Tag: devlog

Update

And then there was light.. and more FPS.. and a demo drop!…

Produno

Today I have released a new update for SpaceSlog over on Steam and Epic, you can see the full changelog below. To celebrate this release the demo has been re-enabled which I will keep for the next few days.

Don’t forget you can support us by either purchasing the game over on Epic or wishlisting over on Steam.

  • Added a new item – Standing Lamp.
  • Added a new lighting grid system. Every cell now has a light value which is adjusted by the various lighting sources in the game.
  • Added several new thoughts:
    • Low light.
    • Dislike darkness.
    • Like darkness.
  • Added new characteristics:
    • Nyctophobia.
    • Nyctophilia.
  • Outside and indoor areas will now react to different lighting. This fixes complaints that space was too dark making it difficult to see.
  • Outdoor areas will be slightly brighter when in the vicinity of a star.
  • Exposed and expanded more JSON files/data for modding.
  • Ensure thoughts slept on floor and slept in comfy bed cancel each other out.
  • Added hotkeys to cycle through player pawns. (, cycles backwards) (. cycles forwards)
  • Ensure any hotkey cannot be pressed when the escape main menu is open.
  • Don’t get prompted to save when quitting if you have already just saved.
  • Added a confirmation dialogue when deleting or overwriting saved games.
  • Updated some incident prompts to make it more clear that you need to drop out of high burn.
  • Added an option to adjust the tooltip delay.
  • Change the hours to roll over at 23 and start at 0 like a normal 24h clock.
  • Lots of refactoring, dramatically improving performance.
  • Change tooltips, fixing various issues with going off screen, or flickering when updating.
  • Add some extra missing tooltips.
  • Various AI improvements and fixes.
  • Add more guards to ensure saved games are verified before removing the old save. This guards against corruption or other save issues.
  • If a pawn is commanded, you can no longer tell them to sleep or rest until healed as it causes issues with them still being commanded.
  • Move more text to JSON for localisation.
  • Factions now have leaders.
  • Improved how manually attacking pawns works.
  • Pawns will now holster their weapons when not in combat or commanded.
  • Improved pawn view on various menus and added to extra menus like the trade and crew menu.
  • Improved selecting single pawns.
  • Added some new incidents and various other gameplay improvements.
  • Fixed: Flooring could be placed next to prefab hull, which could cause a breach.
  • Fixed: Ducting or Cables would not highlight when constructed if the highlight is meant to show.
  • Fixed: Cables or Ducting was being destroyed with walls.
  • Fixed: Cables or Ducting would sometimes leave their highlight texture behind after being destroyed.
  • Fixed: Ensure pawn health status is set on initial spawn.
  • Fixed: Not all incidents would be removed upon entering high burn when they were supposed to.
  • Fixed: Not all pawns would be removed if outside the ship upon entering high burn.
  • Fixed: Ensure all items spawn when loaded in the exact same place they were saved.
  • Fixed: Incorrect mood values when loading a saved game. (Will only work on a new game)
  • Fixed: Ensure building stops when the prefab is forbidden.
  • Fixed: NPC ships cargo now saves and loads correctly.
  • Fixed: Saving and loading pawn AI pathing could sometimes be incorrect.
  • Fixed: Various crashes that could occur.




https://store.steampowered.com/app/3148980/SpaceSlog_Demo/

Information

SpaceSlog has now been released on Epic!

Produno

SpaceSlog should now be live on the Epic Games Store. You can read my blog on why we have released on Epic here.

https://launcher.store.epicgames.com/en-US/p/spaceslog-9f9162

Please remember the game still has bugs and various missing features and is a long way off from a full game. Hence why this is mostly a stealth release. However, your support is greatly appreciated and will help to make the game better, much quicker.

It also allows us to open up our wiki and translations, which you are all welcome to contribute to. All of this will help when we come to release on Steam.

The wiki is still a blank canvas but I have started to fill in info on how to help with translations, you can find that page here.

https://produnogames.com/SpaceSlogWiki

I hope to push updates for the game every couple of months, with the first one being fixes and improvements. After I am happy with the current condition of the game, i will then start to add new features like:

  • The galaxy map
  • Planetary landing
  • Ship to ship combat
  • etc.

Though these will likely be tailored towards what you all want first.

If you want to see the current state of the game before purchasing, you can check out some of the latest videos over on our Discord. If you create your own videos, you are also welcome to post them there.

Epic does allow refunds. Though you have to have less than 2 hours in game and it should be within 14 days of purchase. So if you are unhappy with the current condition of the game, you can always refund and wait a little longer to purchase it.

Happy sloggin!

Information

How do we plan to release SpaceSlog?

Produno

Whenever i am not working my day job as an Engineer, i try my best to find time and work on SpaceSlog. Most of this work is on my own whilst also needing to pay for two artists out of my own pocket. You won’t get any closer to a self funded indie project than this! In reality this means i not only have to work to pay my bills by i also need to ensure my artists are paid including anything else required for the game (like the hosting for this website for example) before i can even start to think about working on the game itself.

Not that many other indie developers are in a better position than i am, but it does mean i need to consider very carefully how i will structure the release of SpaceSlog ensuring i can continue development without burning myself out. The aim is to maximise revenue to not only ensure i can pay for the artists and anything else this game requires, but also enable me to quit my day job and work on the game full time. I have outlined below what i currently think would be the best approach for us to achieve this.

Releasing on Steam

Ok, this ones obvious but i have put this first because there are some things we need to get out of the way before i move onto other things. It is said that Steam likes you to have roughly 7k wishlists before release. The first week of your release here could make or break your game so its very important to ensure you make the biggest splash possible. Obviously this means the more polished and fun your game is, the bigger that splash will likely be.

This does cause a few issues with some types of games that want to release as an Early Access title. We end up with a paradox where you need to be able to sell your game on Steam to gain enough traction to continue to develop it, but you also need to have enough traction in the first place for Steam to consider showing it to others. Valve will only show your game if they feel it is going to be worthwhile to them, so if your game is unknown and Valve wont show it, how else will you gain the traction required to make your game a success?

There are of course plenty of other types of marketing you can try before you hit that big release day, many of which can be found over on the How To Market a Game website, but i may have another idea.

Opting into Epics First Run Program

I know I know, no one likes the Epic Games Store but hear me out. Epic are offering to give the developer 100% of revenue, including full marketing of your game on the EGS in exchange for rights to a 6 month exclusivity deal (More info can be found here). This even counts if your game is in Early Access! For someone like me this could lead to a massive saving. The idea is to sell the game for a lesser price to entice people to take part in the Early Access, which would theoretically last 6 months. All the while you not only get people to help play test your game but you also get free marketing from Epic to help you build up your wishlists on Steam. This also means your most ardent of fans can purchase the game and you can gain a little revenue in the process.

This does come with some caveats though. Your game still needs to be in a good enough state to play, although it doesn’t need to be 6 months away from 1.0. Ideally you want to be able to still release your game on Steam as an Early Access title, which will give you a small initial boost, but then also release a 1.0 on Steam too which will give you another boost. I think combining EGS and Steam in this way could help improve our chances of success significantly.

The other thing to remember is not many people use the EGS compared to Steam, so don’t expect to be selling hundreds of thousands of copies. As an example we currently have 2000 wishlists on Steam and 77 on the EGS. That means for every 1 person to wishlist our game on the EGS, roughly 26 others have done so on Steam. Though i think this actually works in our favour, lesser people will play the game in it’s infancy, which means less chances of negative reviews and you get to break yourself into selling your game gently. I guess this could be even more beneficial if like me this is the first time you are selling your game on a storefront.

Itch.io

Itch.io gets very little traffic, but you get to choose what percentage of royalty you give to them. This could be a good opportunity to sell your game here after your 6 months are up on Epic if you feel you are still not ready to move forward on Steam. I often see people sell their games on their own websites but i see little point in doing that when itch.io is as cheap as it is, plus they handle everything for you.

Conclusion

In conclusion, i think the best way for us to move forward is to first enrol into the EGS First Run Program, where we will release SpaceSlog into Early Access. If after those 6 months we still feel the game is not ready for primetime (Steam) then also open up sales on Itch.io. I guess from then on the best idea would be to monitor player feedback and keep an eye on wishlists to determine when we should be announcing our release on Steam.

I understand a lot of other people are in very different situations to me and this may not work as well for them as it may for me. Either way, i still don’t plan on releasing anything yet for quite some time so i still have time to think about and plan what i want to do. Nothing here is set in stone, it’s just what i currently feel is the best course of action for us moving forward.

If you have ideas or want to discuss further, feel free to join our discord. Also feel free to check out SpaceSlog on Steam and possibly give it a wishlist! Or you can head over to EGS.

DevSlog

An anatomy of a small ship.

Produno

Whilst working on the atmosphere and gas systems i thought i should balance how i expect a small ship to look like, what components it would have and how much power and air it would need to be a fully functioning space ship.

Here is a ship with a generator, console, transponder, life support system, thruster and then all the cables, ducting and vents required for everything to work and keep the crew safe. I suspect these starting items will need to support at least 3 crew members but will be fairly inefficient once you start to build larger ships, meaning you will need to build different components and plan out how you will lay your cables, ducting and ventilation as your ship grows. This will be especially important when you consider things like maintenance and combat situations.

Three small ships showing their components.

Don’t forget you can wishlist SpaceSlog on Steam or the EGS.