Kefir! announced a mobile zombie survival

As part of the White Nights conference, Kefir! officially presented its new game – Last Day on Earth: Survival. We talked with the producer of the project, Peter Kostylev, about the development of the game and its first results in the framework of the softlonch.

Alexander Semenov, Senior Editor App2Top.ru : You have a new project – Last Day on Earth: Survival. What kind of game is this?

Peter Kostylev
Last Day on Earth: Survival is a hardcore multiplayer zombie survival.

The player finds himself in a post-apocalyptic world where he has to create weapons, collect supplies, build a shelter, destroy hordes of zombies, confront hostile environments and other players.

In Kefir!, as far as I know, the work is structured like this: one team – one project. Did you assemble a new team for Last Day on Earth or was it made by the composition of the “Prison“/“In the trench”/another project?

Collected. Guys from all projects entered. Kefir! has such a practice as creating prototypes, small projects by a very small team (sometimes even consisting of one person). Anyone in our studio can create the game of their dreams by themselves or with the help of colleagues, without paying attention to trends and box office. And so it turned out this time. A small prototype of the builder made by two artists has grown into a full-fledged successful game.

How many people are doing the project?

15 people worked on the project. Now we are actively looking for specialists who are ready to join our ranks.

What is being developed on?

On Unity.

The game looks quite ready. How long has it been in development?

When I came to the office on the first day of development, there was a calendar on the wall with the inscription: “52 working days left.” Later we added another 10 days to put everything in order and test it well.

How do you assess readiness yourself?

The general concept of the project is already ready, now we are busy implementing it. It’s hard to talk about the exact timing now. The project is ambitious, the goals are big.

Can you share the project budget?

The game is under development, so it’s too early to talk about the final budget. What was invested in creating the beta version has already paid off.

The project looks very Western. Have you resorted to the help of foreign artists?

Our team consists of artists from Volgograd, Samara, Khabarovsk, Blagoveshchensk and Moscow. So no, we managed it ourselves.

The trick of many survives is procedural generation. Is she in the game? How much is there?

Procedural generation, of course, helped us in the development and some of the locations are really created on the fly. Nevertheless, I think that the most important thing for us will be the procedural creation of stories and events for the player, and how randomly the Christmas trees and pebbles are scattered does not play a big role. I do not consider procedural generation to be our “trick” – for us it is rather a way to speed up work on filling the world.

Another traditional feature is the open world. What’s wrong with him in Last Day on Earth?

Our world is not completely open. The player cannot go “up that mountain” and explore the surroundings. However, he is not a bellboy either – the player has the right to move between locations as he wants.

We want to create a unique system in which the player will be as free as possible, but at the same time will allow us to control what is happening. Given that the game is very dynamic and the Internet is different everywhere, we do not want players to find themselves in a situation where the quality of the connection will negatively affect the user experience. That’s why we decided to make such a semi-open world.

What does the game cycle look like in the game?

The player appears on the location with a minimum amount of resources. He moves around the map in search of weapons, resources and food, meeting zombies and other players. Collisions can lead to 2 outcomes – loss and loss of everything acquired, or victory and continuation of the path. The player gradually pulls all the resources to his base, strengthens it and … goes for new resources and new goals.

In terms of the game cycle, Last Day on Earth has become very innovative for our studio. The fact is that in all our previous projects, we have always very tightly controlled the duration and frequency of player sessions. Here we can say that the session can last from 5 minutes to 4 hours (we even have records for 12 or more hours). We have no idea what the player will want to do. We just give him “different beacons” and tools, and he decides what to strive for.

How will the gameplay of a low-level player differ from that of a high-level player?

At the very beginning, the player will only care about survival, arrangement and defense of his home. More advanced players will be able to compete for control of the territory and resources. Maybe even save the world, who knows…

How will the interaction between players be built in the game?

Players will be given complete freedom to interact. It will be possible to unite, conflict or be a lone ranger. One of the most important features (along with PvP) that we want to implement is a full–fledged cooperative mode, large forces are allocated for this. We want players to build their outposts and unite to protect them from zombies or other players, explore infected areas and bunkers together and come up with their own tactics to fight the strongest opponents. I think it will be very interesting!

The game has an auto mode. Now it allows you to extract resources in hands free mode. Are you planning to expand its functionality?

No, we still want our game to be played.

Is it really necessary, because routine is a mandatory component of survayovls?

Auto mode allows rational use of time, which is vital in harsh conditions of survival. If you can’t do without the essential components of the genre, why not try to improve what is only annoying.

The game is difficult by mobile standards. It is not only necessary to collect items, but also to take into account the hunger and thirst of the character, which are rapidly decreasing. How did they calculate the speed at which they should shrink?

We played a lot.

What is the monetization of the game based on?

The game has a store where players can purchase resources of interest to them, weapons, clothing, parts for assembling various types of items.

I didn’t notice a penalty for death in the game, except for the need to run to my carcass. Is there one?

When you die, you lose everything you had with you. If you manage to quickly get to the place of death and return what you lost, you can assume that there is no fine. However, there are other situations.

In addition to the need to build a base and explore territories, the player must prepare for regular large zombie attacks. Why are they implemented? Isn’t the player already having enough problems?

Last Day on Earth is not a farm in a post-apocalyptic setting, but a hardcore survival, players will always have problems. You can prepare for systematic attacks – you can stock up on weapons, prepare first-aid kits, strengthen the base, place stakes. But still, the greatest danger in this genre is always not zombies, but other people.

The game is being announced today, but it was launched in softlonch in May. You can share the preliminary figures. What has the game managed to achieve?

With the current data, we plan to reach earnings of $2,000,000 per month. For beta, we think it is worthy. We are very pleased with the reaction of the players and the excitement around the project.