Devlog #4 — Survival, Cooking, Wreck Scavenging

It's been a while since my last update, but I haven't been idle: the latest update adds a complete survival layer to the game.

💧 Hunger, Thirst, and Culinary Arts Hunger and thirst bars have appeared on the HUD, which you'll need to keep an eye on from now on, or your health will suffer. You can crunch on harvested crops raw—brought to life by new sound effects—but true survivors use the cooking pot. Meals prepared here don't just fill you up; they also grant useful buffs, such as faster movement or health regeneration. As for your water supply, you can solve that right at your base with a new structure: the beautifully animated Lake Maker, which provides drinkable water.

🛰️ Exploration, Loot, and the First Encounter Once your home base is stable, head into space! New, explorable, and lootable shipwrecks are drifting in the dark, and you can also find loot crates with different rarity tiers deep in the mines or dropped by defeated pirates. The atmosphere during exploration has also leveled up, thanks to the dynamically adapting background music. On top of that, in a hidden corner of the system, you can stumble upon the first real NPC: the lonely hermit is happy to talk to you, and will reward your help with valuable seeds in exchange for completing tasks.

👽 Creep, Invasion, and Base Defense Of course, the danger has also escalated, as the Martian invasion has become much more aggressive. The creatures now target your buildings and animals as well, and the infectious creep they leave behind will destroy your farmlands. Up in space, UFO swarms make travel difficult, but to defend your base, you can now build massive iron walls that let you pass through while keeping the enemy out.