Longtime fans of Frostpunk have been eagerly waiting for its sequel, Frostpunk 2, to release on July 25th. But after player feedback during the beta, 11 Bit Studios has made the difficult decision to delay the game.
Fans of the Frostpunk series will know it as the survival city sim set in a post-apocalyptic icy wasteland. Through its meticulous balance of resource management and politics, Frostpunk has garnered a hardcore fanbase. And it’s for that fanbase that 11 Bit Studios decided to delay the game, stating in a Steam announcement earlier today. The statement reads:
“Hey everyone,
Just over two months ago, you had the chance to play Frostpunk 2 Beta, and we greatly appreciate the feedback you shared with us. So much so that it took us some time to take everything in, as there was both a lot of praise for our work (who doesn’t like praise, right?), but also many keen observations on areas we could improve or add to the final game.
Based on the surveys we received from you after playing, the average rating you gave the Beta was 8 out of 10. We’re super grateful for that! At the same time, the Beta was only a small slice of a work-in-progress, still growing game. While our backlog is plentiful, the Beta was an opportunity for us to listen to what you enjoyed, and what didn’t quite land yet. This allowed us to prioritize things better, and bring to the front the features and modifications we were already working on (we hope!) you’ll enjoy the most.
Before we go into detail on the new additions, there’s one drawback we need to be upfront about. As we analyzed your feedback and prioritized things we want to add to the game, we realized that to properly do them justice – and to guarantee the best possible experience at launch – we need more time to finish the development of Frostpunk 2. That’s why we made the difficult decision to postpone its release to September 20th, 2024.
We know this is not the news you wanted to hear. However, we believe these additional features are something you deserve to see in-game on day one, not in a patch added after the release. We can only hope you understand that our decision comes from a place of wanting to create the best game possible for you. One thing is certain – these few weeks will pass by VERY quickly for us, because we’re cooking some really exciting stuff. The list is too long to go through all at once, but the highlights include new additions to the game mechanics, extensive UI & UX enhancement and, by popular demand, a new city feature we like to call Zoom Stories.
1. Additions to the game mechanics – gameplay proceeds more smoothly now
As you clearly pointed out while playing the Beta, some processes could work better or differently. We agree with much of your feedback and wanted to make the game experience smoother while giving you more options for managing your city. Here are a few improvements we’re currently polishing that were high on the nice-to-have list:
- Changes to temperature, Heat and proximity-based gameplay, including new and rebalanced Hubs, that will make the city-building gameplay deeper and more impactful,
- More detailed and flexible workforce management,
- More direct-use abilities in the game loop, to allow you to react to crises more dynamically,
- A new resource to make city-building and expansion more strategic, helping you stabilise the city’s economy,
- Ability to reshape your districts after their construction,
- Factions’ behaviour that is better aligned with their lore,
- A more thorough and complex approach to dealing with protests.
2. Extensive UI & UX enhancement – it’s the decisions you should be struggling with, not the interface
The game is challenging enough already, so it came as no surprise to us that you want the interface to be as user-friendly as possible. That’s why we’re making changes to the UI & UX, including but not limited to:
- Improving the HUD (Head-Up Display) to make it clearer and more intuitive,
- Adding a new construction menu along with five new city Hubs,
- Improving the clarity, readability and look & feel of the Idea Tree and frostland.
3. A new city feature called ‘Zoom Stories’ – watch your citizens up close
In the Beta survey, you pointed out that after shifting the game’s scale, you lost attachment to individuals. Indeed, Frostpunk 2 plays out on a much larger scale, but we want to give you an opportunity to get close to your citizens as much as possible even in this new frame. That’s why we’re adding something we like to call ‘Zoom Stories’, which are basically zoom-ins available in specific city parts that allow you to watch the day-to-day life of your citizens.
As you can see, there’s still a lot of work that needs to be done, and we’ve only mentioned a fraction of it here. Without going into too much detail, we can say that we invited some of you to play the game again recently and test some of the features mentioned above. We’re happy to say the results are more than promising – the improvements are indeed working wonders.
That’s why we hope these few weeks of additional waiting time that we need to implement all the new features will be met with your understanding and won’t test your patience too much. From now until the release, we will share with you behind-the-scenes updates so you can see how these additions are coming to life.
Once again, thanks for all your feedback! It’s reading all of your observations that made us realise we can do even better and push ourselves even harder.
Kuba & Łukasz”
In sum, 11 Bit Studios has taken on the player feedback gained from the beta in March of this year. During that beta, players highlighted a desire for certain game mechanics, adjustment to UI, and the ability to zoom in and see what the citizens of their city are up to. 11 Bit Studios aspires to bring all this and more when the game launches, which is why the game will need another two months to polish the game.
It’s unfortunate we’ll have to wait, but if it means a better game then it’s for the best.
Frostpunk 2 will be available on September 20.
