It's hard to believe that it has been nearly 2 years since our first discussions of what would ultimately become Into the Stars. Today we're finally able to share the fruits of those conversations, countless hours and lots of love and support from people like you.
Starting right now, you can download the Full Release of the game on Steam and GOG. To celebrate, we've just put out a Release Trailer that was a joint collaboration between Alden our Art Director and MetricMinds. Check it out:
As you'll see once you have a chance to play, there have been a ton of changes since the 0.5 Update. In that time we were able to sneak in a few new features before shifting gears to polish and optimizing the game as a whole. Here are a few of the areas we focused on the last few months:
Preset Loadouts One of the most common requests made during Early Access was for the ability to forego the Ship Customization at the outset of your journey and simply dive into gameplay. We’ve addressed this by adding three Preset Loadouts (Combat, Balanced and Long Haul) that offer distinctly unique approaches to the journey while providing formidable module & resource combinations. Once players have a feel for the trials of space flight they can return to fully Customize their ship.
Shuttle Mission Additions After revamping Shuttle Missions with the 0.5 update by adding meaningful choices and structure to each interaction, we still wanted to push the system forward. That’s why we’ve added custom background art and unique audio environments for each encounter. What’s more, we’ve doubled the amount of Shuttle Mission content in the game by adding 50 Planet and 25 Ship Explorations.
Shuttle Mission Additions Finally, we added a number of story elements, localization for 6 languages and completely overhauled the User Interface. Steam Achievements, Trading Cards and dozens of enhancements round things out.
Changelist for Update 1.0
Added Preset Loadouts
Long Haul
Balanced
Combat
Custom (complete ship loadout – As previously seen in game)
Doubled Shuttle Mission Content
50 new Planet Explorations
25 new Ship Explorations
Added 100 Shuttle Mission Backgrounds
New Art Specifically tied to each mission event
Custom Audio environment for each background/event combination
UI Overhaul
Optimized performance for improved loading
Brought a lighter/unified approach to each screen
Added dynamic Gameplay Tips to Loading Screens
Added Tile Threat and Civilian icons to Notifications
Localization Full text and voiceover localization for 6 additional languages
German, Spanish, French, Russian, Polish and Italian
Ark Discovery
Finding each adds to Total Score
Location called out on Map
Steam Achievements
10 new goals for players to complete
Story Elements
Updated intro trailers for improved story background
Added story details to Main Menu for further details
Tuning Added ability to interact with Trade Ships from a distance (Object interaction unified)
Added 3 new Main modules to create more interesting resource combinations
Adjusted time in sectors for Pursuit Mode (Slightly more difficult)
Doubled the view distance for object chevrons – No more pixel hunting!
Updated Planet Descriptions to remove references to Human compatibility and to clearly state resources available
Changed in-game fonts
Significantly increased module health penalties for weapon damage / events
Large increase to number of Civilians found on Ark ships
And dozens more... Over 350 Fixes and Improvements since 0.5 Update!
Into the Stars is on sale now at 10% off for a limited time. The digital deluxe edition is also available which includes the HD Soundtrack, Digital Art Book, Exclusive Wallpapers and a handy Star Map!
We truly hope you all enjoy the release today and we'd like to thank you once again for the fantastic support you've shown our small team. Without you, this game that would have never been made, and we're eternally grateful for your help in bringing our dream to life!
Cheers,
The Fugitive Team
Into the Stars is launching in 4 days!
Hello again friends,
As you can expect, the last few months have been fast paced for those of us here at Fugitive Games. During that time we launched our biggest patch to date (Update 0.5) which was packed with highly-requested items, including complete overhauls of our Shuttle Mission and Combat systems. With that behind us, we began buckling down for release by gradually shifting our focus from features to polish.
But before we locked the game for launch we had a few major items to tackle! In less than 10 weeks we've localized all text and voiceovers for the game into 6 additional languages, completely overhauled the user-interface and added more than 100 new events/missions for you all to enjoy. Those along with a number of other additions (See “For Launch”) should make a strong impact when the game comes out on March 4th.
That’s right, the game is just four days from release! We’ve done quite a lot of preparation for launch, including the rollout of our new website and the announcment of an amazing custom vinyl to highlight our glorious soundtrack.
What’s more, a number of cool events began last week, starting with a Reddit AMA from our composer Jack Wall. We've also kicked off a contest to thank you, our amazing community. However, our biggest attention grabber for release will undoubtedly be the SPECTACULAR trailer that our art director has crafted with MetricMinds. The game really needed a stronger introduction to the world, and we feel this trailer, along with the backstory we've added to the Main Menu, put the peril of mankind in perspective.
There’s a lot more to come including two showcases at the Game Developers Conference next month and another at PAX: East in April. But for now we're solely focused on release and delivering the quality experience you all deserve, so we're hammering on bugs and polishing up as much as possible.
We’ll share more in the final days leading up to launch, but in the meantime be sure and show off the awesome game you helped make by sharing our Website, Facebook, Twitter and Store Page with everyone in your circle.
Cheers,
The Fugitive Team
We're live on Twitch!
Joing Goodnews on today's stream as he plays through Into the Stars!
twitch.tv/fugitivegames
Captain's Chair Contest!
The final launch countdown for Into the Stars (March 4th) has begun!
Are you ready to embark on your perilous journey to Titus Nova? Is your command bridge set for blast-off? Show us!
Take a picture of your PC setup and submit it to us, for a chance to win a special Into the Stars blast-off package on the official launch day. Please include some sort of verification in your picture (i.e. your Steam name on a post-it) and feel free to submit it in this thread or any of our other channels: Facebook, Twitter, Reddit.
The top 3 submissions will win a physical copy of Into the Stars, a clandestine star map, a poster, a ‘captain’s chair’ sticker and an exclusive custom-made Into the Stars Pro-Gaming mousepad from Qpad!
