That's what we say. And, apparently, the good folks over at Goldhawk Interactive are of a mind to bring us back to the fray for a second time, eyeing an ambitious return in 3D for a potential Xenonauts 2.
A recent thread at their forums has encouraging developments to report:
(...) the chances of us making Xenonauts 2 as our next game are better than even. The response to and feedback given on a potential sequel by the community has been remarkable and has gone a long way to convincing us that it would be a good idea.
Our biggest concern regarding Xenonauts 2 is whether we can create a workable 3D art style - this not only has to look good in 3D but ideally will also reference the 2D sprite style of Xenonauts 1.
(...) we're going to run some tests over the next few weeks on how we can try to make the art style look a bit more 2D and hand-painted.
(...)
We're working on redesigning the aliens from Xenonauts 1 to make them more interesting, both visually and in terms of the core mechanic for each race. We've got some new ideas for all of the races and we've got some concepts done for the updated Sebillian and Caesan designs that look quite a bit more "alien" than before.
We're playing with the idea of making the Caesans a hive consciousness, with weak drones (above) and more threatening officers. The officers get significant bonuses in combat for each nearby drone, and there is a single collective psionic power attack performed each turn. This might lose power as more Caesans are killed, or perhaps it just gets stronger each turn to encourage the player not to turtle when fighting Caesans (or possibly both).
The Sebillians might have their regeneration turned up to eleven to make them more interesting to play against. At the end of each alien turn, all Sebillians will return to full health ... but in exchange, every time they take damage their maximum health falls by, say, 25% of the damage sustained.
(...)
Xenonauts 2 is looking more likely than not and we're actively designing and prototyping it at the moment, but it'll probably take a month or two until we're ready to make a final decision.
Awesome news in our book!
If you want some more intel, an older thread has a few extra thoughts on the way the're looking to approach the new instalment, so check it out as well.
Our special thanks to Zombie at our forums for bringing this to our attention.
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Xenonauts 2's availability via Steam Early Access has now been officially pushed back a couple of months. Demo out now on Steam until February 9th.
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Xenonauts 2's latest progress report hints at a possible Early Access launch by late March.
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A final 2020 update regarding Xenonauts 2 can now be found here.
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Xenonauts 2's latest sitrep is here.
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A new progress report on Xenonauts 2 can now be found here.
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The latest Xenonauts 2 sitrep indicates that Early Access has been pushed back to late June at the earliest, as detailed here.
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Goldhawk Interactive has announced the start of Xenonauts 2's closed beta.
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The latest update about Xenonauts 2 shows the first iteration of air combat, among other novelties.
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Xenonauts 2's development is coming along rather nicely so plans for Kickstarter and Early Access are finally being outlined here.
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Goldhawk Interactive's latest progress report about Xenonauts 2 is here.
Regrettably, many games these days are not properly and truly finished even well over a year after their so-called release date.
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Still, developers do need some willing victims of progressive design torment to puzzle through what works and what doesn't, so I salute the daring.
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The folks over at Goldhawk Interactive update us on the state of Xenonauts 2.
The leap in graphical quality is already starting to shine through and it's a noticeable improvement. Still, and as you say, there's little doubt that a lot of ground has yet to be covered in terms of development.
- Zombie
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A new version of Xenonauts 2's free public test build is now available, bringing with it, among other things, a new alien as reported here.
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Check out Xenonauts 2's latest dev update here.
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As for the nice visuals on display here, for Xenonauts 2 the folks at Goldhawk Interactive have upgraded to Unity 3D.
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The Xenonauts site is back online and a free build of Xenonauts 2 featuring an early version of a single combat mission is now available (GOG Galaxy required). Learn all about it and future plans for early access here.