Star Explorers News

I have updated the game in "testing" to version 3.3. It has a new folder in there called "Custom Path."

In that folder there are instructions on how to create a custom install directory for Star Explorers. This is really only going to be useful for people who can't get the game to run normally. If your game works, you can safely ignore this announcement.


Go to your Steam library, and make sure the game updates. This can be prompted by clicking "Star Explorers > Properties > Local Files" and selecting "Verify Integrity of Local Files." It should queue an update, then you can cancel the verification check because we are just using it to get the update.

Now, once the game is up to date, go back to "Star Explorers > Properties > Local Files" and click on "Browse Local Files."

This will open the Star Explorers installation directory. In it, you should see a folder called "Custom Path." If you don't see this folder, it means the game did not update, or perhaps you are not running the "testing" version.

Open that folder and then open the "How_to_create_a_custom_save_folder.txt" file, and follow the instructions.

Basically, you will be creating a file called "custom_path.txt" in that folder. In that file, paste the windows path to the folder you want to use to save games. Make sure you replace backslashes "\" with double backslashes "\\" for it to work correctly. And make sure that folder is not write protected. Something in "My Documents" should work fine.

Sorry it's so complex. I will see if I can streamline this process in the future. It would be better if you could do it through the game itself.

Now when you start a game, it should create a "Star_Explorers" folder in the directory you chose.

UPDATE: I realized that when I exported the game, the problem with the screenshot (F12) key toggling volume was still there... now it should be working. Also just fixed the texture on giant surface emeralds.

I fixed one issue and tweaked the shaders a bit.


F12 is used to take screenshots in Steam. Unfortunately, this was also toggling the volume in Star Explorers. This should not be a problem anymore.


I am testing out the shaders a bit more.

I made the posterizing effect active by default and unlinked it from the pixel shader. Right now there is no way to turn it off in the game menu. However, if you look at your "settings_new.cfg" file, you will see the last two entries are set to 100 by default. By setting these to -1, you will disable the posterizing effect, and the game should appear in its original state.

I may add this as an option in the video settings menu. I kind of like it, so I may keep it as the default look.

I also brightened the game up a bit. I've always felt the game was a bit too dark. Now it might be a bit too bright, but I will continue to try to find a good balance...


I've been testing the game out a bit. It seems to run pretty well so far. I may push this out as the default version soon, like in the next week or so.

I was not planning to do another major release after 3.0 so soon. However, once I realized the DEP issue was fixed in the latest Acknex engine, it was something I could not avoid doing.

I will call the next version 4.0, since it is built on a newer game engine.

UPDATE: I also just uploaded the fix for the post processing shaders, so now you can again choose from bloom, smoothing and the old school pixel shader as before.

I actually was able to tweak the pixel shader in two ways. First, the sky on planets no longer has any transparency sorting problems, This caused the sky to flash annoyingly. This should no longer happen.

Secondly, I added a text file called "pixel_size.txt" to the game folder. It contains a small bit of text and the number 3. This number determines the pixel size in the old-school pixel shader. 3 is standard. 1 will make the pixels match your screen resolution, and higher then 3 will increase the size of the pixels ... just added it there in case people want to tweak things a bit.

What's the point of having it set to 1 you ask? Well, it also uses a posterizing effect for the colors. I thought it looked kind of neat without the pixel effect. I may add that in as it's own separate shader, but right now it is linked to the old school pixel shader...


ORIGINAL MESSAGE: The "Testing" version of Star Explorers has been updated to 3.1. This addresses just one issue. When you return to a cave, it should properly load the water and/or lava.

Having to update the game's scripts to work in the newer engine has given me an opportunity to streamline a few things too. It's all back-end stuff, so you may not notice anything new, but I think this version should be more stable and less prone to crashes.

I have been working on bringing Star Explorers into A8, the latest version of the Acknex game engine.

You can try it out under "Star Explorers > Properties > Betas" and select "testing" from the drop down.

It looks like all the game's major functions are operational, and it should be compatible with previously saved games.


The main reason I am doing this is to fix the ongoing problem people have had when DEP (Data Execution Prevention) was active on their computers.

After careful tests, I realized the problem stemmed from the older (A7) game engine, but games published with A8 did not trigger DEP.

Now more people will be able to enjoy Star Explorers. If you were one of the folks who could not get it to run, please try out the "testing" version to confirm that it works now.

When you run the new version, you will know it's updated when you see this "A8" logo on the loading screen:



There are a few issues that I still need to address, and probably a few I have not caught yet:


When you re-enter a cave with lava or liquid, there is a weird water model that does not get resized or positioned appropriately. This is the next thing I will be fixing.

Shader Effects are not working in the new version. I have a new bloom shader, but it is set to on at all times. The Old-School Pixel Shader and Smoothing effects are not working in the new version.

Let me know if you find any other issues. I will continue to test and repair things until this is ready for a full release.

This game has been accused of being a No Man's Sky clone by some players. While there are definite similarities between the two games, I wanted to set the record straight about this idea. I actually had a working version of Star Explorers up and running well before No Man's Sky had even been announced.

Now I would not try to suggest that No Man's Sky copied my idea. That would be absurd, in fact there were other games with very similar ideas that predate both games. I wrote an article about this experience here:

The Time I Almost Invented No Man's Sky

After writing this article, and releasing Star Explorers, I did indeed spend some time playing No Man's Sky. I did enjoy it, but ultimately left me a bit underwhelmed. It is an amazing accomplishment in many ways, and I don't want to put it down, or to suggest that my game is in any way better. I am too close to this project to have anything resembling an unbiased opinion.

However, I will mention a few issue that bothered me about No Man's Sky, and how Star Explorers differs on those points.

No Man's Sky seems to require that the player spend a lot of time searching for resources and crafting things in order to get from one place to another. I think I spent 50% of my play time breaking rocks. I was playing on the standard game, for the record. I found this approach somewhat tedious, as, of course, I wanted to explore more than I wanted to look at the ground breaking things.

Star Explorers has a crafting system, but it is pretty much optional. You can find blueprints for objects and gather up resources in order to create certain items. These can occasionally help you in tough situations, and there are a few items that must be crafted if you want to use them, but they are not required to win the game.

I found that every planet I landed on had a lot of very similar features. All of them had life forms of one kind or another, and all of them had those robot drones flying around. I also noticed that every planet I landed on had other spaceships flying overhead, and I could not help but notice that there was generally a lot more "activity" than I would have expected there to be.

Now I understand how this might be preferable to some players. However, I think Star Explorers has a somewhat wider range of experience with planet surfaces. I'm not comparing the artwork, graphics and/or realism, and these are surely also important to players, but by having some planets with no life at all, and by making life somewhat rare, I feel like Star Explorers offers an experience that feels more like exploration.

Landing on a completely dead world, with only rocks, may be somewhat boring. But this experience will make the discovery of life more exciting, and memorable.

No Man's Sky is very impressive and even breathtaking in its scope. Trillions of stars and planets make it potentially as large as a real galaxy! However, after landing on some of those planets, it is pretty much impossible to actually explore even one of them with any kind of thoroughness. As a video game completionist, the sheer size of No Man's Sky makes it really difficult to take in.

Star Explorers creates a new galaxy each time you start a new game. Each galaxy has around 200 or so stars. Each star can have between 1 and 9 planets. Planet surfaces are much smaller than those in No Man's Sky, so if a player wanted to, they could theoretically explore each planet in the Star Explorers galaxy. The game also lets you take notes, so a thorough adventurer could realistically map out each world and complete the game within their lifetime, really within a regular game's play-time of a few hundred hours or so. There is no requirement to do this, I'm just stating that it is possible.

For me, bigger is not always better. So while I am impressed and intrigued by the vastness of No Man's Sky, I also prefer my games to be within my personal ability to actually explore.


These have been just a few thoughts on Star Explorers and it's comparison to the more popular No Man's Sky. Again, as the developer of Star Explorers, I am not an unbiased judge of either game, given their similarities. But I felt the need to express my thoughts and experiences with both.

I hope you, as players, would also consider sharing your experiences too.

P.S. I fully acknowledge that Star Explorers and No Man's Sky are in different leagues as far as quality and budget. Star Explorers is priced accordingly. But many people have asked how Star Explorers differs from No Man's Sky, so I feel it is important to give some information on how they compare.