Sole purpose of DayZ console onboarding video was to provide short introduction for new players when the game arrived to consoles. We decided early on that we don’t want to make a tutorial video, because that just does not fit into the mood and style of the game. Instead, we opted for a short story that follows a fresh survivor being just confronted with the harsh post-apocalyptic reality. This man recieves unexpected help in the form of radio-transmitted guidance by veteran survivor.

Since the video is very dialogue-heavy, and the veteran is only present as a voice in a handheld radio, we decided he needs a strong and recognizable voice. We came up with a backstory of a prepper from American South who was in Chernarus working on the US Military base when the apocalypse hit. Over the course of the video he drops some valuable advice for first-time players (personalized in the character of fresh survivor).

Since DayZ does not have any in-game editor, very basic tool for camera control and animation execution was created for the purpose of this video in cooperation with DayZ’s scripting team. The video is only available as part of the DayZ console build, but you can watch two short snippets here.