Hello Everyone!,

I am very happy to announce Clanfolk!

Clanfolk has been a four year passion project, and now it is about time to show it.

A little history,

Clanfolk was developed alongside Golftopia, its sibling project. After SPAZ and SPAZ2, we needed a break from space combat for a little while and Narlak and I decided to each try a solo side project. Initially, these projects were supposed to only take 14 months, but here we are 4 years later, oops.

When Clanfolk started development, I had been making games for 16 years and had never once touched art or sound or shaders in a game, ever. So I decided that was something I wanted to try. Over time, I think my art has improved, yeah it is coder art, but I like it :)

I also wanted to make a game where I could just escape for a while and really care about the inhabitants. Rimworld is an incredibly well made game that came closest to the feel of non throwaway people (I don't want to call them pawns because that is not how I see them)

So over time Clanfolk kind of became this merging of Rimworld, Banished and the Sims. It is a home away from home for me. Throughout development, I have not focused on combat at all, instead I went the route of trying to simulate the world as completely as possible while researching/implementing historical survival methods.

It turns out that just surviving the elements and preparing for winter is quite the challenge. I also like that you have the time to get to know your Clanfolk while the seasons are more forgiving. Then when they freeze or starve, it is extra horrible :)

Now that the world and life sim has formed a very robust foundation, I am beginning to think on external events. I recently added neighbor clans with hired workers, inn visitors, and traders. These clans will of course bring conflict with them, but it is not a focus yet. Right now it is all about day to day life on the homestead.

I also want to delve into more natural based events like wandering bears, or crop blight, rat infestations, all real world problems that Clanfolk would face.

I just really enjoy working on this game, but yeah 4 years is a long time to not show anything, so here it is.

I am very happy to answer questions in the discussion forum as well!
https://steamcommunity.com/app/1700870/discussions/

Andrew Hume (Blorf)

p.s. We will be participating in Next Fest, and there will be a Demo (Oct 1 2021)

Clanfolk Link:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1700870/Clanfolk/

Hi everyone. A lot of you have been pretty anxious to hear what we’re working on these days. It's finally time for MinMax to announce our new game! GolfTopia is a retro-futuristic golf management sim, tower defense, pinball hybrid from the makers of Space Pirates And Zombies 1 and 2.

Check out our Steam page here …
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1144020/GolfTopia/

If you’re interested in hearing the story about how we got from space pirates to a futuristic golf course, keep reading …

After SPAZ 2 we both felt pretty burnt out on space operas, having worked on SPAZ 1 and 2 for over 8 years combined. We both knew we didn’t want to jump into another SPAZ right away. We wanted to do something different, and not just become a single game studio. For a few months we rolled around several weird ideas, but nothing seemed to stick long term. We’re both pretty different gamers, which is an asset during development, but can be pretty frustrating when coming up with a seed idea. We both had wildly different ideas we wanted to pursue.

So … we decided instead of making another game … we would make two. We both would own the full development process for the game we wanted to make, letting us fully dive into these as projects of passion. For me, that game is GolfTopia. For Blorf, that game is something you will all get an opportunity to see at a later date. Both games will be “MinMax” games, so this definitely isn’t a breakup letter. We’re still a rock-solid team now more than ever. We still meet nearly every week, help each other, play games, and chat it up. It’s been a crazy learning experience for both of us, but we’re having a lot of fun too!

GolfTopia is something I’ve been wanting to make for a decade now, being a huge fan of the criminally underrated “SimGolf”. The original idea for GolfTopia wasn’t to take place in the future. It was more grounded in modern day, and the invading weeds were modeled after Kudzu. Things really started to shift after I built a simple decorative windmill. I couldn’t help but make it actually functional, blowing airborne balls around the course. Well, that was it! Now I needed to add bumpers, teleporters, and all sorts of crazy fun things. There goes my art style. I started reworking the assets I already had, but also designed a bunch of new features around the theme change, like weed killing laser turrets and the Futurama-Like transport tubes. I just had too many things I wanted to add to the game, and a futuristic art style freed me up to do all of those things.

So yes, we’re two developers making two games at the same time (we’re crazy). Neither game is anything like SPAZ, and both games are extremely different from one another. That said, some of you know us pretty well and we think some of you may enjoy these new games, having enjoyed SPAZ. We both like challenging games with deep strategy and GolfTopia is no different in that regard. Being just the two of us, word of mouth is pretty important to us. If you know someone that might enjoy GolfTopia, please spread the word and don’t forget to add GolfTopia to your wishlist.

Thanks for reading 😊

Hi Everyone,

Here's some new stuff we hope you will like! :)

Proving Grounds:
If you have ever wanted to see how your ship would do against the local Arena ship, wish no longer because you can now have a simulated battle vs arena ships to test out your designs with no risk to life and limb.


New Map! (Hexor)
This new 110 territory map is hex based. It is a much more traditional strategic map but it turns out to be quite fun to play as well! It is only available in Sandbox Mode.


Engine Boost Changes:
We are experimenting with a new boost system that requires 20% boost fuel to start boosting. This is in response to user input that players were holding the boost button down indefinitely in battle because they were overwhelmed or just forgot. This lead to the boost never recharging.

Now what will happen is once the boost pool is empty, it will instantly start filling, but boost cannot re-engage until it is 20% full (only takes a couple of seconds) So if you are holding the boost key too long now, you will get repeated boosts as the pool fills to 20% then drains then fills etc... 20% is about the required boost to actually get the ship moving and it doesn't take too long to fill.

Some had suggested just to let the boost pool totally fill once drained even if the key was pressed, but not to start a new boost until the boost button was released and pressed again. We experimented with this as well, but it felt like a bug to have a full boost bar and no boost happening.

This change is experimental. Give it a few days and see how it feels. Personally we like it, but we want to hear your thoughts as well.


Here is the complete list of changes/fixes/additions.

• Relations hit added with a transport owner when it is destroyed.
  
• Relations hit added with faction leader when capital transport destroyed.
  
• Fix for rare case where player is second last in faction and the faction leader gets zombified thus forcing the player into role as faction leader and starting own faction.
  
• Fixed case where you could be moving while the assign starbase menu was active, causing potential weirdness.
  
• Fixed case where strike craft needs 1 blueprint to level up to level 6, but 2 are currently spawned in the level and picking up the second blueprint erroneously says the strike craft is now level 7
  
• Fixed zombified faction member phone call creating non exitable menu after zombie faction destroyed.
  
• Fixed issue where a player base couldn't be built if the zombie war meter filled while the player was a member of another faction.
  
• Added sort captains by distance on the faction info pane. Makes easier to find joiners and get to them quicker when you run a faction.
  
• Fixed case where battlewagon would fire missiles at targets out of range when another viable target was in range, but the lock was still on the out of range target.
  
• Changed: New engine boost mechanic where if you hold down boost it will now regen up to 20% before starting to boost again. Initiating boost now requires 20% boost juice, but if you hold the boost button all the time, it will now do something each time the boost recharges to 20% instead of just staying drained until you release the boost button.
  
• Added Proving Grounds to all Arenas. This lets you test our your own mothership build vs the Arena ship you would usually pilot in a simulation.
  
• Fixed outdated hangar tutorial image from before the big v0.8 upgrade to the new strike craft system.
  
• The weapon group HUD now has text to show what the icons mean, so people can find battle wagon mode more easily if they missed it in the tutorial.
  
• Text and translation updates
  
• Reworked the objective coloring system so that green objectives are things to do, and grey ones are completed so it is consistent throughout the flow.
  
• Added new 110 territory hex based map called Hexor. Can be found in the sandbox options.
  
• The infection balls the zombies shoot now have warning effects on them to show bio hazard.
  
• Fixed the broken alpha mask on the zoom scope.
  
• The being chased line on the map is now more scary so it is harder to ignore.
  
• In VR mode, the cursors now lock to the slide bar they are sliding so you don't need to be a surgeon to use them.
  
• Fixed VR restore defaults button not saving settings.
  
• Improved method for adjusting the VR menu position with motion controls.

Thanks for playing!

Andrew (Blorf) and Richard (Narlak)

Hi Everyone,

Here's some new stuff we hope you will like! :)

Proving Grounds:
If you have ever wanted to see how your ship would do against the local Arena ship, wish no longer because you can now have a simulated battle vs arena ships to test out your designs with no risk to life and limb.


New Map! (Hexor)
This new 110 territory map is hex based. It is a much more traditional strategic map but it turns out to be quite fun to play as well! It is only available in Sandbox Mode.


Engine Boost Changes:
We are experimenting with a new boost system that requires 20% boost fuel to start boosting. This is in response to user input that players were holding the boost button down indefinitely in battle because they were overwhelmed or just forgot. This lead to the boost never recharging.

Now what will happen is once the boost pool is empty, it will instantly start filling, but boost cannot re-engage until it is 20% full (only takes a couple of seconds) So if you are holding the boost key too long now, you will get repeated boosts as the pool fills to 20% then drains then fills etc... 20% is about the required boost to actually get the ship moving and it doesn't take too long to fill.

Some had suggested just to let the boost pool totally fill once drained even if the key was pressed, but not to start a new boost until the boost button was released and pressed again. We experimented with this as well, but it felt like a bug to have a full boost bar and no boost happening.

This change is experimental. Give it a few days and see how it feels. Personally we like it, but we want to hear your thoughts as well.


Here is the complete list of changes/fixes/additions.

• Relations hit added with a transport owner when it is destroyed.
  
• Relations hit added with faction leader when capital transport destroyed.
  
• Fix for rare case where player is second last in faction and the faction leader gets zombified thus forcing the player into role as faction leader and starting own faction.
  
• Fixed case where you could be moving while the assign starbase menu was active, causing potential weirdness.
  
• Fixed case where strike craft needs 1 blueprint to level up to level 6, but 2 are currently spawned in the level and picking up the second blueprint erroneously says the strike craft is now level 7
  
• Fixed zombified faction member phone call creating non exitable menu after zombie faction destroyed.
  
• Fixed issue where a player base couldn't be built if the zombie war meter filled while the player was a member of another faction.
  
• Added sort captains by distance on the faction info pane. Makes easier to find joiners and get to them quicker when you run a faction.
  
• Fixed case where battlewagon would fire missiles at targets out of range when another viable target was in range, but the lock was still on the out of range target.
  
• Changed: New engine boost mechanic where if you hold down boost it will now regen up to 20% before starting to boost again. Initiating boost now requires 20% boost juice, but if you hold the boost button all the time, it will now do something each time the boost recharges to 20% instead of just staying drained until you release the boost button.
  
• Added Proving Grounds to all Arenas. This lets you test our your own mothership build vs the Arena ship you would usually pilot in a simulation.
  
• Fixed outdated hangar tutorial image from before the big v0.8 upgrade to the new strike craft system.
  
• The weapon group HUD now has text to show what the icons mean, so people can find battle wagon mode more easily if they missed it in the tutorial.
  
• Text and translation updates
  
• Reworked the objective coloring system so that green objectives are things to do, and grey ones are completed so it is consistent throughout the flow.
  
• Added new 110 territory hex based map called Hexor. Can be found in the sandbox options.
  
• The infection balls the zombies shoot now have warning effects on them to show bio hazard.
  
• Fixed the broken alpha mask on the zoom scope.
  
• The being chased line on the map is now more scary so it is harder to ignore.
  
• In VR mode, the cursors now lock to the slide bar they are sliding so you don't need to be a surgeon to use them.
  
• Fixed VR restore defaults button not saving settings.
  
• Improved method for adjusting the VR menu position with motion controls.

Thanks for playing!

Andrew (Blorf) and Richard (Narlak)

Hi All,

Just a quick note, Traditional and Simplified Chinese are now active language options as of v1.001.

There are no other changes in this new version aside from the addition of the two new languages.

We are not able to read either of these new languages, so there may be a few translation issues at first, but please let us know if you find any, and we will collect them and have them fixed promptly.

We are currently taking some personal time until January. We have finished up with the launch PR campaign and now have a bit of time to relax over the holidays and get our heads back on straight.

Happy Holidays everyone!

Andrew (Blorf) and Richard (Narlak)

Hi All,

Just a quick note, Traditional and Simplified Chinese are now active language options as of v1.001.

There are no other changes in this new version aside from the addition of the two new languages.

We are not able to read either of these new languages, so there may be a few translation issues at first, but please let us know if you find any, and we will collect them and have them fixed promptly.

We are currently taking some personal time until January. We have finished up with the launch PR campaign and now have a bit of time to relax over the holidays and get our heads back on straight.

Happy Holidays everyone!

Andrew (Blorf) and Richard (Narlak)

Hi All,

Release day has finally arrived!

Early Access has been a great learning experience for us and we are so thankful for all of you who came along with us for the ride, sharing your ideas and support.

SPAZ 2 has been a long haul. 18 months in Early Access, and 18 months as Coming Soon prior to that. So 3 years now we have been on the Steam forums daily taking input on the game, sharing progress, and leaning on you all for support. We feel like we received a massive education in that time. All together SPAZ 2 was in development for 62 months. 62 crazy months.

Going forward, we plan to continue to support SPAZ 2. In the short term, we have a Chinese translation almost ready as well as tools to allow players to localize SPAZ 2 themselves into their language of choice. We also want to create a system to make the sandbox tuning files conveniently sharable on workshop.

Beyond that, we are hoping the community continues to grow and shares their ideas so we can continue to tune and tweak.

So for the Early Access crew, thank you for letting us get to know you and for sharing your ideas. You helped keep us going. It was hard sometimes, but we always had you counting on us and believing in us. We couldn't have done this alone.

For new players, thank you for joining us! We gave it our all with SPAZ 2. We worked harder than we ever thought we could and in the end we think we did it, by some miracle :)

For those on the fence. We have added a robust demo that works on flat screen and VR. Give it a try. Your saves will carry over to the full game, and there are the first couple of hours of gameplay in there.

Thank you all!

Andrew (Blorf) and Richard (Narlak)

Hi All,

Release day has finally arrived!

Early Access has been a great learning experience for us and we are so thankful for all of you who came along with us for the ride, sharing your ideas and support.

SPAZ 2 has been a long haul. 18 months in Early Access, and 18 months as Coming Soon prior to that. So 3 years now we have been on the Steam forums daily taking input on the game, sharing progress, and leaning on you all for support. We feel like we received a massive education in that time. All together SPAZ 2 was in development for 62 months. 62 crazy months.

Going forward, we plan to continue to support SPAZ 2. In the short term, we have a Chinese translation almost ready as well as tools to allow players to localize SPAZ 2 themselves into their language of choice. We also want to create a system to make the sandbox tuning files conveniently sharable on workshop.

Beyond that, we are hoping the community continues to grow and shares their ideas so we can continue to tune and tweak.

So for the Early Access crew, thank you for letting us get to know you and for sharing your ideas. You helped keep us going. It was hard sometimes, but we always had you counting on us and believing in us. We couldn't have done this alone.

For new players, thank you for joining us! We gave it our all with SPAZ 2. We worked harder than we ever thought we could and in the end we think we did it, by some miracle :)

For those on the fence. We have added a robust demo that works on flat screen and VR. Give it a try. Your saves will carry over to the full game, and there are the first couple of hours of gameplay in there.

Thank you all!

Andrew (Blorf) and Richard (Narlak)

Hi Everyone,

We just wanted to give you all a heads up that we will be leaving Early Access on November 7, 2017.

Code lockdown has gone really well and the buglists for 1.0 are clear, so it is time to give SPAZ 2 its final 2 weeks in the oven before release.

The release should simply be us changing the version number to 1.0 on Novermber 7th, assuming no more critical issues arise. Thanks for your patience with the lockdown. We feel it is the best practice for a clean release.

We want to thank everyone who has been there with us over the last 17 months of Early Access. It has been great sharing ideas each day and SPAZ 2 is so much better for it. We really appreciate you all!

Andrew (Blorf) and Richard (Narlak)

Hi Everyone,

We just wanted to give you all a heads up that we will be leaving Early Access on November 7, 2017.

Code lockdown has gone really well and the buglists for 1.0 are clear, so it is time to give SPAZ 2 its final 2 weeks in the oven before release.

The release should simply be us changing the version number to 1.0 on Novermber 7th, assuming no more critical issues arise. Thanks for your patience with the lockdown. We feel it is the best practice for a clean release.

We want to thank everyone who has been there with us over the last 17 months of Early Access. It has been great sharing ideas each day and SPAZ 2 is so much better for it. We really appreciate you all!

Andrew (Blorf) and Richard (Narlak)