Firstly, thank you to everyone who has shown interest in this project. Steam Next Fest saw the demo version released, and we picked up a pile of wishlists from the people who played. The feedback we've received from players has been extremely useful and has led the code rewrite that has now been going on for quite some time.
The code rewrite is now complete! We will be releasing a PLAYTEST release very shortly v0.0.56-PLAYTEST which should showcase the rewritten content and mechanics. We have 101 approved play testers currently, and their feedback on this update is going to be crucial. We are now in the push toward Early Access and we want to make sure that everything we have so far works, is playable, and more importantly is enjoyable!
What's New?
Well, not a lot, but also everything. The core of the game is still the same. The mechanics work much the same way, and the flow of the game should be roughly the same... but at the same time:
- The UI has been completely redone, literally all of it
- Inventory and Ship upgrades have been reworked
- Missions and objectives, including the tutorial missions, have been reworked
- Graphics have been reworked
- Space burritos have 20% more guacamole
- Dialogue has been rewritten
- The intro story has been rewritten
- Galaxy generation is faster, although generation options have been reduced.
- Save game structure has been rewritten (sorry, old save games won't work)
So yeah, basically it's a different game... but still the same game.
Yeah, but what about the rename?
You're right... I didn't mean to clickbait you, sorry!
During the development process it came to my attention that there was already a game called Unknown Horizons that was released in 2019. The game is a completely different theme to my game, and it looks like it had a very small audience and I'm sure there would have been no legal challenge if I chose to use the name... but I wasn't comfortable with it, and I want to respect the intellectual property of the existing games owner, so I've decided to rename mine by dropping the S off the end. My game will now be known as Unknown Horizon.
In fact, go and check the game out. I haven't played it but it looks like it might be pretty good!
Apologies if this has caused anyone any confusion, however it will hopefully be good for the game in the long run, as now the name will be unique for things like IGDB, Twitch etc, and for search engine results.
I hope you all enjoy the new updates and are looking forward to Early Access. If you haven't already, wishlist now... and I'll see you on the horizon!