Project Zomboid is making a big comeback since the re-release of its multiplayer mode with Build 41, and to maintain that momentum, long-suffering indie developer, IndieStone, is already planning the next big and necessary-update: NPCs.
Project Zomboid is an incredibly deep zombie survival game that has gone through several major reworks over the years, resulting in features having to be re-added and re-enabled. Most recently, multiplayer had to be fixed in the game to bring it up to spec, and now NPCs are making their first comeback in the best part of a decade. Although mods have made them possible in some cases recently, IndieStone is going to bring back proper NPCs in the next big update, and they'll be more useful, exciting, and potentially-dangerous, than ever before.
"We’re planning on doing NPCs pretty much next," Chris Simpson, managing director at IndieStone, said in a chat with NME. "Although there may be smaller builds in between, the next big thing that we’re working toward and talking about in the new year is going to be NPCs."
Apparently, IndieStone was going to introduce animals and hunting before NPCs, but that would have apparently revealed much of what the NPC update had planned, so they decided to switch to that instead. It could also help the game from further, as the lack of NPCs is one aspect that IndieStone has seen the most criticism for -- especially since the game has been in early access for over a decade.
Don't expect anything anytime soon, as IndieStone works famously slowly -- if effectively. Still, it's good to see Project Zomboid continuing its lengthy shamble towards version 1.0 with an important addition.