Greetings surveyors!

I’m excited to announce that Periphery Synthetic will be updated to version 3.0.0 on December 15, 2023. Importantly, this build includes the anticipated Side C preview along with numerous new features, enhancements, and fixes. The preview significantly expands the EP with a new water world—which can be freely explored from its atmosphere to its ocean floor. It also fulfils my promise to remake my game S.E.A. in the EP.

To coincide with the expansion, the price for the EP will increase to $3 USD. An introductory sale will keep it at its current price of $2 for about six weeks. This will also be its launch discount when released on Steam. Please take advantage of these sales—or claim a free community copy—before this price increase becomes permanent.

I’m excited to share the new build with you soon. Continue reading to learn more about what comes next for the EP. Thanks for playing!

Roadmap update

The upcoming preview will mark the last major milestone before the Steam release. To get there, my only remaining task is to finish writing about thirty paragraphs of text. There may also be bugs to fix and release as hotfixes along the way. Sadly, I’d like to get this right, so I can’t speak to an exact release date. So it will be done when it’s done, Spring 2024.

Breaking for SYNTH jam

After the preview release, I will be taking a short break to participate in SYNTH jam. Please join us for one month to create delightful audio toys. I intend to use the jam to prototype a few new ideas which could mature into new projects or sides for the EP. Of course, I also plan to document it every step of the way, and play and review all of the submissions at the end.

After the Steam release

With the Steam release, the EP will be considered feature-complete. It launches with three massive worlds, a crafting system with 23 upgrade paths, and a surreal story with multiple cliffhangers. In other words: it’s exactly what I intended to deliver when I first announced the project.

It may also ship with some areas for improvement. In the short-term, I plan to support it as needed with hotfixes which specifically address any performance issues and game-breaking bugs. For example, the new cave generator can be quite slow, and there are some issues with demo saves.

After that, I’d like to take a step back and evaluate how quickly I want to proceed with future expansions. In general it seems that an expansion takes at least six months to roll out from pre-production to release. Although I have plans for at least two more, I would also like more time for myself to explore other opportunities. It largely depends on what reviewers say—and whatever surprises come my way.

Throughout the development of this project, I’ve tabled quite a few interesting ideas to remain singularly focused on finishing it. For instance, what if I forked the project to make an open-world roguelike mech combat simulator? or if I created something completely different, like a love letter to my favorite game of all-time, Bahamut Lagoon? or even if I just went outside a little bit more?

Let’s pretend that I’ll figure it out when I get there. In the meantime, thanks for sharing this journey with me.

Wishlist on Steam