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Project Genesis News

The Hercules Major Update is Live!


Hi - I’m James, the Navigator at 8 Circuit Studios, and I’m looking forward to introducing you to the Project Genesis Pre-Alpha Hercules milestone.

For this milestone, we have focused on customization, a new arsenal of battle craft weapons, and an experimental team-based Player vs Environment mode.

[h2]PLAYER CUSTOMIZATION[/h2]

In the Hercules milestone, you now have the opportunity to explore the new customization system we’ve implemented to create and apply signature looks.

This new system allows you to customize your battle craft with a selection of palettes, and a significant number of skin wraps.

Customizing your avatars can be done as you would in the battle craft menu. Rotate your avatar to inspect your selections in a 360 degree view.

Whether you want to show off your look to your teammates, or leave a mark in your adversaries memory, the customization system will be your key to expressing your unique identity.

[h2]EMBLEMS & KILL CARDS[/h2]

In addition to tailoring your battle craft and avatars, you can now create customized kill cards from a huge selection of emblems and backgrounds. These cards will appear on your opponents and teammates heads up display when you complete important accomplishments in-game.

[h2]BATTLE CRAFT WEAPONS[/h2]

We’ve also provided another round of updates to our battle craft arsenal with over 20 modified weapons now included, and a new set of behaviors for homing missiles.

With only a few exceptions, we’ve allowed many of the battle craft to access the vast array of improved weapons for you to experiment with and provide the Project Genesis team feedback on. Be sure to fill out the player feedback form available.

[h2]EXPERIMENTAL PLAYER VS ENVIRONMENT MODE[/h2]

You will also have access to an experimental Player versus Environment mode. This mode can be played alone, or with teammates to get familiar with the Project Genesis game mechanics. This new feature will open up the possibility of additional player vs environment game modes in the future.

And finally, the Hercules milestone has hundreds of other features and quality of life improvements to enhance your gameplay experience. We look forward to seeing you in game Pilot! Good luck, and have fun.
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Your Gemini Milestone is Here Pilots!

Greetings Pilot!


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We’re happy to report the Gemini milestone launch date has finally arrived!

The intent behind this milestone is to make things much easier and more accessible for new Pilots who are strapping in for the first time. For our veteran Pilots we've expanded gameplay, balanced weapons, and fixed almost 1,000 bugs.

New training and navigation tools should help beginner Pilots get up to fighting speed quickly. We’ve also introduced attractive new map variants and with a richer weapon set, which means we’re looking forward to hearing your insightful feedback.

[h3]Navigation : All New Mini Map[/h3]

Matt B has been working hard on core systems, but based on Pilot feedback he’s added a new navigation system to help you quickly determine where the nearest objectives or threats are located. This new system not only shows where friendlies and enemies are located, but now one can locate oneself in the space theater and aboard capital ships.



[h3]AI Bots[/h3]

AI fighting AI. Artificial Intelligence is one of the core themes in Project Genesis lore, but now you can actually play against AI! These specialized AI have been developed by Anatoliy G. (AKA BubbleGum in Discord and are only in their first iteration. Expect to see species of these units emerge as we move forward in our development timeline.

[h3]New Proteus Map Variant[/h3]

For your gameplay viewing pleasure, Mark Nicolino has added a new Proteus snow map variant. Now you can experience the otherworldly views in a high contrast icy blue and white landscape.

[h3]Weapons[/h3]

Our second pass using the new weapons system developed by Matt B and has been completed by Terry H. We’ve got a ton of work to do on the weapons so your input is crucial to helping us ensure solid play balance with the most lethal aspect of Project Genesis gameplay mechanics (besides accidentally crashing into asteroids).

[h3]Get Your Friends to Play for Free![/h3]
And last but not least, for the first time ever, we are making Steam’s Playtest option available to new players. You have probably seen our previous announce, but this feature is so cool we thought it bears repeating.

If you have friends who are on the fence about playing Project Genesis in these pre-alpha days, they can now take advantage of the playtest to get in on the action for free!



To sign up, click Request Access on the Steam store page under Join The Project Genesis Playtest. Watch Steam notifications and our social channels for more information on the playtest schedule and granted access.

Open Playtest - Breach and Board, Pilots!

This is it Pilots! Gear up to breach and board capital ships, have epic space battles, and try out all of our 5 game modes in our open Steam Playtest slated for this weekend.



This is a great opportunity to try out Project Genesis for the first time—and bring some friends along for the ride—to try out our various maps, avatars, and battle crafts that you can pilot and battle with through the outer edges of the galaxy.

We’ll be running this playtest on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday of this upcoming weekend. Feel free to board your ships at any time you would like! However, we will be having designated chunks of hours we anticipate to be more active that you can check out below:

11:00 AM - 6:00 PM PST
2:00 PM - 9:00 PM EST
7:00 PM - 2:00 AM GMT

Don’t miss out on joining by requesting access to the open playtest via the Steam Project Genesis landing page.

We’re so excited for you to join us and can’t wait for everyone to get out there on the frontlines of outer space warfare!

FORNAX II Milestone Achieved

We're back with another interim build update called FORNAX II as we ramp up for our next major milestone called GEMINI (planned for a late December release).

FORNAX II

This build is intended to improve stability, provide additional notifications to help players know what's happening in a match, and tons of other gameplay improvements (most notably, making rounds feel faster and more engaging) which you can see in the "FORNAX II Change Log" section below.

LOOKING AHEAD

We're moving on to the new year with some big additions with new and advanced features in the coming months that many of you have been asking for (weapons overhaul, new game modes, clearer progression paths, and bots!!).

Thank you for your continued support in the development of Project Genesis!

[h2]FORNAX II Change Log[/h2]

- Redesigned Victory/Defeat Screen
- Redesigned Escape Menu - still working
- Fixed floating turrets in Enceladus
- Expanded level boundary in Enceladus to prevent premature triggering
- Added quit game confirmation
- Gameplay impactful ambient audio system with early samples in place
- Re-initiated mode map rotation within active sessions
- Fitted Hacker with a hood to go with her fancy cape
- Major gameplay award notification system with early notifications in place
- Merging groups of meshes in environments to help with draw calls
- LOD Optimizations - All Maps
- Audio: Fix to return MatchStart UI and SlideNotification alert audio
- Break stinger added to kill XP
- Upped resolution of KG Revolver color map
- Updated Map & Mode Name properties in all current maps to reflect in respawn screen text.
- Reintroduced map roll functionality to Servers such that when a Match is over, instead of moving all Players back to the Main Menu, we simply roll to a new map and Players continue playing. The Server will choose a new map from the rotation for the GameMode that is being played. It will avoid the map that was just played.
- Increased the Server max lifetime to 5 hours from 2.
- Fixed issue which prevented players to spawn with their selected hangar slot loadout (was always spawning with bay 1)
- FPS HUD
- Changes regarding the damage effect: should now scale with the screen width and height instead of sticking to 16:9 aspect ratio
- Potential fix for crash when a Notification is trying to be used when its invalid.
- Removed level music in maps, added placeholder ambient music to events for testing
- Removed annoying wire bundles from onslaught maps
- Reduced the Onslaught Round count to 2 from 4.
- Decreased the time to award score for Domination capture points to 0.5 from 1.
- Made changes to the PlayerState and GameState to allow the First Blood Award to be given at the start of each new Round.
- Made some changes to the BoundarySystem Actor to try and fix the issue where it will accidentally think the Player left the Volume when it actually didnt.
- Improved quality of Hacker LODs
- Rifle ADS tilt update
- Fix for rifle default transforms + fix for rifle ADS
- Major refactor to the way we handle Loading Screens in order to address ongoing issues with crashes caused by resources not loading appropriately.
- Adjusted the fade applied to Loading Screens to try and smooth it out further. Removed a screen fade in the PlayerController that may have been causing a double fade.
- Made some vast improvements to the way we handle the AssaultPod Launch sequence from the Cameras perspective. It now takes into account the Distance to the BreachTarget when its transitioning to the AssaultPod Interior view.
- More changes to the Boundary System in order to ensure that it doesnt result in false positives for Ships.
- Fixed an issue where late joiners to Onslaught matches where the Bomb had already exploded would see the Countdown Timer at 0.
- Replicated the ScoreToWin value in the GameState to ensure that Clients can reference it on the UI. Removed the Fading of Audio when changing levels as it was not unmuting when it had finished.
- Introduced the FadeToBlack for when we enter a Loading Screen to make the transition smoother and to cover a small period were the map is visible before we transition.
- Changed the way that the GameState returns the winning teams score at the end of a match to try and address the issue where the winning team in Dominion wont show the actual final score limit as their winning score.
- Bomb placement 1P 3P animations integrated in game, added ability to show/hide weapons (used for interaction animations)
- Small code adjustments to the way the ThirdPerson Weapon is created and handled during replication to try and address the issue where it does not Spawn for late joiners in certain circumstances.
- More adjustments to the Loading Screens to attempt to fix an issue where Seamless Travel is causing the fake Loading Screen to not appear on the viewport at all which is thus making the fade from black appear out of place.
- Moved exterior objectives (experimenting), lighting polish, updated lightmaps (The Ring)
- Made the BoundarySystem slightly more accurate and also reduced the PostProcess effects time to come in and out.
- Possible fix for crash caused when starting a new MatchMaking request and the request is destroyed.
- Updated end match ambient audio, increased vol slightly on all ambient cues
- Updated breach indicator text to read USE/BOARD instead of Press/Breach
- Marked Loadouts hidden on EscapeMenu for interim build until bugs are addressed for Gemini
- Major refactor to the way we handle Loading Screens in order to address ongoing issues with crashes caused by resources not loading appropriately.
- Made changes to the PlayerState and GameState to allow the First Blood Award to be given at the start of each new Round.

Seasonal Update and Rewards

Happy Halloween Pilot!

We're marching toward our next major update. But until then, we're sneaking in a seasonal update for some Halloween fun, dropping trick-or-treat goodies that you'll encounter inside capital ships, assault pods as well as on Hacker and Technomancer avatars.

We hope you spend some time with us this weekend checking out the temporary Halloween-Space Combat takeover. Here's what you need to know...

First, make sure you earn your limited time badge!

Remember, the more you play the greater your stats accumulate toward earning up to four seasonal badges. Stats for accumulating badges are measured across any one of these categories:

- wins
- ship kills
- avatar kills
- assists

But it's not just Halloween stuff. There's also some serious development behind this seasonal-update. So here's some of the highlights where we can't wait to read your feedback:

[h3]-Brand New Map-[/h3]

We're calling this map 'Proteus' and it's played in Onslaught mode. Meaning one team must defend the Capital Ship interior bomb and exterior bomb. While the other team plants the bombs. We're debuting it for Halloween so play it and tell us what you think.

[h3]-Three Maps Redesigned-[/h3]

We took three of our oldest maps (Carbonaceous, Enceladus and Solar Storm) and redesigned all three for Onslaught mode (attack / defend). You can see we're really leaning in on this mode and hope you can help us make it more fun by sharing your thoughts. Each have an extra dark look just in time for Halloween.

[h3]-New FPS Mechanic-[/h3]

You asked about this one and we couldn't wait to implement it into the nearest update. The "slide" mechanic in FPS is finally here for your Avatar combat needs. Make use of it and let us know if it meets your FPS needs.

[h3]And some quality of life updates:[/h3]
- An overhauled user interface with new customization screens
- A filter for multiplayer matchmaking preferences
- A firing range so you can test your weapons before going to battle

And don't forget about our limited time supporter's pack! Also the first of its kind.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1454350/Project_Genesis__Halloween_Support_Pack/


Full Release Notes

- Spookified Project Genesis
- Brand New Proteus Map
- Complete UI Overhaul and Customization Screens and still working
- 3 New Onslaught Maps
- New Firing Range Solo Map (still working)
- Move like an assassin with FPS Slide
- Play your preference: Filter multiplayer games with quickplay matchmaking
- FP Interaction Animations
- Cloth prototyping Hacker cape
- Spawn camp blockers on Onslaught maps
- Improved magazine drops
- Ship dynamic camera behaviors on collision
- Updated ship weapon rock impact effects
- CP5 Shotgun animation improvements (less glitchy)
- Updated third person FPS jumping animation to look a bit more natural and responsive
- Onslaught objective detonation VFX improvements
- FPS Healing Beam VFX updated
- Incendiary grenade VFX updated and still working
- Fixed an issue where Turret Emplacements would continue to take damage even after they had been destroyed
- Fixed an issue with placeability on the FPS Placeables failing their placeability test. The Placeable Turret and Placeable Repair Node Ghosts have had their Collisions modified to ensure they can be placed on uneven surfaces.
- Fixed an issue with the ImpactEffects where the bAttachToHitComp property was not operating correctly. This fixes the problem where Grenade impact decals would attach to Avatars feet and follow them.
- Fixed breaching camera angle issues
- Fixed an issue with the ObjectiveMarkers where they would show the incorrect color for the DoubleHardpoint Objectives after being "Interacted" with.
- Lowered railings in FPS environments
- Updated level boundaries
- Badges now selectable in-game profile
- Updated loading screens
- Reduced wreckage bombsite arm/disarm radius in Onslaught. No more sneaky rock camping ;)
- Reduced after action filler sequence time
- Fixed issue with spawning before ready-up timer completes
- Fix to remove seasonal screen from showing after returning from every match
- Fixed in-game loadout visual bug that was showing incorrect bay items upon respawn
- Fixed a crash when initiating a Slide and the Owner isn't valid
- Fixes to reduce other crashes experienced through match transitions