Space Haven News

Bzzt...bzt.. This is Bugbyte mission control. Houston, we don't have a problem, we have a date. Repeat, we have a date! We have a Steam Early Access release date! Bzzt...Bzt... Over and out. Space Haven will be released on Steam as Early Access on Thursday 21st of May. Let's make this rocket launch a successful one together!

Story time. We recently attended a small game dev gathering here in Turku, Finland. When asked to introduce ourselves we eagerly told our story, and how Space Haven was looking very promising to be our best game yet.

We continued on to say one of our game dev related dreams out loud, which would be to have the number one spot in the "global top sellers" list on Steam. One of the attendees burst out laughing, thinking it was a joke. Well, to be honest. We didn't mean that Space Haven would stay up there forever, even a minute would be a dream come true for us =) It's honestly a dream we have and they say it's good to have goals in life!



"I have a dream... That one day... For one minute... Space Haven would be the number one top seller on the "Global Top Sellers" - list on Steam"

It is once again time to rally up, Spacefarers! Let's make Space Haven soar through the skies and reach the number #1 on the Global Top Sellers list, even if just for a minute! =) This would be something to tell our grand kids about.



[h3]What can I do to help?[/h3]

• Start beating the Space Drums, tell your friends and family, yell it out in every Discord channel and forum you can and tell them to Wishlist Space Haven on Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/979110/Space_Haven/
• Tell your favorite streamer to contact us at: [email protected] - Let's invade YouTube and Twitch!
  
• Be there with us on launch day Thursday May 21st, and help new players with their questions if you can! =)
  

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

[h3]This is how Space Haven looks now[/h3]











These are exciting times! Come await the Early Access release together with us and other players, we're waiting for you in our channels below:

Discord: https://discord.gg/zx2AN4F
Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/SpaceHaven/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/SpaceHavenGame
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BugbyteGames/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/spacehavengame/

We also have our mailing list which is great for keeping up to date with important news: http://bugbyte.fi/register

See you again soon! =)

Alpha 8 comes as a smaller update focused on the Build Menu. We've spent a few weeks improving it and making it easier to use, easier to find facilities and utilizing different resolutions in a better way. It might take a little time to get accustomed to the new build menu, but once that happens you should notice it is great to use and allows for some quick building! =)



We've also worked hard on improving the translations, and we are starting to be confident they are shaping up very well. We will of course improve these with time as players spot issues and strings that are hard to understand.



[h3]STEAM/GOG Early Access Release[/h3]
We are preparing for the official Early Access release. We do not have a date yet, as we need to sort out some tasks and find a good window for the release all things considered, it could be before summer but it might end up being after the summer in fall as well. Once we are certain of a date we will announce it, so stay tuned for news on that =)

[h3]Interview with the composer of Space Haven[/h3]
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Solid Content sat down and did an interview with the music composer for Space Haven, watch some neat game play, listen to some music and hear some cool things about making music for Space Haven!

Thanks for reading and stay tuned for more news to come!

So, we find ourselves in midst of a pandemic. Never would we have believed that we and the world would find ourselves in such a situation as the Steam early access release of Space Haven closes in.

We truly hope you are safe out there. So far we have managed to continue on as before, our small 3 person indie team has not been infected. We've stayed healthy and focused our energy on Space Haven, and as a result there's lots of new features we want to show you. =)

[h3]Advanced Game Customization[/h3]

Many knobs and levers to emphasize your beloved features in the game.

We have created difficulty levels for the game, and the possibility to customize your playthrough if you want to. It is a type of creative mode, where you get to specify what resources you start with, what kind of asteroids or derelict ships are found in the start sector and so on. This can be tweaked on a galaxy level too, meaning if you want a galaxy full of resources you can create that for yourself.

For players wanting to forget the challenge and just build in peace we added a sandbox mode, which will enable you to spawn resources at your will.

New features:

• Advanced Game Customization - Customize your playthrough with regards to resources, asteroids, derelict ships, alien presence and so on. Emphasize your beloved features.
  
• Sandbox mode - A sandbox category has been added to the build menu, allowing you to spawn resources and possible other items at will.
  

[h3]Crew Selection Screen and Customization[/h3]

You can now customize the colors of your crew outfits.

A crew selection menu has been added to the game!

Another new addition is the crew selection screen, where you will be able to decide who you will take with on your journey through space. Many want to leave Earth and hop on your crew, in hopes of finding a better place to live. You need to decide who you take with, and what kind of colors their shirt and pants have.

New features:

• Crew selection menu - Choose who you take with as part of your starting crew as you venture out to find a new home among the stars.
  
• Customize crew outfits - Choose the colors of your crew member outfits. Everyone can have a purple shirt, or yellow, or something completely different!
  

[h3]Starmap improvements[/h3]

Starmap now has fog of war.

We've added a fog of war to the starmap, which reveals the next destinations but no further than that. This allows for some surprises with how the other faction spaceships move around in the starmap, it also adds to the feeling of exploration when traveling in the galaxy. We also had a little time to tweak some of the space backgrounds within sectors.

New features:

• Starmap fog of war - Pirates might catch you by surprise now!
  
• Polished backgrounds - At least some of the backgrounds will look a bit better =)
  

Special derelict ships, so called claimable derelicts, can now be claimed and added to your fleet.

Claimable derelict ships - These are special derelict ships which can be claimed and added to your fleet. Go explore them and once all creatures lurking in the shadows have been cleared out this special derelict ship can be captured and added to your fleet. However, it might require a substantial amount of repairs and resources to make it capable of hyperspace travel.

Additionally, all the factions in the game now have some new ships in their fleet, so you will meet more than just the little scale spaceships later on in the galaxy.

New features:

• Claimable derelict ships - These special derelict spaceships can be claimed and added to your fleet.
  
• New faction spaceships - Added some bigger ships for the various factions in the game.
  

[h3]Space Haven - Now available in 12 languages[/h3]


We've spent a lot of time to make Space Haven available in other languages besides English. We hired a team of professional translators for the job, and they have just finished their initial translations of texts in the game.


Space Haven is localized to the following languages:

• ENGLISH
  
• GERMAN
  
• FRENCH
  
• CASTILIAN-SPANISH
  
• ITALIAN
  
• RUSSIAN
  
• SIMPLIFIED-CHINESE
  
• JAPANESE
  
• KOREAN
  
• CZECH
  
• POLISH
  
• PORTUGUESE-BRAZIL
  

These translations are the first iteration, and they will need work and polishing to iron out the biggest issues. We will be working on that in the upcoming weeks.

[h3]Steam Early Access[/h3]
We're preparing for a Steam Early Access release, but we do not have a date yet. We want to release this year. However, times are very uncertain, and so many factors play into a successful official release. If one of us three becomes ill it could seriously affect any set release date we would have.

The game build needs to be ready, void of any game breaking bugs. The translations need to be checked and in good enough shape. Our current plan is to make a decision around a month before release, and once we have it clear to ourselves we will notify you =)

Discord: https://discord.gg/zx2AN4F
Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/SpaceHaven/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/SpaceHavenGame
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BugbyteGames/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/spacehavengame/

We also have our mailing list which is great for keeping up to date with important news: http://bugbyte.fi/register

Thanks for reading and see you in the next update!

Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No! It is the thunderous roar from a spaceship turret. Space Haven Alpha 6 is the biggest update to date and brings ship-to-ship battles with it, along with a bunch of smaller feature additions, improvements and bug fixes.



Developing support for ship-to-ship battles was challenging design wise, but we're really happy with how it turned out and how it further supports the core of the game. The new additions enables you to build a proper bridge for your spaceship consisting of many console modules.

Note! There's only one turret at the moment, but our focus was to implement the base and make ship-to-ship battles fully functional. We will be adding more with time.

[h3]The Spaceship Bridge[/h3]



It's now possible to build a proper bridge for your spaceship, with 3 new console modules introduced making the total amount of console modules 4. Each console is specialized in controlling a certain aspect of the defense and attack systems. The consoles are:

The Operations Console



The operations console is used to hail other spaceships and communicate with their crew. It is also used to control scanner modules. Needs crew member to operate.

The Weapons Console



The weapons console is used to control the various turrets of the spaceship. One console is capable of controlling all turrets in the spaceship, as long as a crew member is stationed at the console.

The Shields Console



Shield modules form a continually regenerating protective energy shield around the ship, and use power to recharge. Shield generators are controlled by the shields console seen above.

The Navigations Console



This navigation console combined with a hyperdrive enables the spaceship to hyperjump between solar system areas. Needs a crew member to operate.

[h3]Ship-to-Ship Battle Mechanics[/h3]



A ship's overall health is divided into hull stability and shield strength, which can be strengthened with hull stabilizers and shield modules respectively. Power will also play a part, as attack and defense systems will be more prone to consume larger amounts of power.

Various turrets will have their own specifications regarding hull stability damage and shield damage, in addition to these special properties can be added. Examples of special properties could be a turret with projectiles causing internal fires, another turret may act much like an EMP turret shutting down power within an area.

A Hull Stabilizer reinforces the spaceship's frame, strengthening it and generally improving structural integrity. Multiple Stabilizers can work in unison to bolster the hull far beyond its normal limits.

A ship's hull is not generally penetrated until the hull stability is lost, at which point the hull stabilizers will be overloaded and explode, along with other hull integrated elements like turrets, shield modules, hangars and more inevitably causing the whole ship to explode to a good degree. It's still possible to save the crew and the ship after this, but generally a scenario like this is devastating. Roof elements, like turrets shields and scanners, can be targeted and destroyed individually.

All so called system modules reserve system points when built, if you want to build a ship with more hull stability you will have to sacrifice on some other front, like fire power or shield strength. Larger ships will have more system points to spend on system modules. There will not be a wide selection of turrets in the beginning, but with time more turrets will be added to the game.

[h3]Scanning[/h3]



Feeling curious and want to see what's going on in other faction spaceships currently in the sector? Build a scanner and you're able to peek in. The scanner will come in handy when trying to determine whether this is a crew you want to mess with, or where to direct your more powerful special turrets.

"Seems Jemima and Lisette are playing Fatman Returns in co-operative mode. Others are probably sleeping. This is our chance to do a sneak attack and steal their space food."

[h3]New Music[/h3]

We've kept Paul very busy and had him produce 4 new music tracks for the game for this update. The soundtrack has come a long way, now with 12 in-game main tracks plus some additional tracks for things like exploring derelict ships and crew combat. That's well over 30 minutes of excellent music!

[h3]Space Haven Official Wiki[/h3]

We've been working on a wiki/guide for Space Haven, filling it up with information and tips. We hope it will be of help for new players to get answers if something is unclear. We will keep adding information with time as we find out which things are hard to understand. You can check out the wiki below:

http://bugbyte.fi/spacehaven/wiki

We have a goal to release Space Haven as Early Access here on Steam this year. Stay tuned!

You can find more information on Space Haven and the Alpha at:
http://bugbyte.fi/spacehaven/

Discord: https://discord.gg/zx2AN4F
Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/SpaceHaven/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/SpaceHavenGame
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BugbyteGames/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/spacehavengame/

We also have our mailing list which is great for keeping up to date with important news: http://bugbyte.fi/register

Until next time. Thanks for reading! =)

Spacefarer.

We've arrived at the end of the year and it's once again time to head out to take a little break and celebrate Christmas and New Year replenishing our strength for the coming year, 2020.

This year was special to us. It's hard to fathom that it has already been well over 7 years since we started on our journey to create games. A lot has happened in that time, a lot of hardships and disappointments, but also successes that kept us alive to fight another day. We're very grateful to still be alive as an indie studio to this day.

Being a game developer is wonderful because you get to bring fantasies to life, and create experiences and emotions for others playing your creation. If you were to ask what brings a game developer great joy it's usually seeing players talk and react to your game. In a positive way of course =) Seeing someone bash your creation can feel devastating and demoralizing, but the best way to react is to try to understand what's wrong and improve from there.

We never intended or planned for Space Haven to be such a long project, just some odd months more and we're at the 4 year mark. 4 years! A lot can happen in 4 years, like suddenly having to wear glasses to see. So what happened? Well, the usual thing happened. We envisioned a game, started creating it and as the years rolled by we realized we weren't building a house, we were building a very big castle. And castles take a lot of time to build!

If we've had spent less time on Space Haven then Space Haven would not be the game it is today, it would be an entirely different game. And very likely not as enjoyable. See, that's what happens when you work on a game. You realize it needs more, that it's not yet enough. So you keep working on it, crafting it day by day hoping one day it's something special. Like a big castle ready to house many people.

It's been amazing to see the power of a supporting community. Just when we thought our castle would remain unfinished as nothing but a solid foundation for something magnificent, you came to our aid with your wheel barrows and shovels! You gave us the means to continue crafting our castle that is Space Haven. One of our game developer dreams was to have a successful Kickstarter one day, one of those Kickstarters that make other game developers use it as an example of what's possible. It happened, and you made it possible =)

Thank you from the bottom of our hearts for making one of our game developer dreams come true. Thank you for supporting us and enabling us to continue crafting Space Haven, the big castle we want to share with you. 2020 is going to be yet another big year, hopefully you are with us then too!



Now for some more merry news. As mentioned previously we decided to participate in the Yogscast Jingle Jam with one of our previous games, Battlevoid: Harbinger.

In return, the Yogscast promised to give Space Haven a go in their Jingle Jam streams and show it to their community. (NOTE! Space Haven is not part of the bundle) It was so exciting watching them play, they seemed to love the game and have a lot of fun with it. If you missed it don't worry, you can watch the whole video of them playing below:

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/523095593?t=0h21m9s

Our goal is to officially release Space Haven as a solid Early Access version next year (2020) (PC/Mac/Linux), once we feel we are ready and find a good time frame. We will of course notify you closer to release. Once in Early Access, we will continue hammering away on the game update by update.

If you want to do something in a merry Christmas spirit to help us you can simply share the Yogscast video with a friend, show them this Steam page for wishlisting or let your favorite streamer know that Space Haven is starting to become really solid and they should totally play it =)

You can find more information on Space Haven and the Alpha at:
http://bugbyte.fi/spacehaven/

Discord: https://discord.gg/zx2AN4F
Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/SpaceHaven/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/SpaceHavenGame
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BugbyteGames/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/spacehavengame/

We also have our mailing list which is great for keeping up to date with important news: http://bugbyte.fi/register

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! See you in 2020 =)

- The Bugbyte Team