It has been an awesome year, in no small part thanks to you guys. Back in March of 2014, we made a simple little ship editor available for everyone to try. Back then, we took a risk and stepped off what everyone thought was the normal way to release games. For over a year, we took your feedback and support and used it to turn that little ship editor into a more fully fledged game. Although an open development cycle seemed a little daunting at first, releasing the game for free and updating it every two weeks with direct input from the community has been invaluable to us. And if this past year is any indication, we have no doubt that with your help Interstellar Rift will continue to grow and expand.
But today is not about us, it is about you! As a token of our gratitude for your support, we are pleased to present everyone who has registered an account and has played the game between November 11th 2014 and June 2nd 2015 with a Steam copy of Interstellar Rift. Thank you all!
To claim your Steam copy, you can head over to this page:
Simply log in with your Interstellar Rift Account and you will be given a key which you can apply to your Steam Account.
We sincerely hope you’ll stick with us as we bring Interstellar Rift into the next stage of its development. The next few months are going to bring some very interesting features into the game such as combat and trade.
The final frontier – Interstellar Rift development update 032
Today is a red letter day. This will be the final update for the free pre-alpha version of Interstellar Rift. The past year has been a giant experiment for us, releasing the game in a barely playable state. Initially with just the ship editor, then the ability to walk around a few weeks later right up to the point where players were flying their star ships around in multiplayer. Now we are ready to take the next step. As some of you already know, Split Polygon is a team of 5 who work on Interstellar Rift in their spare time. This has granted us a lot of creative freedom, but also has some drawback. We want Split Polygon to grow and become more dedicated to creating innovative video games and pushing the limits of technology, with Interstellar Rift leading the charge. In order to achieve this goal we have decided to bring Interstellar Rift to Steam Early Access.
A move that would have been impossible without the support of you, our awesome and growing community. Thanks to your efforts we made it through Steam Greenlight in just a few days, and your feedback has been invaluable to get Interstellar rift into the state it is today. From the bottom of our hearts, Thank you!
In the coming months you will see the same if not a greater level of commitment from us that you’ve come to expect over the past year, with updates every two weeks and an “ask us anything” policy all the time. Now that the core of the game is working it’s time to start adding more of the fun stuff. Soon you will start seeing features like combat and trade make their way into the game.
Some of the things you can expect us to implement in the coming months are:
Combat – Both in space and on foot. players will be able to take on each other in dogfights, and firefights on stations and inside ships. Or multi ship fleet engagements.
Trading – Players will be able to sell their mined resources to to stations and players for credits.
Revamped inventory – We are going to add the inventory to the grip to better accommodate player items and redesign the way you carry cargo.
Player items – Players will be able to purchase, craft and loot items such as weapons, medpacks, oxygen tanks and more.
Multiple star systems – Players will be able to jump between star systems using their jump drive. The further away from the starting system you go the more dangerous it becomes.
Procedural galaxy – Every star system will be generated in a unique way ensuring an infinite galaxy to explore.
Character customization – Players will be able to craft, buy and loot new player armor pieces, you will also be able to choose a gender and color your armor pieces.
*the above list is in no particular order
Aside from the Early Access announcement, we also bring a patch. This week, we’re adding respawning on ships, some editor Improvements and login and out on the same location. When you log out and log back in you will now be in the same location. No longer will you find your ship lost in limbo with no way to quickly get back after you log out.
The other big new feature is the Logicorp Molecular Assembler, this new device replaces the old non functional respawner tube. This device will allow you to respawn on your own ship or the starter station when you die so long as the device is powered. So make sure you install the new Logicorp Molecular Assembler on all your ships.
You’ll also notice the escape menu is completely revamped. Instead of a popup, it is now integrated in the GRIP. Here, you’ll also find a respawn button. This is a stopgap measure to prevent players from getting stuck on their ship. Once we have more systems online there will be better ways to prevent players from getting stuck on their ships.
We’ve also added some small visual improvements to the editor, new indicators will now show you where you can and can’t place certain interior tiles as well as a grid highlight. In the hull editor you can also see the pivot of certain blocks so you’ll know at what point they rotate.
This has been a great year and we are eagerly looking forward to what the future holds.
In the following weeks we will be making another big announcements leading up to the release.
If you have any questions regarding Interstellar Rift and our move to steam early access please don’t hesitate to ask us, you can reach us through the forums Twitter, Facebook or you reach us through our new Ask.fm
Thank you!
The Split Polygon Team
A teleportation conundrum – Interstellar Rift development update – 031
Today we are implementing teleporters in a way they were originally intended. The regular teleporters that have been in the game since we first launched the pre-alpha over a year ago now have a range of 500 meters. This means you will no longer be able to teleport from the starter station to the mining station using these teleporters. Instead, we are adding the long range teleporter. This new device has required us to slightly redesign the concourse of the starter station and the arrival bay on the mining station to accommodate for this new teleporter. The long range teleporter has a range of 12.5 kilometers and requires more power and also a new resource, silicon to build. When activating the console it will also display how much power is needed to teleport to that location.
In addition to teleporter ranges, we are also changing how teleporters work. Over the past year many of you have asked us why the control console is on the outside of the teleporter. The answer is, because the teleporter was not working the way we intended. Now, once you have chosen a destination, you have 5 seconds to step onto the teleporter pad and then it teleports anybody present on the pad at the same time. The long range teleporter works in a similar manner.
We are also adding additional asteroid fields, and these new fields are where you can find silicon and asteroids with higher yields of the other resources. The contents and position of these asteroid fields are randomised, so every new galaxy you start will be different. In the future we plan to expand this system when we implement the procedural galaxy to include more resources, and different types of asteroids, amongst other things to explore.
Another feature we are rolling out this patch is a new set of hand animations in first person which will display what item you currently have selected. We hope this will make it clearer when you are holding something and when you can and cannot place something in a device or on a cargo pad.
In March 2013 we first unveiled and released the pre-alpha build for Interstellar Rift to the public. Then last March you helped us get through Steam Greenlight by voting for us and launching us into the top 100 in just eight days. And now we are ready to announce the next step in Interstellar Rift’s development. Steam Early Access! We are ready to bring Interstellar Rift out of pre-alpha and into proper alpha stage in late June. This is a big step for both the game and us as a studio. We thank you for your support in helping us get this far and we hope you will keep supporting us in the future.
Prepare for Ramming speed! – Interstellar Rift Development Update 030
At last! Today marks the biggest update in terms of code since the day we first introduced multi-player to Interstellar Rift. Today we implement double precision, which will fix the bug which has become known as the glitch lands. No longer will your ships hull begin twitching when you get more than 10 kilometres away from the starter station. From now on you will be able to fly for a grand total of 0.28 light years from the starter station before that bug rears it’s ugly head again. This will allow us to start filling up space with stuff for players to interact with.
Asteroid Physics
Our second major feature, and this is a big one, is space physics. As of today you will no longer be able to fly straight through objects. While it’s implementation is not 100% done yet, our revolutionary implementation will allow for thousands of moving asteroids, players and other space objects to interact with each other on a single server. These new features were the last major roadblocks standing in the way of real ship to ship interaction, and were necessary for things like space combat, large star systems, warp, space anomalies and much more.
for the time being, all space objects will have a simple box or sphere collision shape. In future patches these will change to more accurately represent the shape of the object. But at least for now you won’t be able to move through objects anymore. Your ship won’t take damage yet though, that’s also coming in a future patch, but for now these new systems open the doors to many new features.
As a result of our new space physics systems, space ship controls are now physics driven. In practice you won’t notice much of this yet apart from your old ships being faster or slower depending on their mass. Also their handling will be slightly different as ships will now drift accordingly based on their thruster power and mass. Ships will still automatically stop themselves. The new ship controls will be more refined in future patches.
For us this is a major milestone and are very pleased with what these new features now enable us to do. As always please enjoy this patch, and let us know what you think. You can do so by following us on Twitter, Liking us on Facebook or visiting our Forums.
House cleaning! – Interstellar Rift Development Update 029
We’ve had some small features which were gathering dust so we decided to dedicate this patch to implement them and polish up some others.
First up when the oxygen in a room drops below 10%, an indicator on the hud will now alert you that you are in a low oxygen environment. In addition, we’ve increased the amount of oxygen in your suit. It now gives you more of a fighting chance to escape low oxygen situations.
low oxygen warning
For a while now we’ve been aware that the upgrade button on the ship construction terminal has been malfunctioning and is confusing. So instead we’ve removed the upgrade button and replaced it with salvage. Using the salvage button will destroy your ship and refund all resources of a ship along with the cargo on board. You can only salvage ships that you built yourself. Resources will go into the vault or onto available cargo pads aboard the salvaging ship or station. If no space for cargo and no vault is available, resources will be lost.
We also found that some screens were confusing, especially on larger devices which could be activated by clicking anywhere on the device. Screens now work on proximity, meaning they will automatically activate when they are approached.
Lastly, we have upgraded the exterior a bit, windows now have a blue-ish colour and reflect outer space.
Reflective windows on the mining station
A word about the future.
Over the past several months we’ve received a lot of questions about what’s coming up in Interstellar Rift. It’s time to peel back the curtain a little and tell you about some of our upcoming features.
Space physics
This is a big and much requested feature, sadly it is also a very complicated one. Although we have been working on this very hard and there is a lot of progress, we are not ready to show anything to the public just yet, so please be a little more patient.
Combat
This is the big one. Yes we are going to have it, and it may be coming sooner than you think. The first thing we are going to implement is first person combat. Soon players will be able to use our upcoming item crafting system to construct a plasma pistol and ammo cartridges. More weapons are planned in future patches.
As always we hope you’ll enjoy this new patch and we hope you’ll let us know what you think. You can do so via our Forums, or Twitter and Facebook.
Take a Deep Breath – Interstellar Rift Development Update 028
Today we’re adding the first of many survival mechanics to Interstellar Rift. That’s right folks, as the title suggests, take a deep breath because from now on ships and stations will require a functioning life support system in order for players to remain alive on board your vessel.
In order to make a ship habitable, players will need to install at least one life support system aboard the ship and put at least one air vent inside each room. Life support systems require a supply of oxygen to function, which can be refined along with hydrogen from Water in a refinery. Oxygen will only be consumed if a player is inside the room, and the more players inhabit that room the faster the oxygen will be consumed. The Player’s suit provides a limited supply of oxygen, however this will deplete rapidly. This supply will be replenished if the player enters a room filled with oxygen. When the suit’s oxygen supply runs out, the player will take damage.
Player death is currently in a very early state and if you die you’ll immediately respawn at the starter station. In a future patch players will respawn inside the respawner vats.
Life support will also require maintenance. the life support system will distribute oxygen throughout the ship, but it will also filter out waste. This waste will be collected in a separate crate which will have to be removed from the life support system periodically. This carbon container will have to be collected and either stored or ejected from the ship. In a future patch we plan to make the carbon waste useful as a crafting material.
In addition to the life support system we’ve also updated the small single seater helm to a small double seater helm. with an updated design to be more in line with our other helm modules.
As always we hope you’ll enjoy this new patch and we hope you’ll let us know what you think. You can do so via our Forums, or Twitter and Facebook.
The universe has been saved – Interstellar Rift Development Update 027
We’ve been Greenlit! Last thursday Valve has smiled upon Interstellar Rift and allowed us to pass through the gates of the promised land of Steam. And we couldn’t have done it without all of you who voted, and helped spread the word! Thanks to you, Interstellar Rift made it through Steam Greenlight in just 8 days!
To address some of the concerns we’ve received from several of our community members;
Now that we’ve been Greenlit it does not mean you’ll have to start paying for IR just yet. As we’ve stated in the past while Interstellar Rift is not intended to be a free to play game and we will not charge you for playing the pre-alpha. Nor will we move the game to Steam until we feel that the game is in a state where we feel charging money for it is justified. So until that happens enjoy the game!
New door and information displays
Now that the celebrations are over with. We have a new patch for you today, and as the title suggests, we’re introducing universe saving! This will be the last time you’ll have to kiss your ships goodbye when a server goes down. All servers will periodically save the game state to your user database. And you can now load these server saves from your host game menu and solo game menu.
Next we’ve added proper physics meshes to all the doors. and as well proper locking indicators.
so doors will now block you from moving through until the door has properly slid out of the way. Also when a door is locked or has low power the screens on all these doors now indicate their current status. So no more wondering why a door isn’t opening for you.
Save your world!
Once again we’d like to thank all of you for your support during our greenlight campaign and for your continued support of Interstellar Rift. We hope you’ll enjoy the latest patch and if you’d like to stay up to date with all the latest Interstellar Rift news you can follow us on Facebook, Twitter and by leaving message on our Forums.
Thank you from everyone at Split polygon.
It’s not easy being green – Interstellar Rift Development Update 026
The time has come for us to test the waters and submit Interstellar Rift to Steam Greenlight!
We would like to thank everyone for all the support we have received so far, your input has already had a great effect on the game, and guides us as we implement more content and features. On to Greenlight!
We felt that the time was right for us to start counting votes. So if you’d like to see Interstellar Rift on Steam in the future, visit our Greenlight page, and vote for us!
Unauthorised Access Detected. – Interstellar Rift Development update 025
Lock your doors! Hide your cargo! The G.R.I.P. Omnitool will allow you to do just that. As of today, your mandatory Patented Sencorp G.R.I.P Omnitool has been updated with ship access functionality!
Thats right folks, ship permissions are here! You will be able to assign players to groups with different levels of access. While the G.R.I.P. will come with several basic permission levels you’ll be able to completely customize your groups and assign specific system access to each.
At the moment the default permissions sets are:
Guest Access – Everyone who teleports aboard a ship will automatically have guest access. By default this allows them to do everything but pilot a ship, until they are put in a different group, which removes the guest access.
Basic Access– Basic Access is similar to guest access, as it allows players access to doors but also to lifts.
Ship Systems – Ship systems will allow players access to everything but the helm controls.
Flight Control – As the name implies, this permission set will allow you access to the ships flight controls. Without this access level players will not be able take control of the helm.
These are all basic permission sets but players can create their own sets and assign individual devices to each permission group. Permissions are saved to a specific ship, and will only work on that ship. The owner of a ship automatically has full access and cannot transfer or disable their own permission settings.
The only exemption from the permissions system is the teleporter. For the moment players will still be able to teleport to and from ships without having been assigned to an access group. however if you truly want to block players from accessing and exploring your ship. You can turn off guest access on the door(s) to your teleporter room.
Aside from permissions we’ve also added the actual G.R.I.P device to the players right arm and added a number of interface updates. See the patch notes for details on bugfixes.
This is a major and much requested feature for Interstellar Rift but like all features this is only the first iteration. We’re going to need your help and feedback in order to improve it. So try it out and let us know what you think. You can reach us through Facebook, Twitter and by leaving message on our Forums.
Get some G.R.I.P. – Interstellar Rift Development update 024
Today marks the first time in Interstellar Rift’s history where being trapped aboard a ship without power is no longer an issue!
Introducing the “General Remote Induction Processor” or “G.R.I.P.” Omni-tool! This new marvel of technology will allow players to transfer power from their environmental suit directly into systems and devices and thus allowing them to function temporarily without a central power source. If your suit runs out of power, don’t worry the G.R.I.P. Omni-tool uses your body’s kinetic and thermal energy to charge the internal battery once depleted. or alternatively players can drain energy from Power Storage cells or other active devices.
The G.R.I.P.’s interface is located on the players right arm and can be summoned by simply pressing the “TAB” button. In it’s current incarnation players will only be able to use the power transfer features, but in future updates they will be able to use it for many more tasks. Such as locking doors and have ready access to a map of their ship, to name but a few.
Players are now able to turn systems and devices off via the use of the G.R.I.P., currently, this does not include power generators
At the moment, the player’s arms do not match the third person model but instead follow the design of the new suit. In time we will replace the current character with a male and female variant, that matches this design.
Additionally, we’ve altered the design of the player’s inventory slightly. Instead of being on the left hand side of the screen, we’ve put it up at the top of the screen. The interface now displays the icons for the resources in your inventory rather than the transparent box renders we had before.
As always we hope you’ll enjoy this new patch and we hope you’ll let us know what you think. You can do so via e-mail, our Forums, or Twitter. and Facebook.
