Development Update - April 2026

digitaltinkerllc
May 4
8 min read

Dear Backers,

Spring is finally here, and with April behind us I’m happy to bring you another exciting update on our progress! This month saw massive improvements to existing systems, as well as lots of exciting new content for players to enjoy. Below are just a few of the biggest changes, but definitely check out our full changelog at the end.

One of the additions I was most excited for this month was the implementation of our quest system. In addition to supporting the quests revolving around the game’s central story, enterprising captains can now look for a variety of jobs in spaceport taverns and cargo brokers to help keep their ship fed and crew flying (and vice-versa). These side-jobs include bounty contracts on particularly dangerous pirates, cargo deliveries from planet to planet, flying escort for other captains, and even helping the planetary authorities clear out raider bases.

Players can review their mission log in in their Captian's Quarters

Abandoned prospector's outposts make convenient temporary bases for pirates and smugglers

Speaking of which, this month we’ve added a slew of new locations for players to explore and visit, in addition to the aforementioned pirate lairs. Gagarin Station is a massive United Earth Government space station and port of call for those arriving in the Cortesia system. It keeps silent vigil over the massive slipspace gate back to Earth, monitoring all traffic in and out of the system. Besides its many amenities and services, the station also serves as the headquarters of the United Earth Navy presence in the system.

The Station offers a variety of shops and services

'The Lagrange Lounge' is the favored watering hole for Ship Captains visiting Gagarin Station

Gagarin Station from Space, with the Siren Belt in the distance

Nuova Tripoli is an arid terrestrial planet in Cortesia’s habitable zone. Its stable weather and abundant quantity of essential minerals, along with regular deliveries of water in the form of ice asteroids delivered from the Seiren Belt, have transformed the planet into the bread basket of the system, with food exports comprising the majority of the planet’s economic output. It’s also famous as the top producer of Cortesian Grappa, a high-proof, distilled brandy created from the fermented leftovers of hydroponic produce, infused with space dust smuggled in from the Veil Nebula for an extra kick.

Nuova Tripoli's spaceport is surrounded by miles of farm fields and greenhouses

Vendors set up shop between the maze of cargo containers to catch new arrivals

Our partners at MLC have also begun a full lighting and visual effects pass on all our space scenes, so expect a significant visual improvement in the next update

Significant improvements to the lighting of our space scenes

Space combat has become a lot more dangerous in this update. Ships now have a chance (improved by the skill of your canoneer) to score critical hits for additional damage to systems and crew, and with the possibility of starting fires. Fires on ships are incredibly dangerous, and will slowly weaken the integrity of the ship’s structure and endanger its crew if not dealt with quickly. When a fire occurs, your damage control teams will immediately attempt to extinguish them. More experienced crews led by competent Chief Engineers have a high chance to extinguish them quickly, so always make sure you have competent officers under your command before looking for trouble.

On the roleplay side, our character creator is now up and running, allowing players to fully customize their appearance before starting the game. Next month, we will be expanding this to include customizing your character’s early life, planet of origin, and notable accomplishments that can impact how other characters in the game interact with them, and unlock additional insights for them based on their experience

To facilitate this, Isaac has expanded our dialogue system to allow game designers to create and assign persistent variables to dialogue and character creation choices, variables that can be used to unlock additional options in conversations. For example, a character with a military background might pick up more information when eavesdropping on Navy communications, a character with a criminal background might have an easier time negotiating with a smuggler, or someone from Mars might find common ground more easily with a fellow Martian. We believe this will go a long way in helping players truly immerse themselves into the universe and allow them to play the character they want to be.

Last, we've completed a full UI pass on all menus in the game: ship managemnet, party selection, character and inventory, and shipyard and equipment shops.

As always, check out our full change log below to see all the features that didn’t make the highlight reel, and thank you all again for your support and encouragement. We can’t wait to bring this universe to life!

Best Regards,

Vincent De Tommaso

Game Director

Full Changelog

RPG Mechanics

Character Creation - Implemented the Character Creation screen where player can customize their in game appearance.
Persist Dialogue Variables - Added a way for game designers to create persistent dialogue variables that can be used to remember a player’s choices, character creation background, etc. and modify dialogue accordingly.
Dialogue can Enable Interactable Objects - Dialogue choices can now activate interactable objects. For example, hacking a computer can activate a door switch.
Dialogue can Start from Walking into an Area - The dialogue system can be trigger by walking into proximity of something, such as a guard asking you to halt, etc.

Ground Gameplay

Doors - Implemented doors to ground scenes. In combat, players can use the interact action to override door panels to unlock additional areas and, if they’re lucky, ways to outmaneuver their enemies or hidden loot. Or, if they’re unlucky, more enemies.
Separate Burst Projectiles - added a slight spread to the projectile effect for rifles and machine guns
Allow Party Selection while on Ground Scenes - Players can change their party composition while on planet without having to return to their ship
Reload Sounds - All weapons now support a unique reload sound effect
Utility Item Sounds - All utility items (medkits, grenades, etc.) now support unique sound effects
Ground Combat Log - added a combat log to ground combat that tracks important information like damage dealt, critical hits inflicted, etc.
Ending turn automatically puts units with unspent AP in Sentry - if the player ends their turn, any of their units that have not taken an action will automatically go into sentry mode

Space Gameplay

Improve Player Overworld Base Speed - Slightly increased the speed of the player in the overworld, making it slightly easier to catch ships or outrun pursuit
Space Combat Ships Spawn Relative to Overworld Position - Enemy ships spawn into space combat in the same direction they were encountered in the overworld
Map Waypoints - Players can set waypoints in the overworld map and receive navigation instructions to reach them
Returning to Overworld from Planet Advances Time to Next Day - Returning to your ship from a planetary excursion advances the in-game calendar by 1 day
Space Combat Critical Hits - Ship cannonfire now has a chance to land a critical hit for more ship/crew damage and a chance to cause fires
Space Combat Fire - Ships in combat can now suffer from fires, which slowly eat away at their structural health. The crew will continuously try to extinguish fires with the success rate dependent on their skill
Auto Time Dilation in Space Combat - time dilation in space combat now increases and decreases automatically based on the distance to enemy ships
Ship Upgrades - The engineering menu upgrades are now fully functional and implement their described gameplay effects
Fix Repair at Sea - rebalanced the amount of armor plate and engine parts needed for repairs at sea
Combat Repairs - added the ability to spend armor plate and engine parts to repair your ship during combat
Repair Abilities Help with Fire - activating repair abilities also increase the chance your crew will be able to extinguish fires
Update Medical Supply Cargo Usage - rebalanced the consumption of medical supplies to heal injuries to bring it in line with crew food and alcohol consumption and make the medical attribute have more impact. Having a more skilled ship’s doctor not only increases crew recovery chance, but now also increases the efficiency of medical supply usage

Quest System

Quest System Initial Implementation - Implemented the Quest System. Players can accept quests, progress and complete special jobs, and track their progress in their mission log
Ship Bounties - players can now collect bounties for sinking or capturing wanted ships
Cargo Delivery Quests - Cargo dealers now offer quests to deliver shipments to other planets
Bounty Quests - Tavern keepers offer bounty hunting quests
Escort Quests - Captains looking to hire protection to reach their destination can be found in taverns
Raider Base Quests - Player can obtain quests to clear out bases established by raiders on planet surfaces

User Interface / User Experience

Full UI pass on all Ship Management, Character Management, and Shop Menus
Double Click to add weapons to active slot - Players can now double click on weapons in their inventory to equip them to their active weapon slot
XP & Money Gain Feedback - Experience and money gains are displayed above the characters who receive them
Way to add tooltips to icons - Game designers can now add helpful tooltips when UI icons are moused over
Change Crew Bar to Radial Pips - Crew health bar now displayed as a radial bar
Show Sentry Icon on Revealed Enemies - fixed a bug where revealed enemies in sentry mode were missing the sentry icon
Audio Sliders - players can now adjust the sound effects, music, and narration volumes in the system menu
Icons for Overworld Ships - added icons above ships encountered in the overworld that identify the faction they belong too
Add functions to Main Menu - Now that the save and load game functions are implemented, the Main Menu buttons are now fully functional
Quit Game - Players can now quit the game fron the system menu
Flatten Level Progression - adjusted level up milestones for better progression
Game Over - Added a game over state to the game
Don't Show Confirm Load When Not In Game - The player is not asked to confirm loading a save if there is no active game in progress
Current Player Bounty in Captain’s Quarters - Players can view any current bounties on their head from the Captain’s Quarters menu
Scuttle Warning when exiting Ship Transfer Menu - Players will be warned and asked for confirmation before leaving the ship transfer menu with no officers are assigned to a ship in their squadron (which would result in the ship being scuttled)
Update Ground Scene Character Cards - added additional UI affordances to character cards to indicate the active unit and which units have unspent actions remaining
Selected Character Equipment (Party Selection) - the party selection screen now displays a summary of the weapons and utility items equipped by the selected character without having to open the inventory menu
Shipyard Swap Price Position - reordered ship price displays for better clarity
Update Ship Status Indicator to match space combat for shipyard & engineering menu - the ship status indicators in the engineering and shipyard menus now match the improved look of those used in space combat
ground combat turn panel - replaced the placeholder turn panel with final assets
Interact Action can be confirmed by clicking interactable object - players can confirm their use of interact action by clicking on the object they are attempting to interact with, not just the grid space they’re standing on
Tutorial Pop Ups - implemented tutorial pop-ups into the game and settings to enable and disable them