Learning Factory News

Good news: we're considering the game almost finished in terms of mechanics. There's a lot of polishing ahead, but it's safe to say that the main pieces of the puzzle are in place.

Even better news: there's still lots of new content to be expected. You're probably already noticing the new visuals and the new sounds, but this update adds two new buildings on top of it!

And more:

[h2]v0.20.133 Released[/h2]

[h3]Gameplay[/h3]

• New building: Chillout Space allows the cats to take a break from standing in line, increasing their loyalty and providing them a chance to invite a friend of the same cat type to your Factory
  
• New building: Schrodinger's Chamber clones any cat that decides to enter it. A cloned cat will have the same type, parameters and shopping preferences (suggested by mraukotek)
  
• Added a recipe for crafting High Quality (++) Milk in the Brew Intensifier
  
• Added a recipe for crafting Quality (+) Graphic Cards in the Graphic Card Assembler
  
• Added a recipe for crafting Quality (+) Laser Pointers in the Laser Pointer Maker
  
• Added a recipe for crafting Quality (+) Microchips in the Microchip Maker
  
• Increased (up to 2x in certain cases) profitability of deals in the Trade Ports
  
• New deals in the Trade Ports
  
• 2 new achievements
  

[h3]Graphics & Sound[/h3]

• New art for Catnip Juice and Milk
  
• Updated visuals for Catnip Algae
  
• Updated grass visuals (partial)
  
• More sounds!
  

[h3]QoL & Interface[/h3]

• Added a search field in crafting and inventory windows
  
• Added a search field for the Blueprint Library
  
• Added search for upgrades on the Research Tree
  
• Added a search field in the Trade Guilds window in the Monument
  
• Added a search field in the Statistics tab in the Monument
  
• On first launch, the game will prioritize language settings from Steam over system language settings
  
• Optimization of saving/loading and starting a new game
  
• A big iteration of UI/UX optimization
  
• Improved parsing of characters in Japanese
  
• Improved tutorial
  
• Improved hints system
  
• Bug fixes
  

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1150090/Learning_Factory

Do you like what you see? Come share your thoughts on our Discord server!

And don't forget to follow Learning Factory on Steam to get the news about new updates as soon as they're out there



[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

[h3]First things first: Learning Factory is on sale until May 1! Get your copy of the game, 34% off![/h3]

As promised in the latest edition of our developer diaries, this update brings a lot of changes in the visuals for many items on your Factories. Because most of the items now vary in quality and marking them with mere silver or gold stars would be plain boring, wouldn't it?

So now you can clearly distinguish those top-notch cat goods from boring regular ones. We hope that it will add some motivation for you to optimize your production and ensure your catstomers get only the best-looking items!

Naturally, that's not the only change. Check out the other awesome stuff in this awesome new version of the game:

[h2]v0.20.131 Released[/h2]

[h3]Visuals & Sound[/h3]

• New art for Iron, Copper, Gold, Gems, Catnip Algae & Cotton
  
• New art for underground water and, partly, surface water
  
• More phrases for legendary cats
  
• Added many new sounds for items
  

[h3]Gameplay[/h3]

• Shelves capacity upgrade removed for Smart Cat Stores; instead, added another upgrade increasing the number of slots for items in Smart Cat Stores (up to 14). Default shelves capacity increased to 50 items per slot
  
• Shelves capacity for Specialized Cat Stores increased from 50 to 100 items; researching Specialized Cat Stores is not anymore mandatory
  
• Terraforming now allows replacing tiles of appropriate type under plants without removing them
  
• CPU Trade Guild now allows exchanging goods for Cat Knowledge Archives in Tier 5
  
• All Splitters and Tunnels can now be placed on Rafts
  
• Increased profitability of deals in Trade Ports when exchanging goods for Cat Knowledge
  
• New upgrade: increased cargo hold for Zeppelins
  
• Slightly improved hills generation
  

[h3]QoL & Interface[/h3]

• Pressing Ctrl+Click on a research adds the project to research queue
  
• Pressing Ctrl+Click on a building on the pannel in the bottom of the screen results in crafting another building of the same type
  
• Symbols limit for naming Docks and Zeppelin Routes increased
  
• Added a search field for the Research Tree
  

[h3]Fixes[/h3]

• Bug fixes, especially for airships
  
• UI/UX optimization, especially for Zeppelin routes handling
  

Check out a bunch of examples of how the item visuals has changed! Keep in mind that there's more new art in the game (discover it by yourself!):

[h3]Cotton[/h3]




[h3]Iron[/h3]




[h3]Copper[/h3]




[h3]Gold & Gems[/h3]




[h3]Catnip Algae[/h3]




https://store.steampowered.com/app/1150090/Learning_Factory

Do you like what you see? Come share your thoughts on our Discord server!

And don't forget to follow Learning Factory on Steam to get the news about new updates as soon as they're out there



[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

If you didn't know that already, Learning Factory is being developed by a team of just four people. Back in 2020, when we started drafting the game, none of us would expect it to become as big! All we wanted was to make a tycoon game about a cat store… And here we are, with a giant map of 3 biomes and an underground level, Trade Ports, Cat Guilds, the I.L.L.U.M.I.N.A.T.I., and now - cat blimps! Among other things.

And we're far from done. Let's try and sort out all the good stuff that appeared in the game in the past month.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1150090/Learning_Factory/

[h3]When Cats Fly[/h3]

Cat Zeppelins have been in the game for some time now, helping you transfer your goods to the harder-to-reach parts of your Factory campus. One thing they could not carry was… well, cats. However, our very curious players have tried to fit their furry catstomers into Zeppelins. Some of them even succeeded, naturally resulting in the game crashing. That's when we decided that passenger airships are a good idea. Enter Cat Blimps!





One of our Discord community members, Jiiniasu, has contributed as well with a sketch of their own:



It took some time and effort from Sergei the artist to come up with something mad enough while prototyping the design of these mighty airships. The earliest versions looked somewhat like a flying beaver:



It became more cat-like after a couple of iterations:



…then we've just added some cats, and:



The Blimps are designed with all your cat's desires in mind: the insight of the gondola is shaped as a cardboard box, with scratch-resistant walls and catnip-flavored shakes served on board! We'd remind the pawssengers to fasten their seat belts, but, knowing the nature of cats, we don't expect them to comply.

Blimp stations (or, as we call them, Pawssenger Docks) also took some time to contemplate:



Sergei found inspiration in a special book dedicated to the bus stop design of the Soviet Union - apparently, they were very diverse, often astonishingly beautiful! Anyway, here's the final version, with cats and whatnot:



Take your cats for a ride in the sky!

[h3]Endless Research for Filthy-Rich Engineers[/h3]

This next feature might not look as spectacular, but boy, is it useful! Since Learning Factory is a stress-free game, the players who made it to the late stages of the game often find themselves with ridiculous amounts of in-game currency on their deposits.

However, even with all the technologies unlocked, the potential for optimization of one's Factory is endless. That said, you are now allowed to invest your profits and acquire very useful perks for your Factory and your character, so you could optimize more, earn even more money, get better perks, and optimize again, times infinity:



The aforementioned perks include a speed increase for the character and/or Zeppelins, a research speed boost, an overall profits increase, boosted growth of plants, a chance to create two buildings instead of one while crafting… and much more! They're as powerful as they are expensive, so if you happen to be a minmaxer kind of a player, those research projects will keep you busy for dozens of hours. No need to thank us!

[h3]Another Round Underground[/h3]

When we introduced the underground level of Mars in Learning Factory, it was a rather boring, lifeless place that was only good for facilitating de-spaghettifying the logistics. Here's a brief list of features that we have added since: underground oceans, lava & lava Rafts, underground Zeppelins, underground Metal sources, Lava Furnaces, and now - fishing.



Yes, really. But it's not just that: upon upgrading your Multitool you will not only be able to catch fish in the dark subsurface waters, but you'll also be able to fish for metals in lava! And if you need more space or more confidence - you can now pour concrete on lava, thus making it traversable!

With all that, it makes the Underground of Mars a pretty fun place to hang out! But we still have a couple of things to be added up our sleeves. Just you wait! In the meantime…

[h3]The Big Redesign [/h3]

If you are following these diaries regularly, you might already know that one of the most important tasks on our table is to make Learning Factory prettier than ever for when it goes to full release this year. We've done that before, too: the game has changed more than once, including the big rehaul of the visual style last August.

The work on this aspect of the game continues! In the next update, we're planning to change the looks of certain items. As it already happened with Yarn Balls and many more items, Copper will look different depending on the quality of items you produce. Here's a work-in-progress teaser:



A new Gold design is on the way, too:



New Iron, Cotton, and Gems are also to be expected! This upcoming update (scheduled for release on April 25) is going to be pretty! Oh, and we've also re-rendered the good ol’ Cotton Collector, it's already in the game:



Bear with us! With each passing month, Learning Factory is becoming a more beautiful, deep, and wholesome game. See you in the next edition of our Dev Diaries!

What fish lives in the underground waters of Mars? You'll gonna find out in this week's update! Spoiler alert: it's regular (though quality) fish, but also - metals!

Seriously, have we gone too far with making this game too absurd? Maybe. But we're not going to stop until the very release... and more after that.

Anyway, enjoy the update!

[h2]v0.20.130 Released[/h2]

[h3]Gameplay[/h3]

• Added a possibility to catch Fish from the waters underground (the real deal, see the picture below!)
  
• Added a possibility to catch Metals from the lava
  
• Multitool upgrade allows catching Quality Fish in the Underground waters, along with the waters of Acrtic and Tropical biomes, also works for lava fishing
  
• New terraforming research: Concrete Flooring allows you to be poured over Lava and the Underground waters, making them traversable. It also allows to place watery tiles on the Underground level!
  
• Harvesting or destroying plants now has a small chance to give sprout
  
• Growth Hormones infinite research now also increases sprout harvesting chance
  
• Transporter Assembler upgrade buff: additional limit increased from 50 to 250
  

[h3]Visuals[/h3]

• Cotton Collector re-rendered
  
• Aroma Machine animated
  
• Teleportation effect when switching map layers
  

[h3]Other[/h3]

• Twitch integration update
  
• Tutorial update
  
• UI/UX fixes
  
• Bug fixes
  

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1150090/Learning_Factory

And don't forget to follow Learning Factory on Steam to get the news about new updates as soon as they're out there



[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

Hey friends!

Here's another hotfix that will make the game less buggy and more nice for you.

Enjoy it, and please don't hesitate to share feedback with us!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1150090/Learning_Factory

And don't forget to follow Learning Factory on Steam to get the news about new updates as soon as they're out there



[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