What started as a passion project has turned into a full enterprise for one Calgarian who’s a step closer to seeing his dream — a post-apocalyptic zombie survival game — come to life.

Nikolas Zorko is the mind behind Dead Matter, a game he began developing years ago, and one that’s now releasing its first gameplay clips to the public.

“It’s definitely been an adventure, there’s been times where I’ve felt super confident and there’s times where I’ve felt the opposite,” said Zorko, in an interview moments after he arrived in Montreal for a business trip.

“But at the end of the day, especially with where things are right now, it’s definitely exceeded my expectations in every single capacity possible. It’s amazing to them see go from where they were, to where they are now.”

Dead Matter: Now they’re in the play stage

Today, Zorko said Dead Matter, built by Quantum Integrity Software Inc., has a staff of about six people working on the game full time. There are 18 total contributors. In the latest development vlog released Feb. 6, they describe work being done on Canmore, with many buildings on the outskirts complete, but the inner city is still under construction.

Now they’re in the play stage.

“We were playing it for the first time for hours on end. It was really cool for us,” he said.

Those in southern Alberta may notice familiar surroundings when they play the game. The post-apocalyptic, open-world survival game’s backdrop resembles that of Calgary-area and into the Rocky Mountains.

Zorko said a lot of emphasis is based around player choice and immersion in the elements of the game. It will feature a living-story, all of which will be contained within the sandbox world of the prairies and mountains. According to a recent blog post, the Calgary map will see a six km by six km playing area, while the southern Alberta map will see 16 km by 16km of space to roam.

Thousands of people have pledged $932,870 to Kickstarter and Indiegogo campaigns to keep the project moving forward.

Work still left to do on Calgary video game

Zorko said the recent release of gameplay footage means Dead Matter is one step closer to release.

“We’re at a point where all of us are getting together and we’re just being able to play it and play something that is really representative of what we want to put out there,” he said.

Their closed delta version is still a couple of months away, and early access and beyond a couple more after that.

“That’s mostly because we want to build a good experience above everything else,” Zorko said.

Visit the website for more information on the game.