DEEPER news & development
Sterium AI · · Updated
Updates to DEEPER, its free browser demo and the website. The full game is available on itch.io for Windows and Linux, from $5 USD.
This first log brings together the website changes recorded in October. Website presentation updates are not new features added to the playable demo.
· The full game is available
You can now get DEEPER on itch.io for Windows and Linux, from $5 USD. The full game expands exploration with a huge map, more creatures and a greater challenge. Smart digging matters: prepare return routes, supplies and defenses before opening new chambers.
The free browser demo remains available with no installation, ending at the Crystal Hollows. New players can start with the mining and colony management guide. Earlier entries describe the project as it stood on those dates.
· A guide for your first colony
The new how-to-play guide explains mining orders, ladders, lighting, food, beds and fearful colonists. It also separates the demo’s Crystal Hollows endpoint from the full game’s 1,500-metre objective.
Both language versions clarified the distinction: the demo was free, while the paid full game was still in development at the time. The site’s pixel fonts, colors, moving cave background and automatic gameplay scenes are unchanged.
· A playable demo and a larger cave gallery
The English and Spanish homepages gained a direct link to play the free demo in the browser, with nothing to install. The demo reaches the Crystal Hollows. At that point, the full game’s store was not open; the displayed $5 USD price was planned rather than an open preorder.
The gallery presents four large PNG views: Fungal Depths, Crystal Hollows, Sunken Ruins and Magma Core. Each biome has its own heading and short description. The gallery shows the wider game world, not four regions all included in the demo.
· Colonies in motion
The website’s gameplay viewer runs the game’s simulation and renderer instead of playing a recorded video. Six scenes loop automatically: a crystal colony, crawlers, sporelings, a fungal outpost, a crystal golem and fire imps.
The colony scenes combine excavation, bed construction, farming and defense. Standalone fights run faster, while the camera tours the settlements. A rendering correction smooths the camera’s small movements without blurring the pixel art.
These are prepared test situations running fresh simulations, not recordings of earlier test sessions. Movement and outcomes can vary. The viewer has no scene picker, playback controls, timers or combat counters.