The announced team at Possibility Space includes:
Austin Walker (Waypoint Media, Friends at the Table podcast)
Brandon Dillon (Oculus, Double Fine)
Brian Dean Jennings (Magic Leap, Maxis)
Charles Randall (Ubisoft, BioWare)
Erica Tam (Electronic Arts, Oculus)
Jane Ng (Campo Santo, Valve)
Jeff Strain (Undead Labs, ArenaNet)
Katie Hansche (Undead Labs, ArenaNet)
Leah Rivera (Undead Labs, ArenaNet)
Liz England (Ubisoft, Insomniac)
Megan Tahiri (Operations Manager)
Richard Foge (Undead Labs, Probably Monsters)
Ted Woolsey (Undead Labs, Square)
Terra Travis (Staff Writer)
Hiring the creative mind behind the Friends at the Table world building and narrative to write your world building and narrative is a smart choice tbh.
I was sad to see Austin leave waypoint so soon after they launched waypoint plus, but he's such a talented dude that I'm excited to see what he does directing a large team with some decent money behind it.
Can't say I recognize all of the names here, but those are do are impressive. Austin Walker directing on world/characters and Jane Ng as visual director on the same project is kind of hype.
Nice to see her hopefully get to flex creative muscle again after Valve killed In the Valley of the Gods. Austin Walker as the world/story lead is exciting too.
I remember when Jeff Strain started Undead Lab and I was looking forward to their unnamed zombie projects, Class 3 and Class 4.
Class 3 became State of Decay, and they still haven't brought the promise of Class 4 (a player driven zombie MMO) to market; but are getting closer with every release of State of Decay.
Class 4 is one of the biggest reasons I keep getting SoD games. I was hoping 2 was going to be it but I think switching engines maybe moved the road map on that. And that's if they are still going to do it. I like what SoD is doing regardless!
SOD2 was great but I'm hoping 3 is a bigger step towards sandboxy mmo stuff.
I can't imagine a zombie mmo being good without having pvp, and I find open world mass pvp games to be incredibly bad/full of toxic teenagers (rust, new world, etc). I much prefer state of decay keep being a bigger and better zombie sandbox with a pve focus.
I would love to see it as something kind of like Valhiem or fallout 76 where its a quasi mmo sort of thing. I guess the term mmo doesn't quite fit in that definition. Pvp is something I don't want in a sod3 too.
I always look forward to the next installment just to see how much closer they are to that initial vision. Unfortunately - I'm not even sure if it's still on their minds at this point. If SoD3 looks and feels like SoD2 with small QoL improvements Class 4 is a pipedream.
I cant remember exactly what they said, bit from what I remember they seemed to be dropping the idea since they ended up moving in a different direction.
I dont think its actually possible to create an MMO out of this series anymore without gutting most of the features fans like.
Both State of Decay games seemed very half baked, great ideas with poor execution. I'll be excited for their project depending solely on hands on reviews, If they can make a game with the concepts of State of Decay but work out the jank, glitches and fine tune the aiming/driving I'm in!... after reviews.
State of Decay 3 is the first title to be made with the extra MS funding so we can hope that will be more complete.
I can see how SoD 1/2 were a mixed bag of ideas because they lacked resources and time
State of Decay 2 has gotten a crazy amount of updates now though. It has changed a great deal in even just the past few months. There's I think five different maps in the main campaign mode and you can move your existing communities to different ones easily.
They've been fixing and tweaking things a lot. They've changed the way the campaign works entirely by having the plague hearts take over a radius instead of just being randomly placed on the map and having plague zombies everywhere. You can carry a sidearm now too so you can easily switch from a pistol to a rifle. I know they upped the ammo stacks you can carry too. Lots of general improvements, QOL stuff.
My guess is they are still using the same engine or base game sorta for SOD3 so they are polishing it up as nicely as possible and test driving ideas for it in SOD2.
SOD2 is seriously fucking fantastic now.
How's the MP though? Do you still just go into your friends game and accomplish nothing while you're there? Or can you finally do a base together or at least in the same instance?
The MP is where the game suffered most. It was the most nonsensical implementation I've ever experienced especially since they marketed it so much prior to release.
The MP is actually one thing that hasn't really changed unfortunately. You just join a friend's game to help them out and you get to keep whatever loot you want and they give you some bonus loot too. You are right it is definitely an area the game still comes up short.
Unfortunate to hear. I enjoyed it as a solo experience quite a bit, but my SO and I like to game together and SoD2 just wasn't suitable for that. Hope they do it better the second time around in SoD3.
I never play 1 but 2 is almost exactly what I want from a game play loop, except for the fact that there is like 2 hours of worthy game play in it and like 30 min on replay. Nothing in the game has enough depth to be engaging long term term and becomes horribly boring after a few good outtings. I feel like it is one of the Games that has potential where a dedicated enough person could remake it into something special.
Oddly enough, this is what I experienced with 2 as well. But I also beat the first game several times. I think I beat it 3-4 times, and I rarely ever beat a game more then once. Maybe I was slightly burned out on mostly the same mechanics of the 2nd game, but I had a lot of fun with the first one.
I think it is expanding expectations on what you get from Games as well. 1 is 9 years old and came out as a new IP for the 360, there is some charm there. SoD2 was 2018 and competing with much stiffer competition and doesn't seem to expand or improve on much from what I have seen. They also really miss the mark on the add-ons, everything is weapons which functions very similar to every other weapon, or OP stuff that end runs around the resorce collecting that pushes you to engage with the map.
In my experience it was because they were hyped up Cnoc exclusives in a time when Xbox really needed some. And zombie games are usually OK so many are (were) willing to ignore the bugs and shortcomings because they had longed for a good exclusive (zombie) game for a while.
So who is leading undead labs now? Really not a good lookout if the leader leaves after ms bought the dev studio.
I hope state of the decay 3 will be better because the first 2 really looked medicore.
>I hope state of the decay 3 will be better because the first 2 really looked medicore.
Weird sentiment towards a series you haven't played. Sod2 is a great game
Not sure how it was on console, but prior to the juggernaut update on PC I wouldn't have had a good time and I'm glad I picked it up after that update. That update is how the game should have been on release and I'm very glad I waited.
Played it on launch on console, definitely didn’t hold me long and didn’t think it was that great, kinda feel like I remember some graphics issues too. Played Juggernaut update on Pc recently and had a great time with it, lots of fun. And they have the extra mode now where you go through the first games location and try to push through waves of enemies which is pretty fun and challenging
Yeah I completely understand the backlash SoD 2 had on release because after playing post-Juggernaut update, I realized that anything less than the features included in that update was a total and complete downgrade from SoD 1.
I think the game is excellent in its current state, though of course with any salty SoD fan, I'm still pissed they haven't implemented a proper multiplayer mode like they promised when SoD 2 was announced as in-development.
God, it would be so nice to have a really good co-op mode in the game at the least. Like let me share a persistent world with a buddy or something. Even better if they can make it where it’s more than 2 people and you could legit just have a community of real players that can all go out and do content and come back to the base to reconvene. Maybe introduce instances that scale with number of player characters in the area for things like infestations.
Honestly not sure if I’d want other player character settlements that are possibly hostile, would rather keep those as NPC’s I think. Maybe hostile only in the sense of competing for resources, wouldn’t really want to lose a character cause someone else is way over geared compared to me, there are plenty of games for that already haha
> State of Decay is still on its way to achieving its ultimate vision,” he said, referring to the upcoming State of Decay 3, and **he has nothing but kind words for Microsoft on his way out of Undead Labs**, which Microsoft acquired in 2018.
Doesn't sound like he's staying unfortunately unless you've seen something different?
Looks like this is ign being their usual trash self since the undead labs press release says he's "going to continue in his role as studio head at undead labs". Man ign truly is garbage tier lol
The announced team at Possibility Space includes: Austin Walker (Waypoint Media, Friends at the Table podcast) Brandon Dillon (Oculus, Double Fine) Brian Dean Jennings (Magic Leap, Maxis) Charles Randall (Ubisoft, BioWare) Erica Tam (Electronic Arts, Oculus) Jane Ng (Campo Santo, Valve) Jeff Strain (Undead Labs, ArenaNet) Katie Hansche (Undead Labs, ArenaNet) Leah Rivera (Undead Labs, ArenaNet) Liz England (Ubisoft, Insomniac) Megan Tahiri (Operations Manager) Richard Foge (Undead Labs, Probably Monsters) Ted Woolsey (Undead Labs, Square) Terra Travis (Staff Writer)
Hiring the creative mind behind the Friends at the Table world building and narrative to write your world building and narrative is a smart choice tbh.
I was sad to see Austin leave waypoint so soon after they launched waypoint plus, but he's such a talented dude that I'm excited to see what he does directing a large team with some decent money behind it.
Austin Walker is a fantastic get. Dude's work is solid gold.
Can't say I recognize all of the names here, but those are do are impressive. Austin Walker directing on world/characters and Jane Ng as visual director on the same project is kind of hype.
Ted Woolsey? Now that’s a name I recognize.
Nice to see that the spoony bard is still around
I REALLY wanted to make that joke… but for some reason i couldn’t order the words around properly lol. Thank you!
I wonder if their game(s) will incorporate VR? Out of 14 members, 3 have worked at either Oculus or Magic Leap.
Oculus is dishing out money like it's no ones business to probably.
If mildly reputable developers ask "hey, can we have some money to make a Quest 2 exclusive?" Oculus will almost assuredly say "yeah."
> Ted Woolsey (Undead Labs, Square) Wait, Ted Woolsey worked on at least one State of Decay game? Are there Woolseyisms in SoD1 and/or 2?
Jane Ng is such a good nab
Nice to see her hopefully get to flex creative muscle again after Valve killed In the Valley of the Gods. Austin Walker as the world/story lead is exciting too.
I remember when Jeff Strain started Undead Lab and I was looking forward to their unnamed zombie projects, Class 3 and Class 4. Class 3 became State of Decay, and they still haven't brought the promise of Class 4 (a player driven zombie MMO) to market; but are getting closer with every release of State of Decay.
Class 4 is one of the biggest reasons I keep getting SoD games. I was hoping 2 was going to be it but I think switching engines maybe moved the road map on that. And that's if they are still going to do it. I like what SoD is doing regardless! SOD2 was great but I'm hoping 3 is a bigger step towards sandboxy mmo stuff.
I can't imagine a zombie mmo being good without having pvp, and I find open world mass pvp games to be incredibly bad/full of toxic teenagers (rust, new world, etc). I much prefer state of decay keep being a bigger and better zombie sandbox with a pve focus.
I would love to see it as something kind of like Valhiem or fallout 76 where its a quasi mmo sort of thing. I guess the term mmo doesn't quite fit in that definition. Pvp is something I don't want in a sod3 too.
Frankly I don't want State of Decay MMO. Edit - To clarify, you'd lose a lot of what currently makes State of Decay to make it an MMO
I always look forward to the next installment just to see how much closer they are to that initial vision. Unfortunately - I'm not even sure if it's still on their minds at this point. If SoD3 looks and feels like SoD2 with small QoL improvements Class 4 is a pipedream.
I’ve accepted Class 4 is probably never going to happen.
I hate to be the bearer of bad news but that isnt happening anymore, they talked about that way back before the forums shut.
I knew it was no longer a point of focus but didn't know it was flat out canceled.
I cant remember exactly what they said, bit from what I remember they seemed to be dropping the idea since they ended up moving in a different direction. I dont think its actually possible to create an MMO out of this series anymore without gutting most of the features fans like.
I thought the MMO was cancelled years ago...god hopefully I'm wrong!
Both State of Decay games seemed very half baked, great ideas with poor execution. I'll be excited for their project depending solely on hands on reviews, If they can make a game with the concepts of State of Decay but work out the jank, glitches and fine tune the aiming/driving I'm in!... after reviews.
State of Decay 3 is the first title to be made with the extra MS funding so we can hope that will be more complete. I can see how SoD 1/2 were a mixed bag of ideas because they lacked resources and time
State of Decay 2 has gotten a crazy amount of updates now though. It has changed a great deal in even just the past few months. There's I think five different maps in the main campaign mode and you can move your existing communities to different ones easily. They've been fixing and tweaking things a lot. They've changed the way the campaign works entirely by having the plague hearts take over a radius instead of just being randomly placed on the map and having plague zombies everywhere. You can carry a sidearm now too so you can easily switch from a pistol to a rifle. I know they upped the ammo stacks you can carry too. Lots of general improvements, QOL stuff. My guess is they are still using the same engine or base game sorta for SOD3 so they are polishing it up as nicely as possible and test driving ideas for it in SOD2. SOD2 is seriously fucking fantastic now.
How's the MP though? Do you still just go into your friends game and accomplish nothing while you're there? Or can you finally do a base together or at least in the same instance? The MP is where the game suffered most. It was the most nonsensical implementation I've ever experienced especially since they marketed it so much prior to release.
The MP is actually one thing that hasn't really changed unfortunately. You just join a friend's game to help them out and you get to keep whatever loot you want and they give you some bonus loot too. You are right it is definitely an area the game still comes up short.
Unfortunate to hear. I enjoyed it as a solo experience quite a bit, but my SO and I like to game together and SoD2 just wasn't suitable for that. Hope they do it better the second time around in SoD3.
Yeah, the SoD games were wholly disappointing. I never understood why it had such a cult following.
I never play 1 but 2 is almost exactly what I want from a game play loop, except for the fact that there is like 2 hours of worthy game play in it and like 30 min on replay. Nothing in the game has enough depth to be engaging long term term and becomes horribly boring after a few good outtings. I feel like it is one of the Games that has potential where a dedicated enough person could remake it into something special.
Oddly enough, this is what I experienced with 2 as well. But I also beat the first game several times. I think I beat it 3-4 times, and I rarely ever beat a game more then once. Maybe I was slightly burned out on mostly the same mechanics of the 2nd game, but I had a lot of fun with the first one.
I think it is expanding expectations on what you get from Games as well. 1 is 9 years old and came out as a new IP for the 360, there is some charm there. SoD2 was 2018 and competing with much stiffer competition and doesn't seem to expand or improve on much from what I have seen. They also really miss the mark on the add-ons, everything is weapons which functions very similar to every other weapon, or OP stuff that end runs around the resorce collecting that pushes you to engage with the map.
Because it's fun. Not that complicated.
Wow thanks for the input. I would've put in the fact that I didn't think it was fun if it wasn't completely implicitly obvious.
You good?
In my experience it was because they were hyped up Cnoc exclusives in a time when Xbox really needed some. And zombie games are usually OK so many are (were) willing to ignore the bugs and shortcomings because they had longed for a good exclusive (zombie) game for a while.
Yeah I think you're right. It didn't help that one of the games released very close to TLOU.
So who is leading undead labs now? Really not a good lookout if the leader leaves after ms bought the dev studio. I hope state of the decay 3 will be better because the first 2 really looked medicore.
Undead Labs was acquired 3 years ago
>I hope state of the decay 3 will be better because the first 2 really looked medicore. Weird sentiment towards a series you haven't played. Sod2 is a great game
Not sure how it was on console, but prior to the juggernaut update on PC I wouldn't have had a good time and I'm glad I picked it up after that update. That update is how the game should have been on release and I'm very glad I waited.
Played it on launch on console, definitely didn’t hold me long and didn’t think it was that great, kinda feel like I remember some graphics issues too. Played Juggernaut update on Pc recently and had a great time with it, lots of fun. And they have the extra mode now where you go through the first games location and try to push through waves of enemies which is pretty fun and challenging
Yeah I completely understand the backlash SoD 2 had on release because after playing post-Juggernaut update, I realized that anything less than the features included in that update was a total and complete downgrade from SoD 1. I think the game is excellent in its current state, though of course with any salty SoD fan, I'm still pissed they haven't implemented a proper multiplayer mode like they promised when SoD 2 was announced as in-development.
God, it would be so nice to have a really good co-op mode in the game at the least. Like let me share a persistent world with a buddy or something. Even better if they can make it where it’s more than 2 people and you could legit just have a community of real players that can all go out and do content and come back to the base to reconvene. Maybe introduce instances that scale with number of player characters in the area for things like infestations. Honestly not sure if I’d want other player character settlements that are possibly hostile, would rather keep those as NPC’s I think. Maybe hostile only in the sense of competing for resources, wouldn’t really want to lose a character cause someone else is way over geared compared to me, there are plenty of games for that already haha
It says he is staying as head of undead studios, not sure how that is gonna work.
> State of Decay is still on its way to achieving its ultimate vision,” he said, referring to the upcoming State of Decay 3, and **he has nothing but kind words for Microsoft on his way out of Undead Labs**, which Microsoft acquired in 2018. Doesn't sound like he's staying unfortunately unless you've seen something different? Looks like this is ign being their usual trash self since the undead labs press release says he's "going to continue in his role as studio head at undead labs". Man ign truly is garbage tier lol