Hello friends!
While the final touches are being made in update 0.73, we would like to introduce you to two new enemies! Previously, we filled the desert and the Edge with the few mobs that were completed. Due to this, the uniqueness of the species might not have been as apparent. However, now that we have more models, we can distribute them according to habitat zones, making the fauna of K’Tarsis look much more logical. Here’s what we can tell you about the behaviors and characteristics of the two new animals.
WILD DOG
You can encounter this mob both in the desert and in the savanna, and it will take some effort to deal with them!
The dog is a pack animal, very agile, fast, and maneuverable. Due to the peculiarities of its body structure — especially its long jointed legs — animating it was a real challenge. And now the dog can run, chase prey in accelerated mode, jump on its victim, sniff around, and much more. By the way, the short front paws, with which the animals operate quite well, deserve special attention.
By the way, the dog impresses not only with its quite eerie abrupt movements but also sounds very menacing!
Due to the speed of the dogs, it’s unlikely that you’ll be able to keep them at a distance for long, so for now, dodging in a jump will be very helpful in fighting them. However, as the combat system is further developed, new, more interesting possibilities will appear.
UPDATED CRUCAS
Remember the chubby lizards clumsily rolling from side to side? Now they will be replaced by a completely new mob — fast, agile, and ominous.
Crucases will still inhabit predominantly dark, damp places — there’s plenty of them in dungeons, for example. But they have adapted to the desert just fine, though they tend to stay in the shadow of rocks. These animals are very mobile — they jump a considerable distance and strike with their long front clawed paws. They can also loop, skillfully dodging bullets. The bite of a crucas is poisonous, so it’s better to avoid it if possible — or at least stock up on something that can restore health.
The sounds that the crucas makes are particularly impressive in the dark. However, even in the light of day, this mob will make you flinch from surprise! By the way, in the future, we plan to add a long-range attack to the crucas, an acid spit that will need to be dodged. It will also be wise to stay alert when exploring tombs or caves — these animals thrive there in abundance!
That’s all bout new mobs! We hope they will impress you when you meet them on the wastness of K’Tharsis, Share your impressions in comments and make sure to drop by our Discord!
Hey friends!
Today we would like to explore another complex topic that significantly enriches the world of Exoplanet — NPC daily routines.
We were inspired to give characters daily activities by Gothic, one of the first games to create a world where many characters have minor daily tasks. These tasks correspond to the roles of NPCs on The Edge — guards secure their locations, patrols monitor the territory, and traders scavenge for scraps. At first glance, it may seem simple, but in reality, there are many nuances in designing daily activities that we will discuss further.
Before realizing the need to develop a separate subsystem to handle NPC daily routines, we used quest logic. However, this approach led to many problems — we had to manually consider whether a character is alive or not, whether they are in combat, or if they have moved to another location to participate in a more important quest.
To avoid numerous errors and unnecessary actions, it was decided to develop daily routines within the framework of our artificial intelligence system — the NPC behavior tree. It is a part of the AI responsible for decision-making. Its logic runs several times per second, constantly determining which branch of actions to execute for the NPCs. Based on the results of the evaluation, requests are generated for them, which are handled by another part of the AI.
What does the use of the behavior tree provide?
- A convenient environment for developing daily routines:
To avoid numerous errors and unnecessary actions, we decided to develop daily routines within our game engine’s editor called “Sahara Engine.” This way, it could have access to all game data, simplifying the control of NPC daily routines. Now, we can quickly, easily, and conveniently set time intervals for specific actions, define their priorities, and determine the rules for execution. Thus, the game checks the in-game time first and then the character starts performing the assigned action accordingly. For example, in the morning, abori can scavenge for scrap, talk during the day, and sleep at night.
- Simplification of NPC state checks:
By having a unified system, checking the state of characters became much easier, and the number of overlooked situations and bugs in the game significantly decreased. It also became much easier to handle situations where NPC activities were interrupted for various reasons – thanks to the new system, the character simply resumes their task from the beginning. Moreover, the performed task is not a repetitive chain of actions – there are specific branches for each time of day. Therefore, even if the routine is interrupted, the immersion in the game remains intact as the character’s behavior always corresponds to the time of day.
- Automatic prioritization:
Regular tasks are automatically assigned the lowest priority. The system first checks various aspects, such as whether the character is alive, engaged in a quest, or involved in a conversation with Jack, and only then sends them to perform the task.
By the way, assigning daily tasks also has its own rules and system. Each character is planned to have 2-4 different actions based on their occupation and habits, corresponding to their profession. Some characters have hobbies — for example, growing plants. The behavior of other characters may hint at their dark past. For instance, the Hermit trembles in sleep, haunted by nightmares of the past.
What types of tasks exist in the game?
Behavior of significant characters:
We wanted to create several distinct characters with complex, diverse, and interesting tasks. Their selection was based on their backstory, characteristics, and the timing of their encounter with Jack. Here are a few interesting examples:
Rusty Nails is the first NPC Jack encounters, marking the beginning of his interaction with the Abori race. Therefore, we added as many details to this character as possible. Rusty scavenges for valuables in the trash, attempts to break open a safe, claiming its mechanism is too complex to crack, and goes to sleep at night.
Garry is the owner of an abandoned mine and a broken hoverbike. He roams around Lucky Hole town, converses with the trader Vaga, and occasionally indulges in drinking and causing a ruckus. Sometimes you need to search around the town to find him. By the way, in the daily routine logic, it is taken into account whether Jack completed the quest “Fixing Garry’s Old Hoverbike”. In that case, Garry’s garage will be open, and he will periodically go inside to tinker with the mechanisms.
Mad Miner is one of the most mysterious characters. By his actions you can see, for example, how he threatens old posters of bounty hunters with his fist. A funny fact — to our surprise, the crazy Abori recently started undertaking tasks that nobody assigned to him! He switched from targeting wanted posters to a group of renegade Abori, initially getting himself killed in an attempt to provoke them and then learning to escape. Recently, he started to annoy a nearby grazing cabarog too! We have not yet found the reason for this change, considering it another mystery of K’Tharsis.
Behavior of ordinary NPCs:
Ordinary inhabitants of the world receive simple tasks that correspond to their occupation. However, this guard not only guards the gate but also takes care of watermelons. I wonder what will happen if Jack dares to touch his harvest.
Stranger always performs the same action. After appearing in the game, he can be found sitting near a cliff edge. However, he has a specific goal — why else would he invite Jack to sit with him?
Behavior of animals:
Currently, animals simply wander around their spawn points, but in the future we plan to add more routines to them.
We still have a lot of work ahead of us in assigning routine tasks to characters, and as always, your feedback is crucial. Please share your thoughts on character routines in the comments, and be sure to join our Discord to ask questions, share your impressions, or find out about upcoming updates from the devblog!
Greetings, space cowboys!
Today, we’d like to talk to you about one of the most essential aspects of space western — the combat system. It’s quite an extensive and complex topic, but we’re steadily approaching the final version. Today we’ll tell you how we’ve improved the impact effects for both melee and ranged and share our plans on diversifying fights with a new system of perks.
Character reactions
We want to make character reactions to damage visually impressive and appealing. Therefore, we dedicate a lot of time to achieving believable combat visuals.
In previous updates, we introduced hit animations for different body parts. Now we want to enhance character reactions to damage and associated negative effects. To create the right impression, we have replaced some animations and continue refining the “status effects” system. We are also gradually increasing the importance of stamina, allowing you to have better control over your fights.
Perks
Fights in our game are not just about strikes; they involve clever combinations and sometimes even dirty tricks. To help you create a unique fighting style, we have developed a special perks system for your character, Jack. Do you want to increase damage resistance with Iron Skin? Rain a hail of bullets on your opponent? Or knock them out with a cunning kick? The choice is yours!
By the way, if you have anything to say about our perk system, feel free to comment or join our Discord – we really appreciate your feedback!
Effects
It’s great when characters have proper reactions during combat, but they’re not enough for a complete picture. That’s why we have made melee hit registration much more accurate and added visually striking effects.
We have transferred blood decals to PBR (Physically Based Rendering) — now, when characters are hit, drops of blood proportionate to the inflicted damage will fall to the ground. Blood will also appear on the ground during bleeding effects.
Melee combat animations have undergone significant improvements. The backswing is accelerated, followed by a deceleration for telegraphing the upcoming blow, the blow itself is accelerated, giving you time to react, dodge, or parry. Dynamic changes in animation speed will make strikes look more powerful, enhancing the impact sensation, while improved minor details will add authenticity.
As for the sounds, they correspond to the materials involved in each impact. A metal pipe to wood, a wooden stick to glass, an antigravium shard to stone, and so on – each pair has its own character to make the environment more tangible. At the same time, the sounds of flesh impacts have become crisper and more powerful.
We have also corrected the swing timings for all of our melee weapons – now every related sound is synchronized with the character’s actions.
Enemies
To add depth to battles, we have implemented a system of levels for all enemies — both animals and humanoids. Their level will determine their damage, speed, stamina, and other parameters. You can only see an enemy’s level after scanning, so don’t forget to do that before engaging in battle!
By the way, humanoid enemies will have the same abilities as the player. They will correspond to one of the four combat skill archetypes: a melee fighter with a focus on agility or strength, a gunner, or a sniper. This will make battles more unpredictable — the enemy’s strength and fighting style will depend on both their level and skill progression.
Shooting like a cowboy
We have also paid attention to Jack’s shooting animations. His stance now closely resembles that of a cowboy, adding a touch of authenticity. Instead of holding the pistol like a regular police officer, Jack now shoots playfully, extending his arm, while still hitting the mark perfectly!
These are just a few of the combat system changes awaiting you in the next update. They already significantly improve impact and, we hope, add much needed realism. Please let us know how you like them – your feedback will greatly help us understand how successful we’ve been in enhancing the immersion in the game. And be sure to check out our Discord for all the latest development news!
Hello friends!
You have asked us if there would be an option to create your own character. In this article we’d like to explain why we can’t give such an option to the players and why we made such decisions.
Of course, it’s great to be able to create a character based entirely on your own preferences – to define his appearance parameters, like in Skyrim, or even choose a backstory, like in Mass Effect. And many players will feel a strong attachment to such a custom character.However, fully predefined characters also have many advantages – remember Arthur Morgan from Red Dead Redemption 2 or Geralt from the Withcer. So what can be said about our hero?
Jack Sharp — the one and only?
When thinking about what our main character would be like, we considered many factors, such as the technical and production complexity of implementing full-scale character customization. And by designing a predetermined character, we wanted to achieve certain creative goals, which we’ll talk about next.
A fully customizable character means always a massive amount of work. Just giving players the ability to change the gender of a character, for example, would require creating a lot more assets and adapting each of them to additional animations!
One more serious challenge could be dialogues and NPCs’ reactions. Another major challenge could have been writing the dialogues and reactions of the NPCs. Having one predefined main character allowed us to focus on authenticity and make the dialogues better, fuller, and more interesting rather then make them suitable for all possible gender and origin variations.
Without a doubt, it would be possible to create a minimum variant of customization and allow players to edit the appearance of the protagonist at least in the minor details. We do not exclude the possibility to at least partially implement such an option, although we are not ready to promise anything in advance. However, creating a predetermined character seemed to us a more attractive option. Let’s see what advantages this solution brought and what customization options we were able to provide to the players.
A true space cowboy
We gave Jack the appearance of a dashing cowboy and a certain kind of personality. He was given the persona of a caustic and cynical adventurer with a dark past, details of which emerge as the story progresses.
However, you can make Jack look at many things from a different angle. By choosing different lines of behavior in dialogues and quests, he can act as a more altruistic individual or act as a complete egoist. Therefore, despite the predetermined past, ultimately it is up to you to decide what your space cowboy’s moral profile will be during the course of his adventures on the planet K’Tharsis.
In addition to the moral image, you can also create a unique clothing style for the main character by finding different outfit options. With enough experimentation, you are sure to create an image that suits you both in characteristics and in terms of visual aesthetics.
Deeper integration into the world
Thanks to the fact that Jack’s appearance and backstory are predetermined, we were able to use this both in the cinematics at the beginning of the game and in the cutscenes. In addition, as mentioned earlier, we were able to make a more vivid and personalized reaction of NPCs – characters can comment on the appearance and actions of Jack, sometimes, in fact, giving him completely unflattering characteristics. Jack’s own reactions, by the way, are also more conveniently prescribed based on his specific personality.
We’re working hard to finish the current game as quickly as possible, but of course we’re making plans for the future. Of course, we would like to keep expanding the world of Exoplanet, making it bigger, richer and more diverse, linking individual stories into a chain leading to global events.
This means that the protagonists of the new stories told in the future may encounter the protagonists of the previous ones!
Archetypes
We would like to give players as much freedom as possible in creating the character they like, so we created the archetype system, which we told you about earlier. In a nutshell, it is a system that allows you to choose the starting skills corresponding to a certain class – warrior, thief or diplomat – which will allow you to influence your approach to gameplay. However, if you are not satisfied with any of them, you can form a set of skills yourself. By the way, on Edge you can find a teacher for raising any skill – so don’t worry about making the wrong choice!
That’s how Jack Sharp came to be – a hero with a particular story and appearance, but the freedom of moral choice and archetype to deal with problems on K’Tarsis. And what characters from RPGs do you remember? How important to you is the ability to customise a character? Share your opinion in the comments, and be sure to drop by our Discord!
Hello friends!
As you know we work hard for our game to become as convincing as possible, that’s why we’ve put a lot of effort into adding one of the most important features — total mortality.
This mechanic is a real challenge for us because if any character can die, there will be so many scenarios that it will be impossible to control them! Besides, in our game there are quite a number of spectacular cutscenes. If a character dies and then appears in one of the videos, the logic of the narrative will be broken. It put even more difficulties into the search of the solution and even made us think of giving up this feature.
And yet we wanted our players to have an opportunity to considerably influence the storyline. That’s why we’ve made a serious research on how mortality looks in other games. For example, if you kill an important character in Divinity 2, there will be a note on his body. It will help you go on with the quest. In Morrowind the game suggests using your latest save to proceed. After analysing all the approaches we developed a flexible hybrid system considering the death of every character — almost all the events in our game are interconnected, and the death of one NPC can influence some quests.
How does this hybrid variant look?
There are three variants of dealing with mortality. The first one relates to the death of a very important character. In this variant we think about the alternative ways of the storyline — for example, if the Herbalist dies, Jack can find his apprentice anyway. With this method we make sure that the players don’t lose big chains of events even if one link was lost. Of course, it’s a hard and expensive variant demanding a lot of work, and we can’t use it everywhere. But it helps to replenish the content and the quests don’t feel empty — that’s why we use it with significant characters.
In case the killed character isn’t that important, the logic just excludes them from the rest of the quests — so if you kill local bullies of the Edge, Pimples and Knuckles, nobody mentions them and you won’t have to intimidate these guys to stop them from harming the locals.
And finally, the third variant — the one we use really carefully to keep the immersiveness — is natural restrictions. You can undoubtedly attack any character — for example, a strong or a powerful one. But it’s highly believable that such NPCs will have tough armour or loyal guards. A mercenary or a professional fighter will be mighty and skillful. So you will have to reach quite a high level to challenge them. In that case the restrictions are pretty natural but you can always try!
So we tried to introduce soft restrictions and made sure there is a lot of various and interesting content in the game and the logic of the quests isn’t broken. But we still advise you to decide carefully — every character has their history and even a couple of secrets to share if you come to the agreement!
By the way, we’re still testing different branches of quests, so don’t hesitate to inform us about any mistakes in the comments and in our Discord so that we could correct it for the next build. And don’t forget to drop by our devblog where we share the latest news!
And what do you think about mortality in the games? Share your thoughts in the comments and add your game into the wishlist!
Have a nice adventure on K’Tharsis, space cowboys!
Hello friends!
While we’re working on the next build, we’re excited to share some details about our roleplay approaches in the game and how we’re implementing them.
You may know about the three pillars of a roleplay system: killing, stealing and talking. All of them are performed in our game. Let’s have a look at how you can solve problems and do quests using them!
Killing
As a space western Exoplanet has a variety of weapons — and don’t hesitate to give them a try! Force is the most popular way of solving problems on K’Tharsis. And to give them a more cowboy look in future updates we’re planning to add new animations!
K’Tharsis is a cruel planet, so sometimes it may be much easier to intimidate NPCs, and if it doesn’t work — be ready to face consequences! Some quests lead you to places where negotiations are not an option, so the choice is either stealth kill or plain aggression. And of course, from time to time you’ll have to pick sides — so be careful and make sure you understand what expects you when you choose who you want to fight!
Stealing
Not everyone will do as you please and give you what you want. And if you say that it’s not the reason to grab your gun — you’re right. You can always use the system of stealing instead! So feel free to sneak among your enemies, take what you need, even from their pockets, and vanish into the vastness of K’Tharsian savannahs! By the way, we’ve improved our stealth mechanics — in the next update Jack will be able to hide in high grass!
Talking
This way may come surprisingly effective! If you earn the trust of locals, you may discover more secrets of the planet, learn how to get to some stashes or just find out something new about K’Tharsis dramatic history.
Of course, you hardly ever play using only one style, and our system is designed in a way to reward flexible players by providing the richest experience. In the dialogues there are options for showing your knowledge of science or survival, being convincing and eloquent or even being intimidating enough for bloodthirsty Scalphunters. And if you feel that you’ve made the wrong choice picking up skills in the beginning of the game, don’t worry — there are a lot of options to learn what you want. Even A.N.N.A can help you there!
So don’t hesitate to try different styles of roleplay and share what you think — we still have a lot of work to do and your feedback will help us make it much better! To follow the changes, join our Discord channel, leave feedback, subscribe to our page on Steam and—the main thing—add the game to your wishlist!
Hello, friends!
We hope your year started really well — and we’re excited to tell you all about the new update. This year we’re planning to show more progress in the improvement of the game — we’ve analyzed the experience of the previous year and expect to considerably speed up the process of development. And now let’s see what improvements and changes await us in the update 0.72!
FOR THOSE WHO STILL PLAYING BUILD 0.71
Important reminder: with 0.72 all the saves from 0.71 might be broken, that’s why we made an additional branch on Steam for those who still want to play 0.71. Right click on the game in your library, Properties, go to Betas tab and then choose update_071, no password required. This way you can continue your previous game if you want to.
GAMEPLAY
We keep working on the fighting system and have added a knockdown animation into the game. Now Jack as well as NPCs will find themselves lying on the ground if they get some serious damage — for example, from a shotgun or a rifle. The same effect is caused by kabarogs’ attack — now you have one more reason not to let them come near you!
If you touch an anomaly you’ll also be knocked down — and it will be completely unlucky if the enemy is somewhere near.
There was a lot of feedback that Jack’s running animation doesn’t look so well. We’ve made one more step to fixing it so don’t hesitate to tell us how you like a new variant!
LEVEL DESIGN
We go on refining the quests so they would be not only interesting and diverse, but would tell players more about different aspects of life on planet K’Tharsis. That’s why, for example, we’ve changed the quest “Find Curious” a bit — now there is a new area for exploring. What do you think this place is and what is it telling about?
The bottom of the trench under the mining town has become much more interesting to explore. Now there’s the difference of heights and pieces of land — and, of course, alien bugs who were the fastest to appreciate the new landscape!
The Hermit’s zone has also changed — we’ve renewed the sanctuary of the sky demons, Now it significantly differs from other sacred places of abori, demonstrating the difference between cultures. The sanctuary reminds of the times when a lot of spaceships used to land on K’Tharsis. Nevertheless, this version is not final, so feel free to tell us what you think!
QUESTS
There is a new event in the game! Now you can see the fight of two patrols — Sculphunters and Outcasts — in Lucky Hole! You can join one of the groups or wait until they finish their showdown or just wait until they finish each other!
Already existing quests have also improved. So, for example, Rusty is ready to teach Jack not only to fry meat — there are more recipes and more treats at the end of the quest. The quest about searching his friend has become more complicated and controversial. All the dialogues with Rusty were rewritten and have become more dynamic and easy to read, and the prize for completing the quest is much more valuable and will influence the opportunities in the game.
Jack will have more opportunities to interact with the gang of Dusty Devils. And our character will have to be much more attentive — we’ve remade the place of the ambush a bit and it’s become more dangerous!
GRAPHICS
The interface of the game keeps changing. We’ve made new stylish context icons which appear when you have to open the door, talk to an NPC or, for example, crawl through the crevice. We’ve also simplified the system of loot, shortening it to one button “take all” — so give us feedback if it’s really more convenient.
The interaction with objects has also significantly simplified. Now when you bring the mouse to the object, the information about all possible interactions appears. This system is not final, so write in the comments how clear the tips are and if you can see them well enough.
OPTIMISATION
We keep working on speeding up the game – and now the processes of loading a new gamу or the previous save have really improved. Thanks to reducing unnecessary processes, the loading will become 30% faster. But make sure to inform us if that’s not so!
That’s all for now. Hope you’ll like our update — and we’ll try to delight you with new improvements. Thanks for your support! Don’t hesitate to leave your feedback in the comments or in our Discord — and see you!
Hello, friends!
Our new update is right here for the Steam Winter Sale! But before telling you about it, we want to thank you for being so active and supportive. Thanks to your prompt feedback we managed to correct a lot of bugs and flaws and also planned future improvements. We hope build 0.71 will make your gaming experience much better.
FOR THOSE WHO STILL PLAYING BUILD 0.70
Important reminder: with 0.71 all the saves from 0.70 might be broken, that’s why we made an additional branch on Steam for those who still want to play 0.70. Right click on the game in your library, Properties, go to Betas tab and then choose update_070, no password required. This way you can continue your previous game if you want to.
GAMEPLAY
First of all, according to your requests, we’ve improved the system of stealth. Earlier Jack could only crouch in this regime, and now he won’t have to hide his weapon — you can attack your enemy from stealth, shooting him in the back or hit him with a melee weapon if you feel confident.
One more important change is interaction with objects. We’ve added the system of suggestive focus which doesn’t require accurate pointing at the interactive object with a cursor, but highlights it when you approach. So collecting loot — especially small — is a much more enjoyable and much easier process now.
Tutorial has also considerably changed — some players complained that A.N.N.A is too intrusive — often takes the control from players and literally leads them by the hand. We made the tutorial shorter and more dynamic, and part of the dialogues is moved to the background now. Besides, now AI is mostly introduced by a golden icon in the top right corner, where you can also see tips on the character control. The icon can change colours depending on the mood — angry A.N.N.A turns red and the contented one becomes green. We’re planning even more changes for the tutorial in the future.
You’ve also informed us that it’s not that convenient to finish the enemies with the R key — and sometimes you can accidentally kill those you didn’t mean to. So we’ve changed it to the key X which used to hide the UI of the game for screenshots. Now you can hide the UI with Ctrl + F10.
QUESTS AND LEVEL DESIGN
We’ve added thirteen new quests in our Major Update and managed to fix or rework each of them thanks to your feedback. Want to catch Eric Craven? Punish a couple of vandals? Deal with Outcasts’ problems? Now nothing should stop you from this, but don’t hesitate to inform us if there’s an issue.
We’ve also fixed some bugs in our location and added some new species of mushrooms — ghostly, bitter and miner’s meat. The bitter and the miner’s meat are edible, and the variants of using the ghostly mushroom will appear in the game later — but if you’re too curious to wait, find everything out in our #devblog in Discord!
VISUAL IMPROVEMENTS
We’ve managed to work with graphics and now many assets look way more natural, and the textures of small objects have improved. And we’ve also fixed the display of Jack’s first weapon — the stick. Now it looks more like a club which is credible enough to dare attack mobs with it.
The best is for last — we’ve made a new trailer! Regretfully, we didn’t have much time, so if you have favourite moments from the game that are worth showing — feel free to tell us.
That’s all for now. Make sure to add Exoplanet: First Contact to your wishlist, or better yet, try to play it — now you have a great opportunity to get the game at a discount and play it on holidays! And we wish you a Merry Christmas and promise to go on delighting you with new content!
Hello, friends!
The Major Update 0.70 is already here and we’re waiting impatiently for your reviews. This is the biggest update in the entire history of the game, we have added a lot of absolutely different content, that’s why your feedback will be extremely useful. Don’t hesitate to inform us about bugs, we’ll try to fix them as fast as we can. You can do it in our Discord — we read all the comments attentively and are always willing to talk to players. Join in!
We have already told you a lot about some big changes in separate articles (you can find all the links below), but there are more of them. That’s why we’ll gladly tell you about everything you can see in the new version of the game. Are you ready?
0.70 CHANGELOG
First of all, we’ve finally added a proper cinematic introducing the character and telling about an unfortunate deal which led him to losing his ship and ending up on a far and unwelcome planet. By the way, the cinematic is also our first step to a full voiceover. Every character there has a voice, so make sure to leave your feedback — maybe we should use these actors for the full game.
We have considerably improved the combat system. Added new combos both for the protagonist and his enemies, a possibility to block strikes, did some work on the hit system and melee combat. Don’t forget to watch your stamina!
A lot of new animations were also created — for example, the reaction of NPC changes depending on which part of the body was hit with a bullet. Jack also reacts now. If the character gets considerable damage, he will need time to recover.
One more important innovation is NPCs reacting to the character’s actions. Have you taken something that is not yours? Prepare to face the consequences! It can be a remark, a fine or even aggression — depends on your luck. This is the very first iteration of the system which we are going to improve gradually to make the world as immersive as possible.
Want Jack to be unique? It’s possible now. In the beginning of the game you can choose an archetype or create your own one to make your character perfect for your playstyle.
We’ve also fixed a lot of problems which significantly influenced gaming experience. Thanks to the new technical changes, Jack far less often falls through the textures or gets stuck in crevices, and also can’t pick objects through the walls.
We’ve never put so much content into the game at once — now Jack can finish the story on The Edge. Every quest can be solved in several ways, and don’t forget that every choice has its consequences!
Besides, some quests were redesigned and got new alternative ways of solving them. Also there are real descriptions in the glossary instead of placeholders. We will keep improving them though.
As we started talking about the glossary, another important change is redesigning every screen in the game to create an integral interface which will underline the setting of the game and also be very convenient and informative for the player. In future it will also allow us to add gamepad support. Feel free to share your opinion about it to improve its design and to fix everything that doesn’t work well.
IMPROVED LEVEL DESIGN AND NEW PLACES
The Edge has considerably changed in several months. We have remade Outcasts’ outpost, Scalphunters’ camp, Hermit’s and Eric Craven’s zones, significantly improved the beginning of the game and the abandoned ship, and also put a lot of improvements into other places to make exploring interesting.
The Paths of Ancient appeared in the game — a huge dungeon with quests and secrets that keeps mysteries of ancient abori.
The look of the game has also considerably changed thanks to multiple targeted changes, we have shown the progress of Exoplanet within a year in detail in the recent post.
First of all, we’ve added a lot of new textures, improved rocks and the skyline. A big update happened to water: we’ve transferred it to PBR and added caustics — now the light refracts on its surface creating intricate patterns.
We’ve also managed to create the effect of wet shores and add small puddles to The Edge which helped to make the area more visually interesting. We’ve also added new assets to add details to the world — for example, lianas.
A very important element of the new update is a new enemy — varlynx (earlier known as «alpha»). This is a dangerous beast, but there are only young species on The Edge, so Jack has a chance to win this fight.
The next thing worth mentioning is our work with light and colour correction. We did some work with the surface of the savannah and the desert. On different types of the ground you can see particles reflecting light at different angles. It’s especially well-seen on the sand — nights in the desert have become much more atmospheric.
There are new effects in the game now — vignettes and bloom. They are optional and can be turned off in the menu.
We have also added facial animations as a test to prepare the game for the voiceover. Please, share your impressions to help us improve it.
SOUND
The final thing worth mentioning is the work with the sound. A plenty of effects were added or remade and their positioning was improved.
And of course, new music was added to the game. It is written by Adam Skorupa, who worked on The Witcher series, EVE Online, Call of Juarez, Painkiller and Ash of Gods. We’ve spreaded the tracks over the key zones of The Edge to improve their atmosphere and emphasise every faction’s originality.
Hope you’ll like the update! Make sure to share your feedback in our Discord, ask questions, suggest your ideas — we’ll answer each of you.
Have a nice game, space cowboys!
Hello, space cowboys and cowgirls!
The Major Update 0.70 is coming very soon, so it’s time to speak about the most interesting part—new quests which wait you in the game.
Update will add about thirteen brand new quests. Most of them can be completed in different ways. Now Jack can finish the story on The Edge—which means it’s high time for him to move on!
You have several options about how to leave the Edge: fixing Harry’s hoverbike, making an agreement with Herbalist or solving the conflict between the Outcasts and Scalphunters—both tribes will be happy to help Jack on condition that he will rid them of their enemies. But don’t forget that every choice has its consequences.
We have also reworked some of the already existing quests adding new ways to complete them or simply changing their logic, and have also fixed some bugs to make your gaming experience as smooth as possible.
That’s all for now about the quests, but it is time to conclude the results of another key raffle in our Discord! Congratulations to the winners of this week:
@magnus13
@Skyboy
@boris_sheremetev0
@skud79
@serialsata
Join our Discord and win a key, keep yourself updated with our #devblog, and of course feel free to leave your feedback in the comments!
See you in space, cowboys and cowgirls!
Hello, friends!
Before the Major Update 0.70 we would like to talk about the way we’ve made and remember how it all started.
That’s how the demo looked—K’Tharsis wasn’t so abandoned and alien-looking and there were more signs of humans’ presence.
The demo version was completely remade for the Early Access release—the world has become much bigger and way more interesting for exploration but still had a lot of flaws.
We collected feedback and considerably remade the game and that’s how in 2021 the Edge appeared—a picturesque but abandoned place where the cultural legacy of abori is considerably bigger than the traces of colonization. It was the very first iteration and through the last year the game has undergone a lot of changes. Let’s have a look at them!
The game has become much more colourful and the objects in it—much more realistic. We made every part livelier with help of plants and worked with the background so that the horizon would look natural.
The objects in the game are placed in a more picturesque and lively way. The shadows have more correct and clear positions and rare desert plants make the picture more interesting.
It’s a special pleasure now to look at the K’Tharsis sky. The night was very dark and dull before. Now the constellations are seen much better, the moon and stars enlighten the world and the sky changes over time.
Some areas of the Edge have also considerably changed. For example, the cemetery of aborigines has grown much bigger and all of its buildings have become more solid. Ancient tombs, quite big, also appeared there. The old statue hasn’t disappeared though—you can find it in the Hermit’s zone.
A small abandoned town Lucky Hole was completely rebuilt. Earlier he was created from our old assets which we used back then, in the very first demo. Now we’ve made a new construction kit and with its help managed to build a newer, more lively version. The rocks around it also look more natural and the area around—more versatile.
The field of anomalies has gone through changes. The spheres have become more matte and the area now more alien-looking.
There is more information about visual improvements in our technical update, and for now it’s all, friends. Don’t hesitate to leave feedback and offer your variants of improvement! And for now let’s conclude another key raffle in Discord:
@Reming
@立香
@AngryFrog
@egor
@geriatrius
Have a nice game, folks!
The raffle will go on up to the release of the Major Update, so if you’re not lucky this week, you will get a chance to get the key next one.
That’s all for now—give your feedback in the comments, express your opinion about the game and make sure to drop by our devblog in Discord to stay tuned about all the freshest updates.
See you next week, space cowboys and cowgirls!
Hello, folks!
Today we want to tell you about new music which we’ll add to the update 0.70. It’s written by Michal Cielecki, Krzysztof Wierzynkiewicz and Adam Scorupa. The latter is famous for his work on such games like The Witcher series, EVE Online, Call of Juarez, Painkiller, Ash of Gods: Redemption and many other projects.
At the moment five tracks will be added to the game. They’ll be spreaded between the key zones of The Edge. You can hear them exploring the fallen spaceship,if you make your way to the Outpost of the Outcast and to the camp of Scalphunters and also wandering around the desert full of anomalies. Every track perfectly reflects its mood and characteristic features.
Here is a small part of a track that will sound in the Scalphunters’ camp. Don’t hesitate to give your feedback!
And we also remind you that the key raffle in our Discord goes on and we want to congratulate the winners of this week:
@Seki_ETS
@Bar666
@aleksander_suvorov
@koukakurin
@raget01
Have a nice game, guys!
We remind you that you have a chance to get a free key if you join our channel. And if you’re not a winner this time, don’t worry — you’ll automatically become a participant of the next weekly raffles up to the release of the major update 0.70.
That’s all for now. Leave your feedback, follow the news of development in Steam and make sure to drop by to our #devblog in Discord.
See you next week!
Hello, space cowboys!
Today we want to tell you about the new animal we added to the game. We have already showed you our progress in our #devblog in Discord, but since that time plenty of work has been done.
The working name of the mob is alpha but to the release of the update 0.70 it will get a new name suiting the most dangerous predator of K’Tharsis better. Luckily, alphas walk either alone or in pairs—otherwise it wouldn’t be so easy to deal with such strong, fast and clever predators.
It took a lot of time to animate alpha—we’re planning a lot of unique skills for it, quite hard to make. So, a mature species should be able to crawl, attack in a jump, knock down. But it will be added later—and now in the game there is a young species which can only strike with its paw and bite. Don’t underestimate the monster though. His attacks can cause serious damage.
Thanks to its colour, Alpha can easily hide in high grass. If you come close, it will try to frighten you—it’s jaw really looks intimidating!
We’ve tried to make the mob’s movements as smooth and fluent as we could. Considering a lot of details, it turned out to be not an easy task. Do you think it works?
We’ve tried to make as intimidating sounds as possible—heavy breath, sonorous growl, hissing. Most of the work with this mob is still ahead of us. We’ll be happy to get some feedback on already existing ones though.
The information about alpha also exists on one of the load screens from which you can find out more about this monster. The text will be slightly reworked and of course we will change the name.
Hope you’ll like the new mob—and we want to show you the list of the winners of our weekly raffle in Discord who will get an opportunity to fight it:
@Brainwagon
@Ivan
@AnatoliyBIK
@crank34r
@Shetland
Have a nice game, friends!
The raffles will continue up to the release of the Major Update 0.70, so be sure to join our channel, drop by the #devblog where we post the freshest news of the development and leave your feedback. And also suggest a good name for our new mob.
See you on K’Tharsis!
Hello, friends! We are not only filling the game with interesting content, but also working on its look and feel. Additionally we removed some major problems which, according to your feedback, considerably spoiled the impression of the game. Telling you about every improvement step by step below.
The biggest work was done with the fighting system. We have improved the control of the system of hits both in melee fighting and in gunfight. But we’ll talk about it later—in a separate article dedicated to gameplay.
The next important change has become a system of layers. It opens many interesting possibilities and has also let us reduce the amount of the situations where the player falls through the textures or gets stuck in the crevices.
We have also got rid of our old approach to the focus on the objects and now it’s impossible to pick objects through the walls—the bug that you used to report many times. It has also partially decided the problem of pixel-hunting, though we’re going to go on improving the system.
A lot of work was carried out with water. Now it looks more believable—we’ve transferred it to PBR and got rid of some annoying problems like glowing in the dark or unnatural flow. The water also has different levels of transparency depending on the depth, surface of the bottom and turbidity. It will result in the spreading of the light according to the time and in the behaviour of shadows.
These improvements have also let us create the effect of the wet shores and add puddles to the Edge which made the location much more interesting. More improvements are coming soon: we’re planning to change the system of swimming and add the reaction to the character’s or NPCs’ presence in the water.
We have also done some work with the surfaces of the savannah and the desert. Now you can see particles reflecting the light under different angles on different types of the ground. It’s especially visible on the sand—nights in the desert have become much more atmospheric.
We have also coped with the problem which appeared with the textures of the rocks—in a definite lighting its texture seemed grainy. We have worked with the surfaces and now the rocks look natural at any time of the day.
Meantime the key raffle in our Discord goes on and we want to congratulate the winners of this week:
@Felov
@Vague-Snowy
@punggol
@juice
@pitt-CH
Have a nice game, folks!
We remind you that you also have a chance to get a free key if you join our channel in Discord—you will automatically become a participant of weekly raffles up to the release of the Update 0.70.
That’s all for now. Leave your feedback, follow the news of the development on Steam and make sure to drop by our #devblog in Discord.
See you next week!
Hello, folks!
We go on putting a lot of effort into making the Edge as diverse as possible and working on the improvement of level design. We have already remade the Outpost of the Outcast—and now we want to meet you with the renewed Sculphunters camp, talk about some targeted changes and also show brand new areas.
We have completely changed the design of Scalphunters’ camp—starting with the look of their tents and finishing by the position of the objects. Now in the camp it’s not only much more convenient to navigate and accomplish quests, but its visual is much closer to the envisioned look of the tribe.
One of the biggest changes in the level design is the appearance of the area Paths of the Ancient. It’s a huge dungeon with its quests and secret places. There will be a great number of possibilities for exploration and of course fights with dangerous monsters who guard them. You can get there with the help of the Herbalist—so don’t say no when he asks you for help.
The zone of the Hermit will also considerably change—besides the newly planted grass and redesigned waterfalls, we’ve created a road to the ancient abori sanctuary of the Sky Demons bypassing the broken bridge. Maybe that’s where you can find the answers to many mysteries of the abori race.
We have completely changed the area where Eric Kraven hides with his gang. He is a dangerous bandit whose posters are in the abandoned mining town Lucky Hole. If you aren’t scared to face him and his thugs, you can get a pretty good reward. The zone not far from the abori cemetery was also broadened—you can investigate it and even have a real massacre in one of the quests about which we’ll tell you in other updates.
Besides, we’ve put decorative changes into the tombs, added some details into the Outpost of the Outcast which help with navigation and tell more about the personality of its inhabitants and worked on the zone where Curious hides—an abori-child who escaped from Scalphunters—and made it more interesting for investigation and more visually pleasant.
That’s all for now, but we’ll go on sharing our progress in our Discord. And we also remind you about our weekly ruffle where you can get a free key. We congratulate the winners of this week:
@泡泡
@死神修仙
@titomalkavian
@hwdp
@Almas_Almuhametov
Have a nice game, friends!
See you next week—and for now share your impressions and give your feedback in the comments, try to conquer cruel K’Tharsis and drop by our devblog in Discord.
See you at The Edge, cowboys!
Hello, friends!
We have already told you a lot about our work on the new interface which will be available in the new build. And today we’d like to share our recent progress with you. We really care about your opinion, so don’t hesitate to leave feedback in the comments!
First of all, we’ve remade the trading window. It caused a lot of discussions, because we decided to change the existing interface completely and make a more immersive variant which suits a role-play game in the open world much better.
Of course, we did attempt to remake an old version with an exchange. A full-screen interface let us fit all the necessary elements but impacted the atmosphere in a negative way. Which window do you like more?
One more important change — The Edge will get a beautiful and new map! We’ve completely remade an old draft version and did a great deal of job with the style, colours and landmarks. Now the map has a clear division of the desert and savannah biomes, you can see all the topography, and there are marks of settlements and other important and interesting zones where you can get a quest or find something handy.
The next thing we’ve worked with is a journal. Now the list of the quests looks much neater and the blocks of texts separated from each other are much more convenient for reading. Besides, we’ve added a glossary from which you can get some information about the world of the game.
The window of the skills has completely changed. We wanted to make the character’s level up more convenient and clear, that’s why we’ve added tooltips for every active button.
The crafting window was completely transformed. We’ve removed everything that was unnecessary and added the characteristics of the created object. New recipes will appear in the game very soon for the craft to become a more important part of the game.
You can learn more about the important changes in our previous post and also track them and give feedback in our channel in Discord. Join in, we’re having a weekly rifle where you can get a free key. And we congratulate the winners of this week:
@Hex7ech
@parkchaung
@mirey
@Arhangel
@фф
Good luck on the vastness of K’Tharsis, folks!
That’s all for now—share your feedback in the comments, try to conquer the cruel K’Tharsis and peer into our Devblog in Discord!
See you in space, cowboys!
Hello, friends!
We go on telling you about the changes that await you in the Major Update 0.70—and today we’d like to show you how the process of creating the character will change.
A lot of players keep asking us about the possibility of creating their own character, but as soon as Exoplanet is a story-driven RPG, there can be only one character. Jack Sharp.
Nevertheless, in the beginning we were planning to customize the character depending on his background — an eye patch for an ex-pirate, scars on an ex-soldier’s face and so on. But at this stage of development such visual changes would demand a lot of time for their creation and the adaptation of the cutscenes for each character. That’s why at the moment we’ve stopped at the creation of archetypes.
This is an extremely important gameplay option which allows you to create a unique character from the very beginning of the game, putting several points into the skills which suit your style of playing. Every skill has an explanation—which bonuses it gives and what it influences, that’s why there won’t be any problems during the creation of the archetype.
If you don’t like to spend time on the learning of skills and distribution of points and want to start playing as soon as possible, we’ve considered some ready solutions which you can use.
Meanwhile, the key raffle in our Discord goes on and we want to congratulate the winners of this week:
@Vitalii_Pitomets
@Bhai
@rod
@Forsj
@icosinus
Have a nice game, guys!
We remind you that you have a chance to get a free key if you join our channel. And if you’re not a winner this time, don’t worry — you’ll automatically become a participant of the next weekly raffles up to the release of the major update 0.70.
That’s all for now. Leave your feedback, follow the news of development in Steam and make sure to drop by to our #devblog in Discord.
See you next week!
Hello, space cowboys!
As we’ve promised, we’re starting to tell you about the tastiest changes which are waiting for you in the major update 0.70. And the first one is intro cinematic.
Jack Sharp’s story will finally be introduced not only by a small description on the load screen, but by a proper dramatic cinematic. We’ve put a lot of effort into it, to show how a self-confident captain Jack Sharp found himself in a desert on an unknown planet without a ship and without any chance to get out from there.
In the intro you will also meet Smiley who hired Jack to take his cargo to the far away planet K’Tharsis distant from the Core Worlds.
By the way, the characters in the cinematic have voices—it’s our first test of a comprehensive voiceover, so don’t hesitate to leave feedback about the voices—maybe we should use these actors for the voiceover inside the game.
In the cinematic there are a couple of surprises for the most attentive watchers—references to our favourite series. Can you find them?
And finally we want to congratulate the winners who got the keys in our weekly raffle in Discord:
@maloon
@Markb
@! apple bum
@ookaminoken
@isinusx
Have a nice game, guys!
We remind you that you still have a chance to get a free key if you join our channel in Discord. And if you’re not lucky for the first time, don’t worry, you’ll automatically become a participant of the next weekly raffles up to the release of the major update 0.70.
Don’t forget to peer into our #devblog in Discord to get the freshest news from the development process and leave your feedback!
See you on K’Tharsis!
Hello, space cowboys!
Since the time we decided to rework our game completely, a lot of changes have already happened. We’ve done a great deal of job with biomes and are filling them with new plants and animals step by step. More and more quests appear in the game and are revealing K’Tharsis and its severe problems.The work on the big location—the town—is also in progress. And today we’d like to announce that the next update will be a MAJOR UPDATE.
Yes, we are doing our best to bring you a great deal of fun with build 0.70. What’s gonna be there, you ask? Well, follow us to learn more! We are going to reveal everything with weekly updates here on Steam. And we also would like to celebrate it with a contest!
Everyone who joins our Discord from NOW till the MAJOR UPDATE release, gets an opportunity to win a free key for Exoplanet. The winners will be chosen weekly by our unbiased and beautiful A.N.N.A.
If you are not lucky enough the first time, don’t worry—you automatically participate in every other raffle till the Major Update release.
And while you are waiting, there is plenty to do in our Discord! Do not hesitate to share your feedback with us on daily updates, play a little quiz game with A.N.N.A., ask devs anything you want or just start any discussion you want in our #off-topic section .
See you in Discord!
Hello, space cowboys!
It’s been a bit more than a month since our last update, and we’re ready to show you a new build 0.69. There are a lot of animations, new quests and a totally remade Outcast camp.
THE LIST OF CHANGES
LEVEL DESIGN
The Outcast camp has completely changed. Now it’s a cosy place with picturesque rocks, a waterfall and a lot of plants. There’s also much more space and more events.
Besides that, we’ve made the level design more complex by adding some vertical layers to The Outcast.
We also go on working with the spaceship in the desert. The bugs that prevented players from passing to the Edge are fixed, and we also improved some elements of the interior.
QUESTS
There are four new quests in the game. During them Jack will have to communicate a lot both with people and with abori.
In the quest Vandals a small disenchantment awaits for Jack—the terminal which he needs so much is ruined by some vandals. And before fulfilling Fix terminal near mine quest and fixing the town’s property he will have to take care of local hooligans. Jack won’t regret it though—turns out that he knows these guys really well!
Treacherous bastard quest seems no big deal on first glance, but it’s because of it Jack gets on a track of his ship Beth. Kraven’s neighbour is none other that the bastard Smiley who hijacked the ship! Locals will willingly tell everything about this guy who managed to annoy them too.
In the quest Нornhog Rabies Jack will have to deal with the herd of hornhogs and do his best not to be got on the horn while he’s looking for sick species. Well, run, Jack, run! Or hide properly.
All quests have several variants of solving and several outcomes which will influence more or less on further events. And during the missions you will not only have an opportunity to know the Edge better, but also to get some useful skills!
ANIMATION AND SOUNDS
We keep working on the animations of the animals. Arphants, hornhogs, crucases and insects will get new movements. Now these mobs will be able to jump which means that Jack will have to try hard to win fights!
We have also added and improved animations of people and made new sounds for them. So, for example, Jack can hear the woman’s cry and decide if he should save a damsel in distress or if it’s one more trap of K’Tharsis.
ASSETS
Placeholders for Scolder appeared in the game. A new model of the weapon is ready and already transferred to PBR.
Bandannas get back to the Edge! Now you have more opportunities to make the character’s style more different. Which one do you like best?
We’ve also added a new ritual decole—working on more and more elements of abori culture.
Here are all changes that await you in the build. We remind you that the release of a major anniversary build 0.70 is coming. We’ll start telling you about it beforehand in Steam and in our #devblog channel in Discord.
Follow the news, try to play the new version and leave your feedback on Steam and in Discord!
See you again on K’Tharsis!
Hello, space cowboys!
We’re happy to show you the summer build and want to tell you about the new content and the improvements we have made, and also about the bugs we got rid of—thanks to your feedback as well.
We also remind you that we publish unique updates in our channel in Discord almost every day—and now you can comment on every piece of news to share your opinion, influence the game development and ask questions.
And now let’s see what is waiting for us in the build.
CHANGELOG
QUESTS
We’ve dedicated a lot of time to improving the quests that already are in the game and adding new ones. For example, the story of Herbalist got an extension with the quest Tools for Herbalist. Now when a grateful abori reaches the mining town, he can teach Jack the basics of the craft.
We’ve added more interactivity into the quest Grave Business. We’ve also divided it into two parts and organized the space better—instead of some small graves, which were not very comfortable to look for, there is a big and significant one. And for improving cutscenes visually, we’ve worked on more harmonious placement of decorations.
In the quest Quick Adventure you can see a lot of beautiful and mysterious things—Jack headed to research aboris’ ancient burial in an attempt to find out who stands behind the tomb raiding.
We’ve also added an occasional event—the quest View Enjoyer. Now you should drop by Lucky Hole more often—there is a chance to meet a mysterious stranger who will make an interesting offer.
LEVEL DESIGN
We keep improving the space sheep for the quest Dead Leviathan—new animated elevators are added, and we’ve also reworked the decor—we’ve normalized the position and the size of the chairs for the environment to look more natural.
We’ve also reworked most of the surfaces and reset the parameters of renders to make locations and objects more natural, colours richer and textures more plausible. And each surface sounds more accordingly.
In particular, we’ve renewed hulks, remaking three already existing textures and adding the fourth which gave their skin and body structure a more alien look. The clothes of new hulks are also already remade for the new system of colouring. Besides, we’ve made them new better eyes, considerably adding to these creatures’ humanity. We’ve also added a hat-helmet for the main guy. But actually anyone can try it on.
A kid-abori deserves a separate talk. He’s also transferred to new materials and got new eyes. He’s so cute that we’re thinking of adding more abori kids to the Edge.
ANIMATIONS
Going on with the topic of abori-hulks—we’ve added them some new animations, and now the movements demonstrate their power and strength much better.
We’ve also added the movement animations to women NPCs.
SOUNDS
Many bugs are fixed in this build. The loudness of some sounds is normalized and some uncorrect effects are replaced. We’ve also «fixed» music which used to stop from time to time—now the track will please you while you reveal secrets of K’Tharsis.
That’s all for now—a lot of changes about which we were writing in the #devblog channel in Discord will be introduced in the next two builds, but you’ll definitely find things to watch in this one. So add the game into the wishlist and be sure to share your feedback in the comments in our Discord—it’s very important for us to hear what you think of the changes in the game.
See you in the vastness of K’Tharsis!
Hello, friends!
In our last article we started telling you about a new UI, and now we’d like to give you more details about the latest changes. Regretfully, despite the huge work we’ve already done, these changes won’t go in the nearest build—nevertheless, we’d like to share the results with you and will be happy to hear your feedback.
MENU
As you could see in our devblog in Discord, we’ve completely changed the main menu and made it much more stylish, modern and suiting the theme of the game. We’ve also changed the style of the logo, adding more sci-fi to it. That’s not a final variant yet—but we’ll be happy to hear your opinion.
INVENTORY
We’ve done a great deal of work over the inventory. We’re trying to make it more intuitive and “lightweight”. We’ve also experimented with rotating the icons in the inventory to demonstrate the look and the description of them better. And finally we tried to make sure that the interface goes well not only with day time, but with night time as well.
All these changes touched upon the loot screen too—in the new interface it has become much neater and more informative. Besides, we’ve made a “cleaner” display for tracked quests.
NOTIFICATIONS
The system of notifications was totally reprocessed—a lot of elements have changed beyond recognition, and we’ve also added something new. Also the Q button activates the compass at the top of the screen.
That’s how, for example, scanning looks like. The colour of the wave changed according to the main colour of the interface, and we want it to highlight enemies, loot and neutral units with intuitively clear colours.
Prompts during the scanning have also become more stylish and intuitive. We paid attention to the layout of the text and icons, so that players can find everything they need for a fight as fast as possible. Now the level of the enemies, the number of their lives and weak spots are completely evident.
The same thing has happened with learning tips—now all the important information will be formed in a proper manner.
DIALOGUES
In our previous devblog we showed the changes touching upon the dialogues. They will be much more readable and convenient.
At the moment we are also working on adding the display of the options that are unavailable for Jack and that demand a certain level of skill.
JOURNAL
We have redesigned the journal window: took away the wall of the text and added more visual elements. Now quests are conveniently combined into categories, it’s easier to switch between them and, thanks to redesigned visuals, it’s much more convenient to persept what is written. By the way, the glossary will look the same.
LOADSCREENS
Showing you something beautiful in the end—remember our post about alpha recently? You can meet this handsome guy during the loading of the game! We’re working on adding more of such screens to the game and want them to reflect useful information about K’Tharsis.
Here are all changes about the UI for now—but we’re working on a huge number of other updates. We publish all of them almost every day in our Discord, in #devblog channel. There you can not only see all the interesting changes before they get into the game, but also leave your feedback that we read attentively and consider to every post! The game will definitely become better with your help, so be sure to come! And also follow us and add the game into your wishlist!
Hello, friends!
While we’re preparing a new build, we’d like to tell you more about the things we’re working on right now and what changes await you in the game — and not only there.
DISCORD
Especially for those who like to follow the process of development we publish unique updates in Discord almost daily, in #devblog channel. There we share the freshest works and will be happy to get feedback or an interesting idea from you. You can also get some answers to the questions about the game right from the development team.
DEVBLOG
We work hard on the Edge, adding a lot of new content and we also improve assets that already exist in the game. And at the same time we work on a considerably bigger location with the town and a canyon.
We make a lot of small changes that improve the general look and atmosphere of the game.
Working on the sky—creating clouds and working on their interaction with the sunlight.
A bonus for those who love watching the stars. We’re improving the night sky of K’Tharsis by adding nebulas and constellations.
We’re creating new concepts of plants to make biomes richer.
You already can see some of them in the game, not in the final variant though.
We substantially redo mobs of K’Tharsis giving them a more alien look. That’s how, for example, crucas will change:
Remember the shark from our old demo?
We also considerably changed it and are ready to show you new concept arts. This monster will go to the desert very soon!
We have also added a new powerful monster called alpha to the game.
We’re thinking of putting more difference into the population of K’Tharsis—looking for new shapes and styles for abori.
One of the most important processes is the work with colours. So we’re trying many variants of painting for different assets.
We’re also working on the replacement of the UI for a long time and experimenting a lot, trying to find an interesting combination reflecting both sci-fi setting and a cowboy theme.
Within this change we also did some work with the dialog box and made it more stylish and qualitative, and also more comfortable for the eyes.
A great deal of work was dedicated to compiling icons with new UI—here are the first attempts of stylization.
This is just a part of changes—the team is adding new content into the game all the time. To stay in touch join our Discord channel, leave feedback, subscribe to our page on Steam and—the main thing—add the game to your wishlist!
Hello, friends. April is over and we release a new update. We want to tell you about the improvements in gameplay, new quests and changes in game design.
But before we come to the list of changes, we’d like to tell you that we have started developing our Discord channel where we publish almost daily unique updates, tell about the game development and share interesting working materials that nobody sees. Here you can also leave your feedback about the game, share your ideas and interesting content, and also ask your questions to the team and get the answers.
CHANGELOG
GAMEPLAY
A lot of players asked us to give them some extra instruments for orientation because of our complicated multi-layered level design, that’s why we decided to add a compass. It’s always available at the top of the screen. At the moment it’s only the first iteration, and we’re going to improve it.
We’ve also added the effect of poisoning. Every time Jack is influenced by toxines, the green mist on the edges of the screen will inform you about it.
QUESTS
As you know, for the last few months we’ve been working on the spaceship and its detailing . Now the new quest Dead Leviathan is available, where Jack has to overcome the systems of protection coming to life and find the way out.
Besides, we have renewed the quest Wild planet, and now there are many more variants of events for the meeting with robbers on the spaceship. Find out how Jack can avoid being robbed!
More variety was added to the quest Find Curios. Now Jack can get a small aborigen if he breaks the wall with his pick if he has enough skill. He is also able to render the boy unconscious and hand him over to Skalphunters. Besides, a lot of cutscenes are added to the quest.
LEVEL DESIGN
Our level designers have taken a small break in the work with the ship to improve other areas of The Edge. This month the changes have touched upon the ancient aborigen cemetery and the caves where there are ancient tombs.
We weren’t really happy with the topology of the old cemetery, that’s why it was remade from scratch, with a lot of new assets we had been preparing for several previous months.
The caves at the cemetery were also considerably changed. Now it’s a gigantic dungeon where you can see well-preserved samples of aboriginal ancient architecture.
Apart from it, with the help of new canvas we have also repainted the outpost of the Outcasts and partially a ship.
SOUND
We brought our gunshot sounds to an upper level. At first now they are audible at further distance. But also, now they have a more immersive spatial effect that gives an impression of a distance between the listener and the audio source. The related demonstration is in the following video. Enjoy!
Besides, there was an improvement of the sounds of aboriginal mortar and rifle, the way the sounds of the carabiner’s shooting work, some special settings of hearing the sniper weapon were added and the sounds of waving pole arms were remade.
Another important thing. Thanks to our audio engineers, we reduced CPU and RAM usage by about 10 percent, which means now you have a little bit of extra performance and we have a little bit of extra space to show you more high quality content. Optimizations are not limited just by these improvements (and we already have got some plans for it) but we are glad to announce that we have such results.
ASSETS
We’ve added a lot of new architectural assets, the first sets of electronic devices inside the ship on the temporary texture, extra animations of beetles—arphants, crucases and kabarogs, some new types of ladders and a new set of furniture.
Besides, some headgear was transferred to PBR, and some textures were fixed in different places.
CONCLUSION
That’s all, thank you for your attention, everyone. We remind you about Discord—subscribe to get access to the unique content of the devblog. And also follow us here and add the game to your wishlist!
Hey folks! Another month has come to an end, so it’s time for another update. Let’s take a look at the changelog.
CHANGELOG
QUESTS
We’ve improved the ‘Daily Bread’ quest. Now Rusty Nails is alright with any food Jack brings to him but the rot. Also, Jack can learn more about cooking his meals with a bonfire.
Rusty Nails is also eager to learn about his pal’s fate, so he has a new quest for Jack. Perhaps, this brave space cowboy can find any information about Rusty’s lost friend.
There are also some under-the-hood changes for some quests and their logic.
GAMEPLAY
We’ve polished combat finisher death animation, added a knockout visualization and fixed a few issues.
LEVEL DESIGN
As I mentioned in the previous update, our level designers were working hard on improving the abandoned ship, and today we are ready to show you the first results.
SOUND
We’ve reworked the balance of in-game sounds and improved sounds’ audibility and positioning of NPCs, environment and the protagonist. Also, we’ve fixed the layering of equipment sounds.
VISUALS
A great deal of work was put into the ship. We’ve added a bunch of new assets and new textures for humans. Also, we’ve transferred some new hats to PBR.
That’s all for now. Join our Discord, we will be back in a month with another update.
It’s the end of February, so another monthly update is already here.
Hey cowboys! It’s the end of February, so another monthly update is already here. What’s new, you ask? See for yourself.
CHANGELOG
GAMEPLAY
We are working hard to improve melee combat, and there is a new feature added for those who fancy knives. Now you can finish an enemy with a blade if his health is reduced to a certain amount.
We have also fixed knockouts, navigation errors for Outcasts and Scalphunters patrols and many other pesky bugs and issues.
QUESTS
Idol in Anomaly quest was significantly reworked. There are new ways to solve it and brand new cutscenes. On the top of that, now you can obtain beads whether you helped Scalphunters with the idol or didn’t.
There’s also a new quest connected to this one, it is called Making a Profit.
LEVEL DESIGN
Our level designers are very busy at the moment with an important task—they are doing their best to improve the abandoned ship, so there are no big changes on The Edge in this update but some furniture in the mining village.
SOUND
There are plenty of SFX changes, though.
First of all, we’ve reworked the attenuation of sounds in the game world to make it more plausible, decreased the initial volume of the game audio mix, improved the balance between all the in-game sounds and the positioning of sound effects close to the player’s character.
Second, we have also slightly improved the sounds of range weapons, reworked the sound of impact while shooting and fixed a bug where the sound of a hitting shot was not audible.
And, of course, we finally added sounds of a barge.
VISUALS
Another batch of apparel’s was transferred to PBR.
NEW TEAM WEBSITE
Recently we launched the official Exoplanet website with a forum.
And today we also would like to bring to life our old hacked and broken team’s website, www.alersteam.com. There’s a brand new and simple design, and we hope you will like it.
That’s all for now. Thanks for your support, we will be back in a month with another update
The long holidays are over and we are eager to show you the results of our recent work. This update contains less new quests or gameplay features but lays solid foundation for further major improvements coming up this year.
We have added only one but pretty fun quest that gives you more insight into Scalphunter tribe lore.
In terms of visuals we focused our efforts on improving the rest of the clothing models for aborigines, so they will look more colorful and diverse than ever.
VISUAL IMPROVEMENTS:
- All models of the aboriginal clothing now use Physical Based Rendering (PBR) technology for their textures.
- Our custom shader is applied when possible so designers now are able to dye these clothes in a wide range of colors.
- A number of hats were adjusted to fit other races and now use PBR, so they can come in different color variations as well.
- Terrain textures for the desert biome were replaced by a better set.
COMBAT MECHANICS GOT MORE DEPTH:
- Blocking was added as an option for the player in combat. Hold Right Mouse Button to block.
- Heavy attacks are now activated by pressing Shift+Left Mouse Button combination.
- NPCs now can choose behavior patterns between attacking, holding the distance, strafing, side stepping and blocking.
- In melee fights characters now will use more appropriate animations for different attacks (still placeholders though).
- NPCs now will reload their weapons when shooting.
AI:
- Obstacle avoidance algorithm for NPCs was improved.
QUEST CONTENT:
- A new Quest was added to the Scalphunter camp. Talk to the character called Wall Eye near the big cage with beasts to start it.
Thanks for staying with us and providing your immensely valuable feedback!
Don’t forget to join our Discord server for more news and discussions about Exoplanet.
Hey folks! It is almost Christmas, and there’s no better time to take a breath after this tough and exhausting year. We were working hard to release our biggest update ever, and we’ve put a great deal of effort into delivering as much content as possible to please everyone who fancies trying a space cowboy outfit on this holiday. So yeah, it is another regular monthly update.
Let’s see what’s in the box!
GAMEPLAY
We have released the very first iteration of stealth last month, and now it is time to improve it. We started with NPCs’ AI.
First of all, there was an issue when NPCs do not notice Jack when he is in stealth mode, even if he’s right in front of them. But not anymore!
Second, NPCs now have an indicator. If Jack lurks or sneaks somewhere nearby an NPC, the NPC gets suspicious. Thus, if the question mark above an NPC becomes red, it is time to fight or skedaddle.
We have another surprise for those who like to play as a thief. Pickpocketing. Master this craft to steal random loot from NPCs or to plant anything into their pockets. It is also the very first iteration and is not much useful in quests yet but we are definitely going to expand it by developing a crime system.
Of course, you need a teacher to learn something like this. Look for an abori in the Scalphunters camp named Short Fused. There’s a chance he will agree to teach ‘stupid huma’ his craft. Watch your pockets, though.
Another thing to mention is upcoming gameplay changes. We do understand that gameplay-wise Exoplanet could use an upgrade, and it is our top priority for the beginning of the next year. Particularly, melee combat and gunplay.
And the very first gameplay change is a small tweak for Jack. When the guy is out of stamina, he staggers and slows down in order to catch his breath. Not much for a Christmas gift but it is a harsh world after all. Deal with it, Jacky.
NPCs received a better present—speech bubbles to share their piece of mind. These bubbles are usually a reaction to events around them, to Jack himself and his success and failures.
LEVEL DESIGN
We have completely reworked the very beginning of the game. Jack still wakes up in the desert but the desert has changed. We have also improved the tutorial, so there are gameplay changes as well. The idea behind this change is to improve user experience, to give the player a direction and to show some basic mechanics.
This is work in progress, so we really need your feedback. Any comments are welcome.
QUESTS
There are two more quests for Jack. The very first one, Survival for Dummies, is connected with the new beginning. The next one, Dust Devils, can be found while exploring the world, so make sure you won’t miss it.
VISUALS AND SOUND
We’ve made a great deal of visual and sound improvements for this update. They are mostly cosmetic but it is still worth mentioning. We’ve also fixed some animations and assets, and replaced some old sounds with the new ones.
FUTURE UPDATES
While we are releasing updates for The Edge, there is another work in progress. We have been developing the new big location with the town for quite some time now. We will share more information about it later, so it is better to join our Discord if you want to see more sneak peeks in the new year.
NEW WEBSITE AND FORUM
Last but definitely not the least.
We just launched the official Exoplanet website with a forum. They are available at exoplanetgame.com and forum.exoplanetgame.com.
So far, our website is mostly a landing page with some interesting stuff and a news feed but we are going to expand it a bit later, once we have all the planned mechanics in-game. Subscribe to our mailing list to receive important updates about the game, and sign-up to our forum to ask us anything or to share your gaming experience. Keep in mind, there’s a chance the mail will end up in spam folder, we are doing our best to fix it.
That’s all for now.
I believe we all deserve a break to spend some time with our folks. And we wish you the same thing. Enjoy your holidays, have a great time with your close ones and be happy.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from Alersteam and personally from Jack Sharp.