Signs of Life News

Hey folks, we decided it was past time to put out a roadmap and give you an idea of what we have planned between now and leaving Early Access. We're keeping some things intentionally vague to avoid spoiling stuff too far out. This isn't everything we have planned, and it is entirely possible that our plans may change, but this is where we're at right now in terms of planning out the remainder of the game's launch content.



As always, if you have any comments, suggestions of just want to say hey, feel free to comment on this post, post on the forums or join us in the official Discord server.

Hey folks, we've got a new update ready. This update does double duty as both a tutorial and a significant chunk of story content at the beginning of the game. We've known for awhile that we needed a proper tutorial, but we waited until now because we wanted to make sure that we had a good idea of the stumbling blocks that new players have when starting the game fresh. Hopefully what we put together will make it easier for new players, while not being too overbearing or annoying for existing players. From a story standpoint, we've always known that we wanted to start the game like this, but because it was tangled up with the tutorial we had to hold off until we could do both at the same time. Between the tutorial and the story elements, we're hoping the new player experience should be a lot less awkward. You can skip the intro/tutorial content when creating a new character.

The game now starts with you waking up in your bed aboard a colony ship called the Hephaestus. You're part of a decades-long mission to travel through space to a habitable earth-like planet called Osiris. You're woken up by the ship's on-board AI system, who tells you that you're needed for a mission to scout a nearby asteroid that has produced some anomalous readings.


You'll get your handy MEG wrist laser tool installed.


You'll perform some diagnostics


Visit an asteroid


And witness the end of the human race.

• Added story introduction and tutorial
  
  
  
  • New starting map
    
    
    
    • Hephaestus colony ship
      
      
      
      • Contains several sections, including the Bridge, Hydroponics, a Medical Bay, a Dormitory, Outfitting, the Hangar and Cryogenics.
        
      • Added generic NPCs as well as 2 named NPCs
        
        
        
        • Dr. Stein - The head scientist and captain of the Hephaestus. His office in the bridge, and he can help you with information about your mission to the asteroid.
          
        • Larry - The head engineer of the Hephaestus. His office is above the hangar pod bays, and he can help you diagnose and launch a landing pod to the asteroid.
          
        
        
      • Added decorations and furniture for the various sections of the Hephaestus.
        
      • Added a MEG wrist tool install station and diagnostics station in the Outfitting section of the Hephaestus.
        
      • Added a new weapon/tool called the Thermothrower, which can shoot streams of ice and fire. It can be found in the Hangar storage area and it can be refilled using a charging station in the same storage room.
        
      • Added Hephaestus Pick, obtained along with a suit of armor in the Outfitting section of the Hephaestus.
        
      • Added a rivet gun. It fires rivets and can be found in the hangar.
        
      
      
    • Asteroid
      
      
      
      • Added an asteroid mite creature, and an asteroid mite hat made from its skin and entrails.
        
      
      
    • Underground alien structure
      
      
      
      • Added an alien altar that is missing a crystal and has a slot for the "Strange Device".
        
      • Added an alien boss
        
      
      
    • Added a short story related cutscene that plays at the end of the new content.
      
    
    
  
  
• Added a Help menu with entries about various topics.
  
• Added a Seismic Imager structure that can be used to scan the area and add the data to your minimap.
  

• Added AGIS Investigate bind (I by default) that allows you to ask agis about something in the world without first opening his dialog.
  
• Removed most left click interactions in the world, and replaced then with right clicks. Let us know if you notice spots where we still have you left click to interact with a device or thing in the world.
  
• Prevented weapons from using their alternate fire when right clicking to interact with something in the world. This fix must be applied to things individually and I'm sure we missed some, so let us know if/when you notice this issue in the future.
  
• The Multipass is now obtained in your starting room after you've gotten dressed and eaten some food.
  
• Moved the "Strange Device" to the end of this area. Previously it was located on Osiris in the mining base.

• Added a unique respawn effect when you are respawned by the alien Xenolith.
  
• Added an idle animation that plays when you are using your inventory.
  

• Fixed an issue that was causing the game to crash on launch on 32 bit systems
  
• Fixed display issues with various items in the grid inventory.
  
• Fixed some foods not stacking correctly.
  
• Fixed an issue with placeable items such as torches when using the grid inventory option.
  
• Fixed a bunch of graphical and gameplay issues with the alien ship you reach by portal.
  
• Fixed an issue that may have been causing food to not get eaten despite showing the animation. Let us know if this problem shows up again.
  
• A whole bunch of tiny things that I can't remember.
  

We have two large goals left before we would be ready to take Signs of Life out of Early Access. One is to finish the story content, and the second is to expand on the existing content by re-working some existing areas, adding bosses and cleaning up issues with the progression through the game. This includes things like finishing up the earlier work we showed with the Spitters, as well as a possible rematch with a certain fowl creature...

This update took ages in large part because we couldn't really split it up into smaller pieces, but the things we're going to be working on next are smaller individual chunks so we should be able to get updates out quicker going forward.

We feel pretty happy with this intro/tutorial content, but it is still a work in progress. Let us know in the comments, on the Steam forums and in our Discord channel if you have any suggestions, complaints or just want to say hello!

Hey folks, I wanted to put out a quick announcement and let you know what we've been up to since the last one. Originally we were going to put out a smaller update next, but along the way we ended up deciding to go ahead and finish up the intro/tutorial for the next update as well. The intro/tutorial will help introduce players to the world, as well as introduce many of the gameplay mechanics that you'll be using for the rest of the game. Signs of Life does some things a bit different than other games, so we feel like it is super important to make sure that players understand how the game functions before they get dropped on the planet that they'll spend the majority of their time on.

Before I get too far into the details of what we've been working on, I want to let you know that we've set up an official Discord channel for Signs of Life, which you can get to by clicking this link. We'll of course still be using the Steam discussion forums, but Discord is probably where we'll be easier to reach and Discord makes it easier for us to drop in-progress screenshots and gifs.

Here is what we've been working on for the intro/tutorial, but keep in mind that much of it is still a work in progress:

You'll start the intro in your room, aboard the U.N. Hephaestus, a massive colony ship designed to travel to a new earth-like planet many lightyears from home. You'll wake up and find out that while en-route to the new planet, some signs of life were detected on a nearby asteroid and you've been tasked with investigating.


Once you get dressed, you'll take a grav lift down to the main Barracks corridor, and then an elevator to the Supply Room.


While on the Hephaestus, you'll get your wrist mounted MEG tool installed, and run through a series of diagnostics which will teach you how to use the various functions.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0GrT8keCMeE&feature=youtu.be

One of the gameplay mechanics we want to make sure players understand by the end of the tutorial is the way ammo works, so as part of the tutorial you'll need to use a new tool we've created called the Thermo-Thrower. As part of the tutorial, you'll need to put out a fire as well as melt some ice on an airlock door.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Stgzed6plyY&feature=youtu.be


But of course the Thermo-Thrower isn't only a tool, and it can be used for more... destructive purposes. However, because the U.N. Hephaestus frowns upon violence and destruction, you might want to avoid causing too much trouble with it.
https://youtu.be/xtAmHdhd8Eo

This is just some of what we've been working on, and in the next announcement we'll cover a bit about what happens once you leave the Hephaestus and start scouting for signs of life on the nearby asteroid... As always, we love to hear from you folks, so don't be shy. Let us know what you think in the comments, the Steam discussion forums and on the official Discord channel.

Hey folks, I wanted to check in and let everyone know what we've been working on since the last update. In the past we've pretty much gone dark in between updates and worked quietly behind the scenes, but I want to start being more transparent about what we're working on. I've decided to start putting out monthly updates like this, whether we have an update ready to put out or not.

In the last update we introduced a new area based around some intelligent aliens, and one of the things we've been working on is fleshing that area out. We feel like the area still needs a boss, some new creatures and some new gear. We don't want to go into too many details because we don't want to spoil everything before it is done, but here is some of what we're working on for the next update:

This is a boss we're working on:


This is a new creature we're adding:


And here is a new gun that we're working on:


It was also brought to our attention that it was a bit annoying to get ahold of enough acid to craft the various batteries required for the higher-end weapons due to the relative rarity of the Spitter creatures that drop the acid glands, so we decided to do a bit of an overhaul on those creatures. Our intention is to improve their visuals, mechanics and spawning behavior. Here is what the new version looks like:



Aside from the improved visuals, we're making it so the new version of the Spitter can rotate it's head so it no longer just spits directly in front of itself, and we're going to make it more reliable to find them by putting spawn areas near the surface of the planet. The goal is to make them a bit tougher to fight, but easier to find.

We also decided that the existing craftable spitter pistol was a bit lackluster, so we've overhauled that as well. The new version looks better and packs a bit more of a punch:


As always, we love to hear your feedback so don't be shy! If you have any questions, criticisms or just want to say hey, feel free to leave a comment on this post or the forums.

Hey folks, it has been awhile but we have a brand new content update hot off the presses. We had several goals with this update - We wanted to move the story forward a bit, add a new area to explore, and we wanted to add a repeatable combat encounter that would be both fun and practically useful.

You will need to generate a new character or a new world (through the Sandbox Menu) to access the new area.

• A new alien themed aread to explore
  
  
  
  • The area is entered via a portal that the Xenoid scouts open from their deployment pods that drop to the ground after you attempt to contact the Hephaestus with the satellite dish in the Pioneer Station.
    
  • 2 new intelligent alien creatures
    
    
    
    • A Xenoid Specialist that shoots fireballs
      
      
    • A tanky soldier Xenoid
      
      
    • All of the Xenoid aliens can now teleport to the player as long as there is an unobstructed path.
      
    
    
    
  • 3 new less intelligent alien creatures
    
    
    
    • A ProtoXenoid Crab
      
    • A ProtoXenoid Slug
      
    • A ProtoXenoid Hound
      
    
    
  • A new alien device that can be used to duplicate items.
    
    
    
    • The device has 4 crystals that must be stabilized with alien energy in order for the machine to function.
      
    • The crystals will spawn ProtoXenoids from special portals when the machine is on and the crystals are not stabilized.
      
    • Items placed on the device's tray will be pulled up into the machine when the lever on the device is set to the on position.
      
    • Once an item is pulled up into the machine, it will slowly be duplicated.
      
    
    
  • A Alien Turret that fires alien energy projectiles.
    
  • A Xenoid Reflector that can be used to redirect alien energy projectiles.
    
  • Devices that can temporarily or permanently provide power to connected alien devices after they are struck by an alien energy projectile.
    
  • A device that disables the power in the new area, which disables the duplication machine, prevents the aliens from respawning and prevents the alien pods from dropping to the surface of the planet.
    
  • Added alien wiring that connects the new alien devices to power sources.
    

• You no longer need to manually scan the environment to fill your map. Your surroundings are now scanned automatically
  
• Added a Codex to track information that you have discovered about creatures, including a description and a list of drops
  
  
• The primary function of the wrist scanner gadget is now used to scan creatures and add their information to the codex
  
  
• Creatures should be more persistent. If you build a house and put a chicken in it, the chicken should never disappear unless you kill it. Our intention is to move in the direction of letting you "farm" creatures for resources, and this is a step towards that.
  
• Increased the range of the wrist light
  
• Improved functioning and reliability of the grapple laser. It still needs improvements to its functionality and graphics, but it should be better now.
  
• Herb Catalysts and Remedial Herbs now get automatically sorted into Forager pouches.
  

• Fixed some issues that would cause weapons and gadgets to stop firing occasionally.
  
• Fixed an issue that would cause the inventory grid/gridless setting to not save
  
• Fixed a graphical issue that would cause asteroids to be visible for a few seconds after entering the game
  
• Fixed an issue that would cause the Backglider equipment to jiggle around when placed on a surface
  
• Fixed some issues related to dying while using the Grapple laser
  
• Fixed an issue that would cause the stone pressure plates to not function correctly sometimes
  

• Enabled VSync by default. Let us know if you notice any new lagginess or input delay.
  
• Added tooltips for items in the hotbar
  
• Added an "info" button to the hotbar slots that opens the selected item's details
  
• Changed the default font size from Small to Medium
  
• Improved the descriptions for some of the creatures. Our intention is to do a pass over all the item and creature descriptions soon since quite a few of them need to be improved.
  
• Now that the world is scanned automatically as you explore, the scan button on the HUD has been changed so that it now opens the minimap.
  
• The various refiners (campfire, brick oven, advanced smelter) now require you to insert a firestarter.
  
• Added tooltips and error messages for the refiners
  
• Recipes that require a "heat source" will now recognize nearby (active) refiners as heat sources.
  

• Improved and enlarged many item sprites.
  

• We're not done decorating the new area, and we need to add some more/better rewards to find
  
• There are likely still some multiplayer bugs, but I'll be squashing them as they come up.
  
• Some sound FX are still missing for the new creatures and some new structures, but they'll be coming over the next couple weeks.
  
• Currently, if you destroy all the alien drop pods (that drop to the surface of the planet and spawn the Xenoid Scouts) after disabling the power in the new area, then you will be unable to enter/exit the new area.
  

• Our next goal is to flesh out this new area a bit. We're going to add a boss fight as well as some new weapons, armor and gadgets. Much of the planned work is already finished, so this should happen before the end of next month.
  
• Our next planned large content update is going to be the intro/tutorial. This is something that we've been putting off for awhile because we wanted to make sure we didn't miss tutorializing anything important, but I think at this point we have a pretty good idea about what things give players trouble early on. We're always interested in hearing what gives folks trouble when they're first learning the game though, so don't be shy! The more feedback we get about the early hours of playing the game, the better the tutorial will end up being.
  

As always, we want to hear your feedback either in the comments or on the forums. Let us know if you think the new area is too hard or too easy, and definitely let us know if you run into any bugs.