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[Ramos]

You nailed it with the soundtrack, it fits good and brings a level of immersion to the overall experience. Also, the fading grid is a very good polish addition.
Solid progress sir
 

[vivaladav]

If you want to playtest the the game, I've also posted a time-limited download link over in the Tigsource Playtest forums here - any feedback would be much appreciated!

I just downloaded the Linux build and I am planning to play it over this weekend.
I am sure I am going to like it as I love genre and theme and all your recent updates look very promising...

See you on Discord.

[Alain]

I just realized we never talked about the music during our little playtest sessions. Maybe that is because you and Peter just nailed it. It is something I could also listen to while coding

[logophil]

You nailed it with the soundtrack, it fits good and brings a level of immersion to the overall experience. Also, the fading grid is a very good polish addition.
Solid progress sir
 

Thanks a lot, glad you like the soundtrack!

I just downloaded the Linux build and I am planning to play it over this weekend.
I am sure I am going to like it as I love genre and theme and all your recent updates look very promising...

See you on Discord.

That would be awesome, thanks so much, I look forward to hearing your thoughts! Looking forward to playing Virtueror too when you have a playable build.

I just realized we never talked about the music during our little playtest sessions. Maybe that is because you and Peter just nailed it. It is something I could also listen to while coding

Yes, I was kind of happy that you didn't mention it, at the very least that means its unobtrusive, which is good!

[logophil]

DEV UPDATE 7: SAVING, SHIPYARD AND MORE

The last two months have seen a sustained development push adding lots of new features and content to the game. Along with the further additions to come over the next few weeks, these will hopefully take the Relic Space Alpha from being a 'promising' tech demo to being a real, complex and properly fun game!

New features since the last update include:

SAVING AND LOADING

This is of course quite a big deal from a technical point of view, and also really significant from a gameplay perspective, allowing more lengthy and in depth runs.

SHIPYARD MODULE

A big new area in terms of both game mechanics and content is the new shipyard module, which allows you to unlock and board completely new ship classes (which have also been added). The UI also clearly displays the key stats differentiating each ship so you can assess their strengths and weaknesses.

TECH TREE

The tech tree was due for an overhaul, and is now both more visually appealing and contains a lot more actual techs. In Relic Space you first need to acquire relics which unlocks research options, and the layout reflects that.

EVENT TIMELINE

Faction events now have a whole new UI panel to themselves, to allow the player to keep track of, and check information about, events that have occurred. You can now look back to see which sector a faction contructed a station module in, and then travel there to see it for yourself.

RESOURCE TRADING

Resource trading has been overhauled. While the underlying economics model is not yet complete, random variation in prices has been added meaning trading is now a viable way of earning some much-needed extra credits. Along with this the interface has been improved to more easily allow selection of the amount of goods you wish to buy or sell.

NEW FACTION: CIRCLE

There's a whole new faction in the game: the Circle consists of posthumans whose enhancements are primarily mental, including implants that allow forms of telepathy and telekinesis. It's a neutral faction and work is in progress to allow interesting player interactions with them, including new missions.

Thanks for reading, as usual any feedback welcome!

[shadowsoflight777]

I have to say, each one of these features is very exciting. In particular, I'm a huge fan of the ship upgrade & improvement loops and can't wait to try that piece out. Really, really looking forward to the next Alpha! Glad the soundtrack is fitting in well so far

It sounds like the economic model will be fleshed out in the future, too. I'm looking forward to seeing where you go with that. Getting some serious X-series vibes overall

[Alain]

That is some amazing progress! The event timeline separated into factions is something I have not seen so far and seems to be a neat feature to keep track.

[logophil]

I have to say, each one of these features is very exciting. In particular, I'm a huge fan of the ship upgrade & improvement loops and can't wait to try that piece out. Really, really looking forward to the next Alpha! Glad the soundtrack is fitting in well so far

Thanks, it sure is! Yea personally in playtesting I found the a additional options for upgrading and improving the ship were a key part of what made it suddenly seem significantly more fun to play.

That is some amazing progress! The event timeline separated into factions is something I have not seen so far and seems to be a neat feature to keep track.

I'm glad it seems like good progress, thanks for the support as always! I don't think I've seen that kind of event timeline before in another game either, though I was definitely inspired by the way game events are handled in Civilization VI where you basically get, in different ways, a timeline for your own faction, and a sort of timeline via the event icons that popup that includes all factions.

[logophil]

DEV UPDATE 8: NEW ALPHA, NEW SHIPS, MISSIONS, EQUIPMENT/size]

The recent development push is now over, and I have a shiny new Alpha which I think is lot more fun than the last one - in large part because there's now (just) enough variety in the content to make the gameplay more interesting. With the latest feature additions, the game is also more or less feature-complete, though I still expect plenty of incremental improvements on the core mechanics. With all that, I'm going to really push the boat out and increase my 'stage of completion' icon to 50%!

I've posted links to the access the new Alpha over on the playtest forums here.

New features to mention since the last update include:

NEW STORY/TUTORIAL MISSION

The tutorial has been extended with an all-new multi-part mission to include interactions with other factions. This includes both the new main faction, the Circle and one of the new NPC factions, the Naveen, and so gives players a taste of the range of encounters they can have in the game.

In addition the NPC reputation mechanics have been improved so that randomised missions now help you progress with the main storyline, resulting in a highly replayable mixture of missions. You now need a minimum reputation level with a given mission-giver to obtain a mission from them - so increasing your reputation through random missions is essential to progressing in the game, as well as providing other beneficial outcomes.


NEW SHIPS

All factions, including the new ones, now have new distinctive ship types, with a massive 14 new ship types added in total (though there's still a lot more to come!) This goes along with a major rebalancing of all ship stats to make for a challenging mix of combat situations.

FACTION TERRITORY MECHANICS

Faction territories are a whole new game mechanic where factions claim ownership of particular parts of the map, based on the proximity and development levels of space stations. Ship AI has also been changed so that enemy ships will not follow you into friendly territory, and you will only be ambushed outside friendly territories. This not only creates new tactical considerations (can you reach friendly territory after your ship has been damaged in combat, but also helps add variety to sector layouts, since each sector will be divided up in different ways by the factions within it.

NEW EQUIPMENT AND QUALITY LEVELS

While the new tech tree allows 7 new utility types to be unlocked through researching relics, there are also 3 new core (engine and generator) equipment types. Not to mention the fact that each equipment type now comes in 3 different 'quality' levels, all of which can be found in station equipment stores among other places.

NEW TRAILER

..and there's also a brand new gameplay trailer:

Thanks for reading, as usual all feedback welcome!

[Ramos]

You have done a lot of progress lately I see


FACTION TERRITORY MECHANICS - this concept I like, my first thought was "Mad Max but in space"

I also saw the trailer, the music and visuals are top-notch but I would recommend deleting the text tooltips from the trailer and replacing them with some voice acting


Good luck sir! 

[JobLeonard]

a given mission-giver

A reciprocal mission giver, if you will

[logophil]

You have done a lot of progress lately I see

FACTION TERRITORY MECHANICS - this concept I like, my first thought was "Mad Max but in space"

I also saw the trailer, the music and visuals are top-notch but I would recommend deleting the text tooltips from the trailer and replacing them with some voice acting

Good luck sir! 

Thanks friend! Yes, Mad max in space is quite close. I'm surprised about your recommendation for the trailer though, I've always thought having some written text was essential, since many people will play the trailer without sound? I do have another version without the text, since I think sometimes it's more appropriate just to show the gameplay, but that's a different idea I think.

a given mission-giver

A reciprocal mission giver, if you will

Quite right, that was a very inelegant formulation of mine!

[Alain]

It is interesting that you updated the tutorial mission. I had no issues with the tutorial, but I guess this is always a good aspect to work on, because the very first impression is so crucial.

[logophil]

Thanks Alain, hope you are doing well! Yes it was mostly a case of extending the tutorial rather than changing the existing content, as it is still quite short, and I wanted to give players a sense that there was diverse content available, by introducing new factions and ships quite early on. But there were a few tweaks and bug fixes as well, including the important new feature of being able to turn off the tutorial help messages midway through.

[logophil]

DEV UPDATE 9: DEMO LAUNCH

Hi folks, it's been a while! During the last three months or so I've been busy launching the Relic Space Demo, first on itch.io, and then just recently on Steam!

I'm pretty happy with the way the launches went, as Unity Analytics shows over 250 new player having actually launched the game, which has meant a lot more useful feedback, and makes me more confident that I know what is and isn't working as things move forward.

Preparing for these launches involved knuckling down and adding lots of small quality of life features that make the game feel more polished, as well as fixing a LOT of bugs (over 100 in total over the last 3 months! Full details of the changes since Alpha 8 can be viewed on the website).

But there's also been some new content as well. Here are some of the big new things in the Demo that were not in previous Alpha builds:

CUSTOM KEYBINDINGS AND ALTERNATE MOVEMENT CONTROLS

You can now change almost all keyboard controls to custom keybindings. There's also a whole new alternative keyboard control scheme (namely, 'tank-style' WASD movement that is relative to your ship's current direction) that can be toggled on or off in the settings - and also remapped.

NEW SHIPS, EQUIPMENT AND STATUS EFFECTS

There are 2 new enemy ship types, each with brand new equipment, to improve early-game tactical variety. And there are also two new status effects: you generator can now become 'unstable' with potentially explosive effects, and utility items can become 'severely damaged' in a way that is very hard to repair.

IMPROVED TRADING MECHANICS

Amounts and prices of trade goods are less random, and instead based on the local economy, with some goods being in surplus or shortage in each sector (plus handy icons so you can see at a glance which goods might be best for trading)

NEW THEMED SOUNDTRACKS

There are now also 3 new adaptive soundtracks by talented composer Peter Gagliardi, so each of the main factions now has its own themed soundtrack, which plays when exploring a sector controlled by that faction.

PLANS FOR 2022

Over the coming months I'll be building on the feedback received from the Demos, continuing to polish and add much more content as I work towards Steam Early Access release later in the year.

For the Early Access version I aim to have:

• access to 90% of the full procedurally generated solar system map
• a wider range of procedurally generated missions
• more NPC factions
• more ships, equipment, research and status effects
• a balanced way of winning the game via economic/military victory points (as opposed to via the main storyline)

In essence the EA release should be a game that can be described as a fun and fully playable game due to its various procedurally generated elements, despite still missing a major planned element, namely the main scripted storyline.

Thanks for reading and best wishes for your own projects! Feedback is welcome as always.

[Ramos]

Congratulations logophil! 

This is a solid milestone.
Please do share with us any results/data possible, I am very curious about how it all went

[Alain]

It is awesome that you got so much responses & feedback on the demo. I am hyped for the 2022 EA!

[logophil]

Congratulations logophil! 

This is a solid milestone.
Please do share with us any results/data possible, I am very curious about how it all went

It is awesome that you got so much responses & feedback on the demo. I am hyped for the 2022 EA!

Thanks both! I love charts and graphs and I'm happy to share more for those who are interested.

First of all here's some detail of the new players actually playing the game - you can see the curve is steepest around the
itch demo launch in December and the Steam Demo launch in february.



Here's a neat chart showing how far players are going into the game. Specifically, it shows the number of players that have levelled up (gaining a new pilot skill) different numbers of times (see colour coding at the bottom of the chart).



This chart shows numbers of downloads and views on itch - peaking with the itch release as you'd expect, but getting a good boost around the time of the Steam release. Total downloads on itch were around 500 so far.



Finally this chart shows the impact on Steam wishlists from the itch and Steam demo launches, which shows spikes around the itch release (which was also acommpanied by a social media marketing push) and then the Steam release, as well as another spike when I released a major update in January. Total wishlists were around 500 for the period December-February.

[Ramos]

This is awesome logophil! Thank you so much for sharing!

I can confirm I had a similar experience with the itch.io demo release on another game aka they provided views and little sales/downloads but totally boosted the steam wishlist. I suspect many scout the game on Itch and then search to buy it on Steam.

[Riv_]

Very nice of you to share all those graphs logophil, some interesting takeaways there
Your game looks interesting, I will give the demo a go tomorrow and come back with some impressions.
Best of luck with the EA launch, will be interesting to see how things evolve