What Have We Been Up To?
Hello couriers! Recently we’ve excitedly gone through a series of technical tests with a random selection of courageous souls who’ve signed up through pacsgame.com, and are helping us make PACS the best game it can be.
These tests have been incredibly helpful as we look at what we want to accomplish with this game and the quality our team wants to hit when we release into Early Access.
Because of this, we’ve made the difficult decision to move our big Closed Playtest out of the first 4 months of 2026. The game just isn’t where we want it to be. When we run this Closed Playtest we want to make sure every person who’s signed up through pacsgame.com can play, and that they can invite up to 3 friends. At the moment that could be 80,000 people 👀… with so many great games on Steam, first impressions are everything. We want ours to be among the best.
So for now we’re taking a step back and continuing to iterate with the courageous couriers who have become our core community (thank you). We’ll likely be randomly inviting more people to this core group from pacsgame.com, so keep your ever-watchful apocalyptic eyes peeled.
What You Found
We wanted to share some feedback we received from our technical tests so far, and our current ideas around that feedback.
Vehicle Recovery
Shockingly, PACS is a game where your vehicle can get stuck… a lot. Since the primary enemy is the environment, we found couriers routinely launched themselves off cliffs or got stuck between some trees or just took a turn too fast and ended up on the reverse side of sideways upside down.
Getting stuck is part of the game, and we want that process to be fun. Our testers told us that after the 10th time, this wasn’t, in fact, fun at all. Balancing around vehicle weight and handling should help, and we’re also considering other recovery mechanics to help balance this out.
Driving
As a game with the core concept of driving from place to place across an apocalyptic wasteland with your friends, we want to obviously, well, nail the driving mechanic in our game. We heard feedback during our technical test that driving doesn't feel quite… right.
So the next series of tests we run with our core community will be solely on that: driving. Our goal is to ensure every vehicle feels unique to handle in satisfying ways, and that a range of vehicles are available to give everyone enjoyment. From trucking simulation fans who appreciate manual gears, to more casual drivers who’d just like to zip around and have fun.
A big part of driving is the feedback you get from your various instruments, and the sound of the vehicle as you travel. Anyone who’s rolled down the window while driving along a concrete barrier to try and diagnose a weird vehicle sound should know what we’re talking about. We want to work on this feedback so that we’re better immersing players in the driving experience.
Shenanigans and Tomfoolery
PACS is a systems-heavy game that likes to play around with physics, from boxes to tyres, to irradiated salmon and beyond. This means that there is a ton of unplanned fun to be had right now in the game. As we watched video from the playtest, we loved seeing how creative players were with solving delivery problems.
A lot of this behaviour is, to be fair, completely unintended. We watched a team of 4 slingshot themselves across the map by winding up the tension in two winches. Box stacking parkour. Using the force of gravity and smooth surface to pull vans (sometimes, multiple) with the sheer strength of their irradiated body.
As a team we have to sit down and ask; how much do we want to lean into this? Some of this is clearly game breaking, but also, a lot of it is clearly fun. PACS is the intersection of a satisfying driving simulation set in a destroyed world, and a co-op experience where you can have a lot of fun with your friends. Getting that balance right is important, and something we’re striving to do.
In Closing
There was a lot of other feedback delivered during our technical test, notes on collectibles, narrative, how the apocalypse feels, density of exploration, threat, and other important elements that we are actioning on. Game development is no easy task, and we’re lucky to have the community we have giving us specific, respectful, and honest feedback.
Overall, most testers enjoyed PACS and communicated that we’ve got something special here. It just needs a bit more time before we show 80,000 of you, and then after that… the whole world.
No pressure. Thanks for sticking your thumb out and joining us along the way.
FAQ
If you have any questions you’d like answered, join our community Discord!