Grounded will hit 1.0 on September 27th with "biggest update ever"
Its final early access update is in public testing now
It was announced during E3 2022 that honey-I-shrunk-the-survival-game Grounded would leave early access and hit version 1.0 this September. An update on Twitter earlier today offered info on what the final early access update, which enters public testing today, has in store for players. It also revealed a more specific release date for 1.0: September 27th.
The info came in the form of a video by game director Adam Brennecke:
The final early access update includes a pet gnat, a revision of the weapon and armour upgrade systems, and a new building called The Cookery which lets you start preparing food earlier in the game. This isn't every feature that will be included when this early access update rolls out fully.
It sounds like version 1.0 will contain lots that's new when it comes, too. Brennecke calls it their "biggest update ever", and it'll include a complete story which both explains how you ended up shrunk in the backyard, and "how you're going to get out of this mess." Why you'd want to stop being the size of a spider, I don't know.
Grounded has impressed everyone I know who has played it. I mean, being liked by Sin is pretty rare, and she fell hard for the game's ants, eggs and pheromones.
As Brennecke mentions at the start of his update, it was also announced last week that Grounded is being turned into an animated TV series.