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Craftomation Dev Diaries, Apr 2023: Robots Do Things to Each Other
Hey mates!
The spring is here, things are in bloom, and there’s no reason not to terraform some frozen planets into blooming as well!
We have finally introduced a couple of long-awaited features to Craftomation 101, and with a plan to add much more in the upcoming month. In short, the art part of the game got a bit ahead of the software part. And it’s good news: all those awesome sketches we showed last month are now pretty much ready and we’ll add them as soon as we finish working on some vital QoL features. But first…
Craftomates Become Matey-er
And that only makes sense: why should they be friends to only with the player, and not with each other? Don’t get us wrong: they were cooperating on many levels before, but from now on, they can interact with each other - if you instruct them to do so, that is!
From now on, you can make one Craftomate to pause another one, or launch them back online. You can also make one Craftomate pass food to one of their buddies. Useful gameplay tip: you can now create dedicated feeding robots, which will save you some work on assigning functions:
What’s even cooler, one Craftomate can now copy their Program, and store it someplace in the form of an external drive. And then pass it as a gift to another Craftomate, maybe:
Copy-pasting Programs between Craftomates might now be mostly a tool for automation maniacs but we will keep expanding this part of the game to make sure it becomes truly useful for everyone!
Now What: Fixing Stuff, Improving More Stuff
By the way, we also fixed one pretty naughty bug in the game-saving system: many people used to have their saved games corrupted for no logical reason. This should not occur as often now. However, this fix will become available in the public demo later (we’re expecting it by Monday, the 10th).
A friendly reminder: if you want to have an opportunity to try the new features/fixes and just see more Craftomation content, there’s always our Discord server for that:
We’re also now working on improving the tutorial, so those to wish to skip some parts of it could do exactly that.
Some changes will be introduced to the global pause mode: for now, you can only write code in it, but we want to experiment a bit and allow you to drag stuff (and even Craftomates) around, so you could create a perfect setup and then see it unravel!
Oh, and that new in-game wiki is also in the game now:
Up Next: Adding Organics, Brewing Beverages
Enough with the technical stuff though! The next updates are going to add a bunch of truly awesome new features. First, there’re Hot Springs that will provide additional points of warmth (when unfrozen by you) and generate a new type of terrain, perfect for growing organics. At first, there will be good old mushrooms, but later we’re going to add moss and who knows what else! This planet is coming to life.
But what’re we going to do with those lovely plants? Well, if you remember our roadmap, you might also remember that peculiar new feature codenamed ‘Programmable Brewery’. Wanna check out how it looks? Because we’re going to show it to you anyway
The exact mechanics of this glorious machine are still to be carried out in detail (and discussed with you, the players), but the rule of thumb is that it takes in some liquid and some organic material - and brews it into some very useful good for your robots. Craft-o-cheers, Craftomates!
Over 9000 Wishlists!
Just as we were finalizing this piece, the news came in that we’re just a couple of wishlists short from hitting our 10000 thresholds! That means Early Access for Craftomation is happening! But when? Well, we still have to sleep on this information, get our plans together, and - full speed ahead! In the meantime, here’s a friendly reminder:
If you want to see new updates for Craftomation ASAP, here's what you can do:
Add the game to your wishlist on Steam
Let us know about your favorite influencers on YouTube/Twitch/Other who are playing games like Craftomation 101
If you feel like it - maybe even write a comment to one of the aforementioned influencers to let them know Craftomation 101 is worth checking out
You can even scribe yourself into the game's credits: most of our games’ localizations are community-made, and we now have a spreadsheet for those who are willing to help us translate the game into their native language
Buy the supporter pack to gain access to exclusive WIP stuff and full-time access to the devs’ ears and minds
And of course, play the free demo on itch.io or Steam, leave us a comment, or come to Discord and discuss your experience with us
Next month is expected to bring a lot of exciting news and awesome gameplay features to the game! Stay with us, it’s gonna be legen… wait for it…