Developer Playcorp will create a game that players will truly be proud of
Today, Koch Media and Playcorp announce 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 empowering the players in 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 a thousand times over.
Core Features of Beyond Contact:
- Dynamic 3D Engine: 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 the dying planet and 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.
Chris Mosley, CEO of Playcorp, adds:
“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. 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 will be the supporting pillars for an extensive Early Access content plan that is built out over the next six months and beyond.
PRODUCT DETAILS
Title: Beyond Contact
Platform: Steam (PC)
Genre: Survival
Developer: Playcorp
Players: Singleplayer (Early Access) 1-8 Players (During Early Access in Alpha-Status / fully available at Launch)
Co-Publisher: Koch Media
Release Date: 21 September 2021 (Early Access)
About PlayCorp:
Playcorp Studios Pty. Ltd. (“Playcorp”) is a wholly owned subsidiary of Playcorp Holdings Pty. Ltd. Playcorp is headquartered in Melbourne, Australia. The company was founded by Silvio Salom and Chris Mosely to make video games for PC and console. Playcorp designs rich, immersive and collaborative worlds, where players can not only have fun but explore the concepts of social and environmental responsibility. Playcorp promotes diversity and equal opportunity, whilst creating a working environment where excellence can thrive. Its games reflect its core values.
About Koch Media
The Koch Media Group is a global developer, publisher and distributor of video games, VR games, gaming hardware and merchandise.
The group’s publishing activities, marketing and distribution extend throughout Europe, America, Australia and Asia. Koch Media has more than 25 years of experience in the digital media business and has risen to become a leading global publishing partner. The Koch Media Group runs a multi-label strategy with fully owned publishing units such as Deep Silver, Milestone, Vertigo Games and Ravenscourt, publishing games for consoles, PC and VR platforms across all physical and digital channels.
Additionally, as global publishing partner Koch Media has formed long-term multi-national publishing collaborations with numerous game publishers including Activision Blizzard, Bethesda, Capcom, CI Games, Giants Software, Kalypso, Koei Tecmo, Konami, Paradox, Sega, SNK, Square Enix, Techland, Tripwire, Warner Bros, and many others.
With its parent company in Höfen, Austria, and the Publishing HQ in Munich, Germany, Koch Media owns local publishing companies in Germany, UK, France, Spain, Italy, Sweden, the Netherlands, Austria, Switzerland, Poland, Australia, the United States as well as Japan and Hong Kong.
The Koch Media Group owns ten game development studios: Deep Silver Volition (Champaign, IL / USA), Deep Silver Dambuster Studios (Nottingham / UK), Deep Silver Fishlabs (Hamburg / Germany), Warhorse Studios (Prague / Czech Republic), Milestone (Milan / Italy), Voxler (Paris / France) , Flying Wild Hog (Warsaw, Kraków, Rzeszów / Poland), Free Radical Design (Nottingham / UK) and Vertigo Games (Rotterdam /The Netherlands), DigixArt (Montpellier, France).Additionally, the Koch Media Group collaborates with numerous independent development studios around the world.
Part of the Koch Media Group is also Koch Films, a leading European independent film distributor with business primarily in Germany, Switzerland, Austria and Italy as a cinema, TV, online and Home Entertainment distributor. The Koch Media Group also owns Gaya Entertainment, a leading video game merchandise company in Munich, Germany, and the Quality Assurance Facility in Olomouc, Czech Republic.
Koch Media is an Embracer Group company.
