From new NPCs to spooky abandoned restaurants, we’ve got a big ol’ serving of new updates that we can’t wait for you to see! There’s a lot more behind-the-scenes that we weren’t able to include in this update, but we’ve selected the tastiest morsels for you to sink your teeth into. Grab your knives and sporks, take a seat, and let’s tuck in!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1272290/Space_Chef/
Arrrrrr New Space Pirate NPCs
With all of those asteroids to dodge and treacherous gas clouds to avoid, space feels like a dangerous and hostile place. So we thought, how can we make it seem a bit friendlier?
By adding space pirates, of course!
After all, what could warm you up better in the cold and unforgiving vacuum of space than a jolly old firefight with a group of hungry space pirates?
You’ll now meet bands of space pirates roaming around the cosmic sea in search of defenseless ships to plunder, so make sure you’ve got a few weapon attachments (or a knack for quick piloting and sharp turns!)
We’ve also added other NPCs out in space that are significantly less likely to steal your booty. At the moment, we can’t seem to stop them from flying into the sun and turning themselves into crispy metal bacon, but we’re hard at work putting in waypoints to protect all future space NPCs in our care.
RIP Stands For Restaurants in Pieces
As you’re exploring the galaxy, you may stumble across some abandoned restaurants that shared the same mysterious fate as the one belonging to your grandma. What happened to them? Where are their owners? And, most importantly, what’s in it for you?
You’ll find all sorts of tasty treats inside these culinary crypts, including new recipes, new blueprints for items, inspiration for your home decor, and perhaps even some clues as to who might be behind these nefarious disappearances.
You Sunk My Battleship!
Alongside abandoned restaurants, we’ve also added a sunken spaceship on the planet Bluegoonia that might hide a deep sea-cret. Just remember to take your diving suit with you if you want to take a look at it, or you might end up sleeping with the mutant space fishes!
Introducing Cyclonia 2.0
Our planet Cyclonia was looking a little tired, so we’ve given it a makeover!
Cyclonia is now made up of various different biomes, including vast deserts and barren rock terrain. When you make your first visit, your spaceship will land in Area 1 marked on the map below. But how do you make it to the other areas?
We’ll keep that a secret for now, but you’ll need to unlock new tools to reach them. We promise we’ll make it worth your while, as different areas will have new ingredients and creatures. Expanding your map means expanding your recipe book (or possibly dying in a brand new and exciting way!)
Building Homes for NPCs
Don’t worry, we aren’t about to start our own charity!
We just wanted to treat our NPCs right and give them a comfortable place to lay down their heads at night after a long day of work. Can you guess which of our NPCs lives in this home with the luxurious Bontha-skin rug?
When you’re not out on the hunt for fresh new flavors, you’ll get to visit the homes of all of your favorite NPCs, with one exception: Officer Hoffman. After all, the best (and only) cop in the galaxy never has time to sleep! So we’ve begun building this cozy police station, where you can find him hard at work night and day.
Keeping Our NPCs on Track
Some of our public spaces didn’t feel quite as lively as we would have liked, so we’ve added a way for these scenes to become populated with NPCs over time. Now, when you want to take a peaceful stroll in the park, you won’t have a moment alone with your thoughts. How relaxing.
As you can see in the GIF below, we’ve added various tracks that our NPCs will follow and waypoints where they’ll perform certain actions, with each scene having a limit on how many NPCs can enter and exit at any given time. We’re fairly confident none of them will achieve sentience and realize their lives are being dictated by an inscrutable dev deity. Maybe don’t look them in the eyes when they walk past you though, just to be safe.
Express Yourself
While you should always aim to provide service with a smile, sometimes even the greatest chef can feel worn down, hungry, or overcome with murderous rage. That’s why we’ve added new player animations to make movement look more natural and to make facial expressions more diverse!
Your chef will now look sad and tired when they’re feeling exhausted and may even let out a few yawns if they feel like you’re not paying enough attention.
Putting the Model in Model Citizen
We’re getting all of our NPCs catwalk ready with stylish new outfits and character models to fit their size, shape, and personality. We’ve also adapted the way our basic character model works so various body parts can be scaled to fit different body types, such as children like Jenny, or longer pieces of clothing, such as Gloria’s dress.
Hungry for Knowledge?
We’ve updated our Gastropedia to make it look more authentic while still making it easy to use. Each of the tabs will lead to a different section, such as Creatures or Recipes, so you can keep track of everything you’ve discovered on your space adventure!
If you’re thinking there are a lot of food stains on those pages, you probably don’t want to see the state of our bookcases…
Meat’s Back on the Menu, Boys!
In our last update, we introduced the planets of Crystalia and Bluegoonia. With new planets comes new creatures and with new creatures comes new… gastronomic opportunities. We’ll let you fill in the blanks on that one.
The Creature Feature
We’re employing fresh young talent to help us with development. In fact, our latest creature was designed by the daughter of lead developer Niclas. We want to get our kids all fired up about game design from a young age. Plus think of all the time and money we’ll save!
Want to know how you can join our intergalactic posse of space chefs?
Then don’t forget to mosey on over to our Discord to shoot the breeze with us and follow our exploits on social media at @SpaceChefGame 💬
