For the past few months the PZ community have all been barricaded inside their safehouses waiting for Public Test Build R. It’s been a long but necessary process for the long-term stability of the Zomboid game code, but now with the build going into its second round of internal testing there’ll soon be a reason to stride back into that park with a shotgun in-hand. To check the current status of the build click away here.

That doesn’t mean that there’s not a bunch of fun stuff going on the world beyond Knox County. First and foremost is the full announcement of our session at Rezzed, the Brighton PC and Indie gaming show put on by our good friends at Eurogamer and Rock Paper Shotgun. Our talk will be at 4pm on Friday 6^th July  and will be entitled ‘How (Not) To Make A Game’ – covering the joys and despairs of our first year of zombie survivalism. Mash, Will, Lemmy, Binky and RingoD will all be in attendance, and a community pub visit after the session is likely. It’d be super-lovely to see some of you there.

Next up are a couple of community charity events that we wanted to spotlight. The lovely Blandman will be walking the six hundred miles between Dover (England) and Aberdeen (Scotchland) in aid of Spinal Research. He’s agreed to dress as a zombie for his first day in return for a donation from The Indie Stone, and your offerings on his Virgin Money Giving page would be greatly appreciated. Secondly forum member JamieA will be running the London 10k in memory of one of his friends to raise money for the CALM charity – those wishing to support him can find his Giving page here. Both of these charities are close to The Indie Stone’s hearts, so we’d love our community to chip in.

Back in the realms of running away from zombies, meanwhile, is this awesome fan video that Groarman on the forums made for less than a hundred Euros. Nice one mate, we’re in love with the blood splat PZ logo at the end!

A final nod, too, to Von Bandersnatch’s web comic that made us chuckle a while ago. You’ll genuinely be able to play out the punch-line in Knox County in future builds…

Anyway, that’s about it from Indie Stone towers this time round. Phill Cameron will be back with another mod round up in a week or so, and as soon as it’s released we’ll have the glorious return of a Project Zomboid screenshot competition for the new R build. Until then, steadily zombified population of Muldraugh!

Spiffo the Community Raccoon is so excited by the upcoming release of Public Test Build R he’s risking life and limb by eating a burger he found on the floor. Huzzah!