It's been a long time, how have you been? We, as the title suggests, have been rollin! If you want to read the extended version of these Diaries with more images, subscribe to out mailing list We've rolled out a whole new game to Early Access: Craftomation 101 had a very nice start, and you're very welcome to check it out, be it the free demo, or the full game. We've rolled out a demo for Learning Factory too! Got a friend who doesn't own the game yet? Let them know, they can now try it and, hopefully, fall in love with it. Because we have cats, automation, and machine learning, who could resist the temptation?! And we keep rolling out updates for the game every two weeks, of course. Since we were not in touch for the whole two months, lots of things happened.

Steam Workshop is (mostly) open for business!

We always develop our games with mods on our minds, and in-game ways to share your works - such as map keys and scenarios - have been there for years. But now you can conveniently upload the fruits of your creative genius to Steam Workshop - as well as access the works of other players.
It is still in beta, but already you can upload your factories, blueprints, map generation keys, researcher bios and ruins (decorations that appear on any map upon generation and selected randomly from the pool). If you need just a little push to start, some very simple and graphic instructions on making and uploading mods can be found here. Happy modding!

Meowengers: Endgame

Although we're still working on the New Game+ mechanics, the framework for setting Catopia Arks all over the Universe is already in the game. After you launch your first expedition to space, a whole new set of upgrades for the next Arks: you'll be able to equip them with Copycat Deck, Creative Assembling Machine, Battlestar Gun Deck, Interstellar Store, Dune Terraforming Deck, Warp Storage, and Negative Mass Effect Generator! Here's an old vs. new image, so you could appreciate how badass they are:

For the moment they don't do anything, except for being an eye candy. But come the next updates, unlocking these tech New Game+ mechanics will introduce you to the New Game+ mode, in which you won't have to start from scratch Follow the news, or even better, join our Discord, where you can get instantly notified when the new stuff is out, and discuss it with us in the same place. In that very same update, we introduced a huge list of QoL changes, as part of our ultimate pre-release polishing program. There are improved bits of tutorial, new stats, new contextual warnings, and new little features all over the game. Even Steam Deck, though officially not yet supported, got some attention! We won't list all the changes here, you might not even instantly notice them if you haven't played the game for a while, but they're certainly there to make your life better! Oh, but if you do want to see that list, it is to be found here.

Something old, something new

Even at this time of meticulous polishing, we are not stopping to add new content to the game. Sometimes ideas are coming from us, trying to add more depth to Learning Factory - quite literally at this time! Behold Lava Pump, that is capable of extracting precious metals straight from the molten core of Mars! In the video below you might also notice the newly added Underground Storage units, which might not seem like a big deal, but it doubles potential storage space by extending it under the surface of the red planet: [previewyoutube=d5sJUgEjqps;full][/previewyoutube] And sometimes, our players inspire us: we noticed that some players hardly ever use Trade Ports because they're located at remote parts of the map. It happens that players establish their own production of goods that Ports offer by the time they unlock one of them, thus rendering Trade Ports obsolete. So, we made a smaller version of them. Enter Trade Relays! They get unlocked significantly earlier and closer to the center of the map but have limited deals to offer. Naturally, all 5 Trade Guilds have their own relay design:

The remaining three are for you to discover in the game. We can't spoil everything, can we (though we would love to)? We're also experimenting with visual effects for the environment, to make a game look lively. It's just one of our early efforts, but what do you folks think? [previewyoutube=g7jur_O9Kpg;full][/previewyoutube] The older buildings are also getting updated looks. Remember Data Storage? Here it is now:
And this is its partner, Linear Regression:

Whats next?

The main highlight of the upcoming patch (scheduled for the upcoming week) is the option to migrate to another map shortly after finishing the tutorial. You will keep your research progress, and your buildings will be packed into your Inventory for your convenience. There will be more updates in the art department, and then New Game+ will be just around the corner! Stay tuned! Until we meet again.

[ 2024-03-24 08:16:25 CET ] [ Original post ]