Welcome couriers, to the first Post Masters Update! A regular development update log which we will be using to let all you budding delivery drivers in on some of the things we are building for PACS.
This first update, we’re using to tell you just what PACS is exactly, giving you some insight into what to expect from the core gameplay loop and what features we’re cooking up with it. As well a general progress update on where we are in the development cycle.
So without any further delay
- All the screenshots and GIFs below are taken from PACS in engine development
- Shout out to Jesse Hooson for the aswesome concept art seen in the blog cover image! - https://www.artstation.com/jesse_hooson
What is PACS?
Civilization has collapsed. Grab up to 3 friends, navigate treacherous environments, scavenge for vehicles and upgrades, and build a courier company that fulfills the apocalyptic miracle of a package delivered on time.
Gameplay Overview
Manage Your Delivery Fleet
Deliveries don’t happen without your trusty delivery vehicles. You’ll need to keep on top of repairs, scavenge or craft new parts, and find new upgrades and new vehicles from around the world; building your fleet to take on treacherous delivery routes.
Wheels, engines, batteries, body work, and more components will all be interactable and will need to be repaired and maintained, as well as upgraded to tackle your navigational challenges while traversing the world.
We have LOTS of ideas and plans for how players will interact with and manage their vehicles, with the aim of giving as much freedom for modification as possible. We’ll do a blog for this specifically at some point, but for now, here is a little gif of some early prototypes.
Exploring the perils of PACS
Explore, scavenge, and survive an expanding landscape, venturing into a sprawling and dangerous post-apocalyptic world. Explore its abandoned locales, scavenge vital resources, and make crucial deliveries across a landscape hand crafted by our design team.
Survival of your vehicles is only part of the equation! Radiation, hunger and thirst, poisonous plants and creepy critters lurk in the darkest corners of a world plagued by climate disaster.
Throughout Early Access and beyond, we plan to expand the playable world, introducing multiple new biomes and regions, each with their own characteristics and challenges to face along delivery routes. More on this in another future blog too!
Delivering on time, with difficulty
Delivering on time is key to becoming a successful Postie, but challenging road conditions, unpredictable weather, and post-apocalyptic hazards can turn your delivery rounds into white knuckle rides, testing even the most experienced drivers.
A wide variety of driving conditions and surfaces require various upgrades and vehicle parts to deal with them. Narrow cliff edge routes, falling rocks, radiation smog, violent storms, flooded towns, sketchy bridges… prepare yourself and your vehicles for these challenges and more as you make your delivery rounds.
We’re working on bringing together an enjoyable, well simulated driving experience that can be accessible for those of all interest levels. We will share more on our vehicle physics development in a future Post Masters Update.
Development Progress Update
The game was in pre-production in the second half of 2024, experimenting, prototyping and putting together the vertical slice you see in the current trailers. We used this to pitch to publishers whilst we were also working on other client projects.
At the start of this year and with the help of our publishing partner, we moved into full production; now focusing entirely on PACS. In this time, we’ve been iterating and expanding on the gameplay loop and features seen in the current trailer, nailing down the designs for early access and beyond, as well as working on plenty of new features and artwork..
The game is still quite early in its full development cycle and we’ve got a good chunk of work to do before we feel confident that PACS is ready to put into everyone’s hands. Progress is being made every day and we are excited to share more! (With eventual playtesting and demos when the time is right!)
Next Update…
Our next Post Masters Update will take a peek at the User Interface we are creating for the game, its visual style and design intentions, as well as the broader visual style choices for the game!
FAQs
If you have any questions you’d like answered, join our community Discord! - https://discord.gg/rbcRAyu8CC
Here’s some answers to questions we’ve heard so far:
- Will there be any combat? PACS isn’t a combat oriented game, so we don’t intend to implement any big combative features to the game. The focus is really on the delivery business, challenging traversal and social experience gameplay loops. All PACS couriers get a standard issue baton to defend against any nasty creatures lurking in the dark corners though.
- Will there be wheel + Pedal Support? We do now have Wheel + Pedal Support in our plans for the game. It may not be straight away at Early Access, but we do intend to implement it for a variety of steering wheel controllers by the time we get around to 1.0.
- How can I playtest? While we don’t have any playtesting taking place right now, if you’d like to get involved and playtest the game with us, you can join our discord and be the first to know about potentially playtesting opportunities! - https://discord.gg/rbcRAyu8CC