Drop Point is an upcoming open world survival game from a New Zealand developer called Tiny Indie Studio. It will offer both first-person and third-person gameplay, allowing large groups of players to explore a zombie-infested island, scavenge for resources, build bases, and fend off hordes of enemies. That might sound a lot like DayZ and other games, but Drop Point has plenty of good ideas that will help it stand out when it arrives on Steam Early Access later this year.
The game takes place on an island where a company AquaNova has been heavily investing. Their most recent project is a state of the art hydro-dam. On the surface, this seems like a good thing, bringing jobs, improved infrastructure, and income to the island. However, there is a sinister side to AquaNova’s work, as the emergence of zombies proves…
Drop Point can be played solo, on official and community servers, or on player-hosted servers. When playing on official servers, the game will be PvPvE, meaning that players will contend with not only zombies and animals but other players as well. However, Drop Point can be played cooperatively by hosting your own server and teaming up with friends. Even on public servers, joining a team and working together will be key to survival.
Upon starting a game, players will find themselves on the beach. From there, they’ll need to find buildings and loot to increase their chances of survival. Players can hunt animals using bows and other weapons, gather plants, chop trees for wood, and engage in other typical survival activities. Everything that is gathered has a monetary value, allowing it to be sold to the occasional merchant.
With a day and night system and weather to contend with, shelter becomes mportant. Having found a relatively safe area, players will need to build a base. At the base, they can start new quest lines, attract and deal with vendors, and more. Naturally, the team will fortify the base (improving walls and other materials for durability) and develop their arsenal of guns, flamethrowers, bombs, and other weapons. Speaking of technology, players will be able to acquire trucks and helicopters, and even go scuba diving.
One area where Tiny Indie Studio feels that other open-world survival games lack is the endgame. Once you build up your base, what else is there to do? Drop Point‘s “World Event System” is designed to keep things fresh. Players will have to deal with big events like helicopter crashes, zombie outbreaks, air drops, and more. These events are often too much for one person to handle, so they encourage cooperation between players. Players will even be able to “call in” big events via the in-game economy, thus keeping everyone on their toes.
Quests that reveal the answers behind the zombie outbreak will further drive the experience and provide unique rewards, and the game will have Steam Achievements as well. There’s no limit to team sizes or player count, though these things can be customized on private servers. The game will debut with remappable keys for easy controller configuration, but the developers don’t plan to optimize for Steam Deck just yet.
Drop Point has already passed through the pre-alpha stage and will debut in Steam Early Access during the second half of this year. During the early access phase, it will receive monthly updates in response to player feedback. The full release is planned for 2026, after which, updates will slow down to a bimonthly schedule. I look forward to seeing how the game develops, and I encourage the developers to offer dedicated non-PvP servers to better accommodate co-op players.
Gamers can wishlist Drop Point now on Steam.
