Patterns moves to Steam’s Early Access platform

Posted on by Inara Pey

LL logoUpdate, October 9th, 2014: Linden Lab announced that development work on Patterns has been discontinued.

Patterns, Linden Lab’s sandbox building game available for Windows and the Mac, which launched on October 2012 utilising Steam as the initial download mechanism before becoming directly available via the Lab’s own Patterns website, has now moved to the Steam Early Access platform.

Launched on March 21st, Early Access allows users to play games that are currently in development. It initially kicked-off with a total of twelve titles in various stages of development, and which users can purchase and play. In return, developers gain access to community feedback, players can play games in alpha or beta stages, and Steam gets to remain the one-stop shop for digital downloads.

As such, Patterns – which remains in its Genesis Release phase and at the Genesis price of £6.99 ($9.99) – is an ideal candidate for the new Steam service, as it brings the game to the attention of a much wider audience than has perhaps been available to it until now.

Patterns now available as a part of Steam's Early Access platform
Patterns now available as a part of Steam’s Early Access platform

Coming alongside the move, the Patterns Community page on Steam has also been updated with news on the move, commenting in part:

We first launched Patterns as a ‘genesis release’ in October 2012, and we are now happy to make it available to everyone on Steam as part of the Early Access program. We are still very early in the game’s development, but have already made many updates. If you’re interested in seeing how Patterns has grown and improved so far, check out our update history in the News section.

As genesis release users, your feedback will help shape Pattern’s evolution. Please keep the comments, screenshots, videos and your thoughts coming! Know that we are reading and paying attention to your feedback, even if we are not able to respond to every post with a comment.

Since its initial launch, Patterns have continued to be enhanced, with both bug fixes and new features being regularly added to the game – many of the latter in direct response to ideas and input from Genesis users. These new features include additional worlds, more substances for building, more formations, some with new – such a slide, bounce and fly.

More enhancements and capabilities – again, some of which have been user-requested – are due in the future, including a multi-player mode, the ability to build personalised worlds and shared them with other users,

The caption says it all (courtesy Linden Lab)
The caption says it all (courtesy Linden Lab)

Of all the new products launched to date by Linden Lab, Patterns is the one which potentially has the most visible traction  – the Steam / Genesis user community is active, the community pages contain a good mix of discussion, ideas and Q&A, and the game appears to have picked-up a good level of support and enthusiasm from non-SL users – something which could bode well now it is effectively available on a more widespread basis within the Steam community.

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With thanks to Daniel Voyager

Published by Inara Pey

Eclectic virtual world blogger with a focus on Second Life, VR, virtual environments and technology.

3 thoughts on “Patterns moves to Steam’s Early Access platform”

  1. Why is Linden Labs wasting money on these silly “games” that could be used to develop things like coordination with the other open source grids that will bury Second Life when they’re fully integrated with each other? And why should I spend money on yet another Minecraft clone?

    In Second Life and not ready to give up on it yet:
    Alterkatze Barnstormer

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  2. I need to go take a look at Patterns again soon. I stopped because i hated the movement controls and the world made me feel a bit woosey, plus Im an SL user.

    I think it’s hard for an SL user to play patterns or any of LL’s new ventures because, for me at least it all seems a step backwards in what virtual spaces can do.

    Dio is still my favourite of the bunch, even though i dont use it.

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    1. Movement can still be a little bit of a problem with Patterns, although not as bad as it was. Even though I don’t use Patterns as much as I did (not enough time!), I like the majority of the updates I’ve seen & am still getting my head around some of them and the opportunities they present. Patterns and dio remain the two products outside of SL in which I do have any interest – although that could well change when Versu becomes available for Android (and assuming it can be used on small device screens…).

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