Week 16 — Welcome Aboard: The Demo Is Out!

The Space Liner 77 demo officially launched on itch.io this week, opening the ship’s doors to anyone ready to take the captain’s seat.

What changed

• The demo is now available. You can play Space Liner 77 on itch.io. After the recent playtests and the improvements that followed, this week marks the official demo release. If you have been following these devlogs, you can now step aboard and try managing the ship yourself.
• More passengers, sooner. Capacity upgrades are cheaper, and the reputation requirement for reaching three passengers is lower. That makes it easier to move beyond looking after a single guest and discover what happens when several passengers need the captain’s attention at once. A larger passenger list also means more opportunities for competing demands aboard a very small ship.
• More to discover about your guests. The passenger logbook now includes biographies, with facts revealed as you encounter particular passenger behaviors. Alongside the food preferences introduced last week, these discoveries give you more reasons to pay attention to the personalities sharing your journey.
• A stronger kitchen and clearer guidance. A level-three kitchen upgrade adds more cooking power for busy mealtimes. New tutorial messages explain reputation requirements, unavailable facilities, and repair priorities, helping new captains understand their options as they learn to run the ship.
• A few finishing touches for departure. Camera movement now stays consistent across game speeds, music playback received fixes for resuming and staying synchronized, and credits are available from the main menu. The food preference display in the logbook also received a layout fix.

Best moment

This week’s best moment was the release itself. Last week, launching the demo was still on the to-do list. This week, there is a link I can share with anyone who wants to play.

It is a satisfying milestone after weeks of working on passenger personalities, ship upgrades, and the small details that make a trip easier to follow. Now I get to see how those pieces come together for people taking the captain’s seat for the first time.

Next week

• Spread the word about the demo and invite more players aboard.
• Collect marketing metrics to understand how the promotion is performing.
• Fix bugs that surface as people play.