A 14 trillion kilometres long journey. That's the distance light has been travelling since the first version of 0RBITALIS was released in December 2013. I'm very pleased to announce that the game is finally exiting Early Access. And it includes some very juicy new features...
100 levels, across twelve sectors. Early Access brings three new Sectors, each one with a unique gameplay mechanics.
Teleportation. Yes, 0RBITALIS now features teleportation.
Bullet time. One of the most requested feature. With the right click you can now slow down the time and aiming for that perfect shot.
Enemies. Let's be honest: finding new life forms was always going to happen. The universe of 0RBITALIS is now full of other technologically advanced species, capable of launching their own satellites. Some of them, even more advanced then yours...
PC and Mac. YES! The game is finally available for Mac users as well!
For the real fan of the game, a new version is available: the Supernova Edition. It features A LOT of new content, including dozens of backgrounds, the original soundtrack from Doseone and an art book called ORBIT ART. Games are art, and we all know it. Now is the time to accept the fact that Gravity is, without any doubt, the biggest artist in the entire Universe.
I want to thank you all the people who have supported 0RBITALIS during this journey.
Orbit long and prosper.
Alpha 7 Released - LEVEL EDITOR
The most requested feature EVER is finally here: the LEVEL EDITOR! After one year from the release of the game on Early Access, I thought it was about time to allow people to create their own content. I wanted to create a level editor in line with the minimalistic style of the game, yet powerful and easy to use. And I think the current one hits all of these three! :D
The level editor allows to:
Create celestial bodies. There are several types of celestial bodies you can create within the editor. They are all labelled as planets, even though their appearance and properties will changes according to their size. The editor currently supports asteroids, rock planets, gas giants and stars. And of course, their anti-gravity counterparts...
Design orbital mechanics. 0RBITALIS is a game about gravity. And the editor has all the tools you need to decide how what is orbiting around what. There is also a nice support for group moving, which allows to relocate celestial bodies retaining their relative angles and positions. In addition, you have full control over the angular momentum of all of your celestial bodies.
Create probes and anti-probes. Advanced levels in 0RBITALIS allow you to control several probes at once. The editor gives you the same power ...and much more. There is a feature which is unique to the editor and not available in any other level of the game. ANTI PROBES! You can have probes with negative mass, which will be attracted to anti-gravity and repelled by the good 'ol Newtonian one. Oh, did I forget to mention that they are blue? :D
Share your creations on the Steam Workshop. You can share all of your levels with the Steam Workshop. It is also accessible directly from within the game, so that you can browse and subscribe to other levels without even closing or minimising 0RBITALIS. All the levels are automatically names with a star-y name; you can change that from the Steam Workshop.
Of course, there are lot of things which are still missing. For instance, you cannot vote levels ...yet.
As always, thank you so much to all the players who followed 0RBITALIS since Alpha 1. Your support has been amazing and I hope you'll like this new update.
GO MAKE SOME SOLAR SYSTEMS! NOW!
Alpha 6 Released
The new update for 0RBITALIS has finally arrived, and is bringing the game closer to its final form!
Daily challenges: If you are familiar with games such as Spelunky, you'll know that they have a featured called daily challenge. A new level is procedurally generated every day, in such a way that it will be the same for all the players across the world. 0RBITALIS has now such a feature and it can be accessed directly from the title screen.
At the moment, a daily system can be chosen out of these four:
Standard systems: Similar to the first level of the game with a single star and multiple planets orbiting around it.
Multiple systems: Several stars, orbiting around each other. They have a high chance of turning into pulsars.
Planetary graveyards: Big asteroids orbiting in a dead system. Much like Koronis
Asteroid fields: Stranded asteroids flying in the interstellar medium. Similar to Sedna.
Pulsars and missions with multiple probes can occur. This will give to players who have not unlocked advanced constellations yet to have a glimpse to more interesting mechanics.
I've been talking about this feature for a long time: I'm very happy it has been included and I really need your help to make it better. When a level is procedurally generated, there is always a chance it won't be very ...desirable. With a gravity-based game like 0RBITALIS, avoiding this is a very challenging task. For this reason, the current update includes only four different types of systems which can be generated. I'll collect your feedbacks during these weeks and tweak them accordingly. When happy, more type of systems will be available. I'd love to use this feature to generate bizarre, crazy levels like Tesla or Soundself...
New interface: The game has a new title screen, which is starting to look like a real menu. There have been lot of improvements to make the navigation between levels easier. That's how:
Title screen: It links directly to the last unsolved level, to the starmap and to the daily level.
ESC button: After so many requests, 0RBITALIS FINALLY uses the ESC button. Its effect depends on the context:
Title screen: Toggles the fullscreen mode.
Starchart: Returns to the title screen.
In game: Pops up the leaderboard screen.
Leaderboard screen: Returns to the starchart.
Mouse lag: YES! The long lasting issue which affects so many users has been finally fixed! Now the mouse clicks do not depends any more on the framerate... which make the control so much responsive. The game will still run slow on outdated machines, so you might want to select a lower quality with [Q] if that's your case.
New music: It is a tradition that every update brings new music pieces. Alpha 6 is not an exception, including new tracks from the amazing Doseone! They are all featured in daily challenges, so let's go play them. NOW!
I'm already working on the next update. Hopefully you won't have to wait that long before Alpha 7. Oh, and if you allow me some spoilers... ...there might be a level editor.... But shhh... don't tell anyone! :D
0RBITALIS Steam Trading Cards are now live.
The next game update is on the way but in the meantime we have just set live the Steam Trading Cards for the game, so time to get collecting!
A sneak peek at a couple of the cards can be seen below.
In addition to the cards there are 7 profile backgrounds and 5 emoticons to collect.
Happy Collecting!
Alpha 5 Released
This new update for 0RBITALIS finally brings one of the most requested features: the online help system. By pressing H, it is possible to see where and when best players across the world clicked in order to solve a level. This feature not only allows players to solve levels much more easily, but also gives an interesting insight on how gravitational waves behave.
On top of that, a lot of effort has been put into making the game much faster, especially for players with old machines.
0RBITALIS is also celebrating the Rosetta rendezvous with 67P/CG, including a new level in which players will have to adjust the trajectory of their probe in order to orbit around the comet.
As always, working on 0RBITALIS is an exciting experience, especially when you can see new features getting alive. This update of 0RBITALIS also matches with GDC Europe, where I'll be giving a talk about jam games. Which, of course, will feature 0RBITALIS! I can't wait to read feedback and criticism from the Steam community and, as always, I'm looking forward to the next update!
Alpha 4 released
A month after its initial release, a new update for 0RBITALIS is finally available!
Score histograms: After completing a level, a histogram will appear and show how good you performed compared to all the other players in the world. I never liked leaderboards because knowing the top scores is usually not useful to understand how good you are. In a game like 0RBITALIS, where stable orbits can last forever, top scores don't necessarily reflect skill, rather how long people could leave the game on. I hope histograms will fix that.
Friends leaderboards: You can now see the scores of your friends.
New levels: There are some quite interesting new levels in the game. The vast majority of them can be unlocked after completing a particular constellation. Some of them are really pushing the potential of the game engine, so please... you're more then welcome to post your screenshots on the Community!
A spoiler-y selection of some of the secret levels:
SoundSelf: Lot of players noticed some similarities between 0RBITALIS and Robin Arnott's SoundSelf. I paid homage to his game adding a secret level which allows players to explore how gravity can be used to create harmonographs-like orbits.
Zoom effect: The game now has a zoom effect. At the moment it plays only a marginal role, but I think it really enhance the experience.
Quality toggler: By pressing Q is not possible to change the quality of the game. There are three different settings which can be cycled. At its bare minimum, the game runs as fast as possible removing all the unnecessary eye-candies and effects. Very long runs often tends to cause lags, so even players who want to leave the game running for hours can now benefit from this option.
New music: Doseone worked on a completely new soundtrack for the game. Different levels and constellations have different music layers. Ambient and static are mixed at runtime to reflect what you are doing in the game.
For a complete list of changes, you can refer to changelog.txt within the game folder!
