Techtonica News

We’re really, really close to the launch of Techtonica’s Base Building update. Yes, we’re still slated to launch it next week. We’re working hard to make sure you have something new to enjoy in our game over the holiday break.

This will be the largest update we’ve dropped to-date, and it adds new narrative, intermediates, base building pieces, caves to explore, abandoned facilities and… the focus of this post… two new machines.

These dudes are explosive.

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Ready to meet two new machines? Let’s dig in.

[h3]Say hello to the Blast Smelter and Blast Drill[/h3]

*Slaps roof of the Blast Smelter* This baby can fit so many explosives.



The Blast Smelter and Blast Drill join the ranks with the Base Building update! These two new machines yield access to new intermediates and gameplay loops that we’ll discuss in today’s update.

But first? Some GIFs of each machine in action.

We’ll start with the Blast Smelter.



And now for the Blast Drill.



[h3]A strategic approach to fuel with consequences[/h3]

As their names imply, both the Blast Smelter and Blast Drill utilize explosives in order to fire and harvest or create outputs. The Blast Drill, for example, is the primary machine for harvesting Iron, Copper, and Atlantum Chunks, a new intermediate that arrives with Base Building.

The funny thing about explosives? They blow things up. Groundbreakers will find a warning when they inspect both machines that indicates that, once the cooldown cycle is complete, these machines consume all explosive fuel in their queue to fire off.



If you don’t efficiently time your fuel supply lines for these machines, you will waste a lot of Mining Charges. To compensate for wasted explosives, we’ve made them cheaper and easier to make.

With the threat of consequence, we also introduce reward. Once upgraded, the Blast Drill will provide more raw resources per cycle as long as you’ve timed up your fuel lines correctly. The Blast Smelter can be upgraded, too, to produce more outputs per explosion cycle. However, you’ll need to make sure you’re timing your Mining Charges to match the listed cadence. Be careful, Groundbreaker!



[h3]The Blast Loop™️ is also a rewarding resource sink[/h3]

Do we have plans for resource sinks? Yes! And they will be introduced as factory systems in Techtonica evolve through Early Access.

The Blast Machines and base building components arrive as two excellent resource sinks. You’ll make use of that limestone for base building parts with this update, and you’ll have a great dump for your Kindlevine and Shiverthorn farm surplus with the Blast machines.



These machines consume Mining Charges, and Mining Charges are an endless sink if you have the right farm system set up. We’ve found through our internal sessions that both systems have been a great sink for stuff we didn’t have much of a use for in v0.1.

This doesn’t mean that we’re skipping providing a more traditional resource sink in Techtonica. We have plans for that down the line, too; but, you should find your overwhelming piles of limestone and plant products alleviated with these new machines and loops.

[h3]The concept art for the Blast machines kinda rules[/h3]

When Andrii, one of our designers, approached our art team about the Blast Drill, their immediate response was fantastic.



That evolved, of course, into some really cool drawings of how the Blast machines would function and look.

The Blast Drill would fire gnarly bits into the wall with explosive force.



The Blast Smelter would fire, simmer, and cool with smoke stacks and an exhaust on its top to keep from completely exploding.



That’s it for this week’s news! We’re still on pace to deliver the Base Building update during the week of December 18th (next week!). We’ll have the patch preview first, of course, and then we’ll deliver the update alongside a trailer showcasing a ton of what’s coming.

In the meantime, come join our Discord and hang out!

Greetings, Groundbreakers! We have a few pieces of huge news for you today.

[h3]The Base Building update will launch the week of December 18th.
[/h3]

While we can’t give an exact date just yet, we wanted to give players a little more info! This is the biggest update we’ve had thus far for Techtonica, and we are so so so excited for you to play it. We’ve been able to narrow our release window to the week of December 18th and wanted to make sure y’all knew!

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[h3]We’re adding content monthly to Techtonica
[/h3]

Which brings us to the Roadmap update. We’ve shifted things around on our Roadmap and added several new monthly content pieces. Behold, the Roadmap in all it’s glory!



The art team has been steadily chugging along, enough to where they have time in between major updates to give you new content. And that content will be released monthly. This is a wild, unique idea, and we hope you enjoy it.

What will this content look like? Think small packs that are related to the updates before them. Have an idea for a pack? Let us know in the comments. We will give you more details on the first content pack after Base Building emerges into existence!

[h3]Hang on, what’s that new update..
[/h3]

You’ll also notice that Take Flight has been pushed down to make room for another major update - Enhanced Logistics! If you’ve ever been to our feedback website, you’ve seen the top two upvoted posts are for Stack Filter Inserters and Vertical Belts.



And Enhanced Logistics will include *drumroll please* vertical belts and stack filter inserters. Asking for both of those has become a meme in our Discord. We want them, you want them… We’re doing it.



Enhanced Logistics will also include more stuff based on player feedback, so keep giving us suggestions on Discord and our new feedback website. We really do listen - these two listed items were included at your request!

Other than these two items, the entire update will be based around improving your factory’s logistics, so it’ll be pretty nice to have earlier.

[h3]Version numbers proudly return
[/h3]

Eagle-eyed players will also notice we’ve added the version numbers back to the roadmap. You wanted ‘em there, so they’re back!

That’s all for this week’s update! When the code becomes sentient and awakens into consciousness the week of December 18th, you can enjoy the myriad wonders that Base Building has to offer. And buy Techtonica now while it’s on sale!

[h3]Oh yeah, and we’re on sale!
[/h3]

Techtonica is on sale right now for 20% off. Buy it for yourself, for a friend, for a random stranger you meet on the street who you want to give a new addiction hobby. Grab it before Base Building descends from the celestial void; we have a lot of content incoming!

Base Building is almost upon us, so you should join our Discord for some sneak peeks and memes! discord.gg/techtonica

See you next week!

The Base Building update that we’ll release for Techtonica in December (next month, woo!) will feature a lot more than just base building pieces.

We’ve already covered the new Production Terminal, and we’ve shared a lot of the pieces you’ll have at your disposal as well as the intermediates to make them. Today? Today, we’ll talk about the new abandoned facilities that litter the subsurface world of Calyx.

Don’t worry too much about spoilers here. We’re saving the lion’s share of facilities for you to discover as we’re only focusing on one in order to give you an idea of how they’ll all function. We also won’t share any of the core narrative; that will always be the case for these updates.

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Ready to learn more about one of the abandoned facilities you’ll unearth with the Base Building update?

Let’s dig in.



[h3]Meet the ancient Agricultural Facility…[/h3]

Farming for food? No, the UNIHAZ suits take care of sustenance needs for Groundbreakers on Calyx. This massive Agricultural Facility was farming for fuel, a demand that far outstripped the need for something to eat.



Something happened here, it seems. Time and the shifting of Calyxian soil have partially fractured and crushed the Agricultural Facility. We’ll share some screenshots and talk about how we pulled off the effect later in this post. We think it looks a bit spooky and very cool.



Damaged or not, it’s clear that the intention was to grow and harvest seeds in this location while using Monorails to distribute the crop to another facility entirely. Those depots look extremely unused, too. Maybe you can do something with them?



[h3]The evolution of showcasing decay[/h3]

We mentioned this last week, too, but Base Building is an opportunity for us and players to put on a quieter type of storytelling. You’ll craft your own stories with the bases you build, and we’ll tell more stories of Groundbreakers past with these aging facilities. (To be clear, we’ll also have more voiced story in this update…)

Telling a story of destruction and decay with these facilities produced some interesting problems for our design team. They had to build these structures, in-editor and in-game, first.





With them built, the structures had to then be broken. An interesting process in and of itself. Andrii, a member of our design team, had to twist and turn individual pieces to a wall, say, collapsing or some scaffolding falling.



Add in a few in-game models and machines, and suddenly we go from a mess of Lincoln Logs to a building that’s falling apart. It also offers a lot of opportunities for players to explore while jumping.



[h3]Telling stories while teaching players[/h3]

While abandoned facilities like this one offer up world-building narrative, they’re also a great resource for scannables and showcasing. All the pieces that make up the massive structures can be scanned and come from the set of pieces you’ll get with the Base Building update.

That’s right! We used the Base Building sets to create these abandoned structures, though we used some developer tools to make them look fractured and broken in order to tell you a story of collapse and decay.



It’s our aim to show you just a little of what’s possible with the tools we give you through these facilities. Of course, we know your work will probably blow ours away.

[h3]This is one facility, there are many more[/h3]

Just to restate! We’ve only showcased one facility buried in the Base Building update. We’ll have others for you to explore for yourself once we release.

When are we releasing the Base Building update? We’re still on track for December. As soon as we nail the date down, we’ll share it with you.



In the meantime, join our Discord, tell your friends to snag Techtonica while it’s still on sale (that ends today, November 28th!), and we’ll see you on Calyx!

Since we started development on Techtonica in earnest, we've had a core goal as our focus: we're working to make a factory automation game that rewards players with a relaxed, zen-like state as they play.

We only started our Early Access journey with Techtonica in July of this year, but the future looks both chill and bright for Groundbreakers seeking some peace and quiet in their factories after a long day of work, school, or other real-world responsibilities.

So, please vote nominate and vote for Techtonica in the Sit Back and Relax category for this year's Steam Awards.



Thank you for your support, Groundbreakers! We'll see you extremely soon with the Base Building update.

Over the last few weeks, we’ve teased some of the outposts that we’ve been working on as we test the waters of the Base Building Update in Techtonica here behind the scenes at Fire Hose.

Here’s one I built, for example, to house a small Quicklime and Cement assembly depot.



Everything you see in this screenshot, aside from the machines and colored lights, is completely new with the Base Building Update.

This week, we’re pulling back the curtain on the base building pieces and deco that you’ll be able to work with when we drop the update next month.

As always, here’s the video, and you’ll find the post below.

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Let’s dig in!

[h3]A sampling of the pieces at your disposal[/h3]

Base building in Techtonica works with our universal grid. Everything’s voxel-based, and that means your bases will be as clean and organized as you’d like them to be.

That also means, in order to offer as much variety as possible, we’ve been working on a whole slew of unique pieces. When you mix and match things? Well, a whole lot is possible. One of our artists, Ryan, spent some time building a smattering of floor and wall concepts that the rest of the team could use when building bases. It looks cool enough that I thought we should share it with you folks.

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Let’s take a look at a few of these pieces now.

We’ll start with three flavors of floors, below. A 1x1, 3x3, and a 5x5.



And here are some of the wall choices you’ll have available.



Next, curved pieces for a decorative touch or the impression of support.



Doorways? Of course.



We also have some railings for UNIHAZ safety.



Finally, my favorite, a few of the lights!



[h3]What’s a good home without some potted plants?[/h3]

We’ve heard, since we announced the game, that players want a way to build their own greenhouses for all the beautiful neon fauna at home on Calyx. So, some of the early decorations we’re including in the Base Building Update are the potted plants you’ve been after.

Here’s a greenhouse that I built specifically for this section of the update!



The deco extends beyond one-sized planters, too, as our art team’s cooked up plants of a host of sizes and varieties. That includes these wall planters that I can’t stop staring at.



[h3]On art and inspiration…[/h3]

What were we trying to accomplish with our approach to base building in Techtonica? To answer that question, I turned to our art team.

With the Base Building update, we’re really interested in player-produced storytelling. I’m not talking about the narrative we’ve constructed in the game. I’m referring to the bits of story you tell as you build your factories and outposts. My greenhouse above is a great example of this. But, how about this peaceful retreat one of our team members built last week? It tells a small story of its own!



We wanted the stories you tell with the Base Building Update to feel at home in the world of Techtonica, too, so we’ve worked to give you a set of pieces that create a brutalist, industrial, minimalist feel. And that process can be seen in our concept art and inspirations.



Here’s a look at a much, much earlier iteration in-game of some of these tools we were toying with. Not all of these pieces are present in the update, before you ask, but versions of them might be soon.



We’re really looking to give you the ability to be creative beyond just laying out your factory or terraforming, and we believe the Base Building Update will provide the tools and materials you need to really have a lot of fun with our game. That was the true inspiration.

[h3]There’s a lot more to come after this update[/h3]

“Is this everything?” you might be asking. No. There’s a lot more coming with the Base Building update that I didn’t specifically call out here. You might see it in screenshots or the video above, or you might not see it until you get your hands on the update next month.

In addition to the pieces we’ll have ready for you this December, we’re working on a plan to give you more to build with on a regular basis. Nothing to announce here and now, but, in the new year, we’re hoping to be able to share our approach to growing the base building side of Techtonica.

We hope you look forward to it!

[h3]Heads up! Techtonica’s going on sale…[/h3]

That’s right! Starting tomorrow (November 21st, 2023, at 10am Pacific), Techtonica will be 20% off on Steam as part of the annual Steam Autumn Sale. The discount will run through November 28th, 2023, so grab a copy (or tell your friends to grab a copy) now.



Get the game at a discounted price ahead of our Base Building update next month!

As always, you’re invited to come hang out in our Discord–home of memes, dreams, and our friendly team.