Greetings Gaters!
Exogate Initiative has now been in Early Access for one orbit around the sun! We’d like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who’s played, given feedback on, reviewed, wishlisted, or otherwise supported the game. We wouldn’t be here without you guys!
So let’s take a look back through space and time, and reflect on the game’s journey so far - as well as update you on our revised pre-launch schedule (short version: there will be another update before 1.0).
Many adventures have been had through the Exogate. Many more await.
A Brief History of Exogate Initiative (Early Access Edition)
18 April 2023: Steam Early Access Launch (AKA the Big Bang)
The game launched with many new features not seen in the previous demos, enabling substantial campaign runs for the first time. New features included invasions, 5 gater classes, full roster of core rooms and unlocks, and 166 new and revised narrative events. The game was also fully playable in English, French and German. (For what happened before the Big Bang, please scroll riiiiiiiiiiiight to the bottom of our news feed!)
Q2 2023: Balancing, Performance, UX, Bugs
It’s fair to say the game launched in what me might tentatively call “hard mode.” The balancing and economy still needed some work, and so that was the priority for our first post-launch updates. Combined with important performance, stability, and UX improvements, we smoothed out the player experience. We also squashed many bugs (alas not Sqarbs).
Q3 2023: Event Editor & Steam Workshop
Our first major content update! We launched our event editor tools so players could create their own choice-based missions on exoplanets - including support for linked storylines, to tell stories across multiple worlds. Built-in Steam Workshop support means you can also share your creations, or download what others have made.
This update also saw us add plenty of new events to the game, alongside new features in the base such as bedrock mining and new types of beds.
Q4 2023: Alien Gaters & Operations Room
Alien gaters arrived before the end of the year, bringing 3 new alien races to the game - but this time ones that could be recruited to live and work in the base, and go on missions with your teams! This went hand in hand with the new Operations room, which provided the much-requested ability to return to planets for more resources.
Sprinkle in some cool new tech like Exonium Generators, Builder Bot upgrades, and an improved mission overview UI, and this represented our second major content release.
Q1 2024: Invaders & Defenses
This brings us to the present day and our biggest update yet, released just last month. We overhauled the invasion gameplay to introduce different types of invader unit, which arrive in dynamic waves that adapt to your strategy. You of course were provided with new weapons, defenses and controls to deal with them!
We also added more equipment to craft, and unlocks that allow for more diverse classes on missions, so they can help with events.
Roadmap to Launch (Revised)
The main features left to implement before launch are:
- Alien factions and 4X gameplay
- Diplomat gater class
- Further improvements, features and polishing, as time allows
However, the alien factions and 4X gameplay is a very large feature, and we want to make sure we get it right with your input. The original plan was to release this on a preview branch prior to the 1.0 launch - but instead we think a full patch update of a smaller version of the feature would be better.
So now there will be a patch update prior to 1.0, which will contain 1 alien faction with their own agenda on the star map. This should launch around early Quarter 3. From there we will iterate and improve the feature, and add an additional 3 factions to coincide with the 1.0 launch. This is summarized in the new roadmap image below:
We hope you’re as excited as we are for what’s coming next through the Exogate!
With that, all that remains is to say thank you once again for being a part of Exogate Initiative’s first year of life. We’d love to hear what the game means to you, what your favorite updates were, and what are some of your fondest memories from playing it this past year.
Safe travels,
Maxime MILLET
Creative Director, Xeno Bits