Some bug were successfully eradicated today! You're very welcome to update and carry on with your daily factory-building duty. Glory to science!
Learning Factory
Hotfix v0.21.135
Some bug were successfully eradicated today! You're very welcome to update and carry on with your daily factory-building duty. Glory to science!
New Update, v0.21.134: Teleports, Alternate Recipes & Underground Farming
Here's anothe Major update, which changes the game quite a bit! As usual, it started with a small idea, but ended up in revision of many crafting recipes, along with adding a couple of new buildings, and updating a bunch of art on the way.
Enjoy it and please share your impressions in the comments and on our official Discord server:
Major v0.21.134 Released
Gameplay
- New building: a network of Teleports that can take you around the map in mere seconds, but each Teleport occupies 1 unit of your ML Capacity
- New building: Gummy Press allows you to make Quality (+) Gum and/or High Quality (++) Catnip Algae
- New(ish) item: Neon Cotton Plant grows Underground; research a Growing Neon Cotton Plant on the Research Tree to unlock a possibility to build Cotton Collectors, Hedges and use Fertilizers Underground
- New(ish) item: Deep Algae works pretty much the same way, allowing to place Algae Harvesters and Booms Underground, once Growing Deep Algae is researched
- Dormitory upgrades cost less money but will require certain items: the higher the level - the more complex items will be required
- Catificial Intelligence Endless Research Project now increases ML Capacity with every level reached
- Fungi From Pluto Endless Research Project now also provides a chance to automatically fertilized a newly emerged plant
- Soil auto-crafting limit increased from 300 to 1000 (via Trichouette)
- Fertilizer auto-crafting limit increased from 100 to 500 units
- Added another Blueprint suggestion to the Wiki
- New music
Gameplay Special: Upgrades & Recipes
- New upgrade: Gummy Press can be upgraded to make High Quality (++) Gum (2 different recipes available)
- New upgrade for Metal Furnace that increases smelting speed
- The upgrade for increased production quality of Fish Makers now provides High Quality Fish instead of Quality Fish. The recipe's item requirements & unlock requirements have been altered as well
- New upgrade: Cat House Maker can be upgraded for increased production speed
- New recipe: all Underground Drills now include a recipe for crafting twice as fast compared to default recipe
- New recipe: Metal Furnace now includes 2 alternate recipes that make smelting twice as fast compared to default recipe
- New recipe: Concrete Mixer now includes a default recipe for producing Quality Concrete twise as fast compared to original recipe
- New recipe: added an alternative recipe for making Chewing Gum
- New recipe: Claw Sharpener Maker now includes a default recipe for producing Quality Claw Sharpeners
- New recipe: Bling Machine now includes 2 alternate recipes for producing Blings and Quality Blings
- New recipe: Cat House Maker now includes 2 alternate recipes for producing Quality and High Quality Cat Houses (both recipes require Concrete)
- Default Smoothie recipe no longer requires Apple Boxes
- Producing Cat Food now requires 2 Fish instead of 1
- Default Graphic Card recipe now requires 2 Microchips instead of 3
- Bubble Gum Mixer now produces Gum in batches of 3
- Time for selected recipes was altered within 1-2 ticks to better balance proportions between interdependent buildings
Engine
- Upgraded to Unity v2022.2.20f1
Graphics
- Updated Chewing Gum visuals
- Updated Jewelry visuals
- Updated Cloth visuals
QoL & Interface
- Added an option to toggle cat researcher's skills increase notifications
- Added an option to clear search results upon interacting with the target object
- UI/UX fixes
Other
- Performance optimization
- Bug fixes
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1150090/Learning_Factory
And don't forget to follow Learning Factory on Steam to get the news about new updates as soon as they're out there
----------------------
How to Get More Involved
Going to Early Access is but the first step to glory (and eternal cat happiness). Wanna be part of what happens next? Head to this blog post and learn how to help make the game even more awesome!
Share Your Gameplay and Become Part of KOTOVOD History
Learning Factory needs your help! Record a 10 or more minutes of you playing the game, share a video using any way you see fit, write your name into Learning Factory credits and get a promo cat! Make history here
Dev Diaries, May 2023: Cat Clones, Teleports & Fancy-Looking Goods
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!
* * *
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!
New Update, v0.20.133: Cat Cloning, Cat SPA & More
Good news: we're considering the game almost finished in terms of mechanics. There's a lot of polishing ahead, but it's safe to say that the main pieces of the puzzle are in place.
Even better news: there's still lots of new content to be expected. You're probably already noticing the new visuals and the new sounds, but this update adds two new buildings on top of it!
And more:
v0.20.133 Released
Gameplay
- New building: Chillout Space allows the cats to take a break from standing in line, increasing their loyalty and providing them a chance to invite a friend of the same cat type to your Factory
- New building: Schrodinger's Chamber clones any cat that decides to enter it. A cloned cat will have the same type, parameters and shopping preferences (suggested by mraukotek)
- Added a recipe for crafting High Quality (++) Milk in the Brew Intensifier
- Added a recipe for crafting Quality (+) Graphic Cards in the Graphic Card Assembler
- Added a recipe for crafting Quality (+) Laser Pointers in the Laser Pointer Maker
- Added a recipe for crafting Quality (+) Microchips in the Microchip Maker
- Increased (up to 2x in certain cases) profitability of deals in the Trade Ports
- New deals in the Trade Ports
- 2 new achievements
Graphics & Sound
- New art for Catnip Juice and Milk
- Updated visuals for Catnip Algae
- Updated grass visuals (partial)
- More sounds!
QoL & Interface
- Added a search field in crafting and inventory windows
- Added a search field for the Blueprint Library
- Added search for upgrades on the Research Tree
- Added a search field in the Trade Guilds window in the Monument
- Added a search field in the Statistics tab in the Monument
- On first launch, the game will prioritize language settings from Steam over system language settings
- Optimization of saving/loading and starting a new game
- A big iteration of UI/UX optimization
- Improved parsing of characters in Japanese
- Improved tutorial
- Improved hints system
- Bug fixes
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1150090/Learning_Factory
Do you like what you see? Come share your thoughts on our Discord server!
And don't forget to follow Learning Factory on Steam to get the news about new updates as soon as they're out there
----------------------
How to Get More Involved
Going to Early Access is but the first step to glory (and eternal cat happiness). Wanna be part of what happens next? Head to this blog post and learn how to help make the game even more awesome!
Share Your Gameplay and Become Part of KOTOVOD History
Learning Factory needs your help! Record a 10 or more minutes of you playing the game, share a video using any way you see fit, write your name into Learning Factory credits and get a promo cat! Make history here
New Update: New Visuals, New Sounds
First things first: Learning Factory is on sale until May 1! Get your copy of the game, 34% off!
As promised in the latest edition of our developer diaries, this update brings a lot of changes in the visuals for many items on your Factories. Because most of the items now vary in quality and marking them with mere silver or gold stars would be plain boring, wouldn't it?
So now you can clearly distinguish those top-notch cat goods from boring regular ones. We hope that it will add some motivation for you to optimize your production and ensure your catstomers get only the best-looking items!
Naturally, that's not the only change. Check out the other awesome stuff in this awesome new version of the game:
v0.20.131 Released
Visuals & Sound
- New art for Iron, Copper, Gold, Gems, Catnip Algae & Cotton
- New art for underground water and, partly, surface water
- More phrases for legendary cats
- Added many new sounds for items
Gameplay
- Shelves capacity upgrade removed for Smart Cat Stores; instead, added another upgrade increasing the number of slots for items in Smart Cat Stores (up to 14). Default shelves capacity increased to 50 items per slot
- Shelves capacity for Specialized Cat Stores increased from 50 to 100 items; researching Specialized Cat Stores is not anymore mandatory
- Terraforming now allows replacing tiles of appropriate type under plants without removing them
- CPU Trade Guild now allows exchanging goods for Cat Knowledge Archives in Tier 5
- All Splitters and Tunnels can now be placed on Rafts
- Increased profitability of deals in Trade Ports when exchanging goods for Cat Knowledge
- New upgrade: increased cargo hold for Zeppelins
- Slightly improved hills generation
QoL & Interface
- Pressing Ctrl+Click on a research adds the project to research queue
- Pressing Ctrl+Click on a building on the pannel in the bottom of the screen results in crafting another building of the same type
- Symbols limit for naming Docks and Zeppelin Routes increased
- Added a search field for the Research Tree
Fixes
- Bug fixes, especially for airships
- UI/UX optimization, especially for Zeppelin routes handling
Check out a bunch of examples of how the item visuals has changed! Keep in mind that there's more new art in the game (discover it by yourself!):
Cotton
Iron
Copper
Gold & Gems
Catnip Algae
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1150090/Learning_Factory
Do you like what you see? Come share your thoughts on our Discord server!
And don't forget to follow Learning Factory on Steam to get the news about new updates as soon as they're out there
----------------------
How to Get More Involved
Going to Early Access is but the first step to glory (and eternal cat happiness). Wanna be part of what happens next? Head to this blog post and learn how to help make the game even more awesome!
Share Your Gameplay and Become Part of KOTOVOD History
Learning Factory needs your help! Record a 10 or more minutes of you playing the game, share a video using any way you see fit, write your name into Learning Factory credits and get a promo cat! Make history here
Dev Diaries, April 2023: Cat Blimps, Underground Fishing & Endless Research
If you didn't know that already, Learning Factory is being developed by a team of just four people. Back in 2020, when we started drafting the game, none of us would expect it to become as big! All we wanted was to make a tycoon game about a cat store… And here we are, with a giant map of 3 biomes and an underground level, Trade Ports, Cat Guilds, the I.L.L.U.M.I.N.A.T.I., and now - cat blimps! Among other things.
And we're far from done. Let's try and sort out all the good stuff that appeared in the game in the past month.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1150090/Learning_Factory/
When Cats Fly
Cat Zeppelins have been in the game for some time now, helping you transfer your goods to the harder-to-reach parts of your Factory campus. One thing they could not carry was… well, cats. However, our very curious players have tried to fit their furry catstomers into Zeppelins. Some of them even succeeded, naturally resulting in the game crashing. That's when we decided that passenger airships are a good idea. Enter Cat Blimps!
One of our Discord community members, Jiiniasu, has contributed as well with a sketch of their own:
It took some time and effort from Sergei the artist to come up with something mad enough while prototyping the design of these mighty airships. The earliest versions looked somewhat like a flying beaver:
It became more cat-like after a couple of iterations:
…then we've just added some cats, and:
The Blimps are designed with all your cat's desires in mind: the insight of the gondola is shaped as a cardboard box, with scratch-resistant walls and catnip-flavored shakes served on board! We'd remind the pawssengers to fasten their seat belts, but, knowing the nature of cats, we don't expect them to comply.
Blimp stations (or, as we call them, Pawssenger Docks) also took some time to contemplate:
Sergei found inspiration in a special book dedicated to the bus stop design of the Soviet Union - apparently, they were very diverse, often astonishingly beautiful! Anyway, here's the final version, with cats and whatnot:
Take your cats for a ride in the sky!
Endless Research for Filthy-Rich Engineers
This next feature might not look as spectacular, but boy, is it useful! Since Learning Factory is a stress-free game, the players who made it to the late stages of the game often find themselves with ridiculous amounts of in-game currency on their deposits.
However, even with all the technologies unlocked, the potential for optimization of one's Factory is endless. That said, you are now allowed to invest your profits and acquire very useful perks for your Factory and your character, so you could optimize more, earn even more money, get better perks, and optimize again, times infinity:
The aforementioned perks include a speed increase for the character and/or Zeppelins, a research speed boost, an overall profits increase, boosted growth of plants, a chance to create two buildings instead of one while crafting… and much more! They're as powerful as they are expensive, so if you happen to be a minmaxer kind of a player, those research projects will keep you busy for dozens of hours. No need to thank us!
Another Round Underground
When we introduced the underground level of Mars in Learning Factory, it was a rather boring, lifeless place that was only good for facilitating de-spaghettifying the logistics. Here's a brief list of features that we have added since: underground oceans, lava & lava Rafts, underground Zeppelins, underground Metal sources, Lava Furnaces, and now - fishing.
Yes, really. But it's not just that: upon upgrading your Multitool you will not only be able to catch fish in the dark subsurface waters, but you'll also be able to fish for metals in lava! And if you need more space or more confidence - you can now pour concrete on lava, thus making it traversable!
With all that, it makes the Underground of Mars a pretty fun place to hang out! But we still have a couple of things to be added up our sleeves. Just you wait! In the meantime…
The Big Redesign
If you are following these diaries regularly, you might already know that one of the most important tasks on our table is to make Learning Factory prettier than ever for when it goes to full release this year. We've done that before, too: the game has changed more than once, including the big rehaul of the visual style last August.
The work on this aspect of the game continues! In the next update, we're planning to change the looks of certain items. As it already happened with Yarn Balls and many more items, Copper will look different depending on the quality of items you produce. Here's a work-in-progress teaser:
A new Gold design is on the way, too:
New Iron, Cotton, and Gems are also to be expected! This upcoming update (scheduled for release on April 25) is going to be pretty! Oh, and we've also re-rendered the good ol’ Cotton Collector, it's already in the game:
Bear with us! With each passing month, Learning Factory is becoming a more beautiful, deep, and wholesome game. See you in the next edition of our Dev Diaries!
New Update: The Lava Is Floor, Underground Fishing & Fancy Cotton
What fish lives in the underground waters of Mars? You'll gonna find out in this week's update! Spoiler alert: it's regular (though quality) fish, but also - metals!
Seriously, have we gone too far with making this game too absurd? Maybe. But we're not going to stop until the very release... and more after that.
Anyway, enjoy the update!
v0.20.130 Released
Gameplay
- Added a possibility to catch Fish from the waters underground (the real deal, see the picture below!)
- Added a possibility to catch Metals from the lava
- Multitool upgrade allows catching Quality Fish in the Underground waters, along with the waters of Acrtic and Tropical biomes, also works for lava fishing
- New terraforming research: Concrete Flooring allows you to be poured over Lava and the Underground waters, making them traversable. It also allows to place watery tiles on the Underground level!
- Harvesting or destroying plants now has a small chance to give sprout
- Growth Hormones infinite research now also increases sprout harvesting chance
- Transporter Assembler upgrade buff: additional limit increased from 50 to 250
Visuals
- Cotton Collector re-rendered
- Aroma Machine animated
- Teleportation effect when switching map layers
Other
- Twitch integration update
- Tutorial update
- UI/UX fixes
- Bug fixes
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1150090/Learning_Factory
And don't forget to follow Learning Factory on Steam to get the news about new updates as soon as they're out there
----------------------
How to Get More Involved
Going to Early Access is but the first step to glory (and eternal cat happiness). Wanna be part of what happens next? Head to this blog post and learn how to help make the game even more awesome!
Share Your Gameplay and Become Part of KOTOVOD History
Learning Factory needs your help! Record a 10 or more minutes of you playing the game, share a video using any way you see fit, write your name into Learning Factory credits and get a promo cat! Make history here
Hotfix v0.20.129
Hey friends!
Here's another hotfix that will make the game less buggy and more nice for you.
Enjoy it, and please don't hesitate to share feedback with us!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1150090/Learning_Factory
And don't forget to follow Learning Factory on Steam to get the news about new updates as soon as they're out there
----------------------
How to Get More Involved
Going to Early Access is but the first step to glory (and eternal cat happiness). Wanna be part of what happens next? Head to this blog post and learn how to help make the game even more awesome!
Share Your Gameplay and Become Part of KOTOVOD History
Learning Factory needs your help! Record a 10 or more minutes of you playing the game, share a video using any way you see fit, write your name into Learning Factory credits and get a promo cat! Make history here
Hotfix v0.20.128
Greetings, engineers! We have a hotfix for you to enjoy! Here's what it brings your way:
Hotfix v0.20.128 Released
- Pressing RMB on a research deletes it from the queue
- Efficiency level is displayed while catching fish
- Improved tutorial
- Improved copywriting
- Performance optimization
- UI/UX improvements
- Bug fixes
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1150090/Learning_Factory
And don't forget to follow Learning Factory on Steam to get the news about new updates as soon as they're out there
----------------------
How to Get More Involved
Going to Early Access is but the first step to glory (and eternal cat happiness). Wanna be part of what happens next? Head to this blog post and learn how to help make the game even more awesome!
Share Your Gameplay and Become Part of KOTOVOD History
Learning Factory needs your help! Record a 10 or more minutes of you playing the game, share a video using any way you see fit, write your name into Learning Factory credits and get a promo cat! Make history here
Hotfix v0.17.119
Greetings, engineers! We have a hotfix for you to enjoy! Here's what it brings your way:
Hotfix v0.20.128 Released
- Pressing RMB on a research deletes it from the queue
- Efficiency level is displayed while catching fish
- Improved tutorial
- Improved copywriting
- Performance optimization
- UI/UX improvements
- Bug fixes
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1150090/Learning_Factory
And don't forget to follow Learning Factory on Steam to get the news about new updates as soon as they're out there
----------------------
How to Get More Involved
Going to Early Access is but the first step to glory (and eternal cat happiness). Wanna be part of what happens next? Head to this blog post and learn how to help make the game even more awesome!
Share Your Gameplay and Become Part of KOTOVOD History
Learning Factory needs your help! Record a 10 or more minutes of you playing the game, share a video using any way you see fit, write your name into Learning Factory credits and get a promo cat! Make history here