After over a year and half in Early Access, [i]Starcom: Unknown Space[/i] is finally getting its 1.0 full release on September 2, to coincide with the start of Steam's "Space Exploration" festival! [img]https://clan.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/images//42185452/1d5769d25ca4864ce9abaf62413b9210e6127d7c.gif[/img] Recent players have been very happy with the state of the game, which has grown enormously since the start of Early Access and now has a complete main storyline with an ending (or two?). Full release does not mean that development is done, although to ensure the best possible experience for new players, for the next few weeks I will be focusing primarily on bug fixes, missing hints, and "quality of life" improvements (plus [i]some[/i] additional content). But after the game reaches 1.0 launch freeze, I plan to continue doing what I've done for the past 18 months: listening to players and improving or expanding in the areas they want. I've started brainstorming more side-quests and exploration rewards, and am considering ways to make the content authoring tools I've created available to modders who want to add their own anomalies and stories to the game. [h2]Development by the Numbers[/h2] Here are some numbers to give a rough sense of how the game's scale has changed since the start of Early Access: [b]Betelgeuse (first Early Access build)[/b] 75 anomalies 1264 mission logic elements (the fundamental building blocks of the game's narrative content) 25,000 words Median player time to end of available content: 8.1 hours [b]Kepler (Current build)[/b] 225 anomalies 4926 mission logic elements 90,000 words Median player time to end of main storyline: 29.7 hours [img]https://clan.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/images//42185452/d96b5b0647fc7548eded4a5384780593a05ef829.gif[/img] [h2]How You Can Help[/h2] Some players have asked how they can help the game besides providing feedback and suggestions. As an indie developer, I depend heavily on word of mouth and the mysterious Steam algorithm. Besides buying the game on launch day, you can suggest the game to your favorite streamer, and/or leave a review. Brave commanders can also opt-in to the "unstable" beta branch which gets new builds first. This branch also has more detailed anonymous analytics, helping me find and fix problems before deploying to the default branch. But as I've said before, I'm extremely fortunate to have had an enthusiastic player base who supported the game throughout Early Access and provided enormous amounts of feedback, bug reports, suggestions, as well as encouragement. Just to put some numbers on it, I've received over 8000 in-game feedback comments via the F8 system in addition to the hundreds of discussion forum posts. While I haven't implemented every player suggestion, the game would never have reached the quality it has without them. So thank you again Early Access players, and thanks to everyone has supported Starcom games! - Kevin