Developer Diaries, May 2022: Early Access Stage 2 Complete, Trade Ports Open
There is a well known trend that summer is generally a quiet time for the gaming industry. Well, it's definitely not our case! For us, it's time for big changes and even bigger plans for the future. That said, here's a summary of what's been happening to Learning Factory in May and what are we up to in June (and beyond!)
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[h3]Early Access: Stage 2 Complete![/h3]
That's right! We're now halfway to release, hooray to us! That final update that crossed the symbolic line introduced new story comics and a new type of Splitter called X-Switch, that could either become your Factory's Holy Grail or ruin your logistics beyond repair (depending on your style of play)
Another new feature introduced in May is for graph lovers out there! We've added more graphs for you to watch, so now you can find out exactly how many items of any type your Factory is producing at a given moment, and how many of those are used for crafting:
We've also added a couple of new legendary cats on the way and there was no reason not to make a picture of them (since they're kinda hard to be spotted at your Factory):
Our roadmap now looks as shown below. More green rectangles and lights!
[h3]Coming Soon (Really Soon!): Trade Ports[/h3]
It all came to us very naturally: we've been discussing a possibility to add alternative gameplay and trading resources for several months. Then we've added unlockable territories on the map, which brought us to thinking on how we could make them more interesting for the players. Finally, we wanted to add some lore to the game.
This is how Trade Ports were contemplated:
Long story short, those are special buildings on the edges of the map that allow you to trade some resources for other resources. Short story long: there are five cat Trade Guilds, each specializing on their favorite category of goods (Tech, Food, Luxury, Materials and Essentials). Each Guild has its own leader and a mission on Mars:
While the player is making deals with a Guild, their mutual respect grows, allowing to proceed to the next trading tier, which opens more business opportunities. Some guilds can even provide you scientific knowledge and make Legendary cats appear on your Factory.
Now, the Ports might not be present in the game while you're reading this (we're still testing some stuff to make sure it all works fine), but they are confirmed to appear in the game on June 16! Also, the unlockable territories are now available in campaign mode as well.
There are oodles of other changes, big and minor. Here's a list of the juiciest of them:
- Part of control keys can now be reassigned in settings menu (requested for so many times!)
- New menu themes
- New customization items (there's now a gold chain for your character's pet cat!)
- 8 new wallpapers in Art Pack DLC
- More Ruin types
[h3]Up Next: More Awesomeness![/h3]
Remember how we told you that summer is, literally and metaphorically, a hot time for our humble studio? Well, we aren't going to spoil you the fun, but our team has been quite busy throughout the past couple of weeks, especially our coder Ivan and our artist Sergei. The result of their work will be featured in one of the next updates, but here's a sneak peek:
We'll talk about that - and much more! - in a month. Or you can join our Discord server and watch our weekly live streams, where we chat with community and discuss the latest news regarding our games.
Have a nice June! Glory to science!
P.S. If you want to keep an eye our progress closer, don't forget to follow Learning Factory on our Steam page and never miss an update again!
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[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
Smoothie Maker makes the famous Martian Mice Cold Smoothies and must be placed somewhere in the north, as it needs ice for operating.
Battery Maker, on the other hand, works on solar power and therefore must be placed under hot desert rays of the south.
