State of Decay 3 studio founder says he wanted it to be the "ultimate fulfillment of the survival fantasy"

State of Decay 3
(Image credit: Undead Labs)

Jeff Strain has discussed the vision he had for State of Decay 3 before his departure from the series.

Earlier today, in response to questions put to him by Kotaku, Jeff Strain has posted his answers about his time at the studio and his departure from it. 

One question Strain was asked was what he envisioned for the third instalment in the zombie survival game. The series founder expressed the lofty ambition he had for the title, saying that he expected it to be the “ultimate fulfilment of survival fantasy we pioneered with State of Decay”. 

“It’s a game of interacting simulated systems, and the deeper the simulation, the richer the emergent mechanics and sense of agency,” he added.

Strain also addressed how he felt the game was progressing up until his departure from Undead Labs, explaining that he got to work on the game in the more straightforward conceptual stage rather than the difficult phase of implementing those ideas.

“Well, like many projects making the difficult transition to triple-A, there were a ton of unknowns, and worse: unknown unknowns. I got to work on SoD3 when it was easy — what I call the ‘You know what would be cool’ phase of development. The hard work of turning ‘You know what would be cool?’ into an actual game happened after I left,” said Strain.

No release date has yet been set for State of Decay 3.

While you wait for State of Decay’s third serving of zombie action, check out our pick of the 10 best zombie games that will take a bite out of you. If you need some advice when it comes to surviving the video game zombie apocalypse, check out our State of Decay 2 tips.

Freelance Writer

Originally from Ireland, I moved to the UK in 2014 to pursue a Games Journalism and PR degree at Staffordshire University. Following that, I've freelanced for GamesMaster, Games TM, Official PlayStation Magazine and, more recently, Play and Games Radar. My love of gaming sprang from successfully defeating that first Goomba in Super Mario Bros on the NES. These days, PlayStation is my jam. When not gaming or writing, I can usually be found scouring the internet for anything Tomb Raider related to add to my out of control memorabilia collection.