Hello everyone!
We've just released the last major content update a few days ago. It's what you guys voted for: the ending of the game. This is just one of the endings we have planned though, there will be at least one more in the future. For more details, you can read about it on the game's website or watch Garie's newest video on youtube as this announcement is about the future, not the past! (The video doesn't show the ending, just talks a bit about it among other things).
Now that the last content update is out, we can finally move on to balancing the game and optimizing it as well. Right now, a huge, massive ship costs just as much as a bullet and the game runs at ~70-90 fps on a gtx 1070 at highest settings, which is not very good. So as we move forward, we'll be balancing every parameter possible like, resource requirements, dimensions, prices, every type of stat on the AI, texture sizes and other optimization techniques etc. As we work on this, we will also be improving a few visuals but no new models will be introduced. For example, we'll be adjusting lighting, colors and some special effects while also fixing bugs. A LOT of indie games out there are released in Early Access with very, very bad models, very low content and almost always filled with bugs and promises. We don't want that with Gaia, we want to improve Early Access reputation by showing that when there is will, there is quality even in the early stages of a game.
Because of that, we'll be hosting a Kickstarter campaign sometime in Spring next year, depending on when we'll be done with what we said above. It might be February, March or even April, we don't want to make any promises we can't keep. The purpose of the campaign will be to raise funds for various things that I personally, the sole dev so far, can't do, such as high quality sound effects, animations, models and art. One of the rewards will be getting a steam key for Gaia as soon as the campaign ends so hopefully we can get some support going with that :).
One last thing. About a month before the campaign starts, we'll be hosting another testing period where we'll be testing actual gameplay instead of concepts and mechanics. The purpose of that is to ensure that the game is satisfactory for people who will be backing the Kickstarter campaign. We'll be handing out 10 more keys to people who are interested in helping out with testing, so just watch out for announcements on this page! There'll be even more testing periods after the campaign but before the game is officially out in Early Access so don't worry if you don't get a key this time.
Here's the link to the video for those interested:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SRgyN6ejeFs