What's Next for Voidwood: The Forest Goes Deeper

What a Month in the Woods

In October, we opened the forest to everyone for the first time.

Creators streamed Voidwood in about 10 languages, and at one point, nearly 4,000 people watched on Twitch at once. Watching you whisper, scream, and run through the woods together was a highlight for our whole team. Thank you for playing, and for every clip, stream, and piece of feedback.

We're back in development now, so here's what we learned and where we're headed.

What You Told Us

"The proximity voice chat is fun."

Proximity chat was behind many of your best moments, and we want it to shape even more of the game. We've rebuilt a lot of our voice tech under the hood to make room for that, and reworked mic calibration so your squad can talk and get into the woods faster. Expect a lot more to come on this front!

"Is hiding in the bushes actually hiding me?"

It should be, but we've reworked it to make it clearer. Ducking into brush keeps you out of sight, and The Beast has to get right on top of you to spot you. Wandering into the same bushes isn't enough. Hiding should work the way you'd expect, so you can focus on staying quiet.

"Will there be more depth/variety to the combat?"

Yes, absolutely. New tools give you more ways to fight back, and we've made many tunings and revisions to how combat feels, overhauled enemy AI, and made a long list of changes to how The Beast reacts to what you do. You're still kids in a forest much bigger than you, and fighting back only buys your friends a few seconds, but let's make 'em count!

"What am I supposed to be doing?"

Objectives, crafting, and the final escape need clearer guidance, and that's on our list. The forest, however, will remain properly mysterious!

"I found a bug!"

And you kept finding them. Thank you to everyone who reported one, especially whoever got shoved clean out of the map (the creatures send their regrets!). Even this early in pre-alpha, we want the forest to scare you for the right reasons. The good news: many bugs are already squashed, and we’re hunting down the rest.

One Night Was Just the Beginning

The playtest was a single run. The full Voidwood is many runs, with roguelite meta-progression, and every run feeds the next. Our next Private Playtest is your first look at it.

Between runs, you'll return to The Wreck, where your squad makes long-term progress. Its crafting stations turn what you dragged out of the forest into tools, armor, and consumables, and each item type has its own tree to unlock.

• New tools, swapped on the fly from a tool wheel
• Armor that protects you and adds passive benefits to mix and match
• New consumables on their own quick-use wheel
• Durability and repair, so every trip out costs you something
• Run modifiers, plus a forest that shifts between runs: enemy formations, points of interest, and what you can harvest all change

And the forest goes much deeper. There's a vast new region to unlock, with its own campsite and a Voidwood grove. Getting there will take a squad that works together. What you saw in the public playtest was only the edge of the woods.

Come Playtest With Us

The first look is this week. We're running two Private Playtests:

• Friday, November 6: guided session with our dev team at 6 PM ET sharp (3 PM PT), then open play until 10 PM ET (7 PM PT)
• Saturday, November 7: guided session with our dev team at 12 PM ET sharp (9 AM PT), then open play until 4 PM ET (1 PM PT)

Private Playtests are for registered playtesters only. To get access, sign up below. We'll keep running them over the next few months as all of this comes together.

👉 Sign up to be a Voidwood playtester

Not ready to jump in yet? We'll be sharing much more publicly in the months to come and yes, we'll definitely do another public playtest next year.

Stay Close

Join our Discord to hear about playtests first, and wishlist Voidwood on Steam. It genuinely helps a small team like ours.

We're only getting started on this forest, and it's certainly not done with you yet! 🌲