Hi Survivors!

By popular demand and to get some relaxation in between play session, we'd like to share the theme song "Down By The Riverside" that's featured in our release trailer.

Since only a few know this, the song was specifically recorded for the trailer, and the vocalist is none other than Samina König, the German voice of Ella Sawchyn. She did a fantastic job conveying both the fragility and hopefulness that the survivors in Endzone experience day to day as they struggle to survive.

Now, have a listen and dive (back) into Endzone 2. Thank you so much for your ongoing support. Your feedback, comments, and reviews help us tremendously in further improving the game and shaping it into what it's meant to be.

PS (to phrase it more direct): We understand the mission to further improve the game, and just like with EZ1, we will implement feedback step by step during Early Access to realize both our vision and yours. Let's go!

Your Teams from Gentlymad & Assemble

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2144640/Endzone_2/


[www.instagram.com] [discord.com]

Alright, survivors. Here we are again, launching into Early Access with Endzone and starting a journey that is already, and will continue to be, heavily impacted by your feedback. Developing Endzone 2 is a balancing act between trying out new things and staying true to the original IP. Throughout Early Access, we expect to close this gap together with you and find that perfect sweet spot for the post-apocalyptic city-builder we all wish for.

• Endzone 2 is not a cozy or completely relaxed city builder. You can customize it extensively and almost turn it into one, but at its core, it's about ensuring the survival of your settlements.
  
• It's not a fast-paced RTS game where every unit is interactable or movable, like in Age of Empires or Starcraft. While we have introduced vehicles and interactive expeditions, where you directly control your units, creating and managing settlements is done on a per-building basis.
  
• While you may notice several similarities to the Anno series, Endzone 2 is more focused on exploring new locations directly on the map. Ruins can be scavenged, and you can experience expeditions firsthand by moving your explorers. You don't leave the map—everything happens directly in the game world.

The Roadmap always highlights the next two upcoming game updates based on our internal plans. So, here are the first two for you to check out:

The first patch currently includes

• Advancements to settler simulation
  
• Fixes for reported bugs
  
• Stability improvements
  
• Quality of Life improvements

The first content update is called Let There Be Light! and includes

• Electricity: Generate and distribute electricity!
  
• Upcycling: Turn specific ruins into buildings!
  
• Content: New side missions and POIs

Please note: During the Early Access phase of Endzone - A World Apart, we pushed out big feature updates monthly. With Endzone 2, we now split the update stream into a monthly rotation of patches and major updates. This will allow us to integrate more feature-rich and coherent additions with the major updates, as it gives us more time to invest in QA and feature iteration.

Patches will include quality of life improvements, balancing changes, and bug fixes. They might also feature smaller content additions or changes.

Major Updates will introduce significant features, such as Electricity (see Roadmap). A major update might also include substantial content additions, like a thematic set of new missions or expeditions.

Just like with Endzone - A World Apart, we want to develop Endzone 2 together with you, its community. Releasing Endzone 2 into Early Access is one of the biggest milestones we've achieved since we began working on the game.

We want to emphasize that the community is extremely important to us and is practically essential for the development of Endzone 2. With your help and dedication, we aim to gain clear insights into which features are desired and how we can further improve the game for players. We've seen many times how games that started off great failed to adapt to the voice of their player base. Our goal is to remain transparent throughout development, stay open-minded, and listen to our community.

We want to hear your thoughts! Do not hesitate, so please go forth and report any bug or feedback via in-game reporting Tool. Press F2 and describe how the bug occurred or pick the Feedback tag and tell us how we can improve Endzone 2. Please don't write support inquiries via email, use our in-game reporting tool.

As for your feedback, we have created an easy way for you to leave or post feedback directly from within the game. Additionally, you can also reach out to us on Discord[discord.com], Steam or with our dedicated feedback form!

You can also provide feedback without using the in-game tool:

Feedback: https://form.asana.com/?k=KyMLfw3gfCkIEyVPz3m3KA&d=1192678870065366
Bugs: https://form.asana.com/?k=uPWxYt_u8JsfagkF1rUUfw&d=1192678870065366

Since this is an Early Access release, please note that the game may enter a state where it isn't entirely stable, meaning there are a few known issues. We've created a short list of these issues to inform you that we're working on fixing them as soon as possible.

Please note: If an error occurs in the background, it will be transparently displayed with a popup on your screen. If that happens, we would greatly appreciate it if you could send us a bug report using our in-game bug reporter. If the pop-up happens, we recommend not to continue with your current game sessions. It is recommended to restart the game due to consecutive errors as a result of the initial error.

• Low Bitrate while streaming: Please turn off “sharpen” in the options menu. You find it in Options>Graphics>Render Quality.
  
• Building Upgrades: Players may experience issues when they upgrade buildings.
  
• Pink screen/game crashing on startup/VULKAN dialog: We’ve released an update to fix this issue. If it still occurs, please refer to our guide for further troubleshooting.
  
• Localization: Please be aware that some localization strings may be missing or displayed incorrectly.
  
• Voice Over: Some POIs (Expeditions) and Event based lines are still missing their voice overs; these will be implemented soon.
  
• Black screen after the loading screen: When starting a new game round, certain session settings may cause the game to briefly display a black screen immediately after the loading screen before the game round begins.
  
• Map Creator: Disabling large and medium-sized zones can lead to unusable/erroneous maps.

Okay, let's not turn this into a novel. We hope you enjoy playing Endzone 2 and that the wait was worthwhile. We're very much looking forward to your feedback and can't wait to go on this journey together with you.

THANK YOU!
The teams @ Gentlymad Studios & Assemble Entertainment

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2144640/Endzone_2/


[www.instagram.com] [discord.com]

Fellow Survivors!

We are 24 hours before the official Early Access release of Endzone 2. Therefore, we de-activated the Playtest to give everyone some time to catch a breath.

With that being said, big thank you to everyone that participated in the Playtest and provided us with lots of valuable last-minute feedback before the game's release. You helped us a great deal, and hopefully had lots of fun while doing so. And sorry for everyone that did not get the chance, we had to limit the Playtest.

And since it fits the timing, here's a world map overview with a good bunch of local release times. Mark your calendars, set your alarm clocks.

If this wasn't already enough...some of you Playtest players have probably noticed it, we recently added FOUR new languages to the game. Endzone 2 officially supports localizations for:

• Brazilian-Portuguese
  
• Ukrainian
  
• Polish
  
• Turkish

[/b][/list]IMPORTANT NOTE: This does NOT mean we won’t add other languages in the future. We will continuously observe and evaluate your requests for additional languages during Early Access.

Now, have a fantastic remaining weekend. All of us here at Gentlymad Studios and Assemble Entertainment are both extremely excited and nervous for tomorrow's release. This is a big milestone for everyone involved.

We can hardly wait to embark on the Early Access journey with you. Get on board our Pathfinder and let's go.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2144640/Endzone_2/


[www.instagram.com] [discord.com]

Fellow Survivors!

Let's get straight to the point:

Everyone that got accepted in the first wave should now be able to see the "Endzone 2 Playtest" app their Steam Library.

Please note: you can still register yourself for the Closed Playtest via the Join the Endzone 2 Playtest-button on the game's store page. We will periodically grant additional players access the Playtest over the course of the week.

If you want to share your thoughts and feedback, we'd highly appreciate you using on of the following options to share it with us:

#1 In-Game Reporting Tool
Press F2 to describe how a bug occurred or choose the feedback tag to tell us how we can improve Endzone 2.

#2 Online Links
If you're not in the game, you can use the following links:

Feedback: gentlymad.org/ez2-feedback

Bugs: gentlymad.org/ez2-bugs


#3 Community Platforms
You can also reach us on the Endzone Discord[discord.com] or in the Steam Forums. However, we prefer that you use the in-game reporting tool.

We appreciate and look forward to your feedback!

Since this Playtest is a preview version for our Early Access release, please be aware that the game is not entirely stable yet. Please use the feedback options above and help us find and eradicate bugs and issues prior to the game's release. We've already prepared a short list with some already Known Issues:

• Low Bitrate while streaming: Please turn off “sharpen” in the options menu. You find it in Options>Graphics>Render Quality.
  
• Building Upgrades: Players may experience issues when they upgrade buildings.
  
• Pink screen/game crashing on startup/VULKAN dialog: We’ve released an update to fix this issue. If it still occurs, please refer to our guide for further troubleshooting.
  
• Localization: Please be aware that some localization strings may be missing or incorrectly displayed.
  
• Voice Overs (English and German only): At some point, you'll probably notice that the voiced lines sound off. This is due to the currently ongoing voice over recordings; these will be present at Early Access release.

Please note: If an error occurred in the background we transparently display it with a popup appearing on your screen. If that happens we would greatly appreciate it if you could send us a bug report using our in-game bug reporter. If the game becomes unresponsive afterwards it’s recommended to restart the game.

Now, have fun with the Playtest, and thank you for your support.

The Teams @ Gentlymad Studios & Assemble Entertainment

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2144640/Endzone_2/


[www.instagram.com] [discord.com]

Fellow Survivors!

Today, we've got some Breaking News we need to talk about!

It's been quite some time since the first playable demo for Endzone 2 was available during Steam Next Fest. We gathered so much feedback, dug through countless threads and tickets, and finally restructured and reprioritized some of our plans—mostly based on your input.

We've already shared some insights about the changes we've made. In case you've missed it, you can give it a read here: https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/2144640/view/7024009805573566251

Now, that was just the beginning, and we've been constantly updating and upgrading the game behind the scenes. To give you the chance to dive back into the world of Endzone 2, we've prepared a Closed Playtest that reflects the most up-to-date version available.

Starting today, you can register yourself for the Closed Playtest via the Join the Endzone 2 Playtest-button on the game's store page. On Monday, August 19th, we will start rolling out the Playtest, gradually granting access to players over the course of the week.


Yet another important thing we'd like to share with you before release is a first look at the Roadmap; revealing our plans for the first two updates to the game once we hit Early Access on August 26.

Here's a sneek peak at the Roadmap [gentlymad.org]and what it'll look like at release:

The first patch currently includes

• Advancements to settler simulation
  
• Fixes for reported bugs
  
• Stability improvements
  
• Quality of Life improvements

The first content update is called Let There Be Light! and includes

• Electricity: Generate and distribute electricity!
  
• Upcycling: Turn specific ruins into buildings!
  
• Content: New side missions and POIs

Please Note: During the Early Access phase of Endzone - A World Apart, we pushed big feature updates monthly. With Endzone 2, we want to split the update stream into a monthly rotation of patches and major updates. This allows us to integrate more feature-rich and more coherent additions with the big updates as it allows us to invest more time into QA and feature iteration.

Patches will include quality of life improvements, balancing changes, and bug fixes to the game. They might also include smaller content additions or changes.

Major Updates will include significant feature additions like Electricity, for example. A big update might also contain substantial content additions, like a thematic set of new missions or expeditions.


Call for everyone who's attending gamescom this year: we will be there, so come by, say hi, and play some Endzone 2 while having a chat with us!

You'll find us in Hall 10.2 | Indie Area:

• Home of Indies (IAHOI) | Booth E010g - D011g | (Assemble Entertainment Publisher Booth)
  
• Indie Arena Booth (IAB) | Booth F010g - E019 | (Hesse / Endzone 2 Booth)

See you there!


Last but not least, If you're a content creator and would like to help us showcase Endzone 2 to a broader audience, go to this website and fill out the form.

Sign up here: https://tally.so/r/mJ255Y


Thank you!


Lots of new stuff to digest, but we hope you like what you see. We're super thankful for all your support, and can't wait to hit the Early Access road together with our community.

Stay safe, stay tuned.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2144640/Endzone_2/


[www.instagram.com] [discord.com]

Fellow Survivors!

We have great news for you! Endzone 2 finally gets its Early Access release date:

Thank you for all your patience over the past months. Thank you for playing the demo and providing us with so much invaluable feedback.

This summer, on August 26, we will finally launch Endzone 2 into Early Access!

To celebrate, we produced an all-new and longer trailer than usual, showcasing all the features Endzone 2 has to offer:

As you may have already seen, we just released a dev blog about the comprehensive changes and system reworks we implemented in the current internal development build; all based on YOUR feedback!

➡️ Make sure to check it out, if you haven't already.

In addition, the demo will be available until July 22, and will then be taken offline.

Thank you, everyone!

The Teams @ Gentlymad Studios & Assemble Entertainment

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2144640/Endzone_2/


[www.instagram.com] [discord.com]

Survivors,

The demo for Endzone 2 has been out for a while now, and the amount of feedback we’ve received has been incredible. Many of you pointed out various aspects of the game that did not live up to your expectations and needed improvement. Some changes however we made transitioning from Endzone - A World Apart were welcomed and received positive feedback, which is why we conducted a survey a few weeks ago, based on that very feedback.

We have evaluated the results, discussed them in our team, and made many changes based on your input. Before we dive into how Endzone 2 has developed since the demo version, we want to thank you for your massive support, interest, and care for the game. We carefully read every report and incorporate your feedback as much as possible.

So, let’s jump into what we’ve addressed so far:

Settlers & Immersion:

One of the most frequent feedback points was the lack of simulation in Endzone 2, making the game feel lifeless as settlers were not well integrated into the world. We enhanced this by adding new animations, such as carrying tools, moving cartwheels, working in and on buildings, and even loafing around and sitting on benches. The “Wuselfaktor” has been increased, making the settlement buzz with life.

Carry visuals for the settlers
Settlers are now clickable again, showing their unique portrait and current activities. Additionally they reflect the state of the settlement regarding health, confidence and radiation.

We are continuously improving the settlers' interactions and adding more features. Our goal is to create an organic, living settlement that you can follow and get immersed in.

Research System:

The interface and mechanics of the Research System have been redesigned. Reports indicated that many of you did not like how it was set up. Some users had issues understanding what could be researched, while others were unhappy with how easy and instant research could be conducted. We saw the issues and made changes. Progressing in the Tech Tree still requires Knowledge Points, which can only be obtained by progressing in expeditions. Now, every expedition can yield a new Knowledge Point, making it unnecessary to search for specific expeditions. Once a point is obtained, new buildings can be unlocked for research in the research window. Technologies then can be researched by spending certain resources. After choosing a new technology, a timer shows the progress of the research.
You can also skip layers in the research tree, allowing you to research at your own pace depending on your needs.

Settlement Branches & Housing

Settlement Branches now only categorize buildings by their respective areas in the Tech Tree. We removed the different Housing Types and the boost in productivity from houses placed close to production buildings. This system frustrated most of you and made no sense, as placing buildings close to a production chain and far away would be both beneficial and bad at the same time. This is why we simply removed it for now.

Confidence System:

The confidence system has been reworked, tying the confidence of your settlement to each individual house. Your settlement starts with a base value of 50 out of 100 confidence, which can be influenced positively or negatively by certain conditions. Community buildings near housing districts improve settlers' mood, while living close to production facilities lowers it due to noise and pollution. All houses contribute to a global confidence value for your zone. High confidence can trigger positive events, such as festivals or new settlers joining, while low confidence can lead to negative events, such as people leaving or stealing supplies.

Tier 1 buildings of your early settlement can only reach a value up to 70. Upgraded houses and advancing technology and prosperity will allow for higher values. Maintaining a constant supply of food, water, and medicine is also crucial. A lack of these resources, high radiation levels, and unattended corpses will negatively impact confidence.

Health System:

The health system works similarly to the confidence system and can be affected by the same factors. If people are supplied with medicine and not exposed to radiation, overall resistance to diseases is high. The lower your health value drops, the higher the chance of a disease outbreak. The severity and duration of a disease depends on the overall health condition of your settlers at outbreak.

Wells:

The survey showed that many players were unhappy with the requirement of placing a well in a swamp. Therefore we decided that wells can be placed anywhere. On top we also added a "Water Purifying Facility" that instead can only be placed in swamp areas, which works more effectively than a regular well and also fits the realism aspect.

Zone Establishment:

Feedback indicated that starting a new settlement was too complex and poorly communicated. Many players struggled to even get started, so we reworked the system. Now, when approaching a new zone, the Landing Stage, essential for Transport Routes and logistics, will automatically snap to a viable position. The Blueprint will dynamically change based on your vehicle's position, allowing for easy placement with a simple click. The camera then moves to the center of the zone with the Town Center already selected. This process is more readable and faster.

Expeditions:

The survey showed that most of you wanted more variety and complexity in expeditions. We introduced a new Item System that interconnects expeditions through key items needed for progression. Some places may require a lock-pick, a ladder, or a generator to progress. These items can now be carried separately from resources and taken to another expedition where they are needed.

This increases the need for and reward from exploring each expedition carefully. We also created more unique expedition locations to reduce repetitiveness. You can now visit locations like the famous Nuclear Power Plant from Endzone - A World Apart, the largest expedition we’ve designed so far.

Decorations:

Many of you asked for decoration options to enhance your settlement's visuals. With Early Access, we are introducing an initial batch of decoration buildings, which we will continue to add to. Here is a collection of the buildings you will be able to place:

These include:

• Birch
  
• Larch
  
• Flag
  
• Statue
  
• Garden
  
• Small Flowerbed
  
• Medium Flowerbed
  
• Large Flowerbed
  
• Bench

Community Buiildings:

In conjunction with the new decorations, there is also a new type of buildings, that has decorative elements to it, but directly impact the confidence systems. Community Buildings are a place for your settlers to hang out, meet and relax.

Those include:

• Campfire

[/b]

Wishtree

[/b]

Bathhouse [Visuals still in work]

Pavillon [Visuals still in work]

Memorial [Visuals still in work]

Park [Visuals still in work]

[/list]

Readability of Buildings:

Many reports indicated that some buildings looked too similar or were not distinguishable from afar. We reworked all buildings mentioned in this feedback, also tweaking their colors and shapes to make them unique and recognizable from any camera distance. In addition, a few new buildings have been introduced. With these changes we came closer to how we want buildings to look in general, fitting the post-apocalyptic setting they are placed in.

• Woodcutter
  
• Upgraded Woodcutter
  
• Recycling Center
  
• Weaver
  
• Tree Nursery
  
• Tailor
  
• Upgraded Tailor
  
• Pharmacy
  
• Gathering Hut
  
• Scrapyard
  

General Quality Of Life Improvements:

• Blueprint-Mode that can be toggled and automatically activates, if the needed resources are not available.
  
• Dynamic Cloud Shadow to increase immersion.
  
• Improved foliage distribution for a more organic environment.
  
• Added Vignette for the camera
  
• Resources can be deleted from inventory

Conclusion:

Although all systems have been touched and partially reworked, everything is still a work in progress. A few examples of what we are currently working on include children, builders at construction sites, and the general interactions of settlers as we can still improve on the overall “Fluff”.
Throughout Early Access, we will keep our eyes and ears open to your feedback, constantly adjusting systems and mechanics as we did with the demo.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2144640/Endzone_2/


[www.instagram.com] [discord.com]

We are thrilled to be part of the Steam event "Games Made Baked in Germany." with Endzone - A World Apart🥳🥳

➡️ Check out the 🌭 Games Germany 🌭 event page!
📺 Watch the 🔴 IGN live showcase 🔴 here!

This event celebrates the best indie games from German developers. As part of the festivities, Endzone 2 is unveiling a brand-new trailer called "Unbroken," showcasing the unbreakable will to survive!

Watch the ☢️ Endzone 2 - Unbroken Trailer ☢️ here!

https://youtu.be/OzTLp-PFU68

We hope you enjoy our new trailer! Stay tuned for more updates.

Yours,
Gentlymad and Assemble

https://store.steampowered.com/app/933820/Endzone__A_World_Apart/

Survivors!

We are actively reviewing all of your submitted feedback, both on Steam and through our dedicated Feedback Tool accessible in-game. We have received over 1,000 reports so far and have collected some of the most important questions for both us and you. Now, we want to specifically ask you some questions in a survey to understand the majority opinion and identify areas for improvement.

[forms.gle]
Thank you very much for playing the demo, submitting your feedback, and filling out the survey. Your input helps us shape the game to better meet your expectations and enhance its overall feel. 🙂 🍀

Yours,
Gentlymad and Assemble

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2817790/Endzone_2_Demo?snr=1_7_15__13

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2144640/Endzone_2/


[www.instagram.com] [discord.com]