Craftomation 101 cover
Craftomation 101 screenshot
Genre: Simulator, Strategy, Indie

Craftomation 101

Not Even Our Final Form - Craftomation Dev Diaries, October 2023



Hey mates!

The fall is the time for harvest here in the northern hemisphere, and ours has brought a lot of fruits! Watching you enjoy Craftomation 101's playtest was full of excitement and insights! We've made important improvements to the game and started implementing very interesting ideas. Let's talk about that, but first - check out our updated trailer:



If you happened to have participated in our playtest in September, we thank you a great deal, and you're forever in our hearts! More than 500 people joined us that glorious week, which led to fixing a spectacular amount of bugs, and making the difficulty curve smoother. We had spent a lot of time redesigning the map and creating a comprehensive sequence of quests, and we were so glad to find out that over 60% of the players who made it to the late part of the game have pushed it to completion!

After making a series of thweaks based on your feedback, we'll likely put polishing the map aside for some time, so we could finally start working on something truly epic: adding new commands to the program editor, and improving existing ones. More on that a bit later though.

What's New



If you missed the playtest, we still have great news for you: Craftomation 101 Demo got a nice reboot as well! It is know in sync with our current internal version, only with limited content. That means, that all the new graphics, some of the new commands (such as ‘compare’, for one) and all the bug fixes will appear in demo at the same time we roll out our in-house update!

We have updated the main menu art to celebrate the occasion, too:



That also includes a proper saving system, with autosaves, multiple save slots and whatnot, along with localizations update! By the way, we have not one, but two options to choose from when selecting language: you can either pick human (official or community-made) translation, or the one made by chatGPT 4. We're making a game about robots here, so it only made sense.

We'd like to take an opportunity to thank brave community translators (a special kudos to roigrek!), and invite you all to join our Discord - to share your thoughts about the game, help with translating it to your native language, or just chat with us about anything.

Oh, and you know what? We also have achievemnts now! Unfortunately, Steam won't allow us release them in the demo, but they'll be waiting for you by the time we hit Early Access! There's a total of 31 achievemnt at the moment, with 15 of them being secret. And here are the others, non-secret ones:



What's Next



Many new things are on our collective table at the moment, as the Early Access is looming. We didn't tell you that, but we have picked a release window already - still, we need to make some arrangements before we're confident enough to make it official. But that does mean that there's a lot of new content to be added.

We'll start small: Alex the artist is now working on making a neat border for the map, so it wouldn't look as if the game world just ends with black void anymore. Now it ends with impassable soulless icy moiuntans:



But most importantly: the new commands! We have been speaking about ‘smart find’ (and its associates) for a while now, but now it's happening for real: an option to choose whether an object should be picked from the ground, natural source or a Storage is almost there:



(The buttons are placeholders, don't mind them for now)

We have also expanded the features of ‘compare’ command, so players could select an object for comparing, making this command more useful:



And after that we'll start working on something real cool: counters will be introduced to the game! Those of you familiar with programming will understand, how it changes everything. For those who are not, here's an example: you'll be able to instruct a Craftomate to check whether the amount of items in a cell is more, equal or less than X. So they'll know when a Fire is fueled enough or when they have produced enough food to be able to switch to another task.

This (and other things that we're drafting at the moment) will make managing robots even more complex, so the next big thing for us would be creating an interface for navigating the ranks of your little silicone helpers.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1724140/Craftomation_101_Programming__Craft/

So many things to do! We'd better get back to work, and get back in a month with more exciting details! In the meantime, here's another bunch of things that you can do to help Craftomation 101 see the light of release ASAP:


  • Share this post with a friend who might like Craftomation 101
  • You can even scribe yourself into the game's credits: most of our games’ localizations are community-made, and we now have a spreadsheet for those who are willing to help us translate the game into their native language
  • Buy the supporter pack to gain access to exclusive WIP stuff and full-time access to the devs’ ears and minds
  • And of course, play the free demo on itch.io or Steam, leave us a comment, or come to Discord and discuss your experience with us

Wishlists 101

Hello everyone! I hope you are doing great and I am thrilled to see you stopping by here.

You probably saw the "Add to your wishlist" message a number of times here on Steam. But what are all the developers asking it for, should you click that green (or blue) button, what is it?

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1724140/Craftomation_101/

For players


So the answer is relatively easy - Steam now in 2023 works in a different way than before. If you have a game on your wishlist you will:

  • Receive an email on the release day
  • See news about the game published by its' developer here on Steam
  • Get notified about the discounts by email

You can always remove the game from your wishlist.

For developers


The developer will know nothing (no email, no account name, no ability to send you a message) about you personally, just the total number of wishlists. This number is a thing that can help the developers understand how much players are interested in the game, and how many additional features and level of quality they should consider to work on.

  • 1,000 wishlists - almost nobody knows about the game, probably players don't want it or never heard about the game
  • 1,000,000 wishlists - players absolutely crazy about that and expecting something really really good from the developers

Now you know what to do


So if you are interested - consider adding the game to your wishlist, it's like hitting the subscribe button on social media.
If you are not sure yet (or you waiting for the discounts) and want to see how the game is being developed to decide later - adding to the wishlist is the best option to tell Steam algorithms that you want to be aware of news and updates from the developer.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1724140/Craftomation_101/

P.S. If you want to talk to developers directly, suggest some features, and get more involved in the making of the game - Discord and Steam Discussions are great for that. Or let's chat down below if you have anything to discuss!

Craftomation 101 Playtest Open For Everyone!



Hey mates,

Just a quick reminder: Craftomation 101 Playtest is live on Steam, and everyone is welcome to play! Gain access on the game's Steam page:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1724140/Craftomation_101_Programming__Craft/

Scroll down the game's Steam page a little, hit the playtest button - and you're good!

The version we've got for this very special occasion is almost twice as big in content as the demo! Here's a brief reminder of what is new:


  • New robot: Cargomate
  • Extended organics: there's now a Sulfur source on the map, which is perfect for growing a new kind of plant - Moss (and Mushrooms, too). Check out this article to learn more;
  • New building: a Brewery turns Wood, Moss, and Mushrooms into nutritious ales for your Craftomates! Just add some hot water;
  • Reworked graphics: new Command Center visuals, new Ancient Ice visuals, a whole new array of new visual effects
  • Interaction between Craftomates: copying, pasting programs, switching each other on and off, and waiting - more on this in this article
  • Program editor improvements: you can now add and delete functions, and functions can operate with variables. A bunch of new commands for checking on organics and whether a Craftomate is buffed were added, too
  • New, more deliberate map design




Enjoy the game, and please, let us know what you think of it! Every bit of feedback helps us to make the final game more appealing to you! You can use the in-game feedback button (look for an icon with a bug), drop us a line at info@luden.io, or come hang with us on our Discord server.

The playtest will last until September 18! Have fun :)


Playtest Incoming! Craftomation Dev Diaries, September 2023



Ahoy, mates!

We know it's been a while, but hey! We bring you awesome news. Remember all that new content we've been talking about so many times? Well, you're about to check it all out by yourselves!

In order to make sure that Craftomation 101 hits Early Access in its best shape, we need to know what you (yes, you!) think of the game in its current state. That is why we will conduct an open playtest on September 11-18! You can sign up right now to get notified by Steam once it starts (scroll down the game page to see the button):

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1724140/Craftomation_101_Programming__Craft/



Here's a brief list of new features that will become available to you in less than 10 days:


  • New robot: Cargomate… Well, it's technically not an independent kind of robot… read more on that below;
  • Extended organics: there's now a Sulfur source on the map, which is perfect for growing a new kind of plant - Moss (and Mushrooms, too). Check out this article to learn more;
  • New building: a Brewery turns Wood, Moss, and Mushrooms into nutritious ales for your Craftomates! Just add some hot water;
  • Reworked graphics: new Command Center visuals, new Ancient Ice visuals, a whole new array of new visual effects
  • Interaction between Craftomates: copying, pasting programs, switching each other on and off, and waiting - more on this in this article
  • Program editor improvements: you can now add and delete functions, and functions can operate with variables. A bunch of new commands for checking on organics and whether a Craftomate is buffed were added, too
  • New, more deliberate map design

To celebrate the upcoming playtest, we've freshened up the screenshot gallery on our Steam page: a great excuse to compare how the game looked a year ago vs. now:







The beta we're working on for the upcoming playtest is a huge content leap from what is currently available in the demo, so save the date, come one, come all!

The most recent update also stirred many internal discussions and made us reconsider some of our original ideas. Let's talk about that, shall we?

Cargomates: Heavy Duty


Cargomate seemed like a great idea when we came up with it earlier: a huge loveable robot for carrying heavy stuff. But what would that stuff be? Our initial idea was that Cargomate would be moving Storage units full of items around (which could not be moved otherwise without emptying them first). But when we added the robot to the game and started experimenting with it, we found out that it was not making the game more fun to play.



It happens all the time in the lives of video game devs: a feature might seem awesome while it's in your head, but actually playing it might be the direct opposite of fun. Another thing we got rid of was introducing different kinds of fuel for Bonfires that we mentioned last time: they just turned out to be not fun.

However, Cargomates wasn't exactly that case: moving Storages around made sense, it just didn't require a dedicated robot for that. Therefore, Cargomates were demoted: now any Craftomate can turn into one by brewing and consuming a special Primordial Ale in the Brewery.

We also reworked the animations of picking and dropping stuff for Cargomates, to make them niftier. Check it out below (feeding a battery to the robot is a placeholder, they will be required to drink ale later):



Introducing so many ales called for some optimization tools. Therefore, we added a command that allows checking whether a robot drank ale recently. A great opportunity to program yourself some bartending robots!

What's Next?


The playtest, of course! We're now trying hard to implement some of the most important features in modern game development: achievements and cloud saves. After that we get to adding that ‘smart find & pick’ command we've mentioned before.

Sign-up for the playtest, and see you in less than 2 weeks!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1724140/Craftomation_101_Programming__Craft/

Here's another bunch of things that you can do to help Craftomation 101 see the light of release ASAP:


  • Share this post with a friend who might like Craftomation 101;
  • You can even scribe yourself into the game's credits: most of our games’ localizations are community-made, and we now have a spreadsheet for those who are willing to help us translate the game into their native language;
  • Buy the supporter pack to gain access to exclusive WIP stuff and full-time access to the devs’ ears and minds
  • And of course, play the free demo on itch.io or Steam, leave us a comment, or come to Discord and discuss your experience with us

Craftomation Dev Diaries, June 2023: Going Mecha



Hey mates!

We know that we promised that this edition of Dev Diaries will be about organic stuff too, but one thing led to another, so… we all like robots, don't we? This piece will be all about our metal friends and how to make them better and happier workers!

We also promised more screenshots, but that was not completely the truth either. We will post more videos instead!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1724140/Craftomation_101_Programming__Craft/

The Brewery we talked about so much is finally in the game, hissing with clouds of steam as it is producing all-natural brews for Craftomates! Ok, it's not hissing yet, sound effects are to be added, but there's steam alright:



There are 2 kinds of beverages at the moment: one speeds a Craftomate up, the other increases their battery capacity.



The effects of Buffs are adding up (whether this stays or not is still TBD), so if you're resourceful enough, you can have turbo beasts like the one below, doing your bidding:



Speaking of beasts, do you remember Cargomates? Those weight-lifting fellas we've talked about so much since last year? Here's a reminder from one year ago:



And here's him now:





We're still figuring out the looks and the exact mechanics for this adorable big fella, but his principal function is defined in its name: there will be a lot of moving heavy stuff around!

Another thing to gaze upon is a bunch of new visual effects we're introducing to the game now: check out new fires, new sparks, and some more Brewery steam (because why not):



New frozen art for Brewery and Sulfur Source is also now in the game, in its full icy glory:



We're also redoing cursors in the game, and adding some clickety clicking animations.

Another great news for true programmers: Alt + F4 is now supported in the game. You're welcome!

What's Next?
We're continuing to check the boxes in our ‘To Do for Early Access’ list. The next month is promising to be quite productive, too!

First, we will add another resource - Copper - which will call for a reworking of crafting.

Bonfire mechanics is also going to be changed, so the Bonfires could burn different kinds of fuel.

Some new features for Craftomates interacting mechanics are also in the works. We're working on a new Command that will allow a robot to check the current state of a growing piece of organics. A Craftomate will thus be able to detect whether a plant needs water.

A modified version of Find Command will allow you to instruct Craftomates on where to take resources from a source, a Storage box, or pretty much anywhere in the field.

We're very excited to see how all those features will play out! We're even more excited to know what you think of them! Join our Discord to chat with us follow the latest updates on the dev progress.

Here's a another bunch of things that you can do to help Craftomation 101 see the light of release ASAP:


  • Add the game to your wishlist on Steam
  • Let us know about your favorite influencers on YouTube/Twitch/Other who are playing games like Craftomation 101
  • If you feel like it - maybe even write a comment to one of the aforementioned influencers to let them know Craftomation 101 is worth checking out
  • You can even scribe yourself into the game's credits: most of our games’ localizations are community-made, and we now have a spreadsheet for those who are willing to help us translate the game into their native language
  • Buy the supporter pack to gain access to exclusive WIP stuff and full-time access to the devs’ ears and minds
  • And of course, play the free demo on itch.io or Steam, leave us a comment, or come to Discord and discuss your experience with us


We'll be back next month with even more awesome news and details!

Craftomation Dev Diaries, May 2023: It's Organic!



Hey mates!

Craftomation 101 was always a game about terraforming a frozen planet. However, up until recently, there wasn't much… well, terraforming in the game. The ice was melting, the grass was growing - those who made it far enough in the demo would even plant a couple of lonely trees. And that was it.

But you didn't think we'll leave it that way, did you? Because the updates of both the past and the upcoming month are all about organic stuff! And some robot drinks, too.

Back to the Source





Sulfur Source (not the final name, but you got the idea), formerly known as Hot Springs is already implemented in the game for internal testing. As we mentioned last time, it works like the Command Center does, warming some ground around it and providing a substrate for growing plants.

However, the ground around Sulfur Sources is now rather unique: certain plants - like Moss and Mushrooms - can only grow on Sulfur-rich tiles. Moss is a plant that borrows its mechanics from Trees and Mushrooms: it gives you a lot of resource to harvest (like a Tree does), but only for a very short period (like Mushrooms do).

In turn, Trees now can only be grown on earth tiles with grass on them. Please remember that these mechanics may change at some point in development: we have lots of experiments and balancing ahead of us. What do you think of it, by the way? Maybe you have some other ideas on how Mushrooms, Trees, and Moss should work? Don't hesitate to let us know:

Additionally, certain climate changes are expected in the game (and we refuse to apologize for this clearly awful pun): for instance, the warmer the soil, the faster the plants will grow on it, BUT they will also require more water to maintain their wellbeing.



Oh, and another important new feature: we've added a 'Skip Tutorial’ button. For players who seek to live a dangerous life.

We Have to Brew



The new mechanics of plants and other flora calls for at least one new command for Craftomates: it will be similar to the existing ‘Is_Empty’ command but will allow your bots to check whether a plant is watered. We will also probably set the limit for watering the plants to 1 unit of water at a time.

If and when you master the art of growing organics on a nameless planet, you will find yourself with a surplus of plant materials. We got you covered: a Brewery was planned in the game from the very beginning and formally introduced in the previous issue of our Dev Diaries. Here's a summary of how it's planned to work.


Not an actual gameplay footage


The Brewery will be crafting beverages for your Craftomates, that will temporarily boost their parameters. Each brew has a base and a key ingredient, and the two must be mixed in the brewery together.

There are currently 2 types of base: a good ol’ boiling water, and water with some minerals (maybe). It can be mixed with any type of organics, but only two types of brews are scheduled to be added to the game in the upcoming month: one will boost a Craftomate's speed, while the second one will increase its battery capacity.

As for the base, it will influence the duration of the effect of the resulting beverage and the shape of the bottle.



Command Ça Va?



In other important news: there's a new Command Center in town:



Fun fact: in 2023, it's hard to restrain from referring to AIs for various creative reasons. This new Command Center design was inspired by the work of Midjourney. Here're references that Alex the artist managed to generate and get inspired with:






(Who said 'Star Wars'?)

The Brewery and the new Command Center will make their way to the actual build in the next month because Ivan the coder is currently on academic leave to prepare his thesis (we wish him the best of luck, and you should, too!).

That means new screenshots are to be expected in the next issue of Dev Diaries. Some limited playtests are also likely to happen. In the meantime, here's a quick reminder of what you can do in the meantime:


  • Add the game to your wishlist on Steam
  • Let us know about your favorite influencers on YouTube/Twitch/Other who are playing games like Craftomation 101
  • If you feel like it - maybe even write a comment to one of the aforementioned influencers to let them know Craftomation 101 is worth checking out
  • You can even scribe yourself into the game's credits: most of our games’ localizations are community-made, and we now have a spreadsheet for those who are willing to help us translate the game into their native language
  • Buy the supporter pack to gain access to exclusive WIP stuff and full-time access to the devs’ ears and minds
  • And of course, play the free demo, leave us a comment, or come to Discord and discuss your experience with us


https://store.steampowered.com/app/1724140/Craftomation_101/

We'll be back in a month with more juicy details on Craftomation 101! Shall we talk about the Early Access release date? The answer is: maybe! Stay tuned, and please share your thoughts about the game in the comments! Until we meet again.

Dev Diaries, January 2023: New Demo, New Features, New Ideas For The Future



If you're familiar with independent games, you probably know that January is the magical month for us developers: the holiday fever is over, the major game releases usually don't happen until early spring… it's the perfect time for cute little projects like Craftomation 101! And this year we did our best to seize the moment.



You may remember that we have officially frozen the content of our demo, so we could concentrate on preparing the game for Early Access release. That is, with one exception: Base Builder Fest on Steam seemed like the perfect event to show off Craftomation 101, gather feedback from our awesome players, and sync our vision with theirs, so we could ensure that we're developing the game in the right direction.

Tl;dr - it was a great ride!

Functions At Last


Composing programs for each Craftomate individually is a cumbersome task, especially when you've got a bunch of nifty bots to handle. Functions, on the other hand, are pretty much standard in the world of programming. They were on our minds from the very beginning, and introducing them to the game was only a matter of time for us. Well, that time is now!

From now on, you can fit any code into one little node, and use it for any of your bots. But what's even better, is if you change a function, it will immediately affect any Craftomate that has it in its code. A super useful tool for dedicated visual coders!



New Look


Another new thing that does not require a lengthy text introduction: updated graphics! Alex the artist is working very hard on improving his skills (which is twice as spectacular given the fact, that he also holds the position of office manager, and plays in a band in his time of leisure - Alex, you're awesome and we all know it!). And it shows! We've got new snow, new shadows, a glowing effect from heated objects, and new looks for Trees and Mushrooms! Let the screenshots do the talking:






New Features: Useful & Pretty


Making a game about programming is a strange experience. It is almost like creating a programming language from scratch: sometimes we forget about basic features until we stumble upon the players who insist on us adding them. For us, one of these features was the trashbin. But - thanks to our players - it's here at last:



And just for the sake of eye candy, we now have a heating map mode! This is a useful feature but honestly, the principal reason for adding it was the fact that it looks awesome:



But let's return to basic programming features that are slowly but steadily making it into the game! For instance, right now we're working on introducing a set of rather mighty features: selecting, copying, and pasting nodes.



One of the next big features for us would be to enable Craftomates to interact with each other. The array of their interactions is the main source of current heated discussions at the studio. We'll make sure to tell you more by the time the next edition of these dev diaries comes out. In the meantime, you're always welcome on our Discord server: this is where we share the latest news about game development.

But back to the Base Builder Fest: it was awesome! It brought us a lot of new feedback that allowed us to improve many small aspects of the game. In addition to the aforementioned features, we've modified the ‘Find & Pick’ command so the Craftomates wouldn't steal Fire items from Bonfires all the time. They can still do that, but Bonfires are now lower priority places to look for Fire. It might sound like a little thing but not for those who have to keep a dozen of Bonfires alive at the same time!

We were also humbled by the attention we got from our influencer friends, especially given that we are fans of the work of many of them: if you haven't seen it yet, check out these videos by KatherineOfSky, Hii Channel, and Kokoplays! By the way, let us know who's your favorite content maker! They might not yet be aware of how cool Craftomation 101 is, and this definitely needs to change.

* * *


This January was very exciting but the most exciting events of the year are yet to happen (yes, we mean Early Access for Craftomation)! Stay tuned, drop us a line, hang with us on Discord, and we'll see you again in a month, in the next chapter of Developer Diaries!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1724140/Craftomation_101_Programming__Craft/

Big & Final (?) Demo Update To Celebrate Base Builder Fest



Ahoy, Mates!

As you might know, Craftomation 101's demo conent is now forzen, with no new updates expected before we hit Early Access.

With one exception!

Base Builder Fest is held on Steam on January 23-30, and our little game is part of it. What an honor! In fact, we felt so proud, we decided it deserves a big update, so here it is:

Base Builder Fest Special



  • Reworked graphics: new snow, new shadows, glowing effect from heated objects, and new looks for Trees and Mushrooms
  • Functions (AT LAST) - design bits of code, save them and feel free to use them in any Craftomate's program. And should you update a function, all CraftoMates using it will be subject to these changes immediately
  • Trashcan on the work field - for easier command removal. Simply click and hold your mouse on a Command and drag it to the trash bin icon on the right
  • Heat map - displays the warmth level from all of your Bonfires, Furnaces, Heaters and the Command Center. Mesmerizing!


But there's more! This grand event deserves a new trailer, and here it is:



Also, check out some of our new screenshots:





Just update your demo and enjoy! And please, don't forget to share your impressions on our Discord server!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1724140/Craftomation_101_Programming__Craft/

And don't forget to add Craftomation to your wishlist:



This way, you'll never miss the big news of us going to Early Access later this year!

Demo Content Is Frozen



Come on, we all knew it would happen eventually! We've had great time around with the alpha version, and it helped us push the development forward a great deal. In fact, almost to the brink of Early Access launch - it is expected in the first half of 2023!

And that means that we're heads down in the development and polishing stuff, and doing other release thingies. That means, that free demo content is officially frozen.



If you have read our Dev Diaries, you probably know what's it all about. If you haven't (though, seriously, why not?), here's a short Q&A:

What does it mean? The demo will still be available to everyone on Steam and itch.io, but there will be no public content updates.

You said ‘public’? Will there be a version with restricted access then? Very likely. More on that later though. Join our Discord server, to make sure you don't miss an opportunity to gain access!

Will there be updates for the free demo again? Why, yes! We're planning to release new content and give everyone access to it as part of celebrating Base Builder Fest on Steam on January 23-30, 2023! Save the dates and come play!



And if you want to keep up with the development process (see the latest updates, screenshots, or just chat casually with the devs), our Discord server is the place to go!

You can also share your feedback in this Google form (1 min).

Apart from that: Happy Holidays! Next year will be big for Craftomation 101, and we're very grateful to have you by our side. If you're reading this, please know: we think you're awesome!

Important Links




Dev Diaries, December 2022: So Long & Thanks For All the Coal!

We hope we've made you feel a bit nervous with that goodbye-ish headline! Because that would mean that you care about our little game. If so, good news: Craftomation 101 isn't going anywhere. The development, however, goes undercover for a while. So, without further ado, let's get to the big news here.



The Demo Is Officially Frozen


…which is kinda ironic, given the fact that the game is actually about unfreezing stuff! But this will allow us to concentrate on preparing the game for its glorious emergence into the Early Access stage next year. Here's a short list of frequently* asked questions:

*ok, we know you really didn't ask any of those, since we're just announcing this thing. But we thought it's important to let you know anyway!

What does it mean? The demo will still be available to everyone on Steam and itch.io, but there will be no public content updates.

You said ‘public’? Will there be a version with restricted access then? Very likely. More on that later though. Join our Discord server, to make sure you don't miss an opportunity to gain access!

Will there be updates for the free demo again? Why, yes! We're planning to release new content and give everyone access to it as part of celebrating Base Builder Fest on Steam on January 23-30, 2023!

Is there a reason to waste time on these Dev Diaries, then? Of course, there is! We'll continue to keep you informed of the new features we're working on, along with challenges and in-house anecdotes! Speaking of which…

What's New?


One of the cool new things we've introduced last month is the updated looks of the Upgrade Tree. Long story short: it looks better!



New design put aside, we've extended commands’ description to (hopefully) make it more comprehensive. Additionally, you can see a preview of how unlocking a new command will influence the looks of your Craftomates.

Also, all CraftoMates have names now! Say hello to Zoz The Goofy, Bib The Nervous, and, of course…



What Else?


We've had our very own 20-minute adventure (that ended up lasting about a month of work). It all started with Alex the artist not being particularly happy with how our tiles looked; in particular - the inner angles of snowy/icy tiles… Ivan the programmer has drafted a whole new tileset system, which implied that any ground tile would be assembled from 4 independent tile presets. It turned out to be quite elegant programmer-wise, but too complicated artist-wise.

Intense quarreling occured.

We've almost fought.

We were in despair.

There were many experiments with the new system, but the results were below our expectations. Eventually, we decided to roll back to the previous tileset system, but have had it improved along the way. Here's a picture that briefly describes our, ahem-ahem, creative fluctuations:



Now What?


As the development goes on, we keep following the roadmap we drafted months ago. That said, the next big thing for us is functions.

Functions will improve the quality of lives on so many levels! Long story short, they are nodes that allow you create a program for multiple Craftomates, and change its contents on the fly, and apply it to all connected Craftomates simultaneously. You also get to choose how many incoming and outgoing connections there are for a function node:





We're also planning to update eating animation for Craftomates - not only for the sake of visual beauty but also to make it possible for the player to feed Craftomates at any time of their working cycle (even when their hands are busy holding objects!).

We're hoping to share the details of our progress in the next edition of Craftomation 101 dev diaries. And since they're scheduled to be published shortly befor Base Builder Fest is upon us, you'll have an opportunity to try them out soon enough!

Until then… Happy Holidays! See you in January or, even better so, see you every day: you can contact us in the comments or find us at almost any time on the Discord server!

Don't be a stranger. The demo of Craftomation 101 is still available to you on Steam and Itch.io. Until we meet again!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1724140/Craftomation_101_Programming__Craft/