I was reluctant to write this message in the hope of announcing a release date. Unfortunately, the game has been delayed and so, localization has not been able to begin.

I am really sorry, but the release has been pushed back to early next year. 

In the meantime, playtesting session will begin on the beta, first in French and then in English as soon as possible.

With the help of Leuchat and the latest playtesters, the game has improved in quality, and the interface and overall player experience have been greatly refined. 

Some sections of the manual are easier to understand. We realized that some key gameplay elements were not fully understood and needed special attention.

The tutorial has also greatly improved, with a better pace and easier learning curve.

The planet and advanced sections are difficult to balance. There are many things to build in order to progress in the game, and I had set the bar a little too high (clearly too high). I thought that modifying a few values would be enough to balance the game, but finding the right levers to make it neither frustrating nor too simple requires much more thought.

- The in-game ranking now includes bonuses based on your position.

Some rewards progress, such as the productivity bonus, and others help you develop by reducing import costs. This mechanic is one of many small changes implemented to make the game interesting from start to finish. 

- A lot of work has been done on optimization

In fairly advanced games, saves have been reduced by half, and loading times, which had increased with the switch to a tile-based planet and the addition of certain features, have been greatly reduced.

- Performance has been improved

There is about 50% more FPS. You can also limit the number of FPS for optimal performance. 

That's all for the news!

Thank you again for your support and all your feedback!

 If you are French-speaking and would like to participate in future playtests, please visit the Discord[discord.com] server.

Hello everyone!

Recently, I got a Steam Deck as a gift, and of course, the first thing that came to mind was: "My game has to run on this!" I naively thought two short weeks would be enough: one for controls, another for testing. Spoiler alert: I was way too optimistic! 😅

After more than a month of work, I'm super happy to announce that I finally have a playable demo on the Steam Deck! But let me tell you a bit about what went on behind the scenes of this adventure...

At first, I wanted to use all of the Steam Deck's options: trackpads, joysticks, buttons... I thought it was awesome to exploit every possibility. Except, when playing, I quickly realized it was anything but pleasant. My "lazy" side took over, and I got tired of juggling between trackpads and joysticks. So I radically simplified: goodbye trackpads! I streamlined the controls to use only the bare minimum, making the experience much smoother and more intuitive.

Once the controls were set, I hit the performance wall head-on. I knew my game wasn't an optimization champion, but on the Steam Deck, it was a disaster! I spent a good week tracking every millisecond, juggling parameters to find the right balance between fluidity and visual quality, and most importantly, to avoid draining the battery in less than 30 minutes. A real headache!

Valve has very strict guidelines for the "Verified" badge. I had to face two big challenges: making all text readable from 30 cm away (you almost needed a magnifying glass before!) and removing all mentions of a mouse or keyboard. That meant redoing all the in-game videos and explanations so they were perfectly adapted to the Steam Deck. A huge amount of work!

More than a month after receiving my Steam Deck, I'm incredibly proud to have managed to solve all the issues. It's immense satisfaction to see Space Drilling Station come to life on this machine.

I sincerely hope you'll enjoy playing it as much as I enjoyed making it compatible. Please don't hesitate to give me your feedback; it's essential for continuing to improve the game!