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InfraSpace News

Friday Dev News #138 - Mountain Roads

Hello everyone!

We're hard at work preparing for the 1.0 release in 2 weeks!

In last weeks comments I saw mention of a car stacking issue on intersections. I can confirm we have fixed this bug and the fix is gonna be released with the 1.0 release.

Mountain Roads


We created a big new map for the 1.0 release. The good news is that it looks way better and more interesting - but the bad news is that our road system was not really equipped to handle mountains like these. Just look at what happened if you tried to build a road from one side of the mountain to another, brute force:




It looks funny, but actually makes the game worse. Mountains would not be the obstacle they're supposed to be and it'd be too hard to place buildings on the roads that just ignore the shape of the terrain.

So we had to spend some time to create a road placing algorithm that adapts to the terrain. If you're a long-time fan you'll remember that roads used to snap to the terrain in the past. This was an issue because the roads turned out differently than what you expected to build.

We fixed this now: while you drag the road or rail, it will adapt to the terrain and you will see what you get, just like you'd expect:




There is a chance that this change introduces some bugs, so we're gonna do extended playtesting and keep our eye open for reports. But we hope this will be a good solution for building even on tilted terrain.


Terraforming Adjustments


This is just a quick update from the art side! With the new map, we also had to adjust terraforming to make it look good and these are the results. We hope you like them!





Other than that, our team has been busy with a large amount of bug fixes, finishing the achievements programming, and working on a new trailer.
You'll see more soon!

Happy playing

Friday Dev News #137 - Preparations for 1.0 on Sept 19th

Hello everyone,

the 1.0 release is coming ever closer and we're busy fixing up loose ends here and there and fixing issues. We're going to focus on the most important things for 1.0 and are going to keep going for at least a 1.1 update after that.

Available Maps


I saw players getting really curious about which maps are going to be available with the new map selection, so here you go:

  • The randomly generated world you are used to now
  • A completely new map with some great looking mountains and more verticality
  • If we have time a third map, that is more difficult to play on, with more mountains.


Some people said they'd like to have some of the very old maps back. Currently there is no plan to bring them back directly, but rather fill the void with new, hopefully better maps. But we'll see after 1.0 what should be highest prio.

Post Processing


Color grading is easily overlooked when talking about a game's graphics, but it makes a big difference. I won't go into detail on all the iterations the artists went through this week, but here is the final look of the new map:



Bugfixing


Other than that the programming side has been busy fixing bugs and issues here and there. And it will stay like that with the small exception of finishing the distribution and collection centers for better traffic control.

Most recently, we're fixing an issue where sand would clip through the road after loading a save.

I hope you're looking forward to 1.0 and we'll see you on release day!
Happy playing!

Friday Dev News #136 - Achievements almost done

Hello everyone!

Today's update is on the quicker side: The gist of it is that we're making a lot of progress on the map and can probably start filming for our new trailer soon.

Our playtesters have started playing the map - currently some have difficulties with the raised terrain, but we're hoping to improve that before release. In general, it does look much better than our old map.

Check out this screenshot:



We also made a new map selection menu so you can choose what kind of settling experience you wanna have:



Achievements are almost done and we have just published them today!



https://steamcommunity.com/stats/1511460/achievements



I hope you're excited for 1.0 on Sept 19th!

Happy playing!

Friday Dev News #135 - Story

Hello everyone, it's time for another Friday Dev News post!

Reminder: InfraSpace 1.0 is scheduled for release on September 19th!

Story


InfraSpace's story is not a big part of the game, but it still could use some improvement. Specifically, it is confusing, because at first you want to repair the spaceship, and once you're done repairing it, you decide to stay on the planet and make a prospering colony out of it.

We're going to add some in-game messages to explain the switch and the story of your city a little better. Here are some of the artworks for the messages:













Billboards


We've shown these to you a long time ago and they're finally ready to use in your cities: Billboards!






New map almost ready for playtesting


Our first new map is almost ready to be checked out by our playtesters. We wanted to release it to them today, but ran into some additional bugs that need to be fixed first. Maybe we'll still make it in the evening, or on Monday instead.

The new map is looking great, but also has some challenges. For example, many players complained that the old map was too flat. That's why the new map features more hills and mountains as well as subtle elevation changes. This looks great, but can lead to situations such as these:




We're trying to include enough flat areas for you to build, but there might be some situations where you'll have to be more careful when building roads in the future.

Also, we're playing with the idea of a second map that has more difficult terrain and makes it more of a challenge to create a city with good layout:



Less Crashes


Also, I'm happy to report that all of our work on bugfixing has paid off and we're getting _waaay_ less crash reports now. There are still some, but a huge reduction. We'll focus on other issues for now, but always keep an eye open.

Happy playing!





Patch 2.19.316

Hello everyone,

this patch adds more logging capabilities for the remaining crash reports so we know which version it appeared in as well as some technical device info.

Happy playing!