Everyone I somehow convinced to try the game gave me the exact same feedback: “I have no idea what I’m supposed to do.” And honestly — that’s completely fair. There were no hints, no guidance, no onboarding, nothing at all.
So this week I focused on developing a tutorial — a minimal tool that helps players understand what they’re even looking at on the screen.
TL;DR of the Week
- The first version of a non-intrusive tutorial for new players is done.
- The starting character creation flow has been reworked.
- A new starter ship has been added — the Prospector.
- Take a look at current deployed version s0.4.1/c0.4.0
The Tutorial
Right now it’s a light, non-intrusive hint system. It gently introduces the player to the starting storyline and showcases basic game mechanics. And it doesn’t restrict the player in any way — you can read it or ignore it entirely, close it and forget, then remember it exists and open it again. No forced clicks, no scripted steps, no “press this to continue.”
A Bit of Server Magic
Since the tutorial is meant mostly for players who just created their first character, I had to revisit the server-side logic to make sure new characters start with everything they need:
- New players now spawn on a station instead of in the middle of empty space.
- Added a new starter spaceship — the Prospector.
- Characters now begin the game with a corporation contract and some obligations tied to it.
- The corporation immediately offers the player their first introductory story mission.
- Players receive a basic starting skill.
- The number of concurrently available missions from the corporation is now limited to 1 (expandable later via a special skill).
- Database seeds were updated: all demo accounts now have fresh starter characters.
Prospector
And here it is — the brand new Prospector, a small ship designed for asteroid resource extraction.
This is just to stimulate your imagination. Of course, this is just a quick sketch, assisted by AI.