• 8 years ago

Great news! Orion Trail received an Honorable Mention in Excellence in Narrative by the Independent Games Festival. We’re so tickled by this award, we could do a dance.

Learn more about it here.

• 8 years ago

If you’ve always wanted the experience of sitting in the captain’s chair of an intergalactic space ship, then your wait is over! You can now experience Orion Trail in virtual reality on the Samsung Gear VR. Players will experience the same core gameplay found in the original version, but the game’s interface and characters have been adapted for a VR environment. Orion Trail VR is available on the Oculus Store.

To read more about it, here’s the press release.

• 8 years ago

(This was cross-posted from our Kickstarter page)

Exciting news, space-friends. Things are heating up in the cold vacuum of space. Have I used that one before? Probably. I don’t care, I’m super pumped to let you in on the latest developments for Orion Trail.

Orion Trail leaves Early Access on October 12th!

Warpin’ Weasels! It’s happening!

It feels like only yesterday that we were a prototype on Steam Greenlight. I guess time really does fly when you’re hurtling through space at the speed of light. Or something.

We’ve been in Early Access for about two months now and have received some great feedback for how to improve the game. Having acted on (and continuing to act on) that feedback, we’re confident that releasing the game to the greater public is the next step for us.

Here’s a breakdown of what this means:

• On October 12th, we’ll be leaving Steam Early Access. All Early Access keys (activated or not) will still work and give you a full copy of the game.
  
• People who have been waiting for their DRM-free copy of the game will get their first for-real build. This will likely be through the Humble Store, but we’ll let you know.
  
• Just because we’re launching doesn’t mean we will stop supporting the game. We’ll be adding new (free) content to the game, fixing bugs, and still responding to feedback for at least a month after our official launch.
  

… But what about Hunting / [other cool feature]?

When we were preparing for the Kickstarter, Hunting was one part of the game that we refused to cut, until it became obvious to us that the money needed with the Hunting mini-game wasn’t going to be realistic to ask for.

So, we were forced to make a tough choice: do we risk the project not getting funded, or do we feel confident enough that the game can be strong enough on its own without shooting at space buffalo? Ultimately, after a lot of discussion, we believed that the game has enough to bring to the table without it, even though it could compromise what it means to be a “trail” game.

We hear your desire for skill-based mini-games, and believe us, we want them, too. If we get enough interest in the game after launch, we’ll be looking for ways to try and make features like hunting a reality. So, tell your friends about our impending launch and help us get there! Those space jackalopes aren’t going to phaser themselves.

Keep letting us know what you like and don’t like about the game. We’re listening, and want to make it better!

The T-Shirts have arrived!

Seriously! They’re here!

It’s been a long time coming, but they’ve all arrived in the studio late last week, and we’re getting ready for a big packin’ party here at the studio. We’ll let you know when they’re in the mail!

Upcoming Build: Trading Posts

Mike hinted at this a few weeks ago, but this next build will have the first incarnation of Trading Posts appearing in our Starmaps! The structure is similar to an Away Mission, and you’ll be able to trade your less-needed resources for stuff that you’re running out of. Plus, they look super cool on the Starmap.

Stream Tomorrow (9/25/15) at 2:30PM!

Tomorrow is Friday, which means it’s time for another stream! Tune in and check out a preview of the next build on our Twitch Channel. It’ll be funzies.

Whew. That was exhausting. That’s all for this update.

Keep on keepin’ on, space pals. We’ll be in touch very soon.

- Dave

• 8 years ago

Why hello there. Long time no blog.

We’ve been continuing to plug away at the game over the past week, workin’ on adding new content, polishing up the UI, transitions, and adding some fun flair to the Star Map.

Oh,  also, we’ve enabled Steam Cloud support for your save data, which’ll make switching between machines that much easier.

In other news, we’ve been keeping a keen eye on balance. Specifically, we’re hoping to give you guys more of a reason to pick options that aren’t necessarily your best stat. Our first attempt at this was restricting your choices based on which resources you do or don’t have, but I think we can do better.

In many cases, there are encounters where options will give you rewards based on the options you pick. However, we’re not showing you what said rewards are. So, we’re planning to add a little bit to the UI to call the rewards for each option you can pick.

However, we’re keenly aware that we don’t want to flood the UI with too much information, so we’re treading very lightly. Expect to see these changes either in the next update, or the one following it, along with some cool additions of content. Mike talked about trading posts, and they’re just about ready to be added in the coming weeks!

That’s all for this time!

- Dave

• 8 years ago

We hear you! Sometimes it really seems that way doesn’t it? That’s kind of the problem with random things. They’re just so… well.. random!

We’ve heard from lots of you who are looking for a few opportunities along the trail to make some strategic choices and to briefly escape the whims of the probability drive. We’re working on some systems that will do just that. We want to give our intrepid captains a chance to flex their intrepid brains and manage some of those precious resources themselves.

We’re playing around with some way to incorporate trading posts and rest stops along the way. The idea here is that it will allow you to spend some of one resource that you’ve got in surplus to get one you’re low on. Now we’re not going to promise you that you’re going to find traders that have what you want. You’re going to have to have a little luck and a little skill in order to get, recognize, and act on a good deal when you see one.

It’s worth mentioning that this is really based off some excellent feedback we’ve gotten from our players in Early Access and from our twitch viewers. If you’ve got any suggestions for us, we really do want to hear from you. Pop in on a stream or talk to us in our forums if you’ve got the time.