We're excited to share the news that after four long years, EarthX is finally emerging from Early Access on July 12th! You can get the game via Steam and GOG, and thanks to the efforts of Pineapple Works, it will also be available on the Nintendo Switch!
It has been a long journey. Exactly 4 years ago, on July 12, 2019, we launched EarthX in Early Access here on Steam. It was a pretty tough decision - I felt like this game wasn't nearly as good as other games, and I was scared of all the reactions the game would get. Looking back now, I realize that if we hadn't taken that leap, we wouldn't be here today, and EarthX might have faded away.
It's you who have given me all the motivation I needed to keep going, all the updates and hard work wouldn't be possible without you, so I'd like to say a big thank you from here!
While EarthX may not be a flawless masterpiece, it's important to note that imperfection doesn't equate to a bad game. Personally, I believe EarthX is a fantastic game that offers a lot of enjoyment to many players. I'm immensely proud of what my team and I have achieved over the years, and ultimately, it's the shared moments we've experienced together that truly matter.
I'm also grateful to Pineapple Works for the work they put into the Nintendo Switch port - it wasn't easy, there were a lot of obstacles, and the game basically had to be rewritten to run on Switch and not just Switch. I think they did an excellent job!
Next week, on July 12th, EarthX will become a legitimate game. I feel similar excitement and anxiety as I did 4 years ago, and that's okay :D
Earlier this year, we worked on some fun merch designs that I will be releasing this weekend - hope you like them! And then there's another surprise later this year, but shhh :)
Don't ask me how, but for some reason the previous patch exported without the music and tutorial audio files. I'm very sorry about that.
I discovered the problem yesterday and immediately reverted the version back to 0.9.2 (in case anyone asks why the game was updated yesterday and again today).
PS: Thanks to Rami for helping me discover this big mistake.
Denis & EarthX Team
EarthX 0.9.3
Hey all!
This extremely small patch fixes a bug I found today.
If you launched a rocket while another rocket was launching, you could launch it from the exact same launch pad. This would cause the rocket to get stuck. I can't see how 0.9.0/0.9.1/0.9.2 could have introduced this bug, so it must have been in the game for a long time. Sorry I didn't catch it sooner :<
Feel free to tell me if there's anything else I can fix/improve. I can't promise to fix/improve your find, as I can't afford to edit the game weeks before full release (too much risk), but it's good to know about issues and fix them later ^^
All in all, I hope you have a great week and see you soon <3
P.S: How do you like the new Steam graphics? I have changed the game cover as well as the banners. Let me know :)
Denis & EarthX Team
EarthX Changelog
Happy May!
EarthX went through two years of active development, during which we released exciting updates that generated a lot of hype among our community. As the game evolved, I started producing trailers for each update, which proved to be a time-consuming and energy-draining task.
Today, I would like to highlight all the major updates and some of the best trailers - I hope you enjoy them!
Before we start, I'd like to remind you that there is a final trailer available for you to watch and share. A lot of work has gone into it and I am very proud of it. Tell me what you think!
0.0.55 - 0.1.15
Back in 2019, on New Year's Eve, I was home sick from high school with nothing to do. So, I opened up Unity and decided to make a simple animation of a rocket launch to post on social media. To my surprise, it got about 500 likes and tons of positive feedback, even though it wasn't that great. That's when I was motivated to create a little demo game, just for fun, during my two-week break from school.
Back then, EarthX looked like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RWJ-38Eg06M
After the release of the 0.1.15 update, something exciting and unexpected happened that motivated me to continue working on EarthX. These updates were crucial to the overall development of the game, as I used them to learn proper game mechanics.
Although most of the features I added during this time are now long gone, they were still significant, including contracts, rocket explosions, the simple building system, clouds and loans. This was also the time when Adrian started helping me with marketing, but I'll talk more about that in another post :D
Back then, EarthX looked like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=agJKldGZMqw
In the 0.2.5 update, I mainly focused on bug fixing and creating a launch trailer (many thanks to Roman for his help! Check out his game - DevLife).
I also added a Flat Earth mode where every rocket you launched would explode on the dome. While some players understood that it was a joke, others gave me negative reviews because their rockets kept exploding. So I removed it in a patch.
As soon as I clicked the "Release in Early Access" button, I realised that the default game language was set to Polish. I quickly worked on a hotfix, and it was so stressful!
Despite this mishap, I enjoyed the Early Access launch and got a much better response than I expected. It gave me even more motivation to keep working on the game.
First real trailer of EarthX: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0k0-Sz8hZo
After releasing EarthX on Steam in Early Access, I faced many challenges. There were numerous bugs and limited content, and I felt immense pressure from reviews and videos on YouTube. I knew that the current graphics and UI wouldn't support expansion of the game, so I focused on overhauling the UI in the 0.2.6 update. From there, I wanted to improve the game's economy and research systems with the 0.2.7 update. However, I also wanted to address concerns that the game was boring, so I added AI and improved Earth's visuals.
Although these updates were crucial to the future of EarthX, I admit that my execution was not perfect and my inexperience was evident.
Back then, EarthX looked like this: https://youtu.be/3LzVIgdm-WY
Two key factors have been instrumental in making EarthX the game it is today. The first was the fact that the team had a lot more time to work on the game in 2020 due to the pandemic, which allowed us to release several significant updates.
The second was rykllan and SPATE. rykllan's contributions, including vehicle models, buildings and even CEO characters, were crucial to the development of the game, and her support in decision making was extremely valuable at the time.
SPATE's spacey music for the trailers was also an important addition and helped build the community we have today. This allowed us to stay motivated and rework the game so that it actually made sense and was somewhat enjoyable.
Trailer and Teaser, both using music by SPATE: https://youtu.be/DeKT6F0B-VY https://youtu.be/Ppy9Wfr1Gso
BONUS: There is an unreleased version of this trailer. I loved the idea so much that I decided to scrap it at the time. I wasn't skilled enough to do it the way I wanted. But the idea came back for the final trailer!
The Mars update was highly anticipated. Players could now land on Mars, set up colonies and even terraform the planet! We also introduced new Mars buildings such as Hotels, Greenhouses, Resource Factories and Solar Panels. Terraforming Mars became the endgame goal of EarthX, and the update also included new ships, payloads and missions.
I also added LinkLink, inspired by Starlink in real life. I was going to call it Earthlink or Netlink, but Tygoo, one of our community members, came up with the name LinkLink and we all loved it! It's fun, easy to remember and fits the vibe we were going for.
Trailer and Teaser, both using music by SPATE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3SyWpOoUuaw https://youtu.be/CcMjd4Mch_M
The Boca Chica update overhauled research and added new prototyping mechanics, as well as droneships, an overhauled refurbishment system and vehicle finance data.
The Dust update added new features such as Sandstorms, LinkLinks on Mars, Refuelling on Mars, new Mars buildings, and improvements to Static Fire, Milestones, game end screen, multi-window camera system, and Mars Nuke improvements.
Trailer and Teaser, both using music by SPATE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zunpc4mEs5w https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GnA17pFXDn0
The Kalm update brought long-awaited improvements such as an improved contract system, automation and the addition of managers. Launchpads were revamped, allowing players to build their own, and new rocket models and recognisable missions were added.
The Moon Update was the final content update before the full release of the game, introducing the ability to visit and build on the Moon, new spaceship and Mega Launchpad models, and a revamped special offer system.
As EarthX approached the final stages of development, progress on the models slowed considerably due to rykllan's personal circumstances. I was lucky enough to have Lucas step in and help me finish the game with his good modelling skills. He created important models for the 0.9.0 update, as well as some for the 0.3.3 update. I am very grateful for his contributions.
Trailer and Teaser, both using music by SPATE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kGIZqRpQm-M https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6fqpulQpnR0
Unfortunately, I had to stop working on EarthX after the 0.9.0 update due to personal reasons. I was so close to releasing the full version of the game in August last year, but some unexpected events came up that required my attention.
One last thing - 2 years ago I made a music video showing all the progress of EarthX from the very beginning to the 0.3.2 update. It's a very interesting watch IMO! We would like to thank each and every one of you who supported us during the Early Access period. It was truly an unforgettable experience, all the updates and stories. <3
Stay tuned for another article next week!
Denis & EarthX Team
EarthX in Numbers
Warning: This article contains spoilers. If you want to discover the content all by yourself, stop reading!
Happy May!
EarthX has been a huge part of our lives for the past years. I started the project on New Year's Eve 2018, mainly out of boredom. This game becoming what it is today was kind of an accident, but we'll save that story for another post.
Today, let's focus on some of the statistics of the game, which I've turned into cool infographics. I hope you enjoy them!
Let's start with the vehicles. There are 11 of them: rockets, capsules, spaceships, and even spaceship prototypes "inspired ;)" by what is happening in Boca Chica.
Spaceships allow you to visit other planets. EarthX has 3 planets: Earth, Mars, and the Moon. Of which the Earth and Mars are the main ones.
In addition to yeeting rockets to other planets or launching random payloads, EarthX lets you launch 122 unique payloads that you may have heard of in your life. Not to mention the 85 hand-written articles.
Milestones highlight your company's progress and show what you can achieve in the game. Fundraisers are here to help you financially.
But let's be real, the most exciting feature in EarthX is nuking Mars. (even though it might not be scientifically accurate)
Once you do it, Mars will become green, and you know what you can do on green planets? Build buildings! There are a lot of them in EarthX!
Last but not least, there are dozens of characters you can choose from to be the face of your company. Some of them will even help you run it!
But making a game is more than just adding content
There's a lot of stuff that goes into a game that you might not notice at first glance.
One of those things is renders. EarthX uses renders to make missions, articles, milestones, and more interesting. But let me tell you, it's a lot of work to create them.
And that does not even compare to all the animation clips that we made. I had a ton of issues trying to get the right rocket animation to play at the right time and keep the rocket in the right place.
But by far, the hardest task was actually coding the game. When I started on EarthX I did not know how to code at all and I had no long-term plans for what EarthX would be. Because of this the code of EarthX went through countless rewrites and is quite the mess now. The game has 32 thousand code lines spread across 158 scripts.
So as you can see. EarthX is a pretty big game, even if it doesn't look like it at first. And now you know why we love this game so much!
Stay tuned for more articles coming this month leading up to the full release of the game.
Denis and the EarthX Team
EarthX 0.9.2
Hey,
it feels like I didn't really publish anything since forever. I was busy with my new real-life job and had no time to work on anything except weekends. Stuff sadly isn't going according to plan most of the time.
Adrian finally delivered the freshly recorded tutorial to me and I've been working on it in January. And today I'm releasing that patch.
I've also adjusted the prototype explosion rate, it SHOULD be lower now. Feel free to inform me whether it's better or not.
Soo hey! I said that the tutorial patch would be the game's last patch and that it would be a full release shortly after?
Well. Yes. I could release the game even now. But I can't and I have two reasons for it:
1) Pineapple Works is *almost* done with the EarthX port to Nintendo Switch. They have been working hard on improving the game's performance. They basically had to rewrite a big part of the code and optimize all the models. They work hard and this is kinda my fault, as when I was doing EarthX, I was inexperienced with game development. Performance and optimization were words that I didn't know the meaning of.
2) I have no free time nowadays. And this will continue for a few more weeks. I am able to work only during weekends, as after-hours I'm basically too tired.
Before EarthX's full release, I'd love to make some fun T-Shirt designs and open a small merch shop. I have cool ideas, but again, time.
And since I don't want to crunch their developers and don't want to release a half-baked game on consoles, we've decided to push the release to later in Q1 of 2023.
I'm sorry if this decision disappoints anyone, my options are just limited.
-
Oh yeah and happy new year! I hope all of you have spent a good time with your friends and family!
See you in February! <3
EarthX Team
New achievements!
Hello,
3 new achievements have been added to the EarthX.
Adrian & Denis & EarthX Team
EarthX 0.9.1
Hey,
Before we start: This patch does not require you to create a new save. However, if you use an older save and play on 0.9.1, you might encounter a bug where you can't launch a payload when launching it from the contracts window. To solve this, either build a completely new booster with 0 flights or launch the payload by first selecting the vehicle in Vehicles Window. This bug does not happen on new saves. :>
While we wait for new tutorial voice-over files, I decided to release all improvements and bug fixes I have so far. The biggest visible difference for you is improved graphics and better performance, as well as a refreshed main menu (moved a few buttons here and there). Lucas added 4 new CEO drawings, including Starman who you may know from crewed payloads.
We will continue to monitor the situation around bugs until and after full release and release fixes as needed.
If you haven't seen our previous post, EarthX Final Trailer is premiering this Friday at 6 pm CEST ;D
See you on Friday, Denis & EarthX Team
EarthX Final Trailer Announcement
Hey,
as we get closer to full release, it's time to finally release the long-awaited EarthX Final Trailer this Friday at 6 pm CEST on our YouTube channel.
We are incredibly excited to see your reactions and opinions, a lot of work was spent on it! :D
The trailer is a little over 2 mins long and it's both cinematic and gameplay. You can watch it here and click the "Notify me" button:
There is a short teaser available on our Twitter profile: https://twitter.com/EarthxGame/status/1547282944569626624
BTW. I updated EarthX's store descriptions. Let me know if you like them :3
See you on Friday, Denis & EarthX Team
Preparing EarthX to exit Early Access
Hey,
I haven't published any posts since my birthday in February. The reason for that is that there's not much to talk about. Some people might see me answering in the forums or replying under reviews.
The 0.9.0 update in November last year was the final content update I have released for this game. The next update we want to publish is the final version (1.0) that will bring some bug fixes, translation improvements, a few new CEO characters, and a refreshed tutorial - of course.
You might ask - why haven't we just done it in January and just fully released the game? The answer is quite simple. EarthX will not be published just on Steam. We are working with our friends at Pineapple Works on bringing EarthX on the Nintendo Switch platform. Adrian and I have been also planning on releasing the game on other PC game stores, but more on that later!
That being said, lots of things have been happening behind the scenes that go beyond coding the actual game.
It was promised that EarthX would be fully released in early summer. We will have to push this timeline a little further, now aiming for August to September. Everything depends on how long the certifications will take.
We haven't had a chance to talk about the Russian invasion of Ukraine yet. We fully support Ukraine and the Ukrainian people, stay strong - the world is with you. EarthX has participated in a bundle organized by Humble Bundle, where 100% of income was transferred to Ukraine. During that time, we generated nearly 400k keys that were given to the bundle creators. Over 200k keys were already activated on Steam by people who bought the bundle. We are really happy to see so many people supporting the case! <3
We've also made a commitment to removing the "Dmitry Rogozin" CEO character from the game. We've announced that after Rogozin's harsh comments on his Twitter account. This final decision is personal, as we just don't want to keep such a toxic guy in the game that is somewhat friendly.
The purpose of this post is to remind you that we're still alive :D We are closer to wrapping up this project than we ever were.
