Icarus News

Icarus, the co-op sci-fi survival game from Dean Hall and RocketWerkz, has been delayed from its August 11 launch date. Icarus will now release in November...
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First announced at the PC Gaming Show in 2020, Icarus is an upcoming co-op survival game from Dean Hall (of DayZ fame) and developer Rocketwerkz. In Icarus, players descend to a hostile alien world from an orbiting space station to gather valuable exotic resources, build tools and structures, hunt (and be hunted by) wildlife, and try to make it back to their space station alive...
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UPDATE: Read the breakdown of our beta weekends HERE



[h2]Prospectors, we have an important update[/h2]

We’ve made the decision to delay Icarus’ launch until November to ensure the game is the best it can be for our players, and we’re introducing a longer Beta which you can play from Friday 27 August at 5pm Pacific Daylight Time.

Our team is committed to providing the best experience for our players at launch. We’ve been keeping a close eye on the state of our development builds and have decided that we want to give Icarus more love by delaying the game, and improving upon our Beta process by spreading it across multiple weekends, with each having a specific focus. A plus side of this also means reducing Beta fatigue for our players.

We acknowledge that this news may not be what you wanted to hear, but we are confident it will lead to the best possible Icarus launch!

[h3]All pre-orders will gain access to Beta Weekends![/h3]

ICARUS BETA WEEKENDS ROADMAP

We’re running a series of Beta Weekends with each weekend unlocking new game features that allow us to gather more useful and focused feedback! This will provide us with more clarity on what your Prospector’s journey may look like as you progressively explore the planet.

Here’s what you can expect to unlock every Beta Weekend:

[h3]FOREST 28th - 29th August[/h3]
This will be your first weekend playing Icarus! It’s also an opportunity to begin making the YouTube and Twitch content that you’ve been eager to share with your communities. So get base building and learn to hunt, Prospector.

• Torrential Storms are disabled
• Forest biome only

[h3]STORMS 11th - 12th September[/h3]
Now that you have spent time on the surface of Icarus, prepare for mother nature to do her thing. Torrential Storms are now enabled and, as seen on our Twitch streams, ensure you have your fire whacker and repair tool handy in case lightning strikes your base! Better yet, go mine some boulders to shelter in.

• Torrential Storms are now enabled
• Forest biome only

[h3]ARCTIC 25th - 26th September[/h3]
Brace yourself for the cold, for you now have access to the forbidding and demanding temperatures of the Arctic biome. It's time to put your skills to the test as you prepare a survival plan for your journey.

• Arctic biome unlocked
• Arctic animals and blizzards

[h3]DESERT 9th - 10th October[/h3]
We don't expect you to have mastered the Arctic biome just yet - perhaps you can take a break from the frigid weather and visit the Desert for some R&R. Just kidding, there is no relaxation anywhere on Icarus.

• Desert biome unlocked
• Desert animals and blizzards

[h3]FACTIONS 23rd - 24th October[/h3]
What does it mean to be a Prospector? This weekend you will get your first taste of Icarus' political lore. Various factions and corporates have an interest in Icarus, but need someone expendable to run errands for them. In return for completing a series of objectives planetside they’ll reward you handsomely.

• Faction Missions unlocked

[h3]COMMUNITY 6th - 7th November[/h3]
Our final beta weekend will celebrate our community with a giveaway and a few other surprises. Hang tight for more information on this!

• Special Community Event
• Prizes

We plan to accommodate multiple time zones and will confirm exact start times closer to 28 August. Anyone who pre-orders Icarus before its launch will gain access to the Beta, and pre-orders can be refunded at any time no matter how long you have played the Beta for.



[h2]Content Creators[/h2]
Are you a content creator keen to get your hands on a Beta key? Sign up through our Rainmaker campaign here!

Unfortunately we can’t give keys to everyone, but if you have a loyal audience, love survival games and meet our criteria we’ll share a key with you to join the Beta Weekends.

[h2]Our Discord Community[/h2]
As mentioned in our previous announcement describing our Beta gates - select beloved Discord community members may gain access to our private "Closed Beta" under a Non Disclosure Agreement ahead of 28 August. They have been the backbone of our growth and we are indebted to their commitment and support of our team and the wider community!

[h3]We appreciate you![/h3]
We’re really excited for your reactions, creative content and trust you appreciate the reasoning behind our launch delay. We’ll keep listening to your feedback and adapting Icarus as the Beta evolves. We encourage you to join our Discord where we will be there to answer your queries and concerns! Most of all, to get HYPE with our community as we have officially set our Beta dates!


https://store.steampowered.com/app/1149460/ICARUS/

[h2]Hello again, Prospectors![/h2]

Welcome back to another Community Update. It's been a great month as we continue to develop Icarus. Our private beta branch is up and running, we’ve had some guest streamers and journalists play it recently and we're busy making improvements around the clock.

We've reached over 5,000 members on our Discord! Our server is thriving and is a wonderful place to just hang out with friends, post memes, talk about our Twitch streams and YouTube videos. So here's to the next milestone of 10,000!

[h2]CREATOR SPOTLIGHT[/h2]
[h3]Introducing Viktoriahhh![/h3]

Viktoriahhh is a content creator based in Australia growing her YouTube and social channels around horror and survival games, one being Icarus! She's charismatic and to the point, providing her community with "spicy" information found across our streams, YouTube development blogs and our once-in-a-while Discord leaks (thanks Dean!). We're excited to continue to support the women in our community and can’t wait to see more of their content!

[previewyoutube]https://youtu.be/-pagmGkpxXs[/previewyoutube]
“I’ve always been passionate about survival games, but when I saw Icarus, I knew it was love. For me, the appeal of most survival games is choosing my own adventure, setting my own goals and figuring out what I can survive. Icarus adds a whole new dimension to the challenge by making your time planet-side limited and every drop is a fresh start on a new adventure with all of the perks you earned along the way. Usually the survival part is easy and it’s the enemies you have to look out for, so I’m looking forward to facing new challenges like insane weather and literally just breathing. In the end, the thing I am really most excited for is the very first time my house catches fire. It’s going to be lit.” - Viktoriahhh

Go subscribe to It's Viktoriahhh's YouTube! and follow her on Twitter

[h2]Notable Mentions[/h2]
Earlier this month we collaborated with two content creators, Gladd and BigFry!

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
Gladd will go down in history as the very first content creator to get their hands on Icarus, while playing with the developers Dean and Lorii!
It was a fantastic stream filled with a lot of hype. Gladd didn't shy away from talking to us about Icarus' game development, took the time to learn the game and built a safe haven cabin. In the end he was mauled by bears. Thanks Gladd!


[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
YouTuber BigFry sat down and played Icarus with Dean, although that day’s particular beta build became unstable as they played. BigFry dove into a no-holds-barred intricate, professional and sometimes personal interview around Dean’s career in video games before Icarus, and how the development is coming along with his fresh set of eyes. Thank you BigFry for a wholesome "Non-PR" themed chat.


While we love playing with raw beta builds, after the session with BigFry we took a step back and re-evaluated some of our processes to make sure we have a stable build ready to go when we play with guests. We’ll be reaching out to more content creators soon! We can't wait to host you and have you play Icarus.

[h3]Until next month![/h3]
Do you create content around Icarus? Be sure to tag us @SurviveIcarus or use our hashtag #surviveicarus so we can see your work!

Join our Discord server Discord.gg/SurviveIcarus/ and follow us on Twitter! @SurviveIcarus

- Lorii

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1149460/ICARUS/

[h2]Greetings, Prospectors![/h2]

As we continue to cover many facets of Icarus’ systems and features, this week we are taking a closer look at the brooding weather that dictates your movement and strategy on the planet.

[h2]The core functionalities of Icarus' weather system[/h2]
The weather cycles in Icarus boast both beautiful and frightening visuals across a single day. As your drop ship settles onto Icarus’ soil in the early hours of the morning, you can expect to cast your eyes on stunning clear skies and sunshine that touches the trees, lakes and mountain tops.

You are given ample time to forage for resources, craft early tier weapons and build shelter prior to your first storm encounter. There is no rhyme and reason for which storm you will experience first, meaning the more prepared you are, the better.



[h2]The different tiers of weather[/h2]
There’s no ‘one size fits all’ to Icarus' weather systems. The weather tiers in Icarus range from light showers to chaotic, torrential downpours. They are also unique to their biomes, with blizzards in the arctic and sandstorms in the desert.



Storms aren’t the only weather event that will be experienced either. Wind scales from light breezes through to wild hurricanes that will challenge even the strongest structures.



[h2]Impacts on structures and the environment[/h2]
Each weather tier provides a visual and audio experience and even more importantly, a game-altering experience based on its severity. One of the biggest culprits is lightning. A targeted lighting strike will set your structure ablaze, along with your character if you’re not careful when out of cover. One of the coolest features is how it interacts with the environment. A tree caught by a lightning strike will spread its fire throughout nearby trees and ground-level foliage. There’s nothing quite as terrifying as a lake of fire creeping through the bush towards you.



Buildings are also susceptible to slower but noticeable deterioration during extreme weather events. A strong enough gale will tear a roof clean off a hut if you’re not prepared to repair it on the fly. While it will provide protection for your resources and crafting benches inside, neglecting to keep your walls strong and roof reinforced will lead to your most valuable possessions being damaged. Key upgrades will show their worth as you progress through the tech trees, such as lightning rods, which can be the difference between losing a homebase and surviving to fight another day.



[h2]Dynamic shelter[/h2]
One of the coolest features we’re excited to introduce to you is dynamic shelter. While most shelter experiences in video games is a simple ‘roof = safe’, we wanted to provide an experience that was a bit more ‘real’. Instead of using simple overlaps, or predefined safe areas, we use thousands of bounced rays to analyse your surroundings. We process these to provide a realistic representation of how exposed your character is. This provides some unique and realistic tricks to increase your shelter, such as building against the side of cliffs, carving into rocks or even huddling with your friends.

Exposure is a genuine danger, and while a player can attempt to push through a storm without shelter, the debuff and damage modifiers will scale quickly. The same goes for unsheltered equipment which will deteriorate and break over time.



A big focus for Icarus has been the realities of weather in a survival setting. We believe a weather event shouldn’t be a visual nuisance, but a real threat to consider in your quest for exotics. By recreating these experiences, we feel confident you won’t ignore the clap of thunder in the distance, but instead will prepare for the real dangers it presents.