- End of 2025 News Update: What I've Been Up To - 4 December 2025
Greetings Commanders,It's been several months since my last news update. Coming up on the seven year anniversary of Starcom: Nexus entering Early Access, the end of the year, and a current big sale on Starcom: Unknown Space, this seems like a good time to give an update on what I've been up to and what my current plans are.As you may recall, Unknown Space had its 1.0 release in September 2024 after about 20 months in Early Access. Then I spent the next nine months working on bug fixes, some content updates, localization, Steam Deck verification, etc.This past summer, after a much needed break, I started thinking about what I wanted to do next: take a longer break, start work on another Starcom game, work on a different kind of game, or something else.Around that time I posted a survey asking people for their input on what they liked and wanted to see in a potential sequel. As a reminder…
- Unity Security Patch - 3 October 2025
Patch for Unity Security Issue CVE-2025-59489. Also includes update to Turkish localization content.
- Video Dev Log: How Starcom Keeps Track of a Huge Open World - 12 September 2025
Earlier this week I updated the default build with a small patch.The main thing I've been working on since the last update has been investigating Unity's ECS system. That has been a huge learning experience with positive and negatives that will eventually warrant several blog posts. But in the process I needed to recreate a version of Starcom's spatial management system. So I used the opportunity to record a brief video log giving an overview of how it works for interested players and/or developers:Until next time!-- Kevin
- Kepler 21550 Minor Patch - 10 September 2025
Minor patch to fix: Localization bug preventing some text fields from being shown if user's system language was set to Turkish Fixed potential issue with user content Fixed typo
- Dev Update: August 8, 2025 - 8 August 2025
Since Starcom: Unknown Space entered Early Access in 2022, I've posted weekly updates on the game's development, with only a few scheduled interruptions. While I am still doing work on the game and releasing patches as necessary, I've started turning my eye toward what's next.I've tentatively begun research on a possible follow-up game, imaginatively code named "Starcom 4" (Why not Starcom 3? Because my first Starcom game was a Flash game just called Starcom. The project that eventually became Starcom: Nexus was called Starcom 2, and so the project that eventually became Starcom: Unknown Space was called Starcom 3).Right now, the time I'm spending in development is mostly getting up to speed on various technology and software changes that might be useful if and when Starcom 4 begins to solidify. As such, there's not a lot to report on a weekly basis. I still plan on posting updates for…
- Player Survey Responses - 25 July 2025
Two weeks ago I put up a player survey to gauge interest in a possible future Starcom game. So far, I've received over 600 responses. Most of the players who left comments expressed enthusiastic interest in either another game or DLC. The general vibe I got was similar to the responses after Nexus: more of the same, don't change too much.One of the specific questions I asked was about the mission/quest guidance system which a challenge during Starcom: Unknown Space, particularly during Early Access. One of the most complaints was from players who found themselves stuck with no obvious way to progress the game. According to the survey, two-thirds of players thought could have used a bit more guidance in one or two places, but otherwise was good. 28% felt there was just the right amount of guidance. 4% of players thought there was way too little guidance, and 2% thought there was too much…
- Update 21548 - 22 July 2025
The default branch has been updated to Kepler 21548. This updates/addresses the following:Fixes an issue where anomaly roll modifiers would not be reset between encounters, potentially leading to scenarios with very large bonuses or penalties until the game was reloaded.Fixed an issue where it was possible to load a design in the shipyard in planning mode without the tech prerequisitesAdded changes to Steam workshop integration to support future player-created content beyond ship designsAdded photoseizure warning to load screenFixed rare null reference exceptionMinor typosIf you encounter any issues, please post them in the discussion forum, or email me at [email protected].
- Weekly Update: July 18, 2025 - 18 July 2025
Last week I made a long post about ideas for a potential sequel, as well as a survey to gauge player interest in different possible changes. If you haven't already, please take a moment to fill it out and let me know your thoughts.On Tuesday, I posted a small patch to the opt-in Beta branch that fixes an issue a player reported allowing players to leave the shipyard after loading a ship with tech prerequisites they didn't have.The Beta branch also has a few other updates:Fixed for an issue where anomaly skill modifiers sometimes wouldn't clear, causing them to add up over a sessionAdded necessary changes in anticipation of expanding Steam Workshop integration to allow importing of player made stories/content via the Creator ToolAdded seizure warning to load screenFix for rare null reference exceptionSeveral typosAssuming no issues reported by testers on the latest patch, I plan to promo…
- Game Updates, Creator Tool, Player Survey & Future Plans - 11 July 2025
First, as previously mentioned, the game is now officially Steam Deck Verified! Through the help of players, I've been gradually improving controller and Deck support since 1.0 launch. The last mile from "Deck Playable" to "Deck Verified" took some time, mostly because the game has a number of screens with a fair amount of text. The Deck has a resolution of 1280 x 800 and Steam has a minimum font size requirement. Getting all text instances to always display at a minimum size involved going through many UIs and manually tweaking some values and positions.Starcom CreatorAlso, I've made the Creator Tool publicly available. This is an experimental version of the tool that I used to author the game's anomalies, missions, stories, etc. My hope is that some interested players will create content using it. It does not require any programming background, but having some technical background hel…
- Weekly Update: July 4, 2025 - 4 July 2025
Quick update this week: I'm currently working on a longer news/update post and player survey, but they're not quite ready yet.Last week I talked about making the Creator Tool available to all players, but was blocked due to an issue in the Steamworks backend that prevented it from being visible. With Valve's help, that's been resolved and now any interested player should be able to see it within Steam. Note that it appears in "Tools" not "Games".On a related topic, there's an Opt-in Beta available that fixes a skill check issue and adds the necessary changes for supporting Workshop published Creator content. Until next update!Kevin
- Weekly Update: June 27, 2025 - 27 June 2025
There's a new Opt-in Beta available. This is a minor update:First, it hopefully addresses a long standing bug that caused skill check modifiers after certain anomalies not to be reset, leading to weird modifiers, like +1530%.Two, it implements necessary changes for future Workshop story content. That is, once the Creator Tool is ready, Creators will be able to share their content with other players via the Workshop. As mentioned last week, I'm also preparing to make the Creator Tool publicly available for all players, so anyone who is interested in trying it out is able to, without me having to email a key.Right now, the next step in making the Creator Tool publicly available is... figuring out how to make the Creator Tool publicly available. It exists in Steam as a "Tool" (which is a distinct product category from "Game"). But pressing the "Release" button doesn't seem to have added it…
- Weekly Update: June 20, 2025 - 20 June 2025
Two weeks ago I talked about posting a player survey in the next couple weeks. I still plan on doing that, but decided to prioritize a few other tasks. One of those, as I posted about last week, was getting the game Steam Deck Verified.The other is working on a patch for the game. As I've mentioned in the past, I've made the "Creator Tool" (the tool I build to author the game's anomalies, missions and stories) available for beta testing. I don't know how much interest there is in this tool, but at least some users have been experimenting with it. But there's currently no way for them to share their creations, so I need to make some modifications to the game's Steam workshop logic before that can happen.Also, a player has helped me identify a potential source of skill check bugs that can accumulate during the course of a session. Fixing that and getting the "Creator" enabled version of t…
- Starcom: Unknown Space is Steam Deck Verified! - 13 June 2025
Since the game's official 1.0 launch in September of last year, I've been making continuous updates to the game with new content, bug fixes and QoL improvements. Among these have been enhancements to controller and Steam Deck™ support.The game has been officially marked "playable" for a while, but the last mile to go from "playable" to "verified" was a bit of challenge.There are a few screens in the game that are fairly information dense, particularly the shipyard. The Deck has a resolution of 1280 x 800 and Valve requires that the smallest text be a minimum of 9 pixels high to be Deck verified. That's the "mean line" height, i.e., the height of lower-case letters. One of the QoL improvements made a while back was text scaling, so if the game detects that it's running on a Deck it will automatically scale up the fonts. But there were a few places where this doesn't work due to technical…
- Weekly Update: June 6, 2025 - 6 June 2025
In the my last news update I announced my wife and I were taking a trip to Scandinavia at the end of May. Now we're back.Nordic GameIn the first half of the trip we were in Malmö, Sweden for the Nordic Games conference. This was the first time I've gone to a game developer conference and didn't have a concrete agenda: my main reasons for selecting this one specifically were: a) it happened to fall at a time where I felt like I could take a break, b) Copenhagen (a 20 minute train ride from Malmö) is a direct flight from Boston, and c) I've never been to Scandinavia.I had a lot of fun, talked to a number of interesting developers, and saw a bunch of cool talks on different aspects of game development.The two most interesting talks I saw were one by Fawzi Mesmar (designer at Ubisoft) and one by Marie Mejerwall (systems designer) on AI.Mesmar's talk was on creativity, and I liked that he ha…
- Minor Deck Patch - 3 June 2025
Kepler 21540 is a very minor patch to address some text scaling issues for Steam Deck verification.
- Weekly Update: May 16, 2025 - 16 May 2025
Next week I'll be traveling with my wife to attend the Nordic Game conference in Malmö, Sweden. This is actually the first time I've ever attended a game developer conference: when I first started out doing indie game development, it was not at all clear that this would be a profitable endeavor, so I resisted any expense that wasn't absolutely essential for making the game I was working on. At a certain point the Starcom games became successful enough that a conference would be a reasonable expense, but I was so overwhelmed with the literal thousands of tasks that I rarely felt like I could spare the time, and when I could it didn't necessarily align with an industry event I was interested in. Now that Starcom: Unknown Space has been out of Early Access for 8 months, I'm still making updates, but they aren't critical patches: mostly QoL improvements, bug fixes and addressing the few rem…
- Weekly Update: May 8, 2025 - 8 May 2025
(Posting a day earlier than usual because I'm out of town this weekend.) On Sunday I posted build 21533 which addressed a few QoL type issues and aimed to fix several of the remaining "stuck" issues. These are spots where the main storyline appears to stall out. Most of these cases arise from the player doing something different from how I expected and therefore missing or not triggering the next directive. One scenario that I've seen multiple reports for at this point is where a storyline is waiting for the player to return to Celaeno, at which point Cdre Yu will give an update and/or new assignment. So one of the new changes is to have a crew member suggest returning to Celaeno if Yu has an active "attract" conversation (i.e., a conversation that causes the Operations button to glow) for an extended period of time. This was a bit tricky for technical reasons. When I designed the conve…
- Kepler 21533 Update - 4 May 2025
Various fixes to areas where players have reported being stuck with no clear way to advance the main storyline, plus some QoL improvements: Visited trade planets are considered "explored" for purposes of dimming explored stars (existing saves may need to revisit system) "Highlight investigate" will also cause unexplored star systems to pulse Add First Officer tip about star dimming If Cdre Yu has a new "glowing" conversation topic for an extended period of time, eventually a crew member will suggest returning to Celaeno The Heretic Portal "Kaleidoscope" hint no longer advances when the player revisits the portal, instead it waits for the player to activate it Add hint lane to Southern Chariot if player hightails away from Chariot before it jumps A random void system with an ocean planet is added mid-game to ensure Floral Blight can always be completed
- Weekly Update: May 2, 2025 - 2 May 2025
Very quick update this week: On Monday I posted a small patch that adds the ability to load a blueprint even if you don't have the requirements while in planning mode (plus a few minor other fixes). I've also started work on another minor update that will attempt to address some of the remaining cases where the main storyline has appeared "stuck" for some players. Until next week! - Kevin
- Kepler Patch 21531 - 28 April 2025
Minor updates: If the player is in Planning Mode in the shipyard they will be able to load blueprints that they do not have the tech/resources for "Exit station" and "Delete saves" alert/confirmation dialogues now allow selection of a button when using the controller Several more minor typos
