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 This is my unfiltered dev journal, so please keep in mind that what I write here are my thoughts and will be outdated by the time you read this, as so many things change quickly.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 1
We just released the Space Engineers Apex Survival Update and Pack!
First, I want to thank the SE1 Team for delivering such an amazing update on time and at such a high quality. This release already stands as a success and a testament to their hard work and execution. Great job!
Apex Survival is one of the biggest gameplay updates Space Engineers 1 has seen in years. It introduces food, farming, hunting, environmental hazards, meaningful death, buffs, and a full overhaul of space encounters. Each of these mechanics is optional and configurable, but together they make survival in Space Engineers feel more alive and more challenging than ever before.
I am especially happy to see how far survival gameplay has come since the early days of Space Engineers. I was always curious to see how far we could push survival, and seeing it realized in Apex Survival makes me proud.
You can read the full blog post here and the complete changelog is available here.
Alongside the free update, we also released the Apex Survival Pack, which adds new decorative blocks designed for greenhouses and survival-themed builds. They are not required for the update itself, but they allow players to bring more personality and life into their creations. You can find the Pack on Steam, PlayStation and Xbox.
Releasing simultaneously on three different platforms (with crossplay no less!) is not something many studios attempt – and for good reason. Each platform has its own requirements, certification processes, and technical challenges. Coordinating all of this so that updates go live at the same time is a complex task.
I am proud of how the team has learned to manage this process and deliver high-quality releases across PC, Xbox, and PlayStation together. It shows a level of maturity and discipline that is not common in the industry.
This release is important to me because it shows that Space Engineers 1 is still growing, even after 12 years.
Apex Survival feels like both a conclusion to a long journey and the start of something new.
Space Engineers 2
Performance Optimizations
SE2 and VRAGE3 are constantly undergoing performance optimizations – improving frame rate, reducing memory usage, speeding up loading times, and eliminating performance spikes (lags and stuttering).
Right now, one of my main focuses is scenario loading times. In the picture below you can see our internal reports, where the team tracks how these KPIs (key performance indicators) evolve from version to version (this refers to internal builds, not the public Steam version).
Loading times for scenarios with planets are gradually decreasing, which is very promising. Our current target is to get the Verdure scenario down to 30 seconds or less.
This matters not only for players but also for our team. Imagine loading a scenario dozens or even hundreds of times every day – if that adds up to an hour spent just staring at a loading screen, it directly reduces overall productivity. That’s why loading time optimizations are a top priority for VS2.
In Space Engineers 2 we are working on better deformation LODs. The goal is to keep the destruction and collisions looking detailed and believable, while at the same time achieving amazing performance during grid crashes.
These moments are core to the Space Engineers experience, and I want them to feel both spectacular and smooth, without turning into a slideshow. It’s all about finding the right balance between visual fidelity and simulation speed.
Here are some possible visuals for Safe Zones. We are experimenting with different styles and effects, trying to find a look that is clear and fits the art direction. The visuals must communicate protection without breaking the atmosphere of the world
MateriaLinker
Alice Vescio is a member of our SE2 Art Team, working as an Advanced 3D Character Artist here at Keen. Recently, she shared something very cool – her first Python plugin for Marmoset Toolbag, called MateriaLinker.
This tool automatically links all your textures to their corresponding materials in one go. With just one click, it saves a lot of time when setting up PBR maps, and it works across many different naming conventions. There is even a checkbox option that will pull the Opacity Map from the Albedo’s alpha channel and link it directly into the Transparency slot.
It may sound like a small utility, but things like this make a huge difference in daily workflows. I really like seeing our developers not only creating content for Space Engineers 2, but also pushing the tools and pipelines forward for themselves and the wider community.
Share your thoughts in the comments below – I read them all, and they’re one of my favorite parts of making SE2.
