Hey goatwarrior,
Welcome to the forum.
This will be a longer and more detailed answer than you probably wanted. 😁
Honestly I do not know, yet, when the game will be released. There is still a lot to do and currently I am the only person working on the game.
The issue is I need funding, to be able to work full time, to hire another developer, and to pay for art assets.
Last year I got the game to a state where I felt I could approach publishers for funding. I could show some gameplay, along with functioning multiplayer, and designs for the completed UIs.
Everyone I contacted responded that the game looked very good, but they all said that they do not see a market for space sims at the moment. To quote my most recent contact, "This does look extremely impressive, but TBH I think we are a bit
oversaturated with space games at the moment."
That leaves me with going to Kickstarter. For that I need to be able to show a "vertical slice" of the game, a whole section of gameplay which shows what the game is about. I have chosen Engineering to be that vertical slice, and I am currently building it towards that end.
The Engineering vertical slice needs to be amazing, including all of the Technician interactions and UI animations, so it will take time.
Thanks. 😊