Galacticare News

From all of us at Brightrock and CULT Games, we wish you the happiest of holidays and a wonderful new year.

As we approach 2024 we've taken a look at what we got up to this past year and how we have worked towards getting where we are with Galacticare today. Being what is essentially our last full year working to release Galacticare, so much has changed since the start of 2023. We've worked on making our own style of content & social media assets, we've been going to events to show off the game, we released a demo and finally got to watch loads of you play Galacticare.

So in this blog we've made a list of some of the things we're most proud of from 2023. Enjoy!


[h2]Content[/h2]
Firstly lets take a look at some of the content we're proud of from this year


[h3]Meet The Xil[/h3]
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[h3]Gameplay Trailer[/h3]
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[h3]Live Brightrock Q&A Session[/h3]
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[h2]Achievements[/h2]
There are many moments from 2023 a lot of us would consider as our achievements, but if we boil it down to just a few it would be these:

[h3]Demo[/h3]
We released our demo during the Steam Next Fest and got to enjoy watching loads of you stream our game. The demo was an amazing opportunity for us to listen to your feedback and talk to our community about all things Galacticare.

[h3]TikTok[/h3]
On our journey of venturing into the social medias and experimenting with Galacticare content, we ended up with way more exposure on TikTok than we initially expected. As it turns out a lot of you really liked our shortform video content and we ended up hitting 6 digit views on a good number of our uploads which was incredibly flattering and gave us so much confidence.

[h3]Gamescom[/h3]
Gamescom was an amazing time for us, we had our own booth which we turned into a replica of a treatment room in Galacticare and we had so many people sit with us to try the game out. By the end of the event we got to go home and read through all the press which all-in-all just felt really great. As we get closer to launch, the thought of having so many hands and eyes on our work is a little daunting but after hearing so much positivity from people who got to try it out, we're more excited than anything.





And that's it for 2023, it's been a fantastic year for us and we hope it's been a fantastic year for you too.

Our plans for 2024 are huge and the whole team is filled to the brim with excitement, we can't wait to see what next year looks like.

Don’t forget we publish a new deep-dive blog post once a month, and more weekly explorations (including daily Condition Research Journals) across our TikTok, Twitter, and Discord.

We will see you again next week, enjoy the rest of your holidays and have an amazing new year!

[h2]Welcome back to Galacticare Wednesday![/h2]

This week we’ll be showing off a completed campaign level, mainly focusing on what a hospital would look like in Level 4 of Galacticare - Big Farma.

From the name of the level you might’ve already guessed it’s about a farm, so one of the biggest questions here is what exactly does a space farm look like.

Here’s our answer




Each level begins with a closed hospital, allowing you the time to go in and build your facilities in peace without the mess that comes with a wave of patients.




Once all the necessary rooms and objects are built, the hospital should be in a good place to start receiving patients.




In Big Farma, part of the story is not only about the patients, but also about the farm (never would’ve guessed). As you progress through the objectives you’ll notice the crops growing in size and looking a little riper.



As I expanded my hospital and completed further objectives, the farm was looking huge. The patients kept flowing in needing all sorts of different treatments, meaning I’d have to open a new section of the hospital to build more treatment rooms dedicated to whichever condition happened to be the most frequent.



Queues for diagnosis rooms would get longer and longer as the level went on which meant I had to build more in each section wherever I could find space. The limited entrances meant it would speed things up if I started placing Teleportation Pads around the hospital, then new patients could travel to the least busy section without wasting any time.

By the end of the level this is what my hospital ended up looking like.




And that's it for this week's Galacticare Wednesday

We can’t wait to see what some of your own hospitals end up looking like and how you get on with some of our favourite levels!

Don’t forget we publish a new deep-dive blog post once a month, and more weekly explorations (including daily Condition Research Journals) across our TikTok, Twitter, and Discord.

We’ll be back next week, in the meantime have a wonderful Christmas!

This week we’re bringing you everything you need to know about the very first step in your patient's treatment process, the diagnosis room. This lovely and inviting room is one you'll be building loads of so we might as well get to know it a bit.



[h2]Description[/h2]

The diagnosis room is where your patients will head directly after reception, this is where a doctor will use various different drones to scan or biopsy to detect your patient’s condition. Once diagnosed, the patient can head to the next stage of their treatment.



[h2]Treatment Process[/h2]

- Doctor approaches the control terminal (or is already standing there)
- Patient enters, approaches the desk, and stands on the stasis pad
- Doctor activates the stasis pad
- Patient floats mid-air
- Diagnosis begins
- Depending on the length of the diagnosis, a series of animations will be selected from a large pool
- These will make use of the various diagnosis drones
- Whilst the above is happening, data will be appearing on the diagnosis display
- Diagnosis completes
- The stasis pad is disabled, releasing the patient



[h2]Diagnosis Desk[/h2]

The diagnosis room presents a sleek sci-fi desk with interactive points on both sides. Its top surface serves as a display showing diagnostic outputs. On the patient's side, a ground-level stasis pad is surrounded by various implements. The desk features an integrated bay of diagnosis drones, launching with precision to encircle the patient. Executing uniform flight patterns, these drones scan for symptoms before seamlessly docking back into the desk. The four distinct types of diagnosis drones - Sonic, Optical, Prism, and Biopsy - contribute to the desk's efficiency and versatility in medical diagnostics.


Survival isn't guaranteed

And that's it for this week's Galacticare Wednesday

The diagnosis room is one you'll likely become really very familiar with so we can't wait to see how you all have fun with making your own.

Don’t forget we publish a new deep-dive blog post once a month, and more weekly explorations (including daily Condition Research Journals) across our TikTok, Twitter, and Discord.

See you next week for another one!

Greetings Director,

Welcome to another Galacticare Wednesday!

Introducing Craftech.

Craftech arose from our desire to take a leaf out of the god game design book and give players much more direct power and control than you might traditionally find in a management game.

As this notion is something fairly alien (heh) to the genre, the various systems and components went through many, many iterations, but our primary goal remained the same: We wanted to give players an arsenal of tools and powers to quite literally take their hospital to the next level.

[h2]Types of Craftech[/h2]
[h3]Room Upgrades[/h3]
First up, room upgrades. Each room can be equipped with an upgrade that can dramatically improve or change how it operates.

For example, the Holo-Doc Emitter will - as you may surmise - generate a holographic doctor to work in the room. This holographic doctor may seem like the perfect employee; it will work tirelessly without breaks (or even a salary!). However, they are not as effective as regular doctors, nor are they able to gain experience and level up.

Please state the nature of the medical emergency


Or you could opt for the Efficiency Regulator, which can triple the amount of credits that a room generates per treatment. These can be especially handy as you are growing your fledgling hospital.

Sometimes, it is all about the money

[h3]Corridor Upgrades[/h3]
Outside of your rooms, there are also numerous Craftech items which can be used to enhance the corridors of your hospital.

The Bio-Stasis Beacon projects a large aura which reduces the health decay of all patients in a large area. This can allow you to create effective waiting areas which keep patients alive (and able to pay their bills!) even if your wait times are excessive.

Stayin' alive, stayin' alive


And the Teleportation Pad does exactly as you’d expect: It can instantly teleport both patients and staff across the hospital to any other Teleportation Pads you have built.

Beam me up!

[h3]Consumables[/h3]
Finally, we have one-use consumable items. Usually you’ll gain these in packs of two or more, allowing you to use them fairly liberally.

You can make use of some Stabilising Solution to fully restore the health of a single patient by simply dropping it on top of them. This will allow you to bring a patient back from the brink of death, giving you plenty of time in which to treat them. Ideal for emergency situations where you find yourself overwhelmed.

Saving the galaxy, one patient at a time… but not that one


If you find yourself particularly attached to a particular doctor, why limit yourself to just one of them? The Genetic Replicator allows you to clone any of your non-Consultant doctors. It’s perfectly painless. Probably.

This is getting out of hand.gif

[h2]Rules Methods of Acquisition[/h2]
[h3]Mission Rewards[/h3]
The first and most straightforward method of acquiring Craftech is by completing objectives. Every task completed will grant a bevy of rewards, including a handful of Craftech items.

Once you have their money, you never give it back


Generally these will be geared towards the mission you’re currently on, but you’re always able to salvage any Craftech items you don’t want to use. Speaking of which…

[h3]Blueprints & Crafting[/h3]
The first time you encounter a new Craftech item you’ll automatically be given its blueprint. Using Craftium (which, as you may guess, is the special crafting resource) you’ll be able to craft more of any Craftech item you have a blueprint for. Any blueprints you have are taken with you from level to level.

Knowledge equals profit


As mentioned above, you can gain Craftium by salvaging any Craftech items you don’t want to keep, and you’ll also get some Craftium every time you complete an objective. You can also collect Craftium by catching Craftles, friendly critters which are attracted to your hospital by decorative objects (we’ll be talking more about critters in a future blog post!).

To further enhance your crafting exploits, you can research advanced blueprints in the Research Lab. These advanced blueprints will allow you to craft items at a significant discount, allowing you to more efficiently specialise in the upgrades and items you enjoy using the most.

[h3]Baz, the Travelling Merchant[/h3]
Bazzanorrothogoria (or ‘Baz’ to his friends), a Colossal you meet at the beginning of the game, will routinely visit the hospital to offer you a random selection of Craftech items in exchange for your hand-earned credits.

Never spend more for an acquisition than you have to


Baz will also always offer you a free item as thanks for helping him out, so it’s always worth checking the shop out when he visits even if you can’t afford to buy anything!

[h2]Crafting Craftech[/h2]
The various systems involved went through many iterations over the past few years. Most notably, many of these components began life as independent features before eventually being wrapped up into Craftech.

For example, room upgrades were originally going to be small, invisible stat enhancements with space for up to three upgrades per room. As the system evolved, we pivoted to only allowing one upgrade in order to allow them to be much more powerful (such as the Holo-Doc described above).

Original UI mock-up for room upgrades, circa 2020


The primary driver for this change was us wanting each individual decision to be more meaningful and impactful. Three upgrades which provide +50% money, research or experience each aren’t super exciting on their own, but an upgrade which triples the income from one room? That’s much more noticeable.

We also eventually decided to give these upgrades a physical presence in the world. We initially made the decision for them to be “invisible” so they didn’t get in the way of your all-important decorations, but the desire to be able to physically see and interact with the upgrades eventually won out.

The compromise was to significantly limit their footprint in order to maximise the amount of space available for plants, sculptures, skeletons, and whatever else you may wish to adorn your treatment rooms with. A small footprint doesn’t necessarily mean a small object, though.

Harder, better, faster, stronger


We landed on these high-tech totem pole-like devices to represent our various upgrades. As with all our decorative objects they will dynamically recolour themselves to match the room they are in*, so they’ll fit in with any style of decor you choose for your Boning Chamber.

*You can, of course, individually recolour any object at any time if you aren’t a fan of consistent colour schemes.

Unfortunately, there’s no room upgrade which improves your sense of style

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The travelling merchant also evolved quite a bit. The original aim was to provide a way for the player to access various systems - room upgrades, more Medibots, and consultant equipment (RIP) - in a friendly and characterful way (characterfulness being a key goal for us throughout the entire game with all of our species, conditions, rooms, and systems).

The merchant was originally just some guy called Derek Voidborne. But… he was just a regular human guy. Not the most interesting thing. So what’s cooler than some regular human guy?

Open for Bazness


A giant space whale, of course. Baz, our colossal companion (voiced by the wonderful Richard Ridings of War for the Overworld, Dungeon Keeper and Peppa Pig fame), was incredibly well suited to the role; he’s even able to carry his shop on his own back. The height of convenience!

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Consumables, corridor upgrades and crafting all came later.

We always wanted to include something akin to spells in Galacticare. Little tools that let you slightly bend the rules of the game and really let you feel powerful. It wasn’t until we started having an inventory of items (which originally contained only room upgrades and consultant equipment) that the consumables system had a palace to live, and we quickly started to introduce items like the Stabilising Solution and Genetic Replicator.

As for corridor upgrades, these became a natural extension of the room upgrades. Providing meaningful choices when building didn’t need to be restricted to just your rooms - items like Teleporter Pads allowed you to make interesting decisions in how you shaped the fabric of your hospital.

The last piece of the puzzle was crafting. As all these systems began to mature, we eventually realised that giving the player more agency was going to be vital to allow everyone to truly create the hospital of their dreams. Instead of being limited to what Baz and event rewards gave you, crafting allowed you to direct your resources towards the consumables and upgrades you find the most fun whilst still allowing external rewards to feel meaningful due to the limited supply of Craftium.

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Also this week, we've explored a new, parasitic condition in our Condition Research Journals called Glub Bite. Tomorrow, we'll begin exploring a new affliction that we hope isn't too much of an invasion of your space.

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And that's it for this week's Galacticare Wednesday!

We hope that delving into the different types of Craftech, as well as how to acquire and craft them has brought you another facet of fun to the game that you can use once you bring your hospital to the next level.

Don’t forget we publish a new deep-dive blog post once a month, and more weekly explorations (including daily Condition Research Journals) across our TikTok, Twitter, and Discord.

See you next week for another instalment of Galacticare Wednesday!



Until next time Director,

- Brightrock Games

Don’t forget to join us on Discord!

Greetings Director,

Welcome to this week's Galacticare Wednesday!

For this week's content, delve into the latest breaking news story on Galacticare News. Apparently, a slightly deranged scientist named Dr. Ohdious has been arrested for constantly cloning himself, and has been sentenced to prison in a wild court case. Find out more about the criminal and his heinous actions through the video below!

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Additionally, we've updated our Condition Research Journals with a new severe condition called Star Warts. Tomorrow, research will resume with another condition that has a little bite in it.

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Thank you for tuning in to another edition of Galacticare Wednesday!

We hope you enjoyed diving into the lore behind Dr. Ohdious' character and finding out what makes him so endearingly unhinged.

Don’t forget we publish a new deep-dive blog post once a month, and more weekly explorations (including daily Condition Research Journals) across our TikTok, Twitter, and Discord.

Have a great rest of your week, and see you next week for another Galacticare Wednesday update!



Until next time Director,

- Brightrock Games

Don’t forget to join us on Discord!