Starcom: Unknown Space News

Last weekend I promoted Kepler 17317 to default, which had the remaining high priority changes for graduation. There have been no reports of major new issues, which is very reassuring. I'm working on another patch for next week to fix a few minor issues and typos, as well as incorporate the professional German translation.

To ensure the smoothest possible graduation, I've been holding off starting on any significant changes until the release candidate is ready, but I've started at least thinking about what order I want to tackle new content / features.

I'll probably post a player survey soon, but I wanted to start by asking players what they would like me to prioritize. Let me stress that I'm not committing to delivering anything specific at this point, but here are some candidates:

[h3]More Off-path Exploration[/h3]

There are a lot of things the player can find that aren't directly tied to the main storyline. These range from small things like void derelicts to larger narratives like Wiskamug.

[h3]Late Game Content[/h3]

There are a few narrative threads that players have said they wanted some more resolution for, such as the Nimion and Kyrnan war.

[h3]Continued Play Mode[/h3]

Some players have expressed interest in some kind of continued play mode, possibly via procedural generation. I'm not 100% sure what this would look like, so maybe players who are interested in this can describe how they envision this mode playing?

[h3]Creation / Mod Tools[/h3]

One of the big changes from Starcom: Nexus was separating content creation out from the Unity Engine. Theoretically, this means that I could make some of the tools I've used to author the game's content available to people interested in creating their own stories, anomalies, missions, etc.


Let me know which features/changes are most important to you, either from the above list or something else. FYI, I'll be offline until Sunday, so I won't be responding as quickly as usual to discussion comments.

Until next week!

- Kevin

The Kepler 17317 has had been on the beta branch for several days without reports of any significant issues, so I'm setting it to default. Some minor fixes, a few mission hints and two later game void regions:

• Two new mini late-game exploration void regions
  
• Minor adjustments, additional hints to guide players in a few stuck points
  
• Adjust discovery sound volume
  
• Patch for the prevented completion of Tomb of Ock Juk if Ermyr ally in late game
• Fix for missing localization strings on one mission
  
• Fix for negative fighter count
  
• Fix for NaN on specific projectile
  
• Fix for rare mission bug in Forbidden Planet
• Suppress non-critical exceptions appearing in console, added instructions for closing console via F11
  
• Gamepad specific help notifications
  
• Refactor analytics to collected detailed only on opt-in branch
  
• Removed Early Access pop-up, FPS indicator
  
• Update game icon
  
• Several typos
  

As always, you can submit comments/bugs/suggestions in game via F8 or in the discussion forums.

It's been a very busy week here. As I mentioned two weeks ago, I took a mini-holiday last week, which was nice. The day after I got back I posted the announcement of the 1.0 graduation date (Sept 2) and have been hard at work ever since.

First of all, there's a new opt-in on the Beta branch. It's not a huge update, but it did have some changes necessary for graduation. Full list of changes here:

• Two new mini late-game exploration void regions
  
• Minor adjustments, additional hints to guide players in a few stuck points
  
• Adjust discovery sound volume
  
• Patch for the prevented completion of Tomb of Ock Juk if Ermyr ally in late game
• Fix for missing localization strings on one mission
  
• Fix for negative fighter count
  
• Fix for NaN on specific projectile
  
• Fix for rare mission bug in Forbidden Planet
• Suppress non-critical exceptions appearing in console, added instructions for closing console via F11
  
• Gamepad specific help notifications
  
• Refactor analytics to collected detailed only on opt-in branch
  
• Removed Early Access pop-up, FPS indicator
  
• Update game icon
  
• Several typos
  

If I don't get any reports of serious issues from unstable branch players, expect this branch to be promoted to default in the next few days.

Besides this build, there's a lot of work that isn't directly related to development, including:

• Updating the Logo versions and Steam store assets (and then updating them again a few days later when Steam increased the default resolutions)
  
• Updated Trailer
  
• Reaching out to streamers for possible coverage
  
• Misc PR stuff
  
• Preparing the game for release on GOG
  

Thanks for reading, until next week!

- Kevin

After over a year and half in Early Access, Starcom: Unknown Space is finally getting its 1.0 full release on September 2, to coincide with the start of Steam's "Space Exploration" festival!



Recent players have been very happy with the state of the game, which has grown enormously since the start of Early Access and now has a complete main storyline with an ending (or two?).

Full release does not mean that development is done, although to ensure the best possible experience for new players, for the next few weeks I will be focusing primarily on bug fixes, missing hints, and "quality of life" improvements (plus some additional content). But after the game reaches 1.0 launch freeze, I plan to continue doing what I've done for the past 18 months: listening to players and improving or expanding in the areas they want. I've started brainstorming more side-quests and exploration rewards, and am considering ways to make the content authoring tools I've created available to modders who want to add their own anomalies and stories to the game.

[h2]Development by the Numbers[/h2]

Here are some numbers to give a rough sense of how the game's scale has changed since the start of Early Access:

Betelgeuse (first Early Access build)
75 anomalies
1264 mission logic elements (the fundamental building blocks of the game's narrative content)
25,000 words
Median player time to end of available content: 8.1 hours

Kepler (Current build)
225 anomalies
4926 mission logic elements
90,000 words
Median player time to end of main storyline: 29.7 hours



[h2]How You Can Help[/h2]

Some players have asked how they can help the game besides providing feedback and suggestions. As an indie developer, I depend heavily on word of mouth and the mysterious Steam algorithm. Besides buying the game on launch day, you can suggest the game to your favorite streamer, and/or leave a review.

Brave commanders can also opt-in to the "unstable" beta branch which gets new builds first. This branch also has more detailed anonymous analytics, helping me find and fix problems before deploying to the default branch.

But as I've said before, I'm extremely fortunate to have had an enthusiastic player base who supported the game throughout Early Access and provided enormous amounts of feedback, bug reports, suggestions, as well as encouragement. Just to put some numbers on it, I've received over 8000 in-game feedback comments via the F8 system in addition to the hundreds of discussion forum posts. While I haven't implemented every player suggestion, the game would never have reached the quality it has without them. So thank you again Early Access players, and thanks to everyone has supported Starcom games!

- Kevin

The recent Early Access "last chance" sale brought in the largest number of first time players since the Icarus build, back before the game had an ending. It was reassuring to hear that overall they loved the game with few significant new problems reported. One of the outstanding issues since the start of Early Access had been players getting stuck at various points on the main story line, usually as the result of doing something slightly unexpected, which produced a sense of frustration as a clear path forward disappeared. With over 200 first time players having now completed the game, most of these areas have been addressed and I feel very good about the state of the game.

There's still one late game mission that multiple players have gotten stuck on, finding the Trinary Key parts for the Redacted quest. I'm in the process of making some minor adjustments that will hopefully make that smoother.

I'm going to be on a short family vacation from Tuesday to Friday next week, so I won't be able to respond quickly to feedback/questions.

Finally, I've been teasing the 1.0 graduation date when the game will leave Early Access. Expect the official announcement after I get back, but I'll say that it will coincide with an upcoming thematically appropriate Steam Fest.

Other tasks completed in the past week:

• General full-release logistics, promotion work
  
• Work with translator on the German localization
  
• Started work on a late-game mini side-quest
  
• Fixed a localization bug
  

Until next week!