State of Decay's 'Pure Survival' sandbox mode DLC discussed by Undead Labs

State of Decay developer Undead Labs has shed light on its new 'Pure Survival' sandbox mode, which is in development as DLC at the studio.

Explaining the motivation of the sandbox mode to Polygon, studio founder Jeff Strain said, "The game is basically a giant simulation of zombies versus humans. The narrative we tell gives you some context and drives you through the experience, and there is a beginning, middle and end.

"I think people take between 15 and 25 hours to play theentire game, and we found that after that, players are immediately restarting. Every playthrough is different, but the story is the same every time.

"After they finish they want to just experience the game in pure sandbox mode and be able to focus on experiencing the world and not worry about completing the story. We're going to make that happen."

The mode is as it suggests; a free-roaming simulation mode that sees players surviving as long as they can. In the background the game will track how long players live, their aptitude at gathering resources, and the mode was described by Strain as a "SimCity-style simulation."

Elsewhere, Strain confirmed that the follow-up to State of Decay - currently titled 'Class4' - is at the concept phase and is not currently in development. It will exist in a shared online world and will most certainly come to next-gen formats, although Strain couldn't say which.

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