MAKING GAMES can sometimes feel like arm-wrestling an octopus or trying to nail jellies to the ceiling - or perhaps more like trying to hold on tight to hundreds of wet soap bars all at once.

Autonauts certainly felt like that until this week when instead it felt like we’d managed to corral all the kittens - that we finally have a game structure that works, that makes us happy, which means development and planning will become more predictable (and comfortable).

Remember that mahoosive technology tree timeline flowchart we did? All of those components have at last been organised, ready to be contained in game in the coming months and no longer spread all over the floor like LEGO bricks lying in wait to surprise anyone in their bare feet.

We now have directed play that feels right, much of which came from the bitter experience of making (and remaking and editing) previous iterations that just didn’t work. We also ended up adding a metric bunch of Quality of Life improvements, to make playing that much warmer and cosier all round.

Lately there's been a resurgence of enquiries about multiplayer. To be clear, this is something we want to support at some point but not until we have the solo experience properly established.