Orchid of Redemption Announce DREAM OF THE STAR HAVEN Early Access Release

redandbluedave

Jan 5

Orchid of Redemption today announced that their serene 1st person "giant leap" platformer is available on Steam Early Access for PC, Mac and Linux. Players are invited to share in a co-creative community, helping to shape the development of Dream of the Star Haven as it evolves through Early Access.

"Gaming is in an era of unchecked excess where games keep getting bigger, demanding more of our time, piling on busywork mechanics and often being an assault on the senses," said Alexander Thumm, Director of Orchid of Redemption. "Dream of the Star Haven is an antidote to that. It's just a drop in the ocean, but for the right people at the right time it can offer a much needed moment of clarity. Through Steam Early Access, we aim to cultivate that feeling in collaboration with a community who are excited both to play within it and to help guide its growth."

Orchid of Redemption is using this to get back to their core principle of "minimum loveable product". "We love our debut title Joon Shining and are proud of what we accomplished with it, but the scope definitely got out of hand for our small team. Gameplay minimalism isn't easy to achieve, it takes a combination of believing in the essence of what you have, and restraint to not just pile on new mechanics if something isn't working, and Star Haven's playful and evolving take on gravity-centric gameplay just worked right from the start," says Alexander.

But beyond just gameplay mechanics, Orchid of Redemption is focused on the atmosphere and feeling they're bringing with Star Haven, "The industry, including the game-playing public, has been stuck for a long time in identifying games by their gameplay genre. This is slowly starting to change, but only in specific realms like "cozy", and "horror". We need more of that and we need that change to happen faster and more consciously, so players can recognise what kind of experience they need at any given time – to illustrate this with an analogy you might not want to drink coffee before you go to bed, and it's similar with high energy or highly addictive games, sometimes we need to ease off those experiences with a palette cleanser, something simple, light and serene, and that's Dream of the Star Haven's sweet spot.

Dream of the Star Haven launches on Steam Early Access on January 25 on Steam for free.