Prospector News

[h2]Start by finding a heavily forested area[/h2]



Trees are a critical part of resin production. The colony cannot grow without them, so make sure there are a handful of trees nearby before placing your incubator.

[h2]Wait for the queen to lay eggs[/h2]



Once the incubator is powered, the queen will automatically start pumping out fresh cocoons, each containing a single moth larvae.

[h2]Let moths harvest resin for you... or use a laser[/h2]



Moths will infest nearby trees by injecting their saliva into the cambium, causing trees to produce massive amounts of resin. The moths will then harvest and carry resin back to their queen, stored safely inside the incubator, allowing the player to collect the resin later. However resin can also be harvested directly with a laser for a quicker haul.

[h2]Plant more trees to increase production![/h2]



Moths will only infest trees within a certain radius of their queen. That means once all the original trees are infested, you'll need to plant more. The infestation effectively destroys the original tree, so planting seeds is the only way to keep the farm running!

Earlier this month I participated with 24 other amazing indie developers in the Seattle Indies Expo! Here are some of the biggest issues people ran into playing the game and how I addressed them:

1. I need more inventory space!
Always a tricky one for games of this genre. Limiting space is a deliberate choice on my part but it wasn't fun watching people destroy items to make room in their pack. So I reduced the cost to repair your companion robot O.P.H.E.L.I.A so that she can be accessed really early on, effectively doubling your pack space.



2. No parody between left analog and D-pad is annoying!
For gamepad players, there was a lot of frustration with the default controls and people expected to be able to use both the analog stick and the D-pad when navigating menus. So I made that a thing.



3. Holding down a key for longer periods of time is fatiguing!
The Prospector's jetpack is a toggle action by default but I was really surprised to hear people asking for that to be a hold action and for the laser to be a toggle. I had some QA folks play as well and for accessibility reasons, their feedback was to make any hold action that happens a lot a toggle. So I decided to support both actions and added an option in settings so you can decide how you want to play.



4. I've never played this kind of game before and I need more help!
It's always interesting to see people who've never played a base builder / crafting game give Prospector a spin! While my goal is not to optimize for these kinds of players, there were some game concepts that I felt could be explained better. So I added a hint system that can also be turned off in settings that will pop up some key information about the game as you move through the early stages of building an outpost.



5. Having to slam an interaction key on Mouse and Keyboard is no fun!
I saw players taking their hands off the mouse to collect their crops with the keyboard and that's definitely not a great solution. So instead of using the keyboard to interact with things, the primary action is now a mouse click. I think it feels a whole lot better.



6. I want to quickly make one more of the thing I just crafted!
For folks who wanted to do a lot of exploring, it was annoying to go in and out of the crafting menu to make supply lines. I saw folks get hung up on this with power routers as well. So I added a "quick craft" action that remembers the last thing you crafted and allows you to quickly make one more without going back into the menu screen.



There were a bunch of other small changes I added to this latest release that for now, is only available in the Beta but will soon be available in the Demo as well.

A big "thank you" to everyone who played!

Harvested seeds can be planted wherever you like as long as they have space to grow.



Continue to increase your shipping level to unlock Terraformers and Composters. These structures can be used to generate fertilizer for increased crop quality, and rich soil tiles that speed up the growth and fruiting of plants.




This update takes the game's existing content but provides a more engaging leveling experience where structural blueprints are rewards for increasing your shipping rank. As the game is updated and new structures are added, these rewards will increase, providing more content and unique experiences so you always know what you're working towards.




The old Quick Slot system which limited players to 4 items has been totally redone as an infinite toolbar. Items from your inventory will be displayed in your toolbar automatically as they are collected, so there's no need to assign anything, and you can get back to enjoying the game.




After collecting 100+ resources, the laser tool can start to feel a little dull. To spice things up, certain resources will have a "sweet spot" and if you maintain contact with your laser for a period of time, you'll be rewarded with a burst of extra resources. Laser smarter, not harder!





Are you interested in providing input on the Prospecting experience? Join the Loonworks Games Discord and let me know what you'd to see in future updates!

The jetpack is a speed upgrade that uses power from your suit, so be mindful of your energy levels! No power means no jetpack and no laser to harvest resources or protect against enemies. Position your supply lines strategically to create your own mini highways!



The jetpack as of this update is a Beta only feature and can be acquired by printing from the new Fabricator structure.



Are you interested in providing input on other Fabricator schematics or the Prospecting experience in general? Join the Loonworks Games Discord and let me know what you'd to see in future updates!