WELCOME TO MECH DISTRICT: EARLY ACCESS!!
Well.
Here we are.
Welcome to Mech District Early Access.
It has been a lengthy process getting to this point. I started working on Mech District back in February, and in early June I made the completely rational decision to quit my job and focus on this project 100%.
Since then, it has pretty much consumed my life.
I'm glad I don't have hair, because there have absolutely been points where I would have ripped all of it out.
But through all of the debugging, redesigning, rebuilding, balancing, breaking things, fixing those things, discovering that fixing those things broke three other things, and staring directly into the Unity abyss at unreasonable hours of the morning...
This has been a great journey so far.
And I'm feeling hella accomplished.
Mech District is finally in your hands.
Early Access is exactly that: early access. The foundation is here, the factory is running, the Frames are online, the Pigdudes have made several extremely poor decisions regarding their continued existence, and there is already a lot to build, discover, optimize, defend, export, and violently dismantle.
But this is not where development stops.
Not even close.
So, welcome to District Zero.
Here's what is currently On the Horizon.
ON THE HORIZON
1. RAIDFRAME & SUPERFRAME LEVELING
Your Frames are going to start earning their scars.
Raidframes and Superframes will initially begin at Level 1. Taking them into combat and defeating enemies will grant experience, with the first version of the system capped at Level 10.
Every level will present you with a choice between three different upgrades or abilities.
Pick one.
Build around it.
Regret it.
Discover something disgusting.
Tell everybody you invented the meta.
The goal is to make individual Frames feel increasingly like your Frames instead of static units that simply came off the production line.
Mix and match abilities. Experiment with different builds. Find ridiculous synergies. Build something deeply questionable and somehow make it work.
Oh, the joy.
2. DEDICATED FRAME CHARACTER SHEETS
Alongside leveling, Raidframes and Superframes will receive their own dedicated Character Sheet interface.
While your factory continues cranking out tons of fun(ding), you'll be able to open your Frame roster, inspect individual machines, manage their abilities, and completely reconfigure how they operate.
Want a healer that does basically nothing except heal?
Sure.
Want a tank that shields itself into complete immortality while contributing approximately zero DPS?
Why not.
Want a glass-cannon damage Frame capable of producing obscene numbers while remaining in constant danger of being deleted from reality by one angry Pigdude?
Abso-mechin-lutely.
The objective is customization without forcing every Frame into one predetermined build.
You should be able to look at the same chassis as somebody else and arrive at two completely different machines.
Because once you've built the factory, beaten the encounters, optimized production and assembled an army, the answer to:
"Well... what do we do now?"
should not be:
"Nothing."
The concept of experimentation should not be ALIEN to you.
3. AFTERSHOCKS
You've beaten the game.
Every Protocol Boss is down.
The District has been pacified.
The credits roll.
And now you wait for the next major update.
...
Mech no!
Aftershocks are designed to extend Mech District beyond the primary campaign.
After defeating the Protocol Bosses, unstable events will begin appearing throughout the District.
Some may violently erupt out of the ground.
Others may manifest as an imminently dangerous rupture in space-time, which is generally regarded as something worth investigating with several tons of armed machinery.
Send your Frames into an Aftershock and you'll enter a modular dungeon-style encounter containing new enemy configurations, combat scenarios, modifiers and threats.
Survive them and you'll have a chance to walk away with juicy rewards:
Funding.
Blueprints.
Additional Relics.
Rare resources.
And, most importantly, another reason to continue terrorizing the District after the tragic extinction of the Protocol Piggies.
They're gone forever.
Probably.
...
Or are they? [bum-bum-baaaaahm]
:o
4. NEW SECTOR TYPES
We get it.
Fighting things with your Raidframes and Superframes inside Fort and Corrupted encounters is fun.
It's also literally a gigantic portion of the entire play experience.
So let's give them more places to destr-...
...
conquer.
Three major new sector types are planned:
CACHE SECTORS
A Cache is the remains of a backup AI system that simply refuses to let go.
This time, you aren't fighting Pigdudes.
You're dealing with your own kind.
Expect encounters against machines operating under similar rules to your own Frames, including configurations that may closely resemble the monsters you've spent the entire game creating yourself.
Think of it as fighting a mirrored version of your own technological philosophy.
Except the mirror may be carrying an obscene amount of kinetic damage.
Good luck.
RELIC SECTORS
Certain objects from a lost period of the District still remain buried throughout the world.
Relic sectors will focus less on straightforward combat and more on figuring out exactly what you've discovered and how you're going to extract it.
Sometimes the answer will involve solving a puzzle.
Sometimes the answer will involve violence.
And for the more capitalistically invested operators among you, there may occasionally be a third strategy:
throw an unreasonable amount of money at the problem until it stops being a problem.
As any great COWBOY AI operator would.
WORLD BOSS SECTORS
Big.
Bad.
Pigdudes.
World Bosses expand the concept behind Corrupted encounters into major standalone enemies with their own powers, mechanics, abilities and reward pools.
These aren't intended to be slightly larger regular enemies.
They're encounters.
Prepare accordingly.
5. COMMAND THE OUTER DISTRICTS
It's called District Zero for a reason.
District Zero is your home turf.
It's where everything started.
It's where you constructed your first production chains, assembled your Frames, built your economy, defended your infrastructure, made an unreasonable amount of money, and began this joyous extravaganza of wealth and extreme mech violence.
But the world does not end at the edge of District Zero.
Eventually, you'll be able to unlock and operate within additional Districts.
These regions will contain resources and opportunities that simply do not exist on your home soil.
Expand outward.
Establish operations.
Acquire specialized materials.
Build new logistics networks.
Send resources between Districts.
And gradually turn what began as one industrial foothold into something considerably larger.
District Zero is home.
It isn't the finish line.
6. A VERY SPECIAL HOLIDAY UPDATE
Finally...
There is a particular update planned for the holidays.
And with it will come two entirely new factions joining the Pigdudes in Mech District.
Who are they?
What are they?
Where did they come from?
Can you guess?
Probably not.
I have dropped absolutely no hints whatsoever during this entire roadmap.
None.
Not a single one.
...
Or have I?
THIS IS ONLY THE BEGINNING
Mech District started as a project I wanted to build.
Then it became the project I couldn't stop building.
And now it's a game that other people can finally play.
That part still feels slightly insane.
Early Access gives me the opportunity to keep expanding the District while watching what players actually do with the systems that are already here.
What builds become ridiculous?
What strategies emerge?
What systems need more depth?
Which Frame becomes everybody's favorite?
Which Pigdude deserves to be launched directly into the sun?
There is a lot more planned beyond what's listed here, but these are some of the major systems currently sitting on the horizon.
Some details, priorities and implementation order may change as development continues. That's part of why Mech District is launching in Early Access rather than pretending everything is already finished.
For now:
Build the factory.
Make some fun(ding).
Deploy the Frames.
Break the economy.
Find the meta.
And please treat the local Pigdude population responsibly.
Welcome to Mech District.
Welcome to District Zero.
Let's see what you build!!!