2023 has almost come to an end, and we're going out with a banger, because ...

Early Access 0.2.0 has been released!

It's been 6 months since the previous release, and a lot has changed.

The game's infrastructure has changed quite a bit in the past few months, which took a lot of time to get working properly. Fortunately, that will make it easier to work on the game and add new amazing features!

Next year (2024) I want to update the game more often. I'm thinking about every few months. This of course depends on the complexity of the changes

Feedback and new ideas are, as always, much appreciated.

Lastly I would like to thank each and every one of you for being a part of the development journey. 2023 has sure been a blast and I can't wait to experience what 2024 has in store for AstroFactory!

Happy new year everyone!

- Dutchious

--- Additions ---

• 25+ new items

• Added power storage system - survive throughout the night with solar panels and batteries!

• New actions menu - press [RMB] on items in the inventory, shop or on the base to view more options

• Added a dynamic depth of field effect - can be disabled in settings

• Added ability to set a username which shows up in the Discord's prestige logger

• Discord prestige logger now includes player's money and the time between prestiges

• New search bar for inventory and shop menus to help find by name, category or tier

• New information shows when hovering over certain UI elements, including hover over money to see it fully written out

• Added teleport to base button in the pause menu

• Going out of bounds resets the player back to the base

• Added slight smoothing to camera rotations

• Added item improper usage notifications explain why a gem failed to use an item

• Added power active/inactive notifications

• Added gems stuck on belts notification

• Added time between prestiges notification

• Replaced error and warning popup placeholder images

• Changelogs now contains item images of newly added items

• Camera can be zoomed in [I] and out [O] using the keyboard

• Pressing [SHIFT] allows adding more items to an already completed selection

• Added dust particles and wind trails

• New main menu background

• New main menu song

• New prestige sound

• New prestige items animation

• Added a rare placement animation easter egg

• New item sell animation

• Added a tutorial

• New Kofi social button - support development by making a donation!

• New button hover and click sounds

• New UI fonts

• New mouse pointer

• New Gem model

• New Basic Light model

• New pixelated lens dirt image

• New pixelated environment texture

• Added lens flare to the sun

• New graphics quality preset settings

• New FPS limit setting

• New toggle item particle effects setting

• New toggle animated UI menu's setting

• New toggle shadows setting

• New toggle ambient occlusion setting

--- Changes ---

• Post processing and ambient lighting changed for a refreshed and modern look

• When power cuts out, so does the music

• Music lists (day/night) now shuffle entirely instead of picking a random song each time

• Belt arrows now glow, making them easily visible during the night

• Lowered the height of the base and slightly changed its visuals

• Tiny Homestead can now fit larger gems through its doors

• Snappy's front legs now also count as the refiner part

• Snappy hitbox size reduced to 2x2 tiles

• Changed item hitbox and previewghost visuals

• Changed tile grid visuals

• Main menu buttons layout changed and social buttons panel background removed

• More gem info shows up when hovering mouse over a gem

• Gem effect texts on UI now show an animation that represents the effect

• Reduced the size of notifications to take less screen space

• Notifications can be closed by clicking on them

• Added a small delay to the item info panel before it shows up

• Offscreen prevention feature forces the mouse info label to never fall off the screen

• Modified chances of getting an extra item for each additional prestige level gained. If one is unsuccessful, the next chances are skipped - 1 & 2 = 100%, 3 & 4 = 80%, 5 & 6 = 60%, etc.

• Collectibles now make louder collision sounds

• Increased the volume of wind noises

• Increased gem bounciness for the bouncy effect

• Decreased gem friction for the frozen effect

• Item images now contain bloom

• Changed environment rock colors

• Sky colors changed

• Improved readability of text popups in 3D space

• Inventory and shop sorting buttons now highlight the active sorting method

• Added a small delay between songs

• Cursor now locks in place instead of resetting to the center when moving the camera

• Vignette post process effect removed

• Added power icon and power stored UI elements to the power panel

• Game settings are saved automatically when the settings menu is closed

• Game audio volume levels are now applied immediately when moving the sliders

• Removed item "no power" popups

• Item particles now stop when power is off

• Performance improvements

• Minor UI changes

--- Balances ---

• Gem effects now change the gem's value each second instead of destroying them after x seconds – shiny +3%, flaming -5%, radioactive -2%, poisoned -3%

• Added purchase limit to power items

• Intoxicator min value 50k -> 10k, multiplier 2x -> 5x

• Removed Guardian Of Evil's -666k value property, making it no longer impossible to use

• Gravitational Transporter replaced Utopia Desire - nerfed Utopia Desire stats

• Gem Magnifier max uses 2 -> 1, multiplier 1.35x -> 2x

• Gem Magnifier belt speed 1.2 -> 1.5 tiles per second

• Red Giant prestige rarity 4 -> 2

• Snappy multiplier 3 -> 5

• Rainbow Eyes multiplier 2 (x2) -> 1,75 (x2)

• Pooty Potty multiplier 50 -> 1000, max gem upgrades infinite -> 0

• Basic Generator buy price 1000 -> 1500

• Basic Refiner value modified 50 -> 100

• Gem Cleaner GP 4k -> 2k

• Gem Zapper GP 6k -> 5k

--- Fixes ---

• Placing multiple items while moving the mouse quickly would prevent items from snapping to the grid

• Gems not getting sold by exporters or destroyed by colliding with the base on rare occasions

• Save playtimes got saved as an inaccurate, way too large number

• Fast click purchasing many different shop items messes with the positioning of notifications

• Refiners placed next to exporters would sometimes display upgrade errors

• Tooltip did not show power influence on generators and solar panels

• Pause depth of field was enabled on rare occasions when entering the game

• Items with no power influence showed "+0 generation" on the item stats panel

• Connected gamepads blocked keyboard inputs

--- Known issues ---

• Item sometimes snaps to a wrong tile when placed

• Possible lagspike due to remote data retrieval