The Indie Stone, the U.K.-based team behind the survival-horror game Project Zomboid might have the worst and hardest luck in independent games development. They've battled piracy—the kind that actually does cost a developer money—and had preorders cut off when PayPal suddenly shut down their account for bogus reasons. Still like the undead, they always managed to shamble back from adversity. It will be a lot tougher to rally this time.
A burglary yesterday claimed two computers that had been used to code Project Zomboid. While the game had been backed up, it was rarely backed up to an offsite location, says Indie Stone.
"We're fucked basically," wrote developer Chris "Lemmy" Simpson on Twitter, a feed later taken down entirely [screengrab at left]. "We still have code but its basically before the last update. This will probably finish us. Sorry let everyone down."
The Indie Stone's official statement on the matter is a lot more defiant, vowing that Project Zomboid "will come back stronger."
[Update, 2:36 p.m.] The Indie Stone contacted Kotaku to vow that Project Zomboid will be finished. Simpson, says Indie Stone, was understandably distraught at the time he Tweeted about the damage done to the project.
"In the cold light of day Project Zomboid is not 'fucked', no-one has been run over by a bus—we've simply been knocked back a few steps. With the support of the community we will get our groove back," The Indie Stone's Will Porter told Kotaku. He said the team will have a meeting tomorrow and the community will get an update on the project from the Project Zomboid blog later in the day.
On the blog now, Porter acknowledges that "this will clearly severely delay the next update, which was very near completion." However, no Project Zomboid player's personal information was on either of the two computers stolen, he said.
"During this time we will clearly be asking for the understanding and patience of our community. We are gutted, we are despondent and – most of all – we are sorry that this has thrown yet another bump into the road towards PZ completion," Porter wrote.
"We also REALLY want to wring the neck of the arsehole that did this to us."
Project Zomboid Burglary: Statement [The Indie Stone. h/t Dave Harris]
Special thanks to nimzy for the screen capture of the Twitter feed
You can contact Owen Good, the author of this post, at owen@kotaku.com. You can also find him on Twitter, Facebook, and lurking around our #tips page.