[Devlog] 2 weeks of lab: what we observed and what we are working on

[Devlog] 2 weeks of Lab: what we observed and what we are working on

The Lab has now been available for two weeks. First of all: thank you for your enthusiasm. Thank you as well for the time you have spent testing, discussing, streaming, experimenting, criticizing, creating memes, and writing positive reviews about our work.

This post is here to share what we see on the studio side, what is working, what raises questions, and how we are moving forward. We hope you will enjoy reading this article as much as we enjoyed writing it.

What the first numbers and feedback show

During this first period, several signals clearly stood out.

The Steam Hub post related to the Lab update has passed 1,000 likes, a first for us, with many comments as well, all of them interesting to read. This is not an objective in itself, but it is a strong indicator that the topic matters to you and makes you want to react.

Written feedback (reviews, discussions, etc.) confirms something important for us: our work does not leave people indifferent. From what we read, it both validates our direction and sparks new desires and expectations.

Many of you also jumped into the update to try it out. This was visible on the concurrent players curve, with a peak above 1,500 players, and the game gained an additional 0.1 percent of positive reviews, reaching 94.7 percent. You are now very close to the 95 percent mark, which would be extraordinary. Reaching 95 percent is a dream milestone for studios, and for an indie studio like ours, it is also one of the best ways to gain visibility on Steam.

If you enjoyed the game and have not yet left a review on the Steam page, now is the time. Let’s go for that 95 percent together.

EDIT : YOU JUST HIT THE 95% !!!

[dynamiclink href="https://store.steampowered.com/app/2747330/Species_Unknown/"]

What you liked in the new content

Almost unanimously, you appreciated the quality of the new ship sector. Its environmental variety, the preserved atmosphere, and the small surprises encountered in certain corridors were often mentioned.

What was sometimes mentioned as disappointing

While the feedback has been overwhelmingly positive, two points caught our attention and deserve a closer look.

• One comment pointed out that the update does not bring enough satisfaction for players who already have a very large amount of in game currency, meaning players who have effectively completed everything available in Early Access so far. This is a fair remark. This update completes a playable area that was previously unfinished and continues the work we had already started. It does not add a new very late game arc. For new players, however, a whole part of the map was clearly missing, and completing it was important for us.

• Naturally, the absence of proximity chat in this update was also highlighted by a few players. Proximity chat is highly anticipated, but we are not ready to deploy it yet. It is both a technical and a gameplay challenge, which means there are many points of attention during development. We are excited to see you use this feature one day, but even more excited to see you truly enjoy it. That is why our small team needs to move carefully, especially for a feature like this. We talk about it in more detail below.

Discussions that surprised us and made us smile

Some discussions clearly went beyond what we expected. One example is the paragraph mentioning the burglary that happened at the studio, which generated many unexpected reactions, often funny and always