Techtonica News

Hello, Groundbreakers!

The time is almost upon us. The Techtonica Alpha will begin this month as the first wave hits players. We haven’t announced a start date yet, but the rough window is late July.

You can sign up for the Alpha right here.



We have a couple of other tidbits to share for this update, too.

[h3]June / July Developer AMA Complete![/h3]

First, we hosted our monthly Developer AMA on Discord, and we've selected a few questions and answers for you to peruse.

What does progression look like in Techtonica? -What are we unlocking, upgrading, manufacturing? Is the environment changing or are we impacting the environment in any way? (Similar to Factorio) Why are we doing this? Is there a story with it?

Lots of questions about progression here!

We want progression in Techtonica to feel deliberate, and we’re working on making sure the player feels both challenged to grow and empowered by growth as they build their factories and explore Calyx. And, yes, there’s a narrative involved in Techtonica, but you won't see that story in the Alpha.

You will have a Tech Tree to manage, but you’ll also need to find and scan aging technology in order to advance the Tech Tree’s available capabilities. Progression doesn’t stop there as you’ll need to build and power Research Cores in order to officially unlock tech.

This might seem a bit confusing written out, but it all makes sense when you play (we hope). Testing out progression and hearing feedback from fans is one of the main things we’re hoping to get out of the Alpha!

How amazingly beautiful is the lighting going to be? I assume there will be ambient light from the bioluminescent plants, but what happens when we collect them / mine what they are connected to? Can we build our own lighting system?

What a fantastic question. Without getting too technical, we are spending a ton of time and energy on this to get it right. The bioluminescent lighting is super intentional, and the plants we make all contribute to the atmosphere and mood.

If you harvest a plant then that does remove the lighting attached to it, so the caves do in fact get a bit darker if you destroy too many plants. But don’t worry - you’ll be able to place work lights of your own, though they have more of an industrial, human glow than the native plants on Calyx.


[h3]
Finally, We're Now on TikTok.[/h3]

If short-form video is your thing, you’ll find Fire Hose Games showcasing tidbits about Techtonica on TikTok.

We’re answering questions, sharing gameplay, and providing feature updates as development moves.

If you’re not on TikTok, no sweat. We’ve found that some folks are, and some folks aren’t. You won’t miss any marquee announcements by skipping our TikTok account.

More like TikTonica.

That's it for this update. Wishlist Techtonica, sign up for the Alpha, tell your friends. Cheers!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1457320/Techtonica/

We recently announced that Techtonica will have an Alpha that begins this July. You can still signup for that Alpha here: https://bit.ly/TechtonicaAlphaSignup.

In order to give players a sense of what to expect from the Alpha when they play, we wanted to put together an overview video that touches on some of the gameplay and objectives.

Please note: We're still in active development for Techtonica, so some of what you see in the clip may change; in fact, some of it has already.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Want to learn more? Join our Discord.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1457320/Techtonica/

The Techtonica Alpha will begin in July, and we are now officially taking signups here: https://bit.ly/TechtonicaAlphaSignup.

The Techtonica Alpha is an opportunity for players to get a sense of how Techtonica will feel upon release, and it’s an opportunity for our team at Fire Hose to gather invaluable feedback and shape Techtonica into a game we know our fans will love playing.

Join the Techtonica Discord, we've opened up the window to submit questions for this month's Developer AMA a little early.

Sign up for the Alpha. You can learn more about the Alpha by reading the Alpha FAQ post on the Techtonica blog.

We recently took questions from our community on the official Techtonica Discord for our monthly Developer AMA. The questions ranged from those about gameplay specifics to design philosophies and, of course, release information.

We encourage you to visit the Discord to check out all of the questions and answers, but we wanted to pull out the relevant Alpha information specifically so that our followers here on Steam could stay in the loop.

Here are the questions and answers connected to the Techtonica Alpha.

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Can we throw money at your to help with Dev of the game... and maybe secure a spot in beta testing?

You won’t need to throw money at Techtonica to take part in the Alpha. We’re offering that to community members and content creators for free. Once the Alpha is over, we’ll make sure the keys we sent out no longer work. So, once we launch, that’ll be your chance to throw money at Techtonica.

But! If you’re looking to help us, we’ll take help in the form of community participation, wishlisting the game on Steam, and providing feedback on the Alpha.

After game release, is there plans to extend the story or release substantial content to the game or will there just be minor updates/bug fixes?

Yes, we have big plans for Techtonica. From definite features that we’re actively working on today to a laundry list of planned and proposed updates. We’re doing a private community Alpha, which will talk more about throughout this AMA, and we’ll move to a Beta release after that. We’ll perform regular updates in both the Alpha and Beta phases, and those updates will range in size from minor bug fixes to major new systems, features, and content.

Of course, the whole time we’ll be collecting and considering any community feedback shared regarding the game.

From @ozmethod - No release date has been announced, but is there a target alpha/beta/release window you can share?

Yes! We’re not ready to share the exact date just yet, but we’ll slowly roll out our Alpha over the coming months. Access to the Alpha will be free, but it will end once the Alpha window closes. At that point, the keys players receive will be revoked. You’ll need to buy the game at release. But the playable window for the Alpha will be weeks, not days.

Being here on Discord is the best way to make sure you’ll have a chance to join the Alpha once it’s live. We’ll have a lot more to share soon, so stay tuned.

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As you can see with that last answer, the best way to get into the Techtonica Alpha is to join the Discord.



We’ll have lots more to share regarding dates and how to gain access in the coming weeks.

Stay tuned.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1457320/Techtonica/

Last week, we held a Developer AMA on the official Techtonica Discord. We received a lot of great questions from our community over the open submission window.

This week, we shared our answers. While we absolutely invite you to join the Discord to read all of them—and connect with like-minded factory builders and sci-fi lovers—we wanted to share a few of our favorite questions and answers here.

Away we go!



Is the world procedural or handcrafted?

The world of Techtonica is handcrafted.

We want to tell a really compelling story in Techtonica, and part of building that strong narrative relies on our ability to intentionally shape and mold the world to meet our story’s needs. We can’t do everything we want to do with a completely procedurally generated world.
Related to the world gen/creation, how large scale is the map going to be? Relative to whether it's handcrafted or infinitely procedural?

The world in Techtonica is big. We may have handcrafted open spaces, but the destructible terrain means players will be able to carve out their own factory floors as they look to expand. This goes in vertical directions, too, as you’ll be able to dig and build multi-layer structures.

We won’t use words like infinite or procedural, but players will have an opportunity to make their factories sprawl.

There will also be massive ore veins buried deep within Calyx rock caverns that will require serious excavation to reach. There will be enough resources to last 1000s of hours alone.

What are your thoughts on various environmental hazards throughout the world?

In a word: yes. Your question sort of answers itself here, but we’ve absolutely discussed and are working on environmental hazards and considerations for players. We have some cool ideas (the trailer hints at a few), and we will have more information regarding mechanics like hazards soon.

Will there be any PVE content?

While there is no combat, there will be environmental hazards and challenges for players to solve, mitigate, and exploit. It’s important for us to make environmental challenges that both apply pressure to players and create opportunities to advance their factories.

Will there be any PVP content?

There will not be any PVP content. While we enjoy various kinds of games (including those with combat and PVP!) we, as a studio, choose not to make violence one of the core focuses of our games.

We’ve joked around internally about using the M.O.L.E. (that’s the tool that fires black holes to cut into the rocks of Calyx) to bury co-op partners in massive holes. PVP? Not really. Still fun.
Will there be liquids? (that can be used to craft things or do other stuff)

Yes, we have plans for liquids. In fact, there’s a lot of excitement internally about what liquids can do for a lot of the dynamic systems in Techtonica.

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If you have any questions about Techtonica, we encourage you to bring them to our Discord. We will hold AMAs like this one regularly.

-Fire Hose

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1457320/Techtonica/