Zombie Assault: Resurgence - Dev Diary #13 - Steam Next Fest!

Ten-Hut, Mercs!

It’s the first dev diary of the year, and it’s a good one! We’re incredibly excited to share that a demo version of Zombie Assault: Resurgence will be participating in Steam’s Next Fest, running from February 23rd to March 2nd!

For many of you, this will be the first time you’ve been able to get hands-on with the game. For others, it’ll be a good opportunity to see what has changed since our last public playtest! We’ve been very intentional with what we’ve packed into this demo, with enough content to get a feel for the systems, classes, and chaos, while still leaving plenty of surprises for full launch.

This demo is designed to showcase the core gameplay loop, progression systems, and co-op experience at the heart of Zombie Assault: Resurgence, so let’s break down what’s included…

What’s in the Next Fest demo?

Weapons, Gear, & Support

• Common and Uncommon guns, giving you access to a solid range of weapons from the likes of HVM, Critical Mass, Ronson, and more!

• Weapon upgrading - allowing you to push your favorite guns further.

• Common and Uncommon Mods to start customising your weapon builds.

• Common and Uncommon Armour to round out your loadout.

• An HVM Grenade and Turret, letting you experiment with crowd control, area denial, and defensive playstyles.

The idea is for this setup to let you explore build variety, and set the stage for rarer gear later on.

Mercenaries & Progression

• Three playable Merc classes:

  • Assault

  • Heavy

  • Medic

• Access to Base Skills and Class Skills, allowing early customisation

• Player level cap of 12 for the demo, ensuring steady progression without spoiling late-game systems.

Maps & Missions

• Jump into three distinct environments:

  • Mining Facility

  • Abandoned Colony

  • Icefield

• Across these locations, you’ll be able to play a range of mission types:

  • Eradication

  • Eradication Surge

  • Cache Recovery

  • Uplink

  • Close the Breach

Each mode highlights different pacing and teamwork dynamics, from pure combat to objective-driven survival!

Enemies & Encounters

• Two terrifying boss encounters:

  • Regurgitator

  • Shredder

• A selection of Zombie vs Player elemental effects, showcasing how damage types matter.

• Zombie Mods and Buffs, adding unpredictability and forcing on-the-fly adaptation.

Systems & Social Features

• USI Bounties, giving you passive goals and extra rewards as you play.

• Access to Merc HQ - your hub for matchmaking, loadouts, upgrades, and prep between missions.

• Various social features

  • Rich presence support for Discord and Steam

  • View Discord and Steam friends lists in-game

  • Invite Discord and Steam friends to your party (Both from within the game UI, and from the Discord/Steam UI)

  • In-game UI for pending party invites from Discord friends

  • Full text chat powered by Discord - available in Merc HQ, pre & post-game lobbies, as well as during a mission!

A Snapshot of Zombie Assault: Resurgence

This demo represents a vertical slice of ZA:R, providing enough content to let you test builds, experiment with classes, and fight some truly nasty hordes, while still leaving plenty of systems, weapons, and challenges for the full release. We’ll be watching feedback closely throughout Next Fest. What feels great, what needs tuning, and what you want more of will directly help shape the road ahead, so please don’t be shy in sharing your feedback with us!

Community Kill Count Challenge: Earn an Exclusive Weapon at Launch!

To say thank you to everyone jumping into the Steam Next Fest demo, we’re running a global community challenge for the entire duration of the event!

During the demo, every zombie kill counts toward a shared global total. If the community hits the target by the end of Next Fest, everyone who participated in the demo will unlock an exclusive weapon at full launch - the Morlok Frostbite Pistol! Concept art:

The Morlok Frostbite is a unique, cryo-based pistol that won’t be obtainable anywhere else at launch. Forged by Morlok engineers, this Pistol packs enough force to take a target off their feet, and combined with Morlok's LN2 rounds, you have plenty of time to pick your shots!

• Deliver cryo damage, slowing and controlling enemies

• Reward precision and crowd management

• Stand as a permanent badge of participation for those who helped push the community over the line!

We’ll be tracking progress throughout Next Fest via zombieassault.com, so whether you’re playing solo or in a full squad, every undead you drop helps the entire community!

Key Information

• Steam Next Fest: February 23rd - March 2nd (Steam Store Page here!)

• Earn an exclusive Pistol at launch by helping complete the Global Kill Count Challenge running throughout! (Track progress via zombieassault.com)

• Play with the devs! We will also have some of the ZA:R devs looking to squad-up throughout Next Fest, so be sure to join our Discord (discord.gg/ninjakiwi) for further details on that when the time comes.

So get ready to gear up, dive in, and kill like it matters… because this time, it really does! Whether you’re a long-time Zombie Assault veteran or jumping in for the first time, we can’t wait for you to survive the onslaught with us. No questions this time as we’ve gone on for long enough, so get your questions in for next time!

Until then; stay alert, Mercs!

“Extraction isn’t optional” - Anonymous Merc #96