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Techtonica screenshot
PC Steam
Genre: Simulator, Strategy, Adventure, Indie

Techtonica

Fixes for audio sliders, gamma, and incorrect default settings - Patch v0.1.0e
Hello, Groundbreakers. We've pushed Patch v0.1.0e.

Patch v0.1.0e contains a fix for the broken settings problem that has been causing some users in international territories to experience issues like the following:


  • Volume settings defaulting to 0% or 1000%
  • Gamma settings defaulting to 0
  • FOV settings defaulting to values greater than the implemented minimum or maximum
  • Display area settings defaulting to values other than 100%


After updating Techtonica to v0.1.0e, new players shouldn't experience the above problems.

Existing players who have had some or all of the above settings-related issues should update to v0.1.0e.

When you do, your Techtonica settings should be restored to normal defaults when you start up the game. From there, you can customize those settings as desired. Save game progress should not be impacted.

If anyone continues to experience problems with extreme settings after updating to v0.1.0e, using the Restore Defaults in Techtonica > Main Menu > Settings should fix the problem.

This will fix many of the FOV problems described by some users where FOV feels extreme or broken out of the box. It will not change how our FOV works for users who have manually adjusted their FOV values, though.

This will fix the problem users in some regions are experiencing where volume is set to 0% or 1000%. It will not change volume levels for people who were not experiencing these problems related to volume settings sliders being set by default to extreme values.

For now, these changes will be to Steam only.

Techtonica has launched! 🚀
Welcome to Calyx, Groundbreakers! Techtonica has officially entered Early Access.

If you haven't noticed, there's a launch discount available for the game, too. Techtonica will normally sell for $29.99, but there's a 15% launch discount that will run for the first week.



From us at Fire Hose to you, our growing community of Groundbreakers, thanks for being here.

We hope you have a blast with Techtonica. v0.1 marks the beginning of our journey. We leave you with a link to our Discord if you want to chat directly with the devs and other community members and our upcoming Road Map.

Let's get to work.

So, we’re launching Techtonica tomorrow... đŸ­đŸš€đŸ„ł
Sort of unreal to say it, but we’re officially launching Techtonica into Early Access tomorrow, July 18th, 2023.

Thanks for being here. Thanks for reading, commenting, sharing, Wishlisting, and watching. It’s meant so much to our entire team through the development process, and your presence in our community drives this game forward.

So! What’s happening with our team and Techtonica at and right after launch? Let’s dig in.



Launch time?



We’re launching Techtonica on July 18th, 2023, at 1pm EST. That’s when we push the big green button, anyways. It should be live within a minute or two.

Fun fact, we’re actually doing this as a team, I believe. So the plan is to watch as one of our Leads pushes the button and we launch the game into Early Access. v0.1 should be fun!

Don’t forget the Discord hangout



Lauren will go live in the Discord three hours before launch. You can join at discord.gg/techtonica. She’ll be live at 10am ET, which could be right now if you’re reading this on the 18th.

The plan is to host several members of the Fire Hose team throughout the morning, so get ready to see faces old and new, ask questions, and experience first-hand launch nerves.

Ah, the Reddit AMA!



At 2pm ET, five Fire Hose team members will be live in the r/Games subreddit with an official AMA. If you’re already a Redditor, join us. We’ll be ready to answer lots of questions, but no leaks. Please no leaks.



What’s the deal with v0.1.1?



v0.1.1 is billed as the Quality of Life update, and it will largely serve stabilization and immediate community feedback. We won’t be able to address everything! But we are looking to gather your feedback in the opening weeks and will implement changes in the v0.1.1 patch by mid-August-ish.

You can submit your feedback and discuss/rank other feedback at feedback.techtonicagame.com.




The aforementioned timeline could change! We’re responding to your thoughts and issues in real time, and priorities or scale and scope could shift our work, so don’t let a schedule change surprise you.

Thanks for hanging out! We can’t wait for tomorrow. See you on Calyx!

Techtonica’s Development Roadmap is finally here
Techtonica is entering into Early Access on July 18th. ICYMI, here’s some info on that!

To give players a better sense of where Techtonica’s heading, the team created a roadmap that showcases what the next few updates will look like. Closer updates have more details, as we’ve fully scoped those out and planned them. Further updates have less details, as we aren’t 100% ready to commit to the designs we have planned.

This is important: this roadmap isn’t locked in place.



We plan to adjust this roadmap based on your feedback! If you haven’t already, join our Discord or stay tuned for our soon-to-be-launched feedback website. As we make adjustments, we’ll be sure to notify the community and keep y’all in the loop.

Without further delay, the roadmap:



Welcome to Calyx - v0.1



v0.1 is what will be available on July 18th. This has everything you should expect at launch, including the M.O.L.E., destructible terrain, 4-player online co-op, the monorail with the rideable zipline, and an open world with fully voiced characters.

You’ll also find that Techtonica has been localized (in-game text and subtitles) into 10 supported languages. We will be adding more languages as time goes on, but for now, we prioritized the languages that popped up highest in our wishlists.

QoL Update - v0.1.1



The Quality of Life update planned for bugfixes will happen soon after launch, and we will need your help for it! Any player feedback submitted on our soon-to-be-launched website or in the Discord will be taken into account. While there’s no way we’ll be able to get to everything, we’ll rely on the community to help us figure out the most critical matters.

New Foundations - v0.2



The New Foundations update is where things get really exciting. There will be new narrative and research pieces, and Base Building will receive a massive upgrade. As players who spend 99% of their time in other games simply building houses, we are pretty darn stoked about this. You can expect new floors, walls, lights, and decorations. The art team has a pretty big list.

We’re hoping this update will launch a few months after the QoL update, which will be our typical cadence for updates moving forward.

Take Flight - v0.3



The last update we can provide even a small amount of details on is Take Flight; we’re adding a new vehicle to the game. What kind of vehicle? We can’t reveal that yet, but once the team is ready to share we will give you what we can. We’re adding in some gameplay-enhancing build modes as well.

As far as Desert MIRAGE goes? We’ll leave that one up to your imagination.

This is our current roadmap! We will update this roadmap as we get closer to other updates, and we will let you know when it happens.

See you in the Discord!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1457320/Techtonica/


We didn't build Techtonica's trailer factories
We’ll admit it. Our players are definitely better than us when it comes to building factories. We know this is true, and it’s only going to become more true after Techtonica enters Early Access.

Relyen is one of those players, and we wanted to work with him to help make some stellar factories for our release date trailer. Boy, did he deliver




How did we find Relyen? What made us want to work with him for our trailers?

Before we answer those questions, you should subscribe to Relyen’s YouTube channel. If you’re reading this post, you’ll probably enjoy his content.

In addition to our video and blog update, Relyen made his own behind the scenes video.



Let’s dig in.



How and why did this happen?



Relyen signed up for the closed Alpha in May of last year. He was part of Wave 1, and, we didn’t know it at the time, decided to make some videos.

These videos were rad. They involved math and design decisions, and Relyen was one of the first players to actually use Power Floors to decorate factories. He was pushing out some of the most informative Techtonica content available at the time. You can still dig into that Alpha playlist, but the math is all broken now (sorry, Relyen!).

Our team noticed these vids, and then we noticed Relyen had a history of making really great Satisfactory tutorials. He has a knack for making stuff look pretty while eking out every ounce of efficiency.

Relyen joined our Discord, started chatting with the devs, and we realized he was a pretty cool guy. When it came time to plan our release date trailer, we decided that Relyen would build a way more impressive factory than we would, so we got in touch.

Relyen put up with some jank and bugs in order to craft the massive factories you see in the Release Date trailer, and we think the result is incredible. Here’s that trailer again.



What about the timelapse?



Who doesn’t like a good timelapse shot? We wanted to showcase how quickly a small factory outpost could scale into something larger in our release date trailer.

So, Relyen, two other Fire Hose members, and I dove into a multiplayer session. While Relyen and I built the factory, the other two players dropped their HUDs and stood still to record. Over an hour-ish, we’d built a pretty spiffy factory.

The result is cool!



Relyen’s actually working on another factory for another trailer right now




When Techtonica enters Early Access on July 18th, 2023, we’ll do so with a brand-new launch trailer in hand. We needed a cool factory, so we turned to Relyen again. Here’s a small tease of what’s coming.



Thanks to Relyen, thanks to all creators big and small, and thank you to the players who blew our minds during the demo. We can’t wait to see what you build once we launch into Early Access.

Our plan in the future is to highlight our community members' factories, so share what you build with us!

See you soon.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1457320/Techtonica/

A Sneak Peek at Techtonica’s Sci-fi Soundtrack
Hey Groundbreakers! ICYMI, we finally announced our launch date last week. Techtonica will be coming to Early Access on July 18th!

As we get closer to launch, we wanted to start giving you more details on what the Early Access release will look like. And that begins with some more exciting news. Techtonica’s Original Soundtrack will be available on day one on Steam!

We took the time to deep dive Techtonica’s music and SFX this week with our Composer and Sound Director, Brandon Ellis. You may have heard his music - under the name Cityfires - in Catlateral Damage: Remeowstered & 30XX!



First, let’s take a moment to listen to some music. There are two versions of each song in Techtonica. These change in-game depending on how close you are to big machines. Below are two examples:





Let’s hear from Brandon.

What was the original inspiration for the River Biome tracks?

Brandon: The team had some very clear goals right from the start to help direct the type of mood we wanted. It was important to use the music to help the player have a feeling of mystery and isolation while exploring the biome. But on top of that, we wanted to make sure the music reflected a sense of productivity and progress as the player slowly builds out their factories all across the world.

It was also really important to make sure the music wasn’t scary or uncomfortable! I realized very early that it’s a fine line between relaxing music and sounding like something is about to jump out at you around the corner.

How much do you take into account the environment? Did anything inspire you there?

Compared to other “level themes” you might think about from video games, the River Biome, a large series of caves with rivers stretching out all throughout, has a lot of room for interpretation and influence. We decided to settle on some specific instruments to serve as the foundation for this biome: lots of piano, bells, and synth pads. I would consider those “watery” instruments.

And then the design of the biome itself is a really interesting blend of expansive space AND stone walls and ceilings all around you. We want the music to almost sound like it’s just coming out of the ground and echoing through the caverns, like it’s part of the planet itself.

And adding the “Factory Mix” of the tracks ended up being a really great idea by our game director!

How did the idea of intense factory music versus ambient exploration music come about?

There are tons of games that have dynamic sound when you’re in or out of combat. The FTL Soundtrack, for instance, has an incredible dynamic flow between when you’re planning out your moves and when you’re actively trying to not die for your 100th run in a row.

And while Techtonica doesn’t have combat, it does have two really different experiences that the player moves between: exploring the world and trying to uncover what exactly you’re doing on this planet, and working in your factory to keep up your productivity.

So Richard, our Game Director, brought up the idea of having the music change when you’re in your factory and when you’re out exploring!

What are the major differences between those tracks?

When you’re in and around a bunch of mining drills, assemblers, and smelters, it can be hard to hear the light ambient music that occasionally fades in and out. So the “Factory Mix” of each track adds some percussion, bass, and more intense synth sounds to blend better with your machinery. And as you step away from the factory floor and move into the more natural spaces in the game, the music will fade back into the more ambient mix. The goal is just to properly match the vibe that the player is experiencing.

Where did you pull inspiration for the machine sounds from?

A majority of our machines in the River Biome have real-world analogs we can pull references from. So typically it’s a blend of recording huge, industrial machines and blending them with synths and effects to match their size and scope in-game.

Some of those machines are more real than others, so for some of the more fantastical and futuristic sounds, we relied a lot more on creating synthetic sounds. The idea of making all the sounds for the M.O.L.E. (our handheld black-hole mining tool) was really daunting because it had so many parts to it: the mechanical tool itself, the black hole radiating energy out in front of you, the rocks cracking and exploding
. That one was definitely a giant blend of real sounds and some really wild synth work.

How many layers of sound does each item have? Which is the most complex?

The M.O.L.E. was definitely pretty daunting, and several other machines have some pretty involved triggers. Some machines like the Smelter are just on or off, but others like the Monorail can have 4 or 5 different “states” they might be in. Those were complicated not just because they have a lot of moving parts and visual elements that need to be reflected in the SFX, but because they need extensive implementation to make sure they all trigger at the correct points.

How do you balance the music in game with machine sounds and environmental sounds?

It’s definitely a challenge to properly balance it all, but luckily the music intensity change and the natural flow of the game between the natural and artificial sections help ease the player between all the different sounds. You expect the sound to be more dense when you’re around a bunch of machines, and that allows for a really pleasant feeling when you move back out into the wilderness and can hear the gentle flowing of the water again.

Anything special in the SFX you might not notice?

I had a hard time finding the right sound for the mining drill’s motor sound, and I ultimately settled on using some recorded samples from a bunch of motorcycles! And I’m actually really happy with how that turned out!

Also my favorite way to test new sound implementations is to just record myself saying whatever the machine is doing. And when I forget to replace them, I usually get really confused messages from the QA team asking why the monorail is saying “WHEEE!!!” as it flies past. Or why the Assembler is just saying “LASER LASER LASER.” I keep telling the team we need talking machines in our game.

How many tracks will be in the final OST?

I think the goal is to have a robust, unique set of songs that play in the River Biome. As of right now the River Biome has about 11 songs that will randomly cycle during gameplay.

–

We’ll be posting a tracklist in the upcoming weeks and more info on the OST as we get closer to launch!

If you want to meet the rest of the community and speak directly with more developers, join our Discord.

See you soon!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1457320/Techtonica/

Techtonica has an Early Access release date, controller support, and MORE
We just had a huge weekend for Techtonica news.

If you count yourself among the newly recruited Groundbreakers, welcome! If you’ve been here for weeks and months now, welcome back!

Every week, we put together a blog post, newsletter, and update video featuring Techtonica details big and small. Whether it’s reworked Conveyor Belts, new tools, or major announcements, we’ll share something new weekly.

This week, we’re recapping all the info that came out over the weekend. Let’s dig in.



First, Techtonica will enter Early Access on July 18th, 2023. In case you missed it, here’s the new trailer that revealed the date.



We also announced that Techtonica will be available day one with Xbox Game Pass.

You might have figured this out already, but we’ll make it official. Since Techtonica is coming to Xbox consoles, Techtonica features gamepad support.



Since day one, we’ve been quietly designing Techtonica to work natively on gamepads. In fact, in the very early days, we made it so the game was only playable with a gamepad in order to force ourselves to really consider intuitive controls. Richard, our Game Director, talked about this on our Discord.

Techtonica originally only worked on controller 😂 We knew making an automation game work on controller was going to be hard so we forced the controls to be only controller at first to make sure we did the controls well



We’re really happy with how it feels, and some team members prefer the gamepad over keyboard and mouse.

We can’t wait for you to join the ANEXCAL mission on July 18th, 2023, as Techtonica launches into Early Access.

If you want to meet the rest of the community and speak directly with the developers, join our Discord.

See you soon!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1457320/Techtonica/

Techtonica’s Early Access release date revealed 🏭
Greetings, Groundbreakers! We’re thrilled to finally share Techtonica’s Early Access release date with you.

Techtonica will enter Early Access on July 18th, 2023. We revealed the date during today’s Future of Play showcase, and you can check out the brand-new release date reveal trailer below.



Thank you so much for your support, feedback, and hype as we’ve moved from Techtonica’s initial announcement to the closed alpha, public demo, and beyond.

We’re calling Techtonica’s Early Access launch 0.1, and we have so, so much to share as we move forward to 1.0 and beyond. Join our Discord to stay up-to-date and chat with devs.

Welcome aboard, Groundbreakers. We’ll see you on Calyx soon.

Let’s get to work.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1457320/Techtonica/

Take a look at Techtonica’s Refreshed UI
As we approach Early Access launch, we’re mostly focused on bug fixes and performance gains. Our art team, however, has been focused on upgrading the UI and menus in Techtonica.

UI is extremely important. We’ve all played games where menus were clunky and frustrating. Tweaking these elements and making them user-friendly while still looking rad is a difficult task, and our art team tackled it well. We previously covered the HUD UI update here; give it a read if you’re interested!

Today, we’ll share some more UI upgrades and dive into the thought process behind our UI design.

Let’s get to it.



The Inventory Menu Overhaul



The original menus were developed for our pitch demo. They supported different mechanics, many of which we tested and scrapped over the course of early prototyping. The art team was also developing the art style for the rest of the game which was going through fast and furious iterations. As both the art style and set of mechanics solidified, it became obvious that we had to update our UI to suit not only the new designs, but also the new story and narrative content.



Some features in this screenshot have been nixed... Like the health and energy bars from when we had survival mechanics!

The inventory and schematics menus are actually still pretty similar to the early designs (and will be undergoing a visual overhaul sometime in the future), but when you compare them to the new layout, it’s still pretty different.



There's a ton of info relating to both the resources and recipes in Techtonica, and there were a bunch of decisions to be made in terms of what exactly to show the player and what to keep in the background. It's pretty common to hear, "Oh, we should be showing that number, too," during development. While squeezing in another line of info can work from time to time, it's much easier to design a robust UI system that supports these types of changes.

The new inventory menu has organized the information needed in a much more efficient manner, cleaned up the fonts and color scheme, and added a lot more detail.

In the future, Techtonica’s inventory menu will look something like this.


While some of the features won’t be available for Early Access launch, eventually players will see machine statistics like throughput, fuel consumption, and more in their inventory menu.

Settings, Settings, and More Settings



Below is the old settings menu from our first demo.. featuring a placeholder name for Techtonica while we started design!



While this looks clean, it was no longer representative of our current layouts and design, and we needed more options. Our current Settings Menu (with lots of new options) is below!



For the settings menu, we tried to be conscious of different gaming setups as well as accessibility for all of our players.

Eventually, our settings menu will look more like this:



Unlocking Satisfaction



Finally, a fun UI effect we recently added is the unlock animation for terminals. Every time you repair a terminal, you get a really cool effect that we will improve over time.



We wanted to make the player feel excited about repairing the production terminal, and what better way to do that than a full screen animation?

Finally, we've got some big news.

The demo is being removed from Steam on June 9th.



With Early Access launch on the horizon, it's time to say goodbye to the demo. It's no longer representative of the game we're launching into Early Access this summer.

If you’d like to chat more about the UI or what’s coming to Techtonica, join our Discord.

Until next week.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1457320/Techtonica/

Techtonica’s developers talk the future and Early Access release
Techtonica’s Early Access release approaches! We’ve been working on this thing for years now, and we wanted to pause and reflect on it a bit with you before the release gets here.

We sat down with a few developers to dig a little deeper into what’s going on with Techtonica.

Our Game Director, Richard, discusses what lead to Techtonica and some of what we have planned for tomorrow. Bristol, our Technical Artist, dives into how VFX helps with world-building and player direction. Finally, Eitan, our Founder, discusses our vision for Techtonica.



If you’d like to hang out and chat directly with Techtonica’s developers and community, come join our Discord!

Wishlist Techtonica. We’ll launch into Early Access this summer.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1457320/Techtonica/
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