News
Astroneer Launched Game Preview
December 16, in the year of our Lord 2016 --
Greetings! We are excited, happy, nervous, and about a hundred
other emotions as we launch Astroneer into Game Preview for the
Xbox One and Windows Store! Delivering on these platforms in a
very short time with our very small team has been a hugely
ambitious feat for us. I often can scarcely believe we’ve
reached this point, and it’s with a sense of relief and of eager
anticipation for the next year of development that I’m writing
this. Let me tell you a bit about the game we’re releasing on
December 16.
Astroneer is a game about independent space explorers
prospecting the stars for fortune and glory. This is a game
about discovery and mystery, as you uncover rare artifacts and
the resources you need to find, on vast worlds where every cubic
inch of space can be explored. It’s a game about creativity, as
you use your tools to dig, build, sculpt, and shape the very
ground to serve your needs, whether utilitarian or aesthetic.
It’s a game about solitude, as you enjoy the beauty of your
surroundings as you might on a long hike or camping trip. It’s
also a game about cooperation, as you invite your friends to
share the experience with you in multiplayer co-op.
We started working on Astroneer as a part-time labor of love
more than two years ago. We were inspired by the legendary
space-race exploits and heroes that enamored us when we were
growing up: Titov and Gagarin, the Mercury Seven, the Apollo
program, the shuttle. We wanted to use our skills to create
something that could celebrate those inspirations, and do a
little bit to pass on a love of all things space to a new
generation — perhaps the next young Elon Musk, or Richard
Branson. We began full-time development in earnest over the past
year, and we’re finally ready to bring the alpha version of the
game to light.
Why Game Preview? Why Xbox? The ultimate vision for Astroneer is
a big one, and we’re a very new, very small team. We admire
early access development models for democratizing how games are
made. Without your help, Astroneer would only be built under the
thumb of a large publisher, who would decide if it was made at
all. If people like the game enough to want to see it be updated
and blossom, the team will grow and we’ll be able to invest in
Astroneer with the only outside influence being you, our
community. We chose to develop for a console in addition to PCs
because we don’t want to shut anyone out. The two audiences can
be very different and we want those perspectives. We chose Xbox
specifically because Microsoft, unique among console
manufacturers, offers the Game Preview program, allowing us to
pursue our preferred strategy, along with the Xbox Play Anywhere
program, which we love because it means if you buy the Xbox
version of the game, you also get to have the PC experience via
the Windows 10 store as well, at no extra cost (or vice versa).
Pretty nifty.
So, what should you expect? The game is very incomplete, after
all. Expect glitches. Lots of glitches. We’ve worked hard to
ensure a stable experience without game-breaking bugs, but there
definitely will be some we haven’t caught, along with many minor
issues. Expect to see some incomplete content. The very first
alpha release does not have the complete Astroneer experience
that the 1.0 game will have, but it does have the building
blocks, the scaffolding, and the essential nature of the
gameplay that we want your feedback on. Expect that we might put
out an update with changes so drastic that old saves could
become incompatible. We’ll try not to, but it can’t be ruled
out. Expect some sub-par framerates at times. Astroneer was not
originally built for Xbox, and the build came together by heroic
effort in a short time span. Many game and engine systems are
not yet ideally optimized for the hardware. If any of this
sounds like a deal breaker to you, by all means don’t buy it
yet. We don’t want anyone to have a negative experience. But if
you’re willing to put up with the early-adopter issues, we’d
absolutely love to engage you and your feedback.
by Brendan Wilson, General Manager of System Era
No word on a physical copy version of this game at this time.
Families are required to pay for Internet usage fees to download
this game. For more information click
here.