Factory Magnate (tuxdb.com)

Devlog #3

Greetings, Magnates! Wow, is it February already? Let's see what's been going on with the game the past 2 weeks, shall we? As I mentioned in the previous devlog, I wanted to spend more time doing small quality of life things and "polish" to the factory building part of the game. And that is indeed what I have been doing, although this first one isn't exactly what I would call a "small" thing:

Day cycle and night mode

I wrote a little something about this over on the subreddit, so go read that if you wish. But the TL;DR is that I added night mode which then evolved into a proper day cycle. I want to emphasize one thing, and that is that even though you play in a made-up solar system with several inhabited planets that in theory should each have their own day cycle, it's just not feasible. There is a key concept of time in the game (e.g. "how many days do I have to complete this contract") and design-wise it could get really messy with multiple time scales. So for simplicity's sake time is always the same everywhere. Anyway, the day cycle serves a couple of purposes: [olist]

It's a way for you to keep track of time. You'll know that when dawn breaks, it's a new day. Without a day cycle, you can very easily lose track of time, and time is pretty important in this game.

It breaks up the monotony of always being bright as day. That may sound obvious, and it is. But still a very valid point :)

It provides an incentive to consider other energy sources than just solar power.. [/olist] That last point is mainly for myself. I need to work more on the energy aspect of the game. So there's a subject for a future devlog..

Lots of small details

Contextual mouse pointers, tooltips, double-click mass-selecting.. you know, why don't I just show you with a couple of gifs? You can read all the changes in the changelog at the bottom of this post.

New build category: decorational tiles

I played around with this idea the other night and decided to give it a go. I tweeted a gif, asking what people thought of the idea of decorating factory sites. I was unsure. The people were not! The feedback I got was very convincing and thus it's going to stay in the game and I will definitely be adding lots of various tiles to make your factories pretty. The two tiles in this demo below are just to test things, there will be much more!

I know I plug my twitter a lot, but this is a fine example of how you can influence the development of the game simply by interacting with me on twitter. So if you're interested in any of that stuff, make sure to follow me.

Full change list

Added eyedropper and drag-select mouse cursors
Enforced rules for when a unit can be built on top of another unit (or be built at all)
Drag-building and selecting conveyors will display a useful tooltip
Disabled generic tooltips on unit click because they were more annoying than useful
Fixed sorter UI staying in selection state after closing the UI
Fixed sometimes having to click twice on output slots in sorter UI
Contract detail UI will now reflect properly if the contract offer has expired since clicking on it
Added day cycle/night mode
Added helpful tooltip when dragging conveyors
Clicking a unit will visually indicate it has been selected
Clicking again on a selected unit (not conveyors) will select all units of the same type
Clicking again on a selected conveyor unit will select all connected conveyors (a segment of conveyors)
Pressing the DEL-key will delete all currently selected units
Added a search filter to the sorter UI
Added tooltip on item hover in various UI
Added UI to storage controller; it'll now show you what you have in storage
Added new build category for decorational tiles

Until next time! Fey at Rising Tail

[ 2021-02-06 09:36:48 CET ] [ Original post ]

Factory Magnate
Rising Tail

Developer

Rising Tail

Publisher

2022

Release

Strategy Singleplayer

Core Gameplay

Set in an unfamiliar solar system, Factory Magnate puts you in the shoes of an industrious factory engineer with a small loan of a million credits.

Your goal is to build an empire of factories spanning multiple planets and moons. You'll be extracting materials and setting up production lines to manufacture a wide range of products. You'll sell the products to the locals or transport them off-world to sell to the highest bidder.

As you pursuit your dream of becoming a Factory Magnate you will:

Make landfall on planets and moons and set up factory sites.
Build factories to best utilize the resources available.
Enter into short and long term contracts, committing to deliver a steady supply of products.
Build relations with the inhabitants of the solar system, affecting trade prices and opportunities.
Navigate the Interplanetary Central Market, looking for the best trades.
Compete against AI companies.
Hire scientists and product specialists for your Research & Development department, allowing you to unlock factory unit upgrades and new product lines.

Your ultimate goal is to beat the competition and be named Preferred Supplier in all market sectors by the Interplanetary Consumer Board, thus earning the distinguished title of Factory Magnate!

Development Status

The game has been in development since July 2020 and is progressing every week. However, there is still a good way to go. If you want to show your support, please consider wishlisting and following. Note: SCREENSHOTS are not final! This page will be updated regularly with new info and screenshots.

Mod Support

Much of the core content of the game will be moddable. Modders will be able to change graphical assets (images, animations), add entirely new items and units, tweak existing core content and more.

Features that are DONE

A procedurally generated solar system. Each playthrough will create a unique solar system, offering good longevity and replayability.
Procedurally generated factory sites, in which you'll be building your factories.
3 starting resources (ores).
A starting range of factory units - a lot more to come..

Features under development

Fully simulated trade and economy system.
Multiple market sectors each with their own range of products.
Company AI.
Relationship system that enables all entities in the game to have a rating or standing with eachother.
Tech tree with unlockable branches of factory unit upgrades as well as entire production lines.
Various difficulty modes and starting conditions.
More natural resources, aiming for around 10-12 of them with different uses and characteristics.
A lot more factory units! Counting a lot on community feedback and ideas here.
Tileset variations. Intuitive UI components. Factory animations. And much more.

MINIMAL SETUPOS: Ubuntu 12 or newer
Processor: 2.0 ghz Dual CoreMemory: 2 GB RAM
Memory: 2 GB RAM
Graphics: Intel HD3000 or higher with OpenGL 2.1 support
Storage: 200 MB available space

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