Greetings Spacefarers!
It’s dev blog time again, and things have certainly been busy for the team this last month! Galaverse preparations have been at the forefront, and the team has been heads down working hard to ensure that the game is where we want it to be ahead of the event. There’s a lot to dig into, so we’ll jump right in!
First, we want to share that we’ll be pushing the art contest back a bit into May or June to be sure that we can give it our best attention, and that the Galaverse chaos has subsided a bit when the time comes for judging the entries. We have some fun prizes planned, and it will be worth the wait.
On the development side of things, this month has seen a significant effort around UI work, and embellishing the game’s HUD and menus to look, feel and function well. The team has dug into adding context menus, tooltips, improved fleet and probe management, and other quality of life features that will be important to the gameplay experience.
Visuals have seen a lot of love in April! The lighting and appearance of the tactical board have been further polished, making it easier to see things, and offering a better experience when viewing from the zoomed out perspective. Our characters have also been sent back to the wardrobe for an overhaul of color palettes and polish on their appearance. The art team have really outdone themselves, as you’ve seen through the content we’ve shared over the last few weeks.
While that work has been ongoing, we’ve also had part of the team focused on economy, and going over resource management in general. We’ve been working out the framework for resource costs, and what will be required for various upgrades as the game progresses.
Heading into May, and barring any unforeseen raids by space pirates here at the studio, we’ll be rolling out our first Fireside Chat, and continuing to engage with the community in Q&A and chat around the game. There will be several major announcements in mid-to-late May, so keep your eyes peeled. We’ll be making good use of that announcement channel on the Discord!
As if all of this was not enough, we’ve also been working with Gala to finalize plans for May Mayhem, and our participation in that event. We’ll be sharing more on that soon in its own update post, so stay tuned for those details.
We are incredibly grateful for the ongoing support of the community, and the way you go above and beyond at our events to bring great questions and good conversation around Echoes of Empire. The community we’re building is truly something special, and we’re excited to have all of you along for this crazy journey. We couldn’t be more proud of the way the game is shaping up, and this summer is going to be quite a ride!
