Beyond Contact Early Access Now Available on Steam

Written by Brandon Hofer on September 21, 2021

News: If you want to help out with the development of Beyond Contact now is your chance through the Early Access program.

Today, Koch Media and Playcorp announced the release of Beyond Contact. The new PC survival title launches into Early Access on Steam today and will be a live-operated game with a focus on player feedback during the development process.

Beyond Contact is a survival game inspired by the art and style of pulp science-fiction comics, the moral dilemmas of contemporary science-fiction films, and the unforgiving gameplay of survival genre classics. The game features exploration and discovery, a robust system of research and crafting, intuitive base-building, farming, creature feeding, and much more. The game will have narrative-driven objectives to save the planet’s inhabitants, and enough fauna, flora, and extreme weather conditions to challenge even the toughest survival players.

Some of the core features of Beyond Contact will include:

Play Your Way: Beyond Contact offers Campaign and Endless game modes for both solo and cooperative multiplayer experiences.

Dynamic 3D Engine: A dynamically diverse, robustly detailed, and unquestionably deadly world, powered by Unity engine, with direct support from Unity.

Science Fiction Setting: Utilize your Space Corps-issued equipment, weapons, and AtmoSuits to explore the diverse alien environments, discover extraordinary creatures and unusual plants, and eventually come face to face with the ancient civilization of Ketern.

Robust Research and Crafting: Scan, collect, mine, and scavenge the planet's exotic materials while utilizing the deep and rewarding research and crafting system to survive and thrive on the dying planet while taking on its often aggressive inhabitants.

Intuitive Base Building and Power Grid System: Build, expand, and defend your base of operations while pushing the unique power grid system to its limits.

Narrative Driven Quests and Factional Alien NPCs: Collaborate with alien civilizations, discover previously unknown technology, and uncover the truth of the planet's demise along your journey to help the locals.

The Development studio PlayCorp was founded by engineers with a natural motivation and passion for bleeding-edge technology, which led to years of research and development to set out and execute PlayCorp’s vision. Beyond Contact is the fruition of that passion with a focus on themes such as social and environmental responsibility.

“Beyond Contact is an optimistic vision of the future. It imagines humanity thriving and even helping other species to survive because diversity is the key to thriving," said Chris Mosley CEO of Playcorp. "Tying together a survival game and story presented many unique design challenges, some ongoing. Integrating all of this into a co-op multiplayer experience where players must work with each other is the next big challenge as we go into a full release early next year. We now have a platform that we can use to realize all our dreams for the game as we continue to fill out and expand the world of Beyond Contact and Space Corps.”

Beyond Contact is being developed with a focus, first and foremost, on the players. In collaboration with Koch Media, PlayCorp is determined to maintain transparency with community stakeholders and early adopters in order to create a game that players will be truly proud of. Feature suggestions, upvote tools, and a community-driven bug reporting system will be the supporting pillars for an extensive Early Access content plan that is built out over the next six months and beyond.

Do you have any interest in Beyond Contact? Will you be jumping into the Early Access period and providing feedback or waiting until everything is complete? Tell us in the comment section below.