- 1.2 - Large update, including new languages - 23 November 2015
The last version of Devouring Stars changes a lot of things. * Now the Destiny map is more open, you can decide to start a run by any level (only the last one remains locked) * I changed a couple of things to render nicer backgrounds, with more vivid colors. * The UI for unit selection and movement is more clear and (I hope) prettier. * The game is now available in three more languages! Spanish, Italian and German. * I removed (hopefully) the last remaining bugs. That includes a new way to handle resolution, which should remove the previous bugs encountered (please tell me if you still have issues). Also, the last solo gameplay bug (when multiple units try to activate the same portal) should be treated. Enjoy! François, game dev.
- 1.2 - Large update, including new languages - 23 November 2015
The last version of Devouring Stars changes a lot of things. * Now the Destiny map is more open, you can decide to start a run by any level (only the last one remains locked) * I changed a couple of things to render nicer backgrounds, with more vivid colors. * The UI for unit selection and movement is more clear and (I hope) prettier. * The game is now available in three more languages! Spanish, Italian and German. * I removed (hopefully) the last remaining bugs. That includes a new way to handle resolution, which should remove the previous bugs encountered (please tell me if you still have issues). Also, the last solo gameplay bug (when multiple units try to activate the same portal) should be treated. Enjoy! François, game dev.
- 1.1 - Dance & difficulty - 11 August 2015
Devouring Stars reaches 1.1, with a couple of corrections. The main one is about the difficulty curve. The game was a bit unfair for many people out there : you build your small armada and find yourself in a tough run that just destroy your tribe (every tribe has a different set of behaviors and some are especially difficult - like fighting Dardanians at the end of a run or Molossians in middle game). That mechanic was intended, because it's a good way to try to build a new set of entities and explore possibilities. But starting fresh every time can leave you dangerously out of options, especially towards the endgame. There were three outcome to a run : you win and go forward, you lose and lose all entities, you try another destiny and lose all entities. I didn't touch the first two (so it will still be a challenge to finish a run), but if you draw another destiny, you will be able to k…
- 1.1 - Dance & difficulty - 11 August 2015
Devouring Stars reaches 1.1, with a couple of corrections. The main one is about the difficulty curve. The game was a bit unfair for many people out there : you build your small armada and find yourself in a tough run that just destroy your tribe (every tribe has a different set of behaviors and some are especially difficult - like fighting Dardanians at the end of a run or Molossians in middle game). That mechanic was intended, because it's a good way to try to build a new set of entities and explore possibilities. But starting fresh every time can leave you dangerously out of options, especially towards the endgame. There were three outcome to a run : you win and go forward, you lose and lose all entities, you try another destiny and lose all entities. I didn't touch the first two (so it will still be a challenge to finish a run), but if you draw another destiny, you will be able to k…
- 1.07 & 1.08 - Minor bugs - 13 July 2015
Hi there! It seems some people encountered different bugs involving the Steam overlay (when a notice appears, it "hides" some elements in the game like the stars, which could be an issue :-). Hopefully this should be solved in the updated build. Enjoy!
- 1.07 & 1.08 - Minor bugs - 13 July 2015
Hi there! It seems some people encountered different bugs involving the Steam overlay (when a notice appears, it "hides" some elements in the game like the stars, which could be an issue :-). Hopefully this should be solved in the updated build. Enjoy!
- 1.06 - Multiplayer - 9 July 2015
Following the first feedbacks on the MP, here is a list of improvements: - Better synchronization: you won't find yourself in a situation where both players can win the match (although it's an interesting idea :-). - Improved Lamia's behaviour ("vamp" the other units) in MP. She should work fine now. - Removed a bug that was randomly destroying units at start (really frustrating one). - Added a full tree so you can decide which units to select during the draft selection and the game. - The game won't exit too violently if you press "esc" or press the exit button, it will ask you nicely if you really want to do that, like everywhere else in the game. There will be other improvements soon. Enjoy !
- 1.06 - Multiplayer - 9 July 2015
Following the first feedbacks on the MP, here is a list of improvements: - Better synchronization: you won't find yourself in a situation where both players can win the match (although it's an interesting idea :-). - Improved Lamia's behaviour ("vamp" the other units) in MP. She should work fine now. - Removed a bug that was randomly destroying units at start (really frustrating one). - Added a full tree so you can decide which units to select during the draft selection and the game. - The game won't exit too violently if you press "esc" or press the exit button, it will ask you nicely if you really want to do that, like everywhere else in the game. There will be other improvements soon. Enjoy !
- 1.05 - Chaos, language, resolution - 8 July 2015
This is a small update following the feedbacks I received after the launch. - Chaos maximum attraction power will not be achieved as quickly as before. Chaos is still a very powerful unit, but at least is shouldn't be totally unstoppable :-). Note that a large Briareos can beat even a very large Chaos. - You can now switch between the languages (for now, English and French), in the options. - It seems like a couple of players have resolutions issues on Mac. If that happens to you (black screen or flickering screen), try to press "R", "E" and "S" at the same time. This will force the Window mode (800*600) and erase any faulty resolution settings. If you restart the game then, it should apply your desktop resolution. If it still doesn't work, please contact me. - Solved a small UI problem when you open the reference tree in the Destiny Map. If you have feedbacks, problems, please contact…
- 1.05 - Chaos, language, resolution - 8 July 2015
This is a small update following the feedbacks I received after the launch. - Chaos maximum attraction power will not be achieved as quickly as before. Chaos is still a very powerful unit, but at least is shouldn't be totally unstoppable :-). Note that a large Briareos can beat even a very large Chaos. - You can now switch between the languages (for now, English and French), in the options. - It seems like a couple of players have resolutions issues on Mac. If that happens to you (black screen or flickering screen), try to press "R", "E" and "S" at the same time. This will force the Window mode (800*600) and erase any faulty resolution settings. If you restart the game then, it should apply your desktop resolution. If it still doesn't work, please contact me. - Solved a small UI problem when you open the reference tree in the Destiny Map. If you have feedbacks, problems, please contact…
- Celestial War: Devouring Stars Released - 3 July 2015
I’m not massively into war, if I’m honest. War’s quite bad, isn’t it? Still, shooting men’s faces off in video games is pretty fun. However, if you’re stirring up a fictional war for a video game, I’d be far more interested in unknowable celestial entities weaponising the very cosmos, devouring and merging stars to create colossal murdertools. If we’re going to die, let us be wiped out by something so vast it doesn’t even know we exist. Aye, that’s a nice premise all right, and the one behind Devouring Stars . After a stretch on Steam Early Access, developers Nerial today properly launched the celestial RTS. It’s on Steam for Windows, Mac, and Linux at 6 right now. …
- Release V1.0 + a surprise for Early Access players - 3 July 2015
This is it. After two months of celestial tweaks, stars painting and titanic AI coding, Devouring Stars is finally out. The game is fully playable and, I certainly hope, highly enjoyable. That said, there's always room for improvement so I will continue to update the game regularly. This 1.0 version adds a very long list of final tweaks and corrections I won't list exhaustively. Here are the main new changes: New option to better differentiate the enemies. If you had difficulties differentiating enemies from your units, an option can now be selected to clarify the action. Final review of the soundtrack by Ryan (with a few additions in the special levels). A couple of new effects (when you switch off the active pause for example). Final AI tweaks. the "Leader" notion has been removed as it was too opaque for most players and resulted in very dumb behaviors, enemies are now more reactive…
- Release V1.0 + a surprise for Early Access players - 3 July 2015
This is it. After two months of celestial tweaks, stars painting and titanic AI coding, Devouring Stars is finally out. The game is fully playable and, I certainly hope, highly enjoyable. That said, there's always room for improvement so I will continue to update the game regularly. This 1.0 version adds a very long list of final tweaks and corrections I won't list exhaustively. Here are the main new changes: New option to better differentiate the enemies. If you had difficulties differentiating enemies from your units, an option can now be selected to clarify the action. Final review of the soundtrack by Ryan (with a few additions in the special levels). A couple of new effects (when you switch off the active pause for example). Final AI tweaks. the "Leader" notion has been removed as it was too opaque for most players and resulted in very dumb behaviors, enemies are now more reactive…
- Early Access v 0.6 - tutorial & language - 16 June 2015
As the release is a lot closer now, updates are happening more often. Let's hope the game (and its dev :-) won't break. This version includes : - Single: renewed tutorial to reflect the last improvements to the control scheme. Also, the tutorial is shorter and less messy towards the end. - Single: correction of sound levels. - Single: new music for Ulysse, Curbas (dance) and Hephaestos levels. If you don't want to play the game again to see curbas, here is what it looks like (spoiler!!) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rfz60ZHj870 - Single: small corrections on the "How to play" page. - Single: replugged French version. Next job will be to work on trading cards. I have an idea that could be nice for that one...
- Early Access v 0.6 - tutorial & language - 16 June 2015
As the release is a lot closer now, updates are happening more often. Let's hope the game (and its dev :-) won't break. This version includes : - Single: renewed tutorial to reflect the last improvements to the control scheme. Also, the tutorial is shorter and less messy towards the end. - Single: correction of sound levels. - Single: new music for Ulysse, Curbas (dance) and Hephaestos levels. If you don't want to play the game again to see curbas, here is what it looks like (spoiler!!) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rfz60ZHj870 - Single: small corrections on the "How to play" page. - Single: replugged French version. Next job will be to work on trading cards. I have an idea that could be nice for that one...
- Early access v 0.5 - some minor improvements - 15 June 2015
This build adds a way to assign hotkeys in order to quickly select different groups of units. To define a hotkey, keep any key pressed while you do a selection (by drawing a rectangle or clicking on an unit), you will then be able to retrive that selection by pressing the key. It works with every key of your keyboard, except space, tab and esc (used as shortcuts everywhere else). This was asked early on in the dev. I may keep the explanation of that in the "how to play" page for now. Also, this build includes some bug corrections: - Single; The golem is not attacking you anymore when you summon him. - Single/MP: There can be only one Chaos in the area where you are. So if you tried to build a Chaos you ended up with Anchiale instead, which was (really) annoying. Now you just can't merge Briareos and Narcissus, it won't work (except if there's no Chaos on the stage). - Single: Mixed some…
- Early access v 0.5 - some minor improvements - 15 June 2015
This build adds a way to assign hotkeys in order to quickly select different groups of units. To define a hotkey, keep any key pressed while you do a selection (by drawing a rectangle or clicking on an unit), you will then be able to retrive that selection by pressing the key. It works with every key of your keyboard, except space, tab and esc (used as shortcuts everywhere else). This was asked early on in the dev. I may keep the explanation of that in the "how to play" page for now. Also, this build includes some bug corrections: - Single; The golem is not attacking you anymore when you summon him. - Single/MP: There can be only one Chaos in the area where you are. So if you tried to build a Chaos you ended up with Anchiale instead, which was (really) annoying. Now you just can't merge Briareos and Narcissus, it won't work (except if there's no Chaos on the stage). - Single: Mixed some…
- Early access v 0.4 - so many improvements - 5 June 2015
We're releasing a new update that should improve the player's experience. First new things: - MP: a draft screen where you and your opponent are able to choose your crew members: depending on your choice, you will be able to go for one strategy or the other. It's really a rush game so the entities you start with are crucial. Hopefully there should be more players on the MP soon so I could have some feedbacks about this. - MP: a "handicap" that depends on the number of games you're able to win. The handicap is an evaluation of your strength and something that will give you a slight disadvantages on the field: the more handicap you have, the further you start from the nebula's centre. It's not much, but enough to balance the encounters between pure newbie and more experienced players. New players (less than 5 victories) basically start in the middle of the starfield, where there are plent…
- Early access v 0.4 - so many improvements - 5 June 2015
We're releasing a new update that should improve the player's experience. First new things: - MP: a draft screen where you and your opponent are able to choose your crew members: depending on your choice, you will be able to go for one strategy or the other. It's really a rush game so the entities you start with are crucial. Hopefully there should be more players on the MP soon so I could have some feedbacks about this. - MP: a "handicap" that depends on the number of games you're able to win. The handicap is an evaluation of your strength and something that will give you a slight disadvantages on the field: the more handicap you have, the further you start from the nebula's centre. It's not much, but enough to balance the encounters between pure newbie and more experienced players. New players (less than 5 victories) basically start in the middle of the starfield, where there are plent…
- Early Access V0.3 - Multiplayer! - 13 May 2015
So that's it, following the first feedback I received, I decided to develop a real multiplayer mode, next to the existing local. It's still in alpha and there's a good chance you won't find someone to play with you at all time. But it's there, and it works ! Right now it's the most simple way to do multiplayer: you go in "multi" and announce you're ready to play. Anyone around can accept your offer and the game starts from that point. I strongly encourage you to use the game discussion page to organise timeframe to play. From that point, I plan to add : - A way to select units to play with - Some integration with Steam (like play with friends) - Different multiplayer scenarios (today it's a really simple skirmish) - Some basic leaderboard stuff Here you go! I hope you enjoy that, it's been quite difficult to do right and the server is relatively small yet, but I think it's a good start.…
