Since launching on Steam Early Access, popular mod-turned-standalone DayZ has had its fair share of criticism, and today producer Brian Hicks took to the forums to calm concern over the development cycle.

Hicks stepped in to address a thread titled "Has anyone else lost faith in DayZ?", which revolved around players complaining that the title is not in an acceptable state, despite quite frequent updates. Hicks insisted DayZ was still early in development, and advised players that they weren't actually playing DayZ, instead stating that "you are playing development builds. Early development builds."

DayZ is 11 months into principal development, on what should be a three year standard development cycle. I can't force you to be a fan of DayZ, but I can call this out:

Defining or judging what DayZ is by a build so early in its development is much akin to judging a painting within the first few brush strokes. Hell, even Bob Ross's paintings didn't look great for the first few minutes (until you realized what it was he was making).

I can promise you none of your favorite AAA games played, or even resembled the final product that early in their cycles. (Okay, maybe some of the larger titles that push small incremental updates out every 12 months - but we all know those are special snowflakes).

Take a break, and come back in beta or even the full release. The Early Access period of development will have many peaks and low, low valleys. This is the nature of software development. Yes, it is stressful as heck - for all of us, but you get to be part of shaping the DayZ experience.

For me, its worth it - for some of you, it might not be. No one can fault you for that.

Since its launch on December 2013, DayZ hasn't strayed far away from its top-selling position on the digital market. While it is perfectly sensible to care about a product's health after paying to access its early development, the Steam page makes it very clear what you are getting into: "THIS GAME IS EARLY ACCESS ALPHA. PLEASE DO NOT PURCHASE IT UNLESS YOU WANT TO ACTIVELY SUPPORT DEVELOPMENT OF THE GAME AND ARE PREPARED TO HANDLE WITH SERIOUS ISSUES AND POSSIBLE INTERRUPTIONS OF GAME FUNCTIONING."

Hicks said the DayZ development team, which is a part of Arma maker Bohemia, was still aiming to enter the beta phase by the end of 2014. "You can be certain the weekly status reports will keep everyone updated on that," he added.

"We're trying to effectively do a three-year standard cycle in 2 to 2.5 years. It might be a lofty goal, but as long as I have something to say about it - you will all be kept updated as to what is going on."