Surviving Ceres News

There are several early game aspects currently being developed for the demo/game, but I wanted to put some of the larger aspects on hold and get this update out ASAP. This update has a couple of small fixes, tweaks, and the major addition of the deconstruction tool to the game.

[h2]Added An Oxygen Recipe[/h2]
I added a craftable oxygen bottle to the "Basic Liquid Processor". I didn't want to make this a valid option for keeping up your oxygen in the early game. I want you to work towards oxygen for your base and ideally, your colony in the mid-game. However, I have a few explorable caves coming soon and these will be meant for the early game while oxygen is still a factor, and crafting oxygen bottles will assist with that exploration. I made them require an iron frame and ice. The iron frame ensures you are fairly established in your crafting.


[h2]VR Headset Firing Up[/h2]
I have removed an existing but not used input that had VR controls. This was causing players' VR headsets to fire up when the game had no VR involved. I don't have a headset and had not noticed this, but thankfully some of our players have reported this issue to be fixed. It now has been.


[h2]Screens Not Just For Looking At[/h2]
All the craftable screens display information regarding many aspects of the game. These are now not just for looking at as they will give you access to their specific menus. Ie. the rocket screen displaying rocket locations and travel times can now be used to open the rocket management menu. The mission control display can now be used to open the mission control menu etc..


[h2]Early Coal[/h2]
I have unlocked coal by default. I want to ensure that you can reach exporting even if you were to blow all your funding on overpriced M.R.Es. To that effect I have unlocked coal, it is now available as soon as you make a "Basic Grinder".


[h2]Deconstruction[/h2]
I have completed and added the deconstruction tool. Which was by no means an easy feat due to the complexity involved in snapping buildings, checks for inside and outside for oxygen, as well as countless other aspects that could break the game if done wrong.

That being said, I believe the tool is working very well and ideally no major issues exist.

You can now remove any free-standing machines, power generators, ramps, drills, and anything placed independently. You can also remove all structures provided you are working from an end snapping point backward towards a HUB. The HUB is always the first thing you can build, and it is the last thing you can pick up if you are going for a full relocation of your base. You can remove any endpoint structure, and continue to work backward from there. Additional HUBs can be removed while snapped to something as well if more than 1 HUB exists and is the endpoint for a direction.

I added this tool to the "Basic Tool And Power Constructor" for only 50 Iron Ore. This ensures you can reach it very early, even before your base has power. This way players should not brick a save by having no snap points left, building in a bad spot that has no room, or potentially putting a solar panel in the way of the next structure (Looking at you Digi).


[h2]What's Next[/h2]
In the next big patch, I will be redesigning the starting area using a few great suggestions from the community on how to better drive the player towards the correct flat plateau area. This will include raising the starting rocket, so the flat area will be visible from the starting point.

I also have a few caves planned to add to the exploration side as well as provide some story arc information and precursor events.

I am also working on adding some non-violent aliens to bring the area to life. The turret defense side will begin in the late game after terraforming has begun, but I want to bring some life to the world which will further increase the value of exploration and atmosphere of the game.

Thank you to everyone who has been playing the early demo, and giving me amazing feedback and ideas. I might be a solo developer, but getting the game into players' hands early and having an amazing community means I am never truly alone. I hope you continue to support this game's development with your time and effort. I have so many things planned, and I will not let you down nor take that support for granted. Thank you.

Hey there everyone;

The demo has been out now for a few weeks and so far the response has been fantastic. A lot of players have checked out the game and the feedback, suggestions, and bug fixes have been rolling in. This patch addresses many issues as well as adds some quality-of-life changes, tweaks, and additional guidance for new players.




There has been a variety of fixes made to the game. A huge shoutout to TrabTrab on Steam for their amazing bug-finding reports. This individual has played very hard and come back with some great findings to improve the game.

[h3]Rocket Issues[/h3]
There were some issues with rockets, particularly related to multiple rockets using the same landing pad. This has been tracked down and fixed as well as other improvements were made to this rather complex system. It is working much better now, but I will continue to test this aspect as it working correctly is very critical.

[h3]Stat Reset Didn't Work[/h3]
The stat reset in the pilgrim quarters was not bringing up the correct HUD, this has been fixed and it now works great.

[h3]I Can See Your Feet[/h3]
There was an issue when leaving the stasis pod that would show the hidden mannequin used as the player's body. This rather jarring effect won't occur anymore.

[h3]Tier 2 Exports Under Valued[/h3]
Tier 2 exports were set at $5m per export same as the Tier 1 export. This has been raised to $20m to ensure making this complexity leap will be worth your effort as we move to the mid-game and increase research costs.

[h3]Over Valued Drill[/h3]
The copper drill was exporting at $5m this was not intended it has been set down to $1m as intended. I want the focus to stay on manufactured exports in the later game, but I do want some goods to have value. We will continue to monitor and change any values that make sense as we continue to develop.

[h3]I Can't Eat That[/h3]
Some high-end foods were set as drinks by mistake. And trying to drink food didn't work out too well causing them to be useless. This has been fixed. Higher-end food will play a more vital role later in the game with colonists' mood, but right now most people just eat potatoes.

[h3]Exploit Detected[/h3]
There was an exploit that could trigger using manually entered amounts for crafting. This has been removed.

[h3]That Ain't Air Tight[/h3]
There was an issue that if you moved in and out from the door quickly you could trigger the door to not fully close and stay cracked open. I have added a final check on this where if something is off it will auto-fix itself. There should be no way to leave a door open moving forward.

[h3]Mission Objective Bug[/h3]
There was an issue with the mission objective to send an export back to Earth. It was only looking at rocket 2, not rocket 1, it now correctly looks at both rockets and will fire correctly.




There have been a variety of tweaks and changes based on player feedback as well as my experimentation. The shout-out list would be pretty large for this category, but I will highlight Garret one of my discord moderators for their excellent feedback in this category.

[h3]You Want How Much[/h3]
The foods you can purchase for supplies were far too overpriced. $8m for an M.R.E.? All of the foods have been reduced to be more worthwhile as early supplies if you wish. I was worried about how much you can get with the starting $30m that I overvalued some items that won't hurt your progress.

[h3]Tighter Drills[/h3]
I have tightened the copper, ice, and iron deposit grouping to be closer together so it is less of a walk for the player. This might be too good, but I am open to feedback.

[h3]Large Plants[/h3]
I have added the ability to look at and collect larger plants such as corn and tomatoes. I was using the base of the plant to collect, but now the entire plant can be used.

[h3]Equip And Use Buttons[/h3]
I have removed these buttons from the HUD as I like the idea of drag and drop and using items from the quick bar. Those buttons were more so for console players in the future, but we are so far from that possibility that I would rather just focus on Steam players for now

[h3]What Did I Research[/h3]
I have changed the messaging on the research HUD to show the category of research you just unlocked while it is cooling down. I might change this to be the specific unlock but that is quite complex due to the structuring of blueprints. For now, I have implemented showing the category and hope that helps you remember.

[h3]Possible Failure[/h3]
I want to make sure the core of what you need is reachable even if you make some mistakes. To this effect, I have made landing pads start unlocked. The keys to survival are food, air, and water. But the key to progress is exporting, manufacturing, and rocket fuel production. Hopefully, this helps stop players from burning up all their funding without having the ability to export.

[h3]Drilling Reduction[/h3]
The drills were adding resources very quickly at 1 ore per second. I have changed this to 1 ore per 1.5 seconds. I tried 2 seconds but felt it was too slow. Hopefully, 1.5 is the sweet spot, let me know your thoughts.




There have been some great additions to the game to make it flow with players even better than it already has been. Shout out to DigitalFrost for some great ideas in this category as well as other contributors.

[h3]Give Me A Tip[/h3]
I have added tooltips to each player's stat to give a breakdown of each stats use. I also changed FORTITUDE to RESISTANCE and it will now be used to reduce damage taken.

[h3]Message System[/h3]
I have created a new message system that shows up in the bottom right of your screen and stays persistent until you are out of the danger zones. These are for low air, low water, low food, and overweight. I have removed them using the large full-screen warning. I felt it was a bit much with full-screen messages, but we will still use those for some critical messages such as your base going offline or a large attack incoming.

[h3]Data Pads[/h3]
I have added a system for datapads to the game. Currently, you start with one datapad titled mission objective. This is a multi-page document about your mission and covers a variety of basics for the player. It is an opt-in readable tutorial in many ways. This system will also be used for future datapads we can place in the world to reveal events from previous missions on Ceres or other story-building points.

[h3]Non Stop Crafting[/h3]
You can now continue to use a machine while it is crafting. This was a big change to get in the game, but it honestly feels great. Now you can take part orders off a machine as they are crafting and we display a nice timer inside the HUD for progress. Now if you queue up 25 bars and then realize you need 5, you can just go grab them. Over all this feature feels great.

[h3]Straight To The Slot[/h3]
It is now possible to quick slot items from machines right into the player's quick slots. If you drag and drop a quick slotable item it will now auto transfer to the player and quick slot itself where you placed it. Many players tried to do this and then manually moved it to their inventory to quick slot. It seemed like a great idea to help the crafting flow better with players.

[h3]More Ice[/h3]
Even though I want players to get to the drilling and hit deposits manually for infinite resources but no exp. Players keep trying to manually farm. So, I added a few more ice resource nodes down below for players spending more time in that area than I meant for them to. I can't control players, but I will do my best to cater to whatever style I see players leaning into, and adding a few more nodes will help with that style of early gameplay.




Now that the core early-game loop is functioning well the next focus will be on refining and expanding on that loop before we move on to the mid-game. There are many ideas on the table but you can expect to see some additional open caves to add more value to exploration as well as precursor elements to the narrative of the mission, and some additional life forms to the planet to add some life to the game as well as atmosphere.

There is still a very long way to go before we reach early access, but I am so thankful to have you along for the journey. I can't wait to show you what I have in store for the game.

It has only been a few days since we launched the demo, but already we have had a bunch of great feedback that has come in from multiple platforms and sources. I truly appreciate your feedback, and this patch brings a lot of those great ideas and changes to the game.



There were a handful of minor tweaks to several areas. These are very minor and include such things as modifying descriptions, RND HUD now auto-scrolling to the top on changing categories, and a variety of minor tweaks to resources and recipes. This should help smooth out progression.

[h3]Landscape Changes[/h3]
A few changes were made to the landscape to further try and dissuade players from building in the rocky starting area. We have also smoothed out a few areas that the player could get stuck on.

[h3]Mission Objective System[/h3]
My vision for mission objectives was to be fully simulation style. As in not using the player HUD at all, but instead displaying and accessing mission menus from the mission control. We still have this, but to better help new players get started in the game I have brought the mission system to the player HUD as well. These mission objectives give an idea of what the next step you should take is, as well as tips for how to achieve that step. There are now 8 mission objectives in the early game that should help guide players toward understanding the mechanics of the game. Don't forget this mission objective as well as meter labels and numbers can be toggled off using the hide / show details key (default = v).

[h3]Arrows Indicating The Front[/h3]
As you may be aware machines that can be rotated have arrows that indicate the front of the machine to help players place machines correctly. These arrows would change between green and red depending on whether you could place the machine in that location, and it was quite hard to see the green arrow when the machine itself was green for placeable. We now instead have a solid red color on the arrows to show the front of machines, and this never changes color making it much easier to see.

[h3]Tomato Bug[/h3]
Shout out to Pezzi on Steam for finding this issue. There was a typo in the tomato structure that caused tomatoes to not work in any recipe that called for tomatoes. This has been fixed. Thank you Pezzi for going deep enough to reach tomatoes while the rest of the world just eats potatoes.

[h3]Difficulty Settings[/h3]
I have added the first 3 difficulty settings and tied them into the milestone scoring system. These include air drain rate, food drain rate, and water drain rates. I feel comfortable with the normal level after a few tweaks based on feedback and I want to allow players to make it easier or harder based on their preference while tying that back into the milestone scoring systems. You can now go from NONE which is no draining of meters up to INSANE which is nail-bitingly fast draining. You will have to work hard and fast to reach sustained food before you run out of M.R.E's on insane. As we continue to develop and find a normal balance for other aspects we will add more difficulty settings to the menu.

[h3]More Iron[/h3]
It is not my intention for players to manually grind iron for very long. I intend for you to gather some iron, but then set up drills to automate that collection. However, many players who don't know the game yet were spending a lot of time hand farming and finding it difficult to find more iron in the starting valley. So, I went ahead and added several more iron nodes to that area.

[h3]Interact Range[/h3]
I made a small increase in the interact range so you can access machines and buildings from further away.

[h3]Sprint Drains And Recovery[/h3]Some feedback came in that the sprint drained a bit too fast, and took too long to come back. After doing some testing I agree. The stamina burn rate has been decreased by 50%, the cool down to regain stamina has been reduced by 1 second, and the speed stamina recovers has been doubled. This should allow players to run a lot further in the early game even before putting points into stamina on level up. This also allows you to recover quickly for more running around. Overall it feels better to sprint more.

That about does it for this short patch. I would just like to take a moment to thank all of you amazing players for taking the time to try "Surviving Ceres" and then taking the time to tell me about your experience. So far, the feedback has all been very positive and it helps me stay focused on my work knowing that players are finding the game fun. We still have a very long road ahead, but I will continue to listen and grow the project with your feedback, while also working on the additional content for the game. The next thing I plan to work on is the initial translation setup. That way we can get rolling on translating the game for other players patiently waiting to give the demo a try. Thank you so much, and I hope you stick around for the journey.

The demo for "Surviving Ceres" is now live~!

This is a very early demo that contains many placeholder elements. The first initial early access release is still quite far off and is expected sometime in 2025.

As a solo developer, I can not afford to just work quietly in the shadows until a release. I need players in the game as soon as possible and as much as possible during all stages of development.

You are my QA team and my creative directors. Your feedback truly matters.

Positive or negative, I want to hear from you. I know many amazing players who struggle with what sort of information to give for feedback to benefit the game. To that effect, I have created a short template of questions you can use to give feedback if you don't know what to say. For those who are comfortable giving feedback and suggestions without being prompted please feel free to do so in any matter you wish on any platform you wish.

If you need some guidance as to what feedback you could give please refer to this post in the forums: https://steamcommunity.com/app/2810070/discussions/0/4353368388525006345/


The current demo contains the Early Game systems. These are gather, craft, and build the starting point for your colony. You will need to manage your air, thirst, and hunger as you aim to reach sustainability with these aspects. You can automate resource collection, as well as unlock technologies to reach manufacturing and exporting. You will find a list of milestones to be completed in the "Mission Control Facility". Completing milestones will earn you funding you can use to unlock additional facilities and upgrades, as well as calling in supply ships if needed. Completing milestones and exporting goods back to earth are the main sources of earning funding.

The current demo only contains English, but over the next few weeks, I will begin to set up translations while reaching out to my bi-lingual contacts for help translating. I hope to launch additional languages as soon as possible to get more players in to give feedback.

If you would like to get a better idea of the game vision and my plans for the future with the game please refer to this thread in the forums where I outline each of the 4 phases of the gameplay loop. https://steamcommunity.com/app/2810070/discussions/0/4208119923881630676/


I hope you enjoy this early look at "Surviving Ceres", and I hope it makes you excited for the future to come. Thank you, and please feel free to give feedback on any platform you wish. However, for the most interaction with me and the game consider checking out the discord. https://discord.gg/WfbXE4cDVA

Good luck to you all, I hope you can survive.