MoteMancer News

Happy 2026 fellow Mancers!

Today I want to share a nuanced take on what the short, medium, and long term plans are for MoteMancer now that I've had a few weeks to step away and see it from the outside. You know it's a good break when you catch yourself trying to start working halfway through it.



[h3]First Things First[/h3]
Thank you to everyone who played MoteMancer over Winter Break, there were lots of great feedback posts and a few nuanced bugs that fell out of that play time, as well as a handful of easy quality of life suggestions. The next week or two will be dedicated to shoring up the build and knocking out said easy wins.

Here are a few small but meaningful improvements focused on clarity, consistency, and reducing friction:

• Structures with range should show a range preview for themselves and any matching neighboring Structures. This is already true for most of them, but it's a good moment to standardize the behavior rather than all the one-off behaviors that exist where some can fall through the cracks.
  
• Umbral Waygates need a way to tag and name the destinations for easier travel
  
• Pipette works on things in the world, but could also be used in a variety of interface and in-world places to 'smartly' grab what you need
  
• Runeshroom placements should be able to flip through available ritual previews on placement.
  
• Tutorials that require research can teleport the player to the node required for more clarity.
  

[h3]Affixes and progression[/h3]
The Affix feature is still the next major task on the docket. Not only will Affixes begin with a few dozen unique options (and therefore countless combinations of them) but I'm also planning on adding an option for the tutorial to start on Fire or Life. Affixes are going to give you a difficulty preview while you are selecting them, and Fire has a different set of challenges from Life, but both are good introductions to the game. I think giving players that fantasy or mechanical agency should help break some barriers to entry down. More on that later.

For pacing, there are a few significant changes coming as well:

• Echoflare will be moving to the entropy tree and Echotracer is going to be removed from Shadow. Blueprints living in Entropy fits very well flavor-wise, but more importantly, it means that the unlock timing of blueprint tools will be consistent regardless of the plane you start on. I think Echotracer comes a little too late on Life and a little too early on Fire, this should make the pacing feel just right.
  
• Synthesis research recipes will change to require ingredients other than prisms. I've gotten a lot of feedback that all the planar research feels too samey, and I think that using prisms for everything falls a little flat. This will both encourage you to automate the useful synthesis tools for each combination, and also give you a puzzle to solve while doing so.
  
• The Ultimate Structures for each combo are going to come sooner in progression. There are a variety of ways to achieve this and I haven't settled on the exact details yet, but stay tuned. Either way, they are super fun to play with and I think it's a bit too laborious to unlock them at the moment.
  
• Shadow needs a new spell to replace Echotracer, and Wavedash needs a better spell replacement as well. I have some plans, but better to reveal them when they are more finalized.
  

[h3]The Alchemists Journal[/h3]
This is the ambitious one. MoteMancer's biggest problem is still the first few hours of the game, where there is a tremendous amount of information to ingest. I think I've chipped away at it, but I also think so far it hasn't been enough and I need to take a bigger swing at it. I really like the idea that you the player are learning alongside the alchemist avatar you control, and that the world needs to be solved with experimentation, but some things can still feel more obtuse than they need to.

To that end - I've had a back-pocket idea for a long time to have a journal of insights that can be learned along your journey. This can start with simple tutorial tip reminders, but also show key structural truths about the game that only really click after many hours that could be better explained with imagery. A good example is showing that Motes can be passed through a grindstone and used as a binding reagent for an adjacent Element, or elevated into the full Elemental form. It will also serve as a pursuit in its own right, giving you something to chase while you build your factory. It's ambitious and nebulous, but I do think it's a key piece that is missing.



[h3]1.0 When?[/h3]
MoteMancer was originally planned to launch in July of this year. I think that goal is attainable, but not at the cost of clarity. The biggest thing I've learned in the last few months is that I should take more time and care with areas of the game that can lead to confusion or information overload. Therefore I don't think I should claim completion in advance this time. I have a good sense for long it takes to make features and art for given parts of the game, but feedback is going to be the only way for me to properly assess the health and approachability of the early game, and so for that portion of development I think it's more correct to be in a 'done when it is done' stance.

MoteMancer will enter its 'thousands of hours of gameplay' mode very shortly through the addition of affixes, but I don't think 1.0 will be a worthy moniker until early-game approachability meets a high bar. Another note is that controller support is still a priority for me, but I also think the Alchemists Journal is more important to get in first, and can be improved while working on controller support and any remaining quality of life additions.

Very happy to hear comments around 2026 plans if you have them. As always your feedback and suggestions shape the flow of MoteMancer's development. Looking forward to a great year for MoteMancer, thank you for being along on the journey :)

Back to the lab! 🌿
~CyanAvatar

Releasing the Elemental Mastery Update was a great way to close out the year. Since MoteMancer entered Early Access in July, the game has grown in meaningful and foundational ways, both in content and cohesion. Before looking ahead, it’s worth taking stock of what we've unlocked so far:

• Entropy has evolved from a spatial nuisance into the backbone of an entirely new research tree.
  
• Dozens of new Structures, Spells, and Upgrades have been added, and every element now has a complete, distinct toolkit.
  
• Lighting, animation, and structure FX have seen major improvements, with more polish to come.
  
• Community-driven quality-of-life changes continue to meaningfully shape the game.
  
• And we now have an official community-run Wiki, which has been incredible to see take shape.
  

It’s been a rewarding five months of iteration, and with that foundation in place, this feels like a good moment to revisit the roadmap and where MoteMancer is headed next.



We’re still on track for MoteMancer’s 1.0 launch in July 2026. Roughly half of the original roadmap is now complete: Blueprints, World Seeds, Spells, Music, Runeshroom Rituals, Entropy, and Research Tree refinement are all live and well established. Art, UI/UX, and community requests remain ongoing efforts, but the core pillars are now firmly in place.

And that brings us to the next major update, currently planned for February.



[h3]Affixes[/h3]

The name may change, but the concept is solid: MoteMancer is uniquely suited to structural rule changes that meaningfully alter how the game is played.

In many automation games, removing a core resource or system would simply break the experience. In MoteMancer, the redundancy and overlap between elements creates an interesting problem space when a tool is missing. Combined with the hex-based logistics and spatial puzzles, affixes can reshape gameplay itself rather than acting as simple difficulty modifiers.

There are currently 27 affixes planned, with only a handful being mutually exclusive. Most can be mixed and matched freely, and they will tie directly into the Achievement system. Some may even be gated behind achievements, which is a suggestion that emerged directly from community discussion, and one I’m excited to explore.



[h3]And Beyond[/h3]

April will likely be the final feature-focused update before 1.0, and it feels like the right time to address controller support and additional early-game onboarding tools.

MoteMancer intentionally leans into discovery, but as more players come through Early Access, it’s become clear where the line between mysterious and opaque can blur. An in-game Alchemist’s Journal is something I’ve been considering for a while, and it may be the right tool to preserve the spirit of learning-by-doing while offering better guidance when players need it.

I’m also continuing to explore ways to introduce elemental flavor earlier. The current Salt-forward opening succeeds at easing complexity, but it does delay access to the elemental identity that defines much of the game. Finding a better balance there is very much an active design conversation.



Finally, I want to thank everyone who has chosen to play during Early Access. MoteMancer is a complex game, and the feedback, discussion, and patience from the community have been invaluable in smoothing its rough edges and shaping its direction.

I won’t say “back to the lab” just yet - I’m taking a short break to recharge. I’ll be back on the first Monday of the new year with fresh eyes and renewed energy.

In the meantime, have a relaxing and magical holiday, fellow Mancers 🌿

Thanks all for the reports!

• Locked vs freeform now remembers its state between sessions.
  
• Picking up entities now shows the total you have as well as amount picked up.
  
• Added Vulkan support.
  
  
• The player now sorts in front of most buildings when using Levitate.
  
• Wind FX for Mana Bloom, Arboretum, Greenhouse, Mana Leaf and Mana Canopy.
  
  
• Altar could block itself until returning to idle or starting a new research.
  
• Removing a mana root connected to a bloom through a production structure could break the mana bloom.
  
• Overgrowth Pillars now grow Flora on their own plane rather than the Players current plane.
  
• Fix for planar reliquary mouse over and gripper sprite.
  
• All lights on structures are disabled when in blueprint mode.
  
• Fix for master tier shadow research using prisms instead of keystones.
  
• Fixed collectors desaturating when unpowered while motes were still available.
  
• Fix Titan Grippers bad configuration for one rotation.
  

Thanks so much everyone for sending in suggestions and bug reports. Snuck a bunch of quality of life in while bug fixing, enjoy!


Quality of Life

• Pickup action (F) will now keep picking things up while held down.
  
• Spell Function and Locked vs Freeform placement mode assigned to Z and X respectively (was Ctrl) and are re-bindable.
  
• Gripper arcs are now slightly pointed to show directionality better at a glance
  
• Mana Roots, Gust Funnels, and Fire Wires will now show Power Grid stats when clicked.
  
• Grant 6 of any mushroom when unlocked except Runeshroom.
  
• Paths no long block placing structures (and automatically pickup the Paths to your inventory).
  
• Charged Lodestone window will show the last selected slot for each specific lodestone.
  
• Lava Barriers now show a simple popup tutorial the first time you build with them.
  
• Infusion Altar shows 5 second timer in hover tip.
  

Misc Fixes

• Bismuth and Brimstone now cost 3 of each element again.
  
• Overflow and Gathering Storm nodes in the Research Tree have more appropriate icons.
  
• Fixed Energetic and Persistent mote descriptions in Grindstone
  
• Omni gripper and Titan Gripper now play nicely with extended range in preview mode when their respective upgrades are unlocked.
  
• You can no longer flip a delta without its upgrade. If you have one in your save it will become unflipped on load.
  
• Recharging a mana flare behaves mostly like a spell, cant move, animates.
  
• Collectors were not saving their progress correctly if it was trying to place motes in its inventory.
  
• Torrential underground no longer shows up on the Torrential Streamway research node.
  
• Vortex updates the action bar on collection, and will replenish stacks in hand as well as inventory.
  

[h3]MoteMancer's second Major update is now Live![/h3]

Elemental Mastery brings a massive amount of additional content to your alchemical garden. The Research Tree has been infused with dozens of new researches, complete with new spells, new structures, and new synergies. Every node in the research tree that was shattered is now available, and the tree itself has grown with the help of our community. There's a ton to cover, but I'll go into the highlights first, with complete patch notes below.



[h3]Research Complete[/h3]
MoteMancer's tree now has over 200 research nodes available, with a focus on meaningful upgrades and filling out a few of the later elements. Let's do a quick highlight for each element:

• Life: Overgrowth Pillar provides a way to extend your Mote Fields by growing Flora on them - with the new addition of Mystical Agriculture allowing your Collectors to harvest Flora in addition to raw motes. Sovereign Manaheart carries this theme and has been changed to convert abundant solar power back into the ground and replenish Mote Fields directly, and even grow them beyond their initial footprint.
  
• Earth: Excavator has moved to earlier in the tree to assist in early itches for base refactoring, and later Titanic Command allows you to increase the radius of both Nudge and Excavator to exert your will upon the world. Chests also now have slot locking and synergy with Earth Grippers, allowing double pickups from an Earth Chest with an Earth Gripper.
  
• Fire: Luminarium is finally available, with the ability to kit out your base with elemental lighting. Thermal Towers have an upgrade to double their connection distance, and placement of Fire Wires now places successive structures at their correct distances. Void Tower allows for wireless power transmission, and the Foundry creates the opportunity for a significant Elemental Production boost and feedback loop.
  
• Shadow: Umbral Waygates and Slipways are in and provide both intraplanar and interplanar teleportation respectively. Mark / Return is a new spell on the block that will allow you to bind a unique location that you can return to at will. Blackhole Monolith will drag Rifts towards them, and Radiantshrooms increase the range of your Runeshroom Rituals.
  
• Air: Enchanted Grippers and Deltas are in - allowing you to filter your factory lines, and Omni Grippers give you even more freedom - allowing you to set any input and output slot you like. Vortex is a new spell that will passively snag items from nearby chests to top off your inventory stacks, and Cloudspring Fountain is a new super-distributor of items, combining the best of Streamways and Air Grippers.
  
• Water: By popular request, Streamways Deltas can now reverse their direction, changing from a Delta to a Tributary. Mana Pools have gained synergy with Downpour Bastions in two ways: Overflow will increase the storage capacity of Mana Pools near Bastions, and Whirlpool will cleanse Entropy that drains 1000 Power from the Pool, creating a powered safety wall. Riptide will also pickup items from Pedestals to allow you to wipe the slate clean when you need it.
  

A reminder that spells have always had the ability to toggle their additional functionality on and off, but there is now a Spell Tooltip window that reminds you of the state you are in.

Full patch notes below for all the gritty details :)

New Sovereign Manaheart and Overgrowth Pillar

[h3]Aesthetic Alchemy[/h3]
The underlying tech for our art pipeline has received a significant overhaul. In the short term this means that each structure is now much more performant, and unifies their artistic reach. Every structure has received a night-lighting pass, and elemental dissolves. Structures now are uniformly affected by wind, and are set up for future animation polish.

The planes themselves have also been better balanced for day and night lighting, as well as terrain texture improvements. Terrace of Trails - a new Air structure - also has a new suite of elemental paths to extend the simple Swiftstone that Salt provides.


[h3]Extra Highlights[/h3]
In preparation for the next update, the ability to start a playthrough from any Plane has been added! You can find this by going into the options menu from the main menu before you begin a new game - this will be massively fleshed out in the future, but this early access will help make sure that alternate plane starts are tuned appropriately. Note that tutorials are not available for custom plane starts.


[h3]State of the Game and the Future[/h3]
With the Research Tree complete, the next phase of development will focus on expanding replay-ability through affixes. This update was able to hit lighting and new structure art very well, so the next phase is going to be much more animation, FX, and UI focused. I will be off for the holidays spending time with family, but will be back at it in full force in January. The Affix update is tentatively planned for February 2026. HUGE shoutout to the alpha testers for helping land this patch! The game will continue to improve with all of your feedback.

Happy Holidays everyone, thank you for making this year automagical 🌿
~CyanAvatar



If you’ve been waiting to jump in, now’s a great time! MoteMancer is 20% off during the Elemental Mastery Update and Winter Sale!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/3320980/


[h2]Steam Reviews[/h2]
Sharing your thoughts about MoteMancer in a Steam Review is one of the best ways to help the game grow. Understanding what is working, what could use improvement, and most importantly what you hope to see for the future is and always will be what drives the game forward. Your voice matters, and directly affects decisions made throughout the development process.


[h2]MoteMancer has a Wiki![/h2]
If you are ever feeling stuck, check out the MoteMancer Wiki for additional information, or join our Discord and introduce yourself. There are plenty of friendly alchemists there to help.



[h2]Full Patch Notes - v0.3.014[/h2]
Crafting Window and Research tree have been reorganized. Your save game progress is associated with research node position rather than specific tech, so some researches may have to be reacquired. Others you may now have for free.

You can start a playthrough from any plane by going to the Gameplay Menu from the Main Menu. MoteMancer is a complex game - starting from a Plane besides Life will be very challenging especially if you are unfamiliar with the game's mechanics. This will evolve into a formal world and affix selection for the next patch, but have fun in the meantime :)

[h3]New/Updated Research and Structures[/h3]
Life:

• Mystical Agriculture - now additionally enables Collectors to harvest nearby Flora before Motes.
  
• Overgrowth Pillar - Place near Mote Fields to grow Flora on top of Motes.
  
• Fertile Ground - Upgrades Overgrowth Pillar and Biorhythm to grow Flora on any element.
  

Life\Earth:

• Sovereign Manaheart - Has changed to replenishing Mote Fields with Power. Current tuning is 1000 Power per Mote, pulses every 8 seconds, up to 500,000 power per pulse. Like Spindle, one of its tiles must overlap the center of a Mote Field in order to be placed.
  

Earth:

• Excavator has moved into Tier 1 Research
  
• Nudge has moved out to Tier 2 Research
  
• Seismic Flare has moved to the Entropic Research Tree on the North side.
  
• Stonebound - Allows Earth chests to lock a slot to a specific item. Use the top corner of the slot to set it.
  
• Titanic Command - Excavate can now toggle a +2 range when the player has this upgrade. It will harvest everything in that radius. Nudge now also works with the extra radius if toggled on.
  
• Ancient Strength - Allows Titan Grippers to double their reach.
  
• Delve - Earth Grippers grasp twice as many items from Earth Chests.
  

Earth\Fire:

• Raze - Meteor Swarm destroys Flora and Excavate allows building on top of Flora.
  
• Charged Lodestone - Affectionately known as Chest Trains. Allows you to send Earth Chests sailing across the map with stored up power.
  
• Foundry - Uses Brimstone to generate an abundance of Elements.
  
• Basalt Chest has been removed.
  

Fire:

• Luminarium - New elemental Lights for each element are available to spruce up your base aesthetically.
  
• Thermal Filament - Doubles Thermal Towers Connection range.
  

Fire\Shadow:

• Radiantshroom - Place 6 of these, one at each corner of a Runeshroom Ritual to double its area of effect.
  
• Radiant Glow - Upgrades Radiantshrooms to increase the area even further.
  
• Void Tower - Connects to other Void Towers on the same plane, transferring power between them, effectively creating a long-range wireless connection.
  

Shadow:

• Blackhole Monolith - Slowly drags Rifts towards its core.
  
• Echoflare - Upgrades Manaflare to act as an additional Echotracer source.
  
• Umbral Waygate - Player made teleporter that will allow you to travel to another Waygate on the same plane. Walk over the Waygate and select a star to teleport to.
  
• Sinkhole - Ichor slicks can now be upgraded to have double storage.
  
• Mark / Return - Allows you to place a Mark in the world that you can return to at will. Swap modes to set a new Mark.
  

Shadow\Air

• Omni Gripper Allows setting source and destination in any configuration around its 6 directions.
  
• Tunneling Grip - Upgrades Omni Gripper to be able to extend reach.
  
• Slipway - A player-made planar portal that will travel between Shadow, Air, Water, and Fire planes.
  

Air:

• New Spell - Vortex (Aura) - Gathers ingredients from nearby Structures to replenish your inventory. Will only grab from output and unrestricted (chest) slots, and will fill to stack cap for everything in the player inventory.
  
• Terrace of Trails - New elemental Paths for each element are available to spruce up your base aesthetically - still grants the same 30% move speed buff that Swiftstone does.
  

Air/Water:

• Streamline - Streamways and Air Grippers do not block air flow tiles.
  
• Enchanted Gripper - Air-style gripper with filtering. Modes for Allow and Deny, and setting a single entity per source or destination
  
• Enchanted Delta - Streamway Delta with the same filtering options.
  
• Cloudspring Fountain - Feed items directly in with Streamways and the fountain will distribute them to any structure under its influence.
  
• Torrential Slipstream removed.
  

Water:

• Tributary - Allows you to flip the direction of Streamway Deltas
  
• Shoal Sweep - now also includes gathering from pedestals.
  
• Whirlpool - Entropy over Mana Pools will be cleansed after 1000 Power is drained. Allows you to use Mana Pools as a wall against entropy
  
• Overflow - Downpour Bastions grant nearby Mana Pools 20% more Power storage.
  

[h3]Quality of Life:[/h3]

• All grippers have a new corner UI to facilitate functional mode swaps
  
• Inventories can now be set to freeform instead of auto sorted - enabled in the options menu.
  
• Chest slots can now be truncated with a red lock button in the bottom right corner of their UI.
  
• Added a Spell Hover tooltip to show the name of the spell and the function status of the spell. You can toggle the function while the spell is hovered.
  
• All collectors have an in-game indicator for primary output direction
  
• Changed rift reaper Mote Patch generation so that it doesn't always merge with the original mote patch.
  
• Recipes in structures now show hovers per ingredient rather than just the final product
  
• Simple hovers show more information
  
• Fire Wires now have a special placement style that will place them at max distance while click and holding.
  
• Recipe times have increased for more advanced structures
  
• Deprecated Structures like Torrential Slipstream and Basalt Chest will still load but they are unable to be crafted any more.
  
• Earth Chest art has updated and now always sorts under the player - Collision on Earth Chests has been removed.
  
• Buildings which require 100% saturation will now show their no power indicator on their structure and in their respective windows when saturation is less than 100%.
  
• Shift + Mouse Wheel will now rotate Structures while in build mode.
  

[h3]Aesthetics:[/h3]

• All structures have new player sorting layers
  
• Powered UI corner now uses the mana flare shader
  
• New lighting pipeline should improve lighting at all times of day throughout the game, and allows for structural lighting at night.
  
• Air Power corridors now have FX art showing their area of effect.
  
• Entropy tree now has colors for elemental nodes
  
• Refactor Fire Wire connections now create fewer overlapping wires.
  
• Life, Shadow, and Air planes have had terrain and lighting passes.
  
  
• Updated art for: Sovereign Manaheart, Void Collector, Darkgrove, Ember Collector, Tar Cauldron, Crystal Loft, Lava Barrier
  

[h3]Performance:[/h3]

• Power grid optimization
  
• Planar Clouds are now much cheaper to render
  
• Fixed performance around upgrading Life Power Networks
  
• All structures have been atlassed, reducing draw calls by ~60%
  

[h3]Bug Fixes[/h3]

• Shockwave (distortion that happens when you cast manaflare) should not use a shared material in case the last one hasn't fully cleaned up before a new one starts.
  
• Saves will no longer show up in the loading screen if the required files are not present.
  
• If autosave on quit throws an exception it wont stop the process from quitting.
  
• Echo tracer will validate it can build the structure before both sending the missile and building it. This fixes an issue where you could get invalid lava barriers from echo tracer missiles.
  
• Gripper now detects if the target inventory is full and will only pick up up entities to fill any partially filled slots on the target.
  
• Doodads now nudge like everything else and dont change colors.
  
• You can no longer activate 2 spells at the same time. So long Levi-haste.
  

For the curious alchemists among you: a link to the full Elemental Mastery Research Tree lies below. Those who prefer discovery may wish to avert their gaze.