Last Friday was my final day at Ironwood. I’m still adjusting to my new life and it’s bittersweet for sure: I’m exhausted and eager for the break I so desperately need, but it’s been hard to walk away from the project that’s been my life since 2020.
Here's one of my favorite features of Pacific Drive. It should be in all games with crafting systems: I go to craft a car part, but I don't have enough of a crafted material. Instead of making me back out, go to that tab, and craft the material, it just lets me craft it there.
This makes me feel pretty good! We put a lot into this game and I'm so excited that folks are finally getting to see it up close and personal.
6 more weeks til everyone can play Pacific Drive!
Mildly obsessed with everything about Pacific Drive. All the fiddly knobs, absurd modularity, depth in maintaining your car as a mobile shelter/workstation—I suspect immersive sim fans will be feasting over how this game does just about *everything*.
Hey I'm still the lead designer on this and I still think it's pretty good. We decided to make a gameplay trailer so you can see some of that for yourself! (This is that gameplay trailer)
We just pushed another patch for Pacific Drive and I wrote up a (long) post going into the decision making around our save system, both design and technical, plus more in-depth details on save-related changes in this patch, and other changes coming soon:
Welcome to all ya new followers. Hope you like tweets about video games and basketball and also tweets about abolishing the police and the threat of rising fascism, we have fun here
Me too! Hugely important to me as a designer and as the game director that we make a great default experience but if there are parts of the game that make it difficult for you to enjoy Pacific Drive, I would rather you turn those things off than turn off the game entirely.
We sent out a preview build of Pacific Drive last month and there's a bunch of awesome coverage and streams/videos going up today! Plus, you can preorder! A video game is happening!
New ep! We’re joined by
@tamoorh
and
@GenePark
to dig deep into Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, and chat to
@SIRrosen
all about Pacific Drive.
Also Dune 2. There’s a lot of Dune 2 chat.
Still fairly early on in Pacific Drive, but it's definitely endearing itself to me to the point I'd consider it an early game of the year contender, and it's reminding me somewhat of (and this comparison is perhaps some of the highest praise I can give) Dredge.
Karrie is our lead narrative designer and lead writer and she's done such a fantastic job figuring out how to tell a compelling story within the structure of our game
IMAGINE announcing a new studio and a debut title alongside God of War Ragnarök and Like a Dragon: Ishin 🥺
I'm thrilled to be the lead narrative designer & writer on Pacific Drive with
@ironwoodtweets
! SO much more to show you all; stay tuned 🙇♀️🙇♀️
#stateofplay
The team is testing and banging on the Pacific Drive build today and we currently have 9 people focused on helping a designer try and diagnose the car's new quirk. We may soon have the answer to the age old question of "how many game devs does it take to screw in a lightbulb"
@Dacvak
@patrickklepek
@MAGFest
This is a pretty unimpressive lack of awareness (or revisionist history) on your part. What other possible association could that have besides the extremely well known right wing harassment campaign? "It's a joke" is part and parcel of spreading right wing messages. Do better.
PAX West show floor opens in 5 min! Swing by booth 757 to play the Pacific Drive demo--you too can not think about anything besides our video game for the rest of the day! Get there early, don't let any other games into your brain! Too many games in the brain could be dangerous.
Got to stop by
@ironwoodtweets
's booth at PAX West and man... Pacific Drive is gonna be special. Gonna be my last game of the day because I know it's gonna be all I can think about.
Enjoyed talking to the folks at the booth about it for like... an hour, too. What a game.
I can't believe its happening! After 3 years I am so so so proud to share that I am the founder and creative director of Ironwood Studios and we are hard at work on Pacific Drive, our debut title.
Here IS a weird ass game. Pacific Drive indeed will not be for everyone, but if it sounds like it might be your shit, it might just REALLY be your shit
you should definitely read/watch a bunch of different reviews to really know what you're getting into, but I personally really enjoyed this game.
"All games are the same now. I'm bored" I don't wanna hear it. Here's a weird ass game.
This morning, four upcoming indies are taking the spotlight with new reveals and updates. Be on the lookout starting at 8 AM PT, with a new update every 15 mins:
We talked to
@ironwoodtweets
about indie development and nailing the feel of driving survival 🚗
Find out how Unreal Engine helped the studio fill out its weird and dangerous portrayal of the Pacific Northwest, in Pacific Drive:
Playing the Pacific Drive demo, and all these little things keep taking my breath away. This backpack inventory with the little divided sub-areas is just 'chef's kiss'.
imo Pacific Drive is more rewarding if you go about figuring out some of this stuff on your own, but if you want a leg up on getting your head around the systems and stations in the game, here's some tips!
Lookit that,
@Dralex789
and I went and made one of those videos where we sort of awkwardly talk you through the core loop and general mechanics of our video game! Check it out! Pacific Drive comes out Feb 22 on PS5 and PC. It's pretty cool, imo.
Our QA team is lead by Taylor and
@Pixelexical
is that team (for now). Having come from a QA background, I really appreciate how gargantuan a task it is to test our game (not to mention with just 2 people), and these two are taking it in stride
It's such a great song and does so much for the opening of the game! Give this a watch!
This is my third time working with Gord and his team and they're so, so good. I couldn't be happier to have the intro soaked in his music. Just wait 'til you hear what's _inside_ the Zone...
My song "Ghost on the Road" got picked as the opening radio tune in
#PacificDrive
. I haven't had the opportunity to pour this much of myself into a track in years. I'm so proud of it.
Busy finaling Pacific Drive (play the demo!) so I haven't been able to check out much in steam next fest, but I've been sneaking in nightcap sessions of Balatro.... It's very, very good.
I reckon
@BalatroGame
is one of the most interesting demos you can try as part of Steam Next Fest this week. If you like Poker, deckbuilders, peculiar mathematics puzzles or going absolutely insane, this might just be for you.
There's a second mass shooting today, this one in Philly. All day as the fireworks have gone off here in Brooklyn, I've found myself reflexively listening for the telltale fizzle as the fireworks blooms, an assurance of safety. America in 2022. We do not need to live like this.
Excellent piece on why there's so much misunderstanding and misinformation (some intentional, some just confused) surrounding DD2.
It is a game with friction built into almost all of its mechanics when people assume games should be frictionless. The friction IS the fun though.
Shared a booth with the wonderful Ultros team at Gamescom over the summer, so cool seeing a Pacific Drive decal based on their amazing visuals. Check out Ultros, out today!
Congrats to
@ultrosgame
on the successful release! We were so inspired by the vibe that things got a bit - glowy.
Look for this Ultros themed decal kit, coming to
#PacificDrive
after launch.
The 120-minute PC Gaming Show Most Wanted will feature:
A countdown of the 25 most exciting unreleased PC games, as voted for by The Council ✅
New trailers ✅
Exciting announcements ✅
Behind the scenes visits to studios around the world ✅
Tune in Nov 30 at 10am PST / 1pm EST
I can't claim credit for this particular instance but I can promise more where that came from. You can take the boy out of Don't Starve, but you can't take the Don't Starve out of the boy.... (Sorry)
@TheFanboy97
@gameranx
@JakeBaldino
We are actively looking at improving PS5 performance and solutions like a capped framerate that, while it won't prevent dips, will make the experience feel smoother overall due to less variation in framerate. I'm not sure when these things will land, but it's on our radar!
If you do any of this shit or allow your friends to do it, fuck you forever. Get the hell out of our industry and get into the sea, you are not welcome here
Women at GDC this year have been belittled and undermined in their roles, been hit on relentlessly, and had their drinks spiked by predatory men.
Two women were even lured up to a hotel room by a man in a position of power for a “pitch”, where he then assaulted them.
Pacific Drive by
@ironwoodtweets
. A driving centric survival game, you build up and repair your car in a whacked out world that is succumbing to a weird anomaly. I got some strong Outer Wilds vibes from my time with the demo.
We even talked to some press about the game! Please consider this tweet your fair warning that I'm going to be insufferable with the RTs for the next little bit as I track down the coverage that's going up
Our lead engineer is
@zakblystone
and with the help of
@_Foohy
, our engineering team of 2 has been crushing it, building powerful and flexible systems that keep delivering
The rest of the (3D) art team is
@dan335
and Jade Luo, who is not on twitter (good choices), with help from
@Rankopfpro
. If you liked the world you saw in the trailer, much of that is thanks to them!
We've got a brand new look at life behind the wheel in the spectacular new trailer for
#PacificDrive
.
Coming to PlayStation, Steam, and Epic Games Store in 2023.
We are going to be talking about our Sound Design work on
@ironwoodtweets
' Pacific Drive while playing through the game at 10am PST tomorrow, over at . Come hang out and ask all your
#gameaudio
related questions!
We'll be joined by
@mcssound
@soundseeds
CREATORS🚘☢
Take care of your car, and it'll take care of you in Pacific Drive (coming early 2024 to PC/PS5). Scavenge for supplies, navigate treacherous landscapes, and unravel the mystery of the anomalies as you drive to survive.
Interested? Sign up:
Courtesy our HR, who keeps asking me to add dumpster altars: "Dumpster loves me this I know, for its belches tell me so, spits out things I need to go, sometimes fast and sometimes slow. YES DUMPSTER LOVES ME. Yes, Dumpster loves me. Yes Dumpster loves me, for Oppy tells me so."
Had the pleasure of chatting with
@_clivingston_
the other day and I told him all about how I don't like survival games and what that's meant for Pacific Drive
Tam's right, Pacific Drive is very cool and weird. See for yourself over at Booth 757 when the show floor opens in 10 min!
Second photo here is ~1.5 hours into the day yesterday--get there early to avoid the line!
This is absolutely a surreal moment to see something that myself and so many others at Ironwood have worked incredibly hard on finally be announced! The level of excitement I have to finally be able to say what we are doing over at Ironwood has me on cloud 9. Congrats to the team
Oh my GOODNESS I am so excited that I can AT LAST talk about how I'm part of the team behind
@ironwoodtweets
' PACIFIC DRIVE, revealed today.
Working on this project has been so remarkable and I'm stoked to see it finally shown off today.
Keep your eyes on the road...
‘ANDOR’ Season 2 has halted filming with only weeks left due to the studio deciding not to pay actors & writers fairly, causing multiple strikes.
(Source: Deadline)
Y'all getting spoiled today--not only did Pacific Drive go live at midnight, a mere 12 hours later, you're getting treated to Solium Infernium from
@LeagueofGeeks
. Congrats
@TrentKusters
and the whole team! LoG are masters of digital tabletop, Solium's back and better than ever
Sarah is designing all our UI and besides easily handling the (large) pile of work on her plate, her work does such a great job of elevating our highly diegetic approach to interfaces, giving history to even the UIs in the game
Happy to announce that I’m penning the musical score to
#PacificDrive
! Can’t wait for y’all to hear it, it’s some of my most intimate and left-field writing yet for this moody, evocative survival game. 😀
#gamemusic
Check out my new programming language called English, instead of "if" and "else" and "while" and all those useful keywords, we just use "the", it's great
The usefulness of friction and spikiness was one of the best things I learned from my time at Klei. There were many times during dev on Pacific Drive where there was a pull towards softer mechanics and tutorial (which I resisted). I think the results speak for themselves…
With the full release of
#PacificDrive
coming soon, we've decided to leave our demo up and available for everyone until shortly after launch.
We hope you all enjoy the week before launch by hunting down parts, escaping the anomalies, and racing your way back to the garage. 💥
Oh jeez that's my bad (x2, one more tweet after this--a bit fast on the wrapup), Karl Kohlman (tech art) is also not on twitter but has been working closely with Richard to make sure that everything gameplay-related is legible in the environment (and appropriately creepy)
Ok the x2 was premature I should just stop claiming to be done because there's definitely someone else I've missed. Anyways, Ilya has also been making concept art, especially focused on the weirder elements of the Zone. Amazing stuff from him too.
There's something strange happening beyond the wall, and you're all hungry to find out what happened.
Pacific Drive now has an official Discord!
Join us in the community to discuss the latest news and theories of the Olympic Exclusion Zone.
I'm at a music festival this weekend and instead of paying more to workers there's a cool fun program where attendees can collect cans in recycling bags and return them to a booth in exchange for swag.
Looks like
@GameRant
wrote up a nice little guide on how saving works in Pacific Drive! I know this has been a point of confusion and frustration for some; hopefully this helps clarify things a bit