January 2023 Development Update

Welcome, Rock Hoppers!

I feel like it's long past time that I started providing regular updates on the game's progress, so here we are. It's been about six months since we went live with our Steam page, and four months since we opted out of Next Fest, because it turns out (who knew?) that making games is hard. Mind you, four months ago, we had a kind-of-playable shell of a game, with basic implementations of the core features. Now, we have a much more refined experience, and we're this close to being feature complete.

Multiplayer and performance

Our latest test build has fully functional multiplayer, with dedicated (headless) servers, as well as drop-in multiplayer over Steam. We've made massive performance improvements, with load times down to under two minutes for all but the largest builds. We do still have a way to go with in-game performance. We're pretty heavily CPU bound, but on modest hardware, we still manage to maintain FPS averages well above 30 and, in most cases, at or over 60 fps.

The server browser in all its utilitarian glory

Game Mechanics

Since our first announcement, we've implemented most of the game's missing core mechanics. These include an agriculture system, passive farmable mobs, a robust NPC interaction system, an elaborate mission and reward system, and powerful base-building tools. We've also added a comprehensive weapon upgrade system similar to the existing vehicle upgrade system, a comfort system which gives you buffs for living in a cozy base, and a system for displaying tutorial tips in an appropriate context.

Content

We've fleshed out the existing roster of hostiles a bit, adding the rogue bomber drone and the new and powerful Snekoid Brute. In addition, I've de-stoopidized most of the hostile mobs. They might occasionally still flail around a bit, but they're definitely more of a threat than they used to be.

We've made a lot of new prefabs, really fleshing out the AiM biome with a new clinic and trading post as well as more interesting encounter locations throughout the world.

We also added a completely new Ice biome, with a new hostile human faction, the aptly named 'Icers'. Their biome features large modular underground mining and industrial complexes and well-fortified above-ground bases. Their introduction also encompasses dozens of new placeables including fortified wall sections in all sizes, a new more powerful light turret, and a spawn chamber for the dreaded Icer droids.

With the addition of several dozen more 'comfort' items, collectibles, and faction-specific decor, we now have over 500 individual placeable blocks! One of them is a barber pole :D

These rugs really tie the room together

Coming Up

Our goal is to launch into early access this year, but there's still a lot that needs to be done before we're ready for that. In the next month, I'll be working on new vehicle-based missions out in the void, fleshing out the colony management aspect of the game a bit more, and I hope to start building the backstory and narrative.

All of this is, of course, in addition to a daunting amount of testing, optimization, and bug fixing. We definitely have our work cut out for us!

Well, if you made it this far, please consider joining us on Discord for up-to-the-minute news and maybe even some upcoming playtest opportunities. We've come a long way, and we still have a long way to go. We hope you'll come along for the ride!