Hey survivors!

Since in our last update I mentioned we were adopting a new sort of development transparency when it comes to how things work around here, I figured the basics would be a good place to start. So, to give you guys a quick overview of what our process looks like, I've put together a couple thoughts and decided to throw 'em into an update for you guys to see how we do what we do!

First, I'd like to say that I've noticed a lot of worry and reports on our lack of availability as being a sign of vaporware, and this is nothing new. No matter how much we update when we can, and no matter how many assets we provide, there are no and never will be any guarantees that anything in the world of game development is certain. We work day to day, however, and each day we log in, there's always more of something to be done and more to keep in mind, and so far, we've been doing this plenty of days. Enough days to know that we're doing just fine for ourselves in terms of getting Survivor Zero out there to the hungry masses. We don't yet have an idea of when it will be done, but we do have a concept of the distance of scope that we're trying to reach and the reality is that it's well within our abilities. The way we've been organizing and tracking our project has worked well for us, and it's the compensations for our distance and non-traditional association with one another that has come to be some of our greatest strengths.

To design Survivor Zero, we've been using a pretty classic method based on the establishment of a Game Design Doc that updates and is updated with tasks and assignments for the team. It started when we did as a couple notes in Google Docs and has evolved far beyond that into a full-fledged technical outline of all of the gameplay elements of S0. We're not held back by the traditional problems with this sort of design, however, because as we work, we stay logged into our IRC channel and are able to receive pretty much immediate feedback on anything we're working on. Because of this, not only are we able to get more perspective on something that others may not have professional experience in but still have a fresh eye for, but we are also able to avoid the pitfalls of developing something only for it to turn into a complete waste when someone else on the team has a problem with a detail. It's a combination of both agile and classic design standpoints that lends a great flexibility to the development of the project.

We are a group of people with families, jobs, and psychological health to monitor, but that doesn't stop us from doing what we can to keep this project alive. We've offered the community a chance to weigh in on our crafting processes, thought long and hard about what's fun vs what's simple vs what's possible, and are putting forth a lot of effort into creating a compelling and realistic tension in our gameworld. But we don't want to feel that we're leaving our own lives behind to do so, so do keep in mind the volunteer nature of this project when you consider how long it's taking us. We know you're all excited to play it, and I know I speak for the whole team when I say there is no way in this world that you could possibly as excited as we are to get a chance to see what our work has wrought, so just know we're pressured internally just as much as we are by our fans!

We'd like to thank you all for your support and consideration when it comes to our project, and we'll be sure to keep you updated in the future. Due to a little complication, this post is going to a self-post on the subreddit as well as a post over at SurvivorZero.com, but a perma-link to the individual post will be provided later. Discussion and questions are welcome below, regardless!

Again, a safe and Happy Holidays to you all! See you in 2012!