During these late stages of development, writing an introduction to every other edition of these Dev Diaries becomes a more challenging task every time. E.g., there isn't much to report: the majority of game mechanics are already in place, and now our work mostly revolves around tons of polishing, visual updates, and concluding the game's story (sounds like a piece of cake, right?).
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1150090
On the brighter side, we've got lots of new images to share!
Views of the Future
Learning Factory has changed so much, that when our friends who played the 2021 edition of the game see the latest screenshots, they're asking whether it's a sequel to Learning Factory. What do you think though?
2021
2023
The work on the visuals continues as more and more items of different quality levels get their own unique design. The old ones are subject to revision, too! Just a couple of weeks back we introduced new metals, along with gems, seaweed, and cotton:
Clone Paws & Other Wonders
Although all basic mechanics are still in place, some occasional new buildings keep emerging in the game. Sometimes they're based on community ideas, like this cozy cloning chamber:
This spectacular device makes an exact copy of any visiting Cat, which is considered to be an android with a digital copy of a cat donor's mind. Known side effects: clones are traveling on Transporters, facing backward.
Both cats are alive at the same time.
Another new building and an instrument at your disposal is called Chillout Space:
It ensures zero productivity and 100% laziness efficiency. These conditions do motivate cats to recommend your Factory to their friends, but they wouldn’t bother doing even that: an AI-powered algorithm is there to compose a tempting text that will bring more like-minded cats to your campus, while their buddies are taking (yet another) break from doing nothing before they decide to return to relaxed shopping.
Surprisingly as it is, that’s not just it! A couple of other new buildings are also scheduled for the upcoming update next week. One of them makes an advanced edition of Gum:
(A fun fact: by this day, some of our players don't suspect that our game actually has 3D graphics, with detailed models and such!)
While the other is codenamed ‘Teleport’. Any ideas about what it does though?
What else are we working on? Thousands of little and big things are happening under the hood: optimization, polishing, bug fixing, new sounds, more new visuals, more optimization and polishing, and then some.
New gameplay features emerge from this seemingly chaotic, yet meticulously planned and controlled creative abyss. For one, there are new and more profitable deals in the Trade Ports. And Tunnels and Splitters can now be placed on Rafts as well - a small change in the rules, a potentially huge expansion of logistic maneuvers, especially for those playing on island-filled maps!
Another little change that may make a big splash is that bunch of new recipes for items that we've added to certain buildings. Some of them will allow you to craft higher quality goods, others give a productivity boost. This feature will be but one of many exciting ideas that we can't way to see you try, come next update.
And if you'll think some of them don't feel right for any reason - we'll be more than happy to hear from you! Part of the idea behind us releasing a new update every fortnight is that we're building the game based on your feedback! So let us know your thoughts on the Discord server or right here in the comments!
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Mark these words: we're going to paint some plates green on our Early Access roadmap very soon! Wanna make a bet on which ones it will be? You'll know the results before the next edition of these Dev Diaries comes out! Until we meet again!