Greetings, Magnates! Oh boy, this update is long overdue. I'm happy to report everything is going well. I picked up development early January and have been at it ever since, although I've been taking it a little bit easy in May. But overall It has been 5 super active months. A lot have happened and many things have sort of fallen into place. I could talk about that for several pages worth of reading, but to save my time and yours, here's a list of the most notable news:

• Added 14 new buildings and 31 new items, for a grand total of 34 buildings and 55 items.
• Scope was cut; got rid of the idea of managing multiple factory sites simultaneously.
• Contract and market mechanics were scrapped.
• Some unsatisfactory content was removed, most notably water tiles and pipes.
• Economy as a game mechanic is almost entirely gone; the only purpose of money in the game now is to purchase bonus effects (mentioned later in this list).
• Optimized and refactored a bunch of stuff.
• Changed map generation and animated some tiles.
• Added clouds and passing ships, because why not?
• Implemented building augments and upgrades. Aaaand then removed them again..
• Implemented a brand new UI (again!), but this is the final iteration, guaranteed.
• Implemented a main menu. 19 months of development had gone by without one at that time, so it was a pretty big milestone.
• Implemented proper screens for saving, loading and starting a new game.
• Implemented the Codex, an ingame wiki-like interface.
• Added particle emitter capabilities to buildings and tiles.
• Implemented the core objectives mechanic. This is going to be the main driver for the player to progress and ultimately win the game.
• Implemented a player rank system, XP and special bonuses that can be purchased whenever the player ranks up. Bonuses will affect the factory in various ways.
• Implemented the core research mechanic.
• Made every string translatable through a simple JSON file, allowing for community translations.
• Started the Steam integration: rich presense, cloud saves, achievements, and, you know, launching the game from Steam. But I am getting a little ahead of myself, because the demo won't have achievements.

Core Gameplay

• Make landfall on planets and moons and set up factory sites.
  
• Build factories to best utilize the resources available.
  
• Enter into short and long term contracts, committing to deliver a steady supply of products.
  
• Build relations with the inhabitants of the solar system, affecting trade prices and opportunities.
  
• Navigate the Interplanetary Central Market, looking for the best trades.
  
• Compete against AI companies.
  
• Hire scientists and product specialists for your Research & Development department, allowing you to unlock factory unit upgrades and new product lines.

Development Status

Mod Support

• A procedurally generated solar system. Each playthrough will create a unique solar system, offering good longevity and replayability.
  
• Procedurally generated factory sites, in which you'll be building your factories.
  
• 3 starting resources (ores).
  
• A starting range of factory units - a lot more to come..

• Fully simulated trade and economy system.
  
• Multiple market sectors each with their own range of products.
  
• Company AI.
  
• Relationship system that enables all entities in the game to have a rating or standing with eachother.
  
• Tech tree with unlockable branches of factory unit upgrades as well as entire production lines.
  
• Various difficulty modes and starting conditions.
  
• More natural resources, aiming for around 10-12 of them with different uses and characteristics.
  
• A lot more factory units! Counting a lot on community feedback and ideas here.
  
• Tileset variations. Intuitive UI components. Factory animations. And much more.

• OS: Ubuntu 12 or newer
• Processor: 2.0 ghz Dual CoreMemory: 2 GB RAM
• Memory: 2 GB RAM
• Graphics: Intel HD3000 or higher with OpenGL 2.1 support
• Storage: 200 MB available space