It's been about a decade since I first started prototyping a space game - one where you'd start off with a small ship and trade resources. Two games, three game engines and 15,000 copies sold later, here am I with a new life where I don't quite have the time for such work anymore. Deimos Games will be shutting down this year. Both Helium Rain and Astral Shipwright will be going free-to-play, so that new players can still experience them in the future. As a reminder, both are also open-source, so if you were going to build anything based on these projects, you now have access to free content too. It's been refreshing to see game developers reuse code for their own projects, and I hope that will continue. I want to thank all players who supported me on this endeavour. I'm truly happy that I was able to share my work with you. Stranger

[ 2023-08-23 14:10:49 CET ] [ Original post ]

It's been nearly four years since Helium Rain released for good, and after years of experiments, spaceships are back on the menu. Astral Shipwright is a new spacebuilding game with the same DNA as Helium Rain, and will be available in Early Access later this year. [previewyoutube=vJZgy2oR48g;full][/previewyoutube] As part of the upcoming Steam Next Fest, a very early build of the game has been made available to everyone. While it's a far cry from a completely playable game, the current demo shows the foundation of the game including the spacecraft building system, inventory and orbital maneuvers. Read the announcement to learn more about Astral Shipwright (and join our Discord community server to talk about it!)

[ 2022-06-09 20:45:43 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello there ! After months in development, we're finally ready to release the Helium Rain mod support we initially promised during Early Access. Mod support is always a pretty great way to enhance a game's lifetime - speaking as a former mod developer.

Installing mods

Players shouldn't see much change today, and will have an easy process to install mods through Steamworks. Browse the workshop on Steam, subscribe to mods, and once Steam has downloaded them, the game will automatically install them ! Our only guideline for players is that game saves should be tied to mods - please don't remove mods once you've started a game, as this might cause corruption of the game save. Adding mods should always "just work", but removal is not so easy. A small update was released today to enable installation of mods. Please tell us if anything goes wrong !

Using the modding kit

The Helium Rain Mod Kit is freely available on the Epic Games Store today - no purchase necessary. We're releasing our full Unreal Engine 4 editor, complete with some of the game's content - a collection of ships, stations, and other game content that you can study to create your own. Look at the instructions on our Wiki !
What exactly can you do with the mod kit ?

• Add new ships or parts - weapons, engines, or other internal components
• Add new stations or resources
• Add new sectors, technologies or scannable artifacts

All of these types of content can easily be made and redistributed through Steamworks. We expect that most modders will be happy with this. Of course, there's is also stuff that can't be done through the Mod Kit : adding new questlines or contracts, changing the UI or gameplay mechanics, or editing existing content. There is however a way to do this anyway. Here are some legal guidelines on using the Helium Rain Mod Kit.

• Modders will be using Unreal Engine 4 and will need to comply to the UE4 EULA. If you decide to sell a Helium Rain mod, please check the legal requirements in the UE4 EULA.
• Our game content is provided for documentation only. Do not use our content for new game projects, or total conversion mods for Helium Rain, without our written consent.
• No support is promised for modders, though we'd love to see you talk about it on the community forums & the unofficial Discord .

.

Source code mods

On top of the mod kit, we also want to state that we're okay with source code mods. This is how you can accomplish the above feats that the Mod Kit doesn't cover. Source code mods would work by updating the game's C++ code, which is freely available on GitHub under a permissive open-source license, and redistributing compiled executable files to Helium Rain players. This gives you full power on the entire game. Of course, source code mods are a bit less straightforward too. You won't be able to publish source code mods on Steamworks, as various source code mods would override themselves, so you will have to handle distribution yourself. The most ambitious modders might want to create a brand new game with Helium Rain as a basis - maybe in a different universe, or different gameplay. This is also completely acceptable ! Again, however, we ask that you use none of our content in such an endeavor.
We want to thank all of you for helping us get Helium Rain where it is today. It's been almost exactly five years since the project started, and though it's been a very long time, getting to the point where new developers can get their hands on our work is awesome. Do us proud !

[ 2019-03-01 14:35:15 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello, We've released the 1.3.6 update to Helium Rain. This update fixes two recently reported bugs :

• Fix research points increasing too quickly with Instruments tech
• Fix people consuming resource during construction

Thank you for playing Helium Rain !

[ 2019-02-09 23:01:39 CET ] [ Original post ]

We've released a new hotfix for Helium Rain. This update fixes missing textures on Linux machines running some what older GPUs. A small Windows update was also published but shouldn't provide any noticeable change.

[ 2019-01-10 23:53:19 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello, We've released a new update to solve a few bugs we previously didn't know about.

• Fix station scrapping not detecting all cargos
• Fix free money exploit on contracts
• Cleanup unwanted files from client

We'll have more exciting news early next year with modding support ! Thank you for playing Helium Rain, and merry Christmas !

[ 2018-12-23 23:05:55 CET ] [ Original post ]

We've released a hotfix for Helium Rain today. As for 1.3.1, this update targets a specific issue.

• Fixed notifications at the end of a complex upgrade that would cause crashes

We're also retiring the beta branch of Helium Rain today. The default branch has featured the same builds for a few months now, so this won't have any impact.

[ 2018-12-08 10:34:54 CET ] [ Original post ]

We've released the 1.3.1 hotfix to Helium Rain to account for two new issues.

• Fix failure to start on Linux devices
• Fix mod launcher failing to start while not logged on to Steam

We're also investigating some crash reports. We'll have more news on mod support soon too !

[ 2018-12-04 21:15:28 CET ] [ Original post ]

It's been a month since our last major update, and we've some news for you today !

New military contracts

We've upgraded military contracts in depth. Previously, a military contract meant only one thing - war. You would attack a faction on another faction's orders, and end up at war with the target, making this business unsustainable. This changes with our new mercenary-type contracts, where you will be free to attack your target at no reputation loss. Some variations of military contracts have also been introduced, including a new sector attack / sector defense contract. We hope this will let you play as pirates in a financially rewarding way. Good hunting !

Game updates

Unreal Engine was upgraded from 4.19 to 4.20, enhancing support for some hardware that used to not start the game. We've also fixed a few bugs. We're always on the lookout for issues, so please report us anything weird !

New Russian localization

Helium Rain is a small-scale project that doesn't have a large publisher's backing - we haven't invested into localization. However, dedicated player Alexander Pyrov took the problem in its own hands, and decided to localize the game in Russian. All our Russian players can now enjoy his work in the game !
While we haven't set up an easy localization tool, we'll gladly include fan-made localization in the game. Contact us if you're ready to tackle a database of 12,000 words in your own language !

Modding support

Modding games has been a staple of PC gaming for decades. As it happens, I have myself learned game development by modding games. We've always developed Helium Rain with modding support in mind, and while we can't officially announce anything yet, we've made sure this new release has the technical structure required for clean mod support through Steamworks. Here's more about how modding Helium Rain is planned to work.

• Preliminary documentation is available on our Wiki.
• A dedicated modding kit is in development, based on the Unreal Engine 4 editor.
• A new executable,"HeliumRainLauncher", is now installed with the game and will collect Steamworks mods you've subscribed to before starting the game. This is currently not launched by Steam, and will be enabled when the modding kit releases. Feel free to start it to make sure it doesn't crash.

We look forward to announcing mod support once we've completed our development kit ! That's it for today ! We hope you have fun with the game. As usual, thank you for supporting us with this project.

[ 2018-11-21 17:39:11 CET ] [ Original post ]

Helium Rain 1.2.1 has been released with three minor changes.

• The flying HUD will now keep a consistent scale from 1080p to 4K, to ensure it's still readable at high resolutions
• Joystick inputs now correctly disengage autopilot
• Joystick throttle now features accurate speed control

Thank you for reporting these issues ! We're still working on a number of game crashes during gameplay. We're also considering a change to military contracts, to ensure chasing down targets doesn't result in all-out war against your company.

[ 2018-11-06 19:22:48 CET ] [ Original post ]

We've updated the Helium Rain beta branch on Steam. This is an experimental release meant to ensure the next engine version works well (from Unreal Engine 4.19 to 4.20). Some other changes included here will be part of the next official update too, so you can either try them here or wait.

• Fix joystick throttle not behaving in a controllable manner
• Fix autopilot not cancelled by joystick controls
• Fix unreadable HUD at 4K resolution

This new beta version is fully compatible with existing game saves, so it is safe to move from the main to beta branch, and back, without risk to your game progress. To enable the beta channel, right-click the game in Steam, go to the Properties menu and the Beta tab. Select the "Beta - Helium Rain Beta" entry and confirm the change. Thank you for playing Helium Rain, and please tell us of any issue !

[ 2018-10-27 08:55:11 CET ] [ Original post ]

We've updated Helium Rain to bring some improvements and fix a number of issues with the game. A week after launch, we have a lot to discuss !

Major changes

Here are the big ones - these changes were highly requested changes or really annoying bugs.

• New flight control that allows for concurrent inputs - braking while moving left, for example, is now possible.
• Improved docking HUD (see below)
• Meteorite contracts have reduced meteor counts, higher intercept time, lower probability of spawning to make them less annoying
• Fix various issues with auto-trading, including ships ignoring the "trade" settings on stations
• Fix various issues with joystick support
• Many more changes !

The full changelog is available here with all 23 changes !

New docking UI

Manual docking in Helium Rain is a controversial topic. We've seen lots of discussions about it. Your opinion matters - we've taken some steps to make the HUD easier to read. Keep in mind you can always skip this part of the game entirely by unlocking the auto-docking technology !

The new docking guide simply requires you to match the monitor pattern. The monitor data is still available as a backup. Our changes to the flight controls also make it possible to input lateral movement while braking or accelerating, which will make maneuvers easier.

Helium Rain on the Web

If you like Reddit more than the Steam discussion forum, we've got you covered. Helium Rain has an official subreddit to discuss the game !
Not into forums ? 4sonicride is standing by with a Discord server - thank you for that ! We're lurking there too now. If you're on the fence about the game, curious about other players, or in need of a tutorial, Youtuber Space Game Junkie started a series of videos. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lvhKR262srY We'll be live on the SpaceGameJunkie podcat next Tuesday, 3PM CEST. We'll talk about the game, development history, our launch and future plans.

Tech support

We've fixed quite a few bugs today, but we'll gladly fix more. Tell us if you have problems ! Helium Rain will soon be getting a special update on the beta channel, to try a newer release of the Unreal Engine we use for the game. The beta branch will have a less reliable build that might have new, unknown problems, but might also fix hardware support issues or provide better performance. Thank you for reading !

[ 2018-10-21 15:30:54 CET ] [ Original post ]

After a year in Early Access, Helium Rain is now publicly available as a full-fledged Steam game ! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1oAKZwCSxSY This release is meant to be a smooth transition. No change in pricing is occurring, all game saves since we released into Early Access are still compatible. Take a look at the forums if you have questions or issues.

• General discussions
• Bug report forum
• Linux support thread

If you're a returning player, you should find that the game has changed quite a bit since the first days of Early Access !

Bug patrol

The game itself has been unchanged since 1.1.4, but we'll still be on the lookout for bugs. Please report all issues you find in the game on on our public bug tracker, or on the Steam forums, so that we can investigate quickly and remove the problems.

Four years ago...

We hope Helium Rain can be a great experience for you. We have been working for more than four years, trying to build a game that would be the perfect blend of strategy and action, with a pinch of realistic elements. Here's what the game was looking like, exactly four years ago. I think we've come a long way here ! Building a game is a huge, though rewarding, project. I hope we succeeded in making the game we wanted to make - one that has fun action and deep strategy gameplay.



Thank you for reading, thank you for being a part of this adventure, and have fun !

[ 2018-10-11 15:01:41 CET ] [ Original post ]

We've released a new update to Helium Rain. It is mainly a bug-fixing update, with a twist...

An oversized surprise

As a surprise addition before launch, we're adding a 13th ship to Helium Rain. The Themis freighter is not a new combat unit, but a smaller version of the old Atlas superfreighter that will provide half of its capabilities for 60% of the cost. We thought this unit would fill the void between the Atlas and the much smaller Sphinx.

A laundry list of bugs

Having the game working perfectly is always our prime concern. Here are all the bugs fixed in 1.1.2, which is a longer list than usual - we've been testing the game pretty intensively since the 1.0 update, and many new players reported issues that existed in earlier versions.

• Fix complex cargo bays locking up
• Fix miscellaneous trading issues
• Fix notifications of scrapping by AI companies
• Fix auto-trading fleets not handling fleet supplies
• Fix auto-trading fleets not selling
• Fix auto-trading still enabled after assigning a fleet to a trade route
• Fix blocked quest step on the Pendulum contract
• Fix station construction limits in sector blocking substation construction
• Fix contract generation while a fleet is stranded at the end of the travel
• Fix trade route sliders acting up
• Fix typos, contracts wording, bad tooltips, etc

It's happening !

We'll be releasing Helium Rain out of Early Access on October 11. Tell your friends ! This is a big day for us. No changes are planned until that date, unless we find dramatic issues in the next hours. We'll keep working on issues reported by the community. As usual, please always report crashes our bugs !

[ 2018-10-09 15:48:00 CET ] [ Original post ]

We've released a new version of Helium Rain ! 1.1.1 brings a few UI improvements, and fixes a few economy issues. The trade route menu and economy menus are getting new options to handle Storage Hubs, and sortable columns in tables !
Gameplay

• Trade routes don't default to trading with hubs anymore
• Balance Fusion Power Plant
• Improve performance in Night's Home

Graphics & UI

• Add "Trade with Hubs" options to trading steps in the Trade Route menu
• Add arrow icons on "Move Up" & "Move Down" buttons in the Trade Route menu
• Add "Include Hubs" option to the World Economy menu
• Add sorting buttons to the World Economy & Resource Prices menu
• F4 now the default key binding for the World Economy menu, moving other menus to higher function keys (main menu is F10, settings F12, etc)

Bugs fixed

• Fix automated trading not evaluating sales correctly
• Fix automated trading stopping sector search on the first hostile sector

Thank you for reporting issues in the game, and feel free to tell us about general issues on the Steam forums !

[ 2018-09-27 21:33:31 CET ] [ Original post ]

We've released a hotfix to correct a number of issues with the game. The changelog for this update is as follow :

• Fix fleet controls available on AI fleets
• Fix auto-trade not actually requiring the Automated Trading technology
• Fix high memory usage and performance issues in company log
• Fix typos in texts
• Fix "buying" transactions not defaulting to the contract-bound amount
• Fix crash on sector reload

We've also adjusted the rewards from scanning artifacts, to ensure they would be rewarding in end-game, unlike the previous situation. Please tell us if you find additional issues !

[ 2018-09-23 16:44:15 CET ] [ Original post ]

Our final Early Access update has been published today, and we've got a new trailer for our upcoming launch ! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1oAKZwCSxSY

1.0 now available on the default branch

Last week, we released a new 1.0.0 version on the beta channel with many changes:

• New artifact system to earn research points through exploration
• New Anomaly & Pharos sectors
• New economy model
• New auto-trading technology to let fleets work automatically
• Trade route & contracts upgrades
• Lots of bugs fixed !

We haven't seen major issues with 1.0.0, and we're publicly releasing 1.0.01 today with some minor text changes, and a nerf on the amount of research points earned through artifacts. This version is now available on the default branch for the game ! Be sure to tell us of any issue that you see - we'll do our best to fix any problem that pops up.

Looking back on a year of Early Access

Helium Rain was released in Early Access in August 2017 - around 13 months ago. Here's a sample of everything that was added to the game since it released...

• Modular stations to create your own complex station
• Economy changes, contracts changes
• Upgraded space station models
• Upgraded user interface
• Upgraded combat with the Skirmish quick-play system
• Full gamepad & joystick support
• Full Linux support

We fixed no less than hundreds of bugs - the first few updates alone account for half of that number.
We also didn't add some things we wanted to add. In particular, we planned on adding a storyline to the game - other features took priority - and fuel systems to make fuel and engines a more advanced mechanism - that simply didn't end up interesting and was dropped. There is still a lot of content and features we would have loved to add, but after more than four years in development, we wanted to complete the project, make every existing system as good as it could, and make sure the game works smoothly. This has been a long and wild ride, with a great community. We're happy to have brought Helium Rain to where it is now. We will now release the game out of Early Access on October 11 this year, a few weeks from now. We'll try getting some attention - make sure you tell your friends about Helium Rain if you enjoy it !

[ 2018-09-22 11:32:49 CET ] [ Original post ]

We're happy to announce we've released the 1.0 update for the beta branch on Steam. This is our last content update before the game releases, fixing economy, end-game and general gameplay issues. Take a look before you update...

What's new ?

We introduced a new artifact system. Artifacts can be found in the world and scanned for research points, and some additional lore. Explore everything you can ! As part of this feature, we've released two new sectors. The economy has received immense changes. You will find now that resource contracts are easier to fulfill, and the general AI behavior largely upgraded. We've made the Trading Hub station relevant again. It is now known as a Storage Hub and can work as a resource buffer in a sector, taking resources from cargos to supply local stations - for a price. Build one in a busy sector to benefit from your competition's bad supplies ! Hubs can no longer be built at complexes, and should be scrapped if that is your case. We've also fixed a dozen other issues, and made some tweaks here and there. You can find the full changelog here.

Keep your save safe

While we've made sure all works well in our test games, this is a very large beta update that has the potential for bugs, and you will need to wait for the update to be released on the main branch before going back. Make a copy of your save files before updating, if you care about your progress. Save files are located in "C:UsersAppDataLocalHeliumRainSavedSaveGames" - you can copy this directory elsewhere, and paste it back there if you want to go back to the main branch. To update to this version, right-click your game in Steam, go for the Betas tab of the Properties menu and pick "Helium Rain Beta". As usual, our bug tracker is available here.

[ 2018-09-16 17:05:46 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi ! It's been some time since our last update, with a hot, busy summer taking some time away from development. We're back !

Our next update

We've promised you a new patch since July this year, but it has since snowballed into a much larger update to address recurring issues with the game. The current list of changes includes :

• Scannable artifacts in the world to unlock for research points and lore details
• A completely re-worked AI for the game's companies, fixing a few long-standing issues with contracts
• An auto-trade technology to automate your fleet in end-game
• Two new sectors
• Weapon balancing
• Plenty of bugs fixed

We still don't have a firm date for this version's completion, as we'd like to resolve as many long-term issues as possible, and testing all of them together. The changes in the economy are large enough that we might release a Beta version first, before moving on to the main branch.

Getting out of Early Access

We initially planned for a brief Early Access period of only six months, but clearly, the game needed more work than we assumed. Once the upcoming feature update is released, we'll finally be ready to mark the game as finished ! The transition out of Early Access will not change anything for you. The price of the game will not be changed, and we will keep responding to bug reports. We'll probably have to release additional patches to fix new issues. It will only be the end of an active development period where new features were expected, and bugs more likely to be found.

Speaking of bugs...

Helium Rain had its share of bugs, like any Early Access game. We never like seeing players affected by issues, though it is hard for a small company to test every update in depth while in Early Access. We would like our final game to be as bug-free as possible. To help us achieving that goal, please make sure you report issues you see on our bug tracker. We'll just ask for your save file, or your crash report file, and we'll use that to make the game better for you :) This also applies to the Linux platform in particular, since our initial support had quite a few issues. Now is the time to tell us if you have weird bugs... We'll be back soon with our new update - stay tuned !

[ 2018-09-03 15:09:37 CET ] [ Original post ]

We've released a small hotfix today to address some rare cases of game saves crashing the game at load. The issue was related to the Company Log feature, and is now fixed. As a reminder, if you ever encounter a game crash or a bug, please do tell us about it - this is how we found, and fixed this issue. Read more on this on our bug tracking home. See you soon for other updates !

[ 2018-06-10 16:39:47 CET ] [ Original post ]

Helium Rain has been updated ! Today we're bringing the long-awaited company log feature. Here is all you need to know about it.

How it works

All new transactions in your company will now be logged and saved to be displayed in two new menus : log, and accounting. The first menu, featured above, is a direct log view with a few filters. We expect it to be helpful to diagnose money-losing situations, for example. The second menu, which we call the accounting menu, is a year-per-year overview of your company. It features a number of transaction types that are in the game and tells you where your company is profiting or not. Some of them will probably surprise you, as Helium Rain features a very complex simulation, but we've tried to keep it clear.

About existing saves

We have a policy of never breaking saves, and we've kept to it since the initial Early Access release. However, as suggested above, no transaction previous to the update will be logged. Logging will start as soon as he game is updated.

About development progress

We regularly see players wondering about the speed of upgrades. After all, we only planned for a 6-months Early Access period, and we'll be hitting the one-year mark this summer. Part of why is that we added many feature requests from the community, like modular stations or the company log feature, but sometimes we also simply work on stuff that doesn't get released. For the past few months, we've had an ongoing effort to recreate the economy model with different rules. We want to make prices much more dynamic and realistic, and fix some issues with resources contracts. This is however a huge undertaking, and the more we work on it, the less likely to work in the game it looks - which is one case of us working for something players can't see yet.
This is how many of these these work-in-progress branches we've had for the game ! "new" and "refactor" are all about re-creating a part of the game in a better way, and these happen a lot...

Odds & ends

Completed or ignored tutorials are now separated from regular contracts in the contract menu. We've also fixed a few issues with the game, including a blocking UI problem on some Linux devices, a trade route editing crash, and collision issues in the Farm. That's it for today. See you soon for another update !

[ 2018-05-26 07:36:14 CET ] [ Original post ]

It's been eight months since Helium Rain released in Early Access ! We thought it was a good time to look back and see how it went, from our perspective, and to share our future plans for the game.

A wild ride

Helium Rain has seen thirteen updates in Early Access already. We spent the first weeks squashing bugs day and night, with 70 issues resolved during the first month. Overall, around 300 issues were entered on our issue tracker. We've managed to bring the number of known issues down to less than 10.
As a reminder, all of the source code for Helium Rain is publicly available on GitHub. This isn't very useful to most players, but we feel like it's important to have the source code available, both for curious developers and dedicated players. We also maintain a public bug tracker and roadmap so that players can follow progress on their issues or requested features. Our initial Early Access roadmap announced a number of large features and we've been trying to live up to this promise.

• We redesigned all stations in the game and added station complexes.
• The separate Skirmish game mode launched early this year, along with upgraded combat.
• The user interface was reworked to ensure a smoother experience and more data to players.
• Linux is now a first-class citizen too, thanks to volunteer players who helped fix issues on their platform.

State of Deimos Games

We funded Deimos Games in the summmer of 2017, and we've completed accounting for our first business year. It's been a lot of work, both on technical development for the game, and on the legal & financial side of things. Under French law, company revenue is public data, and we're very committed to openness ourselves, so we decided to share our numbers with you. Here it goes !

• Deimos Games will be reporting revenue of 14,000€ ($17,000). This isn't a very high number, but it's close to what we expected, and we're happy with this early result as a new company.
• As you can probably calculate yourself, this amounts to around 2,000 copies sold.
• We've achieved 96% positive reviews on Steam. This is heart-warming, and makes all our efforts worth it !
• We're also happy to report that 14% of our lifetime sales happened on the Linux platform.

Game development is a very competitive field, with incredible games releasing every month. We're looking for happy players more than we are looking for huge sales numbers, so we're happy with the current state of things.

Update roadmap

Our current efforts are focused on a better economy model for the game. We'll show in more details what is coming to the game, but we can already show the upcoming the company log, which will make it much easier to fine-tune your company. Another new menu will provide yearly financial details to help you understand your company's budget. The irony of developing such tools while working on our own accounting isn't lost on us.
Once economy issues will be resolved, we will move on to another roadmap topic - new contracts, new story elements, new unique sectors to explore. You shouldn't expect a large scripted campaign here, but we'd love to bring a few unique missions, interesting areas and recurring content that helps with replayability. As usual, feel free to bring your ideas here ! The final topic on the roadmap is the fuel systems - an update dedicated to simulating fuel usage and engine efficiency. As of today, this is probably not going to be added to the game. We still feel like it would be a worthwile feature, but it raises a number of issues.

• Fuel systems would be an interesting and realistic feature, but it's unclear how exactly they could mesh into the game without punishing players in some cases. We're aware production issues on some resources are already annoying, but at least they're not preventing gameplay. Losing access to fuel would terminate your game, something we don't consider acceptable. Workarounds for such a core issue are problematic.
• The game is already very complex, including on our side as developers. We created a bit of a monster with Helium Rain: the game's depth is enjoyable, but it makes it very hard for us to create new systems or maintain existing ones. It also makes it harder for players to get into the game.
• Finally, we have now spent close to four years in development on this project, so the scope of new developments is starting to get under scrutiny.

Simply put, we should have considered this feature much earlier in the game, and it wouldn't do it any good now.
We plan on exiting Early Access and releasing as a final product at the end of this summer. We don't have a specific date yet - we will release the game when we are confident it lives up to our expectations and works without bugs. In the meantime, we're very open to new ideas, if they're small in scope, relevant to the gameplay and popular in the community. Thank you for supporting this project, and have fun with the game !

[ 2018-04-17 19:49:51 CET ] [ Original post ]

The Farm update has been published for Helium Rain, including a new sector, graphics upgrades and many fixed issues !

New sector : the Farm

We've added a new playable sector around Nema, one that specializes in food production. The Farm features gravity rings with rotating sections for growing food in sunlight.

Graphics upgrades

While graphics are secondary to the current work on the economy and gameplay features, it's still important to keep the game looking good. The lighting has been improved, featuring back-lighting from planets to have smoother ambient lighting ; and the rings of Nema now have a much cleaner terminator.
Some other graphical tweaks include nicer hulls, some updated HUD icons, etc.

Technical changes

We're still on bug-hunting duty. No less than 11 bugs have been fixed in this version - all major bugs we were aware of have been fixed. We're still looking for information on some random crashes, but this update will also make it easier for us to track it down.

Fix crash on travel
• Fix notification freeze at the end of a travel
• Fix some skirmishes not counted as a win despite victory
• Fix incorrect additional binding for thrust input
• Fix AI stations upgrading stations beyond max level
• Fix company logo covering some contract descriptions
• Fix useless cargo bays in complexes
• Fix cargo bay lock system
• Fix complex's shipyard not always starting production
• Fix random crash on opening the sector menu
• Fix some cases of scrapping not going back from the menu

We're also bringing an updated Unreal Engine version that was tested on the beta channel for a month. This version should, among minor changes, fix some occurences of random game crashes. As usual, you can find the full changelog at Gamepedia.

What's next ?

Our next update will bring new economy features, including a company log with all your company's transactions. We'll also work on addressing end-game issues, and possibly performance issues on day simulation.
Have fun, and keep the feedback coming so that we can make Helium Rain ever better !

[ 2018-03-25 19:04:42 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi ! We've released an updated game build on the beta branch of Helium Rain. This new build does not affect the game itself, but brings an updated Unreal Engine version and a new release process on our side. Let's see what changed !

Linux support

We've updated our release process to ensure the game work seamlessly on more Linux distributions. Supporting Linux can be quite an involved process, because everyone is free to build his own Linux system from the ground up with unique combinations of software components. We used to build Linux versions of Helium Rain on a regular Linux desktop, and this worked on most distributions ; but we suspect that this caused issues to a few users with uncommon systems. We moved to a new process called cross-compilation, where Linux releases are built on a Windows machine using a controlled environment provided with Unreal Engine. On top of this environment change, the new Unreal Engine 4.19 should bring updated Linux support.

Crash reporting

We updated the game on Windows a few weeks ago with an automatic crash reporter that is now enabled across all platforms. For around 200 specific failure conditions across the entire game code, the game will upload a very small (< 1KB) crash report to our servers, before actually crashing. The reason we are doing this is twofold :

• the Windows Fall Creators update broke our existing crash reporter, and crash reports from this OS version are now useless to us, in a way we can't fix ;
• while manual crash reports from players are always more valuable than an automatic report, many people don't have the patience and time to register on our bug tracker and provide detailed information.

This is a fully anonymous process, as it does not upload any personal data. We're just sending a call stack - the conditions in which a crash did occur. To be clear, we do not store or report any data from your computer. The entire report is also shown to you when it's sent. Here is a full report as an example, in case you're wondering.
Feel free to discuss this with us if this is unclear. Helium Rain doesn't feature networking support outside of this, and we know people can be passionate about telemetry features.

Crash on travel / skipping days

We're currently facing a outbreak of crashes that we fail to explain, and we'd love to solve this issue. We hope that this updated build will at least make it easier for us to track down the issue, though it is unlikely to fix it directly.

How to use the beta

The Helium Rain beta is always compatible with your game save, and can be switched to or from whenever you want. Some pitfalls always...

• This is a channel for work-in-progress builds that may be updated on a different schedule than the main branch (more often, with less testing).
• We can't promise that this version is as stable as the main branch - some features could be broken, performance could be bad, hardware could be unsupported, etc.

To enable the beta channel, right-click the game in Steam, go to the Properties menu and the Beta tab. Select the "Beta - Helium Rain Beta" entry and confirm the change. Thank you for playing Helium Rain, and please tell us of any issue !

[ 2018-02-20 19:30:23 CET ] [ Original post ]

We've released a new feature update to Helium Rain. Most changes will focus on combat, with a few additional corrective measures, and better Linux support. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CeDdDcimaqk

New capital ship gameplay

Flying a capital ship is now more enjoyable, with a seamless turret control mode that blends the existing fighter controls, and the free targeting turrets offer. The goal of these changes is to make capital ships more attractive as player ships.
This changes come will some tweaks to existing ships. The most heavily updated ship is the Dragon corvette, a ship that now features higher coverage for turrets, and a redesigned hull. Take a look at how we work with ships here ! We also upgraded the Anubis cruiser to ensure most turrets could fire directly ahead.

Skirmish game mode

This update adds the new Skirmish gameplay. You can now launch a quick battle from the main menu, without playing for hours to build powerful ships. We expect that you will enjoy using this game mode to experiment with ships, try new weapons and get familiar with the combat.

Combat updates

We've made many changes to combat. Here are some highlights !

• Diplomatic penalties on station capture have been drastically reduced, to prevent large-scale war after just a few captures.
• Turrets and AI ships now target missiles and meteorites, making missiles much less of a critical threat, and more of a way to harass ships.
• All combat sounds have been reviewed and upgraded.
• AI companies will generate more efficient combat fleets.
• The game's balance has been reviewed to make heavy ships less overpowered against smaller craft.
• Many bugs related to AI ships, missiles and flak shells have been fixed.

Better Linux support

We've been working on getting Helium Rain to use the latest Unreal Engine version. Perks of this release include Vulkan support, and a new audio pipeline.

• If you were experiencing lighting issues with AMD hardware, you should add the -vulkan option to launch parameters in Steam. This will enable the experimental Vulkan renderer, which should be somewhat slower, but more reliable.
• Your distribution should feature PulseAudio as an audio backend. Some other audio backends might work.
• We are aware of issues that prevent clicking on some buttons. Please provide us with additional bug reports, should you observe such issues.

And more !

As usual, here is the full changelog. Among the other changes, some stations have been visually upgraded, to keep a consistent quality level across the game. We also added Steam trading cards.
Upcoming updates will turn back to the game's economy, add more information to menus, and keep ensuring the long-term gameplay is stable. We are also preparing work on the game's story. Thank you for keeping up with Helium Rain, and feel free to tell us what you think !

[ 2018-01-25 22:55:32 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello ! We've updated the beta branch for Helium Rain. The new version brings a new Unreal Engine version, primarily meant for better Linux support, with a new audio pipeline and better support for older distributions. No major changes are expected on Windows. While we expect this beta release to work exactly like the general release, please be warned that this version is less tested and could have issues on you system. Game saves are compatible to and from the general release. We'll welcome feedback from our most daring users ! Here is what we are currently working on.

• The next gameplay updates will focus on economy management, and the brand new Skirmish gameplay. We're currently targeting January 2018 for the next update.
• We plan to continue working on the game with a story update next spring.
• Early Access to Helium Rain will turn into a full public release on Steam in 2018.

As usual, we'd like to thank you for your continued feedback and support. Enjoy the game !

[ 2017-12-16 18:50:32 CET ] [ Original post ]

We've released a new update with minor interface improvements, and a number of corrective measures, mostly UI issues with the recent modular stations.

• Add an option to list spacecrafts as fleets in lists
• Add pause button on trade routes
• Add clean black bars to the story pages
• Sort resource slots by input/output status
• Reduce cockpit blur

• Fix crash on fast forward with high numbers of stations
• Fix crash in the trade route menu
• Fix docking at complexes with large ships
• Fix complexes not listed in the trade menu
• Fix fleets not ordered in a sane way
• Fix spacecraft hotkeys not ignored while typing
• Fix display issues on the orbital map
• Fix Pendulum quest not taking resources
• Fix fleet tutorial sometimes stuck
• Fix cracks in RCS audio

As usual, thank you for keeping the feedback coming.

[ 2017-12-02 06:57:32 CET ] [ Original post ]

We've released a bug-fixing patch for Helium Rain. It aims at squashing a few annoying economy issues with upgrades, complex stations, as well as some stability improvements.

• Fixed ships stuck waiting on a station that doesn't trade
• Fixed cargo bay locked by incorrect resources when upgrading stations
• Fixed complex shipyard not offering production options on slot 8
• Fixed aspect ratio of trade route menu
• [tentative] Fixed crashes in the trade route menu

Keep giving us feedback on the game !

[ 2017-11-23 20:27:29 CET ] [ Original post ]

A new update has just been released to Helium Rain ! We've been hard at work for two months to bring this large update to station management, as well as a better UI and a new engine version. This is a very large update that has more risk than usual. Consider doing a copy of your previous game save before running the game. Read up on http://dev.helium-rain.com to find your game save folder.

Modular stations

We've added a new type of station, the Complex. You can build up to 14 stations upon a complex, all of them sharing the same cargo hold. No freighters are needed to trade resources between the different complex elements !
Almost all stations, with the exception of Telescopes, can be built at complexes. Some stations have restrictions on where they can be built. We still expect you to love complexes, as they will make it easier to become self-reliant ! As part of the changes, we've completely reworked the pricing model for stations. Building stations in multiple sectors will now be much cheaper, with a per-sector station limit and flat pricing. We've also added a way to scrap stations to get their component resources back.

Better UI

The UI has been reworked to feature much more elements on screen, with a 15% higher density. As a result, most menus can now display more data, more actions, and more information. The most visible change is to the orbital map, which now features different display modes to locate your stations and fleets.
Some of the menus will have future updates to add even more data. In particular, we want to add more economy information, such as which stations and trade routes are generating or losing money.

Less bugs, new engine

This update brings Unreal Engine 4.17 to you. Linux users who own AMD GPUs will have an easier time making the game run, even if we're still aware of a "persistent night" graphics bug. We're aware the Linux version still has issues with AMD hardware and will release another engine update on the beta channel soon. We've also fixed a few painful bugs, and done some quality-of-life changes. Take a look at the full changelog here ! As this version has very large changes, it's possible that some bugs went through our QA phase. Please tell us if we broke anything ! We'll do our best to fix issues as soon as possible. Thank you for playing Helium Rain !

[ 2017-11-09 23:05:21 CET ] [ Original post ]

Let's talk about where Helium Rain is going ! It's been three weeks since the game came out, and we're now to the point where most game-breaking issues are solved - we know some bugs are still there, but it's no longer an urgent situation. We've looked at every suggestion on the forums, discussed what was more important, and we can now share a roadmap for future updates !

Modular stations

Our first update will be a player-suggested one : modular stations. We're working on a second station update, after the big graphical changes two weeks ago. Now we want to add a new station-building option : instead of creating separate stations, companies will have the option to build station hubs, a shipyard-size stations that acts as a large docking pad and support station. This station will feature a unique perk : stations can be built on it, in a branching structure, removing the need for ships to transport resources between factories. Along with this huge feature, we'll rework the pricing model of stations, allow companies to scrap them just like ships, and add a few more UI elements.

Updated economy

The next item will be less visible, but will change the game a lot. We're aware the economy right now is very rigid, with little pricing variation and a number of issues with how companies react to resources. While the changes there are not fully decided, the overall plan is to make the economy much more liberal. Along with economy change, we'll try to add much more information in the menus to make the game less obscure.

Fuel management

This one was planned before we launched. We still plan on adding a fuel usage model, which would reward careful piloting, make engine upgrades more useful, and generally improve the immersion. The fuel update will come with an updated orbital map, new engines, possibly a new ship !

Story and contracts

These updates will be quite large, and as a result, the story has lost some priority. We haven't heard anyone asking about it, so we don't feel like the story is very important for players. It will come after the large features that we feel the game really need.

Skirmish mode

Last but not least : another player suggestion, the skirmish mode, will come to Helium Rain. It will be separate from your regular game save, will offer tools to configure a battle and start fighting right away, without endangering your precious ships !

Keep telling us your ideas

This is a rough outline - we'll keep updating you with how the planning changes. The general idea is that we want the core game to be perfect before we start adding elements that don't impact the everyday experience. While we may not reply to everything on the forums, rest assured that we do read everything. We're focused on improving the game and keep doing Early Access right. Thank you for your feedback, and keep telling us what you'd like us to do next !

[ 2017-09-11 06:11:28 CET ] [ Original post ]

We've released a new version for Helium Rain. Every station currently in the game has been remade, and a number of issues were fixed - mostly to the AI and economy models in the game. Some rendering details were also improved.

New stations

Stations are now twice larger at least (solar power plants are especially large) and feature a billboard system to show off which company they belong to, or to show advertisement for other companies. The player stations will always proudly show off your might ! Adding this much content required balancing against performance - we drastically reduced the triangle count of many station components, usually by a factor of more than two. The game should actually perform slightly better now. As a result of the new stations, we have to warn that ships flying close to a station and not docked at it when the patch is applied could be damaged. Ships docked to a station will be unharmed. We generally have a policy of never breaking game saves during and after Early Access; we hope that this exceptional disregard for safety will not harm you.

Economy fixes

While this update is mostly about stations, we also fixed around 20 issues. Most issues were tied to our extremely complex economy model. If you want to read up on how complex it really is, take a look at this economy primer by Niavok, our gameplay programmer. We know some issues are still outstanding - little variation on pricing, complicated end-game situations, expensive stations - and will be working on fixing that will future updates. We've also made a decision on the topic of manual docking. This divisive feature had some players refund the game, and some others praise us for it. We had to make a compromise and decided to keep manual docking in the game, but to make the unlock of the auto-docking technology free as soon as the game starts. Players who elect not to use the auto-docking can get another technology for free instead.

State of Linux support

Finally, we are aware that many Linux users with AMD hardware are still suffering from issues with the game. This is a very serious problem for us, one we have little solutions for. We will release a beta version of the game in the upcoming days, built with an updated Unreal Engine 4. We hope that this will start resolving some of the issues. The beta will also be available for Windows users who want to try an untested version that might bring more performance, at the cost of possible issues. The full changelog is available here as usual, for those of you who want to know what we've really been up to. We thank all the players who offered their feedback. Please keep doing so, and have a great time with Helium Rain !

[ 2017-09-03 16:44:54 CET ] [ Original post ]

A new patch has been released for Helium Rain, fixing more than 30 issues in the game. Among the fixes, the end-game war situation, shipyard production and manual docking have been addressed.

Rebuilding shipyards

Shipyards were a source of frustration for players, with seemingly endless production time. Resources were not provided by companies, and when the player was doing it, the resources were diverted to cheaper ships on the production lines. This has been addressed through a large rebuild of the shipyard system, and through improvements to trading.
The trading fixes will push the AI to be more aggressive about resources. They will be smarter about which sectors need resources, making the economy work better overall.

Persistent global war

Quite a few players complained about seeing the AI companies band together against them and drown them under a barrage of assaults until they died. This issue was derivative of an intended functionality - we don't want the AI to love monopoly situations - that went too far with the player. Reputation will now mostly be lost by failing contracts or attacking property. Attacking pirates, among other things, no longer results in lost reputation with other companies.

Manual docking

We've heard players complain about the manual docking gameplay. Mostly, it seemed the speed was difficult to control, and the docking computer was too optimistic about the status. This has been addressed too. Orbital engines are now offline while docking, making the maneuver much more precise. Capital ships are also much more interesting to dock, with fixes to the docking HUD and grab distance.

A word on price variation

We've seen players complain about mostly fixed pricing on resources. While Helium Rain simulates supply and demand and changes the prices, they do have a narrow variation range. This is intended for the beginning of the Early Access period, as a safety measure until the AI is more stable. The main risk with large variations would be a destabilization of the economy. We also need more data visualization tools for the player, to identify where money is gained or lost. We are making progress on this (the trade route menu gets improved again today), and will make the pricing ranges larger over time, once we're confident it won't break the game for some players. The full changelog for the patch is available here. Thank you for your feedback and patience with the game ! Every patch brings us closer to the high quality bar we are aiming for. Have fun !

[ 2017-08-27 15:27:58 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi, We've just released a bugfixing update for Helium Rain. We're aware the game has a number of issues right now and are working hard to remove them as fast as possible. In particular, the end-game balance suffers right now, with very large number of ships and stations. Here is what has been fixed this week :

• Fix water not in drop list in the trade route menu
• Fix fleet selection in the sector menu
• Fix joystick buttons unusable as bindings
• Fix joystick bindings not saved
• Fix horizontal hat of joystick ignored
• Fix virtual scroll registering as a real key in settings menu
• Fix docking guides disappearing
• Fix spread between Solen and docks
• Fix Orca cockpit cut at high FOV
• Fix Atlas freighter having damaged cooling at full health
• Fix French translation
• Fix wrong tech for research stations in tutorial
• Fix vertical artifacts in drop lists in the color panel
• [tentative] Fix rare crash when selecting docking option

Additionally, we've made the sky slightly more interesting to look at, and added gamma and input sensitivity controls. You can read the full patch notes here. Thank you for reporting these issues ! We're doing our best to make the game as good as it can be.

[ 2017-08-25 06:21:38 CET ] [ Original post ]

It's been only two days since the last patch, but we've been working around the clock for this. Here is our latest update.

What's new ?

Here are the main changes .

• Special characteristics of stations are now shown in UI & HUD : shipyard, station in construction, contract objective, and so on.
• The trade route menu has been remade and now features hints on where to buy or sell resources.
• Gamepad users can now invert both sticks to turn with the left one. We've also changed the gamepad bindings, be sure to go to the settings menu to see how to use it.
• Lots of bugs and crashes have been fixed.

This update was mostly about the user interface and features lots of small changes. Read the full changelog here.

What's next ?

It's been only two days since the previous patch and we've been hard at work. Updates will now be more spaced, so that we have the time to work on gameplay changes and long-term content. We're going to be working on contracts, gameplay balance, end-game content and so on. We'll obviously keep fixing game-breaking bugs as fast as possible, maybe by releasing small bugfixing patches and larger content updates. Thank you all for your enthusiasm, patience, and incredibly good feedback on on the game.

[ 2017-08-22 22:20:44 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello ! We've just released our first patch to Helium Rain, including community-requested features and fixes. Seeing players enjoy the game, despite some rough edges, is really great - we're especially happy to see so many ideas and change requests on the discussions forum. Some of these are already in this update, more will come !

What's new ?

New features include...

• Full support for gamepad & joystick
• UI scaling at high resolutions
• Field-of-view setting
• Key bindings to cut speed, start a trade

We also fixed a number of issues with the game. You can read the full changelog here. While we fixed some troublesome issues, there are still instances of game crashes. Should this happen, please report the issue on our public bug tracker with the crash dump so that we can progress on this front.

What's next ?

The next update will probably keep squashing the bugs. The following updates should start adding new elements to the game. We'll keep implementing changes that require little work in the meantime. Thanks again, and have fun !

[ 2017-08-20 15:16:41 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello ! We're releasing Helium Rain in Early Access to garner feedback from the community, and decide which features are the ones most needed. Here is our plan :

• Add joystick, gamepad navigation to the menus. Using only the mouse for navigation in menus is annoying for joystick users. Bug tracker entry
• Make orbital engines affect the travel speed. Some orbital engines would offer a higher travel speed between sectors. The spaceflight gameplay would be unchanged. Bug tracker entry
• Introduce fuel consumption. Using orbital engines would draw fuel from your spacecraft's tanks, needing periodic refueling. Bug tracker entry
• Add modding suppport to the game. While we're not sure whether this will be available or when, this is something we are investigating right now. Bug tracker milestone
• Main story quest. While Helium Rain is a sandbox game at its heart, we are adding story elements to it.

Please tell us if one feature is more important to you ! Don't hesitate to suggest other ideas in Discussions if you believe they would make the game better. This is what Early Access is for. Thank you and have fun !

[ 2017-08-15 10:28:34 CET ] [ Original post ]