470 light-years away from Earth, the player reawakens in a completely unfamiliar frontier, that will either become their new home or a grave. This remote world is as alluring as it is dangerous.
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Kepler is a vast seamless world with seven distinct Biomes. They boast surreal scenery and incredible wildlife. Every foot and every inch of the planet were meticulously handcrafted to tell a story and ignite the urge to make discoveries.
Players will navigate tall ridges and deep canyons, drylands and roadless jungles, anomalous regions and lava currents. The remains of ancient goliaths, the fragments of colonists’ spaceship and mysterious artifacts hold the planet’s secrets and valuable resources.
The journey across Kepler and the exploration of its regions allow for the obtainment of new technologies, crafting recipes, and knowledge about the world, its denizens, and secrets.
In the Hub, you will meet other survivors. NPCs will ask for help and share their knowledge of Kepler. By completing their requests, players will progress through the storyline towards the 7-day cycle goal, unlock public workbenches, and gain experience points needed to level up the player account.
Gameplay Series: The Battle System
The setting of Population Zero, Kepler, is a truly mesmerizing world that begs to be explored. However, colonists should always be aware of the dangers awaiting in the stunning wilderness. Hostile alien beasts and other players can become forbidding obstacles on the way to claiming the new frontier. So every colonist has to learn to fight and defend themselves.
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Population Zero’s battle system will test your skills and reflexes. The character can use melee combat and various hand-carried weapons: swords, spears, battle-axes, and mallets. Each weapon type has its own set of moves and animations. You can link attacks in combos, block and evade incoming blows, use aerial strikes, and should constantly manage their stamina bar.
In the standard PvE game modes, you will fight against different mobs: wandering berserkers wielding swords and axes, bloodthirsty Kvars, horrid Scyphopods, colossal Sahrim, and other savage beasts. Victories in battles will reward you with valuable resources needed to craft special weapons and equipment.
After reaching account level 1, you will unlock the standard PvP mode. This 7-day cycle variation is for the experienced survivalists that desire to test their combat skills in clashes with human opponents – where everything and anything goes.
Multiple consecutive deaths increase mutation level which eventually transforms the character into an overpowered creature called the Void. In PvE modes entering the Void finishes the 7-day cycle, but in PvP it is a new beginning. The players that turned into the Void get a new set of skills and a new objective – exterminate all colonists. Despite having enormous strength and agility, the Void get only a single life.
Having been transformed into the Void, you can take revenge on their offenders, or team up with other mutants to bring chaos to the unfortunate settlers. However, the Void should be aware that a united, well-knit group of colonists can hunt them down and conquer the mighty giants. Thus the predator becomes the prey.
Population Zero Dev Diary: The Last Refuge
We are happy to present to you our new developer diary. This time we focus on The Main Hub which is a key location on Kepler. Enjoy watching!
Population Zero Creative Producer Denis Pozdnyakov and Game Designer Julia Melnikova discuss the idea behind the main hub and its role in the narrative and gameplay.
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The Main Hub is the most important location on Kepler. It provides colonists with energy, shelter, and storage. Here players can meet up, take quests from NPCs, use public workbenches to craft special gear, and invest gathered resources into the Hub’s further development.
In PvP game modes, the Hub is the safe haven: thirst and hunger do not affect the game character and players are unable to receive or inflict damage.
Population Zero is only a month away! Early Access begins on May 5th. Be sure to add the game to your wishlists.
If you feel like dropping us a message, use the link below!
Poulation Zero Gameplay Series: Technologies and Perks
Population Zero lands on Steam Early Access on May 5th. Add the game to your wishlist right now! Get notified when the game releases for an opportunity to receive exclusive items.
Exploration is the leading force of Population Zero’s gameplay. By traveling across multiple Kepler's regions players gain new technologies and acquire new abilities or perks. These mechanics allow for character development. Technology points and perks are rewarded for various in-game activities and actions such as reaching a new point of interest, victories in battles against monsters, gathering resources, and crafting new gear.
You will learn how technologies and perks are acquired and impact character progression. Besides, the video explains the very basics of the game’s crafting system which is dependent on the Technology Tree.
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Combined together, Technologies and perks open up room for players’ creativity during every new seven-day cycle allowing players to develop their colonists in their own personal way.
Population Zero Dev Diary: World Exploration
Exploration is a fundamental feature of Population Zero that binds every other mechanics together. It is in equal measure a storytelling tool, a fun leisure activity and a crucial means of character development. The exploration of Kepler's beauties and mysteries directly affects the game character: new places award players with new knowledge which in turn leads to acquiring new skills and equipment.
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Population Zero Creative Producer Denis Pozdnyakov and Level Designer Polina Zubareva talk about the creative idea behind the game world and its regions, main aspects of exploration mechanics and the effect that exploration has on the character progression and world-building.
168-hour Cycles and Account Progression
Population Zero lands on Steam Early Access on May 5th. You can add the game to your wishlists right now!
When starting the game for the first time, players will be challenged with surviving not only against Kepler’s environmental hazards, ferocious beasts and basic necessities. The time itself will throw down a challenge!
The very first cycle starts in a special instanced Drop Zone, a single-player Tutorial
Game cycles last 168 hours, or 7 consecutive days - a light day on Kepler
You have more than enough time to complete the main objective, explore the planet, engage themselves with building, resource gathering and crafting, battle mobs or other players
Each cycle rewards players with account experience necessary to unlock new modes, mechanics and further enhance the gameplay
Win or lose - you still get rewards and experience according to your progress during a session
When joining a new session players will be matched according to their current account level
Today we would like to share more details on Population Zero’s key features: 168-hour cycles and account progression.
Another world. New rules.
Multiplayer survival games are often criticized for:
the lack of a clear objective besides goals a player sets for themselves
the inability to achieve a long-term goal in a realistic timeframe
a steep learning curve for newcomers
After a few hours, having accustomed to the rules and feel of a game, players have to come up with their own set goals and activities for the rest of dozens and hundreds of hours. However, should a game have a clear objective or a win condition, only the most hardy grinder is capable of completing it. Those who are new to the genre are often put off by the difficult nature of survival mechanics and constant threat from the more experienced survivalist.
Having taken these points into consideration, we included 7-day cycles and meta progression into Population Zero. The 7-day time limit does not imply that gamers have to play all week long without taking breaks.
We give our players enough time to explore the planet and farm resources, build their first shelter and craft some awesome gear, get familiar with the storyline, slay mobs, and battle other players.
Time in Population Zero is just one of the obstacles players will face and have to learn to overcome. For instance, an experienced, lucky, or player joined by a group of friends, will be able to successfully reach the endgame much earlier.
7-day cycles in Population Zero:
set a clear goal and define rewards for achieving it
offer a number of story trials combining the narrative and the survival mechanics
prevents one group of players take over the game due to weekly server resets
unburdens players but let them decide how to manage the time frame
In its turn, Account Progression:
allows the developers to experiment with session characteristics and offer new exciting survival conditions
rewards player for their achievements within a cycle
reveals the story giving pieces of lore bit-by-bit
gradually unlocks new mechanics teaching newcomers the basics and intricacies of the survival genre
inspires gamers to return to Kepler time and again trying new modes with different rules of survival
Having escaped death in Kepler’s orbit with a hibernation pod, you find yourself in a new surreal world full of mysteries and dangers. Soon, you reach Humanity’s last refuge, the remains of colonists’ space ship Artemis. There you learn the shocking truth - you only have 168 hours left to survive before the mysterious energy transforms every human on Kepler into a creature of nightmares. It is truly said, Out of the frying pan and into the fire.
However, there is a way to escape extermination. Colonists have to repair one of the Artemis’ remaining generators to power up hibernation pods as they do not transmit any radiation. In order to do so, each player has to go through a set number of primary quests tied to each of Kepler’s biomes, and eventually complete the main objective.
There are 4 ways to finish a game cycle:
complete the main objective and survive
fail to make it in time and lose
get turned into an alien monster and die: frequent respawns increase colonists’ mutation level which will eventually lead to a complete character transformation - the very first death in the form of an alien creature ends the session
deliberately end the session
All four methods give experience points according to the number of finished quests and activities, and necessary to level up the player account. New account levels unlock new modes, mechanics, regalia and cosmetics. Specifically, Account Level 4 gives access to Building Tier 1 whereas Account Level 5 rewards players with their own Cocoon, a personal respawn point.
Plans for the Early Access period
When Early Access begins in May, sessions will last for seven consecutive days or 168 hours which matches the length of a light day on Kepler.
One session will accommodate 200 concurrent players. In the future, the duration of a default cycle and the number of players per session might change.
At the start of the Early Access period, players will not be able to transfer gear, perks, and learned technologies to new sessions - when players finish a cycle all internal session progress will reset. Later on, such an opportunity might be added but will have certain restrictions. However, the owners of Population Zero founder packs will begin each new cycle with all the features their set includes.
Once we launch the game on May 5th, there will be a limited number of sessions’ variations available to players. These additional modes may have more aggressive fauna, harsher environmental hazards, full loot drop, permanent death or disabled function to do damage to other players which focuses the cycle towards PvE. We are still looking for the right balance of conditions to make the player experience tense, fun, challenging and rewarding.
We hope that this article clearly explains our new gameplay additions. We look forward to your additional questions and feature requests when the game launches in Early Access. Together we will make Kepler a truly exceptional world to inhabit and explore.
We will be sharing more details on the game in the new dev blogs.
New CBT Stage March 9-12 (UPDATE: CBT extended till March 12 )
UPDATE:
We are excited to announce that the test servers are up and running again. The client is available here.
CBT will finish on March 12th at 12:00 GMT.
After downloading the clieant be sure to contact GORDON#8493 via Discord to get access to the private forums and Discord NDA channels.
We can't wait to see you on Kepler
ORIGINAL ANNOUNCEMENT:
Greetings, Kepler pioneers!
A quick reminder: Population Zero is launching on Steam Early Access on May 5th. Be sure to add the game to your wishlist!
In light of that, today we are excited to announce that the next stage of CBT kicks off this Friday, March 6th. The servers will go live at 09:00 UTC on March 6th and will be available for 4 days until March 9th.
Players who are not CBT participants yet can apply for access here.
Current testers will be able to download the client here when it becomes available.
These are our goals for the upcoming CBT:
to test our server infrastructure;
to see if the chosen number of concurrent players per server matches the gameplay density, resource and space sufficiency;
to test PvE and combat mechanics since the mob behavior has been reworked.
Hit us up on our Discord to get more information on the upcoming test. Our founders have guaranteed access to all testing stages and NDA channels on Discord. You can become a founder by pre-ordering the game here.
See you soon on Kepler!
Population Zero is heading for PAX East
We are thrilled to announce that next week we are going to Boston to showcase Population Zero during Pax East, which will take place in Boston Convention and Exhibition Center from the 27th of February to the 1st of March.
For four days, any attendee and video game lover will have a chance to try out Population Zero’s newest build and share their opinion with the members of our team. Enplex Games Publishing Producer and Chief Technical Officer will guide players through the hostile but alluring wilderness of Kepler. Gamers will be able to check our advanced Tech and Perks system, craft some cool gear, slay ferocious beasts, confront other attendees, enjoy our stunning art style and take in transcendent soundtrack.
We’ve partnered with Antlion Audio to have some of their ModMics on hand for demoing with our voice chat and with Schiit Audio to have samples of their Fulla and Hel Amps on hand to really take in the sounds of Kepler to their fullest.
Mark our location - Booth 13074 (Next to Nintendo!) - on the PAX venue map and be sure to visit us. We are excited to be part of the PAX Gaming Celebration.
