It has been very hectic for us here at Bugbyte, but we're really happy to be able to push out the new patch today! This patch addresses many bugs you've reported and also has some other smaller improvements.
We noticed it was easy to miss the UI box with the information on how to rotate a facility, and many wished they would be bound to Q and E on the keyboard by default. We improved the outlook of the rotation information box and made rotation keybinds be bound to Q and E by default.
We also heard you on the missing sounds and have started adding some more sounds to the game. We will aim to do this more and more with time.
We've also heard you on other issues and rest assured we are gathering all feedback and aim to improve the game! We just need a little time to figure out our bearings and make some implementations =)
We would also like to highlight this great tutorial video series by Rhadamant. If you have trouble getting into the game take a look! We advice anyone new to start with the Basic Platform scenario, but the video series above should help you on your space voyage.
One of the best things with being a developer is seeing players interact with your game. It has been awesome to see you create your own creations. There are so many we would like to show here but we can only pick a few. Here are some great ships made by you, our players!
Ship created by Rav2n
Ship created by Kushiel
Ship created by Kalus
Fleet of two created by Grogsnack the Vegetarian
If you want a chance to get your own ship in the updates post them in our Discord server #screenshots-and-videos channel, or here on Steam! =)
We have been completely blown away by the Early Access release of Space Haven. Our small team of 3 has been scrambling to keep this spaceship together =) We welcome all new Spacefarers! May your journeys be eventful and prosperous.
We believe that you will see the love that has already gone into Space Haven, and the endless potential it has. However, we see plenty of room to expand on and improve the existing features to bring them up their full potential, which will be our main focus. We want to keep working on Space Haven until it is a true gem among indie games!
If you have any troubles with the game we are here for you at the Steam forums and our other channels ready to help! =) If there's anything going wrong rest assured we will be at the problem with the speed of a rocket!
Join the Experimental Starfarers Crew
We will start with our iterative updates to improve Space Haven step-by-step to that indie gem! The process will be as follows:
Push a new Update to the Experimental Branch - Where you can test new experimental patches before the game is officially updated.
Once the experimental game build looks solid and stable we will push it out officially to all players!
NOTE!Joining experimental is completely optional,and you should only do it if you are willing to risk that some new bugs are introduced, which could affect your game play and potentially break your save.
Here is how you join The Experimental Starfarer crew:
1. Open Steam Library 2. Right click Space Haven 3. Select Properties 4. Go to tab 'Betas' at the top. 5. Select 'Experimental' in the drop-down.
To see what has been added, check the in-game patch notes.
Need help? Join The Space Haven community. The best places to get help is here on Steam forums but also on Discord and Reddit.
Bzzt...bzt.. This is Bugbyte mission control. Houston, we don't have a problem, we have a date. Repeat, we have a date! We have a Steam Early Access release date! Bzzt...Bzt... Over and out. Space Haven will be released on Steam as Early Access on Thursday 21st of May. Let's make this rocket launch a successful one together!
Story time. We recently attended a small game dev gathering here in Turku, Finland. When asked to introduce ourselves we eagerly told our story, and how Space Haven was looking very promising to be our best game yet.
We continued on to say one of our game dev related dreams out loud, which would be to have the number one spot in the "global top sellers" list on Steam. One of the attendees burst out laughing, thinking it was a joke. Well, to be honest. We didn't mean that Space Haven would stay up there forever, even a minute would be a dream come true for us =) It's honestly a dream we have and they say it's good to have goals in life!
"I have a dream... That one day... For one minute... Space Haven would be the number one top seller on the "Global Top Sellers" - list on Steam"
It is once again time to rally up, Spacefarers! Let's make Space Haven soar through the skies and reach the number #1 on the Global Top Sellers list, even if just for a minute! =) This would be something to tell our grand kids about.
What can I do to help?
Start beating the Space Drums, tell your friends and family, yell it out in every Discord channel and forum you can and tell them to Wishlist Space Haven on Steam:https://store.steampowered.com/app/979110/Space_Haven/
Tell your favorite streamer to contact us at: support@bugbyte.fi - Let's invade YouTube and Twitch!
Be there with us on launch day Thursday May 21st, and help new players with their questions if you can! =)
This is how Space Haven looks now
These are exciting times! Come await the Early Access release together with us and other players, we're waiting for you in our channels below:
Alpha 8 comes as a smaller update focused on the Build Menu. We've spent a few weeks improving it and making it easier to use, easier to find facilities and utilizing different resolutions in a better way. It might take a little time to get accustomed to the new build menu, but once that happens you should notice it is great to use and allows for some quick building! =)
We've also worked hard on improving the translations, and we are starting to be confident they are shaping up very well. We will of course improve these with time as players spot issues and strings that are hard to understand.
STEAM/GOG Early Access Release
We are preparing for the official Early Access release. We do not have a date yet, as we need to sort out some tasks and find a good window for the release all things considered, it could be before summer but it might end up being after the summer in fall as well. Once we are certain of a date we will announce it, so stay tuned for news on that =)
Interview with the composer of Space Haven
Solid Content sat down and did an interview with the music composer for Space Haven, watch some neat game play, listen to some music and hear some cool things about making music for Space Haven!
Thanks for reading and stay tuned for more news to come!
So, we find ourselves in midst of a pandemic. Never would we have believed that we and the world would find ourselves in such a situation as the Steam early access release of Space Haven closes in.
We truly hope you are safe out there. So far we have managed to continue on as before, our small 3 person indie team has not been infected. We've stayed healthy and focused our energy on Space Haven, and as a result there's lots of new features we want to show you. =)
Advanced Game Customization
Many knobs and levers to emphasize your beloved features in the game.
We have created difficulty levels for the game, and the possibility to customize your playthrough if you want to. It is a type of creative mode, where you get to specify what resources you start with, what kind of asteroids or derelict ships are found in the start sector and so on. This can be tweaked on a galaxy level too, meaning if you want a galaxy full of resources you can create that for yourself. For players wanting to forget the challenge and just build in peace we added a sandbox mode, which will enable you to spawn resources at your will.
New features:
Advanced Game Customization - Customize your playthrough with regards to resources, asteroids, derelict ships, alien presence and so on. Emphasize your beloved features.
Sandbox mode - A sandbox category has been added to the build menu, allowing you to spawn resources and possible other items at will.
Crew Selection Screen and Customization
You can now customize the colors of your crew outfits.
A crew selection menu has been added to the game!
Another new addition is the crew selection screen, where you will be able to decide who you will take with on your journey through space. Many want to leave Earth and hop on your crew, in hopes of finding a better place to live. You need to decide who you take with, and what kind of colors their shirt and pants have.
New features:
Crew selection menu - Choose who you take with as part of your starting crew as you venture out to find a new home among the stars.
Customize crew outfits - Choose the colors of your crew member outfits. Everyone can have a purple shirt, or yellow, or something completely different!
Starmap improvements
Starmap now has fog of war.
We've added a fog of war to the starmap, which reveals the next destinations but no further than that. This allows for some surprises with how the other faction spaceships move around in the starmap, it also adds to the feeling of exploration when traveling in the galaxy. We also had a little time to tweak some of the space backgrounds within sectors.
New features:
Starmap fog of war - Pirates might catch you by surprise now!
Polished backgrounds - At least some of the backgrounds will look a bit better =)
Special derelict ships, so called claimable derelicts, can now be claimed and added to your fleet.
Claimable derelict ships - These are special derelict ships which can be claimed and added to your fleet. Go explore them and once all creatures lurking in the shadows have been cleared out this special derelict ship can be captured and added to your fleet. However, it might require a substantial amount of repairs and resources to make it capable of hyperspace travel.
Additionally, all the factions in the game now have some new ships in their fleet, so you will meet more than just the little scale spaceships later on in the galaxy.
New features:
Claimable derelict ships - These special derelict spaceships can be claimed and added to your fleet.
New faction spaceships - Added some bigger ships for the various factions in the game.
Space Haven - Now available in 12 languages
We've spent a lot of time to make Space Haven available in other languages besides English. We hired a team of professional translators for the job, and they have just finished their initial translations of texts in the game.
Space Haven is localized to the following languages:
ENGLISH
GERMAN
FRENCH
CASTILIAN-SPANISH
ITALIAN
RUSSIAN
SIMPLIFIED-CHINESE
JAPANESE
KOREAN
CZECH
POLISH
PORTUGUESE-BRAZIL
These translations are the first iteration, and they will need work and polishing to iron out the biggest issues. We will be working on that in the upcoming weeks.
Steam Early Access
We're preparing for a Steam Early Access release, but we do not have a date yet. We want to release this year. However, times are very uncertain, and so many factors play into a successful official release. If one of us three becomes ill it could seriously affect any set release date we would have.
The game build needs to be ready, void of any game breaking bugs. The translations need to be checked and in good enough shape. Our current plan is to make a decision around a month before release, and once we have it clear to ourselves we will notify you =)
Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No! It is the thunderous roar from a spaceship turret. Space Haven Alpha 6 is the biggest update to date and brings ship-to-ship battles with it, along with a bunch of smaller feature additions, improvements and bug fixes.
Developing support for ship-to-ship battles was challenging design wise, but we're really happy with how it turned out and how it further supports the core of the game. The new additions enables you to build a proper bridge for your spaceship consisting of many console modules.
Note! There's only one turret at the moment, but our focus was to implement the base and make ship-to-ship battles fully functional. We will be adding more with time.
The Spaceship Bridge
It's now possible to build a proper bridge for your spaceship, with 3 new console modules introduced making the total amount of console modules 4. Each console is specialized in controlling a certain aspect of the defense and attack systems. The consoles are:
The Operations Console
The operations console is used to hail other spaceships and communicate with their crew. It is also used to control scanner modules. Needs crew member to operate.
The Weapons Console
The weapons console is used to control the various turrets of the spaceship. One console is capable of controlling all turrets in the spaceship, as long as a crew member is stationed at the console.
The Shields Console
Shield modules form a continually regenerating protective energy shield around the ship, and use power to recharge. Shield generators are controlled by the shields console seen above.
The Navigations Console
This navigation console combined with a hyperdrive enables the spaceship to hyperjump between solar system areas. Needs a crew member to operate.
Ship-to-Ship Battle Mechanics
A ship's overall health is divided into hull stability and shield strength, which can be strengthened with hull stabilizers and shield modules respectively. Power will also play a part, as attack and defense systems will be more prone to consume larger amounts of power.
Various turrets will have their own specifications regarding hull stability damage and shield damage, in addition to these special properties can be added. Examples of special properties could be a turret with projectiles causing internal fires, another turret may act much like an EMP turret shutting down power within an area.
A Hull Stabilizer reinforces the spaceship's frame, strengthening it and generally improving structural integrity. Multiple Stabilizers can work in unison to bolster the hull far beyond its normal limits.
A ship's hull is not generally penetrated until the hull stability is lost, at which point the hull stabilizers will be overloaded and explode, along with other hull integrated elements like turrets, shield modules, hangars and more inevitably causing the whole ship to explode to a good degree. It's still possible to save the crew and the ship after this, but generally a scenario like this is devastating. Roof elements, like turrets shields and scanners, can be targeted and destroyed individually.
All so called system modules reserve system points when built, if you want to build a ship with more hull stability you will have to sacrifice on some other front, like fire power or shield strength. Larger ships will have more system points to spend on system modules. There will not be a wide selection of turrets in the beginning, but with time more turrets will be added to the game.
Scanning
Feeling curious and want to see what's going on in other faction spaceships currently in the sector? Build a scanner and you're able to peek in. The scanner will come in handy when trying to determine whether this is a crew you want to mess with, or where to direct your more powerful special turrets.
"Seems Jemima and Lisette are playing Fatman Returns in co-operative mode. Others are probably sleeping. This is our chance to do a sneak attack and steal their space food."
New Music
We've kept Paul very busy and had him produce 4 new music tracks for the game for this update. The soundtrack has come a long way, now with 12 in-game main tracks plus some additional tracks for things like exploring derelict ships and crew combat. That's well over 30 minutes of excellent music!
Space Haven Official Wiki
We've been working on a wiki/guide for Space Haven, filling it up with information and tips. We hope it will be of help for new players to get answers if something is unclear. We will keep adding information with time as we find out which things are hard to understand. You can check out the wiki below:
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:
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 =)
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 =)
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.
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: