Learning Factory Dev Diaries, December 2022: Happy New Year!
Hey everyone, sorry we’re late with this edition of our Dev Diaries. You know how people tend to run around like crazy during the last days before the Holidays, buying last minute gifts for their significant ones? Well, that’s pretty much what we were up to, and our significant ones are you, the players! We’ve pushed some cool ideas we had for Learning Factory real hard, so you could sit back and enjoy your factory building on a whole new level! Hope you liked it, and if you haven’t had time to check it out just yet, here’s a brief overview of what has changed.
More Tasty Tasting Buildings
You may remember our concept of making Learning Factory as a tycoon for pleasing cats, which had been omitted on the early stages of development, but emerged back in the form of tasting buildings for cat goods? Well, now there’s another couple of those in the game. They work pretty much the same way: cats have a chance of going in, having some fun time and then adding respective item to their shopping list. Combined with the Scratch-Testing Booth and a handful of Boutiques, they allow you to create separate cluster for cat entertainment and impulse purchases, warming up your catstomers before they go for real shopping bonanza:
Blueprints: It’s All About Planning
Designing a perfect factory requires a lot of planning skills. And best kind of planning is planning ahead! Blueprints were on our minds for a very long time, and now they’re here! Simply press ‘B’ to enter respective mode, and you’ll be able to place a ‘ghost’ of any building that you have researched in the Monument. Whenever you’re ready, craft those buildings, then press Ctrl+click on a blueprint, and watch the magic! Note that it’s not the final iteration of this mode, we’ll extend its functions eventually. But even in their current state blueprints are surprisingly satisfying, so don’t hesitate to give them a shot:
Going Deeper Underground
Subsurface layer of Mars is one of the things we personally love about Learning Factory. At first, it served simply for logistic optimization. Then we have added more challenge by introducing lava. Then, we’ve added another option for avoiding lava, by throwing in Underground Zeppelins. And now things have become even more interesting, as metal deposits started appearing under the surface of Mars. Not only they’re cool per se, they provide higher quality metals, too:
And just as if it wasn’t enough, we have added Water Tunnel upgrade for regular Tunnels, so that you could place your Transporters right atop of the floating platforms on the underground rivers. And Dynamite! Dynamite now works underground as well.
Good Looking Goods
Sergei the artist is just the best, but he’s the only artist working on the game. That said, he’s almost always buried under so many tasks, and his job is far from done. But he’s still nailing it! For example, when we introduced higher quality items, we thought that it’s so boring that they look exactly the same as regular one, except for those little star icons in the corner. Slowly, but steadily, we’re turning the situation around. Wood, Boxes, Fish, and Apple Boxes now look better then ever before! A good reason to zoom in on your factory once in a while:
Up Next: More Graphics, More Features, More Everything:
2023 is a pretty important year for us, as Learning Factory is preparing for full release. We’re now having lots of in-depth discussions, laying out detailed plan of how the game will look when it’s finally out of Early Access. And don’t you worry about Sergei: he’s had a good rest during the Holidays and is now bursting with energy! Check out the latest sketch of something he’s working on right now:
2022: Hard Year For Hard Working
While preparing this feature, we’ve looked back to review all the things we’ve done with Learning Factory during that bumpy ride called ‘ The Year 2022’. To be quite honest, we were shocked how the game has changed! Going into details would require another feature article that could easily take hours to read. So here’s but a quick review of all the amazing stuff that was not yet in the game a year ago:
New main character art and customization
Hot and cold biomes
Unlockable territories
New terrain visuals along with reimagined art style
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Not that we plan to stop in 2023! Polishing in every possible way is our main priority. Lots of new content will emerge. Just check out the latest version of our roadmap:
Thank you for being with us! Have an awesome year ❤️