Hello Builders! I am excited to share a quick update following the Space Exploration Fest, incorporating some of your valuable feedback from the demo testing phase. Lets dive into the latest improvements!

New Intro Message

I have added a brand-new introductory message that provides more context for starting a new game. This enhancement aims to give players a clearer understanding of the games first steps right from the beginning.

Improved Spaceship Information

The user interface displaying spaceship characteristics has undergone a major overhaul. The previous version was difficult to read, but the new has a more user-friendly design that greatly improve readability. The interface still requires some refinement, as many of the colours tend to blend together; however, it is already quite helpful in its current state!

Quick Save and Quick Load Features

I have implemented new keyboard shortcuts to streamline your gameplay experience: Quick Save: Press F5 or CTRL-S Quick Load: Press F8 or CTRL-L

Additional Improvements

Weve also made several smaller enhancements to improve your gaming experience:

• Fixed minors glitches when controlling spaceships
• Prevented anomalies granting free sponsors to reset sponsor lobbying
• Provided clearer information about which spaceships are unlocked by a buildings
• Allowed multiple ambassies to be built on a single space station

Keep in touch

Thank you for your continued support and feedback! Please let me know if you have any comments on the game. Your input greatly helps me improve it. To engage with our community and participate in discussions, feel free to join our Discord server at https://discord.gg/eqxF58uqjC. Lastly, if you've been waiting for a sign to add the game to your Wishlist, this is it! :)
Visit our Steam store page https://store.steampowered.com/app/1955200/Gate_Builders/

[ 2024-09-11 23:30:01 CET ] [ Original post ]

I am so happy to announce that Gate Builders first ever public demo is part of Steam Space Exploration Fest for a week! The demo will stay available after the fest so you have plenty time to test it! The Belt needs you! Togis

[ 2024-09-03 13:01:46 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello Builders! Brace yourselves for an update of epic proportions! Over the past month, I've poured my heart and soul into refining Gate Builders. I've brought to life numerous features that have long lingered in the backlog, and I've taken on the final challenges of the alpha phase. I hope that you'll find as much delight in playing this update as I found in crafting it!

Multiplayer

Behold the shiny new addition to the main menu: Multiplayer! Now, you can engage in asynchronous matches of Gate Builders with your friends through a Play-By-Email (PBEM) system. Host or join games, play alongside your peers, and put your strategic skills to the test. To initiate a new game, simply host it on the multiplayer lobby, wait for fellow players to join, and commence the action. Once the game is underway, the host will fine-tune the game settings (map size, etc.), and each player can tailor their faction to their liking. After each turn, a savegame will be uploaded to the cloud and passed on to the next player. You have the choice to either exit the game and return at your convenience when everyone else has taken their turns, or stay within the game and witness your next turn kick off as soon as each player has played theirs.

Dev Analytics

I'm reaching out to you for a crucial favor! The next time you launch Gate Builders, a prompt will greet you, seeking your consent to share some analytics with me.
Your agreement to participate would be truly invaluable. Understanding how players engage with the game is pivotal for me. This analytics data will provide insights into your in-game constructions, preferred game options, and various other aspects that contribute to shaping your gaming experience. This will allow us to make the game better for every player.

Beacons

Navigating the vastness of space within the Belt can be difficult, but drawing inspiration from the age-old wisdom of Earth's sailors will guide us on this journey. Introducing a new feature: the ability to construct Beacons in space! These beacons come in two distinct types: Navigation Beacon: Aiding spaceships in skilful navigation between asteroids, significantly enhancing their speed. Radar Beacon: Unveiling expansive sections of the fog of war, providing critical visibility in the Belt. To construct these beacons, use the new dedicated Beacon Builder ship and electronics. Some sponsors can even amplify the effectiveness of the beacon effects, adding an extra layer of strategic depth.
With the dawn of Beacons, your capacity to enhance infrastructure reaches new heights, allowing you to push the boundaries of progress like never before. Do you want to try the Beacons by yourself? Luninc now starts the game with a beacon builder ship!

Academy

The Academy lessons were significantly outdated, with some no longer functioning properly. My primary focus has been on rectifying these issues, refining the content, and ensuring they are more comprehensible. These lessons play a pivotal role for players who engage for the first time with Gate Builders without bypassing the tutorials. (Who would ever do that? Hmm...) Additionally, four new lessons have been introduced: Building Beacons: Learn the intricacies of constructing beacons in space. Utilizing Mining Barges: Understand the nuances of deploying and leveraging mining barges effectively. Trading with Neutral Factions: Master the art of establishing trade relations with neutral factions. Setting Up Automated Trade Routes: Explore the process of configuring automated trade routes.

User Interface

4X games are renown for having a bad user experience. There is a lot of information to display and a limited amount of space on the screen before it gets too crowded. With every update, I try to streamline the experience, making it more accessible, easier to read and yet, complete enough for the player to take meaningful decision.

Enhanced Citizen Info Panel

I've revamped the layout of the Citizen Info Panel, now featuring a prominent, larger picture of the citizen for a more clarity.

Expanded Construction Information

Experience a new level of convenience: simply double-click on a building to open the construction menu with the building upgrade automatically pre-selected. When queuing a building, the construction options will dynamically include the buildings and units that the queued building will unlock upon completion. This empowers you to set up extensive construction chains and explore your options.
Moreover, each building now provides a Gatepedia link to explore potential upgrades. It is now also possible to queue multiple spaceship constructions of the same hull.
And for extra clarity, a new sprite visually indicates when a building is queued for construction on a station platform.

Dividend Visibility

Keeping track on dividend percentages for your investors was a bit tricky. That's why I've introduced a handy solution. Now, you can easily see the dividend percentage right next to your credit balance on both the Belt Map and in the Homeworld view. For instance, in the image below, the dividend is displayed at 18%:

Trade History

Ever find yourself struggling to recall what you traded five turns ago? Well, you're not alone. Introducing the Trade History panel in the Homeworld view! This log captures every trade: whether manual, through trade routes, or via subspace by your stations. Now, your past trades are neatly organized and easily accessible.

Personalized Spaceships

Express your creativity! You now have the ability to personalize your spaceships by giving them unique names.

Trade Clarity for Neutral Outposts

Ever struggled to remember which trade was offered by each neutral outpost? Worry no more! The trade information is now conveniently displayed next to the name of the outpost on the Outpost Badge.

Quality of Life Enhancements

- When another player attacks any of your assets, the camera will now smoothly center on the action before the first weapon is fired. (This feature can be turned off in the Options menu.) - You can now close the current screen or dialog by simply right-clicking anywhere. - Easily change the visibility of the fog of war with a button on the top of the Belt map, allowing you to switch between three modes: always visible, always hidden, or visible when zoomed out. - Investors are now visible in the Gatepedia, providing clarity regarding buildings and sponsors locked to specific investors. - Keep track of your game time with a real-time clock visible at the top of the Belt Map. Hover over the clock to see how much time you've spent in the current game. (This feature can be turned off in the Options menu.)

AI Enhancements

I've revisited the AI players, implementing significant refactoring and clean-up for improved coding and future enhancements. While the default AI has become slightly better at constructing larger stations, expect more improvement in future updates. Additionally, Pirates have upped their game and can now target not only your spaceships but also your stations, beacons, and gates. The revamped AI foundation will pave the way for different AI "personalities" with distinct goals and strategies, making the opponents feel more dynamic and challenging.

Technical Tweaks

- To optimize save files, they are now compressed by default, resulting in a substantial reduction in file size. A mid-game save is now approximately ~80 KB compared to the previous ~800 KB. If you prefer human-readable saves, you can toggle this feature on and off in the Options menu. - An update to the computation speed of the Fog of War enhances performance, with ongoing plans for further improvements in subsequent updates. - Both the Intro and Game Intro share the same logic for displaying slideshows. New voice-overs replace the old ones, and a new slideshow awaits victorious players.

Small changes:

• New commands for twitch integration:
  • myskill: Show the experience level of the viewer citizen
  • Imanai: Make the current player an AI (used to debug)
  • whereami: Let the viewer know where their citizen is
  • mutiny: Trigger a mutiny for a few turn in a player spaceship
• Bug fixes:
  • Do not kill all of the invading army if the winner of an invasion decide to destroy the invaded station
  • Prevent many tooltip to open if any dialog is open
  • Prevent clicking on building platform if any dialog open in the Station map
  • Prevent a crash to desktop on double click a specific "floating crate" in the Outliner
• New sound effect and animation for:
  • Build a ship
  • Settle a station
  • Deploy a gate
  • Upgrade a gate
• Small features:
  • Tint ship in red on the outliner when they mutiny
  • Add the number of turn to finish each station current construction on the outliner
  • Make the outliner larger at the start of a new game
  • Hide explosion if they are in the fog of war
  • Popular Achievement is now only counting available sponsors for the player faction

Conclusion:

As always, your feedback is invaluable to me. Please let me know if you have any comments on the game. Your input greatly helps me improve it. To engage with our community and participate in discussions, feel free to join our Discord server at https://discord.gg/eqxF58uqjC. Lastly, if you've been waiting for a sign to add the game to your Wishlist, this is it! :)
Visit our Steam store page https://store.steampowered.com/app/1955200/Gate_Builders/

[ 2023-11-21 23:06:43 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello Builders! I hope you've been enjoying your summer and early fall. Over the past few months, I've faced various challenges related to health, work, and hardware issues, which temporarily slowed down my work on Gate Builders. However, I'm back on track now, and I'm thrilled to present this feature-packed update for you.

Gameplay and UI

Steam achievements

I'm excited to announce that all the achievements are now available on Steam! It's time to catch 'em all!

Updated station shield and weapons

Previously, station shields and weapons were using an older system. Now, they have been updated and will fire phasers and drones. Building a drone hub or a shield projector within your Station will finally make a difference!

Updated invasion interface

I've introduced an updated invasion interface to make it easier to follow combat.
Additionally, you can now access the fighting stats of citizens through the citizen info panel within your stations. Just right-click any citizen to learn more about them.

Organized ship construction interface

Previously, as you unlocked more ship hulls during a game, ship construction could become messy. Now, the newly organized ship construction interface should help you find the best ship for your needs.

Additional outliner ship information

The outliner is now better than ever with two new information highlights! Ships that cannot move during this turn are shown in gray, and the currently selected ship is highlighted in teal.

Improved "split cargo"

Splitting cargo between your ship's cargo and your homeworld to buy or sell a small quantity of products now calculates the total cost of your transaction.

Configurable hotseat

At the start of a new game, you can now specifically select a two-player hotseat. This feature used to require enabling an experimental feature in the game settings. The new hotseat game creation interface allows each player to select their name, investor, and flag. Please note that this is still an untested feature, so it should work, but you may encounter some visual issues. If you come across any issues while playing hotseat, please report them, as it will be immensely helpful.
Hotseat with more than two players is technically possible and will be activated once I'm sure the feature is stable. I'm also investigating PBEM (play by email) and hope to have it working for the final game release.

Trade route visualization

Ever found yourself thinking, "So, this is turn 512, I have 12 automated trade routes between my stations, and I haven't played in three days... I have no idea what does what!"? You're not alone! Now, you can visualize the trade route path of trading ships.

Game balance

New project to boost freedom sentiment

If you need a boost in patriotism for your growing nation, the best way is to provide free food to your citizens and host a party.

Experimental option to prevent production overflow

Not every player enjoys micromanaging production lines. A new option, available as a toggle on top of each station (and globally in the options screen), allows you to prevent stations from overflowing with the production of any products. This is a working solution, and it will reduce your stations' efficiency. Once this setting is active, if there is no storage space available in a station for a building's production, the building will not attempt to produce goods. The same principle applies to asteroid production.

Investor-specific sponsors

Choosing one investor over another doesn't have a significant gameplay advantage or disadvantage after the initial phase of the game. To make the investor choice more important, new game-changing sponsors will be available only to players with specific investors.

• IGC will allow you to have a very powerful pantheon production, even unlocking a third level of Belt HQ.
• Sahara can improve the maximum quantity of product transported in each cargo of a ship by 10% and can unlock an advanced warehouse with a 1000-max stock and auto trade.
• Luninc focuses on android and human 2.0.
• Olympus Heights give you early access to laser cannons and allow the production of missile batteries in stations.

Small feature changes:

• Fixed a small bug related to spawning new anomalies in the Belt.
• Prevented pirates from spawning too close to the right side of the map.
• Dragging a hero citizen into a station now shows the correct sprite.
• Conscripted citizens now gain experience when stationed at a station gate.
• Skipping to the next turn when entering subspace was duplicating ships.
• In the Gate View, changed "%" to "x/x" for components.
• Conscripting a citizen at a station now properly consumes laser.
• Conscripting a citizen now properly updates its visuals.
• Newly spawned asteroids in the range of a station are now captured properly.
• Prevented click-through on notification buttons.
• Prevented camera movement and zoom when the map is not visible.
• Added additional alternate hero sprites.
• Added new anomalies.
• Introduced a new academy lesson: Invade Station & Conscript Citizens.
• Freedom sentiment now drops on citizen starvation.
• Added new achievements.
• Double-clicking a building in the construction list now selects the building as the current station project.

Conclusion:

As always, your feedback is invaluable to me. Please let me know if you have any comments on the game. Your input greatly helps me improve it. To engage with our community and participate in discussions, feel free to join our Discord server at https://discord.gg/eqxF58uqjC. Lastly, if you've been waiting for a sign to add the game to your Wishlist, this is it! :)
Visit our Steam store page https://store.steampowered.com/app/1955200/Gate_Builders/

[ 2023-10-29 20:43:16 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello Builders! It has been two months since the last update, and we've faced several hurdles here in the Studio that have limited my ability to work on Gate Builders as much as usual. However, despite the challenges, I'm excited to announce that there are still plenty of cool updates coming your way!

Gameplay and UI

Achievements

We have a brand new game's achievement system, with a total of 60 achievements now available! Although they are not yet synchronized with Steam, I will explore how to implement that feature in the near future. You can track your achievements within the game and monitor your progress.
As soon as you complete an achievement, it will pop up in-game. Can you complete them all?

Recruit / Train UI

In the past, explaining the difference between recruiting a citizen and hiring an expert in the home world was a challenge due to poor game design. To simplify this process, I have merged both interfaces into a single, much clearer one. I hope this change will make more sense now.

Laser Cannon

When it comes to defending your station or invading enemy territories, soldiers are no longer the only option. Allow me to introduce the Laser Cannon! You can either build them in an Arsenal or purchase them in your home world. Laser Cannons are expensive but exceptionally powerful. If they lose a battle, they won't be destroyed outright but instead become damaged Laser Cannons, still capable of fighting but a bit weaker.

Hero Citizen

Citizens who join you through sponsorship can now become heroes! These hero citizens produce more resources and have a unique appearance.
More heroes will be introduced in future updates.

Polish

Beautiful Movement Visualization

I have replaced the temporary movement visualization with an animated one. This new movement visualization will clearly show you where your spaceship will end up at the end of each turn.

As an added bonus, trade routes are now visible, making it much easier for you to organize your production transports.

Improved "Missing Resources" Badge on Buildings

Previously, when a building was missing input resources, it displayed all inputs as missing. Now, the building production popup provides more concise and clear information.

Score View and Ranking

I have updated the score view and added a ranking feature. You can now keep an eye on your ranking compared to other AI or human players, even if you haven't encountered them yet.
The score chart is now much more precise and clear.

Game Balance

Spaceships' speed, scanning range and combat range, sponsor costs, and building construction effort have all been increased by 15% across all game speeds.

Voice Over in the Intro

I'm currently experimenting with Replica Studios voice over generation for in-game narration. While it's not perfect yet, it has the potential to enhance the game's immersion and accessibility without incurring a significant cost. Please let me know your thoughts on this addition. I'm also considering adding voice over to the anomalies.

Small Feature Changes:

• Spaceships now properly dock to the station when players skip the movement animation.
• The warehouse wonder now grants access to auto-trade correctly.
• The Arsenal now doubles the production of lasers for the same input resources.
• Clicking on a station badge opens the station map.
• Destroying a warehouse reduces the station's maximum stock.
• Destroying a building that enabled auto-trade now disables auto-trade.
• Citizens waiting in the home world docks can now be conscripted.
• Tow ships are now faster when towing an asteroid.
• New wonder: University -> train citizens in EVERY station simultaneously.
• The "End Turn" button now updates properly after a ship enters subspace.
• The station list statistics reset every time the station list is opened.
• Capturing an outpost now transforms it into a station and enables production of goods.
• Spaceships can now stop scanning an anomaly and move away.
• Neutral stations and outposts can claim asteroids.

Conclusion:

Your feedback is always valuable to me, so please let me know if you have any comments on the game! Your input greatly helps me improve it. To join our community and engage in discussions, feel free to join our Discord server at https://discord.gg/eqxF58uqjC. Lastly, if you've been waiting for a sign to add the game to your Wishlist, this is it! :)
Visit our Steam store page at https://store.steampowered.com/app/1955200/Gate_Builders/

[ 2023-06-26 23:21:08 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello Builders! This month was a bit slow as I took two weeks holiday to rest and relax. However, I come back to you with a bang and a lot of improvements to Gate Builders!

Visuals:

Station Map improvement:

As part of an ongoing effort to improve the clarity of information displayed on the screen, I have made iterative improvements to various aspects of the game. In this update, I have focused on improving the Station Map. Important information related to the consumption of food by your citizens, the number of citizens in the station, and their level of freedom feeling are now more visible. These info are reflected around the Station Name, allowing you to easily track and manage them and make informed decisions about the management of your space station
Additionally, the station badge in the Belt Map are now much more readable:

New option to hide AI movement:

A new option allow you to show / hide neutral AI movement and enemy AI movement.

Visual production chain:

Product tooltip now include how to create them. Do you mine it from an asteroid or do you produce them by crafting?

Save Outliner size and expanded section:

With this update, the width of the Outliner, as well as the expanded and collapsed sections, are now saved per player on every new save. This means that you no longer have to reset your favorite settings each time you reload a game.

Gameplay:

Notification Auto Open and Auto Delete:

Previously, some crucial alerts and notifications such as war declarations or starvation warnings could be easily missed, leading to undesirable consequences. To address this issue, I implemented a new feature that ensures important notifications will no longer go unnoticed. Now, certain notifications will automatically appear just before you end your turn, ensuring that you are fully informed of any pressing matters before proceeding. With this improvement, you can stay on top of your game and make well-informed decisions without any unexpected surprises. Additionally, in the past, some notifications were redundant, such as receiving a notification informing you of the completion of a building in a space station you had already seen. To streamline your gameplay experience and reduce clutter, I have implemented a new feature that automatically deletes notifications that are no longer relevant. With this update, you can focus on the notifications that require your attention, without being distracted by redundant or outdated information.

Game Speed Option:

The standard game of Gate Builders is designed to last between 4 to 8 hours, providing players with a satisfying and immersive gameplay experience. However, I understand that in our fast-paced modern lives, time can be a precious commodity, and sometimes players want to enjoy a quicker game. That's why I included a game speed option that allows you to adjust the pace of the game to your liking. This setting will impact various aspects of the game, such as the speed, combat range, and scan range of your spaceships, the duration of journeys between the asteroid belt and your homeworld, the speed of construction for buildings, ships, and stations projects, the amount of lobbying requested by sponsors, the cost of recruitment and spaceships, the leveling up speed of your citizens, and the immigration rate. If you prefer to take your time and enjoy a longer game, I have also included a slow speed option that allows you to relax and savor each moment of the gameplay.

New Sponsors and Sponsors Logo:

The game now features updated versions of all sponsors' logos, although they may still undergo further changes in the future as there are some uncertainties regarding their copyright status. Nonetheless, the current logos already reflect the desired style.
In addition to the updated logos, this update introduces six new sponsors that are available to all players, as well as twelve sponsors that are only available to specific investors. These new investor-locked sponsors enhance the feeling of playing different factions depending on the initial investor, which was previously limited to a first-turn bonus, making the different factions feel more distinct. The general sponsors are:

• Sponsor giving a Free Mining Barge
• Sponsor Improving the minimum amount a Mining Barge mine per week
• Sponsor Improving the maximum amount a Mining Barge can mine per week
• Sponsor giving 50 food and 50 ore to any new station settled by a Colony Ship
• Sponsor giving a free warehouse any new station settled by a Colony Ship
• Sponsor boosting by 10% the freedom sentiment of all your citizen

IGC Sponsors:

• Sponsor giving a free community leader
• Sponsor giving a free politician
• Sponsor unlocking the construction of level 3 Belt HQ and Community Centers

Sahara Sponsors:

• Sponsor Improving the Market credit production by +4 per week
• Sponsor expanding the maximum product transported by cargo slot to 110 instead of the usual 100
• Sponsor unlocking the construction of an advanced large warehouse combined with an auto trade portal

Luninc Sponsors:

• Sponsor giving a free engineer
• Sponsor giving a free android
• Sponsor unlocking the construction of a cyber factory to convert your biological citizen to android

Mars Olympus Height Sponsors:

• Sponsor giving a free laser smith
• Sponsor giving a free veteran soldier
• Sponsor unlocking the construction of advanced station defences (Not implemented yet)

Small feature changes:

• Mining barges laser kills citizen working on asteroid, this can cause a diplomatic issue
• Mining Barge can no longer load citizen in their cargo hold
• Multiple mini fix related to anomalies
• Multiple improvement to clarity of information
• On destruction, station now properly release ownership of asteroids
• Community Pardon sponsor now also impact criminal waiting in the Homeworld
• Fix the detection of modifier key stroke (Alt / Cmd / Ctrl) etc on input mapping
• Added a default input (Alt + u) to hide the Belt Map interface
• When meeting a new player, the game now center the belt view to show you were you met them
• 3 new Anomalies with multiples outcomes, and a few more in the works! Explore a temporal rift, capture a comet and find a massive spaceship from the time of the first Emperor
• AI player now settle new space station (experimental)

Conclusion:

I always value your feedback, so please let me know if you have any comments on the game! Your input greatly helps me to improve it. To get in touch and chat with the community, join our Discord server at https://discord.gg/eqxF58uqjC Lastly, if you're waiting for a sign to add the game to your Wishlist, this is it! :)

[ 2023-04-21 14:06:24 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello Builders! Last month was incredibly productive for Gate Builders. Some of you may have already enjoyed some of the new improvements, as I released a few mini updates along the way. In addition to implementing quality of life features that aim to make the game more enjoyable and user-friendly, this update introduces four exciting new gameplay features. I'm thrilled to showcase everything that's new and can't wait for you to try it out.

Gameplay:

Speaking with neutral outpost mayors:

Exploring the map and meeting neutral outposts just got even more rewarding! You can now speak with the mayor of each outpost to uncover a wealth of information about the game world. They can share valuable details with you, such as the locations of your competitors, pirates, and secret space anomalies. This new feature adds a layer of depth to the game and gives you even more reason to venture out into the unknown.

Ruins:

When discovering a derelict station, some of the buildings may be in disrepair. Clearing these ruins can be a daunting task, but it's worth the effort. In the future, if your station takes too much damage during an attack, some of your buildings may become destroyed beyond repair and turn into ruins.

New spaceship - The Mining Barge:

Don't want to spend a fortune building a full space station just to mine a few resources from a stray asteroid? We've got you covered with the Mining Barge! This spaceship comes equipped with a heavy mining laser, which can extract a small random amount of resources from any asteroid every week. Keep in mind, though, that it's not the most reliable option out there. One word of caution: if you attempt to mine an asteroid where some citizens are working on, they may end up getting fried to a crisp.
This initial version does not have a fancy beam graphic yet, but it is fully functional.

Station Progression:

Running a huge city takes a lot of bureaucratic power, so we've had to impose some restrictions on newly funded stations. These stations are now limited to a maximum of 8 different buildings. But don't worry, you can expand this limit back to the classic 12 buildings by upgrading the city center. Invest wisely to get the most out of your new station!

Quality of Life:

Global liberty feeling:

The level of individual liberty on each of your stations have a significant impact on your production efficiency. It will become even more important as we develop the feature that lets you win the game by declaring independence from your investor and winning the independence war. To help you keep track of the global liberty feeling across all of your stations, I've added it to the main interface.

Snap!

A big thanks to Wheffle for suggesting a game-changing feature that improves the overall gameplay experience! We have added a new movement indicator to make it easier for you to move your spaceships with precision. The new movement indicator snaps to the maximum distance that your spaceship can move on a single turn, eliminating the frustration of guessing the right amount of movement. But if you need to make more precise movements, simply press the shift button to override the snapping feature.

Indication of price fluctuation in the Homeworld:

To help players keep track of the changing prices of resources, I have added a new feature to the Homeworld screen. Each resource now has a background indicator that shows whether the price is experiencing a high or low spike. Additionally, the default base price of each resource is visible in its tooltip. This should make it much easier for players to determine the best prices of the week without needing to remember each resource's default value from memory.

Citizen XP visualization:

Citizens in the game learn and gain experience from their jobs, and can earn promotions to become more productive. However, before this update, it was difficult for players to keep track of each citizen's job history and optimize their work assignments. To address this issue, a new feature has been added that allows you to view a citizen's job experience history by simply right-clicking on them.

New ship tooltip:

Thanks to player Fresch's suggestion, we've added a new tooltip to help new players easily identify ships on the main map. Now, when you mouse over a ship, a tooltip will appear with the ship's name and the name of the player who owns it. No more confusion about which ship is which!

Ability to drop cargo in space:

Tired of resources cluttering your cargo hold, or missing out on valuable items floating around in space because there's no room to pick them up? Need to transfer cargo between ships? Well, now you can! Just drop your cargo in space. Although it won't last long in the void, it's an incredibly handy solution to your cargo problems!

Graphical Improvement:

Visual Asteroid Miners:

Citizen assigned to work on asteroid in a space station are now visible in the belt map!

New Sponsor Screen:

The Sponsor Screen is brand new and much easier to read.

Small feature changes:

• You can now hide the interface using Alt+U
• Added a sentence that explain what a building does in the building tooltip
• Fix a bug that added infinite colors in the color wheel
• Prevent citizen transport to pickup floating crates
• Prevent citizen transport to start a trade route
• Fix a glitch in the update of the end turn button
• Added a warning for new player about map size/density
• Update the game Intro to match Intro the new Font and UI style
• Added a new Academy lesson: Sponsor and Pantheon
• Added a new Academy lesson: Fighting enemy ship
• Added new Sponsors
• Fix a bug preventing Water Tower to recycle water
• Use Gatepedia info in the contruction selection menu: better info on buildings and units
• Add a "Repeat" option to construction project in a station.

Conclusion:

I always value your feedback, so please let me know if you have any comments on the game! Your input greatly helps me to improve it. Moving forward, I plan to focus on enhancing diplomacy and the independence war in the coming months. To get in touch and chat with the community, join our Discord server at https://discord.gg/eqxF58uqjC Lastly, if you're waiting for a sign to add the game to your wishlist, this is it! :)

[ 2023-03-17 18:12:34 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello Builders! Happy Halloween, Christmas, end of years holidays and new year! Times fly so fast at the end of a year and even though I kept working on Gate Builders every week I didn't provide many update here on steam! If you are craving for weekly update, I will be happy to welcome you every Monday at 8 PM CET on https://www.twitch.tv/tobugis for live streams of the development process. I hope everyone had an amazing end of 2022 and that you are all ready for new adventures in the asteroid belt! During the last three months, I made a lot of improvement to the game. Unfortunately, they were sometimes so big that they prevented me to reach a version stable enough to update the alpha here on steam. The new version should be stable, but I will playtest more during the next week and make urgent update if need be. Savegame made from previous version are not compatible anymore So, what changed?

Graphical Improvements:

Adding life to the game:

So far, Gate Builders was a very static game, with barely anything moving on screen. This changes with this update! I started adding particles effects and animations for many interactions: Attacks, with multiple types of weapons:
Subspace bubble:
Investigating anomalies:
Exploring the map:
Even more animations will come in the near future.

Improving readability:

All fonts in the game are replaced by two amazing fonts selected with our community's help. There is probably still some place in the user interface that are not updated yet, but do not worry, it is coming. The new fonts are really stylish, give a lot of character to the game and are much more readable.

Improved Outliner:

The outliner got a small redesign and is now able to display pictures alongside items. The health points and shield points of unit is now visible on the outliner.
In addition, the line for space station can show status icon to warn you about missing production, if you are lacking food, battery, etc.

Scene Transition and Loading Screen:

Previously, creating a new game or loading a savegame was freezing the game interface. To prevent that, I created a new loading screen that display pretty pictures and even some hints. Moreover, all transitions between major screens where just fade-in, fade-out and it was quite boring. I added a variety of 4 different transitions now spice up the visual.

Gameplay Update:

New Weapon system and shields:

The weapon system of military space ship is brand new. Each combat ready ship now has a assortments of multiple weapons, from Phaser, to massive Particles Beam and Torpedoes. All different weapon functionally works the same way as all others but adds a lot of flavors to make each spaceship type more unique. To accommodate the new weapon system, I had to replace the armor rating of spaceship with an active shield. A shield will prevent all damage to a ship hull as long as it is active. Shield recharge fully at the beginning of each turn.

Trading with neutral space stations:

Trading with neutral space station was one of the last gameplay feature waiting to be added to the game before the start of the early access. I am making progress towards a fully implemented gameplay. It it now possible to trade with neutral stations, and even ask them to teach master level skill to one of your citizen. Neutral stations can be a great boost to your economy, as they will trade highly refined goods and rare ores in exchange of common products. However, you will have to delivery the goods right to their doorsteps.

New construction queue:

It is now possible to queue multiple building for production in a station.

Anomaly content update:

The game now feature 15 completed anomalies to explore with branching scenario, lore, and a lot of text and context about the universe.
Among the anomalies, you will find lost stations, clues to the position of rich asteroids, ancient relics, spaceship stuck in subspace, and many more. They also hide some secret content, for instance: the first Wonder that can only be find by following a quest line and making the correct choices. Will you be the first one to find the first ever Wonder? Let me know on https://discord.com/invite/eqxF58uqjC with a screenshot and I may have a surprise for you!

Small feature changes:

• Three new academy lessons & small tweaks to existing lessons
• Count of empty building space now takes into account building in the construction queue
• Correct Gatepedia information about citizen production per building
• Update Godot to version 3.5
• Radically modified game data storing technology
• Change sound fx format to ogg

Conclusion:

And don't forget, more then ever, I need you! Let me know if you have any feedback on the game so far! Comment greatly help! The game is evolving a lot and I hope the direction is a good one! I still have a huge amount of task to do but most of the gameplay feature are implemented at a level ready to launch the early access. Next, I will have to work more on diplomacy, and the independence war. The best place to get in touch and chat with the community is on discord: https://discord.gg/eqxF58uqjC

[ 2023-02-15 01:18:13 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello Builders! Last month was a really busy month for us. We participated in a big game jam and streamed a lot about it. This prevented me to post blog posts update here. However, it did not prevent me to make great improvements to Gate Builders! Many of them are based on your feedback! Thanks a lot to everyone who took the time to test the game! You are amazing! There was a few sneaky update to the game during October, but this post will list and explain everything! (up to version a026b.281022)

Graphical Update:

New images:

Every single images in the two intros, background, investor images, etc. is brand new. With the help of the community and stable diffusion, we created a large amount of very tailored pictures that will set the mood of the game. We would have loved to work with an artist, but due to the large amount of images required and our low budget, this was not possible in the time being. In the future, if the game gets a bigger budget, we will hire a real illustrator to re-create these images with a more coherent style. In the meantime, my own stable diffusion experience will have to do. Here is some examples: [table] [tr] [td]
[/td] [td]
[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]
[/td] [td]
[/td] [/tr] [/table] I still have to make a lot of new images for the sponsors, anomalies and the victory / defeat screen but this process takes a lot of time. Every single image take up to a few hours of work, so they will come slowly during the next updates of the game.

Re-design of the Station Map

The old station map was just a grid of all the buildings, very reminiscent of the old Colonization game but uglier. This couldn't stand anymore as this is a main focus of the game. I present you the brand new style for the stations: a full 3d view!
Additionally, the station construction info now display how many building components your citizen are producing and how many turns are left to complete the current project.

Higher resolution

The game also run natively in 1920x1080 now, allowing for a much more crips esthetic. You can decide to switch back to 720p in the option menu.

Better asteroids and color:

All asteroids have been redrawn with a higher quality and less developer art colors.

Gameplay Update:

Anomalies

Introducing anomalies! A very big addition to the game! Anomalies where only planned to be added in the beta but during playtest and while reading your feedback I realized they were needed as of now to keep the player entertained. In previous Alpha, there was very little reason to keep exploring the map once you settled your first few space stations. Floating crates were giving a bit of value for explorers but were not exiting enough. Anomalies attempts to fix this. They are unknown elements on the map that can be scanned with a Probe or with the brand new Explorer ship. Scanning an anomaly will take a few turns an can reward the player with many outcomes: a decision to take, new citizens, plenty rewards, or even a pirate attack. There is currently 11 different types of anomalies in the game, with various level of rarity and various resolution. Can you find them all? Many more anomalies will be added to the game in the coming months. Anomalies also add a lot of lore to the game with custom description and images.

Turn Order

Previously, when a ship had a move order and couldn't complete it in one turn, it would auto complete it at the beginning of the next turn. This was great for the flow of the game but was preventing the player to react to changes. Now, aligning with many other 4x design, ship will only execute their remaining movement at the end of the player turn. [table] [tr] [th]Old order[/th] [th]New order[/th] [/tr] [tr] [td]New turn[/td] [td]New turn[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]All ships move[/td] [td]Trading ships move[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Player plays[/td] [td]Player plays[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]End turn[/td] [td]All ships finish moving[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td][/td] [td]End turn[/td] [/tr] [/table]

Ship Statistics

Ship statistics are now visible on the main game map and when purchasing a new ship in your Homeworld. In the future, the same statistics will be displayed when building a ship and in the Gatepedia.

New tier in station progression

The beginning of the game could be confusing for new players as there was many available building option at the start of a new space station. I added lower tier in the station progression by including a lower level of workshop. New stations now start with a much smaller pool of possible constructions, making the game much easier to understand.

Move ship back to Homeworld

It is now possible to move a ship back to the Homeworld if it was ordered to travel to the belt by mistake

Small feature changes:

• Added a few Sound Fx: click, enter subspace, scan anomalies, etc. giving more feedback to the player actions
• The outliner shows ship health bar
• A new popup propose you to rename your newly settled space stations
• The score graph do not show prestige or gate progress by default
• Add more info on building tooltip about production
• Add a lot of contextual info in many tooltips
• Add tooltip all products icons to say what they are and how to get them
• Show remaining number of turn to convince a new sponsor to join your cause
• Better visualization of what input material are missing in a station production chain
• The Homeworld now sell Probes
• Pressing escape in the Homeworld while recruiting or training a new citizen now close the recruitment window instead of closing the Homeworld
• Fixed a bug that allow citizen to be "stowaways" behind a cargo in ship

And don't forget, more then ever, I need you! Let me know if you have any feedback on the game so far! Comment greatly help! The game is evolving a lot and I hope the direction is a good one! The best place to get in touch and chat with the community is on discord: https://discord.gg/eqxF58uqjC

[ 2022-10-29 14:06:41 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello Builders! This week has been great! I bring you a lot of improvements that I really wanted to include in Gate Builders since a long time. I hope to be on the last track to release the public early access in the coming months. WARNING: If you are playing Gate Builders, you may be confused by one of the feature update. The Cleaner Ship Interface is important to read. Don't worry, the interface to control the space ships is not visible by default anymore, it's not a bug, it's a feature!

Cleaner Ship Interface

Ships controls were sometimes in the way of targeting an enemy, or pickup up a floating cargos. The ship controls are now hidden by default. You can access them with a right click on a ship. As an added benefit, I was free to add more information without cluttering the screen. The ship attack, armor, attack range, speed, scan range and hp are now visible in the interface.
Additionally, selected ship now have a color outline.

Redesign of the Notification List

Guess what? Every week I am making update to the notification system. The notifications are a great way to stay on top of what is happening in the Belt. However, they were really hard to see, stuck in the corner of the screen, blinking annoyingly to cry for attention. All of that is over, taking inspiration from most modern 4x, notification will now stack on the screen an be visible in the Belt Map.
There is also a few new notification: (based on your inputs, thanks! ^^)

• Notify the player when a station is at risk of starving in three turns or less
• Notify the player when a station is missing an input material to complete a production
• Notify the player if a non soldier citizen is idle at a station entrance for more than three turns
• Notify the player of twitch integration activities

Custom Tooltip

So far, the tooltip system giving contextual information to the player was the built-in one from the game engine. It was very limited and didn't allow formatting or style. I wrote a brand new custom tooltip system that will allow to have clearer information throughout the game. (I didn't update all tooltip yet, so you may still get the old ugly version here and there) Here is some examples of what the new tooltip looks like:

Invasion update

Upon winning an invasion, the player has a new option to destroy the defeated station instead of capturing it.

Academy

Two new academy lesson are available:

• How to improve an asteroid with a mining rig
• How citizen level up and how to use schools

Command Input

A new interface allows you to enter commands in-game. All commands developed for the twitch integration also work in-game without need of a twitch connection. To open the interface, press , this button can be configured in the control options. Use the command "commands" to get a list of available commands.

Additional minor changes

• Sending back ship to the belt from your home world properly update the ship interface and display the duration of the journey
• Soldier are now unable to work in any jobs
• Rushing a building take into account fluctuating home world prices instead of base price for products
• Prestige impact dividend: The more prestige you have, the more greedy your investor becomes
• Prestige impact immigration: The more prestige you have, the easier it is to convince immigrant to join the belt
• Prevent ship to move after attacking the same turn
• Neutral outposts: add citizen, more buildings and a shield

And don't forget, more then ever, I need you! Let me know if you have any feedback on the game so far! Comment greatly help! The game is evolving a lot and I hope the direction is a good one! The best place to get in touch and chat with the community is on discord: https://discord.gg/eqxF58uqjC

[ 2022-09-24 22:29:40 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello Builders! I had a longer weekend this week and decided to make big changes that were long overdue.

New ship trails

I wanted to add trail to the spaceships since a long time. I have very good childhood memories of the space ship trails in the original Homeworld. I took the time to create a first version.

The Tutorial is out, long live the Academy

As you know, I had a lot of problem on stream and online to make a good tutorial. I hated the one we had before and was reluctant to come back to it. With your help, we tried to fix it so much, simplify the verbose texts, but it was still not good. So, I decided to re-start from zero. Presenting the Academy: a list of very short lessons that explain the basics of the game. Currently about half of all the lesson are ready to be played. I really need feedback on this part!

Gate Screen Redesign

I redesigned the Gate screen to make it a bit more pleasing.

Score and score victory

This was long due, the game now calculate 5 different scores for the player.. The scores are saved every turn and allow you to keep track of your progress towards victory. They will be used in the future to rank player vs AI. This also enable a new type of victory if your score is very high.

Additional minor changes

• Added an "auto resolve" button for station invasion. Clicking it will skip all animation and player decision during combat
• Gates are now two times larger on the belt map
• Station auto trade transactions are now logged in the log file. We will need to see them on the interface at one point
• The tooltip on the date now display the turn number
• On Invasion: asteroids around captured station properly change owner
• The notification when a citizen died of starvation now says who died
• Home world & Station: added a scroll bar if there is too much citizen at the entrance
• Better shield visual
• prevent Outliner to leave the screen on resize
• minors fixes

And don't forget, I need you! Let me know if you have any feedback on the game so far! Comment greatly help! The best place to get in touch and chat with the community is on discord: https://discord.gg/eqxF58uqjC

[ 2022-09-19 01:24:43 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello Builders! Here is a small quality of life update from issue discovered during testing.

Colored outline for asteroids

It's not always easy to know who an asteroid belongs to from the map. An outline of the player color an asteroid belong to is now visible on mouse over.
You can also toggle this outline for all the asteroid by pressing left control once

Resizable outliner

Resize the outliner to your liking. The outliner will also remember which element are open or folded between turns.

New report: the Station List

A new report is available in the navigation menu: the Station List. The station list will show you every stock and production of each of your space station in one grid. It's very bare-bone for now but a very good source of information

Additional minor changes

• Update some Notifications to include more useful information in the title
• Reduce Notification blinking by three

And don't forget, I need you! Let me know if you have any feedback on the game so far! Comment greatly help! The best place to get in touch and chat with the community is on discord: https://discord.gg/eqxF58uqjC

[ 2022-09-16 15:47:33 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello Builders! As announced on stream tonight, here is the new update! https://www.twitch.tv/tobugis

Improved message when a station can not be build

It wasn't immediately apparent what the red circle around the colony ship meant when trying to build a settlement. This new text should clarify the situation.

New "new game" intro images

I started to work on the "new game" intro image. Before we only had a single still image. I plan to add a few more if the story needs it.

New shiny recruit / train interface

A big change in the interface! I re-build the recruit / train interface from scratch to make it much more clear! The interface to purchase a ship will be next. Old interface:
New interface:

Additional small changes

• Right click on a docked ship in the home world will now open he trade window
• Better load/save fade in/out
• Auto trade is still really in alpha, but it should not delete your ships anymore
• The outliner will now show more than one docked ship per station
• Remove filtering on sprite images - everything should look more crisp!

And don't forget, I need you! Let me know if you have any feedback on the game so far! Comment greatly help! The best place to get in touch and chat with the community is on discord: https://discord.gg/eqxF58uqjC

[ 2022-09-12 22:20:58 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello Builders! As announced on stream, here is the important mid-week update with many improvements.

Improved Zoom and Pan

Moving around the map was a bit glitchy. Zooming in and out of the belt could be slow. All of this should be better now! Let me know your feedback.

Drag and drop ship in Homeworld and Stations

Undocking a ship from a station used to be done with a right click. This was a inconsistent and confusing user experience. There is now a better visualization of which ship is selected and a button to undock it. You can also drag and drop the ship on the button to undock.
The same drag and drop interaction also work in the Homeworld trade screen. You can now drag a ship to the outgoing queue to send it back to the belt.

Visual progress for lobbying

A new progress bar in the top information bar of the belt map shows you the lobbying progress without opening the lobby screen.

Keybinding remap

You are no able to remap the default Inputs in the Option menu. The default key binding is now WASD instead of ZQSD layout.

Additional minor changes

• Selecting a citizen should be easier - the mouse is more accurate at detecting them
• Fighting in the fog of war is not visible anymore
• The Gatepedia automatically reset its zoom level on new search
• The default quantity of neutral floating cargos in the asteroid belt has been increased to make the early game easier and faster.

Twitch Integration

A new Option screen allow you to configure the Twitch Integration settings
The !hireme command now impact the default immigration in-game. Hiring a new viewer will cause an influence deficit for the player. This deficit need to be repaid in full before natural immigration restarts. The deficit is visible in the top information bar in the belt map.
And don't forget, I need you! Let me know if you have any feedback on the game so far! Comment greatly help! The best place to get in touch and chat with the community is on discord: https://discord.gg/eqxF58uqjC

[ 2022-09-08 22:01:24 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello Builders! I didn't publish a new version on Steam since a while due to summer holidays and Tobujam #1. However, coding continue, as well as the Monday Dev Stream on https://www.twitch.tv/tobugis If you want to join us live, the stream is at 8 PM GMT+1 (CEST) every Monday So? What is in this updated alpha?

New Error Dialog

A new error dialog give in game detail about exceptions. This should make it more clear when something goes wrong. If you see this dialog in-game, it may not prevent you to keep playing, but do let me know!

New Random Number Generator

This may seems technical and obscure but every game needs a way to generate random numbers. The previous random number generator used in Gate Builder was not very random.

Tutorial improvement

The tutorial will now remember the steps you already completed in case of save and reload.

Step to implement AI

The AI caused the game to freeze between turn in the previous Alpha. "This should be solved" - said the developer while crossing his fingers A new Debug UI was also added to the game and can display what is happening in the brain of the AI. A setting is available in the option menu to turn it on or off.

Better Audio Sliders

The volume control in the Option Menu are now more logical for human ears. Thanks Wheffle!

Twitch integration

Last few stream, we worked on a Twitch Chat Integration to allow twitch viewers to participate in the game. Twitch viewer are now able to be hired as Citizen and join the Homeword of a streamer. They will get a salary every turn if they are working in a station or if they are present in Chat. (With a bonus for subscribers) In this alpha, viewer can not do anything with this salary yet. More will come soon. The list of implemented commands is:

• !jobs: display a list of valid jobs
• !hireme : add the viewer in the homeworld imigration queue
• !bal / !balance: show the viewer wallet balance
• !modgive[s] : only for mods, add credits to a viewer wallet

Viewer name, online status and balance are displayed in game on a name plate over the viewer's citizen.

What's next?

I will probably work one or two more stream max on the Twitch Chat Integration, as it's a fun things to do with the community. In the mean time, I plan to resume a more steady development cycle now that the summer holidays are over. And don't forget, I need you! Let me know if you have any feedback on the game so far! Comment greatly help! The best place to get in touch and chat with the community is on discord: https://discord.gg/eqxF58uqjC

[ 2022-09-06 22:45:43 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello Builders! Since Monday Stream, I have been hard at work fixing some of your bug reports and trying to hunt them down Here is a list of all the changes in alpha 14:

Music UI

A new user interface show the current music name and allow you to skip to the next one
I also modified how the next random music is selected. It will now play the full album before repeating a music a second time. No more 2 hours of the same music.

Sponsor

We have new in-game sponsor available early and giving access to a corvette. If you want to hunt pirates and neural transport early game, this one may be for you!

Bug under investigation

We have report of space ship breaking the law of physic! Long distance teleportation is a bug. If this is happening to you, please let me know. I am trying to understand why.
One of the potential reason is a duplication / clone of a single ship. I encountered the issue a few weeks ago but I thought it was fixed. If this happens to you, just save your game and reload, it should fix it in Alpha 14. Reloading a save will clean all duplicate ship until I figure out what cause the duplication. (undocking, travelling from the homeworld?) If you have any more info about those bugs, or figure out how to reproduce them, please let me know!

Other minor changes

• Added a new tooltip explaining how to undock ships from station
• Removed the highlight box in the main menu button
• Savegame now remember which version of the alpha created them (mostly useful for me)
• Properly count Android as citizen - they now consume batteries to survive as it was supposed to be. I realized they didn't in the previous versions due to a bug.

That's it for today! Thanks a lot to all the amazing alpha testers. I'm sorry you encounter many issues, but it was expected as a first release to our small community. Program never work the same on the developer computer as on others. This is the magic of programming ^^ Togis

[ 2022-05-20 00:11:23 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello Builders! Following today's Playtest on Twitch here is a quick Alpha update:

• Fix the music constantly looping the same song
• Create a Linux Build (experimental)

[ 2022-05-16 22:20:47 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello Fellow Builders! The alpha is almost ready to be sent to the first testers in the community. Tonight, I am going to playtest the game live on stream at 8 PM CET. Join me here: https://www.twitch.tv/tobugis and discover Gate Builders and how I hunt for bugs.

[ 2022-05-16 18:07:50 CET ] [ Original post ]