Aggressive Networking! Nom Nom Galaxy Update (Ver. 00.99c)
Long time no soup, Astroworkers! Massive here to bring you the details on our latest update. We've made a number of big changes, fixed a lot of bugs, and added some features that you in the community have asked for. We're almost ready to go full steam, as it were, and just have a few more things to experiment with. This update is another big one, so get ready!
Four on the Floor In this update we're finally bringing something that you've wanted for a very long time: 4P ONLINE CO-OP!
Now you can attempt to corner the space soup market as a member of a capitalistic quartet, delegating task to those best suited for the job like a BOSS! Explore further, build bigger, fight harder, MAKE THAT MONEY! You can combine 4 individual players or 2 local co-op and 2 other individual players. You can even use the newly added friend invite system to build your team!
This feature is still being improved, so the friends you invite will need to have Nom Nom Galaxy running or they won't automatically join the session. However, this will be streamlined in the future.
Consumer Reports We've also been listening to your feedback and requests in response to the game in general and the 00.99a update in particular, and a number of those are also reflected in this update. The first of these is: you can now choose which gum to chew!
Sugar High Galactic Gum comes in a variety of flavors that do strange, science-type things to Astroworkers, but until know you were completely at the whims of fate as to what you could use and when. This has been changed so you can now choose the best stick of gum to chew when a potentially life threatening or financially explosive situation is impending! Need more defense funding? Gold Rush! Pesky rock wall in the way? Boulder Bash! The power is yours!
A Shocking Display
We moved the DANGER banner! Although the purpose of this display is to warn Astroworkers of impending danger, it was often responsible for its fair share of headaches itself, by obstructing your view of the action. The position has been lowered to avoid this, and the transparency of the banner itself increased. Now YOU are the danger.
Under Construction Corridor parts can now be overwritten with parts of a different shape, costing only the matter difference between the two. This should help with speedy renovations of the factory to better accommodate Astroworker needs.
Garden Variety Previously, plant growth conditions did not carry over into S.O.O.P. mode when starting with a Conquest mode factory, but this has been remedied. Now Astroworkers can continue cultivating their little stretch of land uninterrupted! Also, to make automated gardening more effective, Clarence's harvesting time has been increased to prevent gardens from being destroyed.
There are also a number of smaller usability improvements and bug fixes, which are as follows:
Online Co-op Status
Just wanted to jump in and let everyone know that we're working hard to get drop-in, drop-out online co-op into the next update for Nom Nom Galaxy. There are a number of other small fixes that will arrive with that update, also.
As always, thanks for all the positive comments and constructive feedback! Our community truly is the rue in our jambalaya, the clam in our chowder, nay, the chicken in our noodle soup!
Anyhooo.... Update's on its way!
Soup for Steam
Loyal Early Access Astroworkers,
As you've probably noticed, Nom Nom Galaxy was release on PlayStation 4 earlier this month. Since many of you have been down with the Soup King since day one of Early Access, you might be wondering, "Has Robo-Shacho turned his back on us?!?"
Never! For the TL:DR folks, we'll be out of Early Access with the full game in June. It'll have everything the PS4 version has with a few tweaks. And if we have time, perhaps some special things for the folks that have been in the kitchen the longest. For those that want to get into the Five Ws & H, read on!
Nom Nom Galaxy was easily the most ambitious project we've embarked upon (until The Tomorrow Children! ^^). At it's core Nom Nom is a goal-driven sandbox game with a set loop; build a base, discover ingredients to make soup, ship soup to the galactic market, and beat your rivals. I have a ton of respect for other successful sandbox games now, as building a world like this and teaching the player how to successfully navigate it is EXTREMELY difficult. There are so many variables you have to account for, even if you're just talking about the base building aspect of the game. What will happen if the player places a building here? How do we make this intuitive so that they will understand it implicitly? These are design choices that you have to problem solve around and if you've played previous iterations of the game, you can see how we've evolved.
We had a very small team working on the game up until we went into Early Access last March. When we partnered with Double Eleven to bring the game to PlayStation 4, we were fortunate enough to get some of their staff to help. Those extra hands really helped with fleshing out lots of the content in the game and giving us design feedback. We'd probably still be working on it without their assistance, so I want to give a big shout out to everyone at D11.
One of the conditions of making a PS4 version, however, was that we needed to have the game finished by a certain time. This was in our original development plan when we agreed to work with D11 to bring the game over to PS4. We hoped to have both version ready to rocket to the market at the same time. But game development doesn't always go as you think it will and despite our best intentions, we could quite reach 100% market share at the end of the dev day. ;-)
So what is it we're working on? At the moment, we're finishing up a few key areas:
- 4 Player drop-in, dropout online multiplayer! This has always been one of the most requested features for Nom Nom. We're working with D11 to get this working as smoothly as possible on the PC now.
- Galactic Challenges. This mode was developed by D11 and is being brought over to the PC now. In this mode you'll have random challenges that cycle every two days. Earning high scores and times in these challenges will allow you to dominate the global leaderboards and reward you with powerful versions of gum to use in the regular game.
- There's a lot going on in Nom Nom Galaxy so it was tough for us to decide how to introduce all of the elements. The first tutorial give you the basics, then the second one throws the kitchen sink at you. We understand there is some frustration with this and we're going to do our best to update it make it easier to understand and complete.
- We're hard at work on the perks for people who bought into the higher tiers. Yamatron has done and amazing job on the digital art book and the alternative Astroworker costume. The soundtrack is also being mastered for those who purchased that tier.
- There are a couple of tweaks that we're working on now thanks to feedback that we've gotten from Early Access and the PS4 players. For example, navigating through available soup machines will be easier to understand with improvements to the UI. We're also testing out the ability to overwrite parts of your base with other pieces.
- In addition to the tweaks, we are still doing a lot of bug fixing and optimizations.
- Steam achievements (you can actually see them now, but they aren't active)
- Steam leaderboards
- Steam trading cards
- There are other things we want to do for the Steam version, such as adding more creative and competitive modes. If the Soup Gods are on our side we'll have more details about it later.
So when is all going to happen? We hope to roll out updates for testing in June and exit Early Access by the end of June.
We want to thank everyone that's been contributing feedback, submitting bug reports, streaming, making let's plays, tweeting, everything... We appreciate you taking part in the process and we'll have the full course in your hands shortly.
Robo Pals! Nom Nom Galaxy Ver. 0.99a
Salutations, Astroworkers!
Last week we dropped a galactic bomb of an update that added a bunch of new content to Nom Nom Galaxy. We're going to get into some more specifics of that update this week. We've also fixed some of the issues that our tireless Early Access Astroworkers helped uncover, and added key binding support!
You'll notice that your robot minions have undergone a few upgrades in this update and there's even a new face in the bunch. Freddy, Travis, and Ben have all been tweaked to improve your soup production.
Freddy & Travis Freddy and Travis are your vertical movement robots in the soup production line, moving ingredients and soups up or down through the base. In previous versions, Freddy handled sending everything up, while Travis would move things down. We've now given both robots the functionality to pass ingredients or soup up and down, but separated which items they will handle. Freddy is now exclusively an ingredient robot and Travis will take care of the soup.
In earlier versions you'd often have Freddy or Travis throwing ingredients passed to them to your soup rocket yards, or towards factories that didn't take those ingredients. With this change, you'll have a greater degree of control over how soup production flows through the base.
Ben Freddy and Travis got little tweaks, but Ben has had a full system overhaul! Ben 2.0 has gone back to doing what dogs do best - burying stuff! Place Ben around any ingredients and he'll replant them. Ben's original purpose was to find ingredients and bring them back to his doghouse. While we appreciate the pooch's intentions, the system was a little cumbersome and wasn't working quite as we had hoped.
Planting speed and Ben's patrolling patch are still being tweaked, so let us know how the Astroworker's Best Friends is working in your bases.
Clarence The newest addition to our robo-family is Clarence, a harvesting robo. In many ways, Clarence, paired with the new changes to Ben, is the the final piece in the soup automation puzzle. Place Clarence in your farms and he will harvest any plants that have grown to full height. Without having to come back and tend to your farms, this frees up your Astroworker to explore more of the planets.
Updates & Fixes Bugs Fixes
Controller Configs
UI Fixes
Graphic modification
Nom Nom Galaxy Ver. 0.99 – Chunky update that eats like a meal!
Welcome back, Astroworkers!
It's been quite a while since we last spoke! After the Christmas update we took some time away from the blog and our regular updates to put our heads down and work on a host of key features. We've had a lot cooking up and now we're ready to unveil the merger between feedback from our dedicated early access supporters and the ingredients we've had on the shelf at Q.
And because we really want everyone to get a taste of this new flavor of Nom Nom, we're reducing the price for the remainder of Early Access to $9.99 (Note: Price change will be reflected on Steam later today). If you've been waiting for a good sale to check it out, it's the perfect time.
There have been sweeping changes and updates throughout the whole Galaxy. Because the scope of this update is pretty huge, we'll just give an overview today and then give more details about the changes over the next couple of weeks. When you launch Nom Nom you're going to see new robots, enemies, planets, building parts, optimization, new modes, new moves, and... gum!?!
The foremost issue on our plate was getting Nom Nom Galaxy optimized for better play on a wider variety of machines. It's something that we hoped to be able to address earlier in the game's development, so we're really happy to put this new update out. Essentially, we've migrated Nom Nom Galaxy from our old PixelJunk Engine to an updated version that Double Eleven created when they were porting the other PixelJunk games to Steam. The original engine was beginning to show it's age - it's the engine we used to create all of our classic PlayStation 3 games. And while the ol' girl served us well, Nom Nom was sometimes too much for her to handle. The game looks pretty simple on the surface, but there's lots of stuff going on in the background, like how the planets are held together, fluid and gas dynamics, and calculating the "living parameters" of the plants and animals.
The update to the new engine, along with lots of code optimization on the team's part, means that soup production for our Astroworkers should be a much better experience. There's support for a wider variety of graphics cards, controllers, and monitor setups.
We don't expect everything to be perfect straight off the bat, so make sure you jump on the forums and let us know how Nom Nom is running on your rig.
Okay, I know you're eager to jump back into the soupy fray, but there's something that we've got to do before we start. Because of the magnitude of the changes, old Nom
Nom save data is no longer compatible with the current version and you'll need to start new games. When you start you'll be greeted with a new screen for managing your game data. Name your company and you're be ready to work.
One of our largest tasks was bringing together Yamamura's quirky art and our soup theme into an entertaining story and campaign mode. We've hinting at the larger theme of galactic domination by means of soup, but now you'll be able to dig into the background of the Galaxy. When you get to the new main menu, you'll see the new campaign mode, Corporate Conquest, where you can start your hostile takeover of the galaxy.
Corporate Conquest starts you at the training facility and you'll need to finish the two tutorials in order before you start exploring. After completing them you can go to any planet in the first sector of the galaxy. Each planet has two different play styles, a market battle vs. rival soup corporations and S.O.O.P, a sandbox mode for all those Astroworkers who want to make bases that are visible from space! You'll need to complete the market share battle to unlock the S.O.O.P mode for each planet.
To move to other sectors of the galaxy Robo-shacho requires that you discover recipes available on those planets. When you've satisfied him, the gate will unlock and you can move on to new planets.
The new Corporate Conquest mode has changed the way research works in Nom Nom Galaxy, also. Conquering rivals in market share battles earns you research unlocks. Those unlocks will carry over to future planets. We've done away with unlock keys on the planet, but you'll still need to earn enough gold by selling soup to buy research.
Well, I can imagine that by now the soup in your noggin is swimming with all of this new info that we're dumping on you. This is just the beginning, but it should get you prepared to take on the mantle of Astroworker once more. We'll be back later this week with more information on the new and improved Nom Nom Galaxy!
Nom Nom Galaxy Christmas Update! (Ver. 0.21)
Merry Christmas, Astroworkers!
It's been a little while since we've seen any updates for Nom Nom Galaxy, but we elves have been working hard behind the scenes. We've left a bounty of Nom Nom presents under our Cosmic Christmas Tree for everyone!
The first present under our tree is a new way for Astroworkers customize their bases. These nifty escalators will transport soup and ingredients up or down automatically and add some variety to base designs.
This is sure to make Astroworkers who construct huge bases happy. We've added a crystal generator that can supply additional power to your base. You'll have to find crystals hidden on the planets in order to create one first though.
If you've ever dreamed about zipping around the planet quickly, the new Warp Gates are right up your alley. For the cost of a little matter, you can teleport to and from your office to different Warp Gates that you set up around the map.
Our last big present is something we're cooking up for our PixelJunk Monsters and Tower Defense fans. Astroworkers can now build Stun Towers to stop fast moving enemies and give your Shot Towers time to attack them.
There's a lot more under the tree, so check out details below.
Update Notes:
Changes
Bug Fixes
As always, please let us know what you think in the comments here, on our Steam Community, Facebook, or Twitter! See you next time!
Harvest Time! Nom Nom Galaxy Update (Ver. 0.20)
A brisk hello to you, Astroworkers!
Autumn is in full swing, and this update contains a number of things to help you bring in the soup and bring home the bacon in Nom Nom Galaxy. The changes this time run the gamut from small adjustments to BIG changes-and maybe even a glimpse of the future...
The Good Earth
First up is something that I know many have hoped for and pleaded with Robo-Shacho's suggestion box for over and over. Astroworkers can now pull blocks of dirt out of walls and out of the ground! When standing next to a dirt wall, press and hold the Interact button, then pull in the opposite direction to pop out a block. If you want to pull a block out of the ground, press down first, grab it with Interact, then pull up to pop it out. Blocks of dirt can be placed or thrown, and will stick to other terrain. Try out new ways to blaze a path!
You can also pull blocks with matter and floppies in them, which could make collecting resources even easier.
No Limit, Soldier!
Thanks to the Astroworker healthcare plan now covering visits to the optometrist, you can now place corridors, turrets, and other factory parts anywhere on screen, with no distance limit. Hopefully, this will make expanding your factories (and stacking those soup bucks) a much more simple and streamlined process. Of course, you still need to make sure the parts are connected and powered up!
Corporate Affairs
Speaking of stacking bucks, our last big change has to do with the financial future of the Nom Nom universe. We've added "Company Funds," which are earned by beating rivals. You'll be able to get an idea of how industrious your rivals are at a glance by checking the amount of funds their defeat is worth. As for what these company funds will mean for the industrious Astroworker...keep your eyes on the soup market (and these announcements)!
Of course, these are not all of the changes this update brings!
Other Updates/Fixes
Players no longer returned to office at the end of the day.
-Players will remain in the place they were at the start of a new day with full health and oxygen.
Company name now displayed on in-game office.
Players can no longer ledge grab while using the buzzsaw.
Players can now jump-cancel autoclimb.
Ingredient search animation added to Ben.
"Money" tab in construction menu changed to "Shop" tab.
Travis research cost changed to 2 keys.
Building defense up/Iron Suit researched unlocked.
-Building defense boost is 10%, Iron Suit defense boost is 30%. Both cost 4 keys.
As always, please let us know what you think in the comments here, on our Steam Community, Facebook, or Twitter! See you next time!
Death by Pumpkin! Nom Nom Galaxy Update (Ver. 0.19)
Hey there, Astroworkers!
We've got a doozy of an update for you this week! Another often requested robot finally joins the team, a plant and planet make an appearance, and Nom Nom Galaxy wins another award!
One of my favorite things about developing Nom Nom Galaxy is taking the game to shows and getting to talk to people about the game and watch them play. We've been in Early Access for about six months now and talking with you all on Steam, and with the popularity of live streaming it's easy to see people playing Nom Nom Galaxy online. But there's nothing quite like seeing it in person and interacting with the players.
This year we've been fortunate enough to take Nom Nom to three(!) shows, BIG in Brazil, PAX Prime, and GDC China last week as a finalist for the Independent Games Festival. Nom Nom took the top prize at BIG, was part of the Indie MEGABOOTH at PAX Prime, and now we've been honored with an Excellence in Audio Award from IGF China!
We'd like to thank everyone at GDC China and IGF China for having us at the show and honoring us with the award. The audio in Nom Nom Galaxy was all done by our in-house jam band, The Electric Bends. This award is sure to push those guys back into the studio to cook up some more tunes for the Galaxy!
On to this week's update!
Atomic Daawwwwwg!
The latest addition to your robot army is sure to be a welcome one. Since Nom Nom hit Early Access, there's been on element that's been from factory automation: Harvesting ingredients! No matter how well you've designed your factory, your Astroworker has always had to do the dirty work of pulling up the plants. Soup Co. has sent some relief in the form of the Astroworker's best friend: Ben!
Most dogs like to destroy gardens, but Ben is special case. You can unlock Ben for three keys in the research menu and at a cost of 150 gold per robot. After summoning Ben, hand him an ingredient to sniff and he'll move to harvest plants that have fully grown and leave one ingredient behind for it the next plant to grow. Ben will deposit the ingredients in his doghouse, which can be connected to your factory from the sides or the bottom. He'll also climb up one block terrain, giving you some more building options. Like all of the other robots, give him a punch and he'll drop whatever he's carrying. To change what Ben is harvesting, simply give him another ingredient.
Killer Pumpkins
The plant life in Nom Nom Galaxy is nothing to shake a stick, or buzzsaw, at! In the tradition of overly aggressive tomatys and mean mushrooms, we introduce the latest in pugilistic produce, the Killer Pumpkin! (That's a temp name. If you have any ideas for another, let us know!)
This pumpkin grows from vines and drops down upon unsuspecting Astroworkers. If it misses, the pumpkin does a rolling attack to pummel its target!
Pumpkins only appear on Iddil now, but expect to find them on other planets soon!
Other Updates/Fixes
Added a VS screen at the start of the game
Rival company market share now appears in the planet percentage area
When playing co-op and holding an item, the factory will only blink for the player holding the item
New stage, Kakoi, added
We've removed the winter season because of a silly bug. It'll be back once we've squashed it. But for now, enjoy a Game of Thrones style Summer.
Added an arrow to help you get back to your money and matter after dying.
As always, please let us know what you think in the comments here, on our Steam Community, Facebook, or Twitter! See you next time!
Nom Nom Galaxy Post-PAX Update #3 (Ver. 0.18)
Salutations Astroworkers!
Our update this week that addresses some outstanding issues, including the tutorial, vehicles and combat - all things we talked to you guys about during PAX. We've also added a new robot that addresses one of the most requested additions to the factories: throwing ingredients down! Before we get into the update, Nom Nom Galaxy continued its tour of gaming events this last weekend by making its debut at IndieCade!
The latest build was available for would be soup entrepreneurs to try out. This build for the PS4 includes our new tutorial, which was debuted for the first time at the show. We've also been busy getting ready for yet another show, GDC China. Nom Nom Galaxy was nominated for Best Game in the Independent Games Festival there, wish us luck!
Okay, on to the meat and potatoes (soup)!
Down We Go!
This week we'd like to introduce a new robot to the team, Travis! Travis will add a new dimension to your factories by allowing you to finally send ingredients down.
Make Your Mark
While we love Soup Co., there's nothing quite like owning your own company. From now on soup meisters can name their own company when starting their factory. The name will appear in the top right corner next to your rivals. We're looking for ways to display this more prominently. How would you like to brand your company in Nom Nom Galaxy?
Learning the Ropes
There's a brand new tutorial stage available at the stage select menu. This replaces the original tutorial we launched with at the beginning of Early Access. We think this new tutorial does a much better job of explaining just how to get your factory up and running. It's still a little bit raw (keyboard and mouse prompts aren't in just yet) so we're looking for any feedback on how we can improve it.
That New Car Smell
There have been numerous adjustments to balance with the vehicles, including costs, and power duration. It will now be more apparent when a vehicle is running out of power. The Hoverboard was a little bit overpowered and has had it's jumping toned down. And the Pogo, which wasn't very useful before, has received a major update!
Pressing the RB will now extend a drill that can remove blocks or attack enemies and animals! Finally, we've added a slightly localized Chinese version in the current update to assist (me) with showing NNG in the IGF Pavillion at GDC China this weekend. It's still a work in progress.
As always, please let us know what you think in the comments here, on our Steam Community, Facebook, or Twitter! See you next time!
Nom Nom Galaxy Post-PAX Update #2 (Ver. 0.16 & 0.17)
Hello fellow Soup Entrepreneurs!
Last week we were occupied with the Tokyo Game Show and didn't have a blog update, but we're back in force this week with some welcome changes! We've been listening to the feedback on social media/Steam and this week's update addresses some of the issues our fellow Astroworkers have been concerned with. This isn't the last update, by any means, so continue to let us know how you feel about the changes as we develop Nom Nom.
Jump Jet
Gracefully navigating hostile environments is paramount for any successful Astroworker. For just three research keys, this new upgrade gives you the ability to double-jump!
Muscleman
One of the most popular requests has been the ability to carry more than one item. This upgrade has been long debated by the team on how it should actually be implemented. In the distant past we had a backpack type inventory, but it was cumbersome and therefore removed. We want to bring some of the functionality, however, so we're starting by giving the Astroworker an upgrade to carry two items.
We're still not sold on how this feature is currently working, so we want to hear players feedback on this one. Basically, this is a temporary solution that could be permanent (or expanded) based on your feedback. So let us know what you think!
Auto-climb
Improving getting around the planet has been a concern for us. Too often it's easier to just mow down everything in your way instead of actually walking around the terrain. We've added an auto-climb for one-step blocks now that we think will make it a little less frustrating.
The speed of regular climbing has also been adjusted. We've slowed it down so that you can hang on to edges a little easier. Please let us know if the speed is too slow.
Aim Lock
It's now possible to lock the position of the Buzzsaw and Shotgun by pressing L2 while using them. This makes it easier to jump and use both items.
First Rocket
You'll now be treated to a nice little animation when your first rocket goes out to customers!
Shotgun Floppy
The shotgun will now destroy blocks containing floppy disks.
Secondary Damage
Combat has become a lot more fun with this update. When you hit something with your buzzsaw now, other attacks, like bullets, missiles, and attacks from other Astroworkers, will add to the damage. This sets up some interesting combo opportunities. It's just the first of many improvements we have for combat.
Ver. 0.17 Hotfix
A combat bug that caused Astroworkers to take damage in the same fashion as enemies snuck its way into 0.16. This has been fixed in 0.17!
As always, please let us know what you think in the comments here, on our Steam Community, Facebook, or Twitter! See you next time!
