Community Pre-Alpha Playtest for High-Flying Co-Op Shooter POLARIS Starts Friday

Today, Polaris Team (an offshoot of award-winning indie developer Variable State) announced that their upcoming sci-fi co-op shooter with fully destructible environments, POLARIS, will launch its first Pre-Alpha playtest this weekend running from September 6th, 2024 at 10am PDT to September 9th at 10am PDT. Players interested in trying out the co-op PvE can request access to the Pre-Alpha on the Polaris Steam page once the event is live and await approval from the Polaris Team. Alternatively, players can sign up to the Polaris Newsletter by Wednesday, September 4th, 2024 to receive 4 Pre-Alpha Steam Keys to share with friends, which grants immediate access to the event on Friday.

Since the game’s reveal at IGN Live this past June, Polaris Team has been hard at work in the development process, implementing new features, refining the core gameplay mechanics, and exploring a more stylized visual aesthetic. The playtest will showcase an early development build, featuring work-in-progress content; by enlisting their community to join in at this early stage, the team hopes to gain invaluable feedback provided to help steer their creative process. Players will be able to offer feedback, coordinate co-op games, and discuss the game in the newly launched Discord. 

The in-game infrastructure of POLARIS can be toppled, blown apart, and otherwise destroyed over the course of every match. The same is true of the natural environments and terrain upon which they’ve been constructed. Whether decimating skyscrapers or burning craters in the earth, players will find that the world of Polaris is intricately destroyable, leading to a reactive and ever-evolving combat environment with each new game.

The newest game from Variable State, POLARIS marks a new frontier for the studio following the success of its BAFTA-winning mystery adventure Virginia. Led by Polaris Team, a new division within Variable State, POLARIS channels the developers’ shared passion for the craft and techniques of PvE game design. Featuring former members of studios such as Creative Assembly, Splash Damage, Ninja Theory, Rebellion & Cloud Imperium, Polaris Team is using their substantial collective experience in the realm  of multiplayer combat action to create a game centered around refined PvE mechanics, team-oriented gameplay, and dynamically-destructible settings. 

Team up with your most trusted comrades to liberate your home system’s planets and lay waste to your oppressors— POLARIS is available to wishlist today and the Discord community is now live! For more information and news related to POLARIS, visit the official website,  Twitter page, or sign up to the POLARIS Newsletter (join the newsletter by Wednesday to receive 4 pre-alpha Steam keys).

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Variable State is the award-winning game studio owned by Jonathan Burroughs, Terry Kenny and Lyndon Holland.

Virginia is the studio's debut game, released in 2016 and published by 505 Games. The game was nominated for multiple awards, including 4 Independent Games Festival awards and 3 BAFTA awards. Virginia won the Writers' Guild Award for Best Writing in a Video Game. Virginia's composer and studio co-owner, Lyndon Holland, won the 2017 British Academy Games Award for Music.

Last Stop is the studio's second game and was published by Annapurna Interactive.

POLARIS, the studio’s third game, will be self-published and released in 2024.

Sarah Dawson: [email protected]

TJ Anhorn: [email protected]