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