Hi Explorers, The Monthly Summary for July is here! It’s been a great month of development for TFE. I've implemented the pause & resume mechanic, the ore distribution on mineable mountains system and invested some more time in improving character movement. This time I also got a Patreon status update for you! 🙂 TFE Development Summary - July 2026 & Patreon Update Monthly Summary Pause & Resume…
Hi Explorers, It has only been 48 hours since I launched the Pre-Alpha and the new Patreon tiers, and I am honestly blown away. In just two days, this amazing community has managed to double the monthly income on Patreon! A massive thank you to all the existing supporters who have been backing me and trusting the process for a long time. And a huge, warm welcome to our newest Patrons who just j…
Hi Explorers, Today is a massive milestone for The First Explorers and its development. I have decided to open up the development process even further and give my Patreon supporters Pre-Alpha access, starting TODAY. Support the development at the Praefectus tier or higher on Patreon to get your hands on the game right now! Pre-Alpha Access What can I expect from the Pre-Alpha access today and b…
Hi , The Monthly Summary for April is here! Make sure to read to the end of this post, its worth it 🙂 April was absolutely packed with exciting stuff: I focused heavily on developing a Bot AI , which is capable of building up a full settlement, recruiting soldiers and eventually attacking the player 🙂 TFE Development Summary - April 2026 Bot AI · 🛠️Bot AIs now follow structured build orders…
Hey there, the Monthly Summary for March is here! March was heavily focused on the new gate siege and yard combat , and I'm really happy with how it is shaping up🙂 TFE Development Summary - March 2026 Gate Sieges & Yard Combat · 🛠️ Defenders can now hold the gate, take reduced damage, and retreat to Yard Defender slots if the gate HP drops below a certain threshold · 🛠️ Gate attacks now util…
Hey there, the Monthly Summary for February is here! February was a massive push for the Combat System and unit responsiveness. It's one of those areas that takes a lot of invisible work to feel "right," but the foundation is now much more solid. TFE Development Summary - February 2026 Combat & Unit Logic · 🛠️ Implement Move+Attack order for soldiers so they intelligently engage enemies while…
Hi The Monthly Summary for January is here! Welcome to the new year. It will be a quite exciting one for TFE, thats for sure 🙂 TFE Development Summary - January 2026 Topbar UI Rework 🛠️ Refactoring of PlayerState class to support new topbar functionalities 🪟 Restructure topbar to show the most crucial info in one row 🪟 Carrier Icon now shows the total carrier count and the busy count togeth…
Hey there, the Monthly Summary for December is here! Because of Christmas, Holidays etc. December wasn't as productive as other months, but still I got some stuff done: TFE Development Summary - December 2025 Character Related 🛠️ Carrier Logic refactored into State Trees for better robustness and refactorability 🛠️ Movement Logic now works with State Trees 🛠️ Timeout for path avoidance revam…
Hey! I'm here with the monthly development summary from November, enjoy🙂 TFE Development Summary - November 2025 Resource Broker & Character Improvements 🛠️ Implemented Urgencies for Production Building stacks (Empty Input & full output have a high urgency and vice versa) 🛠️ Construction sites are prioritized higher than production demands 🛠️ Implemented backend architecture for prioritizat…
Hey! I'm here with the monthly development summary from October, enjoy :) TFE Development Summary - October 2025 Minimap 🛠️ Click on MiniMap relocates player camera 🛠️ Buildings register with MiniMap 🛠️ Territory borderstones register with MiniMap 🛠️ Harvestables register with MiniMap 🛠️ Characters can register with MiniMap if needed 🛠️ Buildings and territory borderstones have the correc…
Hey! I'm here with the monthly development summaries from August and September, enjoy :) TFE Development Summary - August 2025 📽️ Lots of work for the Gameplay Video, which was shown at gamescom 🛠️ More character system rework 🛠️ Pathfinding improvements 🛠️ Balancing of wood production times 🛠️ Fixed a problem that harvestables were not reachable in certain situations 🛠️ Added a benchmark…
Hey, I'm super excited to present you the new gameplay video showing what I was up to since last year: New Gameplay Video New Screenshots Alongside the new gameplay video I also have new screenshots for you: I hope you like the new material and I'm looking forward to hear your feedback! Best, Sebastian
Hey, I have exciting news for The First Explorers. Let's dive right in: Live on Stage at gamescom! Find Your Next Game Show Yes that's right. I will reveal all new Gameplay in the Find Your Next Game Show live on stage at gamescom next week! The FYNG Show starts on Wednesday, August 20th at 05:30pm CEST and my spot will be around 06:15pm CEST. The show is in German, but will be covered worldwid…
Hey! This month was a lot about preparing the first Playtest. I invested a bunch of time into making sure that the playtesters have a somewhat smooth experience. I'll give a short conclusionof the playtest after the development summary. TFE Development Summary - June 2025 🛠️ Implemented Nvidia DLSS 🛠️ Implemented percentage distributions for good production and unit recruitment (backend) 🛠️…
Hi together, end of June is coming and that means that the first closed playtest for The First Explorers is just around the corner. Here are the infos regarding the application process: - Playtest #1 is running from June 26th until June 30th (incl.) - Applications are open until June 17th 20:00 CET - You have to fill out an application form which is hosted by Google Forms - You won't need a goo…
Welcome back, Explorers! We're continuing our journey into the heart of The First Explorers ' mechanics. In previous blogs, we touched upon gathering resources and setting up basic production. Today, we're going to delve into something truly vital for your growing settlement: food, meals, and the very people who make your economy hum – your Carriers! These systems are deeply interconnected, for…
Hi together and welcome to the next devlog! A fantastic year 2024 came to an end. Let me give you a small rundown what happened the last couple of months and why 2025 will be an even more fantastic year for The First Explorers! About the last three months The last couple of months were pretty exciting, both fo me personally, but also for TFE. I've become a dad in October and went on parental le…
The TFE Spring Gameplay reached over 500 000 views on YouTube today! 😱 I'm really amazed how many people are interested in the game and this motivates me even more 🎉🚀 I will be back with a new devlog in January latest, stay tuned! Thanks for your support. Best, Sebastian
Hi together and welcome to the next devlog! Today's devlog is about the new Waypoint Animation System, a recap from Gamescom and some insights how I used the Patreon earnings so far. Waypoint Animation System What is a Waypoint Animation System and why does it exist? This self designed system allows me to create Work Cycle Animations for production buildings in a flexible and scalable way. Work…
Hi together and welcome to the next devlog! Today's devlog is all about the very first Gameplay Showcase. Gameplay Showcase I'm proud to present you the first gameplay video of The First Explorers®. In this video I talk you through the first minutes of a match and give some insights in terms of several game mechanics. It was hard work to get to this state and I'm curious what you're feedback wi…
Hi together and welcome to the next devlog! Today's devlog is all about working areas and the weaponmaker. Working Areas In The First Explorers you will be able to customize working areas for harvesting, planting and farming buildings. This includes for example the woodcutter, the stonecutter, the forester or the farm. For me it is very important to offer the player different possibilities to s…
Hi together and welcome to the next devlog! This time I will be talking about Building Spots, the Toolmaker and a little bit about the UI. Building Spots In The First Explorers it will be crucial how you select the building spots for your settlement. Let's start with a short overview, what construction sites need in general: · The terrain needs to be leveled by diggers · The building needs cons…
Hi guys and happy new year everyone! 2024 will be a very exciting one for The First Explorers and we're starting right away with a new devlog. From now on I will call these updates devlog and number these so I can reference them better. First Internal Playtest In the beginning of December the first internal playtest started for the game. I selected a couple of people, that have been part of the…
Hi together, a lot of people asked me where they can get a T-Shirt with the official The First Explorers Artwork on it. So I decided to make this happen and introduce a time limited Patreon Level until the 6th of December. Until that date you are able to join the new Tribunus Level on Patreon. If you choose to be part of the Tribunus Level you will receive ● an Exclusive T-Shirt ● an Exclusivel…
Official Trailer Reveal I'm proud to announce that the very first Trailer for The First Explorers was revealed world exclusively in the twitch stream of Maurice Weber last Saturday. You can find the trailer here on steam or on YouTube! If you like what you see, I'd be very happy about your WISHLISHT & FOLLOW :) Patreon The First Explorers is evolving more and more into a project that deserves a…
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Announcements are the developer’s own posts to the game’s Steam news feed: updates and their patch notes, in-game events, releases and sales. The important ones are marked on the players chart.