This week, State of Decay 3 finally received a major update after many years of waiting. The team at Undead Labs revealed that the game’s first alpha test is inbound, landing next month and representing the first opportunity for fans to get hands-on with the open-world zombie survival game.
It has been almost eight years since State of Decay 2 was released, and fans have been hungry for more. It doesn’t help that State of Decay 3 was unveiled long ago. As it turns out, it was revealed before anyone was even working on the game, which was nothing more than a concept when the trailer dropped.
State of Decay 3 Was Little More Than a Word Document
In a recent interview with Sunny Games, Undead Labs’ leader, Philip Holt, admitted that State of Decay 3 was revealed a little earlier than it should have been. It has been six years since the first trailer dropped, showcasing survivors in a snowy environment hunting infected animals, which would have been a first for the series.
Not only are infected animals not coming, eradicating that point from the first trailer, but that video did not represent any developing product at the time.
Holt explained that, when the trailer dropped, State of Decay 3 was little more than a Word document.
There really wasn’t a game or game team when we were working on that trailer, like, it was so early.
The game was in a Word document.
The trailer was done by Blur, it was all pre-rendered, it represented, I think, a concept – our thoughts at the time of what might be cool to explore in State of Decay 3. And as we’ve had a chance to build a team and get going on the game, some of those elements I think are gonna persist in the game that we deliver and some of those things are just, like, we’re not doing zombie animals.
(Thanks to GamesRadar for the spot)
Holt said that only four or five people were working on State of Decay 3 at the time, and it was such early days that it wasn’t even pre-conceptual. It was water-cooler talk at best, especially given that State of Decay 2 was in full flow at the time and still being regularly updated.
In just a few weeks, players will get their first look at State of Decay 3 via a closed alpha. In the video that announced the alpha, we saw a few snippets of what we can expect from the game, which is shaping up quite nicely, per impressions.
Are you looking forward to State of Decay 3? Let us know what you’re thinking about the game on the Insider Gaming Discord server.
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Grant has been gaming for 30+ years and in the industry for 10+. You'll probably find him playing a post-apocalyptic game or an extraction shooter somewhere.
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