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There have been some questions over the upcoming Steam Early Access launch (31 May 2013) and how this is going to affect development and people buying the game. Here is the key information: STEAM KEYS FOR EXISTING USERS: If you have ever pre-ordered Xenonauts at any point prior to the Steam launch, you are entitled to a Steam key for your copy of the game. This key will be sent (even if you have never activated the Desura key) within a few days of the Steam release If you activated your Desura key, you can claim your Xenonauts Steam key immediately via this method. If you did not activate your Desura key for whatever reason, we have your email address on record and will be emailing you a key direct in the next few days. We're just trying to work out the best way to do this. If you have pre-ordered the game and have still not received a Steam key by the 3rd June 2013, email me at chris@xenonauts.com with proof of purchase and I'll get you sent a key. Please check your spam filter and old email addresses first though! [*]Mac and Linux versions will be arriving on Steam shortly, we've just gotta go through the porting process first. PREMIUM / STANDARD PRE-ORDERS: With the Steam launch, we are discontinuing the Premium Pre-Orders. All copies of the game will now be sold at $19.99 until official release, when the price will climb to $24.99. If you are an existing Premium Pre-Orderer, we are working on something to say thankyou for the extra $10 donation, but it's currently a secret. Forum medals will be discontinued tomorrow: This is because they are integrated with Desura, who will likely only make up a small section of our sales from now on. Those with forum medals already will not lose them, but the graphics are likely to be shrunk a little bit and the wording will be changed to read "Founder" (or something to that effect) rather than pre-orderer. If you have not already claimed a forum model, post in this thread in the next 24 hours and I'll give you on manually. FUTURE SALES: We will be doing direct sales on our website through the Humble Store in future, as we'll get a much larger cut of revenue from them than our current arrangement with Desura. You will still be able to buy our game on the Desura site if you so wish. Both Desura and the Humble Store will continue to be updated as development continues, but only with the Stable releases (explained in more detail below). All future purchases of the game from either our website's Humble Store or Desura should also come with a Steam key. The Humble Store is DRM-free, and the DRM-free option will remain on Desura too. So that's a summary of exactly how things will change as of the Steam release, but there will also be changes moving forwards with development. Good ones. STABLE VS. EXPERIMENTAL BUILDS: I have created a new build today called V18 STABLE. This is the same as V18.51 Hotfix 3 and marks the point where we have implemented all the features we wanted to implement in the V18 series of releases, and also fixed all the major stability issues. It is the "finished" version of the V18 builds. V18 Stable will be the default release build on Steam and will be the build you receive if you buy a copy on the Humble Store. It will also be uploaded to Desura, and we are about to send it off to the porter to port the build to Mac / Linux. The next build that we upload to any of these places, or port to Mac / Linux, will be V19 Stable. So the vast majority of users won't see any updates for a couple of months but then will get another stable, polished release appear with a bunch of new features. However, Steam allows users to opt-in to different branches for a game that they own. We will allow users to opt-in to our Experimental branch, which will contain the newer releases that have more features but will be less stable. We can upload, patch and mess around with builds on that branch without ever affecting the stable branch. This is where we will go through the numerous iterations to reach V19 Stable. This will be the best of both worlds - people who just want to play the game don't have to put up with crashes, and those who want to help us test can access the new features as soon as we release them. The only disadvantage is that you will need to be on Steam to get access to the experimental builds...but there's no way around that, I'm afraid... V19 PREVIEW: This is the key stuff we want in V19 Stable: - New UI for the Geoscape and base screens - Air Combat Autoresolve - Finished final mission Only three features, but between them they'll transform the game. No doubt we'll fix a lot of small things too, and we'll be working on the balance the entire time too, but those are the headline features we will be working towards.

We've now heard back from Steam and we've pencilled in a release date for Early Access of the 31st May, which is eight days from now. This may slip back due to unforseen circumstances, but one would hope not. I've submitted all the marketing materials and I just need to wait and see what I need to do to start uploading builds and the like. I am still not 100% certain when Steam keys will go out for existing users, but hopefully that will happen prior to release. At the very least I want to give a few people Steam keys so they can test the download and update process on Steam to see if there's any nasty incompatibility surprises in wait for us. I'll post updates here once I know more about this. Build V18.51 will form the basis of the Steam stable release, with a few updates that we will test out via hotfix or on Steam itself if we get on there in advance. The likely additions will be: - Bugfixes - Xenopedia descriptions will be completed (but subject to future tweaks) - More maps (I'll look at the community ones as my first port of call) - Balance patch (Aaron has got a balance patch to smooth the combat progression we'll probably put in) This post is mostly to let everyone know the release date. It's gonna be a busy week!

I preordered back in the day through the website and have played alpha on Desura. Now that I see the news item that steam early access is happening, should I expect a steam key?

Hello all. I've been following this game for quite some time now (keep up the good work devs!). I would most probably get this game when it comes to steam but am confused about the options. Basically on the pre-order page there are two options, the standard and the premium package. However I saw in another thread that Chris said he was thinking of only having one version for 20 dollars (doing away with the distinction of the two types). Is for when the game comes to steam? P.S: Anyone saw the X-com UFO defence LP by Guavamoment? It's what got me interested in x-com.

Hello. I'm trying to preorder "Xenonauts", but PayPal keeps rejecting me with "We're sorry, but we can't send your payment right now" message. It does not look like a temporary problem - i'm trying for two days now. I've checked my card and PayPal account, both are valid. Moreover, Steam or GOG, for example, process my PayPal payments just fine. This is my first purchase on Desura, and i'm not sure if there are some purchase limitations i should be aware of. Perhaps, someone had encountered a similar problem and knows some kind of solution or workaround? Also, will Xenonauts be available as a pre-order on Steam? Thank you in advance and please excuse my bad english.

Good news - the chaps over at Steam seem happy to have us launch on Steam Early Access in four of five weeks' time. Steam has always been the end goal for us and I know a lot of people have been waiting for us to go on Steam before they play the game, so I think this is definitely a good thing. We will be distributing a Steam key to everyone that owns a copy of the game, with this distribution coming via Desura. I assume you'll be sent an email containing a code, but I'll check and let you know closer to the date. Steam should be an improvement in the following ways: 1) It's just generally more robust and should support better download speeds. 2) We don't need to have our files approved by Steam; we just press a button and they go live. Will increase the turnaround speed for updates, especially very minor ones. 3) We can have multiple branches of the code. We'll probably move to having a "stable" branch and an "experimental" branch, the benefits of which should be obvious to all. Desura will continue to be updated with new files as development continues, although I would imagine Steam will become our primary focus. I'm also looking into using the Humble Store for our direct sales on our website, which will also include a Steam key on purchase but gives us a higher revenue share and perhaps will make it more likely we'll end up in a Humble Bundle in due course. One thing to note here - we will be discontinuing the current Premium / Standard pre-order split. All sales will be made at the $19.99 price point, which will rise to $24.99 on release. Nobody who buy the game after the changeover will get a forum badge, because I don't want to go through the forum integration process again....so if you have one, treasure it. (Incidentally, if people don't think they've got value from their extra $10 then I'm open to discussion on what we can do to improve things. A number of the previously Premium-only items such as the novella are included in the Launcher for general consumption, and I plan to do the same for development diary. This is so people know where to find them without trawling our forums, and also as it seems a waste to limit the readership of them...but that does somewhat erode the value of the Premium Pre-Order, although we never really promised much along with it.) Anyway, what we need to be able to launch on Steam is stable build of the game - one that doesn't have 150,000 files in it. You guys can help with the former, as V18 will become this Steam stable build. It's a bit like prior to the Kickstarter when we spent a lot of time polishing up that build before we released the demo, and we'll probably release a second demo when we launch on Steam too. So it's going to be a busy month, but being on Steam should make it worthwhile. Hopefully!

So now Steam allows the sale of "early access" games, ie games that are still a work in progress: http://store.steampowered.com/genre/Early%20Access/ How about putting Xenonauts up there, Chris? You already have a deal with Steam if I remember correctly, so you could distribute updates to the game through the robust Steam system and give out Steam keys early to those who preordered. I say give it a look, it's bound to be a lot better than Desura. It would also be a great way of getting some more sales.

I never played the original Xcom games but I really like X-COM EU. The problem with it though is I feel there is too much focus on the combat and not enough choices when it comes to the macro level of the game. Also, I don't really like how the AI acts on the battlefield at all times, making really strange choices sometimes. Personally I like the graphics I have seen so far in Xenonauts (starting your gaming experience with Nintendo 8-bits kinda does that). So all in all I'm looking for a little deeper experience than X-COM EU, will I get it with Xenonauts? EDIT: Also, I never heard of Desura before. I have quite a lot of games on Steam, any reason I shouldn't get the Steam key?

Just discovered Antichamber, an indie puzzle game that seems to be really mind blowing.. Has anyone bought/played it yet? I'd like to have some impressions before buying it.. You can find it on Steam (18.99€, about 25$, if they apply the right change)

I'm a bit confused about pre-order keys. On the Xenonauts web pages it reads: "STANDARD PACKAGE: - Access to play the latest development build right now! - A Steam or Desura key for the final game on release day!" If I pre-order now, will I get desura key now to play the alpha AND a free steam key when Xenonauts is released? Or what does the OR mean in this context??

There are now about 900 or so games put up for greenlighting on steam. I've voted for ~450. A lot seem mediocre, many seem uninteresting and a bunch are still too early in development to proper evaluate. a few seems like utter crap as if the developer isn't even trying (seen one or two that even ripped off copyright material from other games) at least they donated $100 to charity when they put their crap on greenlight. But there are a few that look REALLY interesting. Has anyone found any real gems that they want to share/promote? Here are some of the games I would like showing up on steam eventually. (in no particular order) Sang-Froid. (set in Canada. you defend your sister in a tower defense like real time third person strategy against werewolves.) Antharion. (Seems to be an isometric turnbased rpg) Talisman prologue. (I really liked the boardgame it is based on. and it looks like a good adaptation.) ledgend of the knightwasher (no idea, but I like the concept. might not really be a gem but it looked so funny I had to include it in a post somewhere) steam marines (turnbased tactics) stardew valley (harvest moon like) UnderRail (gameplay looks a lot like fallout 1+2)

steam selling ufo extraterrestial gold for £2.50 untill 5pm gmt:o

With Xenonauts nearing completion, is there a rough guess as to when the game will get a product page on Steam? I'd prefer to have the Steam version and not Desura's. Looking forward to seeing (and playing) the game in Valve's platform, thx.

Is Xenonauts going to eventually be released with no DRM whatsoever? I'm interested in supporting this game, but can't do so in good conscience as long as it's tied to a DRM system like Steam or Desura (and, yes, those are DRM systems). I would just like to have a game I can install on a computer with no internet connection and play without having to log into any sort of account or have to worry about "product activation" whenever I buy a new computer or computer part. Is this going to be possible when the game is released? (PS: It's hard to search the forums for "drm" when that word is rejected by the forums as being too short to search for :-P )

I pre-ordered Xenonauts last January and I don't believe I had the option to request a Steam Key. I hate Desura. I mean I absolutely despise it. I'd much, much rather have a Steam Key when the game is released. Will I have that option or am I going to be punished for being an early adopter?

Okay, before you read the rest of this post, there's a webpage you need to go see. Go click on this link and read it if you don't know anything about Steam Greenlight. Back? Right then. I know that Chris announced that Goldhawk had got a deal to have Xenonauts on Steam. Goody goody. And this was announced a while ago. Even better. But now, with this new way of determining the order that Steam distributes games - a way which will fundamentally change some of the ways games will be distributed on Steam - will Goldhawk be retroactively required to undergo the new Steam greenlighting procedure? I'm not going to wave my arms about and start screaming, but I will be annoyed - with Steam - if Goldhawk has to do that.

So, it's probably time for a quick update on what's been happening and will be happening over the next week. All the hard work on the Kickstarter has paid off as our US company has been set up and has a bank account that has been authorised by Amazon Payments. The page is set up and good to go - its only the video we're working on now. That's all been shot and we are editing that together. The press builds have been sent out already. They went out on Thursday, but all the preview coverage is embargoed until Wednesday. This is when the Kickstarter goes live, although don't start shouting about it till it goes live obviously. We want to time our coverage so we get bang for our buck. The other good news is about Steam. I'm pleased to say that we've signed a distribution deal with them so all preorderers will have the option to claim a Steam key when the game is released. We'll keep you posted as things progress, but if you're planning to donate to the kickstarter then please do so as soon as possible after it goes live as it'll give us that much more legitimacy as a result.

I decided to pre-order Xenonauts today, not knowing that Desura operates exactly like Steam, that you have to run their client in order to play the game. Since I'm against DRM on principle I would not have purchased Xenonauts had I realized this. I thought Desura was a dissimilar alternative to Steam where I could download the game and play it without using a third party client. Please let me know if I'm mistaken. Once the full game is complete, will purchasers have the option to download an actual stand-alone copy of the game?

Will Xenonauts have them?

Did you know that 2012 is the International Year of Alien Threat Awareness? Neither did I until I declared it as such some 15 minutes ago. Anyhow, in order to spread the word, I've set up fan communities for Xenonauts on two services I frequent, Last.fm and Steam. Have you always wanted to stay up-to-date on what your fellow forumites are listening to, or which games they are grinding away at whenever they're not busy squashing bugs? Take a look, and join in the frivolities!

Hello to all! I have a question: if i pre-order this awesome, beautiful game in Desura, may i get the key for steam-version after it's release?

On desura - but I'm a steam guy and disagree with installing other clients on my computer. I'm fine with waiting untill xenonauts comes out though. I just want to be reassured that I can get it on steam since I got it on desura

Mostly asking this because Desura seems hellbent on preventing me from downloading anything, and nothing on the support site has worked when I try to fix it.

As some of you may be aware, we have been having some problems with Paypal. These problems involve them cutting off our only income stream and then freezing the $4,300 in the account for 180 weeks before they return it. The community has been very helpful during this period, both in terms of the community around the our project and the indie scene as a whole. There have been numerous suggestions about how we could circumvent the Paypal ban on pre-orders, but I was never particularly keen on going back to them. Fundamentally we were always going to struggle with their rules, I think – I was much more interested in finding a solution that was better aligned with where we were going as a project. This gave us two main options – Desura, or the new Humble Indie Bundle store widget. The HIB store widget was effectively exactly what we had before, but with lower transaction fees and the shield of another (better known) organisation between us and Paypal. Desura, for those who are not aware, is effectively an indie version of Steam owned by the people who run IndieDB/ModDB. I think both would have been good partners, but we decided on Desura because it allows us to outsource the pre-order process (saving me time) and will make it easier to actually deliver the final game when it is released – the plan is Desura or Steam keys for each pre-orderer. We’re currently working on integrating Desura with vBulletin so pre-orderers can get forum badges for buying the game, but pre-orders should be up again relatively soon, so sit tight. We’re announcing this on this site rather than Xenonauts.com because we’re having problems with that – the frontpage is frozen as it was when the site crashed from the Reddit traffic a couple of weeks back, so we’re migrating over here and will be replacing the current Xenonauts.com with something a bit more snazzy. EDIT - All pre-orderers will recieve a Desura key sent to their Paypal email addresses when the Desura pre-orders go live.