Spooky sneak peek of what's coming in the next update
We are aware that many of you wonder if the next update is still in the works. And it is!
We don’t have the date for it yet, but it should not take too long at this point. The update will be focused on the mass vehicle replacement, and this feature already took more time than it was originally expected - that’s why we avoid giving any dates until we are completely sure we can meet them.
Partially, the delay is caused by our work in direction of expanding our team. This process is not easy (who would have thought!), and it grabs some of our resources from the development. Essentially, the current update is longer in development because we want to make a foundation for quicker development of future updates.
Anyways, the update will hit the beta branch soon, and you can actually see part of its functionality in the video above.
And of course, it’s the perfect time to resurrect the FREE official Voxel Tycoon spin-off called Railroad to Hell 3. Take a death ride and share your top scores!
Happy Halloween and see you next time 🎃
Back to work
Hello fellow tycoons! If you wonder how things are going on with the development of the game right now, this post is for you.
The next big feature we are working on is the rework of rail and road systems. It is a huge task and its results won’t be available to testers for a few more updates. Please be patient on that, we want to make everything right this time so we don’t need to remake it for the 5th time 😉
Of course, it would be too long time to wait before this update will be released. So, we continue to work on other updates and plan to release them on regular basis. For example, the next update adds - and many of you already guessed it - the highly requested vehicle auto-replacement functionality.
However, those of you who follow the development closely (like our beta testers) might have noticed that the update pace has slowed down a bit. Some of you might even think that the game is abandoned… but not so fast!
We just took a little summer vacation after 5 years of work on the game. This mostly involved not laying on the beach but finally completing some overdue personal business.
Remember this incident? The time has come to remove the plate from Andrew’s shoulder, and now it’s done! It had to be removed earlier, but we couldn’t just take our dedication from the Early Access release.
Another thing we did is moving to other cities. It was planned some time ago and it finally happened. It’s still two different cities, so we continue to work remotely.
Now, as we finished these real-life things, we are ready to get back to work. The pace of updates will speed up soon. Also, we are looking for a possibility of expanding our team with more developers to speed up the development even further. Can’t share anything on that at the moment, but hopefully, everything will work out.
What we know for sure is that we are not going anywhere, and the future of Voxel Tycoon is bright. At the moment of writing, the game has 85% of positive reviews on Steam. We can’t stop thank you people for such a warm welcome of Voxel Tycoon. It means a lot to us 💜
And it’s worth mentioning that by no means do we think Voxel Tycoon is close to being done. There’s a ton of work ahead, and we absolutely inspired to make these plans a reality, together with you!
Quality-of-life improvements and fixes
While we keep working on new features - such as mass vehicle replacement - there's a new intermediate update featuring a bunch of quality-of-life improvements and fixes.
We invite you to join the new Beta Branch! If you want to be on the edge of the Voxel Tycoon development, and be able to provide feedback quickly directly to the devs, then that’s for you.
First of all, we thank you from the bottom of our hearts 💜 Without you, our little project wouldn’t be possible. You supported us in the pre-alpha stage, you support us now with the Early Access, and we hope to see you later with the full release in the coming years.
Thank you! And we really mean it.
Of course, the development is nowhere stops with the Early Acess release, and we’re already working on the next update.
In the meantime, we’ve been a bit overwhelmed with the amount of feedback that poured on us on every channel, from Discord to Steam Discussions. It was literally impossible for us to answer every question and suggestion, so we decided to compile the most frequent issues into one FAQ, which you can read below.
We also want to thank anyone who spent their time answering questions and helping people here and there. Special thanks go to scailman, refreshfr, Elvis Cooper, and UGH Dany.
General
If I bought the pre-alpha on Itch previously, should I buy it again on Steam?
No, you don’t need to buy the game twice, it’s already yours. Follow this instruction to claim your Steam key.
The price is too steep for me. Will the game be on sale?
We have no plans to participate in sales. We believe that the current price properly reflects our intention for long-term support and development of the game. If you having trouble deciding if the game is worth your money, please look for some videos on YouTube, read reviews, or even ask other players for opinions directly on our Discord!
The game is not loading or there’s another technical issue
The game is developed by just two guys. But we can’t fail to mention the important role of our community volunteers helping us with content for the game, translations, moderations, writing guides, and more!
Can you say if some feature is planned?
Please take a look at our roadmap to get the idea of what major features are planned and in what order we plan to implement them.
Can I participate in the early beta of the next updates?
Sure! We’ll set up a beta branch on Steam soon, so everyone interested can receive future updates early and give us immediate feedback.
Where to report bugs or suggest ideas?
Before posting, please check the roadmap if the feature you want to suggest already planned and check on GitHub if it’s already posted.
Gameplay
I have hard times building bridges, connecting roads, etc.
We feel you! The current system - which is responsible for roads, rails, bridges, conveyors, etc - was originally introduced in the early days of the pre-alpha, and it was 3rd attempt on building tracks already from the moment development begins.
While it was time-proven as a working solution for handling most of the tasks, it obviously has its limitations and can be cumbersome to use at times.
To address that, we are working on a new system, that eventually will replace the current one. Not only it should make building a much more pleasant experience, but introduce many new interesting features, like so:
and more.
Why are there no level crossings?
See the answer above.
I think the signals are working wrong!
Signals are battle-tested for a couple of years already, so we are pretty confident there are no major bugs. The Voxel Tycoon using an implementation called block signals, which may the source of confusion for players who are more familiar with other implementations.
There’re two common issues that unprepared player might face:
Learn more on how signals work and how to build advanced designs:
Also, don’t hesistate to ask for help on the Discord.
While the current system is fully functional, it has some limitation, and we’ll continue to explore this area in the future and see if we can bring even more flexible ways to control the flow of your trains.
Mass replacing of vehicles is a hassle
We’ll introduce mass replacing of vehicles in one of the next updates
Cities build impossible to connect roads
This will be worked on after the track system rework described earlier.
Is the current gameplay loop is final?
Not even close! We have plans for a lot of new gameplay mechanics that will greatly diversify the gameplay. Please check our roadmap.
My trucks get loaded with cargo that is not supposed for them!
By default, trucks (or railcars) get loaded with any available cargo they can handle. However, you can force them to load only specific cargo by doing one of these:
You can also add refit tasks to a vehicle’s schedule to reconfigure it for different cargo on different stations.
With the next update, we’ll introduce the next changes to help newcomers:
Will passengers able to switch stations in the future?
Absolutely! The current implementation is just a beginning.
Will passengers travel to factories?
Yes, we have plans for that.
Can I set a schedule that way that my bus traverse stations like 1-2-3-2-1, without the need to add all five stops?
Sure! Go to edit schedule mode, then click on the icon on the left of the route name.
Are there any more hidden features related to setting up a schedule?
Check these posts:
Where is a creative mode?
There’s no separate creative mode at the moment, but you can use some cheats if you just want to play with all available stuff right now, ignoring game rules.
To activate cheats, press Ctrl+Alt+C while in-game (not the main menu). The game will ask you if you really want to do that.
After the cheats activated there’re some secret menus will be added here and there, for example:
We plan to add the proper creative mode in future updates.
When the multiplayer is coming?
No timeframe at this point, this is a pretty major task that is at its early stages currently. We’d say don’t expect it arrives this year. If you’re looking exclusively for a multiplayer experience, we advise you to hold your purchase until it will be implemented.
That’s it for now
If you have any more questions, feel free to join our Discord and ask them there!
Steam Early Access release full changelog is here!
We still can't believe this but the game is really coming to Steam Early Access on April 15th. And here's the full - pretty huge - changelog for this update (compared to the Itch version aka 0.84.1). Enjoy!
Voxel Tycoon is coming to Steam Early Access on April 15!
Voxel Tycoon is coming to Steam Early Access on April 15. For real.
And it includes the 0.85 update, which brings passengers, logistic improvements, and more. Yay!
Check the new trailer: [previewyoutube="4nRBNl_jACw;full"]
Coming in 0.85: Passengers!
This is the third installment of the series of posts where we cover the new features and changes the upcoming 0.85 (aka Steam Early Access) update delivers to Voxel Tycoon:
Passengers are arriving to Voxel Tycoon
In every house in the city, there are people living! And they don’t just sit tight in their flats but have a desire to commute to other places and eventually get back.
Now, it’s your responsibility to enable them to reach their destinations. And there’s a whole new fleet of vehicles specific to transferring passengers ready to help, from buses to passenger rail cars to hi-end multiple-unit shuttle trains!
After you build a station in a city, hop into its window to see passengers that would like to take a ride from that station and where they want to go.
Back and forth traverse mode
A usual passenger route often goes through many stops in one city where a bus collects all the available passengers, and then they are transferred to many stops in the other city. Then the same has to be repeated backward.
This results in massive schedules with many stops repeated which is a bit cumbersome to set up and maintain. To address this, we’ve introduced alternative schedule traverse order, called Back and Forth.
When it’s enabled, a vehicle will traverse from the top of the schedule to the bottom and then back, resulting in a much more compact list of orders with the same functionality. Same schedule with default traverse order vs Back and forth:
Shuttle trains
Shuttle trains are trains that have driving cabs on both sides, and that allows them to move on both sides at full speed without changing their direction on stations.
This feature was already introduced in one of the previous updates, but it didn’t have many applications before. Now, with passenger trains added, and especially in conjunction with back and forth schedules, shuttle trains allow to build more clean and effective designs.
City Window update
We’ve completely reworked the city window for 0.85. You can now see the state of all aspects of the city’s well-being, including the new passenger card.
Not to mention, it has a new look which is in line with other game windows now.
City specialization
Another thing that you can notice from the City Window is the city type. From 0.85, each city will have one of these types: industrial, tourist, or mixed.
Industrial cities depend more on supplying stores and industries for rapid growth, with passenger transportation still contributing but to a lesser extent.
Tourist cities, in contradiction, more dependent on the coverage by passenger transport and passenger satisfaction.
Mixed cities depend on both of these aspects equally.
Auto-demolish and auto-level
To make placing stations easier in the dense city environment, we’ve enabled auto-demolish when you’re building them. Keep in mind that demolishing city buildings still costs money (a lot), so plan carefully!
Another feature is auto-level - it will help you to place a building in a bumpy environment - but again, for your
Community spotlight
An amazing design of a non-blocking intersection by refreshfr:
Mountain branch line by Fredrik Leftin:
Can’t wait for your feedback
That’s just our first attempt at how we see passengers. We plan to iterate on them during the Early Access: for example, in the short-term, we want to teach passengers to switch vehicles and even modes so you could build more sophisticated and interesting routes.
We can’t wait to get your hands on the 0.85 update and hear your thoughts. Oh, and we have something to announce soon, so stick around!
