![[JEX-LibraryHeader.png]] ## Current Status > [!tip] *Journey Express* is currently in Early Access! 🎉 > [Check it out on Steam now!](https://store.steampowered.com/app/2127350/Journey_Express/) ✨ > > The **Open Playtest** concluded in September of 2025! > The **Early Access** launched on January 2nd, 2026! > ***1.0 release coming soon!*** ⌛ There have been a number of additions, changes, and bug fixes since launch into Steam Early Access! - **Trading posts** have been added to certain locations on the map - Improvements in **quality of life** and **new features** for the game UI in the main menu, while traveling, and while exploring - Available map locations increased from **9 to 15**, with some of them having the new trading posts feature - **New interactive features** in 3D exploration like berry bushes - **New and improved sound effects** in menus, traveling, and exploring - The number of randomized events that can be encountered while traveling has gone from **18 to 27** - **Bonuses and penalties** given out upon completing a journey - **Many, many bug fixes** and mechanics improvements across the entire game - The options menu has been improved with **new graphics and game difficulty options** ## In Development > *The things in this list are what I'm actively working on and should show up in the alpha branch of* Journey Express *soon! All changes are continuously [published to Steam](https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/2127350) as they go live!* - **Playtesting:** I'm currently testing all of the recently added features and changes to make sure they're working as expected. The next update will likely consist mainly of bug fixes, polish, and other minor changes 🔧 ## Up Next > *These tasks will be moved into **In Development** as soon as the ones there are completed!* - **Enhancement:** Add missing button feedback SFX - Travel speed - Current inventory paging - **Bug:** The sound effect when clicking explore button is still too loud - **Bug:** Game clock (hours/minutes) is not carried over from travel to exploration correctly - **Change:** Switch sound effect when picking up world items in exploration - **Change:** Wagon SFX are too subtle. Either remove or make louder - **Feature:** Add mechanism of seeing what treatments have been applied for a given condition already - **Enhancement:** Add icons for event response options - **Feature:** Add hint system for discoveries in the explorer's guild ## Backlog > *These are all of the **possible** tasks that I'm tracking for* Journey Express, *including enhancements, adjustments, new features, and bug fixes.* > [!example] Features, Enhancements, & Changes > **Enhancement:** Add flavor text, rarity, and biome to each POI > **Feature:** Hunt-able birds in certain exploration scenes > **Feature:** Add basic settings for audio > **Feature:** Configurable key bindings > **Testing:** Verify behavior of taking interactive world object (full pack, etc.) > **Feature:** Add some kind of breadcrumb trail on map > **Change:** Add zoom in/out feature to map > **Other:** Polish splash screens during startup > **Enhancement:** Sprite-sheet for campfire smoke for more particle shape variety > **Feature:** Replace character controller for exploration > **Enhancement:** Look into underwater shader. E.g. *Staggart Creations* > [!bug] Bugs > **Bug:** Monitor for any cases where buttons are pressed/activated via key presses or otherwise when they shouldn't be accessible > **Bug:** Improve performance in exploration scenes. VS is specifically causing heavy impacts in the profiler. Might be worth looking into alternative vegetation approaches > **Bug Report:** Fishing minigame feedback: > *"I didn’t get the Fishing minigame - I tried it once and the ball jumped away and never came back"*. Add safety catch — if the ball gets outside the play area or falls too far, reset the game > **Bug Report:** Registration feedback: "*Can’t change my family name on the registration screen*." — Maybe specific to Steam Deck and/or touch input? > **Bug:** Fix spawn point selection not working in exploration scenes > **Bug:** Storm and standard transition lighting modes during travel should be smoothed out > **Bug:** Depending on how items are added to the backpack, they may or may not respect the max tile stack property of the item > **Bug:** UI canvas scaling doesn't appear to work at 16:10 as expected > **Bug Report:** Tornado event possibly still occurring too often > **Bug Report:** River crossing logic selected a point too far to the west when approaching from the east > **Bug Report:** Verify removal of selected/completed/failed contract from the available pool in the game state #journey_express