u/Moppemopsi

I finally took some time to actually add proper camera tools in my game to make my own life easier for getting better video shots, but I'm also going to make it available for players to make it easier for content creators to take great shots of their factories!

The factory in the video is pretty ugly as it is my test scenario with 30k solar panels and other junk so don't judge that, but hey at least there is no spaghetti!

Basically there is a separate panel with some simple options like fly-by or orbit and target camera locking, but the best part is you can actually move around and record camera positions and rotations and then hit record, which then hides UI, triggers OBS to record (if configured) and flies through the pre-made route along a smoothed path.

I think it was worth the effort as it for sure as hell makes a lot more smoother camera movements compared to trying to fly around and aiming with mouse! Also the paths are saved so it is trivial to do same recordings during different weather or time of day.

What do you guys think? Has anyone else done something similar in their games?

Added some procedural relief effects on my terrain/blocks and pretty happy already how it looks.

Natural blocks get some nice ridges that play well with day/night cycle to give depth.
More square-like patterns for manufactured blocks.
Sand/Snow get small dunes that actually shift depending on the wind direction so they don't stay the same over time.

Always wanted to break away from the vanilla minecraft voxel look and I think it is looking pretty good already or what do you think?

The bad part is that my store page is looking pretty outdated and I need to update the trailer and all screenshots and short video clips 😂

Game is called FluxWerks in case you want to check it out and play the demo on steam!

Damn it feels good to finally be able to get rid of the old 512m render distance and crank it up to 4km with almost zero framerate cost. I think it makes a huge difference on the immersion!
Images with the 4km vs 512m from same location, with my small base on bottom right for scale 😂

Thank you to everyone who has been playing the FluxWerks demo for the last couple of weeks.

It has been awesome (and scary) seeing what crazy factories the players build and the amount of effort and time put into providing feedback and bug reports on Discord and Steam. I never expected someone to spend 100+ hours on a demo!

Did I put too much content in the demo? Oh well...

Steam Next Fest has also been a success and the game has picked up great amount of momentum without getting killed by Steam algorithm, so many thanks to everyone who also wishlisted the game to please the algorithm!

If you played the demo few weeks back and encountered bugs or missing QoL features, it might be worth checking it out again.

You can check the patch notes since demo release here https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/4436200

Demo download: https://store.steampowered.com/app/4436200/FluxWerks/

Oh look...more feedback just appeared! Time to get back to work...

So what to do when you are developing automation game and get tired of refreshing browser for the wishlist graphs?

Well obviously one uses the fancy in-game statistics panel to show the wishlists in real time right while developing the game!

Is this so dumb that it is actually genius? My F5 refresh finger at least thanks me!

FluxWerks is a factory automation game in infinite voxel world with fluid and heat simulation.

I've been working my butt off to get the demo ready and it feels both great and terrifying to finally put the game publicly out there.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/4436200/FluxWerks/

Go ahead and try it out if you got interested!

If you encounter any bugs or issues I would appreciate any feedback directly on this post or on the Steam forum or the discord (link in Steam forum).

Feels great and terrifying to finally put the game demo publicly out there.

Go ahead and give it a spin if the trailer made you interested! There is roughly 6-10 hours of content to play in the demo, depending on your familiarity of the factory building genre.

If you encounter any bugs or issues I would appreciate any feedback either on the Steam forum or the discord (link in Steam forum).

Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/4436200/FluxWerks/

Hey everyone,

I took a massive leap and quit my stable and well paying job as a corporate code slave to pour my heart into making my dream game, infinite voxel world factory game with deep simulations for fluids and temperature. My wife has also been pulled into this madness as my 3D modeler. She didn't ask for this, but she’s been amazing and I literally couldn't have done it without her.

The development side has been both amazing and exhausting (spending 12+ hours a day, 7 days a week on it), and I’ve hit the well known indie developer wall of reality.

With Steam Next Fest kicking off in just two weeks, I realized way too late that I have done zero marketing. I’ve been hyper focused on just optimizing and polishing the demo to be as bug free as possible and making the UI and UX good enough (I hope).

To make matters more stressful, our savings will run out later this year. Skipping this Next Fest and waiting for the October one simply isn't an option financially. This feels like my only shot (on the Next Fest at least) and I'm afraid I'll miss it because my current wishlist numbers are still under 200 and the Steam algorithm will laugh in my face.

What are the absolute most important things I should focus my limited time on right now?

• Reaching out to streamers?
• Reaching out to press?
• DM Spamming IndieGameJoe or knocking on his window at night?
• Making a sacrifice for Cthulhu? (Any volunteers? Not you Joe, don't worry)

I know reaching out is obvious, but I'm overwhelmed with the time pressure and feel lost on figuring out who do I reach out for and how do I do that most efficiently with the limited time I have.

How do I find specific streamers who might be interested in factory automation games and how do I find many of them, because mailing a couple of them is unlikely to get anyone to react?

Should I just collect list of random Youtubers and their email adresses somehow and send same email with template to all of them?

Any simple and good tools to use for sending the emails?

What press should I reach out for? Do I need a some sort of presskit and if so, any tips what to include?

Should I have the demo already up before reaching any of them out? For the streamers I would guess so, but maybe not needed for the press reach?

My ?-key is getting broken at this point so I'll just stop here.
Any advice, resources or just moral support would be incredibly appreciated.

TLDR: Quit job to make a game, savings run out this year. Forgot to market the game, and I have to participate in the upcoming Steam Next Fest because I can't afford to wait until October. Losing my mind and need urgent advice on what to prioritize right now.

Thank you if you read this far!

Here is the store page link for context, any feedback on it or the trailer is also most welcome!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/4436200/FluxWerks/

Getting ready for the demo build and I still feel like I have so big gaps on the test coverage :')

Been showing off the old capsule art for way too long on the page and who knows how many wishlists I've lost just because the old one looked like that. Pretty happy with the new one as it is definitely a huge improvement! (Thanks to wife for making it!)

I also updated all the screenshots. Any feedback on the store page or content is most welcome!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/4436200/FluxWerks/