Frostpunk 2 is finally out in early access for those who got the Deluxe Edition. The city-building survival sequel offers plenty of achievements for you to earn, a?nd we have listed all the details below.

How many achievements are there to get in Frostpunk 2?

Frostpunk 2 offers a total of 51 achievements to earn. Out of them, 15 are hidden, while you can ke?ep track of the other 36 achievements.

All Frostpunk 2 achievements and how to unlock

Here are all the 36 visible achievements in Frostpunk 2:

All hidden achievements in Frostpunk 2

Here is a? rundown of all the hidden achievements you can unlock:

At the time of writing, Frostpunk 2 is only available on PC via Steam and Epic Games St?ore. A console release is scheduled for 2025 but 11 bit studios have yet to reveal the exact?? dates.

The post How to unlock all Frostpunk 2 achievements appeared first on Destructoid.

Frostpunk 2 is now out in early access and if you have been thinking about getting the sequel on PC, these are the minimum and recommended requirements you must have. Additionally, if you're a Mac user, we have some details for you?? to??o.

If you have purchased the Deluxe Edition of the game, congrats �Frostpunk 2 is already live for you. However, the global launch is three days later, on September 20, 2024.

Frostpunk 2 minimum PC requirements

Fortun??ately, the minimum requirements aren't too taxing, and you can enjoy the game if you haven't upgraded to an RTX GPU yet.

• OS: Windows 10/11 64-bit
• Processor: AMD Ryzen 5 or Intel Core i5 2.5 GHz
• GPU: AMD RX 550 4 GB or NVIDIA GTX 1050Ti 4 GB or INTEL ARC A310 4GB
• Memory: 8GB RAM
• DirectX version: 12
• Storage: 30 GB on SSD

Frostpunk 2 recommended PC requirements

Coming to t?he recommended requirements, a GTX ?2060 Super is a must for enjoying smooth gameplay at higher resolutions.

• OS: Windows 10/11 64-bit
• Processor: AMD Ryzen 7 or Intel Core i7 2.8 GHz
• GPU: AMD RX 5700 8 GB or NVIDIA 2060 Super RTX 8 GB or INTEL ARC A770 8GB
• Memory: 16GB RAM
• DirectX version: 12
• Storage: 30 GB on SSD

Minimum and recommended Frostpunk 2 requirements on macOS

At the time of writing, Frostpunk 2 ?is only available?? on PC and macOS. The console release is slated for 2025, but there are no exact dates yet.

The post Frostpunk 2: Minimu??m and recommended PC requirements appeared first on Destructoid.

Frostpunk is one of the more memorable titles for me in recent years. Building the last bastion of a city in a post-apocalyptic world—when done correctly, like it is in Frostpunk—is sure to stick with you. I'm not quite sure there have been any games that have been released since that made me navigate harsh moral dilemmas quite as much as Frostpunk.

We recently had the opportunity to take a look at the freeplay mode of the upcoming sequel Frostpunk 2. As such, we didn't get to see the story and nitty-gri??tty bleakness that's a staple of the universe. But, we did get a look at some of the new features and overall gameplay the sequel will br??ing.

It's a cold world

The stakes in Frostpunk were about as high as they can get. Players have the task of building an efficient hub in the shadow of a massive coal generator. In the end, you would oversee a population of about 600, while making c??hoices all for the overall goal of simply surviving the harsh frozen landscape.

Frostpunk 2 takes place thirty years later. Survival has been accomplished, and the focus has shifted to thriving as opposed to just surviving. If the original could be considered a simulation title on a micro-scale, Frostpunk 2 is certainly on a macro-scale in comparison. Instead of placing individual buildings, you lay out entire districts. It's a sprawling city as opposed to a tight hub in the original. Instead of a population in ?the hundreds, your city can grow into the thousands.

But while the denizens of Frostpunk 2 have survived the apocalypse, life still isn't sunshine and rainbows. The choices player make when building up their city has shifted from pure necessity for survival to trying to help the city thrive and flourish. S??everal factions have been established, including the Engineers and the Foragers.

A divisive utopia

In the demo presented to us, a ??choice was given to the player where they had to side with one of these two factions on how to increase food production. Engineers wanted to utilize certain chemicals to increase food production. The Foragers, on the other hand, believed nutrients could be harvested from human waste and produced into a fertilizer of s??orts. The choice was made to side with the Foragers, which in the immediate term provided a food production boost.

However, a little later in the demo, some problems stemming from our decision started to pop up. Those tasked with handling the human waste—mostly children—ended up falling ill. Of course, this led to new issues and new choices, just as you would expect from Frostpunk. Even though survival seems assured at this point, that doesn't mean there aren't still harsh realities to living? in this p?ost-apocalyptic world.

You can't make everyone happy

At the end of the presentation, we see that there are several factions at play in Frostpunk 2. It's important to balance your decisions amongst the factions. You don't want one faction having all the power, or a faction to have growing dissent within you due to feeling neglected. While factions aren't necessarily a new system to a game like Frostpunk 2, the overall theme makes?? it so much more impor?tant.

There is even a law system where delegates from the different factions will vote to pass or abolish laws. As the player you ??will have ways to influence the factions, even pressuring them to vote your way. Of course, you will have to carefully walk the line of give and take when it comes to dealing with each faction.

I'm excited to see more about Frostpunk 2, especially its story mode. The original Frostpunk was one of the better simulation management games in recent years. It's great that 11 Bit Studios is opting to keep the core gameplay here while building upon it. But the additions to the sequel seem meaningful enough to make it a new experienc??e worth playing.

Frostpunk 2 will release on PC in 2024.

The post Frostpunk 2 Preview �Can ??a utopia thrive at the end?? of the world? appeared first on Destructoid.

A chilling return from the legendary studio

11 bit studios, the renowned developer behind games like This War of Mine and Frostpunk, has just announced their newest publishing project, a cinematic narrative adventure called South of the Circle, drawing from the likes of Firewatch and What Remains of Edith Finch. Following an Apple Arcade debut, the studio has partnered up with the British BAFTA-award-winning developer State of Play for a PC and console release.

Set in the 1960's Cold War era, South of the Circle follows Peter, a man who finds himself torn between his love, his work, and the tension between military powers that hides under the surface. The art style is minimal, yet still stunning, and the game will be voiced by a stellar voice cast, including Gwilym Lee (Bohemian Rhapsody), Olivia Vinall (The Woman in White), Richard Goulding (The Crown), Anton Lesser (Game of Thrones), Adrian Rawlins (Chernobyl), and Michael Fox (Downton Abbey).

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qk5VoKBZ5xw

External Development director of 11 bit studios Marek Ziemak shar??ed his own thoughts on the g??ame:

�em>South of the Circle is one of those love-at-first-sight things. The game's narrative and artistic sensitivity immediately captivated us. South of the Circle is heavily-focused on storytelling inspired?? by world-class cinema, which makes? it a bit different from our previous titles.

Once players experience its instantaneously engaging, emotion-packed narrative, we're convinced they'll understand why we wanted to have it in our publishing portfolio. And we’re thrilled to be able to start working with State of Play since it’s a studio that has been on our radar for a long time.�/p>

Fans in the comments of the announcement trailer joke that 11 bit studios only makes games that take place in incredibly cold settings (which they kind of do), and talk about how excited they are to have a new title from the publisher. 11 bit is one of those indie studios that just never seems to miss, and given South of the Circle falls into my all-time favorite game genre, this is one that I personally can'?t wait for, as well.

No release window yet, but South of the Circle will be coming soon to PC, Nintendo ??Switch, Xbox Series S|X, Xbox One, PlayStation 5, and PlayStation 4.

The post 11 bit studios picks up South of the Circle, a cinematic narrative advent??ure appeared first on Destructoid.

Including Frostpunk, Journey to the Savage Planet, and Need for Speed Hot Pursuit Remastered

Amazon Prime members have nine free-with-their-membership PC games to claim as part of the Prime Gaming December 2021 lineup, and a few of them �most notably Frostpunk and Journey to the Savage Planet �are pretty fantastic. The rest are... okay!

Here's the complete December lineup, which will be claimable starting December 1:

• Frostpunk
• Journey to the Savage Planet
• Need for Speed Hot Pursuit Remastered
• Stubbs the Zombie in Rebel Without a Pulse
• Tales of Monkey Island Complete Pack
• Football Manager 2021
• Morkredd
• Spellcaster University
• Youtubers Life

Maybe Stubbs the Zombie is more?? your speed, but I'd highlight the first three names, easily.

Frostpunk is an engaging yet stressful city-builder that can pull on your heartstrings with dire scenarios to work through, and in a crowded genre, it stands out. Journey to the Savage Planet is a lighter spin on Metroid Prime action-adventuring, and while it's very talkative, it's a blast; there's online co-op, too! As for Hot Pursuit, this is the 2020 remaster. I liked the original release fine, but at this ?point, the police chases are m?ostly a blur to me.

In terms of in-game extras, Prime Gaming will have the usual assortment of digital stuff to scroll past until you spot some freebies for games you're actively playing right now and are invested in. Among other offers showing up soon, Fall Guys will have a Prime Gaming Gifty Bundle on November 23, and Genshin Impact will hand out 60x Primogems, 8x Hero's ??W??it, and 5x Bamboo Shoot Soup from November 24 through December 15.

Before the new group of games swaps in, there's still time to claim Prime Gaming's November titles �Control Ultimate Edition, Dragon Age: Inquisition, and Rogue Heroes: Ruins of Tasos among them. (That last one is a Zelda-style roguelite with multiplayer.)

The post Amazon Prime Gaming has nine fre??e ?PC games lined up for December appeared first on Destructoid.

It's still as cold as ice

11 Bit Studios is no stranger to somber storytelling. In 2014, the studio released This War of Mine, a harrowing survival game inspired by the events of the Bosnian War. Rather than go a shade lighter for its follow-up, the developer doubled down on the grim nature of humanity with 2018's Frostpunk. This city-builder -- the developers don't really consider it a real-time strategy game -- cast players in the role of a leader who has to make tough decisions about who lives and who dies as humanity struggles for survival in the wake of volcanic winter. The game is grim, but that didn't stop it from becoming a best-seller. With more than one million copies sold on PC, Frostpunk is ready to jump to consoles. It's a move the ??developers ar?en't taking lightly.

"We always knew we wanted to bring Frostpunk to consoles, even when we were doing the PC version," explained Project Lead and Senior Lead Designer Jakub Stokalski during a recent interview in San Francisco. "Our resources are not unlimited so we focused on getting the PC version right. But at the same time, as soon as that game went out and did very well for us, we came back to this console project and started working on it. The first prototype wasn't that great in the sense that we just locked in the controller and tried to go the easy way. Turns out it's a lot?? of work to actually make it look and feel great on console and we really did not want to short change our approach."

According to Stokalski, it took a lot of work for 11 Bit Studios to get Frostpunk running well on PC. For console, no?t only would the team have to deal with less processing power than most modern gaming PCs are capable of, but also translating the more traditional mouse-and-keyboard control scheme to an Xbox One and PS4 controller.

"Pretty much, we redesigned every part of the game to work with a gamepad," he said, "and we were playing around with it and it was pretty fast. But then you have some of the world's best players making ??their cities bigger and bigger, and because this is a game of challenge you're pressed into some high-pressure situations, we wanted even more flexibility and precision with the controls, so we now ??use stuff not really present in the PC version like the express menu."

The express menu aggregates every common action in the game. If there is something you do often, you'll have quick access to it throughout the console version of Frostpunk. Stokalski gave me a demonstration of the game in action on an Xbox One X and he was able to piece together a small city with remarkable speed using just the control pad. The only action available at the start was "employment," but with the precision mode for city structure placement and the optional top-down view, he had himself a nice but ultimately grim?? bustling berg in just minutes.

"We always had a hunch that a circular city design might be a boon when working with a controller, and we were able to do things with the game like top-down mode and precision mode that enables you to be really, really confident about where y?ou're placing your buildings without having the pressure of worrying about moving it a bit left or right."

11 Bit Studios is continuing to tweak the controls as the game steamrolls towards its release. Stokalski said that in working on this version, the console controls have become second nature to him and that, while he is predominantly a PC gamer, he actually prefers playing Frostpunk with a controller.

"Just the simple fact that I'm not worrying about getting small movements perfect. This really is an experience for me that is more laid back, but at the same time, precise enough that I can focus?? and invest myself in the game."

The team are also working to improve the graphics, to get the game looking as good on consoles as it does on PC. On the Xbox One X, Frostpunk retains its brilliantly bleak frozen landscape with snow and ice effects to really send a chill up the spine. As for the scale, Stokalski said the studio is making sure its preserved for the console ports, though I did notice a bit of digitization of the graphics as he zoomed out of his city to the greater map of the area. Nothing major, but it's the ??only moment in the demonstration that didn't look absolutely pr??istine.

When Frostpunk comes to consoles, both digitally and physically, it will bring with it all the DLC released for the game so far. While the game will get a performance boost on Xbox One X and PS4 P??ro, don't expect it t??o support 4K. Also, given how much work it's taking to get it to run properly on either of these consoles, don't expect a Switch port ever.

"It's a demanding game," Stokalski explained, "and we're fighting to get it running on thi??s hardware and the Switch, as amazing as it is, is still a much weaker console basically."

Even if it's not coming to my current console of choice, I'm excited that I'll soon have a chance to actually play a game I've been interested in for a long time. I'm an unfortunate Mac owner, so Frostpunk has evaded me since it launched last year on Windows. Knowing?? how much work the developer is putting into the console controls, to make it the best example of gamepad city-builder title, has only whet my appetite more.

11 Bit Studios has at least two more "big" DLC packs planned for the game. Stokalski said he anticipates those will hit PC first with console releases to follow not long after. Because Frostpunk is known as one of the harshest and gloomiest games on the market, I as??ked Stokalski if his team ??planned the lighten the mood with its next set of downloadable content.

"Well," he said, "it's certainly not going to?? become a Disneyland simulator."

Stokalski said he anticipates sending the title in for certification in the next couple of weeks. If all goes according to plan, he anticipates Frostpunk will see release on PS4 and Xbox One before the end of sum????mer.

The post 11 Bit studios wants Frostpunk’s console port to be a superior experience appeared first on Destructoid.

Can't beat freeze

11 bit studios performed its specific sort of magic when it released Frostpunk late last month. Frostpunk is a complex survival city builder where you try to keep a civi??lization from freezing to death. It has that 11 bit charm in that you feel good about exactly none of your decisions.

However, there's something Frostpunk-related that you can feel unconditionally good about: There's a bunch of DLC coming and it's all free. Today, 11 bit laid out the Frostpunk roadmap for the rest of 2018.  It includes f??ive substantial updates alongside reg??ular technical fixes.

First up, a new survivor mode will be added in June. That's the only add-on that's given a specific time frame. Sometime later in the year, Frostpunk will get: basic customization for automatons and people, a?? new scenario ca??lled "The Builders," a new endurance mode, and an update titled "Winter Snapshots."

It's always great to see a game supported this way. But, this also means you've got a who??le lot more feeling bad about yourself to look forward to. When it comes to 11 bit, nothing can ever just be unequivocally good.

The post Cool stuf?f: Frostpunk has a whole lot of free DLC planned appeared first on Destructoid.

It's a cold town

Here are some thoughts that popped into my head while playing Frostpunk:

• These damn cripples are useless!
• Why is the work day so short? I need to do something about this.
• If you don't like working a 24-hour shift, maybe you'd like to head out into the freezing waste?
• I wish I could put out propaganda more often...

I am not a kind and benevolent leader.

Frostpunk (Windows)
Developer: 11 bit studios
Publisher: 11 bit studios
Released: April 24, 2018
MSRP: $29.99

Frostpunk is a story-driven strategy game that plays out as a crisis simulator more than a town builder. Yes, you are building a town in the frozen wastes, but your primary goal is almost always dealing with some seemingly catastrophic event that has just occurred or is about to. Evidently, it is not smooth sailing when trying ?to live ??in subzero temperatures.

Again, I'd like to emphasize here that this is a story-driven adventure. The main story will take approximately 10 hours, and there are two other stories to unlock, each with their own unique twist on the gameplay. This certainly hurts the replayability factor, something that this genre tends to thrive on, but that doesn't mean the game's value is diminished. It's because of the story focus that Frostpunk feels so unique. Well, that and the overwhelmi??n??g feeling of absolute dread while playing.

I haven't played This War of Mine, the developer's last title, but I am very aware of the morose and grim tone that it sets -- something that Frostpunk mirrors. I'm starting to wonder if 11 bit studios is okay? Who hurt you guys? I can only imagine that to be able to masterfully evok??e these awful, life-dampening feelings you would have had to experience them first hand. 11 bit, if you need a hug, let me know.

Seriously, this game will crush your hopes and dreams. I think it's important to make the distinction that, if games don't tend to affect your emotions much, you won't get a lot from Frostpunk. The crux of Frostpunk lays in the difficult decisions the player makes and how it affects the little AI villagers of the town. If someone were to ignore the emotional weight of these decisions, there is sometimes a clear-cut "best" choice to make, economically. The "better" decision genera?lly comes with emotional baggage that you, as the town's fearless leader, must deal with but has no tangible effects o??n the game. 

I'm getting ahead of myself. The core of Frostpunk is to build a city that can withstand extreme temperatures. The world has frozen over and a band of refugees has found solace in a sunken colony, built around a giant generator. The generator uses coal to produce heat to the buildings around it. Structures like homes, hospitals, and resource hubs are all built on a radial grid spann??ing outward ?from the generator. A tech tree is also utilized to research new buildings or to upgrade existing ones.

As with any survival game, Frostpunk's key to success is resource management. There is a lot to kee?p track of, yet it never feels overwhelming. Coal is important to keep the generator (and other heat sources) going. Wood and steel are used for building new structures and for initiating new research on the tech tree. Raw Food is required to turn into Food Rations and keep people from starving (something I was notoriously bad at). On top of these tangible resources, as the supreme leader,? you must also manage your peoples' Discontent and Hope levels. 

Laws can be signed every 18 in-game hours that can drastically change how the game plays. These laws often come as a "one or the other scenario." What do you do with the children of the town? Send them to work as child laborers? Or build a child shelter to take care of them? Some law decisions are rather straightforward, while others had me staring at the screen for what felt like an eternity, weighing the o??ptions.

This is where Frostpunk shines. When you assume the responsibility for your actions and become absolutely crushed when there is no pleasant road forward. Whe?n I completed the main story, ?I felt no jubilation. Partly because the ending didn't feel very satisfying to begin with, but also because I wasn't happy with how I got there. The decisions I had to make, the events that occurred, and the lives that were lost still sat on my shoulders. 

Then I started another storyline.

The first go-around will be tough, but the game moves at such a great pace that I find it hard for someone to completely fail -- which is great because had I failed eight hours in, I would not want to have started that story over again, as it would play out very similarly. Some of the underlying mechanics are not explained well, but through trial and error, it's easy enough to learn much of it in preparation for the other, more pointed storylines. The difficulty is also completely customizable, which for some, will allow for greater replayability w??ith an added challenge. Personally, I'm content with living that experience a grand total of once per storyline.

Managing heat becomes the backbone of the town very quickly. As the temperature fluctuates and days pass, it becomes more and more difficult to provide a livable temperature for the residents. This can be solved by either being super efficient with coal mining and use or by simply limiting who enters your town. I quickly found a large population to be unsustainable with my city and had to make some? tough decisions regarding letting in new survivors. Managing the heat levels in the city is a full-time job and goes a long way to make this survival strategy game a lot more active than expected.

There are some finicky?? bits that can detract from the experience. While I advocate for getting emotionally invested in the story and not worrying as much about the "mechanically right thing to do," some options a??re just too hard to pass up. Every building needs to be connected to a road, which costs wood, but the 100% efficient way to do it is to just have the road connect to the closest corner of the building. You're bound to end up with randomly placed zig-zag roads that just barely connect to things, which looks ridiculous.

I also had some strange bug where, after a cutscene, one of my automatons (robot gatherers) just....died. Sunk right into the ground. Except then the model popped back up and stood there, unable to be selected. Its absence hurt my ability to collect resources in a huge way and had a dramatic impact on my playthrough. As I mentioned before, the ending feels somewhat lame after everything the player goes through. I suppose it?? sort of goes along with the general dreadful feel? of the game, but I was still hoping for more.

Frostpunk is such a bizarre game. Playing through it m?echanically and logistically leads to a relatively standard resource manager. However, by investing yourself in the town and the people within it, you allow in the crushing weight of the decisions you'll have to make and the emotional consequences that follow. They may not be affecting real people, but treating it as such is what this game is all about. It's an emotional roller coaster that will likely leave you more defeated after "winning" than when you first started, and that is? incredible.

_{[This review is based on a retail build of the game provided by the publisher.]}

The post Review: Frostpunk appeared first on Destructoid.

'A sandbox/endless mode is on our mind'

This War of Mine developer 11 bit studios is onto something special with Frostpunk, its newly-released "society survival game." In just over two days, the title passed 250,000 sales, with 11 bit CEO Grzegorz Miechowski confirming post-release support. "Yes?, we had plans for the expansions and now we're 100% sure we are doing that, including many free updates of course!"

The team is currently prioritizing bug fixes and balance tweaks, but it has "A LOT of ideas" for potential updates, including new scenarios and modes, and also wants to hear player suggestions. An endless mode is one such possibility. "Frostpunk is going to grow - all you ?hav?e to do right now is to wait a little bit. We do plan to release a roadmap for our development plans as soon as we're ready."

Our review is in the works, so if yo??u're on the fence, please look forward to that soon.

Post-release update and a huge THANK YOU! [Steam]

The post Frostpunk clears 250K sales, devs pledge free updates ??and expansions appeared first on Destructoid.

Cool deals for cool kids

It's a great week for fans of strategy games as a number of higher-profile titles release today including BattleTech and now Frostpunk. Both titles are sitting pretty on top of the Steam top-seller list, with the steampunk city builder Frostpunk presently at the #1 slot. Brought to you by the developers of This War of Mine, 11 bit studios' latest title is well received by both?? critics and player (though it appears if you're a Chinese gamer on a Chinese language Windows OS you may be in for some technical?? difficulties).

Priced at only $29.99, Frostpunk isn't going to be a huge commitment for early adopters - and it can be significantly cheaper thanks to the wonderful world of PC games digital retailer. We've spotted two solid deals on Frostpunk for release week.

Frostpunk Deals

• Frostpunk at GMG (Steam) — $22.49 (list price $30)
• Coupon: OUTNOW25 for 25% off

• Frostpunk at Fanatical (Steam) — $26.99  (list price $30)
• Use coupon code MAY10

Update: new 25% off deal listed above.

Both retailers are selling the same Steam key of Frostpunk, though regiona?l pricing may differ (translation: we didn't bother checking the price outside of North America). The Fanatical SUPER6 code only takes 6% off but did not apply to this game previously as it excluded pre-order titles. For GMG's deal, the best discount of 25% off is hidden behind a login gate, but since you'll have to create an? account to checkout anyways this probably isn't a huge barrier.

For those with technical difficulties (even if you're not a Chinese user) and Windows 7 or 8, make sure you install the latest Visual C package and everything should be kosher for Frostpunk.

The download size for Frostpunk is a modest 4.7GB, so even if you're buying today you should be able ??to play soon - provided your Internet isn't stuck in a '90s speed limit.

Game deals from Dealzon. Sales help support Destructoid.

The post Frostpunk release-week deals as high as 25% off appeared first on Destructoid.

Please sir, can I have some more?

On the very first day, on my very first decision, I sent the children to work. "It's only the 'safe'? jobs" I told myself - the ?cookhouses, to prepare food. The gathering piles, to pick up bits of coal, wood, and steel. "It's for the greater good" I told myself.

Less than a day later, I enacted a law watering down peop?le's filling meals into a thin, watery gruel. The people wouldn't be well-fed, but they would have food. "It's for the greater good" I told them all.

How far are you willing to go to ensure the survival of your people? How far is too far? What will be left of you, and those around you, when it's all said and done? These are the questions Frostpunk demands of us. Demanded of me.

My people would survive this experience,?? but I'm not sure they lived.

Frostpunk, the new title by sadness enthusiasts 11 bit studios, is obviously much more than just a city builder, and certainly not the happy solarpunk future I was cons?tructing just yesterday. Building off of the depression-fueled scavenge-fest that was This War of Mine, Frostpunk places you into an alternate-history England where a massive ice age has swept th??e land. Humanity was forewarned, and tried to prepare with massive "Generator Cities"... but for whatever reason (probably "humans are dicks"), the plan failed. A small band stumbled across one of these Generators, and that's where the game begins.

With my workforce diversified between generic work?er-bees, specialists, and now children, my people set out, carving little drifts through the snow to reach the game's main resources: wood and steel for buildings and research, and coal, for the almighty Generator. I build a hunter's hut to gather food, and a workshop, in order to reclaim lost technology. As night falls, I fire up the Generator, flames shooting into the sky like it's going to demand the One Ring. A nice big circle proclaims that I have less than twenty-four hours of coal stockpiled.

That night, the first of my people become ill. Already saddened by my child-labor and food laws (Not that there's any food!), the people band together and demand shelter. "Be careful what promises you make," the game cautions. I promise to house half the population instead of all of them, but I do so in sturdier bunkhouses - I remember This War of Mine, and I know I have it easy so far, seeing the temperature is set to fall in a few da??ys.

A medical shelter is built, interrupting everyone's rest. Possibly due to a bug in the demo, any construction assigned will be immediately carried out. Those that are sick will continue to work, a??nd get sicker, unless treated - in which case, you'll be out both the workers and those set to treat them. Just to the buildings alone, I lose a third of my resource gatherers. While I meet the housing crisis, hope is still critically l??ow. There's only one option.

It's time to build a fighting pi??t and enact duels to the death. Two Men Enter, One Man Leaves. They eat it up faster than the pathetic gruel I never have enough of. Especially the children. You can see them cling to the sides of the cage in the night.

Decisions continue to be made. Instead of burial, I throw the dead into a pit in the snow. This depresses the hell out of everyone, but is healthier, and leads to my next decisio?ns - in case of death, the dead shall be?? used as organ donors for the living, but that the gravely ill will be met with experimental procedures to heal them more quickly (including amputation).

It all? goes to hell on Day four, when the temperatur??e drops.

It doesn't just drop, it's twice as cold. By the end of day four, fifteen of my eighty citizens are sick, and six of them are "gravely" ill. A child is coin??cidentally injured while searching the steel piles. Do I give her the day off? I actually find myself having the thought that doing so would encourage others to get themselves hurt, before snapping out of it and letting the child rest... but decide not to enact "let children work all jobs."

Things continued from there for several days, as supplies dwindled, I spared my people the pain of gathering in the cold, moving them into sawmills and ore-drilling stations. Later than intended, I created the Beacon, a hot air balloon that lets me send scouts into the outside world. This appears to be where the build of Frostpunk's story will lie. Each day my scouts could reach a new location, and then either spend a day bringing what they find back, or mo??ving on to the next discovery. There are a few signs of abandoned civilization, but my scout never ma??naged to reach them in time.

Finding refugees was a blessing, but I had been miraculously lucky with deaths so far; only three, and all from starvation. My medical stations are over-capacity. A crying woman asks me to stop throwing the dead in the pit, but I decline. Mor??e importantly, angry mobs form and demand to be fed. I've already built a hothouse (basically a greenhouse), and made the decision to use the deceased as fertilizer, but there's no time. It's not enough.

I enable cannibalism.

That night, the demo ends. By all accounts, no one had actually been eaten, but they were going to damn-well start. When I started playing Frostpunk, I had joked about enabl??ing cannibalism from the start, but I couldn't do it until forced by my situation. Yet I gladly - if not happily - sent children to work immediately in potentially dangerous situations, let people duel to the death (they never did actually kill each ?other), and potentially mutilate the gravely ill.

With gorgeous, stark visuals emphasizing just how tenuous your grasps on life is, and the ability to never question your morality, but always make you question your own, Frostpunk wil?l be one to keep watching - just like I watch that coal m?eter deplete.

The post ?The cold, the malnourished, th??e cannibal: surviving in Frostpunk appeared first on Destructoid.

In more ways than one

We've been covering 11 bit studios' next game, Frost Punk, for some time now. Today marks our first look ??at the gameplay in motion, albeit for only a moment. It'??s a "city-survival" game about establishing a settlement in a frozen hellscape and facing tough ethical decisions as you form societal customs.

Pretty much what you'd expect from the folks behind This War of Mine, then.

This trailer confirms something I already suspected: that I'll want to play this game bundled up. The sound design makes me shiver. I'm also suddenly struck with the intense desire to rewatch Snowpiercer.

The post Frostpunk knows how to make me feel cold appeared first on Destructoid.

It's adventure time and you're the Ice King

11 bit is the team that's most well-known for This War of Mine, a depressing game about trying to survive as a civilian in a war-torn city. Last time we talked to the developer, it tried to distance its next game, Frostpunk, from This War of Mine. Senior?? writer Pawel Miechowski emphasized that while the studio is certainly proud of its previous efforts, it didn't want to rely on bleak and dispiriting themes to convey an important message.

Even if 11 bit is actively trying to avoid its past, it can't completely leave it behind. Frostpunk shares some meaningful undertones with This War of Mine with regard to tough choices, moral dilemma, and the well-being of others. However, in Frostpunk, the scop?e of everything seems to be broadened tremendously.

We recently spoke with Miechowski and lead designer Kuba Stokalski about the direction of Frostpunk. 11 bit isn't yet ready to talk about specifics of gameplay, but it's willing to elabor?ate on the setting, the conflict, the player's role -- all the stuff that fills out a world.

Miechowski introduced the concept by saying "[Frostpunk] takes place in what's possibly the last city on earth. This is what you see at the end of the video [embedded above]. It's a sort of alternate history where the world got frozen and the last pieces of civilization are trying to survive. You lead this society. The themed technology in the game is a natural reply to the fact?? that the world got frozen. It's not steampunk for the sake of steampunk, but you need to melt ice to produ?ce heat. This is why steam is an important part of this world. You, as a leader, you rule the society and you need to help society survive. So we internally started to call this genre a society survival."

That's the probably-reductive but easy-to-understand pitch for Frostpunk: It's a city builder mixed with a survival game. Ruling and expanding the city is the goal, but just making sure everything?? doesn't collapse is a more pressing matter. As Stokalski tells us "One of your responsibilities is to make ?sure that society as a whole survives, not just individuals."

Frostpunk isn't restricted to the confines of the city. Players will be able to send groups into the wilderness in an effort to explore new areas, discover resources, and learn why the world is a frozen hellscape. Regarding these expeditions, Stokalski mentioned that this won't be a StarCraft-like real-time strategy component??; specifics are being saved for a later reveal.

The past may be interesting but the present will feel much more pertinent. That's where the important decisions lie. "The optimal thing for you to do might not be the morally right thing for you to do. This is something that carries over from This War of Mine. Generally, this is a complet??ely new pr?operty and a completely new world that we built for this game, but it's in line with how we want to make games. We want to build games that provoke questions and leave you to answer them. This will be evident in the society survival part," Stokalski says.

He continues "The theme here is that we're asking the question 'What are people capable of when they're faced with life-or-death situations?' But it's not on the level o??f a particular person but rather a whole society. What are you willing to sacrifice in terms of the rules and?????????????????????????? your culture and what's valuable to you as a people? What are you willing to give and what are you willing to stand for if your survival is at stake?"

Mi??echowski chimes in "I need to also underline that when you play the game, as a ruler o??f this society, you can be very proactive. You can shape this society in the way you think it should be shaped. You don't necessarily need to respond to the current situation. It's not like the game tells you 'Here's a problem: choose A or B.' It's different. You can shape it in a way that it should be done for more efficient survival.

Miechowski also cleared up a few release-related details. Frostpunk will be a single-player-only game. It's currently slated for PC but consoles may be a possibility. Miechowski reasons why it's only PC right now by saying "At the moment, we're focusing on how the game should be instead of expanding to more platforms." 11 bit is aiming to launch sometime in the second half of 2017 but Miechowski tempers that with "It's going to be out when it's polish?ed and done in a way we wa?nt."

The execution is still nebulous but the concept is starting to come together. One way or another, an entire society is going to prosper or fall by your doing. We'll ??have to wait a bit longer to fin?d out exactly how your reign will look.

The post 11 bit coined the term ‘society survival’ to describe its new game Frostpunk appeared first on Destructoid.

'It's justified'

"This isn't This War of Mine 2.0. How can you even make a sequel to such a depressing game? No." That's 11 bit Studios senior writer Pawel Miechowski talking a little about the developer's next game, Frostpunk. This War of Mine was a clear success f??rom both a business and artistic perspective. Still, 11 bit doesn't want to try to recapture that lightning; it doesn't want to be Those Guys Who Make The Depressi??ng Games.

What we know of 11 bit's next outing is limited. Extremely limited. Our exposure to Frostpunk is a teaser trailer that released toward the end of August. It's the first in a series of trailers. We??'ll have a much clearer idea what this game is when we see them all.

Until then, all we can really glean about Frostpunk is what 11 bit wants the player to feel and to experience. "We'??re aiming for serious stuff, so it's definitely a serious direction. Depression can be part of it as well, but ?I think thrill is probably the better emotion to describe it," Miechowski offers.

While we don't yet know what kind of game Frostpunk is, 11 bit assures us that it'll satisfy some of the more traditional elements that people look for in games. "I think I can tell you that this game will also be a game. It'll be even more of a game than This War of Mine was. It's not another artistic project. It's not, it's a game," art directo??r Przemysl?aw Marszal comments. Miechowski adds "We're aiming for hardcore gamers."

Although everything was slathered in broad vagueness, 11 bit was most willing to talk about the world it created for Frostpunk. That's what it seems most excited about, and? the aspect that might allow itself to be used for future works.

"In Frostpunk, we have an entire frozen planet so obviously it's something fantasy. In this environment, people are struggling be?cause it's frozen. This is where the survival comes from. Plus steampunk in this game is not just for the sake of having steampunk. It makes sense because it's frozen and so when you melt ice you get wa??ter and steam," Miechowski says. When asked if that means steam might be the greatest resource in the world, everyone in the room laughs knowingly. "It could be, yeah. Steam is a source of energy."

Marszal elaborates "We think of it as a scientific steampunk game, I'd say. It makes sense why things work like that. Not just because it's a sci-fi trope. Dishonored also tr??ied to do it this way. It's a little different, but they also tried to explain and build their world based on fundamentals. It's based in truth and it's a core part of the world. That's really great and I like what they did."

PR and marketing manager Karol Zajaczkowski is already thinking big with regard to the opportunity that Frostpunk's world affords. "This War of Mine was set on a certain place on earth in history. We believe that Frostpunk is much wider with much more possibility. I can imagine games being created in the Frostpunk universe which will b??e different for us. We have a lot of freedom with this and we'll see where that takes us. We're already looking for others ways of exploring that universe which are not as a game. It works because the setting isn't closed, it's a very big thing. A lot of stories can come from there and it's part of our long-term plan," he says.

As for where this game will show up, we're not clear on that either. Marszal ribs "We are 11 bit Studios, we'll probably be on every platform there is!" Then he adds? "No, I'm joking. It's a huge game and I don't think it'd be suited for phones." That clears things up ever so slightly.

It's obvious that 11 bit revels in keeping us in the dark, in offering a little insight about the game without completely tipping its hand. Frostpunk's world sounds fascinating, an arctic hellscape that mankind has industriali??zed to survive. But, it's also nebulous to the point of frustration.

With any luck, it won't stay uncertain for a whole lot longer. If? all goes according to schedule, Miechowski says that we'll have a gameplay reveal sometime in the spring of next year and hopefully a playable demo at PAX East. Until then, we're left dreaming of a winter wonderland.

The post 11 bit’s next game, Frostpunk, is only steampunk because it perfectly fits the world appeared first on Destructoid.

The big chill

This announcement trailer for Frostpunk is more mood-setting than anything else, but knowing that 11 Bit Studios (This War of Mine, Anomaly) is behind it, I'm inherently interested.

The 2017 game takes place in a frozen-over world in which survivors have built steam-powered technology to fend off the intense cold. "Society in its current form becomes ineffective and it has to change in order to survive. What does this change mean? What is culture when morality stands in the way of existence? Think about how survival may, in the end, leave us different beings. Whether worse, better, stronger, weake??r or, last but not least, more or less humane – that is debatable."

According to creative director Michal Drozdowski, "This is a deeply serious game created for a mature gamer. Looking back at This War of Mine, we're pushing boundaries even further, but we're not pointing at reality in the same fashion. We're putting human nature under a microscope to ask about what happens when people? need to stay alive."

That whole premise certainly sounds like an?? 11 Bit project. "More info soon," the studio promises.

The post Frostpun??k is the next game from the makers of This War of Mine appeared first on Destructoid.