State of Decay

In a blog post, Undead Labs has detailed the way in which character and skill systems operate in its upcoming open-world survival horror title, State of Decay.

According to the studio, the characters that you encounter and choose to welcome into your group will affect the dynamic of your entire experience. Their differing skill sets and personalities will present unique challenges in the way they interact with each other.

“A good story isn’t about characters as unchanging archetypes,” begins the blog post. “It does explore innate potential and expectations, but it’s also about choices and change (or refusal to change). A good survival story in particular puts its characters to the test, but not just as individuals.”

In State of Decay, all survivors share the same basic skill sets – Cardio, Wits, Fighting and Shooting – but they are weighted differently depending on the character. Each survivor has a number of stars next to each category that represents their proficiency in that particular skill. Additional stars are earned by successfully making use of these skills in-game.

Adding to a survivor’s individuality, however, is their unique combination of “Traits.” For instance, there are over a dozen personality Traits that a survivor might have, including Chatterbox, Coward, Born Leader, Daydreamer and more.

“Personality plays a big role in how survivors react to success and failure, how they interact with each other and to any moral choices you make,” continues Undead Labs’ blog post. “In the short term, personality is the least important thing to know about someone, but when trying to make your community work over the long haul, the mix of personalities matters.”

There’s much more detail on how these systems work in the blog post itself (including detailed examples of three individual survivors, and how players can customize them by making certain decisions). If this blog post is anything to go by, State of Decay is certainly shaping up to be a rather deep experience indeed.

Source: Undead Labs blog