Celestial Empire News

Dear Community!
We bring you some of the settings that will influence the way your cities grow and develop throughout your playthroughs. These will shape your playthroughs in more than one way.


While new players may need some help from us, experienced players may see this as being held by the hand. And sometimes returning players need help remembering what to do and need only a bit of guidance. You can have a choice of how much help you need.



Full Guidance
We will walk you through all game’s mechanics and show you how to build your city from the ground up. It’s useful during your first playthroughs, where even the most basic mechanics may seem a bit new.

Less Guidance
We will introduce some of the mechanics, especially those that are not commonly found in other city-builders. The basics seem too obvious for us to explain at this point. We recommend this setting if you are a returning player, who has played many city builders before but hasn’t touched Celestial Empire in a while.

No Guidance
You probably know the game inside out and can play with your eyes closed. There will be no tutorials, no hints, and no expertise from us. You are the expert now. The training wheels are off.

These tutorial changes do not include tooltips, which explain certain functionalities and mechanics behind tools and buildings.


As players, you will be faced with a choice that will influence most of your playthroughs. Each difficulty will have its own set of challenges and different starting points. Certain obstacles are more likely to happen and even some handy tools may be disabled for the sake of the challenge.



Easy Difficulty will let you create and redecorate your dream city. Your fields will always yield high harvests and your citizens will be easier to please, so you can relax and enjoy the simple life as the Governor with almost unlimited power. Disasters will rarely threaten your citizens, so you can have some fun with barely any consequences to your choices. You start as a rich man and will hopefully help your city get even richer.

Medium Difficulty will bring some challenges but they will not be overwhelming. You can still reshape the city at any point, but it will cost you. Everything around you will be mediocre, harvests will be okay, and there will be enough materials to help you satisfy your citizens’ needs. Disasters will come and go, but with smart planning ahead and skilled building placing, you will be fine.

Hard Difficulty is challenging. Forces of nature and odds are stacked against you. There’s a permanence to your choices, so you better plan ahead, because there is no moving of the buildings. There is only demolition. Disasters will stick to you like flies to a glue trap and disastrous consequences will be more devastating than ever. Even the soil does not like you and will make harvests a miserable experience. So good luck feeding your people and finding materials. It’s you and your skills against the scary world of Hard Difficulty.

So these are the tutorial, difficulty settings. They will be the cornerstone of your playthroughs. We’re very excited to introduce some challenges and give you the option to just relax and not worry about too many things. How do you think, which difficulty setting will be your favourite? Let us know!
See you next time!
The Devs

Dear Community!
Before you develop sprawling cities on this untouched land, take a moment to look at the large open fields. Waving grass dances to the wind and a variety of trees change colours through the seasons. This may be a small detail but nature surrounding your city will be the most beautiful backdrop.



We’re aiming to create a complex palette of colours in which the cities will be the main focus. The lush plant life will bring out the best of the buildings’ colours. We’ve already talked about a wide variety of trees, so it’s time to mention the tiniest of plants. The base layer of the greenery cake is the grass. It may not seem like a lot, but it will be key to the seasons changing.



Masks in Unreal Engine allow us to place thousands of small tufts of grass all over the map. This will also allow for ease of access, so we can change and tweak colours depending on the time of year. Seasons will visually indicate the gameplay changes. Harsh winters will stop food production and increase the amount of fuel our citizens need. So observe nature to prepare for the upcoming hardships.



Let us know how you are planning to incorporate natural beauty into your cities. Will you have spaces for rabbits and ducks to relax and frolic around? Remember that including trees and green spaces is key to creating balance and making people happy.
Can’t wait to hear about your dream cities.
See you soon!
The Devs

Last month we presented a closer look at the technical side of things and today we deliver a visual delight that is the new trailer! You can see the full scale of the details created using Unreal Engine's Nanite. We're able to include the tiniest elements of the buildings and surrounding areas!

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This trailer also delivers a closer look into the lives of your citizens! Watch them walk around, work, buy food and enjoy a lovely day at the temple! They may not know it yet, but your leadership will bring the prosperity you can see in the gorgeous and blissful scenes of the video.



Agriculture mixes with industrial parts of the city as we all watch it grow and evolve in front of our eyes. Let us know which citizens or buildings or any elements of the city are your favourite! We're eagerly waiting for your comments here, on youtube or in our Discord!

This trailer is also available here on Steam, so you can check it out on our Steam Store Page!

Dear Community!
In the previous devblog we presented a new direction we decided to take with our game’s look. These improvements are the result of a few significant technological changes behind the scenes. Here are two key shifts in production that allowed us to move to a new look.



Unreal Engine 5
Right before a stable version of the new engine was released to the public, conversations regarding a switch began and the entire project was moved soon after. This allowed us to implement new tools and methods of optimization. Thanks to them we are able to improve the vast majority of the visual elements of the game including the models and lighting, without compromising framerates and overall performance. The switch to UE5 also increases the longevity of the game itself, as the updates to the engine will continue for much longer and more useful tools will be created over time.

Nanite Virtulized Geometry
One of the key reasons we considered this move beneficial was the introduction of Nanite. Our 3D artists were especially excited about this, as Nanite allows them to create high-quality models without the necessity to painstakingly double-check and limit the polygon counts in every building. This tool shortens the time needed to create a game-ready model, as we can allow every model to have more details than ever, without burning your PCs. You will spend the vast majority of your playthroughs looking at the roofs of your cities. It’s fitting that as the gameplay becomes well-rounded, so do the roofs.





Nanite helps with much more seamless transitions between LODs, especially with a high number of similar meshes in view. Your cities will have many repeating buildings to keep up with your citizens’ needs and this tool will allow them to be rendered and visible with a high level of detail without straining your computer too much.



This also means that optimization is much more straightforward, as there aren’t many obstacles which will take up time. This saved-up time can be used to improve the detailing of the models, which now can get much more love and attention.

These changes will speed up and improve the development process. We’re able to continue our work without worrying about certain aspects. The change in look and lighting will definitely help you immerse yourselves in the beautiful world of Ancient China. Hopefully, this short summary of the upgrades in the tech used behind the scenes will shed some light on the effort we put into ensuring our game’s longevity and beauty!

See you next time
the Devs

Dear Community,
For a while, we have been working on improving the game’s look and performance. This process has brought innovation in the creative process, new technical achievements and changes which will ensure the game’s longevity. We will reveal all of those over time, but let’s begin with the most noticeable difference of all: the game looks a lot better now.



There haven’t been many changes to the visual design principles, we are still going for a relatively realistic look with lush foliage and detailed buildings full of life and secrets. If anything, the decision was made to push even harder towards realism. Among details in the natural landscape, we have been working on details such as spectacular boulders and new ways of colouring the map with flowers. This world has to be rich in beauty and resources, so every player can take full advantage of everything this setting had to offer.



We have added a multitude of new buildings and enhanced the looks of the old ones. We pay special attention to the ones which will appear in large numbers in every playthrough. Upgrades in used technology allow us to add more details to the environment without sacrificing optimisation possibilities. We will discuss the technology behind some of those details before the end of the year. Everything has to be prepared for large settlements that grow dramatically every time the player reaches a milestone.



There are places on the map that look spectacular on their own, but we know you can all find new and exciting settings for your dream cities. You’re the ones shaping the landscape with sprawling settlements full of houses and specialised buildings. These beating hearts of the land will be your pride and joy for entire playthroughs.



Sometimes the serenity of certain places is surprising even for us. Large forests with many varieties of trees and plants can be populated with small centres of worship. Or lonely bridges can become decorative aspects of your vision for the city. These small details in what you can do with production buildings or decorative props have been some of the most exciting elements of testing.



We’re already excited to see your creations. Screenshots in this devblog were provided by multiple members of the team, who have built beautiful cities while testing new features and the game’s economy. Everyone was over the moon when all changes and upgrades finally fell into place like puzzle pieces and revealed the bigger picture of this game’s true potential and beauty. There still is a lot to be done, but we hope that a move in this direction will show the care and love everyone pours into this project.
Can’t wait for your feedback! You can reach us on our social media or join our discord.

See you next time!
The Devs