Status Report: Tile Maps + Freeplay Mode + Drill-Riding Cat (Maybe)

Ahoy, engineers!

As you have probably guessed by the picture, the next content update of Learning Factory is not ready yet.

It's not because we're lazy (we've got cats to be lazy for us), but because that update is probably gonna be massive.

You see, we were planning to make tile generated maps. But then we thought: what's the point of making procedurally generated maps without Freeplay Mode?

So, now we're making that Freeplay Mode, too.

As for the maps, here's how they look in the current version (any Dwarf Fortress fans here?):



That's because our artist is still working on procedurally generated landscape art. It's not in the game yet, but it looks mesmerizing already:







In case you'd like to go into technical details, those landscapes are generated with Blender's geometry nodes feature. Here's how the algorithm looks (any while True: learn() fans here?):



So as you can see, we've been busy! Unfortunately, we still can't put a release date on that very peculiar update. Fingers crossed, we're expecting it to come out in 2-3 weeks. We'll keep you posted!

In other news: a working chat joke has gone too far and generated this image of a Drill-Riding Cat. Please don't ask us how did we come to this. That was not supposed to have happened. Nobody asked our artist to draw it, but he did anyway:



We don't have plans for implementing this beautiful creature into the game just yet, but if you insist, you're very welcome to go to our Discord sever and upvote it into existence!

That's it for today! Follow the updates, greatness awaits! Glory to science! Glory to KOTOVOD!


[h2]How to Get More Involved[/h2]

Going to Early Access is but the first step to glory (and eternal cat happiness). Wanna be part of what happens next? Head to this blog post and learn how to help make the game even more awesome!

[h2]Share Your Gameplay and Become Part of KOTOVOD History[/h2]
Learning Factory needs your help! Record a 10 or more minutes of you playing the game, share a video using any way you see fit, write your name into Learning Factory credits and get a promo cat! Make history here