'No Zombie Deer' — State of Decay 3 2020 Announcement Trailer Was 'A Concept,' Dev Says, Made at a Time When the Game Was Only 'In a Word Document'

State of Decay 3 was announced backmost successful 2020 with an eye-catching debut trailer that showed a zombie cervid eating the remains of a wolf. It got fans of the endurance bid excited that they would not lone person to discourse with your emblematic zombie menace erstwhile the crippled yet came out, but zombie animals, too. Unfortunately, State of Decay 3 volition motorboat without zombie animals of immoderate kind, and that trailer was small much than a “concept” built astatine a clip erstwhile determination was fundamentally nary crippled to talk of.

Six years aft State of Decay 3’s announcement, developer Undead Labs is readying the crippled for an alpha test. It is yet ready, then, for the nationalist to springiness it a shot, having travel a agelong mode since that trailer helped get Xbox fans for the upcoming Xbox Series X and S. So what happened to those zombie animals, then? In an interrogation with Sunny Games, Head of Undead Labs, Philip Holt, said that arsenic the developers got to enactment making State of Decay 3 a reality, they realized immoderate things they’d initially thought were chill ideas simply weren’t going to work.

“No zombie deer,” Holt said. “So that trailer, determination truly wasn't a crippled oregon a crippled squad erstwhile we were moving connected that trailer. It was truthful early. There were similar 4 oregon 5 people. The crippled was successful a Word document. There was truly similar the precise beginnings of software.

“The trailer was done by Blur. It was each pre-rendered. It represented, I think, a concept, our thoughts astatine the clip of what mightiness beryllium chill to research successful State of Decay 3. And arsenic we've had a accidental to physique the squad and get going connected the game, immoderate of those elements, I think, are going to persist successful the crippled that we deliver. And immoderate of those things, we're conscionable like, yeah, we're not doing zombie animals.”

“Okay, well, you guys heard it,” Sunny said successful response. “There's nary zombie animals. I got to accidental I'm a small bummed astir that, but either way, I thought it was benignant of an absorbing concept, but it makes sense.”

Zombie animals weren’t the lone happening astir the trailer that got fans excited. As Sunny pointed retired successful the interview, the trailer besides suggested snowfall and camping arsenic mechanics. Will those marque it into the game? With the alpha owed retired successful May, we’ll find retired soon.

State of Decay 3 became the sole absorption of Undead Labs successful September 2024, with the developer ending updates for State of Decay 2. Undead Labs released astir 40 contented updates for State of Decay 2 successful the six years since its 2018 motorboat connected PC and Xbox One to that point.

We besides learned that Undead Labs had teamed up with Fallout: New Vegas, Grounded, and Avowed developer Obsidian connected a "shared satellite feature" that aimed to supply a much flexible online co-op acquisition for State of Decay 3 players.

“The acclaimed Grounded released with Undead Labs’ shared prevention exertion and State of Decay 3 volition physique connected that to present a genuinely unfastened co-op satellite owned by aggregate players,” Microsoft teased astatine the time. There's inactive nary merchandise day for State of Decay 3.

Undead Labs itself has faced allegations of fostering toxic workplace conditions and a deficiency of direction.

Wesley is Director, News astatine IGN. Find him connected Twitter astatine @wyp100. You tin scope Wesley astatine [email protected] oregon confidentially astatine [email protected].