Interplanetary: Enhanced Edition is Out Now!

 

 Surprise! The shiny new Interplanetary: Enhanced Edition is available on Steam right now!

What’s New

As we have announced earlier this summer, this is a massive update for Interplanetary. So massive, that, in fact, it is its own game. Essentially, this new version is a re-build of the entire game for the sake of making it more stable, as well as better sounding and looking. It’s still the same old Interplanetary deep down, but better.

As we are taking Interplanetary to the new level, we are also expanding the geography of our community. In this version we are introducing localization into German language. More languages coming soon!

The update also includes a bunch of new features, some of which had been much requested in the last couple of years, like Online AI Bots, Reconnect and new weapons. Find the full changelog in our dedicated Steam forum thread.

 

How To Get the Enhanced Edition

So, how do you get a hold of a copy? If you already own the original Interplanetary, then it’s all good. The Enhanced Edition should be waiting for you in your Steam library now. Find it and get to installing.

If you don’t own a copy of the original game, you can purchase the Enhanced Edition through its separate Steam page. The initial version of the game is also included in the new version and should appear in your library automatically if you purchase the Enhanced Edition.

What Happens to the Original

The original Interplanetary will no longer be on sale as a separate package. However, for the time being, the store page and the community hub will remain open.

The Future

Though the Enhanced Edition is, in a way, completing Interplanetary, it is not absolutely final as is. Rebuilding a game from scratch hasn’t been smooth sailing, as expected. While we’ve bulldozed over most old bugs, completely new issues have periodically risen. As a matter of fact, we’re already hammering away at some upcoming fixes and we’re prepared to keep working at it for as long as we can. Please bear with us through the initial roughness.

For future patching, it’s essential that you give us feedback on your game experience. As usual, the community forum is the ideal place for that. The Enhanced Edition does have its own forum already, so join the new discussions and be excellent to each other!

Also, you can reach us on Twitter and Facebook.

Our very next feature update will see the light in just a few days and it will include localizations into several more languages: French, Spanish, Russian and Simplified Chinese.

Happy blasting!
 

Northern Game Summit 2013 & how to pitch a game

Full house!

Northern Game Summit was held second time last week, and we thought this would be a perfect time to share our experiences.

Kajaani is quite a remote place to hold a gaming conference at, but NGS was still very populated event. (And the only one to date that has started with karaoke!?) All in all the event was pretty excellent, we had a chance to meet lots of new people and keep in touch with old friends. The lectures we're interesting too, even after some technical difficulties.

Afterparty was a big part of the event as usual. The organizers came up with an interesting combination as the stands you would expect to see in most gaming events we're actually part of the party. Worked very nicely!

Ever played Alan Wake on 300" screen?

This time we took part in the pitching contest, which was probably the most important single event throughout the summit. While the pitching didn't go as well as it could have with proper preparation, it was well worth the trouble. Pitching an idea in front of real business people is an excellent way to get some free EXP, something we definitely recommend to any game developer. Since it's possible to learn from anyone, not only from the best, check out this short list of what we gathered:

-Prepare early. This provides you a chance to go through your presentation multiple times and in different mindsets, and gives you more time to...

-Practice. This one should be obvious, but it might still be just a little bit too easy to trick yourself into believing you know your idea/project well enough to present it spontaneously. Do this in front of someone not familiar with you as well, if you have a chance. There a second layer to practice as well: In addition to practicing every single pitch, you should practice pitching in general as often as possible.

-Gather your team, or at least consider doing so. Preparing a game pitch is something you can do alone, but it's almost always better if you can prepare it with your team or even a couple of friends. This helps you to cover multiple points of view, get more feedback and root out some hitches that might have gone unnoticed.

-Back it up. Do some research that prepares you for difficult questions about your target audience, competition, sales estimates, even tech. Including those things in your pitch in a simple format gives a feeling that you know what you're doing, as long as they are facts.

-Make it look good. Having some cool concept art can definitely help you get the point across. Mockups or bullshots are better, and if you have a chance to include a short section of gameplay video, you're all set!

In the process of preparing for a pitch one time too little.

PS. We haven't completely forgotten about Interplanetary either. The development effort is back on track and running smoothly now that we have settled in our new premises. More on that later!

Meet the Team!

Have you ever wondered: "Who are these people?" and "Why are these people?" We have taken this opportunity to introduce Team Jolly Roger, the makers of Interplanetary! Step on in, if you care.

Niklas Saari, team lead

Favourite Game: Cave Story

Special Skills: Turning otherwise useless information and cat videos into inspiration and game ideas.

Niklas is the guy tasked with the job of keeping the TJR machine rolling as smooth as possible. Sometimes this means wrench work and pirate language, but usually lubricating the gears with coffee is enough.

Antti Tikkakoski, programmer

Favourite Game: Deus Ex

Special Skills: Cynical person

Single-player hardcore PC gamer. Never have, never will buy a game console (will accept gifts to tinker with, however.) Also likes Sci-Fi stuff.

Jussi Hyttinen, programmer

Favorite Game(s): Final Fantasy VII / Silent Hill 2

Special Skills: Vivid daydreaming and remarkable skill to forget everything that doesn't relate to gaming

Jussi is a UI programmer and really enjoys listening to game music. Usually he sits quietly in his not-so-philosophical thoughts and scans his surroundings for things that don't belong there...

Jukka Kivijärvi, game artist

Favorite Game: Changing by the month, currently, Kerbal Space Program

Special Skills: Jumping from one thing to the other, learning it as he goes.

Jukka is our artist working on whatever the situation calls for, from concepts, textures and 3D to the occasional graphic design tasks. Usually wears headphones when working, but forgets to put any music on.

Tarita Tammela, game artist

Favorite Game: Baldur's Gate

Special Skills: Overthinking, turning into a bookworm on full moon

Tarita is still waiting for her letter from the local school of witchcraft and wizardry. She also practices her ninja skills when around people she doesn't know well. Has a silly pet name. Also has made a pact with a golden dragon.

Teemu Tammela, programmer

Favorite Game(s): Dark Souls, Ace Attorney series

Special Skills: Surreal logic, catlike curiosity

Teemu has been gaming since the age of two. He loves puzzles, including code debugging and creating game wizardry with the power of math and imagination.

Olli Leinonen, programmer

Favorite Game: Avoid Writing Your Profile Info

Special Skills: Not writing his own profiles, numerous club memberships

Olli is a member of the Team Jolly Roger Code Wizards-gang, the spiritual leader of the I-Don’t-Feel-Like-Writing-About-Myself – cult and a frequent member of the quite popular in TJR “Facial Hair Appreciators” club.

Valeriya Paykacheva, marketing idler

Favorite Game: Katamari Damacy

Special Skills: Being amazing, complementing herself, pronouncing her last name correctly

Valeriya is our absolutely fantastic marketing contributor, who enjoys spending her time with boring and tiring people with continuous eager talks about movies, rocking Trivial Pursuit and not caring about Olympic Games. Has never been bitten by a shark.

Sasu Kemppainen, game designer

Favorite Game: Grim Fandango

Special skills: Great at making pizza and eating it

Sasu is our designer extraordinaire, who enjoys talking about Star Wars, playing stupid games and eating bread whenever possible. Determined to either design a genius game or to become a blitzball someday.

Riku Leinonen, code monkey

Favourite Games: Phoenix Wright - Ace Attorney

Special Skills: Breaking the repository, playing Super Mario eyes closed.

Code monkey likes tea and Dr. Pepper

Code monkey likes immersion and emergent gameplay

Code monkey very simple man

With a taste for silly hats



Maybe it was a bad idea to let people write about themselves?

Kajaani Pelaa!

Coming to the most awesome bookstores soon!

This week's blog post has a little less to do with Interplanetary, but it's great news nonetheless! 

”Art Unknown: Raw Diamonds from the Frozen Wastelands” is finally released. Created by Marita Paldanius, Marko Keronen and Aki Savolainen with support from Kavio Cluster, the book contains game art of the young and talented game developers of Kainuu region. (That includes us, yay!)

From our part in “Art Unknown” you can find art from some of our earlier projects, such as Spiritual and Ouroboring Life, as well as some the earlier concept art from the upcoming Interplanetary. (There’s plenty of more to come as well.) Though Interplanetary has developed dramatically both as a concept and in practice since the material for the book was gathered, Jukka Kivijärvi's illustrations have stood the test of time very well. There are even a couple of never before released concept images from our adorable mobile game concept Hedge Hop,  by Tarita Tammela. 

The release and the press conference with the books authors took place last Wednesday, April 24th, at the Kajaani Pelaa!- event in Kajaani. The event also included presentations of some of the games created by the Kainuu developers, BeaverKarts tournament (which was a lot of fun, thanks Rust0) and the screening of short movie The North, which is to be shown at the upcoming Cannes Festival. 

By the way, there will be some fresh graphics from Interplanetary tomorrow at the Screenshot Saturday. Don't miss it.