Howdy, Pioneers,
We had this update written on Monday, and we did not send it.
The demo had gone live, thousands of you were playing it, and we could see there was work to do. Rather than tell you how well it was going, we put our heads down and got on with it.
Today's build is the one we wanted you to have.
What changed
Performance is significantly better than it was on Monday. If the game ran rough for you earlier in the week, it is worth another look.
The blurry picture is gone. If everything looked soft no matter what you did in the settings menu, that was a bug on our end, not your graphics card. It is fixed.
A great many bugs have been squashed, a good number of them found by people playing the demo this week and telling us about it.
A new building interface
This is the one we are most pleased about.
Players told us the building interface was getting in the way. Not in a small number of reports either, and the same points kept coming up. So we rebuilt it.
That went from community feedback to a shipped change inside a single week, which is exactly the way we want this game to be made. If you tried building earlier in the week and found it awkward, go and have another go. It is a different experience now.
Thank you
To our playtesters, and to everyone who has downloaded the demo this week: thank you.
The feedback has been genuinely invaluable. Bug reports, suggestions, screenshots, and people simply saying what felt good and what did not. It is shaping the game as we go, and the building interface is the clearest proof of that.
There is still a long trail ahead of us, and we are grateful to everyone who has joined us for the journey so far. We are still reading everything, so keep it coming. There are Bug Report and Feedback buttons inside the game, and we are on Discord all weekend.
Overlook Lake is only the beginning
The demo gives you your first taste of Red Rust Pioneers, but Overlook Lake is only the start of the journey.
When Red Rust Pioneers reaches Early Access, the trail leads onwards. You will be able to leave Overlook Lake behind and head down into Red Rust Valley, a far larger frontier filled with wildlife, danger, opportunity and adventure.
There are bandits out there. There are places waiting to be discovered. There is land to explore, resources to gather and a wilderness to survive.
And somewhere amongst all of that is a place to call your own. A patch of frontier where you can put down roots, build a home, gather your friends around the fire and start carving out a new life.
That is the Red Rust Pioneers we are working towards. The demo is your first few steps on that trail.
If you like what you see, wishlist Red Rust Pioneers
If you play the demo and find yourself wondering what lies beyond Overlook Lake, please wishlist Red Rust Pioneers on Steam.
Every wishlist matters enormously to an indie game like ours. It helps more people discover the game, it helps us build momentum on Steam, and it means you will hear from us the moment we are ready to open the trail into Red Rust Valley.
And if you know someone who would enjoy building a homestead, surviving the wilderness, exploring the frontier or simply sitting round a campfire with friends, send them our way too. The demo is free, there is nothing to sign up for, and it takes one click.
See you out there, Pioneers.
Thanks for your ongoing support,
– Rusty and the Rusty Robot dev team