FOUNDRY News

Thank you for playing the Foundry demo, the feedback you have shared has been incredibly helpful in shaping the future of Foundry.

The demo will be disabled on November 30th 2022.

We expect it to return close to our Early Access launch, and after we have made significant improvements to the game.

Foundry development has been progressing steadily towards Steam Early Access. Although much of what we have been doing is a secret for now, we wanted to update the community on some of the cool things we are adding to the game.


Our Alpha Preview build available on itch.io has been updated, including some new experimental features for you to check out.

[h2]Jet Pack[/h2]
One of the most requested features has been to add a character Jetpack. Consuming Jetpack Fuel, this new mode of locomotion makes traversal and complicated placements a breeze. It especially comes in handy when placing large structures.


[h2]Usability Patch[/h2]
A major UI and interface overhaul was done that improves comfort for experienced users and helps new players learn Foundry.

More information on the usability are available on the official Foundry blog:
https://www.foundry-game.com/post/dev-blog-23

[h2]Ladders[/h2]
Vertical traversal also just became a lot simpler with the addition of ladders.


[h2]Upcoming feature: Liquid Simulation[/h2]
Here is a sneak peak of the upcoming liquids feature that is still in development. We have lots of great ideas on how this could integrate into the game and create a much more "sandbox" like experience, but we would love to hear from the community on how it might benefit.


Join our Discord today to discuss!

If you'd like to help support us please make sure to wishlist us on Steam

Version 0.4 is nearing stable release on itch.io and we wanted to share a recap of some of the exciting changes coming that we already shared on Discord. Version 0.4 is an important stepping stone on our path to getting Foundry to Steam. We can't wait to share more with you as we work towards our eventual Early Access launch!

[h2]Placement Improvements[/h2]
Graphical and QOL improvements for placement. Texture detail comes through to give more context, objects animate in, outline shader makes the bounds clearer, and rotations are visualized to show you how it changed.


[h2]Research Tree[/h2]
Added research dependency view to the research screen. This allows players to see the breadth of the game and to make a "plan" on what they need to unlock to get to the research they want.


[h2]Interactable Improvements[/h2]
Interactable objects no longer render green cubes and instead they have a shader that is similar to placements. This makes interacting with chests, containers and switches less jarring and more consistent.


[h2]Map Improvements[/h2]
Reworked waypoints and map screens. Right click to add/edit/delete waypoints directly on the map screen, focus map on waypoints by clicking on them in the list, hide the map scanner tab.


[h2]World Decor Mining Decals[/h2]
We added a new system to visualize mining cracks on world decor, to provide feedback on what object you are actually mining.


[h2]Art Update[/h2]
New art for the "Hot Air Stove" and the "Pipeline" has arrived and is available in the current experimental version.


[h2]What did you miss by not being on Discord?[/h2]
We added the ability for players to quickly drag build stairs and other sloped objects, a new radial menu overhaul and a factory floor system that automatically generates borders/indicators on the building blocks, based on outer borders and machines. We have plenty of mechanics, art and content changes in the works; to get the latest development updates as they happen join the Foundry Discord today!

We have been sharing a bunch of exciting updates in our Discord over the past month. It has been a real great way for us to get community feedback as we work. I think now is a good time to share a recap of some of the exciting changes coming to version 0.4 we shared on Discord.

[h2]Terrain Overhaul[/h2]

In order to craft a more unique style that was consistent with our factories the terrain system needed to be rewritten. The beveled look shown here softens the look and allows lighting to hit the terrain in a less jarring way. Textures can now spill over the edges, allowing us to do things like having the top grass be visible from the side.


[h2]Atmosphere[/h2]
Previously the sky was a blank blue canvas, now it has been filled with dynamically rendered and animated clouds. The atmospherics have had a major impact on immersion.

The clouds look different depending on the time of day.


[h2]Mining Laser[/h2]
The laser mining tool now illuminates the environment, it now also collides with buildings correctly.


[h2]Walkways[/h2]
A new building system allows you to easily assemble multi-story walkways around your base, with the automatic placement of handrails.

These walkways may even connect to some new larger buildings we are working on! Placeholder and untextured art shown here.


[h2]What did you miss by not being on Discord?[/h2]
We added the ability for players to quickly set the default loader state and added user editable signs. We have plenty of mechanics, art and content changes in the works; to get the latest development updates as they happen join the Foundry Discord today!

After a long period without updates we're finally back with news!

I’ve always planned for enormous mega bases in Foundry, and it became clear our current C#/C++ hybrid simulation library wouldn’t support that. Therefore I have fully rewritten the simulation library in C++. Foundry is a simulation heavy game and it has greatly benefited from this work. This new library is the foundation that removes the technical limitations preventing us from achieving this plan. As an added benefit, the new library will also improve iteration speeds as we don’t need to consider two languages.

Discord user Illanyss’ vertical battery

The rewrite including QA/Testing and bug-fixing took about 4 months, about a month longer than expected. However testing was very thorough, the game is again fully playable and has most likely fewer bugs than before.

I also used the rewrite process to improve many systems. I'm not going into the details of listing all of them, but for example the conveyor system has been improved and our balancers now support input/output priority lane settings.

New Belt System Debug Visualization

Since roughly one month we're already working again on new features, which we're going to tease very soon. We have already begun sharing these updates on Discord.

[h2]Community-Interaction in the Future[/h2]
We want to hear from you! The feedback we have already received for Foundry has been incredibly helpful in shaping the future of the game, and now we want to try something new. We want to begin regularly sharing development progress and concept work as it happens, and integrate your feedback into those designs.

Our Discord features a channel called "dev-updates". We're really going to show active work in progress, so there is no guarantee that what you'll see will eventually make it into the game. We decided to share our experiments with the community to get early opinions. We have just started sharing these updates on Discord today, so see you there!

Going forward the DevBlog is going to be used as a place to summarize the best of those development updates and share larger updates. We will aim to write shorter articles but with higher frequency.

Discord user zytukin's latest base

See you at the next blog post or on Discord.
-mrmcd