🌎 Update 0.6.0-alpha — The Planetary Update

Release Date: 11/5/2026

Version: 0.6.0-alpha

Development Stage: Alpha

The universe is expanding! 🚀

This is Orbitale's largest update yet, fundamentally transforming how worlds work and introducing the foundations for interplanetary exploration!

✨ Introducing Orbitale!

The game officially has a name: Orbitale!

With an entirely new planetary system, Orbitale is beginning to take shape as a sandbox adventure spanning multiple celestial worlds.

🌍 Finite, Wrapping Planets

• Worlds are now finite planets rather than endless terrain.
• Earth is 1,024 chunks (32,768 blocks) around!
• Traveling far enough in one direction brings you seamlessly back to where you started.
• Terrain generation connects naturally around the entire circumference.
• Chunks still generate as players explore.
• Each celestial body has its own size, terrain, and exploration progress.

🗺️ Planetary Mapping Overhaul

• The world map has been completely redesigned!
• Zoom out to see your entire planet as a circular cross-section.
• Zoom in continuously as the planet's curvature gradually flattens.
• Map detail dynamically increases with zoom, eventually revealing actual in-game block textures.
• Track the percentage of each planet you've discovered.
• Planet names and exploration progress adapt to the current zoom level.

You can now explore an entire planet, one chunk at a time!

🌙 Explore the Moon!

For the first time, players can leave Earth!

• Explore a procedurally generated Moon spanning 256 chunks (8,192 blocks).
• Experience low gravity and floaty movement.
• Discover rocky terrain, hills, and craters.
• Experience a unique lunar day/night cycle lasting 8 Earth days.
• The Moon has no conventional seasons or atmospheric weather.
• Black skies, visible stars, and dramatic differences between lunar daylight and darkness.

🔴 Welcome to Mars!

A third explorable destination has arrived!

• Explore 512 chunks (16,384 blocks) of Martian terrain.
• Discover sandstone, basalt, rocky outcrops, hills, valleys, and craters.
• Experience 38% of Earth's gravity.
• Explore beneath a dusty orange-pink sky with Martian-specific day/night lighting.
• Mars has its own 88-day year with four unequal seasons:
  • 🌸 Spring: 26 days
  • ☀️ Summer: 23 days
  • 🍂 Fall: 19 days
  • ❄️ Winter: 20 days

⏳ Independent Planetary Time

• Earth, the Moon, and Mars each follow their own environmental cycles.
• Planetary calendars continue progressing even while you're somewhere else.
• Time, seasons, lighting, and gravity adapt to your current destination.

The Moon and Mars are early exploration previews for now. Their environments and gameplay will be expanded in future updates!

☀️ Introducing the Solar System!

A brand-new Solar System tab has been added to the map interface!

• View the Sun, Earth, Moon, and Mars in an interactive solar system.
• Watch celestial bodies move along their orbits as time passes.
• Earth's Moon orbits Earth while the planets orbit the Sun.
• Planetary orbital speeds reflect their different year lengths.
• Colored orbital paths visualize each planet's seasonal cycle.
• Select celestial bodies to inspect their environments, calendars, gravity, and other properties.
• A redesigned sidebar displays planets, moons, and their exploration progress.

🔭 Seamless Map Navigation

• Zoom and pan around the solar system.
• Zoom toward a planet to transition into its planetary map.
• Zoom all the way out from a planet to return to the solar system.
• Switch directly between planetary maps using the new dropdown.
• View and manage waypoints across different planets.
• Quickly switch between Planet and Solar System tabs.

From an entire solar system down to individual blocks, explore Orbitale at an incredible range of scales!

🚀 Interplanetary Travel

• Travel freely between Earth, the Moon, and Mars in both Survival and Creative.
• Each destination has its own persistent terrain, exploration data, and structures.
• Your inventory, equipment, and progression travel with you.
• Return to each destination at its world spawn or your established bed spawn.

Rocket construction, fuel requirements, and story-based travel progression are planned for future updates.

🎨 Interface & World Creation

• Worlds are now called Solar Systems throughout the menus.
• Updated world creation terminology to reflect the new planetary structure.
• Earth biome-generation settings remain customizable.
• Redesigned planetary information panels and solar system navigation.
• Planet-specific calendar options only appear where applicable.
• The title screen can now feature backgrounds inspired by Earth, the Moon, or Mars, randomly selected when returning to or launching the game.

🔧 Fixes & Improvements

• Fixed raspberry bushes producing collectible item drops in Creative mode.
• Reorganized world systems to support independently generated and saved planets.
• Improved planetary map interactions, navigation, and waypoint management.
• Expanded the underlying architecture to support many more celestial destinations in future updates.

🌌 The Beginning of Something Bigger

This update establishes the foundation for Orbitale's future.

The Moon and Mars are intentionally simple for now, but the systems introduced here will eventually support more detailed planetary environments, resources, exploration, and adventures.

The sandbox is no longer limited to one world.