Hello and welcome to the 14th devlog for Red Dust Colony. This one's a big one: the public demo is almost here.
New version
After around 4 months of development, we've made the new version available privately for playtesting and the reception has been pretty good so far. We're now on the third patch, having ironed out most reported issues with nothing too alarming popping up. This means the demo will very soon go public and everyone will be able to try it out. All we're really missing is a new trailer, as the current one is over 2 years old, and that's exactly what we're planning to take care of next week.
A few features have been added since last time, tying up loose ends:
New colonist arrivals
To grow the colony, more hands are needed and for that colonists need a way to arrive. Once a rocket pad is built, new arrivals are made possible and the existing crew will be happy to greet newcomers. There's an option to skip all of this too, but nobody is going to be really happy about it.
Graves
This is an unfortunate requirement. The worst can happen and players need a way to deal with it and colonists need a place to lay their crew members to rest. The players now have the option of letting colonists mourn and process their loss. It's a small moment but it helps offset the mood loss.
Room types
Based on the contents of each room, a type is automatically assigned. This was only supposed to be added later, but one of the mental breaks requires colonists to go cry in a bedroom, so the game had to understand what a bedroom is. One thing led to another and now room types are implemented. Bedrooms, kitchens, recreation rooms and more are all recognized based on what's placed inside them.
Wishlist or follow the game if you haven't already and want to get notified when the demo is made public. We know many of you have been waiting for this for a while and we really appreciate your patience. It's been a long road but we're almost there.
Thanks for following along with the development and I'll see you next time, and next time might come sooner than you think.