About This Dev Diary
Every Thursday, I share some of what we’ve been working on – the challenges, solutions, and ideas that caught my attention. This is my unfiltered dev journal, so my thoughts and plans may change quickly, and nothing here is set in stone. And if you don’t like spoilers, don’t read further!
Space Engineers 1
Meet Wrenchie – a platform that helps non-programmers create SE1 in-game scripts! Built as a personal project by one of our Space Engineers programmers, Wrenchie also gives seasoned scripters a place to share their best practices with the community.
- Have a script in mind but not sure how to code it? Wrenchie is here to help
- Want to learn some scripting, but all tutorials look too hard? Let Wrenchie walk you through it step by step
- Skilled coder that just needs a platform to write and test scripts quickly? Absolutely!
Keep in mind that Wrenchie is still an engineer in training, and new features will be added based on community feedback.
Space Engineers 2
Smoother, Stable & Faster
Smoother, Stable & Faster is out, and I’m proud of what the team achieved with this update. We focused heavily on performance, stability, and all the smaller things that make Space Engineers 2 feel better to play.
I also noticed something encouraging after the update – over the last few days, Steam reviews have been stronger than before – 80% of Steam Reviews are positive now! It is still early, but it looks like you – the players – are noticing and appreciating the changes we made.
For me, this is a good signal that focusing on performance, stability, and the overall quality of the experience was the right direction. Our long term goal is above 95% positive Steam Reviews.
Of course, this is not the end of our performance and stability work. For me, this is only the beginning. We already have more work in progress, and we will keep pushing these areas with every update.
This racing league immediately caught my eye. I love canyon runs, so seeing players turn that into an organized competition is right up my alley.
What I enjoy most is the combination of speed, risk, and engineering. You build something fast, throw it into a canyon, and then find out very quickly whether your design was actually a good idea. Can’t wait for multiplayer!
NPCs
I’ve been watching our NPCs navigate increasingly complicated spaces, and this test was a fun one. The NPC has to find its way through the Red Ship, deal with corridors and closed doors, and keep working toward the player instead of getting stuck.
It is a good example of the kind of navigation problems we need to solve for combat NPCs. Ships and stations can have strange layouts, multiple rooms, narrow passages, and doors that change the available route.
Bushes, Boulders & Overhangs
We keep improving our planets step by step. From one update to the next, individual changes can be easy to miss, but when I compare the planets today with how they looked when first released, the difference is huge.
We are adding new bushes:
And improving boulders and overhangs, and continuing to refine the environments around you!
Question to you: What would you like Wrenchie to help you build first?
Share your thoughts in the comments below – I read them all, and they’re one of my favorite parts of making our games.
Subscribe and get an email whenever I publish a new post!
Finally some alien flora! 😀 Navigation looks good. big boulders too.
That NPC test is fantastic! I haven’t been playing as much recently, but NPCs would honestly keep me playing this game in the long-term.
Okay, I don’t know how much work went into this, but these Renegades are true killing machines. I love them, and the suit designs are gorgeous. I hope you’ll add plenty of variants and customization options in the future so that every player, and even every NPC, can stand out. Just like with the concept suits, I absolutely love these designs!