We need to talk.
Since its release in October 2024, Roots of Harmony has been impacted by one of those very weird bugs that make programming such a "wonderful" experience: the game was always slower when it was launched through Steam. This affected the menus and the responsiveness of the UI, but most importantly, all the heavy processes, like world generation and the end of a turn. For instance, the world generation function could be up to 20 times slower than when the game was launched through the raw .exe file.
No longer will you wait 4 seconds to generate the world or end your turn!
I tried a few times to alert the Steam support about this problem, but always in vain. It's only with the version 3.0 release that I decided to really dive deep into it. I've asked developers on several forums, and it took several weeks until a CPU trace showed that Steam was actually hooking its overlay onto some functions of the game. However, don't get confused: we're not talking about the UI you access with Shift+TAB (which never worked in RoH anyway), but about a DLL file that hooks to the game and is always present, whether the UI overlay is enabled or not. Nobody knows why the overlay used to slow down the game so much, but after a month of patience, the Steam support finally decided to completely deactivate the DLL. It doesn't change anything about the game, and it solves the problem.
Now Roots of Harmony is the game that I always wanted to ship, with higher performance and, I suspect, better stability. 🌳🦋🌳
Roots of Harmony has now been in development for three years, and with version 3.0, I feel that a significant milestone has been reached. The game is no longer a casual text-based game, but a full 4X with enough replayability and a sweet "one more turn" effect.
But I believe the game is underpriced.
No, no; it's not greed!
Okay okay, before putting me on the pillory, let me explain:
Quality perception. Low price can signal low quality, especially on a niche product. I think associating the "casual" tag (now removed) with a low price made the game appear short and shallow. With all the previous updates and the major 3.0, this is no longer the case.
Content. Now a single standard playthrough can easily take more than 6 hours, and the replayability has been greatly increased since the release. All the new content is free, and I don't intend to make any DLC.
Alignment to other games. Games of the same niche such as Warsim or King of Dragon Pass cost around $10.
Investment. The increased price will help to further develop Roots of Harmony with new features, support new projects, and promote the game.
This is a one-time price increase; it will never happen again.
Roots of Harmony will cost $8 from the 5th of January.
Thank you for your understanding,
Guillaume - aka Joubarbe 🌳