Dean Hall, creator of zombie survival game DayZ and founder of RocketWerkz, seems to have a complicated relationship with his biggest hit, which was first released as a mod for Arma 2 in 2012.

“When DayZ happened, it was like dying,” Hall told PC Gamer. “It ended my old life. My relationship with everyone who I knew up to that point changed completely.”

“It was obviously an amazing thing that happened to me,” he added. “I loved making the mod, and I loved that feeling, and I’ve been chasing it ever since.”

The game started life as a mod for Arma 2 and its expansion pack Operation Arrowhead and was so popular with gamers that just a few months later Hall announced that Arma 2 developer Bohemia Interactive was creating a standalone version of the game, with Hall as project lead.

“People think I’m a game developer who came up from [being] a modder, and I would say I’m a modder who makes games during the day,” Hall added. “I was born a modder, and I will die a modder. And I think if there’s a lesson out there for any aspiring game devs, I think it’s mod games. You will learn even faster than making them.”

In February 2014 Hall stepped down from the project lead role and went on to start his own studio, RocketWerkz. Its releases since include VR strategy game Out Of Ammo and space survival sim Icarus and is currently working on Kitten Space Agency. As well as being a spaceflight sim, the game is a proof of concept for Hall’s contribution-based development model.

“With Kitten Space Agency, the game is completely free,” he said. “It’s funded entirely by contributions. So that really puts it in front of the gamer’s face. If you want this game to exist, how much is it worth? Because it’s all on you.”

Rachel Weber is the Head of Editorial Development at IGN and an elder millennial. She’s been a professional nerd since 2006 when she got her start on Official PlayStation Magazine in the UK, and has since worked for GamesIndustry.Biz, Rolling Stone and GamesRadar. She loves horror, horror movies, horror games, Red Dead Redemption 2, and her Love and Deepspace boyfriends.