Hello Ectypes!
Daniel here, Creative Director on Void Crew. Today, I'd like to give you another peek behind the curtains, and share some thoughts on new things coming to Void Crew.
First of all, I can start by revealing that there will be some bigger news coming your way in the near future, but for now you'll have to live with my ramblings!
Ever-evolving game ... and learnings
As our friendly neighborhood game devs - Ghost Ship - wrote some time ago, an Early Access game (like Void Crew) is a constantly evolving beast (well, not in those words, but you know ...). We'll gladly piggy back on their wisdom: Not every feature of the game is made at once.
Interestingly, this makes it both harder (predicting players wishes and the future in general), and easier (able to adapt to feedback as we move forward). Some changes make the game easier for players, others, more difficult.
One thing we have learned is that it becomes very easy to focus on new things, always trying to listen and move forward. In doing so, we also left some systems not as finished/polished as we'd like. Being a small team doesn't help this either. As we zero in rounding off the base-experience of the game, you'll see us showing off more sneak peeks with an emphasis on finalizing existing systems: things that haven't really grown to their full potential, or just plainly are clearly incomplete ... for example our Perk Tree which has "not implemented" perks scattered throughout.
We like the Perk Tree as a rank-up incentive - so we're sprucing it up with new Class Ability boosts and Superior variants!
Another example is the Fabricator and related unlocks. We've had a plan for quite a while, and it feels great to finally get to where we wanted it to go. The Fabricator felt over-simplified in how it would contribute to the progression inside a run. The static list of items that can be fabricated was not very interesting, but neither was the variant where unlock just power-crept into it as you ranked up. With the next update, it can now be upgraded several times, allowing for more options and unlocks. And by popular demand, upgrading it also adds an auto-recycle feature for those lazy Ectypes... like myself :P
The way the Fabricator works in the next update should also address some of the complaints around the inability to Fabricate "non-default" systems and modules. We're not reintroducing direct Rank Unlocks of systems, but we ARE expanding the fabrication potential of the Fabricator during your runs. Perks that unlock Fabrication options are also still in play, but we moved some of the "must-haves" out of the Perk Trees and replaced them with more specialized stuff.
Another topic is the biome specific signature enemies. As the name probably reveals, it was always our plan that the HOLLOW Frostmorph found in the Temperance system, would get some biome siblings. So in the upcoming update you'll be able to encounter the area-denial HOLLOW Firemorph and the power-draining HOLLOW Energymorph (for Vigilance and Bravery respectively).
... So are we just fixing things now? Oh no. We can't help ourselves. We are also adding something new ... but what exactly I'll leave up to you to speculate on. But here's a hint:
There are more news and sneak peeks on our discord, so if you'd like to see more and be the first to get those previews, don't hesitate to join!
Until the next rambling ...
// Daniel, Creative Director
Hutlihut Games
