DevBlog #35 - Space Haven Alpha 7 - Advanced Game Customization and Localization.

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. =)

Advanced Game Customization


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.
  

Crew Selection Screen and Customization


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 improvements



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.
  

Space Haven - Now available in 12 languages



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
  

Steam Early Access

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 =)

Thanks for reading and see you in the next update!



P.S. Read also our dev blog on the Alpha 6 - The Ship-to-Ship Battles Update if you missed it: http://bugbyte.fi/forums/showthread.php?tid=593