Hey Spacers,
It’s Alexandra from Kitfox again with another Ostranauts Community update. First and foremost, we’ve been working with the dev team to make a more detailed Roadmap which outlines the updates you can expect between now and 1.0 release. Thanks to all your support, we’ve been able to extend development and add Hardening Phase 1 and 2 and much more. We also have plans for future updates after 1.0. We don’t have any release dates to share at this time and details may change as we go along. See below for an FAQ that covers our Early Access plans in more detail.
If you’ve been on the fence about getting Ostranauts, now is a great time to jump in and play! Already this year we’ve updated the game several times with user interface and new player tutorial improvements. You can read the full update and patch notes for yesterday's update here.
Steam Daily Deal Today!
As an added bonus, Ostranauts is 20% off from today starting at 10am PST/ 1pm EST till January 30th. Tell your friends, your family, your teacher… anyone who wants to explore the dangers of space travel with disastrous (and fun) results!
We also have bundled with the immersive sandbox detective stealth game Shadows of Doubt! If you own one game, you can get the other with a discount. It’s the perfect starter kit for games that have systematically simulated sci-fi worlds. Check out the Shadows of Ostranauts bundle:
https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/47261/Shadows_of_Ostranauts/
Dwarf Fortress Adventure Mode Launch
Today we are releasing Adventure Mode for Dwarf Fortress, a sandbox RPG that allows you to form a party and explore your generated world. It’s a completely new way to play Dwarf Fortress and it’s also on sale starting today (at 10am PST/ 1pm EST) at 20% off!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/975370/Dwarf_Fortress/
FAQ
Q: Why Early Access?
A: We want Ostranauts to become a storytelling platform for space crews in a dystopian System. It's a tall order to fill, and fan feedback has been, and will continue to be, a crucial part of achieving that goal.
Ostranauts is very much a spiritual sequel to Blue Bottle Games’s previous game NEO Scavenger. NEO Scavenger famously held a long early access period, during which the game significantly evolved based on player feedback. Ostranauts follows this precedent.
Q: Approximately how long will this game be in Early Access?
A: Our earlier estimate was approximately four years (late 2020-2024), with a fairly lengthy list of features/content we wanted to add, plus room to incorporate player feedback. During that time, we've been able to add most of those features, including significant improvements suggested by our players.
As we enter our fifth year, we feel confident we can add the last major feature milestone (ship-to-ship combat and fire simulation), plus the supporting content and features to make it worthwhile. Our plan includes time to work on fixing issues and quality of life concerns before we exit Early Access, which is anticipated to be in 2025.
Q: How is the full version planned to differ from the Early Access version?
A: Feel free to check out our roadmap on Steam, or on our Discord, for a complete list of what we've planned vs. finished.
But as of now (January 2025), upcoming changes players can expect by launch include:
Ship-to-Ship Combat
One More Major Solar System Location
One More Major Plot
Fire Simulation
Quality of Life and UI/UX Improvements
Performance Optimization
Q: What is the current state of the Early Access version?
A: Players can currently make a custom character, and fly their starting ship around the boneyard to explore and salvage procedurally generated derelicts. They can use the parts and/or proceeds from that to modify their own ship in any way they want, and/or buy new ships for personal use or repair and resale (a.k.a. ship-flipping).
Players can also take part in short paid missions (gigs), participate in both bespoke and procedurally generated plots, participate in ship racing leagues, or buy and sell commodities for profit (i.e. space trucker).
The game currently has the ability to hire and manage crew, personnel combat, a procedural social interaction system, gamified negotiations (a.k.a. social combat), and a detailed simulation of both social and physiological needs.
The game world consists of two major locations with fleshed-out content (OKLG and Venus), plus a range of procedurally-generated minor locations with basic services.
The game is fairly stable, with most systems experiencing occasional minor bugs. Most bugs can either be ignored or fixed by a save/reload. But some more serious bugs can occur over time, and we generally aim to fix game-breaking bugs as soon as possible.
The UI/UX of the game is functional, but can be janky in places. Most players are able to get along with it as-is, but we are still aiming to smooth out more rough edges before launch.
We regularly update the status of the build with announcements on the Steam Community Hub, as well as notes in-game. Builds tend to be multiple per month, except during some major feature pushes. And we frequently interact with players on our Discord, Reddit, and Steam forums.
Q: Will the game be priced differently during and after Early Access?
A: It is possible the game will have an increase in price at 1.0 launch. The current price was set at Early Access launch, and the scope of the game has changed considerably since then.
Q: How are you planning on involving the Community in your development process?
A: Blue Bottle Games already has a reputation of directly chatting with fans across multiple platforms, including our Discord, Reddit, the Steam Forums, and our various social media accounts.
Our development team primarily uses Discord to talk with each other, so we tend to interact with fans most on there. But our interactions happen frequently on all of the above locations. And we plan to continue this level of player interaction.
-Alexandra