Prologue: Go Wayback might have come to an untimely end, but it will continue to live on for anyone who’s interested in trying it. Development on the survival game from PlayerUnknown Productions was officially halted recently due to funding considerations, with the studio continuing to work on its underlying technology, Melba, at “a smaller size.” Rather than removing it from Steam, however, the team has launched it out of early access with one final update and made it free for all, with the option to claim a refund if you already paid for it.
As a final hurrah, this last Prologue: Go Wayback update introduces trails to its world. These connect cabins and shelters that are in close proximity, and can then link out to other such groups elsewhere. There’s also the potential for them to lead into meadows and cliffs, “with only a small chance of encountering a dead end.” There are settings to increase the distance that these connections will be formed, but doing so runs a greater risk that you’ll encounter paths with unexpected cutoffs.
Alongside this comes two new items. There’s a handheld weather monitor, which displays the current and impending weather conditions, with higher-tier versions that can provide additional details such as humidity and temperature. There’s also a waterproof spray, which can be used to protect everything from clothing to vulnerable items like paper and matches. The studio has also made improvements to the cooking system, liquid handling, item descriptions, visual effects including lighting and fog, and audio consistency.
If you’re interested in messing around with the developer options, you can enable the dev build from the ‘game versions and betas’ menu via your Steam library. PlayerUnknown Productions says this version is similar to live, but includes a menu on the ‘=’ key that lets you “spawn items, change the time of day and the weather, fly across the map or teleport to a location, and much more.”
The game files have been left unencrypted for modders; the team notes it was hoping to provide a measure of official mod support and documentation, “but unfortunately did not have the time or resources to complete those plans.”
“The games industry has been in a tough spot for a while, and we’re not alone in the struggle to find funding,” Brendan ‘PlayerUnknown’ Greene writes. “I’m privileged to have had the choice to keep the studio’s lights on by myself, and I’m very aware that it’s a luxury few developers have when they go independent. I could only do that for so long, and now we must move forward with a smaller team while finding the right partners for the project.”
He thanks his team for their “professionalism,” and says of Prologue, “I’m so very proud of what our team accomplished and truly regret we couldn’t finish the journey we began together.” To the community, he adds, “Your creativity, passion, and enjoyment of the worlds we’ve created was truly heartening. And for all the great suggestions and ideas passed to us over the last year, thank you; you helped us build a game of which I’m immensely proud.”
Prologue: Go Wayback is now a free game on Steam. Just go here and add it to your library, and it’ll be yours to keep and play whenever you want. “Thank you for exploring the wilderness with us,” PlayerUnknown Productions concludes.
If you did buy Prologue and would like a refund, you’re able to claim one through Steam’s standard refund process at any point in the next 60 days, regardless of your playtime or when you purchased it. Simply submit your application before Monday, August 17, marking discontinued development as the reason for your request. The developer says it has informed Steam support, which “should be granting a refund without any questions.” It notes that you can re-add the game to your library for free afterwards, should you wish to.
