Hello everyone! Hope you had a great winter and holiday season. We’re still buried under snow, but there’s a light at the end of the tunnel.

Not a lot of updates for Solaroids for Steam, so my apologies for that. I’ve been adjusting the infrastructure of the game to support multiple platforms, so mostly hidden work behind the scenes. I’m also working on the promised Vector Mode from the Early Access Roadmap, and Monthly and maybe Weekly leaderboards. I’ll hopefully be able to wrap those up soon, but either way will share some progress as it gets more concrete.

With that said however, I was able to spend time to finish a set of Steam Trading Cards that Valve approved late December. So if any of you were wishing for some extra Solaroids “bling”, those are available to collect. I tried to make them both showcase some of the artwork I created, as well as be useful for players. As such they include design notes and descriptions of the capabilities of some of the enemy types. They are English only for now, but I would like to commission localization where there is enough popularity and if Steam will let me add them. Here are a few samples from the set of five available.

For those into stary-scapes, in addition to the trading cards, I created several Steam Profile Backgrounds to go with the set. You can collect them while crafting trading card badges. Here’s a preview from the set of five available.

There is also a set of Steam Emoji Icons in the Solaroids theme. Collect enough to spell out Solaroids before I do!

Thank you for supporting me on my journey to try and make the Best Asteroids Style Space Shooter. If you ever want to chat about Solaroids with myself or other players, or brag about your top scores and share tips, join the Solaroids Discord Server. It’s quiet there now, but maybe you can help change that!

I’ve also created a dedicated Early Access Page filled with, gifs, links, and a place where you can sign up to be notified at full launch.

Cheers and happy blasting

New Features

• Performance enhancements for Linux/OSX.

Issues Addressed

• Fixed issue where soundtrack wouldn’t advance on Linux/OSX.
  
• Fixed issue with camera when Seamless Wrapping Mode is turned off.

Previously Released Patches

• Change mouse cursor from “hand” to a cross-hairs.
  
• Balance volume of mine alarm sounds.
  
• Fix issue with camera on resolution change.
  
• Updates to core open-source libraries used on Linux/OSX versions.
  
• Default to Stage-2 graphics, can be changed from the options.
  
• Default to a maximum of 3-continues. Can be adjusted from the Gameplay options menu.
  
• Updated title graphic.

Solaroids is available on Steam Early Access and is still being actively developed by Chad Yates as part-time Indie game developer. Come try out the free Demo, join the Community HUB on steam, or join the ranks of brave fighter pilots defending the solar system and competing for high scores and prestige!