- Dev Log February 2026: Snowflakes and Evolution - 25 February 2026
Hi EveryoneI feel like I’m reaching a really good stage with the development of Orion’s End. Instead of feeling like the game needs more mechanics implemented, I’m feeling like it needs more content. While that might be just as time consuming, if not more so, it does mean the project is creeping closer to being a "game". A real game. Not just a collection of loosely fitting mechanics and ideas.The approach I’ve been taking towards development so far has been using a variation of the “snowflake method” used for writing novels - as created by author and theoretical physicist Randy Ingermanson. Essentially, I’d add a bunch of features to the game with only the barest of mechanics to them, so they at least exist in a simple form. Then, I’d go through each of them and add more details and complexity to the feature. Each aspect of a feature could be broken down into smaller parts, improved an…
- January 2026 Dev Log - 2 January 2026
Happy New Year everyone! It might seem like progress has been painfully slow for Orion’s End, and in some ways it really has been. That’s the price of being a solo part-time dev, unfortunately.The changes when implementing the new building system broke some old systems. So I have spent the last six weeks fixing some existing systems, and adding more to others that have been neglected for too long. Now I feel that the game is at the place where normal progress can resume. I’m really happy about that.While I’ve been very quiet for a long time, I hope to be able to share progress much more often in 2026.Below is an example of the work I’ve been doing since the last update:1) Better ground textures: A small change, but I think it makes the world feel less flat.2) Raised terrain now has ground texture that matches the normal ground. Again, a small change, but it’s a step towards the worlds l…
- November 2025 Update - 23 November 2025
Hi everyone.The game has finally recovered from having the new building system implemented. I’ve spent the last week making sure that the controller and keyboard/mouse work well with each other because there were a lot of conflicts. It’s much better now, and the game is back to a “playable” state. Of course it still needs a lot more work to make that experience a fun one though.The new grid based levels used for building allow for some really cool things, though.Base Building / Planet Map EditingThis is already implemented, but more building components and architectural styles are still coming. The building works best with mouse, but the controller does also work. The controls will be refined over time.The key points are:1. Planet maps that are edited in anyway are saved to the save game folder. One planet loading zone takes up only about 25kb of space, so the amount of planets/areas th…
- Devlog June 2025 - 25 June 2025
The galaxy has now opened up in Orion's End, with the addition of thousands of procedural worlds. Many of them are settled with unique towns and citizens. You can drive between the different towns in your speeder as you deliver packages to its residents. The galactic directory will help you locate people if you are having trouble finding them. I really feel like the bones of the game are really coming together and it will be a small jump to go from delivery jobs to bounty hunting or investigating suspects, depending upon how you want to live your life. The game still has a way to go, with a lot for work for only one person working on it, but the stage is being set for some pretty cool adventures to happen.The new systems include:Thousands of stars with multiple inhabited and uninhabited planets and asteroid belts. Inhabited planets can have from one to 10+ unique procedurally generated…
- Some really exciting news! - 13 March 2025
Hi Everyone This month I've got some really exciting news. Last year I applied for funding from Screen Australia in the form of their Emerging Gamemakers Fund, and I was successful. It's only just been officially announced, so I haven't been able to talk about it until now. What does that mean? Well, for the past few months I have been able to spend a lot more time working on the development of Orion's End. I have been able to make substantial progress that I wouldn't have been able to achieve without this support. The game systems are starting to connect together in such a way now, that providing a demo in the not-too-distant future is actually achievable. To me, that is really exciting. To complement this news, I have updated the Steam page to reflect the current state of the game, with new screenshots and a new trailer. In this trailer, for the first time, I haven't been able to give…
- Dev Log January 2025 - 30 January 2025
Hey everyone. It’s been two months since my last update, but that’s not because I haven’t been making progress, but quite the opposite. I’ve been working fulltime on Orion’s End for the last two months and have been so deep in it that I’ve found it hard to stop working on the game long enough to write a devlog or even post much on social media. But, I think it’s about time I gave some kind of update. So, this is what I’ve been working on over the last two months. Ship Design Orion’s End was originally going to have a static spaceship as your home, with a customisable living quarters and upgradable engines, weapons, shields etc. However, I do love the idea of having even more freedom than that. So, I commenced work on a whole ship design feature. Everyone starts with a set ship, but then you have the ability to customise the structure of the ship any way you like. Open World Areas on Pla…
- Dev Log November 2024 - 30 November 2024
Last month I showed the freedom that comes from going places you're not meant to. Well, this month I've taken that a little further and added a bit of stealth and the picking of pockets. If you don't like the profits you make from trading - then why not cut out the middleman and do some mining to fill up your cargo hold. I've also spent some time working on beautifying some of the planets.
- Dev Log October 2024 - 30 October 2024
Greetings Spacers Years ago I used to be exclusively a Playstation gamer, but when Morrowind was released I bought an Xbox just to play that game. The freedom Morrowind offered was irresistible to me. The first thing I did when I hopped off that ship was to find a door to lockpick. It wasn’t the allure of criminal activity that drove this, but rather the freedom to go places that you wouldn’t usually be able to go. So obviously when making my own game I would want to offer that kind of freedom too. This month I have been working on a few different aspects of the game, but the one that excites me the most is the ability to hack doors, giving access to any building in the game. The difficulty of the mini-game will depend on the type of door. A small common residence would be quite simple, but a military compound would be extremely difficult to complete without triggering the alarm. Later,…
- New Gameplay Trailer - September 2024 - 26 September 2024
Hi Spacers I'm really excited to finally be able to show a new trailer for Orion's End. It features some familiar and unfamiliar aspects of the game, and is a more accurate representation of where the game is currently at. For a while I struggled with some creative decisions concerning the development of Orion's End, which led to a period of non-progress, and eventually to me taking an extended break from its development. However, I have been back working on the game for some time now, and feel confident in recommencing regular updates here on Steam and social media. Today I have revealed a new trailer that shows off the current state of the game, which is sticking to the original style and concept for the most part, but has seen some changes (I think improvements) in space travel and planetary exploration. I have recently started a new job which is very draining on me mentally, so prog…
- A long overdue update on the games progress. - 19 July 2023
Hi everyone. It’s been quite a while since I’ve posted anything, anywhere about Orion’s End and I think I owe you an explanation. At the beginning of the year, I was sick for a while and had a short break from programming. When I was feeling better, I returned to Orion’s End and discovered something horrible. The basic gameplay of the game just wasn’t fun. Space travel was tedious after doing it a few times and ground combat was too imprecise. My initial idea was to base the gameplay elements on classic games from the 80s, and I think I was heading in the right direction, but I found that having a “vibe” of the 80s was great, but having the same level of controls and mechanics just didn’t work for the game I wanted to make. It wasn’t good enough. So, I decided to go silent for a little while until I had a plan of how to proceed. I didn’t expect this to be longer than a week or two. I lo…
- Dev Log November 2022 - 27 November 2022
November has been a very productive time for us, and we have seen some good progress in game elements that we've wanted to put into the game for a while now. As mentioned last month, two of these were character customisation and a customisable living area on the ship. Character Customisation The character customisation is not completed as yet, as it needs more variety in some of the features, such as hairstyle and accessories, but already it is offering a diverse assortment of possible characters. We have chosen to not have gender as a selectable trait and instead all features are available to every character, allowing you to create any character you like without boundaries. There is a random creation button, and most of the following characters were created with the simple press of a button. However, characters can be created by modifying every feature individually, also. Features incl…
- October 2022 Dev Log - 29 October 2022
Greetings Spacers! I'm running a little later than planned with the October Dev Log, but the good news is that it was because we were hard at work on Orion's End that I'm behind. And that means we have seen quite a bit of progress. Last Month's Promise Last month I said we'll be working on more ship and blaster upgrades. As planned, there is now a specialist NPC you visit who can upgrade the individual aspects of the hand blaster and ships weapon, shield and systems - strength, fire rate, recharge etc. The player decides what aspects of the equipment is most urgent. A slow firing but powerful weapon if you are a confident aim, or a low strength rapid fire weapon. Eventually, you could have a rapid-fire, high-power weapon, but we need to look at balancing the gameplay around that somehow. True Colours Due to an oversight on my part, the previous colour palette for Orion's End did not cap…
- September 2022 Devlog - 15 September 2022
Greetings Spacers! We've been hard at work on Orion's End over the last month, however, there hasn't been anything visually impressive to show off. Hence, why I've been so quiet on Twitter lately. (Twitter is usually where you will find frequent updates on what we've been doing lately.) A New Dimension A major change to the game has been the screen resolution, which has been increased from an already impressive 256 x 144 pixels, to a massive 320 x 180 pixels. It mightn't sound like much, but it has created a lot of freedom around menu screens and more importantly the internal space of the player ship. I originally loved the pokey little ship, but with plans to have a customisable living space on a lower deck, the additional room will be greatly appreciated when that is implemented. Unfortunately, this has meant that there was quite a bit of time modifying code and graphics to suit the n…
