This is the second report on the progress of Alpha 9 - If you want to read the first report head on over to:https://steamcommunity.com/games/979110/announcements/detail/2516898401240766529

Time flies when you have fun developing a game. Another few weeks have gone by and we have new things to show!

In addition to the Space Hazards for Alpha 9 there was something else we saw an opportunity for to fit in the same package. Interactions with factions and their spaceships have been quite limited, and while this part of the game will be an on going part of development, we thought Alpha 9 would be a good opportunity to add some new features related to this.

We've worked more on faction encounters and interactions, and we have new features we want to showcase.




So far all the communication requests have come from the player, whether it is the want to trade or have a simple discussion otherwise. We've spent some time and implemented these interactions further, allowing other factions to contact you in case there's something they need or want.

These additions will give more life to your encounters with other faction spaceships, as they can now signal their want to communicate with you too. Currently other faction spaceships may contact you if you happen to have prisoners or refugees belonging to them, asking for the possibility to get them back. Sometimes they might need some resource and ask for it, or simply push their luck by asking for a gift.




A small problem with communicating is that it is tied to the operations console, and the player doesn't necessarily have someone there at all times. This could make it problematic to establish a communication channel, or for the player to know some faction ship wants to communicate.

We decided to implement signaling to help with this. Signaling can be seen as some form of Morse code signaling, which allows spaceships to communicate simple intents, like "we want to communicate", "we want to surrender", "we want to establish a cease fire and communicate".

Other spaceships can signal back their intent to accept or decline this request, thus making both parties aware of communication intentions and to get a crew member to the operations console.


When a faction spaceship gets destroyed the crew members of that spaceship will look to evacuate and abandon their ship. If there's another spaceship belonging to their faction, they will flee to that spaceship and continue their journey with their faction.

However, if there's no other spaceship belonging to their faction present in the sector, they will look towards other faction spaceships with whom they are in a ally/neutral stance relationship wise. They will seek out to ask for help and become a refugee in hopes of being reunited with their faction one day. Since they activate their distress beacon other factions are allowed to enter their spaceship and help them.



There's a big hole in our ship, can we come with you?

We've created a new character status in addition to the prisoner status, we're introducing the refugee status. Refugees are crew members, who have lost their home spaceship in a battle or otherwise, and are now looking to be reunited with one of their other faction spaceships somewhere in the galaxy.

If a pirate is with you in a sector bombarding a civilian spaceship and that spaceship gets destroyed, the civilians will want to reach out to you and ask for help. You can then decide if you want to take them with you, offer them sanctuary and a chance to be reunited with another of their faction spaceships one day.

Refugees are willing to help in some way. However, they do not work as long hours as your main crew members do during a day, as they want to save their strength. They are willing to help by carrying out logistics jobs, but are currently limited to that since they do not want to interfere with your crew and their specialized tasks you have set for them. Their priorities and schedules cannot be changed to keep a good balance. They yearn to be reunited with their faction one day, and will grow restless with time if this doesn't happen.




Keeping the refugees happy is important if you want to keep them working for you. Keep them satisfied by creating a nice area for the refugees to spend time and sleep in, keep them well fed to increase their mood.

Refugees of a faction will react to seeing another member of their faction be a prisoner instead of a refugee. This will have a negative effect on their mood and could lead to them refusing to work for you.




One of the most important things for a faction are their crew members, and once one is lost they usually want them back, unless it's that irritating Bob guy, whom nobody wants. (If your name is Bob please know we did not mean you but another Bob!)

When you encounter a faction spaceship they might contact you and ask if you've seen some of their lost crew members somewhere. If you have some on board as refugees or prisoners, you will have the options to tell the truth or lie.


Civilians scan some random areas of your ship and find out you have some of their faction crew members as refugees.

Lying is not nice. But hey, those refugees can be a good work force and you're not ready to give them up just yet. When you lie the other party might grow suspicious, or just want to check to be sure. If this happens they might do a scan of one of your ships.

They will randomly scan some parts of your ship revealing what's there, and if they happen to reveal a captive crew member belonging to them they will know you've lied. You can expect to get a hail request after this with someone quite angry on the other side.


These new additions will give some first opportunities for your relationship towards another faction changing over time. Your decisions to help or not to help will affect how the faction sees you, and if you disregard calls for help often enough your relationship with a faction will dwindle to hostility.


The mention of space hazards in the first Alpha 9 progress report caused up quite some discussion among you, our spacefarers. Many of you were concerned this update would have a big impact on the more relaxed play style you've gotten accustomed to.

Fear not! While these features are on by default we included them in the game customization options, you will be able to tweak them individually. Their presence in the galaxy can be tweaked and even turned off completely if you so desire.

As such, if you are looking to continue your relaxed play style this feature will not affect it negatively if you choose so, just remember to tweak it in the game customization menu!




The fourth space hazard is the nebula. An interstellar cloud of ionized gases, which has a draining effect on shields. The nebula itself is not very dangerous, but it can lead to interesting and dangerous situations if ship-to-ship battles take place in a sector with a nebula.


We have a goal to finish these features we are working on and wrap up Alpha 9 in the upcoming weeks. We will first push the update to the experimental branch and once it has been tested enough we will push it to the main branch.

We have no exact dates but we will announce when we release the update into the experimental branch and also when we release into the main branch! Stay tuned for more news!


As it looks now saves from Alpha 8 could work, although no space hazards will be present until you start a new game. We will find out more about the save compatibility when we release the update into the experimental branch and have players test it out.



This hilarious scene was posted by MtnDewGameFuel.


Really nice ship created by SubwaySurfer


Sweet ship by cromlowinhischair

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! =)

Join Space Haven Discord: http://discord.gg/spacehaven
You can also post them here on Steam: https://steamcommunity.com/app/979110/screenshots/

Report bugs here: https://steamcommunity.com/app/979110/discussions/4/
Discuss Space Haven here: https://steamcommunity.com/app/979110/discussions/0/
Technical Support: https://steamcommunity.com/app/979110/discussions/1/
Space Haven subreddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/SpaceHaven/

Thanks for reading and see you again in the next update!

We've been working on the first new features for the upcoming Alpha 9 update, and it is time to show what we've been able to produce so far! We're introducing Space Hazards and since one of the hazards affect crew members directly we found a good opportunity to add some new implementations towards adding a bit more depth to characters as well.

Space Hazards we're currently working on:

• Solar Flares
  
• Micrometeoroids
  
• Siren Worlds

Space Hazards are represented with icons on top of sectors in the starmap. This will allow you to see what you are getting yourself in to =)


Holy crap! What's going on here.

Solar flares overload your power nodes, possibly damaging them and cutting your power transfer short to a part of your ship. Fires can also break out, which means it is important to have some crew members on board the ship at all times.


Watch your head, Charley!

Micrometeoroids rain down on your ship constantly while you're in a sector where they are present. Shields will mitigate their negative effects to a degree as long as they stay up. Mining pods can be struck by the meteoroids, causing a concussion condition for the crew member inside and possibly damaging the mining pod.

Micro breaches



We have also implemented so called micro breaches. Micro breaches are smaller hull breaches, not fully tearing the hull open but causing small cracks which cause depressurization. Micrometeoroids and certain turrets may cause these as they hit the ship hull. These micro hull breaches can be repaired by your crew members with their construction guns.


Jet has lost his mind, or really hates his bed.

Siren Worlds are peculiar planets whose strange signals mess with the mind. These signals will periodically cause your crew members to act in a strange manner, ranging from aggressive behavior to staring at walls. Be alert when staying in these sectors, as your crew members might do something you don't want them to do.

The signals from the Siren World may result in crew members getting conditions like the urge for destruction, effectively making them a saboteur starting fires on board your ship. Other examples are insomnia and loss of appetite, causing tiredness and hunger among your crew members. Aggressive behavior might also occur and your crew members might start fighting each other.




Crew members can now start fights among each other if they get irritated enough. The chance for a fight to occur is based on various factors, such as overall mood and food status. If the crew member has a low overall mood and is also hungry on top of that they are more prone to become really irritated at someone.

Fighting causes some health damage, but crew members do not aim to kill each other. However, this could happen in some very rare instances where one of the crew members just happens to have very low health to begin with when the fight starts. Once they've let out enough steam they stop and go about their business.

As you can see not only does the implementations for the Siren World effects result in some cool new events, they also enable us to add a bit more depth to the crew members.


We're aware that when crew members start doing bad stuff on their own there is always a balance between interesting events and possible player irritation. Some things can get really annoying when they happen, depending on the event itself.

Right now these conditions appear mostly only in special sectors, the Siren Worlds sectors. We'll also listen to feedback to know if there's something that really causes more irritation than necessary, and will tweak as needed =)

However, these are really fun things to experiment with and will help a lot with adding more depth to characters and their behavior.


This is the stuff we've been working on for Alpha 9 so far. However, even if there's graphical representation of new features it doesn't always mean they are completely implemented and ready to go. Additionally, we still have some more features we want to include in Alpha 9 and will update you on the progress in a few weeks again!

Stay tuned for the next update and check out the community highlights below!



Mean looking ship by cameronsabin82


New Hope MK II by Dae


SSV Normandy SR-1 by LocoOne85


Fleet by Kreistor


Fan art by Becca. Neat looking mining pod!


You entered the wrong ship, Pirates! Fan art by Lulu Skorobogatov

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! =)

Join Space Haven Discord: http://discord.gg/spacehaven
You can also post them here on Steam: https://steamcommunity.com/app/979110/screenshots/

Report bugs here: https://steamcommunity.com/app/979110/discussions/4/
Discuss Space Haven here: https://steamcommunity.com/app/979110/discussions/0/
Technical Support: https://steamcommunity.com/app/979110/discussions/1/
Join Discord and chat with others playing Space Haven: http://discord.gg/spacehaven
Space Haven subreddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/SpaceHaven/

Thanks for reading and see you again in the next update!

Greetings, Spacefarers!


We've got another update for Alpha 8, newest version is now 0.8.21. For this update we've focused on finalizing the new changes for Alpha 8 and also added another new facility, the Composter. We worked on a new view mode, the water vapor view mode, allowing you to see where water vapor is distributed on your ship. We also added a way to eject stuff from a storage and tweaked some things, read all about it below.



Introducing the Composter facility and fertilizer as a resource. Grow Beds will now need fertilizer to enable crops to grow. The composter will allow you to decompose many type of resources to fertilizer, carbon and water.

While the Composter supports the food production loop the Chemical refinery is capable of producing fertilizer more efficiently. Use these two facilities to keep your food production up and running.



We added the much wanted water vapor view mode, which will allow you to be more strategic with where you place your water collectors on your ship. Use this view mode to see where water vapor is accumulating, and place a water collector to get the vapor turned back to liquid water again.



We modified the mining station to have two shuttles, and increased the default crew member amount at start to 6. This will help with the logistics work in the beginning, allowing things to run a little bit smoother as you build your ship to take to the stars.

A couple of other worthwhile mentions: We tweaked the random derelict ship generator a bit to increase the chance of finding hypersleep chambers aboard derelict ships. It seemed it was very rare to find one, the chance should be higher now.



We also added a way to eject items from a storage on a ship. This will become handy when stuff just keeps accumulating and you need some space for more important resources.



With every update our graphic artist uses some of his time to polish assets in the game. This time the power generator has gotten a tune up to its animation as well as the solar panel. Probably a lot of other stuff, he doesn't always tell us =)

Thoughts on Alpha 9


The updates seen to Alpha 8 so far have been smaller updates, still taking time but allowing for a near weekly new patch. A bigger update and a new Alpha version will require many weeks of development time, and we're ready to start working on it once we know these final versions of Alpha 8 are stable enough.


We will be able to state our ideas for Alpha 9 in a broad manner once we have started working on Alpha 9, but we will be able to show the final details of the update closer to the release of the update. We also plan to keep you updated weekly or bi-weekly depending on how progress is coming along. =)


Full Patch Notes:


[version] 0.8.21

• New Facility: Composter.
  
• New view mode: Water Vapor.
  
• New resource: Fertilizer.
  
• You can create fertilizer in the Chemical Refinery.
  
• Fertilizer resource units added to old saves to allow for a smoother transition to this new version.
  
• Plants in grow beds now need fertilizer.
  
• Toilet now produces water and biomatter. Grow beds also produce biomatter.
  
• Increased the chance to find a crew member in a hypersleep chamber aboard derelict ships.
  
• Added oxygen indicators to airlocks.
  
• Combined Hazardous gas and smoke to one view mode named Hazardous/Smoke.
  
• Added a new welcome text as the first information when starting a new game.
  
• Prisoners can now eat from nearby storages and items on floor if they have access and permission to those tiles.
  
• Modified mining base start scenario to have two shuttles.
  
• Modified mining base start scenario to have 6 crew as default instead of 5.
  
• Modified building job not possible notification to not come as often.
  
• Added a mechanism to eject items to space from a storage.
  
• Fixed shat pants negative comfort remaining after condition was removed by going to the toilet.
  
• Fixed a problem with trading.
  
• Fixed problem with produce if < xx in grow beds.
  
• Fixed many bugs.

Community highlights


EDL Cydonia by Droggarth


FTL inspired ship created by GoMunRah


Fleet by created by SpookySausage


Amazing Bugbyte ship by Gadwin!


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! =)

Join Space Haven Discord: http://discord.gg/spacehaven


You can also post them here on Steam: https://steamcommunity.com/app/979110/screenshots/


Report bugs here: https://steamcommunity.com/app/979110/discussions/4/

Discuss Space Haven here: https://steamcommunity.com/app/979110/discussions/0/

Technical Support: https://steamcommunity.com/app/979110/discussions/1/

Join Discord and chat with others playing Space Haven: http://discord.gg/spacehaven

Space Haven subreddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/SpaceHaven/


Thanks for reading and see you again in the next update!

Greetings, Spacefarers!


We've got another update for you to Space Haven Alpha 8. Water has been one of the most discussed topics since the Early Access release of Space Haven. Many of you seemed unhappy of how it was working, wishing for more of a closed type of system. Indeed there was a lot of feedback pouring in regarding this.



Expanding on the systems already in the game is also something we would like to achieve with time. We're happy to introduce the Water Collector to you, along with a new gas called Water Vapor. Water is used to grow food in grow beds, as such it is stored in food, water vapor is released from both plants and crew members, which can be turned back to liquid water using the water collector.

The Water Collector - This Water Collector reclaims water vapor from the air and condenses it back to liquid water. Place it close to grow beds for maximum efficiency.

Water Vapor - Water vapor is the gaseous phase of water and can be condensed back to liquid water.



Auto System Readiness Manager


Another prevalent issue was the fact that that it was easy to miss the so called "Red Alert" levers in the systems menu. Many were wishing for this type of function not knowing it already exists. We decided to implement an auto manager for this, which would take care of setting the proper readiness levels based on the situation at hand. If an enemy jumps into the sector the weapons and shields readiness levels will be set to high alert automatically.

Manual control is still available, simply by turning the auto manager off and then using the levers yourself. In addition to the above we've implemented more smaller improvements and bug fixes. See the full list of patch notes below.

Full Patch Notes:


[version] 0.8.20

• New facility: Water collector. Turns water vapor back to liquid water.
  
• New Gas: Water vapor.
  
• Game rebalance: Reduced water consumption for crops (-30%).
  
• Crew members and crops now exhale water vapor.
  
• New Feature: Automatic system readiness level manager.
  
• Made some improvements to hull removing.
  
• Turrets and scanners no longer fire into empty space on continous fire.
  
• Oxygen generators will now warn if they cannot raise the oxygen level enough.
  
• Fixed an issue with recruited prisoners having the ability to do jobs even with a zero skill level.
  
• Fixed a problem when extra items are on a blueprint building area and they are then moved outside of the ship.
  
• Fixed a problem with some repairs never being done.
  
• Fixed a problem with trading.
  
• Fixed aliens spawning even if none was selected in the game settings.
  
• Fixed a problem with crew ending outside of the ship when loading a saved game.

Community Highlights


Very nice looking ship created by TibiEtIgni


This masterpiece was created by Gadwin


Althena's ship in hyperspace


Sweet looking fleet by Aieonae


Seems like someone found a lot to salvage! Screenshot by Hennako.


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! =)


Join Space Haven Discord:
http://discord.gg/spacehaven

You can also post them here on Steam:
https://steamcommunity.com/app/979110/screenshots/


Report bugs here: https://steamcommunity.com/app/979110/discussions/4/
Discuss Space Haven here: https://steamcommunity.com/app/979110/discussions/0/
Technical Support: https://steamcommunity.com/app/979110/discussions/1/
Join Discord and chat with others playing Space Haven: http://discord.gg/spacehaven
Space Haven subreddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/SpaceHaven/


Thanks for reading and see you again in the next update!

A week has passed since Space Haven was released into Early Access. It has been a nervous and stressful time for us, preparing for the release and hoping everything will work out smoothly.

We want to thank all of you for playing the game and sending us so much feedback, as well as reporting bugs for us to fix. And fixing is what we've been doing, and we have a patch out today once again!

Hopefully we did not introduce any new bad ones =) Just let us know and we will take care of it. We want to wish you a great weekend playing Space Haven, and we look forward to bringing you news of new content for the game.

If you want to read about our vision you can do so below:
https://steamcommunity.com/app/979110/discussions/2/2246677986026419122/

Our method of developing is not really to design it out on paper and think this is it and let's move on. It's more in a way of filtering features to implement through long discussions between us, weighing the potential game play value they bring versus the implementation cost in man hours.

Then. After this is done we guesstimate some start values for the new features, and then we let it out for you to play. We gather your feedback and tweak/modify as needed. We value and want to incorporate the feedback you send us in our decisions. It's like a sandbox to us, and we let your feedback guide our way to a better game. =)

Community Highlights!


Ship created by mgthevenot


Ship created by Manuque


Ship created by Nak


Fleet created by ApexPrimaK


Margo and Luis share a moment. Screenshot taken by 弓矢八幡会

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! =)

Join Space Haven Discord: http://discord.gg/spacehaven
You can also post them here on Steam: https://steamcommunity.com/app/979110/screenshots/

Full Patch Notes:

[version] 0.8.19

• Default keybindings for rotation swapped between Q and E. Q is now CCW and E is CW. These seemed to be mirrored from what they should have been.
  
• The game now pauses when an enemy ship enters the sector. (This is for you writing a review of falling asleep mid play and pirates getting you in the meantime =) )
  
• Fixed a bug with seeing enemy outlines when docking a shuttle to a derelict after loading a save.
  
• Fixed a bug with being able to place an In-floor Power Node overlapping other blueprints. (On top of each other)
  
• Fixed a problem with crew members not working when energy was below a treshold. (Crew members will be more effective now!)
  
• Fixed a problem with trades not starting.
  
• Fixed a bug with binding a ship to a group.
  
• Fixed a problem with a mining pod becoming stuck after relocating.
  
• Fixed a crash when loading a saved game.

Report bugs here: https://steamcommunity.com/app/979110/discussions/4/
Discuss Space Haven here: https://steamcommunity.com/app/979110/discussions/0/
Technical Support: https://steamcommunity.com/app/979110/discussions/1/
Join Discord and chat with others playing Space Haven: http://discord.gg/spacehaven
Space Haven subreddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/SpaceHaven/

Thanks for reading and see you again in the next update!

Greetings, Spacefarers!

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! =)

Join Space Haven Discord:
http://discord.gg/spacehaven

You can also post them here on Steam:
https://steamcommunity.com/app/979110/screenshots/

[version] 0.8.18

• Fixed no power icon remaining on production facilities even when power is available.

[version] 0.8.17

• Fixed a crash error with missing .dll files.
  
• Changed rotation keybinds to Q and E by default.
  
• Added sounds to shotgun and assault rifle.
  
• Added a missing tooltip of errors when a facility is selected.
  
• Improved the outlook of the build menu help window with explanations for rotation and build view buttons.
  
• Ship resource rules can now only be set in the tactical view mode to minimize the risk of setting rules to the wrong ship.
  
• Crew members will move out of the way if they are standing on a hull tile that is being removed.
  
• Fixed zoom in/out keybindings behaving the wrong way, was reversed.
  
• Fixed edge scrolling in the starmap.
  
• Fixed the return home command for mining pods.
  
• Fixed a bug which prevented setting a prisoner area on certain ships.
  
• Fixed a problem with trading.
  
• Fixed a problem with hyperspace jump button being left on the screen after a jump.
  
• The Keybind "Delete" will now also toggle dismantle on the a selected object.
  
• Removed the interact icon button from storages, which have nothing a drafted crew member can pick up.
  
• Fixed a problem with derelict ships not being seized by the player.
  
• In-floor Power Node restrictions changed - Can now be built under wallmounts and next to doors.
  
• Fixed problem with prisoners trying to go and eat to a spot they don't have a path with permission to travel.
  
• Fixed problem when releasing multiple prisoners the dialog tree always selects the first prisoner.
  
• Fixed bugs.

Report bugs here:
https://steamcommunity.com/app/979110/discussions/4/

Discuss Space Haven here:
https://steamcommunity.com/app/979110/discussions/0/

Technical Support:
https://steamcommunity.com/app/979110/discussions/1/

Join Discord and chat with others playing Space Haven here:
http://discord.gg/spacehaven

Space Haven subreddit:
https://www.reddit.com/r/SpaceHaven/

Thanks for reading and if there's anything wrong rest assured we will do our best to fix it immediately! Just let us know =)

Greetings, Spacefarers!

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!



We will start with our iterative updates to improve Space Haven step-by-step to that indie gem! The process will be as follows:

1. Push a new Update to the Experimental Branch - Where you can test new experimental patches before the game is officially updated.
   
2. 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.

Steam Forums: https://steamcommunity.com/app/979110/discussions/
Discord: https://discord.gg/zx2AN4F
Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/SpaceHaven/

We also have a wiki for Space Haven which can be found here:
http://bugbyte.fi/spacehaven/wiki/



Thanks for reading and see you in the next update! Oh, and remember to tell your friend to hop aboard and come play Space Haven! =)

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.

• 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! =)

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:

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

See you again soon! =)

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.



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 =)



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. =)



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.

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 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.

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.

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 =)

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

Thanks for reading and see you in the next update!