Something interesting began in mid-2024 when Supermarket Simulator took the gaming community by storm. While quirky simulations exist, this title about managing a store gained unexpected popularity, drawing attention not only from gamers but also from developers.

Stas Staryk, who had previously worked on corporate VR training and projects for Epic Games, aimed to create his first game with Brigada Games. Staryk was intrigued by the potential of a retail simulator, stating, “We decided that it’s interesting to try our first game in this [simulator] genre, because it’s not so expensive in development, and it has a pretty large audience.”

Initially, the team considered a concept titled ‘Warehouse Manager’. They demoed this idea and received positive feedback via Reddit and Discord. However, after exploring several concepts, Staryk realized there was an oversaturation of warehouse simulations. The team pivoted to another idea: an alchemy simulator focusing on real historical alchemists, but inevitable complexities led them to abandon that route as well.

Ultimately, they settled on a zombie-themed simulation. Staryk mentioned, “I’m a big fan of the Walking Dead universe,” and decided to stick with that theme. Eventually, someone suggested a combination of Papers, Please and zombies, leading to the creation of “Quarantine Zone: The Last Check.”

This choice proved to be successful: the game garnered over a million wishlists on Steam and secured a publishing deal with Devolver Digital. However, it’s amusing to note that players have expressed dissatisfaction with certain aspects of the demo, particularly the challenging supply cart mechanics—something that they originally decided to steer away from with the warehouse manager concept.