Firstly a big thanks to everyone playing the demo that has been submitting feedback via Discord, the feedback form, Forums, Reviews etc! It's a huge help knowing the things you love as well as any issues you have had. Remember, the best way you can currently support the game is:
Wishlist it.
Let your favorite YouTuber/Streamer know about the game.
Secondly, stats are fun, so here's one: More than 7,000 gulls have been kicked by players in the demo.. you all really, really seem enjoy it 😂. These food snatching sky-rats had it coming no doubt!
Demo Patch
This latest demo patch (notes below) includes some fixes, QoL improvements, and a few changes that we have brought over from our work on the full game.
Balance wise we have made some changes to Fish Traps to move them in-line with the intended usage (with fish circles). The demo doesn't have some of the full-game things (like fishing-rods) so let us know how this goes. We will be making further changes to this, notably, we will probably make fish circles hang around one day longer if necessary.
Plans
We are working hard on the full game, lots more QoL and all sorts of things. There will be more keybinds coming (including the ability to bind WASD etc), and better edge of screen panning.
Balance is something we are also constantly looking it, if you struggle to survive even after a couple of attempts, please do let us know and let us know what aspect you are finding difficult. It could be we haven't made something obvious enough, or a particular resource is too scarce etc. You will have a lot of control over this with custom settings in the full game, but we still want to nail the baseline difficulty.
Things like how debris appears over time, and is distributed are also being looked at.
Speaking of the full game, we are hoping to showcase more of this soon, especially some of the other systems not yet seen like fishing (with a rod), crop farming and metal smelting.
Automation
We are also working on more automation. I know you all love directly controlling characters, but beyond the demo when you have 5+ characters to manage, we want you to be able to automate a lot of them, while directly controlling some of them as needed. Lots of neat things planned here (including auto-fueling campfires), so stay tuned.
Patch Notes
These notes aren't extensive, there are lots of general changes as we also work on the full version. Here is the main stuff that applies to the demo.
Added a new Disembark feature to rafts, allowing you to queue up characters on the raft getting off at an island.
Improved need automation so it will no longer interrupt certain tasks (like combat and healing from the medical crate)
Standing torches now provide more light, and provide heat, but require fuel.
Fish traps were overperforming. They will now only hold 1 fish if not linked to a circle, and the catch time when unlinked was increased by 20%. Cost has been increased from 2 to 3 ropes now that plant fibre is more abundant. Durability has been decreased from 150 to 25, as these are primitive and prone to requiring repairs. Durability now effects how fast they catch fish (was not implemented previously).
Butchering shark now also gives Shark Skin.
Float regulator no longer requires any stone to build.
Character skills can now start up to negative 3. When a character has a negative skill level, they will be worse as actions relating to the task. As they gain experience by doing tasks they will level up to zero, and then continue to level up as normal.
Scavenger background now starts with -3 science.
Navigator background now starts with -2 farming.
Science Officer background now starts with -2 combat (but doesn’t dislike it)
Fixed characters trying to keep cooking or relaxing when there is no fuel.
Fixed some nav pathing issues in water that could potentially get a character stuck, and added some fixes for characters that may have been stuck.
Fixed some wildlife not spawning at expeditions on the first day characters arrived.
More Languages
We are planning to add more languages further into development. The game text is still evolving and we made the decision to keep it English only for now to allow us to focus on faster development and updates. In addition to this, the game has a pretty quirky and sometimes comedic tone (with the occasional pop culture reference), which adds some challenge to localization.
You can show us if you are interested in a language by:
Wishlisting the game (we see wishlists per region)
Let us know via forums/discord.
The number of wishlists and interest shown for each region heavily influences the languages we will localize into.
Controller & Steam Deck Support
Some players have already played on the Steam Deck, but we don't have official support just yet. We do plan to have it fully playable on the Steam Deck further into development (and we have our Steam Deck ready to test!)
Controller support is challenging for this type of game that has this much depth, and we don't want the gameplay to be limited by controller inputs. Our plan is to look into this once we have all of our features in to see what is possible. We have good experience implementing controllers and it is on our mind during development, but we are also aware of the limitations.
Found a Bug?
Please report them! Whether it's a typo or something more significant please let us know via the forums or via Discord.
Help & Guides
This genre of game naturally comes with a lot of freedom, and this includes freedom to make mistakes (e.g. not building water production for your colony). Figuring things out is a big part of the fun for these types of games!
Having said that, if you struggle to survive you can follow the progression guide shown on the side of the screen and there is a bunch of tutorials in the handbook.
If Somethings Needs Better Tutorials
There is a lot of depth in the game and we already have a heap of tutorials shown in the handbook. We do have more tutorials planned so if you find something is not explained well enough or are still confused about anything, be sure to let us know.
"What game is it like"
We like to ask players what game it reminds them of, and, "oh buoy", we have seen just about every game under the sun mentioned by now!
It's been really interesting to see what type of games players have brought up - obviously this depends a lot on which games payers have played in the past. In no particular order:
Don't Starve and Paper Mario (in relation to the art style).
Oxygen Not Included, Rimworld, The Survivalist, Cult of the Lamb.
Raft (and open world survival crafting games in general).
The Flame in The Flood, Flotsam, Frostpunk & Sheltered.
A hint of Fallout/Fallout Shelter.
Monkey Island, The Sims, Craft the World, Clanfolk.
We knew there would be comparisons to similar looking games (like Don't Starve and Oxygen Not Included), so we were extremely pleased to see players add comments to this comparison that Oceaneers is still very different and innovative, it's very much doing its own thing.
What's Next!?
We are hard at work on the full game! Recently we have been improving crop farming, fishing rods and smelting metals - then tying all of the survival progression into the story/objective progression.
Come have a chat!
Our community is growing, and everyone has been amazing and really friendly. Come chat with the devs and other players in our Discord
Leaving Feedback
If you encounter any bugs, or would love to discuss features please do so via the Steam forums or our Discord. It's really helpful to know about the parts of the game you enjoy, as well as anything you don't.
You can also check discord for a list of known bugs, community suggestions and upcoming plans!
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⚡ Be sure to Wishlist Oceaneers, and stay tuned for the next dev diary and more announcements. ❤️
Join Us!
Join our discord to discuss the game and share your ideas!
Join discord here
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Some recent Dev Diaries in case you missed them:
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