Abiotic Factor News

Half-Life reimagined as a new multiplayer survival game, playable now

Black Mesa is a dangerous place. Collapsing walkways, exploding pipes, laser beams burning through the walls. And that's not to mention the headcrabs, barnacles, and special forces soldiers all trying to chew you up and spit you out. Gordon Freeman is protected by the good old HEV suit, but what about the unfortunate science team? We've all seen them, dangling off ladders and getting caught by the HECU satchel charges. The Half-Life scientists remain some of the most iconic NPCs in all of PC gaming. Now, a new multiplayer survival game essentially casts you as the Black Mesa research team, trapped underground, caught between invading aliens and hostile military clean-up crews. With shades of The Forest and Lethal Company, it's available to play on Steam right now.

Read the rest of the story...

I urge you to playtest Abiotic Factor, a survival game about scientists trapped in a vast underground black site

So you're a scientist who works in one of those science-fictional giant underground research facilities—your Black Mesa, SCP Foundation, The Loop, what have you—and the day arrives where the big science catastrophe goes down and everyone's dying left and right and there's a horrible cascade of alternate dimensions and weird aliens pouring in. That's the setup for Abiotic Factor, an upcoming solo to six-player survival game that you can playtest for free, right now, via Steam...
Read more.

Guide for Abiotic Factor Playtest #2

Greetings esteemed colleagues! We are so excited for you to play Abiotic Factor!
This guide contains everything you need to know about the playtest whether you're new or returning. Let's delve in, shall we?

Below you will find some helpful information, such as:

Playtest dates and times
How to access the playtest
What's in the playtest
How to report a bug or crash
Where to submit feedback
Where to find our FAQ
A few new player tips
Changes since the last Playtest

[h2]How Long is the Playtest?[/h2]

The playtest is open from the 12th of December 12:00 PM PST to the 1st of January 12:00 PM PST.

Here is a time zone breakdown:

PST: Tuesday, 12 December at 12:00 PM through Monday, 1st January at 12:00 PM
MST: Tuesday, 12 December at 1:00 PM through Monday, 1st January at 1:00 PM
CST: Tuesday, 12 December at 2:00 PM through Monday, 1st January at 2:00 PM
EST: Tuesday, 12 December at 3:00 PM through Monday, 1st January at 3:00 PM
GST: Tuesday, 12 December at 8:00 PM through Monday, 1st January at 8:00 PM
NZDT: Wednesday, 13 December at 9:00 AM through Tuesday, 2nd January at 9:00 AM

[h2]How to Launch the Playtest[/h2]

To begin your work in the GATE Cascade Research Facility, you’ll need to request access by clicking the ‘Request Access’ button on the Abiotic Factor Steam store page.

Once access is granted you’ll see Abiotic Factor in your Steam library. Select 'Abiotic Factor Playtest', download it, and you’re good to go!

[h2]What's Included in the Playtest[/h2]

This playtest opens up an early section of the GATE Cascade Research Facility for exploration and gameplay, as well as the Tutorial. We've given you just a taste of the depths that you will be able to explore upon release!

Abiotic Factor is a large, open world game and this is just a small section of it, but contains a huge range of key gameplay and functionality, as well as a lot of new features, polish and improvements for anyone who may have participated in previous playtests. We’re super excited for you to jump in!

For those who want to 100% the playtest (so to speak) you can keep playing and making discoveries and unlocking more recipes/skills even after you complete the last available objective for this test.

[h2]How to Report Bugs, Crashes and Give Suggestions[/h2]

We want to hear from you! Listed below are different guides and master threads dedicated to anything you’d like to ask or share with us.

[h2]Can I Stream it or Make Videos?[/h2]

Yes, go right ahead!

[h2]New Player Tips[/h2]

As a scientist arriving at the Gate Cascade Research Facility just as a mysterious catastrophe unfolds, you’re trapped far underground with no hope of rescue. Find ways to survive, explore, unlock and - eventually - escape your increasingly lethal workplace with your team.

Pager!
Your pager can be accessed in the emote radial wheel. A nifty device which lets you briefly ping your location to your fellow scientists in the case that you become lost in the cubicles.

Holster your items!

You can holster your weapon and shield by pressing H on keyboard.

Control rebinds!

Keyboards, mice and controllers can all be rebound in the settings menu at any time.

[h2]Changes since the last Playtest[/h2]

For our returning testers, we’ve got quite a few new things in store for you! We'll list a few of them below, but the rest are for you to discover!

Proximity chat! That’s right we heard your pleas and it is here! Your distant screams will be music to your teammates ears.
By popular demand you can now boil tainted water to produce clean water! You’ll lose a bit to the steam but it could be an essential task when you’re in a pinch.
Many traits have had bug fixes or were not fully functional. You may notice a larger impact from Traits this time around.
We've added Summer Intern, for people who want a blank slate job - no extra skills!

[h2]Join Our Discord[/h2]

To chat with fellow playtesters, find servers full of new friends, make jokes, share videos or screenshots, and everything else - join our Discord!

Status Report #9: Contained Specimens

[h3]Greetings esteemed colleagues,[/h3]

Happy holidays to all our scientists! This week we’ve got a whole bunch of stuff to go over, including this sentence which is a very big hint that something PLAYTEST-Y is right around corner. Did you get the hint? Well, no matter, let's continue.

[h2]About Immurement[/h2]

The remote nature of the GATE Cascade Research Facility makes it ideal for the containment and study of dangerous and obscure specimens. At GATE, we call these Immurement Subjects, or simply IS, for short. There are further classifications but we’ll leave those up to you to discover as you venture forth into the Facility.

Mundane artifacts and oddities that have been deemed safe (Ordo) are immured within Cascade, kept in a particularly dry and deceptively large storage area, while deeper down in the Facility are the specimens under active study and more strict containment. These range from mysterious baubles with unique properties, to entities from beyond the veil of our universe - creatures and denizens of other Anteverses and the many worlds beyond.

"Although Cascade has well-established containment tiers, every subject is unique, requiring a different approach to immurement and study. Basic Ordo storage aside, the reality is that we have almost as many kinds of containment as we have subjects. In the final assessment, our containment tiers are a bureaucratic fiction." ~ Dr. Derek Manse

Please be cautious as you gain clearance throughout the GATE Cascade Research Facility. You never know what you might encounter.

[h2]Deep in the Field[/h2]

For this section of the Status Report, we’ll take a look at just a few of the works our devs have put into the game this past while. There were a lot of things to choose from so we picked some of our favorites!

[h3]Jorden, Level Designer[/h3]

Some of my previous work was in the more grunge, industrial, Manufacturing Sector. Lately I’ve been working away on the sprawling Labs, which is a stark difference in both cleanliness and budget, in terms of staff accommodation. I wanted to convey that difference through how clean and luxurious the areas of the Labs are and how hard GATE tries to keep their “upper crust” happy, but still a bit more utilitarian in comparison to the residential quarters.

[h3]Kecko, 3D Artist[/h3]

Welding Spear

Upgrading from your typically pokey makeshift spear made from cobbled together office parts, the Welding Spear brings fire to the mix. It’s pretty straightforward, but took a few iterations to get to this point. We had some slightly crazier ideas but it ended up looking too cool for being your first spear upgrade. Later designs get a bit more wild, and rightfully so.

Thermal Mallet

The Thermal Mallet, around the same tier as the Welding Spear, also went through a good bit of ideation before we landed on something we liked. It started out looking a bit more sharp (as opposed to blunt) and I took some inspiration from the abandoned mines surrounding the Manufacturing Sector. It ended up being a sort of railroad spike welded to the shaft of the club, wrapped in a high-vis material to keep the crafted look.

[h3]Connor, 3D Artist[/h3]

This was a personal milestone for me as I had never done an animation where the right hand leaves the weapon. It’s a notoriously tricky problem in game development, since the weapon is typically parented to a bone that is on the right hand. I worked it out through a series of null objects and constraints that get turned on and off throughout the animation that allows it to follow either the left hand or the right hand as needed.

Additionally animating a bolt action is always a treat. I’m happy with how the player doesn’t feel as proficient with the bolt, being a dorky scientist and all. We of course have progressive reloading animations based on reloading skill, and that changes a bit as the player progresses.

We worked on a hat that both belongs to an enemy, and was something we wanted to make available to marketing for Halloween, so while it was a bit of a rush, I think it turned out quite nicely. The “Swamp Hat” as we’re calling it sure has an interesting look, and perhaps raises some interesting questions too…

[h3]Jacob, Programmer[/h3]

Character Freezing and Slushie Bombs

We wanted some of the early on crafted items to be more fun, so we made the Slushie Bomb physically freeze any character it hits. When affected the character will freeze it's movement and animation, no matter what it was doing, which can look pretty whacky and we love it. You’ll be able to play with this in the next playtest for sure. We also keep the movement so a peccary charging at you will start sliding right past.

PROXIMITY CHAT!

We've changed the in-game VOIP to no longer be global, instead having it proximity based and directional. Alongside that we also have the player's mouth move while they talk, because… You gotta have that. The voice is also a real audio source, so it muffles when out of line of sight and is affected by reverb in the environment, just like a real voice would be. Here's a fun video we posted of a slightly older version of the VOIP in action.

Please Remain Seated

Seats and moveable carts were used in an interesting way in previous playtests, so we've improved the enter/exit logic to prevent certain exploits. Now when you exit a chair or vehicle you should appear in front if there is space, rather than just standing on top of the chair or other whacky locations. This isn’t perfect, but we’ll continue to refine it as we go.

Resistance / Weakness System

Enemies can now have resistances or weaknesses to certain types of damage, which have different audio/visual responses to the hit as well. This changes the type of weapon that might be best for a situation and should really shake up how players encounter things.

Engine Upgrade!

We’ve upgraded the game to Unreal Engine 5.3.2 in our ongoing efforts to keep on top of optimizations and new features. This won’t mean much to you, but it means a lot to us! There have also been some other changes in the optimization department, not quite related to this upgrade, that we hope player’s will notice. As always, keep the feedback coming!

Enemy Changes

We gave the ████ ████ a █████ and the ███████ █████ will be better at █████████ ███████ ████ so we're very excited to see how that plays out in the upcoming playtest. You might find a surprise or two there.

Wow, thanks for that, you crazy kids! Everyone has been extra busy getting content things ready for our next playtest and it’s been great fun to read everyone’s thoughts on their work.

[h2]PLAYTEST WHEN?![/h2]

There’s an upcoming playtest, very, very soon. That’s all I’m allowed to say, but if you’re signed up for the newsletter, please keep an eye on your inboxes this month.

[h2]Stay Tuned[/h2]

When you descend into the GATE Cascade Research Facility you’re going to be facing a lot of unexpected challenges. Follow these Status Reports for tips, insights and strategies to keep you safe, as well as fun looks-behind-the-scenes at development!

You can also subscribe to our Newsletter to keep up-to-date on news about Abiotic Factor, and gain access to testing environments. Keep your eyes peeled because things are ramping up behind the scenes!

You can also join us on Discord!

See you next time, Scientists!

[h3]Wishlist Today![/h3]
https://store.steampowered.com/app/427410/Abiotic_Factor/

Playtest Has Ended

[h2]Greetings, esteemed colleagues![/h2]

We want to thank everyone who helped to make our first public playtest a huge success! Over 7,000 scientists gave it their all! Thank you for playing the alpha playtest of Abiotic Factor. We saw a lot of awesome bases and followed tons of streamers on their adventures through the GATE Cascade Research Facility.

[h2]We Want Your Feedback![/h2]

If you have not yet left playtest feedback you can do so by filling out this form: Playtester Feedback Form The form will be open until November 18 at 11:59 PM PST.

[h2]Couldn't Make It?[/h2]

If you missed the playtest (or didn't get enough) - don't fret. There will be more opportunities to get your hands on the game before the launch next year.

[h2]Stay Up To Date With Our Newsletter![/h2]

Subscribe to our Newsletter to be the first to hear about future playtest dates!

[h2]Join the Discord![/h2]