We have exciting news to share! The beta of the next major update for Between the Stars is now available!
What does the new update beta add?
This beta adds 50 new missions to the Between the Stars main campaign. These missions finish the main story.
During these missions you will also be able to get a new and unique ship only available to the player.
Mercenary ships now level up as they fight alongside you, improving their strengths and reducing their weaknesses with each battle.
We have added over 800 new voice lines for Chapter 6 events.
What still needs to be added?
It's important to keep in mind that we've released this update in beta state, which means it's not completely finished yet. Therefore, you may find missing content and some bugs.
Some of the things that are pending are:
The voice lines of some characters is missing.
We still need to improve the synchronization or shots of some cinematics, they will be finished during the beta.
We are preparing new songs to enrich the experience. You can expect at least one new general combat song, as well as specific songs for events and final cinematics.
We plan to add some new weapons and/or skills.
We are working on translating the texts into Chinese. Also, please note that the Russian and French languages may contain some English texts, but we'll make sure to fix this before the official release.
There is a point in the final part of the game where it is no longer possible to save, we still need to add checkpoints so that if the player dies they can continue the game in a nearby place instead of having to restart the final events from the beginning.
Many of the illustrations that appear in the window during text events still need to be made and you may find illustrations that are not related to the event. During beta we'll create new illustrations for all missions.
During the beta, we'll keep an eye out for bug reports from players and make sure to fix them.
We would have preferred to release this beta a little later to showcase a more polished update, but we understand that many of you are eager to try it out. That's why we've decided to make it public so that anyone who wants to can play it now!
How can I play the beta?
To join the beta, search for Between the Stars in your Steam library and access the game properties. Once inside the game properties, select the "Betas" tab and in the "Participation in Betas" section select the "beta - beta" branch. The name of the game will appear in the Steam listing as "Between the Stars [beta]". Once this is done, you are now in the beta branch and will be able to play the new version.
Risks of the beta for your saved game
In theory, there should be no risks to your saved games. However, as a precaution, we recommend that you make a backup of your save file before you start playing the beta.
To do so, find the SaveFile.es3 file in the folder C:\Users\YOUR USERNAME\AppData\LocalLow\Isolated Games\Between the Stars, copy it and paste it in another folder to have a backup copy in case you need to restore your game.
When will the final version of this update be released?
Setting an exact date is complicated, as the timing may vary depending on the number and complexity of bugs that arise. However, we are aiming to release the final version of the Chapter 6 update within two months at the latest. We are working hard to bring you a great endgame!
Once again, thank you all for your trust and patience.
Development Update
Greetings, captains!
We know that these last few months have been complicated, and that many of you are unhappy with the pace of development of Between the Stars. In this announcement, we want to update you and give you explanations about the future of the game. We will try to answer the doubts you have had during this time.
1 - Is the game abandoned?
The answer is a categorical no. The pace of development has slowed down due to issues that we will explain below, but the game is going to be finished. During all this time, we have continued working on the final chapter, which closes the main story line and ends the campaign. In addition, there will be secondary content to be implemented, such as Kickstarter rewards.
2 - When will we get the end of the story?
Although we don't want to give a closed date, we expect it to be ready in about four or five months. The story is already completely written, and we are currently programming the events and working on the English translation, and soon we will start recording the dubbing. As soon as it is playable, we will launch a beta version, so you can all try it out before the official release.
3 - Why has development slowed down for so long?
As many of you know, Isolated Games is now working on two projects: Between the Stars and Travellers Rest, this has caused us to have less time for Between the Stars. We know that many of you are unhappy, and that having two games in development at the same time is not an ideal situation, but there is an explanation for this.
4 - Why have you produced another game if you haven't finished the first one?
This is the core of the matter. Travellers Rest is not an original game from our studio. The game was created by another developer who for personal reasons had to abandon the development and offered us the opportunity to take it over without any upfront payment.
At that time we were looking for a way to finance the final chapter since we were dangerously close to bankruptcy, and although we knew that another game would add to the workload, it seemed like a good opportunity to keep the production going. Our plan was to use the revenue Travellers Rest was generating to hire an independent team, while Shovah and I (The Bullet) continued to work on Between the Stars and sporadically lead the Travellers team with the basic guidelines, but in practice it was impossible to accomplish.
5 - How has the development of a second game affected Between the Stars?
With the extra revenue Travellers Rest generates, we have been able to keep the studio afloat and maintain both productions. But on the other hand, our plan to stay completely focused on Between the Stars has been too optimistic.
When we were given the Travellers Rest project, we found an alpha version with a lot of potential. We knew that with the change of studio, many players would be upset, so we needed to make visible improvements in the shortest possible time. New art, design, mechanics, interface change... These modifications were not easy to implement, and we had to spend much more time than we would like helping and managing the development of Travellers Rest. It was very important not to fail with Travellers Rest, because if it didn't succeed, the next step would be to close Isolated Games, abandon both games and leave us all unemployed.
After more than a year of hard work combining our time on the two games, we reached a solid foundation. The Travellers Rest community had grown, and we finally had enough time and budget to finish Between the Stars. Now, Shovah3D has already finished writing the final chapter and I am already revising and integrating the new missions. We have to keep in mind that, despite having freed us from part of the workload of Travellers Rest, it still demands a lot of time: management, meetings, design, recruitment, marketing, publishing, translation... This obviously still slows down the development of Between the Stars.
6 - It's not fair that Between the Stars players have to wait because of another game
No, it is not. We understand the general anger about the delay that Between the Stars has suffered, but the reality is that we had no alternatives. We underestimated Between the Stars development time and production costs.
Some of you already know this, but Between the Stars was born as a personal project in which I (The Bullet) worked for 4 years alone, later Shovah joined the project and we worked together on the game, while I financed everything with my personal funds. When the time came, the money ran out, and we were very close to being able to release a playable version.
That's when we decided to launch the Kickstarter. Although the goal we were asking for was low, it was enough to be able to launch the prologue and the first chapters. The plan was to use the revenue from the launch to finish the project, but we were soon overwhelmed.
Although the initial launch was good, sales dropped off. In addition, the launch content was less than 25% of the final game, which meant that there was a high percentage of work to be done. We pushed forward as long as we could, until, at the critical moment, we managed to save the production thanks to Travellers Rest, although this has delayed the development.
7 - About criticism and our silence
During this time we have not missed the forums and the painful criticisms that have come in because of the delay of the game. Once again, we understand the general anger, but we want to reiterate that, if it wasn't because Travellers Rest has allowed us to keep the studio afloat, Isolated Games would be closed by now, and Between the Stars would be really abandoned.
Despite negative comments, financial problems or accusations of abandonment, we have never stopped working to give Between the Stars the ending it deserves. We have put years of effort and risked a lot to make the game a reality, and moreover we love the game, and we are going to finish it no matter what it takes.
8 - What can we expect from the final chapter?
Another of the most frequently read comments is that if we release an update it will be to finish it poorly and quickly, but that is not true. The final chapter has 45 missions and will be the longest so far, and will finish the story without leaving loose ends. Although you know that our resources are limited (we are only two developers), we assure you that the quality will be in line with the rest of the game, and it will probably be the best chapter of the whole game.
9 - About Kickstarter rewards
Once we have launched the final chapter, we will work to implement the backer rewards. Thanks to all the people who trusted us when we needed it the most, the game was able to see the light of day. We are really grateful to them, and we will make sure we honor their trust.
10 - Finally...
We have tried to calm the community on several occasions, assuring that we are working on the game and that soon you will have the final chapter. In spite of this, some people have assured that the game is abandoned, that it will never be finished, that we are scammers, that we have run away with the money...
As we have said before, all this is false. The game is going to be finished and is not abandoned. If we wanted to abandon the game, it wouldn't make sense to write this announcement or keep replying on the forum, but we keep doing it because we are committed to finish Between the Stars.
To those of you who have supported us during this time, thank you from the bottom of our hearts. To everyone who has been disappointed by the delay, we are extremely sorry. We hope that, despite everything that has happened, you will be able to enjoy the end of the game that we have been working on for so many years and that you will be happy with the final product.
Patch v0.6.0.3
We have fixed a loading bug that caused softlocks in some events.
We have fixed a bug that caused the A button to not work in the save game panel using a controller.
We have fixed a bug that erroneously saved the aiming sensitivity with controller.
We have changed the default quality to Low in the Steam Deck because we have detected some bugs in High quality. We will try to fix these issues and set the default quality back to High in the future.
We have updated some texts and translations.
v0.6.0.2
A new panel for setting controls in options has been added.
The old controls panel is now called Key Bindings.
We have added an option in controls to modify the aiming sensitivity when using a gamepad.
We have fixed a bug that caused a softlock in some events when gaining attributes.
We have fixed a bug that kept active delivery missions that had already been completed and caused a softlock when trying to enter stations or planets.
We have fixed a bug in the points that indicate the position of the events on planets.
We have fixed a bug that caused shotgun fire to hit its own ship.
Shotgun damage is now reduced according to the distance from the target.
Shotgun damage has been adjusted.
Steam Deck Support!
Greetings, Spacefarers!
We're glad to announce that Between the Stars is now fully compatible with Steam Deck! We have already sent a request to Steam to check again the compatibility of Between the Stars with Steam Deck and soon it will appear as verified.
We leave you a small gameplay that we have recorded ourselves, so you can see how Between the Stars runs on the Steam Deck.
[previewyoutube="qA5C4qsjdZ4;full"]
Patch v0.6.0.1
This patch fixes some minor bugs we have found and updates the Chinese translation.
We have fixed a bug that caused that when choosing a language it did not save the selected language using a gamepad.
We have fixed a bug that did not show the sale or purchase price of stackable items.
We have updated the Chinese translation.
Gamepad and Steam Cloud Support - v0.6
Greetings, Spacefarers!
We just released a new update for Between the Stars! This new update adds features long awaited for many:
Gamepad Support
Now you'll be able to play Between the Stars with a gamepad. We have set up all menus to be compatible with gamepad and we have added an auto-aim/target lock feature in order to make it easier to aim at enemies while piloting the ship.
Steam Cloud Support
Now Between the Stars has Steam Cloud support, you will be able to continue your games on other computers without having to move the save files manually.
Change Log
We have added gamepad support.
Steam Cloud support has been added.
Some parts of the tutorial have been modified to explain some unique aspects of gamepad control.
We have added new icons for Xbox and PlayStation controller buttons.
We have fixed a situation where the ship would become locked in place at the end of the Maiden Abyss event (#257).
Now the attributes Wounded, Irradiated and Hangover are temporary and disappear after 3 events.
Zoom has been reduced.
We have fixed a bug that caused the health of the crew members to be incorrectly charged if they had medals that modified their health.
We have fixed a bug that didn't mark as achieved the optional objective of checking the points of interest in the tutorial.
We have fixed a bug that caused the arcade description not to be displayed correctly.
Now when the game is paused, all sounds are muted.
Several errors in event texts have been corrected.
Other minor bugs have been fixed.
What's next?
We are still working on the end of the main story line of Between the Stars. We already have many missions done, and we are working on the last missions of the story. If everything goes well, we will release version 1.0 soon.
Patch 0.5.2.8
This patch fixes some major issues that some players have reported in the Bug Reports forum. Thank you everyone for reporting these issues.
Change Log:
We have fixed a bug that caused a softlock on certain events, when there were other events on the same planet or station.
We have fixed a bug that caused a softlock when entering planets with a certain event configuration.
We have fixed a bug that moved the exit button of the planets off the screen when there were 4 events available on the planet. In these cases, now the hangar will not be displayed until one of the events is resolved, leaving space for the exit button.
We have fixed a bug that caused a softlock in the Hunting Party event (#269) when by coincidence there was an interception while Hollow was speaking.
We have fixed a visual bug that overlapped event markers on planets when there was more than one. Now the planet markers are displayed side by side.
Development Progress and Patch 0.5.2.7
Greetings, Spacefarers!
First of all we would like to apologize, as the pace of updates has slowed down in the last few months. As you may know, the development of Between the Stars is carried out by only two people. During these last months we have had some personal problems, and we have also had to supervise the development of Travellers Rest, which is taking more time than expected.
We have seen that some of you have been concerned about development. You don't have to worry about it, development is ongoing and we have not abandoned the game, nor are we going to. Right now we are writing the final chapter of the story and implementing the controller support. We plan to release version 1.0 of the game during the first half of next year.
We just released a new patch (0.5.2.7) to fix some bugs and issues.
We have fixed a bug that caused some weapons placed on the ship not to load.
A bug that allowed to buy a weapon in development (weapon 67) has been fixed. The new version replaces the weapon 67 with a Light Guided Missile Launcher.
We have fixed a code error that caused issues in some texts when calculating the variations according to the choices made by the player.
We have fixed a bug that caused the credits not to be updated when starting a research.
