Greetings, Groundbreakers!

Today, we're going to pull back the curtain and give you a glimpse into the complex process of how we designed the new Nexus and balanced the heart-pounding action of the new Asteroid game mode in Techtonica.


The Nexus is more than just a pretty structure in Techtonica. You'll use it for fast travel throughout your subterranean world and to host the new laser minigames. We envisioned the Nexus as both functional and visually unique, drawing inspiration from the existing Production Terminals (like the LIMA terminal below) while incorporating elements unique to its role.

Our primary goal was to ensure the Nexus seamlessly integrated into the existing Techtonica aesthetic, particularly since it would be located near Production Terminals as fast travel points. To achieve this, we drew inspiration from the Production Terminal design while adding our own unique twist.

We also wanted the Nexus to reflect its connection to the new laser minigames, which utilize holographic vector-inspired graphics. This led us to incorporate projector lenses into the design, adding a futuristic touch that complements the minigame aesthetic.


Three structural mockups were created to get ideas about scale and usability. Version 3 was chosen because it had a balance of being visible at a distance and having an open pedestal which was necessary for Loot the Nexus. Having the arms was also helpful for adding the holographic projectors and lighting.

We then created a refined greybox of version 3. We wanted the Nexus to have brightness and a lot of lighting.

After the Model was finalized, a quick paintover helped us visualize the materials and their arrangement before diving into the final textures and effects. You can see the evolution of the Nexus in the images below, culminating in the final model with textures and captivating holographic effects.

Here is a look at some quick concepts and various effects for the final textured Nexus model:


First things first, the Nexus health. We started with a small number but quickly realized it didn't allow much flexibility. So, we cranked it up! This gave us some breathing room to adjust the damage dealt by those pesky asteroids and the power of your health packs. More than just keeping you alive, we wanted to give you a chance to strategically manage your resources, utilizing health packs at the right moments to weather the asteroid waves. The higher Nexus health provides this opportunity, allowing for a gradual recovery rather than an instant game-over. It's all about striking a balance between challenge and survivability, ensuring a challenging, but also engaging and rewarding gameplay experience.


Now, let's talk about those space rocks. Every asteroid in the game is carefully crafted and tested. We've got spreadsheets (yes, spreadsheets!) full of calculations for things like asteroid speed, distance from the Nexus, and even the time you have to react before they make impact (which we call "Time To React" or TTR). We use the horizontal (X) and vertical (Y) distances from the Nexus to calculate the actual range (Z) of an asteroid. This, combined with the asteroid's speed, allows us to precisely determine the TTR.


We also factor in your weapon's reload time and accuracy. We want to ensure that you can feasibly defend your Nexus against incoming threats. By analyzing wave lengths and potential asteroid quantities, we can adjust spawn timers and enemy parameters to create a fair but thrilling challenge.

Let's say an asteroid has a speed of 10 units per second and spawns at a range of 10-50 units from the Nexus. This means you'll have between 1 to 5 seconds to destroy it before it hits. This might be a bit too difficult, so we need to adjust the parameters here.

By comparing how much time there is for the wave and how many asteroids you’re given per wave, and assuming an accuracy rating of 45% (aka how well you shoot), let’s take a wave length of 60 seconds with 33-60 asteroids.

This means the reload time of the gun doens’t need to be below 0.4, and above 0.8 is more than enough. This helps set the quantity of asteroids by ensuring it isn’t utterly impossible to beat, but still challenging.

The chart below shows the maximum asteroid kills a player can get between the gun reload time and time between asteroids. Anything below a 1 is impossible to beat, so that’s where we cap it

All of these numbers (if you’re still with us, it’s a lot of numbers) helped us create borders on the edges of charts that all of the asteroids needed to fall between.


Once we have the numbers crunched, it's time to playtest! We run countless simulations, tweaking enemy types, wave lengths, and asteroid parameters. We're looking for that sweet spot where the game is challenging, engaging, and most importantly, fun.

It's a bit of an art, really. But hey, that's what makes game development so exciting! Want to give us feedback on how you think Asteroids is balanced? Hop into the Public Test Cave branch on Steam right now to test out v0.5! This branch closes Monday, June 3rd, so check it out now and give us feedback before v0.5 releases.

We hope this gives you a better understanding of the thought and effort that goes into balancing the Asteroid game mode. Stay tuned for more updates as we chug closer to v0.5 launch!

​​Have questions? Want to chat about the update with devs and the community? Looking for a place with other spaghetti aficionados? Join our Discord at https://discord.gg/techtonica.

Fire up Steam, you can test out v0.5 of Techtonica right now! An important note on this round of testing:

The v0.5 Public Test Cave branch will close on June 3 at 1pm EST.

If you want to hop in and test out Laser Games, and all the other cool updates, you have two weeks to do so! Check out the video below for some details on v0.5 of Techtonica and details on what’s coming.


One thing we’ve always felt was missing from Techtonica is being able to mess around and goof off doing silly stuff. This breathes life into many of our favorite games, and we wanted to take that step with Techtonica! We love adding easter eggs like voice lines and hidden secrets, but we wanted to give players something they could control more on their own.

The upcoming Laser Tag update is a perfect example of this—it’s playful and fits right into our Base Building system, plus it ties in nicely with cool features like fast travel with the Nexus. Laser Tag allows players to take a break from automating their factories - just like the real Groundbreakers did! - while waiting for your factory to churn out those critical parts.

Laser Tag isn’t the sole focus of this update, either - we’re adding a new, fully voiced character who moves along the main story, Fast Travel points, a Ping Tool, buildable Glow Floors, Disco Floors, and Concrete Ramps, and even more that we haven’t shown off yet!


This Thursday, May 23rd, we'll be playing v0.5 on Twitch from 1-2pm EST! Tune in to ask the team questions and check out v0.5 of Techtonica

Before we jump into the patch notes, a bit of housekeeping.


Want to chat about the Public Test Cave? We’ve created a section on Discord just for you! Do not talk about features, narrative, and anything else you see in the Public Test Cave outside of the PTC channels. There is also a subforum on Steam to discuss PTC content. No one likes spoilers!

We would love to get your feedback on v0.5! The best place to give us feedback is on our PTC feedback website[techtonicapublictestcave.featureupvote.com].

Your save files from the Public Test Cave will not work once you switch back to the main branch of Techtonica. Make sure you have backed up your main game before switching!

You can access the PTC by switching branches on Steam. Right-click Techtonica in your library, then select the “Properties” tab which will bring up a new window. Next, click “Betas”, and under Beta Participation, select the Public Test Cave.

The features in our updates are accessible in all supported languages; however, because these features are not yet finalized, they may not include translations of related in-game text. A 'TEMP' prefix or '???' indicates localized text that is not yet fully available.

As a reminder, the Public Test Cave is a work-in-progress build. Please be aware that PTC game content may not be complete, will contain bugs, and is subject to change.

Want some more details on how the Public Test Cave works? Check out this blog post!

• Added a new character along with main plot narrative. No spoilers in the patch notes, you’ll need to discover this yourself!
  
• Laser Gun
  
  • Gun Mode
    
    • Shoot your friends with lasers.
      
    • Use in Laser Tag matches.
      
    • Defend your nexus from combat training simulated asteroid threats.
  • Ping Mode
    
    • Ping locations to your friends and leave temporary beacons on the map for them to see where you’re pointing.
• 2 New Laser Tag Mini Games
  
  • Capture the Nexus
    
    • Capture Nexuses to get points and steal points from your friends by shooting them. Play 1v1, 2v2, 2v1, 3v1, or Free-for-all!
  • Defend the Nexus
    
    • An arcade-style wave shooter with asteroids, spaceships, missiles, landmines, boss fights, and more! Play single-player or with friends and let us know your high score!
• Nexuses
  
  • Build and use Nexuses to Fast Travel between points of your choice. Nexuses consume 10MJ per teleport (Equivalent to one full accumulator).
    
  • Pre-built Nexuses can be found on the map at Lima, Victor, Xray, and the Elevator (these do not consume any charge to teleport).
    
  • Use Nexuses as bases for Laser Tag games.
• Disco and Glow Blocks
  
  • 6 Disco Floor Variants - All variants will be available under one unlock
    
    • Diagonal - Rainbow wave along diagonal, the direction of movement follows the rotation of the block.
      
    • Horizontal - Rainbow waves horizontally, the direction of movement follows the rotation of the block.
      
    • Rainfall - Drops of different bands of color fall both horizontally and vertically, direction of movement follows the rotation of the block.
      
    • Chaos - Follows a random color rainbow cycle.
      
    • Synced - Follows globally shared color rainbow cycle, rotation of block offsets the phase of the color cycle (i.e. there are 4 different color cycle phases to choose from).
      
    • Follow Player - All players have a glowing RGB effect that follows them around when they are close to the blocks.
  • 7 Glow Floor Variants - All variants will be available under one unlock
    
    • Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Purple, Magenta
• Concrete Ramps
  
  • 3 Concrete Ramp Base Building Pieces
    
    • Sizes are 1x1, 1x3, 1x5, Make the roof or slanted floor of your dreams!
• Laser Mall Map/Preset
  
  • 1v1 Arena, 2v2 Arena, Free-for-all Arena, and Defend the Nexus Arena all available in one giant map! Go here if you’re interested in diving right into a match of Laser Tag without building your own map!
• Laser Arena hidden away in Standard Map
  
  • A small 1v1 Arena for Laser Tag is hidden somewhere in the Standard Map for you to find as you progress through the narrative!
• Characters in multiplayer now animate showing what tools they are holding and if they are using them. The M.O.L.E. FX now shows for other players using the M.O.L.E.
  
• More Optimizations!

• Pure and Impure Biobrick Diesel should now show up on the Filter Inserter Menu.
  
• Adjusted Startup sound of Mining Drills to be smoother.
  
• Fixed a bug where belts were dipping into the ground in certain locations.
  
• Fixed issue with a black patch in Moss Terrain texture that was visible when De-Tiling was turned off.
  
• Fixed issue where Mining Drill MKIIs always consumed 1680kW ignoring the status of MDR PowerTrim Upgrades.
  
• The Monorail Depot now shows which item is selected.

Warning: there are some spoilers in the Known Issues section!

• Multiple Nexus capture sound effects may play at once if the player exits and enters the loot Nexus range again.
  
• Laser Game end voiceover involving Paladin will play before the player has rescued him.
  
• Game Over screen UI elements might appear jumbled if a match is ended prematurely.
  
• Monorail Poles are having an issue rotating right now!
  
• CTRL is appearing in Nexus menus instead of the correct assigned input. It still works, it’s just showing the wrong tooltip!
  
• Special event music cues will override the Laser Games music and it will not resume.
  
• Playing for a long period of time and/or using Fast Travel to the Freight Elevator may result in the Freight Elevators's ports and plug not loading, making it not possible to complete the Freight Elevator repairs until the game is reloaded. Fast Travel may also turn machines invisible. A restart should fix this!
  
• The Barracks door leading to the Mech Suit Parts during the Mirage quest line might not open. We're working on a fix for this!
  
• Nexuses and Fast Travel are not currently working if No Quests is set.

We’re so excited to hear your thoughts on v0.5 of Techtonica! If you have any feedback for us, share it on our PTC website[techtonicapublictestcave.featureupvote.com], in our Discord, or on the Steam subforum for the Public Test Cave. Thanks again and we will see you next week!