New Stars - Early Access Release Date

Here is the third trailer, the early-access update and release date announcement.

https://youtu.be/1TPh2GLhDgQ

The scheduled release date for early-access is:

16th of December, 2023.

Also, here is a summary of the notable changes in November:

'Argon' Update

This update focuses on preparing the game for early-access and adding some major improvements to the gameplay experience. Part 1 and 2 have been completed.

'Argon' Update - Part 1

Galactic Gold (Resource)

- Gold can be found on certain planets, and is used for purchasing things and maintenance etc.
- You can exchange collected resources into gold in starhubs.
- You can also export resources into gold from colonies.
- New Financial Hub buildings creating 'Investor' jobs which produce gold on colonies.

Also, some resource icons were reskinned and recoloured.

Victory Conditions (Time, Conquest, Survival, Ascension)

- Ascension victory means you can claim the galactic center to win.
- Conquest victory means you can claim 51% of systems to win.
- Survival, and Time victories mean being the last empire, or having highest score at the end of the game respectively.

New Seamless Borders

The cool 2D 'blobs' that indicate empire borders.

'Argon' Update - Part 2

Galactic Center - New Region of the Galaxy

Celestial Squid - The current 'final boss' of the game.

New Main Menu

4 New Galaxies (Visuals)

Animated Neutron Stars / Pulsars

Narrations to Beginner Tutorial

Here's the full changelog of the changes the changes in the last 3 weeks.

The more readable changelog is available here: newstarsgame.com/changelog

Confusion

The biggest thing playtesters have issues with is that the game is confusing/hard to learn, while often noting that the game has enough content. While that is generally a problem shared with the genre, especially 4X games, this is a more long-term problem that will likely not be fully addressed in a single update.

If you have played Stellaris, or other similar galactic 4X games however, the game should be naturally easier to understand, however a lot of the mechanics are different and have their own learning curves.

This is why accessibility may be a bigger priority, over adding new features for example, in the near future at least.

Multiplayer?

I have not got round to working on multiplayer yet, since I decided to focus on improving the core game. While multiplayer compatible with Steam is already implemented, it is not stable enough to be released yet. The addition of multiplayer support may require hundreds of multiplayer-only bugs fixes, and I already have hundreds of single-player bugs to fix.

Argon - Part 3?

The plan for the last part of the Argon update is to focusing on playability, in order of significance:

1. Stability (Bug fixes)
2. Flow (Balancing)
3. Accessibility (Improvements to make game less confusing)

There is more than enough content in the game for early-access. Expansions to the game content can be done after early-access, although the main systems of the game are practically complete.

In the past, I have got carried away with adding features, as opposed to fixing bugs. Adding features generally creates a lot of bugs, and sometimes removing features is often an efficient option to fixing/preventing bugs.

Even after early-access, there may be an urgent need for hotfixes and improvements, therefore additional content will likely be worked on when things are more stable and if/when players are generally happy with the gameplay.

Stay tuned for more updates...

Feel free to comment your suggestions below.

🪵 View the Changelog: newstarsgame.com/changelog.
🕹️ Playtest New Stars: adamjr.xyz.
⭐ Wishlist New Stars to support development.

This page is intended to be a development preview, which may not reflect the final state of the game.