Hello! It's been a few months without a newsletter - sorry about that! Development is still full speed ahead, it's just that most of the things I have been working on haven't been the headline-grabbing or screenshot-worthy type of features. Instead, I've been improving a million little things that, taken together, make the game feel polished, fun, and cohesive.

You ever watch Bob Ross make a painting, and for a while it's just some scribbles and blotches of color, and then suddenly it 'pops' into existence as a mountain landscape with a stream running through a glade of happy trees? Game development works the same way - there's a process of building lots of little things, then refining, adjusting, or scrapping and rebuilding when it doesn't work. And if you keep repeating this process enough, the loose collection of mechanics and art assets turns into something more interesting, and you can feel this mysterious force in your brain compelling you to keep playing it. It's a neat little magic trick, but it only works if all the smaller pieces are lined up correctly.

Factory Town 2 is finally at this phase. Even when I'm playing the first 20 minutes of the game over and over (and OVER) to make sure the introductory quests are hitting the right notes at the right time, I'm still having fun building up my little town, connecting buildings with conveyor belts, and watching villagers carry items here and there and tossing them (the items, not the villagers) into the volcano. So I think that's a good sign!

A lot of this is due to a small & dedicated group of playtesters I have in the game who are letting me know which parts of the game are working and which aren't. A number of them have spent 50-100 hours playing already, and the game is going to be much, much better due to their willingness to report bugs and write up their feedback and help me brainstorm. So, a special thanks to all of them! For those interested, all of this testing discussion is public and happening in the #factory-town-2 channel on the Discord[discord.gg], and even if you aren't officially a tester, input is always welcome.

So, what specifically have I been working on? Here's some things:

Ok, nobody likes tutorials. But a game like this has a lot of information to teach the player! So there's a tricky balance there. The route I took is to have a series of introductory quests that ask the player to do basic tasks - gathering resources, building houses and markets, convincing new villagers to join the island, that kind of stuff. Each quest gives the player some rewards, or unlocks the next part of the tech tree. So I think it will help players learn how to play the game, without feeling like they're digging through an instruction manual. (And when players start a custom game, they'll be able to skip all of these quests since they know what they're doing. )

I also invested a lot of time in little UI things that will make the learning process easier: arrows that point to buildings or resources in the world map, or that point to the exact UI button you're supposed to click. Dialogue from the Volcano talks you through some of the steps in more detail. When it's time to build your first conveyor belt path, visual suggestions for the right connection appear on the map. That kind of stuff.

Getting this part right has taken a LOT of work, but it's really important to make players feel welcome in the new world, and I think it's in very good shape!

The process of unlocking recipes went through a lot of iterations as well. At first I had a giant tech tree for each recipe. This works in some cases, but it's confusing in others - does Mayonnaise need Yogurt as a prerequisite, or vice versa? That didn't make any sense, and since there's so many recipes, the unlock page was a mess. I then tried a different tactic where you produced a lot of basic items to achieve mastery in them, and having mastery of items unlocked new recipes that used those ingredients. But that process felt pretty passive - you would unlock stuff 'accidentally', and often unlock stuff before the building that makes the item was even available. Or, you'd have to toss hundreds of raw coffee beans into the volcano just so you could make a basic coffee beverage.

So, my new approach is a Recipe Book. Recipes are organized into logical groups, and each group is unlocked just like any other tech tree reward (by spending "Reward Points" you earn from feeding the Volcano). Some recipe groups have prerequisites to make sure you have the right tech in place to produce the ingredients. I think this approach is finally the right solution, since it gives the player control over what is unlocked based on their current needs & abilities, gives an extra incentive for keeping the Volcano happy, and doesn't require too much micromanaging or complicated menus.

The game has a full day/night cycle, and I want the sky and lighting to transition through bright clear skies, gorgeous sunsets and starry nights. My first attempt at this was - not great. But I spent a lot of time working on my skybox shader to give me lots of control over the sky tinting, sun glow, and texture, all blending based on progress throughout the day or night. Below is an example of the older skybox, and the smaller inset picture is how it looks now. Much better!

I also began using some newer Unity features that allow for more realistic ambient lighting, color grading, and ambient occlusion. And also worked on making the ground texture look less plasticky. So I think the game has taken a nice step up visually since the last update.

The game will now semi-randomly apply various weather systems - rain, clouds, wind, drought, and storms. The lighting and skybox change to reflect the weather, and you'll see rain falling down and blowing around based on the wind speed. Beyond just visual effects, this will impact the way your town runs - rain will cause water channels to fill up, drought will cause them to empty. (So you will want to use reservoirs to store up water when needed). With dry water channels, your water wheels won't spin, so you'll lose a source of Rotational Power which is used to enhance production at various buildings, run pumps, or generate electrical power. But you'll also have access to Windmills, which will generate Rotational Power - but only when the wind is blowing! The sun will power Solar Panels to generate electrical power, but those obviously won't work at night and are less effective when the sky is cloudy.

I haven't yet built this, but the plan is for bad weather to worsen your villager's moods. However, this can be offset if you build lighting sources like torches around their work areas, or add decorative plants and structures throughout your islands.

The result is that the world will feel dynamic, and you'll need to plan ahead to build a resilient utility network within your town, with backups and buffer buildings, so you can avoid bottlenecks that slow down your progression.

Some sharp-eyed people noticed that the launch date on the store page changed from "Q1 2026" to just "2026". And yes, I did have to push the date back. My plan is to have a demo available in a Steam Next Fest, and then launch soon after. But I just didn't think I'd be able to get a demo ready in time, at the polish level I wanted, for the one coming up in February. However, the next one is now scheduled for June 2026 and I feel good that I can hit that target. So I will probably launch in late June or early July 2026. I don't want to pin down a specific date yet, but that's the target right now.

The game recently crossed the 25,000 wishlists threshold!! It's really validating to see so many people interested in the project, and I am trying really hard to deliver an amazing game that improves on the original in every way. The more wishlists I get, the better visibility the game will have on launch week. So thank you and please keep them coming, and tell all your friends, etc etc. I hope to have the game out to some YouTube channels in the next month, so you'll get to see the game in action pretty soon!

Cheers,

Erik

This month we're taking a closer look at some of the new buildings available in Factory Town 2. These aren't all of the new buildings - I just picked a few that have some interesting properties.

This is a special building that produces Rotational Power. While Rotational Power existed in Factory Town 1, it can now travel down Drive Shafts (just like fluids move through pipes) and can run water pumps, provide speed bonuses for production buildings, or move a turbine that produces electricity.

Once weather effects are added, the Windmill's output may go up or down based on the current wind speed.

This building also produces Rotational Power. The catch is it must be placed in a Water Trench, and there must be water flowing through the trench. The weather may get dry at times though, so again make sure you have a backup and some buffers throughout your supply chain!

Like a few other special buildings, the water wheel can transfer its inventory directly to a building that it is facing. So you can attach them directly to production buildings (like the picture above), or use Drive Shafts to transfer the Rotational Power across longer distances.

This building provides a fun and flexible transportation option. You can fling any item directly to any other building within a certain radius. This can be a huge convenience if you don't have room in your town to fit another conveyor belt, caravan route, or train track. It is large though, and its throughput is a little slow, so it works best for high-end items that are consumed every few seconds as opposed to those demanded in very high quantities.

Near the top of the Tech Tree is this handy building. It provides a free and renewable source of electric power. Electric Power can be sent around the town using Power Poles, and is required for some recipes like making Ice, and can also run electric motors that can power pumps or speed up production.

Again though, this is affected by the weather - at nighttime or on cloudy days it won't be as effective!

This is a large tank that can store water. Its display will change based on how much water is currently in it. Water is used in a huge amount of recipes and you can never have enough - but as mentioned before, sometimes resource production is interrupted by weather and time of day. So, having lots of reservoirs will smooth out these production bumps and allow your townspeople to stay happy and productive.

This is a production building that produces fancy desserts. You'll have access to cocoa, vanilla, cream, various fruits, sugar, and ice - and there are tons of combinations of these that produce tasty treats for your villagers. It's a great way to earn coins, and also satisfies your villagers' need for luxury items.

The Restaurant is in the highest tier of production buildings, and is necessary to make the most valuable food items. This includes various stews and sandwiches plus burgers, waffles, sushi, spaghetti, and pizza. Your villagers will love to visit Restaurants, and will pay very high prices to buy things made there. The Volcano will happily consume these items too!

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In development news, I've been playtesting the game with a small group of brave and dedicated testers, and I have lots of feedback to implement. I'm also going to be working on a new trailer that shows more gameplay, as the other one is really just a teaser and the game has come a long way since I made it. I hope to publish that in the next few weeks.

Cheers!

Erik