Hello everyone!
If you take a look at the past couple blog posts, you’ll get a good overview of what we’re currently working on for the next update(s). I don’t have any date or timelines yet, but I’m going to let you know as soon as we have made a decision.
That puts us in a tricky spot for today’s blog as we’ve shown off all the work in progress and I don’t have anything new and flashy for you today. However, while we’re actively working on the next update, we’re also doing long term planning for future updates on our way to version 1.0 - and one of those topics is what I am going to talk about today.
The future of commerce
With the commerce update over a year ago we have adjusted the FOUNDRY theme and made the game about producing and selling robots. We expanded the space station’s mechanics, added a star map and introduced over two dozen robots to make in your factory. It was overwhelmingly received as a step in the right direction and since then we have added more robots to sell.
That being said, the systems aren’t fully there yet. The whole fantasy of selling robots is a bit shallow and often you ask yourself why you really want to sell even more robots to the galaxy. Pushing the statistics ultimately isn’t super rewarding, and money becomes a non-issue fairly quickly. Paying off the debt and pushing company ranks both is alright, but also not a huge motivating factor.
So what we’re doing is exploring how to make the system more engaging. We’re not necessarily trying to add several more complicated layers to the commerce, but rather focus on selling the idea of becoming and managing a robot production company. We might even simplify some of the mechanics (like removing the need to assign multiple cargo ships per planet) and instead add things that feel more rewarding.
One of the core issues we want to address is that there are no meaningful milestones for spending the money you earn. This is unlikely to be solved with a single change, but instead requires us to overhaul multiple systems. I don’t have enough ideas to share today, but I’ll be back with more in the future.
Another thing we want to focus on is the star map. It’s a great starting point, but it lacks depth. You unlock sectors, acquire trade licences and start assigning ships to planets. All those things on their own aren’t bad, but something is clearly lacking. There should just be more to do on the star map. That doesn’t mean that you’ll have to spend a lot of time on the star map, we’re a factory game and not a map game after all, but there can be a lot added that isn’t time consuming or complicated. Maybe factions, more interactions with planets and structures you can build throughout the galaxy?
And lastly we’re looking at the space station. I think it’s fair to say that most people would enjoy the space station to just be a little more fun. We tried to push the fantasy of repairing and upgrading it with the changing visuals, but similar to the other points mentioned it is a little shallow. This one is probably the hardest to address, but we’re exploring a couple of exciting ideas. Would you maybe enjoy visiting the space station?
How do you feel about the overall topic? Are we on the right track here? Do you have specific suggestions about what you’d like to see or how we could solve some of those challenges? Let us know in the comments below!
See you next time,
-mrmcd
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https://store.steampowered.com/app/983870/FOUNDRY/