Roadmap Progress Update

Hi all, it's now Month 7 and I want to give you an update on development relative to the roadmap.

EA Plans

As planned, the remaining months of the Early Access revolve around adding the main storyline, and I've been making good progress on this, including new story missions, as well as large amounts of story planning which can't easily be shared in the usual way.

The main story missions will not only bring more handcrafted, lore-filled dialogues, but will also introduce whole new game mechanics. As a simple example (already developed) some missions will now require you to transport NPCs, rather than goods or other items - you can also chat to the NPCs while they are on board your ship!

This is just a simple example - without giving spoilers, the late game missions will bring major new mechanics to help keep things fresh and surprising...

Update Timetable

Adding more story also introduces some complexities about how this fits with the existing roguelike game mode. For example, players might want to be able to play the tutorial missions, but still have random missions rather than the full story (as in the current EA version), and this will require some reorganisation of existing game modes (e.g. a 'random missions' mode separate from an 'enable tutorial' mode).

Also I expect many players will prefer to wait until the full storyline is available before diving in to the story missions (rather than playing only 'chapter 1' say, and then having to wait until full release before seeing the rest of the story).

For these reasons I am proposing to defer further major game updates until the full story is complete in early/mid-2024. Full release is still targeted for Month 13 (May 2024) of the roadmap, but there will likely be beta releases for Discord members before that.

Join the Discord

Finally don't forget you can join the Discord to discuss the game with fellow fans and ask any questions you might have.