Why Early Access?

“Project Zomboid is a much more ambitious game than we could ever have hoped to fund
ourselves. It has grown massively over the years, and it’s been a roller-coaster, and we are now in an exciting stage of development with a passionate team, and an overall very positive reaction from the Steam community.

We hope you will join us, but if not we understand. If you're not ready to jump in yet, then please wait until after future updates, or consider us when we release from Early Access.

How often do we update the community?

We post development newsletters that are published on our site, on Steam, and via our mailing list. These detail what we've been up to, often with sneak peeks of upcoming features, future plans, and videos. Though the time between these has differed over the course of development, consistently updating the community on how development is going has always been a major part of how we do things.

How often do we update?

During Project Zomboid’s long history there have been periods where updates have been too spread out. In recent times, however, we have hired, restructured and built new internal pipelines to address this - and intend to improve service greatly in future.

You can see all our public build content, and the dates of release, on the PZ Wiki.

Whenever a new build is ready for public testing we open our Unstable beta – where the community can play and report balance and bug issues. The updates to this are, generally, monthly.

Some features, particularly NPCs, have taken a very long time to implement. This is largely
out of our commitment to getting them right, not disappointing on release, and ensuring that underlying gameplay systems and code infrastructure is ready for them.

Work on the game, including on unannounced features and/or the systems they are reliant on, is always happening - but is not always presentable or interesting enough to go into detail about.

Project Zomboid also has significant modding support. We release our dev tools, and there is full unrestricted Lua modding access. This has led to the creation of one of the most vibrant and exciting Steam Workshops currently on the platform, which new players are bound to enjoy once should they ever want a change from vanilla Zomboid.

What is required for 1.0?

Project Zomboid will continue to evolve throughout Early Access. Our goal for 1.0 is not simply to add more content, but to deliver a deeper, more polished survival experience built on the systems players already enjoy.

Major areas of development include NPC survivors with relationships and emergent stories, the return of our original characters Kate and Baldspot, continued expansion of the Knox Event Exclusion Zone, and improvements to existing systems such as the user interface and gameplay mechanics.

We avoid ETAs because these features are ambitious, and we want to ensure they are delivered properly rather than rushed.

What about after 1.0?

Reaching 1.0 will mark the completion of our Early Access journey, but our commitment to Project Zomboid and its community will continue beyond release. We plan to support the game with further improvements and updates as long as ongoing development remains viable and meaningful for both the team and players.”

Approximately how long will this game be in Early Access?

“Once we feel we have fulfilled everything we outlined at the very start of the project, and the game is sufficiently polished and bug free, we will launch the game as 1.0 and leave Early Access. As underlined above, we avoid ETAs because our goals are ambitious and we want to ensure they are delivered to the best of our abilities.”

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

“The full version of Project Zomboid will, most likely, be the same as the final Early Access version - however it’s possible that there might be content additions also.”

What is the current state of the Early Access version?

“The game is already very far through development and, as evidenced by our reviews, we also have many 1000+ hour players. There is a lot of content to enjoy in the game and we firmly and proudly believe it to be worth its current price as it stands.

Please consider reading some reviews if you are still unsure about the content of the game, its current state, its past, or its future.”

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

“After significant updates during Early Access we have raised the price slightly, and it will also likely be more expensive once we hit 1.0. However, we always intend to price the game fairly and reasonably when compared to other titles on the market.”

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

“The community has always been central to Project Zomboid, and always will be. We are always listening for player sentiment, and to the best of our abilities will react in kind.”