Development log
What is being built, why, and what has changed. Everything described is work in progress.
Test build 0.1.403: the habitat from the care package is furnished as a home, with smart glass, lights on the colony's power, a working colony terminal, a bunk, a chair, a shower and a toilet, each with its own animation and seen by the crew in co-op.
Test build 0.1.385: the opening film rewritten and told by Melanie, with new scenes inside Genesis's holds and out in the trial bay, a reworked bomb, and a fly-in to the Meridian the first time the title screen opens.
Test build 0.1.393: your friends on Discord see the mission you are on and where you are, with a picture for each place. Voices, music, sound effects and menu sounds each have their own volume, and the opening film's narration plays at the right level.
Test build 0.1.381: Nova Eridani from orbit as the opening film shows it, the ship coming down to a deployment orbit, a rebuilt pod bay, and the drop pod's launch as a short film. In the opening film, ships that leave their docks on their thrusters.
Test build 0.1.366: the rover comes down as a kit, a mission to make the colony's own plate, glass and circuits, one zoomable view with a round minimap, a new habitat and the capsule it lands in, and sleeping through the night.
Test build 0.1.370: a menu for the Strider, a slow and steady rover that charges itself downhill and warns you before its battery runs out, the visor as the interface, and drills that run on cells.
Test build 0.1.363: a six-wheeled electric rover for up to four, built light for the long voyage out, and the real night sky, a compass set by the sun and a map of the whole land, now in testers' hands.
October's work is in the testers' hands: dangerous nights, power, survival and fifty remodelled machines. Next comes the real night sky as seen from Nova Eridani, a compass that will not settle, and a map of the whole land.
Coming in the next test build: nights with something in them, street lights and power to hold them back, buildings delivered from orbit, and a supply container that stays.
The sun now crosses the sky over an hour of real time, the lakes and the sea can be swum in, and new buildings line up with their neighbours. Plus the star system the sky is being built from.
Where walls meet, the joint is mortared and the corner is bonded. A wall built on from another carries its bond on, and a single brick slots into the course.
Nova Eridani can now be played together. One to four players share a world, a story and a colony, from the damaged Meridian down to the first industry on the surface.
Foundations that follow the ground, walls built from real courses, openings that remove bricks and receive lintels, and timber that has to be supported.
Robot logistics, forestry and the first production chain: why every log in Nova Eridani has to be carried somewhere by something.
Why the ship that carries humanity's future started life as a freighter, and what that decision did to its shield, its interior and its bridge.
Private testing · Steam page later
A private beta for a small group of testers is being set up, and the store page will follow. Until then, every change is written up in the development log, with an RSS feed so you never miss one.
Nova Eridani is in development. Showcase 01 — “Arrival” is in private testing. Screenshots are from the in-development build.