Spacefarers!
Patch Notes for September 6
September Overhaul
As many of you all know, I've been working on Spacefarers! for a few years now. Fortunately, because it is not very popular, it means I can take my time and work on this at my own pace. Remember, that the team working on this game is a single man. All music, graphics, and code is done by yours truly. Anyways, here is your September overhaul!
Improved Universe Generation
As seen in the image above, the universe generation is improved. The color and size of the star systems reflects the color and size when you actually travel to it. It now requires fuel to travel from system to system, so make sure you are fueled up!
Improved Star System Generation
Rather than just a random assortment of planets, stars, and asteroids, now every star system is neatly and more accurately organized. Planets closer to the star are hotter and have different biomes than planets away from the star. Each star system typically has a space station along with it that the player can go visit.
Improved Space Stations
Space Stations contain a number of shops, workstations, and aliens. They are much larger than they were before. Come stop by today!
Improved Textures
Player and alien models have been improved to look better and enable the rendering of different armor and weapons. Not all aliens have been moved to the new model, but we have a good start. Speaking of this...
Player Customization
...From the very start of the game, the player may now customize their hair style and change the color of their hair, eyes, and skin using the mirror. This aims to make the game a more inclusive, enjoyable experience for all.
Spaceship Interior
There's new stuff inside your spaceship interior. If you have an old save, you are going to want to delete it to access this new stuff. The spaceship now spawns with, from left to right, a command console (access quests), iron crate (store stuff), fueler (fuel your ship), and crafting bench (craft stuff).
Quests
I've started work on the new quest system. Currently there are only four quests in the game, but as I figure out where I want to take the game and its story, I will create more quests.
Music
The music, for the most part, has been upgraded to use the Charles & Chill album by Charles A. Debczak. Click the image to check him out!
More
There's probably a load of other shit I forgot to mention. Go play the game for yourself, check it out, and feel free to contact me with any feedback that I can incorporate as I continue work on the game. Thank you!
01DEC2019 Update Patch
The intro quest for the game is changed. This comes with new content, items, and achievements.
If you played the old intro quest and want to try the new one, go to %AppData%/Local/Spacefarers and delete or move the save and inventory files.
I apologize for the inconvenience by hope you enjoy the new patch!
I love and appreciate you all,
"The Charles"
Charles A. Debczak
The Explorer I
Good evening all! A massive content update has dropped for Spacefarers! Stay tuned for the sequel to this update in late December.
Notable changes:
- Much larger planets
- Planets save along with all aliens and furniture
- Major changes to world generation
- Generated structures added to planets
- Star systems save
- Starmap added to allow easy transit between star systems
- Lore added with a few entries (will be fleshed out in a later update)
- Tools (Axe, Pickaxe, Hammer)
- Broadswords and shortswords
- New blocks
- New ores
- New recipes
- New furniture
- New title screen and game logo
- Sulfur planets
- Bug fixes
There are likely other changes I have forgotten to mention. Like always, please provide me with the feedback necessary to keep pushing this game in the right direction!
I love and appreciate you all,
"The Charles"
Charles A. Debczak
One Week's Update
One Week's Update - 20 OCT 2019
Good afternoon all,
Today, Spacefarers! has received a massive content update. I wanted to see how much I could change the game to make it better within a week's timeframe. Below is a summary of the major changes:
- Brand new music to replace the old, annoying, repetitive chiptune style music.
- Brand new terrain textures to add details into the worlds.
- Brand new user interface to make the game look nicer and easier for the player.
- Brand new terrain generation adding ores into the worlds!
- Brand new ores: Coal, Copper, Iron, Gold, Diamond, Ruby, Emerald.
- Mining laser to allow player to destroy terrain blocks, trees, and certain furniture objects. Sold in Straton shops.
- Player can now build with terrain blocks and place furniture items (select use in inventory, then switch to shooting mode).
- Brand new trees that drop wood when hit with a mining laser.
- Crafting benches (wood planks, tables, stools, and furnaces are now craftable). Sold in Teamun shops.
- Furnaces (create items from ores).
- Player can now access the interior of their ship, build, and place furniture objects. The interior saves so the player has a consist base of operations!
- Voices for Straton and Xenu aliens (rather than on-screen text that is difficult to read) as well as v1 and v2 Synths.
- Hissing sound effect for Teamun aliens.
- Purple planets!
- Other minor changes and bug fixes.
I hope you enjoy the update! Keep traversing the stars!
Spacefarers Update 14 OCT
Last night, I dropped a brief update tweaking the introductory quest to make it more hectic but also easier. I also added an item, the bedroll, which allows the player to sleep to regain health while exploring a planet.
But more features are already in the works, to include:
Purple planets
Zootopian sounds
Synth sounds
Voices to Stratons
A new page of aliens
Other improvements/fixes
These features are already working, but I am going to add even more content before pushing the next update.
In the meantime, keep exploring, Spacefarer!
The Future of Spacefarers!
With the release of Spacefarers! officially on Steam, I am officially done working on it, right? No more updates, no new content, quests, achievements? Of course not!
While the game has formally been released, I still have much work to do in order to improve it. Right now, my priorities of work are adding more quests, weapons, items, and achievements, as well as a proper help menu to clarify confusing aspects of the game.
If you have any feedback, by all means, shoot me an email at charlesdebczak@gmail.com. I am a very approachable guy and will always do my best to answer your questions as well as implement new ideas into the game.
Thank you very much for your support of Spacefarers! as development continues into the future.
Bringing the Universe to Steam
I am very excited to be bringing Spacefarers! to Steam. This project was originally released for Android on the Google Play Store back in June, and has changed very much over the months. Developing this game has been a very unique experience that I have and continue to enjoy.
As for myself, aside from being an indie game developer, I am a cadet at West Point majoring in Physics with a minor in Space Science. My experiences at West Point and in the Army have certainly influenced my perspective when it comes to programming. It also leaves me with less time to work on such projects, but it's all worth it in the end.
Anyways, I am very excited for this to be released here on Steam. Understand that this will be updated rather frequently these next few months as I squash bugs and implement new features. By all means, throw suggestions at me! Let me know what I can do to serve you, the community, and enhance the Spacefarers! experience.