DayZ creator ‘depressed’ about development saga

Dean ‘Rocket’ Hall says he’s withdrawn from the public eye in past weeks in response to increased stress.

As the developer of DayZ and lead on the popular Arma II zombie survival mod’s standalone version, Hall is being barraged with requests for information and interviews.

Things have gotten bad enough for the developer that he even considered withdrawing from the industry altogether.

"I’ve been pretty depressed about the whole situation," said Hall on Reddit.

"From a personal standpoint, this whole ‘saga’ of the development made me seriously question if I wanted to be involved in the industry and I gave serious thought to cutting my losses and not being involved in the project."

Games development is a stressful business, but current events have conspired to make it particularly rough for Hall.

Competition for his project popped up early with the news that The War Z would be taking a similar approach to his game, and critics at the time suggested the game was made as a direct challenge to DayZ.

The War Z was just pulled from Steam in response to allegations that it mislead customers, and is making headlines for everything from where it’s gotten art to controversial microtransactions and adjusting its terms of service to prevent customers from pursuing a refund.

Hall’s employer, Bohemia Interactive, has had to delay Arma III as two of its developers are currently being held by the Greek authorities on suspicion of espionage.

With so many issues hitting so close to home, there’s little wonder Hall has avoided publicity.

At an Army Medical evaluation it was even noted that he "now has high blood pressure."

"I’ve been getting hammered by a massive amount with requests for information about DayZ release, interviews and my reactions to this and stuff and such – but for my own sanity I retreated and have kept to myself," he said.

"Right now I’m just at home doing bits and pieces on the DayZ development."