Fixes:
1. Various multiplayer client-side crashes fixed
2. Correct map icon added to the "sparky" (fish-like creature) enemy

Changes:
1. Frequency of black holes increased
2. Faulty testing scenario removed from the new game list

The Gates update brings teleportation gates that allow you to jump to another place in the world. Also, there is a new Mesa biome with mysterious black holes. How to enter it, and what lies on the other side?

This update is the first stepping stone of this year of development. It does not change the game drastically but adds a bit of extra content. The teleportation system will be expanded in the future, likely requiring the player to obtain specific resources to use. Still, since I wanted everyone to experience it, I did not complicate it any further.

List of new features:
1. Teleportation gates
2. Mesa biome (requires a fitting alien type in the future)
3. Black holes appearing in the Mesa biome
4. New weapon received through black holes
5. Difficulty options when creating a new game

List changes:
1. Swarm respawning temporarily disabled (due to being annoying)

Fixed bugs:
1. Various crashes caused by enemy targets becoming invalid

There might be more changes not listed here, but I have forgotten them since they were implemented a while ago.

With this update done, I will begin breaking up the game loop, trying to make it more purposeful and rewarding.

Thank you!

Happy New Year!

After quite a lengthy pause, I will continue working on Blastronaut through 2025. I apologise to everyone who was disappointed with the recent lack of updates, and I will try to make it up this year.

Since the original roadmap ended in 2023, I have had time to analyse the current issues and develop a plan to move forward.
I will present my roadmap for finishing the game and explain the upcoming changes. These changes are going to be significant, and the game feel can be quite different in the end. Still, as far as I can see, they are necessary to breathe new life into the game and hopefully create a better flow for both the new and the experienced players.


First, let me briefly explain the current issues that the game has and what makes them difficult to solve. After all, the last updates in 2023 were directed towards solving some of these issues, but in hindsight, the solutions might not have benefited the game flow. The mission tree and questline were made to guide the player further into the game, but I’m not happy with how it works since it ended up hindering the exploration and sandbox-style gameplay. I’m sure many of you wish for more content, but it becomes increasingly more difficult to add it to the game and ensure that players will find it. Finally, I’m also not happy with the replayability of the game, which is quite a bummer since so much effort has gone into crafting this infinite procedurally generated world. Most of these issues likely boil down to the game's progression, and this is what I will try to tackle first.

Here is the new roadmap, and if it goes smoothly, it will hopefully end with the full release at the end of the year.
1. January "Gates". The very first minor update will arrive this Friday (3rd of January). It will package together a few fixes and features I have been developing but could not fit into an update earlier. I have heard your feedback about bringing the teleportation gates to the game. While these might not solve all your fast travel problems instantly, they can be a fun tool to traverse the world if taken advantage of. There is also a new biome called “Mesa” that will come with a bit more dangerous anomalies, but these will also have a positive side effect that I will let you discover on your own.

2. February “Loop”. Next, I will get right into the enormous task of implementing a better game loop. Instead of playing one world infinitely, I will break up the gameplay into smaller, more manageable dives. The dives should feel satisfying and feel different from one another. Initially, I will have to reduce the amount of content the game currently has to fit it back into the progression later on.

3. April “Home”. After that, I will concentrate on the meta-progression called “home”. There should be a place for the player to be in between the dives and provide a bigger purpose. Also, upgrading your “home” will feel rewarding.

4. June “Combat”. Although combat is not the central part of the game, it should be more balanced and varied than now. This is where I can introduce some bigger baddies as well.

5. August “Expeditions”. The variety of planets should be improved next. Refining the mission system and creating new types of challenges for the player. The current liquid system is also quite buggy and requires a technical redesign (it is impossible to avoid the falling water when the player travels upwards due to the infinite game world, but at least the glitches and crashes caused by multithreading should get fixed).

6. November “Release”. The final polish of the game takes a lot of time, which is why I have left the longest time slot. I think it should be dedicated to just adding some regular content and then playtesting and balancing the game.

And this is my plan. The exact content and names of the updates are subject to change, but this will show where my priorities lie. I hope you will support me through this journey with your advice and feedback. But please don’t be too harsh; it is just one person (me) currently working on the game. I will have to redesign the save game format for certain updates, so you will have to start a new game at some point. If you rather prefer to experience the final redesign of the game, then next Christmas is likely the best time for that.

Thank you!

This patch fixes a couple of bugs and crashes introduced in the last update.

Fixes:
1. Crash caused by swarms fixed
2. Crash when setting home on antenna fixed
3. Swarm performance improved
4. Swarm despawns after 2 minutes when farther away from the player
5. Drill not crafting fixed
6. Module slots remaining open after construction mode is closed fixed
7. Random explosions fixed
8. Alien biome mines fixed

BLASTRONAUT has successfully finished its first year in Early Access, and to celebrate this milestone, we have just released yet another major update that adds quite a bit more action to the game.

Here is a summary of what has been added:

Swarm of ravagers have arrived, demolishing bases and keeping the player on its toes. At the beginning of the game, the swarm is asleep, but once it awakens, it will spice up the mid- and late-game. An additional mission is added that introduces the new swarm mechanics to the player

Luckily, the player can also build Turrets to protect his bases. The turret has various weapon types and more ammo crafting for the player.

The player's inventory can now be scrolled in the map view, and more important resources can be pinned such that they are always shown on the top.

Many more minor balancing changes were made; for example, the player movement should not feel so slippery anymore. Balancing is an ongoing process, and we will have to make more changes before we are pleased. All suggestions about balancing are welcome, so please let us know in Discord if something seems off or if you have some suggestions.

List of new features:
1. Enemy swarms
2. Machine health - if destroyed, they will become broken
3. Ravager enemy and hatching pods
4. Wave-based enemy attacking
5. Inventory scrolling and favourite pinning
6. Turrets - attacking nearby enemies, consuming ammo
7. „Strange encounter“ mission - after the „Water operation“
8. New ammo resources
9. Improved main menu

List of changes:
1. Adjusted spaceport tasks
2. Adjusted faction tasks, five more minor tasks added to the game
3. Crafting and selling rates adjusted
4. Menu scrolling removed

Fixed bugs:
1. Player „slidy“ movement fix (capsule collider replaced with a rectangle)
2. Controller left stick jumping over multiple achievements cards fixed
3. Player state resetting after loading a multiplayer game in single-player and vice versa

Thank you for supporting the game. There are still many features that we have planned to implement during the Early Access. The first year of updates is done; time to start with the second one!

Thanks to everyone who played the last update and left feedback; we have fixed some issues that came with it.

New features:
1. Research completes when the player is farther from the research station.
2. Notification of research complete.
3. Minor booth tasks added to the quest panel so players can switch between them.
4. Research displaying module stats.

Changes:
1. The quests are set active after they are accepted in the booth; opening the quest tree is no longer necessary. (This does not apply to the satellite repair quest that teaches the player how to navigate to the quest tree).

Fixes:
1. Dropped resources sometimes disappear.
2. Crash on starting a task with a radius area.
3. Inventory slots display the wrong tool.
4. Quest gets stuck when the antenna is activated beforehand.
5. Research not unlocking after it is finished (further testing is required to confirm that the bug is fixed in all situations).

The deadline for the next major update is also drifting closer, so see you again soon!

A new regular update has just landed and comes with many fixes, changes and additions to the game.
So here is the summary of new exciting content that has been added to the game.

The beginning of the game got overhauled and now has three new missions. Each comes with a little storyline, shows different game areas and unlocks new mechanics. These missions also introduce new items and locations to the game world, providing resources for different unlocks even after completing the story mission. These will not remain the only ones as, for future updates, we have already planned more.
The missions and achievements are now tied to a unified quest tree. This should help to provide direction in case you don't know what to do next. As for the missions, we also plan to expand the tree as the game develops.
The water biome got new plants, and a new fish-type enemy called Sparky. It is not the most hostile enemy but lays floating mines that might surprise you if not being careful. It also drops new resource that is needed for many recipes. Also, the player's movement in the water was improved as well.
In addition to these main features, there were also many other improvements and fixes that we hope you will enjoy.

List of new features:
1. Quest tree view
2. Water biome tileset and new enemy Sparky
3. Water-splashing particles
4. Scenario locations added to the world generation
5. 3 new questlines (crash site, jungle temple, broken pump)
7. Quest rewards and unlocks
8. New world templates
9. Faction dialogue displays during quests
10. New quest item

List of changes:
1. Equipment slots are locked at the beginning of the game
2. One more health for the new beginning and custom game scenarios
3. Equipment, construction and research trade prices changed to use biome-unique resources
4. Slot and resistance upgrades require unique items

Fixed bugs:
1. Drones duplicating themselves after loading a game
2. Drones not working after loading a game
3, Drones delivery tick sound played globally
4. Destroying the research machine, crashing the game
5. Buildings too close together, not opening HUD
6. Jetpack water physics bad
7. Module information crowded and overlapping UI elements
8. Drill machine drones not working when reloading the game
9. Home beacon is not working when reloading the game
10. The drill machine fuel module is not working properly
11. Quest resetting after the player rejoins a multiplayer game
12. Rare crashes in multiplayer
13. Water pump not queuing water on holding F
14. Steam repair-related achievements not triggering

Known bugs:
1. Research sometimes not unlocking the resource in multiplayer games (needs more testing)
2. Inventory growing outside the screen
3. Enemies pushing player inside blocks
4. Liquid is not saved and sometimes gets stuck

Thank you for providing valuable feedback under Steam Discussions or on our Discord server. We still want to improve many game areas, but some (e.g., player movement changes) require more analysis and design.
Thanks again for your patience and support. See you soon!

Today the third major update for BLASTORNAUT is released. Aqueous adds the liquid system and overhauls the construction system. It also brings new machines and drones for experimental automation, so we are eager to hear your feedback.

Here is a summary of what has been added:

Liquid simulation adds more character to the world. Although it is not yet final and will receive additional improvements in the upcoming patches, we have put much effort into optimization, ensuring it will run well even on the Steam Deck.
Drill and pump machines
New large-scale machines allow producing the fuel and minerals on an industrial scale. However, they can not be built anywhere; instead, the player still needs to do some exploration.
Drone automatization
The modules introduced in the last patch can now be attached to all the crafting stations as well. This includes the drone modules that can now carry resources between the storage containers, furnaces and even sell stations. New types of drones also allow to specify where the resources will be delivered.
Mobile construction
One of the most requested features has always been the ability to build structures outside the range of the main building. And now, it is possible to use the new mobile construction tools that can be purchased from some of the vending machines on the ground.
Other construction improvements
There are also several smaller improvements to the construction system in general. For example, moving the camera in construction mode is now possible. Also, the deletion is now behind the dedicated selection, which should give more control and reduce the likelihood of accidental deletion.

List of new features:
1. Liquid simulation
2. Submerged biome
2. Drill machine - converts fuel to resources
3. Pump machine - converts water to fuel
4. Automation with 3 transport drones (storage, crafting, selling)
5. Mobile construction mode with 3 construction tools
6. Displaying stats under storage and crafting machines
7. Modules can be added to crafting machines
8. More info about module benefits in the construction view
9. Ability to destroy modules
10. New showcase scenario for the added construction features

List of changes:
1. More building space for the main construction station (almost 10x increase)
2. Inputs changed for construction and equipment switching
3. Deletion system uses special construction cards
4. Weapon and jetpack module upgrades changed
5. Tile order changed for liquid (entities, including enemies) are be placed behind foreground tiles
6. Adjusted machine colliders and snapping distances

Fixed bugs:
1. Spikes not doing damage in the crimson biome
2. Rare crash that occurred when objects were loaded in the wrong order
3. Construction exiting getting stuck when using a controller
4. Module snapping incorrectly on close range

Known bugs:
1. Two achievements are not triggering
2. Liquid is not saved but will simulate again when reloaded
3. Transportation drones not visible in multiplayer games
4. Enemies can push players inside blocks

The old save games should still be working; however, due to the world generation changes, some things might be generated on a different location or previously discovered bases are covered with blocks.

The main goal of this update was to set a foundation for the new gameplay loops that will arrive in the next update (Q3). We will also start putting more effort into balancing, but it is important to establish all core systems first. For this reason, we are eager to hear your feedback!

Please consider trying the new showcase level; it has a new tutorial section and teaches all the new features mentioned above. At the end of the showcase, there is a feedback button that you can use to let us know about your experience - we will appreciate it a lot.

Thank you so much for supporting the game. We are eager to start working on the next major update that will hopefully expand the universe of BLASTRONAUT quite a lot.

We are showing the BLASTRONAUT game on a big screen at GDC.
It will be there today (Thursday) from 10AM - 12PM and 14PM-16PM local time.
And also tomorrow (Friday) from 10AM - 12AM.

See you soon!