AETHUS News

Good day, Pioneers!

I'm happy to announce that the very first public playable demo of AETHUS will go live on May 24th at 11AM UTC (12 Noon BST) as part of our participation in the Steam Open World Survival-Crafting Festival!

The demo features the beginning of the game and will give you around an hour's gameplay in the opening areas (but is not time-limited), allowing you to mine and gather resources, build up the beginning of your Outpost on the surface of the planet, craft and refine items, and get a taste of the dystopian narrative that will drive you through the game!

It's been a year since I started full-time on the game so this is a big milestone - I really hope you like the game, and would love to hear your thoughts.

You can join the Discord channel to provide feedback and chat with myself and other players!

If you're a content creator, YouTuber, Twitch streamer etc. then please get in touch and I will be happy to provide you with advanced access to the demo.

I've decided to attempt a new project - writing devlogs, published weekly, giving you an update on what's been going on behind the scenes of development during the previous week.

This is a bit of an experiment, and I'm keen to hear what you think - whether it's content, cadence or anything else, feedback is super important to me and I really want to engage with you all during this process.

These devlogs won't be exhaustive, but will hit the big topics that were worked on in the past week. Topics will vary wildly (I try to work on what 'feels right' to me to maximise my productivity!) and cover a lot of different areas, but will hopefully give you a better idea of what's going on.

Finally - please remember everything shown here is work-in-progress and not representative of final quality!

As a reminder, you can also join the Discord to get sneek-peek access to development content, provide feedback and discuss features with me directly. Hit the image below for an invite!





[h2]The Task List[/h2]

Designed to make your journey less confusing, the Task List will display Primary and Secondary Tasks on the top-left of the HUD so you're never stuck and unsure on how to progress.

Please bear in mind this feature will undergo a UI art pass.

[h2]Recipe Pinning[/h2]

A staple of any good survival game, the ability to pin recipes of various kinds will make it easier and faster to gather the resources you need to build up your colony!

Pin recipes on the UI for:

• Building Blueprints
  
• Crafting Plans
  
• Refining Recipes
  

Please bear in mind this feature will undergo a UI art pass.

[h2]Status Effects[/h2]

If you've played RPGs or MMOs you'll be familiar with Status Effects - they're a way to show what's happening to you in an easy way! For example, when out on an expedition into the depths, this status effect will show you that you're using up your air supply!

Step into an environmental hazard or contract an illness and you'll see status effects here so you'll always know what's affecting your character.

[h2]Modify Mode and new Shaders[/h2]

This week I took some time to expand the functionality of the building system, as well as freshen up some of the shader effects.

The gif linked here shows the new shader effects for placement of habitats and facilities in both valid and invalid locations, as well as the new Modify Mode which allows you to easily select and then move or deconstruct facilities and habs!

Click here for a higher quality video!



That's it for the highlights this week! Please let me know if this was interesting in a comment or via the Discord - it takes effort to make these and I want to make sure they're actually worthwhile and interesting to you!

Finally, remember that we have a 'coming soon' page for a future Kickstarter live!


Please hit the image above and pre-register for this so you're alerted when the campaign goes live!

Thanks for your support!

Safe expeditions.

Hello, Pioneers! We're now a little over two weeks on from the announcement of MERIDIAN, and I wanted to just check in with you all.

I'm happy to say that we've just passed the milestone of 200 wishlists on Steam, which is brilliant for a little over a week, with very little marketing so far and at this still-early point in development.

It was really important to me to get the Steam page up and running and start building a community early - I want to be open and direct in the development of the game, taking your ideas and feedback on board, and creating a game for everyone!

Thank-you to everyone so far who has wishlisted, followed, shared the announcement of the game, or just left a nice comment! I read every single thing, and your support has made me smile every day.

Please keep spreading the word about the game to your friends, and if you haven't already(!), please do Wishlist! It really helps!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2541530/MERIDIAN

Kickstarter Pre-Registration

I'm planning to put up a Kickstarter for the game early next year, and it would help me out a lot in getting the word out there if you were to click the image below and pre-register!



I'm currently fully self-funding the game so a successful Kickstarter would provide the project-finance security needed to complete the game!

Select 'Notify me on launch' to pre-register! This does not commit you to anything!

Go register today! ❤


If you're interested in following development more closely, providing input and ideas, and generally staying one step ahead of everyone else, you can do so in a variety of ways!

An example of a couple of things from the past week that I've shared on the platforms below...

A fully-featured search function for the crafting system in the game!

A behind-the-scenes look at how I worked with the awesome Lisa Venturini on concepts for the game! (Click the image for much more!)

and much more! So...



We have a Discord server you can get involved in where I post behind-the-scenes news and snippets of development more often than on other platforms, so this is the best place to be for the latest news.

Being here is also your best chance at getting in on a future playtest! ːB1ː

[h3]Twitter/X[/h3]
I post behind-the-scenes updates and other, non-game-specific thoughts on Twitter regularly! Follow me, send me a question, or let's just chat! Click the link above!

[h2]Future Development Updates[/h2]

I'm planning to post development updates on specific features and areas of the game as development continues, but I want to know what you'd like to see and hear about!

Leave a comment or start a Discussion in the Steam Community and let me know!

[h3]Thanks again for your support, see you next time![/h3]