Beaver-themed city-builder Timberborn has gnawed its way out of early access, and surprise! It has Factorio-style automation now

I thought Timberborn's early access journey was more or less done and (saw)dusted when I last checked in on it in February. The city-builder that has you oversee a colony of industrious beavers had confirmed its release date for March, and seemingly shared everything that was coming to the launch version. But it turns out Mechanistry had one final feature arriving alongside its new environment objects, maps and so forth, and it's arguably the most significant addition of them all—automation.

Yes, Timberborn's recent 1.0 release adds a dusting of Factorio to the city-builder. The launch update adds twenty new buildings to the game, designed to act as logic nodes so you can program structures and objects to operate independently. These range from simple levers to logic relays, flow sensors, power meters, and even weather stations. Alongside these general logic components are some more specific logic nodes, such as detonators for setting off explosions and fireworks, which can be used for signalling purposes or just for funsies.

Mechanistry published a blog post and a YouTube video explaining what automation can be used for. You could, for example, set up a system that automatically closes your city's floodgates when a tide of noxious badwater rolls in, protecting your existing supply from contamination. Or you could instruct production buildings to pause functioning when the supply of a particular resource runs low. You can also use it to reroute beaver pathways depending on certain conditions, such as blocking off the recreational part of your city until a certain time of day, like the owner of some horrible beaver workhouse.

It's a pretty huge addition considering everything that Mechanistry has added both in the 1.0 launch and early access more broadly. Since it was released in alpha, Timberborn has received water pumps, ziplines and tubeways, and even robotic beavers. The automation update has further cemented Timberborn's place as the one of the highest-rated city-builders on Steam, with a 95% overwhelmingly positive rating out of nearly 39,000 reviews.

If you haven't picked up Timberborn yet, whether because it's new to you or you were waiting until it was finished, Mechanistry's city-builder is on a 20% launch discount until March 26. That brings the price down to $28 (£24)—not bad considering everything the game has to offer.