Z: The End

Released: Jun 15, 2018
Platforms: Windows
Last updated: 09 Sep 2026, 13:38 GMT

Updates & announcements

20 posts

30 Aug 2026Developer post
Devblog 59
The Balance and Bugs Update! Zombie Spawning: This update includes a number of changes and optimizations to how zombie spawns are handled. The handling of skin/model selection for zombies was rewritten to be about 80% smaller. Previously there were zombies in the world, which wou
The Balance and Bugs Update!
Zombie Spawning:
This update includes a number of changes and optimizations to how zombie spawns are handled. The handling of skin/model selection for zombies was rewritten to be about 80% smaller. Previously there were zombies in the world, which would be created every time you loaded in. These have been removed in favor of static spawns and distance-based spawns, which will keep spawns off camera and prevent you from loading in next to one.
The spawn zones for zombies have also been further expanded and tweaked. Previously, zombie spawns were the same across the map, except in specific hot zones like the hospital and quarantine zone. Now there is a new rural zone that covers much of the southern part of the map where spawns are considerably reduced.
Balancing:
The amount of hunger or thirst that is replenished by eating or drinking something has been increased considerably. Now it will require much less food and drink to fill you up. For example, Beef Soup and Blam went from restoring 8 to 20 hunger, while Water went from restoring 20 to 30 thirst and Papso 8 to 15.
Melee & Tool Tweaks:
The use of melee weapons and tools has been both simplified and improved. Clicking will now attack once or continue to attack if held down with weapons having different swing speeds. This applies to both attacking zombies and harvesting materials. With your fists or a knife, you will attack much faster compared to weapons like an axe or hammer. The hitbox for melee attacks has also been made larger, making attacking and gathering materials easier.
Fixes & Minor Changes:
Fixed ZTE-9 - Day counter text does not line up
Changed how the version number is displayed on the main menu
Tweaked the visuals for fog and rain
Fixed some values such as the rounds in the M92 pistol not saving correctly
Added a trailer park to the southern part of the map
Original post
09 Jun 2025Developer post
Patch 0.38.1
Patch Time Yesterdays update made the playermodel a bit too big, this patch fixes that. Fixes & Minor Changes fixed player model being too large fixed rabbits moving when the game is paused
Patch Time
Yesterdays update made the playermodel a bit too big, this patch fixes that.

Fixes & Minor Changes
fixed player model being too large
fixed rabbits moving when the game is paused
Original post
08 Jun 2025Developer post
Devblog 58
The Survival and Shelter Update! Art Update Part 2: The second part of the art update is finally here, introducing the new player model. I originally planned a complete overhaul of the player model system, but decided instead to build on the existing framework, which made the pro
The Survival and Shelter Update!
Art Update Part 2:
The second part of the art update is finally here, introducing the new player model. I originally planned a complete overhaul of the player model system, but decided instead to build on the existing framework, which made the process much easier.
Sleeping Improvements:
Since introducing sleeping in the last update, I’ve made some improvements to how it works. Sleeping now actually heals you and reduces hunger and thirst. Going to sleep with both your hunger and thirst above 75 will restore 20 health. The longer you sleep, the more hunger and thirst are reduced.
Additionally, crops now continue growing while you sleep, making it less punishing for players focused on farming.
Animals:
Rabbits have been added to the game! They typically spawn near natural resources but will wander across the map. If they get too close to you or a zombie, they’ll get spooked and run away. Since they also attract zombies, they make for great distractions.
You can kill and harvest rabbits for Meat and Hide, which are used in crafting recipes.
Shelter System Overhaul:
Your shelter is no longer as safe as it once was. Zombies can now break wooden walls and doors. Fortunately, you can now repair your structures when damaged.
To encourage upgrading, stone structures and the new metal door are immune to zombie attacks.
All building costs have also been slightly increased:
Walls now cost 5 materials
Roofs and ceilings now cost 10 materials
Zombie AI Enhancements:
Zombie AI has been improved. They’re now more reactive and spend less time adjusting their path after collisions, making them more consistent when chasing players.
New Zombie Models:
Time for some new flesh and faces! Four new zombie models have been added:
Two hazmat zombies with different suit colors
One more “naked” zombie
One female zombie with an orange shirt
There are also new corpse variations that appear when zombies are killed.
World Changes:
There have been minor updates to the world:
Extra houses and sheds have been added to support the new metal crafting options.
All resource nodes now have more health, so you can harvest more before they break.
Oak trees now have more health than pine trees, encouraging selective harvesting.
Menu & UI Updates:
The menus have once again received a facelift. This includes:
A new layout for the main menu
A fresh new logo
Restyled buttons
New Artwork:
I recently commissioned new artwork and a brand-new logo for the game. This will be replacing all existing promotional and in-game art assets. Huge thanks again to Sarah H for the amazing work!
Fixes & Minor Changes:
Fixed plants not showing the correct state after loading
Changed how plant states are loaded to resolve a crash
Fixed cloak not displaying
Added missing tooltips
Fixed tooltip for .357 ammo
Fixed player being unable to break stone buildables
Fixed player doors being destructible regardless of selected layer
Fixed inventory counters for seeds
Added sound effects for cooking and crafting
Reduced default volume to 50
Original post
31 Dec 2024Developer post
Devblog 57
Update: So, what's with the lack of updates? This is due to a number of factors like work taking up my time. These projects are far from the primary source of my income, which is perfectly fine, it just means I don't have the same amount of time to allocate to. The goal for 2025
24 Dec 2023Developer post
Devblog 56
Part One of the Art Overhaul Update! Update: Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays! Since the last update, I've been slowly chipping away at the game and while progress has slowed, I think we are getting closer to the elusive 1.0. Art Update Part 1: The primary focus of this part ha
Part One of the Art Overhaul Update!
Update:
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays! Since the last update, I've been slowly chipping away at the game and while progress has slowed, I think we are getting closer to the elusive 1.0.

Art Update Part 1:
The primary focus of this part has been updating or replacing the textures in the world. This includes the buildings, props, and environment.
Menus, UI, and HUD:
Alongside updating the world, the menus, UI, and HUD have also received a facelift.
Art Update Part 2:
The second part of the art update is the main reason it has been broken into two parts. This part is going to include a new player model, which is going to be a rather large undertaking. While progress has started, there is still a lot of work to do.
Survivor Notes:
With this update, it is now possible to find notes from notes left by other people scattered across the map. Each letter tells a story of what they were going through, what happened to them, or gives some info about the world.
Player Coordinates:
It is now possible to see exactly where you are in the world by bring up the coordinates overlay. This can be toggled in-game by pressing the F3 key.

Highlighting:
The highlighting system has also been tweaked with this update. The color has been changed to yellow, and now doors are highlighted when you are close enough to use them.

Achievements:
This update also adds 11 new achievements, one is hidden which you will have to find yourselves.
Fixes & Changes:

Implemented fix for #7

Fixed ammo icon showing with machete

Fixed build previews showing old art

Fixed the game being paused when a save is loaded

Fixed the "breakability" of buildables not being reset when changing layers

Fixed the cursor escaping the screen(SteamDeck)

Fixed certain keys and options not saving or loading correctly
Original post
29 Dec 2022Developer post
Devblog 55
Bug fixes, an office building, campfires, and more! Update: As mentioned in Devblog 53 , I decided to stop the monthly updates and Devblogs in favor of less frequent and larger updates. After the last update, I took a break for a few months and have since been chipping away at th
28 Nov 2021Developer post
Devblog 54
Optimizations, bug fixes, a Knife, and more! Optimizations: This update comes with optimizations and improvements to the code handling the player model. The relevant code has been made about 10% faster. However, it is unlikely to impact the overall performance of the game. This i
24 Dec 2020Developer post
Devblog 53
Menu changes, automatic seasonal content, zombie improvements, and more! Winter Sale: Happy Holidays, Z: The End is 20% off for the Steam Winter Sale. Updates: As I mentioned in the previous devblog I was considering scrapping the monthly update schedule. After some further thoug
09 Nov 2020Developer post
Devblog 52
Tooltip changes, seasonal changes, and more! Update Schedule: As updates have become more irregular I have decided that is time to address the schedule. I’m going to be changing the schedule a bit. Instead of releasing an update at a random time every month, updates will either b
01 Oct 2020Developer post
Devblog 51
A new weapon, food, menu improvements, & more! New Items: Makeshift Rifle: The Makeshift Rifle is a craftable weapon that fires .357 rounds and does 15 damage. The makeshift rifle can be crafted with 5 metal and 5 wood. Spaghetti: Canned Spaghetti has been added. It provides
27 Aug 2020Developer post
Devblog 50
Saving changes, new music, and fixes! Update: This update is a bit smaller content wise but there have been some massive changes internally. Saving Changes: This update introduces some changes to the saving system. Previously game data was stored globally, meaning that it could b
28 Jun 2020Developer post
Devblog 49
New buildings, particle effects, damage changes, & more! Summer Sale: The Steam Summer Sale is here! Z: The End is 20% off for the entirety of the sale. Motel/Gas Station: A motel has been added to the world. The motel has 6 rooms and a gas station. Particle Effects: There ar
01 Jun 2020Developer post
Devblog 47
Zone naming, music, and more! Update: Bit of a smaller update this month as I have been trying to get used to balancing work, game development, and all of the other things I have to do. But everything is on track for the next update. Zone Naming: Now when exploring certain areas
Zone naming, music, and more!
Update:
Bit of a smaller update this month as I have been trying to get used to balancing work, game development, and all of the other things I have to do. But everything is on track for the next update.
Zone Naming:
Now when exploring certain areas on the map the name of that area will be displayed on the bottom left of the screen. This will only appear while in specific areas and can be disabled completely in the settings.
Music:
There is now a system which handles playing music in the game. There are currently 3 tracks that will play every so often while playing the game.
Fixes & Changes:
Minor world positioning fixes
Minor increase to zombie movement speed
Added new achievement "It's not just a boulder..."
Made corpses sink
Improved Papso can texture
Improved couch texture
Fixed blood appearing on the water
Removed unused data
Original post
30 Apr 2020Developer post
Devblog 46
Item highlighting, door rotating, new food, and more! Item Highlighting: When close to an item it will now be highlighted. This will make it easier to differentiate what is part of the world and what can be picked up. This feature can be toggled in the settings if you don't wish
29 Feb 2020Developer post
Devblog 44
Airport, the wall, map changes, optimizations & more! Airport: A small airport has been added to the map. It has a small terminal building, a runway, and some military tents. After the outbreak, the airport was quickly taken over and shut down by the military. Terminal: Runwa
21 Jan 2020Developer post
Devblog 43
Vitamins, tooltips, improved medical system and more! Vitamins: Vitamins are a Tier 2 Medical spawn, meaning they will be uncommon. Once taken starvation will be reduced up to 40% for 2 minutes. There is a little green "health" bar on the Tooltips: Now all items in the inventory
26 Dec 2019Developer post
Devblog 42
New trees, flashlight, water improvements and more! Steam Sale: Merry Christmas and happy holidays to everyone. Z: The End is 20% off for the duration of the Steam Winter Sale. New Trees: There are now two different types of trees. There are now oak trees and pine trees. The only
29 Nov 2019Developer post
Devblog 41
New lighting, illness, UI changes, Steam sale and more! Steam Sale: A belated Happy Thanksgiving to everyone. Z: The End is 20% off for the duration of the Steam Autumn Sale. Lighting: The lighting system has been completely overhauled. The previous system worked good for the day
New lighting, illness, UI changes, Steam sale and more!
Steam Sale:
A belated Happy Thanksgiving to everyone. Z: The End is 20% off for the duration of the Steam Autumn Sale.
Lighting:
The lighting system has been completely overhauled. The previous system worked good for the day and night system and dark areas like the lab but something like a flashlight or static lights around the world looked awful and didn’t work well. But the new system can. Its nowhere near ray-tracing, or path-tracing, but it looks pretty good.
UI/HUD Changes:
The UI has received some minor changes with this update. Firstly the item names in the inventory have been shifted to the left and expanded slightly. The status effects such as bleeding, or sick have also been changed. Previously it was just one bar that showed all the effects now all of the effects have a separate bar.
Illness/Infection:
The sickness effect has been changed. It now lasts 5 minutes and can be cured with 1-2 GermX as each one removes 2.5 minutes from the timer.
It is now possible to get an infection when attacked by a Zombie. The infection is a bit more dangerous, it doesn’t go away on its own and takes away more health. But it can be cured with a single GermX.
Benchmark:
There is now a simple benchmarking tool in the game. It can be accessed in the video settings menu. It takes 30 seconds and will give the minimum, average, and maximum framerate when complete. This will mostly be useful for me as it allows me to test the impact of changes in the game. It probably won’t be useful for most people because as long as your PC was made in the last 10 years you can probably plat the game.
World Changes:
Previously all of the buildings were made up of separate blocks, similar to something like Minecraft. Now the buildings are made of one large object. This makes creating new buildings significantly faster.
The roof for the trailers has been remade. It’s definitely better than the old one but I may make some changes to it.
Launcher:
There is now a launcher for the game. It will only show up once so you can select which DirectX version for the game to use. After that, it will just open the game and close itself automatically. But if for some reason you like to press the play button on the launcher every time you can select to show the launcher. If for some reason the DirectX version you selected is giving you issues the launcher can be shown again by holding Shift while pressing play on Steam.
Fixes & Changes:

Changed various item names
Changes to the day/night system
Enabled Santa zombie
Enabled candy cane
Disabled pumpkin zombie
Original post
29 Oct 2019Developer post
Devblog 40
Steam Sale, illness, new sounds, and more! Steam Sale: Happy Halloween everyone, Z: The End is now on 20% off for the duration of the sale. Illness: An illness system has been added to the game. At the moment there is only one illness and its just a cold. There is a chance to get
01 Oct 2019Developer post
Devblog 39
Crossbow, new neighborhood, pausing, bug fixes, and more! Update: Bit of a late update this month, mostly due to all the extra stuff I had or decided to do this month. The old domain playzgame.net is no more, well in a sense. Now it is only used to redirect to the new domain. Fro
Crossbow, new neighborhood, pausing, bug fixes, and more!
Update:
Bit of a late update this month, mostly due to all the extra stuff I had or decided to do this month. The old domain playzgame.net is no more, well in a sense. Now it is only used to redirect to the new domain. From here on out Z: The End and all future projects will be under the main domain ridgelinestds.com.
Crossbow:
A crossbow has been added to the game. Like the bow and silenced weapons, it doesn't attract zombies when shot. It also uses the same arrows as the bow is also very powerful with a 50% chance to kill a zombie with one shot. But unlike the bow, it is uncraftable and must be found.
Neighborhood:
Another small neighborhood has been added to the world. It's located just down the road from the bar. It's a good place to get some basic supplies before heading to the laboratory.
Pause Menu:
Previously the "pause" menu didn't pause the game. Now it actually pauses the game so if you have to take a break you don't have to save and exit to the menu.
Fixes & Changes:

Fixed a player model related issue with the bow
Fixed an issue with the zombie kill counter
Fixed keybinding reset button not working properly
Fixed arrows not colliding with doors
Fixed issue where zombie models weren't being used
Enabled the pumpkin head zombie
Original post

Weapon:	Before:	After:
AK/M4	40	20-30
Magnum	20	15
Deagle	30	25
Shotgun Pellet	12	10
Crossbow	49-50	45-50
Sledgehammer	40	25
Axe	40	25
Machete	40	15

Updates & announcements

The Balance and Bugs Update!

Zombie Spawning:

Balancing:

Melee & Tool Tweaks:

Fixes & Minor Changes:

Patch Time

Fixes & Minor Changes

The Survival and Shelter Update!

Art Update Part 2:

Sleeping Improvements:

Animals:

Shelter System Overhaul:

Zombie AI Enhancements:

New Zombie Models:

World Changes:

Menu & UI Updates:

New Artwork:

Fixes & Minor Changes:

New Items:

Vitamins, tooltips, improved medical system and more!