ROUTINE News

[p]Hello,[/p][p][/p][p]This is Aaron, Jemma, and Pete from Lunar Software. As you may already know, we are in the final stage of development. The game is scheduled for release on December 4th, and we are currently making the final adjustments.[/p][p][/p][p]We appreciate everyone who has taken the time to ask questions about ROUTINE. The first edition of our Q&A answered several of these, and here is part two.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]1. How long will the game be?  [/p][p][/p][p]The total playtime for ROUTINE will definitely vary from player to player depending on how you like to play games, but during a first playthrough, we expect it will take most people around 6-8 hours to play through the game. [/p][p][/p][p]2. Is the current version of ROUTINE a close representation of your vision from initial trailers, or did some horror game (or just any game) released during the development influence/inspire the current state of Routine? [/p][p][/p][p]I don't think any single game has inspired ROUTINE in any way since our initial conception. However, as the years went on, we saw studios really step up their quality bar, so we had to as well.[/p][p][/p][p]This never changed our initial vision, but it did help us focus on what we loved about ROUTINE, and do it better than we had done before.[/p][p][/p][p]3. Does ROUTINE feature permadeath? [/p][p][/p][p]No. Even though we did experiment with permadeath as a feature when developing earlier versions of ROUTINE, the final game will not have permadeath.[/p][p][/p][p]4. Based on the early trailers, it seemed like the monorail was used to travel between different parts of the station. Is that still present and a core part of the design? [/p][p][/p][p]Yes, the tram is still featured in ROUTINE and will help you get from station to station.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]5. Are there multiple endings to the game? [/p][p][/p][p]No. During development, we previously experimented with multiple endings as part of the narrative in ROUTINE, but we ultimately found in the end that just one ending worked best with the kind of story we wanted to tell. [/p][p][/p][p]6. Will any sections take place outside the station, on the lunar surface? [/p][p][/p][p]While we’d love to share more with you about the kind of areas and places you’ll visit in the world of ROUTINE, we think you’ll enjoy it more if you discover this for yourself. [/p][p][/p][p]7. Will the C.A.T. have upgrades? [/p][p][/p][p]The C.A.T. has additional modules that can be found and used as you progress through the game. One of these is the ULTRAVIEW Module, which adds enhanced screen vibrancy and a flashlight to the C.A.T., along with a blacklight that allows players to uncover clues hidden within the game environment.[/p][p][/p][p]8. Given the absence of the usual interface, will there be an explanation of the controls in the game?[/p][p][/p][p]We really care about this element of ROUTINE, and have tried our best throughout development to make it feel just right. Our goal has always been to teach as much as possible within the world itself, rather than relying on UI.[/p][p][/p][p]However, there are a few moments early on where we display controls that are unique to ROUTINE on screen; otherwise, you would be forced to dip into the menu and look at your controls, which would be even more immersion-breaking.[/p][p][/p][p]▼[/p][p][/p][p]Thanks again to everyone who submitted questions. We enjoyed answering these! [/p][p][/p][p]There are just a few weeks left until launch, almost there

It is more than commonplace these days for games to get some kind of delay, in fact it's surprising when the big boy names don't get one, like, say, GTA 6, which was meant to be out this year, but got pushed to 2026. But it's rare that most games take more than 13 years to develop, an amount of time which retrofuture moonbase horror game Routine did in fact take. Except now its release is right around the corner!

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Raw Fury’s Sci-Fi horror title, ROUTINE, is finally being released after 13 years of development, and it will be available day one for Xbox Game Pass.

After 13 long years, today’s ID@Xbox showcase featured the announcement that ROUTINE, a sci-fi horror, finally has a release date. It will arrive on December 4. To get fans up to speed, back in 2012, Lunar Software announced their Sci-Fi space horror title, Routine, approved by the then-active Steam Greenlight program.

The Steam Greenlight program was instituted as a way for fans to vote on which indie games they’d like to see added to the Steam platform, and devs would submit their titles to Greenlight. Fans would then vote on the titles, and after enough votes were tallied, indie titles would be considered for release on Steam’s marketplace. One of these fan-voted titles, ROUTINE by Raw Fury, it had a then-scheduled release date in 2013. ROUTINE recently came back into the spotlight after Raw Fury re-revealed it... Read more

[p]Hey again everyone, [/p][p][/p][p]Today is a very special day for us, as we are excited to announce that ROUTINE will launch on 4th December on Steam and Xbox platforms.[/p][p][/p][p]The journey has been long, tough, and emotional, but also extremely rewarding. We're really happy that before the year is over, you’ll be able to experience the game that we have dedicated our lives to for so long.[/p][p][/p][p]Alongside announcing a release date we also released a new short trailer for ROUTINE, which you may have seen during the ID@Xbox Showcase today. Here’s a link to it, in case you missed it:[/p][p][/p][previewyoutube][/previewyoutube][p][/p][p]Thank you all for the continued support

[p]Hey again, [/p][p][/p][p]It’s Aaron, Jemma, and Pete here, from Lunar Software. We are still busy wrapping up work on ROUTINE, but we realized it’s been a few weeks since we last shared some news on the game. [/p][p][/p][p]For this update, we thought it might be a nice idea to cover the topics that you’re most curious about, so we recently asked you to share your questions about ROUTINE with us on our social channels.  [/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]Here is a selection of those questions and answers.[/p][p][/p][p]▼[/p][p][/p][p]Q: When will the game launch? [/p][p][/p][p]A: ROUTINE will launch late 2025. We don’t have a specific release date to share just yet, but we will have more information on this soon. [/p][p][/p][p]Q: How much of the original idea for ROUTINE has changed throughout the development of the game? [/p][p][/p][p]A: The biggest change since the Unreal Engine 3 version of ROUTINE is where we focused our time and how far we were able to push the project’s quality bar.[/p][p][/p][p]When we restarted development in Unreal Engine 4 and then moved to Unreal Engine 5, we really wanted to double down on things that we loved but felt we could have done better, like the C.A.T., and push them beyond what we achieved previously in UE3.[/p][p][/p][p]There were also aspects of the design and narrative that we weren’t satisfied with before. This time around, we wanted to make sure that every aspect of the game received equal attention and love across the board.[/p][p][/p][p]Q: Did the long wait for a re-reveal discourage the development team, or was it an incentive to continue forward?[/p][p][/p][p]A: There has never been a moment when the team was discouraged from working on ROUTINE. It’s our love for the project that has kept us going all this time.[/p][p][/p][p]It hasn’t been an easy journey, and definitely not a short one, but nothing could stop us from bringing ROUTINE to the finish line. 
[/p][p]The re-reveal during the Summer Games Fest 2022 was extremely nerve-racking, but seeing the response from everyone made the whole thing very special for us.[/p][p][/p][p]Q: Was it challenging to pick up development on the game again after pausing work for a while? [/p][p][/p][p]A: We never truly stopped working on ROUTINE, not really, and fully picking it back up in Unreal Engine 4, and eventually 5, didn’t feel challenging at all.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]Q: Will the game be available on PlayStation after launch? [/p][p][/p][p]A: Right now, we are focused on launching the game on Steam and Xbox platforms. We may announce more platforms in the future, but we currently can’t make any guarantees. [/p][p][/p][p]Q: Is Mick Gordon still a part of the project? [/p][p][/p][p]A: No, as we shared in the blog post here, Mick made the difficult decision to leave the project in July 2024 because of conflicts in his schedule. Much of his incredible work will be included in the final game, but the rest of the audio and audio implementation in ROUTINE is being done by other people.[/p][p] [/p][p]Q: Is the entire lunar base handcrafted, or does it include any random generation for environment, enemies, etc? [/p][p][/p][p]A: The game is fully handcrafted, though there are some randomized elements, mainly related to puzzle solving, such as keycodes. [/p][p][/p][p]Q: What films or other pieces of media have most influenced the atmosphere and the game mechanics during the development of your game? Please give me your most unexpected answers if possible. Thank you![/p][p][/p][p]A: Because you asked for more unexpected answers, I will shy away from the more mainstream references.[/p][p]There have been some amazingly beautiful movies that, while not a major inspiration, absolutely had an impact on us as creators, such as Eraserhead, A Clockwork Orange, Outland, Scanners, The Rover, Paperhouse, and Space: 1999, to name a few.[/p][p][/p][p]▼[/p][p][/p][p]Thank you so much to everyone who submitted their questions. They were all fantastic, and it’s been really helpful to see which areas of the game and development you are most interested in.
[/p][p]While we didn't cover all the questions in today’s post, we are planning to do more of these in the coming weeks and will continue answering them.
[/p][p]Thank you for still being with us. We really do appreciate your support. [/p][p][/p][p]The wait is almost over.[/p][p][/p][p]-Lunar Software
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