After a lot of work we have managed to release the first version of the demo. It is not graphically complete and there might still be bugs and issues, but we nevertheless decided to make it publicly available. Go and get it. The demo consists of a 3-level demo campaign which teaches the basic game mechanics, controls and concepts. Together with the demo we made alpha version of the game available 'per-request'. The alpha version contains 2 additional campaign levels, freeplay mode and map editor. On top of that there are many more game elements which are disabled in the demo (different inserters, assembling machines, faster transport belts, solar panels, weapons, etc.) If you liked the demo and would like to try the alpha version let us know by email. We wish you all the best in 2013 and we will work hard to bring you Factorio as soon as possible.
Hi guys, here is a promised update on the next steps after the Indiegogo. We have compiled a list of questions and answers and put them on our forum. Feel free to post comments and your opinions over there. There are also two news regarding the team: Indiegogo funds have allowed us to hire a new member. Kuba is a friend of ours and a very capable C++ developer. He will probably be spending half of his time on Factorio. We have given him a bunch of tasks already :) Our main graphic Albert came to Prague for a while to get more work done on Factorio. This will allow us to communicate better and move forward with the artistic side of the game. We will be posting some pictures of the Factorio team in work soon so stay tuned ;)
Hi everyone, we have updated the game preview page on our website. There is now a set of brand new screenshots from the game. These were taken in Factorio 0.6.x, the current experimental release. The old screenshots were more than half a year old and they were really obsolete. A lot of graphic placeholders has been replaced since then and many new assets were added. There is still a long way to go. However the artistic direction of Factorio has more or less stabilised and we now know where we are heading. Probably the biggest change that strikes the eye are the new color tones of the terrain. The terrain now looks more uniform and smooth, though it is still not a final version. Our artist is experimenting with new terrain meshes and variations. On top of that there will be a set of various objects (doodads) to make the environment more variable and interesting to explore. Things like wrecks of space ships, remnants of dead creatures, ruins left behind by the native civilization, different fauna, etc. Apart from the new screenshots there is an update of the theme pictures as well. Now there is a collection of 1 + 5 theme pictures capturing some essential concepts from Factorio. These are available as wallpapers for Furnace Attendant or higher member tiers.
I love deadlines. I love the whooshing noise they make as they go by.Douglas Adams Today was our internal deadline for a public demo. Well it just whooshed by without leaving any demo behind. The code and functionality is pretty much there in place. However we are still waiting for the graphics. It takes time and gets frustrating, but we carry on. Just to stay on the safe side I won't mention any more deadlines, even though we still have some internally :). As you might have noticed the webpage got a new look. This comes in multiple flavors:logo We settled on simple text in interesting font with a dominant element being the wheel representing the factory.icons We are using free svg icons taken from raphaeljs projecttemplate We moved to slate bootstrap template. As for the work on the game itself we continue along exhausting path full of fighting bugs and adding small improvements. Recently we focused quite a bit on speed improvements as well. Things get challenging once you have a factory with transport belts moving around heaps of ores, coal, iron plates, etc. Oh and weapons. Are you getting tired of those creepers attacking your factory ? Well now you can get rid of them by way more means than just shooting from the rifle. There is a machine gun, rocket launcher, flamethrower and mines are just around the corner. We also have news regarding the team composition. You don't get these that often with teams of our size :) Petr is now a full-time member of the team. Until now he has been working on the project part-time while doing his daily job as a database developer. Well, he quit and now he is a full-time "Factorian".
Hello guys, this week felt very unfruitful yet we have managed to bring at least some news from the Factorio development.
Hello, it is starting to be quite hot here and summer just started. We started to play games during Fridays (at least part of the day), and today we played Don't Starve together which is kind of addictive to be honest, so I really had to force myself to stop and give you some Factorio updates.
Happy new year to everyone! We have spent the New Year's Eve with friends in our appartment / office on a last-minute improvized party. The entertainment was provided by the usual elements - food, drinks, chatting and board games. The traditional fireworks all over the Prague kickstarted the 2014, which is going to be a crucial year for Factorio. The main points from the 2014 battle plan are: Get on the Steam. Get the multiplayer done. Get some quality holidays:). After some relaxed time during the Christmas we are back to full speed development. There will be a stable release of the 0.8 in the beginning of the next week. The periods necessary for release stabilization has been getting longer and longer. That was one of the reasons we decided to dedicate more time in the future to the automated testing. You can read more on this topic in our latest random ramblings. Past week has been spent by working on the new features for the 0.9. Mainly the oil industry and blueprints. Both are still in the process of development so I will go into the functional details later, after they are more or less stabilized. You can also read our plans regarding the functionality in that random ramblings post. One thing is clear already. The 0.9 is a very ambitious release and if all goes well it will be one of our most content rich releases (if not the most content rich). After the 0.9 we plan to start working on the multiplayer which might be a long period with little other updates. Therefore we plan to get a lot done before that. In the meantime, Albert has finished with a first set of doo-dads. Below is a composition with some new shipwrecks. Actually the current shipwreck sprite in the first level was cut (and adjusted) from one of our theme art pictures (can you find it:)?). It is time for this one to be replaced. There is still much more that could be (and will be) done for the doo-dads, but now we need to move on to making graphics for the new "oil related" machines ... Comment thread is not hiding anywhere. It is right there on our forum.
Hello, the stabilising (hopefully) 0.10.1 release is here along with the regular news from the Factorio development.
Hello, here is another update on progress in delivering perks from the alpha preorder. The game development itself is going along quite well. The updates are coming out more or less once a month. This gives the people who have bought the alpha access a sneak peek at the Factorio evolution in progress. Some time ago we have also introduced the first version of the scenario pack. The forum community helped us to tweak the bugs and balance the missions. The result are three mini campaigns that provide various factory-building challenges to the player: Tight spot - Little space, limited resources and fixed amount of time. Buy land and machines and sell your final product. Transport Belt Maddness - So many chests and such a small island. Can you connect the chests without your head spinning? Supply challenge - Six hungry chests that change their taste often. Is your production flexible enough? These missions are the first batch and there will be more coming in the future. The scenario pack is available to the Furnace Attendant tier or higher. Another update in the same tier is a new Factorio wallpaper displaying the Assembling machine in the night. The Mining Drill Operator tier has been updated as well. For a while there has been an option to put your name in the game. Quite a few people already did this and now there are train stations named after them in Factorio. As of 0.6.0 the name generator will be used for Labs as well. Another update for this tier is the first version of the Concept Art book that is available for download now. As mentioned before this is some very early Factorio concept art and the book will definitely be updated as the game development progresses. Last update regards the access to our internal art wiki. The Mining Drill Operator members (or higher) from now on can observe the evolution of the in-game graphics via a read-only access to the wiki. There are plenty of sketches, inspirational photos and different variants of the game objects. The wiki is hosted on the google pages, therefore the google login is necessary. For now the invitations will be send on request. That means if you are a Mining Drill Operator member (or higher) then send us an email with your login name and we will send you an invite. This process will be automated in the future:D Here comes just a tiny recent preview of things you can see there: the evolution of new electric furnace model.
