Halloween 2024 and the Road from Here

We’ve seen a lot of speculation about the game and realized that in part that is because we haven’t made our stance clear enough as the developers of this project, and realized that it would be useful to provide a more strategic overview of how we are intending to approach Early Access for NMRiH2, and how we are evaluating the launch and your reaction to it.

We released in Early Access because this was the best phase of our production to start getting feedback during ongoing development, in order to meaningfully sculpt the core of the game with you as fans, rather than pretend to engage in that process by releasing a nearly completed and "sealed" product.

We've been upfront about 1.0 being targeted for next year, and we have several major themed updates planned throughout the Early Access period that will provide natural "check-in" points on our progress. We are confident that both fans of the original No More Room in Hell game, but also those without this background, will be excited about what we have in store for you leading to 1.0, so please join us whenever along the journey makes sense for you!

What we’re doing here with the Early Access release is genuinely opening our production process to you as a community and engaging in the process of creating this game together. We see this as a method to get better at making games as a studio, with the hopes of engaging the open support of our community earlier in the process for our future games.

— Here are some things we have heard you say your dream of No More Room in Hell 2 deserves to be, and our responses.

You want: a stable core experience

For those of you who have just joined: we've been committed to weekly hotfixes since launch (see the already-shipped Hotfix 1 & Hotfix 2), with more coming (Hotfix 3 next week!), and a larger update towards the end of November - and of course many further updates through Early Access and beyond.

We have also rolled out a series of server optimization initiatives to improve the live health of the game -- with the majority of players now playing in optimal matchmaking conditions.

You want: more urban settings

Power Plant, the first map in Early Access, is a rural map that focuses on the fear of the unknown, and the sense of discovery in an ocean of darkness. Environments set in cities and towns are of course, equally if not more so iconic to zombie cinema - which NMRiH1 captured so well with its many maps added over years post-launch.

Future maps are planned to hit suburban & urban environments. Each map will have a very different scenario and feel to its objectives. The second map is well underway already, and we look forward to revealing it as soon as it’s ready to show.

You want: a commitment to immersion and groundedness

It’s our goal for NMRiH2 to present a world that feels like you just stepped out of your door and are witnessing zombie hell on earth.

We are confirming that future zombie types will be based in cinematic realism, like firefighters, policemen or former soldiers.

We also know many players want a more immersive UI / HUD experience in-game. Custom UI is coming in November, allowing you to create a “minimal HUD” and be fully immersed and grounded in the game world without objective markers and so on -- or to simply customize to your liking.