Absolute Matter is a first-person extraction shooter all about player interaction. Every single mechanic in this game either leads to player interaction or makes it more interesting, more intense. To bring more life in the different ways of player interaction the game features a dynamic quest system. Not only the devs give quests to our players, you as a player can create these too. May it be a bounty on someones head or may it be a call for help when you ran into trouble. Even trading or raiding a compound as a team can be done that way.

You play in the rundown countryside of Eastern Europe in 2081. Since an advanced alien civilization has connected humanity to an interstellar transport network, mankind lives in metropolises and enjoys the benefits of the changes. The few people still living here in the outlands follow their own law. Aliens browse the area. Groups fight for control of essential spots like factories or data centers. Individuals fight for loot and their lives.

It’s an open world game and players can set their own goals. On first glimpse it reminds of a typical loot shooter, but once you look closer, you realize: There is a hell of a difference! The player gets offered adventures on different ways. Not like in most games by NPCS though, there are three kinds of invitations: PvX / Player / Environment.

PvX Invitations are the flesh and bones of the game. Events of all kinds invite people to participate in the world. This ranges from roaming aliens to gang fights. These events allure players with obtainable equipment. PvX means that you can never be sure who you will be fighting against. It may start as an attack on an AI-driven alien but end as a battle against other players for the loot.

Although we liked “The Invitation”, we realized the title would turn out to be a pain for our marketing. The combination of words is way too common to make our content really accessible – especially since we plan to work a lot with content creators. On platforms like YouTube it will be much easier to find content about “Absolute Matter” than it would’ve been with “The Invitation”.

“The Invitation” still names the happenings in 2051 when the Earth got connected to the interstellar network. The meaning of “Absolute Matter” will be released another time.

With the funding for this year we planned to create a decent prototype for our game to start testing with you as soon as possible. We currently have a build with the most crucial elements implemented. There’s nothing polished though, still many bugs and no proper events yet. The current state is basically just for internal testing.

Once it all really starts to come together, we plan to make alpha tests with our community via Steam.

When launching early access, this game will contain the following events:

• The Junk Eater: The Junk Eater is a peaceful alien browsing the area, bringing loot into the map. Once this alien is being attacked, a challenging boss fight emerges. No matter if you fight it alone or as a group, the fight will take a certain amount of time -- long enough for other players to join the fight. On your side or to stab you in the back.
• Train Arrival: A train brings valuable goods to one of the train stations. You'll get a notification about the arrival and may as well be hired by AI to protect the goods. But be sure you're not the only player on the map with the idea to grab that loot and run. :-)
• Spore Crawlers: Spore Crawlers are the most aggressive alien species in the game. They hunt players in packs and spread widely if the community allows them. To fight them back, hunters are needed in our community to destroy their hives. Leaderboard skin rewards mark these valuable players and bring them fame in the community.

Over time the developer plans to add more and more events like these. For the beginning, the most important parts are there: Loot to bring people together and a common enemy to grow as a team.

Player Invitations come from players directly: Every player is able to create all kinds of quests for other players. These can range from player assassinations and emergency calls to raid invitations. As long as the reward is tempting enough, there should be a helping hand.

In the quest menu every player can edit one of the order presets or create an own for the unique needs. In this menu you can also filter which quests you as a mercenary are interested in – depending on the reward or the client's reputation in the community for example.

Environment Invitations are areas that give players access to resources or adjustments on their modular avatars. In the hospital, for instance, players can attach previously found prostheses to their bodies using medical robots in order to unlock other abilities. With special 3D printers located in the armory you can create different kinds of grenades.

Since these areas will be used quite a lot, the developers expect a lot of fights, trades and betrayal.

Depending on your play style you can adjust your characters abilities and specializations via items. Not just your weapon is designed on a modular basis and can be combined to a short range SMG or a long range sniper. Your whole body is modular and artificial limbs can unlock all kinds of abilities. Some people might value utility abilities like dashes or camouflage while others may prefer shields or even hacking. Hacking can help you using doors you're not supposed to open and can even give information about a player's location if you're a very skilled hacker.

To really push decision making and to offer a fresh start after dying (yes, this game has perma death), Absolute Matter features a flat progression system. Your avatar does not grow in power. You do. And the more items you find the more you can adjust your character depending on your play style.
Not just items, also the character creation is developed on a similar basis. When you create a fresh character you have a pool of abilities you can choose from. With account progression you get access to more and more of these. According to the flat progression system, progress gives more options, but not a higher power level. This is not a game about grind. This is a game about players, decisions and consequences.

Absolute Matter is coming to Steam Early Access in 2024.