I'm happy to announce that the Relic Space Demo is now getting a major update here on Itch, bringing it in line with the very latest version available on Steam. Here is a selection of the changes in this version compared to the previous Itch version:

New challenging game modes

This update gives a first taste of the new game modes that will be important to generating replayability in the Early Access release. A new difficulty level, called 'Extinction', will provide an extra level of challenge for veteran players who are finding 'Tactical' difficulty too straighforward. And there's now a full-on 'Ironman' mode where, as usual, you are limited to only one save slot, which is automatically updated as you progress and is deleted if you die. Death is permanent.     

Improvements to manual mode

A lot of streamers have been picking up Relic Space over the last few months, and watching those streams has made clear that a number of people are attracted to playing the game using the 'manual' as opposed to 'automatic' weapons mode. That's completely understandable, as tactical players often love to drill down into the details of game mechanics by making every small choice themselves. But before this update, the user interface had been a lot more geared towards automatic mode. No more! This update brings a big overhaul to manual mode, making it fully playable for the first time by removing some unnecessary delays and required keypresses, as well as by introducing a new weapon-range indicator (see the red hexes in the gif below) that simultaneously serves to make clear when your weapons have yet to be fired in manual mode.

Lore

The lore for Relic Space has been planned out in some detail, though to date has been mostly limited to some dialogs in the scripted tutorial missions. This update for the first time brings lore dialogs to random NPCs. Although these are still quite small in number and limited in scope, they offer a taste of the rich and suprising sci-fi narrative still to come.

New Missions

A total of SIX new base mission types have been added to the previous three. The innovative procedural mission system in Relic Space means that each of these 'base' mission types offer a framework that allows for multiple variants and combinations of individual mission 'units' - so the total number of distinct missions available is actually well into the hundreds!

Piracy

There are also a number of new NPC interactions including...space piracy! Urgently need some sodium for a nearby construction project? Try forcibly demanding it from a transport ship belonging to another factions - if you dare face the consequences, that is!

Ruins

Another example of the varied new content in the game is the new wreck models, such as this ruined quantum lab. Each model will have it's own stories to discover, but beware of strange local effects such as quantum teleportation...

Thanks for reading and follow the game for more news!