November has (almost) come...
TL;DR
Core Focus:
Equipment and HUD improvements
Player voiceline reactions
Starting environment progress
Bug fixes, small improvements
Next steps:
Finishing the closed playtest build
Preparing the open demo build, Steam Page overhaul, new trailer
We’re finally getting closer towards the first proper playtest build! Due to many unexpected surprises and complications with combining full time jobs with gamedev we’ve taken longer than we anticipated, but now we can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel and will launch the closed playtest later this November, followed by an open demo available to everyone by the end of this year.
Here are some of the highlights from the recent months
Equipment System and HUD improvements
Your trusty wooden skis and a portable radio are the two unique items that will be present throughout the entire game.
You will also be able to put an item into your hands, such as a weapon or a lantern, as well as assign a ‘Quick Use’ Item to be able to use it without opening your inventory.
Contextual character voiceline system
In order to reflect the current status of your character, such as hunger, thirst, warmth and so on, as well as to increase immersion, we’ve introduced a dynamic speech system that your character will say periodically depending on survival stats. We’ve ordered over 70 voice lines from a professional voice overt artist to reach the highest quality voice. Here are some examples of the voice lines your character will say throughout the game:
If I stop now, I might not get back up.
My mouth’s bone dry.
Wait... am I warming up...? That’s not right…
There’s gotta be something good in here…
Starting environment progress
Creating a large, detailed and interesting environment takes a long time. Our largest island in POLYARIS will be 16 km2 large and will feature many abandoned settlements with unique structures, some lurking with danger. This is where your skis will be your best companion to traverse quickly.
The closed playtest demo will feature a smaller island off the shore of the main one, where we will introduce the core gameplay elements of the game at a smaller scale. While we’re actively working on the environment at the moment, it’s still far from being finished, but I just thought I’d share a work in progress landscape of the main island here:
That’s just a small amount of work we’ve done over the past months, but these are the key details we are ready to share for now.
We’ll see you in the Arctic in November!
Per always, here's our Discord link:
And also, this table below, because I don't have a single clue how to remove it and generally don't care haha.
Until then!