Frostpunk, the city-building survival game by This War of Mine team 11 bit Studios, will be released by the end of March 2018. The marketing gears are cranking into life and we’ll know an exact date soon, it sounds like.
“The game is scheduled to be released by the end of Q1 and we are right on track to make this happen,” 11 bit Studios’ senior marketing manager Karol Zajączkowski told me. “Starting from February we are bringing out the big guns, so in upcoming weeks you can expect a lot of news about the game, which should shed some light on the premiere date.”
His comments come alongside a short new video for Frostpunk showing a new automaton you can build to help your settlement. It’s a giant steampunk robot, basically, and it can – unlike humans – work around the clock without rest, as long as you have the fuel to power it. But your population may not like having it around. Like so much else in Frostpunk, it’s a toss-up between humanity and productivity.
I played a lot of a Gamescom build of Frostpunk last year, and it’s brutal – every bit as brutal as you may hoped having played This War of Mine. It feels like a constant losing battle. You’re the last settlement on Earth, that’s the set-up, and you’re in a bitterly cold place. The generator is the heart of your settlement and must be stoked with coal, but your people are the soul, and their associated Hope and Despair gauges can make or break you.
Along with new kinds of building you can research and use, you can pass laws, such as enforcing child labour, which causes Despair but also makes you more productive. Juggling these kinds of decision throughout is how Frostpunk plays.
It’s beautiful, too, a delicate, wrought iron, Steampunk city like a harrowing miniature toy before you. In short, I’m very excited for it.