Atomic Picnic co-op roguelike shooter hits Steam Early Access soon

BitCake Studio and Mad Mushroom announced that the cooperative roguelike shooter Atomic Picnic will launch on Steam Early Access on November 7.

In the $20 title, players will dive into the chaos and thrill of a co-op bullet-heaven roguelike shooter and an anime-inspired visual style for an unforgettable picnic in the wasteland. BitCake Studio is a rare game studio based in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. (I visited the city as part of our brief Brazil global gaming tour recently).

Players team up with up to three fellow “Loners” and embark on scavenger hunts known as “Picnics.” Each adventure pits you against relentless waves of monsters, objectives, and hulking bosses to ensure that no two Picnics are ever alike.

Run, gun, explore, collect, upgrade, and decimate – every Picnic offers a unique experience, filled with diverse upgrade paths and special events that challenge both solo adventurers and groups.

A final public playtest for Atomic Picnic is now available on Steam and will run until October 17. Hop in, run some Picnics with friends, and give feedback in the Atomic Picnic Discord as the devs at BitCake fine-tune, balance, and polish the game in time for Early Access.

In early access, the developers at BitCake Studio are introducing a wave of features for Loners to cut their Picnic teeth on. There are four hungry Loners: Ash, Hani, Bonnie, and JD. Each Loner boasts unique stats and abilities, allowing for varying playstyles. Try each out and find which suits you. You can permanently upgrade character stats via Mementos, which are acquired through Discoveries as Loners complete Picnics.

Loners will scour maps for valuable resources that unlock 18 different Mementos: character and gear upgrades for future runs. Completing specific challenges within Picnics will reveal Discoveries, which in turn grant new Mementos, characters, and weapons.

The game has three maps. In Train Plateau, you set up your Picnic in an abandoned trainyard, ripe for resource scavenging. If you’re lucky, you might find something worth cold cash! You can also come back to the Plateau in night mode, facing off against a different set of even tougher enemies.

In Twilight Dam, you figure out what cataclysmic event ravaged this dam. Picnic here to explore this mysteriously wrecked rift, in day or night mode. And in City of Sand, there are two dimensions, one city. Explore and Picnic in a glorious city caught within the sands of time…or what’s left of it.

In-run upgrades known as Curios represent the dramatic changes a Loner’s build will go through as they progress a Picnic. Standard Curios unleash your Loner’s full potential as its stats and abilities dynamically adapt to every acquired Curios.

Austin, Texas-based Mad Mushroom is a game publishing company positioned as a next-generation influencer-owned entity within the vast umbrella of OTK Network. Mad Mushroom wants to empower indie developers, engage gamers, and shape the future of interactive entertainment.

BitCake Studios is a game development studio from Brazil, creating games that bring people together since 2013. Hailing from Rio de Janeiro, BitCake is a completely remote studio with coworkers from different cities around the country and the world.