Fans of the defining zombie survival game, DayZ may be shocked to hear that he plans on stepping back from lead designer for his own IP. Not only will Dean ‘Rocket’ Hall be stepping back from lead on DayZ, but will also be leaving Bohemia interactive, with plans of starting a game company to be based in New Zealand, Halls homeland.
The news emerged today when Eurogamer had the chance to interview him. Hall has made it clear that the games development will go on, and he has left the game in the hands of his team who are currently working on the project.
Dean had talked about leaving Bohemia before, but after the unexpected success of DayZ’s early access release, decided to stick with his title until the end of 2014. “Originally I wasn’t going to do this year, but it would be stupid not to, and it would be unfair to the community. I have to be on the project as long as it’s important to. Whether that role is as the leader, whether that role is in a more creative sense… But at a certain point there will be diminishing returns.” It’s encouraging that he isn’t just running away with his success’s, and will be there to help with the continued development, but he claims that DayZ will never be the multiplayer game he wanted. “I feel like DayZ is a fundamentally flawed concept, and I’ve always recognised that. It’s not the perfect game; it’s not the multiplayer experience, and it never can be, [with] the absolute spark that I want in it.”
From what Dean mentioned in his interview, it sounds like he is worried about pushing the game past its limits and causing damage to an already well established format. “I’m really good at risk-taking and making other people take risks, I’ve always been good at that in my life” he then goes on to say “But eventually, that’s the bad person to have. Eventually, you don’t want the guy telling you to go over the top and get through. So at some point I’ll be a disaster for the project, at least in a leadership role.”
Though this news make the DayZ community question Rockets intentions, it seems clear that he is striving for the freedom of his own studio so that he can do things the way he sees fit, and if it makes better games because of it, then surely that is a benefit to most gamers.