Lacuna Passage

Lacuna Passage has had a turbulent development history. The original version was created by Random Seed Games and released into Early Access on May 17, 2017. In April 2019, a new studio — Candescent Games — took over development, announcing ambitious plans to rebuild the game from scratch in Unreal Engine with significantly expanded features including larger maps based on real NASA terrain data, a reworked survival system, co-op support, and eventually a story campaign. From late 2019 through mid-2020, Candescent Games posted regular development updates showing real progress: new environments, a Mars rover with physics simulation, a dynamic weather system, an updated astronaut suit, and more. The planned launch of a new Early Access build was delayed from July 2020 to end of 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but development appeared to be continuing. However, after September 2020, developer communications became increasingly infrequent. Then, on April 4, 2022, the developer posted a formal announcement stating that development of Lacuna Passage V2 has been placed on hold. The studio cited an inability to secure the funding needed to continue, after failing to meet their goal of expanding the original concept and raising sufficient backing to ramp up production. They acknowledged the possibility of revisiting the project if suitable backing is found in the future, but made no commitments. There have been no developer posts of any kind since April 4, 2022. The game remains purchasable on Steam in its original Early Access state — the rebuilt Unreal Engine version was never released. The store page still describes the older version of the game. With no active development and no funding secured as of the last communication, the project's future is uncertain.