- Devblog 59 - 30 August 2026
The Balance and Bugs Update! Zombie Spawning:This update includes a number of changes and optimizations to how zombie spawns are handled. The handling of skin/model selection for zombies was rewritten to be about 80% smaller. Previously there were zombies in the world, which would be created every time you loaded in. These have been removed in favor of static spawns and distance-based spawns, which will keep spawns off camera and prevent you from loading in next to one.The spawn zones for zombies have also been further expanded and tweaked. Previously, zombie spawns were the same across the map, except in specific hot zones like the hospital and quarantine zone. Now there is a new rural zone that covers much of the southern part of the map where spawns are considerably reduced.Balancing:The amount of hunger or thirst that is replenished by eating or drinking something has been increased…
- Patch 0.38.1 - 9 June 2025
Patch Time Yesterdays update made the playermodel a bit too big, this patch fixes that. Fixes & Minor Changesfixed player model being too largefixed rabbits moving when the game is paused
- Devblog 58 - 8 June 2025
The Survival and Shelter Update! Art Update Part 2:The second part of the art update is finally here, introducing the new player model. I originally planned a complete overhaul of the player model system, but decided instead to build on the existing framework, which made the process much easier.Sleeping Improvements:Since introducing sleeping in the last update, I’ve made some improvements to how it works. Sleeping now actually heals you and reduces hunger and thirst. Going to sleep with both your hunger and thirst above 75 will restore 20 health. The longer you sleep, the more hunger and thirst are reduced.Additionally, crops now continue growing while you sleep, making it less punishing for players focused on farming.Animals:Rabbits have been added to the game! They typically spawn near natural resources but will wander across the map. If they get too close to you or a zombie, they’ll…
- Devblog 57 - 31 December 2024
Update: So, what's with the lack of updates? This is due to a number of factors like work taking up my time. These projects are far from the primary source of my income, which is perfectly fine, it just means I don't have the same amount of time to allocate to. The goal for 2025 is to allocate more of my time to working on the game so that we can have more updates. Farming: It is now possible to plant a variety of different plants. No green thumb needed. All you need to do is find some seeds, plant them and wait. So what can be planted? Potatoes: - Gives 1–4 potatoes and 1–3 seeds when harvested. - Will grow within 4 days, depending on the weather. Carrots: - Gives 2–6 carrots and 1–3 seeds when harvested. - Will grow within 4.5 days, depending on the weather. Chamomile: - Gives 1–4 chamomile and 1–2 seeds when harvested. - Will grow within 5 days, depending on the weather. Hemp: - Give…
- Devblog 56 - 24 December 2023
Part One of the Art Overhaul Update! Update: Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays! Since the last update, I've been slowly chipping away at the game and while progress has slowed, I think we are getting closer to the elusive 1.0. Art Update Part 1: The primary focus of this part has been updating or replacing the textures in the world. This includes the buildings, props, and environment. Menus, UI, and HUD: Alongside updating the world, the menus, UI, and HUD have also received a facelift. Art Update Part 2: The second part of the art update is the main reason it has been broken into two parts. This part is going to include a new player model, which is going to be a rather large undertaking. While progress has started, there is still a lot of work to do. Survivor Notes: With this update, it is now possible to find notes from notes left by other people scattered across the map. Each letter…
- Devblog 55 - 29 December 2022
Bug fixes, an office building, campfires, and more! Update: As mentioned in Devblog 53, I decided to stop the monthly updates and Devblogs in favor of less frequent and larger updates. After the last update, I took a break for a few months and have since been chipping away at this update. Office Building: An office building has been added to the lower part of the map. While it's not a great place to find weapons, you can find some food and medical supplies here. https://i.vgy.me/gaYZ2i.jpg Campfires: Campfires can now be built and placed like other building objects. It can act as a light source during the night and will slightly increase health regeneration when you stand nearby. Zombie Fatigue: A system for zombie fatigue has been implemented. With this zombies will spawn with a random fatigue level, slowly increasing until they enter a sleep state. Currently, they will only sleep for…
- Devblog 54 - 28 November 2021
Optimizations, bug fixes, a Knife, and more! Optimizations: This update comes with optimizations and improvements to the code handling the player model. The relevant code has been made about 10% faster. However, it is unlikely to impact the overall performance of the game. This is a Knife: The (most likely) final weapon has been implemented and it is a Knife. This works similarly to the Machete and is great for cutting up carcasses but does much less attack damage. Controller Support: In order to make the game more accessible and to prepare for the Steam Deck partial controller support has been implemented. This was done using the Steam Input software and has worked great in our testing. Bye-bye Launcher: As most launchers including ours are not very controller we have decided to simply remove it. Since the launcher's only purpose was for selecting your DirectX version it wasn't terribl…
- Devblog 53 - 24 December 2020
Menu changes, automatic seasonal content, zombie improvements, and more! Winter Sale: Happy Holidays, Z: The End is 20% off for the Steam Winter Sale. Updates: As I mentioned in the previous devblog I was considering scrapping the monthly update schedule. After some further thought, I have decided to go through with this. This means updates won’t be as frequent but there may be more to them. Menu Changes: The menus have also received some changes with this update. The overall look of all of the menus has been unified. The options in the video and game settings now have better are more visible descriptions. https://i.imgur.com/FaNV0xi.png Seasonal Content: A system has been implemented to automatically enable seasonal content depending on the date. Fixes & Changes: – Enabled logging by default – Changed offscreen zombied to be cleared after 1 minute – Increased max zombie limit – Fixed b…
- Devblog 52 - 9 November 2020
Tooltip changes, seasonal changes, and more! Update Schedule: As updates have become more irregular I have decided that is time to address the schedule. I’m going to be changing the schedule a bit. Instead of releasing an update at a random time every month, updates will either be the first or last week of a month. Although I may end up scrapping this schedule and instead just updating when I feel enough progress has been made. Tooltips: The tooltips system has been completely overhauled. The new systems make it much easier to add new and edit previous tooltips. The design will likely receive some changes over the course of the next few updates. Seasonal Changes: While it is a bit late for Halloween it is still that time of year. As such the pumpkin head zombies will roam the world again. I will probably be making a system where this is done automatically as all of the current seasonal…
- Devblog 51 - 1 October 2020
A new weapon, food, menu improvements, & more! New Items: Makeshift Rifle: The Makeshift Rifle is a craftable weapon that fires .357 rounds and does 15 damage. The makeshift rifle can be crafted with 5 metal and 5 wood. Spaghetti: Canned Spaghetti has been added. It provides 15 hunger and is a Tier 2 item. Build/Craft Menu Update: The Building and Crafting menu has been updated. The names of the items have changed slightly and the size of the text has been increased to improve readability. Reducing Antivirus False Positives: It has come to my attention recently that the game is being blocked by a handful of different antivirus software. With this update, I have made improvements to reduce this happening. Namely by removing unnecessary add-ons. Unfortunately, I am limited in what I can do about this as part of this issue is caused by the way that Fusion handles add-ons. If you experience…
- Devblog 50 - 27 August 2020
Saving changes, new music, and fixes! Update: This update is a bit smaller content wise but there have been some massive changes internally. Saving Changes: This update introduces some changes to the saving system. Previously game data was stored globally, meaning that it could be accessed at any time until the data is changed or the game is reset. While useful its impractical and it is causing some issues. Now data will be stored locally. Due to these changes saves made prior to this update may not be fully compatible. New Music: Three new music tracks have been added to the game. Like the other music in the game, it will play dynamically. Fixes & Changes: – Fixed .357 ammo – Fixed melee attack bug – Removed item limits
- Devblog 49 - 28 June 2020
New buildings, particle effects, damage changes, & more! Summer Sale: The Steam Summer Sale is here! Z: The End is 20% off for the entirety of the sale. Motel/Gas Station: A motel has been added to the world. The motel has 6 rooms and a gas station. Particle Effects: There are now particle effects in the game. Actions like harvesting wood and stone or attacking zombies will now display particles. Map Changes: A large lake has been added to the map, and just like the small ponds scattered around the map you can collect water from it. In addition to this, there is no longer any map border markers as the map is getting closer to completion. Menu Changes: The settings menus have received some changes. Options that could only be toggled on or off now use a checkbox. I have also added an option to toggle the water shader. Damage Changes: Damage for most weapons has been decreased to make ammo…
- Devblog 47 - 1 June 2020
Zone naming, music, and more! Update: Bit of a smaller update this month as I have been trying to get used to balancing work, game development, and all of the other things I have to do. But everything is on track for the next update. Zone Naming: Now when exploring certain areas on the map the name of that area will be displayed on the bottom left of the screen. This will only appear while in specific areas and can be disabled completely in the settings. https://i.imgur.com/hyPkbd2.png https://i.imgur.com/nFeyUC9.png Music: There is now a system which handles playing music in the game. There are currently 3 tracks that will play every so often while playing the game. Fixes & Changes: Minor world positioning fixesMinor increase to zombie movement speedAdded new achievement "It's not just a boulder..."Made corpses sinkImproved Papso can textureImproved couch textureFixed blood appearing o…
- Devblog 46 - 30 April 2020
Item highlighting, door rotating, new food, and more! Item Highlighting: When close to an item it will now be highlighted. This will make it easier to differentiate what is part of the world and what can be picked up. This feature can be toggled in the settings if you don't wish to use it. https://i.imgur.com/OafKCIc.png Door Rotating: Buildable doors can now be rotated. When placing a door press R(default key) to rotate it. https://i.imgur.com/qPRxFAt.png New Food: Two new food items have been added to the game. Canned Beans and Canned Bacon. Canned Beans are a tier 1 item and it restores 10 hunger when eaten. Canned Bacon is a tier 2 item and restores 20 hunger. Fixes & Changes: - Removed debug info from setting screen - Improved player collision - Fixed launcher versioning - Fixed floors overlapping zombies - Fixed player overlapping roofs - Fixed sound dampening occurring when outsi…
- Devblog 44 - 29 February 2020
Airport, the wall, map changes, optimizations & more! Airport: A small airport has been added to the map. It has a small terminal building, a runway, and some military tents. After the outbreak, the airport was quickly taken over and shut down by the military. Terminal: https://i.imgur.com/ky2RobK.png Runway & Tents: https://i.imgur.com/zUcaYDZ.png The Wall: There is now a wall that goes around the entirety of the map, so now when you run into the edge of the map you run into an actual wall instead of an invisible one. https://i.imgur.com/z3c7GzO.png Map Changes: There are now a bunch of abandoned cars around the map. These are just static objects and are not drive-able. Currently, its just 3 color variants of the same vehicle but more will be added in the future. Lab Update: The layout of the laboratory has been updated. One of the rooms now has a prison cell and two quarantine cells.…
- Devblog 43 - 21 January 2020
Vitamins, tooltips, improved medical system and more! Vitamins: Vitamins are a Tier 2 Medical spawn, meaning they will be uncommon. Once taken starvation will be reduced up to 40% for 2 minutes. There is a little green "health" bar on the https://i.imgur.com/urVjZSQ.png Tooltips: Now all items in the inventory have tooltips. The tooltips describe the item or give information about the item like how much health, hunger, or hydration is restored, or the type of ammo it uses. https://i.imgur.com/6Dp5Yog.png https://i.imgur.com/RKLmjgV.png https://i.imgur.com/krKAqEn.png Medical System: There is now a new medical system in the game. It now shows what's wrong on a body diagram and gives some information on how to treat it. This system is intended to be pretty simple, it's just another way to show the player some information. https://i.imgur.com/pRr4rqk.png Roof Visibility: Previously when yo…
- Devblog 42 - 26 December 2019
New trees, flashlight, water improvements and more! Steam Sale: Merry Christmas and happy holidays to everyone. Z: The End is 20% off for the duration of the Steam Winter Sale. New Trees: There are now two different types of trees. There are now oak trees and pine trees. The only difference between the trees is the texture, so give the same amount of resources. https://i.imgur.com/q1IDu07.png Flashlight: A flashlight has been added to the game. Flashlights have a fairly high spawn chance so finding one shouldn’t be an issue. Now you can get a better look at whatever is chasing you in the dark. https://i.imgur.com/43s20HC.png Water: The shader that was used for water has been changed. The previous shader was only compatible with DirectX 9 while the new one works with Direct X 11 and 9. https://i.imgur.com/2TEC8vQ.png Video Fixes & Changes: – Fixed issue where key binds were not being sav…
- Devblog 41 - 29 November 2019
New lighting, illness, UI changes, Steam sale and more! Steam Sale: A belated Happy Thanksgiving to everyone. Z: The End is 20% off for the duration of the Steam Autumn Sale. Lighting: The lighting system has been completely overhauled. The previous system worked good for the day and night system and dark areas like the lab but something like a flashlight or static lights around the world looked awful and didn’t work well. But the new system can. Its nowhere near ray-tracing, or path-tracing, but it looks pretty good. UI/HUD Changes: The UI has received some minor changes with this update. Firstly the item names in the inventory have been shifted to the left and expanded slightly. The status effects such as bleeding, or sick have also been changed. Previously it was just one bar that showed all the effects now all of the effects have a separate bar. https://i.imgur.com/mH9WZfC.png Illne…
- Devblog 40 - 29 October 2019
Steam Sale, illness, new sounds, and more! Steam Sale: Happy Halloween everyone, Z: The End is now on 20% off for the duration of the sale. Illness: An illness system has been added to the game. At the moment there is only one illness and its just a cold. There is a chance to get sick when you get attacked by a zombie. It can be cured by taking pills. If left uncured it may eventually kill you as it drains health, hunger, and thirst. Down the line, more illnesses will be added as well as ways to get them and cure them. Sounds: There are now sounds for bandaging and consuming the pills. There have also been some minor changes to the sound system to prevent sounds from playing when they shouldn’t. Food: Jars of pickles have been added to the game and the generic can of food has been replaced with “BLAM”. Both of these items can be found anywhere from houses to the store. https://i.imgur.c…
- Devblog 39 - 1 October 2019
Crossbow, new neighborhood, pausing, bug fixes, and more! Update: Bit of a late update this month, mostly due to all the extra stuff I had or decided to do this month. The old domain playzgame.net is no more, well in a sense. Now it is only used to redirect to the new domain. From here on out Z: The End and all future projects will be under the main domain ridgelinestds.com. Crossbow: A crossbow has been added to the game. Like the bow and silenced weapons, it doesn't attract zombies when shot. It also uses the same arrows as the bow is also very powerful with a 50% chance to kill a zombie with one shot. But unlike the bow, it is uncraftable and must be found. Neighborhood: Another small neighborhood has been added to the world. It's located just down the road from the bar. It's a good place to get some basic supplies before heading to the laboratory. Pause Menu: Previously the "pause"…
