EVERSPACE™ 2 News

Greetings, Pilots!

Time is relative, indeed. For us developers, it is flying because the next major milestone is always just around the corner. But for you all it probably feels like forever until you can get your hands on the next pre-release version of EVESPACE 2, right? Well, we’ve got some great news.


We have just updated the official EVERSPACE 2 pre-release build on Steam. Alpha backers can simply fire up Steam to receive their update. Beta backers (Early Adopter Edition reward tier and higher) will find their brand new Steam keys in their email inboxes. If you don’t see your key, please be patient as keys are sent out in batches. Also, make sure to check your spam folders!

Unfortunately, the new animated main menu background did not make it into the stable Beta build on Steam. We wanted to give an early look at this improvement with you here because it adds a sense of the deep exploration that all of you can look forward to when EVERSPACE 2 launches with the additional “Union System” and even more new stuff in Early Access this December.

So, what has changed since the previous production update, you might wonder? Well, apart from new content in the Ceto system that we want you to discover for yourselves, we made further UI/UX improvements based on the much-appreciated feedback from Alpha backers. We implemented cockpit view featuring fully functional instruments, improved the visual quality of several environmental assets and the overall performance of the build, and, of course, fixed a ton of bugs. More side missions, job variations and enemy types, points of interest, and puzzles have been added as well. Last but not least, Gero, our Sound Director, has been tweaking and adding sound effects and in-game music tracks. Basically, the Beta is a heavily revamped Alpha with a few content additions as well as more and better LOOT!


Now, anyone who feels bummed out because of not having access to the closed Beta, there are still a few days left to participate in a massive giveaway contest at the PC Gamer Forums with 5 (five) chances to win an EVERSPACE 2 pre-release Steam key; one of which will come with a slick Alienware gaming PC - yup, no joke!

You can win THIS — just head over to our dear friends at PC Gamer before the contest ends in a few DAYS!

There are quite a few entries already, but when has an EVERSPACE pilot ever let the odds get them down? In the case you are not a lucky star on this one, there will be another run with even better starting conditions - hm, where have we heard that before?


If you haven’t already checked it out, our Creative Director Uwe Wütherich, dropped a deep dive into EVERSPACE lore on The PC Gamer forums with a few tidbits about companions and the story of EVERSPACE 2. Give it a read! We’d love to hear what you think.

Spoiler Alert: The Okkar trader Tareen from the EVERSPACE - Encounters add-on will have an important come back in EVERSPACE 2. You'll find out more about his role as another companion in our narrative piece on PC Gamer.

Make sure to join today’s official Beta reveal stream on Twitch and YouTube, from 8:00 pm to 10:00 pm CEST / 2:00 pm to 4:00 pm EDT / 11:00 am to 1:00 pm PDT, where Erik will walk you through the overhauled story campaign in Ceto and give away 3 (three) more pre-release keys of EVERSPACE 2.

The hype is real, see you in the Beta... 🚀👀💥🙌
Michael and your dedicated ROCKFISH Games Team

Greetings, Pilots!

For any of you who might have been hiding under a rock in a galaxy far, far away, we would like to get the following major news onto your radar.


We are sticking to our promise of bringing EVERSPACE 2 to Steam first (duh!) and have officially announced Early Access in December 2020: A few minutes ago, we dropped a dopamine-rush gameplay trailer, followed by a snazzy dev commentary video by our infamous ace pilot, top streamer, and beloved community ambassador Erik Schrader, on IGN during the opening day of gamescom 2020.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XIAIXXJYmV8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lMWcd4kcgiE


You may have noticed that this production update is a bit shorter than usual, and there is a great reason for that: We’ve partnered with the awesome dudes and dudettes from PC Gamer for a massive ROCKFISH Games Studio Spotlight on the PC Gamer Forum, centered around an in-depth piece about the story and companions in EVERSPACE 2 as well as an AMA with some of our lead developers.

The spotlight will start on Monday, August 31, and we highly recommend that you register at the PC Gamer forum ASAP because you wouldn't want to miss out on some awesome loot dropping during the coming 30 days. Especially for those who have missed on getting into the imminent closed Beta program - hint, hint, nudge, nudge, wink, wink!

Ok, enough goofing around! Make sure to swing by tomorrow’s stream on Twitch and YouTube, from 8:00 pm to 10:00 pm CEST / 2:00 pm to 4:00 pm EDT / 11:00 am to 1:00 pm PDT, where Erik is probably gonna ignore my instructions once again and spoil some hot stuff for you, dang it!

The hype is real, see you in the space clouds... 🚀👀💥🤘🙀🙌
Michael and your dedicated ROCKFISH Games Team

Hey there, test pilots!

Today, we're happy to release a small update for the EVERSPACE 2 prototype/demo with a few settings that have been in high demand.

These are already present in the Alpha version of EVERSPACE 2, and although we had not planned on updating the prototype/demo at all, we figured that these would be relatively easy to retroactively add, as they do not affect the game code too much. Just don't expect any further updates - as you can imagine we're very busy working on the Beta and Early Access release.

Please see the complete list of changes below.

[h3]New Features[/h3]

• Added option to disable motion blur
  
• Added option to disable chromatic aberration
  
• Added gamma slider
  

[h3]Fixes[/h3]

• Fixed invert pitch not working for mouse controls
  
• Fixed invert yaw not working for mouse controls
  

Have fun!
Michael and your dedicated ROCKFISH Games Team

Attention, Pilots!

Buckle up for a mesmerizing ride through the all-new star system Union, a bustling trading hub with humongous stations floating in vast space cloud formations, in our latest dev build!

Join us on Twitch, YouTube or the EVERSPACE 2 Steam store page from 8:00 pm to 10:00 pm CEST / 2:00 pm to 4:00 pm EDT / 11:00 am to 1:00 pm PDT where Erik, our community ambassador, will give you a taste of some of the new stuff that we have been working on. Did we mention there will be giveaways of pre-release keys, too?

The hype is real, see you in the space clouds... 🚀👀💥🤘🙀🙌
Michael and your dedicated ROCKFISH Games Team

What. A. Blast! The EVERSPACE 2 “alpha beat” has been our biggest marketing event ever in terms of media coverage and user engagement. IGN reported over one million live viewers on their streaming platforms during the block when EVERSPACE 2 was on, and while we don’t have any stats from PC Gamer, we can tell by comparing the number of Wishlist additions during those two days, the PC Gaming Show must have been absolutely bonkers.

Then there was also the amazing charity stream by Cohh Carnage, raising some mind-boggling $232K in funding for a great cause.



With over 14K viewers, EVERSPACE 2 was on the Twitch front page and drove a similar number of Wishlist additions compared to when EVERSPACE 2 was featured on the Steam front page during last year’s Gamescom - thanks a ton, Cohh!

If that wasn’t crazy enough already, when the EVERSPACE 2 Prototype launched as a free demo during the Steam Summer Game Festival, the number of Wishlist additions went through the roof, peaking at 13K+ Wishlist additions on the first day alone, putting us at 155K+ outstanding wishes in total, which makes us quite optimistic about the upcoming Steam Early Access release in December.

Erik’s weekly EVERSPACE 2 game dev and community stream also became the #1 Steam Game Festival Broadcast on that day, clocking 2.8K concurrent live viewers.

It’s not just the sheer volume of new Wishlist additions though! What has blown us away the most is how many space game enthusiasts actually played the free Steam demo: we have seen well over 90,000 downloads to date, with a 70% attach rate and median playtime of 14 minutes. The daring test pilots have left us a lot of positive feedback, and also some constructive criticism for us to take forward into the Early Access game.

[h2]Alpha Highlights & Improvements[/h2]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JYOAYabEycQ
Undeniably, marketing & PR was firing on all thrusters and exceeded our expectations by far. Now, those of you who don’t have access to the closed Alpha forum on Steam and didn’t have time to watch any of our game dev streams might wonder how the feedback from eligible backers has been so far. Well, let’s hear what Cohh had to say about the closed EVERSPACE 2 Alpha:

https://clips.twitch.tv/ManlyAmazingWalrusDendiFace
https://clips.twitch.tv/DirtyDeliciousLobsterBatChest
https://clips.twitch.tv/VainSuavePlumberOhMyDog

Needless to say, those clips are music to our ears, and browsing through tons of praise from Alpha backers on the closed EVERSPACE 2 Steam forum has also been super rewarding for us. However, constructive feedback on where we could make the game better is why we are doing all this primarily. Here are a few examples of improvements and additions that we have already implemented based on community feedback so far:

[h2]Lateral Thrusters[/h2]
The arcade-y flight physics featuring inertia dampeners are a core pillar of the EVERSPACE franchise. However, quite a few pilots have been criticizing a lack of immersion even though they understand that EVERSPACE 2 is not meant to be a classic space flight sim. To fix this, we not only allow die-hard space sim enthusiasts to disable inertia dampeners, we even implemented a visual effect for lateral thrusters on all player ships.



[h2]Display Options[/h2]
Having additional Display Options was probably the biggest wish from test pilots, so we prioritized quite a bunch of features that we had on our list anyway.

While we were at it, we also added “Toggle Boost” in Gamepad Options.

Of course, we are not only working on topics that were brought up by the community. We also constantly re-evaluate our own design decisions and try out new things. For instance, we felt that the game menu, the Ship Dealer screen, and perk system could be more streamlined so we made some further UI/UX changes:

[h2]Main Menu Navigation[/h2]
Based on internal feedback, we redesigned the navigation and usability of the different tab menus. You can now navigate within a screen using specific keys, which is much faster than using WASD to emulate arrow key navigation or clicking on buttons. Due to this significant change, the root button navigation and its home screen no longer exist, and you are right at the hangar when docked. Another advantage of the new design is that you can now launch into space without having to make the detour via the home menu.

The icon bar on top has also disappeared, and we’re now working with labels for better clarity. We’re still undecided about this change as we really liked the look of sub menu icons and localizing labels into French and German might become an issue - zut alors and verflixt nochmal!

[h2]Tracking Perk Resources[/h2]
Another community request and something that has been on our list is the possibility to track investment requirements of any perk at the touch of a button: You can now have a small tracking icon for items in your inventory, so you can see which resources can be used to upgrade selected perks and by what degree such requirements are met.

Dr. Delia Wendo, the third companion you will meet during your journey, introduces another set of perks affecting Nanobots, Energy Orbs, and something else (mysterious!) that you can invest in. Basically, think of her being a doctor for the well-being of your spaceship.

Other than these, we are working away on finalizing the Alpha and heading towards the closed Beta release, scheduled for September. This includes balancing (always balancing!), bug fixing (always bugs to squash!), adding more polish to System 01 aka Ceto, among other things.

[h2]Introducing Star System 02 aka Union[/h2]
While we are working on bringing all Alpha content and features to Beta level, we have also been busy creating new content for Union, the second star system in EVERSPACE 2.

As some of you know from our weekly streams, Ceto serves to introduce pilots to the basic gameplay mechanics and set the tone for the story campaign. It already offers quite some freedom of how to progress through the first ten or so hours of the game, but Union is where the game world of EVERSPACE 2 really opens up.

Our vision of a bustling mega trading station within a massive formation of space clouds.

With trading playing a bigger role in Union, smuggling opportunities arise. Whether you are involved in transporting illegal goods or looting a freighter, criminal acts against the local authority will result in the Okkar jumping in and handling the situation as they see fit. Gear yourself up for a hard fight as the Okkar might chase after you if you manage to jump away. Or maybe you deliberately provoked them so that your wanted level increases. The Okkar will eventually send in their biggest battleships for you to challenge.

...still work in progress, but we think you can feel it already.

Lore-wise, this system is controlled by all sorts of freelancers who are organized in various sub-factions and individuals specialized in interstellar trading. Union is the bustling hub of Cluster-34 with numerous space stations, trade routes, and even a vibrant port city. It is also an area of rising conflict between different factions clashing in their attempts to shape the future of the DMZ (demilitarized zone). Adam will get caught in these struggles while trying to figure out his own role in it all. New side missions await, new challenges and lots of new secrets just wait to be discovered.

If you are as excited about Union as we are, make sure to join today’s stream on Twitch and YouTube, from 8:00 pm to 10:00 pm CEST / 2:00 pm to 4:00 pm EDT / 11:00 am to 1:00 pm PDT where Erik will give you a taste of some of the new stuff that we have been working on. Did we mention there will be giveaways of pre-release keys, too?

The hype is real, see you in the space clouds... 🚀👀💥🤘🙀🙌
Michael and your dedicated ROCKFISH Games Team