FOUNDRY - another factory game

[coopasonic]

Just what the world needed, another factory game! Taking the 3d first person of Satisfactory and combining it with the random world generation of Factorio, FOUNDRY is ready to disappoint everyone next week when the demo is available as part of steam's next Next Fest. The terrain is supposed to be fully destructible. I'll be checking it out next week... if I can pull myself away from Mirage and Forza, anyway.

[Blackhawk]

Taking the 3d first person of Satisfactory and combining it with the random world generation of Factorio, FOUNDRY is ready to disappoint everyone next week when the demo is available as part of steam's next Next Fest.

You should write advertising blurbs!

I'm intweeged. Let us know how it is (if you play.)

[jztemple2]

Considering the 226 hours I put in on Satisfactory, a title in early access which I swore I wouldn't play till it hit full release, I feel that they are aiming this directly at me

[Lordnine]

I played the demo a couple hours. It has some strong potential but isn't there yet. The factory building is really well done but it is also really time consuming. The problem is research is slow and once you have your automated assemblies running there isn't much to do right now other than wait and research is really slow.

[jztemple2]

I've been following the YouTube updates on the game and I've posted them here. I'm mildly excited about the game, tempered by my concern that some recent releases on Paradox tend to have issues

[jztemple2]

[jztemple2]

Making a pretty Foundry factory:


Foundry releases into Early Access in a couple of days, this is from the devs:

On the second of August 2020 I posted our initial dev blog after working on this project for about two years. In this past blog I summarized what led me to start a game dev project on my own, what my vision for the game was and my intent to form a professional game dev studio. At the time of writing that blog post our team had already grown to three people and we were confident enough to launch into a pre-alpha state of being available on itch.io. Something that eventually proved to be the right choice. Due to being available on itch we have been able to build up and grow a small audience of dedicated fans on Discord that continuously provided feedback and helped us make the game better. Having people play and enjoy the game provided us with massive boosts in motivation and work-related enjoyment. The team and I are very grateful for everyone who gave the game a chance in its very early stages. Having out a public demo helped attract additional talent and eventually I was able to partner up with industry-veterans Mark and Johann. Together we have founded Channel 3 Entertainment to scale up our development capabilities and elevate FOUNDRY to the next level. A process that culminated in the opportunity of partnering up with Paradox Interactive as publisher and allowed us to once more increase the scope of our project and studio, resulting in a ten person team. Since that we have worked hard to bring you the best game possible. Our Steam Next Fest demo had over 100.000 players and helped us to further polish the game with your feedback.

In short: It was quite the ride over the past six years. It took us longer than we initially planned for, but things don’t always go as scheduled. We took the extra time to get the game into an Early Access state we are now very happy with - and we hope that you will feel the same way.

And now, It's time for the FAQ!

The Early Access release is already around the corner, and we see how many of you have questions about different aspects of the game. We prepared this F.A.Q. to answer the most popular ones and we hope that it will be helpful for you!

[jztemple2]

From PC Gamer: Foundry is a very calm, pleasant building game I'd play if I got tired of several other ones

After playing a few hours of Foundry's early access build, which is out Thursday, I can see the core pieces are present to get me from point A to B. At first I'm laying down simple foundation blocks and slapping smelters onto them to process some ore, and within a couple hours I'm snaking conveyor belts in between rows of machines that mash items together into more complex ingredients I'll soon need in vast quantities. There are a few tutorial instructions guiding me through what to build first to get my operation up and running, but after that the objectives provide looser goals for expansion.

Build a better power plant. Lay down 16 smelters to supercharge your production. Build that stuff however you want. Unlike in automation game Satisfactory, which I played like an absolute madman in 2020 and 2021, Foundry seems incredibly forgiving from the start. For example, if you want to build any components by hand in Satisfactory, you have to stand at a craft bench and hold a button, which incentivizes automating that process ASAP. In Foundry, I was surprised to find I can click any crafting recipe and set it to magically start constructing itself in my pocket as long as I have the component ingredients. To unlock new schematics in Foundry's tech tree I need Science Packs, which are made from Machinery Parts and Technum Rods. Machinery Parts are built from an ingredient of their own, but as long as I have those in my inventory, the game will do everything for me: I just right-click on the Science Pack to queue up five of them, and it'll pull from my pile of Plates to build as many Machinery Parts as it needs while I hop around doing other things.

There are many more conveniences in Foundry. A couple biomass burning power plants can keep an upstart operation powered for quite a while; there's no need to mess with power lines, because any building touching a connected metal floor tile will automatically draw power; the starter drill can tear through dirt and stone in seconds, and disintegrate a 50-foot-tall tree just as quickly as a sapling. There are no creatures or hazards of any kind on the map. There is no fall damage.

These differences make Foundry extremely chill, but also, for me, a little bit dull. The voxel world is pretty, even striking when you take in the skybox—but it is utterly still. It poses no challenge greater than the time it takes to hop up a blocky mountain or dig deep into the earth. This world exists purely as a canvas for me to create on, but without some constraints or obstacles to overcome a certain blandness hangs over the whole enterprise.

I'm OK with the game being "extremely chill, but also, for me, a little bit dull". I turned off the dangerous wildlife in Satisfactory, I just wanted a building experience. I think I might be picking up Foundry in Early Access tomorrow and take a bullet for the team

By the way, the devs have already posted a roadmap page.