Developer Diaries, May 2022: Early Access Stage 2 Complete, Trade Ports Open
There is a well known trend that summer is generally a quiet time for the gaming industry. Well, it's definitely not our case! For us, it's time for big changes and even bigger plans for the future. That said, here's a summary of what's been happening to Learning Factory in May and what are we up to in June (and beyond!)
Early Access: Stage 2 Complete!
That's right! We're now halfway to release, hooray to us! That final update that crossed the symbolic line introduced new story comics and a new type of Splitter called X-Switch, that could either become your Factory's Holy Grail or ruin your logistics beyond repair (depending on your style of play)
Another new feature introduced in May is for graph lovers out there! We've added more graphs for you to watch, so now you can find out exactly how many items of any type your Factory is producing at a given moment, and how many of those are used for crafting:
We've also added a couple of new legendary cats on the way and there was no reason not to make a picture of them (since they're kinda hard to be spotted at your Factory):
Our roadmap now looks as shown below. More green rectangles and lights!
Coming Soon (Really Soon!): Trade Ports
It all came to us very naturally: we've been discussing a possibility to add alternative gameplay and trading resources for several months. Then we've added unlockable territories on the map, which brought us to thinking on how we could make them more interesting for the players. Finally, we wanted to add some lore to the game.
This is how Trade Ports were contemplated:
Long story short, those are special buildings on the edges of the map that allow you to trade some resources for other resources. Short story long: there are five cat Trade Guilds, each specializing on their favorite category of goods (Tech, Food, Luxury, Materials and Essentials). Each Guild has its own leader and a mission on Mars:
While the player is making deals with a Guild, their mutual respect grows, allowing to proceed to the next trading tier, which opens more business opportunities. Some guilds can even provide you scientific knowledge and make Legendary cats appear on your Factory.
Now, the Ports might not be present in the game while you're reading this (we're still testing some stuff to make sure it all works fine), but they are confirmed to appear in the game on June 16! Also, the unlockable territories are now available in campaign mode as well.
There are oodles of other changes, big and minor. Here's a list of the juiciest of them:
Part of control keys can now be reassigned in settings menu (requested for so many times!)
New menu themes
New customization items (there's now a gold chain for your character's pet cat!)
8 new wallpapers in Art Pack DLC
More Ruin types
Up Next: More Awesomeness!
Remember how we told you that summer is, literally and metaphorically, a hot time for our humble studio? Well, we aren't going to spoil you the fun, but our team has been quite busy throughout the past couple of weeks, especially our coder Ivan and our artist Sergei. The result of their work will be featured in one of the next updates, but here's a sneak peek:
We'll talk about that - and much more! - in a month. Or you can join our Discord server and watch our weekly live streams, where we chat with community and discuss the latest news regarding our games.
P.S. If you want to keep an eye our progress closer, don't forget to follow Learning Factory on our Steam page and never miss an update again!
----------------------
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: More Stats, More Graphs & Gorgeous Menu Themes
If there's one thing Dr. KAtz and his team can't get enough of - it is data, especially when said data is cat-related. The deal is real simple: to achieve Singularity and establish Catopia, we need to accumulate as much knowledge about cats as possible.
Which is why new statistical instruments have been introduced to Learning Factory's engineering team, so they could work some more! Additionally, new and more comfortable conditions of moving around and operating are now available. It's like you don't need to rest at all now: work as many time as you want, and then work some more! Glory to science! Glory to KOTOVOD!
Additional statistics available on the respective tab in the Monument: including data on how many items are/aren't used in crafting and cat loyalty graphs
Statistics interface now allows displaying up to 6 graphs at a time
Graphs display optimization
Part of control keys can now be reassigned in settings menu
Several main menu themes unlocked by default (previously required a promo code)
New main menu themes
Interface fixes
Bug fixes
Decreased ocean tiles weight in territory price generation algorithm
Cat business purchases are now visible in the Stores
Hey, let's discuss how you like all this stuff, shall we? Drop us a line:
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: Early Access Stage 2 Complete
This glorious day will definitely make history, and massive celebrations are happening all over Mars: Stage 2 of KOTOVOD Learning Factory renovation is officially complete!
'Veri noice! Pleaz get bakk to woark, hooray!', - Dr. Katz commented in his official statement.
Naturally, all engineers are expected to celebrate this glorious occasion by increasing their work KPIs, as we continue our efforts of establishing Catopia on Mars!
In case you are too busy doing your work, please refresh your memories of our glorious Renovation Plan, a.k.a. Roadmap:
So much already done, but the most glorious deeds are ahead of us! Glory to science!
v0.10.71 Released
New building: X-Switcher swaps outputs of 2 incoming streams. Helps you to either organize your Factory or mess it up beyond repair. Have fun! (suggested by our community member gateway)
2 new story comics
The camera now follows the character smoothly and no longer gets beyond the edge of the map
Quad Splitter has been demoted to an upgrade for Triple Splitter
New customization item: a shiny gold chain for your cat
Territories cost less money, but the chances of generating territories that only cost money is generally decreased
New button in Freeplay mode settings allows you to randomize all map settings so you could persist in the doomed world you have created
3 new main menu themes: try promo codes ILLUMINATI, CPU and MEOWFIA
Bug fixes
UI fixes
8 new wallpapers in Art Pack DLC
Hey, let's discuss how you like all this stuff, shall we? Drop us a line:
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: Spring Threads
Hey there!
This time we've got a rather small update (comared to our usual bi-monthly content trains), but it's definitely cute!
v0.10.70 Released!
2 new legendary cats
9 new customization items (especially for your cat companion)
Bug fixes
But don't get yourself tricked by it's smallness: it just means that we're now working on a bunch of truly epic new features, that will be announced in a couple of weeks. See you then!
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
Dear factory builders, cat lovers, science admirers and all our awesome page visitors! Please take a minute to read our monthly report of building Catopia on Mars.
Now with video version:
Character customization is now avaialable. While in game, press “P” button to make your alter-ego (and their cat) look amazing! Like here:
And here:
Mars terraforming campaign is going according to plan. Lava rivers (and underground waters) now appear under the surface of Mars and clouds are floating up in the sky!
New buildings, resources and items for sale. Introducing hot and cold biomes naturally implied us adding biome-specific buildings, and the first batch is already here!
Smoothie Maker makes the famous Martian Mice Cold Smoothies and must be placed somewhere in the north, as it needs ice for operating.
Another building that prefers to keeps things cool is Laser Pointer Maker, which needs to be sumberged into deep water.
Battery Maker, on the other hand, works on solar power and therefore must be placed under hot desert rays of the south.
As for cat vitamins, they're just good for feline well-being. They also contain nano-bots, which mission is to negotiate with parasites inside cats’ bowels and persuade them to peacefully leave their hosts’ bodies. Because there's no place for violence in Catopia!
And here's a glance on what those awesome buildings are producing at the Factory (plus an image of a Gem, a new resource for making Laser Pointers and Jewelry):
Up next: 4 new legendary cats are spotted at the factory (ok, at least one of them is definitely not a cat). Can you notice them at your Factory and find out what their furry hearts desire?
There are also new upgrades, new achievements, new Ruins on the map and tons of performance tweaks and UI/UX improvements! Finally, we've got a new gameplay trailer:
That's it for this month, folks, but brace yourselves: we're now working on even more exciting mechanics, let alone drawing new comics and finalizing Stage 2 of our Early Access roadmap:
See you in the next edition of Learning Factory developer diaries! And if you feel like chatting or asking us anything, you're always welcome to our Discord server. Until we meow again!
P.S. If you want to keep an eye our progress closer, don't forget to follow Learning Factory on our Steam page and never miss an update again!
----------------------
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
Learning Factory And Other Games On Sale This Week!
Who has time to read the news when you can be playing games, right?
That said, we don't wanna distract you any further, just keep in mind that:
Learning Factory is 31% off until May 9!
And it's not just that! In fact, all our games and DLCs are on sale with discounts up to 80%!
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 Buildings, New Goods, New Cats and Fluffy Clouds
What is, really, the Catopia?
Catopia is like singularity, but with cats! Catopia is eternal abundance of goods (especially, for cats), without poverty, violence or excess weight.
Catopia is KOTOVOD's engineers end goal and Dr. Katz's big dream. Catopia is YOU.
This week, thanks to the work of our scientists from R&D department, new blueprints are available to be turned into new building, producing exclusive new goods for our beloved feline customers!
That includes mice-flavored icy Smoothies, nanobot-powered Vitamins (which happen to help send the bowel worms away), and, last but not least, the ultimate cat toy - the Laser Pointer. The latter does not include Batteries (to be crafted separately), nor human operators. The latter means more work for you, engineers! Isn't that just wonderful?
In other news, the very natural process of terraforming Mars has passed yet another milestone: clouds now appear in Martian skies, casting smooth and picturesque shadows on the newly terraformed planet!
A lot is done, but even more is ahead of us. Catopia awaits! Glory to science! Glory to KOTOVOD!
4 new Buildings: Battery Maker, Cat Vitamins Maker, Smoothie Mixer & Laser Pointer Maker. All of them require either specific biomes and/or landscape features for operations, so keep exploring and unlocking new territories!
4 new goods/resources: Batteries, 'Worm Greetings' Cat Vitamins, Mice Cold Smoothies and glorious Laser Pointers for your cats
New Legendary cats
New customization items
There are now clouds, peacefully floating in the skies of Mars and casting shadows on your Factory
Territories cost are now shown on the mini map upon hovering (no need to click them for that anymore)
New events inform you when there's a Territory available for purchase and/or added to your wishlist. These events can be toggled off in a Territory trade window
Remote territories' prices have been decreased (available in new game only)
Bug fixes
Here's a selection of awesome new things (and cats!) to be spotted on your Factory:
Hey, let's discuss how you like all this stuff, shall we? Drop us a line:
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 v0.10.68
Hey everyone!
We've releasefd a hotfix to make the game run better for you.
Thanks for sending us your feedback, you're very welcome to discuss your game experience with us on our Discord server!
Until we meet again!
New Update: Customization and Rivers of Lava
Although KOTOVOD administration doesn't offer many benefits to its workers (no vacations, insurance or week-ends - the Catopia won't build itself!), it doesn't mean that Dr. Katz and his team stand against freedoms of the Factory engineers. At least one freedom - the freedom of self-expression! - is considered essential for every worker. Which is why every KOTOVOD engineer can now spend some hard-earned money to buy some fashionable outfits or even redesign their working tools, such as Hoverboard.
(Also, since all the engineers used to look exactly the same, it was hindering performance evaluation)
The other, most exquisite and rare items, however, will be offered for exceptional work achievements.
"We valuz our workearz veri much, jsut not theirz time and opinionz", - Dr. Katz commented in an official statement.
In other news, lava rivers have emerged under the ground. Probably nothing special, but we will keep an eye on this perfectly normal situation.
Version 0.10.67 Released
Introducing Character Customization: certain items can be unlocked for coins, others become available upon meeting target factory-building goals
Rivers now emerge on the underground level
Lava rivers also emerge under the ground (new game only): they cannot be crossed using regular Rafts. Typically, Lava
New resource: Gem Deposits can be found around the map and harvested by a Dredge for Bling production
New Upgrade: Fireproof Raft upgrade now available (for crossing lava rivers). Fireproof Raft tiles can also be found around the map
New Upgrade: 2x increased handpicking speed available for the Multitool
New Ruins
Ruins can now slightly change the map tiles around their spawning area
Underground mini-map now available
Underground map can be viewed in Freeplay mode when setting up map parameters
Territories adjacent to the starting area now cost less (new game only)
Cotton multiplication speed slightly decreased
Wiki entries for goods and items now display the kinds of cats who are requesting them, along with request types (regular, specialized or upsale purchases)
New events
Dr. Katz requests automatically get cancelled if there was no progress towards completing them for 3 hours
2 new achievements
Performance optimization
Bug fixes
UI/UX fixes
FPS lock is now available in Settings
Hey, let's discuss how you like all this stuff, shall we? Drop us a line:
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
Developer Diaries, Mar 2022: Seasons' Greetings
Last month was marked with the final arrival of two important major features! One of them was planned long-time ago, the other one emerged out of a rather heated discussion and with a lot of help from our community! Here's how it all unraveled…
Biomes have been on our roadmap since the very early stages of development. It only made sense, since in Learning Factory, you're operating on Mars, terraformed by joined forces of humans and cats, and empowered by cutting edge technology of the I.L.L.U.M.I.N.A.T.I. (Interstellar Lazy Labor Union for Mars Integration and Never-ending Aspiration for Technological Innovations). That said, it was only a matter of time before Tundra, Jungle and Desert would appear on Mars again. And this time has come!
The game has changed a great deal in terms of visuals, but those exciting biome-specific gameplay changes are still on the way (see below). But not entirely so! For example, Fir Trees now only spawn in the cold Tundra biome. Tundra is also spawning Icebergs, which is currently used for harvesting some Fish. But this will change in the near future, as we'll be integrating biomes into the game's economy. For starters, we'll introduce a machine for making ice-cold Smoothies in one the next update. Make sure to build them in some cool place!
Jungle and Desert, on the other hand, are a bit more diverse in terms of gameplay already! Jungle is now the perfect place for growing Apple Trees, while warm Oceans have become the perfect place for growing Catnip Algae plants! Additionally, Juicy Cacti can be found in Deserts: currently, they provide you with a can of Catnip Juice, when harvested by hand. Also, you can now extract Concrete from Desert sands (previously Sand was available in the oceans only).
Boy, you can even find some Raw Concrete, scattered here and there in Deserts (yes, Concrete is a natural mineral on our version of Mars, because science!)
Territories: Mars for Sale
In the most recent update update, we've decided to try something different to motivate the players to explore the map a little bit more. Since the cats in the world of Learning Factory are now active participants in the Solar System's economy, it only makes sense for them to start buying lots of land on the recently terraformed Mars.
Which is why most territories have landlords and ladies (currently available as optional feature in Freeplay Mode only). The thing is, cats can't really do much about their owned territories. Because they have paws and don't have hands. Which is why you, the players, are very welcome to buy this land off them for money or other resources, and expand your Factory there. Since locked territories often contain valuable resources, buildings and Ruins, in our minds this feature would make unlocking those territories a rather exciting process.
But there was, of course, a risk of upsetting players by limiting their exploration possibilities. That's why we've approached our community and asked them about their potential concerns regarding this feature. This resulted in a mutually interesting Q&A dialogue, which helped us shape this feature, but the discussion unraveled further and led to unexpected, yet quite interesting, results.
For example, one member of a community pointed out that “coins use in game is a bit weird at the moment imo. They are used in place of typical "science packs" in other games for researching new technology and unlocking new buildings and resources. Personally i would much rather have a KOTOVOD Store that you can buy all the craftable and harvestable items from”. This thought has crossed our minds as well, so now we're thinking of ways to give the players an opportunity to exchange resources. This feature goes by the code name of “Trade Ports” (inspired by our good friend Kryptonik) and exact mechanics of their work is still deeply in discussion. But the problem itself is definitely on our plates.
Another important issue brought up in that dialogue was that “a bit better or a research/progression system would be nice. 95% of all the researches on my save files come from like 1 researcher and a single store selling items and me just letting it slowly run and complete the tech tree”. We are aware of this issue and we've been discussing it even more vividly since it was brought up by the community.
The biggest dilemma for us is that introducing any kinds of limitations could break the ‘zen’ vibe of the game, which our players value greatly. But that doesn't mean there's no way to work it out! Just a couple of days back, we came up with an idea that could not only resolve this situation, but also tie up together the story, unlocking territories and progressing on the Research Tree. But this thing is so early in discussion, that we are in no way ready to say anything about it — everything can change once we start experimenting with it. One thing is certain: we'll have another round of community discussion when there's something to be discussed!
In the meantime, you're very welcome to join our merry bunch on our Discord server, where we discuss upcoming features with our players and ask them for ideas that often make it into the game later.
Another important outcome: while we were discussing unlockable territories with the players, we all have agreed that Learning Factory would definitely benefit from adding cat zeppelins! The mechanics of their work is also in TBD stage, but we have added them on our public roadmap:
Up Next: Customization (Finally!)
The most prominent feature in the next update we're working on, was long-expected both by the community and us, the devs, because it's pure fun! (Especially when we've got such artist as Sergei on board) We've even redesigned the main character model to make it all happen, that's how serious we are about customization!
We've got a lot of slots for custom items planned: you can change hair and facial features, outfit, backpack, cat fir and muzzle, even accessories and hoverboard/jetboard features!
The update next week, of course, will feature only an initial bunch of items. Much more will arrive later on in Early Access. As for now, check out some gifs of work-in-progress custom character looks:
But that's not just that! Here's a random selection of features we're planning to add (please mind that some features might fail to make it into the next week's update, but it's safe to expect them soon in any case):
1-3 new biome-specific buildings
1 new resource for crafting
Underground Ruins
All in all, we're excited as we are preparing to finalize Stage 2 of our Early Access plan, which means we're somewhere midway to release, and we're so happy to be going through this journey with you by our side!
See you in the next version of Learning Factory Dev Diaries! If you've got thoughts to share, there's no point in waiting, come talk to us directly:
P.S. If you want to keep an eye our progress closer, don't forget to follow Learning Factory on our Steam page and never miss an update again!
----------------------
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
