Before We Leave

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 Release date(s) | Multiplatform:
* 8th May 2020: Epic Games Store
* 13th May 2021: Steam
* 23rd November 2021: Xbox Game Pass and digital purchase (both for Xbox and PC)
* 5th April 2022: Playstation 4 and Playstation 5
 Mode(s) | Single player

***Before We Leave*** is a non-violent city building game where a player builds their own cities on varies planets in their own corner of the universe. The main goal of the game is to build successful and safe settlements across multiple planets for the Peeps, the inhabitants of these settlements. The game is available on many gaming platforms.

## Gameplay

Emerging out of a survival shelter, Peeps can construct buildings on the hex based tiles to gather resources, helping them have food and drink to survive, or grow the settlement with even more buildings. Vehicles can be constructed to move to new islands or even reach space. The player can also manage their peeps' happiness, control pollution and gloom, and upgrade the buildings, as they try and figure out what forced the Peeps into the shelter and explore the solar system.

The average campaign lasts somewhere around 15 hours. The game also contains achievements; including time-based challenges, and scenario challenges for replayability. Finally, there is also a planet editor for players to make their own content that can be shared to other players, for example via the Steam Workshop.

### New game settings

The difficulty can be adjusted for players who want more challenge. Lower difficulties can also for example reduce resource costs and make the game easier and quicker to play.

## Platform

Before We Leave released on the Epic Games Store (EGS) on May 8th 2020, then a year later on Steam on May 13th 2021.

The game was also ported by the publisher Team17 to console platforms, with help from Do Games (a London based company). However this was based on the code base at the time of the Scenario update and is missing some features available in later versions of the game available on Steam and EGS. The first version of *Before We Leave* for consoles released was for Xbox, Windows' "Microsoft Store" and Gamepass on November 22nd 2021. A version for PlayStation 4 and 5 was then released a few months later, on April 5th 2022. On PlayStation 4, the game doesn't benefit from an optimized profile when launched on a PlayStation 4 *Pro*. The game also released on Nintendo Switch in August 2022, based on the same console edition by Team17.

For more information about the previous versions of the game, as well as the console edition, see the Patches article.

## Awards

The game and its prototypes recieved New Zealand Game Developers Association (NZGDA) nominations and awards in 2018 and 2019, and various awards and nominations for art and sound design during the New Zealand Games Festival 2020. In 2021 they won the New Zealand section (Across the Ditch Award) of the Australian Freeplay awards.

## Contributions

Apart from the core employees of Balancing Monkey Games, the following people contributed to the game as co-collaborators. It is also possible to view the credits from the red button from the main menu.

* Edd Coates - UI Art
* Rafał Urbański - Artist
* Benedict Nichols - Composer
* James Dean - Sound Design
* Saf Davidson - Writer

## References

1. ↑ Official Balancing Monkey Games YouTube channel. "Before We Leave is coming to Nintendo Switch!". Retrieved on 19th July 2022.
2. ↑ Before We Leave Is Coming To Nintendo Switch - Plus More News! July 20 2022.
3. ↑ *Information shared by Team17 Support with User:BowiQC on June 30 2022:*"The console versions are all the same, it does not matter whether you are on PS4 or PS4 pro."
4. ↑ 2020 winners - NZ Games Fest. Retrieved 4 August 2022.
5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 BMG Presskit. 2022. Retrieved 2 August 2022.
6. ↑ The 2021 Freeplay Awards Finalists. Freeplay independent games festival. Melbourne, Australia. Retreived 4 August 2022.

## External links

* Official website
* Epic Games Store page
* Steam Store page
* Official Discord server
* Balancing Monkey Games Twitter
* "Before We Leave" on *Wikipedia*