Next Fest
Sol One closed out Steam Next Fest at 5,000 wishlists. For a solo project, that's a milestone that tells me there's a real audience for what I'm building and I'm grateful to everyone who played, wishlisted, and sent feedback.
The Demo
The Next Fest demo was an early build, and I want to be straight about that. Most of Sol One's core systems are already in the game, but during the festival many of them still had bugs or lacked the explanation needed to make sense on a first playthrough. Rather than ship a confusing experience, I disabled them and patched what was left as fast as I could during the fest.
Even with that limited slice, the signal was clear: players who love games like Satisfactory, Subnautica, and The Planet Crafter saw the potential here. The feedback (both quick fixes and longer-term requests) was exactly what I needed. I'm cataloguing all of it and working through it systematically.
Early Access Plans
Now the next step is the early access release! Here are the feature that will be available:
A full survival loop. Oxygen, food, water, stamina, and health, all properly implemented.
A working water production system, which finally lets plants grow.
Intermediary crafting items in the fabricator, giving building and crafting real depth (No more turning raw materials straight into a smelter)
A fully unlocked interior pressure system. Manage oxygen generator supply and design your base around pressure.
The first version of the research table tech tree.
A science system. Tools for collecting samples and data points across the world to unlock new tech.
Points of interest to discover, starting with crashed spacecraft you can salvage for resources and science.
A proper main menu and options menu.
Plenty of quality-of-life improvements alongside all of it.
Most of this is already built. The work ahead is polishing, fixing, and tying it together pushing it towards early access.
Thank you!
None of this happens without the people who showed up early. Five thousand of you wishlisted a game from a developer you'd never heard of, working alone, on the strength of a rough demo and an idea. Thank you for taking a chance on Sol One this early, and for sticking around while I get it right.
If you know someone who'd be into a hard surface Mars survival game, send them our way and if you haven't wishlisted yet, that's the best way to follow the road to Early Access. I'll see you on Mars.