Adrift Update on May 12, 2026: Guides and Quality of Life

After some time from release, I've heard from players about certain issues/bugs on Adrift. Since I'm a solo-dev I felt to prioritize only certain issues brought up to address and fix to make sure a majority of the player base can get from start-to-finish gameplay.

Some of the Issues mentioned:

1. Steam Deck Optimization

2. Guidance within the inventory and crafting

3. Pop-Ups on items/collectibles to show players how to collect certain items (and when to collect them).

4. Addressing players from being confused on how to progress to the next Chapter.

5. Conflicting key binds that sometimes-prevented players from easily exiting certain inventory/map pages

As this weekend has been quite busy for me, I was able to add early versions of fixes to some of the following issues:

• Guidance with inventory and crafting using Guiding Arrows

• A pop-up for resources in the world to ensure players know what they can and cannot collect at certain points of the game.

• An adjustment to certain timed events throughout the world that fits more appropriately with the pacing of Adrift.

• A small addition to guidance within the map.

• Some additional contexts in the Main HUD with items to make it more clear for players on what they can do with certain items in the inventory.

• An issue with Charge-Gems being consumed in mass doesn't actually apply to length of time. (For example, you craft/consume 3 charge gems at once will be the equivalent if you crafted/consumed 1 charge gem, thus wasting 2 extra gems)

• Changed a majority of Stand-Over-To-Collect items to just be able to look at the item and press "E" to collect the items for easier accessibility and collection. (I myself found it weird to stand over the item and felt unusual compared to collecting half of the other items within the game)

• Added a "BTW" section in the credits for more understanding from the majority player base to save my sanity.

• Changed and removed some toggles that were the reason behind some binds not allowing players from exiting the inventory and map pages on screen, or that you had to click to unfocus from the widget to allow exit.

I've taken a second look at the time required to rebuild the game for the Steam Deck player base and my prediction is, the game will be some time before it's accessible (at least with a stable average FPS) for Steam Deck Consoles. So as of right now Adrift will remain a Desktop-Only experience.