The survival MMO genre has exploded in popularity over the past decade, starting with DayZ and growing through games including Rust, H1Z1, Ark: Survival Evolved, and Conan Exiles. September saw the understated announcement of another interesting survival MMO in Population Zero, though at the time little was known about it. That's quickly changing, however, as developer Enplex Games continues to release plenty of new details including a "Pre-Alpha Announcement" trailer featuring gameplay.

According to the development team, almost everything shown in the new trailer is gameplay. And of course, all of the gameplay shown in the trailer is pre-alpha, as the team is still hard at work on the visuals in the game, including character design and animations.

Nevertheless, the trailer serves as an excellent way to introduce potential players to Population Zero and its design pillars. Primary among those pillars is the unveiling of the unexplored world of Kepler. The world of Kepler, along with its flora and fauna, is visually splendid. If anything, it's difficult to watch players and their rudimentary shanties dirty this previously untouched garden.

Beyond the trailer, Enplex also held a livestream in which a much broader sample of Population Zero's gameplay was shown. During the stream, Enplex showed off crafting, building, and systems including the game's gigantic tech tree. Combat was also shown, though for the time being it's composed only of a rather rudimentary melee and third-person shooting system.

Speaking of pre-alpha, today's Population Zero reveals that the game will soon be inviting players into a closed pre-alpha for testing soon. Players can visit the Population Zero official registration site and sign-up for themselves, either through a quick registration system or through a more thorough questionnaire. The questionnaire will grant players a priority in gaining access, though will likely also demand heavier requirements from registrants.

The Survival MMO genre continues to grow, with several more games to be released in 2019 - and even more likely to be announced that we are yet to hear about.

Population Zero has no current release window and will be available exclusively on PC.