๐ Space Architect is officially out of Early Access! ๐
๐ Space Architect is officially out of Early Access! ๐
As we announced recently, the big day is here โ Space Architect is now available in its full version! ๐ We've worked tirelessly to bring you the best possible experience, and the results are ready for you to explore โ brand-new visuals and so much more are waiting for you in the game! ๐
We want to extend our heartfelt thanks to you, our players, for your incredible support throughout the Early Access journey. Your feedback, ideas, and dedication have shaped the game into what it is today. Weโre proud to have developed this project alongside you, creating something truly special. ๐๐ก We invite you to dive in and explore all the exciting new features weโve prepared for the full version. Whether youโre a seasoned space architect or just starting your interstellar adventure, thereโs something for everyone here. ๐โจ
๐ฎ Build your dreams in space โ play now! Thank you for being with us. See you among the stars! ๐ Space Architect Team
Full Release launch date
๐ Space Architects, this is your moment! ๐
After months of hard work, improvements, and a complete graphic overhaul, weโre ready to leave Early Access orbit and launch the full version of the game! Full version releases on 21/11/2024! ๐
Throughout Early Access, we listened to your feedback and made every effort to bring Space Architect up to your expectations. Now, your space station is more impressive than everโand itโs not just the new look! Check out whatโs new in the full release:
๐ฆ Pirates Incoming โ *donate or die* mode, either pay the pirates or... well, letโs just say keep a wrench nearby! ๐๏ธ New UI โ redesigned and easier on the eyes (letโs say itโs "okayโish" ๐ง). ๐ซ New Devices โ defensive turrets to keep the bad guys at bay. ๐จ Brand-new graphics โ all sprites redone by someone with real skill. โ๏ธ New Options Menu โ general, graphics, and key remapping settings. ๐ Expanded Questline โ more missions, more to uncover. ๐ Crewmates walk better (no more tripping over thin air). ๐ฌ New Lines for Crew and Station โ we invested in their personalities. ๐ Localization โ now available in 12 languages! ๐ New Steam Achievements โ more ways to flex your cosmic skills. ๐ธ Photo Mode (F11) โ hide the UI and capture your cosmic moments. ๐ Available Blueprints Listed in Knowledgebase โ for those who like to keep things organized. ๐ฅ๏ธ Ultrawide Support โ panoramic players, enjoy the cosmos in full view! โ๏ธ Rebalancing and Fixes โ a lot of minor improvements and tweaks.
For those who played the Early Access version โ jump back in, the difference is truly out of this world! And if youโre still on the fence, nowโs the best time to join the crew. The stationโs ready, space is waiting โ only your designs stand between you and galactic fame as an architect!
Ready for launch? ๐
Dev Log #1 - Big Bang Soon
Hello there!
First of all, I'm no longer alone, lately, I've got support from guys & gals from PlayWay with redoing graphics, preparing localization, bug hunting, overall help, and bringing the game to a wider public, this also means You my dear Reader, so cheers to them!
For the past few months we've stayed silent, working toward a version worthy of being deemed Full Release (to be out soon), this involves several major improvements to the game, so it's time to discuss them now :)
1. Pirates
Don't overdo your earnings, or someone might come asking for a donation ;) Pirates were added as a means to spice up endgame content, now whenever earning cash there is a chance someone might force you to choose: fight for your hard-earned cash or give most of it away to protect space hamsters (I don't believe I even know how they look like).
2. New Graphics
There is a new guy on the team, Sebastian did a phenomenal job redoing all the in-game assets, just take a look at this example (work is still in progress):
Doesn't it look better?
3. Localization
The game got long-awaited localizations into 12 additional languages, with a previously existing English version it comes to the following languages being supported now:
Chinese (Simplified)
Chinese (Traditional)
English
French
German
Italian
Japanese
Korean
Polish
Portuguese
Russian
Spanish
Turkish
4. Options
Game option settings were extended, now you can tweak not only audio but also graphic settings.
5. Key Mapping
Lastly for those of you that want to tweak every last thing to your liking, I've worked hard to implement a way to remap all of the in-game controls.
I am thinking about adding the ability to map multiple keys to a single action, but that has to wait on an ever-increasing ToDo list of mine :)
Speaking about ToDo, there are things I'm working on, but not sure when they will be out:
Future Changes
Temperature
One of the systems that is currently too easy is controlling station temperature, for now, all you have to do is to plop an additional Passive Cooler from time to time. I'd call that boring if anyone asks me, so what can we do with it?
Well, my idea is to redo the station temperature and make it grid-based, where each cell can have its own temperature, equalizing with those of nearby cells as time passes. The device will rely only on the temperature of the cell it's built on, leading to a situation where a power-hungry device will quickly ramp up underlying cell temperature, and as a result, it will easily overheat. Similarly with a cluster of mid-power-hungry devices, not having where to output temperature
Station heat grid, with 2 heat-producing devices circled
To combat this, the player would need to track where temperature hotspots occur and plop passive coolers nearby the place. I'm also thinking about extending it with cooling lines - that increase the tempo of equalizing cells temperature, which are being built under the devices (like how pipelines are laid).
Enclosed Spaces & Walking Over Stuff
Currently, the game doesn't support enclosed spaces, like having another room with its own Airlock, that's not connected to the main room. You can build it fine, but Crewmates won't be able to travel between them (like going out of the airlock, to the airlock of another room and getting inside). I'm planning to change that, but it will require me to redo pathfinding,
And as I'll be touching pathfinding I've thought that it's a good opportunity to teach crewmates to avoid going over stuff - currently, they don't care if they go over a working Furnace or on an empty floor, and for a long time I was choosing it this way, but as I see it now it makes the station a mess of clustered devices. In future versions, I'd like them to go over stuff way slower, and plan to find the most optimal path - avoiding going over any devices unless necessary, forcing players to leave corridors in places they plan crewmates to be, and clustering places where automation is achieved.
So, this would be my update to You :) I hope to have the full version out soon, and hope that You'll like it, See you soon, Albert :)
v0.35.0 - Pulling out splinters
Hi All! This big update polishes a lot of game mechanics, hope you'll enjoy it :)
The biggest thing was finally finding an improved way for interaction in the trade window - how to move both small and large quantities of items easily. The solution I came up with is a slider, which pops up after you press the mouse button on an item, it allows you to choose quantity by moving the mouse left & right, and letting the mouse button down confirms the amount. Additionally, it supports setting up fixed quantities by pressing modifier buttons - Ctrl for all, Shift for 100kg, and Alt for 10kg.
Another issue was solving a way to know where the station is, for players that went to explore the ship neighborhood. Thus in the bottom right I've added a compass-like element that constantly points at the center of the ship.
A large part of this update is dedicated to players' feedback & making game mechanics easier to understand.
Changes:
Changed the way items are moved around in the trade panel by adding a popup with a quantity selector
Added a compass-like thing to show where the station is
All devices in the build panel are clickable to inform you what is missing - technology or resource
Rename Observatory to Asteroid Scanner
Tank containers now have a configurable supply option 'crew-in' (you could disable it so that only pipes can supply the device)
Quest 'Start basic production' changed - got an additional objective to mine 10 minerals
Asteroid drone quest redone
Laser storage full in mining overview was misinterpreted as overheating - changed color and added a tooltip
Updated Guest Dock sprites
A few tooltips in the trade panel were added
Lock buttons to not researched mechanics
Changed Arc Furnance tech description
Added event to notify you when no space is available for a single specific item type
Bug Fixes:
Dont allow to clone device if you don't have tech to build said device
Crew sound no longer playing on pause
UI Fix in the main menu for long player Steam name
Mining laser storage capacity fixed (should be 60 instead of 5)
Fixed trader talking bug when in trade panel for too long
Praise for providing feedback in this update goes to Pawilonek, sterik & Gaming with Cola, thanks!
v0.34.0 - Where Is My Coffee?
This update continues the trend of me adding more voices, this time it's crewmates who got theirs. Also, I've made few touches here & there :)
Crew (male & female) random thoughts added
Button added to quickly build a copy of a selected device
Mining laser now have a voiceover when trying to mine but all mining lasers are already full
Show lasers container state when mining
Game won screen improvements
Clean game log when loading new save
Bugs smashed
Prevent shortcut from firing when using input fields
v0.33.0 - I Hear Voices
Hi All!
This update brings a lot more voices to the table :) As well as a few fixes to the job system
Changes & new content:
Station OS voice changed
Station OS voices her random thoughts
Visitor calling you out when trade is not happening
Visitor got his voice when undocking
Default pipe speed increased x2 (after appearing in almost every feedback I got :D )
Don't stop playing music during pause and game saving
Bugfixes done
Show unreachable jobs in job panel - reported by Pawilonek
Fix bug causing a previously unreachable job to be ignored even after it became reachable - reported by Fodder and Pawilonek
Fix quest hide button not hiding quest completely - reported by Pawilonek
PS: Emrys, thanks for suggesting to add more voices :)
0.29.4 - Fixes
Hotfix release with bugs reported by Emrys & tjtravel
Pathing bug resolved - caused all crewmembers to become stuck
Loaded game save sometimes had disconnected pipes, resolved now
0.29.3 - QOL & mining drones polishing
Hi all!
This update brings a lot of quality of life improvements to the game. I've spent a lot of time testing, whacking bugs, painting over ugly UI and asking code to behave well :D
Changes:
All drone docks now require a drone to be build
Description of fuel production tech was updated to include info about unlocking dock ports
Drones are now more common in visitors offer
Rebalanced HP of each drone
Drone HP is now saveable HP
Interaction, when multiple objects are hovered at once, was updated - select what is currently seen on top, then rotate through underlying elements (previously, the first element selected was random)
Don't show pipe in hovered objects list, when not in pipe overlay mode
In Guest Dock show when visitor will appear
Easier pipeline laying
Added a quest to pay back some loan
Dropped object is highlighted when clicked
Default UI panels placement cleaned up (they are no longer all over the place)
Changed pipe connection removal to middle mouse button
Improvements to camera movement - pan to mouse when scrolling
Improvements to camera movement - restore move camera by right mouse button
changed pipe overview logo
When demolishing is done - drop resources that were contained in device + were used to build device
Small improvements to UI & lang
Bugs:
Tech tree scrolling/dragging nightmare solved
Graphene production fixed - it can be produced in Chemical Plant
Device build cost is no longer serialized - it might change for some devices it was cached before
Fix for dropped items not being collected sometimes
Starting screen langs fixed
Resolved a bug causing error when selecting devices to build while still in cancel build mode
Big thanks to tjtravel who found many of the bugs fixed in this and upcoming updates :)
v0.29.2 - QOL
Hi all!
In this update, I'm bringing you tons of little tweaks here & there to improve overall playability. There is still a lot to improve, but we're slowly getting there. I have also one big feature planned before coming out of early access.
Changes:
Change - now you'll need to pay back a part of the loan to unlock auto sale of higher tier fuels (in addition to unlocking pump via tech)
Refreshed knowledgebase article
Sign corp loan with your name (preloaded from steam name), this will be used to name your character ingame
Added quest to open knowledgebase
UI tweaks
Added 'Game Won' panel
Crew comments displayed differently
Low power event is now based on battery capacity
Fixes:
Pressing Esc when in loan taking menu caused a broken state - now takes you back to the main menu.
You won't be able to overpay your loan (pay back 'only' 13 000 000 000 and not a cent more)
Module tileset had one placement rule fixed
Trade panel - show items starting from the top of panels instead of the middle
PS: I'm working on setting up a game wiki, to even better explain in-game mechanics :)
PS 2: Soon Demo version of the game will be available here on Steam.
Price drop!
Hi all!
Good news :) I've decided to decrease game pricing to a more reasonable level (from $8.99 to $6.99), and I'm thinking about adding a free demo version so that more people can check if they even like it before buying.
Also, expect some game updates in the coming weeks :)