and polish rather than finishing something unfinished. If the community pushes us somewhere that takes longer, we'd rather take the extra months than ship 1.0 half-done, and we'll say so here if that happens.”

How is the full version planned to differ from the Early Access version?

“The big one is competitive play. There's a COMPETITIVE slot on the main menu right now, locked, and opening it is the headline of 1.0: ranked runs, proper matchmaking and leaderboards that mean something. Alongside it we want more game modes — the three we have are variations on how you get your upgrades, and there's a lot of room left in that idea. Everything else — more maps, more weapons, more zombie types — will keep arriving throughout Early Access rather than waiting for 1.0.”

What is the current state of the Early Access version?

“It's fully playable, not a demo. Four-player online co-op through Steam, three game modes (Normal, with an upgrade card draft between rounds; Marea, unbroken waves where kills earn your upgrades; and Ruleta, where each round hands you a new weapon instead of a card), three maps, twelve weapons across two slots with rarity tiers, melee, upgrade cards, downs and revives, dismemberment, special zombie types, a between-matches currency with cosmetics and saved loadouts, per-mode leaderboards, and full text in five languages. What's missing is listed above, and there are rough edges — that's the point of being here.”

Will the game be priced differently during and after Early Access?

“Yes. We plan to gradually raise the price as new content and features go in — if it moves, it moves up, never down. Anyone who buys during Early Access owns the finished game at no extra cost, and we'll announce any change here and on the store page well before it happens.”

How are you planning on involving the Community in your development process?

“Through the Steam forums and our Discord, and by playing with people. The things we most need to hear are the ones we can't see from here: which weapon nobody ever picks, which round is where runs die, whether a map is fun on the tenth run. We read the discussion boards, we post what we're working on before it ships, and when something comes up often enough it goes to the front of the list.”