Greetings Builders!
We have a date. On January 27th we will start the playtest. You can still register for it and even while it runs you will still be able to register for a chance to try out the game ahead of its release. Of course, some questions arrise from that:
How many players will be able to participate in the playtest?
We will unlock the game for 100 randomly picked users on the first day. We will add another 100 on Friday 28th. On the weekend we'll decide on how to proceed.
How long will the playtest run?
We plan to keep the version up and running for two weeks.
Why not more people?
This is the first time we're giving the Playtest feature of Steam a try. We don't know what to expect and since we're a small team and we're expecting quite some feedback, we need to make sure we can actually handle it. Depending on the amount of feedback we will also invite more players.
What is in this build?
One map. And you can play it as you wish. We haven't locked out a lot of stuff. There might be untextured buildings in the later parts of the game, just so that you know. The balancing is probably a bit off.
Where should we post feedback?
We have opened up another subforum here on Steam. There is also a sticky post explaining a lot of more things about the feedback structure and where you can check what Feedback we'll use. You can also join the official Discord and discuss with us, obviously.
Is there another way to get access to the build?
Yes. On Discord we will hand out a few more keys every now and then. Also, if you are a member of the press or have a Youtube / Twitch Channel, feel free to get in touch and we'll see what we can do.
Feature Showcase and the new look
We've got some additional news for you! A new Feature Showcase has just been released. Taking a look at the laws and research features of the game. We actually wanted to release the showcase last week already but... well. We ran into a major issue.
See, we've always been very transparent about the development of the game. And last week we managed to finally finish up the overall lighting and post processing. This created a situation where the game looked way different. Way better. And we had to decide on how to proceed with the Feature Showcase. Cause the scenes were, obviously, recorded before those changes were made. We think we've found a proper way however:
We recommend turning the sound on. And if you don't want to get spoiled about the mechanics, well, here is a screenshot which demonstrates how the game looks like right now:
