Spacefarer.

We've arrived at the end of the year and it's once again time to head out to take a little break and celebrate Christmas and New Year replenishing our strength for the coming year, 2020.

This year was special to us. It's hard to fathom that it has already been well over 7 years since we started on our journey to create games. A lot has happened in that time, a lot of hardships and disappointments, but also successes that kept us alive to fight another day. We're very grateful to still be alive as an indie studio to this day.

Being a game developer is wonderful because you get to bring fantasies to life, and create experiences and emotions for others playing your creation. If you were to ask what brings a game developer great joy it's usually seeing players talk and react to your game. In a positive way of course =) Seeing someone bash your creation can feel devastating and demoralizing, but the best way to react is to try to understand what's wrong and improve from there.

We never intended or planned for Space Haven to be such a long project, just some odd months more and we're at the 4 year mark. 4 years! A lot can happen in 4 years, like suddenly having to wear glasses to see. So what happened? Well, the usual thing happened. We envisioned a game, started creating it and as the years rolled by we realized we weren't building a house, we were building a very big castle. And castles take a lot of time to build!

If we've had spent less time on Space Haven then Space Haven would not be the game it is today, it would be an entirely different game. And very likely not as enjoyable. See, that's what happens when you work on a game. You realize it needs more, that it's not yet enough. So you keep working on it, crafting it day by day hoping one day it's something special. Like a big castle ready to house many people.

It's been amazing to see the power of a supporting community. Just when we thought our castle would remain unfinished as nothing but a solid foundation for something magnificent, you came to our aid with your wheel barrows and shovels! You gave us the means to continue crafting our castle that is Space Haven. One of our game developer dreams was to have a successful Kickstarter one day, one of those Kickstarters that make other game developers use it as an example of what's possible. It happened, and you made it possible =)

Thank you from the bottom of our hearts for making one of our game developer dreams come true. Thank you for supporting us and enabling us to continue crafting Space Haven, the big castle we want to share with you. 2020 is going to be yet another big year, hopefully you are with us then too!



Now for some more merry news. As mentioned previously we decided to participate in the Yogscast Jingle Jam with one of our previous games, Battlevoid: Harbinger.

In return, the Yogscast promised to give Space Haven a go in their Jingle Jam streams and show it to their community. (NOTE! Space Haven is not part of the bundle) It was so exciting watching them play, they seemed to love the game and have a lot of fun with it. If you missed it don't worry, you can watch the whole video of them playing below:

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/523095593?t=0h21m9s

Our goal is to officially release Space Haven as a solid Early Access version next year (2020) (PC/Mac/Linux), once we feel we are ready and find a good time frame. We will of course notify you closer to release. Once in Early Access, we will continue hammering away on the game update by update.

If you want to do something in a merry Christmas spirit to help us you can simply share the Yogscast video with a friend, show them this Steam page for wishlisting or let your favorite streamer know that Space Haven is starting to become really solid and they should totally play it =)

You can find more information on Space Haven and the Alpha at:
http://bugbyte.fi/spacehaven/

Discord: https://discord.gg/zx2AN4F
Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/SpaceHaven/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/SpaceHavenGame
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BugbyteGames/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/spacehavengame/

We also have our mailing list which is great for keeping up to date with important news: http://bugbyte.fi/register

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! See you in 2020 =)

- The Bugbyte Team

Greetings, Spacefarers.

Christmas is closing in and so is the Yogscast Jingle Jam! We have decided to join the Jingle Jam Bundle this year, with one of our older games Battlevoid: Harbinger. All the proceeds of the bundle go to charity! We try to do something charitable every year, even if it something small. Part of the fun of having some success is the ability to give back! =)

Additionally, the Yogscast crew has promised to play Space Haven in their stream, and we're really excited to see that. This will be a great opportunity for you to see the current state of Space Haven, and do check out their Jingle Jam streams throughout the whole of December!

The Jingle Jam is already live. The Yogscast plan on covering Space Haven on the 14th sometime between 11am-2pm GMT, be sure to tune in and watch them play then!
We've been working on improving the user-interface the past month, to support you on your journey through space. Step-by-step the UI is improving, making everything more intuitive and valuable information more accessible.



Moving things around, improving and adding some stuff and sprinkling it with some new features. Above is a screenshot of how the UI looks now. We've rearranged things a bit to allow for the possibility to show more resources in the top bar with a customizable window. Crew members are also shown at the top and how many are shown can be customized. We've added a development progress bar to the main menu, giving a very rough estimate of when a next update could arrive.



Customizable resource window in the top bar of the user interface. You can play with your own desired setting. If you want to see a lot of resources on the screen at all times you can keep the resource window large. If you don't, just keep it small =)



Crew members are now shown at the top part of the user interface. You can also customize how many crew members you want to see at a time with a drop-down list. Various elements, such as mineable asteroids, derelict ships and spaceships belonging to other factions are shown in their own part of the UI.



Spaceships and stations now have roofs! And you can see them. This is the beginnings for being able to add cool stuff on the roof, like turrets, shields and solar panels.

Some other cool new UI features:

• Big notifications for important events.
  
• A much requested even faster game speed option.
  
• The game clock has also been refined.
  
• Bind objects to groups using ctrl+(0-9).

Furthermore, we added a log to the game, giving that nice little touch to creating a story. Want to know that Pete got the "shat pants" condition? No? Well, you will know anyway.



We have also started working on ship-to-ship combat, which is also why the UI needed some redesigning to be able to support and show valuable information related to ship-to-ship battles. Christmas is closing in fast, we're not sure if we can manage a beginnings of ship-to-ship combat update before it but we will try. We will see how it goes =)

You can find more information on Space Haven and the Alpha at:
http://bugbyte.fi/spacehaven/

Discord: https://discord.gg/zx2AN4F
Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/SpaceHaven/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/SpaceHavenGame
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BugbyteGames/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/spacehavengame/

We also have our mailing list which is great for keeping up to date with important news: http://bugbyte.fi/register

Until next time. Thanks for reading! =)

Girl. You walked into the wrong ship. Now show our Captain Pedro some respect or you gun' get it!

Greetings, Spacefarers.

Time flies when you are working on something cool and we believe this is the most exciting update for Space Haven so far! This big mixed bag of goodies update has it all, the biggest feature updates include:

• A new alien and the alien behavior implemented further.
  
• Hailing and communicating with other factions, with faction relationships, settlements and more.
  
• Boarding with the ability to surrender, take prisoners and demand ransoms implemented.
  
• A tool to create your own prison areas aboard your ships and take prisoners of your own.
  
• AI behavior and user interface improvements.
  
• Medical beds now functional with doctors capable of tending to and patching up injured patients.
  
• Graphical additions and general improvements.
  
• A ton of bug fixes and many more smaller feature implementations and improvements.

This new alien is capable of charging and knocking down your crew members. It also transforms incapacitated crew members to cocoons and drags them to the alien lair.

We added a new alien to the game. This specimen is capable of charging forward like a squid in water, by using it's tentacles to create a forward motion force. This allows it to quickly cover a lot of distance and even ram a crew member or other target.


The alien does its thing on a incapacitated crew member.

Once a crew member has been incapacitated this alien is capable of transforming them to an alien cocoon. This locks the crew member into a paralyzed state, optimal for the alien to transport them.


Holy shit, those are some big eggs! They don't look like the kind you boil in the morning. We need to get the hell out of here.

The new alien will eventually drag the cocoon to the alien lair and plaster the poor captured crew member to a wall. It's up to you to decide if you want to try to rescue the poor souls.



You can now hail and communicate with other factions. Communication is currently done from the bridge module, and once both parties are ready to receive each others transmissions a communications window will pop up to allow you to interact with the other party.

We've also implemented faction relationships, discussion mood, power balance between fleets, the ability to surrender, agree to cease fire and pay settlements. This same interaction system works also for interactions with characters you meet or capture.



All factions are now capable of attacking not only you, but also each other. Pirates may attack you and take all your crew members captive, then demand a settlement for setting you free. You are able to do the same for any other faction group you meet. Pirates may also attack civilians or any other faction, and the factions can make their own settlements between each other.

A character may give up and surrender to the enemy in the heat of combat, the chance for this rises with every wound the character sustains. When a character has surrendered you can no longer draft or control them.



We've created a new tool to enable you to create a prison of your own desire. Build a room or many rooms to be used as a prison with more or less comfort. Prisoners would probably appreciate a Kitchen and a toilet would be good too, but neither of these are requirements. It's up to you to decide how comfortable you want your prisoners to be, and if you want them to stay alive or not.


Medical beds are now functional and will help crew members heal from their wounds and Doctors can patch up more serious cases.

Inevitably, all this fighting causes wounds and injuries for your crew members. We've made medical beds functional and linked them to the Doctor skill. Medical beds use IV fluids to help patients heal and give the patient nutrients while resting, and Doctors will use medical supplies to operate on patients and patch up open wounds.


Laurie's open wound was patched up by a doctor. She's doing good but feeling a little lonely in the med bay all by herself.

The character conditions system allows us to create injuries, wounds and open wounds. An open wound might cause a crew member to bleed to death. It can heal by itself if the crew member is lucky, but bringing the individual to a medical bed and having a Doctor patch them up will close wound and thus prevent the character from bleeding to death.

Space Haven is steadily transforming into the game of our dreams, hopefully yours as well! It's been a pleasure bringing this update to you, we're once again one step closer to Steam Early Access launch.

You can find more information on Space Haven and the Alpha at:
http://bugbyte.fi/spacehaven/

Discord: https://discord.gg/zx2AN4F
Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/SpaceHaven/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/SpaceHavenGame
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BugbyteGames/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/spacehavengame/

We also have our mailing list which is great for keeping up to date with important news: http://bugbyte.fi/register

Until next time. Thanks for reading! =)

Greetings, Spacefarers.

How has your summer been? Ours has been a nice mix of hot and rainy. We enjoyed our 3 weeks of vacation immensely, and it brought us a whole lot of new energy to work more on Space Haven. We've been quietly working more on this next Alpha update for more than a few weeks already, wanting to announce our vacation ending and giving you a nice surprise in form of a new Alpha update at the same time =)

What is new? You might ask. Well, what is not new! Let's jump into it all, shall we.


NOTE! Some of the new facilities are still lacking coloring and texturing.

New Facilities and Resources

We've added 7 new resource production facilities, and modified the functions of the existing ones a little bit. The purpose of this resource overhaul was to give us a better base to expand on, and make it easier to continue adding some more depth to the game in the future. The underlying resource tree will enable a wider array of various resources and both low and high tech facilities, as well as production chains that make sense.

• Water Purifier - Transforms ice into purified water, essential for many life forms.
  
• Chemical Refinery - Used to produce various chemicals. Releases hazardous gas and is noisy.
  
• Metal Refinery - Transforms carbon and basic metals to steel plates. Releases heat and is noisy.
  
• Energy Refinery - Transforms energy crystal to energy rods and hyperium to hyperfuel. Releases hazardous gas and is noisy.
  
• Scrapper - Transforms scrap materials into a variety of usable resources. Releases heat and is noisy.
  
• Assembler - The assembler produces basic construction components, including Soft block, Hull blocks and Infrablocks.
  
• Micro-Weaver - The Micro-Weaver creates fabrics from fibers.
  
• Cell Fuser - The Cell Fuser uses electronic components and energy rods to create energy cells.
  
• Electronic Fabricator - Transforms noble metal and raw chemical to electronic parts.
  
• Optronics Fabricator - The high-tech Optronics Fabricator is capable of producing optronics components.
  
• Advanced Assembler - The advanced assembler facility is capable of producing high-tech construction components, such as tech blocks and energy blocks.

In addition to these we also added a battery module to the game, essential for sudden bursts of power consumption or power grid failures.


Added resources and new icons.

A resource overhaul wouldn't be an overhaul without new resources and of course new fantastic looking icons! Our graphics designer has been crafting the new facilities and icons for a long time.


You are now able to customize which resources you want to see in the top bar, and in which way.

This brings us to the next improvement. Ship settings now have a section where you can customize which resources you deem important and want to keep an extra eye on. You'll be able to customize the importance (in which order they are shown), if they are shown at all when you don't currently have any of the type and if you want to be notified if a certain resource is starting to run low.


You can now butcher aliens for meat and make a meal. If you hate one of your crew members...

Speaking of running low on resources. Malakai uses his butcher skills to make some nice monster meat out of an alien body. Become a notorious alien hunter and feed your crew with some greens (It's good for you! Or is it?). If one of the crew members vanishes and the others are having a nice meal filled with meat recipes, you might want to be a bit worried.



Sandbox Scenario

Some type of sandbox mode has been asked for a lot, so we decided to create a start scenario where resources are abundant! And you start with a crew of 8. This scenario will let you focus more on building your fleet without worrying about running out of resources, great for when you want to see how a ship design you have in mind works when brought alive in the game.


'Mobile Platform' built by Kenji

We are once again one step closer to Steam Early Access! =) You can find more information on Space Haven and the Alpha at:

http://bugbyte.fi/spacehaven

We love to hear from you guys so don't hesitate to come have a chat with us =) You can connect with us from through the channels below:

Discord: http://discord.gg/spacehaven
Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/SpaceHaven/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/SpaceHavenGame
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/spacehavengame/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BugbyteGames/

We also have our mailing list which is great for keeping up to date with important news: http://bugbyte.fi/register

Until next time. Thanks for reading! =)

Build a fleet of spaceships

Space Haven now allows you to build multiple ships and form a fleet of spaceships. We've had to redesign and implement some new features to enable this.

The current implementation allows for a max of 2 very large 2x2 ship grid tile sized ships (Seen in scenario 2) or 8 small 1x1 ship grid tile sized ships. You can of course make a combination of these, and create various other sized spaceships such as 1x2 for example.



You can see the user interface to create a new spaceship above. You will be able to select where you want to start building a new spaceship and also the new spaceship grid size. Once the position is chosen you will be able to start building the new spaceship hull.



You can now select the placement of each ship in a sector when jumping out of hyperspace. The same grid system is used to allow you to be able to select where in a sector each spaceship of your fleet goes as you drop out of hyperspace. Setting positions is done with a drag&drop mechanism.



The prepare for hyperspace jump user interface has been redesigned to support multiple ships in form of a list. You'll be able to control preparations from this menu, and give orders to your ships individually. Really happy with the result.



Sketching

You've given us a lot of feedback and some suggestions. Sketching was mentioned by many of you, so we decided to carry out your wish! Space Haven now features a spaceship sketch mechanism, which you can use to sketch out spaceships right from the start and build up the spaceship little by little. The sketch tools are:

• Sketch: Sketch out your ship - Sketches will not be build until you activate them.
  
• Activate sketch: Activates an area of a sketch into an actual plan for hull to be built.
  
• Erase sketch: Removes sketch plans.

We have seen that one of the most beloved features of Space Haven has been the building part of the game. We're super happy about this, because we thought long and hard of where to steer our focus when it came to core features and decided to focus a lot on the actual building part of the game.



Salvage

We have redesigned how salvage works. You can now salvage almost everything from any spaceship, which has been cleared out of it's crew/enemies and is now derelict. The current implementation has three different scrap recources; Metal scrap, advanced metal scrap and electronic scrap. These might change with time as the game develops.

When you send out your crew to salvage, you won't know exactly how much will be received from each facility on the ship. This is slightly random, and could later on be tied to a skill, such as construction skill for example. You will, however, be able to choose what kind of scrap resources you want the crew to try to salvage from the derelict ship.

The scrap resources can be brought to the Scrapper facility, which is able to refine them back to usable resources.


Work-in-progress image of the Scrapper from our graphic artist screen.


Scrapper completed.

The Scrapper

A new facility has been introduced to the game. The scrapper is tightly related to salvaging. Salvaging ships will generate various scrap resources, which can be brought to this scrapper facility. Strip a spaceship clean of almost everything and bring it all here to be transformed to usable resources once again!

One of our Alpha players wrote a store about their journey, you can read it below. We would like to see more of these screenshots/video + story combinations. They are really fun to read! =)



Captain Deacon:

"Thanks for coming everyone, I know you're all very busy doing... stuff; I just wanted to take a moment to thank you for your efforts in getting us here to the end of the galaxy. Your hard work has been very much appreciated and you've done whatever I've asked without any fuss or complaining (except that time you ran around the derelict crying like a little baby, Mariah, not your best moment).

We've built an amazing vessel together, which is a small miracle when you think about it, considering how much you all hate each other and me, in particular. But that's not all that surprising really when you see the kind of things you get up to: watching people in their sleep, following others into toilets, crapping yourselves whenever you like (looking at you Wiley) and generally being bitchy (no names mentioned, Jessa) - Sometimes I wonder, I really do.

Anyway, we've drained the galaxy of all it's resources, mined everything and bought all the water. What we have now is all that's left. In a few days or weeks the power and the water will run out, which means the plants won't grow and we'll run out of food and then the heating will go off and we'll slowly starve and freeze to death. Don't worry though, long before then we'll run out of oxygen and suffocate. A much nicer way to go I'm told. So, once again, thanks for everything; over the time we've been together I've come to regard you all as... people... I.... met... good luck, I think we're going to need it."

The screenshot and hilarious story above was sent to us by one of our Alpha backers, Hrochnick.



Thank you for reading =) You can find more information on Space Haven and the Alpha at:

http://bugbyte.fi/spacehaven

Direct Newsletter sign-up to be notified of official Steam release:
http://bugbyte.fi/register

Discord server, come chat with us:
https://discord.gg/zx2AN4F

Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/SpaceHaven/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/SpaceHavenGame
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/spacehavengame/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BugbyteGames/

This is the first development blog update after our Kickstarter ended. Prior to this we have already done 25 of them during the development of Space Haven! If you want to read and see older posts of how Space Haven came to be you can do so at our own forums. It can be quite interesting to see the very first screenshots and footage of the game =) The posts aren't in perfect order there, so be sure to check the number (#) when navigating.


Screenshot posted by Stuka on Discord.

One of the things we wanted to achieve with Space Haven was to have complete freedom to let you shape a spaceship of your own desire. We have been looking at your awesome looking spaceship creations and want to sprinkle our development blog update with screenshots of them! The screenshots you will see below are all created by you, our Alpha players.


Screenshot posted by Darklordiablo on Discord.

It was exciting times for us when mid April arrived and it was time to let you hop in on the Alpha journey! It's always a bit nerve wracking to put out a game in any state, as a game developer you're always a bit afraid that the game will not be enough.

We are only in Alpha phase right now, but we still wanted it to be enough for a solid beginning! It has been a real joy watching you play and post screenshots, discuss different strategies and report bugs. There's been quite a lot of bugs reported. We want to give our thanks to all of you! =) Remember that you can press F11 when playing for an easy way to send us bug reports. Please be considerate when using this feature as it could easily lead to a flood of reports. Check the already known bugs in the same menu to avoid sending duplicate reports.


Millenium Falcon posted by Onebit on Reddit.

We are also very positively surprised by how supporting and understanding you have been. Some of you went out of your way to write us positive encouraging feedback, both through our social media channels and through in-game surveys. We have seen them, and it means a lot to us! Thank you!


Screenshot posted by Rob Dee on Discord.

We've been sorting and fixing reported bugs these past weeks, and made some small implementations along the way. Hoping we can focus more on implementing improvements and new features soon! If you are currently playing the Alpha of Space Haven and finding it hard to understand something, join our Discord and chat with others playing the game too! You will be able to find a lot of help for your own journey.


Screenshot by SirTiller on Discord. He calls his ship the "Fat Frog".

You have also sent us a lot of suggestions and ideas! Keep em coming! The best place to submit them is the in-game survey system, which you can find in the main menu cloud section. This allows for the easiest way for us to scroll through various suggestions. You can see the most recent patch notes in the main menu under "patch notes". Be sure to check the news section too, to see if there's an update available.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QH_WcBIfgX0

Many of you have praised the music in Space Haven, and rightly so! When we started thinking about music for Space Haven we announced it on Reddit and let composers submit their samples for our early alpha demo. Paul saw it, and messaged us. With some back and forth messaging we found a tune that worked, a tune that would later become Nebula Signals. It was a match made in Haven! (Pun intended).

We will be keeping Paul busy, and looking forward to let you hear all the new tracks in the near future! If you want to chat with Paul you can do so on our Discord channel, where he keeps his very own Pauls Music Devlog.



Here's a little teaser for you of what's to come in the near future! Some type of Minimap perhaps? Maybe! Perhaps not only that, perhaps something more comes with it. The more the merrier they say =)



You can find more information on Space Haven and the Alpha below:

http://bugbyte.fi/spacehaven

We are working hard to improve on the game and looking forward to post another update in the near future, stay tuned! =)

Direct Newsletter sign-up to be notified of official Steam release:
http://bugbyte.fi/register

Discord server, come chat with us:
https://discord.gg/zx2AN4F

Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/SpaceHaven/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/SpaceHavenGame
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/spacehavengame/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BugbyteGames/

A magical number of 7777 backers and $260k raised on Kickstarter!

We've arrived at the finish line! This past month has been amazing and your support has been incredibly validating. We have been crafting Space Haven with love for almost three years now, and we are extremely grateful that we get to continue developing it further. You have made it possible, thank you!



What happens now?

We will continue developing Space Haven, and give access to the early Alpha build to Alpha Crew Member backers and all higher tiers in about two weeks time.

Our plan is to develop the game further for a Steam Early Access release. Estimated Feb 2020. We will aim to have monthly updates here and on Kickstarter to keep all of you in the loop as the game progresses!

Alpha Access - When will it start and how will we get access?

Alpha Access will start around mid April, when Kickstarter has given us the final list of backers. Kickstarter needs about 2 weeks after campaign end to sort this out.

Once we have the information we will immediately send out access to the Alpha build to backers who have chosen Alpha Crew Member or higher. We will send instructions via e-mail around mid April, stay tuned!



You can find more information on Space Haven and the Alpha below:

http://bugbyte.fi/spacehaven

Thanks for being part of our community and we look forward to post more updates!

Only 6 days left of Kickstarter! Pledge for your copy today and get early access to the Alpha as soon as mid April! The alpha will be distributed through our own website, and you will get to give us feedback as we develop the game further towards Steam Early Access!

Join the Kickstarter here: Join Space Haven Kickstarter



To you who have already supported us. We have accomplished so much together, one-by-one stretch goals have been reached. We cannot thank you enough. We're excited to be able to implement more features to the game with your help!




ONLY THE LAST STRETCH GOAL REMAINS, the big $200k! Choose to play as the Android Collective, Pirates Coalition, Slaver's Guild or Military Alliance among other possible factions. Learn their motivations and watch how their stories unfold.



We're running out of days but we can make it. We call upon you our Steam followers to help break the big $200k.

This really is our dream game and we want to make it something special. Go grab some wicked rewards for yourself! You'll be able to play an alpha build of Space Haven in mid April if you join the Kickstarter as an alpha backer.

Join the Kickstarter here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/bugbyte-ludibooster/space-haven

Give the above link to your friends and anyone you might think could be interested. Your help is greatly appreciated!

We are LIVE! Kickstarter campaign has been launched. Let's ignite the rockets and make Space Haven something great together.

Check out the Kickstarter page here: http://kck.st/2EfK6M7

Thank you all so much for being here to support us, this really is our dream game and we want to make it something special. Go grab some wicked rewards for yourself! You'll be able to play an alpha build of Space Haven in April if you join the Kickstarter as an alpha backer.

Give the above link to your friends and anyone you might think could be interested. Your help is greatly appreciated!