i have updated the Steam Demo for the June Next Fest!
There's a lot of cool new things: upgrades, bit of danger, and a new biome! to name a few.
Happy to announce that the number 1 feedback request, mouse-wheel zoom, has also been added!
The game is still in Production (alpha) and set to release sometime Q3 2026. I'm still working on a number of new features that are not yet available on the Demo v2. In fact, there's likely going to be a Demo v3 sometime in the future.
Note: During playtesting I found a small number of issues, none game-breaking, and I'm already working on a hotfix that I'll upload tomorrow before next fest starts :)
NEW THINGS AND CHANGES
The demo now ends before late-game starts, at around 30-45 mins of gameplay
You can now select an upgrade on Civilization level up
Monument now grants experience instead of an upgrade
Upgrades are now explained, and can be seen on the Overview panel
New arid biome that takes at 30% to 50% of the world
Each tile now has a % of how wet-dry it is
Forestlodge produces slower on arid biomes
Farmhouse cannot be placed on tiles that are too dry
Added time of year and seasons
Game now tracks time of year instead of clock time
Weather is now tied to seasons
Farmhouse works faster during rain, and slower during snow
Settlements now deteriorate if they can't produce gold
You can now get a Game Over if you run out of settlements
New messages for important game events
BALANCE
Settlements now produce 1 gold per module instead of 2
But Gold production speed is also 80% faster
Prices and experience are adjusted to account for gold generation
Settlement expansions can now only be placed within 2 tiles of the settlement's center
Settlements can be placed closer to each other and to mountains
MISC
Added mouse wheel and home/end keys to control the camera zoom
Switched to hardware cursor
Added arrow keys to control the camera
Lots of art tweaks and improvements
Improved sound for Sender instruction UI
When you order a new settlement the builder is now a whole group instead of one lonesome dude
Generation of valid placement grid is faster (before it was already fast though)