Escape the Pacific cover
Escape the Pacific screenshot
PC Steam
Genre: Role-playing (RPG), Simulator, Adventure, Indie

Escape the Pacific

0.61e.1.0 - Quality of life update
Hello Survivors,

This Experimental build brings you the long awaited Autosave feature, Quick Save/load, Rock Holder, Pack untying, Splitting item stacks in the inventory, UI fixes and refactoring of the game initialization engine.



How to switch between “Experimental” and “Normal” branches



In your Steam library, right-click Escape The Pacific and select “Properties”. A window will pop up. On the left select “Betas” and from the dropdown select “Experimental” to access this update. You can switch back to “None” to access the stable branch.



Version numbering system update



As of this update, we switch to a more straightforward versioning number with the format a.bbx.c.d. Looking at this update version we have 0.61e.1.0 with the following meaning:


  • 0 - This represents the Alpha stage and will switch to 1 once we exit Early Access
  • 61e - This is the current version and changes with every Major update. The “e” stands for Experimental
  • 1 - This is the patch number related to the Major update number and increases with every patch
  • 0 - This is the hotfix number related to the Patch number and increases with every new hotfix


Autosave



The new Autosave system will automatically save your progress at regular intervals or based on specific events during gameplay. This system will be an additional saving system running in parallel to the already implemented manual saving system.



The autosave system will be unique to each player profile and will hold dedicated autosave files for experimental and regular game builds.

The Autosave system will not override Manual saves.



When enabled, it will perform autosaves in the background as follows:


  • After the set time in the settings passed
  • Not implemented yet: After completing a quest
  • Not implemented yet: After reaching a new level


You can also set additional autosave triggers based on specific events:


  • When waking up
  • When leaving an island (by swimming, by canoe, by raft)
  • Every morning and every evening


If you select “when leaving an island”, the following applies, to avoid autosave flooding:


  • For the system to recognize that you are leaving an island, you have to physically be on an island before leaving. Sailing around in the ocean passing islands, will not trigger this type of autosave
  • “Leaving the island” means that the water beneath you has a depth of at least 8 meters
  • The autosave triggers once you have distanced yourself from an island by at least 60 meters


Quick Save/Load



You can now perform a Quick Save with F5 and a Quick Load with F8. Quick save is a faster way of performing a manual save. Quick load will perform a quick load, which will load the latest save (this looks at both manual saves and auto saves and picks the one that’s the newest one)

Rock Holder



Your survivalist life just got easier and more organized. Clean up around your base, bring resources from other islands back to your homestead safely or attach it to your raft to transport them wherever you may sail.



Get multiple items from Holder



You can now take out multiple items out of the item holders, without having to drop them from your hand before being able to pick another one.

Pack Untie



You can now untie all item packs.

Inventory stack split



You can now split item stacks by holding down SHIFT + Fire (default: left-mouse-button) and dragging the items to another inventory slot. The splitting happens automatically 50/50.



Refactored game initialization code



Another refactoring round took place this and past month. While this might seem unnecessary to the player, it was key to refactor the code for future-proofing of the game. When we started coding Escape the Pacific, the code was slim and we added new features in a super rapid way to be able to test what’s possible or not. As time passed, this snowballed into intertwined bugs created by no-so-clean code (as we call it).

Refactoring can be only appreciated by fellow coders and we understand if you’re not happy with this. However, we know already that you will be happy when the game loads faster, in a code-clean state every time and hopefully with less annoying bugs.


Changelog



  1. Autosave
  2. Quick Save/Load
  3. Rock Holder
  4. Get multiple items from Holder
  5. Pack untie
  6. Inventory stack split
  7. Refactored game initialization code


We have set up a Patreon for those who wish to support game development further. Steam announcement here: Patreon News.

The entire team is thanking you for your support, suggestions and most of all for your patience.

Do you like our game and want to help the development even more? We look forward to every positive review posted on our Steam page and thank everyone who decides to support us along the way!

Please be aware that during the early access phase game code could change as much as affecting gameplay when loading/saving savegames from earlier versions. To always be on the safe side make sure to start a new game with each update. Thank you!



If you have any further questions do not hesitate to ask us. We will do our best to answer your questions as detailed as possible.

Peter,
G4GTeam.

Escape the Pacific Website



Patreon
Discord
Twitter
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Youtube

Alpha 61.E1 - Patch 7

Hello Survivors!



A new Patch (7) for Alpha 61.E1 (experimental) is now available!

This is a patch, pre Q1 update.



Changelog:

  1. Fixed: Not actualised Side-bag inventory slot after distributing items to it from Backpack
  2. Fixed: Holding rope in hands with open palm/fingers after loosening or untying an item
  3. Fixed: Disappearing/ghosting/lost-underground Rope when accidentally dragging an object while the Loosening animation wasn't completed
  4. Fixed: Disappearing/ghosting/lost-underground Rudder/SailMast/Sail when accidentally dragging an object while the Detaching animation wasn't completed
  5. Fixed: Main menu not shown after game start-up in case of bad game profile/data file
  6. Fixed: Main menu not shown after game start-up in case of bad game data file
  7. Fixed: Unresponsive game when loading of bad game data file


We would like to thank you for your support, bug reports and feedback.

Peter,
G4GTeam

Alpha 61.E1 - Patch 6

Hello Survivors!



A new Patch (6) for Alpha 61.E1 (experimental) is now available!

This is a patch, pre Q1 update.



Changelog:

  1. Refactored: Inventory Drag&Drop mechanic
  2. Refactored: Item Holder mechanic
  3. Refactored: Dynamic loading and initialization of objects
  4. Added: Discarding and reloading of vital internal components between game sessions
  5. Fixed: Not possible to drag & drop multiple objects at once from hand to backpack
  6. Fixed: Not decreasing Fire Stick count in inventory and in hand when adding to Fire Stick Holder
  7. Fixed: Not decreasing Small Stick count in inventory and in hand when adding to Small Stick Holder
  8. Fixed: Not decreasing Long Stick and Thick Branch count in hand when adding to Trunk Holder
  9. Fixed: Occasionally bad item volume information in Inventory (causing later capacity problems)
  10. Fixed: Possibility to overfill the Item Holders (causing unexpected issues i.e. "exploding" item behavior leading to potential raft flying into the sky)
  11. Fixed: Game freezing for 1-2 seconds after clicking on New Game
  12. Fixed: Game freezing for 2-5 seconds when starting a new game (during progress bar display)
  13. Fixed: Incorrect progress displaying during game initialization (new game)
  14. Fixed: Game freezing for 1-2 seconds after clicking on Load/Continue game
  15. Fixed: Game freezing for 2-5 seconds when game loading progress bar is shown
  16. Fixed: Incorrect progress displaying during game loading
  17. Fixed: Incorrect progress displaying during seed regeneration in New Game screen World tab
  18. Fixed: Incorrect progress displaying during seed regeneration in Island view screen
  19. Fixed: Incorrect progress displaying during exiting to Main Menu from within the game
  20. Fixed: Incorrect progress displaying during exiting to Main Menu from Death screen
  21. Fixed: Double mouse click sounds in main menu screens
  22. Fixed: Incorrect mouse icon in Main Menu after pressing Back in Quit Game screen
  23. Fixed: "???" shown in New Game screen Climate tab for Latitude value instead of N/S (Northern/Southern)
  24. Fixed: Horizontal island look jump when opening the in-game Pause menu
  25. Fixed: Vertical island look jump when opening the in-game Pause menu
  26. Fixed: Not interact-able Main Menu when dying during Fast Sail
  27. Fixed: Collision mode during dragging and object
  28. Fixed: Campfire not warming up the Player
  29. Fixed: Campfire not drying up the Player
  30. Fixed: Not interact-able Medium Rocks after loading a game (not acting as physical body)
  31. Fixed: Not interact-able Tree Trunk after loading a game (not acting as physical body)


We would like to thank you for your support, bug reports and feedback.

Peter,
G4GTeam

Roadmap 2023
Dear Survivors,

Many of you requested us to publish a Roadmap for this year. Here you have it!

This is a high level overview of our plan for 2023. We kept it flexible to allow for smaller additions to each quarter as we see fit.

Bookmark this link in your browser https://gamers4gamersteam.com/roadmap/



Q1

Quality of life update

  • Autosave
  • Item holders & item packs expansion
  • Optimization & Code refactoring


Q2

Rope system update

  • New Rope resource and Rope type
  • Rope ingredient required in Blueprints
  • New areas of usage for Rope


Q3

Animal and Trap system update

  • Bird cage
  • Ocean navigation expansion
  • Trap system expansion


Q4

End of year update

  • Clean water pond on Hill island
  • New in-game User Interface
  • Reworked tutorial



See you next time!
Radu
G4GT

Development update #1

Hello Survivors!


Here’s what we are working on at the moment.



Going forward, we will keep you informed about what the team is working on, by posting this type of announcements whenever we have relevant news for you.







  • Code refactoring

    • All major parts are completed and tested internally
    • Game loading speed improved from 2,5 minutes to roughly 25 seconds
    • More internal tests are in progress
    • Refactored more than 50.000 lines of code from December until today

  • Testing new methods of rope creation from different sources of fibre
  • Bug fixing. Thanks for reporting them!
  • Discussing the 2023 roadmap with the team, before making it public
  • Designing a quest system




  • Redesigning the Tutorial Initialization
  • Rewriting the tutorial quests
  • Researching Lore for the Storyline
  • Brainstorming ideas for Chapter 1 of the Storyline




  • Final draft of UI Redesign document
  • Drafting designs of the new UI (HUD, inventory, crafting etc.)
  • Drafting graphical assets for the tutorial redesign
  • Reviewing feedback form submissions

Your opinion matters!
Dear Survivors,

We value your feedback and would love to hear your thoughts on Escape the Pacific.

Your input helps us improve and create an even better gaming experience for you. Please take a moment to share your feedback with us by completing the survey below (8 questions).

IMPORTANT


We welcome both positive and negative feedback, but please keep it honest and specific so we can make meaningful changes to the game.

Survey link:


https://forms.gle/nuygXYpfZAgEBihY8

Please note that entering your name is optional. If you wish to stay anonymous, leave the Name field blank.

Thanks a lot in advance and have a great rest of the day!
Radu

Year's end message from the developers

Hello Survivors!





We are getting closer to the end of the year and would like to say Thank You! for being part of this exciting journey.

February 2023 will mark the 5th anniversary of Escape the Pacific and this year was full of surprises for all of us. We surprised you with a delayed update and you surprised us by still being supportive and understandful. Both of which helped us laying down the much needed foundations for the future. Whilst we had a couple of hick-ups, the community grew again this year and we are very happy to have you onboard. We couldn't wish for a more positive and supportive community!

Before we end the year, we would like to provide a recap of this year's achievements and what our next steps are. We are sorry that this year we couldn't deliver as per your expectations and we regret to have let you down. We are humans too and whilst we reduced the frequency of the updates, we're doing everything reasonably possible to increase the quality of same. Thanks for being patient with us.


2022 ACHIEVEMENTS





GAME


Game-wise we had 3 releases this year:

  1. Fast Sail, Napping, Black Mangrove, Optimizations, reworked Attach/Detach system for Rudders, Sail Masts and Sails
  2. New Island (Hill Island), Skill degradation, Item Holders (Small Sticks, Planks, Coconuts, Fire Sticks)
  3. Game Menu UI/UX Redesign, Redesigned Time-Flow system, New Island (Mangrove island), New Waves mechanics


We also

  • Fixed 139 issues
  • Reworked and optimized parts of the internal game engine
  • Amended the codebase with new functionalities to accommodate future features


COMMUNITY



  1. As of today we are 479 Survivors on Discord! Which is a plus of 195 members, compared to last year! For us, this means the world!
  2. We are more active on the Steam forum and reply on a daily basis to questions
  3. We have updated our Steam page to reflect the current development progress
  4. We have translated the Steam page to Spanish, Russian, French, Norwegian, Portuguese (Brazil) and Simplified Chinese
  5. We have upgraded our website. In case you missed it: https://escapethepacific.com/
  6. We have upgraded the wiki page. In case you missed it: https://etp.fandom.com/


TEAM


A lot has happened in this area. The main question asked by you was "Where's Chris?". Without sharing any sensitive details, we can only answer with "He left the team".

Some of the very dedicated community members made it into the team this year. Luna joined the newly formed QA department and FatFly took the role of Player Assistance within the team.


FUTURE PLANS



  • IN GAME UI
    The next big visual improvement is to update the in-game UI. We will roll it out in phases over the course of 2023. We also aim to improve the overall user experience and implement a modular Heads Up Display (HUD), where you can choose in the settings how much information you wish to see on the screen.
  • TUTORIAL
    Your feedback got us motivated to rethink the tutorial part of Escape the Pacific. We are actively working on this and hope to release an improved tutorial mid 2023.
  • ROADMAP
    Especially this year, we felt that our progress was all over the place, with no clear structure communicated to the community. And, since many of you asked for a roadmap, we're planning on implementing one. Starting 2023 we will be looking into creating a public roadmap for the community, where you will be able to see our high level plans for Escape the Pacific.
  • UPDATES
    Going forward, we're hoping to be able to implement more thematic updates. Let's say we decide to add Bamboo to the game. This means that the update will include a complete "Bamboo World":

    • Bamboo tools
    • Bamboo flora
    • Bamboo building modules
    • Other Bamboo related items

    Features that are part of the same update will be based on the same theme i.e. Bamboo, Iron, Gardening, Hunting etc.

    Additionally, we also intend to keep adding smaller features outside of a particular theme.



ADDITIONAL THOUGHTS





Some of you have called us money grabbers and many other names that we can't mention in this article. We respect everyone's opinion and even though we can't make you understand who we are and why we are doing this, we'd like to share with you three private and personal points:


  • Keeping the development up and running is actually costing us money, which automatically means that we are investing private equity into keeping the game on Steam. We are a rather small team, however, we are passionate about building a game that you (and ourselves) love playing. This is one of the biggest reasons why we go to certain lengths and keep it up.
  • Insulting us (or the game) is taxing on our mental health and we kindly ask you to be mindful in case you're planning on leaving a review. Even better, come talk to us on Discord. We're there every day. Please use this invitation link https://discord.gg/YBa4WtSkkS
  • While other dev teams abandon their games or even worse, do a money-grab, we're still here delivering updates to the community. Because we care.


Before wishing you happy holidays, we still have one thing to mention and because we are not sure how to formulate it politically correct to not insult anyone, we'd like to direct you to Hashtag Survival's website to read their Escape the Pacific Review. Please read the "Review & Thoughts" tab, especially the section mentioning "... the level of bluntness the team sometimes employs..."

FUN FACT





Escape the Pacific is one of the most realistic hardcore survival games out there. We intend to keep it like that. Besides this, we will definitely make it more attractive to the casual Survivor by adding a creative mode and player roles i.e. Builder, Explorer etc.



The entire G4GT wish you great festive days and we're excited to talk to you next year!


Peter - Dev & CEO
Luna - QA
FatFly - Player Assistance
Radu - UI, UX & Project Lead

Alpha 61 & 61.E1 - Patch 5
Hello Survivors!

A new Patch (5) for Alpha 61 and Alpha 61.E1 (regular and experimental) is now available!

Changelog:

  1. Fixed: Broken "Basic Palm Roof 6" recipe in Build screen
  2. Fixed: Favorite recipes not saving properly
  3. Fixed: Unfinished cooking recipe not turning into water when exposed to rain
  4. Fixed: Campfire immune to rain
  5. Fixed: It was possible to add multiple Sticks to hand from Inventory
  6. Fixed: Missing texture for Cultivated field
  7. Fixed: Broken Continue button in Singleplayer menu
  8. Fixed: Actionable Island overview in the background during active screen overlays i.e. Load Game screen
  9. Fixed: Missing digits from the Seed number in 16:10 aspect ratio
  10. Fixed: Missing mouse hover SFX in Settings screen
  11. Fixed: Skinning time of Turtles and Crabs was not based on Difficulty setting
  12. Fixed: Field cultivating time was not based on Difficulty setting
  13. Improvement: Correct PostprocessFX for Fast sail camera
  14. 50+ minor fixes and tweaks


We would like to thank you for your support, bug reports and feedback.

Best regards,

G4GTeam.

Alpha 61 & 61.E1 - Patch 4
Hello everyone,

A new Patch (4) for Alpha 61 and Alpha 61.E1 (regular and experimental) is now available!

Change-log:

  1. Fixed: Solid food (meat, fish, ...) wasn't sometimes cooked on cook place stones at campfire
  2. Fixed: Entered seed not saved and used after closing the Edit seed dialog
  3. Fixed: Clicking "Generate new seed" in New game dialog triggered some Survival type achievements
  4. Fixed: Cooking time of Recipes was not based on Difficulty setting
  5. Fixed: Cooking time of Solid food (meat, fish, ...) was not based on Difficulty setting
  6. Improvement: Added displaying of Cooking time for Recipes in Crafting screen
  7. Improvement: Added displaying of Cooking time for Raw meal in Inventory screen
  8. Fixed: objectives and Tutorial list UI not hidden while the Inventory is shown
  9. Fixed: Some minor typos in English and German localization



We would like to thank you all for your support, bug reports and feedback.

Best regards,

G4GTeam.

Alpha 61 & 61.E1 - Patch 3
Hello everyone,

A new Patch (3) for Alpha 61 and Alpha 61.E1 (regular and experimental) is now available!

Change-log:

  1. Fixed: Instant wet/dry objects after being taken out of storages (Pocket, chest etc.)
  2. Fixed: Continuous "Wait Time" after having exited the wait (Standing up)
  3. Fixed: Dew catcher producing too much water while the Player was sitting & waiting
  4. Improvement: Reduced computing load for Wet mechanic for each stick/wood, bottle, pot etc.
  5. Fixed: All buoyant wood and coconuts were too jumpy in the water while floating
  6. Fixed: Too fast water evaporation rate from Cooking Pot used on Camp fire
  7. Fixed: Too fast cooking time for Boiled Meal, Soups and Stews
  8. Fixed: Too slow water filling-up speed for opened water holders (submerged in ocean)
  9. Fixed: Fastening/loosening Rudders, Sail masts and Sails sometimes takes no time
  10. Fixed: Fastening/loosening Doors and Windows sometimes takes no time
  11. Fixed: Fastening/loosening Candle-, Lantern- and Torch Wall Holders sometimes takes no time
  12. Improvement: Completed Spanish localization
  13. Fixed: Big time jump after game load when there is many not finalized blueprints


Please note: If you think the cooking process is too fast for some recipes in waiting mode (sitting on the ground), please consider using a smaller campfire.

We would like to thank you all for your support, bug reports and feedback.

Best regards,

G4GTeam.
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