'God Save Birmingham', an open-world zombie survival game from Kakao Games subsidiary Ocean Drive Studio, set up a booth in the B2B hall at Gamescom 2026. This marks its third consecutive appearance at the event since its initial reveal in 2024.

Reflecting on last year's build as "a tech demo where game features were only partially implemented," Creative Director Hyeonseong Cha explained that this year's build represents a stage where "game elements are finally organically intertwined." With co-op gameplay—a feature heavily requested by players—elevated to the top development priority, the target for the Early Access release has been adjusted to the first half of 2027.

This year's demo build is based on the beta test version conducted in June. Cha introduced it as "a build structured so that players can naturally experience a challenging survival gameplay loop." Considering that last year's Gamescom build focused on demonstrating physics effects and object interactions using just two weapons—a hatchet and a pitchfork—the game has formed a proper backbone over the past year.

The combat tempo was also refined. Cha explained that while combat was tuned to be "overall faster and more responsive to player input," the core concept of an ordinary citizen struggling against a zombie apocalypse remains unchanged. Following the addition of blunt weapons since last year, swords, halberds, and scythes have been added to the arsenal, with durability mechanics assigned to each weapon. Expanding the roster of weapons remains an ongoing effort.

Base building has also taken a more concrete form. While last year's build only allowed players to stack desks and chairs to temporarily block passageways, the current build enables them to craft installations on doors to latch them or completely seal them off with barricades. Facilities essential for early survival, such as bedding and campfires, can also be crafted and placed inside hideouts.

The gameplay aspect Cha encouraged at Gamescom this year is physics interaction. Examples include throwing surrounding objects at zombies to knock them down or stacking items to climb up into attics and onto rooftops for exploration.

"The aspect I want to showcase the most is incorporating physics interactions into the survival genre," he said. Even when pitching the game in a single sentence to Western players, he leads with "a survival game that actively utilizes physics mechanics" rather than highlighting its 14th-century medieval Birmingham setting.

Development priorities are flexibly adjusted based on player feedback, with co-op play being a prime example. The original plan was to work on multiplayer after sufficiently developing the single-player mode, but due to strong demand from test participants, co-op multiplayer has risen to become the top development focus.

According to Cha, hands-on feedback is primarily used to adjust the priority "among the various features on the planned development list" rather than creating entirely new features from scratch. As a survival game player himself, his logic is that the features he wants to build do not differ greatly from what players want.

Although co-op play was not included in this demo build, Kakao Games previously showcased development progress by releasing a new trailer featuring co-op mode on August 21. Hands-on verification will take place during the second beta test scheduled for late this year. The plan is to conduct core group testing with players who have participated since the pre-alpha and alpha stages, before expanding the scope by recruiting participants through the Steam page.

The target launch window for Early Access is the first half of 2027. The goal presented at last year's Gamescom was the second half of 2026. "The schedule was delayed slightly compared to last year's plan because several features were added to the development roadmap," Cha explained. The decision was made to include high-demand features like co-op play right from the start of Early Access.

Consequently, the Early Access build has become richer in content. The single-player mode maintains the "ending after surviving 30 days" structure described last year, allowing players to reach an ending by completing journal content detailing the character's survival story. Co-op multiplayer will be offered alongside it. The map completion rate has also increased. The implementation scope, which was stated to be about a quarter of the entirety of Birmingham as of August 2025, now stands at roughly one-third in the Gamescom 2026 version.

Meanwhile, after wrapping up Gamescom, Ocean Drive Studio will showcase 'God Save Birmingham' at PAX West, held in Seattle, USA, from September 4 to 7.