Hello Miners,
It’s now 3 years since Deep Rock Galactic was released into Early Access on Steam and Game Preview on Xbox. And it is almost 5 years since development started and Ghost Ship was founded by six hopeful game dev veterans. And now the Ghost Ship crew counts 25 heads and the Deep Rock community crossed 2 million. And it’s still growing.
When we started out, we decided to deliver constant updates to the game to make sure we could include the feedback from the community as swiftly as possible. Starting in Closed Alpha, going through Early Access and a 1.0 release, we have in total delivered 33 updates to the game and an innumerable amount of hotfixes to said updates. And when we announced the latest update to the living Roadmap the plan was to continue with a new major update roughly every quarter (or 3 months). This new Roadmap deviates from that plan in the sense that the next update, Update 34: Bits n’ Pieces, will be smaller than usual and the following update, Update 35, will be huge - maybe our biggest update ever.
UPDATE 34: BITS N' PIECES
First of all, the long-awaited Modding Support is shaping up nicely, and we aim to release this in Update 34 in April on Steam only. This started out as something rather basic, but we’ve ended up adding a whole bunch of features around Modding Support, including a Save Game Profile system, Mod categories, and a menu dedicated to Modding. The Save Game profiles can also be used to safely reset your progress to enjoy the game all over again without having to fiddle around with local save games and lose your highly Promoted dwarves in the process. We’ll release more info on the Modding Support as the release gets closer, though we will likely not have Steam Workshop integration in this first version.
Secondly, Update 34 will include a Controller Rebinding feature on all platforms. This has been sorely missing and should work like the Keyboard/Mouse rebind system.
Finally, we will be going through the Weapons and Overclocks currently in the game, and do a full balance pass, based on our internal data and the feedback we've gotten from you guys. That'll mean both buffs and nerfs, as always.
UPDATE 35: WE GOT A DOOZY OF AN UPDATE ON THE WAY!
With a smaller update for April, we can focus on creating a much bigger Update 35. It’s planned out for Q3 2021 - so at least 6 months from now. This lengthy timeframe will allow us to dig deeper into the game and add some new systems for the future. Deep Rock Galactic is here to stay for a long time - there are no signs of fading, quite the opposite - so we need to think further ahead. Normally, we don’t even plan that far, but we must also admit that getting a bit of breathing room and time to dream feels and sounds REALLY good. The last 4-5 years have gone by incredibly fast and even though we never crunch (as in never ever), it still feels like we are rushing things faster than we actually have to.
Update 35 has no title yet nor a theme. And since it’s so far away the content is obviously not finalized. But we know that it will very likely include a number of features that have been previously announced like a new mission, new weapons, new overclocks, and new cosmetic items. On top of this, we might add in some new mutators, more features to the space-rig, more cosmetic systems, and maybe some more things to happen during the missions.
As always, we will keep you updated and “leak” out details as we develop the new features and content.
ANNIVERSARY LIVE DEV STREAM IS ON!
One last thing: tune in to our live dev stream here on Twitch! It’s on right now, and we will, among other things, take Q&A on the new roadmap and the future of Deep Rock and Ghost Ship. Here is the full scehdule:
- 1 PM CET (UTC+1): Elite Deep Dive
- 3 PM CET (UTC+1): Roadmap Walkthrough and Q&A
- 4 PM CET (UTC+1): Art Showcase
- 5 PM CET (UTC+1): Act Like a Dwarf competition - selecting winners!
- 6 PM CET (UTC+1): Pickaxe & Chill
with love
the Ghost Ship crew