The creative director of DayZ's standalone version has now reunited with the game’s initial creator to work on another massive survival title. Undeniably, this is great news for many survival genre enthusiasts, as the original DayZ mod, along with its successive standalone version, was loved for both its sandbox elements and unexpected, surprising events.

DayZ was highly praised for it's realistic approach towards survival in the post-apocalyptic zombie setting, but the majority of player enjoyment came from all the game's smaller, more ridiculous details. Players could’ve spent hours trying to gather scarce resources and embracing the overall unforgiving gameplay – only to suddenly be faced a fully-kitted player in a ghillie suit aggressively charging them on a bicycle with a silenced rifle afterward. While other players posed much more of a threat than zombies did, the real nightmare of DayZ was the number of bugs, which were somewhat (but not entirely) fixed in the standalone version. The legacy of DayZ is positively invaluable, but, like many titles which have been around for a number of years, the game has a record of losing the major creative minds behind it.

However, Brian Hicks, the former creative director of DayZ's standalone title, has just been employed at RocketWerkz. The company is led by Dean Hall, the original creator of DayZ mod, who shared the news of Hicks' hiring on Twitter, adding that Hicks would be lending his creative expertise as an Executive Producer on the studio’s unannounced survival game. Hall is calling the project a massive one, which might suggest it is another open-world online title. Moreover, the team is preparing for a playtest, which is an indicator the mysterious game is already in a playable state. Check out the announcement below:


This marks the first time the two developers have rejoined forces since 2014 when Hall left Bohemia. Four years later, in 2018, Hicks followed his steps leaving DayZ standalone for good. Their recent announcement has led to some criticism over on Twitter, as both Hall and Hicks had abandoned the widely loved game in a relatively poor state. From the community’s perspective, is seems as if they think Hall is guiltier in that regard, and right now there’s no guarantee the upcoming survival game won’t be left behind just like DayZ was. Very little has changed in that regard in the eyes of some players, as RocketWerkz had at least two open-world/simulation games, Ion and Living Dark, canceled by now.

Considering the experience of the two developers involved, it’s a fair assumption the unannounced game in question might have something in common with DayZ from a gameplay perspective. It doesn’t necessarily have to feature zombies all over again, but the signature desperate atmosphere and the feeling of being alone in the wild might very well transfer over to the newest project. Here’s hoping the game will actually come out.