Hey friends! It's World Frog Day, which means Mudborne is now officially released!!! :D It's been a long time in the works since the original gamejam entry, and I'm really happy with how it's all ended up! I can't wait for you to all get your slimy green hands on it <3 https://store.steampowered.com/app/2355150/Mudborne_Frog_Management_Sim/ There's a 10% release discount for the next two weeks - plus APICO players who own the game on Steam can use this bundle to also get 10% off, as a thank you for all your support over the years. If you find any nasty tasting bugs, please report them! You can use the Steam forums here, or the feedback form (link is also in the settings menu!) My number 1, 2, and 3 priorities now are making sure you all have the best possible experience, but there's only one of me - so let me know ASAP if you run into any issues and I can start fixing them immediately! If you're enjoying the game, pls leave a review! I need 10 reviews before the Steam algorithm will see this is a Cool GameTM and start showing it to other players <3 If you'd like to chat with other players at the same time to experience the game together, I've setup some new channels in the Discord specifically for Mudborne. Be sure to also check the FAQs for anything else I might have missed here! Finally - a big THANK YOU to everyone who's been so hyped throughout development, I truly appreciate every single one of you. Now, off to the ponds with you! ~ Ell <3

[ 2025-03-20 21:43:44 CET ] [ Original post ]

Mudborne Release Date + New Demo!

Hey all! Some exciting news today! First off, I can officially announce that Mudborne will be releasing on March 20th, aka World Frog Day!
In just over a month you'll be able to experience the world of Mudborne and uncover it's secrets - however if that's still too far away, I've also released a new demo for Mudborne that you can play right now!
This demo takes you through the first area of the game - the Spawning Pools, and contains all the lovely feedback and QoL changes that came from the playtest (thanks again for everyone who got involved in that!)
Whether you played the old demo or not, there's plenty of fresh content for you to experience. (Playtesters - this is just the first region of what you already played so you're not missing anything!) Be sure to wishlist the game if you haven't already to be notified of release - and I'll see you all at the pond in just under 5 weeks! :D ~ Ell

[ 2025-02-12 14:05:36 CET ] [ Original post ]

Mudborne Playtest!

Hey friends! Excited to say that the playtest for Mudborne is launching now on Steam! You can request access over on the the store page here, just scroll down a bit to the "Join the Mudborne Playtest" section and click the big button! https://store.steampowered.com/app/2355150/Mudborne/ The playtest will unlock starting this weekend <3
This will be a playtest of the full game, limited to the first 3 regions - Spawning Pools, Central Junction, and Kindergarten. If you've played the demo this will still be quite different, as the demo has it's own map. If you can't wait to play Mudborne this is the time to get a froggy fix!

Why Playtest?

The goal of the playtest is mainly just to see how people find it, both APICO players and new players alike, and check you're all having fun. I have no expectations for anyone who wants to try it out, however there is a feedback form linked in-game that I'd appreciate you filling in when you're done! Any bug reports are also appreciated <3

The playtest is limited to 3 areas and only contains 1/3 of all frogs, mushrooms, and bugs of the full game. I'd say there's maybe 10 hours of content-ish but I genuinely have no clue! If you want to chat with other players, you can use the new shiny channel "mudborne-playtest" channel in the discord to discuss the playtest and help avoid other players getting spoilers.

It's worth noting that playtest saves will NOT be able to be used in the full game, as like the demo they also have their own map.

When Playtest?

I'll be granting access to anyone waiting in the queue starting this weekend! If you're a streamer or content creator it's okay to make streams/videos, just make sure it's clear to your viewers this is part of the playtest not the final release If you're still holding out for release to play everything then 1. I applaud your resolve and 2. you won't have to wait too much longer...

[ 2025-01-22 14:16:59 CET ] [ Original post ]

TNgineers - 2024 In Review

Hey friends, and happy new year <3 I hope you all had a lovely break and are ready for the 2025! Here's a little recap of what I've been up to this past year: [hr][/hr]

Personal

2024 was the first year of me doing gamedev full-time, for the whole year! It's certainly different to back when I was making APICO on the side of a full-time job (and later freelance work). I feel a lot more pressure that what I make has to be 'good', and by 'good' I mean good enough to pay the rent.

With a lot of APICO's gameplay, I just did what I personally thought would be fun, and the end result is a weird combination of things but those who get it, love it. With Mudborne I've been trying to do the same thing, but I have a lot more worries about certain mechanics or moments that I wouldn't have if it wasn't tied to keeping the lights on. I can't say I'd ever go back to my old job all the time I can sustain myself making games (the big red date on my whiteboard tells me I have until October 2026 until I run out of money!), but it definitely has been a noticeable change doing art for money instead of hobby.

With APICO done, all the games I'm making are all in my own engine built on top of the LVE framework, and it's made things so much quicker to create. At the time of writing Mudborne is very nearly finished up, and it's taken only 8 months in total working full-time on it. I'd love to get into a place where I can comfortably making a game every year or so, without feeling rushed. I have so many different ideas I'd love to make, and only so much time!

[hr][/hr]

APICO

APICO had it's 3rd and final (sorry) content update, "A Hive Of Industry". This update added a bunch of automation machines, plus a lot of stuff you all asked for, including pets, decoration and a butt-tonne of QoL tweaks.

I've also done a few little bug fix patches here and there which I'm sure gave you all a bit of false hope on new content when the download queued! It was nice to finally 'finish' up APICO - sometimes I wish I never did any of the content updates but I think looking at it now I'm happy with where it ended up, even if it's still a lil janky and bloated and I think all the art looks wack.

I'd love to come back to it one day, in a seperate game. When I drew up the new credit postcards (above) I had fun invisioning a game where you do go to the mainland and help clean up the environment using your bees. I think it'd be nice to take the same APICO gameplay, streamline some of it and make it all fit better (especially the money making side), and then expand the bees to all have functions in restoring nature. However I think that'll need to wait a while as I have 2 game children screaming at me to finish, and a bunch of other ideas I want to get started on! [hr][/hr]

Synthesis

I don't often join gamejams, mostly because of the time limits they have, or I just don't personally have any time - but in 2024 I joined the LVE Jam, for games made with the framework. I was still learning the framework at the time and tinkering with the engine I'd made to create the Snacktorio demo, so I thought it'd be a good opportunity to have a break from the APICO stuff that was getting me down at the time, and learn a bit more of the framework.

I was really happy with the end result - 'Synthesis'. I wanted to make a puzzle game with different modules like what you get with old patch synthesisers. As you mess with the different modules it changes the patterns drawn until you eventually come across the combination needed to match the required shape. I also made a point not to ever explain any module's function - you just learn through doing very basic levels and then the rest you just learn overtime by doing. I wanted it to feel very experimenty for the player.

It was really fun to put this together! I had 10 days and pretty much used them all. I also did the music for it because I wanted to start practicing music creation for Mudborne, and was interesting in having the music 'evolve' with the puzzle progress.

I think it'd be cool to revisit one day as a 'full' game, as you could have lots of different module types and interactions, and let players connect modules themselves in different orders which then affects the outcome. If you want to check out the game you can get it over on itch.io here: https://ellraiser.itch.io/synthesis [hr][/hr]

Mudborne

Ah Mudborne, my beloved. I've spent what feels like an eternity working on this game, when it's only been 8 months. I think I've stared at frogs more than I have the real world, but I've enjoyed pretty much every part of it.

It's been an interesting process, first I did like concept art for the rough game, and worked on all the individual mechanics - then I worked on the actual world development and story and tied it all together. After the new demo was finished up, I spent a long time just designing the entire world and how everything connects, then piecing together the story. The writing in this one was definitely a killer as I've never written like a proper big story, let alone one with a few twists and turns.

I wanted something players could piece together themselves, and get clues from all over the place to work out certain things, so there was a lot involved in making sure it all fit together nicely. At the time of writing this I've just finished up all the final dialogue lines, and now it's just a lot of drawing and polish left to go. I'm planning to do a private playtest in the Discord this month for the first time, so I can try and streamline any tutorialisation stuff and see if I've made things a bit _too_ difficult. I'm pretty confident it's a fun game but it's weird how hard it gets to judge that the longer you work on making the game.

Once the playtest is over it'll just be some last little bits to tweak and any changes to make and it'll be ready to release! Crazy to think it'll be my second published game. If you haven't already be sure to give it a wishlist! You can also check out the demo still: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2355150/Mudborne/ [hr][/hr] As for 2025, I'm not sure yet what I'll be doing! The only thing I do know is Mudborne will be released this year, which is very exciting, I just can't say when yet. After that, I'm not sure - I'll need a long break that's for certain. I'd like to start working on Snacktorio proper and get that finished, but it depends on my brothers workload (he still has a 'real' job). He did a lot of the work on the game design of Snacktorio and has a good idea for the levels, so I wouldn't want to really do it without him.

If he is free, then I imagine Snacktorio will get polished off this year, maybe an early 2026 release! If not then I'll just have to work down the list to the next game idea and get started... A big thank you to everyone who played any of my games in 2024, all of the new APICO players, returning players for the 4.0 update, froggy friends excited for mudborne - without all of you I wouldn't be able to do this and I'm extremely grateful. Here's to 2025! ~ Ell

[ 2025-01-02 09:13:34 CET ] [ Original post ]

Mudborne Demo Out Now!

Hey friends - IT'S NEW GAME TIME! Im excited to announce that Mudbornes new demo is out RIGHT NOW on Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2355150/Mudborne/ Im also excited to announce that the lovely folks at Future Friends will be helping to publish your new fav froggy game with me. Check out the trailer below for a sneak peak of what you're in for: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJq7u9hcAUg&ab_channel=TNgineersOfficial A spiritual successor of sorts to APICO, Mudborne instead focuses on genetic manipulation and generational puzzles to create and discover all sorts of frog species, that act as keys to let you travel between the waking and dreaming worlds - the demo takes you through the main mechanics and creating 8 different species. If you love APICO I think youll love this, theres a lot of stuff Im doing differently but you should still feel right at home. Whether you played the original gamejam version or not youre in for a treat, as this is a completely new game, new art, new mechanics, new music, new engine - the whole works. Im really looking forward to you all getting your slimy green hands on it, I hop you enjoy!! <3 Dampest regards, Ell

[ 2024-08-14 14:04:11 CET ] [ Original post ]

TNgineers News - FEB2024

Hi friends, hope youre doing well! Its already the beginning of a new month, and you know the drill: its time for a new recap! [hr][/hr]

Celebrating Black History Month

APICO took part in Humble's Exceptional Indie Allies Bundle, along with 6 other amazing games, to celebrate Black History Month and raise money for NPower. Big thanks to everyone who supported the cause - so far youve helped raise over $25,000! (Also if youre quick you can still grab the bundle today!) [hr][/hr]

LVE JAM 2024

Ell took a little week break from finishing APICOs Honeycore Update to join this years LVE game jam with their submission, Synthesis! In Ells own words; [quote=ellraiser]this year the theme was interface so you know I had to! I wanted to make a bit of an abstract puzzle game where the player isn't taught any controls and has to learn through trial and error, and I'm happy with how it all ended up! It was also my first time making music for a game so... enjoy that lol[/quote]

You can try out the jam game over on itch.io here! [hr][/hr]

Whitethorn Winter

Whitethorn Games, APICOs publisher, held a celebration of gaming across all the games in their catalogue through a showcase and Steam event (you can catch the vod here) While we didnt have anything to show, there was some nice sneak peaks at our sibling games, like Magical Delicacy and Botany Manor! [hr][/hr]

Final Countdown

Its been a bit of a slow year so far, with not much to share while Ell plugs away at finishing the final update, however we have got some lovely things planned for the 4.0 launch to look forward to, so be sure to keep an eye out. Well also havs the Steam Spring Sale coming very soon (March 14th!) with the deepest discount to-date for APICO and the soundtracks, so a perfect time to pick up APICO and catch up with everything before the last update [hr][/hr] Aaand that was February at TNgineers! As always, thank you so much for your support <3 Take care! Manon, Ell and Jamie

[ 2024-03-01 18:55:03 CET ] [ Original post ]

TNgineers News - JAN2024

Hi friends! A new year is upon us, and its been a bit of a manic start with Ell moving house but were back on track now! [hr][/hr]

APICO Pet Competition

As you may have seen on our socials, pets are coming to APICO along with the final Honeycore update! To celebrate, we held a design-your-own-pet competition (which receieved over 200 submissions!), and narrowed down the cuties to just five finalists, which were put up to a vote by all of you.

Although the dino was the vote winner by a small margin, everyone found it super difficult to pick - and why should they have to? Weve decided that all five designs will be winners, so youll be able to enjoy all of them as pets in the final update - congratulations to all the artists! <3 [hr][/hr]

APICO 4.0 WIPS

Ells been working hard on the Honeycore Update, and you might have seen some bits and bobs on our socials and on Discord!

New cute decor and furniture, light automation, moving crates & beeboxes without emptying them we've been very glad to see your reactions to all the new things weve planned for this last update and cant wait to let you all get your hands on it! [hr][/hr]

APICO Prime!

For those of you who use Amazon Prime Gaming, APICO is currently part of the free Prime games you can claim! You have until February 14th to claim it - once you do itll be added to your library indefinitely! This is the same as the latest Steam / PC release, so you get all of the same nautical goodness. [hr][/hr]

Coming Very Soon

Coming very shortly after this recap, Whitethorn Games (APICOs publisher!) will be having their Whitethorn Winter Showcase! This is a celebration of gaming magic across all the other sister games, so be sure to check it out to see what other new games are coming that might bee off interest to you. Theres also a new Humble Bundle where you can get APICO along with some other fantastic games, all to help celebrate Black History Month and raise money for NPower, so if youre still looking to pick up APICO as well as support a wonderful cause this is your chance! [hr][/hr] And thats it for this first recap of 2024! Big thanks for your amazing support <3 Take care! Manon, Ell and Jamie

[ 2024-02-07 08:50:33 CET ] [ Original post ]

TNgineers - 2023 In Review

2023 is almost at an end, and its been a busy ol year looking back! Heres a lil ellraiser/TNgineer wrapped [hr][/hr]
Started the year off strong dropping a demo for Rift Breach, an experimental lil dungeon crawler. This was super fun to make, and helped me get better at scoping small as well as got my out of my usual pixel art comfort zone! [hr][/hr]
Then FletchMakes hosted a 7 day gamejam + I couldnt resist making the APICO but frogs Id always joked about Mudborne was born(e) + I was overwhelmed with how much people loved it. It also showed me just how much I can get done with a super strict scope and detailed plan! [hr][/hr]
APICO had its 1st birthday! From a silly concept made in HTML to now published on all platforms with over 50,000 beekeepers playing - truly never thought it would go anywhere Im forever grateful to everyone whos played and shared this funky bee game [hr][/hr]
At this point trying to keep up with socials for 3 different games was getting far too much and I needed help - enter @mibyledraws who joined as the first official TNgineer! Thank you for all your hard work, wonderful videos, and helping me keep on top of everything <3 [hr][/hr]
I got round to releasing the 2nd free content update for APICO, "What Lies Beeneath, with all sorts of weird and wonderful ocean friends Its been tough to keep working on this mess of a game, but its worth it to see how much people have been enjoying all the new content [hr][/hr]
Decided that I wanted to take the Mudborne concept into a full-game, and started planning out everything along with a new art style and vibe for it (theres only so far a sprite-rip of APICO can go lmao) Its wild to see how far Ive started to come from tiny rectangle trees! [hr][/hr]
Towards the end of the year I left my freelance contract + went full-time gamedev, not quite by choice but it was something I wanted to do for a while Ill now be able to spend all my time on the games, as well as all the other little concepts Ive had bubbling away... [hr][/hr]
I moved from GameMaker to LVE, built a small framework for future games like Snacktorio + Mudborne, and contributed to the engine itself Was the first time actually helping making a substantial contribution to an open-source project and I learnt a lot! [hr][/hr]
After a couple years in + out of development and a last minute engine change to LVE, I finally finished + released the demo for Snacktorio Weve had some amazing feedback and its been so gratifying to finally get it out and see people enjoy it [hr][/hr]
Looking ahead to 2024, itll be my first year as a full-time gamedev (as well as reaching lvl 30!) Im planning to release the final update for APICO, as well as releasing either Mudborne or Snacktorio - might even have to drop some new demos too, as a treat [hr][/hr] Thanks for everyone who has supported me and TNgineers throughout the year. Whether that was playing the demos, buying the games, sharing your progress, joining the discord, posting wholesome reviews, sending me cute bee pics - Im truly grateful to you all <3

[ 2023-12-20 11:41:49 CET ] [ Original post ]

1.2.0

Hey Chefs! Just a few more fixes and a little tweak to the tooltip info - had it in my notes to put the 'actual' production rates in but apparently never did so... oops! Thanks again for your reports and to all the people giving us lovely feedback, I'm really glad you've all been having fun with the demo :D ~ Ell

Changes

Added "X items per Xs" message to all progress arrow GUI in machine menus for clarity (This will also show when highlighting a working machine when shift is held)
Increased pickup radius of items for the player

Bug Fixes

Fixed fryer crashing when trying to fry invalid items
Fixed menu automatic close based on distance closing when still nearby
Fixed closing menus with ESC not closing any open recipe selectors
Fixed clicking on tutorial bot panels multiple times opening multiple dialogues

Crash Fixes

game/scripts/remove_tube.lua:39 table index is nil
game/events/keypress.lua:85 attempt to index field 'inst' (a nil value)

[ 2023-12-04 17:34:09 CET ] [ Original post ]

1.1.0

Hey Chefs! Thanks so much for all of you who've been checking out the new demo, it's so nice to hear how much you've been enjoying it so far! Be sure to give it a wishlist if you're hungry for more >:D Also thanks to everyone submitting their feedback and reporting bugs, this patch should cover the more common issues I've seen. ~ Ell

Changes

Reinforced your green skin so you can withstand void for a few seconds before disintegrating
If you have no imps and no cages left on the map you can now press "I" to spawn some more in
If you load the game and are missing 1 of the 5 tools in your inventory/hotbar another will spawn
Loading a game where you are currently dead now automatically respawns you
You can now use arrow keys instead of WSAD for movement if you'd like to
Changed furnace icons to match the power symbol
The last place you died is now marked in the map
Added duplicate of the order icon timer above the beast itself
Fluid pipes will now show fluid of the wetwork when no fluid input machines present (i.e. just pump + tubes)

Bug Fixes

Fixed boundary boxes on items being weird leading to strange behaviour
Fixed items on utility blocks not falling when the block is removed
Fixed seeds planted by harvesters being offset incorrectly
Fixed softlock position by spice miner in the tutorial
Fixed new world's resin tree harvester putting the tree in the ground
Fixed opening the nominomicon through the mini order items closing weirdly
Fixed G'hordaan crashing when talked to if you rejected the 2nd order initially
Fixed mining blocks that plants are on not destroying the plant
Fixed target position of imps when climbing ladders to be a bit more accurate
Fixed imps having a weird tooltip

[ 2023-12-01 13:58:24 CET ] [ Original post ]

TNgineers News - NOV2023

Hi friends! Its almost December, which means its time to recap what happened last month! [hr][/hr]

Snacktorio: Ready To Order!

The demo for our factory-cooking simulator, Snacktorio, has finally been released! Thanks so much to all of you chefs, players and content creators for your support <3 If youd like to get a taste of whats in store you can watch the trailer below, or just go try out the demo on Steam! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kIsDeQQokwM [hr][/hr]

Cozy Quest Steam Festival

In the middle of the month we snuggled up and celebrated cozy games through the Cozy Quest Festival hosted on Steam, with APICO and Mudborne!

The organizers, Secret Mode, hosted a lovely stream to try out some of the games and demo taking part in the festival, and played the Mudborne demo while interviewing Ell, which you can watch here. [hr][/hr]

10,000 FROGS

Our little froggy nature-sim reached 10,000 wishlists last month! We are so happy and thankful to each and every single person whos supported Mudborne, played it, and wishlisted it on Steam. Heres all 10,000 of you, live in-game:

[hr][/hr] Aaand thats it for this months recap! Thanks for sticking with us and keeping the soups coming :) Take care! Manon, Ell and Jamie

[ 2023-11-30 15:57:59 CET ] [ Original post ]

Demo Out Now!

Hey Chefs! I'm excited to announce that the demo for Snacktorio is finally here and you can take a bite out of it RIGHT NOW on Steam! Take on 2 different beasts and 4 different courses on your journey to become a Witchelin Star chef If you find any flies in your food or maybe have some compliments for the chef, please do let us know using the community forums (there's a seperate forum for bug reports) If you wanna chat with other players or show off your chaotic factory layouts be sure to drop by the TNgineers Discord as there's now a few new special Snacktorio channels: https://tngineers.com/url/discord It's been a long time in and out of development the poor thing, but happy to finally have it all finished up, I hope you enjoy! Bon Apptit! ~ Ell

[ 2023-11-29 10:12:16 CET ] [ Original post ]

Snacktorio Demo Gameplay!

Hey Chefs! Today is the day the Snacktorio demo is finally released publicly. Tune in here to check out some silent gameplay of the demo.

[ 2023-11-29 09:00:23 CET ] [ Original post ]

TNgineers News - OCT2023

Hi friends! A month passed by since our last newsletter, heres whats been going on! [hr][/hr]

FROG CON

We joined the Frog Con, an online convention for frog lovers that mixes educational panels with creative works, in the middle of the month. Mudborne was one of the froggy games and got played during the convention! For the occasion, we shared more about the game on our socials, as well as some redesign work-in-progress sneak peeks!

[hr][/hr]

APICO Checklist Tracker

A fellow beekeeper created a checklist tracker & guide spreadsheet for APICO! Its truly an amazing resource, and includes the Ocean Update (3.0) new content.

Thank you so much DeluxeGremlin for this! [hr][/hr]

APICO Community Spotlight

Fellow beekeeper Hazel shared this screenshot of her base in our community discord! Between the rainbow hive garden and the Mothense concert for the NPCs, its a dream place to bee. If you want to share youre own cute pics you should come join us!

In other APICO news, the lovely Chelsea, that you may know as myPotatoGames on Twitter, wrote a very wholesome review of our beekeeping sim! Its always heartwarming to hear such nice feedback <3 [hr][/hr]

Beemoji Mashup!

Last month, our discord bot beebot started sharing a beemoji mashup everyday, and that gave us an idea: what if you could make your own mashup, and beebot could send it to the server?

You can now submit your mashup by filling this form, and itll get added to the bots daily posts! :D [hr][/hr] Thats it for this months recap! Thanks for sticking with us and keeping these hives buzzing, its been a quiet month but we have some exciting stuff coming next time! Take care! Manon, Ell and Jamie

[ 2023-10-31 20:09:43 CET ] [ Original post ]

TNgineers News - SEP2023

Hi friends! September is already gone and oh boy, what a month! APICOs second major update came out - What Lies Beeneath :D [hr][/hr]

APICO 3.0 Makes A Splash!

What Lies Beeneath launched on September 26 on PC! Beekeepers can now explore the ocean, restore coral reefs, clean the seabed, fish and, of course, discover all the new bees (including underwater ones!!). You can check out the patch notes here to see all the new stuff added. If youre a console player, no worries! The update will eventually come to you, and well make sure to let you all know when it happens <3 [hr][/hr]

APICO Steam Sale

To celebrate the new update, APICO and its amazing soundtracks (Im not the one who composed it so I can say it) are currently on sale on Steam! The game is 45% off, and the soundtracks are each 50% off until October 10th [hr][/hr]

Bee Butts?!

We experimented a bit with the discord server this month: after a short career in sending cute bee pics, beebot switched to beemojis creation. Some are cuter than others, but its a little surprise everyday! Weve also been very happy to see the players enjoy the update and sharing tips (and bugs) in the server, feel free to stop by! <3 [hr][/hr]

Whats Next?

In October, well join Frog Con, a lovely online convention for frog lovers that raises funds for amphibian conservation. In the middle or froggy cams, the artist alley and educational streams, Mudborne will take part to the con as a froggy game, October 13-23 Be sure to check it out, along with the other amazing froggy games well be alongside! [hr][/hr] And thats a wrap for September! We wish you all a good spooky month! Take care, Manon, Ell & Jamie

[ 2023-10-02 17:44:40 CET ] [ Original post ]

TNgineers News - AUG2023

Hey friends! August came and went, my first month technically doing gamedev full-time! Both exciting and terrifying :'D [hr][/hr]

APICO 3.0 Coming Soon

Unless youve been living in a pineapple under the sea, youve probably seen that the APICO 3.0 update, aka, What Lies Beeneath has been announced as coming soon! Bee sure to check out the new trailer! If youre a content creator or streamer interested in trying out the new content you can also fill in our creator preview form. [hr][/hr]

MibyleDraws Joins The Gang

Pleased to say that the lovely Manon (also known as MibyleDraws) will be joining us as our PR & CM! If you've been enjoying anything posted on socials this last month (like all the new cute tiktoks), then you have Manon to thank for it! [hr][/hr]

G.Round Playtesting

G.Round is a playtesting platform where you can get your hands on a bunch of different indie games and feedback directly to the developers! Currently you can playtest both Mudborne and Rift Breach, and give us feedback as well as chat with other players in the G.Round discord! [hr][/hr]

Socials Consolidation

Now that weve got 4 different games being juggled about, its impossible to manage 6 different accounts on each platform (we know, weve tried) Weve now combined all games into a single TNgineers account on each platform, so be sure to follow to not miss anything! (Tiktok, Twitter, Instagram, Steam) [hr][/hr] So thats a wrap on August, bee safe and well see you next month! Love, Ell & Jamie & Manon

[ 2023-09-02 13:48:57 CET ] [ Original post ]

Snacktorio - July 2023 Devlog

Hey friends! Been a long old month, with a lot of Jamie's feedback to work through - let's get into it all! [hr][/hr]

Story Time

So one thing I started working on while I had some free time was swapping between the boring bug fixes to do some nice drawing for a change! I'd been thinking about a nice way to introduce some background for the game when starting out, and wanted to do something a bit more detailed than just the postcard APICO uses, and something with a bit more style.

hey guys whats up I started scribbling in Aseprite to roughly flesh out each of the story frames, and then used the void/beast colours throughout to make it a bit more stylised - only using a bit of green to represent the goblins.

ooh a fresh pie? I wanted to have it so combined all the frames gave you a rough idea of the story without words - however there would be a couple sentences with each frame just to start building up the lore, I just wanted to make sure that they all worked without text. All in all I ended up going for 5 different panels that could take us from an "in the beginning, there were beasts" to a "now its your time to do this shit" type flow.

I'm really happy with how they turned out, and it was fun to just have a bit more of a loose approach to drawings vs my normal militant style. Hopefully it should help set some of the tone from the get go and make for a nicer introduction than just a wall of text! [hr][/hr]

Award-Winning Chef

Now I'd warmed up the ol' drawing muscles I went ahead and also drew the Witchelin Stars - these would be the little tokens that each beast would give you once you've met and maintained all their orders.

The pun was right there so we had to, but I spent a bunch of time trying to draw something that matched the name and also looked like something that would exist in the real world as a sort of logo / graphic that the chef could show off.

In-game I'd use the magic void filter to replace the hat of the witch star and the signature of the beast so that it had the nice void effect and feel a bit more alive than just a static card. I could then add these into the game as pickups when you speak to the beast, and finish off the whole "order complete" part of the gameplay to give it a bit more fanfare than just okay you're done with that one NEXT [hr][/hr]

Where Am I

With these new graphics done and the intro added in as a glorified slideshow presentation, I worked through a bunch of the bugs and issues that had come up from Jamie's second round of testing.

gettin p. tired of this word Also yeah fun fact I do little patch notes all the time even when it's internal builds only I or Jamie see! Helps to keep track of where things are at each time I send a new build, and it's also nice for my own personal sense of achievement/progress through the bigger slogs. Anyway with that done I moved onto adding a map, which I'd been putting off for a while as I was worrying about the size of the world being too large for a map surface.

first pass showing just blocks being rendered on the map However what I quickly realised is the demo world is reasonably large but it's not that large, and it all fits nicely in a 256x256 map. We'd still need to be able to pan and zoom but the actual original map wouldn't take up much room at all.

please, put me out of my misery... Panning was easy enough, and a basic zoom was fine, but trying to get the zoom to be based on the mouse position and map offset took me far longer that it should have and several thousand brain cells were lost in the process. Once I finally worked that out I could then enjoy the horror of working out which exact tile on the map we are hovering over based on the mouse, zoom, AND offset so that we could not only snap the highlight to the tile but use it to show the tooltip as if your mouse was over that thing in the real world to allow for quick checking.

finally my suffering is over Finally I then made it that we drew a flashing dot for any machines with an error (so you can quickly check for issues), and also a seperate wire layer that you could toggle on and off with shift.

really happy with how this turned out! Although it's basic enough, with the tooltips letting you hover essentially anything in the world no matter where you are that should be useful enough alone - and then the wire map with your resouces should help plan out even the most absurd factories. Might be some other layers I add to this but honestly for a demo I feel like this is enough just to help people make their way around the world and their own (literal) spaghetti factories. [hr][/hr] So that was that for Snacktorio in July! A decent chunk of the bigger items ticked off, leaving me now with "just" the tutorial segment, all the fancy particles + SFX, and then the final finishing touches on all the books to make sure it all has the quintessential terrible TNgineer puntastic writing. Next month I'm going to dig into the tutorial area, as shouldn't need to do too much extra just a lot of planning and writing for the guide character that takes you through it all. ~ Ell [This post was released early for Supporters]

[ 2023-08-07 16:03:35 CET ] [ Original post ]

TNgineers News - JUL2023

Hey friends! Another month flies by, it feels like I was only just writing the June recap! Here's whats been going on. [hr][/hr]

APICO Wholesome Games Sale!

The lovely people at Wholesome Games have organised a Steam Sale thats host to all sorts of cosy games, with some sweet discounts on offer! As part of the sale, APICO will be 40% off until 7th August, with both OSTs 50% off as well. [hr][/hr]

APICO at /r/place

For the redditors among you, you might have heard of a little thing called /r/place - a community canvas where everyone can get involved. Thanks to the help of the community, we were able to get APICO immortalised in a small section with a bunch of other indies you might know! [hr][/hr]

Itch.io Selects

We were lucky enough to have APICO selected for the Itch.io Summer Selects Bundle, a special bundle containing APICO and 5 other cool indies! Thanks to everyone who bought the bundle and supported us, we hope you enjoy all your new sweet games <3 [hr][/hr]

APICO 2.2.3 for Xbox/Playstation

For our console friends, 2.2.3 is now live on Xbox / Playstation. This was a small update but contained some important fixes and means the consoles are now in-line with PC! Unfortunately Nintendo wasnt as kind with approval and still wont let the patch through, however youre not missing out on anything major! [hr][/hr] So thats a wrap on July, bee safe and well see you next month! Love, Ell & Jamie

[ 2023-07-31 20:49:36 CET ] [ Original post ]

Snacktorio - June 2023 Devlog

Hey friends! Been a busy month with lots of testing! Jamie's been hard at work checking everything's working properly and lot's of feedback and QoL stuff being discussed and added - starting to feel like a proper game now. In case you missed it, we had to rename the game from "Feed The Beasts" as it was trademarked - we asked the Factorio team half-jokingly but they said yes, so we're calling it Snacktorio now! [hr][/hr]

No Place Like Home

So while Jamie got to work testing, I started on some of the more "boring" systems that games just have to have - like a home screen or a settings screen. First I sketched out roughly what I would need so I'd have a good idea in my head of what I'd need.

TheRealRatKing is my OC dont steal With that done I got to work on adding them in the game - I'd already setup a nice dynamic system for "player" menus, i.e. menus that need to stay fixed to the camera rather than move around in the game space, so I added them all using that. This meant all I had to do was define some buttons and draw some sprites where I needed them, and all the rest was handled automatically.

plenty of sassy home screen messages to enjoy! I love the whole "show your last file in the homescreen" that APICO has, so I re-used that as I just think it looks nice and makes for a much quicker route to jump back into your last save. At this point I also finally stopped saving and loading to a hardcoded system and setup a proper file system so that people could have multiple saves, and added a backup system too as right now the game is very unstable.

ah yes, thats me, a plate of spaghetti I then added some basic settings as well as a control menu - for now there's not any keyremapping yet so I'm just showing a hardcoded image of the controls, but it's still on my list to do before we launch the demo! I added the same menus back into the game when paused, and then tested everything a bunch for any jank.

cant wait for you to all hear what Moth's been cooking up for the music! With that done and a bunch of testing we now had all the "boring" stuff setup, but it also helped make it feel a lot more real, which was nice to see! [hr][/hr]

Check The Schematics

So one thing I've been doing on the side is slowly working away at all the "HD" drawings - there's 3 different books and they each have a bunch of intro chapters and then information chapters for specific machines/recipes/beasts. Each one has a different style, recipe book is more sketched, beast book is more runic/cave painting, and then engineer book is very technical drawing-esque.

There's 6 main intro chapters that cover the basics, and given each main machine chapter has the large isometric cutaway of the machine with the imps inside, I thought it'd be fun to carry on the isometric style for the chapter graphics!

I'm actually super happy with how they turned out, and a bit sad that they're only used in the chapter books tbh, I'll have to try and find a way I can use them somewhere else, like maybe in loading screens or something!

Anyway I won't spoil all of them, I just thought they were cute and wanted to show them off. [hr][/hr]

Baby's First Beast

So we playtested a bunch and one of the things we found was having just the one beast with 3 different recipes was a LOT, mainly because the first recipe is pretty complex.

i will draw that dish at some point I promise You have to set up harvesters + blenders to get your tomato sauce, and then a whole bunch of stuff to get pasta - void manipulators for eggs/bones, grind bones, mix eggs, extrude the dough and boil, then combine it all. The game already is chucking a lot at you when you start so for a first recipe it's pretty nuts. What we decided instead is that first you'll meet a different monster, who only has one recipe - a new one, for tomato soup. Once you meet the requirements for that one beast he'll introduce a second one who wants the other 3 meals.

a tomato soup mini factory Tomato soup only needs the tomato sauce and some basic spice mining, so compared to the first pasta dish its easily half the complexity - players already have to initially setup their fabricator/resource factories so reducing that initial step should help people get into the groove.

excellent placeholder beast ell By the time they've met the tomato soup order they should be pretty comfortable with how everything works and can focus on adding in pasta production to their existing factory rather than doing it all from scratch. Still needs a bit more testing but combined with an tutorial section at the start I think its much better paced now. [hr][/hr]

Inventory Upgrades

So as mentioned before we changed how tools work to remove durability because we didn't feel like it added anything. We also removed basic crafting, replacing it with fabricators. This meant however for all the tool items, you only had one, and while it couldn't break people will definitely lose it, so first up we added a little handy tool replace that gives you a tool if you've lost it!

little ghost imp... spooky Next up I added a trash bin slot, plus a hotkey to press "Delete" to send items to the trash bin - similar to APICO items build up pretty quickly and while you can toss stuff in oil you don't want to accidentally toss yourself into oil too!

both things APICO should have imho Finally we decided to add a "free hand" slot - the first slot of the inventory is always empty. While this permanently reduces the hotbar, the amount of stuff you ever need out at once isn't anywhere near the volume APICO has, and it's worth it to prevent yourself accidentally using the various tools. [hr][/hr]

Testing My Patience

There was a lot of tweaks and balance to various things - but no point me going into them as there's no real frame of reference. I guessed a bunch of numbers when I first added everything and it's only now we can see whole factories in action to see where the bottlenecks are.

some serious factories being built To get all three meals done (well 4 now), you need a whole bunch of "minifactories" setup, and have them all connect to each other - so it's a lot to create and manage, and a lot of work to make sure its all working let alone make sure it's rewarding to play!

I dont even know whats going on in this one It's nice to see the game finally at a point where all the core mechanics are robust enough that we can build these mad factories - I worry about scalability a bit but that's definitely a future problem for the time being! [hr][/hr] Pretty happy with what we got done this month! There's still the whole tutorial/intro section, a whole bunch of PFX + SFX, and a LOT of placeholder art to replace in the books, but in terms of the core gameplay I think we've nearly narrowed it down to something we like thats fun to play. Next month will be more testing, and I'll be trying to make a stab at the tutorial section to make sure we're onboarding players to the billion different moving parts we want to show off! ~ Ell [This post was released early for KoFi Supporters]

[ 2023-07-12 07:36:53 CET ] [ Original post ]

TNgineers News - JUNE2023

Hey friends! We're now halfway through the year, which is a scary thought given all the things I still want to get done in 2023... better get to it! [hr][/hr]

APICO releases on Xbox!

So after a very long time, APICO has finally released on Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S. This is the latest version of the game, and includes all the beeautiful butterfly content! We hope all the new beekeepers enjoy their stay at Port APICO <3 [hr][/hr]

Rift Breach at NextFest

Rift Breach got a bunch of new updates, and the demo was re-released for Steams Nextfest, which you can still try out! Unfortunately it didnt really gather any response or interest, so itll be going into cold storage for a bit while we work on the other games. [hr][/hr]

Mudborne Indie Cup Nominee

Mudborne got nominated for the Rising Star award in the 2023 UK Indie Cup! We didnt win in the end, but the fact that a little 1 week froggy demo managed to get a nomination is still amazing to see! [hr][/hr]

Hello Snacktorio

Feed The Beasts is now Snacktorio! We had to change the name for legal reasons and we asked the Factorio team as a joke, but they said yes. Its weird having to call it something different after 3 years but here we are - you can find us in all the same places just a different name and logo. [hr][/hr] So thats a wrap on June, bee safe and well see you next month! Love, Ell & Jamie

[ 2023-07-02 09:32:04 CET ] [ Original post ]

Feed The Beasts - May 2023 Devlog

Hey friends! Been a while since the last devlog, it's been through a lot of heavy playtesting internally with a lot of days spent just brainstorming ideas back and forth as we changed a few fundamental mechanics after realising they weren't fun at all - just mental. Let's get into it! [hr][/hr]

Mob Spawners

So first up, mob spawners are no more! At least, not in the same way they were originally planned. If you're sad about that please know you'll never be as sad as me about it and one day I'll scratch my mob farming itch another way! What we realised after actually having the spawners and mob traps in-game and a decent chunk of hours playing the demo is that it just... sucked

looked cool - frustrating as fuck I think ultimately the problem was that it sounded good on paper from my experience in Terraria + Minecraft, but just doesn't work in the loop of FTBS. Instead I pitched the idea of a "machine gone wrong" and we started to think about some options for that instead. We've always had it in our minds that towards the end-game of FTBS you'll start getting "void" powered machines - the black goo that Beasts form out of, and that mobs were spawning from, so we thought maybe this would be a good opportunity to introduce the idea that "void" can be used (and has been harnessed before, I'm sure with nothing bad happening).

an indie game with a black goopy void substance how original I thought it'd be fun to have a machine that produces ingredients out of the void, but because it's gone "wrong" it's instead animating those ingredients - forming the hostile mobs you find in the world.

red is bad, right? Thus started one of the longest ass days I've ever had designing a single menu - you can read the full thread on Twitter here if you're interested, but the end result is this bad boy:

connect all 3 power cores to keep the void stable! The idea being you solve a simple routing puzzle (that matches the routing you have to do in-game with pipes), to re-route the power and stop the machine animating the ingredients. Once fixed it then acts like any of the other machines, and so you can add them into your factories as you need. Having it be a void machine with a "recipe" also meant we could give players the flexibility to choose which ingredient they needed, rather than being stuck with whatever the world has initially. A drastic change, but I think it's for the best, and so far testing has definitely felt more positive than the first version. [hr][/hr]

Crafting

I don't think I ever posted it but for crafting we originally had a little workbench - simple enough, ingredients + click to craft the items you needed. However again, after playing we felt like it wasn't fun at all.

the original crafting interface straight outta APICO You constantly had to go back to get stuff that you'd forgotten, and a lot of the machine crafting was just exactly the same stuff for a similar iron box. We looked at all the recipes and took out all the non-essential ones, made tools have no durability and last forever, removed the machines (as we had another idea for making machines) - all that left us with was the utility items (scaffold, ladders, platforms), and the pipes + wires. What we decided to do instead was make a "Fabricator" machine, that would take in iron and some other basic ingredients and then you could set a recipe like other machines for output and leave it running to make wires / pipes (or even pipe those pipes to somewhere else!)

set and forget, and come back later for a big pile of pipes! This felt much nicer and more in-theme, why would you had craft pipes every few mins when you could have an machine extruding them all the time? We also started looking into a sort of "collection" utility that would let you make a machine output directly above itself - this would allow for easy collection as you walked past. I think click crafting has it's place in some games, and certainly wouldn't change it in say APICO, but I just don't think it worked for FTBS and it's a lot more freeing having removed it. [hr][/hr]

Routing & Quick Actions

Having moved pipes out into the Fabricator we also looked at how we could make placing pipes and setting routes more painless. As it stood we automatically set the input/output of machines for you if there was only one, but for any machines with both input + output slots we couldn't automatically know what you needed, so it still meant you'd have to open the machine's routing menu to set it.

original routing, open menu, click routing, then set directions What we decided to do instead was add a couple new options - first a smaller routing menu that could be accessed with "R". There were always going to be times you needed more modular control so I felt like it was worth keeping, but saving the player a couple clicks each time was a nicer way of doing it.

quick routing access to skip the menu We then changed it so that the wrench could be used on neighbouring pipes to quickly cycle input + output. Currently the wrench was only used for changing direction pipes, so made sense to keep it a "routing tool" and use right-click to toggle output/input without needing to open any menus.

much quicker + easier! We also had a problem with the direction pipes, as it was getting annoying to have to keep hammering existing pipes to place them down in the first place. We had also introduced the concept of "splitter" pipes, which evenly split incoming items across the directions specified, so it was a lot to manage. Given we'd just upgraded the wrench for input/output we thought why even bother with direction pipes? Why not just have it that when you wrench on any standard pipe it cycles through all the directions too? That way you'd never need to manage three different types of pipes, and just wrench to the one you needed.

i never wanna see a direction pipe item again This was already miles better than what we were having to do before, and made things super quick to setup or change. While we were changing pipes we also moved the fluid pipes to their own layer to allow them to cross over item pipes. Originally I'd just put them on the same layer as it was easier as they were both types of pipes, but what we found was that while routing liquid was easy to avoid other liquids getting tangled - adding in item pipes to that made it super hard sometimes to get things where you wanted without these huge loops around your factory.

a glimpse at the madness i have to look at Giving them their own layer solved that, and while you could still run into liquids not crossing being an issue it's more like those silly mobile games of "match the coloured wires without crossing", a small puzzle to overcome as you manage your factories, but not something just impossible to overcome. [hr][/hr]

Imps & Machines

Not content with our trail of destruction we were leaving, we looked at machines next. I'd already introduce the concept of the "imps" when designing the engineer handbook - I liked the idea of there being a smaller gobbo species that was inside the machines actually running them, and wanted to make that have more of an impact in the gameplay rather than just some nice flavour.

lil bois hard at work We'd also decided we'd have a different way of creating the machines you needed, as going back crafting them 1 by 1 as needed was annoying and we'd scrapped the crafting bench entirely. Instead I thought it'd be better to have a sort of "template" machine that could be turned into any other machine, that way you'd only need to build a bunch of template blocks and have them on hand - but even that felt unnecesarry to just craft a bunch of iron blocks.

playing with more imp designs What I decided instead is that if we brought in imps to the actual game itself, they could be used as a sort of currency - they could "build" the machine you needed and then would be working away inside of it until you dismantled the machine later. We could then scatter the imps around the world and make the player have to "save" them from little cages the Beasts have built. I spent some time making them follow the player and honestly it was so cute I knew it was the right choice.

they get sleepy when bored We thought a single "blueprint" item would be better, allowing you to place a machine anywhere from all the machines you've unlocked - each having a cost of a certain number of imps needed to run the machine.

the little imp counter i can't it's so cute Later we want to toy with different color imps who are specialised and dig into some silly things they can do while idling, but for now this was enough to show the concept and make placing machines much more painless. [hr][/hr]

Light It Up

I'd been flip-flopping on this one for a while. I definitely only originally did lighting because of Starbound/Terraria style games, but the more we played the more it seemed silly. We don't have mobs spawn in the dark, we're not trying to "hide" anything (as even with full lighting we didn't make blocks solid black on screen), and overall it wasn't adding anything to the game outside a nice glow on lava.

as a static image? vibes nice. to play? vibes not nice. We both kept just mining the backwall to give light because we couldn't see, but if we made the light "lighter" it might as well have not been there. What we settled on for now is to remove the lighting completely.

specsavers who It's much clearer to see your setups and where resources are, and for vibes we can easily add some special lighting glows to the lava if we need - but ultimately we think this is again a concept "copied" from other games because they all do it but in practice it wasn't bringing anything to the table. [hr][/hr]

Mass Mining

One final bigger change we did is to using a pickaxe or a hammer. When having to dig out bigger areas or dismantle sections of your factory it was a bit of a pain doing it block by block. What we decided is that we'd piggyback the "brush" mechanic that we had in creative mode, and let people use it when using a pickaxe to dig blocks/walls, or using a hammer to remove pipes.

slower but covers more area! This made it much quicker to clear out areas or retry some routing, and we felt like it wasn't exactly game breaking or stopping people have fun to have this utility so we've kept it in! [hr][/hr] So yeah as you can see, a lot changed in a relatively short span of time! I think it was only really something we could see once we had the prototype in front of us and could play the whole game loop in one go - up until this point it's been lots of separate mechanics but now we've been able to see the full picture and build the full factories needed to feed the first beast. Currently Jamie is in the process of moving house so still settling in, but there's a new build for him ready to break and to test how all these new changes feel before we start moving on to finalising the demo and then polishing the whole thing off! ~ Ell & Jamie Addendum: We're changing the name for FTBS! See this form for info and voting / suggestions <3 [This post was released early for Supporters]

[ 2023-06-09 12:06:14 CET ] [ Original post ]

Help Rename FTBS!

Hey Engineers! So today I had a lovely* conversation with the creator of the FTB modpack creator - turns out the idiom "Feed The Beast" was copyrighted by them in the UK in 2021 under "computer games". We need your name to come up with something! We've come up with some options here you can vote on - sorry they all suck ASS Voting Form Please add your suggestions to the thread below if you have some, we think we should do something short/punchy (like APICO, Mudborne) Go To Thread *it wasn't lovely lmao

[ 2023-06-09 11:23:34 CET ] [ Original post ]

TNgineers News - MAY2023

Hey friends! May has flown by, and it's an important anniversary month for both APICO and myself personally, marking the start of me making games 3 years ago. Here's whats been going on: [hr][/hr]

APICOs Birthday

May 20th was APICOs birthday! We had lots of deals and sales to celebrate - dont worry if you missed out though as we have an Itch.io one still to come! The hive doubled in size in just a week, so thank you to all the newbees that have joined us - we hope you enjoy <3 [hr][/hr]

Butterfly Design Winner

Voting has now ended for the Design A Butterfly competition, and the winner was @Hollibees Sunset Butterfly Everyone had such a difficult time deciding, thank you for all the artists for their wonderful entries! [hr][/hr]

APICO On Xbox

So its been confirmed APICO will be coming to Xbox soon, stay tuned next month for some date announcements! Xbox initial release will include the 2.0 butterfly update by default <3 [hr][/hr]

APICO 3.0 Beegins

The groundwork for 3.0, aka What Lies Beeneath has started, with a hefty devlog you can read over on Ko-Fi or Steam! No dates to announce yet but were still aiming for Q3/Q4 this year <3 [hr][/hr] So thats a wrap on May, bee safe and well see you next month! Love, Ell & Jamie

[ 2023-05-31 12:07:05 CET ] [ Original post ]

TNgineers News - APR2023

Hey friends! April has been and gone, finally bringing some sunshine and bumblebees to the garden! Here's what we've been up to: [hr][/hr]

2.0 Update For Consoles

In case you missed it, a release date for consoles for the 2.0 Butterfly Update has now been announced! I Cant Beelieve Its Not Butter(flies) will be fluttering over to Nintendo Switch & Playstation on May 11th - save the date! [hr][/hr]

Butterfly Competition

The Design A Butterfly competition has now ended! Thanks so much to everyone who took part. Well setup a post soon for voting to let you all decide your favourite that will be added into the 3.0 update! [hr][/hr]

Mudborne

Mudborne has now already reached over 1000 wishlists! Thanks so much to everyone whos checked out the demo - well absolutely be coming back to this one later in the year, and start planning a full game! <3 [hr][/hr]

Family Gaming DB

Were super happy to say that the Family Gaming DB gave APICO the family gaming award + recommendation for 2022 Weve spent a lot of time making sure APICO is enjoyable for all ages, so it means a lot to be given this! [hr][/hr] So thats a wrap on April, bee safe and well see you next month! Love,Ell & Jamie

[ 2023-05-01 09:09:17 CET ] [ Original post ]

Feed The Beasts Devlog - MAR2023

Hey friends! It's been a bit of a busy month, what with me deciding to create ANOTHER game (please help me I can't stop) - this time making Mudborne, a small APICO-like for #FletchFest, a 1 week creative jam hosted by FletchMakes! However that was only a week or so of the whole month, so I had plenty of time to dig into FTBS, and got some nice chunky things out the way in the process! Read the devlog over on Ko-Fi: https://ko-fi.com/Post/Feed-The-Beasts--March-2023-Devlog-O5O2JXEV6 ~ Ell

[ 2023-04-11 20:00:55 CET ] [ Original post ]

TNgineers News - MAR2023

Hey friends! March has flown by, and with it the weather has slowly turned from wet and rainy to... well still wet and rainy cos it's the UK baby!!!! Here's what's been going on [hr][/hr]

Mudborne

Another friend joins the gang! Ell took part in a week long game-jam, and the result was Mudborne, an APICO-like focused around frogs + mushrooms. You can read more about the development of the game over the 7 days, or just try the demo out for yourself on itch.io or Steam! [hr][/hr]

Beenus

Speaking of friends joining the gang, we have a new TNgineer! Some of you might recognise StarVenus/Beenus from Discord or /r/APICO, were delighted to announce shell be joining us as a social + community manager! Its getting a bit hectic managing 3 (now 4) games, so reinforcements were needed, and have arrived! [hr][/hr]

FTBS Steam Page!

Feed The Beasts finally has a steam page, so you can get those wishlists in and follow us for updates on the progress of the game! Were slowly edging towards a demo release, and cant wait to share it with you all! [hr][/hr]

Butterfly Competition!

Some of you may remember our Design A Bee competition back before the butterfly update - well were doing another one, and this time its for designing your own butterfly! The winning design will be added to the game, plus the designer will win a bunch of prizes too - check the announcement post for more info! [hr][/hr] So thats a wrap on March, bee safe and well see you next month! Love, Ell & Jamie (AND BEENUS) <3

[ 2023-03-30 12:21:32 CET ] [ Original post ]

Snacktorio

ellraiser Developer

TNgineers Publisher

1970-01-01 Release

Action Indie Strategy Casual RPG Adventure Simulation F2P Sports MMO Racing Singleplayer Multiplayer Coop EA Tags

Game News Posts: 26

🎹🖱️Keyboard + Mouse
🕹️ Partial Controller Support
🎮 Full Controller Support

No user reviews (0 reviews)

https://tngineers.com/snacktorio

Steam Store

Snacktorio is a factory-cooking simulator where you must satisfy the appetites of unspeakable horrors... with food! Build and manage sprawling networks of machines & pipes to mass produce delicious meals that can satiate the endless hunger of the beasts that are invading your home. Order Up!

As one of the remaining chefs in your tribe, the responsibility of maintaining the balance with the monsters through the tasty medium of food has fallen on your grubby lil hands. Can you turn the tide on the ever growing threat of invasion, while proving your status as a Witchelin Star chef?

Factory simulation in a 2D platforming setting
Explore and mine for ores, resources, and spices
Mass-produce food through automated cooking machines
Take & fufill orders from all sorts of insatiable hangry beasts
Build and manage networks of pipes to get ingredients where they need to be
Experience all the stress of managing a restaurant without any of the pay!

This game is being created by indie dev duo TNgineers, (Ell and their brother Jamie), inspired by their love of factory simulation games.

They wanted to make something satisfyingly complex without using the same tired sci-fi theme for the genre, and dive into how different recipes could be made in interesting ways when using an RPG-esque setting.

If you want to follow along with the project you can catch us on Twitter, or hit up the TNgineers Discord, links are in the sidebar.

MINIMAL SETUPOS: Ubuntu 20.04 LTS
Processor: Intel Core i5 (4th Gen)Memory: 4 GB RAM
Memory: 4 GB RAM
Graphics: Intel HD Integrated
Storage: 250 MB available space

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