Hello Exofarmers!

Some amazing news just landed – Lightyear Frontier is Steam Deck Verified!

This has been a long process and we’re so happy to share this news with you all. There is a small update that’s coming along with this just to make sure the resolution works and that crossplay is still enabled for all platforms + some various bugfixes!

Don’t miss out on a devlog below! ⬇️

Patch Notes – V. 0.4.1282

• Fixed an issue where the Steam Deck would default to an incorrect and distorted resolution after a recent SteamOS update
• Fixed interactions with Compost Box causing severe performance issues during rapid changes in player inventory
  • Most noticeable when harvesting lots of plants or shooting lots of seeds
• Fixed a few rare crashes
• Fixed Pioneer Bundle not having an image
• Fixed Sprout Cannon being able to plant some sprouts in plots
• Fixed P.I.C.K.-Axe occasionally getting a purple afterglow in multiplayer

Devlog – Taking a look back at past updates

Today we’ll be giving you some behind-the-scenes beans on our past updates – neighbors & Animals and Trailblazer. We’re taking a final look back at where we’ve been, before looking ahead to our new experimental updates, which are waiting just around the corner. Let’s start off with:

Neighbors and Animals

Neighbors

Moving to a new planet with friends can be exciting, but if you’re doing it solo it can get quite lonely. This is something we believed could be the case early on but weren’t too sure how to prioritise. Once we released Lightyear Frontier and started getting feedback, we could see that you all wanted some company to feel more connected to the new world, and that’s when we knew that neighbors needed to set their coordinates for your new planet!

Our earliest idea of neighbors evolved and changed during development, a lot thanks to your feedback and thoughts. You help us shape new features but also when we add them!

The neighbors we have so far have personalities and qualities that contrast with each other and we’d like for potential new neighbors to be just as unique as well. What kind of neighbors would you like to see in the future? Share your ideas with us!

Ulf

We knew all along that we wanted to have a neighbor connected to nature and plants on the Frontier. With this in mind, we started leaning towards adding a botanist/ scientist to the game. Our artists started to concept the neighbor and with continuous iteration and collaboration within the team, we ended up with the first version of Ulf. We knew we did not want the stereotypical image of a scientist in a white robe and that’s why we went in another direction with Ulf and how he got his stunning look and majestic beard.

Ulf grew very organically, in different directions, first some narrative design, then some art, then some game design, and then he blossomed into the character he is today, just like a plant.

However, when we were almost finished working on Diane and the animals, we realized Ulf’s sprout feature felt a bit shallow and not very science-like. That’s when we went back to Ulf and added mutated crops and created the Seed Splicer.

We think this feature can help us make a lot of interesting things with a flavor of science. It’s a door we’re excited to have opened and to revisit again in the future. It’s not our current focus but if you have ideas or wishes regarding sprouts and plant mutations – let us know!

Diane

As we started working on Diane, we knew we wanted a character that stood in contrast to Ulf. Diane is very direct and hands-on, whilst Ulf is a bit more shy and reserved. In testing and also after release, we could tell opinions on her were very split. Some think she’s sweet and some may think she can be a bit rude at times, there’s many sides to Diane.

Most things with Diane went smooth sailing, but not her hat. That darn thing gave us a big headache as it was a nightmare to animate, but it was essential to her character and all worth it in the end!

Diane’s Animal Sanctuary was just like Ulf’s Seed Splicer, a solution to an issue we predicted our players might face when we’d start introducing animals and animal care on the farm. We wanted to make sure that players could move their farm animals out of the way when doing a remodel of their farmstead for example. At the same time, we wanted players to be able to do this and still keep a close connection with the animals, which is why they are not just stored in a computer for example but instead at Diane’s Sanctuary.

Something we think would be interesting to explore further is Diane’s mission on your planet – finding out how animals breed. Is this a mystery you’d be interested in exploring further?

Animals

Just like with neighbors, we wanted to add more animals and animal care to create a sense of community and togetherness in the game, adding something alive to care for other than your plants and farm.

Early Stalktail Concepts.

A risk we saw with adding animals to the farm was that they could feel too much like cattle, we wanted players to be able to build a closer connection with the animals. But not too close, so not like a housepet, but somewhere in between.

Early Mox concepts.

In the future we’d of course like to expand more on animals, adding more variations or using their materials for more things. We’d like to give them some more importance on your farm, whilst not making them too overwhelming – let us know if you have ideas on what direction you’d like to see us go!

Trailblazer

Trailblazer mode

Trailblazer was an update we worked hard and fast on, similar to the Trailblazer mode itself. You said to us that you didn’t have the time to do everything you needed in just one day. This is why we added speedier traversal like the Trailblazer mode, the return home feature, and moving faster on paths!

Early Trailblazer concepts.

Exploring more modes and upgrades to the mech is something we’d love to do in the future. We already have a few different ways you can use the mech to traverse around the world – what other modes or upgrades would you like to see?

Exofarmer Customization

Exofarmer Customization has been a highly wished-for feature from our community but also a passion within the dev team. It’s been a rewarding experience to allow players to finally be able to add some more personality and uniqueness to their Exofarmer. This also makes it easier for players to distinguish from each other when playing together!

Early Exofarmer helmet concepts.

We wanted this to be different from how you customize your mech. The mech is more of an investment in both time and resources, like adding upgrades to your car for example, whilst the Exofarmer customization should feel as easy as picking a t-shirt in the morning, it should be easy to represent yourself the way you’d like!

Some lovely placeholder helms we used while waiting for the finished helmets.

We have a BUNCH of ideas on how to continue building on this and are so excited to work more on this down the road. What would you like to see from Exofarmer Customization?

Future Updates

We’ve already shared some of our plans for the future in a post back in December but are now almost ready to start sharing even more with you, thank you for staying patient with us!

We hope y’all are as excited as us for what’s to come, see you again soon Exofarmers!