Happy August, readers!

July was an incredible for Starbound progress. We're at a point where things are really coming together nicely. This past month we implemented the quest system, an in-game instrument system that we've all been having a ridiculous amount of fun with, bosses, and added lots of mini-biomes to generate some diversity within Starbound's vast landscapes.

We've done a whole lot of work on player progression- especially in the beginning of the game. It's important that players are able to jump right into the game and easily figure out what they're doing, and why, and that they have fun doing it!

This has meant lots of combat-related tweaks, tweaking ore and loot distribution, crafting recipes, monster AI, and weapon properties.

On a sort of different note, we've also finally implemented the soundtrack! Curtis Schweitzer and Solatrus' tunes sound wonderful. It's amazing how much the addition of music can add to the atmosphere, and just the overall experience of exploring.

We've still got a whole lot to do, but there's a general wrap-up of all we've been working on lately- as always, you can keep up with daily progress on our blog.

Hey! In case you hadn't heard, we're going to be talking about and showing off Starbound at Multiplay's Insomnia Minecraft Expo UK! The expo takes place from August 23-26 at the Telford International Centre in Telford, UK. The whole event looks like it's shaping up to be loads of fun and we're really looking forward to it, and to seeing a bunch of you there!

We've been having a lot of fun with our in-game instrument system, and we're anticipating you guys having a lot of fun with it too! It can be a little difficult to find all your favorite songs written in ABC notation, as some of the old song databases for games like Lord of the Rings Online and Mabinogi have gone offline. Fortunately, forum user Lateo has written a really handy guide for converting midi files to ABC! Check it out here.

A handful of people have already begun to contribute songs, which is so exciting! I hope we can build a big, awesome song database of our own.