The last time we reviewed the indie zombie survival game Dead Matter, the alpha version that the developers at QI Software intended to send out to backers ran into some unexpected issues. Two years later, the project appears to have grown by leaps and bounds, adding experienced developers and paving a solid path towards an Early Access release on Steam.
Dead Matter is set in a remote area of Alberta, Canada. From the beginning, Dead Matter had ambitious goals: the small team wanted to combine the obsessive details of a raid game like Escape from Tarkov with the systemic open world of a game like Project Zomboid. However, after the crowdfunding round, backers excited to receive an early alpha release were initially disappointed when QI’s website crashed.
However, after this inauspicious start, QI Software has been hard at work during the pandemic. In a new video blog, the developers explain that they hired several seasoned game development veterans and expanded the team. Together they developed a strategy for launching Early Access on Steam, and while a release date hasn’t been set yet, the company says it’s “coming soon.”
The video also shows off some of the improvements Dead Matter has made over the past year. The lighting system has been improved, and the team is using the MetaHuman Unreal Engine to create more realistic models of zombies and survivors.
The loot system has been completely overhauled so that containers generate random loot that makes sense for the area the container is in. For example, a box in a hunting cabin will spawn random loot than you would expect to find in a hunting cabin, and it will be a different set of loot than you would find in a townhouse box in a town.
This year, the team also ported all of Dead Matter to Unreal Engine 5, which QI Software says will help streamline workflows, developers say, to make things easier.
When Early Access launches, it will not initially include the full map. Instead, the team decided to limit the Early Access release to the town of Dead Man’s Flats and surrounding areas, which they believe will still have plenty of room to explore.
Fans have been playing regular alpha updates to Dead Matter for the past two years, but everyone will have to wait for the Early Access release. In the meantime, there are plenty of other zombie games to dive into this Halloween season.
Source : PC Gamesn
