Hello everyone!
The first weeks of Early Access have been incredible and we're off to a fantastic start! We've seen a supportive and excited community rise up around Maelstrom with a level of interest that's been overwhelming for our small studio. We're stoked so many have decided to come with us and we want to share more about the upcoming months as we take the game past its infancy stages.
Early Access is more of a marathon and less of a sprint. It's about crafting the game for the players, getting it right and achieving the ultimate goal of a terrific full release launch. Based on internal goals and player feedback here are some of the major goals we'll be working on over the upcoming months:
Mate Improvements
To alleviate some of the randomness of earning mates we'll be relaxing the placement requirements and giving players a choice of mates when they're rewarded. We're also adding a free daily mate rewarded upon logging in. We are also working on letting you do something with your extra mates.
Ship Mastery Rewards
After much deliberation we've decided to implement a mastery system first instead of a traditional ladder system. We want to create a system that encourages players to complete challenging things and reward them for it with visual brags before considering more hardcore systems.
Skins System
Skins have been a highly requested item so we're working on a system that allows players to earn skins via the Ship Mastery system.
Brinemaw Leviathan
We've always had plans for the big guy so we're pulling the trigger to give him more more interactions with the players and the world.
Co-Op Play and Other Game Modes
We're working on an additional way for players to enjoy the game, including for those that may not want to PvP and just hang out and play with friends and progress. Look forward to bigger teams and co-op play coming.
Quality of Life Features and Fixes
- Remappable keys and buttons
- Faster score screen countdowns
- other high profile feature requests from the community
Kickstarter Backer rewards
We haven’t forgotten our generous Kickstarter backers and should have something to show you soon!
The Undead Fleet
Oh yes, it's happening. Concept and Design of the Undead is underway! The ideas and thoughts you have been posting have been awesome, keep it up!
Verified Discord Server
Our Discord server is now officially verified! If you haven’t checked it out and joined in on the conversation, we encourage you to do so. You can find helpful players, developers and moderators there as well as a place to find other players to team up with. Maelstrom is far from perfect but has progressed dramatically in just a few weeks and we are well over halfway to our first stretch goal!
The core features have been proven, and now it's time for us to dig in to add more content, features and polish. We are now in position to take Maelstrom to the next level, and that's exactly what we're going to do.
Finally, a special thanks to everyone for the support. Your participation in discussions and feedback is invaluable. We are also grateful to the wonderful streaming community who have been showcasing our game on a daily basis. It’s really amazing!
The Maelstrom team