Hello everyone, we have been hard at work here at Open Brains Studio and we are here to give you our first Developer Update on Hold Out.
Today we would like to talk to you about the idea that is Hold Out, how it came about, and what you can expect from the game.
Hold Out is a game that goes back to the roots of what make zombies what they are- mindless corpses that have the threat of ending your life with a mere bite. While Hold Out is not that extreme, the recent trend in the genre has been the exact opposite. Today, most AAA zombie games are built around the idea of killing hordes of zombies with ease. If the player gets surrounded, they can spam their "X" button as they wipe out groups of zombies with a machete. Another popular zombie game allowed the player to run straight at a zombie, and with the press of a button, the character would spin around the zombie and put it in a choke hold. For us, that kills the opportunities that the zombie genre has provided. That is why we have formed Open Brains Studio. We decided to make a zombie game that we wanted to play. One where the player doesn't feel powerful in a world of the weak, but a frail speck in a world of death. One wrong move may be the end of that player's life. This leads to the player feeling nervous, scared, and overwhelmed. That means no gimmicks, no get-out-of-jail-free button presses, and no "special" zombies. So what exactly is Hold Out?
Hold Out is a four player co-op FPS. Your goal as a team is to hold out and survive in various locations until extraction is possible. Our current maps are a secluded mansion, a downtown jail, a country farm, and a warehouse store (and their surrounding environments). At the start of a map, the players are weak, under-geared, and unprepared for what is coming. The difficulty quickly ramps up as more and more zombies become aware of your presence. Your goal as a team is to stock up on healing, ammo, barricades, and guns from your surroundings before every zombie in the area collapses on your location. Each map is currently planned to last around 20 minutes with the last few minutes being a crescendo of death from every direction. Survival is not possible without proper planning, stockpiling, and teamwork.
We have heard your requests for more details on our release!
Currently, we are aiming to release Hold Out for early access in the beginning of June. The exact date is open because we do not plan to release before we believe the game is ready. As far as early access, this will not be a launch that is missing any gameplay mechanics. The early access launch will start with 2 out of the 4 maps currently planned for full release. For us, the decision to early access is twofold. First, we want additional testing. This helps us clean up any bugs and gives us valuable feedback to steer the final parts of game development towards what the community enjoys. Secondly, it gives us additional time to finish the remaining maps. This will not be an alpha style early access.
Our current plans for price will be $15 during early access and $20 upon full release.