Learning Factory
Hotfix v0.10.66
Just wanted to let you know that we've released a hotfix, which eradicated a couple of particularly nasty bugs! We hope the game now runs smoothier than ever!
Additionally, the character now leaves trails!
Enjoy and let us know if it works for you :)
Weeklong Sale: 30% Off!
A sudden surprise! Learning Factory is 30% off for this whole week!
Actually, the deal was about our previous game, while True: learn() which is now a part of the awesome SimFest: Hobby Edition. But we've decided that it's gonna be a cool thing to make a discount for Learnin Factory, too! Enjoy :)
And don't miss while True: learn() if you don't have it in your library yet! It's a fun puzzle game and it's also dedicated to cats and machine learning:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/619150/while_True_learn/
Finally, if you don't feel like paying for playing games at all, may we offer you check out our next game, Craftomation 101, which is currently in free alpha stage! There is terraforming and programmable robots over there, check it out and let us know how you like it!
Let there be awesome games! Have a great and fun week, everybody!
New Update: Territories For Sale, New Ruins And More
Have you ever wondered whether cats can be land owners? Of course you haven't: everyone knows that every cat owns their territory by default. But since Mars is populated with sentient cats, they are also capable of managing their ownership rights as they choose.
Which is why KOTOVOD engineers can now purchase certain territories of Mars from their respective owners. It will help expand Learning Factory and provide you a chance to find something valuable on your new lands. As for the cats, they will be compensated with money and goods (out of your inventory, that is), thus creating additional benefits for Martian economy. Catitalism at work! Glory to KOTOVOD!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1150090/Learning_Factory
Version 0.10.65 Released!
- Unlockable Territories (Beta - available in Freeplay Mode only): certain territories are owned by cat landlords and can be purchased with money or goods for Factory expansion
- A bunch of new Ruins, especially water-based ones. Ruins with more valuable buildings can appear on Territories when generating the map in Freeplay
- Updated animations for Hoverboard and Cat Jetboard
- Selected buildings in the Tundra now have special snowy visuals
- UI/UX improvements
- Bug fixes
We would like to take a minute and thank our Discord community members, who helped us a great deal, suggesting funny and unique trade offers for cat landlords. Palm, ThatOtherAndrew, rik, Kryptonik, Da Hooman, you're the best!
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: Biomes, Juicy Cacti and Raw Concrete (+Q&A About Future Plans)
You know you can't stop the progress, especially when this progress is pushed forward by KOTOVOD's own Dr. Katz!
Although Mars was generally terraformed years ago, the process is in no way over yet! Thanks to the I.L.L.U.M.I.N.A.T.I. tech, it was made possible to make climate on Mars more diverse! Because diverse climate zones inspire curiosity, and cats are very curious, you know!
There's now Jungle and Tundra and Desert areas on Mars! Various plants prefer different climate, which means: more job for you, hardworking engineers! Glory to science! Glory to Catopia!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1150090/Learning_Factory/
Version 0.10.64 Released!
- Introducing cold and hot climate regions (available upon starting new game), which will host different biomes
- Tundra now appears in the cold region, while Deserts and Jungle emerge in the hot region (available upon starting new game)
- Apple Trees now mostly grow in the Jungle, which is also the best biome for growing them, from now on
- Catnip Algae now mostly grows in the Torpical Water
- Fir Trees are now generated in the Tundra biome. Also, Growing Fir Trees don't grow in hot regions
- When placing a crafted tile of Soil, Rich Soil, Shallow or Deep Water in a climate region, it will acquire the properties of a respective biome
- Concrete Mixer can now extract Sand from the Desert biome
- New object: Icebergs emerge in cold regions and produce Fish, when harvested by hand
- New object: Juicy Cacti can be found in hot regions and produce Catnip Juice, when harvested by hand
- New object: Growing Juicy Cacti can be found, picked up and planted elsewhere. They can also be researched on the Research Tree, to be produced and planted
- New object: Raw Concrete can be found in the Desert biome, it can be harvested and used for building
- New dev-made Ruins added, including biome-specific
- A fan-made Ruin added (the credit goes to Kryptonik)
- Sliders in Freeplay mode work slightly differently: resources are no longer interconnected
- Fixed bug of Turing Trees that could break their generation cycle
- Bug fixes
- UI fixes
- Optimization
- Game loading optimization
(Q&A) Cat to the Future
Last week, we've had a really productive discussion with our Discord community. It all started with us working on one of our next big features: unlockable territories on the map. Here's a concept of a hypothetical map look (a work in progress, naturally):
The idea was to let the players explore the map in a new way. The problem was, we really needed ideas on how to make this mechanics really intriguing, without disrupting the game vibes. We've asked our community to share their ideas and concerns. And now we want to share them with you, too!
Q: Why make you spend money to unlock it, and will you be able or unable to progress without it? Will you present a knapsack problem if you spend money but then can't achieve a necessary task due to lack of coins? -rik
A: The way we see it right now, the territories will be unlocked with both money and different resources. You won't be able to progress without unlocking them at some point (late in the game): different areas will be set in different biomes, which have different unique resources.
Q: [Aren't you afraid that this mechanic] force limits players play areas? Typically in factory style games you could run 10000 tiles away from the initial area at the very beginning and the game wont do much to stop you from doing so.
A: We are afraid that some players might feel like being held back by that, we honestly are! Thank Dr. Katz, we're still in Early Access, so we could make alterations, based on player feedback! Our first solution to that problem: we'll make the campaign map 1.56 times bigger, and the initially available area will be huge enough for you to roam freely!
Q: But would buying the land ASAP mean that you can't then buy something that you need to progress an earlier puzzle that you haven't yet completed? -rik
A: Nothing like that, is on our minds :) There are no soft locks due to the lack of money in the game
Q: What concern I have about biome specific resources are that you would need to build an extremely long conveyor belt to bring them to the shop. I don't know how normal is this in typical factory game, but as someone who wants to minimize footprint, it is not a pleasant feeling. -Rich Richie
A: There's already a hoverboard, a jetpack and a couple of upgrades to help you traverse the map, that is not that huge at the moment. Did you know that you can lay down transporters WHILE riding a hoverboard? Also, there are no enemies to disturb you or your conveyor belts.
As for addressing this issue in the future... We have actually been discussing zeppelins as an alternative means of transport, but it was on our list of "crazy ideas that we might return to some time later" ;)
Q: If we are the only ones on that planet what in lore wise is stopping us from just naturally expanding? Who would the coins be going to and why are they trying to sell the land on this barron planet anyways?-Kryptonik
A: Our current concept is that there are cats who act as landlords of certain territories. They could make you trade offers! Additionally, Mars is in no way barren (especially with that last update), it was terraformed by joined forces of cats and humans!
Q: We had a MAP in this game????
A: YES :) Here's another work-in-progress view of a mini map, divided into unlockable territories:
Additionally, here are a couple of questions not related to territories, but which seemed interesting to us anyway (all asked by our friend Kryptonik):
Q: Will there be any modding tools to help create workshop content and is there any news on when workshop content will come out?
A: We are planning modding tools, but don't have any due dates at this point. First thing we're planning to add is sharing scenarios, Ruins and map keys.
We've had the opportunity of letting the players share user generated content from the start, and the game is designed in a way, that adding new resources is done by creating a couple of strings in a spreadsheet. We'll see how the players like the features mentioned above, and think how to expand them, based on that!
Q: Is it safe to expect more resources or buildings in game in the future?
A: Definitely, you can see respective points pinned to our roadmap (see '20+ New Researches' in Stage 4).
Q: How close do the devs feel the game is to a "finished" state where no new additions to the game would be added outside of bug fixes/patches
A: We'd say, we're about halfway there! And we'll also keep supporting the game post-release, content updates are also quite likely. But again, it all depends on feedback from you folks!
We rely heavily on our community and we'd like to discuss features with you on a regular basis! If you feel like joining our friendly ranks, come to our Discord server (now with separate channel for cat memes!):
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 Character Art, Ruins On The Map And Massive Optimization
You jnow what they say: you can't build Catopia without breaking down some old factory ruins... Ok, that's not exactly what they say, but this is what's happening in the areas surrounding KOTOVOD campus right now.
It is widely known that KOTOVOD started out as an experimental project way back in the XX century. The experiment was a failure due to so many reasons (main of them being humans not able to understand the genius ideas of their cats). Nevertheless, a lot of work was done, a lot of structures had been erected and eventually left to rot...
Until you have arrived! Thanks to our hardworking engineers, our I.L.L.U.M.I.N.A.T.I. curators finaly had their paws free to start prospecting for the remains of older KOTOVOD. As always, they have succeeded! From now on, you'll be able to detect the Ruins of the factory's ancient campus, and put into good use whatever you find there!
That said: please get back to work now, engineers... Hey, did you get your hair cut? You look kinda different...
Version 0.10.63 Released!
- New character art; more frames in animation, too
- Ruins of the old KOTOVOD campus are now being spawned on maps (but only after starting another new game)
- Small-sized Scenarios in the Editor can now be saved as Ruins and appear on regular maps in Freeplay Mode
- In relation to that, the minimal size of a Scenario has been decreased from 32 to 10 tiles
- OPTIMIZATION (yes, in caps, yes, again). Warning: when you load a saved game file from an earlier version, you will experience a situation when all the cats/objects on all your Transporter lines will disappear. Sorry about that, but worry not: just wait for a couple of minutes until those lines get filled with newly emerged cats/objects. No cats will be harmed. Many thanks to community member Da Hooman for providing a saved game that helped us optimize the game some more!
- Mouse grid can now be activated even when you don't have an object on your mouse cursor
- Turing Trees now have animation upon emerging/disappearing
- Bugs and UI fixes
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: More Machine Learning, More Dynamite, More Cool Cats
The Progress of KOTOVOD Administration rushes forward with an astonishing speed, urging the workers to rush along, to Catopia and beyond! This week, Learning Factory has just become smarter, with not one, but 2 new machine learning (ML) models to become available to engineers! To help them clear some space for inevitable expansion, the I.L.L.U.M.I.N.A.T.I. curators have even greenlit the use of experimental new types of dynamite: potent, but naturally harmless to living beings (except for plants) and expensive machinery!
The hard work of KOTOVOD workers is already paying off, as more feline celebrities are checking out our glorious and abundant Factory Stores. Hooray, engineers! Glory to science! Glory to KOTOVOD!
Version 0.10.61 Released!
- 2 new machine learning models - Logistic Regression and Neural Classifier specifically designed for Roadside Boutiques
- New Dynamite upgrade: Eco Dynamite (for getting rid of unwanted plants fast)
- New item: Jetboard is the supreme version of Jetpack, allowing you to fly over hills and water
- Advertising Cat Gates display the process of summoning cats
- Cats passing by Roadside Boutiques get visually disappointed if they don't like the prices and goods on display
- Improved visuals for hills and rivers
- Improved visuals for plants growing by the rivers
- Improved visuals for buildings placed near the hills
- The character no longer gets stuck when trying to walk into the impassable biomes
- The character no longer visually walks on water
- A new Guide is dedicated to setting up and using Roadside Boutiques
- A new checkbox in the incoming CVs allows you to turn off the option to receive CVs
- Research Labs are now displaying current research progress and takes you to the Research Tree on click
- Research Labs allow to toggle the display of an Article research value calculations
- Crafting queue is now displayed in the Construction menu
- Dr. Katz requests that formerly offered Iron as a reward will now occasionally be rewarded by Copper and Gold as well
- Improved events display
- An event is now displayed upon unlocking an upgrade research
- Improved Milestones display
- New hidden achievement
- New legendary cats
- UI improvements
- Bug fixes
Wait, did we just mention 'New legendary cats'? Oh yeah, we totally did! Check out some of the next epic felines to arrive on your Factory (keep your eyes peeled to not miss them!):
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: Explosive & Legendary!
Hard work eventually pays off! Even though all the profits eventually go for funding new research and reaching Catopia, it is important to find a moment to stop and smell the roses (before going back to hard and never-ending work).
Okay, roses don't grow on Mars just yet. But you can smell the success when you see legendary cats visiting the Factory! The word of KOTOVOD's glorious deeds in the field of feline economy is spreading, and celebrities from the furry society start emerging on the campus! Bear in mind, their requests are sometimes... unconventional.
When the fattest cats are coming to your Factory, it's sometimes important to be able to make quick alterations and adapt your production to meet the high society's highest standards. Which is where the next invention of the I.L.L.U.M.I.N.A.T.I. scientists comes in handy: enter the Smart Dynamite! It's powered by machine learning and allows wreaking havoc without the fear of harming cats or other sentient lifeforms, such as KOTOVOD's workers. We value you, because you're working so hard and we don't pay you anyway!
The economy is BOOMING this week at KOTOVOD Learning Factory! Glory to science!
IVersion 0.10.60 Released!
- New cats: Legendary cat characters will be visiting your Factory! There are five of them now, can you spot them all?
- New research: Dynamite! It's a smart kind of explosive that only destroys things approved by the I.L.L.U.M.I.N.A.T.I. Ergo, it can't harm cats or key research infrastructure... But it's great for quick landscape changing: capable of destroying a good chunk of ground, leaving a hole full of water
- There's also an upgrade for Dynamite, resulting in a smaller piece of Dynamite
- Lunar New Year decorations: asian-themed cats and Store visuals
- Hills now appear on the map: they can't be crossed, but they can be blown up (new game required for hills to emerge)
- Other terrain visual improvements
- Tutorial updated: new tasks added, older tasks clarified
- Improved Wiki: crafting and item description added
- Research queue display improved
- Crafting queue display improved
- Hills, rivers and lakes can be turned off entirely while in Freeplay mode
- Mouse grid now available for all buildings
- Bug fixes
- UI/UX fixes
- Optimization
- You can now pet the cat in the menu (click the cat to make it happen!)
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
KOTOVOD Worker #46: La Boutique Helps Boost Les Sales
The diligence and dedication of KOTOVOD workers is out of doubt (and control), as they're getting closer and closer to establishing Catopia on Mars! As you definitely know already, the first step of building a greater society for felines and humans includes the latter providing material wealth to the former.
Since lines are more than common on KOTOVOD's Transporter lines (a feature inherited from the Union times), some cats are actually spending a lot of time not buying any goods. This situation seemed somewhat suboptimal to KOTOVOD administration. Which is why they have teamed up with the brightest minds from the I.L.L.U.M.I.N.A.T.I. and came up with not one, but two grounbreaking inventions!
A Roadside Boutique is a building to be placed by Transporter lines: it sells goods to passerby cats, thus making them happier and more loyal to the cause (which is establishing Catopia). Item Splitter is a more humble, but most handy kind of a building, letting you detect and extract selected kinds of items from all kinds of places!
Use them wisely. Catopia is inevitable. Glory to science! Glory to KOTOVOD!
Version 0.10.59 Released
- New building: Roadside Boutique is placed by Transporter lines; cats may choose to walk in and browse for goods. If they find what they were looking for, cats become more loyal towards your Factory
- More loyal cats are more likely to recommend the Factory to their friends (and less likely to dissuade them from coming, in case their shopping experience in a Store is unsuccessful). Go to the Wiki ('H') to check out what certain cat types are looking for in Boutiques;
- A new Boutique-related milestone added to the Global Progression bar;
- New building: Item Splitter. For sorting items. Choose a category and an item you want to separate from the other goods and - voila!;
- If a cat has fulfilled all their wishes in the Pyramid of requests (again, go to the Wiki to check it out), they will return to the Factory with increased level of loyalty;
- Advertising Cat Gate now gathers statistics about cats and later. With enough data, it will be capable to decide whether to show an ad to certain cat or not. It results in increased operational speed for the Gate;
- All Cat Gates feature improved interface and an option to clear stats;
- Generally more new statistics in Statistics menu;
- Research Tree slightly re-balanced in terms of cost and placement of certain objects;
- There now is an option to turn on grid view under logistics buildings while you're placing them. The grid for other kinds of buildings will be added in future updates;
- Bug fixes;
- Optimization;
- Interface fixes;
- Copywriting fixes;
- There now is art in the Credits!
To commemorate us adding Dynamite to the game, please enjoy this fireworks of explosion effect prototypes:
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
KOTOVOD Worker #45: Updated Drill Art, More Holiday Stuff & OPTIMIZATION
Greetings, engineers!
This year, crazy on so many levels, is coming to an end! But the work on establishing Catopia and building the Factory is far from being complete! We wish you many festive activities and restoration of your physical and emotional forces, to help you make the human-feline dream happen!
You are also encouraged to continue working on building Learning Factory these days. It only makes sense, since there has been a remarkable hardware upgrade (see below).
Hooray, engineer associates! Happy 2021! Yours,
KOTOVOD Science Team
Version 0.10.58 Released
- Shoreline art;
- Concrete Maker animated;
- New art for Drills: copper and iron Drills now look visually different;
- More Holiday art;
- Advertising Cat Gate sometimes show ads to irrelevant customers. That does not cost extra money, since those customers never arrive to the Factory. The more is the Hype, the less error rate the Gate has, but it also starts working at a slower pace (you can correct that by researching new upgrade for that type of Gates). This first Advertising Game was slown down to prevent accidental burning of too much money on early stages of the game;
- Cat House Maker now occupies 5*5 tiles;
- OPTIMIZATION (yes, in caps); Especially for Storages; Deep Neural Networks work a bit slower as a result;
- Save game optimization;
- Bug fixes;
- Copywriting fixes;
- Updated visuals for credits;
Our special thanks go to our players, Da Hooman, Jiiniasu & Kryptonik, for helping us with testing!
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