Grounded — Honey I Shrunk The Kids: The Game

Gaming
#1

Featured in the 2020 Xbox Games Showcase, Grounded by Obsidian Entertainment has hit Steam Early Access and you can pre-order and get open beta access to the game for R175.

Grounded looks like a “Honey I Shrunk The Kids”-themed survival craft 'em up. Steam tells me that it is similar to Terraria and Starbound.

At the start of Early Access, the following features/content will be available in Grounded, but Obsidian said that everything should be considered a work in progress:

• Groundwork laid out for intended storyline
• 3 major biomes – the grasslands, the hedge, and the haze
• Crafting
• Base building
• Single player and online co-op play
• First two tiers of weapons and armor
• At least ten insects
• Arachnophobia mode (just for you @Wyvern!)

The Steam Early Access page as the following FAQ:

Why Early Access?

“From our previous crowdfunding experience, we found incredible value in involving the community early in the process. Early Access gives us the ability to receive and implement community feedback in a way that helps us more nimbly build a better game. Grounded is the type of experience in which community feedback will be critical, and Early Access will enable that feedback loop from the very beginning.”

Approximately how long will this game be in Early Access?

“We want to make the best experience possible and putting an exact timeline on an early-in-development game is very challenging. That said, we also want to be transparent with our community, so we will give you our best guess with the understanding that these plans may change. The current target for Grounded’s full release is sometime in 2021 .”

How is the full version planned to differ from the Early Access version?

“There is a ton of great content we want to deliver with Grounded, but more importantly some of the ideas and features may change dramatically based on the feedback we receive from the community. Our current plan for the full release is to have the following features:

• Complete storyline
• Steam Achievements and Cards
• More bugs! The insect kind.
• More environments and biomes
• More crafting recipes
• Additional features and updated systems to improve the entire experience

Will the game be priced differently during and after Early Access?

“We greatly appreciate the willingness of our community to support and engage with the development of Grounded. Therefore, early supporters will receive a benefit since we will gradually increase the price of Grounded in early access as we add more content and features.”

How are you planning on involving the Community in your development process?

“We want to create as many opportunities as possible for our community to engage with us and provide feedback. Whether it is our development blog, discord server, or monthly dev diaries, we will be listening, discussing, and incorporating your feedback from start to finish.”

3 Likes
#2

I started playing this last night, the main thing you all forget to add is the fact that it is arachnophobe friendly!

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#3

It’s right there in my post with a prod to you, silly sausage!

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#4

Ok I will admit to skimming - its one of the main things I like about the game and not many mentions it!

If it wasnt for the headache last night I would have played till late. Its so cute, easy until a killer ant attacks you and you die :stuck_out_tongue:

1 Like
#5

So what happens in arachnophobia mode? Do they change the spiders into different enemies, or do they change the way the spider looks?

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#6

Just give you a floating head instead of the spider :rofl:

turn-off-spiders-arachnophobia-mode-grounded
turn-off-spiders-arachnophobia-mode-grounded1920×1080 481 KB

3 Likes
#7

Could be a sheep with really long invisible legs

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#8

So I started this, played around a bit and found my way to the oak tree, and got wrecked by a wolf spider. Completely and utterly shat myself. Now I’m too scared to play again.

3 Likes
#9

It seems arachnophobia-safe mode will be important even for non-arachnophobes!

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#10

Okay, so I’ve played about 3 hours of the game solo and so far I like it. Not enough that I’ll continue with it for a lot longer, but definitely continue on to unlock and build some more stuff.

The graphics of the game is fantastic. I really like the aesthetics of the game, and the art style is top notch. The sound design is just as great. Looking at the presentation of the game, you would never say it is only a preview version, it looks pretty slick.

The gameplay is pretty fun as well. You go around the garden, gathering resources and stuff to build different things. There are some research stations around the map that you can use to research more recipes and get better and cooler stuff. Though these stations can only be used once a (ingame) day. There is also a food and water mechanic that works well, and while I’ve only played on mild, filling those meters have not been a chore.

The base building is also well done. It gives a lot of freedom to build all kinds of cool things. It reminds me a lot of Ark: Survival Evolved and Don’t Starve for some reason. All the different elements you can build all will help you with surviving in the garden.

I think this game is better played with friends, as on your own there isn’t a lot of motivation to go out and do a lot of stuff. The story mode is very limited in the preview version, so I’m sure the full game will have much more content for solo adventurers to do.

This being a game preview is very cool. The game is working really well, I’ve not seen a single error, crash, weird texture or any floating item in game at all. It plays and looks like a fully developed game. There is also a lot of content already here to enjoy, and I cannot wait to see what they add. Overall, if you have Game Pass, there is no reason why you shouldn’t try this one out.

Just turn off the spiders…

4 Likes
#11

I usually hate base building and crafting (it completely ruined Fallout as a franchise for me), but something about this particular game is different. It might just be my inner Obsidian fanboy but I really like the 2 hours I’ve played so far. I’ve finished the story content it has so far and spent some time exploring and crafting a few things. Definitely gonna come back for more at some stage.

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#12

Two years later, and a topic necro to confirm that Grounded will leave its Early Access Game Preview state later this month when it releases in version 1.0.

Currently listed at R175 on Steam, Grounded is also available for PC though the Windows Store at a much heftier R499. That same price is the listing price for the game on the Xbox Store.

Expect prices to increase by 30%-odd when the 1.0 release is made. (US price will go from $30 to $40).

Only relevant if you are not a Game Pass subscriber - Obsidian will automatically update the Game Pass release for all subscribers.

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