Aloha Thrivers,
Earlier this month we released our biggest development update of the year, talking about our upgrade plan for UE5 and the 2023 roadmap.
Our main objective is to make the development process of Fractured Veil as transparent as possible, while correctly setting some expectations with our community (that’s you!) about our early access release later this September.
Without further ado, let’s take a deep dive into what’s coming for Fractured Veil.
Upgrading the world (Pre-Early Access)
When designing the roadmap, we wanted to let everyone know that before the Early Access Release of the game, there would be something worth waiting for.
Let’s start with the UE 5.1 Upgrade. The team has been working hard since January 2023 to upgrade the game to the new engine. We can say that the transition has been pretty much smooth sailing, but with events such as GDC, PAX and COVID lurking behind the corners, we had some minor slowdowns.
While this shifted our plans a little, we are happy to say that our current player base can expect the first Unreal Engine 5.1 builds to hit their PCs next month!
We know that many people were expecting to get their hands on the game as soon as April, and we wanted to somewhat deliver on those expectations. Not only have we opened our pledge page where people can get their hands on a copy of Fractured Veil and start playing now, but most exciting is the upcoming Steam Playtests feature.
Between May and September, our community can expect at least 3 public playtests where everyone will be able to join the fun and play the game before it is released. These playtests are incredibly important for us. Not only will they stress our servers like nothing before, but they will generate tons of user data, allowing us to fine-tune our onboarding experience and make sure that all the main gameplay features are correctly understood by the player.
Lastly, the “New content and Features”. We wanted to tell everyone playing the game right now that the game will keep receiving new content and feature updates as the development continues. The idea is that people experiencing the game only through playtests will have something new to check out with every test, while current players will see the world evolve over time as we get closer to the early access release.
Survive or Die – Fall 2023
Our Fall Update will be all about adding “More” to the game. Players will be able to craft New Weapons and Armour, alongside new ammo types. Food and Cooking will see a major improvement with Fishing also playing a major role in immersion and survival.
NPC Settlements will start to appear around the game world, and while we are not ready to talk about them, players will definitely want to check them out to gain some pretty cool stuff, that is if mutants did not take over…
A major focus will also be on filling the world with more loot, to make every crate you open even more interesting. World keys will be valuable items that allow you to open some seriously good crates; if get your hands on one, you better keep it safe!
The Drone will be back, keeping an eye on the island and focusing on the areas with the most action. The stream will be accessible 24/7 through Twitch.tv and while we don’t want to share too much at the moment, we can say that players with a certain reputation might find themselves stalked a little bit more than they’d want, making their business a bit more… entertaining to watch.
But that’s not everything. The Fall update will include performance improvements, more quest (with an even better onboarding), and balance updates all based on your feedback and the data generated during playtests.
Enemy AI will also see some improvements, alongside new enemies and a few surprises we can’t wait to share.
The UI/UX team is also working on bringing more of the Aloha spirit to the game’s UI and last, but not least, players will be able to trade with a fully dedicated system, rather than relying on picking stuff from the ground. Although that could still be an excellent way to troll another player and run away with all the loot! You do you, we don’t judge, but we believe in Karma!
Discover New Worlds – Winter 2023
As Winter approaches our fractured paradise will start to change, with New Biomes making their appearance and the game’s society developing further. New NPCs will populate the Maui landscape, and everything will feel more like a living and thriving world.
Immersion is going to be the keyword here. More clothing options will allow for better player expression, the Resting System will make base building more meaningful from a gameplay perspective, and crafting quality of items will give players reasons to adventure further and gain better gear.
Speaking of adventure, players wandering around the map might start to notice that the mutants have started to take control of some pieces of land, creating proper camps. Clearing those will reward some loot for the players who dare get close and embrace the challenge.
About Killing Shards… that’s something we will talk about more in the future!
Closing Words
That’s everything for us this time!
We hope this answered some of your questions about our roadmap and left you as excited as we are about the future of the game. We’ll make sure to share as many updates as we can as the game progresses, but for right now we simply need more time to keep cookin’!
Until next time… see you in Maui Thrivers!
