State of Decay 3 Devs Discuss Shared World Multiplayer, Gameplay, and Alpha Testing

The year 2027 could be a landmark year for zombie survival games, as the alpha testing of State of Decay 3 is well underway, and the developers have delivered the much-requested, shared-world multiplayer feature.

SoD3 was first announced in 2020, but until recently, almost no information was made public about the game’s development. Last week’s Xbox Games Showcase finally revealed a closer look at what Undead Labs has been cooking up in secret, with the official SoD3 game reveal trailer that did not disappoint.

State of Decay 3 Devs Discuss Shared World Multiplayer and Alpha Testing

Undead Labs has earned a loyal following of expert survivors who love not only the endless fun of the game, but the basic management, and community-building features that leave you feeling attached to all the survivors you collect along the way.

As you traverse the zombie-infested world, you’ll encounter other groups of people fighting for survival, and you’ll be able to choose whether to form alliances with them, hire certain characters, or take a darker, more sinister route, and rob them of their life-saving supplies.

While there was a multiplayer option available in State of Decay 2, it wasn’t a shared world experience, meaning your friends could join your game and help you kill zombies, but they wouldn’t actually be part of your community. With a shared world multiplayer, State of Decay 3 has the potential to be one of the best zombie survival games on the market, and it could be one of the best multiplayer games of 2027.

Just as we saw with games like Grounded, or Minecraft, where friends have the ability to start a world together, ​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​and and share all the progress, the joy of certain games is often multiplied if you can share them with others, and I think that will be especially true in State of Decay 3.

Undead Labs Studio Head, Philip Holt, and Art Director, Wayne Laybourn, recently did an in-depth interview to drop a few interesting details about the development of State of Decay 3.

While the focus is on the shared multiplayer world, Holt said SoD3’s single-player experience cannot be overlooked. “Since we wanted to focus on that (multiplayer), we also started the trailer with single player, because we wanted to show the audience that this is still a good game as a single player game.”

State of Decay 3’s shared world multiplayer will allow you to:

• Start a shared world with up to four friends

• Build a community together and hire survivors

• Build more bases and share more

The first alpha playtests for SoD3 are over, and it seems to have been a huge success, as Laybourn revealed some playtesters logged more than 90 hours of playtime in one week.

Entering Home Improvement Development

Fortunately, there will be plenty of other opportunities to get in on the playtesting action before the official launch of State of Decay 3. Holt says, “We’ll be holding a second alpha soon, and then some beta tests after that to launch in 2027.”

I played State of Decay 2 a lot and loved every minute of it. I remember the first time I lost one of my favorite survivors to a horde of zombies—the worst. And that’s why SoD3 is so good. After choosing the nominees and developing each character, you stick with them, and it makes the whole situation more difficult because you don’t want anyone to die.

And yet, I wanted to be able to share the full experience with my friends, and as Holt explained, our hopes were answered, “This shared world is the perfect fulfillment of the myth that, we build a base together, and we try to save these survivors.