Hi, community. This week we're trying something different! For a long time, we've kept you all up-to-date with our monthly devlogs - but having a full month go by without any updates feels like a lot of silence. So we're trying out a new short-form update where we'll just talk a bit about what we're doing, and how your feedback shapes the game. We'll keep doing monthly devlogs, but with these mini updates in-between.
This also fits well with another thing we're changing: Big milestones are great and all, but after we released in Early Access, we feel that having everyone wait for these big updates makes it harder for us to shape the game from your feedback. So instead of only doing milestone updates, we will go back to releasing regular smaller updates as well.
Work is well underway on our next major milestone, planned to release in late January. As we want to bring you along with the updates that we are doing, and help us refine them as we make them, you will be able to try out all the features that we are adding - game breaking bugs included - a lot more often.
We know that some updates will be less stable than others, so if you want to be on the very bleeding edge of the update track, try the open beta branch. This branch will see at least weekly updates, with releases happening more frequently.
So, what's next for Folklands? We've spent the time so far building the foundation of the game we want to make - up until now Folklands have been kind to you and the choices you make - but we have a lot more in store in terms of challenges, events, disasters and more!
First up:
Health & security
Our next major update will be focused on adding two new services: health and security. Health will impact the well-being and performance of your folks and your settlement, while security will add a lot of new gameplay mechanics and interaction opportunities.
We will release the functionality gradually in the coming weeks, but here's a quick sneak peek on a few highlights.
Herbalist
The herbalist will gather herbs to create ointments / medicine to be used by the Doctor.
Doctor
The Doctor acts in a similar way to the fire & maintenance service workers. They will walk around your city and use the ointments and medicine from the herbalist. As part of the health service, these two new buildings and professions will work together to keep your folks from getting sick!
Security
The security feature will be one of the biggest changes and additions to the game. We always wanted to keep Folklands a peaceful and cozy settlement builder, but with additional challenges. The game will still be completely combat-free, but the security feature will be introducing a whole new set of challenges and ways to interact in both multiplayer and singleplayer. With the addition of Raiders, Multiplayer territory control, thieves, guards, patrols, barracks, a weapons production chain, walls and gates - to name a few(!) - you can expect an even more challenging and interactive settlement builder experience.
We can't wait to show you what we're building! As always, get in touch with us and let us know your thoughts and wishes on the game features - either without trying them, or after trying them in the upcoming releases.
Ok, so this update didn't end up being so short after all. Oh well!