DayZ standalone may slip from 2012 "if needed"

Things change; DayZ could slip to next year, Dean Hall has warned fans.

He'd been adamant in September that DayZ (this is the standalone version I'm talking about - the mod is known as DayZ Mod) "has to be out before the end of the year". But that was before the "major" architectural - engine - changes happened.

Dean Hall was very apologetic about the prospect of a delay and heaped all the blame onto himself.

"We are still working towards a target for an initial foundation before the end of the year. But we will slip this date if needed, we will not compromise the project for the short-term gain of meeting this date," he declared.

"The reasons for any slippage would be publicly discussed, and would most likely represent a failure personally on my part to plan correctly. We will be assessing the results of our major architectural changes at the end of next week, and reporting the results to everyone when we have assessed that."

That "foundation release", as Hall elsewhere called it, represents the "simply the beginning" of DayZ as a standalone game.

"We are committed to a period of development of at least 12 months beyond that," wrote Hall. "Our aim is to make this foundation strong and use that time to improve the mechanics not through hacks but through sound and quality development. Our initial build will test that this base architecture works."

In this way DayZ will be similar to Minecraft, as the game will be developed openly around anyone who wants to pay to play.

The development focus at the moment is 100 per cent on technology, then, rather than on features.

Dean Hall also confirmed a number of things about DayZ:

• Most settings will be forced server-side
• The release will be on Steam and include lots of Steam functionality
• Game controls have been "completely rethought"
• Player clothing is being implemented
• Weapons and items are entities that can be customised, degraded, etc.
• "The server controls character actions: a player's client sends its requests and the server decides if this is possible ... [this] turns DayZ from an FPS into a true MMO"
• The UI has been overhauled to focus on simplicity
• "Outstanding" community members are doing paid work on the game

Dean Hall also said a full-time map designer had joined the team to work on the area of ChernarusPlus. Work stalled here when key DayZ developers Ivan Butcha and Martin Pezlar were jailed by Greek police.