What is this
Every Thursday, I will share a dev diary about what we’ve been working on over the past few weeks. I’ll focus on the interesting challenges and solutions that I encountered. I won’t be able to cover everything, but I’ll share what caught my interest.
Why am I doing it
I want to bring our community along on this journey, and I simply love writing about things I’m passionate about! This is my unfiltered dev journal, so please keep in mind that what I write here are my thoughts and will be outdated by the time you read this, as so many things change quickly. Any plans I mention aren’t set in stone and everything is subject to change. Also, if you don’t like spoilers, then don’t read this.
Space Engineers 2
Join us Monday, March 23rd, for the release of Space Engineers 2: VS2.2 Mechanical Blocks & Weapons!
📅 Monday, March 23, 6 PM UTC
🛰️ Twitch: https://twitch.tv/keencommunitynetwork
🛰️ YouTube: https://youtube.com/user/SpaceEngineersGame
Major Update VS2.2 is bringing Mechanical Blocks (Rotors & Pistons), Weapons & Combat Basics, Area Welding, and Production Lines to the game.
This update also expands exploration with new Moons, Asteroid Rings, and clusters, while introducing Planetary Events and Weather, Trading & Economy foundations, and Customizable Controls. Together, these systems deepen the survival experience and expand all the gameplay possibilities.
This Major Update pushes Space Engineers 2 forward in a big way – and we’re excited to finally share it with you!
Community Previews
This video is a masterpiece! I didn’t expect we would be able to get something like this already with VS2.2!
Our amazing community creators are releasing VS2.2 preview videos every day as part of our upcoming update celebration. Think of it like a video advent calendar – each box reveals a new exclusive community showcase!
We’ll be updating this post regularly so you can jump straight to the latest drops: https://2.spaceengineersgame.com/space-engineers-2-vs2-2-launching-march/
Stand by for transmission – the countdown continues!
VS4: First NPC steps
We resumed work on NPCs for Space Engineers 2. Petr Minařík, who’s been with me at Keen Software House since the very beginning, is now working on NPCs for VS4.
Here’s one of our first experiments with Kythera navigation and dynamic grid collision avoidance… and I had to share it with you because the NPC moves in a very familiar way. We’ve all been there. 🚽
3D Engineer
Remember this adorable Little Engineer by Mike Hamlett?
You can now 3D print it yourself! The printable version was prepared by our very own Raissa Theodosia (check out her ArtStation, it’s a beaut!) and by Dennys Wang.
And the best – Little Engineer files are completely FREE to download!
Print it, paint it – but do not forget to send us a photo! (and mark us on social media with #SpaceEngineers )
Question to you: Will you 3D print your own Little Engineer? What color will you paint it?
Share your thoughts in the comments below – I read them all, and they’re one of my favorite parts of making our games.
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The new contracts look like more of the same. You managed to make combat boring. Why do you insist on making heavily scripted missions in a sandbox game?
Keen have been very open that the story side is one thing, the sandbox is the other. Both are optional to play or not…
Its tricky to make detailed missions without a scripted narrative. This is also the foundation of the story, Keen will develop it further and modders will take it to unimaginable levels later…
keep in mind this is early access, so not the full vision of the team as of yet.
I trust Keen to make improvements based on constructive feedback as SE2 develops.
Small steps.. small steps
I’ve always enjoyed open-world games. I much prefer good main and side stories that are interesting. For me, that was missing in Space Engineers. Just PVPVE combat and survival don’t fulfill my needs as a player. I believe that in Space Engineers 2, this will arrive in a good and realistic way.
The dawn of NPCs, let’s gooooo! 🤖
imagine NPCs being able to participate in your racing event! 😮
I guess it’s time to buy a 3D printer 🙂
Will I print a mini engineer? 💯 I’d paint him Navy Blue, White and Orange detail.
… And probably some awesome grids too!
I’d like to chime in that I am also so impressed with Swack’s video he produced for VS2.2
He is able to leverage the cinematic potential with SE2 – and like you said Marek, this is just the beginning!
Like Swack, I am a cinematically inclined artist and I’d love to get into contact as a creative resource for the team 🙂 I will link my Artstation here if you’d like to check out some of what I’ve been working on!
I got some great ideas cooking for faction identity + design- to be posted soon.
Sorry for the self promotion – but this is to say the Keen team, SE2, and its amazing creators have just blown my mind. I’d love to chip in any way I can! Keep up the amazing work, SE2 is going to become the “next big thing” !!!
https://www.artstation.com/ianjt
A new era in welding! It’s wonderful to watch the world come to life. How exciting would it be to dive into an asteroid ring?
Looks great, Marek! I know it’s early days still but I hope you folks can make the economic simulation more impactful in the second game.
Also, when trading it would be very useful to have a trade sheet where can preview the trade of assets before actually commiting.
This will help in situations like in Andrew’s video where he has more than 20k credits worth of items, but both him and the trader cumulatively have less than 20k so it would be impossible to trade for the assault rifle.
I think something like the Rimworld trade screen would work very well here. It would also support trading massive amounts of objects for other objects more seamlesssly (i.e I will trade the trader 600k cobalt and he will trade me 1M iron, even though neither of us have the credits to process this transaction normally).
Not sure if this was answered already.
When pressurization is added, will it be similar to SE1 or can we pressurize rooms with sub grids (like custom piston doors) if the gap between grids is small enough? For example a room or hallway with a sliding door can pressurise when the gap between the door and main grid is smaller than some amount, and can leak out if above that amout.
On a second note, is there any news on the new Havok verion’s physical shapes limit?
Looking good! can’t wait to mave my movin’ bits again.
One big one I don’t see in the roadmap is programable blocks. I miss my LCDs and inventory management scripts.