The creators of zombie survival hit Vein say its launch was 'much larger than expected' and there will be 'a bit of a transition period' as it looks toward future updates

Players defend a house from zombies in Vein. — (Image credit: Ramjet Studios)

Steam's endless torrent of new games means that far too many of them go overlooked, but it also means that surprise hits are being created pretty much every week. Such is the case with Vein, an early access zombie survival sandbox that aspires to be a hybrid of DayZ and Project Zomboid, and has quietly but consistently accrued an impressive following over the last few weeks.

Broadly, Vein is a familiar affair, plonking you in an open world where civilization has been overrun by zombies and tasking you with staying alive in its sandbox. Like Zomboid, its appeal lies in its high level of granularity, with players able to interact with pretty much anything in its world."Open mailboxes, adjust faucets, and knock on doors," the game's Steam page promises, adding "throw a can of beans at a zombie if you like." I do like.

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It's toward the end of the post where Ramjet explains in detail what's going on. "With the success of early access, we have a lot of considerations to make in terms of prioritising features, and there's a bit of a transition period as we settle finances and expand the team. Apart from game development work, a bunch of time has been just doing regulatory/financial/legal business work, so that's all happening simultaneously."

All of this is affecting how fast Ramjet can work on the next update. But the studio is beavering away regardless. For the next patch, players can expect changes to zombie spawning algorithms so they won't randomly spawn right behind you or reappear too quickly in a house you've recently searched. In addition, the studio is working on replacing foliage assets with better quality art, starting with cornfields, fixing double doors so they open and close as a single unit, adding gamepad support, and introducing new seed types so players can grow vegetables like artichokes, broccoli, cabbages, cauliflowers and more.

Finally, Ramjet is also looking at adding two bigger features to the next update, namely "better animals and better hunting". While Ramjet doesn't explicitly say this, it sounds like these are a bit more speculative, and I wouldn't consider them guaranteed additions at this point.

Rick has been fascinated by PC gaming since he was seven years old, when he used to sneak into his dad's home office for covert sessions of Doom. He grew up on a diet of similarly unsuitable games, with favourites including Quake, Thief, Half-Life and Deus Ex. Between 2013 and 2022, Rick was games editor of Custom PC magazine and associated website bit-tech.net. But he's always kept one foot in freelance games journalism, writing for publications like Edge, Eurogamer, the Guardian and, naturally, PC Gamer. While he'll play anything that can be controlled with a keyboard and mouse, he has a particular passion for first-person shooters and immersive sims.

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