Folks. I can barely put into words how the last week has been. It's been the most unbelievable, exhausting, exhilarating, terrifying week of my life.
I can't even begin to express how I feel right now. I'm still coming to terms with how things have gone, but one thing is for certain - you've secured the future of my tiny wee indie studio.
The story of Pawsmonaut Games will not end with just one released game. The indie dream lives.
Thank you, so very much.
Firstly, huge thanks to every single person who's been posting feedback, bug reports, or just general beautiful supportive comments!
I genuinely try to read every single one, and I have been replying to as many as I can across both the Discord and the Steam Discussions - I'm just one man and there's so much, please forgive me if I haven't been able to give you a personal response.
I've pushed fifteen hotfix patches to the game so far, with a huge variety of changes - bug fixes (both big and small), balancing, quality of life, task and mechanic clarity improvements, and everything in-between.
Critical issues relating to progression blockers have been resolved (sorry about that!), there's still plenty to improve, but I think we've got a great, solid base now to start bringing in some new QOL features and settings next week!
I'm also going to be working towards improving any feelings of too much grind towards the mid-game, with the potential for fun new systems relating to getting around the world or getting resources back to the Outpost.
P.S. If you're still experiencing any progression-blocking issues (the issues themselves are long-fixed but their effects can remain on early save-games) please just reach out via the Discord and I will very happily fix your save game manually so that you can continue! <3
You may have noticed that in the last few days I've switched to a once-a-day hotfix cadence, and as of next week, I'll be moving to patching twice-a-week!
This will allow me to build up bigger sets of changes, which should have a bigger effect on the game!
I don't have a bunch of artists to make fancy graphics with everything coming up as a proper roadmap, and I'd rather be working on making the game better for you than doing it myself, so you get a text list today - I hope that's alright!
There are still a few bugs kicking around in the game, so I'm going to continue squashing them, but it's also time to start getting even more QOL into the game so that the experience can be even smoother and even more players can enjoy the game however they want to!
Some of (but not all!) the QOL features/settings coming next week:
Setting to not drop items on death.
Setting to pause oxygen loss while reading logs in the world.
Setting to turn off snapping to buildings, and general snapping improvements.
Setting to open Crafting Windows automatically on interaction with a facility.
Many, many more settings and improvements!
Here's the bigger stuff in the works for longer-term! Please remember I'm just one man, so I can't provide any tighter timescales for these things, but I promise they're coming!
Sandbox Mode
Gamepad Support
Localization to several languages including German, Russian, and even Chinese (not an exhaustive list!)
Holiday/Seasonal Updates (new themes and new decorations)
Maybe more?
I might even work on a secret little side project relating to different camera styles, so watch this space!
Your support means I can now continue to do this crazy, amazing, beautiful indie game thing for the foreseeable future. I barely dared dream that would be possible, but it looks like you'll be getting at least another game out of me.
I can't say yet what the next game will be - I need to get through the coming weeks and months of AETHUS support, decompress (play a lot of games, and get inspired!) spend time with my wife, thirteen week-old daughter, and Apollo, and ponder what the next thing will be.
What I can say is that I have some very cool ideas already brewing, and even if it's not the next game, the universe of AETHUS is very close to my heart and there's a lot of room for cool new stories!
Oh, and I'm definitely going to aim to make the next game in less than three years this time...
After the 20th of March, the game will revert to its standard $19.99 price until the next discount period!
As a reminder, the game will not discount below 20% for the foreseeable future!
Again, I can't thank you enough for your support for my tiny indie game. It means the world to me.
Speak soon,
-Alex and Apollo