We've started this journey in July 2021, as a means of me trying to make quick money after leaving the games industry in 2018 bc I felt like social apps were objectifying, depressing, and did not provide real social opportunity. I have this hilarious 'hero' complex which puts me in funny situations.
The birth of BACKOFSPACE came about in June 2021 during the development of dore.app (the solution to social apps). I was told by an excitable and talented ex-colleague in 2021, in the middle of DORE's development, to quickly release an OLDTV DLC get some funding to fund our social app.
So I loaded up the old OLDTV project, and while I was being inventive, I found something.
There was a level I made, all lower case, from 2017. Called 'back of space'. Which was supposed to be the second dlc after COLDTV. Suddenly I remembered technical ideas I had from 2017, and quickly realized I couldn't do this as a DLC to graphically impress people nowadays, so I hit new project, and BACKOFSPACE began with a whole new lore.
You guys know me and I generally don't like doing Early Access, so this was an odd, odd, exception.
What started off as an attempt at just making money quickly, progressively became a way for me to express my feelings about the state of the world. Throughout my whole career I was holding off making any techy games bc I felt like that theme would be too natural for me. I wanted to challenge myself, but my perfectionism disabled me for 7 years (since oldtv) and I was lacking income, so I went ahead and made my first real 'techy' game. And boy was this a marriage I should've explored long ago. It became easy to create outstanding animations and sequences in this theme.
I began to project myself into this story and conceived of star and his lore. People outside the server don't know this, but many of the lines in the game came from my personal life, from milf (a woman who dated me when I was 24 & she was 33) to julie (a toxic ex who couldn't decide whether to be with me or not) to demon (angel investors who wanted to take advantage of me) and oldtv (the old, childish version of myself). Some of those lines are direct quotes. I do infact feel like I'm opposing a world narrative, and I do feel like evidence, science, and truth seeking are globally undermined in the name of a new god, comfort.
I'm not entirely sure I'm a creative as everything I made, from only if to backofspace, is just a personal reflection. And considering that I'm running out of funds while waiting for the legals for this game to complete. I'm going to challenge myself again, and produce something, exceptionally quick, so that I can stop eating left over bread and protein bars from the office's fridge. I can't get loans, and I can't get investment, and I can't spend another year in dev making another game. So, something new is coming quickly, please don't think BOS is neglected. It would break my heart if I pushed bos out too soon for release without proper funding.
One last thing, OLDTV was actually originally completed in Dec 2015. Not July 2017. Turns out I've always had chaotic development cycles. Here's footage of a build none of you played, 2 years before release, and a reminder of how unstable software development can be: https://youtu.be/fCh6NZQVh2s
NEWS:
I want to thank you all for your support and let you know that BACKOFSPACE will be entering a closed state of developing start from today. There will be no more updates until launch.
Important to note that we also will be changing ESCAPISM, THE KARMAN VIRUS, THE SCREAMING MACHINE due to disputes over those tracks in particular.
I'm excited to bring to you a whole new franchise that officially starts with the launch of BACKOFSPACE. I appreciate all of you who have been here since STORM THE STRATOSPHERE.
This is the final update until launch in mid April 2024.
Update 0.6 has been announced back in December 2021, after overcoming a hiatus, financial issues, and a rebirth - that day has finally come.
Update 0.575
Version 0.575 is live
- NPCs now work in progressive mode with no issue. - Fixed odd camera effects when opening system - Fixed speed bug where cam animations play too fast at random points (ruining tkv's intro) - Fixed some inconsistent video bg issues
Dev note: Believe it or not but ever since progressive mode. All new players did not access any NPC after julie. As of 3 days ago i've 'fixed' the problem but with glitches. And tonight, finally, the game is stable and all new players will experience the npcs. No wonder the return to bos back in June 2023 only added 17 mins of gameplay
THE KARMAN VIRUS
This highly anticipated region has finally released. Indulge in the best of back of space by far.
Select a playstyle that suits you. Difficulty is almost the same, just a matter of pacing. What Progressive mode means is you'll progress between screens and pages without interruption or time to try and think to solve unusual puzzles, get easier hints, etc. A fast paced back of space.
Sell Data (Sell your data in the database to gain $)
Buying Drones (Purchase more Drones to increase the strength of your signal to a region)
Signal Strength (The strength of your signal in % is tied to the drones you buy)
MAX Sat (Once a region's signal is 100%. You can now MAX a satellite by solving it in 0.6 seconds to get MAX data)
Signal Analyzer (See the range of when you can MAX a sat. Buy more drones to increase this range)
System Screen (Plug and unplug drives you acquired from merchant convos)
New Stroop Colors added (Pink, Brown, White)
Rhythmic Feel Redesign (You can now play BoS as a rhythm game, if you lose a beat once you will lose instantly.)
Changes:
All stroops are now 50/50. Before this tuning it used to be STS 66 (true) / 33 (false). ES 20 (true) / 80 (false).
Main Menu has been simplified.
Code for Characters became more subtle (this killed the fancy decryption thing, but keeps the game looking less like a child put it together)
Inputting code for characters can now be done in the Database.
Removed RF audio & fx to a subtler audio/visual
Data downloading from Signal changed from exact digits converting to data on click, to the signal strength being a % of total data a sat has.
The # of drones you have determine how much Data you download from each Satellite.
Sats have set Data, the more drones you buy, the more data you can get. Each region has a set max # of drones to get max data.
Max data range per region increases based on # of drones in that region.
Region Progress in the middle of the menu now based on you downloading total data from a region. Which is determined by # of drones & # of MAX sats.
MILF moved to second region
Changed KB/MB datatype to TB as the standard
Ripping $500 from MILF actually gives you $500 now.
You can now actually pay MILF $500.
Region Intros only occur once, completing a region a second time will take you straight to the next region.
Fixes:
60% of the game was refactored from Playmaker to C#. If there was a bug, it's fixed.
Notes:
If you buy more drones past 100% signal in a region, you won't be able to download more than the region offers. Every region has a data cap.
To avoid accidental activation of RF, it will only kick in after 5 successful consecutive beats. (Assuming RF is plugged in)
Folks I want to be extremely clear, every update after this will have significantly less content by comparison to this one.
All this work went to foundational systems, we remade and installed basic systems for the game to function. Now we're coming back to region building and additional features.
Catch you guys on the next one!
BACK OF SPACE IS BACK
After taking a Hiatus since Dec 2021, our team recovered financially/operationally and we're ready to hit you guys with the best region yet.
There were some of you that haven't lost hope and we want to let you know we appreciate it.
In truth, we've read everything, and for whatever compliment or constructive feedback we get, thank you. Your ideas make this game better. Below is the planned road map (which is subject to change).
2023 Road Map:
July - ESCAPISM
August - FREE MARKET
September - THE KARMAN VIRUS
October - OSCAR
November - A NEW MONOPOLY
December - Multiplayer
There will be utility features built in as well installed in-between each of those major updates.
Important to note, the reason it's taken this long for us to come back is because there's an entire 'other game' inside back of space that I wanted to surprise you guys with. Now, with these monthly updates, I can secretly develop it side by side. Once we're ready to launch, you would be playing another 50% of the game you haven't yet.
Really looking forward to showing you guys what we're cooking.
Catch you guys in July.
Join the discord here: https://discord.gg/G6U9p492tZ
