Roadmap
Frontworks roadmap
Frontworks is in active development, targeting a Q4 2027 release. This page contains the current state of the game and future features that will be added. It also contains some possible mechanics I am not sure will be added. The plan can change, and be influenced by the community as well as by myself — as development progresses, this page gets updated.
In the demo are the features that will be added before the first demo releases. Planned are the features I am almost sure will be present in 1.0. Considering is exactly that — ideas that may or may not happen, several of which depend on what you — the community — want.
Where the game is now
There is only one game mode: build a factory, expand it, defend it, and take the fight to enemy bases scattered across the world. It plays like a traditional automation game with RTS systems layered on top: army command, enemy AI, and war logistics.
Building
Worker bots construct your base under your command. You can hand-craft items or produce them in furnaces, metal printers and assemblers. Belts and inserters move everything between them.
Environment
A procedurally generated desert map, one biome for now, scattered with mesas and ore deposits — iron, copper, coal and stone.
Logistics
Belts carry items; inserters move them in and out of buildings. Intersections let two perpendicular belts cross without mixing, and splitters divide the flow. Inserters come in two lengths, the long one reaching two tiles. Workers can mine ore manually — slower than drills, but the ore goes straight to base inventory.
Power
Some buildings run on electricity, simpler ones burn coal directly. Thermal generators turn coal into power. If you don't generate enough, everything runs proportionally slower.
Production
Ore comes from worker mining or automated drills, gets smelted in furnaces, then becomes components in metal printers and assemblers. Roughly 50 materials exist so far, including ores, intermediates and decryption packs.
Research
To unlock new technologies, you must feed Tech Packs — items produced in your factory — into mega-computers called Decryptors. As the tech becomes more advanced, you must craft new packs: a technology can take up to 3 types of pack today, and 5 or 6 is planned. Also, technologies are divided into groups. The lore is that during landing, some encrypted data was lost, and now you must fight enemies who hold the data to unlock these groups.
Enemies
There are 2 types of enemies: robots and bugs (alien wildlife). The bugs attack your base in great numbers, so you must defend it using turrets or by commanding your army to protect it. The robots are a militaristic faction that already claims the planet's resources — they hold bases of their own, and those are the ones you go and take.
Military
Bots are recruited in a dedicated building that consumes resources — first-tier units draw from a combination of five components. Your army is manufactured, not trained.
In the demo
confidentOasis biome
Water for power generation and chemical processing, and a second environment to expand into.
More power generation
A water-based generator, significantly more efficient than thermal. First-tier generators are deliberately painful; you'll need a lot of them before you unlock better options.
Environmental detail
Vegetation, rock formations and terrain features to make the world feel less empty.
Base upgrades
Beyond army and research, your Base building itself can be upgraded — turrets, more HP, a minimap, a world map. Each upgrade is researched first, then built: you construct a dedicated building and feed it a large quantity of a specific resource. 3,000 walls for extra HP; 5,000 electric circuits for the world map. You'll set up a production line to feed it, then tear that line down or repurpose it once the upgrade lands.
Tech recovery
Technologies are grouped into packs, and the packs were taken by your enemies during the landing. You recover them by destroying enemy bases, then decrypt them at home. Research isn't just a production cost — it's a reason to go to war.
Bug nests and waves
Nests spawn near your factory and trigger mass attacks. Surviving the wave isn't enough — you have to destroy the nest to stop it. Fortified nests come with their own turrets, spawners and heavier units.
Planned
by 1.0Liquids
Petroleum, water and lava, moved by pipes and processed in chemical plants. Liquids can also be solidified into transportable forms — less efficient, but it means you can belt them.
Enemy bases with real infrastructure
Robot bases have production facilities, logistics networks, and remote mining outposts. You can destroy their infrastructure, cut off their supply, isolate outlying pockets, besiege them, or assault the main base directly. Different bases are run by different bosses with different strategies.
More logistics
Faster belts and inserters, a triple-length inserter, trains for moving materials and troops, trucks, and air transport.
Higher tiers
Upgraded versions of existing buildings — higher throughput, higher cost.
More enemies
Expanding both factions with new unit types and behaviours.
Considering
maybeSkirmish mode
A more traditional RTS mode with automation dialled way down — three or four materials to manage instead of dozens. Not in the first demo; possibly a later one.
Campaign
If skirmish lands and people want more, it could grow into a full campaign with missions and scenarios. This is a large amount of work and I won't pretend otherwise — realistically it's a post-1.0 conversation, if ever.
A third biome
A volcanic region with lava, rare materials and more dangerous enemies. Endgame content, well after the demo.