Fixed the atrocious load times.

Changelog 1.08 - 16th June 2015


New/Improved Features

- Loading time drastically reduced, in testing even a huge base loaded in < 23 seconds.


Bug fixes

- Fire now cannot pass through walls, to keep things a little difficult it can still go through doors whether they are closed or not.

Fixed the atrocious load times.

Changelog 1.08 - 16th June 2015


New/Improved Features

- Loading time drastically reduced, in testing even a huge base loaded in < 23 seconds.


Bug fixes

- Fire now cannot pass through walls, to keep things a little difficult it can still go through doors whether they are closed or not.

Mostly bug fixes today, and more to come.

Changelog 1.07 - 18th May 2015

New/Improved Features

- Load Screen, there is enough in the game lately that the load time was getting up there, the load screen gives you some feedback and prevents the game from hanging while loading.


Bug fixes

- Security zones no longer get scrambled on load, often causing characters to find themselves stuck with nowhere to go.

- Characters no longer have an existential crisis and freeze if their job changes while they are going up or down stairs.

- A lot of general tinkering with the pathfinding system, the bots should get frozen much less now. (never in testing but that is too much to hope for once you guys get into it).

- Clicking on worker job preferences or resident jobs no longer clicks objects behind.



Expect another update within a week or two, focussing on reducing load time and efficiency and smoothness in the mid-late game.

Mostly bug fixes today, and more to come.

Changelog 1.07 - 18th May 2015

New/Improved Features

- Load Screen, there is enough in the game lately that the load time was getting up there, the load screen gives you some feedback and prevents the game from hanging while loading.


Bug fixes

- Security zones no longer get scrambled on load, often causing characters to find themselves stuck with nowhere to go.

- Characters no longer have an existential crisis and freeze if their job changes while they are going up or down stairs.

- A lot of general tinkering with the pathfinding system, the bots should get frozen much less now. (never in testing but that is too much to hope for once you guys get into it).

- Clicking on worker job preferences or resident jobs no longer clicks objects behind.



Expect another update within a week or two, focussing on reducing load time and efficiency and smoothness in the mid-late game.

Mining asteroids and the ability to build your base into the very rock itself.


Changelog 1.06 - 12th May2015


New/Improved Features

- Asteroids: Asteroids can be mined for metal and used as walls and floors to save resources or just get that cool, evil moon-base aesthetic.

- Pathfinding: Building tasks that cannot be reached will now change color to yellow, orange, then red before being cancelled if the worker cannot find a path.


Bug Fixes

- Prisoners now only use equipment in prisoner areas.

- Turrets no longer occasionally show incorrect model.

Mining asteroids and the ability to build your base into the very rock itself.


Changelog 1.06 - 12th May2015


New/Improved Features

- Asteroids: Asteroids can be mined for metal and used as walls and floors to save resources or just get that cool, evil moon-base aesthetic.

- Pathfinding: Building tasks that cannot be reached will now change color to yellow, orange, then red before being cancelled if the worker cannot find a path.


Bug Fixes

- Prisoners now only use equipment in prisoner areas.

- Turrets no longer occasionally show incorrect model.

Just a few quick bug fixes, mostly problems that were introduced with the new pathfinding system.


Changelog 1.05 - 24th March 2015


New/Improved Features

- Retina resolutions now available for Mac. The game ran quite poorly at that resolution on my old MacBook so I'd love to get some feedback from Mac users.


Bug Fixes

- Characters will no longer stop for infinite breakdancing on stairs.

- Characters who have walls or stairs placed on them will now teleport themselves out.

- One bed per room now, no matter how big the room is.

- Z Level correctly defaults to zero on load.

- Visitors now spawn correctly from the refugee event and don't get locked in place.

- Snail trails of higher Z levels are no longer visible.

- Rush build lightning icon now fades away nicely rather than suddenly vanishing.

- Residents now properly revert to tourists when they become homeless through their home being cleared or destroyed.

Just a few quick bug fixes, mostly problems that were introduced with the new pathfinding system.


Changelog 1.05 - 24th March 2015


New/Improved Features

- Retina resolutions now available for Mac. The game ran quite poorly at that resolution on my old MacBook so I'd love to get some feedback from Mac users.


Bug Fixes

- Characters will no longer stop for infinite breakdancing on stairs.

- Characters who have walls or stairs placed on them will now teleport themselves out.

- One bed per room now, no matter how big the room is.

- Z Level correctly defaults to zero on load.

- Visitors now spawn correctly from the refugee event and don't get locked in place.

- Snail trails of higher Z levels are no longer visible.

- Rush build lightning icon now fades away nicely rather than suddenly vanishing.

- Residents now properly revert to tourists when they become homeless through their home being cleared or destroyed.

Okay so I played on a laptop the other day and realised that aside from my lack of skill with a trackpad, a lot of the controls don't make sense without a mouse or a numpad. So now the keys all have laptop friendly alternatives, and if you don't like the keys I've chosen you can use the new custom keymapping menu to choose your own in OPTIONS from the title menu.

This is just a little update but I wanted to get it out quick as I realised the game was quite uncomfortable to play on a laptop.

As usual, if you find any bugs or want to suggest any features go to http://steamcommunity.com/groups/ssabeta


Changelog 1.04 - 22nd March 2015

New/Improved Features

- Set your controls the way you like with the new keymapping menu.


Bug Fixes

- Stairs can no longer be built when you are at the top level, preventing horrible pathfinding bugs when you build past the top.

Okay so I played on a laptop the other day and realised that aside from my lack of skill with a trackpad, a lot of the controls don't make sense without a mouse or a numpad. So now the keys all have laptop friendly alternatives, and if you don't like the keys I've chosen you can use the new custom keymapping menu to choose your own in OPTIONS from the title menu.

This is just a little update but I wanted to get it out quick as I realised the game was quite uncomfortable to play on a laptop.

As usual, if you find any bugs or want to suggest any features go to http://steamcommunity.com/groups/ssabeta


Changelog 1.04 - 22nd March 2015

New/Improved Features

- Set your controls the way you like with the new keymapping menu.


Bug Fixes

- Stairs can no longer be built when you are at the top level, preventing horrible pathfinding bugs when you build past the top.

The biggest change in 1.03 is the new pathfinding system which won't be very noticeable to most. Moving from a third party system to my own custom implementation means it is much more agile and will make complicated AI behaviours much easier to implement down the road. For now it means that characters no longer wander into space and correctly obey the security areas you lay down! They'll even avoid areas with low oxygen and forbidden zones

Also you can now drag to destroy equipment!

I've also upgraded to Unity 5 so you might notice the new splash screen enforced by the Indie version now.

These are some big changes so despite a bunch of testing I've probably introduced a new bug or two, as always please mention any bugs or desired features at http://steamcommunity.com/groups/ssabeta

Changelog 1.03 - 20th March 2015

New/Improved Features

- Destroy equipment by dragging. Equipment can now be marked for destruction in the same way that floor and wall tiles are, but choosing the Destroy Equipment button from the Destroy menu.

- Cancel Destruction. Any destruction order can now be cancelled by building on top of the marked item in the same way that rush orders are given. Accidentally marked your Oxygen Generator for destruction? Just place another equipment of any type on top and it will revert to it's functional form.

- R/F keys can now be used to raise/lower the Z-level and build upstairs, sorry to all those laptop users who couldn't go upstairs before :-)

- Speed controls, you can now change the game speed with the numeric keys 1-3 and ` to pause.


Bug Fixes

- Several bugs that caused the menu screen to stick on load have been fixed.

- Evacuating residents no longer set up new shops while they are evactuating.

- Visitors no longer wander out into the vacuum.

- Visitors now correctly avoid high security areas, they WILL still go through a forbidden zone if they can find no other path though.

- Oxygen Buffer "Destroy" button now works.

- Slugs now leave a trail on the floor they are currently on.

The biggest change in 1.03 is the new pathfinding system which won't be very noticeable to most. Moving from a third party system to my own custom implementation means it is much more agile and will make complicated AI behaviours much easier to implement down the road. For now it means that characters no longer wander into space and correctly obey the security areas you lay down! They'll even avoid areas with low oxygen and forbidden zones

Also you can now drag to destroy equipment!

I've also upgraded to Unity 5 so you might notice the new splash screen enforced by the Indie version now.

These are some big changes so despite a bunch of testing I've probably introduced a new bug or two, as always please mention any bugs or desired features at http://steamcommunity.com/groups/ssabeta

Changelog 1.03 - 20th March 2015

New/Improved Features

- Destroy equipment by dragging. Equipment can now be marked for destruction in the same way that floor and wall tiles are, but choosing the Destroy Equipment button from the Destroy menu.

- Cancel Destruction. Any destruction order can now be cancelled by building on top of the marked item in the same way that rush orders are given. Accidentally marked your Oxygen Generator for destruction? Just place another equipment of any type on top and it will revert to it's functional form.

- R/F keys can now be used to raise/lower the Z-level and build upstairs, sorry to all those laptop users who couldn't go upstairs before :-)

- Speed controls, you can now change the game speed with the numeric keys 1-3 and ` to pause.


Bug Fixes

- Several bugs that caused the menu screen to stick on load have been fixed.

- Evacuating residents no longer set up new shops while they are evactuating.

- Visitors no longer wander out into the vacuum.

- Visitors now correctly avoid high security areas, they WILL still go through a forbidden zone if they can find no other path though.

- Oxygen Buffer "Destroy" button now works.

- Slugs now leave a trail on the floor they are currently on.

This update is all about optimization, the game runs MUCH smoother as you build bigger now. Some other stuff too, read below to get the full list.

If you find something I missed or should definitely add as a new feature let me know on the development forum http://steamcommunity.com/groups/ssabeta


Changelog 1.02 - 6th March 2015

New/Improved Features

- Code is much more efficient, larger stations should now be possible without dramatic slowdown. In testing I could build out a whole single level with 90 workers/visitors running around before I had to drop the speed from >>> to >>. New walls/floors still cause a short stutter when placed if your station is quite big, I'm working on that one for 1.03.

- You can now click on bots to get their names and even tell them to explode, I'm going to add more to this later.

- Placing indicator now changes colour, if you hover over something that is under construction it'll change to yellow, this means clicking will speed construction. Red means you can't build there, green means you can. So Green = go, Red = stop and Yellow = go faster.

- Building along the edge of the map is now handled a LOT better, your cursor can now happily go outside the bounds but will show red and not allow any construction. The old way just didn't let your cursor go out and it was a bit weird.

- Visitors now arrive more hungry and tired than before so they're more likely to make use of your facilities straight away.

Bug Fixes

- Large bases no longer crash load.

- "Skip Tutorial" button no longer appears during some later, individual tutorials.

- "Placing Deck" tooltip no longer shown while placing doors.

- Beds now disappear properly from rooms when their owners left the station due to evacuation.

This update is all about optimization, the game runs MUCH smoother as you build bigger now. Some other stuff too, read below to get the full list.

If you find something I missed or should definitely add as a new feature let me know on the development forum http://steamcommunity.com/groups/ssabeta


Changelog 1.02 - 6th March 2015

New/Improved Features

- Code is much more efficient, larger stations should now be possible without dramatic slowdown. In testing I could build out a whole single level with 90 workers/visitors running around before I had to drop the speed from >>> to >>. New walls/floors still cause a short stutter when placed if your station is quite big, I'm working on that one for 1.03.

- You can now click on bots to get their names and even tell them to explode, I'm going to add more to this later.

- Placing indicator now changes colour, if you hover over something that is under construction it'll change to yellow, this means clicking will speed construction. Red means you can't build there, green means you can. So Green = go, Red = stop and Yellow = go faster.

- Building along the edge of the map is now handled a LOT better, your cursor can now happily go outside the bounds but will show red and not allow any construction. The old way just didn't let your cursor go out and it was a bit weird.

- Visitors now arrive more hungry and tired than before so they're more likely to make use of your facilities straight away.

Bug Fixes

- Large bases no longer crash load.

- "Skip Tutorial" button no longer appears during some later, individual tutorials.

- "Placing Deck" tooltip no longer shown while placing doors.

- Beds now disappear properly from rooms when their owners left the station due to evacuation.

This latest update is focused mainly on building a more extended but still unobtrusive tutorial to help people more easily find the features of the game that were already included, but we've got some other new toys as well.

There are also a bunch of adjustments and bug fixes.

If you find something I missed or should definitely add as a new feature let me know on the development forum http://steamcommunity.com/groups/ssabeta


Changelog 1.01 - 3rd March 2015

New/Improved Features

- Embiggened Tutorial: Additional tutorials have been scattered through the game at choice times to let you know about features you may not have discovered yet. The help menu has also been elaborated upon, with a full keymap included now.

- The game now automatically saves every few days to a file called "autosave".

- Prisoners can now be every race and the Wolfman species will now appear among the regular visitors.

- Middle mouse can now be held to rotate the screen for those of that preference.

- Permanent Resident limit has been removed from the Policy menu, the only limit to residents now is how many empty Private Rooms you have.

- Default cam speed has been slowed down.

- Volume controls now exist in the options menu off the title screen and volumes are no persistent globally rather than along individual saves.

- Worker drill sound effect has been changed to one with a less piercing pitch.

- Overloading the power system now results in a big red alert rather than a little message.


Bug Fixes

- Effect volume now correctly effects Worker sound effects.

- Show Oxygen correctly defaults to off when restarting a game.

- Battlecruiser from the refugee event is now correctly removed up if you quit and restart.

- Visitors no longer trip over and instantly die while climbing stairs. (Lucky noone worked out how to use stairs yet :-)

- Various tooltip texts fixed.

- Beds no longer appear in commercial areas (what kind of business were they running anyway?)

- Generators can no longer catch fire until they are at least finished being built.

- Screen resolution list is now scrollable for those with monitors that support more than 20 different resolutions.

This latest update is focused mainly on building a more extended but still unobtrusive tutorial to help people more easily find the features of the game that were already included, but we've got some other new toys as well.

There are also a bunch of adjustments and bug fixes.

If you find something I missed or should definitely add as a new feature let me know on the development forum http://steamcommunity.com/groups/ssabeta


Changelog 1.01 - 3rd March 2015

New/Improved Features

- Embiggened Tutorial: Additional tutorials have been scattered through the game at choice times to let you know about features you may not have discovered yet. The help menu has also been elaborated upon, with a full keymap included now.

- The game now automatically saves every few days to a file called "autosave".

- Prisoners can now be every race and the Wolfman species will now appear among the regular visitors.

- Middle mouse can now be held to rotate the screen for those of that preference.

- Permanent Resident limit has been removed from the Policy menu, the only limit to residents now is how many empty Private Rooms you have.

- Default cam speed has been slowed down.

- Volume controls now exist in the options menu off the title screen and volumes are no persistent globally rather than along individual saves.

- Worker drill sound effect has been changed to one with a less piercing pitch.

- Overloading the power system now results in a big red alert rather than a little message.


Bug Fixes

- Effect volume now correctly effects Worker sound effects.

- Show Oxygen correctly defaults to off when restarting a game.

- Battlecruiser from the refugee event is now correctly removed up if you quit and restart.

- Visitors no longer trip over and instantly die while climbing stairs. (Lucky noone worked out how to use stairs yet :-)

- Various tooltip texts fixed.

- Beds no longer appear in commercial areas (what kind of business were they running anyway?)

- Generators can no longer catch fire until they are at least finished being built.

- Screen resolution list is now scrollable for those with monitors that support more than 20 different resolutions.

Thank you for all the feedback, a recurring theme in reviews and emails so far has been that Space Station Alpha lacks good instructions. It was by design, I personally dislike when games hold my hand too much but I have to admit that I've left the tutorial and help page a bit bare.

I'm working on improving that in the next update to the game but that will take days to weeks to add and test so in the short term I've been updating the wiki with answers to a few of the more common questions.

How to access Command and Control
How to get permanent residents
How to build an airlock
Equipment Maintenance / Why is my stuff exploding?

For those that don't know, I am just one guy working on this. Space Station Alpha has been my pet project and development will continue for as long as you guys can find bugs for me to fix and I can think of new things to add.


The best way to report bugs is on the Steam community forum http://steamcommunity.com/groups/ssabeta or you can send a direct message to support@nuclearfirecracker.com

Thank you for all the feedback, a recurring theme in reviews and emails so far has been that Space Station Alpha lacks good instructions. It was by design, I personally dislike when games hold my hand too much but I have to admit that I've left the tutorial and help page a bit bare.

I'm working on improving that in the next update to the game but that will take days to weeks to add and test so in the short term I've been updating the wiki with answers to a few of the more common questions.

How to access Command and Control
How to get permanent residents
How to build an airlock
Equipment Maintenance / Why is my stuff exploding?

For those that don't know, I am just one guy working on this. Space Station Alpha has been my pet project and development will continue for as long as you guys can find bugs for me to fix and I can think of new things to add.


The best way to report bugs is on the Steam community forum http://steamcommunity.com/groups/ssabeta or you can send a direct message to support@nuclearfirecracker.com