Hey folks. It's been awhile.

A few months ago, I started working on some changes to the core gameplay of Debris Field. I felt like there were some aspects of the game that could be improved on, and some of those changes ended up being pretty radical.


My goal with this update was to focus more on the exploration aspect of the game, while giving more tools to help navigate the world.

The main new tool for that is the world map.

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The map shows terrain in your vicinity as you explore, and you are able to freely pan around to see all of the terrain you have explored so far. By default, it only shows basic objects and objectives, however it can be upgraded to show the locations of enemies, upgrades, and resources, which ties into another new system:

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There are now various persistent upgrades that can be purchased using a new resources that can be found during a run: Ore.

The mutators also tie into this system

These upgrades are part of the new main menu experience, which is now set up like a Hub world, allowing you to learn the controls in relative safety.

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Game progression has also changed. To progress through a level, you now simply need to find and activate 3 nav beacons, which previously only served as guide points. The larger event stations are still present, but are now optional, and will serve a narrative purpose I will talk about some other time,

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The previous story content has been completely removed. I felt it didn't really fit the tone of the game, and just felt kind of pointless. I do still intent to tell a story, but from now on it will be told with game mechanics, not exposition.

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Beyond that, I have done a extensive performance and detail pass on every level of the game. I rewrote a lot of core systems, such as world generation and object interaction, which should result i some nice performance improvements.

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Not all aspects of the update are implemented yet. I still need to do an overall balance pass on the game, and the so far none of the story content is implemented. Also, some of the mutators aren't currently working as intended.

I also plan on adding cloud saved and steam achievements.

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You can try out what I have done so far by selecting the 3.0 beta under properties > betas. I can't promise it will always be stable, but it should be good to get an idea of where the game is heading.

The beta is available in the demo as well.

I will also be posting development updates on twitter @BinaryNomadDev, I will be sure to let you know if I break anything.

If you find a bug, or just have general feedback, feel free to post it on the steam forums or tweet it at me.

Anyway, time to get back to work. I hope that all of you are as excited as I am!

I wasn't really happy with a lot of things in the previous version, so I have overhauled a lot of core gameplay systems, as well as done an overall polish pass on some of the rougher aspects of the game.

In no particular order:

I didn't like how the story elements would interrupt gameplay, and overall they were a bit too wordy. To fix this, the tutorial text now plays during the warp in sequence, and the total word count has been massively reduced / simplified. It is now more focused on stating the overall objective, as well as explaining high level gameplay systems in a clear / concise way.

I also updated the end sequence with new visuals and a proper credits sequence.



I've updated the menu theming to focus a bit more on the black / orange color scheme, and a bit less on the orange / green, which didn't feel visually cohesive.

I also updated how navigation works for the ship selection which should hopefully feel a bit more intuitive

In the current version, there are radar dishes that point the way to the objective. These will now rotate into position when you find them, and have a new effect to indicate their direction that is much more striking than the old one.

Additionally, when you complete the objective, any old or new dishes you fly near will reorient to point at the warpgate, which is now the intended way of locating the exit.

I overhauled how boosting works. It now functions a bit more like nitro, giving you a big boost in speed in the direction you are facing, while allowing you to slightly alter your trajectory during the boost. You also keep the momentum of the boost for a little longer, which feels much more natural.



I reduced the fire rate and pack size of enemies early on, which should create a much smoother difficulty curve, and make the game feel a lot more fair.



I fixed a bunch of bugs! (although some of them were bugs from the new features I added). I also did some more optimization work, which should reduce the stutter when warping in to a level. There is always more work to be done here, so feel free to post in the community forum if you find anything that seems off.



Overall, I'm a lot happier with where the game is now, in terms of game feel and level progression. The game also feels a lot less punishing at the beginning, making it easier to get a solid run going.

As always, I would love to hear any feedback about the update, or about the game overall, so feel free to reach out to me on the community forums or on my Twitter


Good luck out there!