Signs of Life Update 0.14 (Story Introduction and Tutorial)

Hey folks, we've got a new update ready. This update does double duty as both a tutorial and a significant chunk of story content at the beginning of the game. We've known for awhile that we needed a proper tutorial, but we waited until now because we wanted to make sure that we had a good idea of the stumbling blocks that new players have when starting the game fresh. Hopefully what we put together will make it easier for new players, while not being too overbearing or annoying for existing players. From a story standpoint, we've always known that we wanted to start the game like this, but because it was tangled up with the tutorial we had to hold off until we could do both at the same time. Between the tutorial and the story elements, we're hoping the new player experience should be a lot less awkward. You can skip the intro/tutorial content when creating a new character. The game now starts with you waking up in your bed aboard a colony ship called the Hephaestus. You're part of a decades-long mission to travel through space to a habitable earth-like planet called Osiris. You're woken up by the ship's on-board AI system, who tells you that you're needed for a mission to scout a nearby asteroid that has produced some anomalous readings.
You'll get your handy MEG wrist laser tool installed.
You'll perform some diagnostics
Visit an asteroid
And [spoiler]witness the end of the human race.[/spoiler]

New Content

Added story introduction and tutorial
- New starting map
  - Hephaestus colony ship
    - Contains several sections, including the Bridge, Hydroponics, a Medical Bay, a Dormitory, Outfitting, the Hangar and Cryogenics.
    - Added generic NPCs as well as 2 named NPCs
      - Dr. Stein - The head scientist and captain of the Hephaestus. His office in the bridge, and he can help you with information about your mission to the asteroid.
      - Larry - The head engineer of the Hephaestus. His office is above the hangar pod bays, and he can help you diagnose and launch a landing pod to the asteroid.
    - Added decorations and furniture for the various sections of the Hephaestus.
    - Added a MEG wrist tool install station and diagnostics station in the Outfitting section of the Hephaestus.
    - Added a new weapon/tool called the Thermothrower, which can shoot streams of ice and fire. It can be found in the Hangar storage area and it can be refilled using a charging station in the same storage room.
    - Added Hephaestus Pick, obtained along with a suit of armor in the Outfitting section of the Hephaestus.
    - Added a rivet gun. It fires rivets and can be found in the hangar.
  - Asteroid
    - Added an asteroid mite creature, and an asteroid mite hat made from its skin and entrails.
  - [spoiler]Underground alien structure[/spoiler]
    - [spoiler]Added an alien altar that is missing a crystal and has a slot for the "Strange Device".[/spoiler]
    - [spoiler]Added an alien boss[/spoiler]
  - Added a short story related cutscene that plays at the end of the new content.
Added a Help menu with entries about various topics.
Added a Seismic Imager structure that can be used to scan the area and add the data to your minimap.

Gameplay Changes

Added AGIS Investigate bind (I by default) that allows you to ask agis about something in the world without first opening his dialog.
Removed most left click interactions in the world, and replaced then with right clicks. Let us know if you notice spots where we still have you left click to interact with a device or thing in the world.
Prevented weapons from using their alternate fire when right clicking to interact with something in the world. This fix must be applied to things individually and I'm sure we missed some, so let us know if/when you notice this issue in the future.
The Multipass is now obtained in your starting room after you've gotten dressed and eaten some food.
[spoiler]Moved the "Strange Device" to the end of this area. Previously it was located on Osiris in the mining base.[/spoiler]

Misc Changes

Added a unique respawn effect when you are respawned by the [spoiler]alien Xenolith.[/spoiler]
Added an idle animation that plays when you are using your inventory.

Bug Fixes

Fixed an issue that was causing the game to crash on launch on 32 bit systems
Fixed display issues with various items in the grid inventory.
Fixed some foods not stacking correctly.
Fixed an issue with placeable items such as torches when using the grid inventory option.
Fixed a bunch of graphical and gameplay issues with the [spoiler]alien ship you reach by portal.[/spoiler]
Fixed an issue that may have been causing food to not get eaten despite showing the animation. Let us know if this problem shows up again.
A whole bunch of tiny things that I can't remember.

What is up next

We have two large goals left before we would be ready to take Signs of Life out of Early Access. One is to finish the story content, and the second is to expand on the existing content by re-working some existing areas, adding bosses and cleaning up issues with the progression through the game. This includes things like finishing up the earlier work we showed with the Spitters, as well as a possible rematch with a certain fowl creature... This update took ages in large part because we couldn't really split it up into smaller pieces, but the things we're going to be working on next are smaller individual chunks so we should be able to get updates out quicker going forward. We feel pretty happy with this intro/tutorial content, but it is still a work in progress. Let us know in the comments, on the Steam forums and in our Discord channel if you have any suggestions, complaints or just want to say hello!

[ 2019-05-31 13:58:23 CET ] [ Original post ]

Signs of Life

Sweet Dog Studios Developer

Sweet Dog Studios Publisher

2014-01-27 Release

Indie Casual RPG Adventure Singleplayer Multiplayer Coop EA Tags

Game News Posts: 42

🎹🖱️Keyboard + Mouse

Mostly Positive (686 reviews)

http://www.playsignsoflife.com

Steam Store

The Game includes VR Support

Public Linux Depots:

Signs of Life Depot (Linux) [568.15 M]

Signs of Life is a sci-fi survival sandbox platformer with a combination of procedurally generated and hand-crafted content. You'll explore mysterious locations, Mine blocks for resources, and meet strange (and some familiar) creatures, some of which don't even want to kill you and eat your corpse. Along the way, you'll be able to craft armor, weapons, gadgets and more to assist you in surviving in an inhospitable environment.

Story

Sensing that an apocalyptic war was imminent, the United Nations executed a last ditch plan to save what they could of the human race. 2 crafts were launched, a massive colony ship called the Hephaestus and a smaller, faster scout ship called the Hermes. The destination was a recently discovered earth-like planet with the potential to harbor life located roughly 18 light years away. The Hermes reached the planet first in order to establish a presence in anticipation of the arrival of the Hephaestus.

4 years later, as the Hephaestus approached its destination a faint signal was detected from a nearby asteroid. Against their better judgement, the crew of the Hephaestus decided to investigate, and in doing so set in motion a chain of events that would ultimately lead to their destruction.

The good news is, you managed to survive by hitching a ride on a small escape pod just in the nick of time. The bad news is, everyone you knew and loved is dead, you have nothing but the clothes on your back, a standard issue multi-function wrist laser and a faulty artificial intelligence companion named AGIS. Oh, and the human race is probably doomed.

Probably.

Features

An expansive world with procedurally generated and hand-crafted content.
Online Co-Op Multiplayer
A bunch of weird alien creatures.
Some familiar creatures.
Chickens.
Mining, hunting, gathering.
Gobs of ores, materials and animal organs you can use to...
Craft all kinds of weapons, armor, gadgets, furniture, etc.
A bit of story and lore to hold the whole thing together.
Eggs.
All spiritual content in this game has been assessed by Dr. Halamkah, advisor to the stars.

Current State of Development

Signs of Life is currently in Alpha. We feel like we've put together a fun, satisfying experience that will allow us to get wider feedback while we complete the rest of the game.

Right now our first priority is making sure that the content we have in-game is as bug-free, balanced, polished and fun as possible based on feedback from you folks. We have a significant prologue/tutorial planned, as well as significant content beyond what is currently playable, so the sooner you get involved the more of an effect you'll have on the final game. We deal in hard science, and in working very closely with our personal science advisor at Sweet Dog Studios, that tends to lead to results.

We are still very much in development, and we would like you to join us in shaping the game from here on out. Your feedback is vital to us, so don't be shy =)

Caveats/Issues

Some sound effects are missing, but we are actively working on filling them in.

MINIMAL SETUPProcessor: Dual-Core 2 GHzMemory: 2 GB RAM
Memory: 2 GB RAM
Graphics: OpenGL 3.0 Compatible Graphics Device
Storage: 1 GB available space
RECOMMENDED SETUPProcessor: Dual-Core 2+ GHzMemory: 4 GB RAM
Memory: 4 GB RAM
Graphics: OpenGL 3.0 Compatible Graphics Device
Storage: 1 GB available space

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