A few snippets from our internal build – we have working buttons and soon you will have them too!
Here you can see buttons activating the new timer block.
There’s also an overlay that shows what each button does, so complex control panels are much easier to understand.
And we will be introducing inventory access from any interactive element of a block, not just at conveyor ports. Sometimes ease of use and quality of life override strict in‑game logic, and this is one of those times.
On this Tuesday’s playtest, we reviewed the wheels and suspensions. They feel good, but we agreed that some tweaks are still needed – mostly around making the wheels feel like they have good traction and are properly in contact with the terrain.
We also tested the wind turbines, and I must say they feel very cool and give strong engineering vibes! The art is beautiful too. In this demo you can see the turbine spinning freely until wind is blocked, at which point it slows and stops.
Then we tested some of the new encounters where you have to build or repair something. I think these are one of the things that will make playing SE2 more meaningful – making the world feel like a place where things are happening, and more alive.
On the art side, the team has been busy. The Event Controller and Timer blocks are starting to look beautiful; they have a clean industrial design that fits naturally with other ship components:
And I can also share a progress on large and small Magnetic Plates:
VS2.3 – Explosions
Let’s talk about explosions!
In VS2.3 we’re introducing an explosion system into Space Engineers 2. We’re working on new warheads – check out our progress on Warheads – from first concept art to first in-game blasts!
We want explosions to feel powerful without being over the top, and to provide clear feedback about what happens when something goes boom.
Warhead 3D model was created by Abdullah Natour (from the concept art by Mike Hamlet): “The Warheads were very fun blocks to work on that break the usual shapes. These blocks had a very unique set of challenges – we wanted to introduce functionality that allows the player to tell when it is engaged from a distance and being fracturable when it is not – while keeping in account how it would interact with other blocks and how it can be mounted.
We introduced different motions that can indicate a powerful look: the large version featuring locks that move apart when engaged and a spinning core that changes colors. The small Warhead is a compact version that allows it to be used anywhere with a small locking mechanism.
These blocks were done in Blender (with custom tools we were constantly improving and creating) and rendered in Marmoset.”
More planetary fauna – introducing mighty Oak-like trees!
Expect dense canopies, thick trunks, and forests that look powerful enough to survive whatever engineers throw at them. Well… most of it.
Mirko Bartolini (our designated Treemaster): “This is a set of oak trees designed for temperate, mid-altitude environments. The set is intended to cover different growth stages, ranging from mature trees with larger, more developed canopies to mid-adult and younger specimens.
The trees were created in SpeedTree using custom texture atlases that include a variety of branch shapes. These branches are applied to plane meshes and chained together to build complex canopy silhouettes while keeping the polycount low.”
Full Blog Post: https://blog.marekrosa.org/2026/04/mareks-dev-diary-april-30-2026/
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