itch.io

In case ye missed it - I posted it here too: http://larrylaffer.net/archives/4968

Hey everyone, we hope you’re all having a good holiday season. We wanted to do a quick update on the project. We have been in the process during most of this year, trying to move SpaceVenture onto the newer Unity platform. We had built SpaceVenture on an older platform due to the licenses that we purchased back years ago before Unity changed their licensing model. Of course, this was the newest platform back when we purchased the licenses.

What we did not expect was how extremely different things would be on the Apple/Android operating systems during the time period of finishing the game. We originally had licenses for Windows, Linux, Android, Mac, and iOS, however, at this point, the out of date Unity engine that the game was built on, can only produce SpaceVenture on Windows and Linux.

So in order to fulfill the game being released on the other operating systems, we are in the process of moving into the newer Unity engine. As you can probably guess, this has been quite an undertaking due to there being so many changes to the newest engine and the code it supports. We are going scene by scene and fixing all the issues found after the upgrade. Ken Williams’ Cygnus team started to help earlier in the year with this, but due to their game “Colossal Cave Adventure” experiencing some slow downs on its various platforms, they had to switch gears and focus fully on it instead of SpaceVenture.

The SpaceVenture team is now utilizing the newer Unity engine and tools to get everything straight. We are fixing bugs along the way and addressing many of the complaints that we got from our previously released build. We realize that a lot of you would like us to go ahead and release the game onto Steam. It’s important to understand that we only get one shot at making a positive impression with players on Steam, and hopefully get decent ratings/reviews there. We are counting on income from Steam in order to pay for reward shipping to everyone. That being said, if we release on Steam and players are unhappy with the results, it will be tough to make the money we need for the shipping. We don’t want to release the game there until we’ve got it stabilized on the newer Unity platform and have finished addressing concerns from the earlier build. Also once we’ve got things stable, we’ll release an updated build to all of you as well, not to mention Steam keys when the game goes on there.

As always, thank you all for your patience! This has been the longest haul of our lives, but we’re still hauling and not giving up! We hope all of you have a great rest of 2023 and a happy new year!

I do know that they're still definitely working on it. Been in contact with Chris Pope. So it's still happening. 

New Update!

Hello everyone! We wanted to give you a quick update with some pretty exciting news. First off, we wanted to thank you for all the feedback we got on the backer only release build of SpaceVenture. We learned a whole lot about items that needed some serious work on the game. We were able to resolve the vast majority of the issues that were brought up by you all that reported issues to us.  

If for some reason you didn’t get the email for that build, please await word from us on a new build. That previous build definitely had some issues and we prefer to send out a new build of the game with fixes. So again, if you didn’t get that build, please stay tuned for a new more stable build of the game to be released in the future. 

After releasing the build of the game towards the end of 2022, we immediately began working on another build, but wanted to make sure we had gotten the reported issues fixed. As always, things slowed down during the holiday season. In January, we began getting ramped up to finalize the new build to send out to you all here at the beginning of 2023, however, we have something really exciting to let you know.

In February, we were contacted by Ken Williams (Co-founder of Sierra On-line/Cygnus Entertainment) about a partnership that would involve some really great possibilities for the future of SpaceVenture. As you are aware, the majority of the team is only able to work on the game part time at this point. And no one is being paid anything, due to being low on funds. We are in talks with Ken about bringing some fresh funding into the project that would involve the following:

• Some full time paid developers that would help solidify the code and fix remaining bugs that will make the game play better. This would also involve making sure code is updated with the latest and greatest version of the Unity engine.
• QA folks to assist in making sure the game is at the level of quality that it deserves.
• Plans to release the game on the promised platforms: Windows, Mac, Linux, iOS, and Android. Cygnus has just released their Colossal Cave game on Playstation, Xbox, Switch and is working on it for mobile devices. If a deal comes together, all of those will be considered for SpaceVenture.
• Plans to release the game in even more languages, which we will announce once we have confirmed them.
• Additional promotion/marketing of the game to the public  

In return, we will be splitting any income made on SpaceVenture with Cygnus Entertainment. Our agreement with Ken is that no one makes any money off of SpaceVenture until our backer rewards are shipped. Again, to be clear, our agreement will still include the fact that once the game is available on the various online stores for purchase, we will use the income for reward shipping to backers. We still have plans for making an option available to people who would like to pay their shipping ahead of time, in order to get their rewards quicker. We will provide more information on this later.

As a reminder, please do not email us your address for reward shipping. Once the game is publicly available and we are ready to start shipping items out, we will request your address information.

Please understand that no contracts have been signed yet. We are still in the process of talking and Ken’s developers are looking at the project now and we are all trying to get a feel for what will need to happen and an approximate cost/timeline for everything. Since this negotiation put a few things on hold for us, we felt like it would be good for us to let you all know the situation.

Though this agreement is not solidified yet, we are encouraged by the possibility of working with Ken and Cygnus on making sure that SpaceVenture gets the level of polish that it deserves. As always, thank you all so much for your continued patience and support.

KEN AND ROBERTA WILLIAMS / CYGNUS HAVE RELEASED COLOSSAL CAVE

Just in case you’re out of the loop, we wanted to do a shout out to Ken and Roberta Williams along with our friend Marcus Mera. They have remade the game “Colossal Cave” into a new 3D/VR adventure game. 

Please go check it out when you have some time!

I will see if I can get a reply from them. (Although tomorrow they're probably doing the Valentine's thing!) Which I would love another update! (See what I did there!)

Yeah - I think it's because they'd just say "Yeah, we're still updating it" which, they probably don't feel is much of an update.
Some would say some news is better than no news, but some would say, "Well that was pointless."
That's why I poke my contact over there every blue moon if it's been awhile.

Did you see my post in the thread?

sirtawmis12 days ago(+1)

I got some inside scope information to share.

We were trying to get the steam release done by Christmas, but unfortunately that’s not gonna happen. We are still working to release a more stable version to backers which I’m hoping will happen in January.

I got some inside scope information to share.

We were trying to get the steam release done by Christmas, but unfortunately that’s not gonna happen. We are still working to release a more stable version to backers which I’m hoping will happen in January.

You can still save. When it says the scene is too complex, that should just mean it's going to save at the "start" of that area. So for example, say you land in an icy region. And you do a bunch of things in this icy region. Then you hit save. It will say it's too complex. So if you restore from that save, it's going to disregard everything you did (on the icy region) and taking you back as if you just landed at that icy region.

Any update on a release date for the craving world who foolishly didn't back the kickstarter? :)

Oh! Nice. Great idea too.

Yeah - that's the area I was thinking of. (You can't actually go into the bathrooms... er, that I am aware of... there's just a sign that mentions the bathrooms are in that direction).

And you've gone back to all the places - guys from Andromeda's landing? The desert, you have - because you mentioned the worm. Um, Crash's place - outside and inside?

Trying to think (I don't have them all myself, but been collecting them) - I can't think of any that are specifically "hidden" except the asteroid ones?

Have you checked out the bar (forgetting the name) next to Nurbs (on the Astroid)? I know there's some there.

And head into the bathroom in the back (keep walking right once you enter). More are there.

Hint - when you beat the game - revisit some of the areas.

Also - blow up any asteroids you see.

I know a few bugs have been reported - do we have a date for the next build release?

I've already played it (only bug I managed to hit that briefly stopped me was the rooter head; but there was a way around it). There's a few weird things (when Ace goes to ride the mule all the way to the left - sometimes he gets on the mule, but it doesn't pan over, so he and the mule aren't visible and such - but just clicking back gets the mule to move, etc).

Just curious. :)

^ This. Walk him into the hole. He will burrow to the other side.

There's two things to do on the other side. One, as you have guessed, involves the booty sniffer app.

Glad to help a fellow SpaceVenture-er!

OK! So here you go!

First four slots.

First slot - initial arrival at Scrap's.

Second slot - Fixed Rooter.

Third slot - Got two meteorites, pole and hover board.

Fourth slot - Confirmed able to access crane (hover board and pole are on the ground)

http://tawmis.com/svbeta/SV_SGV2.zip

Interesting!
So even though the folder has beta in the game - the save game is for the current version release (it just happens to be where I was storing SV Beta stuff for the forum as well).

So the below is all of my save games; you can just pick the one (I think I have one around the junkyard) to use.

http://tawmis.com/svbeta/SV_SG.zip

Just checked I don't have one at the junk yard. Let me replay it and get a game there!

What's the bug you're hitting?

And I do still have my save games. I can upload it to my site later today (at work at the moment).

You will notice as you spin the thing around; one set of the three lights will definitely be illuminated; so keep moving those pieces until you see it - then press. Rinse and repeat.

And now with commentary!

On my Let's Play Sierra Games channel. :)

Keep an eye on the trash too. ;)

Confirmed. Overlapping the two allowed me to grab the head.

Yeah I opened a ticket about this the day of release and have asked about the next build release and have not yet heard back.

A great day/night indeed!

Indeed!

Hey everyone! We are super excited to make this announcement! The Kickstarter update that we have all been waiting for is finally upon us. On September 16th, 2022 we are officially releasing the Windows DRM-free version of SpaceVenture to all of you $15 and up backers.

To start this off, we would like to give you a bit of an FAQ on things you might be wondering:

Q. What? I thought you said a few weeks ago that the save/load system was still not working?

A: As of a few weeks ago, we were already pretty close to getting it working. As mentioned in the previous update, we had a couple of developers (one of which is the senior developer Patrick Johnston) that got together and worked four long days in getting the system where it needs to be. And the meet up was a success!

Q. Will the game be coming out on Steam?

A: Yes! After we release the game to you backers, we’re planning to release it on Steam. And our goal is to get all $15 and up backers Steam keys as soon as possible.

Q. What about the other platforms promised in the Kickstarter?

A: Yes we plan to get the game released on all the promised platforms. When we did the Kickstarter our plan was to release all platforms at the same time. At this point, in order to do that, we would have to make everyone wait even longer. So we feel it’s a good idea to go ahead and release it on Windows. The plan is to follow that up with Macintosh, Linux and then iOS/iPAD and Android.

Q. How will we get access to the DRM-free version of SpaceVenture?

A: Everyone who is a $15 and up backer will receive a message from us on September 16,2022 before the end of the day (Pacific Time) containing download information.

Q. Since we have a DRM-free version of SpaceVenture, can we share it with everyone in the world?

A: We can’t stop you, but we would REALLY appreciate it if you didn’t 

Q. What about bugs?

A: Though there may be some bugs in the game, we have it in a state now to where we feel comfortable with releasing it to everyone.

Q. If we have problems/find bugs with SpaceVenture, how will we report those?

A: The download message you receive from us will contain that information. Please don’t report problems in the Kickstarter comments. We will not be looking there for bug reports.

Q. Will you be making updates that fix bugs in the future?

A: Absolutely. We plan to have a way to report bugs and post updates/patches.

Q. What is the deal with the physical rewards promised in the Kickstarter?

A: Please see the “Physical Backer Rewards” section in this Kickstarter Update below.

Q. Speaking of rewards, should we be giving you our mailing address?

A: Not at this time. We will request this from you when the time comes to ship everything out. We still have to get everything together before we will be ready to ship. Please see the physical backer rewards section of this update below for more details.

Q. Is there any way I can up my rewards tier so I can get some of the higher level physical rewards?

A: Not at this time. Though we have been purchasing a few extra (just in case of mailing issues) of each item and may make them available in the future.

Q. What about all the digital rewards for SpaceVenture?

A: Please see the “Digital Backer Rewards” section of this Kickstarter update below.

PHYSICAL BACKER REWARDS

For physical backer rewards we want to be clear on some things. After the Kickstarter was funded we went ahead and purchased a lot of the rewards that we needed. These rewards have been kept in a safe, clean, and dry storage area. There are some rewards we have not purchased yet but we are currently working on them as I type this up.

Here is a list of the physical items we still need to purchase:

• Materials for the Andromedon Nose to be created by Mark Crowe ($7500 and up backers)
• Hard copy concept art book ($500 and up backers)
• SpaceVenture movie posters ($150 and up backers)
• Guys From Andromeda Postcard ($150 and up backers)
• Game DVD sleeves to go into the game boxes ($100 and up backers)
• Game DVDs that will contain SpaceVenture ($100 and up backers)
• 8×10 photo containing an Easter Egg to be seen in game ($45 and up backers)

Here is a preview pic of the DVD sleeve/DVD

Another glimpse of the back of the actual game box

If you don’t see a physical reward listed in the above list, it is because it is most likely something we have already purchased. For example, Buckazoid Coins, T-shirts, Game Boxes, etc..

We hope you will all understand that though we do have enough money in the bank to purchase the rest of these rewards for everyone, unfortunately we don’t have enough money to cover all the shipping expenses right now. We will be shipping out items to around 2000 people. It has been a long 10 years and we hope you can understand that though a lot of money was brought into the Kickstarter, we (like you) could never have imagined it would take this long to finish it. Even though we kept our belts tight, the money has almost run out.

So here is our plan. Getting these rewards to you is very important to us. There are three strategies that we are planning to implement.

1: After purchasing the final rewards we need, any money left over from the Kickstarter will be used for reward shipping.

2: Once we put SpaceVenture on the market for sale, such as Steam, the money made from that will go to fulfilling the shipping of all of these rewards. We are not going to be taking any money from sales until we’ve shipped out rewards.

3: Some of you may decide you don’t want to wait any longer and would like to get your physical rewards sooner rather than later. We plan to make an option available where you can pay your own shipping to receive items faster. And yes we realize that you have all paid enough money as it is. This is just an option. Anyone who wants to wait for us to get the money for shipping will totally be able to wait. Either way, we plan to get the rewards out to you. And in time, you’ll all get the physical rewards in your hands.

As for getting us your information for shipping. Please don’t send us any updated shipping address information. We do realize a lot of you have moved. When the time comes, we’ll ask for your updated address information.

VERY IMPORTANT: We do ask that you update your Kickstarter profile/account settings to reflect your name/updated email address as you would like us to communicate with you. Please do this ASAP.

DIGITAL BACKER REWARDS

One of the things that the team is working on right now is putting the finishing touches to the cool digital backer rewards that are available in SpaceVenture, including:

• Name a star or have your name on a star in game ($5000 and up backers)
• Fan/Name Vanity Card hidden object in game ($500 and up backers)
• Backer names in the credits of SpaceVenture ($100 and up backers)
• 8×10 Easter Egg related reward ($45 and up backers)

If you don’t see a digital reward that you are looking for listed above, it’s probably because it is something we’ve already completed. For example, the Wall of Fame reward, etc.

VERY IMPORTANT: As mentioned above, please update your Kickstarter information ASAP. Backers at the $100 level: The name that is listed in Kickstarter will be the name that is listed in the credits. We are going to give everyone a few days to take care of this. Backers at the $500 and up level, please update your Kickstarter info as well. You will probably get a message from us regarding your information. Please be on the lookout for that and respond ASAP. It is very important that you respond to this message quickly. Ideally, we want to get everyone’s info correct the first time.

CLOSING THOUGHTS

So that is it everyone. We realize it has been a long road. No one knows that better than our team. We have worked hard through some difficult times to make the game right and not release it half baked. And we are so appreciative of all of you that have hung in there with us. We also realize that there is still some road to hoe, as we have to get the game out on the various platforms and rewards shipped-out, but we are extremely excited to finally be releasing this game to everyone. We hope it lives up to your expectations. We realize that nothing can replace the nostalgia you may all have of playing Space Quest when you were younger, but think that SpaceVenture will be a proper spiritual successor to the series. Thanks again everyone!

I need to get back to updating these. I now record my games - so I can use them as notes for the website I have for my game. I got permission from my players to upload the audio. But the recording has only been the last few years; so the first sets of these are me recapping notes from the games, until I get to the games that were recorded. Channel is called Last Time On D&D...
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvoNQbO9-u9j2spetnbdpVw

Ah, sweet! So you play D&D?
Do you play in person or online?
I've been DMing my current game for several years now. We were in person, till COVID - then went online. Which worked out better, because one of the players lived far (so long drive) and another was out of state and the only one who was on Discord. Now we're on all Discord, and use the Beyond20 app with D&D Beyond.

Ironically, the 1D4 damage is the most painful, when you step on a D4 vs any other dice. :D

I love that you made a D&D reference.

To be clear, I didn't write that (the way it's phrased We realize every time) - this was a copy and paste of their update released today. :)

First off, thank you all again for your patience. We realize every time you hear from us, you are hoping we'll announce the official release of the game. We all wish that were the case as well. The main reason for this update being so late coming is because we were feeling like the problems would be resolved within a couple of more weeks of development.  That mindset kept going on and on. All we can do at this point is assure you that the game is going to be released and that we are very close to finishing.  

SO WHERE ARE THINGS WITH THE PROJECT RIGHT NOW?

Within this whole year, the main focus has been to fix existing bugs and to finish the save load system. After doing more testing and purposely trying to break things, we discovered even more issues with our existing system. Unfortunately this means further time spent in development. The issues discovered weren't just on the save load system itself but on how certain scenes of the game dealt with relating information back in ordered to be properly loaded. 

We do have some encouraging news on that though. In the next two weeks, a couple of our developers  (one of which is the lead programmer) are going to get together in an office and put in some 16-18  hour days to try and solve these existing issues. We are feeling pretty confident that this will stamp out the remaining bugs on the system and get us where we need it to be for releasing the actual game. 

As soon as we have more to update you all on, we'll post it here.

BESIDES THE SAVE LOAD SYSTEM, WHAT ELSE HAS HAPPENED DURING THE LAST FEW MONTHS?

NOTE: This info will be especially helpful if you played the Beta

• Bugs have been fixed in the Nostradamus areas of the game
• Missing narrative comedy has been added to the Nostradamus area of the game
• Missing SFX have been added to the Nostradamus area of the game
• Bug fixes for the objective system not working correctly in the Escape Pod area of the game
• Bug fixes on the cutscenes between the Nostradamus and Scraps Garage areas of the game
• Bug fixes in the Scraps garage area of the game including issues where sequences weren't happening in the correct order
• Bug fixes have occurred involving the Objectives System for helping players know what they have accomplished
• A SFX has been added for when the player has scored points
• New 3D music added for Scraps radio being heard higher or lower depending on which area you are in
• New music has been added to the Rooter Repair sequence
• A "Wimp out" (Think Space Quest 4 Monolith Burger) button has been added to the Rooter Repair sequence for people that really don't enjoy the kind of puzzle that is being used in that area
• In the Crane Pit area there have been some much cooler polish animations added 
• In the Crane Pit area there has also been a lot of polish added to SFX management involving junk piece collision
• Bug fixes have been added to the Crane Pit area involving Aces PDA not working correctly for downloaded Apps in the game. 
• Bug fixes to landing on Tatoorakis
• Bug fixes to Tatoorakis Hydrolator and Desert areas of the game involving a missing component sometimes not be available for finishing the sequence
• Bug fixes to the finishing cutscene for the Tatoorakis area of the game including ship take off
• Bug fixes to landing at Taco Nova
• Improvements to the Taco Nova mini game including a fun reason to get a high score
• Some artwork changes to Andromecon, including some additional alien creatures added

ART BOOK TEASER

One of the things that Mark Crowe has been working on along with game testing and artwork polish is the official art book for SpaceVenture. This is something he had not spent time on putting together since the game artwork wasn't officially complete. Now that 99.9% of the artwork is complete, he was able to put some time in on getting it together. We wanted to show you all a little teaser of what it will look like.

Remember, even though he has completed the book, this is just a teaser. The full artbook contains over 30+ pages.

CLICK HERE FOR THE FULL TEASER or use the QR Code from your phone

Hah! Yeah. I kind of wish they would have implemented "Check Points" (but that would probably require some coding changes) - like you can't get in the shuttle till X, Y and Z are done. The "Exit" for Planet A is not "open" until you've done A, B, C over at Planet Z, etc etc.

That way the items that Ace has when he goes to each area should be expected. So if you save, it should be with all the stuff required - because it's Check Points. And if you pick up Item_01 and not reached a Check Point, and restore - you will need to pick up Item_01 again.

Yeah. It's just been a long time with that particular bug.

Which is a shame, because the game is beautiful (I think) and really enjoyable (sans those tiny bugs). It'd easily been the best game I'd played when we got the latest version.

So I did use my inside wire to Chris Pope and heard, they're closer (fixed other bugs) - but still, yes, working on that Save/Load issue.

Not that I've heard, but I am not officially connected in any way. Would be cool to hear an update, since we're half way through 2022 - and we're creeping up on a year (Nov 2021) since that last update.