Greetings, Starscanners!

(I refuse to accept that Starscanners isn’t a thing.)

This update was a bit bigger than I expected! First up: I added gamepad support. Any gamepad should work, but I spent most of my time optimizing for the Steam Deck. It was a challenge to find a way to support both mouse/keyboard and gamepad input, but I mostly succeeded. It’s a delight to play on Steam Deck and performs fantastic. You can add Starscan as a non-steam game (in desktop mode if you’re using a Deck.) The default steam input config for gamepads will work, but the best one is the gamempad w/mouse trackpad. I’ll upload a community one soon, if I can.

If you really want, you can also add the icon/background/grid art to steam there. There are tons of tutorials floating around YouTube that dive into the nitty gritty of it, so I’ll leave you to that if that’s your thing. The images are in a folder in the same directory as the game. I’ve included an icon, a background/header image, a logo image, and vertical and horizontal grid images (box art.)

Second, I updated the UI. The UI was feeling clunky and old and scaling wasn’t working well in a few places for handheld devices like Steam Deck or AYA NEO, so I fixed a number of problems with a redesign. I hope you like it. It’s going to make building the upcoming features much easier. Speaking of…

On the horizon, I still have some larger features planned. I’m still designing the MISSIONS system, the CARGO system, and something I very much want to tackle - dynamic cultures and languages. I’d like more variety of experience when sifting through the ashes of ancient civilizations, you know?

Here’s what’s in this update:

• Input Rejection Bug - Fixed a bug where the ship would accept movement input when it should not.
• WASD Movement - You can now move the ship with WASD and not just point-and-click.
• Gamepad Support - You can now use a gamepad to do everything in the game.
• Basic Gamepad Icons - Basic gamepad icon glyphs show on screen when you’re using a gamepad. Steam Deck and Xbox right now.
• Known Travel Routes - Added the ability to store travel routes for systems you have scanned successfully.
• UI Revamp - Updated the user interface for a better, streamlined experience.
• Cancel System Scan - You can now cancel an accidental system scan.
• Custom Steam Art - added some basic custom steam art for folks that want to add Starscan to their steam library.

As always, your feedback and support continues to help me make this game better and I’m eternally grateful for that.

May Sol be forever at your back,

-Voltur