Thursday, November 16, 2023

Games in 2033

This is a revised version of my article for Level magazine in May 2023.

Introduction

The next decade is set to witness a revolutionary transformation in the gaming industry, driven by advancements in AI and neural interface technology. 

This article unfolds a five-stage evolution of gaming, each building upon the previous innovations and technological breakthroughs, significantly reshaping the gaming experience and its societal impact. From intelligent NPCs to immersive neural interfaces, we will explore how each stage contributes to this radical shift.

Content:

  1. Intelligent NPCs
  2. AI-Generated games and assets
  3. AI-Simulated games (mid-frequency simulations)
  4. AI-Simulated games (high-frequency simulations)
  5. Neural Interfaces
  6. Observer Effect in AI-Simulated Games
  7. Impact on Society

Stage 1: Intelligent NPCs

The first stage will introduce AI-generated intelligent NPCs (non-player characters) capable of observing, understanding, thinking, planning, making informed decisions, and interacting with their environment.

These behavioral NPCs will offer more than just conversational abilities; they will exhibit goal-oriented actions and long-term memory, spatial awareness and reasoning, and an ability to mimic human thought and emotional processes

They will be powered by LLMs (Large Language Models) like GPT-4 or Mistral 7B. 

Initially, the NPCs will be cloud-based, allowing games with advanced AI characters to run on standard gaming systems like PCs and consoles. 

As technology advances, smaller LLMs will enable these complex NPCs to run directly on players' devices, lessening cloud dependency. The Mistral 7B model is already a step in this direction. 

Stage 2: AI-Generated Games and Assets

Next, we enter an era where game creation will become a collaborative process between the user and an LLM agent. This stage will revolutionize the user's role from mere player to creator. Users will engage in a back-and-forth dialogue with the AI, refining and articulating their game concept. 

The AI will generate code and assets within engines like Unreal and VRAGE3, utilizing its deep understanding of game dynamics. This stage will democratize game development, enabling the creation of games through simple descriptive text.

Just by talking to AI agents, you will be able to create the game of your dreams.


Stage 3: AI-Simulated Games (mid-frequency simulations)

In this stage, the AI model will play a more direct role in simulating game logic and maintaining the game state in its memory, while rendering and physics will still be managed by a traditional game engine.

The AI's advanced simulation capabilities will dynamically evolve game mechanics and storytelling alongside the game state, all in real time. This will ensure a continuously adaptive and flexible gaming experience.

This hybrid model will allow the AI to simulate mid-frequency game logic (5-10 hertz), complementing the high-frequency tasks like physics and rendering (60-120 hertz) handled by the game engine.


Stage 4: AI-Simulated Games (high-frequency simulations)

The next step in gaming technology will see AI take over all aspects of game simulation, including graphics rendering and physics, ensuring a consistent and smooth performance at 60-120 frames per second (FPS). 

While traditional game engines will still be needed for mid-frequency simulations, high-frequency simulations will rely entirely on AI for both physics and graphics rendering tasks.

This will enable the creation of a simulated reality that dynamically adapts to the player's desires in real-time

Achieving this level of sophistication requires significant improvements in the speed and efficiency of AI inference, likely spurring the development of specialized hardware designed specifically for AI model inference. 

In these simulations, the distinction from actual reality will be indiscernible, both in visual aspects and in terms of interactive fidelity and adaptability. Minute details will be intricately simulated, surpassing the limitations traditionally set by programmer-defined features, leading to a groundbreaking and immersive gaming experience.



Stage 5: Neural Interfaces

The culmination of our journey is the integration of neural interfaces like Neuralink, directly connecting the human brain to AI-powered gaming simulations

This stage represents a monumental leap, creating immersive and personalized gaming experiences that become indistinguishable from reality. We may already be in such a simulation 😀

The neural interface represents a new way to play games and a complete transformation of the human experience in virtual realms.


Observer Effect in AI-Simulated Games

A key performance advantage in AI-simulated games is derived from the observer effect, contrasting sharply with classical physics. Here, the existence of objects and their effects hinges on the player's observation.

This selective simulation strategy, akin to an advanced LOD optimization, ensures efficient resource use and a more engaging gaming experience. 

An element outside the player's perceptual field or comprehension remains unrendered and unsimulated, allowing the environment to dynamically adapt to the player's interaction and focus 

Impact on Society

AI simulations, less resource-intensive yet more captivating than real-world experiences, will shift our primary experiences to virtual simulations. 

The tangible world will transition to a colossal center for computing and manufacturing, supporting these virtual realms. 

These changes offer endless possibilities for personal growth, entertainment, and exploration, heralding a renaissance of synthetic universes beyond our current imagination.

 Conclusion

At GoodAI, we are already working on stage 1 with our AI People game (LLM-powered NPCs running on the player's computer).



The next stages will be 2 and 3, but I think we can skip 2 and go directly to stage 3 (mid-frequency AI simulation of game logic and state).

The forthcoming changes in the gaming industry, driven by AI and neural interfaces, will significantly impact society on multiple levels. From altering energy consumption patterns to redefining leisure time and our perception of reality, this evolution in gaming is set to transform not just how we play games but how we experience and interact with the world itself.


If you want to let me know your feedback, please get in touch via my personal email address marek.rosa@keenswh.com, or use our Keen Software House support site. I welcome all of the feedback we receive and we will use it to learn and provide better services to our players.


Thank you for reading this blog!

 

Best,
Marek Rosa
CEO, Creative Director, Founder at Keen Software House
CEO, CTO, Founder at GoodAI

 

For more news:
Space Engineers: www.SpaceEngineersGame.com
Keen Software House: www.keenswh.com
VRAGE Engine: www.keenswh.com/vrage/
GoodAI: www.GoodAI.com

 

Personal bio:

Marek Rosa is the founder and CEO of GoodAI, a general artificial intelligence R&D company, and Keen Software House, an independent game development studio, started in 2010, and best known for its best-seller Space Engineers (5 million copies sold). Space Engineers has the 4th largest Workshop on Steam with over 500K mods, ships, stations, worlds, and more!

Marek has been interested in game development and artificial intelligence since childhood. He started his career as a programmer and later transitioned to a leadership role. After the success of Keen Software House titles, Marek was able to fund GoodAI in 2014 with a $10 Million personal investment.

Both companies now have over 100 engineers, researchers, artists, and game developers.

Marek's primary focus includes Space Engineers, the VRAGE3 engine, the AI Game, and LLM agents that learn continually.

GoodAI's mission is to develop AGI - as fast as possible - to help humanity and understand the universe. One of the commercial stepping stones is the "AI People'' game which features LLM-driven NPCs grounded in the game world with developing personalities and long-term memory. GoodAI also works on autonomous agents that can self-improve and solve any task that a human can.

Thursday, October 26, 2023

Space Engineers: 10 Year Anniversary Update

  SUMMARY:

  • 10 Years of Space Engineers Celebration
  • New Blocks in the base game: Engineer statue, Fireworks, Tuxedo Suit Skin and more!
  • New Premium Content: 10 Year Anniversary Pack
  • Sounds of Space Engineers 2023
  • Steam Free Weekend
  • New 10 Year Anniversary Merchandise


Hello, Engineers!

How time flies when you are having fun.

Ten years ago we began this incredible journey through the stars, laying the foundation for everything that has come to pass. 10 years, 5 million copies, hundreds of updates, and a half million workshop mods and creations later, Space Engineers is still thriving!

To every Space Engineer out in the vastness of space, those of you that have been with us from the beginning, to those that became a Space Engineers only now, thank you for being a part of this journey. Your creativity and passion for Space Engineers inspires us to our very best.

In celebration of this incredible moment, we have prepared a surprise update for you to commemorate 10 years of engineering, planning, grinding, welding, battles, and exploration! 

Due to popular demand we are bringing back our two most requested (limited edition) character skins: Veteran and Ghost. These will only be available for a limited time! You can get them along with a new Party Tuxedo Suit in the new 10 Year Anniversary Pack
The pack is available for limited time only until 5th January 2024, 5PM UTC.


Free Content

Engineer Statue (1 block, L grid)

A memento of the first Space Engineers. Their work and perseverance created this incredible future we now explore. 

Fireworks Block & Color Variant Ammo (1 block, S + L grid)

Introducing the Fireworks Block in Space Engineers - Light up the cosmos and celebrate your achievements with dazzling displays of fireworks!

Ammo Colors: Blue, Green, Red, Yellow, Pink and Rainbow

Flare Gun & Ammo

When your celebration needs to truly impress. Illuminate the void and signal your presence with “flare” and style.

Tuxedo Suit Character Skin

Elegance meets exploration. 


10 Year Anniversary Pack

Similar to our previous major releases, we hope you will take this opportunity to support the continued development of Space Engineers. This limited time package will only be available until January 5th 5PM UTC. This pack consists of cosmetic character skins that enrich your game visually. None of the features in this package provide any advantage to players who purchase this pack. 


The price of the 10 Year Anniversary Pack is $2.00 USD or your regional equivalent. Show your continued support for Space Engineers and check out the 10 Year Anniversary Pack.

This package includes:

Party Tuxedo Suit Character Skin

Dress to impress with the Party Tuxedo Suit for your astronaut and celebrate in style.


Ghost Character Skin

Get into the Halloween spirit with the Ghost Character Skin - haunt the cosmos as a spectral presence!


Veteran Character Skin

Show your experience and dedication with the returning Veteran Skin - wear your hard-earned stripes and command respect among the stars.


Steam Free Weekend & 75% Sale

Space Engineers is free to play on Steam this weekend!

You can install and enjoy Space Engineers for free from October 26, 5 pm UTC to October 30, 2023.

We are also running a Steam Sale from October 26, 2023 to November 2, 2023. Space Engineers base game will be 75% off!

There was no better time to join our community - fulfill your need to create! 


10 Year Anniversary Celebration

People from around the world gathered at our HQ to join in the celebration. It was heartwarming to see fans, colleagues, and supporters coming together to mark a decade of innovation, exploration, and creativity. 

For those who couldn't be here, we made sure you didn't miss out. Our live stream ensured Space Engineers across the globe could be a part of the festivities. The evening featured presentations from our CEO Marek Rosa as well as from our talented colleagues Jan HlouÅ¡ek and Natiq Aghayev, offering insights into the development of Space Engineers over the years. 

We couldn't forget the live orchestral concert featuring Space Engineers' music from our amazing composer Karel Antonín. It added a special touch to the evening, taking us on a journey through the game's universe. Of course, we had great food, and there were plenty of opportunities to meet and chat with our fans, supporters, and the brilliant minds behind Space Engineers. 

We are immensely grateful for your support, which has made Space Engineers what it is today. As we reflect on this memorable September event, we're excited about the future. Here's to more years of exploration, creativity, and possibilities!


VRAGE3 Anniversary Presentations




New Anniversary Merchandise

To commemorate this special occasion, we are releasing new 10 year anniversary merchandise. 

You can check it out here.



And for new Displate metal posters continue here.


Sounds of Space Engineers 2023

After an overwhelming response featuring more than 100 submissions, the top 15 tracks of the 2023 Space Engineers music competition have been selected by multiple judges at KeenSWH!
It was no easy task selecting these winners as there were many high quality and unique entries.

The judges tried to select a mix of music styles so that there is variety and hopefully something for every player to enjoy! All of these tracks are making their way into the Jukebox in this update. 

Enjoy listening to these amazing tunes!


Hiring

If you’re interested in working on awesome games like Space Engineers or our in-house engine VRAGE3, we’d love to hear from you! 

We are currently in the Research and development phase, exploring new features of the VRAGE3 engine. Our goal is to support extremely large and fully dynamic and destructible environments, including planets, large spaceships, and any other creations built by the players.

If you’re interested in working on awesome games like Space Engineers or our in-house game engine , and love solving unique challenges, we’d love to hear from you! Check out the open positions at Keen Software House and don’t forget to send us your English CV/resume and cover letter. 

Remote collaboration is possible!

Our team is global.

Finding the best candidates to join Keen Software House means exploring every possible solution, including remote work. While we strive to provide team members with the best possible work-life balance here in Prague at our incredible Oranzerie offices, we understand that it is not always possible to transition, therefore we are very remote-friendly. Here’s a map of where our teammates live.


Follow our social media to get the latest news!


If you want to let me know your feedback, please get in touch via my personal email address marek.rosa@keenswh.com, or use our Keen Software House support site. I welcome all of the feedback we receive and we will use it to learn and provide better services to our players.


Thank you for reading this blog!

 

Best,
Marek Rosa
CEO, Creative Director, Founder at Keen Software House
CEO, CTO, Founder at GoodAI

 

For more news:
Space Engineers: www.SpaceEngineersGame.com
Keen Software House: www.keenswh.com
VRAGE Engine: www.keenswh.com/vrage/
GoodAI: www.GoodAI.com

 

Personal bio:

Marek Rosa is the founder and CEO of GoodAI, a general artificial intelligence R&D company, and Keen Software House, an independent game development studio, started in 2010, and best known for its best-seller Space Engineers (5 million copies sold). Space Engineers has the 4th largest Workshop on Steam with over 500K mods, ships, stations, worlds, and more!

Marek has been interested in game development and artificial intelligence since childhood. He started his career as a programmer and later transitioned to a leadership role. After the success of Keen Software House titles, Marek was able to fund GoodAI in 2014 with a $10 Million personal investment.

Both companies now have over 100 engineers, researchers, artists, and game developers.

Marek's primary focus includes Space Engineers, the VRAGE3 engine, the AI Game, and LLM agents that learn continually.

GoodAI's mission is to develop AGI - as fast as possible - to help humanity and understand the universe. One of the commercial stepping stones is the "AI People'' game which features LLM-driven NPCs grounded in the game world with developing personalities and long-term memory. GoodAI also works on autonomous agents that can self-improve and solve any task that a human can.

Thursday, October 5, 2023

Embodied collectives: our progress to date

At GoodAI, we are building collaborative AI agents that enhance human capabilities and drive positive change at scale. Collective intelligence is the guiding principle behind our work. One of our teams is dedicated to developing AI agents, such as Large Language Model-based AI assistants, programmers, researchers, and a Stoic Mentor. Simultaneously, another team is developing the GoodAI Groundstation platform that allows the agents to operate in the physical world.


Democratizing Safety

GoodAI Groundstation empowers individuals to control multiple robots simultaneously without specialized training. Users provide high-level goals, and the robots carry out tasks autonomously. A team member’s engagement in community safety gave us our first real-life use case in crime prevention, and a motivation to create a tool to democratize safety. While in many cases still a luxury, we believe that safety should be a human right.

Teach The AI Agents What You Need

With every milestone, we move more towards the adaptability of the system. Instead of relying on rigid, hard-coded features, the user will teach the system to operate in specific use cases. Our AI agents have already learned to use the Groundstation API, guided merely by natural language instructions from the developers. Watch the user teach our AI agent to fly the drones in specific ways:

You can read more about how we teach LLM agents to fly drones here.

Current Capabilities

Some of the key functionalities of GoodAI Groundstation, tested in real-life conditions and ready for deployment, currently include: 

  • Remote operations without manual piloting, or pilot on the ground needed
  • Autonomous patrolling missions
  • Object detection: persons, vehicles
  • Autonomous object tracking
  • Drone collaboration: detections from one drone are used to create tasks for another drone instantly. For example, to take a closer look at an object detected during an earlier patrol mission
  • “Panic button”: instantly sends a drone to investigate an object located on the map. Triggered by operator’s click on a detected object on the map, or by an external device, such as a panic button app, a camera, a motion sensor, etc.
  • Autonomous take-off and landing

The UI allows you to run complex missions with a few clicks. Note that for the reasons of safety, the human is always in the loop to confirm the next action of the drone.

You can watch our recent GoodAI Groundstation live demos in South Africa below.

Drones collaborate:


Drone patrol mission:


Drone follows person:


Next Steps: Harnessing the Power of Collectives

We aim to leverage the power of collectives further and build a robust, efficient, and flexible tool. Instead of relying on expensive specialized hardware, we aim to harness the collective’s emergent capabilities for cooperation to achieve goals. 

We will focus on swarms of small drones, which rely on sensor fusion and collaborative problem-solving in dynamically changing environments and hardware configurations. Imagine a group of inexpensive mini-drones as a safe, lightweight, and user-friendly setup instead of one all-encompassing but large and demanding drone.

We will also involve our AI agents more heavily, allowing them to learn from the user and operate within the Groundstation via real-time conversations in natural language.

Unlimited Possibilities

We are building the GoodAI Groundstation as a versatile platform suitable for any robot or agent. Picture someone creating a makeshift cardboard drone and easily integrating it with our Groundstation with the help of AI agents, ready to take flight. Envision users customizing our Groundstation, adding functionalities, incorporating modules, and teaching AI agents to adapt it for specific purposes. Ultimately, we see the Groundstation as an open-ended ecosystem that accommodates everything from existing drones to future nanobots and beyond, augmenting human capabilities in both the digital and physical realms.

If you would like to become part of the GoodAI collective and build collaborative AI agents and their “playground”, the GoodAI Groundstation, with us, join us on our journey.


Thank you for reading this blog!

 

Best,
Marek Rosa
CEO, Creative Director, Founder at Keen Software House
CEO, CTO, Founder at GoodAI

 

For more news:
GoodAI Discord: https://discord.gg/Pfzs7WWJwf
Space Engineers: www.SpaceEngineersGame.com
Keen Software House: www.keenswh.com
VRAGE Engine: www.keenswh.com/vrage/
GoodAI: www.GoodAI.com
Personal Blog: blog.marekrosa.org

 

Personal bio:

Marek Rosa is the founder and CEO of GoodAI, a general artificial intelligence R&D company, and Keen Software House, an independent game development studio, started in 2010, and best known for its best-seller Space Engineers (over 5 million copies sold). Space Engineers has the 4th largest Workshop on Steam with over 500K mods, ships, stations, worlds, and more!

Marek has been interested in game development and artificial intelligence since childhood. He started his career as a programmer and later transitioned to a leadership role. After the success of Keen Software House titles, Marek was able to fund GoodAI in 2014 with a $10 Million personal investment.

Both companies now have over 100 engineers, researchers, artists, and game developers.

Marek's primary focus includes Space Engineers, the VRAGE3 engine, the AI People game, long-term memory systems (LTM), an LLM-powered personal assistant with LTM named Charlie Mnemonic, and the Groundstation.

GoodAI's mission is to develop AGI - as fast as possible - to help humanity and understand the universe. One of the commercial stepping stones is the "AI People" game, which features LLM-driven AI NPCs. These NPCs are grounded in the game world, interacting dynamically with the game environment and with other NPCs, and they possess long-term memory and developing personalities. GoodAI also works on autonomous agents that can self-improve and solve any task that a human can.

Friday, September 1, 2023

LLM Agent taught to control drones

 

In this video above, we demonstrate the learning process of one of our LLM Agents being taught how to use an API to control a drone quadcopter. The initial stages require us to provide the Agent with detailed and comprehensive instructions about how to send HTTP requests and what commands are available through the API. As the video progresses, the Agent quickly grasps these instructions and leverages the knowledge it already has to perform advanced and intricate tasks, like flying the drone following a square trajectory. This showcases the Agent's resilience and adaptive learning capabilities - how the Agent recovers from errors and false assumptions. 


This version of the continual-learning agents represents a significant advancement from our first prototype (agent embodied in a Python terminal). This enhanced Agent has access to distinct forms of working memory and long-term memory, enabling it to effectively manage several types of memory inconsistencies, such as contradictions or outdated information, and can learn from user feedback and environmental cues. You can think about it like a cognitive architecture built on top of LLM.


The agent's response is a result of a sequence of nested steps. This method augments the LLM's cognitive resources and attention span to extend beyond the limits of LLM (LLMs are stateless, have fixed size context, don't pay sufficient attention to all instructions in the prompt, etc.). Notably, the process employs iterative prompting, using multiple prompts to accomplish tasks that the LLM can't perform in a single inference—such as retrieving and summarizing memories or maintaining the agent's state for future steps. Every step in this sequence receives input data, processes it to produce relevant output data, and shares this output across the entire chain. Consequently, formulating a response becomes a joint effort. Each step in the chain has the autonomy to determine the information it requires, what new state needs to be stored in working memory and long-term memory, if it needs to consult the LLM, and what specific prompt should be fed to the LLM for each iteration.



Initially, the agent is in a “blank state,” knowing nothing about the drone API. Therefore, we commence by closely guiding its actions, telling the agent the exact URL that it has to communicate with and the exact form and value of the HTTP requests it has to send. However, as time progresses, the Agent gradually accumulates knowledge and expertise, enabling it to tackle increasingly complex tasks based on its past experience. 

We actively incentivize the agent to create functions or any kind of reusable code for representing learned skills, which the agent ends up carrying out without us having to tell it to do so. In addition, the agent interacts with a Python terminal as its means for performing actions, so it will instantly become aware of any malfunction or error in its code, being able to fix it on the fly and learning from its mistakes. Finally, thanks to its episodic memory, the agent can relate current situations with past ones, remembering errors made during its instruction or functions that it wrote long ago and might leverage just now.

The video demonstrates that the terminal prototype ended up being converted into one stage of the pipeline (the TerminalAction), which leverages the Python terminal environment plus the memories retrieved by a previous stage to carry out the agent’s actions. On top of this, other stages add functionality like terminal session persistence and generation of new memories.

Take a look at more videos below. 



This footage demonstrates how we teach the agent to comb an area inside four GPS points defined by the user. First, we let the agent memorize the four GPS points by manually sending the drone to each position and asking the agent to remember them with different names. Then, we explain to the agent what we expect it to do: thoroughly fly over that area by following zig-zagging corridors of 10 meters in width. This is extremely useful for planning exhaustive search operations

The video has been sped up 4x during the teaching and 16x during the combing phases.


In this recording, we teach the Agent to fly the drone in a circle. Because the Agent still ignores some aspects of the drone API, we must be specific about certain things, like using the blocking commands instead of the asynchronous ones. The Agent flies the drone following the user specification: the circle has a 50-meter radius, and its center is the current drone position. 

We have sped up the video 4x for visualization purposes.




Here's a video showcasing speech-to-text as input and text-to-speech as output. The agent has already been given a list of functions that it can use to interact with the drone API.

This addition enhances the user interaction and adds a social dimension to the agent. It makes the interaction more engaging.

 Note this is still an early prototype, and many improvements are in the works.


Link to the YouTube playlist containing all videos.


Thank you for reading this blog!

 Best,

Marek Rosa
CEO, Creative Director, Founder at Keen Software House
CEO, CTO, Founder at GoodAI

 

For more news:
Space Engineers: www.SpaceEngineersGame.com
Keen Software House: www.keenswh.com
VRAGE Engine: www.keenswh.com/vrage/
GoodAI: www.GoodAI.com

 

Personal bio:

Marek Rosa is the founder and CEO of GoodAI, a general artificial intelligence R&D company, and Keen Software House, an independent game development studio, started in 2010, and best known for its best-seller Space Engineers (5 million copies sold). Space Engineers has the 4th largest Workshop on Steam with over 500K mods, ships, stations, worlds, and more!

Marek has been interested in game development and artificial intelligence since childhood. He started his career as a programmer and later transitioned to a leadership role. After the success of Keen Software House titles, Marek was able to fund GoodAI in 2014 with a $10 Million personal investment.

Both companies now have over 100 engineers, researchers, artists, and game developers.

Marek's primary focus includes Space Engineers, the VRAGE3 engine, the AI Game, and LLM agents that learn continually.

GoodAI's mission is to develop AGI - as fast as possible - to help humanity and understand the universe. One of the commercial stepping stones is the "AI game," which features LLM-driven NPCs grounded in the game world with developing personalities and long-term memory. GoodAI also works on autonomous agents that can self-improve and solve any task that a human can.


Thursday, August 31, 2023

Space Engineers: Warfare Evolution & Decorative Pack #3

  SUMMARY:

  • First Iteration of our New PvP Scenario: Space Standoff
  • New Blocks in the base game: Flat Atmospheric Thrusters, Short Wheel Suspensions, Round Armor Panels and more!
  • Performance Improvements, Quality of Life Changes, AI & Combat Improvements (Event Controller Logic, Flee Away From Target)
  • New Premium Content: Cab Cockpit, Colorable Solar Panels, LCD Panels, Inset Blocks and more!
  • 10 year Anniversary of Space Engineers


Hello, Engineers!

It's an exciting moment as we introduce you to the latest evolution in the world of Space Engineers - the Warfare Evolution update. Our first update that is released simultaneously on 3 different platforms - Steam, Xbox and now also on PlayStation!


Among the highlights of this free update is the experimental PvP Scenario: Space Standoff, setting the stage for epic confrontations that will test your strategic prowess and combat skills. But that's not all - brace for sweeping Performance, AI and Combat Improvements and Quality of Life (QOL) tweaks that will enhance your overall gameplay experience.

This new PVP scenario will not only provide a new way to experience Space Engineers, but will change and evolve over time as a permanent addition to our Keen hosted, and Community run, Dedicated servers.
 
Apart of this free update we are also unveiling the Decorative Pack #3. We're thrilled to present 60+ new decorative blocks that will empower your creativity and allow you to bring unique aesthetics to your creations.


Free Content

New PvP Scenario: Space Standoff

Your team has managed to acquire an encrypted data container that could hold the key to gaining an upper hand in this endless conflict. Unfortunately, your enemy is resourceful and has acquired the same encrypted data from an unscrupulous seller. Now, the race is on! 

Join The Red team or Blue team, prepare your defenses, and make sure your data container is well defended during decryption. Launch your assault and destroy the enemies data container before they manage to decrypt its secrets!

Choose carefully between fortifying your compound, building up a jump-capable strike force, and infiltration of the enemy base. The enemy’s data container must be destroyed!

It has always been my goal in SE to merge building & fighting, creation & destruction. The cost of building & creation, is disproportionately high when compared to destruction, which is typically easy and cheap.

Naturally, I would like to seek a balance between creation & destruction.



Two steps of my plan:

1) My first step was to create a balanced PvP scenario where both teams have the option of either offense or defense. Both teams should have the same objectives and tools, like a chess match. We cannot expect a competitor to allocate much time to building (it's too time consuming).

2) The Second step will be to enable players to spawn their blueprints into the PvP scenario. This empowers competitors to “pre-game” and offsets the cost of creation. Time invested in customization and optimization of designs can be invested outside of a PVP battle, much like it is in survival. Players can then bring these optimized designs directly to the battlefield “on demand” and without slowing play.

We are currently reviewing these concepts. Enabling players to spawn their blueprints in this or future PvP scenario would be an ideal result. We see huge potential in the ability to design and build your ships in creative mode, and at your leisure. Without the stress and time constraints of combat you can refine a design and bring it to life “trial by fire” in this evolving PvP scenario.

The battle doesn't end after a single match! Following the match's end, win or lose, you can start considering ways to improve your strategy and prepare for the next match!

This arms-race should bring you back again and again as new strategies emerge and older ones are refined. We have 7 servers running the new scenario 24/7  including 3 Steam and 4 EOS. We want to guarantee a place to do battle with a team of friends or newly met allies. While we will host our own servers, we would encourage everyone in the community to run their own modded versions of the new scenario, as well as feedback on how we can change this scenario moving forward, are most welcome!


Performance Improvements
Performance updates are always in the works and this update delivers big. We are always pushing the envelope on performance in order to deliver the best possible Space Engineers experience. In this update, you will see performance improvements of as much as 60% in large worlds! Additionally, we have seen faster grid updates and better memory usage in some critical areas.

Third Person Camera Improvement for Grids
You may notice an upgrade in camera behavior while piloting spaceships and rovers. The third person camera now follows more smoothly, making your cosmic adventures even more enjoyable.

Where previously it would quickly force you to first-person when there was some obstruction between the camera and your grid, the camera view is now allowed to dolly in much closer to your grid and will only go to first person only when there really is no room. This should greatly help you maneuver in tight spaces where it could previously be difficult to see around you!

Additionally, the camera no longer switches to see the entire connected grid when you dock with something using connectors or landing gears. The camera now remains focused on the grid that you are controlling when docking, making it easier to see what's going on inside your hangar!


AI Improvements
  • Improved Event Controller Logic
  • AI Defensive (Combat): Added Flee Away From Target feature
  • General AI targeting behavior improvements
  • Decoy behavior improved
  • Check out our Grid AI Guide
Wheel Suspension Block exclusive area improvements
You can now pack blocks around the wheels more tightly - leading to compact and elegant vehicle designs! 


Assembler Categories
We've added more categories to assemblers and ordered the items in the assembler by "tier". (E.g: Pistols are at the top, the rocket launcher at the bottom.)
New categories:
  • Ingots
  • Equipment
  • Weapons
  • Ammo

QoL (Quality of Life) Improvements
  • Improved Sensor detection of Voxels
  • Improved Tooltips/UX on Spawn Menu
  • New Content Notifications
  • Improved Projectile Ricochets - Projectiles will now bounce more reliably off of shallow angles. Values for different ammos can be adjusted by modders.

Round Armor Panels
  • Light Armor Panel Round - S + L grid
  • Light Armor Panel Round Corner - S + L grid
  • Heavy Armor Panel Round - S + L grid
  • Heavy Armor Panel Round Corner - S + L grid
A set of round armor panels - in both light and heavy variants.


Short Wheel Suspensions
  • Short Wheel Suspension 1x1 Right/Left - S + L grid
  • Short Wheel Suspension 2x2 Right/Left - S + L grid
  • Short Wheel Suspension 3x3 Right/Left - S + L grid
  • Short Wheel Suspension 5x5 Right/Left - S + L grid
The suspensions you know and love, in a smaller package! These suspensions are 1 block narrower/shorter than the existing ones. So where a regular 3x3 wheel suspension is 2 blocks wide, these ones are just 1 block wide!


Flat Atmospheric Thrusters
  • Flat Atmospheric Thruster - S + L grid
  • Large Flat Atmospheric Thruster - S + L grid
  • Flat Atmospheric Thruster D Shape - S + L grid
  • Large Flat Atmospheric Thruster D Shape - S + L grid
Flat atmospheric thruster variants.


Button & Control Panel
  • Control Panel Pedestal - S + L grid
  • Button Panel Pedestal - S + L grid
Single button and control panel pedestals for base game.


AI Warning Signs
  • Warning Sign Arrow - S + L grid
  • Warning Sign Grid AI - S + L grid
  • Warning Sign AI Powered - S + L grid
  • Warning Sign Memetic Badger 1- S + L grid
  • Warning Sign Memetic Badger 2 - S + L grid
  • Warning Sign GoodAI - S + L grid
AI is here - so there has to be a set of warning signs… 


Free DLC Content Additions

Adding new wheels means updating old ones. If you have our Wasteland DLC it's about to get a free upgrade! We are adding new wheeled content to the Wasteland Pack for both existing and future owners.

Short Offroad Wheel Suspension 
(added to the Wasteland Pack)
  • Offroad Short Wheel Suspension 1x1 Right/Left - S + L grid
  • Offroad Short Wheel Suspension 2x2 Right/Left - S + L grid
  • Offroad Short Wheel Suspension 3x3 Right/Left - S + L grid
  • Offroad Short Wheel Suspension 5x5 Right/Left - S + L grid
A Wasteland offroad version of the short wheel suspension.


Decorative Pack #3

Similar to our previous major releases, we hope you will take this opportunity to support the continued development of Space Engineers. This DLC pack consists of cosmetic items that enrich your game visually. None of the features in this package provide any advantage to players who purchase this DLC. 


The price of the Decorative Pack #3 is $4.99 USD or your regional equivalent. Show your continued support for Space Engineers and check out the Decorative Pack #3.

This package includes:

Warworn Armor Skin
Make your ship into a weathered veteran - burned, bruised, but not beaten! 


Cab Cockpit - S grid
A small grid boxy cockpit - ideal for that working truck cab look.


Twin-blade Wind Turbine - L grid
Elegant twin-blade variant of wind turbines. 


Colorable Solar Panels
  • Colorable Solar Panel - S + L grid
  • Colorable Solar Panel Slope Left - S + L grid
  • Colorable Solar Panel Slope Right - S + L grid
Solar panels with different shapes and possibility to change the color. 


Holo LCD - S + L grid
Futuristic hologram variant of LCD screen.


Inset LCD panel - S + L grid
Inset variant of LCD screen.


Sloped LCD panel - S + L grid
Sloped variant of LCD screen.


Curved LCD panel - S + L grid
Curved variant of LCD screen.


Round Beacon - S + L grid
Round variant for the Beacon block. 


Inset Couch - L grid
An inset couch for decorating interiors. Can be used as a seat.


Inset Bed - L grid
An inset bed for decorating interiors. Can preserve the players' inventory and toolbar while they're offline and keeps them alive as long as there is oxygen available in the environment.


Inset Button Panel - L grid
Inset block variant for maintaining access to your systems.


Entertainment Corner - L grid
Chill out in style and comfort - Entertainment Corner is a decorative block with many uses. 


Inset Bookshelf - L grid
Decorative block for all the space bookworms. 


Inset Aquarium - L grid
Aquarium? In space? Yes, that’s right! Just sit down and enjoy the calm view. 


Inset Kitchen - L grid
Decorative block with the kitchen theme. 


Inset Cryo Room - L grid
Flush and air tight cryo room. Sweet dreams! 


Corner Medical Room - L grid
Medical room block variant.


Half Bed, Half Bed Open - L grid
A half block sized bed - comfortable, inviting but practical.


Scaffold Set
  • Scaffold Block - S + L grid
  • Scaffold Block Slope - S + L grid
  • Scaffold Block Corner - S + L grid
  • Half Scaffold Block - S + L grid
  • Walkable Scaffold Block - L grid
  • Walkable Scaffold Block Corner - L grid
  • Walkable Scaffold Block Corner Inv. - L grid
  • Walkable Half Scaffold Block - L grid
  • Scaffold Block Ladder - L grid
Scaffold Blocks can provide lightweight structural support to ships and stations.


Crates & Barrels
  • Barrel - S + L grid
  • Three Barrels - L grid
  • Stacked Barrels - L grid
  • Cargo Crate - L grid
Crates left scattered around, indicating hard working engineers have been in the area.


Explosive Barrel - S + L grid
A barrel which has been converted into an improvised explosive. Boom! 


What's Next 

Celebrating 10 years of Space Engineers!

As the 10 year anniversary of Space Engineers approaches, we want to celebrate with our community of dedicated players and fans. The anniversary event will feature special in-game content, as well as real-world celebrations and events.

Whether you’re a long-time fan of Space Engineers or a newcomer to the game, the 10 year anniversary is sure to be an exciting time for everyone involved.

YOU are invited!

Be sure to stay tuned for more information and updates as the anniversary approaches!


Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Can we expect more mechanics and QOL changes, not just cosmetics?
A: Yes. We hear you and we have big changes, updates, and additions planned for 2024 and beyond.

Q: How do I provide feedback?
A: Please contact us with your bugs, and feedback here: https://support.keenswh.com

Q: Can we expect some special promotions in the future?
A: We are always looking at new ways to bring Space Engineers to a wider audience. Special promotions are good opportunities for this. We have a number of exciting promotions planned for the future, which include both game and DLC content!


Hiring

If you’re interested in working on awesome games like Space Engineers or our in-house game engine VRAGE3, and love solving unique challenges, we’d love to hear from you! Check out the open positions at Keen Software House and don’t forget to send us your English CV/resume and cover letter. 

Remote collaboration is possible!

Our team is global.

Finding the best candidates to join Keen Software House means exploring every possible solution, including remote work. While we strive to provide team members with the best possible work-life balance here in Prague at our incredible Oranzerie offices, we understand that it is not always possible to transition, therefore we are very remote-friendly. Here’s a map of where our teammates live.


Follow our social media to get the latest news!


If you want to let me know your feedback, please get in touch via my personal email address marek.rosa@keenswh.com, or use our Keen Software House support site. I welcome all of the feedback we receive and we will use it to learn and provide better services to our players.


Thank you for reading this blog!

 

Best,
Marek Rosa
CEO, Creative Director, Founder at Keen Software House
CEO, CTO, Founder at GoodAI

 

For more news:
Space Engineers: www.SpaceEngineersGame.com
Keen Software House: www.keenswh.com
VRAGE Engine: www.keenswh.com/vrage/
GoodAI: www.GoodAI.com

 

Personal bio:

Marek Rosa is the founder and CEO of GoodAI, a general artificial intelligence R&D company, and Keen Software House, an independent game development studio, started in 2010, and best known for its best-seller Space Engineers (5 million copies sold). Space Engineers has the 4th largest Workshop on Steam with over 500K mods, ships, stations, worlds, and more!

Marek has been interested in game development and artificial intelligence since childhood. He started his career as a programmer and later transitioned to a leadership role. After the success of Keen Software House titles, Marek was able to fund GoodAI in 2014 with a $10 Million personal investment.

Both companies now have over 100 engineers, researchers, artists, and game developers.

Marek's primary focus includes Space Engineers, the VRAGE3 engine, the AI Game, and LLM agents that learn continually.

GoodAI's mission is to develop AGI - as fast as possible - to help humanity and understand the universe. One of the commercial stepping stones is the "AI game," which features LLM-driven NPCs grounded in the game world with developing personalities and long-term memory. GoodAI also works on autonomous agents that can self-improve and solve any task that a human can.