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[Alain]

I have to chime in: Thanks for sharing! I'm thinking about an itch demo release as well now

[logophil]

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.

Yea wishlists were quite good, though I think came as much from the marketing activity around the itch Demo as from the itch page itself. Honestly i was quite happy with the amount of downloads on itch, most of the 300 new players came from itch rather than steam. That was the nice boost of people actually playing the game I needed at that time - I wouldn't have wanted any more than that I think as would prefer to get more new players after improving the game further.

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

Thanks a lot, do let me know what you think of the Demo - I hope to give your Demo a try as well!

I have to chime in: Thanks for sharing! I'm thinking about an itch demo release as well now

Great, look forward to seeing you on itch then if you do decide to go ahead!

[vivaladav]

Thanks for sharing your numbers and charts logophil, it's always interesting to see some real data!

I am happy for you (and for all of us) after seeing that itchio is a good booster of gamers/wishlists. Hopefully more downloads will come as you continue with the updates.

I haven't tried your game since version 112. Are you going to publish a new update soon? If not I will try the 132 as I am curious to see your progress.

[Liran]

This looks very fun! The amount of work that has gone into this is obvious just from watching the video you added to your devlog! Great job!

[logophil]

Thanks for sharing your numbers and charts logophil, it's always interesting to see some real data!

I am happy for you (and for all of us) after seeing that itchio is a good booster of gamers/wishlists. Hopefully more downloads will come as you continue with the updates.

I haven't tried your game since version 112. Are you going to publish a new update soon? If not I will try the 132 as I am curious to see your progress.

Thanks Vivaladav, and your question actually gives me a good opportunity to share the latest progress.

I've now started a Beta branch of the Steam Demo, with access available through the Discord and v133 is currently available there. This has just one change from v132 but it's a big one, which is that I've implemented A* pathfinding for the player, allowing you to use the mouse to select a distant destination to autopath to.

I think this will make a significant difference to many players, as until now the game was optimised for keyboard controls, but some players found the hex-grid keyboard controls too complicated to master. This latest change now makes moving your ship via the mouse - a control scheme that's much easier to pick up and comprehend straight away - a completely viable and no longer sub-optimal option.

This looks very fun! The amount of work that has gone into this is obvious just from watching the video you added to your devlog! Great job!

Thanks Liran, it certainly has been a lot of work, almost three years now if you include planning and conceptualisation! I checked out your game on itch too, it looks interesting, do you have a devlog here on tigsource as well? If so it might be good to include it as a link in your signature as many of us do.

[Alain]

I remember struggling a bit myself when I played an older version where there was no movement via mouse. Great to see this new feature!

[vivaladav]

I've now started a Beta branch of the Steam Demo, with access available through the Discord and v133 is currently available there. This has just one change from v132 but it's a big one, which is that I've implemented A* pathfinding for the player, allowing you to use the mouse to select a distant destination to autopath to.

A major change indeed!

Is that something available during combat too? Cause I believe the core idea for that was to go for 1 movement/1 action, but something like this might change things a bit.

[Ramos]

Hey logophil,

I am sorry I missed some of your updates, I was very busy with my main marketing campaign in March and I missed a lot on Tigsource, but I did catch a few of your tweets, nice to see we have so many people in common on Twitter.

Keep the progress steady sir 

[logophil]

A major change indeed!

Is that something available during combat too? Cause I believe the core idea for that was to go for 1 movement/1 action, but something like this might change things a bit.

It is quite major from a user interface point of view, but the core mechanics are unchanged, and as you suggest this is only really available outside of combat. When hostile ships are present, you can still click on a distant tile to indicate your destination, but you will move only one tile in that direction. This kind of system is not uncommon for turn-based roguelike games.

Hey logophil,

I am sorry I missed some of your updates, I was very busy with my main marketing campaign in March and I missed a lot on Tigsource, but I did catch a few of your tweets, nice to see we have so many people in common on Twitter.

Keep the progress steady sir 

Thank you kindly, good sir - yea I do try to keep up a regular stream of tweets!

[logophil]

DEV UPDATE 9: DEMO UPDATE

Hi everyone, time for another progress update: I've just released a pretty major update to the Demo on Steam and itch!

The core of this update are a few big changes that build on player feedback, improving the experience of the core gameplay loop in subtle but significant ways, as well as providing new content. These are the highlights:

14 new utility items

14 new utility items can now be obtained by researching relics, enabling completely new combat tactics such as use of cloaking fields, and jump drives. As a result the relic research screen (pictured below) now has a lot more fully functional research goals - though there are still a lot more to come! In addition to filling out the game content, this should add to the tactical variety of combat situations.

Equipment Skills

The new game mechanic of 'equipment skills' whereby weapons and utility items now grant special abilities, which work in much the same way as pilot skills. In addition to new skills for the utility items mentioned above, there are also 6 new 'weapon' skills associated with different weapon types, such as the 'bullet sweep' skill pictured below.

Previously some playtesters had noted that the automatic firing mechanic can make the game feel a little unsatisfying due to lack of active targeting on the part of the player. This mechanic provides new ways for the player to engage in combat more actively, and I can confirm from my own playtesting that it is quite satisfying to use the 'power shot' skill and see the enemy ship explode in flames as a result!

New 'Manual Mode'

There is a major overhaul of 'manual' mode, with a new UI section that allows full control of weapons so that you can now fire different weapons at different targets, and move and fire in any order. Again this allows the player to engage in combat more actively, and if they choose can play the whole game in this mode, actively selecting the target for each shot if they wish.

Bugfixes and balance change

As usual there are also plenty of bugfixes, and some balance changes, for example reducing profitability of trading, and increasing availability of starter weapons at station stores.

Change log

Full details of the changes can be viewed on the (see Demo 143 and 146) website.

[Alain]

Great update logophil, especially the new manual mode sounds like a great addition to me!

[logophil]

DEV UPDATE 10: 'GOING ROGUE' UPDATE

Hi everyone, since Relic Space is currently participating in the 'Going Rogue' Festival (for roguelike games) on Steam, I prepared another update to the Demo.

While it may not be obvious from the screenshots, 'under the hood' Relic Space is many ways a traditional roguelike: it's turn-based and grid-based, with procedurally generated levels and missions, and like many classic roguelikes it's a non-party-based RPG where you focus on controlling a single character. And the full version will also feature a Permadeath game mode. So Steam's 'Going Rogue' festival seemed a good fit.

As there would potentially be new players trying the Demo, I wanted to make sure it was as polished as possible - meaning there's a whole host of bugfixes in this update! But there's also a few significant new additions gameplaywise as well:

Difficulty Levels

This update introduces difficulty levels to the game for the first time. 'Adventure' difficulty offers a gentler introduction to the game for those who prefer to focus on uncovering storylines, or who find the more demanding 'Tactical' difficulty too challenging. (The full game will also feature a third, harder difficulty for veterans who need even more of a challenge).

I realised I should add this as a priority when some players complained that the game was just too hard (TheEdmon, for example in his playthrough of a recent version, which I linked below), whereas others had mentioned that it was pretty easy (Josh Ge, creator of the amazing game Cogmind!).

16 new sector environmental effects

The new environmental effects are features that affect an entire sector, like quantum storms, asteroid showers or radioactive residue. Some of these have a potentially game-changing impact on combat, for example by making shields unusable, or reducing the effectiveness of specific weapon types. This will help each sector feel more distinct, as well as offering interesting new challenges.

For me this helps solve the problem that games such as mine face in that 'outer space' does not easily lend itself to the kind of variety of settings that are important to keep gameplay fresh. I'm aware I need to do as much as possible to make each sector feel distinct, even though they will all share many of the same basic ingredients - and I have various other plans up my sleeve for this too.

New Gas Cloud Types

While all gas cloud types offer a useful bit of extra cover, the new explosive and corrosive gas clouds come with an additional risk as well. Being fired at wil hiding in an explosive gas cloud could cause the whole cloud to go up in flames, and your ship along with it!

Bugfixes and balance change

As mentioned there are plenty of bugfixes, particularly as relates to the new weapon display that was introduced in the last updated. In terms of balance tweaks, the biggest change is around fuel, where the fuel capacity of all ships have been decreased, so that fuel has more of an impact on progress.

Change log

Full details of the changes can be viewed on the (see Demo 152) website.

[Alain]

It's great to hear you are part of the Going Rogue festival, I have my fingers crossed that this will give you some good exposure! And I like that you implemented difficulty settings this early on, seems like a great way to give the players the best experience possible. If you can track it, I'd love to hear the percentages players choose which difficulty.

[marcgfx]

The game looks great logophil. How did you make your UI, I'm dreading getting into that...
I watched a bit of the video, but I can't say I really understand much about what was going on.

[logophil]

It's great to hear you are part of the Going Rogue festival, I have my fingers crossed that this will give you some good exposure! And I like that you implemented difficulty settings this early on, seems like a great way to give the players the best experience possible. If you can track it, I'd love to hear the percentages players choose which difficulty.

Yes that's a great idea about tracking which difficulty setting people choose, I will definitely try to add that - and get back to you!

The game looks great logophil. How did you make your UI, I'm dreading getting into that...
I watched a bit of the video, but I can't say I really understand much about what was going on.

Yea UI is tricky, though it's an area I strangely quite enjoy doing - I guess because it brings out pure graphic design/artistic side! I'm basically using the core Unity UI module including TextMeshPro for the text, and also a simple asset store add-on called SDF toolkit to get small icons that scale smoothly with different screen resolutions.

Were you referring to the Edmon video in my last post? I guess because he has done a couple of playthroughs before he didn't explain the basics as he might have done if playing for the first time. I was actually a bit concerned that he skipped the tutorial, as some things had changed since he last played, and he didn't really understand them as a result!

[marcgfx]

Yeah that's the video I meant! It's really hard to make complicated mechanics easy to understand, well even simple mechanics can be hard to convey. Not watching the tutorial does not really help

I'm impressed you made the UI that nice with just Unity and a simple asset.

[logophil]

DEV UPDATE 11: 'RANDOM MISSIONS' UPDATE

Hi folks, continuing last month's theme of 'Going Rogue', I've just released another update to the Demo that really bring out the 'roguelike' in Relic Space, increasing replayability by shifting the focus to randomized missions.

'Random Mission' mode

Though it's just a simple checkbox on the game mode selection screen, skipping straight to random missions brings a massive boost to replayability - as I can personally attest, since I really enjoyed playtesting this, despite having played the Demo about a hundred times before! And since you're now focused on earning victory points with complete freedom to choose your missions, it's now possible to experience the roguelike, open-world feel that's always been part of the game's promise.

Hall of Fame

A good complement to 'Random Mission' mode, the new 'Hall of Fame' is basically a detailed highscore board, in which you can read off your past achievements in the game. Among other things, the Hall of Fame tells you which difficulty level you were playing when you got your victory points, which is of course very relevant when assessing the extent of your achievement in a given game!

Improved Trading Mechanics

There's also a significant update to trading, whereby your ship now has a cargo capacity that limits how many trade goods you can carry. Since this limit can be increased with the right utilities, this adds a new level of strategic choice for the player (whether to upgrade your ship for trading), while simultaneously fixing the imbalance that previously allowed big trading profits to be made a little too easily.

Improved Ship Damage Mechanics

Another pretty fundamental area of change is ship damage, and specifically on-board fires that are usually caused by overheating (looks like I'm continuing the theme of a number of recent updates about fire ). While previously a fire was considered just one more debuff in need of 'repair', it is now a unique damage status requiring use of the brand new 'extinguish' skill. As well as being more realistic, this brings some additional tactical choices to the core combat experience.

Bugfixes, balance changes and more

There are some pretty important bugfixes and balance tweaks as well, including further refinements to fuel capacity and 'running out of fuel' mechanics, as well as a performance enhancement that removes the previous lag when opening the save/load menu. And the system map now has a useful new feature, showing the key station modules to be found in each sector.

Change log

Full details of the changes can be viewed on the (see Demo 152) website.

Still to come..

The focus on randomized missions in this update will also form the basis of the Early Access release later in the year, which will bring a much more extensive path towards military and economic victories by means of random missions, exploring sectors and upgrading your ship along the way.

And as the next step on the path towards this milestone, I'm planning a big increase to variety and complexity of random missions - watch this space!

[Alain]

Nice, I like the concept of the random missions and I am sure your audience will get a lot of fun out of it! And - although it was not part of this update - I must state again that I still really like your UI design. It is clean and goes really well with the style of your 3D content.

[logophil]

Nice, I like the concept of the random missions and I am sure your audience will get a lot of fun out of it! And - although it was not part of this update - I must state again that I still really like your UI design. It is clean and goes really well with the style of your 3D content.

Thanks very much for the feedback! I think UI is really important for this kind of game, so very glad to hear it comes across well. I think there is potentially still more I could do in terms of improving responsiveness, with animations etc, but I will probably need to prioritise other area in the foreseeable future.

[Alain]

Nice, I like the concept of the random missions and I am sure your audience will get a lot of fun out of it! And - although it was not part of this update - I must state again that I still really like your UI design. It is clean and goes really well with the style of your 3D content.

Thanks very much for the feedback! I think UI is really important for this kind of game, so very glad to hear it comes across well. I think there is potentially still more I could do in terms of improving responsiveness, with animations etc, but I will probably need to prioritise other area in the foreseeable future.

That totally makes sense. I did not think the UI lacked responsiveness when I played, but it could be a nice place where a day or two of polishing potentially could go a long way. The UI is the first thing your players will interact with and it is your first chance to make a great impression.