Helium Rain now in private Alpha

Two years after we started working on the game, Helium Rain is now playable. We selected a few gamers to try the game, report crashes and game-breaking bugs, so that we can fix most issues before we release it. The alpha program brought us around 150 bug reports, weeks of bug-fixing, and a lot of feedback on how to improve Helium Rain !

Here is how the game is like. (The audio is in french.)

Let's talk about what we've been doing.

A realistic economy

Helium Rain is built upon two major components :

• Flying spaceships (exploration, navigation, combat)
• Empire building (trading, ship and station building, diplomacy)

Those two parts are deeply interconnected. You can always go from one to another in a few clicks, and they have an impact on each other. If a competitor is selling the same resources as you, you might want to make sure his shipments never arrive, or send a fleet to take care of his production. When you feel limited by your fighter ships, you will need a strong economy to build larger fleets of heavier vessels.

Helium Rain is built on a deeply realistic economic model.

• The price of resources is always changing, depending on supply and demand. War has visible consequences on the economy - going as far as to break it down completely if you are not careful.
• Demand of resources depends on the population level, with a growth that depends on how well you take care of your domain.
• Money is a resource, not something that can be created and destroyed. Money is tied to the population level, pretty much like in real life !

We will talk in more depth about the economy in an upcoming devblog post. For the french-speaking, here is a series of videos of the game's economy.

Graphics

We're committed to making Helium Rain a realistic game, and that includes graphics as well. Here is how the game looked like during the alpha ; this is a fan-made video by Lucas, who's been testing the alpha.

The game's assets keep being improved, so the game looks even better now ! For example, the special effects have been completely re-made in May, with realistic engine exhausts. Icy asteroids feature comet-like trails like you saw when the ESA explored Tchouri. We've also created more moons.

Our biggest military ship, the Leviathan, has been remodelled. With six gun turrets, it is an enemy you should fear, and an tool you should build.

Early Access

The Alpha release has been very helpful for us. The game isn't ready for prime time yet, but we're working very hard to make it happen.

We plan on releasing Helium Rain on Steam, through the Early Access program. This should be happening this summer, though we don't have a release date to offer yet ;)