- I tried. - 6 May 2026
Let’s do the TL;DR, and after that, if you’re interested, we can go into the gory details. I have missed the May 6th date. Hilariously. Not even close. Phoenix will come out late this year. Before GTA6, you ask? I can only hope. So what happened? Writing games is hard - really, really hard, and as I’ve said more than a few times before, I’m literally developing this game by myself. It’s also hard to explain how intimidating the codebase can be - I’ve been developing games professionally for 27 years and for at least 15 years as a hobby before that, but picking my way through a codebase with almost half a million lines of code that’s 16 years old that was quite frankly written by an amateur idiot (me) is depressing and scary. Change the wrong thing and I’ve introduced a subtle bug that could take weeks to fix!It can be genuinely difficult to force myself to get up and sit down at my comp…
- A swing and a miss - 20 October 2025
I realise you’re all busy people, so let’s cut straight to the chase; I have unequivocally missed the planned launch date, and have moved it 6 months out, to May 6th, 2026. Now that the bandaid’s ripped off, let’s dig into the how and why, and what this means.If we correctly recall the quote - “A game is only late until it ships, but it’s bad forever” (by Elleon Guon), and apply this, you’ve got your answer. Not that Phoenix is BAD right now, but getting things ready for launch is proving a lot harder and taking a lot longer than I’d initially thought.One of the community members, Wombat, made this comment, which really resonated with me - “The 10 year anniversary date is meaningful, but not important. “Part of my issue with the current state of the build is that I'm not confident in the balance of the game, nor the polish. It's stable, ofc - FCE always was!When I was working on the var…
- Why did I decide the game HAD to come out on the 10th Anniversary... - 9 September 2025
(This is a post about the sequel to Evolved, known as Phoenix : https://steamcommunity.com/app/1038080 )So, let’s start with the bad news and then unpack it a bit. Managing expectations is one of the most important things you can do with games; and I know I said I’d be doing regular posts, but I’m always worried about annoying people with constant popups. And then people ask me what’s going on, so... here we go! As I’m beginning to plan the last few months before Early Acess release, I’m quite sure these things won’t be done! Replacement networking won’t be done.Old networking will still be in place, and will slowly be replaced piecemeal with Steam Lobbies and NetworkingFull visual revamp of the UI won’t be doneThe behaviour of the UI has continued to iterate and there’s plenty of new QoL features, but the visual atlas hasn’t changed out.Progression will be hard-clamped at OET charge.I’…
- It's time to start doing that annoying thing! - 28 April 2025
I'd love to think that every single one of you will be seeing all of the Phoenix news, but sadly Valve don't work like that. So every so often, I'll be doing these annoying posts, telling you what's happening over on Phoenix. Wishlist today! https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1038080/view/498319683381887139
- If you still play FortressCraft:Evolved - read this! - 15 July 2024
If you still play FortressCraft:Evolved - read this! If you don't play any more, but you have a save game that you might one day decide to go back to, and look at with the horror 'What WAS I thinking?', read this! If you aren't ever going to play Evolved again, but are excited for Phoenix, then head over to #fortresscraft2 our Discord - and if you're SUPER-excited for Phoenix, then head over to https://www.patreon.com/ProjectorGames to help out. Thanks again to all the Patrons helping this continue to keep development going. Speaking of which! @JaJaTec asked me in the PatronsOnly channel - "Will FortressCraft Phoenix have Cloud Save support?" and I went "Why yes, of course, Steam have vastly changed the rules around Cloud Saves, so it'll be trivial!" "So why haven't you done it for FortressCraft Evolved?" Because... I didn't think of it? Oh... yeah. Good point. So, I shall be flipping o…
- Merry Christmas, ya filthy animals! - 25 December 2019
As 2019 draws to a close, I thought I would drop you a few notes. First of all, a reminder that we have a very active Discord : https://discord.gg/advmf8S - there's always someone there to answer questions, give advice on builds, or help you solve issues. I'm literally always there if you feel the need to ping me. Second, I've only gone and released another game! Summed up as 'Gauntlet meets Pikmin', it's essentially a cutesy version of how it felt to play a Necromancer in Diablo 2. Check it out! https://store.steampowered.com/app/290180/Gnomancer/ Thirdly, a reminder that works has been bubbling away on the next in the FortressCraft franchise, tentatively entitled FortressCraft : Phoenix. Purchases of Gnomancer, PacketStorm, ADATPR and FortressCraft's DLC directly contribute towards its development. Fourthly, a reminder that the most direct way to contribute towards FortressCraft Phoen…
- And now, the time is here. It's time to draw, that final curtain. - 25 December 2018
Here's patch 24 for you, and also, Merry Christmas! I hope to see you all in the future! SkyIslands Fixes Slightly reworked Ore spawns on Sky Island to be wider and more reliable: 450-530 - Nickel 380-450 - Gold 280-350 Titanium 220-270 Crystal Previously Nickel was very-likely to overwrite Gold - they now exist in separate band. Altered T4 spawn density All-Ore fixes T4 ores now spawn separately to T2, meaning it's possible to progress T2 ores have improved spawns Skins! Added Adventurer's Garb skin for TAP owners Added ADAPTable skin for ADAPTR owners Spiderbro! SpiderBot's knees should no longer go wrong. If SpiderBot's knees DO go wrong, they should fix themselves in short order Technical stuff! You should now be able to enable multiple new mods and not worry about the security confirmation dialogue failing. (thank you MV) Mods now support Tags - just add Cats,Dogs,Mass Hysteria
- We ain't'n't dead. - 22 December 2018
So before I finally say goodbye to FortressCraft, I do want to ensure it's in the best state I can get it to. To that end, there's planned to be one more patch, with a few important longevity and 'most-demanded' fixes. So we have IPV6 support, a fix so SpiderBot doesn't suffer from a permanent broken knee (just occasional ones!), 2 new skins, one for TAP owners, one for ADATPR owners, mod Tag support, and imho most importantly - conveyors work properly in network games again. If you're having ANY problems at all unlocking Adventures Pack stuff, please opt into the test branch, it should be perfectly safe. You can get full details here : https://steamcommunity.com/app/254200/discussions/0/1742228532896639848/ And if you need that ADATPR skin in your life, grab it from here : https://store.steampowered.com/app/516570/ADAPTR/ The patch should be available just around Christmas - I want to…
- The Adventures Pack... - 12 December 2018
..was totally working perfectly during testing, but as we all know, no plan survives contact with the enemy! I've release a Win64 patch into the Staging branch tonight - this has a number of fixes, and should alleviate most of the major issues that have come up. I'll be doing an all-platforms build to match this overnight, and will push it live tomorrow, unless anyone notices anything horrifically wrong! Please feel free to opt into the Staging branch if you've been having any issues! Fixed issue with ConstructoBot permissions GPS no longer shows coords when CPH is offline. GPS works for Patreons. The Adventures Pack is no longer referred to as 'Forthcoming' MFP should no longer disallow building under odd circumstances when network clients Freight Filter Window should now correctly work as a network client ARTHER disconnect should no longer transmit a NULL Station segment under some ci…
- Fix incoming! - 10 December 2018
I'm aware of the permissions issue that some of you might be seeing with The Adventures Pack. I'm currently streaming here : https://store.steampowered.com/app/254200/FortressCraft_Evolved/ and my PC is building the builds in the background! Should be live soon!
- Where's the Adventures Pack? - 31 October 2018
If you've followed me at all on Twitter, Discord or any of my Streaming Adventures(tm), you'll know I blimmin' love FortressCraft. If it wasn't my game, I'd play the crap out of it, and pester the Dev to fix all the stuff that annoyed me. Thankfully, I *am* the Dev, so I can already fix everything that annoys me... given infinite time at least. Sadly, I've been working *so* much on FortressCraft over the last couple of years that I've slipped behind on my other obligations - I've put these off as long as I've been able, but I've had to spend the last few weeks finishing off something I started some 4 years ago. To that end, I'm proud to announce that ADATPR is finally done, shipped and released. https://store.steampowered.com/app/516570/ADAPTR/ Once the dust has settled down, and any patches emerge from the great unwashed playing my delicate game, I'll be on the final run for the Advent…
- Patch 22 now available! - 25 September 2018
Different days can provide wildly inconsistent amounts of work. Some days I can get half a dozen new machines in. Other days, I can spend looking at one line of code and end up achiving nothing. This month has been one of the latter months; after the end-to-end playthrough that took about a month for P20, this month has been a consolidation of all the new things. And just a couple of shiny toys for everyone. The handbook has also received a ton of love - if there's any entries for non-obvious machines missing, please let me know! TL;DR Launch the Railgun to unlock the GPS (Adventures Pack) Use Hive Brains to craft Hive Agitators to get more Resin. (Adventures Pack) Use AntiGrav-tubes to move vertically without risk of dying. Colour-coded Freight Tracks (Adventures Pack) Advanced Teleporters! (Adventures Pack) Context Help overhaul Massive performance improvements to threaded work. Added…
- P22 has begun! - 30 July 2018
If you have a burning desire or feature or change you want in, then you're running out of time to persuade me and others - https://www.reddit.com/r/FCE/comments/8h00yn/what_next/ Current top candidates are Conveyor Corners, the MK4 turret and anti-grav ladders.
- Patch 21 echo! - 23 July 2018
These days, of course, it's impossible to ship anything without breaking something, despite the tireless work of the testing crew, telling me how broken I've made anything - so therefore, have a tiny patch! Fix List Fixed endless 'Base Destroyed' message, which was due to the new UI Reduced cost of Upgrade Cargo Lifts to be more in line with P20 costs. Freight Carts research should now be correctly gated behind Adventures Pack or Patreon access Fixed erroneous "Please purchase the Adventurers pack to continue" to people who have just built the MagmaBore. Patch 22 goals: Corner Conveyors Advanced Teleporters MK4 Turret GPS As well as continued polish, placeholder machines removed, and optimisation. See you next month! (Or, you know, sooner on the Forums, Twitter or Discord)
- Patch 21 now live! - 20 July 2018
This month has been almost entirely focused on the new Freight Carts, and a complete, end-to-end playthrough of the entire game, networked, from the very start, right until the building, testing and firing of the new Rail Gun. Note : The Freight Carts are not currently available. You can build the 'Scrap' tier of carts, but anything higher than that will currently, incorrectly, open up the Dapper DLC page! Sorry. https://cdn.steampulse.org/steam/asset?u=https%3A%2F%2Fsteamcdn-a.akamaihd.net%2Fsteamcommunity%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fclans%2F5373901%2F90dbcea85744b502022051de3879da12a0e2ed2b.jpg TL;DR New main UI! Use Signs to name your rooms! All T2 crafting completely reworked to be similar to T1, and much more understandable to boot! Loads of Frozen Factory improvements and rebalances Freight Carts! Suit Inventory now auto-uses Ampules and Boosters https://cdn.steampulse.org/steam/asset?u=https%3A%2F%2Fsteamcdn-a.akamaihd.net%2Fsteamcommunity%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fclans%2F5373901%2F2824c594b7390099ed2c0c39e5%25E2%2580%25A6
- Loading Screens - 31 May 2018
Just a reminder - all of the Loading Screens in FortressCraft are supplied by the community - got an amazing pic you want in there? Let me know! https://cdn.steampulse.org/steam/asset?u=https%3A%2F%2Fsteamcdn-a.akamaihd.net%2Fsteamcommunity%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fclans%2F5373901%2F232cec7f54e057f4e1dc591a8923bcb3f1a7343f.jpg
- Patch 20 - now live! - 18 May 2018
Here were are, at the 20th free Content Patch since we left Early Access. I'm going to keep saying that until it sinks in - I've *only* had a dozen people refer to it as Early Access in the last month, so maybe it's sinking in! This patch has mostly focused on bringing the Adventures Pack closer to completion, a huge amount of performance optimisation (yes, I'm surprised there's any left, but we're definitely out of low-hanging fruit now), and just a couple of useful shiny machines for you. I've also done 3 playthroughs of various Mutator combinations this month, and I'll be starting the P21 cycle by implementing the final changes to T1 progression, and then having a whoosh through the bonkers Sky Islands and the completely terrifying ResinPocalypse modes - feel free to join me! Live Streams Plans Roadmap So - on with the notes! TL;DR All Missions and Tutorials now disable-able from the…
- Hate change? - 17 May 2018
Then it's time to opt into the shiny new P19-Frozen! P20 should be made live early tomorrow morning, featuring a huge swathe of optimisations, loads of progress on the Adventures Pack DLC, and just a couple of brilliantly-clever new machines, neither of which were my idea - so this is your LAST CHANCE to opt-out of the patch. And remember, if you want to have your say on what should be next, head over to this thread: https://www.reddit.com/r/FCE/comments/8h00yn/what_next/ and either submit your idea (ONE!) or vote up/down what you feel should be implemented.
- Your feedback - wanted! - 6 May 2018
I've got a Reddit thread going on here: https://www.reddit.com/r/FCE/comments/8h00yn/what_next/ If you get a moment, it would be great if you could pop along and vote on the features you'd like me to prioritise. If you have several moments, it'd be awesome if you could write up the single thing you feel the game needs most! (Don't put your responses here - the point of this is to get people to vote!)
- P19 Echo Live! - 16 April 2018
It's a tiny Monday patch for you all! RackRailer graphics updated Fixed hand-off issue with conveyor MK3 turrets now need Lenses, not Eyes. Macerators don't tell you about their power, as they don't use it You should now spawn in front of a Cloner, not inside it. Fixed Organic Parts collected by Robotic Sorters Added The ResinPocalypse Mutator. This... this is special and brilliant and terrible all at once. Your Steam client should grab this automatically, and all dedicated server branches have been updated.
