A lot has changed for developer Undead Labs since it put out its first open-world infestation more than a decade ago, but the State of Decay 3 studio has now broken down how much it’s grown with some eye-opening numbers and said its zombie threequel will only benefit from the increased headcount.
Undead Labs today published a developer diary to explain its new rebrand that came earlier this year. It was mostly a logo change from the old, quirky green one with a zombie hand stuck in a jar, to the more serious, dour, minimalist one they have now. But studio head Phillip Holt explains it was a change in line with the company’s growing ambition and raw size.
“State of Decay was built with, I mean, it shipped when the company was maybe 20 people,” Holt said of the 2013 sandbox game. “State of Decay 2 shipped with a company size of about 60, 65. I mean they were really small teams. Here we are today, we’re double that size or greater.”
Reading between the lines, that means Undead Labs now has at least 120-130 developers working to crank out the upcoming State of Decay 3 – six times as many hands as the first game had, which eventually became the second-fastest selling XBLA game after Minecraft back in the day. It probably helps that the company, founded by World of Warcraft co-creator Jeff Strain, was eventually acquired by Microsoft as part of its mega studio spending spree.
“You know, we’re a first-party organization, we’re a part of one of the largest content-producing organizations in the world now,” Holt continued. “And well on our way to making State of Decay 3 with a much greater level of ambition and support behind us.” Undead Labs isn’t the only Xbox-owned subsidiary working on the threequel either since both The Coalition (Gears) and Obsidian (Avowed) are helping with State of Decay 3’s “shared open world.”
The rest of the developer vlog is mostly fancy marketing around a new logo, breaking down what ‘Undead Labs’ really means – so, it’s probably not the most thrilling casual watch. Though it’s at least interesting to see in plain numbers how an acquisition changes a previously indie outfit, albeit one that always had its sights set on a zombie MMO from the get-go. The most recent State of Decay 3 trailer certainly looked more expensive than its predecessors, but hopefully it can retain the series’ chops for quietly heartbreaking ambient storytelling (or loudly heartbreaking if your favorite character happens to get permanently ripped to bits by a van-sized mutant zombie.)
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