Today marks a major milestone in the six-year saga of Hardspace: Shipbreaker: the day the game hits version 1.0 and leaves Early Access. The project that started as a humble little five-day “game jam” here at Blackbird Interactive is finally ready to launch. And this isn’t even its final form, as the next step on the journey is a release on console.
https://youtu.be/3uEybPy-ajE
Here’s a quick summary of the 1.0 Update (for the full details check out the Patch Notes below):
- Campaign Act 3 - The conclusion to the game’s storyline.
- Ship Saving - Save your in-progress salvage for later!
- Progression Revamp - Completely rebalanced based on the latest feedback and data.
- Steam Achievements - Go get ‘em!
- About 200 (!) Bug Fixes, Optimizations and Quality of Life Improvements, including:
- Fixed gameplay issues with damaged Air Regulators.
- Fixed some ships being unstable on spawn. Hello (or goodbye?) Salvage Gecko.
- Fixed connected objects that can’t be salvaged together but can’t be separated.
- Resolved various problems with pressurization and decompression.
So much has changed in our lives and in the world since we started making Shipbreaker (originally codenamed “Project: Lynx”; the origin of the name for the game’s LYNX Corporation). It feels like a lifetime ago that a handful of us made a small demo about a salvager traversing debris in deep space, with nothing but a grappling hook and mag-gloves for equipment. While simple and clunky, there was something evocative and absorbing about its unique perspective and mechanics that we wanted to explore further.
“Hello, Collector” Game Jam Demo Gameplay (2016)
Over the following years, that seed of an idea grew in sometimes surprising ways as we refined the gameplay, the setting and the themes. In one iteration, the game was about exploring abandoned space stations and uncovering an entity of pure cosmic horror. In another, a massive space battle raged above Earth, and as derelict battleships plummeted toward the planet, your job was to grapple between them and slice them up into small enough chunks that they would burn up in the atmosphere rather than crater a city
Orbital “Slice” Concept Animation - Noah Stacey (2017)
It was at this point we took a step back and reassessed the type of game we wanted to make, how we wanted to utilize the gameplay we’d built, and what themes and ideas sparked the most interest in us. We took our inspiration from a subject that has long fascinated us: the real-world industry of shipbreaking. The idea of a blue-collar Shipbreaker simply trying to make ends meet within the confines of a corporate dystopia was born.
Any game developer will tell you, making games is hard! It’s harder still when you decide to make a game about cutting up fully realized, physically simulated ships into little pieces. Significant technical challenges aside, the creative challenge of providing fun, structure and purpose around that gameplay while retaining a high level of simulation and immersion was daunting. We weren’t even sure if, in the end, anyone would even be interested! That’s where Early Access comes in.
We’re so grateful that our just-shy-of-two years in Early Access showed us that we were on to something, and grateful that the legion of loyal Shipbreakers who joined us on the journey provided the crucial feedback and iteration we needed to shape this unusual zero-g shipbreaking simulation into a complete package. That enjoyable balance between the zen-like joy of good work and the constant threat of death is something unique, and we’re proud to have stuck with our guns (or rather the lack thereof) in making a compelling game without combat.
We’re also immensely proud to make a game that explores the themes and ideas that are important to us, from the struggles and joys of work, to the proliferation of corporate power, and conversations about capitalism that feel as necessary today as they do in Shipbreaker’s theoretical future 300 years from now.
We want to thank everyone who supported us throughout development. Shipbreaker is that much better because of your contributions and feedback. Our team and our studio gained a huge amount of knowledge through this process, and we look forward to leveraging those lessons on future projects. We can’t wait to show you our next adventure, and we’d love it if you’d join us when it’s time.
For those of you who have been with us along the way, it’s time to slip back into your suit, clock in, and maximize those profits. For everyone that waited for full release: your orientation –and your life as a LYNX Shipbreaker– begins now.
See you in the salvage yard,
Elliot Hudson
Game Director
and
The Hardspace: Shipbreaker Development Team
✨To celebrate the 1.0 release and because we know lots of you enjoy our space-western music, you can now preorder a double vinyl edition of the Hardspace: Shipbreaker OST! ✨
Enjoy our laid-back Americana soundtrack and their synth remixes which infuse your salvager’s existence.
Patch Notes
In-Game Update
LYNX Corporate is pleased to announce that the EverWork Calibration Program is complete. Regeneration failures have reached an acceptable level for roll-out to all divisions.
Early Access Shipbreakers are thanked for their many, many contributions to the program. Speak to your Supervisor about a complimentary Fee Rebate Form for 10% off your next regeneration.
To New Recruits, LYNX Salvage Division welcomes you to the LYNX family, now with the highest guarantee of safety and protection in history. Please proceed directly to your Onboarding Experience to begin your career odyssey NOW!
Changes & Updates
o Third and final act of the Campaign added, including a closing cinematic and credits sequence
o In-progress salvage can now be saved: return to the HAB during a shift to save your progress on a ship
o Achievements Added
o Gameplay Updates
- The spawn rate of Damaged Atmosphere Regulators has been greatly reduced, and the number of them that can spawn in a single ship has been limited
- Salvage Goals now reward Mastery Points (MP) as well as Lynx Tokens (LT)
- Credits are no longer converted to Mastery Points (MP)
- MP requirements for all levels has been retuned
- Upgrade costs and LYNX Token reward rates have been retuned
- Armadillo part requirements per level greatly reduced
- Armadillo part extraction removed from Thrusters, Nacelles and Radiation Filters
- Armadillo part extraction added to Waste Disposal, Hoist and Food Processor
- The value of objects and materials has been tuned across the board
- Almost all sticker requirements have been retuned
- Ghost Ship Spawn Rate Increased (from 5% to 15%)
- Cutpoint visuals unified between Stinger / Split-Saw cuttable, and Demo Charge Only cutpoints
- Mackerel Exo-Lab and Atlas Scout have swapped unlock ranks
- Early Atlas Ships can spawn with NO Engine blocking access to the Thruster
- Base Tether amount increased from 10 to 20
- Base Tether lifetime increased from 30 seconds to 60 seconds
- Tether Amount upgrades retuned (max 50)
- Tether Lifetime upgrades retuned (max 5 mins)
- Medkits have been added to the Kiosk
- Patch Kits can now spawn in ships
- Mackerel Nose / Cockpit has been redesigned to be more easily salvaged
- Small debris produced from cutting / explosion now vaporize more often in order to help keep the work site clean
o Audio
- Dialogue pacing has been improved in many scenes, and background SFX have been added to some scenes
o UI
- Font sizes and styles increased throughout most of the game for improved readability
- It is now possible to back out of the Oxygen Drain Pop-up when choosing Open Shift
- Ship Images in the Job Board have been updated
- Unread Messages in the Employee Terminal have a Unread Icon next to them
o Optimizations
- The Salvage Bay and Ring Station have been heavily optimized
- All ship types have been optimized
- The spawn rate of floating debris has been limited
- Armadillo Parts have been optimized and visually updated
- Small objects (bottles, chip bags, etc.) have been optimized and visually updated
- The max number of placed Demo Charges has been reduced from 35 to 15
o Other
- The appearance of the Armadillo has been updated
- The appearance of the Suit in the HAB has been updated
- Subtitles have been added to all cinematics
- LYNX Contract Terms & Conditions have been updated
- Quality Settings have been added to the Video Settings Options tab
- Anti-Aliasing has been added to the Video Settings Options tab
- A pneumatic tube has been added to the HAB
- The Player’s Armadillo is now visible from the Salvage Bay
- Controller vibration has been retuned to reduce strain on the hands
- Objects with Healthbars will now flash briefly when damaged
- Campaign dialogue will now pause and resume when the Player dies and respawns
- Weaver will now still introduce himself to the Player even if they skip the tutorial
- Object health pips have been changed to all be yellow
- Recovered Data Drives now have better organization and titles in the Data Miner screen
Bug Fixes
• A crash occurred after multiple wrong parts of the Mackerel - Light Cargo ship reached the Barge deposit
• A crash occurred after using the maximum number of Demo Charges
• Crash when activating the atmospheric regulator on a Salvage Runner Gecko.
• Crash when cycling pressurization using cockpit regulator after breaching main cabin into crawlspace
• Crash during a violent decompression of the crawlspace on a Tanker
• Crash when interacting with consoles of salvaged doors on Salvage Runner
• Salvage Gecko has a chance to explode or depressurize on spawn
• DemoChargeController.ShutdownECS() throws a null-ref when force-quitting the game
• When the Fuel Injector blows up, an assert is seen "Trying to split null item in hierarchy"
• User becomes softlocked when attempting to Save & Quit after using a repair kit
• HAB interior goes black with only the navigation prompts displayed, after exiting immediately the Employee terminal
• Violently decompressing the airlock of the Cargo Hauler Atlas will trigger the meltdown of the reactor
• AI Nodes in Ghost Ships open/close all doors at once
• AI Nodes in Ghost Ships pressurize/depressurize all rooms at once
• The Ship Doctor Widget in the Job Board does not correctly highlight the parts found on a ship
• The reactor gains health without flushing the ECU pipes, on certain Tanker Javelins
• Reactor integrity not being affected immediately, and VFX not firing, on reactor pull
• Buying a lot of upgrades in a short time blocks the player in the upgrade menu
• Airlock doors don't open/airlock doesn't (de)pressurize, under specific conditions
• German specific characters are not displayed properly
• HAB navigation UI does not scale with resolution
• Repair kit and the "T" from "LT" are displayed as blank characters in chinese
• Scanner upgrade description text missing in Russian and Italian
• Multiple tunes play on top of each other in the HAB
• During night shift calls, all characters wear their helmet
• Leaderboards menu contains several unlocalized texts
• Glass do not have glowing red VFX when melted with the Stinger
• Free play menu title is in English inside other languages
• "%" is displayed as a blank square in the Shift Menu and Shift Summary
• The number of Tethers remains the same after using several while in the Free Game mode
• Atlas Lighting Array is still coloured when unpowered
• If you buy repair kits at the kiosk, the number of repair kits displayed in the inventory will always be 1.
• More than 1 Arm can spawn on Atlas Nomad Cargo Hauler (should be max 1)
• Two items might be displayed as selected while moving the cursor fast over the items list
• Effect of Demo Charges on Javelin Amplifier is inconsistent compared to other objects
• All objects that are destroyed in the process of retrieving a Space Truck part count as having been destroyed twice on Salvage Summary
• In the Atlas scout, cutting the floor of the crew quarter doesn't depressurize
• Waste Disposal Units on Hoppers Geckos, remain attached to the ship, after removing the cut points
• Fuel leaks don't lit or explode when near a heat source
• Violent decompression is triggering in the room below the fume chute on Station Hopper Gecko, when cutting the cut point of the fume chute
• Custom Keybindings are not saving
• Unable to exit the Key Mapping menu when the using the mouse
• A piece of armor plate is worth the whole price of an armor plate
• The text for the global start shift button overlaps with the button prompt in some languages
• Red text (Unverified App) in the data miner is not localized
• The "Hold To Confirm" prompt when buying upgrades is untranslated
• Typo on Hazard Level 4 message
• AI nodes can spawn inside the reactor on a Mackerel Station Hopper
• In French, "Flight terminal" for Atlas ships has an incorrect translation
• Utility Arm Base's name and description aren't localized
• Inconsistent display of the word "debt" in the player info in most languages
• In French, the character "Œ" is not displayed
• Too much space between I & S in the word "IS" during Calyssia speech at end of Act 1.
• Armadillo parts outline colour as interactable in free mode
• Global Start Shift button can be interacted with when it's greyed out
• The ECU wall is burning, when hit with the stinger, after removing the coolant canisters
• A segment of the electric cables on Atlas Tug remains attached to the nano grid, after removing its cut point
• Hal's Portraits shouldn't show up during animatic
• UI Focus is lost on messages screen when using certain directional inputs
• The user cannot navigate past Resynth Volume in Options, when using the controller
• The controller can lose focus in the Ship Catalog - Ship card display
• Atlas Nose Canopy missing paintjob in two sections
• Two categories in the Data Miner are called "Earth"
• Helmet can be shattered before oxygen depletion has been activated
• Ferros Rojo Decals on Atlas Tug are rendered across hull plate gaps
• Changing language in game will not have the salvage indicator + ship doctor UI refreshed
• Cutting the Food Dispenser will not make it Scrap
• Computer terminal clipping into the chassis of the Mackerel
• Task list of Ship Doctor panel in Ship Catalog is incomplete
• Wrong translation of "revive" in the french version of the game
• Some characters are displayed as 'squares' in Russian
• 'Fees Report' in Onboarding Sequence has two different translations in italian and french
• Plastic-Free' meal option in onboarding sequence in unlocalized in italian
• The text and buttons to toggle Oxygen in Open Shift doesn't fit in the alloted space in many languages
• Lou Armadillo Part collection VO can stomp CMP_09_02_LouAnnoyed
• HAB Greeting Messages are often appearing one rank too early
• Using the Demo Charge for the 1st time during the Power Generator tuto, makes Weaver's and Hal's VO hard to understand
• Touch transfer of Fuse Beeps has reverb/muffled SFX
• 3DHAB movement prompts appear in the Ship catalog when pressing the global start shift button from the kitchen
• Soft crates above the kitchen area are not correctly lit
• Power Generator hitches then launches forward when yanked before fuses are ejected
• Some buttons for navigation throughout the HAB do not respond to mouse clicks
• Audio volume is not reduced to 0 while fading out after a post-shift sequence
• Master jack has a open seam that can be seen through
• Incorrect over-usage of quotation marks in sticker descriptions
• Cutter notifications "Out of Range" and "Above Cut Grade" are in lowercase (should be uppercase)
• Room name HUD element is lowercase (should be uppercase)
• A violent decompression is triggered on Stargazers, when the user cuts the last cut point of the radiation filter
• Atmosphere regulator didn't function after door based decompression.
• Room volumes exposed to each other still cause decompression events when using an atmosphere regulator
• Mystery decompression occurs on a Ghost Ship Cargo Gecko
• Depressurized cockpit causes airlock decompression event when cutting the ceiling cutpoints
• Cutting the exterior airlock door and interacting with the interior airlock console will cause a decompression event every time the console is used
• Indefinite decompression event can be seen via VFX and HUD warning but audio SFX does not trigger and player is not affected by decompression force
• Decompression abruptly stops when vaporizing cut points around airlocks in the Gecko ship
• Airlocks with destroyed doors attempt to repressurize
• Depressurization alarm and sfx does not trigger after vaporizing cockpit glass
• On Mackerels the decompression of the nose is not properly executing warnings, after detaching the cockpit from the ship
• Incorrect force exerted during a mackerel pressurized cockpit decompression to a unpressurized cabin
• Cutting the front of a small Heavy Cargo Javelin free from the lattice will cause a depressurization event
• On Heavy Cargo Javelins the depressurizing event doesn't execute properly, when melting the glass of the back cockpit
• When breaching the Javelin cockpit from the exterior of the ship, the player is pulled towards the breach instead of away from it
• On easy Javelins, melting the glass in the engine room will not show decompression VFX during depressurization event
• Small Javelin sections (under ~40t) when affected by depressurization events, treated as having very low weight
• It is possible to melt most of the exterior panels of a javelin airlock without triggering a violent decompression
• On some Refueling Javelins, the atmosphere regulator and the airlock consoles in the ship's back section have an inconsistent behaviour
• Airlocks' violent depressurization is not correctly executed for the Gecko Stargazer
• Airlocks' violent depressurization is not correctly executed for the Gecko Salvage Runner
• Airlocks' violent depressurization does not happen for the Gecko Heavy Cargo and the Gecko Station Hopper
• On geckos a decompression event is triggered in the cockpit, when melting certain cut points of a keel
• Activating the scan mode interrupts the VFX of the railgate sequence and only the sfx plays
• Heating a ship part with the stinger as a shift ends causes it to obscure the HAB menu
• Error encountered when next tab (RB) is pressed in the HAB - System.NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object
• Some electrical objects are not affected by the radiation volume
• A special character in French (œ) is appearing as a square in certain fonts
• Some lights are spawning doubled-up in the back section of the javelins
• "Ship"/"Tools"/"Ship Hazard Level" are not translated in the Certification menu
• On Javelins, when detaching the unpressurized cockpit, violent decompression is triggered in the rest of the ship despite sealed doors
• Pocket of pressurized air outside the Cargo Javelins, above the back entrance
• Back half of the ship is pushed when freeing the Fuel Tank
• Typo in radiation filter description (air filter)
• Radiation Distortion affects screens that transition from gameplay, such as the salvage summary and death summary UI
• Tools' durability doesn't drain at Ranks 4/5, after skipping the tutorial, unless quitting the game
• Some mails reuse the subject from the last mail you read in other languages than english
• "Salvage Tether Cubes" (08_04) is skipped if Tether Cubes are sent to the processor or furnace before the objective triggers
• Weaver's VO during tutorial objective 03_13 'Enter HAB' repeats itself
• Ending a shift while the reactor is melting down doesn't trigger the reactor music when continuing the shift
• The first Weaver rail gate animation VO subtitle has the text for both subtitles in most languages, causing the second VO to show the EN text
• Room ambient audio cuts abruptly, after cutting the last cut point attaching that room to the ship
• No AI node death scream when destroyed in an explosion or shattered
• Visible lines on the cutter model used in-game and on the sticker screen
• Several audio logs have some missing text in the data viewer
• Player Voice Audio selection SFX is too low in contract sequence
• Harsh fog transition between pressurized cabin and crawlspace in the mackerel
• Freeze effect can cause flickering on exterior panels
• No error handling or user feedback when attempting to view leaderboards after declining data collection
• The "Danger" HUD text is not localized
• Contract Sequence: New App is using the Mail App header
• Certain texts are missing localization inside the Lynx Daily Fees Prompt in most Languages
• Several textual irregularities were observed within the Contract Conditions Terminal on IT/ES/PT
Languages
• Localization_All languages_Warning messages for leaving the area are in English
• The clone information text on the Contract terminal doesn’t fit properly in some languages
• The text of certain buttons on the Contract terminal doesn’t fit properly in certain languages
• Sending a large number of objects into a furnace is extremely taxing for performance
• Control triggers medical assistance VO line when user fails work order in Tutorial
• No button prompts shown on the UI when shopping in the kiosk