Besides discussing his climb up Everest, DayZ developer Dean Hall shared a bunch of interesting information about his game on a Reddit AMA today. Most important is that Hall thinks that DayZ will be playable, meaning more stable and with more features like cars, base building, and more weapons, in about six months. As it is, he thinks DayZ is about 20 percent finished.
Here are the most interesting things he had to say.
About greater goals in the game, fortifying structures, clearing mines, running a power station:
"Yes, this kind of endgame stuff is quite key to what we want to do. However, in order to do this we have to perfect the architecture which is what we are doing now. Certainly I think underground bases and advanced vehicles will allow some of this really exciting and 'Eve' style play."
About improvements to voice functionality:
"Well kind of everything. The quality. Allowing more types (whisper etc...). How zombies react to it. And also particularly the animation and how it plays when your character opens his mouth to speak."
About improving the engine (which relies heavily on the CPU) to use more of the GPU:
"Yes. It is easier for us to optimize DayZ in some ways, because DayZ's focus is very narrow. ArmA is an incredible game and ArmA 3 is no exception. It has massive scope and a huge demand on AI and many other things.
Many of these things can cause problems for MP gaming, and that's what I'm all about really.
We have reports from Intel, AMD/ATI, and Nvidia. These give us ideas for how to optimize the client. Let's just say there is huge room for improvement."
About adding different kinds of shelters:
"We have a plan for camping. Playing that mod for Skyrim (survival mod, forget its name) is GREAT inspiration and I hope we can do everything it has."
(Frostfall is the mod in question.)
About whether the game will have aircrafts:
"Yes. I think helicopters and small aircraft will be important. But they should be very complex to maintain."
About additional content after release:
"Yes. There will be content updates and such for DayZ for a long time, I believe. However that would be up to Bohemia for the most part. I'm not sure I would (not want to) be super involved with that."
About when we ll see vehicles and bases:
"Vehicles will be done based on the architecture we are doing for items/weapons now (i.e. attachments). So it's in progress really. We are replacing the physics system for items (throwing, etc...) and this new middleware will be used for vehicles also.
Bases will take longer. Barricades will happen first."
About Rust:
"I have tried rust. I think it's great. I think Garry is fing talented, deserves all the success he has/is getting. Overall I'm just really proud that something I did inspired a great designer like Garry to do something else."
About when Bohemia decided to make DayZ standalone:
"I was already working ArmA 3 as a multiplayer designer. I got invited to meet Marek Spanel (CEO) at his house to discuss DayZ when we had about 20,000 players."
A polite but cryptic answer to how much money he makes from DayZ:
"Saying specifics can be tough, I think (but I'm not really sure why, it just seems like it's rude to say how much you earn or bragging or something).
But I get a royalty, and I get paid. I also sold (assigned) the rights for DayZ to Bohemia so I was remunerated there too. Compared to royalty rates for other 'artists' and such I am probably doing very well. Compared to game designers (who mostly don't get royalties) I'm doing extremely well.
My royalty rate is not insignificant (it is fairly significant)."
About features he would like to implement but can t with the current technology:
Procedural terrain, limitless environment. I don't think its impossible with current technology but I don't think it's possible within the scope of the project."
About Early Access:
"I think it's great but there are massive icebergs sitting around it waiting to be hit. I think some projects are going to hit those and those issues will need to be addressed. It helps because it gets rid of the publishers dictating what the people find popular. You guys say what concepts are good, not some fat guys driving bugattis."
On games he wants to develop in the future:
"I really have a focus on multiplayer games, that allow the player to choose the groups they form organically with the freedom to do most things. I like games that have a persistent ongoing nature. These are the games I mostly want to focus on. Can't really offer to many more hints because I don't want someone else to make it before I can start!"
And about JayZ:
"Jay-Z's lawyers tried to get us to stop using DayZ and change it to ZDay, actually. We declined. But it did make me laugh."

All of the obvious questions have been answered, but Hall is still replying to users at the moment. You can find the full thread and get your questions in here.

One of the worst ways to die in DayZ is being shot by an unseen player. There you are, minding your own business, merrily looting a building, when some invisible bastard kills you with a Mosin. I ve always cursed those players, but last night I became one.

I m scouting the Balota airstrip with a friend, Tobias. We ve just cautiously looted the military tents to the south, and the area seems clear of players. I have an M4 with a pristine ACOG, he has a Mosin with a pristine long range scope. Next stop, the hangars.

We creep through the treeline, taking it slow. Then, directly across from us, we spot two players in full military gear sprinting past the AT tower. They look armed, so we go prone in the grass and watch them for a while. They loot the hangars, kill a couple of zombies, then head towards the barracks. This is when we decide to make our move.



We sneak up the airstrip until we re parallel with the barracks. Tobias aims his scope at the door from the treeline and I push forward, hoping our oblivious targets are still busy looting. Crossing the runway leaves me exposed, but halfway across there s a patch of grass. I m wearing green, so I go prone and train my ACOG on the entrance. My heart is racing.

Suddenly, one of the players appears at the door. I fire a burst from my M4 and he falls to the ground. He s dead, but his partner understandably panics and runs back into the barracks. With Tobias still providing cover with his Mosin, I stand up and sprint towards the building. I circle it slowly, looking through the windows, but there s no sign of him. I have to go in.

I enter the barracks and inch forward. As I turn the corner towards the stairs, I see the player at the top of them. He has his M4 pointed at me and fires a few rounds. Miraculously, none of them hit me. I leave the building and sprint around the back. If he follows me Tobias will get him, but he doesn t. About five minutes pass without any signs of movement. Maybe he logged out?



Then, just as we re beginning to let our guard down, he makes a run for it. He s moving too fast for Tobias to take the shot, but I appear from behind the barracks, fire my M4 from the hip, and take him down. I ve played the game for 60 hours now, and this is the first time I ve not only survived a firefight, but come out on top. I am the invisible bastard.

Looting the bodies, we realise that our victims had modded M4s and enough ammo to supply a small guerrilla army. We help ourselves to their supplies and scurry back into the trees. The adrenaline rush and preceding tension of our attack is one of the most exhilarating experiences I ve had in DayZ so far, even though I probably just ruined someone s evening.

I ll never become the asshole bandit who hunts fresh spawns on the coast for sport, but this encounter has given me a taste for PVP that I ve never had before. Usually I avoid trouble and stick to the trees, but now I have a thirst for blood and beans. I do feel a little bad about killing those guys, but they would have done the same to us if they had the chance right?

Tension! Betrayal! Vomit! Our DayZ stream had it all. For over three hours yesterday afternoon, the PC Gamer UK team journeyed across Chernarus. Along the way, we met friends, fought foes, and even encountered a couple of the game's developers. We were also hunted mercilessly, as viewers of the stream triangulated our position and set out on their own adventure to take us down. If you couldn't join us live, you can catch up with the full broadcast thanks to the VODs embedded below.



Part 1, Andy's PoV: Hiking Simulator 2014



Part 2, Tom's PoV: The Hungry Games



Part 3, Phil's PoV: #KillBen2014



Part 4, Chris's PoV: The Final Ascent



If you were there, thanks for joining us. As you can probably tell from the stream, we were genuinely surprised by how well it went, and came out of the experience with a great story to tell. Stream sniping can be a major problem - but here it was a welcome threat. In a game based on anonymity and the unknown, having a clear and present danger provided an amazing context for our journey to Green Mountain. It was a pleasure to be murdered by you all.

Edit: Apologies for the abrupt ending. We're making some changes to the stream set up, so in future we'll have less dead air if the streamer goes down. We'll be trying again with another run at 2pm.

Today, the PC Gamer team is taking a break from fighting words, to instead fight some zombies, bandits, and those oh-so-deadly ladders. We're playing DayZ today from 2pm until... well, until we die. It could be a short stream. Hopefully it won't be. You can track our progress, as we weave between towns, cities and military bases, by heading over to our Twitch channel, or just watching below.



Here's who's taking the trip:

Sam Roberts
Chris Thursten
Tom Senior
Andy Kelly
Ben Griffin
Phil Savage

Andy's taking POV on the main stream. For Chris' alternate perspective, head to his Twitch channel.

We can't stop watching videos of the horrifying, hilarious and fascinating adventures of DayZ players enjoying the shonky but somehow-still-really-entertaining alpha. Last week we rounded up a few of our favourites, but they keep on coming, so it's time for a second compendium. Read on for an explosive game of DayZ roulette, a dance-off at gunpoint, a couple of good samaritans and another weird cult.

DayZ roulette
Anyone up for a friendly game of gas station roulette?


Suicide prevention services
We've been enjoying the Friendly in Cherno channel, detailing the ongoing efforts of a nice guy in DayZ trying to be nice, with varying degrees of success. Here he stands around in Berezino, trying to talk dissatisfied new spawns out of jumping to their deaths.


There can be only one
In the real world turning up dressed in the same clothes as a friend is always awkward, but rarely results in an axe-fight to the death. In DayZ, almost all situations, awkward or otherwise, result in an axe-fight to the death, here at the behest of a troop of well-armed bandits. Would you fight or flee?


DayZ dance-off
Work like you don't need the money, love like you've never been hurt, dance like you've been held up by two guys with assault rifles who won't let you go until you've made them laugh.


Worldstar Hero
Witness the legendary bravery of this new spawn taking on a bandit.


Firefighter saviour
Any object in DayZ can be used to help the weak and defenseless, even a fire extinguisher.


Another dark DayZ cult
The last time we did one of these video round-ups, we shared the adventures of the Wiggle Cultists. They are hard to replace, but here are some Scary People With No Trousers cultists to tide you over.


Coastal Run Timelapse
A player runs the entire Chernarus coastline and recorded this time lapse of his efforts. DayZ sure is big.

We can't stop watching videos of the horrifying, hilarious and fascinating adventures of DayZ players enjoying the shonky but somehow-still-really-entertaining alpha. Last week we rounded up a few of our favourites, but they keep on coming, so it's time for a second compendium. Read on for an explosive game of DayZ roulette, a dance-off at gunpoint, a couple of good samaritans and another weird cult.

DayZ roulette
Anyone up for a friendly game of gas station roulette?



Suicide prevention services
We've been enjoying the Friendly in Cherno channel, detailing the ongoing efforts of a nice guy in DayZ trying to be nice, with varying degrees of success. Here he stands around in Berezino, trying to talk dissatisfied new spawns out of jumping to their deaths.



There can be only one
In the real world turning up dressed in the same clothes as a friend is always awkward, but rarely results in an axe-fight to the death. In DayZ, almost all situations, awkward or otherwise, result in an axe-fight to the death, here at the behest of a troop of well-armed bandits. Would you fight or flee?



DayZ dance-off
Work like you don't need the money, love like you've never been hurt, dance like you've been held up by two guys with assault rifles who won't let you go until you've made them laugh.



Worldstar Hero
Witness the legendary bravery of this new spawn taking on a bandit.



Firefighter saviour
Any object in DayZ can be used to help the weak and defenseless, even a fire extinguisher.



Another dark DayZ cult
The last time we did one of these video round-ups, we shared the adventures of the Wiggle Cultists. They are hard to replace, but here are some Scary People With No Trousers cultists to tide you over.



Coastal Run Timelapse
A player runs the entire Chernarus coastline and recorded this time lapse of his efforts. DayZ sure is big.

I m with a group of friends in the southern coastal town of Kamyshovo. We ve been running down the coast for what feels like hours, and we re all dying of thirst and/or hunger. Then, up ahead on the main road, we see another player. We all point our guns at the stranger, even though we don t have any ammo, but he waves and says he s friendly. Amazingly, it s Chris. By sheer chance, I ve bumped into someone I know in the vast expanse of Chernarus. He s in dire need of food and water too, so we decide to hike west towards the city of Elektrozavodsk to try and find life-saving beans.

We reach the city and search the houses and apartment blocks for supplies. There are a few zombies, but Chris makes short work of them with his fire axe. Encouragingly, there don t seem to be any other players around. I spot a pump behind the church and we gather around it, filling our bellies with delicious, probably infected, water. Our health restored, we go scavenging in a nearby fire station. Chris finds a Magnum, and I look in vain for M4 ammo.



Then, suddenly, I catch a glimpse of someone in full military gear with a rifle. There s a player here with a gun! I announce over public voice chat, because I m an idiot. I lose sight of them almost immediately, but now everyone s in a panic. We circle the station and we can t see anyone, so I think maybe I imagined it. Another friend of ours is trapped at the top of a smokestack somewhere in the city. He can t get down because there are zombies at the foot of the ladder, so we decide to go and help him.

We re sprinting along the main road which is a really, really bad idea in DayZ, especially in somewhere as heavily populated as Elektro. Then I hear a crack of gunfire, and my friend Emily is shot. She falls to the ground, then I do. Blackness. I load up Chris s stream on Twitch and, thanks to the delay, see Emily die again, but Chris bolts into a nearby apartment before he knows what s happened to me. Our attackers sprint down the street towards our bodies. They ve been stalking us this whole time. Then, just when he thinks he s safe, they shoot Chris through the window. We re all dead.

Chris leaves, but Ben joins me when I start a new character, along with two other friends. This time we decide to head inland, away from the coast, and well away from Elektro. We work our way through the countryside, from Solnichniy to Dolina, gathering supplies. We have a pretty nice haul. Enough to keep us fed and watered all the way to the north-west airfield, where our plan is to pick up some decent weapons if we don t get sniped the instant we approach, that is.



Along a dirt road, I spot a lake. We take advantage of it and fill up on water. While we re waiting for the others, Ben approaches me, and I see a message flash up on the screen saying that I ve just been force-fed a rotten banana. I have a funny taste in my mouth. my character says. I have food poisoning. Ben laughs over voice chat, not realising that he s just signed my death warrant. I scour Dolina for charcoal tablets, but in my 20 hours of playing the standalone I ve never once come across any. My character moans as the sickness gets worse. Thanks, Ben. Thanks a lot.

Incredibly, while we re looting a house, he tries to do it AGAIN, this time with a kiwi fruit. But his plan backfires and he accidentally eats it himself. I m furious, so I take out my fire axe and kill him, cursing him over Skype. I could have watched him die slowly of the same ailment he gave me, but I was feeling vengeful. I loot his body and leave him for the zombies. The rest of the group are fine, but I m done for. The sickness is eating away at me. I get on my knees and ask them to kill me and end my suffering. They pummel me with their axe and baseball bat, and I see blackness once again.

Chris recorded his stream of the adventure, so you can see it from his perspective here.


These aren't the first times Andy's died in DayZ, and they won't be the last. He's documenting every bitter demise on his DayZ Death Diary - a chronicle of DayZ at its most melancholy.