7 Days to Die

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7 Days To Die
Official 7 Days To Die Logo
Developer(s)	The Fun Pimps
Publisher(s)	The Fun Pimps
Engine	Unity 3D
Platform(s)	Microsoft Windows, OS X,Linux
Release date(s)	December 13, 2013
Genre(s)	Survival horror

7 Days to Die (abbreviated as 7DTD or 7D2D) is an open world, voxel-based sandbox game created by The Fun Pimps. It is a mash up of first-person shooter, survival horror, and role-playing games combining combat, crafting, looting, mining, exploration, and character growth. It was released through Early Access on Steam on December 13, 2013 for Windows and OS X.

The Windows alpha version of the game was released on August 16, 2013 for people who pre-ordered the game on either Kickstarter or PayPal. As of August 11, 2013, development of the game is ongoing with aKickstarter campaign ending on August 15.^[1] The estimated release date was May 2014 for Windows PC; Macintosh and Linux versions were planned for later in the year.^[2] The game has also been greenlit on Steam^[3] after 23 days getting over 75,000 yes votes, 8,340 followers, and 8,700 favorites. It was #1 on the Steam Greenlight after only 16 days with over 56,000 votes.^[4] The Mac version was released on September 13, 2013 at the same time as update Alpha 1.1.^[5] In August 2014 Alpha Version 9 was released, but there is no announced official release date. Updates are released every 1–5 weeks, some minor with bugfixes and small changes, some major including new terrain generation, graphics, and game mechanics.

Story & premise[edit]

The game's events happen after a nuclear unknown Third World War that destroyed an extremely large part of the world, except for some areas such as the fictional county of Navezgane, Arizona. The player is a survivor of the war who must survive by finding shelter, food and water, as well as scavenging supplies to fend off the numerous mutants (hinted to be the consequence of nuclear fallout) that populate Navezgane. Though there is no real objective except surviving at this moment, the developers hinted at a possible storyline that will be added in future updates.

Gameplay[edit]

In 7 Days To Die the player spawns into a randomly generated world or the preset world of Navezgane, Arizona, with the objective of surviving for as long as possible. As the days go by, the zombies get tougher and more aggressive. The game features the ability to craft, destroy, and manipulate objects. The game also comes with a physics system in which building a structure with no support such as pillars and walls can lead to its collapse. The game is voxel-based, allowing for simple building, and destruction of objects in a fully physics-simulated environment with smooth terrain. The game's main focus is to have the players try to survive the night, as the game features a day and night cycle, making the zombies slow and weak during the day, yet fast and aggressive during nighttime. The game features a system in which the character constantly needs food and water. Objects in the world degrade through use, so the player has to search for or make new tools as the game progresses. Currently the game is in Alpha phase and does not have many of the planned features, such as NPC quests, vehicles, temperature survival elements and skill trees. The world is fully destructible and mold-able. The player can build their own house or destroy existing ones in order to gather materials to construct a fort. The game also features a stealth and distraction system to avoid unnecessary conflict with the zombies. Carrying raw meat or foods that have a smell means the zombies can detect the player. The zombies in 7 Days to Die will climb, dig, destroy walls, doors, or even entire buildings if necessary to get to the player and kill them. The player needs to set up traps for the defense of his or her base in order to survive.

Multiplayer[edit]

Multiplayer on 7 Days To Die is available through player-hosted servers and enables multiple players to interact and communicate with each other on a single world. Interactions can be cooperative or hostile depending on the used server options. Players can run their own servers or use a hosting provider. Single player worlds have local area network support, allowing players to join worlds on locally interconnected computers without a server setup. Players are also able to provide Wide Area Network support via single player worlds. 7 Days to die Servers can run on both Windows and Linux operating Systems.^[6] 7 Days to die Linux servers require Wine, as it is currently not supported by the developers.

There are two supported game modes for multiplayer: Survival (both randomly generated and standard) and Creative.

Updates[edit]

Alpha[edit]

7 Days To Die was released to the public on Alpha 1.0. Only users who had backed the game via the Kickstarter Campaign or who bought it via PayPal had access to the Alpha until Alpha 5.0 which was released onSteam as an Early Access game 13 December 2013.^[7] Since the Alpha release of 7 Days To Die there have been multiple game changing updates that contained features such as a new snow biome, forging systems, new weapons, general graphical changes and smoother terrains which are to be completed by Alpha 8. Alpha 7.8 was released 4 April 2014 and was promptly followed by Alpha 7.9 which was released 8 April 2014.^[8] Alpha 7.10 was later added 19 April 2014. Alpha 8 was released 7 May 2014 which updated the visuals to zombie animations and smoothed the terrain for a final time.^[9] Alpha Version 9 was released 19 August 2014 and added random generated worlds, new injuries and new lighteffects and graphics.^[10]Alpha Version 10 was released 22 November 2014 and added a new character creation system with face/body morphing and visible clothing, a new zombie horde world heat map system and a new wellness system.^[11]Alpha Version 11 was released 2 April 2015, The Developers updated their Unity Engine Version to Unity 5 which includes many graphical improvements, a new quality range system for guns, weapons, tools and armor and a new Zombie called "Feral".^[12] The current Version Alpha 12 was released 03 July 2015 and added a new vehicle system with a Mini Bike, first weather system, new Sound and Physic System, also sky and Random Generating improvements^[13]