We’re thrilled to announce the launch of Audionaut’s official Steam demo! 

You can play it here.

We’ve spent the last year zeroing in on the core of what makes Audionaut great, and this demo is the culmination of all of that work. 

Here’s what that looks like! 

Trailer 

Autobattler Arena

Players can now advance through a full playthrough of the game in the autobattler arena mode. Fight your way through 12 constellations to reach Eurydice, or fail and try again. 

Battles get increasingly difficult as you progress, so be sure to plan ahead. 

Creative Mode 

Now, players can also opt into a sandbox mode, where they will have access to every module in the game and be able to edit the size of their reactor and weapon racks. It’s a great way to experiment, whether it’s to test out a build for a future run, or just to compose some music to share with your friends in the Audionaut discord server.

Reworked Reactor

The reactor now allows you to customize exactly how you route energy to your weapons. While the modules must be placed in the reactor to generate and convert energy efficiently, you can control how much (and what type) of power goes where by patching them directly into each of your weapons. 

This allows for deeper control of how often each weapon can fire, and opens more creative pathways to spinning up weapons more quickly. 

Heat

When weapons fire, they now generate heat. In order for the ship to maintain appropriate temperatures for its safety and functionality, it must use thermal control systems to keep from overheating – this means when a weapon gets too hot, the weapon will stop firing until it has cooled down. 

Accessory Modules

Accessory modules are the newest addition to the Audionaut inventory. While they cannot be part of a patch (as they have no inputs or outputs), they give special benefits to your ship at the cost of the meaningful space they take up on your system racks. 

• Escape Modules allow you to slip away unscathed when a battle is lost if they are placed in your Reactor. Upon consumption, the module is shattered. But be careful – pushing forward without the spoils of battle to strengthen your ship is dangerous. 
• Vent Modules enable your weapons to cool down at a faster rate, so you can get back online and fire more frequently. 
• Armor Modules increase your ship’s overall health, protecting your hull and systems from getting destroyed in battle. 

Game Manual 

These are just a few of the core updates and features that we have for you in the newest demo build of Audionaut. As the game’s systems have gotten more complex and difficult to tutorialize, we remembered how much simpler things were when we were younger. If a game was difficult to understand, or if we just wanted to see some cool concept art or a more expansive view of the story, we could just reach for a booklet that came with the game disc or cartridge. 

So, we’ve done just that. We wrote a manual. 

It contains a wealth of information based on the questions we’ve been asked during playtests, including (but not limited to): 

• Controls 
• A quick start guide 
• A breakdown of the ship’s systems, racks, and screens 
• Details for each module presently in the game 
• An explanation of signal flow and combat statistics that might feel opaque on first playthrough
• Strategic considerations 
• Lore
• Concept art

We will keep updating this document alongside the game until its full release. 

Find the full PDF here: 

–

That’s all for now. For those who have been following the game since its inception, thank you so much for your patience, care, and belief in this game over the past two years. We truly could not have gotten this far without support from a lovely community of friends and music game nerds. 

We’ll be taking a little development break so we can push through to a full release with a clearer head later on, but that doesn’t mean we’re going anywhere. If you have any questions, feedback, thoughts, or just want to share what you made or yap, you can find us in the discord server, on instagram, or on bluesky.