The Remaining Roadmap
Hey everyone! It's been a couple of months sense the last update which brought some great quality of life and major changes to the game that helped streamline the overall Sketchy's gameplay and make the player experience more intuitive.
I've done a stream or two sense then discussing with my community the complete roadmap to Full Release and thought it would be good to sum it all up in a compact post here on Steam to get everyone up to speed outside of my streams and discord. So here it is, what remains of Sketchy's Contract.
Keep in mind that I will not be going into the complete details of these features but simply highlighting them so you have an idea. The full details will be posted with the content release itself.
Last Major Update - 0.7.0.0
This update aims to drive Sketchy's into completion by hitting all the areas that don't feel as deeply developed as others. One major thing I thought about while cooking this last update was Charm and Personality of Sketchy's. I really want Sketchy's to Stand out as something truly unique - something you remember - and to do that, I needed to focus on the Burger Shop, replayability, and the personality of the game.
The Burger Shop Redesign
With this last update, players will finally participate at the Burger Shop, which is now a thriving fast food stop for extraterrestrials. Here are the key elements:
The Burger Shop has an Inventory Room that players can restock with specific food items to gain access to special perks.
As aliens land their spaceships and order food, inventory will be slowly consumed - with very little consumed while at lower inventory levels and more consumed at high inventory.
Cooking System - one of the perks you'll gain access to is the ability to cook a Big Bang Burger! (I feel a lot of you saying "FINALLY!!"). More on what the burger does when I post the update itself.
Coffee Machine - another perk is the ability to brew Sketchy Coffee. More on what coffee does when I post the update itself.
New Storage Item: "Burger Shop Crate" - allows players to place 20 burger shop specific items into the crate which can then be brought to the burger shop to directly feed into the inventory shelves.
The Planetary Conditions System and New NPC
This new system brings Planetary incentive to Sketchy's, meaning that farming harsher planets has value and that even avoiding "easy" planets might be in your best interest from time to time. Preparing for your next trip and where you decide to land will matter. Here are the key elements:
Each Contract (T2 and T3), random conditions both negative and positive are generated for each map.
There are 16 different planetary conditions - 8 negative and 8 positive.
Negative Conditions range from Night Shift Contamination to No revives.
Positive Conditions range from all enemies dropping coin pouches to Level 3 containing a massively expensive golden egg!
Players will want to see which planet will be most appropriate to their needs based on the conditions which will dramatically alter the way you travel throughout the Sketchy Galaxy.
New NPC as one of the positive Conditions: "Black Market Vendor" - this vendor appears randomly on different planets each contract with special goods that are considered extremely powerful but as you might imagine are very expensive.
Other key changes
A complete redesign of Port Sahariss - Ancient Egypt themed.
A new Night creature to fight.
Night Vision now displays the location of Friends in the world as well as their distance from you and their dead bodies.
Dying now displays the position where you last died in the world with a bag icon.
Level 3 now drops a ton of loot not just a single item.
Oxygen System rework.
New item to Purchase: "Oxygen Reservoir" which complements the Oxygen Rework.
Fixes and more
Expected 0.7.0.0 Release Date?
I am targeting end of March, but will release it the moment its ready, so keep an eye out on Discord.
Full Release - v1.0.0
I can't believe its been nearly 2 years now sense Early Access began. The amount of content, community feedback changes, and updates I've pushed into this game over that time is overwhelming. With that said, I wanted to be clear that Full Release will not contain any major features/systems as that would entail potential bugs. Instead, Full Release will focus on these key elements:
New Map
A Small Storyline
Achievements
and some additional cosmetic content
Expected Full Release Date?
I am targeting end of May of this year, but there is no set date as of now. As I get closer, I will make the proper official announcement with date reveals etc., but I wanted to give you an approximate date, so you have some idea of what to expect.
Post Full Release
Once Sketchy's has released, I will be pushing hotfixes only as needed, with hotfixes slowing overtime, but there will be no major updates.
As for my plans as a game developer following the completion of Sketchy's? I'll talk more on that once Full Release is live.