Learning Factory News

Hey engineers!

We have some bug fixes (kudos to S'Kleer for reporting), so don't forget to update to enjoy the most polished experience in Learning Factory, as of today! Happy factory building.

Hey engineers,

This update brings even more overall polishing, but most importantly: all buildings in the game that were supposed to have animations now have them! These machines were working all the time but now you can see all of them in action - another big step towards the upcoming v1.0 release:

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

[h2]v0.90.188 Released![/h2]

• Animated Inventory Teleport
  
• Re-rendered Splitters
  
• Slightly improved connections between different biomes
  
• Slightly improved effect for items entering and exiting buildings
  
• Catopia Ark now has a visual exhaust when lifting off
  
• New tutorial: Research projects
  
• Milk pasteurization recipe buffed (suggested by S'Kleer)
  
• Improved art for Apple Trees
  
• Improved art for selected harvested plants
  
• Improved main menu interface
  
• Improved Wiki interface
  
• Improved Zeppelin Interface
  
• Improved UI for Steam Deck
  
• New animated avatars in Steam Points Shop
• UI/UX fixes
  
• Performance optimization
  
• Huge UI update to make it adaptive
  
• Bug fixes (kudos to S'Kleer)
  

[h2]Re: Factory[/h2]

In this section of patch notes, we answer the questions from the community that were submitted via the in-game feedback form and/or seemed especially interesting to us.

Q: "1)Привет. Или я не смог найти функцию зеркального отражения чертежа, или её нет.
Если действительно нет, было бы очень здорово, если бы она появилась.Спасибо за чудесную игру. " (Translated: "Hello. Either I couldn’t find the Blueprint scheme mirroring, or it doesn’t exist. If it really doesn’t exist, it would be great if it were added.")
A: Alas, we can't make it happen. We've been experimenting with it, but certain buildings can't be mirrored due to art limitations, and making twice as much art for the sole purpose of enabling building reflection would be too much time-consuming. This is something we should have considered at the very early stages of game development, which we haven't, unfortunately. We might consider adding it after the v1.0 release though.


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

At Luden.io, we develop games while constantly listening to the feedback from our awesome players. If you feel proactive, you're very welcome to do one or more of the following:

• Subscribe to our newsletter, to get the latest info about the game's development, and a sneak peek of the upcoming features and events
  
• Record 10 minutes of you playing Learning Factory, and share it with us via this form. Your feedback is so helpful, that we'll include you in the game's credits for doing this
  
• Come say hi to our Discord server, or Twitter
• Check out some other games by us!
  

We have to admit: in the upcoming few month,s these developer diaries will be progressively more boring, at least in terms of news. The game is basically finished in terms of gameplay. There's a lot of testing and polishing to be done still but nothing grand will probably happen to the game until we hit that big ‘release’ button.

And then there's some art to be added, too! This means our dev diaries will at least be entertaining to scroll through, even without new killer features. The remaining few months before the v1.0 release will fly by momentarily, as time always does, you'll see!

However, this time there's much to be told, too! For one, we released the biggest update for Learning Factory in September. It pushes the game so much closer to its final state, that we have jumped from v0.3 to v0.9

The main reason this update was delayed for a few weeks was the infamous summer vacation season (even the most passionate of the game devs must take some time away once in a while!). But it was also a great time to thoroughly study the feedback from our players, take a look at the game with rested eyes, and make some necessary improvements.

There were many upgrades and balance tweaks that came along with v0.9 that made the game more comfortable and flexible. The full (and rather long: 100+ points) list of changes can be found here.

We won't list everything here but we have something better: video highlights! Check out these newly animated buildings in Learning Factory:

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Occasional new buildings still make it to the game once in a while. Here's another advertising building which promotes laser pointers and also served us a great excuse to make yet another pop culture reference:

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

And this new building is meant for logistics fanatics: the structure of our game does not allow making Transporters faster, so we created this machine for packing items into archives, and then unpacking them, when needed:

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

A big part of our work is about many things around the game: the menus, the tutorials - things like that. We added over a dozen mini-guides explaining the trickier aspects of the game, and we’ll probably add some more (and likely accompany them with animated illustrations in the future).

As for the menus, they’re slowly coming into lighter, more modern form all over the game. Check out how the Research Tree changed a couple of weeks ago.

Old:



New:



Already existing structures get a lift up as well. Check out our more detailed redesigned Monument:



And the Trade Ports were upgraded with landing sites, with Zeppelins flying in and out to deliver the goods to the mysterious cat Guilds:

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

But perhaps one of the most time-consuming tasks was re-rendering Learning Factory's innumerous variations of Transporters, Splitters, Mergers and such. While Sergei the artist was at it, he got so deep into his early work that he started finding creepy-ish objects that never made it to the game, like this magnificent lineup of Tunnels:



One day we will gather and share as many weird artifacts like that as we will find, but this will happen once Learning Factory is properly released. Until then, there is more excitingly boring work on polishing the game. More tutorials, more visual upgrades, and vital QoL changes, hooray!

The big day is coming. We’ll be in touch!

Hey engineers!

If you're following our news for some time, you might know that in our spare time from making games, we're also organizing an event that gathers games about programming, automation and engineering.

This year it is dedicated to Ada Lovelace Day, celebrating the first programmer in the world. We've got over 80 participants this year, and you might find some familiar names and hidden gems there:

[h2]Visit Ada Lovelace Day Sale[/h2]

And of course, all our games are discounted as well. Learning Factory is sold 38% off the price throughout this whole week, and the DLCs are 15% off as well:

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

Happy hunting, and happy Ada Lovelace Day!

Hey engineers,

We're getting back to our regular few-weeks-per-update schedule. The lists of changes will still be lengthy but incresingly more boring: we've really gotten ourselves to polishing the game, which means an awful lot of smaller changes to be made for almost every aspect of the game.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

[h2]v0.90.187 Released![/h2]
[h3]Gameplay[/h3]

• Simplified recipe for making Gold in the Lava Cooler
  
• Simplified recipes for making Quiality (+) and High Quality (++) Catnip Juice
  
• Added another type of trade deal: CHONK Guild will exchange Quality (+) Gold for a certain amount of Milk
  
• Added 2 new options for Zeppelins that allow you to disable item loading and unloading
  
• Selected trade deals with the Guilds were buffed
  
• Simplified requirements for filling up Solaris-powered Engine of Catopia Ark
  
• Small Cargo Zeppelins can now travel between only 2 Docks per route
  
• Decreased penalty for Jetboard speed when crossing over the water or hill tiles
  
• Improved Campaign map
  
• Improved Freeplay Mode maps
  
• Improved terraforming logic
  
• Improved plant fertilizing logic
  
• Improved small buildings/items placement logic
  
• Improved Cable/Transporter laying logic
  
• Dr. Katz can now send requests for researching upgrades
  
• 1 new achievement
  

[h3]Graphics && Sound[/h3]

• Animated Laser Pointer Maker
  
• Re-rendered Roadside Boutique
  
• Re-rendered Experimental Lab
  
• Re-rendered Teleport
  
• Re-rendered logistic structures: Splitters, Tunnels, Switcher, Mergers etc.
  
• Item Archiver now has visually distinguishable states for packing and unpacking items
  
• Improved Halloween event art
  

[h3]QoL && Interface[/h3]

• Optimized and improved Zeppelin Routes interface
  
• Added filtering options for Routes in Zeppelins' interface
  
• Improved Zeppelins' interface
  
• Improved interface for tutorials
  
• Improved interface for Steamdeck
  
• Improved main menu interface
  
• Improved In-game wiki
  
• Improved tutorial
  
• Improved context warnings for Zeppelins (suggeted by S'Kleer)
  
• New tutorial: map Grid
  
• Improved feedback from using the Pipette tool
  

[h3]Techie Stuff[/h3]

• Performance optimization
  
• Copywriting fixes
  
• Bug fixes (kudos to S'Kleer, はっすぃ, GoEzTa, Kaiserschmarn)
  
• UI/UX fixes
  

[h2]Re: Factory[/h2]

In this section of patch notes, we answer the questions from the community that were submitted via the in-game feedback form and/or seemed especially interesting to us.

Q: "My first language is spanish, sorry for bad grammar. In Spanish version, the translate for "close" windows is wrong. Close has two meaning. To shut down something "CLOSE the door" and to say something is near "That was CLOSE". In spanish version its translate with second one. its translated as "cerca" that means near. The correct one is "cerrar".You are doing a great job with the game. Keep it up " -GoEzTa A: That has been fixed, thank you! Please remember that if you want to help us with community translation to your native language, our Discord server is the place to go!

A friendly reminder: don't forget about our collection of items in Steam Points Shop! Sergei the artist makes wonderful factory art to be observed from above, but his works' magic really shows at close-up perspective:




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

At Luden.io, we develop games while constantly listening to the feedback from our awesome players. If you feel proactive, you're very welcome to do one or more of the following:

• Subscribe to our newsletter, to get the latest info about the game's development, and a sneak peek of the upcoming features and events
  
• Record 10 minutes of you playing Learning Factory, and share it with us via this form. Your feedback is so helpful, that we'll include you in the game's credits for doing this
  
• Come say hi to our Discord server, or Twitter
• Check out some other games by us!