Hello all you wonderful space people! This update brings some extremely minor visual updates, but the main thing is that it updates the Demo to the current version of the game and it prevents players from binding the thumbsticks to things that they shouldn't be bound to. Additionally it fixes a bug with the new sorting system that I didn't notice until the most recent playthrough. I hope everyone is well amidst all the turmoil and insane weather patterns out there. A massive thank you to everyone who picks the game up during the autumn sale! And to everyone who reads this, you're the best! -Scott

Hello wonderful space people, this update has a small upgrade to the appearance of the hangar, as well as a small update to the way loot is sorted which allows me to disable a plugin that could sometimes cause issues or even crashes. It also removes the save game which was accidentally included in the last build which could potentially unlock two achievements upon opening the game for the first time.

Last update broke the initial entry if you won the game, this fixes it again. It also fixes the icon for the firing rate debuff.

This update has a couple of bug fixes: Fixed beam collision issue which could sometimes crash the game. Fixed potential second score screen being displayed after a loss. Sorry for the long delay since the last update, I have had a lot to deal with. Hopefully I should have more for you soon. Thank you so much to you all. -Scott

This update contains some more minor performance optimizations, as well as some tweaks to the sizes and general density of asteroids in stage backgrounds. It also fixes some instances where the target name and/or health display could be missing when a ship was targeted. The most exciting addition though is the new Flamethrower weapon! You don't need me to explain a flamethrower, it's a flamethrower! In space! Thanks so much to everyone reading this, and until next update have fun IN SPACE!

Hello lovely space people! Before I get to what's in this update, a friend of mine with a Steam Deck has told me that the Linux version of the game isn't working on Steam Deck, but that the Windows version is working properly under Proton. For anyone trying to play the game on a steam deck and it's not working go to properties -> compatibility and force it to use Proton. This update has a couple of small optimizations that shouldn't affect most users much but may help on really low-end systems. There are also some balance tweaks: -Slightly increased Railgun damage -Flechettes reworked to have submunitions now. They also fire slower but have more ammo -Slightly decreased Photon Disruptor firing rate -Greatly increased Tachyon Seeker damage Thank you so much to all the new players trying out the game! And thank you so much to everyone who has left a review or feedback. I can't express my gratitude enough for all the support and direction you have all provided. Please continue to let me know about any thoughts you have on the game! And I hope you all have fun until the next time I see you IN SPACE! -Scott

Fixed another potential soft lock when beating the game.

Hello fantastic space people! I want to first say thank you to all the new players who picked up the game recently. Please reach out to me with any issues, requests, feedback, or even just to say hello! This update fixes an issue where it could become impossible to submit a score and the game would be soft-locked. Apologies to anyone who missed saving a high score! This update also fixes an issue where the player could sometimes be charged twice for repairs at the end of a stage. The other fix is to the lighting on one of the stations in the background of the first stage. Again, thank you to all players, old and new! The game only needs one more review to hit that magical number of 10 reviews, so while I value all the reviews and all the feedback, the next person who leaves a review has my immense gratitude. All my best wishes to everyone reading this, and I'll see you again soon IN SPACE! -Scott

This update is happening later than I had intended it to because I just recently moved to an apartment in a city, and I have been busy with that as well as finding work to pay rent. But late is better than never! The biggest update is that in the game stages the solar panels on the space stations look a lot more like solar panels now instead of light panels. This is primarily to aid visibility in stages with space stations close to the camera. Fixed an issue that was causing the burst upgrade to break some weapons that use ammo. They should now function as expected. I should hopefully have more time to work on this now that I'm more settled in. I'll be back soon with more updates but until then have fun IN SPACE! -Scott

Hello wonderful space people, this update contains a whole bunch of features that have been requested by players and that I just didn't have time to implement before now. There are a couple of other fixes and features as well: There is now an option to control the density of ships flying in the background. They can be turned off entirely or you can have quite a few flying around, it's up to you! There are options to reset controls to defaults. Currently this will reset both Gamepad and KB+M controls to defaults at once. I may eventually get around to allowing for each to be reset individually, but this at least lets them all reset. The compendium can now instantly be brought up any time during play or between stages by pressing the back/share/minus button on the gamepad or F1 on the keyboard. After defeating a boss, you can manually advance past scoring instead of letting all the animations play. At the main menu, if there is a saved run in progress you can now choose to abandon that run and start a new one. Salvage is now sorted by type -> alphabetically -> by cost instead of by type -> by cost. Instead of holding down the salvage button, there is a button to select multiple salvage items. It's the top face button Y/Triangle/X which is the same button that can then be pressed to select all of a category or held to select all items. The settings for FX brightness both at the main menu and during the game are now properly saved and applied. Point Defense Beam now properly destroys mines without triggering them, as well as no longer taking out projectiles that shouldn't be shot down as collateral. Additionally, I have further tuned the backgrounds of most of the levels, and all the Asteroid Belt stages have activity in the background to differentiate them from each other. Thank you so much to everyone who has given feedback and thank you as well to everyone reading this! Like I said, most of the contents of this update are directly due to feedback from players. I want to make this game the best it can be, so I hope to hear more from players about what they would like to see in the game and maybe we can make this even better! See you again soon - IN SPACE! -Scott

This is a smaller update containing mostly quality of life and UI fixes. I have made further changes to the level lighting with the goal of making the action stand out more from the background. In addition to slightly dimming the backgrounds I've added a slight fill light to each level just to the ship and weapon models. Here are some of the other fixes: Fixed: Stage timer now correctly starts when you gain control of your ship. Fixed: Run timer no longer doubles when saving and exiting a run. Fixed: Incorrect letter case on stage select menu Have fun and see you soon - IN SPACE! -Scott

After lowering the requirements for many achievements, I realized that some of these new numbers were still much higher than they should be if someone wanted to get them all before running out of content in the game. Nobody wants to keep playing a game for no reason other than grinding non-combat related stats, so I lowered all the fitting-related achievement requirements substantially. One of the players (shoutout to Max!) had the game crash when his ship energy was at basically zero during a boss fight, and I have made a couple small code changes to the way energy charges to hopefully address this (I haven't been able to recreate the crash, but please let me know if it happens to you.) The final boss has had a bunch of its HP shifted around. The total HP remains the same, but the distribution is more even. The Final part of the fight should now last slightly longer but the earlier parts should be slightly shorter. I fixed the bitcrusher effect on the music that's supposed to happen when the ship is low on energy, it's much easier to tell when your capacitor is low now. I evened out the brightness of the lighting in all the stages and their backgrounds to be more consistent. As part of this, I removed the ability to adjust the background brightness. The way it was implemented made it nearly impossible to implement a photo mode (one of the things I still hope to add eventually) and it also added a bunch of unnecessary post-processing each frame. I also removed the convolution bloom setting, as I have never quite found a balance of settings that look on average better than the standard bloom and it just tanks performance as well. As a side effect of this I was able to change the grid under the player ship from a post-process material to an emissive transparent one (because the light levels are all the same now) and that is slightly more efficient. Frame rates should be more stable than ever hopefully! Thank you so much to everyone reading this far, I'll have more updates soon! Until then, have fun - IN SPACE! -Scott (Coffee Puck Games)

Fixed an issue where it was sometimes possible to get the score multiplier to increase past 25. Fixed an issue where sometimes weapons could drop with incompatible mods.

This update changes the Easy and Hard difficulties, reducing enemy projectile velocity, firing rate, and damage slightly on Easy and increasing them on Hard. The differences aren't extreme, but they add up with all the other differences to further separate the difficulties from one another. Additionally, I fixed a visual issue where the Deimos boss appeared to be firing a massive tractor beam.

Fixed: Boss ships with independent turrets can no longer shoot themselves on the main menu. Fixed: The mesh for weapon status FX now scales properly with beam weapons. Updated the demo to the current version of the game.

I made all the achievements for this game before I knew how long they might take to accomplish or what might be a reasonable goal, and some of the numbers required for the higher levels were pretty insane. So this update lowers the number of upgrades required and number of ships destroyed to reach the higher achievement levels. The unlocks associated with those achievements still take the same time, they were just moved to coincide with the new level of achievement associated with their requirements. The other major changes this update are to the scoring: The multiplier is now capped at 25x. The clear time bonuses have been increased 2.5x The clear time bonuses are then multiplied by the current stage number. It's still possible to achieve very similar scores, but now there is more emphasis on clear time and less of a scoring advantage to builds featuring many smaller guns. I hope you all have a wonderful week and I'll see you soon IN SPACE! -Scott

There is now a timer in the upper left corner during combat showing elapsed stage time. There is now a timer in the upper right corner between stages showing total run time. There is an updated graphic for the collection radius that will look more consistent across resolutions and at different sizes on screen. The counter for spinning your ship has been moved from the initial ship select to between stages for REASONS. COMPLETELY UNRELATED, it's now possible to actually unlock the second secret weapon and equip it to your ship. If you have already unlocked any secret weapons it is now possible to equip them from the beginning of a run. I bet you wish you had those achievements now, right Max? On another completely unrelated note, you can go one screen past the weapon loadout to see your ship in all its rotational glory as well as that beautiful forklift sitting just up up up up up up there in the corner. Who's to say what any of this means? Anyways, have fun and see you soon IN SPACE! -Scott

Jupiter was invisible in some levels but that has been fixed. Made changes to some engine exhaust particles spawning too many lights, should allow for a much smoother framerate for most people.

Fixed an issue where the final boss could keep its invincibility when it should be vulnerable. Also addressed a similar issue with the L1 boss could get more shield regeneration cycles than intended.

Fixed the Lunar boss not being destroyed properly (hopefully for real this time) Fixed multiple collision issues on the Lunar boss.

There were some optimizations I had accidentally turned off in the last update, this turns them back on. There have been some small balance changes to the Stalwart and the Capacitive Pulse Beam. Scrolling in the Salvage menu now loops from top to bottom and vice-versa.

Fixed an issue where the Lunar boss would sometimes not die when its destruction conditions were met. Added progression-based unlock pathways for the secret ships. They can still be unlocked with the correct high score initials as well.

Update 1.2 is here and it brings FIVE new ships! Three of them are secrets and can be unlocked by entering the correct initials at the high score screen. The other two are standard unlocks and they include the Stalwart cruiser, a tough bruiser fitted with an all-new charged beam weapon, as well as the tiny but powerful Infiltrator Experimental Fighter. There is also the new aforementioned Capacitive Pulse Beam weapon, available to find as a secondary. Finally, the L1 sector backgrounds have been changed to reduce potential motion sickness (sorry to anyone who experienced this!)

By request, I've added native Linux support to the game! (The demo is still as of yet windows only, but that will get a port too soon)

Update 1.1 is finally here, featuring the Minotaur Bomber as a new unlockable ship, as well as another secret ship that could be incredibly useful if the President of Space's daughter needs rescuing... It would take an incredibly skilled half-man, half-dog to be able to find it though. There are a few new weapons:

• The Railgun needs to be charged before firing, but when fully charged it can deal massive damage and penetrate multiple targets in a line.
• The Heavy Machine Gun provides a massive amount of firepower and uses almost zero energy, however it runs through ammo quickly and has extremely short range.
• The Phase Bolt Cannon slowly fires long-ranged bolts that will persist after the initial impact and potentially hit additional targets.

• The Auto-Targeting upgrade allows homing weapons to automatically acquire targets without need for a lock, and can even allow them to switch targets if the initial target is destroyed before impact.
• Quantum Packing is now Quantum Phase Packing, and it allows projectiles to penetrate and impact multiple times.

• The Compendium has been updated to feature explanations of all the weapon stat icons.
• The background grid now properly fades out at the end of a level.
• Fixed an issue where all the previous level's elite ships were replaced with the current level's elite ships.
• Performance improvements.
• There have also been some changes to fonts, and to weapon balance.

Not everything that I wanted to include in 1.1 is fully complete, but I wanted to release this update now as it has a bunch of fixes and improvements that I think people will like to play with:

• Re-implemented the targeting picture-in-picture view as well as the screen status border
• Added settings to control brightness of status effects on ships both in-game and at the main menu.
• Mouse cursor stops appearing when the game is paused
• Alternate randomized main menu backgrounds
• Fixed the Tiberius not firing its main gun and gave it some slight changes
• New UI fonts
• Fixed some compendium typos
• There's a new weapon which hints at some content coming in 1.1!

This is a smaller update, with mostly cosmetic fixes and upgrades. There is one new achievement, related to the secret weapon which I don't think anyone has discovered yet. The Normal ending has been given an upgrade with some new art and animation. Removed the camera vignette effect during gameplay. Lowered the height of the collect radius indicator to be in-line with the circles below pickups. I hope everyone enjoys the update, it hopefully won't be long until the next one! All the best! -Scott (Coffee Puck Games)

This update has some new and shiny graphical options that can help visualize the players ships orientation and where its turning towards, as well as its collection radius. These can both be adjusted in the options (0 = Off) and there is now the option to turn on FXAA for anyone who would like it. In my opinion it doesnt look very good unless your screen percentage is above 100% but other people may have different opinions so the option is there! All weapon mods should now apply properly, with the volley upgrade only adding a single extra shot to weapons that dont already fire in a volley as opposed to two. And finally, Charge weapons (currently only the Plasma Cannon) now function correctly when they have the extended burst fire mod. I am hard at work on the 1.1.0 update, which will add some new toys to play! Until then, have fun and maybe challenge a friend to play the demo! Thanks! -Scott (Coffee Puck Games))

This is a big one! I've been dealing with family-related issues so it's about a week later than intended, but I have moved a ton more functionality over from Blueprints to C++ and weeded out a bunch of potential crashes while improving performance dramatically.

• Fixed several potential crashes that could happen by referencing a projectile while it was being despawned.
• Reworked appearance of grid below player. It's now brighter and the gridlines are thinner.
• DoT weapons now correctly reapply status effects 20 times per second
• Flares now correctly stop re-targeting projectiles after they expire

This update fixes a few issues that were introduced with all the optimizations in the last update, and updates the Demo as well.

• Fixed an issue that could sometime cause crashes when projectiles despawned.
• Fixed an issue where non-beam Damage Over Time weapons couldn't damage the player.
• Fixed an issue where the Deimos boss damaged enemy ships instead of the player.

This update fixes a few issues introduced in the last update. These include the targeting system not actually being updated (now it is) as well as the broken gamepad menu while the game is paused. The biggest updates are to the game code though. Previously the game made excessive use of Unreal's timer manager, and the vast majority of those calls have been optimized away. Additionally, I have completely re-done the way that collision is handled on all objects to be much more efficient in terms of the number of checks needed and especially in terms of the amount of initialization required whenever a projectile is fired. This should result in much smoother framerates in almost all cases. The other major change is that primary weapons which use ammo now properly need time to reload instead of doing so instantly. There are more performance improvements coming soon, and some other exciting updates as well! Until then, have fun and I wish you all the best! -Scott

Thanks to feedback from players, this update adds the ability to remap gamepad controls! It also adds the ability to change between Xbox, Playstation, and Switch controller layouts. The maximum background grid intensity has been raised slightly. And finally, the Demo has been updated to the current version of the game! Apologies to people who played the demo recently, it was still on 1.0 and didn't even have the updated targeting controls until now. Thank you so much to everyone who has played the game and especially to those who have given feedback and recommended the game! I've been working on porting the game to Xbox One, and the extremely limited CPU speed on that platform has given me insights into some potential ways to improve the performance and stability of this game on all platforms. I hope to have more news about that soon! Until then, I wish the best to all who are reading this. -Scott

The achievements for installing each different category of upgrade are now working as intended. The upgrade numbers were always being tracked properly, so you should get the achievements for all the runs you've already made.

The main change this update is to the behavior of the "Target Closest" button. Subsequent presses after the first will now cycle through other targets. If the button is not pressed for one second, it will again target the closest enemy when pressed. Enemy autocannon rounds have been slowed down slightly to their intended speed. All autocannon rounds now have a second light ring nearer the base to help improve visibility. Additionally, some tweaks have been made to convolution values to improve visuals when using convolution bloom.

Fixed an issue where the ship select menu would continue to read player inputs after hitting launch, which could sometimes start the player at a different difficulty or with a different ship than expected.