I hope you are all enjoying the holiday period! We are still hard at work and wanted to get one more update out before we say goodbye to 2025.
Important: These changes are NOT live in the current demo (yet).
Let's dive in!
Just a quick reminder, the best way you can currently support the game is:
Wishlist it.
Let your favorite YouTuber/Streamer know about the game.
Character Sheet UI!
You may have noticed some UI changes in our previous news, we have since made even further changes. This is still a work-in-progress and subject to change, so be sure to share any feedback!
In our previous iteration which was shared in our Discord server, we had simplified the character sheet UI and moved things to tabs. Throughout development we added more detail to the character sheet, and the amount of information shown at once was a little overwhelming (especially for new players). Moving to tabs allowed the information to be organized.
As noted by some players in Discord, this did mean they couldn't instantly see all of the information they wanted. This is always something we are cautious of, in particular for the information that you access a lot of the time.
The character needs are the most important information (especially conditions), so they are always shown. We did have "Equipment" on a tab, but we didn't love not being able to always see the equipment.
So we've rearranged the information and limited the tabs to the information you access least (skills, automation settings and log). This strikes a nice balance and gives us some flexibility in adding more information to tabs as we go.
Oh, part of the reason we needed more room was for the new equipment display, which shows a character silhouette. Yes, there is now a dedicated weapon slot!
Walk Speed
You may have also noticed the new Walk Speed detail on the character sheet.
Previously walk speed was determined by conditions, but it was pretty inconsistent as some conditions would override others.
We've changed how this works and conditions can have a walk speed modifier shown on the tooltip (e.g. Exhausted will give -2 walk speed, and a food buff might give +1 walk speed).
The total is calculated which determines your current walk speed. If you reach the right side of your walk speed bar, your character shifts up a gear and moves faster. All the way to the left, and they will be walking around slowly, as though they are injured or in a bad mood, which, they probably are...
This new system gives some leeway with conditions, as -1 Walk speed will keep you in the "Normal" walk zone. It also allows you to clearly see the impact of food and items, so you can directly counter any negative conditions you might have.
All of the above changes will be put through the paces as we will continue to make further improvements. Would love to hear what you think!
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Demo Update!
We are planning to update the demo at some point and bring all of the new changes across, however there are more changes we are testing and a few other QoL improvements before we do that.
Another reason we aren't rushing this out is that the demo update will not work with previous saves due to significant underlying changes, so if you want to finish your current demo playthrough you have plenty of time (we know some players have already put 10+ hours into the demo!).
And More...
The full game is being put through its paces with lots of testing, and we are going through and tweaking balance, pacing and even making some more significant changes to systems we aren't' 100% happy with. Here's a few other things we are experimenting with, we should have more detail to share on these soon:
Changes to how upgrades work in the research tree
Changes to combat & related equipment
Changes to the temperature system and how heat sources work
New automation features & improvements to existing features
Lots of QoL improvements
UI Improvements
Translations
On the translation front, we are still deciding the best way to handle localization. A lot of big titles went into Early Access as English Only and later added support for community translations (Raft, Subnautica, Oxygen Not Included, RimWorld, Satisfactory), so we may follow suit. With so much depth to the game there are a lot of objects and a lot of text, and we want the flexibility to make quick changes throughout the Early Access period.
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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, and we will be considering whether community translations are a good fit for the game.
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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