Thank you to everyone who’s joined the game’s Discord and sent me feedback and bug reports about the playtest version!
This month I’ve spent a lot of time fixing bugs and making balancing changes based on that feedback, and I’ve also added a few new features.
Windows and Mac app versions
I’ve made Windows and Mac app versions of the game, using the Twine App Builder tool by Em Lazer-Walker. You’ll be able to install and run the game like any other application, rather than running it in a web browser. I’ll also release the HTML version so that you can run it in a browser if you prefer (or if you’re on Linux).
Having the game as an icon that sits in on my desktop makes it feel like a real game in a way it didn’t before.
(To be clear: these are desktop app versions, not mobile phone ones. I’m hoping to do Android and iPhone versions eventually but it’ll be some time after the desktop launch.)
High Score Table
One thing I’ve added at the request of playtesters is a persistent record of past games (i.e. a high score table). It looks much like the one in Seedship, although better, because I’m better at CSS than I was then.
Clicking the ‘View’ button shows you more details such as the number of civilisations encountered, number of times your ship was damaged, all the explorers from that game.
My hope is that the game records will encourage people to re-play the game to beat their previous scores, and to be able to look back over old ships and explorers they might have become attached to rather than having them vanish forever.
Achievements
In another change requested by playtesters, I’ve added achievements!
Achievements aren’t too much effort to add, and some people really like them, while people who don’t like them can easily ignore them. (I’ve added a button in the settings menu to turn the notifications off.)
Some of the achievements are things you could try to go after but you can also get by chance from from playing the game enough. Others are completionist type things (get every upgrade from a certain category) or self-imposed challenges (win the game without doing X).
Right now there are 19 achievements, but I’m thinking of more I can add (and adding new ones is easy now I’ve got the system set up). If you have ideas for achievements you’d like to see, post them below or on the Discord!
(These achievements only exist in the game itself. I have no plans to integrate them into Steam or other systems.)
Event Editing Pass
In less glamorous news, I’ve also done an editing pass of all the event text. I’ve substantially rewritten a few events, and I’ve fixed typos and tightened up the wording in a lot more.
In a few cases I’ve made mechanical changes to events as well. Most notably, some negative outcomes of events where you interact with a planetary civilisation now force you to take off and prevent you from landing again. It’s their planet, so if they tell you to leave, you have to.
Release Plans
Estimated release date is now late April or May. I could hit my self-imposed April 12 date if I push myself, but I’d rather release a better game a few weeks later. I’ll continue to periodically update the pre-release preview version until launch, at which point I’ll take it down and the game will be available from itch.io.
Thank you all for your support and patience, and I’ll see you next month.