As things wrap up for the year we wanted to take a quick moment to give you a little update with how things are developing with the new content. This is just a small check-in, but we hope it comes as reassurance that things are still moving along confidently!
While it’s been a slightly slow year for development, we’re happy to say that the end is finally nearing sight. The new gameplay is fun, solid, and we’ll be proud to show you what we’ve created.
But what does this actually mean? What’s in store? Well, while things are still subject to change and we’re not safely able to do any sort of grand reveal, we do have some fun new gadgets to show that we’ve shown prototypes for in our Discord. Behold:
The Manned Manoeuvering Unit (MMU)
This mean, glorified jetpack of a machine gives you improved mobility when performing tasks outside (and, if you're so bold inside) of the station. You'll be using it frequently to move around the large new spaces we have planned, so it's worth having a read of the manual and getting to know it well.
Of particular note, is the ability to enter a 'hands free' mode when using the MMU. This allows you to use your tools without losing the unit.
The Drill Tool
We've been keen to get this into the game for a long time. It's actually been in the design docs since the early days but we just never found the right place for it. For the DLC we've finally picked it back up and given it some proper attention!
Currently, you can drill together specific objects with bolts on them, as well as remove them to take objects apart. It's turning out to be a very satisfying mechanic that we're hoping to use all over the place, so keep an eye out for those special bolts while you're playing!
The image above also features something else that's new to the game... tool storage! This will be a way to keep items secure, and allow a place for tools to respawn if they happen to float off into the void.
The Magnet Gun
When engaged, the Magnet Gun will attract magnetic objects towards you and allow you to collect, move or carry multiple objects at once. The Magnet Gun can also be attached to your belt hooks while it's still activated, freeing up your arms to continue moving around while collecting objects as you go.
You'll be making use of the Magnet Gun for all sorts of purposes, so keep it close.
All of these fun new additions will be available as part of new gameplay content which, while I can’t yet give away too much about (a tease, I know, sorry), I can say is shaping up to be hours of new open-ended fun. It’ll be all the goodness and chaos of the Heavenly Bodies you know… but presented in a slightly more open, fresh way that, based on the feedback you've given us from the base game, we think you'll love.
Of course, this all begs the question: WHEN?
Please forgive me, we still don’t have a date. However, we’re past the trickiest stages of making new gameplay, so provided things stay smooth, we hope to have things ready to go in the first quarter of 2023. As you probably know, we’re a 2 person team, so everything takes frustratingly long, but we recognise how patiently you’ve all been waiting and we’re immensely grateful. Hang tight, friends.
That’s about all for now. Stay tuned as announcements will definitely become more frequent as we approach release! We have some more development posts on our Discord which we welcome you to visit! It’s a humble time, but a nice time.
Have a safe and pleasant end of year!
Update Notes for Nov 17
Hey all!
It's been a while since we've pushed a patch, but we have some little updates that make us very happy to share with you today.
Biggest of all: Many controller support issues, particularly on macOS are now fixed. Specifically:
Support for Nintendo Switch Pro Controllers has been added
Support for wireless DualShock4 and DualSense controllers has been added
Secondly, but still importantly: We've fixed a few small gameplay issues:
Fixed in Energy mission where the ratchet can get stuck in the wall
Fixed issue in Vision where the bay door lever can be hard to locate
Fixed the cursed asteroid in Minerals that flew around when being grabbed
If you continue to experience any issues, please don't hesitate to post in the forums or contact us directly via help@2pt.com.au. We're just a 2 person team, so having your help in squashing these hard-to-find bugs means so much to us.
Thanks again to all our lovely players and community.
New Content Coming for Heavenly Bodies
Hey everyone!
Alex and Josh here, the devs on Heavenly Bodies. I hope you’re all travelling safe and well.
First and foremost, we want to give our biggest, most sincere thanks to everyone who has given Heavenly Bodies a play. It’s hard to express just how magical it feels for us to see so many people enjoying (or, even better, absolutely despising) their time in space. Heavenly Bodies took a monumental amount of time and energy for our tiny team to develop over the last few years, so to see it well received makes it truly worthwhile. Thank you.
We’ve needed a good rest to get our heads screwed back on, so we admit it’s been a pretty quiet start to the year and we thank you for your patience! Today, however, we’re pleased to announce that we’re rested up and, guess what? We’re starting the process of designing more content. Yep, additional Heavenly Bodies gameplay is on the way!
We do have to stress that at this stage, the plans are very loose and that we can’t say what it’ll be yet, or when it’ll happen. However, we’ve been listening to all your wonderful suggestions (thank you!) and we’re looking to create some extra content that we know you’ll love. All good things take time, and we’re committed to making something worth your while, so we appreciate your patience while we get the next chapter sorted out!
In the meantime, we’re of course still working on improving general stability and other gameplay issues such as controller support. We thank you all for helping us fix some surprisingly complex issues, and, as always, if you do experience any problems we kindly ask that you send us an email at help@2pt.com.au. We’ll do our very best to help you out.
We're keen to be a little bit more open with development this time around, and we'll be posting development screenshots in our Discord! We welcome you to join us there or in the Steam forums and encourage you to share your thoughts on what you'd like to see more of in the future of Heavenly Bodies.
That’s about all for now! Stay tuned and stay safe. We can’t wait to share more with you as things develop.
Update Notes for April 4
Hey everyone!
Hope you're all doing very well out there. We've got a couple of bug fixes for today.
Fixed crash at startup when using multiple monitors at different display scales
Fixed issue where Escape key would not open the in-game options menu
That first crash is one we've been trying to solve since release! Thank you SO much to everyone who's been helpful in getting to the bottom of it.
If you continue to experience any issues, please don't hesitate to post in the forums or contact us directly via help@2pt.com.au. We're just a 2 person team, so having your help in squashing these hard-to-find bugs means so much to us.
Happy floating!
Update Notes For March 1
Hey everyone!
We hope you're all enjoying Heavenly Bodies! We've been taking a little break from things to rest our heads, but we're starting up with fixes again now. Thank you to everyone who has reported their issues.
We just have a couple of fixes today:
Added support for DualSense controller on Windows and Mac platforms (including M1).
Fixed issue where unsupported devices could cause the game to close as soon as the title screen became visible.
We are still actively working to add support for additional devices, but it's unfortunately a slow process which we too are frustrated by! With this, we thank you so much for your patience. If you can't get your controllers to work, please reach out to us at help@2pt.com.au - we make it our duty to help you out.
☆ Thanks for playing! ☆
Update Notes for Jan 20
Hey everyone! We've been working hard on fixing a bunch of small issues, most of which you'll find in this patch! Check out this massive change log:
Added support for pairing multiple users to keyboard and mouse controls.
Fixed issue where some spawn points could cause the player to become stuck in space in Newtonian movement mode.
Fixed issue where the game would not end if a single player was connected to both ropes in the outro scene.
Added the ability to speed up the Operations Manual objective and challenge completion animations using Button South on gamepad and Spacebar on keyboard.
Fixed zoom action input threshold on Operations Manual.
Added the ability to navigate back to the title screen using Button East on gamepad and Back on keyboard.
Fixed music playback issue in Data if antennas were completed out of sequence.
Fixed music playback issue in Minerals.
Fixed missing I character when playing using a Turkish system region.
Changed collectable trophy display logic so that it now requires user input to finish the sequence instead of using an automatic timer.
Fixed issue where speedrun timer would pause during cinematics where gameplay was still in progress.
Fixed issue where speedrun timer would not work for some system cultures.
Fixed issue where speedrun timer would stop before the game had finished.
Fixed issue where speedrun timer would have a non-zero value at the start of Evacuation.
Fixed issue where speedrun timer modes would have the same behaviour. The ‘Game’ timer mode now displays the total play time for the loaded save slot.
Fixed rare issue where Evacuation airlock door would not open if the lever was pulled at a very specific moment.
Fixed issue where Operations Manual could be opened after completing a mission.
Fixed potential exploit where players could complete Data time challenge by restarting from checkpoint.
Fixed issue on PlayStation where players could not reconnect devices after the play session expired.
Fixed issue where escape pod would not depart if the player entered the seat before closing the hatch.
Fixed issue where ropes could break in the vents section of Evac.
Once again, thank you to all of our testers for ensuring that this patch is nice and tight. If something has slipped us by and you run into an issue, please don't hesitate to let us know - we'd greatly appreciate it.
See you around.
Alex from 2pt
Update Notes For Dec 17
Okay, let's try that again! This patch re-implements some changes that didn't go so smoothly last time:
Fixes issue where corrupt save files could cause all save games to become unusable
Increased readability of version sticker
Thanks to our testers for ensuring this patch runs nice and smooth! As always, if you do run into any issues, please don't hesitate to let us know.
Update Notes for Dec 15
Hey everyone,
Apologies, the latest update has caused some issues starting the game for some users. We have temporarily rolled back to the previous version while we investigate the issue.
