Medics, we are so back - and for good.
It’s been almost eight months since we held our first-ever developer stream, and we know that you have been asking the same question ever since - “What now?”
It’s been a long while since we started working on Medic: Pacific War, and we know there have been multiple pauses throughout the years.
Now - this Devlog - is the beginning of the new era. We’re coming in hot with the full commitment of rolling forward. No more stopovers. We will be dropping bombs like zeroes under the morning sun.
We made you wait long enough. It’s now or never!
A New “Medic” Experience - Turning to Realism
Medic: Pacific War began as a passion project aimed at making the role of a World War II Medic engaging while staying true to its historical roots. While this made sense from the start, the deeper we went into development, the more we realized we needed a more realistic approach. After all, we named the game after the impressive work done by the World War II Medical Corps.
With this in mind, we have now gravitated towards making Medic: Pacific War more “realistic,” moving away from the more “arcade” style we initially leaned towards.
The WW2 Battlefield on Unreal Engine 5
Upgrading to a more advanced and powerful game engine is a no-brainer. After all, everyone involved in the project and the community wants an immersive experience like no other. Immediately, the change to Unreal Engine 5 allowed us to improve every aesthetic aspect of the game, from the graphics to the sound effects.
Thanks to UE5’s Nanite, we can showcase the beauty of our environments at an unprecedented level. Battlefields are now rendered precisely how we wanted them to be - representing the war’s destructive effect on the environment.
The battlefield is filled with different light sources, and UE5’s Lumen has allowed us to make them appear more realistic than ever before. Whether you’re inside a war tunnel lit only by small, flickering ceiling lamps, or getting flashed by shots coming from the zeroes in the sky, light sources bounce off realistically.
The move to Unreal Engine 5 has also allowed us to scale our game’s graphical options for more modern setups, allowing us to use the latest graphical techniques in video games, such as DLSS, XLSS, and more. This will allow for a much wider range of compatibility with different gaming setups.
Considering this, moving towards a newer engine is an almost gargantuan task for a game already built from a previous iteration. While the most noticeable improvements are already in our development build, we’re continuously working on maximizing the potential of Unreal Engine 5 towards Medic: Pacific War. We can’t wait to share more about this!
Better, More Realistic Animations
Moving around the battlefield with a heavy bag of medical supplies wasn’t supposed to be as easy as moving around every day. Plus, the dangers of the battlefield made it harder to take each step forward. Such is the mindset we embody moving forward whilst making Medic: Pacific War lean towards realism.
We’ve updated the in-game animations to better represent the hardship the ground troops went through during the Second World War. Whether you’re trying to get from one cover to another, or you’re trying to sprint toward a wounded ally, the animations will convey how moving for the sake of your survival should look like.
Redefined Health / Damage Dynamics
Most video game characters tend to have automatic health regeneration as one of the aspects of having a plot armor. However, what it gains from making games more fun and engaging comes the failure to provide more immersion to the players.
When we say we wanted players to experience a more realistic “Medic: Pacific War”, we meant it so far as to remove the “auto-regen” mechanic and require them to heal themselves using the same inventory for healing the wounded.
Apart from this, we’re now allowing enemy damage to affect the wounded while they are being transported by the player. This represents a challenge for players to encourage further strategy when moving around the map and securing wounded to medical sites—besides being more realistic.
We’ve also made progress with a new game mode that we are extremely excited to share with you:
“Arena” Mode - For hardcore Medics
For the hardcore medics out there - we’re adding an “Arena” mode! This yet-to-be-officialy-named mode combines the familiar setting of an “endless” mode with the unique Medic: Pacific War twist.
There's no time limit in this “arena” mode - but you only have a single life. You’ll also receive progression factors like skill points to improve your gameplay and survival chances.
To improve variation, we’ve developed several “events” that are set to occur between “waves,” which will significantly impact your choices moving forward, like ambushes or bombardments that will hinder you from using similar paths from point A to point B, or destruction of specific areas which will slow you down as you find another way towards a goal.
We saw this as a fitting mode to add to the game due to how the core mechanics work and are loved by the people. We can’t wait to see everyone’s take and gameplay on this unique Medic: Pacific War twist to the already familiar mode.
We’re committed to keeping you updated as Medic: Pacific War continues to steadily evolve. Your feedback is very valuable to us - the more discussions and engagement around the game, the better we can make it. So don’t hesitate to talk about the game and what you expect from it on our community platforms - we promise you - it helps a ton!
Speaking of community platforms, we’re leveling up on everything else, even outside the game.
New Community Management
Trying to balance full-time game development and community management proved to be a challenging task for us. So, we decided to bring someone else to focus on the community side of things while we continue working on the game.
As a move towards finally coming back for good, we’ve brought in a new community manager - nicknamed Strakchy - for our Discord, Reddit, and other community platforms. He will be focused on maintaining focus and engagement about the game, making and handling events, and growing the community.
With a new person handling the community overall, we can now focus more on making Medic: Pacific War reach its full potential. We can’t wait for our new CM to build our community to greater heights and show you what we can achieve with our full attention on Medic: Pacific War development!
You will see more of his work in future devlogs and news posts on Steam, Discord, Reddit, and other platforms.
Together with having a new Community Manager means having changes to our home base - our Discord!
Changes to Discord
To match the new community management stuff above, we’ve also overhauled our official Discord server to make it focused on one thing - the game itself.
One of the main changes is the server name change—from Hypnotic Ants Studio to Medic: Pacific War. You will also see structural changes to the categories and channels that we and the new CM planned to better suit the game’s community. For those still interested in our other games, we have maintained some channels for familiarity.
Speaking of channels, we’ve added some where you can discuss and engage focused topics with fellow medics, such as:
- #History-talk, where you can discuss historical events and everything related to WW2.
- #Medical-talk, where the main topic is the art and science of medical treatment.
- #Media, where you can share your Medic: Pacific War-related stuff (e.g. memes, videos, images, cosplays, art, and more)
There are also changes to the roles, rules, info channels, FAQs, and more. Check out what the renewed Discord server looks like now!
We’ve also built a new base on Reddit! Finally, a Medic: Pacific War subreddit to call home.
r/MedicPacificWar - Our Home on Reddit
Finally, we have an official subreddit for Medic: Pacific War. This is going to be a place for those who’d rather stay on Reddit than anywhere else. Our subreddit will host official announcements, exclusive Reddit events for the game, and so much more, so make sure you subscribe!
Our new community manager will also handle our subreddit using an official Medic: Pacific War Reddit account. Overall, you should see more of Medic: Pacific War on Reddit since we plan to lurk on relevant subreddits so that everyone can get to know us. Again, subscribe so you don’t miss anything on our sub!
Speaking of a brand-new community platform, we’re upping our social media game, to say the least.
Social Media - Let’s blow ‘em up
To ensure you feel confident that we’re back for good, we’ve also brought in a new Social Media Manager! k00L—who will also be present on our Discord—will manage all social media content from now on, delivering news and content made especially for our—wait for it—new social media pages!
Exclusives on social media, like events, content, and stuff will be posted regularly - so make sure you follow us so you don’t miss out!
A Little Message from us - we’ve come a long way…
We know it’s been a long road, and we can’t thank you enough for sticking with us. Your patience and support mean everything as we continue shaping Medic: Pacific War into the game it’s meant to be.
One of the biggest challenges in developing Medic: Pacific War has been crafting a gameplay experience that truly puts you in the boots of a medic - where saving lives takes priority over taking them - while still making it engaging, intense, and rewarding.
Exploring fresh mechanics that break away from the norm is no easy task, but after months of hard work, new faces on the team, and a renewed focus, we’re more determined than ever to deliver the experience you’ve been waiting for.
Stay frosty, Medics - there’s much more to come, and this time, you won’t have to wait too long to hear from us again. See you in the next devlog!
Stay with us, comrade:
We have more in store on our official platforms! Join our passionate community of virtual war medics dedicated to saving lives and bringing the troops home!
Follow us on our official social media pages to get the latest scoop!
Most importantly, wishlist the game on Steam!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1281640/Medic_Pacific_War/