The development team behind Project Zomboid released a new blog update today that details, among other things, the addition of a persistent online multiplayer mode!

In a three part video series (part one is below), the development team teases and shows off some of the building blocks of the game's multiplayer.

We have no figures on maximum player count as of yet, but we’ll be expanding our tests in the run up to release and suspect it’ll be connection and server spec limited only. Bugs aside, it managed 10-12 or so on a domestic cable connection pretty effortlessly though, and could probably have gone higher and whatever the limit can definitely be optimized further.

Anyone with a copy of PZ will be able to launch their own dedicated console only PZ server just by passing the appropriate parameters to the executable (or running a batch file, or whatever) with whitelists and blacklists, choice of co-op or PvP (purposefully defaulted to co-op to ram the point home) and all that goodness. Servers will be fully moddable using the same stuffs you mod PZ with now. Modders will be able to create their own networky messages to sync the server and client, and we’ll add checksums to check both server and client are running the same mods. In future we could look to auto-download stuff in cases the clients don’t have what is required.

Unfortunately, they are still working on some anti-cheat measures and advice players to only stick to whitelisted servers with passwords until those are finalized. They're also working on a way to get split-screen local multiplayer to work seamlessly with the online multiplayer once the online component is added.

The blog continues on to mention that NPCs are still also in development for the game. They also provide a handy link to the changes coming in the Build 22 update. Project Zomboid is available on Steam Early Access for $15 (USD).