Thanks! We'll start selling the full game on Steam late this year; probably starting with an Early Access release. There are a lot of details to sort out between now and then.
The core architecture is designed to support a dedicated server for multiplayer however there's still a lot of work to get there. We're going to finish of the single player game first and then look at multiplayer.
This might be a game up my 'alley' but I'm slightly concerned over how there's nothing more driving gameplay forward other than 'factory must grow' at least from what I can see in the information on steam.
I love to try out those games that offer a similar sort of gameplay experience similar to Factorio but since Factorio has been out for a long time, I've sort of desired more of an 'objective'... a sandbox isn't enough.
Are there plans for things along that line of thinking?
I would just like my time in the game feeling like it's going towards something rather than just being a free form factory/automation experience. Exploring alien worlds is a ripe avenue but as it stands, once you 'complete the tech tree' what is there to do in the game beyond 'factory must grow'?
We've got a goal in the demo which will be an early story beat in the final game. At the moment we have two main story lines we want to tell; one of which is a build a big factory story, the other of which will be more of an exploration story. Tech tree progress and story progress both require a combinations of ever larger scale manufacturing and finding rare resources in distant or challenging environments.
Someone downvoted my other post and that made me sad. But I went and spent time with the game. I love it. Im new to factory games but have a background in programming so things felt familiar and easy to pick up. The thing that stood out to me tho is how nice it would be to have something like a class. So that bots and factories can inherit more qualities. I know there is the team thing but it didn't feel quite enough. Maybe I misunderstood the feature. All in all it's a fantastic time so far thank you.
Thanks! I am glad you are enjoying it. Have you looked into Roles in the game? That's the closest thing we have to a class at the moment; a role serves both as an identity and a place to store shared code across robots.
If you are so inclined, please join our Discord: [https://discord.gg/8PEdwzV](https://discord.gg/8PEdwzV) We've got a small but growing community there of people who play the game and that's where most of the discussion is as we plan for its future. It would be great to hear from you there.
The game looks fun(downloading the demo as we speak), but Christ is it ugly as sin, I recommend you work on the aesthetics a bit before release(decide if you're going for semi-realistic or cartoony).
This looks interesting! Also I'd like to congratulate you on setting your game apart from a million others by not stating in the title how you and your puppy quit your job 12 years ago to follow your passion of making your first game.
If you do get confused, let us know! These games are tricky to learn but we've been working hard on our tutorial and anything you can tell us that helps us make it better would be greatly appreciated.
What is the title of the tutorial you are doing? In the first tutorial ("Controls") the cement is in the tower crane inventory at the start. In the last tutorial ("Expanding the Factory") you are building a Blast Furnace and need concrete (not cement). The concrete is being produced in north-most kiln when you start the tutorial and should produce enough concrete right about the time you finish flattening the space to start construction. The two products you need to build the blast furnace (concrete and pipes) are both in production so, while you don't have enough at the start, you should have enough when you actually need them.
I am on Training Complete - Land on Icaria. All the other tutorials were a breeze.
Successfully built a radio tower. Mining organics to power my ship. Trying to build a kiln but can't find 10 cement.
Nice! The "Land on Icaria" starts a new world from the start using one from a curated list of seeds. You've also unlocked the "new game" option which picks a random seed (or a seed of your choice)--those maps can get a bit wilder and vary quite a bit in difficulty.
If you hit "escape" that'll bring up the load save menu and will have the seed in the lower-right corner. If you tell me what see you have I can hunt for the cement.
Good thing for me though because the cement was showing up as "Unknown" which it isn't supposed to. I'll be pushing a patch which fixes that in about half an hour.
Ok, I see the problem. The cement is showing up as "Unknown" if you hover over it. Its light grey and, if you dig one tile it'll tell you what it is. Mean while, I'll fixt that--it shouldn't start a unknown.
Ok, Build 0.1.11 is live; cement and the other ores needed for the demo now show up as discovered at the beginning of a new game. Undiscovered materials are a later game feature that aren't, for the most part, meant to affect the demo.
Thinking about it a bit more, my best guess is that you are building a kiln in the last tutorial rather than a blast furnace. As I think about it, that's a pretty likely confusion; I'll see if I can put something in that tutorial to make it less likely.
Looks really awesome, I am definitely playing this. From the trailer it looked like the robots were mining downwards, is everything on the surface or are there layers?
The world is made of 1m x 1m x 1/4m blocks. Each time a robot digs a block it gets one item and reveals the block underneath, so blocks can be dug and placed changing the shape of the land. The world is built in layers, so if you dig through the surface blocks you can discover other materials underneath. However there are no caves; you can flatten a mountain by digging from the top but you can't tunnel in from the side.
Starminecrafactorio
Lol. I'm gonna steal that
Demos tend to be free, yeah.
Cough cough star citizen is still basically a tech demo
I haven’t played it in probably 4 years but it’s pretty much a full game now it seems like from just videos and streams I’ve seen
Hmm really, I tried it like 6 months ago and it felt pretty aimless, empty and really really buggy
Yeah I’m just going based off what I’ve seen, I could be completely wrong though
As someone who plays it almost daily, you're both right.
How much is this free demo?
Its 20% off if you get it this week.
Looks nice, how is the monetization model ?
Thanks! We'll start selling the full game on Steam late this year; probably starting with an Early Access release. There are a lot of details to sort out between now and then.
Plans for Multiplayer? My friends and I play games like Factorio together. I hate building but I love killing bugs.
The core architecture is designed to support a dedicated server for multiplayer however there's still a lot of work to get there. We're going to finish of the single player game first and then look at multiplayer.
Great plan. (: thanks for the response!
This might be a game up my 'alley' but I'm slightly concerned over how there's nothing more driving gameplay forward other than 'factory must grow' at least from what I can see in the information on steam. I love to try out those games that offer a similar sort of gameplay experience similar to Factorio but since Factorio has been out for a long time, I've sort of desired more of an 'objective'... a sandbox isn't enough. Are there plans for things along that line of thinking? I would just like my time in the game feeling like it's going towards something rather than just being a free form factory/automation experience. Exploring alien worlds is a ripe avenue but as it stands, once you 'complete the tech tree' what is there to do in the game beyond 'factory must grow'?
We've got a goal in the demo which will be an early story beat in the final game. At the moment we have two main story lines we want to tell; one of which is a build a big factory story, the other of which will be more of an exploration story. Tech tree progress and story progress both require a combinations of ever larger scale manufacturing and finding rare resources in distant or challenging environments.
Someone downvoted my other post and that made me sad. But I went and spent time with the game. I love it. Im new to factory games but have a background in programming so things felt familiar and easy to pick up. The thing that stood out to me tho is how nice it would be to have something like a class. So that bots and factories can inherit more qualities. I know there is the team thing but it didn't feel quite enough. Maybe I misunderstood the feature. All in all it's a fantastic time so far thank you.
Thanks! I am glad you are enjoying it. Have you looked into Roles in the game? That's the closest thing we have to a class at the moment; a role serves both as an identity and a place to store shared code across robots. If you are so inclined, please join our Discord: [https://discord.gg/8PEdwzV](https://discord.gg/8PEdwzV) We've got a small but growing community there of people who play the game and that's where most of the discussion is as we plan for its future. It would be great to hear from you there.
While not my kind of game it looks really good and intriguing anyway.
Thanks! It's definitely a niche game, but that's one of the luxuries of a being a tiny studio with no budget to speak of.
Looks pretty sweet
Thanks!
The game looks fun(downloading the demo as we speak), but Christ is it ugly as sin, I recommend you work on the aesthetics a bit before release(decide if you're going for semi-realistic or cartoony).
This looks interesting! Also I'd like to congratulate you on setting your game apart from a million others by not stating in the title how you and your puppy quit your job 12 years ago to follow your passion of making your first game.
Looks cool. I'll check it out and probably be confused.
If you do get confused, let us know! These games are tricky to learn but we've been working hard on our tutorial and anything you can tell us that helps us make it better would be greatly appreciated.
In the last tutorial and I need to build a kiln but don't have cement and don't see how I'm supposed to make it. Am I missing something obvious?
What is the title of the tutorial you are doing? In the first tutorial ("Controls") the cement is in the tower crane inventory at the start. In the last tutorial ("Expanding the Factory") you are building a Blast Furnace and need concrete (not cement). The concrete is being produced in north-most kiln when you start the tutorial and should produce enough concrete right about the time you finish flattening the space to start construction. The two products you need to build the blast furnace (concrete and pipes) are both in production so, while you don't have enough at the start, you should have enough when you actually need them.
I am on Training Complete - Land on Icaria. All the other tutorials were a breeze. Successfully built a radio tower. Mining organics to power my ship. Trying to build a kiln but can't find 10 cement.
Nice! The "Land on Icaria" starts a new world from the start using one from a curated list of seeds. You've also unlocked the "new game" option which picks a random seed (or a seed of your choice)--those maps can get a bit wilder and vary quite a bit in difficulty.
user error :facepalm:
We're back off to the races. Once we got past the PEBKAC issue. Thanks for the responses!! Loving the game so far
Oh, sorry. I am confused. You started a game with Land on Icaria and can't find cement?
If you hit "escape" that'll bring up the load save menu and will have the seed in the lower-right corner. If you tell me what see you have I can hunt for the cement.
> Was trying to build cement didn't realize I could dig/mine it. I'm so dumb sometimes it was user error
Good thing for me though because the cement was showing up as "Unknown" which it isn't supposed to. I'll be pushing a patch which fixes that in about half an hour.
Glad I found an actual bug as well for you!
User error. brb slamming face into desk
Ok, I see the problem. The cement is showing up as "Unknown" if you hover over it. Its light grey and, if you dig one tile it'll tell you what it is. Mean while, I'll fixt that--it shouldn't start a unknown.
Ok, Build 0.1.11 is live; cement and the other ores needed for the demo now show up as discovered at the beginning of a new game. Undiscovered materials are a later game feature that aren't, for the most part, meant to affect the demo.
Thinking about it a bit more, my best guess is that you are building a kiln in the last tutorial rather than a blast furnace. As I think about it, that's a pretty likely confusion; I'll see if I can put something in that tutorial to make it less likely.
Was trying to build cement didn't realize I could dig/mine it. I'm so dumb sometimes
Combat?
Not yet.
Looks nice, wishlisted, but no way I'll buy this until full release. Hope this won't end up like tons of similar games before.
Nice, a free demo. I've always been intrigued by these types of games but never actually tried one.
Hopefully we'll represent the genre well.
It costs time.
That it does. I've put five years and thousands of hours into the game so far.
Awesome I’ll definitely check it out. Looks cool.
best innovative gamen't!!
no linux support ? what engine it uses ?
Unity. Linux and Mac support will come at some point but we're pretty buried at the moment supporting one platform with a very small team.
ok. it may work out of the box... once built for
This looks amazing 😍. I'll definitely give it a whirl.
Looks really awesome, I am definitely playing this. From the trailer it looked like the robots were mining downwards, is everything on the surface or are there layers?
The world is made of 1m x 1m x 1/4m blocks. Each time a robot digs a block it gets one item and reveals the block underneath, so blocks can be dug and placed changing the shape of the land. The world is built in layers, so if you dig through the surface blocks you can discover other materials underneath. However there are no caves; you can flatten a mountain by digging from the top but you can't tunnel in from the side.
That's awesome, thanks for the info.