Utopian Travels want every vacation to be unique and perfect for every visitor. So after a month of hard work we're happy to present to you the latest attraction of Utopia 9: Free Samples!
Free Samples
A new fancy Sample Dispenser have been placed near the exit of the Arrival Area.
Here you can try out the new Samples for free¹.
Each Sample provides exciting benefits² and are guaranteed³ to give you the best vacation possible!
¹ Requires one-time purchase.
² May cause side-effects.
³ Not a guarantee.
Arrival Area reworked to accomodate Cream Dispenser near the exit.
Added 5 new Cream Samples.
Travel Points are collected when you complete a vacation.
Text and Translations
Once again we're been fortunate enough to get help with translations.
We're super happy to see so many contributing and would like to thank all our translators.
This updates includes the following new translations:
Translation to German by Global Hive
Translation to Swedish by Samuel Einheri @functionSam
Translation to Finnish by 57E
Items
Added a new level 4 Shell Weapon named iFlak.
Achievements
Added achievement for winning with each new Cream Sample.
Added achievement for finding the new iFlak.
Gameplay, Changes and Fixes
The game view no longer follows dead players in Local Co-op.
Fallback attack of weapons no triggers when aiming at enemies (unless empty).
Flak Pistol now fires slightly less projectiles.
A red warning is displayed when attempting to attack with empty hand.
Mutation selections has been improved to make it easier to understand.
Travelling a Strange New World! (Update 23 - 28th Jun 2016)
Welcome back everyone! With the release of the game and a wee bit of summer vacation out of the way, we're back to releasing update for the game.
Text and Translations
A number of people have requested localized versions of the game. We've taken the first steps in that direction thanks to the great help from awesome volunteers! We're still looking for more translations, so please check our steam forum if you want to help.
Game selects language based on system language.
Language setting can be overriden in options dialog.
Changed font to support more characters and be easier to read.
Translation to French by Guillaume Peton
Translation to Polish by GameSub
Translation to Danish by Whalegun
Items
Added a new level 4 Bullet weapon named the Split Pistol.
Achievements
Added achievement for winning as the Tourist.
Added achievement for winning as the Tour Guide.
Added achievement for finding the new Split Pistol.
Improved icons of all achievements, both ingame an in Steam client.
Gameplay Changes and Fixes
Moved Jump obstacle in Arrival Area to the end of the area.
Fallback attacks no longer triggers when weapon is on cooldown.
Fallback attacks have a much wider/accurate check against barrrels.
Improved performance of certain areas, mostly in Cave Adventures.
Ammo drop rate increased by 25% in Cave Adventures areas.
Ammo drop rate increased by 20% in Staff Only areas.
Two-handed items are now holstered automatically if possible.
Fences in Staff Only areas are now less sturdy.
Enemies
Fixed enemies facing away from the player while aiming.
Reduced how often enemies get stuck near corners of obstacles.
Enemies would fire exhaust blast from Grenade Launcher without warning.
Fixed enemies stealing weapons not walking towards the player corpse.
User Interface
Added levels to selectors in Graphical Options dialog.
Tutorial shows Game Controller setup if a Game Controller is used.
Start button on XBox controller now correctly closes dialogs.
Audio
Added audio effect when opening/closing dialogs.
Pickup sound of weapons matches their anticipation (reload) sound.
Pistol shots have more variation to make them phase less.
Graphics
Fixed missing blood from character corpse after dying.
Sand looks better as it blends into the environment.
New start and end terrain when travelling between Staff Only areas.
Hallo Space Tourists!
Long time no see. Rune and I have just got back from a vacation of our own and is now ready to start working on our next update!
Localization A lot of people have shown interest in playing Utopia 9 in their native tongue and we think that is great, so we’re already well underway translating to other languages. Especially our french players seem eager to have it localized. So right now it is of top priority.
However, we do need help making this possible as we haven’t invented the babblefish yet. So if you, or somebody you know, want to help out please head over to our Steam Community.
Made With Unity From the very start of development we’ve put a lot of efforts in the gameplay feedback of Utopia 9 to make it feel just right and awesome playing. We’re really proud of the result I have started to write a few development articles on the topic. So if you wanna read a bit what we did you should head over to Made With Unity and check it out.
Nordic Game Conference On the last day before our vacation we set out to attend Nordic Game Conference to showcase Utopia 9. We met a lot of awesome people and got to play a trove of exciting, new and upcoming titles.
We met the guys that developed Neon Chrome. They are really awesome people and you should check out their game if you haven’t already. If you like Utopia 9 I have a strong feeling you will like it.
I also had a long chat with Bastian that created Aya Blaze and his coming adventures in Japan. You should check it out if you like beautiful colors and a speedy gameplay.
The best gameplay experience of the night was Oxyjet. Fantastic 4-player co-op. If you can get your hands on it, and have 4 controllers, you absolutely need to play this game! Beers and shouting is recommended.
Back on Track With vacation over we’re back on track on development with our batteries fully charged so be sure to be on the lookout for updates in the near future.
See you around!
Peace.
Full Release: What A Time To Be Alive! (Update 23 - 5th May 2016)
Attention all space vacation enthusiasts! Utopia 9 is now ready to fulfill your wildest vacation dreams. The beaches are prepared, the bars filled with exotic beverages and the staff is ready to give you a warm welcome!
After one and a half year of hard work we are very pleased to announce the full release of Utopia 9 - A Volatile Vacation! It has been a long and exciting journey but it doesn’t end here. This is only the beginning. The full game will go live with a huge update and development will continue beyond this version.
Listed below are all the new changes.
Tour Guide
Several new characters are in the works and the first unlockable character is already here. Utopian Travels have received a few complaints and have therefore sent the Tour Guide to investigate. Her characteristics are:
Initially equipped with an Umbrella. (The Umbrella can deflect projectiles for defense, can push enemies for crowd control and stab enemies for damage)
She can jump to evade attacks and projectiles.
She has reduced max health.
She has reduced health gain from pickups.
She has a new outfit, body shape, face, portraits and voice.
Achievements
Achievements have been updated to match the extended map.
Weapon Fallback Attack
The pistol whip fallback attacks have been improved.
The fallback attack for two-handed weapons can now be triggered by both buttons.
The fallback attack can now be used in between a weapons shooting cooldown.
The fallback attack can now be used to destroy green barrels and vending machines.
New Zone
The new Staff Only zone has been added. It contains the following:
New environmental hazards
New design and feel
New buildings
New narrative elements
Steelseries GameSense support
Players can now make use of the Steelseries M800 keyboards features in Utopia 9 - A Volatile Vacation. The keyboard provides the following visual feedback:
Shows Soylent Bar
Shows Health Bar
Shows Controls
Shows Item durability / ammo
Alerts on health gain and ammo pickup
Alerts when gaining level
Alerts when taking damage
Bugs and Fixes
The only good bug is a dead bug! Several bugs have been fixed and improvements have been made throughout the game.
Boss and evolved mutants no longer play “damage taken” animation when their force fields are hit.
Reduced Taser range to 7.5 meters (was 10).
Fixed audio clips not being played or played with delay.
Cooldown of enemy weapons are paused while they are stunned.
Small mutants that evolve get to keep their hat.
Laser sights now correctly pass through enemies/players.
Zones renamed to Arrivals, Vacation Resorts, Cave Adventures, Staff Only and Customer Service
Removed Early Access disclaimer from game introduction sequence.
Removed Early Access from build number in main menu.
Ammo drops are now fixed per level.
Starting pistol is less effective but has increased ammo.
Adjusted graphical quality settings.
Improved performance by removing shadows cast by mutant tentacles.
Green barrels now drop items 75% of the time (was 50%).
Improved tooltip descriptions of some mutations.
Improved and added more loading screen hints.
Reduced the Raygun cooldown (from 2 seconds to 1.5).
Enemies no longer swing the idle arm when attacking or shooting.
Items from Mixed Crates are now part of the tooltips.
Reduced the amount of armor the better armors give.
Players should now spawn on the ground in each level.
Items and players being outside of the map are now repositioned.
Increased performance when obstacles are destroyed.
Slingblade attack now fires in the correct direction.
Slingblade attack no longer fires through obstacles.
Stay tuned for updates and more content. Thank you all for the support!
In a future not so far, far away
Hey everyone!
With full release getting real close we thought It'd be a good idea to let you in on what you can expect in the full version.
Next Update
The next update will be a big one with an entirely new zone and lots of fixes.
Zone 3 In it’s current state you play through Utopia 9 by visting 8 areas: A Arrival Area and a Final Area, and 6 areas in between. The 6 areas in between are in turn split into 3 zones named Vacation, Cave and Corporate, where Vacation and Corporate zones currently look the same.
Although each area is randomly generated we want to separate each zone visually and through gameplay. In this way we want players to experience something new and be challenged in new ways as they progress through the game. At the same time we also want to show a bit more of the world and the mutants as you go along.
To achieve this, we have been working hard on creating a new 3rd zone to be reached after making it through the caves. Here you will encounter the new environment, new buildings and new hazards along with the weapons already available in the zone.
Utopia 9 was initially planned to have 3 separate zones. However even with just one zone in place we felt the game was ready for Early Access. The game has now been in Early Access for half a year, and we’re thrilled to announce that the full release will launch with all three zones according to the initial plan.
Fairer Ammo Drops Sometimes randomness can be a bit harsh. We have noticed that the player will sometimes get very few ammo drops from enemies and thus very little ammo. This can create game sessions that is too dependent on luck to be both fun and challenging at the same time.
To make the system more fair and consistent we will be changing it so each level has a guaranteed share of enemies dropping ammo. For example a level with 30 enemies will always have 4-5 ammo pickups drop. You still won’t be able to know which ones that drop ammo though and this way we should now be able to balance ammo drops more easily.
Following this update we will continue to look into ways to reduce the frustration sometimes caused by our ammo system while maintaining its benefits to gameplay.
SteelSeries GameSense The next update will come with SteelSeries GameSense support. This means you can get additional feedback by using a SteelSeries M800 Keyboard with the game. We are planning to support additional devices to provide haptic feedback as you play and hurt yourself on Utopia 9.
Full Release Features
At the moment Utopia 9 can be very challenging. However, as a game developer you quickly learn that no matter how hard you make your game, some people can’t get it hard enough and will seek out new challenges. As a result, we’re working on adding new playable characters unlocked by beating the game. The first character unlocked will be the Tourist Guide.
The Tourist Guide Once your complaint is sent, It would only be reasonable if Utopian Travels were to send more staff to accommodate the issue. Thus if you’re fortunate enough to win the game with the Tourist, you could try playing as the Tourist Guide as well. The Tourist Guide provides a new twist to the gameplay. She might not be the most experienced or toughest person in space, but her limber and agile nature may come in handy.
Although not fully designed and implemented yet, we aim at equipping the Tourist Guide with new visuals, voice, starting items and personal perks. The new character should be a challenge for expert players and as such may not be an advantage unless played just right.
This is the first additional character we’re releasing for the game, and you can expect more in the coming updates! Which character would you like to travel Utopia 9 as?
Planned Follow-Up Features
After we’ve released the full version of Utopia 9 development continues. We’ll continue to expand the game with new unlockable characters, items, weapons and mutations. We’ll also be introducing a new currency system.
Free Cream Samples Permadeath and roguelike can be a tough beast to tame so we want to make every run more meaningful and unique. To ensure variety and a feeling of progression every vacation on Utopia 9 will grant the player travel points. These travel points will act as currency and can be spent on Free Cream Samples. Each Free Cream Sample will have different performance enhancing effects along with unfortunate side-effects. This allows the player to customize their character each run and adds variation and replayability.
In Conclusion
We believe these features will make the game even better for everyone. However if you think we’ve missed something important, please let us know so we may consider it for future updates. We will continue to listen to player feedback so we can provide the best vacation experience possible!
A future not so far, far away
Hey everyone!
With full release getting real close we thought It'd be a good idea to let you in on what you can expect in the full version.
Next Update
The next update will be a big one with an entirely new zone and lots of fixes.
Zone 3 In it’s current state you play through Utopia 9 by visting 8 areas: An Arrival Areal and Final Area, and 6 areas in between. The 6 areas in between are in turn split into 3 zones named Vacation, Cave and Corporate, where Vacation and Corporate zones currently look the same.
Although each area is randomly generated we want to separate each zone visually and through gameplay. In this way we want players to experience something new and be challenged in new ways as they progress through the game. At the same time we also want to show a bit more of the world and the mutants as you go along.
To achieve this, we have been working hard on creating a new 3rd zone to be reached after making it through the caves. Here you will encounter the new environment, new buildings and new hazards along with the weapons already available in the zone.
Utopia 9 was initially planned to have 3 separate zones. However even with just one zone in place we felt the game was ready Early Access. The game has now been in Early Access for half a year, and we’re thrilled to announce that the game will launch as full release with all three zones according to the initial plan.
Fairer Ammo Drops Sometimes randomness can be a bit harsh. We have noticed that the player will sometimes get very few ammo drops from enemies and thus very little ammo. This can create game sessions that is too dependent on luck to be both fun and challenging at the same time.
To make the system more fair and consistent we will be changing it so each level has a guaranteed share of enemies dropping ammo. For example a level with 30 enemies will always have 4-5 ammo pickups drop. You still won’t be able to know which ones that drop ammo though and this way we should now be able to balance ammo drops more easily.
Following this update we will continue to look into ways to reduce the frustration sometimes caused by our ammo system while maintaining its benefits to gameplay.
SteelSeries GameSense The next update will come with SteelSeries GameSense support. This means you can get additional feedback by using a SteelSeries M800 Keyboard with the game. We are planning to support additional devices to provide haptic feedback as you play and hurt yourself on Utopia 9.
Full Release Features
At the movement Utopia 9 is a challenge only few master. However, as a game developer you quickly learn that no matter how hard you make your game, some people can’t get it hard enough and will seek out new challenges. As a result, we’re working on adding new playable characters unlocked by beating the game. The first character unlocked will be the Tourist Guide.
The Tourist Guide Once your complaint is sent, It would only be reasonable if Utopian Travels were to send more staff to accommodate the issue. Thus if you’re fortunate enough to win the game with the Tourist, you could try playing as the Tourist Guide as well. The Tourist Guide provides a new twist to the gameplay. She might not be the most experienced or toughest person in space, but her limber and agile nature may come in handy.
Although not fully designed and implemented yet, we aim at equipping the Tourist Guide with new visuals, voice, starting items and personal perks. The new character should be a challenge to expert players and as such may not be an advantage unless played just right.
This is the first additional character we’re releasing for the game, and you can expect more in the coming updates! Which character would you like to travel Utopia 9 as?
Planned Follow-Up Features
After we’ve released the full version of Utopia 9 development continues. We’ll continue to expand the game with new unlockable characters, items, weapons and mutations. We’ll also be introducing a new currency system.
Free Cream Samples Permadeath and roguelike can be a totugh beast to tame so we want to make every run more meaningful and unique. To ensure variety and a feeling of progression every vacation on Utopia 9 will grant the player travel points. These travel points will act as currency and can be spent on Free Cream Samples. Each Free Cream Sample will have different performance enhancing effects along with unfortunate side-effects. This allows the player to customize their character each run and adds variation and replayability.
In Conclusion
We believe these features will make the game even better for everyone. However if you think we’ve missed something important, please let us know so we may consider it for future updates. We will continue to listen to player feedback so we can provide the best vacation experience possible!
Time for a timeout! (Update 22 - 5th April 2016)
With the added world map areas we’ve extended the game length. To some players this could make play sessions overly long, so we’re proud to announce a new Save & Quit / Continue feature! We’ve also fixed a critical bug related to Mac OSX.
Save & Quit / Continue
Loading dialog has new Save & Quit button.
Save & Quit button stores play session and exits to Main Menu.
Main Menu reveals Continue button when a saved play session exists.
Continue button loads and erases the saved play session.
One single player and one local co-op play session can be saved at a time.
Toggling local co-op on/off switches between saved play sessions.
Gameplay and Fixes
Fixed game not working on Mac OSX since updating Unity (game engine).
Fixed audio playback being interrupted and delayed should be improved.
Boss rockets can no longer fly over you.
New Travel Destinations! (Update 21 - 31th March 2016)
For a long time we’ve felt the game was a bit too short and too easy to win through luck rather than skill. To rectify this we’ve expanded the world map. We also provide more strategic information.
We are aware that with an extended game play session some players might want to take a break. That is why we have started working on a “save and exit” feature and promise it will be part of our next update.
World Map
Game expanded with 3 more areas to complete.
World map shows items found in mixed crates.
World map offers a lot of new paths to take.
Nemesis information is hidden until selected on the map.
Up to 6 nemeses and corpses can be at the map at once.
Audio
Cave area now have a new ambient sound.
Ambient and music volume can be adjusted individually.
The pollen spewing plants now have a cool idle sound.
Other smaller adjustments in general audio design.
Visuals
New revive and level up effects
Improved models to support greater view range when playing co-op.
Cave fog is now orange
Dynamic fog distance to support greater view range when playing co-op.
Gameplay and Fixes
Automatic weapons only have high recoil on the first shot.
Area damage weapons that explode on impact cannot be fired directly into walls.
Players no longer become zombified when dying in local co-op.
Fast Fingers mutation reduces charge time of charged weapons like Cooking Glove.
Corpses spawn health/ammo chips at the right location.
Default controls for XBOX Game Controllers adjusted.
Game could stall if dying to the environment in boss area.
Game should now run on 32 bit Mac OSX again.
Electric Boogie Boss! (Update 20 - 21th March 2016)
Although we’re been stuck hard by the epidemics of the season, we’re recovering and have been fighting bugs on two fronts! Check out the update and remember to wash your hands after touching those filthy mutants - who knows what they are carrying?!
Boss Fight
We’re working on making the Boss Fight a bit more interesting and more challenging for the players that end up reaching him. In the future we’ll continue the work by enhancing the introduction of the boss and and the winning sequence.
Power Balls are spawned when Boss activates his damage blast and forcefield.
Each Power Ball sparks to the nearest connected Power Ball or Power Pillar.
Walking through the sparks damages and stun players.
Each Power Balls and Power Pillars can be destroyed to break connections.
Enemies spawned in boss area spawn with fewer visual problems.
Reduced blast from Boss forcefield activation. This should lead to fewer players getting stuck in walls in the boss area. Please continue to report this bug if you encounter it!
The camera zooms out more in Boss Area to give a better overview.
Upgraded Caves
We’ve realized that the Cave areas were way too difficult and unbalanced so we’ve taken steps to rectify this. We’re only just begun with this task, but it should be much more playable now!
Cave area now has lots of smaller root formations for players and enemies to take cover behind. These also obstruct the vision of the enemies, so it’s easier to sneak up on them.
Exploding fungi can now be shot much more easily and stuns upon exploding.
- Exploding fungi areas should not send enemies flying onto pillars as often anymore.
The small vegetation in Cave zone is no longer affected by day/night cycle.
Sand blending into terrain has been improved, particularly visible in Cave area.
Enemies should no longer try to run through the fences in Cave area.
Added a missing collider to the walls of Cave area.
Local Co-Op Improved
Local Co-Op is still new, and although we’re playing it all the time, there is still work to be done. If you give it a try, please let us know what you think!
Players in Local Co-Op can no longer select mutations for each other.
Any game controller button can now be used to select item in user interface. This improves Game Controller support for non-XBOX controllers and on Mac in particular.
Camera look ahead has been disabled during Local Co-Op play so it does not interfere with aiming.
User interface of dead player now fade out slightly to better indicate that a player is dead.
Fog is less obstrusive. This is particularly apparent in Local Co-Op in Cave Area.
Items & Enemies
As always we’ve worked on the weapon balance and Ai improvements. Be sure to check out the much improved Hunting Rifle!
Hunting Rifle is now useful again: Improved aim and decreased cooldown.
Smartgun marker is much more reliable and enemies know how to use it!
Reduced range of the Revolver significantly.
Grenades now give proper impact damage.
Added green barrels to alleys, so you can go scavenging for health and ammo.
Mutants no longer spawn on top of furniture inside buildings.
Medium sized mutants no longer walk around half a meter below ground.
Skipping the death sequence now gives your new nemesis proper weapon icons.
Performance Improvement
We’ve had some reports on reduced performance, so we’re looking into that, so far we’ve done some significant improvements already:
Reduced precision of physics simulation leading to significant performance increase.
Performance enhancing object pools are shared with all objects in a level increasing performance shortly after level load and reducing memory usage.
Updated enemy pathfinding system for a small performance gain.
