Take a deep breath - Aquatico public Playtest started!
Hello and Welcome, future Sea people!
You've probably seen our Playtest registration already, so sign up if you haven't already, but today is the day for the real thing!
First playable version of Aquatico is now available to registered alpha test participants. If you want, there is still time – registrations will be open until first Playtest is concluded on Sunday, September 18th. But the sooner you enter, the more time you'll have to try out the game.
One added bonus here: we've increased the one-session time limit from 2 to 3 hours. After that expires, you can always restart the new game and try something different, as many times as you want.
NOTE that this is an alpha version, not everything is perfect, and there are some things still missing. Hope it won't ruin your experience too much, we tried to make the initial few hours as complete as possible at this stage, but we also wanted to get you onboard as soon as possible. That gives us more room for improvements and tweaking in the direction that most of you want, and remainder of the development time will serve this cause exactly.
YOUR ROLE IN ALL THIS? Any of the participants can simply download the alpha version and have some fun with it. But, if you want to add extra value to the full experience offered by Aquatico full game in the future – we ask you to take a more proactive stance and do the following:
1. Play carefully and slowly, observe the tutorial hints at the early start so we can decide how much more work these instructions need 2. Once you finish your sessions, please retrieve the following files and send them to us at alphatest@overseer-publishing.com : AquaticoLog.txt – you can find it in your main game installation directory Your save file – it is .sgs file located in Saves subfolder of your game installation folder Dxdiag.txt file – you can create one by running „dxdiag.exe“ from windows command line
These files will give us ample data to work on upcoming hardware optimizations, difficulty balance, and all other improvements related to game mechanics.
Additionally, you can add a short description of any issues you might experience, any feedback you'd like to share or any suggestion you might have. You can also post the same feedback on Steam forums, or join us at our Discord here: https://discord.gg/Sqyms6T2P7
You can also follow quick news on our Twitter site: https://twitter.com/Overseer_Games
Aquatico is a big project, one we're very excited to work on, and there is still much more work ahead of us. This Playtest will be one of the important pieces of the puzzle we're creating, and your help can be extremely important here.
THANK YOU ALL FOR PARTICIPATING, and we sincerely wish you all have a good time!
Don't forget to breathe! Digital Reef Games & Overseer Games Publishing
First public Playtest is right around the corner!
Hi everyone!
I know we've been relatively quiet for awhile, but we had good reason to! We've been playing the first Aquatico game version intensely for weeks now, and now that we are happy with the current stage of development, we've decided to include you, the players as well. Your insight and your feedback will be hugely appreciated as we set the next set of goals in this development cycle.
WHAT'S THE DEAL THEN? Well, next week, on Friday 16th, we'll open the access to the current version of Aquatico. Access will be opened for the entire weekend (September 16th – September 18th), and then access will be suspended for now. You're invited to download the build and test the heck out of it. Then spam us with feedback and reactions, we'll take it from there!
HOW TO PARTICIPATE? We're opening registrations at the time you're reading this announcement. You'll see the register option on the Steam store page, enter the Playtest there, and people registered that way will get access to alpha game version from September 16th until September 18th.
WHAT DOES THIS GAME VERSION OFFER? Please note that this game version IS NOT a completed game by any stretch of imagination. Internally, the current development build is more advanced, but in this Playtest version we've opened only the game elements that are sufficiently tested, or game elements that we're most eager to hear your thoughts on.
Entire basic mechanics, resources, production chains, terrain options, multi level construction, pipeline infrastructure, environment scenery, music and sound effects – that's all already in there and you can use it to get the taste of the full experience that is still in the making.
Some of the things that are still limited: the full stack of maps is not unlocked, the expedition/exploration system is disabled, the event system, higher tier buildings are also locked, more juicy scenery /atmospherics elements, domes (upper construction level) cannot be connected yet via tubes (and an even more advanced transport system within them), more various biomes…
Most importantly – this first game version will be time limited at 2 hours per play session. You're free to start as many sessions as you'd like, but each will individually be limited to 2 hrs.
As developers, we can tell you that yes, this alpha game version will likely have some bugs and will have some missing elements. If you decide to participate in Playtest, please don’t be annoyed by that, the very purpose of this event is to make sure there are no bugs when release version is reached. There is plenty of finished and enjoyable things already, and your reactions will help us make the entire experience like that – enjoyable.
WHAT IS THE PURPOSE OF THIS PLAYTEST? Since we've received a lot of requests by players wanting to check out and test the game, we've decided to use the Steam Playtest feature to do just that, and to do it in a broader and more inclusive way. The game is not yet finished, but it is decently playable and with enough added elements that all your feedback will be very representative and incredible important as strategic guidelines for the remainder of our development time. Plus, after we really enjoyed it - we are especially eager for you to join in and see what we're making here. With your assistance, we can make the game better, a lot better, we're confident of that!
WHAT WOULD WE LIKE YOU TO DO AS PLAYTEST PARTICIPANTS? The first request we have is easy: opt into the playtest, download the version once it’s available, play it and (hopefully) enjoy it. Feel free to utilize any of the game mechanics as you see fit. Tutorial guidelines will be available, but approach to possible paths is pretty open, and there are multiple ways to organize things in your underwater city. The more you experiment, the better feedback we’ll have. And in turns, that will lead to better game down the road.
Second thing is – please report your feedback to us, and if you experience any technical difficulties, please report that too. We’ll announce the exact procedure for this next week, but it will be simple and easy.
And lastly – our entire team says a big THANK YOU in advance, for your participation, for your time invested and for your help in making Aquatico the best it can possibly be!
Welcome! Digital Reef Games
Aquatico progress report
Hello everyone!
Time for a little how's Aquatico development going progress report.
We're planning the first public playtest in a around a month. The first, "warmest" biome will be the first one available. The number of seats will be limited so make sure to follow the info feed to catch your spot.
Playtest features:
First 2 hours of the game
Around 30 different buildings
Fully working production chains, both the classic integrated and the pipeline resource transfer
Organizing and constructing resource production on the bottom of the ocean
Constructing housing domes and buildings, as well as the finer production buildings
Fully functional research tree
Constructing and planting underwater farms
Trading with other submerged bases
Handling food, health, oxygen, fuel, basic needs and luxuries for your underwater citizens
Lots and lots of underwater flora and fauna to check out
We'll be checking back in with You all soon to let You know what languages to expect Aquatico to be in on release. For now, we're sure the game will be avilable in English, German, French, Japanese and Brazilian Portuguese.
If you're excited as much as we are, WISHLIST and FOLLOW us!
Since the initial reveal of Aquatico, we’ve been keeping quiet, but lots of things have been happening on the development front. We saw your reactions to the showcased parts of the game and potential desires for future development elements. And we’re happy to say that many of the things correctly mentioned in Steam and Discord discussions by the emerging community were already in the production pipeline.
So the time has come to make another video displaying ongoing progress and reveal a few completely new features in the game - the first alpha gameplay footage!
https://youtu.be/G_-0H6gS1DE
A few of the highlights:
Vertical layered construction – your underwater city will have more than one vertical stage for building. The sea-bed level will hold the basic infrastructure, production and industry buildings, while the upper stages enclosed in massive domes will hold housing and other public buildings.
Underwater infrastructure – creating a city in an underwater environment comes with its own set of challenges, and to cover these, players will build specific types of infrastructure that supply the needed resources and resolve unique requirements of living in the deep ocean.
Expedition mechanics – being previously uninhabited, the ocean floor hides many secrets and the expeditions are there to help you uncover some of them.
There are a few more yet unseen game details in the video, but we'll leave it to you if you spot them or not!
This first alpha gameplay video should bring you closer to the very essence of Aquatico, the bedrock fundamentals of how the game will eventually play. A LOT more is coming, and we’ll keep you all updated. The main aim for us here is to achieve both a proper visual display of underwater life, as well as offering a really compelling feeling of how a unique task building an underwater city actually is.
If you're excited as much as we are, WISHLIST and FOLLOW us!
