Marek’s Dev Diary: October 30, 2025

VS2 – Planets & Survival Foundations

One of the small but important things we’re working on is improving how the game communicates with you. For example, we’re adding an onscreen indication of what you mined or grinded – and the exact amounts.

It’s a simple change, but it makes a big difference. The idea is the same as with the Unlock screens I showed in the last dev diary – moments that announce your progression and milestones. These kinds of cues help make the world feel more responsive.

We’re continuing to apply this lesson across the board – better communication from game systems towards the player. The goal is to make sure the game always lets you know what’s happening, without you having to guess or check logs and inventory screens.

VS2 will also introduce the base systems for random encounters. At first, these will be non-dynamic and non-AI – simple handcrafted damaged ships, smaller stations and points of interest to bring more life to the world.

This is just the base of the whole future encounter system. You can expect broader themes, combat scenarios, and truly dynamic NPC encounters in updates down the road. Step by step, we’re moving toward a universe that feels less static and more reactive – where every playthrough can surprise you.

You can see some of our first experiments with random encounter systems here. These screenshots show our encounter templates – handcrafted prefabs that the game will later insert into the world, on planets, or among asteroids.

So if you notice a patch of grass floating in space – don’t worry, it’s part of the template testing process, not a new type of cosmic meadow.

Lately, I’ve been finishing the voice-over work for the VS2 Survival intro cutscene and the FTUE (First Time User Experience). Both feature a dialogue between Miro (the player) and Ivan, and sometimes Miro as the narrator. I really enjoy this process – giving personality and emotional tone to the story that frames the gameplay.

For VS2, the voice lines introduce players to the world of Almagest and set up the relationship between the two brothers. In future vertical slices, we’ll expand this further as new mechanics are added – wheels, water, NPCs, and more – adapting the narrative as the universe grows.

Examples from intro cutscene (before the Survival starts) – !!! SPOILER ALERT !!!

Example from Survival / FTUE:

Speaking of cutscenes – our Art Lead Natiq is running motion capture experiments for our character animations and cutscenes. These are early tests, but they already make a huge difference in our workflow and how fast we can create all the needed animations.

Here you can see examples of entering and exiting the Cryo Pod – captured with full body motion to make every movement smoother, more natural.

After VS2

Me and the teams are already planning our releases after VS2. We will share an updated roadmap together with the VS2 release.

VS3 – Water

We’re testing proper water propellers inside the game – and they work now! Still without any fine-tuning, but it’s exciting to see ships actually moving through water for the first time without any “cheated” thrusters.

Question to you: Where’s your sweet spot before in-game notifications stop helping and start feeling like noise?