2025 Year In Review

[p]Hi Everyone, [/p][p][/p][p]The 2025 Steam Awards have begun! Nominations are open, and I’m hoping you’ll support Clanfolk by nominating it in the Labor of Love category.  [/p][p][/p][p]Clanfolk is now in year 8 of development, and year 4 on Steam, since Next Fest way back in October 2021. [/p][p][/p][p]Developing Clanfolk has been a once in a lifetime opportunity, and I am so thankful for all of your patience and support while I go on my side quests delving into obscure historical technologies. My distractions by new shiny things do sometimes take longer than expected, but I also think it would be worse to cut corners. In the end, Clanfolk deserves to be the best game that it can be. [/p][p][/p][p]I do still love working on Clanfolk every day, even after all this time. I just want to keep expanding this little world to let the Clanfolk lead more meaningful lives. [/p][p][/p][h2]2025 in Review[/h2][hr][/hr][p]In 2025, I released 2 major updates and made good progress on the next two major updates as well. Below is a brief look at what each update has brought to the game, but follow the links for even more detail on the content of each update. If you haven't read these patch notes in the past, you'll find a ton of additional info on there. [/p][p][/p][h3]Update 16: Nature's Wrath[/h3][p]This update added new environmental challenges for players to contend with:
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• [p]Flooding: Some areas of the map will flood, providing increased fertility at increased risk
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• [p]Upgraded Lightning: New mechanics for what structures will attract lightning and how it interacts with Flammable Roofs
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• [p]Caves and Rocky Overhangs: Sheltered areas that appear in the mountains and provide cover
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[p]It also introduced new difficulty modes, including the "Nature's Wrath" mode, where nature is out to get you and mistakes could prove deadly. In this mode, players may find themselves contending with heavy rain/snow, flooding, storms, lightning, colder winters, harsher winds, and even higher flammability. [/p]

• [p] In addition to making nature a hazardous force, Update 16 also added:
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• [p] Multiple other difficulty modes
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• [p] New objects and items (such as dried berries or customizable pet tombs)
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• [p] World-based saving
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• [p] Smarter cats and rats
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[p]Check out the full changelog for Update 16 for a more in-depth look at everything it brought to Clanfolk.
[dynamiclink][/dynamiclink][/p][h3]Update 17: World Map and Expeditions[/h3][p]This update was the biggest change to Clanfolk so far and allows Clans to develop over many more game years. [/p]

• [p]World Map: A new map in the Planning Table where players can plan Expeditions
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• [p]Expeditions: A mechanic that allows players to explore new territories by spending time and rations
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• [p]70 Historically Researched Crafting Stations/items: A whole new game flow related to technology
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[p] The World Map added 500+ new Hexagonal Territories to explore, with unique Exploration events sometimes triggered upon arrival. [/p][p][/p][p]In future updates, the Expeditions mechanic will be further improved, so players can do things like bring additional members or navigate sets of choices upon the arrival of their Expedition. [/p][p][/p][p]Update 17 also added an entirely new flow to the Crafting System, making it even more historically accurate and better differentiated between the different phases of tech. It significantly improved the general pacing of unlocks, especially in the early game. [/p][p][/p][p]If you visit the full update notes for Update 17, you can see a full breakdown of the various tech phases and how you can learn more advanced crafting processes via Expeditions.
[dynamiclink][/dynamiclink][/p][h2]Major Progress Updates[/h2][hr][/hr][p]In addition to the two updates above, here is also some information about what I have been working with for Update 18, and Update 19, namely, secondary settlements and beekeeping.[/p][p] [/p][h3]Secondary Settlements[/h3][p]The Secondary Settlement System extends gameplay by allowing your Clanfolk to create new Homesteads on the same world map, so they can continue the family story while unlocking new Biomes, Tech, and Events. This system is scheduled for release in Update 19, but parts of it will also be available for testing in Update 18, which is coming soon.

There's a lot of good info in the Secondary Settlement Progress Update blog about what is complete already and where this system will be headed.
[dynamiclink][/dynamiclink][/p][h3]Beekeeping[/h3][p]Beekeeping is the result of a deep dive into historical beekeeping methods. What was originally meant to be a quick addition turned into an 8 week bee fest to deliver a fully authentic medieval beekeeping experience. It is an in-depth beekeeping simulation that lets you extract honey from wild hives or build domestic hives that will increase crop yield and produce honey for further processing. This will be the central feature of Update 18, and I plan to release it to the Testing Branch very soon. The whole Beekeeping system is very detailed, so if you haven't had the chance to give this progress update a read, you should check it out. It's a really good example of those side quests I mentioned at the start of this post. :) [dynamiclink][/dynamiclink][/p][h2]The Work Continues[/h2][hr][/hr][p]Thanks again for all your support with your ideas and kind words. I love seeing how Clanfolk has been developing its unique personality based on player feedback. Often times it feels like the Clanfolk is taking on a life of its own now, and that is in major part due to this community.

I hope you will consider clicking the "Nominate" button at the top of this post for the Labor of Love award!

Now, I am going to get back to work on those Bees.


Andrew Hume (Blorf)
MinMax Games Ltd.[/p]