Escape from Playtime patch notes

Patch 3: Happy Halloween! (30 Oct 2026)

A smaller seasonal patch: new emotes, a tidier lobby list and quality-of-life fixes.

Halloween emotes

• Three new Halloween emotes: Hackle Cat, Scaredy Cat and Claws Out.
• The Emote Wheel was updated to fit more emotes.
• Visual and sound effects were added to the Yes, Waving, No, Sleeping, Dance and Miss Delight emotes, and to the new Halloween set.

Lobby and matchmaking

• Lobbies that have already started a game no longer appear in the joinable list, so you do not join as a spectator.
• Full lobbies no longer appear in the list.

Quality of life and bug fixes

• Separation Anxiety is temporarily removed from the modifier pool while balance and difficulty are improved.
• Fixed cases where Barry's meter showed an inaccurate quota percentage.
• Deployed Bron-Bells no longer carry over between shifts.
• Trash Shield was updated to match its correct functionality.
• Bubba Bubbaphant's unlock criteria were changed to correctly use Shift terminology.
• A new first-person character mesh was added.
• Character cut-outs without working buttons were removed.
• Additional localization fixes.

Find a team with public lobbies · Map, Barry and navigation guide

Patch 2: The Lobby Doors Are Open! (28 Oct 2026)

A major update: public lobbies and Quickmatch, lore collectibles, quota scaling by group size and unlock changes.

Public lobbies and Quickmatch

• Players can host and join lobbies from the main menu.
• Quickmatch places you with a random group that is looking for players.
• The lobby host can kick players from their match.

New lore

• Twelve notes to find in the factory, with more promised later.
• Posters with writing on them have appeared on the facility walls.
• VHS tapes now reveal lore when you bring them back to the Perm-A-Lounge.

Game balance

• Each shift's quota now scales with the number of players in the lobby.
• Health and flashlight battery are fully restored when you return from the facility after a shift.
• A Lost & Found Box returns items you lost by falling into the hole in the Cave.
• New signs label the different sections of the Cave.
• The shift timer moved from Glowby to the main HUD and turns red when less than a minute remains.
• Elevators you cannot use now show a broken lever.
• Every player receives a Sketch-A-Map at the start of a new game.
• The Backpack is always available in the Vending Machine and appears reliably in the facility.
• All items received a balance pass.

Critter unlocks

• KickinChicken's cumulative quota requirement dropped from 25,000 to 20,000.
• Limón appears more often during Shift 7, and the spawn rate rises with each later shift.
• Once their unlock method is met, CraftyCorn and PickyPiggy are granted to every player in the lobby, not only the player who triggered it.

CatNap adjustments

• Keeps pursuing players affected by his gas, even when they are unreachable.
• Acquires his target earlier in his attack animation.
• No longer loses sight of players on higher ground.

Other fixes

• Item deposits under 1% now display “0%” instead of “<1%”.
• Factory lights are properly restored after encounters with Miss Delight and Boogie Bot.
• The elevator floor no longer causes fall damage.
• Fixed several Smiling Critter animations and the Midnight CatNap accessory texture.
• Emote fixes: no more 90-degree turn, the Emote Wheel no longer uses inverted controls, dances blend back to idle, and the Yes emote loops properly.

Public lobbies, Quickmatch and lobby codes · Critter unlock goals · Lore notes, posters and VHS tapes · Quota and extraction guide

23 Oct update: Let's Do This Together! (23 Oct 2026)

A same-day patch for lobby codes and monster balance, plus a public plan for the next updates.

Announced as launching that day

• Join a lobby with a code shared by the host, instead of only through a Steam invite.
• A menu button that opens the Looking-For-Group channel on the official Mob Discord.
• Balance changes to CatNap and Boogie Bot, plus additional bug fixes and quality-of-life improvements.

Announced for the week of 26 October

• Public lobbies, with kick and report tools. Patch 2 then delivered public lobbies, Quickmatch and the host kick option; its notes do not mention a report tool.
• Lore notes around the factory, which Patch 2 added.
• A longer shift timer for smaller groups than for larger ones. The Patch 2 notes do not list this timer change; they list quota scaling by player count instead.

How to join friends with a lobby code

Early Access launch: Escape from Playtime is Out Now! (21 Oct 2026)

The game launched in Steam Early Access, after an open beta.

Price, platforms and buying guide · Beginner first-run checklist

Announced, not yet released

The 23 October post also lists work without a release date. These are plans, not shipped features.

• Team-size balancing, including smaller experiments scaling with party size.
• More lore: new radios and a message from “The Voice”, plus deeper unlocks in the Playtime Web Portal.
• Onboarding: a guided first shift, tutorial voice-over and an easier first quota.
• More maps and monsters, pointed to the roadmap on the Steam store page.

Official roadmap

The Steam store page shows a three-column content roadmap. The columns have no dates. Patch 3 (30 October) added Halloween emotes, which appear to cover the “New Emotes” entry.

First month

• Candy Cat update
• New item
• New emotes
• Fixes and tweaks

Coming soon

• New game mechanics
• Gameplay and enemy tweaks
• New cosmetics
• New items
• New puzzles and challenges

Future

• New Bigger Body experiments
• New smaller experiments
• New areas
• And more