Exclusive: DayZ Creator Dean "Rocket" Hall Interview

Written by: Gary Gannon (@garygannon) | July 13, 2012 5:39 pm

51 Comments

Dean “Rocket” Hall, the man behind the wildly popular Arma II mod phenomenon DayZ, recently sat down for an exclusive one-on-one interview with Gary Gannon.

Topics included:

Dean’s background
DayZ as a standalone product
The Alt-F5 issues
And more!

Watch the entire interview above!

Exclusive: DayZ Creator Dean "Rocket" Hall Interview

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http://twitter.com/viion Josh Freeman

This is awesome, watched it live!

Deans a pro.
http://www.facebook.com/elias.rowan Elias Rowan

Man Rocket looks tired as hell.

Don’t burn out man!
- Avaloner31
  
  Well he has done hundreds of interviews in the last few months along side of working on the game.
http://www.facebook.com/LostLunE James Hernandez

where do i get day Z ?
- http://www.facebook.com/LostLunE James Hernandez
  
  anyone ?
  - 4funz
    
    http://dayzmod.com/forum/index.php?/topic/11-faq/
    
    read this
    
    you can get ArmA II and ArmA II Operation Arrowhead on Steam
  - http://profile.yahoo.com/YSVAPKVBUPTX6YS3W2DLPOBNN4 AlokP
    
    Gotta buy ARMA II, it’;s on sale on Steam right now for like 13.50. Day Z is a mod for that game.
    - http://pulse.yahoo.com/_3LEA4N6HI6CWVTQ6PUFQIF6O4U Waffles
      
      I wish. It’s $24 right now. I am hoping it drops to around $15 before the summer sale ends.
      - Andreas Andersson
        
        You need “Combined operations” with both original game and the expansion. The Steam version is on sale on Bohemia Interactives site. In europe thats 18.74€, cheaper than the Steam deal.
        
        https://store.bistudio.com/arma2-combined-operations-steam-version
        
        Im thinking of getting it myself =) All other information you need is on the dayzmod.com.
  - http://www.facebook.com/tehBWall Brandon Wallace
    
    Download ARMA 2 Combined Operations on steam, and then install the mod from dayzmod.com
  - http://www.facebook.com/dylan.munson Dylan Munson
    
    You Need Arma II and Arma II: Operation arrowhead
  - Anthony Martiniano
    
    You can get the mod at dayzmod.com
    
    However, you must first have Arma 2 + Operation Arrowhead; Or buy Arma 2: Combined Operations (which is a mix of the 2). CO is currently on sale on steam for 23.99.
- http://twitter.com/bovas bovas
  
  You need to buy Arma 2: Operation Arrowhead (12$ on steam, 11€)
  
  Then you can just download arma2 free. It works without paying extra money. You lose some texture quality but it’s not really noticeable
http://twitter.com/Christodark Christodark

Awesome interview! Grandslam Gary.
sc0tb0t

Gary always has actual discussions with people, not just a straight up interview/Q&A. Which makes his interview pieces the best. Good job GG
http://twitter.com/dularr Dularr

Good job Mr. Gannon.
Sharuko

Smart man, comments like “I don’t want to promise stuff so players don’t get disappointed”. And subtle comments like the fact he wants players to get instant gratification when they open their bag shows he knows what he is talking about.
Deathstar2x

Alt-F5? O.o
- https://me.yahoo.com/a/duHQ0ZlhpJp.7jj6z7Asw2xuNdERo.Yhjg--#01d81 gramis
  
  It allows the player to quickly log out. if your being fired at you can alt+f4 and log into another server to heal up. its really annoying…
  - Deathstar2x
    
    I know, just poking fun at the typo.
http://twitter.com/TheKrazyCookie Aaron

Stole SideStrafe’s DayZ footage…
http://dev.gamebreaker.tv garygannon

I love doing interviews with devs who are smart and real!…this interview had some great info…not a bunch of PR fluff.
- Jay
  
  Nice exclusive, Griefer… Keep driving that bus!
- Revanhavoc
  
  You’re like a mixture between Johnny Carson and Edward R. Murrow.
  
  Good night, and good luck, Gannonator.
- http://www.facebook.com/liam.is.teh.bestist Liam Gormley
  
  Yeah great interview. I’ve not even played DayZ and I still found this very interesting. Good job Gary, now I’m off to download this mod
- jayremy
  
  PR talk is such crap. If they have true understanding or confidence in their game being good, they wont need to beat around the bush and hide things. All games have flaws (at least to some people who will play) it is inevitable, so they might as well not be in denial or hide real issues players want to know. In the end being honest and open to users and themselves only makes the game more successful. Like SWTOR lying didn’t make their subs or game any better, it dropped off anyways.
christopher murray

that jessie cox dayz show sounds great!
Mizzick

Totally Awesome!!!!
Polte

The Gillette Fusion Pro Glide ad is preventing me from watching this video and seemingly all of your other videos as well, currently. If by some stroke of luck a different advertisement plays, such as the Vodafone ad, it cleans up properly and then your vid rolls… no problem.

This leads me to believe there’s an issue with the ad. I understand these ads make you money and are pretty much Gamebreaker fuel, but I don’t think they’re intended to shut out your viewers from even seeing your stuff.

Did anyone else find this problem and figure out a solution? I’m not overly computer-savvy, so who knows? It might be something on my end.
Depravity

Great interview. Focus on DayZ, this shit is going to be the next big thing (or rephrasing: it is one already).

And an idea for the DayZ show – why not upgrade the usual talkshow formula with a stream of the game in real time. Just for the suspense boner while y’all are discussing weekly shizzle. That’d be ace.
Ken Oakes

The game as it is is genius.

This business about underground this and that is another part of the vision, but it is not what people are falling in love with….
- http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1219639930 Harry Cooke
  
  I think it would be awesome! I find that DayZ is amazing, but players want places to fall back to such as a safe-haven. This underground society idea would be amazing!
hotpei

Rocket is an interviewers dream, he talks like a real person and his excitement for his game shines through with every word.

Nice job in letting him talk Gary, and great questions too! Really great job Gary, nice exclusive.

GamebreakerTV rocks
Krzysztof Kotarba

devs like that gaming industry needs
http://profile.yahoo.com/SMGRLFM4UASOO7QO26HTHBLIOI Shawn

DayZ is not the next big thing, it is just another niche game for hardcore FPS fans honestly. Considering most things its a very small minority.
- http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1260066056 Steven Diaz
  
  500k is a small minority? That would mean every MMO with the exception of WoW has a small minority.
  - http://profile.yahoo.com/SMGRLFM4UASOO7QO26HTHBLIOI Shawn
    
    That is not a lot of players in the big picture.
    - scottsummer
      
      How big is the picture?
      
      Seriously calling DayZ minority now is non sense lol.
    - Cody Moody
      
      How big is the Open World Zombie Survival Horror picture, anyway? What would it take to capture the Open World Zombie Survival Horror market? Shawn is an industry analyst, so he would know.
  - Joseph Gabrielli
    
    Every MMO except WoW is a small minority.
John Feragalli

Gary Please for the love of god, get some better advert system, this is retarded, I can not see the vid cause it wont get past that stupid !@#$ing Gillette advert, and it would seem from the comments I am not the only person. This is not the first time adverts have ruined the Gamebreaker experience.
- Joseph Gabrielli
  
  If it is being such a huge thing for you download an Adblok
Depravity

Niche? 600K players in 2 months? A new genre is born, wait and see how “clones” prosper in the following years.
- http://twitter.com/Luke_Malcolm Luke Malcolm
  
  But the original is always best
http://twitter.com/XCoastGaming CrossCoastGaming

Very interesting interview, I think this rocket dudes design sensibilities are perfectly in line with what a huge portion of people want to see in a game like this. Obviously the 600k+ sales reflect that. I also like his show Tosh.0
http://twitter.com/Xaviertastic Xavier

SO this is the new minecraft!! Awesome
steven keefe

DayZ is a challenging environment which is constantly changing and evolving. When there is a problem, instead of taking forever to acknowledge the problem and longer to fix it like game developers and companies in recent years. The DayZ devs have consistently given seemingly instant feed back and shown real commitment to working their asses off to make DayZ all that it can be. Gamers have become accustomed to paying $60 for a video game which barely changes throughout its life cycle and being mostly ignored when they have problems or ideas to improve the worlds they spend so much time in. One of DayZ’s greatest assets is the team’s seemingly constant connection and open communication with it’s community.
Vince Ludovico

I can only imagine a buddy coming back into the underground bunker after heading out for supplies and spreading a cold to everyone… then you end up with a dank sickly underground bunker filled with coughing people, and zombies topside.
Spencer Kennedy

Fantastic Interview! I know Gamebreaker loves to get goofy, and that’s a great part of it and it’s charm, but the serious side is amazing when it comes out. Stand up job you guys are doing.
pathargan

TEASE!!! i want a dayz show w/ jesse! plz plz plz plz plz plz
Nick Sabino

http://www.Dayzmod.com, you must have ARMA 2 and ARMA Operation Arrowhead

Exclusive: DayZ Creator Dean "Rocket" Hall Interview

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