Why Early Access?

“Textorio is a solo project. The core systems — mining, smelting,
electricity, fluids, steam, hydraulic logic, and the four-layer descent —
are built and play tight. What I can't simulate alone is HOW thousands of
factory builders will break those systems.

Every factory-automation game lives or dies on optimization edge cases that
only emerge under public stress-testing. Early Access lets the players who
actually care about this genre shape the late-game balance, the boss
encounter in the Core Chamber, and the upcoming co-op mode — instead of me
guessing what feels right and shipping a 1.0 that's tuned for a single
brain.

I want to ship Textorio with the community, not at them.”

Approximately how long will this game be in Early Access?

“Approximately 12 to 18 months.

The timeline depends on player feedback and how deep the late-game content
needs to go. I'd rather extend EA by a few months than ship a 1.0 that feels
incomplete. If the community wants more layers below the Core Chamber, more
enemy types, or more factory systems, those will land before I call it 1.0.”

How is the full version planned to differ from the Early Access version?

“We plan to expand the game in several areas during Early Access:

• The Core Chamber endgame — the deepest layer is currently accessible. We plan to add the boss encounter and
  its narrative payoff during Early Access.
  
• Deeper layer mechanics — we plan to fully build out each world layer (Surface, Caves, Deep Caves, Core
  Chamber) with its own engineering systems, automation challenges, and resource puzzles, all interconnected across the
  descent. Cross-layer logistics, layer-specific machinery, and increasing complexity at every level are core EA goals.
  
• Steam Achievements and Cloud saves — planned for addition during Early Access.
  
• Co-op multiplayer (Factory Wars) — local LAN is currently in closed testing. We plan to expand and refine it
  during Early Access.
  
• Expanded logistics — long-distance pipes, automated transport, and additional late-game research.
  
• Polish — balance, quality-of-life features, sound design, accessibility options, and additional language
  support driven by community demand.
  

We don't plan to change the ASCII rendering, the four-layer structure, or the engineering depth of the core systems.
Those are the game's DNA.”

What is the current state of the Early Access version?

“The Early Access build of Textorio is feature-complete for the full core loop. Everything described in the "About This
Game" section above is implemented and playable today.

The four world layers — all explorable now:

• Surface — forested terrain with grass, sand, desert and savanna biomes; rivers and water; day/night cycle
  and weather (rain, snow, clear); deposits of stone, iron, copper, coal, and crude oil; tree harvesting with a chance
  of sunpetal seeds; hostile fauna spawns at night.
  
• Caves — reached by building a Tunnel Bore. Crystal formations in five color families, glowing mushrooms,
  geothermal vents, mineral seams; richer ore yields; larger and more aggressive wildlife.
  
• Deep Caves — extreme heat. Machines operate at reduced efficiency until you research thermal management.
  Heavy metals and rare minerals only found at this depth.
  
• Core Chamber — the final layer, accessible via Core Drill. The reactor restart is the mission's climax. The
  boss encounter is the one piece reserved for Early Access development.
  

Engineering and automation — fully wired:

• Electricity — boilers, steam engines, solar concentrators, geothermal plants, windmills, accumulators,
  electric poles, lamps. Full grid simulation with networks, brownouts, and load balancing.
  
• Fluid dynamics — pipes, offshore pumps, storage tanks, fluid hubs, oil derricks, oil pipelines, distillation
  towers. Real fluid flow with pressure across multi-tile networks.
  
• Steam pressure — boilers turn water and fuel into steam; steam engines convert steam to electricity; steam
  tanks, piston crushers, steam whistles, and valves let you build steam-driven contraptions. Pressure spikes if you
  mismanage the loop.
  
• Hydraulic logic gates — AND, OR, NOT, XOR, DELAY, MEMORY, pressure sensors, and pneumatic memory. Build full
  logic circuits inside your factory using fluid signals.
  
• Smelting and refining — stone furnaces, steel furnaces, electric furnaces, refineries, chemical plants,
  trommels and sluice boxes for mineral processing.
  
• Belts and inserters — transport belts, splitters, inserters, fast inserters, filter inserters. Route any
  item anywhere.
  
• Assembly — assemblers, pneumatic assemblers, quantum synthesizers. Multi-stage production chains.
  
• Specialty drills — Tunnel Bores break into the cave layer, Seismic Drills extract heavy resources, Core
  Drills reach the reactor, Placer Miners and Electric Miners for surface and cave ore.
  
• Climate machinery — atmospheric condensers, air separators, heat sinks for thermal management in deep
  layers.
  
• Vertical lift system — lift shafts, lift stations, and lift platforms move you and items between world
  layers.
  

Research tree — a full tech tree unlocked through science-pack production. Each pack tier opens new buildings,
recipes, weapons, and access to deeper layers.

The Mote autonomous companion drone — your AI sidekick. Three modes: FOLLOW (stays near you, repairs machines
on the way), GUARD (holds position, attacks hostile fauna in range), SCOUT (explores ahead, reveals fog, tags
resources). The Mote has its own mood system that reacts to combat and your playstyle.

Hostile wildlife and evolution — biters, spitters, behemoths, scouts, and passive critters. Evolution scaling
increases enemy tier over time and in response to your defenses. Static defense doesn't work for long.

Combat and survival — melee weapons (wrench, chitin blade, plasma maul), ranged (personal laser), throwables
(grenades), medical packs and repair kits. Three armor tiers (operator suit, energy suit, reinforced suit). Walls and
turrets for static defense. Day/night attack cycles.

Five-chapter narrative — a guided quest line: Landfall → First Industry → Power Grid → Research Division → Into
the Dark. BASTION (the ship's surviving uplink AI) narrates the descent with transmissions, and recovered crew logs
unlock the colony's tragic backstory.

Mainframe OS — your in-game terminal:

• LIDAR Atlas — real-time map of all four layers with zoom and filters
  
• Power Grid Manager — live network statistics
  
• Resource Monitor — production graphs over time
  
• Threat Radar — animated enemy detection
  
• Factory Statistics — efficiency metrics and bottleneck analysis
  
• Ecology Tracker — wildlife populations, births and deaths
  
• Command Line — 50+ terminal commands for power users
  
• Comms Inbox — BASTION transmissions and found-log archive
  
• Operator Briefing replay — re-open the first-launch tutorial anytime
  

1v1 LAN Factory Wars multiplayer — host or join a local match. Mirrored world generation. Military science
research and military buildings (Raider Bay, Guard Tower, Electrified Wall). Real-time PvP with all weapon and armor
types. In-game chat. Rematch button. Win by destroying the enemy's Cryo-Vault. Currently in closed testing; we plan to
expand and refine multiplayer during Early Access.

Quality of life:

• Operator Briefing — first-launch tutorial screen explaining controls, resources, automation, the four layers, and
  threats; replayable from the Mainframe or pause menu anytime
  
• Save / load — full compressed save states with multiple slots per profile, sparse tile encoding for small file
  sizes
  
• In-game pause menu — Save, Load, Settings, Tutorial replay, Orbital Network, Quit
  
• Day / night cycle with sun position and ambient light shifts
  
• Weather system — rain, snow, clear
  
• ASCII rendering — every entity is a glyph in a colored tile, smooth at any zoom level
  

Expected playthrough length: 15 to 30 hours depending on optimization depth.

Not yet in the game:

• The Core Chamber boss encounter (the layer is accessible but the encounter is locked).
  
• Steam Achievements and Cloud saves.
  
• Public Factory Wars matchmaking (local LAN works today and is in closed testing).
  
• Localization beyond English.
  

”

Will the game be priced differently during and after Early Access?

“Yes. The Early Access price is the lowest Textorio will ever be.
Buying during Early Access gives you full access to every update including the 1.0 release at no extra cost. This is our way of rewarding the players who help shape the game before launch. We plan to raise the price gradually as significant content updates land during EA, with a higher price at 1.0 release.”

How are you planning on involving the Community in your development process?

“

• Public roadmap — updated monthly via Steam announcements. Players see what's being worked on and what's next.
  
• Steam Discussions — every bug report, feature request, and balance complaint gets read and acknowledged. Major proposals go to
  community votes.
  
• Open dev logs — regular written updates and screenshots about what's breaking, what's improving, what's next.
  
• Community-shaped priorities — if 1.0 is months away and players want late-game content first versus balance first, the data
  decides.
  

”