Techtonica Town Hall VOD and Transcript

In case you missed it, we did a Town Hall this week where we answered a ton of questions from you, the community! Watch the VOD below, or read on for a loooot of Q&A from Richard, our Game Director, and Lauren.

And now, let's dive in to all the questions:

Q: Are there any updates in regards to performance on Xbox and frequent crashes?

A: In the upcoming update, we're focusing heavily on performance improvements. Many of the crashes on Xbox stem from memory issues, so we're actively working on optimizing memory usage to reduce these issues. As players accumulate more hours in the game, managing memory becomes more challenging, but we're making significant strides in this area.

Lauren plans to do a deep dive on what is coming for performance and optimization in the next update, so we’re going to have a super super technical update for you all at some point.

Q: Is it possible to make a controller prompt to transfer the same materials to a storage box?

A: Adding a controller prompt for transferring the same materials to a storage box is something we'd like to add. However, it depends on our current development priorities. We'll keep it in mind as we plan future updates.

Q: Curious what end game balancing will look like. With the addition of blast processing, you can generate a lot of materials...but it doesn't seem like you need that many. Any quests or recipes that would require large volumes of materials?

A: Endgame balancing will continue to evolve as we scale up content. Currently, endgame content may feel a bit unbalanced since it's at the limit of our current content progression rather than the actual endgame. As we add more content, such as quests and recipes, they will naturally require larger volumes of materials to challenge players who reach that stage. Balancing will also consider new players, long-time players and those returning after a break, aiming to provide a positive experience for all stages of gameplay. Our goal is to create a solid experience that scales appropriately with the addition of new content and mechanics.

Q: I'm just wondering if you guys plan on keeping the game on the old gen consoles due to the performance issues that have been going on as the bigger updates have come out?

A: We're committed to supporting the game on Xbox One, despite the challenges. The key issue with Xbox One is its constrained memory, which affects performance. To address this, we're continuously optimizing memory usage by refining how saves are managed, clustering data more efficiently, and streamlining texture loading to reduce memory overhead. Our goal is to implement more optimizations over time to improve performance and ensure a smoother gameplay experience on all platforms, including older generation consoles.

Q: If you could go back, would you still release the laser tag update or do you think it was a mistake?

A: If we could go back, we would still release the laser tag update, but with adjustments. Looking back, we might have marketed it more as part of a Fast Travel update rather than focusing on laser tag. Each of our updates since 0.2 has aimed to cater to different player needs: from quality of life improvements in 0.3, to diverse gameplay modes like sandbox and hardcore in 0.4. In 0.5, recognizing the importance of multiplayer fun, we introduced laser tag alongside features like Fast Travel, improved communication tools, and multiplayer animations, for a more immersive experience.

Through this, we've realized