Zombie Studios celebrates 20 years in existence and it's been an interesting journey for the developer that first hit the mainstream with the Spec Ops series in the late 90's. Things started out in a 250 square feet office in downtown Seattle with the two co-founders Mark Long and Joanna Alexander. Long has since left the company and current CEO, Joanna Alexander remarks on those early days, "We were excited to have our first space, thrilled to be pursuing a longtime passion. We never dreamed we'd be here twenty years later, only two blocks away in a 10,000 square foot building."
Zombie Studios has largely moved away from the work-for-hire AAA business and into the free-to-play/indie space with Blacklight: Retribution and the upcoming Daylight. Daylight, will become the first publicly released Unreal Engine 4 title as it hits PC and PS4 next month.
Studio Director Jared Gerritzen comments, "We are constantly learning, pushing ourselves with each new project and becoming the masters of our domain. Anyone can say this, but we truly love every step of the process in creating a great game and enjoy challenging each other with each new project."
Over the course of these two decades Zombie Studios have worked on 28 titles on a multitude of platforms from PC and the original PlayStation, via Xbox and Gamecube, to current day systems such as the PlayStation 4. They have also worked on serious games, training applications and simulation in addition to entertainment software.
Right now, there is a lot going on at Zombie, and Gerritzen outlines the immediate future: "We are gearing up to bring Blacklight out of Beta, loving the way Phantom Army is looking, and have multiple projects in the works. The years keep getting better and better for us."