Exoplanet: First Contact News

Hello, friends. April is over and we release a new update. We want to tell you about the improvements in gameplay, new quests and changes in game design.

But before we come to the list of changes, we’d like to tell you that we have started developing our Discord channel where we publish almost daily unique updates, tell about the game development and share interesting working materials that nobody sees. Here you can also leave your feedback about the game, share your ideas and interesting content, and also ask your questions to the team and get the answers.

Join in and become a part of the history of Exoplanet!



GAMEPLAY

A lot of players asked us to give them some extra instruments for orientation because of our complicated multi-layered level design, that’s why we decided to add a compass. It’s always available at the top of the screen. At the moment it’s only the first iteration, and we’re going to improve it.



We’ve also added the effect of poisoning. Every time Jack is influenced by toxines, the green mist on the edges of the screen will inform you about it.



QUESTS

As you know, for the last few months we’ve been working on the spaceship and its detailing . Now the new quest Dead Leviathan is available, where Jack has to overcome the systems of protection coming to life and find the way out.



Besides, we have renewed the quest Wild planet, and now there are many more variants of events for the meeting with robbers on the spaceship. Find out how Jack can avoid being robbed!



More variety was added to the quest Find Curios. Now Jack can get a small aborigen if he breaks the wall with his pick if he has enough skill. He is also able to render the boy unconscious and hand him over to Skalphunters. Besides, a lot of cutscenes are added to the quest.



LEVEL DESIGN

Our level designers have taken a small break in the work with the ship to improve other areas of The Edge. This month the changes have touched upon the ancient aborigen cemetery and the caves where there are ancient tombs.

We weren’t really happy with the topology of the old cemetery, that’s why it was remade from scratch, with a lot of new assets we had been preparing for several previous months.



The caves at the cemetery were also considerably changed. Now it’s a gigantic dungeon where you can see well-preserved samples of aboriginal ancient architecture.



Apart from it, with the help of new canvas we have also repainted the outpost of the Outcasts and partially a ship.

SOUND

We brought our gunshot sounds to an upper level. At first now they are audible at further distance. But also, now they have a more immersive spatial effect that gives an impression of a distance between the listener and the audio source. The related demonstration is in the following video. Enjoy!

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Besides, there was an improvement of the sounds of aboriginal mortar and rifle, the way the sounds of the carabiner’s shooting work, some special settings of hearing the sniper weapon were added and the sounds of waving pole arms were remade.

Another important thing. Thanks to our audio engineers, we reduced CPU and RAM usage by about 10 percent, which means now you have a little bit of extra performance and we have a little bit of extra space to show you more high quality content. Optimizations are not limited just by these improvements (and we already have got some plans for it) but we are glad to announce that we have such results.



ASSETS

We’ve added a lot of new architectural assets, the first sets of electronic devices inside the ship on the temporary texture, extra animations of beetles—arphants, crucases and kabarogs, some new types of ladders and a new set of furniture.



Besides, some headgear was transferred to PBR, and some textures were fixed in different places.



CONCLUSION

That’s all, thank you for your attention, everyone. We remind you about Discord—subscribe to get access to the unique content of the devblog. And also follow us here and add the game to your wishlist!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/531660/Exoplanet_First_Contact/

Hey folks! Another month has come to an end, so it’s time for another update. Let’s take a look at the changelog.

[h2]CHANGELOG[/h2]

QUESTS

We’ve improved the ‘Daily Bread’ quest. Now Rusty Nails is alright with any food Jack brings to him but the rot. Also, Jack can learn more about cooking his meals with a bonfire.



Rusty Nails is also eager to learn about his pal’s fate, so he has a new quest for Jack. Perhaps, this brave space cowboy can find any information about Rusty’s lost friend.

There are also some under-the-hood changes for some quests and their logic.



GAMEPLAY

We've polished combat finisher death animation, added a knockout visualization and fixed a few issues.

LEVEL DESIGN

As I mentioned in the previous update, our level designers were working hard on improving the abandoned ship, and today we are ready to show you the first results.



SOUND

We’ve reworked the balance of in-game sounds and improved sounds’ audibility and positioning of NPCs, environment and the protagonist. Also, we've fixed the layering of equipment sounds.

VISUALS

A great deal of work was put into the ship. We’ve added a bunch of new assets and new textures for humans. Also, we’ve transferred some new hats to PBR.



That’s all for now. Join our Discord, we will be back in a month with another update.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/531660/Exoplanet_First_Contact/

Hey cowboys! It’s the end of February, so another monthly update is already here. What’s new, you ask? See for yourself.

[h2]CHANGELOG[/h2]

GAMEPLAY

We are working hard to improve melee combat, and there is a new feature added for those who fancy knives. Now you can finish an enemy with a blade if his health is reduced to a certain amount.

We have also fixed knockouts, navigation errors for Outcasts and Scalphunters patrols and many other pesky bugs and issues.



QUESTS

Idol in Anomaly quest was significantly reworked. There are new ways to solve it and brand new cutscenes. On the top of that, now you can obtain beads whether you helped Scalphunters with the idol or didn’t.

There’s also a new quest connected to this one, it is called Making a Profit.

LEVEL DESIGN

Our level designers are very busy at the moment with an important task—they are doing their best to improve the abandoned ship, so there are no big changes on The Edge in this update but some furniture in the mining village.



SOUND

There are plenty of SFX changes, though.

First of all, we’ve reworked the attenuation of sounds in the game world to make it more plausible, decreased the initial volume of the game audio mix, improved the balance between all the in-game sounds and the positioning of sound effects close to the player’s character.



Second, we have also slightly improved the sounds of range weapons, reworked the sound of impact while shooting and fixed a bug where the sound of a hitting shot was not audible.

And, of course, we finally added sounds of a barge.



VISUALS

Another batch of apparel's was transferred to PBR.

NEW TEAM WEBSITE

Recently we launched the official Exoplanet website with a forum.



And today we also would like to bring to life our old hacked and broken team’s website, www.alersteam.com. There’s a brand new and simple design, and we hope you will like it.

That’s all for now. Thanks for your support, we will be back in a month with another update.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/531660/Exoplanet_First_Contact/

The long holidays are over and we are eager to show you the results of our recent work. This update contains less new quests or gameplay features but lays solid foundation for further major improvements coming up this year.

We have added only one but pretty fun quest that gives you more insight into Scalphunter tribe lore.



In terms of visuals we focused our efforts on improving the rest of the clothing models for aborigines, so they will look more colorful and diverse than ever.



[h2]CHANGELOG[/h2]

VISUAL IMPROVEMENTS:

• All models of the aboriginal clothing now use Physical Based Rendering (PBR) technology for their textures.
  
• Our custom shader is applied when possible so designers now are able to dye these clothes in a wide range of colors.
  
• A number of hats were adjusted to fit other races and now use PBR, so they can come in different color variations as well.
  
• Terrain textures for the desert biome were replaced by a better set.
  

COMBAT MECHANICS GOT MORE DEPTH:

• Blocking was added as an option for the player in combat. Hold Right Mouse Button to block.
  
• Heavy attacks are now activated by pressing Shift+Left Mouse Button combination.
  
• NPCs now can choose behavior patterns between attacking, holding the distance, strafing, side stepping and blocking.
  
• In melee fights characters now will use more appropriate animations for different attacks (still placeholders though).
  
• NPCs now will reload their weapons when shooting.
  

AI:

• Obstacle avoidance algorithm for NPCs was improved.
  

QUEST CONTENT:

• A new Quest was added to the Scalphunter camp. Talk to the character called Wall Eye near the big cage with beasts to start it.
  

Thanks for staying with us and providing your immensely valuable feedback!
Don't forget to join our Discord server for more news and discussions about Exoplanet.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/531660/Exoplanet_First_Contact/

Hey folks! It is almost Christmas, and there’s no better time to take a breath after this tough and exhausting year. We were working hard to release our biggest update ever, and we've put a great deal of effort into delivering as much content as possible to please everyone who fancies trying a space cowboy outfit on this holiday. So yeah, it is another regular monthly update.

Let’s see what’s in the box!



[h2]CHANGELOG[/h2]

GAMEPLAY

We have released the very first iteration of stealth last month, and now it is time to improve it. We started with NPCs’ AI.



First of all, there was an issue when NPCs do not notice Jack when he is in stealth mode, even if he’s right in front of them. But not anymore!

Second, NPCs now have an indicator. If Jack lurks or sneaks somewhere nearby an NPC, the NPC gets suspicious. Thus, if the question mark above an NPC becomes red, it is time to fight or skedaddle.



We have another surprise for those who like to play as a thief. Pickpocketing. Master this craft to steal random loot from NPCs or to plant anything into their pockets. It is also the very first iteration and is not much useful in quests yet but we are definitely going to expand it by developing a crime system.

Of course, you need a teacher to learn something like this. Look for an abori in the Scalphunters camp named Short Fused. There’s a chance he will agree to teach ‘stupid huma’ his craft. Watch your pockets, though.



Another thing to mention is upcoming gameplay changes. We do understand that gameplay-wise Exoplanet could use an upgrade, and it is our top priority for the beginning of the next year. Particularly, melee combat and gunplay.

And the very first gameplay change is a small tweak for Jack. When the guy is out of stamina, he staggers and slows down in order to catch his breath. Not much for a Christmas gift but it is a harsh world after all. Deal with it, Jacky.



NPCs received a better present—speech bubbles to share their piece of mind. These bubbles are usually a reaction to events around them, to Jack himself and his success and failures.



LEVEL DESIGN

We have completely reworked the very beginning of the game. Jack still wakes up in the desert but the desert has changed. We have also improved the tutorial, so there are gameplay changes as well. The idea behind this change is to improve user experience, to give the player a direction and to show some basic mechanics.



This is work in progress, so we really need your feedback. Any comments are welcome.

QUESTS

There are two more quests for Jack. The very first one, Survival for Dummies, is connected with the new beginning. The next one, Dust Devils, can be found while exploring the world, so make sure you won’t miss it.



VISUALS AND SOUND

We’ve made a great deal of visual and sound improvements for this update. They are mostly cosmetic but it is still worth mentioning. We've also fixed some animations and assets, and replaced some old sounds with the new ones.



FUTURE UPDATES

While we are releasing updates for The Edge, there is another work in progress. We have been developing the new big location with the town for quite some time now. We will share more information about it later, so it is better to join our Discord if you want to see more sneak peeks in the new year.



NEW WEBSITE AND FORUM

Last but definitely not the least.

We just launched the official Exoplanet website with a forum. They are available at exoplanetgame.com and forum.exoplanetgame.com.



So far, our website is mostly a landing page with some interesting stuff and a news feed but we are going to expand it a bit later, once we have all the planned mechanics in-game. Subscribe to our mailing list to receive important updates about the game, and sign-up to our forum to ask us anything or to share your gaming experience. Keep in mind, there's a chance the mail will end up in spam folder, we are doing our best to fix it.

That’s all for now.



I believe we all deserve a break to spend some time with our folks. And we wish you the same thing. Enjoy your holidays, have a great time with your close ones and be happy.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from Alersteam and personally from Jack Sharp.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/531660/Exoplanet_First_Contact/