Craftomation 101 News

Hey Mates,

Our hands be shaking with excitement as we're writing these lines. Our eyes are goggled from the sensation of the moment's importance. Perhaps, even our ears are moving from impatience!

More than 2 years of thoughtful prototyping, playtesting, releasing demos, gathering feedback, and doing things all over...

[h3]Craftomation 101 is coming to Early Access on February 19, 2024![/h3]

Please enjoy our brand new trailer that we made to celebrate this truly glorious day:

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

There is no time to explain more... because more will be explained by the end of this week, in the next edition of our developer diaries!

We'll talk about our current progress and the cool new features that you'll get to try out in less than a month. Stay tuned!

In the meantime, there's one important thing you can do, which is to add Craftomation 101 to your wishlist on Steam, if you like such games and/or consider purchasing it.

That's how you get notified once the game is out, so you don't miss the launch discount (and all discounts that come after). Just click the button below:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1724140/Craftomation_101_Programming__Craft/

(There's also a separate post, explaining why wishlists are important, if you'd like to know more)

Doubt not: more details will follow! If you want to know anything specific, we're always happy to chat in the Discussions section, as well as on our Discord server

Hey mates!

So, you probably know that Craftomation 101 is heading for Early Access on February 19? Because we're serious about it. Save the date, it's happening!

We also might've mentioned that adding the game to your wishlist will ensure you won't miss the launch (and the corresponding discount) and give our team a virtual pat on the shoulder.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1724140/Craftomation_101_Programming__Craft

So, don't hesitate to do that if you like the game - and play the demo if you're not yet sure about it! After all, Craftomation 101 is an unusual game. And going for release seems a great moment to look back and follow Craftomation's transformation from this…



…to this:

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

[h3]In the beginning were the nodes[/h3]
Craftomation 101 has changed in many ways during the past years, but the core idea has been there since the early prototypes. Even earlier: as we were working on our previous game, while True: learn(), we got a lot of feedback about the game being about programming, but not having actual programming in it.

In a way, Craftomation 101 is here to compensate for that, effectively making it while True: learn()'s spiritual successor. Now you have the opportunity to use functions, variables, counters, experience the joy of debugging, and even program robots to handle other robots:

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

So, automation and programming were parts of the plan all along! As for the visual style, it took us some time to find our own. The first prototypes were quite… different:



And when Craftomates finally emerged, they did not look nearly as dandy as they do today (but still as goofy):







Developing games is more than just a job: it's a journey that takes you to surprising places, and that can make you a better, wiser person. In this case, Alex the artist was working hard on improving his drawing skills - and his progress shows on the game's screenshots from different times:









Even our key artwork changed at least three times:







Which one is your favorite, by the way? Let us know on Discord or leave a good old-fashioned comment!

Naturally, the inner structure of Craftomation 101 became comparably more complicated. An expanded list of features that were added to the game during the past year were listed in our previous post. But you will be able to check it out for yourself next Monday!

Here's a sneak peek though! We have almost completed the roadmap that we published on our page last year… So we had to expand it:



We've got lots of plans, and we'll definitely share more details in the upcoming posts!

See you in-game on Monday, won't we? Wish us luck, and consider sharing this piece with fellow automation/base-building game lovers! Until later, mates!

Upcoming puzzle-crafting-programming game Craftomation 101 gives you a frozen planet, some politely agreeable robots, and a bunch of raw materials. From there it's your job to tell them how to assemble enough heat, power, and industrial materials to bootstrap a terraforming process that'll make this world a warmer place...
Read more.

Hey mates!

We won't waste too much time on introductions this time, as the elephant in the room needs to be addressed to: Craftomation 101 is coming to Early Access on Steam on February 19, 2024!

Save the date! Tell a friend! Plan a vacation, maybe? And by all means, check out our brand-new trailer:

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

[h3]Things to do before the Early Access[/h3]
Play the demo, to help you spend time weating!

And if you like the game, please consider adding Craftomation 101 to your wishlist. It shows Steam that the game is interesting to potential players, making the game visible to more gamers out there.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1724140/Craftomation_101/

It will come in handy for you too, as you'll get notified once the game is out and whenever there's a discount on it.

Bottom line: adding Craftomation 101 to your wishlist is an anonymous, one-click way to encourage us to continue our work. Everyone's a winner!



[h3]Demo vs. Early Access: the nitty-gritty stuff[/h3]
All this time, we were doing our best to keep the demo in line with our in-house version. We updated the graphics and added all the UI/UX improvements that we made throughout the past year - and the two years through our development journey:





We were telling you about all the new things in the main version - we did that so much, that we almost forgot what we started with back in January '23, when the demo was out! But here's the time to review all those awesome things we can't wait for you to play with:

• Bigger map to explore & the final goal: wake up the mighty Dormant Volcano
  
• New Commands for Craftomates: counters, tending to organics, and more
  
• More types of organics and more ways to interact with it: like brewing Speedy Ale, and even Wakey Ale in an automated (craftomated?) Brewery
  
• Cargomate: the best kind of Craftomates for delivering bulks of items to distant parts of the map
  

All in all, the game now has 10+ hours of content, as opposed to 1-2 hours in the demo! Of course, we don't plan to stop there. That's Luden.io's development style: we release games to Early Access with about 30% of our ideas there, then listen to what our players have to say and continue developing based on that feedback.

A couple of days back, we got a comment on a Reddit post:



The honest answer would be: we don't have anything like that on our minds, but we don't know how things will turn up, once the players get to it! It's the magic of video games: there's no way to succeed if your players do not enjoy our work!

So please, share your impressions with us: write a comment, or come straight to our Discord server!

And we'll get back to the usual stuff: telling you what we've been up to in the past month and a half!

…Oh, but wait! Not that we have ‘kill, maim, destroy’ part in the game, but we did allow Craftomates to pick up each other… and more:

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

[h3]What's new?[/h3]

Since you'll get to see all that stuff in less than a month, we'll try and keep things short this time. First, remember that ‘Gearbox’ feature, that allows you to balance the speed and energy consumption for your Craftomates? Here it is now, looking sharper than ever:

We have also added a grid to the programming editor, for your convenience! As seen in Unreal Engine (kind of). Snapping commands to the grid is something we're still experimenting with at the moment. We're not sure that they're a keeper yet - how do you like them, by the way?

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

While we were testing the game, some major QoL issues were detected and fixed. For example, reaching the Sulfur source also grants a shortcut to your main base.

Previously you had to melt it out yourself, risking that the sole path between the two parts of your base will freeze while you're not looking. Not anymore:



Some other small yet important changes were made around the Sulfur source and the new content that comes with it, but we wouldn't bore you with tedious details, not in this edition of our diaries! Just remember that Craftomation 101 is going through some very profound testing & polishing at the moment.

Oh, and as part of it, we also have cloud saves in the game now, yay! They're coming to the demo soon, too.

[h3]What's Next?[/h3]
Lots of bug fixing, some post-release feature planning, and a handful of beautiful things for you! At this moment, we're working on redesigning the progress tree:



We're also working on adding more matching colors to the palette of Cratomates’ looks:



That big meta interface for Craftomates’ management is one of the things that didn't make it to our Early Access list of features, but we'll see how things turn out once the game is released: maybe existing ways of distinguishing Craftomates will be enough. If not, we'll get back to that issue in one of the following updates.

The big day is coming! See you in February, mates!