(Sorry for the huge delay guys! This was supposed to go live at 9AM sharp!)
What a surreal day, at long last; P.A.M.E.L.A. is now available on Steam for $24.99 USD!
It's been a roller coaster ride these last few years, getting to this point. We've poured our hearts and souls into this game, and truly hope that it lives up to your expectations and immerses you completely within the fallen utopia of Eden!
We've got an extra-huge post for today; it's probably worth a read, as we'll cover everything from what's currently in the game, to what's coming next, to bug reporting and feedback.
As we're releasing into Early Access, this in not the end, but rather a new beginning, together. We've already been listening closely to feedback and suggestions before release, and will absolutely keep our eyes and ears open in the coming months, to make sure that P.A.M.E.L.A. becomes the best possible version of the core vision.
So! What's in the game right now? Read below for info about everything you can experience in P.A.M.E.L.A. today.
Core Survival and Exploration - Within the fallen utopian city of Eden, you'll need to pick through the remains of a civilization to find food, water, and stimulants to keep yourself alive. Explore a huge, interconnected network of sci-fi urban environments, including a residential tower, transit station, security hub, shopping mall, sprawling outdoor courtyard, and more.
Combat and Stealth - Encounter, or avoid, the various stages of Afflicted citizens of Eden; from the heavily deformed "Stage 2", to the fearsome "Reapers" which have been turned into deadly killing machines through bio-chemical bonding with the Affliction
Weaponry, Equipment, and Upgrading - Find powerful Holographic Defense Module Attachments, which can be equipped 2 at a time (along with 3 utility attachments) to customize your personal loadout. Uncover and equip armor, utility attachments, improved flashlights, bio-augments, and much more to improve your survivability and gameplay options.
Base Building - Utilize a flexible building system to place node-base wall barriers, hydroponic farms, defense turrets, and more in order to set up a sustainable safe haven wherever you choose within the city.
Eden's Security Force - Imposing Seekers and the diminutive Observer droids still patrol the halls of Eden, on eternal watch for aberrant citizens; take care, as Seekers can turn their attention to the player, if you're caught while hacking or attacking security droids!
Lore, PAMELA, and the Fall of Eden - Uncover Echo audio logs scattered throughout Eden from PAMELA, Eden's AI overseer, that tell the story of her creation all the way until the Fall of Eden. PAMELA will also convey special abilities to the player, unlocked through special Compute Cell items scattered throughout the world. Datalogs left by Eden's citizens also provide insight into the once-perfect workings of Eden. Stay tuned for some big updates in this area, see below!
Lighting and Power Management - Using Power Breakers and larger Power Stations, toggle power modes from on, to emergency, to off; each mode consumes a different amount of power, but can assist in lighting up the environment and making survival more manageable. Power Stations serve as conduits between Eden's central power reserve and your current district; you must draw power from the reserve before turning the lights on in a given district!
Carry over Genome Points between lives - By surviving and killing enemies, you will collect Genome points, which are received upon death. Before respawning, you'll be able to spend these points on stat upgrades to improve your survivability next time around!
That's quite a bit to experience!
However, we're not stopping there. Over the next few months, and depending on your collective feedback, we'll be rolling out a few major updates. This is definitely subject to change, based on feedback, but here is our current plan for the next major updates:
Bugfixing and Stabilization - We'll be continuously squashing bugs and smoothing out the experience throughout Early Access; this will definitely be our #1 priority for the first few weeks following launch, to make sure your main issues are being addressed.
Performance Optimizations - We've built a huge world, with only a single loading screen at the beginning, and there are a few areas that require further performance optimization. We'll be working on this throughout Early Access.
PAMELA Lore Systems, V2 - We'll be greatly enhancing PAMELA's integration throughout the game world, including her being present more often as you explore the city. We were close to having some of this implemented for launch, but held it back to make sure that it's not rushed in.
New Area and NPC types - You may have noticed a large, red, smoggy area in the Oasis Courtyard... this will be the focus of an upcoming update; stay tuned for more information!
And to wrap up this already huge post...
Bug Reporting and Feedback
Your Feedback, Ideas, and Bug Reporting will have a huge part in shaping P.A.M.E.L.A.'s development throughout Early Access. We've set up some Sub-forums, as well as Bug/Crash Report guidelines, that you can find below:
Ideas and Suggestions Forum
Bug and Crash Reports Forum
We'll be looking into setting up some public issue/idea trackers, so that you guys can vote on the topics that you care about most and we know where to focus our efforts most. Stay tuned for more updates on that in the future.
Known Issues with the current build
Unfortunately due to a family emergency in the team last night, PAMELA's intro sequence, as well as a fix for saving/loading buildable items placed in the world, did not get implemented in time for the build that's live as of 9AM EST today. We're working on fixes for these issues (and many others), and will post a patch update as soon as they've been addressed.
Load times are currently somewhat long as well; we only have one loading screen, when you first enter the world, so please be patient - the game hasn't crashed!
Lighting changes also take some time to take effect (for example turning the lights from off to on); this is related to internal Unity functionality and will be improved in further versions.
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If you're still with me at this point, congrats! :) We're excited to kick off this journey together, and continue to expand upon the substantial foundation you can play right now.
We sincerely hope you enjoy! Talk again soon.