Blowing things up is one of the most fun parts of Terraria, and sandbox games in general, so solo indie developer ‘Perfoon’ decided to make it the core of the experience. Blastronaut is a 2D blend of platforming, mining, base building, upgrading gear, and combat. Rather than gradually tinking your way through the dirt and rocks with a pickaxe, however, you employ explosive gel, bombs, and lasers to carve through the environment and enemies alike. The game’s first update of 2025 introduces a new biome featuring mysterious black holes, as Perfoon details a full roadmap towards its launch out of early access.
With its decision to lean into jetpacks and explosions, Blastronaut is ideal for anyone who enjoys the Terraria format but prefers to do their mining with grenades and TNT rather than more traditional tools. The explosive sandbox game made a strong first impression when it arrived via Steam Early Access, but a quiet 2024 left players wondering if it had been abandoned. That’s all changed now, however, as Perfoon delivers a substantial new update along with a roadmap towards full release over the upcoming year.
“After quite a lengthy pause, I will continue working on Blastronaut through 2025,” the developer writes. “I apologize to anyone who was disappointed with the recent lack of updates and I will try to make it up this year.” The first step on that roadmap is already here with the ‘Gates’ update. This is named for the introduction of teleportation gates, which give you a new option to quickly travel about the world.
The Gates update also includes a new Mesa biome. Travel there and you might encounter mysterious black holes. Perfoon doesn’t give away exactly how you’ll be able to use these, although it does suggest that a new weapon might be up for grabs if your experimentation goes well. The patch also introduces the ability to select difficulty settings when creating a new game.
“With this update done, I will begin breaking up the game loop, trying to make it more purposeful and rewarding,” Perfoon says. The developer explains that the current implementation of a main mission tree and questline “were made to guide the player further into the game, but I’m not happy with how it works since it ended up hindering the exploration and sandbox-style gameplay.” They add, “I’m also not happy with the replayability of the game, which is quite a bummer since so much effort has gone into crafting this infinite, procedurally generated world.”
As such, Perfoon lays out their current roadmap plan, which leads to a full release at the end of the year “if it goes smoothly.” The immediate focus is on improving the game loop, with the intent of breaking progression into “smaller, more manageable dives” that “should feel satisfying and different from one another.” Next will be a focus on bettering the home base, followed by improvements to combat, and finally work on expeditions, planet variety, and the mission system.
Once that’s all done, Perfoon intends to dedicate “the longest time slot” to the final polish, playtesting, and balancing, to target a full release in November. “I hope you will support me through this journey with your advice and feedback,” they say, “but please don’t be too harsh; it is just one person (me) currently working on the game.”
Blastronaut is currently available via Steam Early Access, priced at $18.99 / £15.89. Its full release is scheduled for the end of 2025, but is subject to change. You can find it here if you’re curious to check it out.
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