We are glad to present the 0.8.6.0 early access update! Here are the main new features you will find:

Istara

Our second planet, Istara, has been highly improved, graphically and technically. Istara is a cold forest planet with three biomes in it: the swamps, the sequoïa forest and snowy forest. A new population of animals appeared : spiders, brakhs (a local boar) and bees. New trees were also added: pines, spruces and above all, the giants sequoïas.

New vehicle : the Spacejet

3 new control blocks have been added: the Gyrograv block, the Spacejet cockpit and a directionnal thruster. You can now get into space by building a spacejet with those new elements! The thrusters allow you to control the direction of your ship. You will need 6 thrusters, one for each direction to fully control your ship (Forward, backward, move laterally to the left, or to the right, up and down). If you put only 2 blocks forward and backward for instance, you will just be able to go forward or backward. Do not forget to check the key bindings options: we added a vehicle section so you can set your bindings according to your preferences, with no effect to the character bindings (on foot).

Workshop on Steam feature : Share your plans with the community!

You want to show to the community your brand new spaceship you just made? You want to try a house a friend of yours did? By pressing the “P” key while in game, you will open the plan sharing tool. This tool allow you to share every plans you created with all your local saves, but also with the rest of the world directly on Steam Workshop. Just drag and drop a plan from this new screen to your inventory and put it in your world (if you have the right blocks to build it!) Just drag and drop a plan from your inventory to the workshop, add it and bam! It’s online!

New community feature: Transforming a creative universe into a custom universe

Build your world in creative mode, then transform it into a custom universe (“C” button on the universe’s list). The custom mode is your universe with no scenario. You will start with an empty inventory and a knowledge of every recipes. More options to customise this mode will be added in the future.

New features for the creative mode

You can now put creatures to create your own swarming dungeon! Eww... ! You can now define the spawn point for the players by using the /setspawn command. Use it for example to set the spawn point in front of your dungeon. You can also enable or disable the inertia using the command /togglemomentum. Our artist team asked for this option, and some of you will definitely like it too!

Recorder improvement, and plan setting enhancement

Right click now registers automatically an object. The algorithm now spreads to all the blocks linked to the one you are targeting. You’d better separate your object from the ground before you do that ;)

New death system

Death is always hard to balance and above all, today we don’t have every tool to do it. From now on, when you die, you will loose all your inventory but your weapons, ammo and armor. You will need to come back where you died and click on the bag to loot your inventory. Make some backup chests before you go kill some monsters, who knows ;)

New quest log

You can now follow a secondary quest by selecting it from the journal (press “J” key) and by clicking on the “Follow” button on the top right corner. 3 characters will wave at you at a moment during the adventure (at the end). Keep an eye open ;) You can also check every modifications and improvements we have done in the last seven weeks on the detailed release note of this new update here.

We hope you will enjoy these new features as much as we enjoyed making them!

Note for all the AZERTY players: You need to reset your key bindings manually in the game options, due to the new spacejets mechanics, we currently can’t mix US and FR key settings anymore. We will provide a fix in a future patch regarding this issue. Note for the builders: you can now access the old “EA1” version to create all the blueprints you want, and then copy them to the new version folder. To access the old version: right-click on Stellar Overload in your game list, choose “properties”, and go to the “betas” tab. Select the “steam_ea1_v0.8.5.2” version in the dropdown list. As usual, we have open a new section on the forum. Do not hesitate to tell us your feelings about this new version of the game. And most importantly : Have fun!

[ 2016-12-14 12:07:15 CET ] [ Original post ]

Stellar Overload is an adventure game, in a world made of blocks. The playground, completely open, is made up of different cubic planets. While progressing through the science fiction scenario, you will have to explore all these planets, alone or with others...

The playground

Each planet has its specific set of resources. By exploring them, you will unlock access to new technologies. Merx, the small green planet, is the first planet of the game.

Story and important characters

Stellar Overload is a scenarized adventure game where you’ll go on a quest to free the planet Merx from the yoke of Imperium Machina.


Some characters, directly related to the main quest, will give you valuable information to help you progress.

Features related to the story and progression:
- Possibility to customize your character
- Dialogues related (or not) to the quests
- Monitor your quest objectives in real-time
- A progression curve related to the quests but also to exploration
- Planets (and enemies) of different levels

Exploration and craft

While progressing through the main quest, exploring the world and the dungeons, you’ll unlock more and more recipes. These recipes will help you get stronger and go further into the adventure.
You will need raw resources to create various objects (tools, weapons, armors...). You can find these resources by different ways: pick them up directly on the planets, find them in chests or get them as quest rewards.

Exploration and craft features:
- A global map of the planets
- A minimap
- A jetpack to travel through the caves more easily
- Possibility to create a vehicle to move faster
- Different craft stations
- Glowblocks will help you enlighten the caves
- Different levels of gauntlet in order to pick up the various blocks of the game
- Teleportation (within a dungeon or between planets)
- Semi procedural dungeons
- Evolving music and soundscape based on the day-night cycle

Combat

To defend yourself against your enemies, you will rely on the creative talents of some important characters in the story, and learn how to create weapons and armors.


The Block-Thrower is an exotic weapon, it can load any of the game’s blocks and throw them at enemies. Depending on the nature of the blocks, damage and effects will be different. Damage aside, if you throw a Glowblock against a cave wall, it will enlighten the cave.

Features related to fighting in this early access version:
- 5 different weapons: the pistol, the rifle, the Block-Thrower, the sonic carbine and the grenades
- 1 armor to greatly reduce damage
- 6 different enemies (Arkuloids, Cognitrons, Legionnaire robots, Plasma turrets, Tesla pylons)
- A boss in the fortress

Construction

Since Stellar Overload is a game made of blocks, the construction (and harvest) is an important aspect of the game.
You can build all types of structures but also vehicles, which will facilitate the exploration of the planets.
A creative mode is available, allowing you to unleash your imagination without worrying about the scenario.

Construction features:
- 6 different shapes of blocks
- Easily place and destroy walls (straight or sloping)
- A tool to "paint" the targeted area with a certain material (adjustable size)
- A tool to save a construction and place it elsewhere ("copy/paste")
- Possibility to define an alignment grid (to facilitate the placement of shapes)
- Undo / Redo : very useful in creative mode!
- More than 200 different materials

A few numbers in blocks

Merx, the first planet of the game, which is also the smallest, is 1200 blocks long per side, with an area of 1.4 million blocks for each face.
It has a total area of 540,000 m² and is composed of about 2 billion blocks!

For the planet Skahar, the largest, which is 8000 blocks long per side, each face has an area of 64 million blocks. The whole planet has a total of about 500 billion blocks!