Techtonica News

Welcome back to another Next Fest recap post for Techtonica!

Thank you to all who have tried out the demo so far, we love hearing your feedback! Whether it’s suggestions, compliments, or bug reporting–it’s all super valuable to our team.

Don’t forget, we will be streaming right here on our Steam Page today (October 6th) at 12 PM ET. Come hang out and ask your questions!

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

Let’s get to the highlights.

If you’re looking for some tips, check out TotalXclipse’s video on building a mega fuel plant!

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Finally, we wanted to once again share some more fantastic submissions to our Next Fest Contests here. We have daily contests running each day in our Discord, be sure to submit to have a chance to win a key to Techtonica at launch.

For Best Research Core Sculpture by Heyko



For Best Multi-Story Factory by JHS

Welcome to the second Next Fest recap post for Techtonica!

First off, thanks for playing the demo if you've had a chance. We've heard lots from new players, whether it's a simple "I liked it," a stack of game-changing suggestions, or a bug report.

Every. Bit. Helps.

We're going into Early Access with Techtonica when we launch and having a community of engaged players who love leaving their mark on the game as it develops is so important to us.

As a heads up, we'll be live streaming the game here on our Steam page tomorrow (October 6th) at 12pm ET. Join us! Ask your questions!

With that said, here are some of the highlights from day two of Next Fest!

Z1 Gaming showcased some power production in a recent video on YouTube. Dig into that here, and maybe solve a power crisis you may be facing?

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

We hosted our monthly AMA on the Discord last week, and we shared some answers yesterday, too! We do always collect questions during the last week of the month, so join up and fire away if you have any curiosities about Techtonica.

Here's a question and answer about the inventory system you see in the demo

Our inventory seems to be infinite. Is this intended, and why did you go for this as a design choice?

PS It takes longer and longer to open the inventory when you add more and more items to it. Optimization plans, or will there be an item limit?

This is not the inventory system’s final form!

First off, yes, optimization is coming for the inventory system. The temporary solution for inventory lag is to dump your extra items in the chest. If you’re reading this answer right now and don’t know what to do about it, this is the best current solution. The inventory menus will be optimized over time, though.

As for the infinite nature of inventories, that answer’s a little more involved. Honestly, we’re still iterating on this system internally. Our eventual goal is to encourage players to keep their inventory within a certain (upgradeable) limit. But, we don’t want to put players in annoying binds when they exceed that inventory limit. Making the inventory infinite in size was a step towards that goal, but we do intend to add some amount of friction against abusing the infinite size.

We will share more when we are happy with what we’ve got!

Finally! We're still in the midst of our Next Fest Contests. Here's a ridiculous submission for Best (Worst?) Spaghetti Mess. It's.......terrifying.



Thanks for playing the demo, and please drop us a Wishlist here on Steam.

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

As you may have heard, Techtonica is participating in Steam Next Fest this week. We’re so excited to present our demo along side lots of other really cool games. We’ve gotten a lot of feedback so far about how much you guys are enjoying Techtonica, which has been great.

Let's kick this quick recap off.

First, TotalXclipse shared 14+ Starter Tips for those of you trying the Techtonica demo for the first time. It may even have some tips for some of you Techtonica pro’s out there!

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

As a reminder, anyone can play the Techtonica demo… right now! Head over to our Steam page to download the demo, and don’t forget the wishlist if you haven’t already. While you’re on our Steam page, check out our rolling pre-recorded content from Relyen to learn more about how to optimize your own factories.

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

We held our first Next Fest Stream today over on the Techtonica Steam Page as well. We hung out with some of our regulars from Discord and Twitch, and also welcomed many new faces to Techtonica. We started with the very beginning of the demo, and made our way to Terminal Victor. We’ll be continuing where we left off on Thursday at 12 PM EST, so be sure to come chat with Techtonica’s meme dream team, Jas and Joey.

We’re also running daily contests during Next Fest where you can win a release copy of Techtonica at Early Access launch! Let’s take a look at some of the really awesome entries we’ve seen so far…

Next Fest Contest #1 Best Multi-Story Factory by Tillmar, “Like a glove" - Starting area, starting factory. Completely automated demo to finish run. Without using crank ability”









Next Fest Contest #2 Worst (Best?) Spaghetti Mess by gnarlyCrone, “I am a 74 year old woman who is really loving this game. I seem to struggle with orderly building so this category is perfect for me.”









We have even more awesome entries we’ll be sharing throughout the week. Come back tomorrow for another recap!

The Techtonica demo officially launched on September 20th, 2022. Today marks the start of Steam Next Fest. We’re proud to be a part of the pack of developers showcasing their upcoming work. Play our demo, play their demos, play all demos!

With that said, welcome to all the new Groundbreakers! We hope you find Calyx hospitable, the M.O.L.E. destructive, and the factories fun to build.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

We wanted to roll out the red, bioluminescent carpet to Calyx with a few handy tips that sprung up over the last few weeks as players played. Here we go!

[h3]#1 - Scan all the things![/h3]

Once you complete the first Production Terminal upgrade, a Scanner will rise from the innards of PT Lima. That Scanner is essential for unlocking new tech.

Our advice? Take a few minutes to search the area and scan everything around you. You’ll unlock new tech for research, yes, but you’ll also get back some handy intermediates that’ll make crafting go by that much faster.

[h3]#2 - Dump excess ore into Smelters immediately[/h3]

Once you have your Smelters built and rolling, the best thing you can do is dump all the ore into them straight away. Why?

In Techtonica, we don’t ask that you craft intermediates to reach final products. For instance, you’ll need Iron Components and Mechanical Components for some machines. Rather than having you craft those things before you can build the next stage, we do the work for you in your inventory by crafting straight from raw materials.

Our crafting system is super convenient when making one or two things. When crafting a lot of stuff, it’s slow. Smelting by hand takes forever, so get rid of the ore and handcraft things using ingot.

[h3]#3 - Meet the Research Cores and your Tech Tree[/h3]

The Research Core system will evolve throughout Techtonica’s development; however, what stands today is pretty friendly for newer players once you learn how to use it.

Each item on the Tech Tree requires a specific amount of Research Cores to unlock (after scanning the item, in most cases). You’ll need to craft and place Research Cores to unlock the required technology.

But! If you are running short and need an item immediately, you can hold-right-click on an activated tech to deactivate it and get your Research Cores back. This is super handy in the first couple of hours of play.



[h3]#4 - Two Planters, Two Threshers[/h3]

Ready to get fuel automated for machines? You’ll want Planters and Threshers.

We’ve found that the magic number is two of each. Build two Planters, and stack them with seeds. Build two Threshers; one to complete the plant loop by threshing for stems and seeds, and the other to thresh stems into plantmatter fibre and extract.

This loop will keep any demo factory fueled super, super well.

[h3]#5 - Meet R and Q[/h3]

Alright, Groundbreaker, these two tips are pretty simple yet easy to overlook, so pay attention.

Press Q to put items away, cancel builds, or cancel back to the last rotation of your Conveyor Belts.

Press R to rotate items before building, rotate items after building, and place turns in Belts mid-build.

[h3]BONUS TIP #6 - Hide the UI for extra good-looking screenshots[/h3]

With the most recent patch for Techtonica, we rolled out a UI hiding feature to make screenshots and capturing a little nicer. Press Right Shift+Right Control+H to hide/unhide the UI. Pressing Escape will also bring the UI back if you start to panic.

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

If you like the demo, be sure to Wishlist us here on Steam! If you’re looking for some other Groundbreakers to talk to, we’re proud to have a fun and active Discord community.

Until next time!

We launched the Techtonica demo on Steam on September 20th, and we’ve seen you Groundbreakers do some pretty fantastic stuff.

With Steam Next Fest starting on October 3rd and the wave of new players experiencing the demo, we thought it’d be fun to hold daily contests throughout the event.

The Fire Hose team will pick the winners for each event, and we’ll announce them the week after Next Fest ends. Each winner will receive a key for the full version of Techtonica when it launches into Early Access.

[h2]Build stuff, send pics, win the game[/h2]

We’ll announce the contests formally each day on our Discord, but we’re giving folks who read this an opportunity to select their desired objectives and have a head start.

So, here’s each challenge and its associated deadline.

• Best Multi-Story Factory -> Due Oct. 4th, 2022, at 9am ET.
  
• Worst (Best?) Spaghetti Mess -> Due Oct. 5th, 2022, at 9am ET.
  
• Best Factory on a Wall -> Due Oct. 6th, 2022, at 9am ET.
  
• Best Research Core Sculpture -> Due Oct. 7th, 2022, at 9am ET.
  
• Best Buried Factory -> Due Oct. 8th, 2022, at 9am ET.
  
• Best Factory WITHOUT Conveyor Belts -> Due Oct. 9th, 2022, at 9am ET.
  
• Smallest Factory that Fully Automates Green Core Production -> Due Oct. 10th, 2022, at 9am ET
  
• Best Conveyor Belt Adventure for Sparks’ Spectral Cube -> Due Oct. 11th, 2022, at 9am ET.
  

The one catch: You’ll need to join our Discord to share your creations. Once there, share any relevant screenshots, GIFs, and videos on the #next-fest-contests channel. You'll find contest submission rules on Discord.

That’s it! Have fun, Groundbreakers. We can’t wait to see what you create.

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