Timberborn News

Hello, everyone!

To answer the most burning question, yes, we will soon give you a sneak peek of what's coming in the next major update for Timberborn. Please stay tuned!

In the meantime, however, here's something extra. The Earth Appreciation Festival, our annual Steam sale, has returned to celebrate Earth Day on April 22. That's today!

[h2]Earth Appreciation Festival 2024[/h2]

Until April 29, check out the double-themed event we're co-organizing with Stray Fawn Studios (The Wandering Village) and Slug Disco (Empires of the Undergrowth). Across 130+ awesome games, we're exploring both nature-focused titles and games set in the eco-dystopian future.

🌍[h3]Visit Earth Appreciation Festival 2024[/h3]🌍

Earth Appreciation Festival highlights the issues of today’s world. Be it climate change (Frostpunk 1&2), lack of sustainability (RimWorld), diseases (Dying Light 2), nuclear threat (The Descendant), rapid industrialization (Workers & Resources), expansion of AI (Talos Principle 2), and social inequalities (Cyberpunk 2077), the games in the event ask the question of “what if we don’t act” and present startling visions of the future.

The nature-focused games contrast that by reminding us of Earth’s beauty - both present (Ranch Simulator), past (Anno 1800), or even ancient (Prehistoric Kingdom). The included titles celebrate the variety of life as we see it (Eco) and as we imagine it (Universe Sandbox), offering a different perspective (Wolfquest) and inspiring the player to protect the environment, often turning that into the game’s objective (Terra Nil).

There's also an entire section dedicated to upcoming titles! Some of our favourites include the fellow post-apocalyptic city builder Endzone 2, the fervent dream of all Diorama enjoyers Tiny Glade, and the title that shares our game's main premise, Green Again.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1062090/Timberborn/

So go, grab a discount, fill up your wishlist, plant a tree, hug your cat, and celebrate World Earth Day with us! And if you don't own the beaver city builder yet, get Timberborn 20% off!

[h2]Instagram giveaway[/h2]

If you'd rather grab the game for free, now it's your time! We've just launched our Instagram channel, and to kick things off, we're running a little giveaway with five copies of Timberborn for grabs. You'll find all the details in this post. The giveaway ends on April 24, 23.59 CEST.

📸[h3]Check the giveaway on @timberborn_official[/h3]📸

Even if you do not need extra Timberborn copies, if you're on Instagram, we invite you to follow us! You won't miss out on our more vertical updates, and you'll help us a lot with these humble beginnings.

Thanks, and until next time!

Hi everyone,

April is a busy month, and that also applies to game releases. That's why we've formed two new bundles with fellow creators of the hot new city-building titles. The bundles are available only for a limited time!

Get the Unique City Builders Bundle!

https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/39871/Unique_City_Builders/

Grab Timberborn and Infection Free Zone - the game released today, where you try to stop the virus in real-life locations!

Or, you can go for Dam Good City-Builder Bundle!

https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/40669/Dam_Good_CityBuilder_Bundle/

Featuring Timberborn and:

• Laysara: Summit Kingdom - the game released yesterday, where you grow your settlements high up in the mountains.
  
• The Wandering Village - the title where all the building happens on the back of a majestic dinosaur-like beast.
  

Go ahead, pick your poison!

Hello everyone!

You’ve outdone yourselves, again. Our third map-building contest turned out to be the most popular yet, with over 400 entries submitted! The competition has never been tougher, and once the dust settled after our studio members cast their votes, the results at the top were very close.

We’ve seen you tackle the badwater theme in many different ways. Whether it was about clever badtide preparations, splitting a map into contrasting halves, building badwater-filled volcanoes, or something entirely different - lots of fun (yet often deadly) challenges were made!

Below are the winning entries and honorable mentions in all three categories. In addition to eternal glory in the in-game credits and on our Discord, the winners receive 1000 EUR each, as well as a Timberborn T-shirt and mug of choice. The swag also goes to those honorably mentioned. Congratulations to you all, and a big thank you to all participants!



[h3]Winner - Mixed Up (64x64) by Pshy[/h3]

It's a diorama-esque map where you start out with very little land, so using it properly will be key to survival. After the initial challenge, you will need to do some careful thinking on how and where to redirect water and badwater to irrigate the land, which could be tricky considering the settlement is located below every liquid source on the map. Try not to get flooded!

[h3]Honorable mention - Surrounded! (128x128) by CkiCeluila[/h3]

As the title suggests, your beavers start out surrounded - stranded on a small island in the middle of a badwater lake. The challenge is to escape, reach the additional water sources, and use the contaminated lake to your advantage. In a crafty beaver’s eye, it's free real estate, ready to become a reservoir of clean water that will sustain a large colony.

[h3]Honorable mention - Mixing Bowl (128x128) by totrider[/h3]

The start might look fairly peaceful, but you will have to consider which barriers to break and where to dam up so that your settlement doesn’t become the titular mixing bowl itself. Multiple clean water sources are available, but reaching them to reap the benefits won't be easy. Separate the mixed liquids before you can make full use of the majority of the map.

[h3]Honorable mention - The Evil Twin (69x69) by Le_Vanda[/h3]

You start tucked away in the corner with the only clean water source in the form of a waterfall. Past a small lake, the water drops into a river of badwater. You’ll need to figure out the best way to redirect the badwater and recover the land around you. Careful land management will be required due to limited space and big elevation differences.



[h3]Winner - Heaven & Hell (200x240) by EnlaApa[/h3]

This map’s name comes from a split between an area with clean waterfalls and its evil badwater half. While in the early game, you can enjoy the peaceful "heaven", getting any significant amounts of metal won’t be possible without venturing into "hell". While a similar concept was used in many maps across the contest, our team liked EnlaApa’s execution best.

[h3]Honorable mention - Hadean (196x196) by Flor3nce2456[/h3]

There's a mega-project bound to happen in the form of a giant reservoir in the center. You will need to build around the crater while ridding the landscape of corruption. Similarly, while there were many examples of volcanoes and craters in the contest, none really matched this very detailed creation.

[h3]Honorable mention - Eddic Ashes (155x155) by GinFuyou[/h3]

A mix of water and badwater flows from the pillar-esque landmark in the center, allowing for flexible redirection or optimising its flow according to your needs. Be wary, however, as some advanced water engineering will be required to avoid disastrous badtides

[h3]Honorable mention - Fetid Pools (128x196) by Whiskey267dm0ZaMCQ1K[/h3]

Here, we have a bunch of plateaus, with the starting point being an oasis. With other safe spots looming in the distance, you will need to bridge your way to other clean water sources and push out the toxic liquid. Just remember that the floor is… badwater.



[h3]Winner - Badwater Ridge (256x256) by jokimty[/h3]

This map echoes our previous competition theme, and outside of badwater, it introduces large elevation shifts throughout. You begin with access to a large coastline and some flat ground, but access to clean water is limited. Clearing up the contamination will probably be the first thing on your list. However, you will also need to pay attention to a nasty surprise next to the starting area. Act quickly and destroy the barriers, or your beavers might start seeing red!

[h3]Honorable mention - Bad Ocean (256x256) by FustigateM[/h3]

As the title suggests, your beaver settlers are in for a dangerous beach party. While at first, this may not seem like the perfect vacation spot, with enough tenacity, you could potentially clean it all up and return the ocean to its rightful blue colour. Before you reach the great red holes, though, take care of your immediate surroundings so that the badtides don’t ruin your fun.

[h3]Honorable mention - Canyon Depths (256x256) by Infinite_Grinch[/h3]

Incredibly detailed - and filled with stumps and barriers that need to be cleared - Canyon Depths puts you in the center of a crater-like canyon surrounded by badwater. You will have to decide in which direction to expand, as there are various pockets of clean water available. Even the pretty oasis under a waterfall will stop being a safe haven when it starts reeking of contamination.

[h3]Honorable mention - Diatomic (256x256) by Skizz112[/h3]

Diatomic drops your colony in the middle of a huge area where water and badwater rivers are in the near vicinity, with the two craters giving testament to hoomanity’s past actions. Use the flow to your advantage, just be careful not cross the streams. Thankfully, lots of redirect options are available, giving this large map a nice replayability boost.


To play on any of the maps above, you will simply need to download an archive off Mod.io and unpack it to your Maps folder. You can find a short guide on how to do this here.

And what if the above selection isn't enough to keep you busy? Well, you can find all 413 submissions - as well as hundreds of other maps AND many crazy mods for the game - on our Mod.io hub.

Hello everyone!

Now that you’ve had a chance to play with Update 5 - Badwater (and since we’ve already made some important changes to the main feature), it’s time to kick off our third official Build-a-Map Contest!

The three winners will receive 1000 EUR each and a T-shirt + mug of choice from the Timberborn Merch Store, not to mention the eternal glory in the in-game credits and on our Discord. Authors of the nine honorable mentions (three per category) also get the T-shirt + mug combo.

[h2]☢️ Badwater Edition ☢️[/h2]
The idea is simple: create an original, playable, and pretty map that encourages players to interact with badwater. By that, we mean both badwater sources with preexisting badwater rivers and lakes, and the badtides coming over time. It's up to you to decide what you focus on - the only formal requirement is that the map needs to feature at least one badwater source. How you approach the theme, how difficult you make the map etc. it’s for you to decide.

As usual, there are three map categories:

• 128x128 and lower
  
• 129x129 through 255x255
  
• 256x256 and higher
  

with similar prizes in each category. Each winner gets 1000 EUR and merch, and three honorable mentions in each category get the merch.

To participate in the contest, you must upload the map on Mod.io by March 14, 2024, and tag it with the “Build-a-Map Contest 3” tag.

We’ll announce the winners by March 28, 2024. We can’t wait to see what you’ll come up with!

[h2]🔥 Important note🔥[/h2]
Before participating, please be sure to read the updated documents:

• Frequently Asked Questions
• Contest Terms & Conditions

And if you still have questions, the best place to discuss the contest, exchange ideas etc. is our Discord server - look for the dedicated contest category.

Hi everyone!

It seems you liked what we did to badtides and the game’s difficulty last week - that's great!

In today's update - just imported to the main branch from the experimental branch - we’ve got one extra badwater-related tweak, as well as a few smaller changes we wanted to push out.

[h2]Balance[/h2]

• Decontamination Pod now cures beavers twice as fast.
  

[h2]Misc.[/h2]

• For debugging purposes, save files now store the information about the map’s name and type (whether it’s official or custom).
  

[h2]Bug fixes[/h2]

• Fixed a bug with the main menu’s bottom breaking on the UI set to the maximum scale.
  
• Fixed a bug with the game autosaving while the Load game menu was opened, and then crashing when the player attempted to load the oldest, just-replaced autosave.
  
• Fixed a bug that made it impossible to have a temperate weather season of maximum duration.
  
• Fixed a bug with slightly incorrect irrigation ranges.
  
• Fixed a bug caused by scrolling through the toolbar while a building with an open dropdown list was selected. The building would become unselected but the dropdown list would hover in the void and crash the game when clicked, probably out of embarrassment.