Solarpunk - first person survival craft game for PC/Console
Created by Cyberwave
Alone or with your friends, grow food, craft, build & explore distant islands with your own airship.
This shop is for everyone who missed the Kickstarter campaign and still wants to support the development of Solarpunk. 🥰
Latest Updates from Our Project:
Solarpunk Discord roles and Demo Access (Alpha Backers)
over 1 year ago
– Mon, Jan 27, 2025 at 07:43:39 AM
Hey everyone,
In this update, you’ll find important information about the Solarpunk Demo and Discord roles. Since we might need to make adjustments to this post in the future, and Kickstarter doesn’t allow edits to updates after they’ve been published, we will be posting this update elsewhere, where we can make changes later if needed.
Thank you so much for your support, and we hope you enjoy this little glimpse into the world of Solarpunk!
Quick Update
almost 2 years ago
– Thu, Jan 09, 2025 at 03:08:05 AM
Happy New Year!
We hope you all had a wonderful holiday season. We wanted to reach out since it's been a while and share some exciting news with you.
💿 Solarpunk Demo
We're thrilled to announce that there will be a short demo of Solarpunk, which will be available during the Steam Next Fest in February (February 24 – March 3). The demo is just a small glimpse into the world of Solarpunk, and many features that will be present in the alpha and the final game will be locked in the demo.
All Alpha Kickstarter backers will get early access to the demo (probably this month). For everyone else, we look forward to welcoming you on February 24th!
We'll share more details very soon. We will also close the After-Kickstarter-Shop and open the Alpha backer Discord Channel for feedback soon.
Content creators are welcome to livestream it and do videos!
Alpha backers are also allowed to stream the game as soon as they gain access (even before the demo is publicly available)
✅ What else have we done?
Here is a short list of things we have been working on over the last few weeks. A more extended update will be in the next devlog.
Island Re-Design:
The islands have been redesigned to be more interesting.
Forester Bot:
The bot takes care of trees, cuts them down, plants new ones and stores the wood in crates.
Returns to its shed when it runs out of energy.
Trade Bots:
Tradebots are located at random places around the world.
Once you find one, you can trade with it.
Weather System:
Fully grown crops can now be damaged during storms (X% harvest loss).
Crops can be protected. For example by building greenhouses.
Wind system improved: Airship turbulence near islands has been reduced to allow for more precise landings.
Power Grid:
Overloaded cables now display an orange color.
A unified plug system ensures better compatibility between electrical devices.
Improved battery models (including charge status indicators) and wireless connectors.
UI Improvements:
New loading screen with gameplay tips.
New sound effects and icons added.
Added survival guide
Thank you for your continued support! Stay tuned for more updates.
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Project we love: Voxile
Not “cozy” at all, but as big Minecraft fans, we really wanted to support this co-op project! The devs changed the name of the game from Voxland to Voxile.
Explore gorgeous raytraced voxel lands, meet the local mutated wild-life, find out what went wrong, and quest, craft, loot, build, destroy and shoot your way to the top of the foodchain! Play alone, or with friends in Co-op! Assuming you know how to share.
⚡ Renewable Energy System: We’re excited to share that the solar panels and wind turbines in the game are now fully functional! Previously, we only demonstrated how the energy system would work, but now it truly powers your gadgets like weather stations, sprinklers, and lights. We’re also working on wireless power to make your homes even tidier without all the cables.
Here our "Network Display"
🤖 New Tools for Automation: The automatic drill and automatic magnet fisher are now fully functional. These tools will make resource gathering easier, allowing you to spend more time exploring and building.
🏠 Building Plus Update: Thanks to our Kickstarter supporters, we’ve added new building materials, including brick and glass. We also added more decorations, giving you more ways to make your homes unique and cozy.
All 3 materials combined. (See more of the "building plus update" in the video).
We also added more decorations
🎉 Gamescom Highlights: We already told you about this in the last Devlog but Gamescom was an incredible experience for us. We even had a German TV crew follow us for a day, and we got to showcase Solarpunk to the press and content creators. Your enthusiasm means the world to us!
🌴 New Islands: We’re currently working on new islands to make exploration even more exciting. Each island will be unique, with new resources, plants, and animals to discover. Here an clip, how we build an island in Unreal Engine 5 for Solarpunk.
For those who may have missed our last update, we’d also like to share the current status of the Alpha Version. We're making steady progress, but there are still a few major tasks to complete before we can release the alpha, including final touches on the energy system, new islands, and more content. We're committed to making sure that the alpha version meets our standards, and we will continue to keep you updated as we get closer to launch. Your support means everything to us, and we want to deliver the best possible experience.
We’re not quite finished with the Alpha yet, but we’ll let you know as soon as we make more progress!
If you have any questions about the development, please join our Discord server! Here we can answer your feedback and questions directly.
First Gameplay Video, Gamescom recap, new trailer
about 2 years ago
– Fri, Sep 06, 2024 at 06:24:59 AM
Hey Solarpunk Community!
We hope you're doing great! We wanted to give you a quick update on what we've been working on. This is just a small update, but don’t worry, a bigger one with more details is coming soon.
🎫 Gamescom Recap
New Trailer during the "Gamescom Indie Awesome Show":
At Gamescom, during the Indie Awesome Show, we showed off a brand-new trailer for Solarpunk. This trailer really captures the vibe of the game, and we’re really proud of it.
We've also posted a shorter version of the trailer on Reddit, so feel free to watch it and give it a like 👍 if you think it's cool.
That would help us a lot. Thanks you so much.
We showed Solarpunk to the press and content creators for the first time
We also showed the first playable version of Solarpunk to some German press people and Content Creators at Gamescom.
And for those who couldn’t be there, we recorded the 20-minute gameplay session we shared at the event.
🎬 You can watch the Gamescom presentation also on YouTube
TV Crew x Solarpunk
Also, we can’t say much about it right now, but a German TV crew followed us around during Gamescom 😲.
Honestly, it feels unreal, and we’re still kind of in shock that this is actually happening!
More Gamescom impressions
A lot more happened during Gamescom, so we were at a live talk and even in the live stream of one of the biggest German streamer "Jasmin" GNU and showed her Solarpunk.
We were pleased to hear that she already had Solarpunk on her Steam Wishlist :).
🅰 Alpha Version Progress
Lately, we’ve been super focused on getting the playable Alpha version of Solarpunk ready. We’ve been adding few important features, and we’re excited to say that the energy system is working really well now (Make sure you watch the video above).
We’re not quite finished with the Alpha yet, but we’ll let you know as soon as we make more progress!
Thanks for sticking with us and being awesome! We’re working hard to make Solarpunk the best it can be, and we can’t wait to share more with you in our next big update.
Cheers, The Solarpunk Team
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Project we love:
Outbound - Cozy Camper-Van Exploration-Crafting Game
Build your own home on wheels and live sustainably off-grid. Craft workstations, source energy, upgrade, customize, and play together!
Outbound is an open-world exploration game set in a utopian near future. You start with an empty camper van and turn it into the home of your dreams. Coming to PC, Nintendo Switch, Xbox, and Playstation. Play it alone or together with up to 4 players!
Play alone or with up to 4 players in Co-op multiplayer
Build and customize in and on top of your camper van
Transform your vehicle into your dream home with unique furnishings and decorations
Gather materials to craft workstations and building parts
Gather, Farm, and Cook delicious food
Power your electric vehicle using various energy sources
Choose from several vehicle options, each with its own characteristics
🏠 Huge building system update, We won 2 OTK Awards, New Trailer, Status of the alpha
over 2 years ago
– Tue, Jul 09, 2024 at 04:16:53 AM
Hello Solarpunk Community 👋!
We've made significant advancements to our building system over the past few weeks, transitioning from collision channels to a tag-snap system. This gives users much more freedom when building their dream homes in Solarpunk.
Because many people asked about the status of the alpha version, we have written a longer statement at the end of this update.
Changed the building system from collision channels to a tag snap system. So we theoretically have an infinite number of snap possibilities for example: Walls, roof slopes, columns, decorations, plants, electronic components and so on. Previously we were very limited in this respect.
There is now a system with which buildings can have special rules for building in individual cases. For example, carpets can be placed under furniture if the furniture is already in place. Wall shelves automatically rotate towards the wall so that they hang from it. Hanging plants can only be hung from the ceiling up to a certain angle and so on.
A system has been built in which ensures that buildables like decorations, cannot be built into each other. Due to a limitation in the Unreal engine, dynamic previews that have not yet been built can only have "simple collisions", which consist of boxes or similar simple shapes. However, we wanted it to be possible to place a candle on the edge of a furnace (for example). We therefore developed the system so that every buildable object has two possible collisions. A simple one for building and a complex (much more precise) one when the object is built. This way we can have the best of both worlds if necessary.
Building preview is no longer displayed if you have a placeable in your hand and a UI open
"Building rules" such as "Can only be built on land" or "Can only be built on water" have been added.
Floating water drone rework (which you can already see in the trailers). Now has floats that limit the area in which the drone fishes items out of the water and a box in which the drone brings the items, where you can then collect them as a player.
Sky environment improved. Clouds have been reworked. The sun now shines through the clouds better and adapts to the colour mood of the sun.
Weather system improved. Now have more control over weather changes and leaves and sticks fly through the air during thunderstorms
System prototyped so that you can be hit by whirling objects in a storm and take damage. It also takes into account the direction the wind is coming from, so you can take cover behind hills or walls from flying things.
🤗 We won a custom made PC & $10.000
During the OTK Games Expo, an event hosted by the Youtuber Asmongold, the community voted Solarpunk as "Best Trailer" and we won $10.000. We also won an Award for "Most unique Artstyle" and we will receive a custom made Solarpunk-themed PC from Starforge System. Over 300.000 people watched the event live and we are so incredibly grateful for our community.
You are amazing 😍!
We have also reworked our very first teaser for the "Games baked in Germany" event which you can watch on Youtube.
🅰 Status of the alpha
We know that many of you are waiting for the Alpha launch, that's why we want to give you a summarized overview about what we have done since our Kickstarter campaign and what still needs to be done until we can release the alpha. This way, you'll get a better idea of where the project currently stands. At the end, we will also explain why it is so difficult to give you an Alpha launch date yet.
Since our Kickstarter campaign last year, we have mostly focused on reworking and improving many aspects of the game — tasks that we originally didn't plan to do but were able to thanks to the huge support from our community. To name a few, we reworked the entire airship, the merchant, the building system, the interaction system, improved all UIs in the game, the weather system, the sky environment, and so on.
We also began to work on stretch goals like the “recycling system” and “building plus.” The Kickstarter success even allowed us to add features that weren't listed in the stretch goals, like magnet fishing.
There are still many tasks to complete before the final game launches, such as the animal system, the character editor, and the multiplayer mode.
However, for the first version of the Alpha, there are three major tasks left:
1. The Energy System: Since the energy system is based on many other systems in the game, like the building system, the save system, crafting, and interacting, and because we reworked most of those systems last year, we couldn't work on the energy system earlier. Now that all other systems are complete, we have started to focus on the energy system. This feature includes many individual objects like solar panels, wind turbines, batteries, drills, water cleaners, etc. It will take some time until it is ready to be tested. We also want to implement a logic system that adds further complexity to the energy system, such as levers, switches, day/night sensors, and so on. The energy system is by far the biggest task left for the first Alpha version.
2. Islands: Currently, the number of islands and the islands themselves do not offer enough variety to be interesting for players to explore. Therefore, we will create new islands and a lot of new foliage to add more unique characteristics to each island.
3. More Content: Now that our systems for researching, crafting, building, and so on are working and ready to be used, it’s time to add more items and decorations to the game. If you have any suggestions for decorations, let us know in the comments or on our Discord.
There is still a lot of work to do, but these are the three main tasks we want to complete before we launch the Alpha. After we launch the first version of the Alpha, we will focus on your feedback, completing the multiplayer mode, and adding animals to the game. We hope this gives a good overview of what’s left to do before we can launch the Alpha.
Why don't we give an alpha release date? We receive a lot of messages about why we don't tell an alpha launch date. There are several reasons, that we want to adress here.
1. Why dont we give an Alpha release date? The most obvious reason on why we don't give you a launch date is because we simply don't know how long it will take until we finish the remaining tasks. In game development, you always encouter unpredictable challenges or even face critical bugs that sometimes require multiple weeks of complex rework to fix. Since we are only 2 people working on this game, those things delay the entire devolpment because there are no other employees that can keep working on other parts of the game. This makes it very tough to predict an alpha launch date.
2. Why don't we give a rough timeframe then? First, we really don't like to break promises. Announcing launch dates and then having to postpone them repeatedly doesn't feel right, neither for the community, nor for us. It just adds frustration to both sides. Second, Solarpunk is our dream project, for the last 3 years, we have often worked up to 16 hours a day and 7 days a week to get the game out as fast and as good as possible. We must pay attention to not add more pressure to our team. We are working at our mental limit. Announcing a deadline that we we can't keep, would add a lot of pressure to us, resulting in a decrease in our mental health and also the quality of the game.
3 Why don't we communicate more or give more updates? Apart from more minor stuff like bugfixes, company stuff, playtesting, prototyping, you can find all of our major progress updates in the devlogs / kickstarter updates. If we don't post an update, then we simply don't have anything significant to show. That doesn't mean that we aren't making progress, but sometimes we are working on things like improving the performance of the game, which are not suitable for a devlog. We are trying our best to keep you updated on the development but please keep in mind that since we are only a small team of 2, we don't have a major progress update every week.
You can always join our Dev-Discord and ask us what we are currently working on.
We are sure that most of you understand the situation, and we are very grateful for your patience. We are doing our best to release the alpha as soon as possible.
Run a seaplane delivery service and find Uncle Lou! Traverse the vibrant Limbo Archipelago in search of your Uncle Lou, who mysteriously disappeared and left you his seaplane delivery service. Explore the islands, harvest resources, and hone your crafting skills to complete jobs and grow your business!
Check out the teaser trailer below and follow the project on Kickstarter to stay updated. Let's bring another amazing game to life together! 🚀
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