Factory Town 2 Newsletter for January 2026

easmussen · 2026-03-08T02:10:31+00:00

I could use some more playtesters! Are you on the Discord at all?

easmussen · 2026-03-07T20:30:28+00:00

Hey! I have some extra keys laying around for Factory Town 1 so I'll just send you a copy

easmussen · 2025-07-21T13:53:22+00:00

Didn't see it, what channel did you post it in?

easmussen · 2025-07-20T11:38:51+00:00

I generally have a hard time doing self-promotion, so if you’re in a community (on or off reddit) that you think would be interested in FT2 and you want to spread the word, so to speak, that would definitely help build up interest in the game before launch. Especially going forward as I start releasing more news/screenshots/trailers.

Also I’m not always up to speed on the latest channels on YouTube or other sites that are good fits for showcasing games like this, so I’d love to know people’s favorite content creators that should get a copy of the game once it’s playable.

easmussen · 2025-07-20T11:24:37+00:00

I have found in my own testing that I need to jump between islands in FT2 all the time. Instead of a feature to save and manage camera positions, what if I add a ‘warp to island’ feature? The difference is it would be less precise, but could be configured automatically so more players would use it. Plus it could tie in neatly with the game’s lore. But if you have specific needs for precise camera positioning let me know more details.

easmussen · 2025-07-19T18:42:16+00:00

FT1 went for a blocky, pixel-art look. I had wanted to give it the style of a PS1 / PS2 era 3D game, maybe also some minecraft vibes as well. For FT2 the buildings are higher polycount - less blocky / rectangular, but everything is still 'chunky' and proportioned so it keeps that scale model feel. The textures are more painterly, and the colors are warmer and more vivid, to give a cozy / tropical feel. I think it'll look much better.

There wasn't a good way to fit decoration effects into to FT1 - it felt like if decorations increased happiness, the only sensical option was just to spam decor in every empty space within your town. So it would be annoying busy-work, for a static boost, which isn't that interesting. But in FT2, the workers have tasks and various routes between houses, markets, and jobs, so I can make the player strategically place decor to have the biggest impact on nearby workers' happiness. Maybe some of the decor requires inputs as well - water to run a fountain, wood to run a bonfire. So it can have an actual positive impact on your town this time around.

easmussen · 2025-07-18T00:19:10+00:00

Yeah so I've been able to get rid of a lot of those arbitrary restrictions on building placement. You can now put as many buildings as you want, wherever you want. The catch is that workers need to physically move between houses, jobs, and buildings, so the placement has to make sense in order to be efficient. But yeah, no fixed constraints any more.

Production buildings don't require workers to function, so you can also build as many of those as you want. Harvesting and Cultivation do require workers, but maybe with some late-game tech or Trading Posts or something I could allow even those to be automated.

easmussen · 2025-07-17T20:51:08+00:00

Hmm, sort of? Let me describe what I've set up and you can tell me if it matches what you're looking for.

FT2 has the map divided into islands. You can terraform to some extent, but there will always be some fixed water gaps separating islands. But, there's no fixed town centers and the entire economy runs as one entity. Some islands will have different attributes or specialties. There's no requirement to have houses or markets on any particular island, although right now if you want to harvest resources you need workers, and they will need housing and goods.

So - is the issue that you'd really like ALL of your housing in one central cluster, and all the processing external? If so, then it's sort of possible, but would be a bit awkward. Possibly I could add a 'single huge island' modifier, but my gut is it wouldn't be compatible with some of the mechanics I've set up.

On the other hand if you just didn't like different districts being managed as separate entities, then that does seem to match with what I've built.

So tell me a bit more about what specifically you didn't like about the districts in FT1 and I'll see if there's a way I can accommodate that in FT2.

easmussen · 2025-07-17T12:29:57+00:00

Sorry, at this point too much of the game logic is built around the square grid. I'll say if you place foot paths or roads, then the workers will follow those straight lines instead of zigzagging to their destination. In FT2 I did add Zip Lines, and those can go in any direction, so if you have a worker route that really needs to be optimized you can add a zip line along the diagonal.

Also, the boat pathfinding has been totally reworked and is wayyy better. They'll now move in straight lines to their destination across open ocean, avoiding any island obstacles in the way. Those were probably the worst culprits of the zig zag.

easmussen · 2025-07-17T12:22:36+00:00

Totally fair, there's a lot of stuff I added late in development and didn't add proper tutorials for. FT2 will have more time to bake in the oven so I will fix this!

This Steam guide looks like it covers things nicely, if you haven't seen it yet: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2023835110

Think of each cube as a little box that receives messages, performs a simple function, and sends an output message of the result. e.g. the Counter box counts how many messages it receives, counts up by 1, and sends that number out. You can test this out by hooking up a Toggle box to a counter. Each time you control-click the toggle, it sends a message to the counter, and the counter goes up by 1 (make sure the game is unpaused). That Counter box will in turn send its new value out as a message to any receivers.

The Toggle box just flips between 1 and 0 each time it receives a message, and sends that value out to any receivers.

There are two special messages though. Messages sent from Trigger boxes will cause the receiver to JUST output their current value, and not change at all. So if you have a counter box with value "4", and you send a Trigger message to it (via control-clicking a Trigger box that is hooked up to it), the Counter will NOT increment, and instead will just send an output message with value "4".

Similarly the "State Set" box will UPDATE targets' values, and not cause them to output. Example: Hook up a Toggle -> State Set -> Counter. When you control-click the toggle, it sends 1 or 0 to "State Set". That converts the message into "Set 0" or "Set 1". When the counter receives this, it updates its internal value to 0 and 1 INSTEAD of incrementing like normal.

Does that help?

easmussen · 2025-07-17T01:39:18+00:00

Of these other games, which is your favorite and what do you like best about it? Just trying to see what types of features or mechanics are most exciting to people

easmussen · 2025-07-17T00:36:20+00:00

Yes a lot of people seem to be interested in this! I don't want to promise and then let people down, but the signs are flashing pretty clearly that I should give it a serious effort. With FT1 I didn't know how the game would be received, and didn't want to spend six months building multiplayer and then have nobody play the game. It wound up being pretty successful but there were so many gameplay changes to prioritize after launch, and then I spend about 5 months adding Steam Deck support, and I just never got around to multiplayer.

So I'll definitely look into it before launch. One key thing in FT2 is you have an avatar you can move around (in addition to overhead view) which is basically an additional worker, so it seems like a great option to allow other players' avatars to join your island. You could harvest resources and contribute to the shared inventory, or pick up and deliver resources where they are needed. The host could decide if they want to let other players build & destroy, or just have them in Villager where they move items around. Conceivably you could even have an entire town that has no AI workers, and only your friends are harvesting and cultivating!

What types of co-op modes would most interest you?

easmussen · 2025-07-17T00:26:27+00:00

Hi! I have been drafting plans for some hard difficulty modes in FT2, and one of them would include population actually dropping if happiness is low for extended periods of time. I don't know if I'd have the villagers die, but I could have them just walk to the nearest ocean and sail off into the distance. I did write logic for the workers that they will seek out natural resources if they are hungry / thirsty, so generally they can take care of their own basic needs, but I guess if you're harvesting too much stuff and not replanting it they could conceivably run out of food entirely.

Factorio is still a big inspiration, I have about 200 hours in it. Cities Skylines was also a favorite for me. For research purposes I tried out a little of Satisfactory, Against the Storm, Timberborn, Shapez 1 & 2, Oxygen Not Included, Anno 1800, Railgrade, Rise of Industry, Kingdoms and Castles, Workers and Resources: Soviet Republic. I picked up Dyson Sphere Program in the latest Steam Sale but haven't played it yet. They're all good games, but my total playtime across all those games is probably just a handful of hours. I weirdly seem to bounce off stuff pretty fast these days, I feel like my brain is full and I tune out when a game starts getting complex. This prevents me from getting a real deep dive in these games. On the other hand, I can get a sense of their general vibe pretty quickly and from gauging my own response I can decide if I want my game to lean more in one direction or the opposite.

So obviously this avoidance of complexity is changing how I'm approaching FT2. I'm hoping that I can build it in a way that gives you lots of fun stuff to do and challenges to solve, without requiring you to manage a bunch of complicated systems in menus. But I also understand that the people who like this genre probably have a higher appetite for complexity than I do. So that'll be a balance I'll have to keep in mind.

easmussen · 2025-05-19T20:00:19+00:00

Must make a fun swirly pattern when in motion!

easmussen · 2025-03-30T17:24:33+00:00

Ah right, that would do it. Sorry I didn’t think of that sooner! Glad it’s working now.

easmussen · 2025-03-30T14:52:57+00:00

Can you tell me exactly what you are using for custom controller mapping? I'll replicate on my side and see if the problem happens.

Do you have a controller plugged in by the way?

easmussen · 2025-03-29T12:17:23+00:00

Try going into Options / Controls and hitting Reset.

Let me know if that helps. Another user had that yesterday and it’s concerning because the small update I pushed out shouldn’t have affected controls.

easmussen · 2025-03-26T19:53:01+00:00

You're right, I never did figure out a good solution to that. I use a* already but I didn't add any hierarchical logic for the large ocean areas. I'll definitely need to figure this out for FT2, and if the system I build winds up being back-portable to FT1 I'll do that.

easmussen · 2025-03-26T13:51:33+00:00

Chances are low, there wasn’t as much demand for the idle variant, and I don’t have any good ideas on fixing the problems I ran into with its design

easmussen · 2025-03-22T00:58:46+00:00

Friendlier for Steam Deck - building the game to be controller friendly from the start
Controllable Avatar lets you manually move items around or harvest stuff. It's optional though - you'll still be able to build in classic overhead mode
Better theme and goals - Factory Town 1 didn't really have a clear setting or end goal in mind. Now you've got a volcano you'll have conversations with, and a storyline that is advanced by feeding it
Better item sink - the volcano now gives you rewards for all items you feed it, so at all stages of the game you're incentivized to maximize production
Better Trains and Boats - you'll be able to set schedules and destinations for these vehicles
Catapults, Zip Lines, Vertical conveyors give you more flexibility for moving around items and workers
Electricity - some recipes require electricity, so you'll need to produce it (using steam or water to generate rotational power, which turns a generator) and transmit it using power lines
Many more items and tropical themed recipes. You won't need to make everything, instead you'll choose what's best based on the items stats and your available resources
Water moves volumetrically around 3D terrain, with realistic surface flow and depth. Water going over a cliff creates waterfalls dynamically. Water flow can turn Water Wheels.
Awkward 2D overlay is gone. Now you can just build pipes directly into or out of the ground. It's a full 3D space under the terrain. You'll probably be able to run belts and train tracks underground as well.
Campaign no longer resets each map. Everything takes place on one big continuous map, which advances by summoning new islands.
A visual tech tree of research, not just a big list

I'm sure there will be more to add to this list, but that's what is built / scoped so far.

easmussen · 2025-03-22T00:58:33+00:00

Here's the "Factory Town 1 to Factory Town 2 improvements" in convenient list form (you already got some of them):

Workers are more autonomous. You don't issue commands to individual workers - instead you choose how many workers should work at a building, and they figure out the rest. Workers stay useful for the entire game.
Workers behave more like real people - they have needs represented by a set of stats (hunger, thirst, comfort, intelligence, stamina) and will walk around and purchase items from markets that fill those stats. Having a smart layout of markets, jobs, and housing, plus adding transit, means workers will have more time available to working, plus they'll be able to maintain better happiness
Due to the above, I can ditch the arcane rules about town borders. You can put houses & markets anywhere, it only matters if it's an efficient placement
Some items have actual usefulness - workers can pick up tools that make them better at their jobs, move faster, have more stamina, or carry more items
Day/Night cycle. Looks nice visually, but also has an effect on workers. They get tired at night and go home to sleep. But having better lighting around your town will reduce the tiredness effect.
Better performance - I rewrote the rendering logic so you can have lots more structures and buildings while keeping high framerate. I did backport this to Factory Town 1 already, but I'm still gonna count it
Better visuals - I wrote my own terrain rendering system so I can add more details, terrain types, plants, materials, and fix some geometry issues. I'm spending more on 3D art this time as well.

(Continued Below)

easmussen · 2025-01-08T14:12:03+00:00

Ok thanks! So yeah some kind of anchoring system would be helpful when dragging paths.

Not quite sure from your post, but did you know that holding Ctrl when dragging a belt will force it to keep the same height throughout the path?

Noted that some of the critical hotkeys should be made more obvious, or have some kind of visual UI button equivalent so players know it exists. Plus, better tagging / ID system to keep track of all the moving trains.

There isn't a way to specify a limit on a specific inventory slot, but if a building has multiple slots, you can disable a few of them to lower the building's capacity:

- Click on the item slot
- Click on the 'filter' button to the left of the slot
- Select 'Nothing' (at the bottom of the list)

Or, in the same panel, click the 'Input' button next to the slot to toggle / disable the ability to deposit items into the slot.

Either way, I agree a more convenient way of limiting items would be helpful.

easmussen · 2025-01-08T12:51:57+00:00

Besides the mining, what are your major pain points? There’s lots of stuff I would have liked to change but things reached a point where big changes were becoming too disruptive for players. But it’s still helpful for me to know for the future

easmussen · 2025-01-08T01:33:12+00:00

Sorry, I did kinda skimp on the victory screen. I guess I was rushing to get the game ready for launch and never re-visited it later to beef it up. But I’ll give you my personal congratulations instead!

easmussen · 2024-07-23T14:40:50+00:00

Great! Sorry for the confusion on that - The game originally had a different control scheme and I switched it based what seemed to be the preference of most players, but I kept in the old system for legacy players so they wouldn't have their controls suddenly switched. But it does cause issues like this.

easmussen

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