DayZ creator's "crazy", "esoteric" next game developed with Improbable

DayZ creator Dean "Rocket" Hall has dropped the first vague details of his new game project.

"I do not want to make safe games. I do not want to make games the way we have been making them. What if the most experienced video game staff in the world collaborated on the most esoteric and hardcore survival games without trying to please a major audience?"

After DayZ made him a "great deal of money", Hall was in a position to do almost anything - and he he was becoming frustrated with traditional games development.

"My ideas are radical. I have no interest in half measures," Hall wrote on his Tumblr.

"I do not want to make safe games. I do not want to make games the way we have been making them. I want to fail as often as I need to in order to deliver the kinds of games that I actually want to play."

While climbing Mt Everest, Hall thought about his life and decided he wanted "to make video games, not money". He sold off many of his possessions and used his resources to "put the best people and money" behind his "crazy ideas".

"What if the most experienced video game staff in the world collaborated on the most esoteric and hardcore survival games without trying to please a major audience?" he said.

"What if games were made that did not seek to make money? What if we could get an incredibly well resourced team to just focus on making great games with no distractions? I sat in base camp and I thought about the games I have always wanted to play, and I realised that I had the opportunity to do that.

"In return for creating DayZ, I’ve been given the opportunity to make video games from an entirely economically independent standpoint. I don’t intend to squander that."

That already sounds pretty exciting, but last year Hall made contact with a London company called Improbable, which, according to Wired, has created some very exciting multiplayer technology.

"The technology I had always wanted and tried to make was finally here," Hall said.

"DayZ was born out of my aborted attempts to make a database architecture to support my wild mass multiplayer ideas. But now, I didn’t need a ten year plan to make my grand visions of multiplayer come true. I could do it now."

"This is what making video games is about for me. It is about trying new things; being bold. Working on my first improbable game is the most exhilarating thing I have ever done."

According to Hall, he's rejecting the old way of developing games, built around retailers, distributors and focus testing in favour of making the games he wants to make - whether he makes his money back or not.

"Already the process of development has been so emotionally rewarding that I consider the entire budget of the project to be money well spent. This is what making video games is about for me. It is about trying new things; being bold," he said.

"Working on my first improbable game is the most exhilarating thing I have ever done."

The full blog post is much longer and well worth a read if you're interested in Hall's story. What gets me is that DayZ itself was born so unconventionally; Hall must genuinely be shaking things up. Can't wait to learn more.