Hey everyone,
The last two months passed incredibly quickly (at least for us), there's one more week to go! On May 28th we're launching the New Island Preview.
The New Island preview includes
Orchard Port - The entry location with submarine, lighthouse, sewers and caves
Hydromechanicum - A heavily damaged hydroelectric plant and small dam
Rosegate Port - A big shipyard with civilian and industrial infrastructure
Steam Roller - A brand-new, player-driven vehicle
You can see all three locations here. You might also notice that the volcano has gotten taller and much more massive... more on that later.
The Steam Roller will be well hidden. Where would you look for it?
In terms of gameplay you'll be able to explore the locations, interact with various devices, fight enemies and do some basic crafting. Your main goal for this preview is getting the Drillship and making it operational. You'll be able to play alone or with up to 3 friends.
Please note that save files for the New Island are completely separate, There's no way we could make them compatible, the structural differences are just too large. Later in the beta, we'll allow you to import your existing drillship from the old island.
Compared to the old Island, the gameplay is very different. It's focused much more on the exploration and environmental interaction. You'll interact with the world a lot and utilize it in various ways. This allows us to slowly introduce various mechanics, like crafting, making it much easier for players to learn.
Our plan is to shift back towards the classic Volcanoids gameplay during the mid-game and late-game. We will heavily rely on your feedback to guide us. If you enjoy the exploration and environmental interaction, we'll add more of it. If you don't like it, we will limit this style of gameplay to the early-game.
The status of the New Island preview is Beta. There will be bugs and some performance issues.
Additionally:
Instead of final voice lines, characters speak in gibberish
Some assets are still missing here and there
Lighting and visuals are still being worked on
However, the core gameplay should be stable. Our plan is to release the beta and then spend the next couple of weeks fixing bugs, improving gameplay, and polishing the visuals.
We'll do our best in the coming week to make this Beta as good as possible
— The Volcanoids Team