Hello,
we feel that the Factorio development is taking way too long. The approach "It is done when it is done" was serving us well to deliver a high quality product, but if we continued this way, we would be doing it basically forever. A lot of us don't have any problem working on Factorio for some more time, but the main problem is, that we would like to introduce new features and content instead of just polishing parts that are already present in the game. We also considered, that the game is quite polished now, and if we just pushed the button to release 1.0, it wouldn't be a catastrophe. From our perspective, a lot of things wouldn't be finished, but from the perspective of a new player, the things we are working on now are mainly nitpicks.
With this in mind, we decided to just specify a 1.0 release date publicly, so we have to stick with it. We will just focus on the most important aspects as we approach the date, and we just do whatever we have time to do. Once the 1.0 happens, we can have some rest and after that, we can finally focus on the content and features again.
The date is 25th September 2020.
Future edit: The new date is August 14th, 2020 (FFF-349).
Version 1.0 does not mean that development on the game will end, or that Factorio is 100% finished. When we have a better idea of what we will be working on after the 1.0 release, we will let you know.
Game Developers Session 2019 is happening in a few weeks, Friday 29th and Saturday 30th of November. This year, like last, we are silver sponsors of the event, so you will see our banners around the venue if you attend.
This year we are happy to have two of our team doing talks at the conference:
Other than our two speakers, a lot of the team will be attending the conference, so if you see anybody sporting a Factorio t-shirt, it could be one of us (don't be afraid to come talk to us).
We also took the opportunity to do some updates to our cover art.
We have been on a bit of a hiring spree lately, trying to fill gaps in the team where we can identify them. We are happy to say, we have continued our team growth, with two new additions to the team.
Ian is a sound designer from the UK, who has moved to Prague quite recently. He will be working with us full-time here in the office, and with the help of Rseding for engine features, will be developing the soundscape of the game as we narrow in on the 1.0 release.
Next up is Allaizn. You might remember a few of our team mentioned him in past Friday Facts, and he is infamous for his experiments with cars on belts. He has had source access to the game for a long time, and in the past has made some good contributions through the program, so he has been able to get up to speed with us very quickly. For now he is reinforcing Posila in the Graphics backend department.
For some more details on our new colleagues and the rest of the team, we have short bios for everyone on our Team page.
As always, let us know what you think on our forum.
