Go-Go Town! News

Hi all!

We are a few hours shy of our 1st week out from Early Access release, and wow has it been a week 😊
Diving right into player bugs and feedback here’s some of the most raised items

• Map Size
  
• Worker AI
  
• Space in Zones (Mining, Forestry, Fishing, Farming)
  
• Did I mention Map Size
  
• Accessibility options for Motion and Visual Sensitivities, as well as phobias
  

What I suspect you really want to know is WHEN these bits of feedback are going to be addressed. So that’s what I’ll cover first, and then we can dive into the topics in a bit more detail.

Minor Update 1

ETA: 1st July (Australia time)
What to expect:

• Bug fixes for Courier AI
  
  • We will provide more details next week on these
  • We are aware of a few issues, so we’re aiming to address as many as possible
• Fishing Rod Fix
  
  Some of you may have a fishing rod attached to you for life 😊 We will be detaching this from you.
• Floating Birds
  
  These birds somehow seem to be able to defy physics and float when they walk. Don’t worry! The birds will still fly correctly.
• Farm AI not using Feed
  
  • TownCo. has assured us that workers are undergoing training to understand the correct procedures for handling of fodder and feeding of animals.
• Worker AI – Locked Storage Edition
  
  • As a low priority task, Worker AI will work to ensure locked storage boxes are full. Even when those items are not considered ‘in demand’ in town.
• Too Much Stuff – The Overflow Chronicles
  
  • You will find a new machine available to you (Tech Tree tier pending)
  • This machine is only usable by Players (for now, see the AI topic below)
  • You can dispose of items in this machine, and in return for X number of items you will receive some Import Tickets
• Additional Bug Fixes that we'll flag next week.
  

Zone/Industry AI feedback

Just to touch on this as a more holistic topic and note that we understand this first update is only touching on some parts of AI feedback.

Worker AI is a bit of a spiderweb, where touching one part can have far-reaching effects. With this in mind, we are trying to chunk up the feedback into manageable topics and starting with a light touch to address a few of the more immediate issues.

We want to avoid trying to provide a slew of solutions in one go! For one, as a team of five people trying to test all the use-cases before we release a big update to AI would take longer than we want to ask you to wait :D We also do not want to end up in a position where we have over engineered AI and end up causing another set of problems. Last thing we need to do is create a waterfall of new issues.

We have broken down the AI worker feedback into is the following issues:

• AI over-producing resources
  
  • Think piles of fish on the ground
  • Without poking at core balance of numbers, what we want to do in the short term, is allow players a way to destroy unwanted goods (not just sell them at the Market Stall and Vending Machines)
• Workers backpacks filling up
  
  • This is an issue unto itself, but it does also come down to the workers not having the space to get rid of their items, as well as over producing of items
• Storage Bins being placed outside of zones
  • This is not clearly signed to players about WHO can access bins based on where they are placed. We need to work on visually communicating this, as there are reasons for a player wanting to place bins outside of their industry zones.
  • However, bins are being placed outside of zones and is creating the illusion of AI being broken, when in fact it’s just that the bin is not accessible by some workers.
• How AI deals with locked storage (and player expectation of this)
  
  • We are aiming to have AI have a lower-level priority of ensuring bins are full, so it doesn’t feel like there’s an overbalance of item A and an under balance of item B.
• Communicating issues/breakdowns in Worker AI
  • Longer term we need to start using notifications as a way to alert the player there are problems happening in their Zones/Industries. We are going to hold off on this for now, as we need to clear some of the ‘backlog’ of other issues.
  • We don’t want to spam you too much here :D However, we might start rolling out some notifications sooner rather than later. Not being able to access storage is a good example of one we can do that shouldn’t create too much ‘notification spam’

Map Size and Zone Expansion

We have heard your requests, and we want to start doing what we can here!

Of all the industry zones, Farm has been your #1 request to expand.

Generally, you are asking for bigger maps!

We had map expansions planned for a future update; however, we acknowledge that this is something we need to prioritise NOW 😊 So, we are! But we also ask that you are patient with us on this – and I aim to have more news next week on this front.

Map expansion has a couple of major knock-on effects that we need to address before we roll this out.

• Performance!
  
  • We have been working hard to keep the game running to a decently low spec, which also means having it run smoothly on Steam Deck. So, we need to do some performance testing before we just dump a whole new area of the map on you.
• Moving tourists around the town
  
  • Right now tourists have a limited set of time they will spend in town, and also a wander distance on them. There’s a WHOLE set of stuff we wanted to do to revamp their AI, but if we move forward with expanding the map sooner, we need to have some quicker solutions in place.
  • We are investigating Tourist path-finding and what it would take to add subways and/or some form of ‘teleportation’ of tourists around the map. If you can build there, we need to make sure that tourists can get there! What we do not want to do is lock away some zones to say ‘this is only for residential’. If you can build there, you can put what you want there, and it should be utilised by the AI.

Minor Updates and Bug Fixes
We are working on an ongoing release process, and Minor Update 1 will form the first of this.

• We want to get weekly updates out to you.
  
• These updates will include minor bug fixes as well as gameplay improvements, and where possible bits of new content 😊
  
• We’ll be aiming to release updates on Mondays (Australia time), pending testing and QA times.
  

If/When Major bugs creep in we will continue to fix this in a timely manner with Hot Fixes!

Major Updates

Our first Major Update is “Wheels in Motion”, is set for release at the end of July. As we get closer to release, we’ll do a unique post about what to expect from this update!

Communication

For the next month or two, as we work through feedback, we’ll be working to do weekly updates with our community. We have a LOT of platforms to reach players on, so we’ll be trying our best to figure out how we do so: Mailing list, Steam, Twitter, Discord, TikTok, Instagram, Threads, Bluesky, B站: / Bilibili, 小红书 / Little Red Book, 微博 / Weibo

In time, we’ll swap over to updates every two weeks. We’ll be checking in, letting you know what is up, and starting to show off new stuff 😊

For our Newsletter subscribers we aim to email out once a month, and when we do, we’ll have some unique content for you in there! Our first newsletter is planned for early July.

We Won an Award!

We attended the Queensland Games Festival on Saturday 22nd June, which is always a highlight for us to show off what we make in our hometown. And we walked away with the 'Best In Show' award!

Here's John (aka Wheels) accepting the award on behalf of the team!

User Created Towns

We have a thriving Discord community and we've been floored by what our community members are sharing with us! We want to show off what our members are creating in each of our updates, so if you want to show us what you are working come join our Discord here.
A new code for you

If you have read this far, and you know what the Jailbreak app is about, we've got a code for you ;)

U R O C K

-Cheryl

Today’s the day! Go-Go Town! is OUT NOW IN EARLY ACCESS! 🎉 We’ve also got a lovely launch discount, so the game will be 10% off for the next two weeks.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Because there’s a lot of machines and recipes and things of that nature to keep track of, we now officially have A WIKI. It’s a thing of beauty, and a great reference point when you can’t remember exactly which veggies go into a Relaxo Blast (carrot + beetroot). And please feel free to contribute and edit to your heart’s content -but be warned, though - spoilers abound!



We’re so glad you’re along for our journey. If you want to dive in even deeper in the Go-Go Town! community, we’ve got a great active Discord that you’re welcome to join.

And now that we’re officially in Early Access, if you want a refresher of what our roadmap for the next year (ish) looks like, here you go:

Go-Go Town! Live Stream

Go-Go Town! Live Stream

Hello Mayors! We’re excited to announce that:


[h2]Go-Go Town! is coming to Early Access on June 18th! [/h2]

This has been the culmination of quite a lot of work, and at the same time, it’s just the beginning. We can’t wait for you to experience the game beyond the playtests and join us on the journey to 1.0.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
Want to know when it’s coming to your part of the world?


And of course, it wouldn’t be an EA announce without a big ol’ roadmap, so you can see what we’ve got planned throughout the Early Access period. We’ve got a lot of things that we want to roll out, and some secret things that will only come to light a bit later. Take a look:



And finally: Next Fest kicks off TOMORROW, but our updated demo is live RIGHT NOW, so you can check it out immediately!

With our inclusion in Next Fest, we wanted to make things a bit… chaotic. So we’ve added a critter slider into the mix! This will multiply the amount of wildlife in your town—and for every 5K demo downloads, we'll add an additional level! At a certain point, it will be putting your CPU through the paces. So how many creatures can you add to your town before things go haywire? Only one way to find out!



https://store.steampowered.com/app/2195120/GoGo_Town/