Rodina 1.0.3 is now available! There’s lots of new stuff in this update- you can check the readme if you would like to know more. Highlights include:

* Lights! The #1 most requested feature. Now you can press “G” to engage your ship’s headlights, or the player character’s flashlight, when you exploring those dark asteroids!

* Gamepad support! Technically you could always use your gamepad (like a 360 Controller) to play Rodina, but the experience wasn’t very good. Now I’ve added a gamepad remap menu, I’ve tweaked control for the gamepad to make it much easier to control, and added some other tweaks/fixes.

Now that this first update of the year is out, I am going to start moving forward with real development again. Expect to see our first official vote soon, allowing everyone who bought the game at the Bossypants tier or above to choose what I work on next!

One last thing: I hate that people need to download the entire installer to try new updates. Starting next week I’ll also be starting work on an integrated updater for the game. No telling when that will be done- just wanted you to know :)

As before, you can also download this release in ZIP form.

Hi folks! Just wanted to do a quick update to say that I’m going to be online a bit less over the next week for Christmas. Even though I’ll be less in touch than usual, I’ll still be responding to emails and working on bugs while away.

There probably won’t be a new update to the game for another week, but after next Monday I hope to get back on track and release something new! Hope you all are having a happy holiday season!

Rodina 1.0.2 has arrived! This release only fixes the Locale crash that some people with non-English settings have been seeing. If you are not experiencing that crash, then there’s no need to download this version!

As always, please email me at brendan@elliptic-games.com if you experience any problems with this build. So far the generous help of the community has been the only way I’ve been able to identify and fix these problems.

As before, you can also download this release in ZIP form.

Here it is folks! There is a new build of the game! It’s stored in the same place as the old link so feel free to head to the download page to grab it! You can also download it in ZIP form if you prefer. The prerequisites are included within the ZIP.

This update fixes some major crashes people were having (Including the assert message about line 88 of EGRenderer.cpp) as well as numerous gamebreaking bugs, and many usability issues people were clamoring for. Check out the readme here.

I’m confident that this build, along with the workarounds described below, should clear up many of the issues people have been having. Please let me know if you still have trouble with the game!

IMPORTANT KNOWN ISSUES

NON-ENGLISH LOCALE

Users in a non-English Locale may experience a crash upon loading Rodina.

If you are affected by this issue, the workaround is to change your Locale / Regional Settings to English / USA.

I’m sorry about this and I will be debugging this issue shortly. It would be helpful if those who experience this problem email me to let me know- I would love to test a build on you when I have a potential fix!

PLAYER LOADING IN BAD POSITION ON ASTEROIDS

Loading breaks on some asteroids. Some users report loading into midair, or loading inside the walls of their ship

Workaround: Use the “Fix Player” button on the pause menu. This will put the player back into the ship.

NEW: SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS

Feedback from players has allowed me to establish a set of minimum requirements. Thank you to everyone.

Minimum:

* Graphics Card with 512MB VRAM
* Dual Core Processor
* Windows Vista / DirectX 10

Recommended:

* Graphics Card with 1024MB VRAM
* Quad-Core processor

Problem Areas:

* Some users have reported bad performance with Intel video cards

If you feel you have information that can help flesh out this list- please send to me! After all, I can only test on ONE computer so I need your help! :)

MOST IMPORTANTLY

This build would not have been possible without your help!!! I received DOZENS of helpful emails and worked with many people willing to try out test builds in order to fix the problems that were occurring. Many people gave valuable feedback on gameplay. I learned some things from the Let’s Play videos that have been released. There are too many of you to thank individually so just let me say thank you to my customers and potential customers in general! We wouldn’t be here now without you!

As always, if you experience problems with this build, let me know!

Hi everyone, it’s been a crazy few days since Rodina was released! Thanks for all your support. I wanted to give an update on what’s going on:

TRY THE DEMO!

First of all, I want to say- please try the demo! It seems that people either can’t run the game, or they are having some fun with it. Definitely try the demo before buying.

STABILITY

Most important is getting the game running for people. I think I have a fix related to DirectX initialization that will hopefully address maybe 50% of the crashes we’re seeing. I was hoping it would fix everyone’s issues but unfortunately not.

This fix is for the error where it says “Assert- Line 88 of EGRenderer.cpp” or something like that. It’s not necessarily for cases where you get an anonymous crash with no specific error (although it may fix a small handful of those)

For those still experiencing crashes on load, I am going to also try to add some better error logging to the game so that we can better diagnose these issues and get them fixed. More instructions forthcoming.

MIN SPECS

Now that the game is in the hands of more people I’m getting a feel for min specs:

Minimum to run the game:

* Graphics Card with 512MB VRAM
* Dual Core Processor
* Windows Vista / DirectX 10

Recommended for high performance:

* Graphics Card with 1024MB VRAM
* Quad-Core processor

As you can see, the game requires high resources even though it’s not exactly Crysis. This is one of the downsides of trying to do a 3D game with some limit-pushing features with only one person on the team. Try the Demo!

REFUNDS

If you have bought the game and it isn’t working for you, please email me at brendan@elliptic-games.com if you would like a refund. Please don’t be shy. I’m not comfortable accepting your money until you have a working product.

FEEDBACK / BUGS

I’m also hoping to address other non-crashing bugs in an update soon, including things like: Making the Limnal Drive easier to control, increasing the mouse sensitivity, adding inverted mouse controls, etc. Trying to get as many of these in as possible.

Please feel free to join the discussion on Twitter andn Reddit to give feedback on your experiences.

Hey folks! So a lot of people have downloaded the game and I’m getting lots of valuable feedback. Many people are not able to run the game. There are a couple of crashes that lots of people are experiencing. I’m sorry to everyone that isn’t able to run the demo. I’m looking into these issues now and hopefully we’ll be able to get past these birthing pains soon.

In the meantime, please be patient and for goodness sake, don’t buy the game until you try the demo!

If you have bought the game and it doesn’t run for you, feel free to email me at brendan@elliptic-games.com with your payment info and I’ll be happy to issue a refund.

To those who are able to play the game- I hope you enjoy it and I’m paying close attention to your feedback as well!

Thanks for your patience!

It’s happening!!!

Rodina is released! Download the demo right this second! Then if it works and you like it, come back and buy the full game!

Remember that this is an in development release- please let me know on Twitter or Reddit if anything goes wrong!

NOTICE: Getting a few crash reports so please be sure to try the demo before buying! Thanks!

Today, I couldn’t be happier to announce that I intend to begin selling Rodina, my indie space exploration game, on December 13th.

Rodina has been a labor of love for about two years, but it’s been brewing in my mind for much longer than that. Playing games like Star Fox and Super Metroid on the SNES 20 years ago, I would daydream about leaving the confines of the game behind and taking Samus’s gunship, or Fox’s Arwing, on my own adventures. Later, as I threw myself into the Elder Scrolls series, I would wonder what it would be like to have a first person exploration game set out in space.

Today, I’m so proud to confirm that I’m well on the path to realizing those daydreams, both for myself and for the many others who I am confident share them.

Is Rodina finished? No- in two senses. First, I haven’t accomplished everything I want to accomplish with it yet. There’s a solid base- a huge solar system with massive procedural planets, complete seamless freedom, fun ship combat and a developed background story. But there’s lots more work to be done before Rodina can deliver an RPG-like experience with interesting characters and emergent gameplay.

Second, Rodina may never be “finished”. My hope is to keep developing it over time, adding features and fulfilling requests. I look to the fans to help its on its journey, whether by buying the game, providing valuable feedback about where you would like to see it go, or by creating mods that extend the game with your own creative vision.

Still, I couldn’t be more proud of the work I’ve done. I’m not sure that there’s anything else really quite like it, and I’m very anxious to share it with you.

For those of you who have been waiting a VERY long time since my initial announcement in April 2012, thank you for your patience. It won’t be long now!

See you on December 13th!

Some more site updates today! I added a “Media” page, where you can see screenshots, samples of the Rodina soundtrack, and the movies that have been released thus far! I also added a “Press” page so that people who are new to Rodina can easily see all the up-to-date previews that have been created about the game.

A new day, and things are starting to come together a little bit! You might notice that the site has a new slideshow at the top of the screen. I think it looks a bit more interesting than the wall of text that was there previously!

Also, this morning brings a new preview / interview from PC Gamer! I had a great time answering questions on this one, and the writeup has lots of great info (though not a whole lot of new info, I’m afraid). As always, feel free to discuss it with me on Reddit or on Twitter!