Exoplanet: First Contact News

Hey folks!

As you know, we have released a major update last month with a brand new version of the game. We are very grateful for your feedback and are very excited to continue our work. And here's another update. As it was promised we are going to make updates more regularly, probably monthly. Thus, we will do our best to make another update before the Christmas. Now, to the changelog.

[h2]CHANGELOG[/h2]

GAMEPLAY

As you may know, we are fond of interesting quests and are willing to create a few different ways to solve them, using different playstyles. You can trick NPCs, pick locks, use environment to your advantage, be a smooth talker or complete tasks with a mere force. Today we are adding another valuable mechanic, and it is the very first iteration of STEALTH.



Now you can crouch ('C' button), sneak and finish your enemies ('R' button) without bringing a lot of attention. We are going to use this stealth option for the new quests and probably will update a few old ones. Of course, since it is the very first iterations, there will be issues. Please report everything, and we will improve the system.



QUESTS

There are two new quests in the game, Crucases' Fat and Erik Craven. The last one is a bounty hunt where you have to handle the whole gang. Perhaps, you can use stealth to eliminate some of the bandits to get an advantage.



From now on, dialogues have automatic camera. This is just a very first step to improve players' experience, and we will improve this feature over time.

We have also added a few cutscenes to the game. They are also not final but it is always important to take a look at these cutscenes in-game to make them better. And we will.

LEVEL DESIGN

We've updated the area with the camp where Erik and his gang are resting.

We have also updated a few other areas on The Edge like the Scalphunter's Camp, for example.



SOUND

There are a lot of SFX improvements: sounds for hitting and looting, dragging a body, shooting bottles etc. Also, the game plays different sounds of your steps if you are walking on different surfaces: sand, soil, rock, metal etc.



ASSETS

We have updated A.N.N.A.'s model. It is not yet ready, we are still experimenting with her look to find a perfect balance between a human and a fractured hologram.

Another large piece of work is migration characters' outfits to PBR, which was partially made in the last update. But it is time to review the work and to improve the result. It will help us to raise the quality of characters which will be even better visible in cutscenes with close shots.



OTHER

There was a great deal of bugs we fixed, of course. But please report if you face any issue. You can do that in our Discord channel. That's it for now, thanks for your support, follow the game to keep yourself updated.

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

Hey folks! There were no news from us for quite some time but we were testing the new version of Exoplanet, gathering feedback and updating the testing build. And today we would like to show you the result.



The new build replaced the old version, though it is still available in a different branch if you’d like to try it: right click on Exoplanet in your Library -> Properties -> Betas -> choose ‘legacy’ (no password required).



It is worth mentioning that some good ideas will be reworked for the new builds, so let us know if you have favorite quests, characters, areas or anything else—we’ll consider your feedback. As for the rest, press 'F' to pay respects.



From now on, we are going to make updates and news frequently. We changed our approach to the development and are keen to fix such a pesky issue as a lack of conversation with our community. I will tell you more about everything in the end of this post and will try to answer some questions you might have. But let us start with a changelog for the new update.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

So, what can you find in the new version of the game?

There are a lot of changes, and it is much better to see them with your own eyes, especially if you tried the old version to see the difference. I’ll try to mention the most important things. Keep in mind, there are some placeholders and bugs, please report everything whether you have a blocker, low FPS or encountered a visual issue.

At the moment there’s a relatively small location with a complex multilayer design, mostly created with new assets. That’s the place where Jack's adventure begins, and here you can get an idea about the world of K’Tharsis and its harsh laws.





As you may know, our project is developing with our custom built engine called Sahara, and it was significantly improved. Now it supports a great deal of state-of-the-art techniques and effects like SSAO and HDR.



We also added such features as PBR and IBL. They allow us to achieve realistic picture, reflecting light from assets’ surface depending on its material. In order to do that, we had to rework all the existing assets. A huge amount of work which is almost finished with the help of freelancers.





We put a lot of time to create a brand new system for day-night cycle. Now our sky is a bunch of layers where every layer is responsible for certain things (positions of sun and moons, clouds, lighting etc) and takes into account each other’s effects and priorities. Also, we added volumetric fog, and we can change its altitude and density.



With this system we can easily create new weather effects (rain, sandstorm etc) or a certain atmosphere for certain areas.



There’s a basic role-playing system in the game now, and Jack can master lock picking, speechcraft and other valuable skills. Of course, he has to find a teacher and pay for that first. Nothing comes for free. All these skills will affect your quests’ walkthroughs.



Almost every quest in the game is new. We reworked our quest and dialogue systems to improve them. These technologies now support non-linearity and other complex but awesome mechanics we can add to quests.



Also, we created our own cutscene editor. We believe it will help us to improve game’s narrative and emphasize some details important for quests. You can already find the very first testing cutscenes in the build. They are drafts without a sound yet but we will improve it.



We made a brand new AI system and transferred every single NPC to it. This way we can create new behavior patterns now. Also, we improved NPCs’ navigation with navpoints. That’s the very first step to create a full-fledged schedule for NPCs.



Another important change is modular weapons. Every weapon used to be a whole asset, now it is a composite mechanism where every element has its own parameters. This way we can make a proper crafting and customization, giving each NPC a unique weapon which is more suitable to its status. Also, now weapons take into account owner skills when used.



Jack also mastered a few new tricks like climbing and carrying dead bodies or captured NPCs—a really useful thing if you need to hide a body or deliver a criminal alive.



He can also scan objects to learn the world around him, adding notes to his journal, or examine potential enemies. This function is not completed yet and will be significantly improved.





We reworked a great deal of old sounds, there are no stock ones now. Also, we've created brand new music tracks for The Edge and are working now on new pieces.

That’s just a small amount of changes from the new build, it is better to learn about the rest in the game. Do not forget to share your feedback with us. It is better to do that in our Discord channel. This will help us to make the game better.





As I promised, I’ll try to tell you about our new development principles and answer some important questions you might have.

Why abandon the old version?

Exoplanet development started as a hobby, we put our own money into the development, working on full-time jobs. There were no business plans, no deadlines or any budget, the development was chaotic. And the result of that was the old location with a lot of issues and mistakes (big empty areas, flawed assets, bad level design decisions). Now, with proper planning, we won’t let that happen once again.



What did you change in the development process?

Now we have stable project financing, it allowed us to start real commercial development about a year ago. And we are doing our best to increase our pace.

First of all, we've created a complete storyflow for the game. It was used to plan the amount of content, pipelines and deadlines. In order to match them we started to work full-time and significantly expanded our team, focusing on creating content while outsourcing other tasks.



With pipelines we managed to establish quests production. We are working on new quests and reworking the old ones with new mechanics, and some of them are almost ready. This will allow us to constantly add new content with every update.

Is it a completely new game now?

The principles and pillars are the same. That’s just a brand new location with significant progress compared to the old build.



How come you didn’t post any updates for a long time?

We were really focused on the game, trying to build a team, to plan everything, to establish business processes, there was no time and no spare hands to do that. We understand that this is not how it should be and we’ll do our best to hire someone who can keep you posted about the development. It is better to join our Discord, though. It was recently updated, and we are going to post unique content there, share regular news about the development, screenshots etc.



I hope this will help you to understand what’s going on with the project. Feel free to ask any questions, I’ll do my best to answer them.

Thank you very much for your patience, we really appreciate your support.

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

Hey, space cowboys! The private testing is finally finished and we want to share the brand new version of Exoplanet with all of you. We hope you will enjoy this Halloween weekend and will be pleased with the game and its progress. Have a nice time.

Since the beginning of the private testing we've managed to deliver four updates to improve the game, to add as much content as possible and to polish its rough edges. Thus, the new build should be stable yet pretty raw at some places but we believe it is quite ready to test it with a wider audience.

Our sincerest gratitude to those who participated in the testing, fighting bugs and providing feedback in order to make the game better and to deliver a more flawless experience for this open release. Thank you very much, folks, your help is priceless.



So, what to expect from the new location called The Edge?

It is worth mentioning that you can learn a great deal of information about the area, new features and assets as well as to find a lot of screenshots, artworks and GIFs in our previous announcement for the first private testing build (v0.45).

So, what we have achieved during the private testing?

The Edge can be completed. Of course, we are going to add even more content over time and to add more ways to solve some quests. Anyway, we've managed to add a bunch of new quests and to improve the ones available from the start of the testing.



We almost finished transferring our assets to PBR. Physically based rendering significantly improves the quality of graphics, and the game looks much better than ever.

Of course, we made a huge work to improve performance of the game. It needs some testing but Exoplanet should run pretty smooth with full 60 FPS on modern rigs. Your feedback on this will be very appreciated.

We've reworked dialogue's UI. That's the very first version and we are crave to learn your opinion about it. There are a whole lot of new assets. For example, we completely reworked the buildings around the mine with new modular assets. Also, we are working hard to improve the brand new day and night system: K’Tharsian sky is a work in progress at the moment and spoils the view due to the lack of clouds, but we are going to improve it with upcoming updates.



We are also working on a few different new locations at the moment. The most important one, of course, is Windscream Canyon, the area with the town. That is gonna be the biggest area in the game. Keep in mind, it will be a brand new Canyon, completely different from the one available in the old Steam build.

There are even more changes to mention but it is better to try it, so let's get to business. To get access to the new Exoplanet build, please, follow these steps:



- right click on Exoplanet: First Contact in you Steam library and select Properties
- click BETAS
- enter password dfsef23e65Kpo3 and click CHECK CODE
- select the testing build: test_build - for testing
- restart Steam to download the build if the download hasn't started
- join our Discord to share your thought about the game in #feedback channel

Thank you for your patience and support.

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

Hey folks! The new build with a brand new location called The Edge is here. It is uploaded to the beta branch on Steam and ready for the private testing we announced recently.

Thus, if you are keen to try the new version of Exoplanet, you still can join the testing if you meet the qualification. Learn more on the link below CHANGELOG. The ones who’ve already joined will get an email with details soon.



But if you don’t want to test the raw build and prefer a more flawless experience but are still interested in the changes, you can learn more about The Edge on the link below. There are a lot of new features, assets, GIFs and screenshots to see.


https://steamcommunity.com/games/531660/announcements/detail/2205020323682180592

If the current build is stable, we will consider opening it for everyone who owns Exoplanet. Otherwise we’ll take some time to analyze players’ feedback, to improve the build and to fix its flaws.

A heartfelt thanks for your patience and support.

Hey, folks. There have been no updates for a long time but it is time to break the silence and make an important announcement.

As you know we are working hard on the brand new starting location and testing a great deal of new features and other things at the moment. Many of them are already implemented and some are still work in progress to be added in a few months. This is a huge step forward but it definitely needs some testing before the release. Thus, we feel the necessity to share our progress with you and to show you what we’ve managed to achieve so far. It’s time to raise the curtain.



Here’s the deal: we are going to make a private testing for those who're keen to try the new version of Exoplanet. Once the testing is done, we will analyze players’ feedback and decide if we are ready to make it open for everyone or if it needs more work before that.



We cherish all the feedback from our community, so your opinion is very important and will help us to improve the game to create a more flawless experience for everyone. So if you want to join testing, there's a small instruction at the end of the article.

Meanwhile I am going to tell you more about the new location called The Edge. Please, keep in mind that all presented images and GIFs are work in progress: there are some placeholders and bugs, of course, and still a lot of testing going on.



Visual-wise, The Edge is mostly ready. There are a lot of visual upgrades, and we really crave to get your opinion about these changes.

One of the most important things was creating a brand new set of rocks for the game (60 pieces). They used to be brown like the old ones but we’ve decided to change their color to blue, and the whole world feels different now. We’ve also made a set of various big and small stones for middle and small scale.



The next big thing was adding HDR support to the Sahara engine. This way we can achieve a more contrast picture with realistic lighting and detalization.



Now caves, for example, are truly dark, though they appear in classic brown-ish colors if there is a source of light available.



Another change is a brand new day and night system. The old one was basic while the new one is very flexible and allows us to add new weather effects and effects for different times of day. Now we can easily change the sky’s color and brightness of the sun, add clouds, fog and much more. Thus, you can finally experience dusk and dawn in the game. They are a work in progress but I reckon we’ll finish them in time. Day and night were also upgraded.



We made huge progress with new grass but still experimenting with its colors, changing it from withered to lush green, and vice versa.



There are also some experiments going on with color correction. Not to mention a great amount of work on textures.



Level design in the new area was significantly improved, it is a true open world now. There are no more flaws like long open world-ish passages as it is in some places of the current Steam build. Thus, despite the fact that The Edge is pretty small compared to both Anomaly Lake and Windscream Canyon, its 0,25km² feels pretty big for a starting area where you can learn the basics of the game without us holding your hand, get acquainted with the world, its laws and lore.



There will be a bunch of quests on the release, all of them are new and much more to follow with the next updates. They can be a bit rough around the edges but we will polish them once we gather enough feedback from you.

The main story is ready, and we have started to implement it into the game. We are also working on an intro cinematic and a new intro cutscene.



Gameplay-wise, the game also gets new mechanics. The hero can jump to cliffs and pull himself up, so there are more options to explore the world.



There are some new interactive objects in the world like capstans and winches, and both the hero and NPCs can use them.



We are also ready to show you the very first iteration of modular weapons. It takes time to implement such a big feature in one take, so you can’t craft or disassemble them so far but it increases the diversity of arms on the whole.



A small but notable thing is a new crosshair for guns and we are going to add more of them for different weapons.



Another thing to mention is our work with cameras. We used a standard third person camera for everything, but now we are adding more options to improve cutscenes. So far it is pretty basic, just some in-game cameras shooting from different angles but we are working on camera movement options as well.

We finally replaced the old bugs with the new insects. As you may know, we were planning to make five different types of them. So far we’ve managed to add maggots and workers. All of them have brand new animations and behaviors created with our new AI system. Warriors are on the way but we probably won't manage to finish them in time because our animator is on sick leave due to COVID-19.



There are a lot of other assets added to the game like new human clothes, some animal skeletons, different types of lamps, a set of rails and a trolley in a mine and much more.

Of course, there are some updates in sound design. All humanoid NPCs, for example, now have various sounds to play when being hit. As for music, we are working on an adaptive soundtrack which changes in response to specific events or places in the game. The old tracks can’t be used anymore, so there’s a lot to do yet. Anyway, we’ve created a few new tunes for The Edge to experiment with them.

There are other changes, of course, and a lot to tell, as we are working hard to bring even more content for the release but it would be much better to see it for yourself. Thus, if you are looking for new experience in the world of Exoplanet and really want to make the game better, join our private testing.




Obviously, you have to own Exoplanet: First Contact in your library because we are going to add the new build to a separate beta branch on Steam. This way the old build will be available yet as the main build while you can get access to the new one with a few clicks.

Also, we are looking for those who have already played the game thoroughly, know about its strengths and weaknesses and can tell the difference between the old and new versions.



If you meet these requirements, next thing to do is to join our Discord and PM me or tag me there with @bijou. I will contact you to share more information about the testing.

What do we need? Any feedback you can provide about the new build. Probably, we are going to create a survey and place a link to it at the end of the build. Also, you will get access to a closed section in Discord to discuss changes, to ask questions, to share anything you want to, and, of course, to report any issues and rough edges.



We will begin the private testing as soon as we finish a few important things. If the build is stable, we will probably make an open testing later for everyone who owns Exoplanet.

In the end, I'd like to thank you for your patience and support. That's really important for us. Stay safe.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/531660/Exoplanet_First_Contact/