An interviewer from reddit had the privilege of catching up with Dean "Rocket" Hall to talk about the Day Z standalone title, where he discussed the game's "imminent" release. Hall stated that rather than being tied down by release dates, Day Z had the freedom and flexibility to go into alpha whenever it wanted because it was going to have a digital release.

"It's very, very, very close," said Hall of the game's release. "We need to get it out because we need feedback on the systems we've designed."

The game will use Minecraft's model of being released first as a paid alpha, and then as a beta, before it gets a final release. The release will be done in tiers, first at a very low price point in alpha, stepping up when it goes into beta, until it reaches its final price point. Early adopters will be rewarded, in other words.

Speaking of the game as it exists, the purpose of the standalone is to build upon the Day Z mod for Arma 2 in ways that the mod itself cannot offer. The developers intend to fix everything that's wrong with the mod, and augment it with all new features in the standalone title.

Rather than developing the game on top of Arma 3, the developers are taking the game to the very basics and making it be about survival rather than treating it like a military simulation with zombies on top.

"If you build a house and you have a bad foundation, then it doesn't matter how nice the house is that you put on top of it," said Hall as an analogy for fixing the game at its core.

Be sure to watch the rest of the interview below.