Star Explorers News

I recently discovered (thanks to a friendly player) a small flaw in the testing version that would have prevented the game from running. The reason it was not caught sooner is that players running the testing version would have most likely run the default version first, thereby creating the necessary configuration file. If the testing version had been run without this file, it would have loaded a black splash screen, and the main menu would never show up.

The latest testing update (still called 3.7) fixes this issue.

Hey everyone,
I just submitted Star Explorers to a game jam called "Procjam" on itch.io.
It's about games that are procedurally generated like Star Explorers. Check out some of the other entries, comment if you feel like it ... follow the jam!

https://itch.io/jam/procjam/entries

I don't believe there is a competitive aspect to this game jam, it's more about sharing and learning.

This update is ready for testing. Of course I have done my own testing on the new features, and so far so good.

I am a bit torn over whether I should explain what was added to the game, or whether I should just allow players to happen across the new feature. This second option seems much more in-line with the procedural nature of the gameplay. But then, you might not even know it's a new feature.



Okay, I will settle on this - In the above screenshot, there is a small PDA item selected. That is the new item I added to the game. I will not tell you what it does or why it's there ... that's for you guys to figure out!



Also, notice the mapping tool shown above. There are two numbers that show the player's position on a planet surface. This is an important part of the new feature. I will say that I like this update and really look forward to testing it out more. I also look forward to hearing your thoughts on it.


If you want to find the new little PDA thingy, you will, unfortunately, have to start a new game.

With the recent overhaul of the testing version, as expected, some things went a bit screwy. As it turned out, the helpful little markers that show you which stars you've been to (highlighted in blue) and which ones you haven't (highlighted in red), had gone off, and stopped showing their colors.

This latest patch fixes that issue.


In other news, I (with the help of a YouTuber who was playing Star Explorers) discovered a major bug in the default version of Star Explorers. It seems that starting a new game after having selected a saved game to load, will write the new game's save information INSIDE the folder of the selected saved game. This means when you start up Star Explorers, you game will not appear on the load menu.

I may patch this in the default version ... or I may just update it to version 3.6 once I am happy with it. A decision will be made by some time tomorrow.

Okay, the testing version has been updated again. This time, you may notice a new feature right away. Since I upgraded to GameStudio A8 - Professional Edition, I am able to create a snazzy, custom loading image :)




The other big change is in how you access the main menu after starting a game. Something was wrong with my script. If you went back to the main menu after starting a game, then loaded another game, or started a new game, it would cause all sorts of errors.

For the time being, until I can fix these issues, I have set it back to the way I handled this previously ... namely, that going back to the main menu restarts the game. Effectively, this has the same functionality, it just lets you see the loading menu briefly. I know it's kind of a screwy way to do things, but at least it will be stable (or more stable anyway).