Hello, Captains!

For the small team working on Earthless here at Blackbird Interactive, October’s Steam Next Fest was nothing short of incredible. And we have you to thank for that!

Thousands of you downloaded and played the Earthless demo during Next Fest. Many of you even took time to give us invaluable feedback via our Steam Forums, official Discord[discord.gg], and on social media. And that feedback has not only strengthened our conviction that Earthless is an exciting blend of genres we love. It also helped us feel confident in what we can improve ahead of our 2024 Early Access launch. So thank you so much to everyone who took the time to share their thoughts on the demo.

Today, I wanted to debrief on Next Fest and share how your feedback is shaping Earthless — especially as it relates to three key areas: difficulty, user interface, and the intro experience.

Let’s get to it, Captain!

Pssst! If you're not on the official Earthless Discord[discord.gg], you're missing out! Chat with the devs and other captains directly, be the first to know about major updates, and get a cool behind-the-scenes window into development!

Above: A sneak peek at a new work-in-progress Lusk unit that creates an aura that buffs nearby units.


TL;DR: Demo difficulty was a tad too easy, the full game will be better balanced and provide a meatier challenge.

One thing we heard from many players is that the demo is simply too easy. We agree! Because Steam Next Fest is essentially a Farmer’s Market for video games, we wanted to ensure the game was fun for everyone — even those who never played a deckbuilder before. But, in retrospect, we might’ve played it a bit too safe.

Digging deeper, there’s two elements to consider: The first is that the demo only represents the first of three Star Maps planned for Early Access launch (even more will be added over time). Naturally, the first Star Map is meant to be on the easier side. Difficulty will scale up as you explore deeper into the cosmos and collect more powerful cards and Artifacts.

Above: Later Star Maps will add unique zones. Here's a mockup of an ice field that the team is currently working on.

But the second element at play here is that, simply, the combat encounters in the first Star Map are too easy. There’s a lot of variables at play — everything from the starting deck for each ship class to balance and power of individual cards or play styles. We’re also looking at factors like enemy HP, attack damage, and how many appear during encounters. Expect all of that to change as we get closer to Early Access (and in any future play tests we may do before then!).

Above: We're already hard at work on making the Crafting & Upgrades Console more intuitive (and way cooler).


TL;DR: The UI, especially in combat, will be improved over time to make it easier to check status effects, predict enemy attacks and movement, and more.

Earthless’ user interface is one of our favorite aspects of the whole game. We’ve gone to great lengths to build a diegetic command console that feels like you’re using an actual computer to give combat commands or check the status of your crew. But Earthless is a complex roguelike that needs to communicate a lot of information to players, and we’ve received plenty of comments identifying areas that need improvement.

Above: More colorful and dynamic tile effects will help you better understand the terrain of the battlefield and what's happening.

There’s almost too much to cover in just one blog post, so let me give you a quick overview of what we’re looking into:

• Change the position of important buttons on the command console, like your Ship Ability, so that it’s more intuitive (a lot of people reported forgetting their Ship Ability even existed!).
  
• Refactor how we display important intel like status effects so they’re easier to understand at a glance.
  
• Create a physical command console button for the Predictive AI module that shows you what enemies will do on their next turn. (If you didn’t know this existed, you’re not alone! Try pressing TAB next time you’re in combat!)
  
• Clean up the Predictive AI interface so it’s easier to tell what will happen during the next turn, especially in bigger fights where it can get especially confusing.
  
• Adjust how the Crafting, Recycling, and Upgrading interface works to make it more intuitive
  
• Improve the readability of text across all consoles while still retaining that nostalgic CRT goodness.

By and large these UI fixes will help you access the information you need to make better decisions in combat and elsewhere. This work is all just getting started, but I can’t wait to share updates and progress with you in the new year.

Above: New zones each have a distinctive look and modifiers that'll affect combat in fascinating ways.


TL;DR: The tutorial and game intro will be overhauled at some point in Early Access and replaced with a version that is much more immersive, comprehensive, and intuitive.

There’s a very thin line to walk when you’re making a demo for a game that is still in active development like Earthless. Even though demos are just a small slice of the full game, so many features and assets (like enemy models, music, or card art) are in varying stages of “completeness.” We wanted to show as much as we could, but also had to make hard choices about what to cut because it simply wasn’t ready.

One of those hard choices involved the “first-time user experience” — everything from the cinematic that plays when you first start the game to the tutorials that teach you how to command your crew or navigate intense combat encounters.

Above: Taking on combat encounters in the Solar zone could wreck havoc on your Heat level.

By the time Earthless leaves Early Access, we want to have a more interactive intro and tutorial that better equips you with all the information you need to survive your first expeditions — but also gives you a better sense of who the major factions are, including the mysterious Lusks you fight.

Tutorials like this take a lot of time and are hard to make when aspects of Earthless can still change dramatically, which is why it wasn’t available in the Next Fest demo. We’ll be sure to share more on this when we can.

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The above isn’t a comprehensive list of everything we’re tracking, but it does represent the most common feedback we got. We’d love to still hear from you if you have something you’d like to add. We’re also elbow deep in discussions about what is next ahead of the Early Access launch — including more opportunities for you and your friends to play Earthless!

Thank you for taking the time to read this and be a part of this community. If you haven’t already, please join our Discord[discord.gg] and follow us on Twitter so you can stay up to date on everything.

Talk soon,

Steven