Timberborn News

Heya, beaver engineers!

Yesterday’s countdown post was 90% playing with water and 10% blowing stuff up. Let’s get even more technical today and talk about timbertech. It’s a term we coined to describe technology that connects wood and metal as much as the beaver and human ideas.

Considering the vertical structures it allows you to build, it’s a perfect example of hi-tech.



When there’s no limit to your creativity and the length of play – and there are none in the early access’ endless mode – you will realize you need to consider efficient space management. It may be a tall order, and that’s where the vertical architecture of Timberborn comes into play.

As long as a building has a Solid keyword, you may place other buildings on its roof. Some buildings such as Campfire still need to be placed on the ground, but many don’t – and that allows you to construct multi-level structures. You can also use stairs and platforms of different heights to organize your multi-level settlements while beavers walk on them or underneath.



There are smaller, ordinary wooden platforms of three heights you already know. But we've also added metal platforms, perfect for building a city on top of another city. They’re expensive to build, sure, but consider the fact you can build BELOW them, and they’re much more attractive. Also, remember that another unique building Iron Teeth were supposed to have? Well, guess what – only they can construct the higher and larger variant of the metal platform.

We’re also introducing our first “Above-ground” buildings. If a structure has this tag, it means you can’t place it on the ground. For starters, we’ve got Rooftop Terrace, which is an above-ground variant of the Campfire, intended to showcase the verticality.



The sky (and the number of ruins on the map) are the limit here.



We know you enjoy playing with verticality, so that’s why we’re also adding suspension bridges to Early Access, with the most advanced ones using metal. You can build these bridges to span gaps and crevasses without reaching the bottom with platforms… but most importantly, to establish walking routes OVER other buildings. Correct, you can build over and below these bridges as long as there’s enough free space. To build a bridge, you only need access to one “attaching point” – and if that’s not enough to cross the gap, build another one on the other side.



Every beaver is a lumberjack at heart, allowing them to cut trees without tools, but processing timber is a different story. Logs need to be properly stored, then you can turn them into planks, which in turn become gears. You may also produce paper used to print books and craft dynamite. The production chains require you to set up sawmills and specialized workshops. As wood is used in all Timberborn buildings in one form or another, you need a lot of it. That’s where foresters come in. Currently, they can grow three types of trees.



The berries gathered at the beginning of the game satisfy beaver hunger only for so long – soon, your beavers will need something more nutritious. (Unless we're talking Iron Teeth, who use them to grow kits in breeding pods). Once you employ farmers, you will be able to plant carrots. Another step would be growing potatoes but that adds a need for a grill. In the early access version of Timberborn, we also have bread – there are even more steps between planting wheat and the end-product created by bakeries. Remember that Folktails are our expert farmers, and they can speed up crop growth with their unique beehives.



Numerous buildings require power to operate and your colony can generate energy in different ways, some of them faction-exclusive. While Iron Teeth do not mind using an engine, Folktails would rather use the whimsical force of the wind. Both factions can use water wheels, powered by river currents, and the (slightly reworked and smaller) power wheels, where it’s up to an employed beaver to generate power.

Connecting the power source to buildings can be done in two ways. You can either create clusters of buildings that transform energy when attached wall to wall or use modular power shafts. You may shape the latter to your needs, using intersections, placing them on platforms, or even connecting levels of different heights.



Human ruins scattered on Timberborn maps serve as a grim reminder of a long-gone civilization and a finite source of metal. Scrap metal is gathered by beavers employed at scavenger flags – which replaced scavenger huts. To use it in buildings, you need to turn the scrap into metal blocks. That’s where the shredder comes in – it’s a new, power-hungry building. Metal blocks it produces can then be used in advanced structures such as the longest bridges or the carousel.

The metal usage is still in the early stage of development, but you should plan around the fact that once all ruins on the map are depleted, you will no longer have access to it and the related structures.

So, what will YOU do with the timber-tech and vertical architecture when Timberborn launches in Early Access in just four days?

Let's hear in the comments or on our Discord!

BOOM, what’s up!

As we count days to Timberborn’s early access launch, we’re going over different aspects of the world’s one and only beaver city-builder. And what are beavers best known for? They transform the world as we know it with their water engineering skills.



Adding water physics to Timberborn was a major breakthrough and seeing how much the players enjoy it, we knew it would be the game’s defining feature. After all, the beaver master-race is known for its dam-building skills. And how do we approach that?

At launch, you will be able to construct modular dams using the following blocks: levees, dams, and floodgates. Levees block water completely and allow you to place other buildings on them. Dams allow some water to pass through at the top. Floodgates come in three heights and let you change how much (if anything) passes through – you can adjust each module if you wish.


Water that stays at a certain level and maintains a strong current will keep the water wheels operating – and that’s a good thing because they’re a very efficient source of energy for both beavers factions. To let you make better use of them, it will be possible to daisy-chain water wheels in Early Access.

Sufficient water levels also allow pumps to work, and the water you get from the pumps can be stored, used to quench the beavers’ thirst or to keep the Folktails’ irrigation towers running. We know that the pumps only operating on water one-tile deep could be frustrating at times, and that’s why we’ve increased their operating depth – with Iron Teeth pumps working deeper.


In early access, there will also be a new way to utilize water – beavers working at the Water Dump will grab buckets of water and carry them to spill it to the designated area. Not the most efficient way to transport water, yes, but it allows you to move water to higher levels.

Finally, by popular request, we’re adding the Water Marker. This little thing helps you monitor the water levels – both current and the (resettable) maximums.



The most explosive ways of having fun with water physics come with the use of dynamite. Produced in an Explosives Factory (that now has a new model by the way), dynamite allows you to blow up selected blocks of terrain. You manually choose when to detonate a stick of dynamite, just remember that chain reaction (and deaths) may occur.

With dynamite, you can level the terrain so that setting up the settlement is easier. Even more important use involves digging canals and reservoirs. Canals are a good way of redirecting water into otherwise dry areas – and a sufficiently deep and wide reservoir might help your colony survive the drought. With the Water Dump mentioned above, you can easily fill such an artificial basin during a wet season so that it’s easier to survive the upcoming drought.

How will YOU play with water when Timberborn launches on September 15?

Let us know and see you tomorrow with another preview!

Hi everyone!

Let’s continue counting down to the launch of our beaver city-builder with another daily preview! One of the Big Things coming with Early Access is the addition of truly unique playable beaver factions: Folktails and Iron Teeth.


[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
These light-furred fellas respect Mother Nature and enjoy consuming her gifts. Their settlements are built among vast fields and have that cozy village feel thanks to golden thatchings, light wood and walls covered with mossy plaster.

Folktails’ adults and kits live together in Lodges of different sizes but may also choose to stay alone. They’ve mastered farming and gained access to several specialized buildings in the process. For example, they use Windmills big and small. These power sources don’t consume fuel nor require workers but their reliability depends on the wind’s direction and strength.



Folktails’ affinity for farming allows them to utilize Irrigation Towers that can turn even remote wasteland areas into fields and forests. They are also able to speed up the growth of crops thanks to another specialized building: the Beehives! And as their production increases, they are able to store the fruit of their labour in Underground Warehouses of increased capacity.

If you want to learn more about Folktails, please read this devlog. Please note that because of the last-minute addition of difficulty modes, we have ultimately decided against increasing Folkatails’ food consumption rate. We might bring that back at some point, though.


[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
The Iron Teeth are hard-working beavers who put progress over anything else. They don’t care if you don’t like their smoking engines or how they breed.

Compared to Folktails, the Iron Teeth settlements are much different in terms of colour and atmosphere. The faction’s buildings match the naturally dark fur of their inhabitants, with gray-green-blue wooden roofs and more prominent metal elements adorning red brick walls.

Their bulky Barracks and tall Rowhouses allow them to build settlements in tighter, more vertical spaces. To help with that, they use Industrial Log Piles (which are stackable) as well as Deep Water Pumps that can reach water up to six tiles deep. There’s also another unique building only Iron Teeth can build but we’ll reveal it later, as part of the vertical architecture preview.



Some say that the most recognizable Iron Teeth building is the Engine – a smoke-emitting, log-burning monster with unrivalled power output. Others, however, point to the unconventional breeding ways. Iron Teeth turned reproduction into a production chain – all newborn kits are first grown in Breeding Pods which adults supply with water and berries.

We’ve covered Iron Teeth in greater detail last week. Similarly to Folktails, because of the last-minute addition of difficulty modes, we’ve decided against enforcing a higher water consumption rate upon them. If they’re too easy to play, we might rethink that. ;)



Playing Timberborn with each faction is a different experience. Folktails are generally easier to grasp and you will need to hit a certain wellbeing level with them before you unlock their more hardcore cousins. Are you Team Folktails or Team Iron Teeth?

Let us know below or on our Discord and check back this time tomorrow for another preview!
-Team Timberborn

Hey everyone,

on September 15 – exactly seven days from now – Timberborn Early Access begins. To keep you up to date with what to expect from the game in its new incarnation, we’ll be counting down to the release date with daily previews on different aspects of our beaver city-builder.

Today, let’s look at Timberborn’s core feature, droughts, and how they affect the game’s flow and difficulty. Because you know, we’ll have different difficulty modes at launch. We were planning to add that later, but since it was often requested, we moved it up on our priority list.


Timberborn Early Access comes with the infinite survival mode. When you begin a new game, it’s temperate weather (previously known as “wet season”). In most cases, a good portion of the map is a dry wasteland but some rivers, lakes, or a combination of the two surround the starting area. Water flows in from the sources and the ground near water bodies is green. Green areas can sustain the forests and fields your beavers grow as well as the already present flora.

During temperate weather, the water evaporates at a very slow rate, and you can distribute this life-giving resource as you see fit. Unless you go overboard with the canals or pumps in the area, the water should stay at a level high enough to keep water wheels operating, and your beavers will be fine. What exactly you can do with water is a subject of another preview but the gist here is to balance your city-building efforts with Timberborn’s focus on water and irrigation.


It’s post-apocalypse now, which means the drought (previously: “dry season”) eventually comes. The strength of water sources on the map begins to fade and after a while, the water sources “turn off” completely while the evaporation continues. The river beds gradually dry up and with them – the surrounding areas. Fields and forests turn yellow and will wither unless you have a way of preventing that with a clever combination of dams, floodgates, irrigation towers, canals, water dumps etc.

If you do not prepare for a drought properly, you will also end up with useless pumps and water wheels, so unless there's a lot of water in the tanks and you have alternative power sources, your population might wither too, if you catch our drift.

Here’s a note for our demo players – we’re evil and we made the second drought in the demo a little too severe on purpose. That’s not what will happen to you in the normal game. Sorry, not sorry.


Speaking of which, Early Access comes with different difficulty levels. In addition to picking a beaver faction and a map, you will now need to decide how much of a challenge you want.

• Easy difficulty is a relaxed experience with a focus on building a grand city rather than on surviving. Droughts are sparse and short, your colony starts with more resources and uses fewer of them.
  
• Normal is a standard Timberborn experience as we envisioned it. You start with some resources, and droughts – while short at the beginning – get longer and longer each time. It’s a good mix of having to survive and building cool settlements.
  
• Hard is a proper challenge. Expect small amounts of starting resources and droughts that get longer to a point where after a few times it’s dry more often than not.

Not only that, we’re giving you an option to create a custom difficulty. You can choose how many beavers you start with, how much water and food they need, how many resources they have at the beginning of the game and how long the droughts will be. If you want to, you can make it an ultimate sandbox experience, or an ultimate hardcore desert world.

Which difficulty level will YOU pick for your first Early Access playthrough?

Let us know in the comments or on our Discord and check back this time tomorrow for another preview!
-Team Timberborn

Hi there!

If you missed the memo, Timberborn Early Access launches September 15! There’s a lot of new stuff coming to the game, some of which we’re still keeping a surprise. But today, let’s talk about the second playable faction, the Iron Teeth beavers!

We have first revealed the faction in a trailer shown at Awesome Indies Show Gamescom by IGN. If you have missed it, here it is again, this time without our comms manager's cat tree and babbling.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]


Compared to Folktails, Iron Teeth are the busy beavers. They’re doing their best to harness the wasteland, viewing tormented Earth as timbertech testing grounds. They live to work, not the other way around. For them, technology is both a means and a goal. Take water, for example. For these beavers, it is a measurable power that keeps gears running rather than nature’s gift of life.



We wanted Iron Teeth to be more or less a counterpart to Folktails. Our idea for their colonies was to use that darker, industrial theme with blocks of tall, brick-like buildings. Engines are there too, emitting smoke and propelling Iron Teeth’s progress forward. Because of their reliance on power and higher water consumption, we envision the Iron Teeth settlements as tighter, more squeezed in and vertical compared to Folktails’ vast villages in the midst of golden fields.


The Iron Teeth are also a perfect example of how iterative our work on Timberborn has to be. We were looking for a way to make this faction feel very industrial and productivity-driven. Adding engines and other machines shows their affinity for timber-tech, sure, but we needed something special. So, we looked at the cozy lodges of the Folktail families, and we decided to give the Iron Teeth something entirely different by separating adults from kits. We wanted adults to live in cramped barracks – that perhaps wouldn’t even satisfy Comfort – while kits would grow up in kit-only nurseries.

Nurseries have been scrapped... but our beaver-eyed viewers might have spotted them in Timberborn's early access trailer, which was recorded while they were still a thing.

The idea looked good on paper, but Nurseriers turned out to be a balance problem (a few nurseries would be enough for a huge town) and hard to explain. So, even though we had a really nice 3D model, we had to scrap them and eventually replace. Breeding Pods work much better in both regards, but also feel more post-apocalyptic AND add a unique “production chain”. You'll read more about them in a moment.


The settlements built by the Iron Teeth might strike a Folktails fan with their different, Timberborn-e feel but that’s okay as Jakub Mathia, our Art Director, is ready to explain:

They were going to be the tough, hard-working guys, we knew that right from the start, and the name *Iron Teeth* came up early. No wonder their graphite-like, bluish fur resembles steel, while their buildings are covered with wooden roofs similar to patinated metal. The engineering feats of this faction pushed us to search for inspirations in the 19th-century industrial revolution. We matched that with the architectural shapes and colors influenced by the native communities of the Middle East and Latin America, resulting in the orange-and-indigo mix you can see.

It's the little things like subtle patterns on the fur.

An old screenshot showing older textures and models. The large building in the center was a "new" Builder's Hut before the idea of District Centers was born, and the Hut received yet another model.

Michal Zomerski, Timberborn’s 3D Artist, chimes in to talk about the design process behind the Iron Teeth buildings. Thanks for the spoilers ahead of the next paragraph, Michal. Sheesh.

The Iron Teeth live in the industrial barracks and the London-like rowhouses, and they get to stack their log piles, which means densely populated areas quickly turn into tall clusters of buildings. But we didn’t want to just give them cuboid blocks of flats, hence the slanted walls and a design that allows power shafts to connect “through” windows. On the other hand, we got to play with metal and, for example, redesign the engine. This one has a dedicated power connector which allowed us to play with the model and draw inspiration from DaVinci’s works.

Also, here’s a bit of beaver trivia. Beavers’ incisors (teeth) have an orange enamel because of a high amount of iron. Also, Timberborn’s working title was Iron Teeth. Makes sense, huh?

[h3]Faction trait[/h3]
While Folktails' never-ending appetite results in higher food consumption, Iron Teeth use more water.
They work hard and need to quench their thirst often which results in 15% more water consumption.

The above has been removed with the addition of Difficulty Modes where you can customize the consumption rates regardless of faction.

[h3]Housing[/h3]
Comfort is not that important to Iron Teeth – if you get a place to crash after a shift with a roof over your head, that’s enough. They grow their vertical settlements by squeezing their kin in the following buildings:

• Rowhouse – Tall and narrow building that houses five beavers.
  
• Large Rowhouse – Even taller, these rowhouses are for eight beavers.
  
• Barracks – A large, space-efficient dwelling for ten dwellers.
  
• Large Barracks – Perfect for groups of workers, this box of a house has a capacity of sixteen dwellers.
  

[h3]Breeding[/h3]
The work consumes so much of Iron Teeth life they have abandoned the traditional beaver ways. To ensure proper growth of the next generation, the Iron Teeth have invented breeding pods. All newborn kits begin their life in those, suspended in a nutritious liquid. To sustain growth, the “beaver juice” has to be refilled. All adults in the colony share that duty.

• Breeding Pods. This is Iron Teeth’s only way of bringing kits to the world. After a kit is born and placed here, all adult beavers will bring water and berries to sustain the growth. Once it's grown enough, the kit will leave the tank to live in a harsh environment and grow further, eventually becoming an adult. Other beavers argue that this process might be going too far.
  

[h3]Other unique buildings[/h3]
Iron Teeth are industrious and their unique buildings are designed to increase their productivity and efficiency, even at a cost of fresh air in the neighbourhood.

• Industrial Log Pile. Wood is in constant demand and it’s easier to store it when you’ve got specialized warehouses. These are Solid which means they are stackable, and they don’t have to be placed on the ground.
  

• Deep Water Pump. In Early Access, water pumps are no longer limited to one tile of depth – and the Iron Teeth upgraded their pump even further so they work up to SIX levels deep.
  

• Engine. The pinnacle of timbertech is only available to the Iron Teeth, offering supreme energy output in exchange for fuel and the need for an employee. Other beavers wouldn’t approve of burning wood and the smoke that comes with it, but the Iron Teeth don’t mind.
  

While this is a global change – Folktails also profit from it – the work on Iron Teeth pushed us to change how metal works. Scavenger’s Hut was replaced with a Scavenger Flag. The beaver employed there is tasked with gathering scrap metal from ruins in range. Scrap metal is then processed into usable metal blocks in a brand new, powered building: a Shredder.



In Early Access, we’re adding new ways of utilizing metal such as the advanced Suspension Bridges. You might have spotted them in the Early Access trailer (or the Iron Teeth trailer, for that matter). You can build them in different sizes – and you can place new buildings below them. There will be more but you will need to wait until Wednesday for that. Why?


Timberborn releases at 5 PM CET, September 15, 2021.

A week before, we’re going to start a series of daily previews here on Steam. Every day, we’ll look at a different aspect of Timberborn’s gameplay and how it looks in Early Access. If you’ve just discovered the game, this will give you a more in-depth overview of Timberborn’s features. If you’ve been following the beavers for a while, expect quite a few surprises.

Until then!
Timberborn Team