Synergy News

Hello everyone!

Here's a second patch, this time fixing a lot more than the previous one. We keep on chasing those nasty bugs!

I'm also thanking you all for taking part of this ; you've really helped us a lot with all of your reports, either on Steam forums, to our support mail ( [email protected] , should you need it!) or on the Discord

This really allows us to gain precious time on fixing the bugs, and we're super grateful about this.

Here's a list of what's changed!

[h2]Hotfix #2 - 23/05/2024[/h2]

• Fixed a blocking bug that could occur when deselecting the Field Laboratory
  
• Fixed a bug with keyboard camera movements in the Research tree
  
• Fixed a bug that prevented the achievement linked to obtaining Tablets from updating
  
• Harbor district is now asking for WaterPump as main building and Pontoon has been made optional. Its score has been ajdusted.
  
• Fixed a bug preventing Citizens to go to the Infirmary in some situations
  
• Order prioritisation (Harvesting, Analysis...) is now correctly saved
  
• The option to disable autosave should now work correctly
  
• The Plant Nursery can now be used to plant a new plant on top of the small decorative props
  
• The game's logo has now been localised for the Japanese, Chinese and Korean versions
  
• Added the missing resolution to the JourneysNeverTaken event. The event reward is now correctly obtained
  
• Objectives requiring you to explore a zone should no longer take the starting zone into account
  
• Added the Early Access info modal popup to the main menu
  
• Unused researches and narrative researches are now invisible in free modes
  
• Buildings and plants duplicates are displayed only once in district owner module view
  
• (text consistency) Use correct text tags and terms around protections resource mentioned in researches
  
• Adjust a brambles analysis info (it was not mentioning the spread of the plant)
  
• Fixed various bugs in the display of the panel and tooltip of production buildings operating without citizens (eg. the Well)
  
• Added various missing translations
  
• Corrected various errors in the translation of certain texts
  
• Hatted Tree : added depth map
  
• Embassy: added depth maps and updated pathfinding for citizens walking through the building
  
• Added a security check on a potentially destroyed object that the game was trying to access (Exploration pins)
  

Hello everyone!

This is a quick hotfix about korean language, since there was a blocker during the tutorial that would happen very often.
More updates to come, we're namely cooking one that should be out tomorrow or on friday!

Thanks a lot to everyone!
-Thomas

[h2]Hotfix #1 - 22/05/2024[/h2]

• Fixing an issue in korean language that would lead to a blocker when reaching a certain textbox
  

Hi everyone,

The time has finally come -- Synergy is now available in early access!
We even have a nice Supporter Pack for you all that will be updated for the full release.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

We would like to thank each and every one of you for sharing our game, wishlisting it, giving us feedback, and of course, to those who will buy the game for its early access launch or later.

Synergy is such a project close to our hearts that this early access launch is a huge milestone for us.
We hope you will enjoy it as much as we have had fun working on it!

During early access, we plan to add new content and improve existing features (more news to come about this). More than ever, we will need your feedback to make the best game possible.
So if you haven't joined our Discord server yet, feel free to do so! We will be glad to count on you there.

And last, if you like the game, please consider leaving a positive review. Besides warming our hearts, it will help us a lot to increase Synergy's visibility! 🙇‍♀️

Once again, thank you so much, and most of all, have fun in this strange and hostile world!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1989070/Synergy/

https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/41562/Synergy__Supporter_Edition/

After years of hard work, we are thrilled to officially announce that Synergy will be released in early access on May 21st!

Watch the release date trailer on YouTube:

[previewyoutube]https://youtu.be/sF9s3N9qUmw[/previewyoutube]

We can't wait for you to experience this early access version and collect your feedback.

To tide you over, here's our latest devlog about how the developers took inspiration from the Moebius style to create Synergy.

[hr][/hr]



The community has spoken! Your questions were numerous, and we've decided to dedicate this devlog to the one that kept coming back: how did you manage to capture the style of Moebius in a video game? And what were the challenges associated with that? Okay, okay, that's two questions, I see you coming! Vito Salamone - Lead Artist is here to answer you today.



The main motivation was to faithfully recreate the unique characteristics of traditional comic books. Therefore, it was only natural to employ a technique that closely resembled it to capture its essence as much as possible.

Thus, all the game assets were created in 2D using a graphics tablet. Extensive research was conducted beforehand to achieve a result that best encapsulates the textured, organic aspects, as well as the roughness of a medium's grain.



This choice was also motivated by the available production resources, which were mainly oriented towards 2D.



Regarding the style itself, it was important to preserve the dreamlike and light-hearted imprint characteristic of Moebius' style.

From a technical standpoint, this life is symbolized by a rough, trembling, and textured line that draws itself in soft and nonlinear curves. All of this is complemented by debris of lines reminiscent of organic movement and physical support.



In the context of a city builder where many elements are displayed on the screen, the challenge is to make everything readable and coherent for the player. It's important to strike a good balance between a visually consistent and immersive environment to maintain visual enjoyment while also ensuring maximum accessibility and ease of understanding.



To clearly distinguish between different types of objects, color-coding was implemented. Given the visual style's flexibility, which allows for a wide range of colors, it was relatively straightforward to opt for color codes that allow players to quickly identify the family of objects to which a building belongs: yellow for industrial, green for cultural buildings, purple for healthcare and prevention structures, etc.



Building upon this idea, it was important for players to also find enjoyment in constructing a beautiful city. Beyond survival objectives, players have the opportunity to arrange their city as they see fit. This includes creating cities and villages with multiple intertwining colors or more orderly arrangements, breathing life into the overall environment.



Once the elements were integrated, the challenge shifted to their animation. Bringing all these elements to life can quickly become time and resource-intensive. Therefore, puppet animation was quickly favored—a technique that involves cutting out each character and building element to animate them piece by piece. This allowed for a wide range of movements while remaining consistent with the initial vision and maintaining credibility in terms of production reality.



In conclusion, translating this visual style into a video game required a lot of observation and preparation. The guiding principle was to achieve a result that is as visually appealing on the screen as it is enjoyable to explore.

-Vito Salamone Lead artist

We hope you enjoyed this 7th Devlog! Thank you so much for your support and see you soon for the next one!

Wishlist now and get notified for launch:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1989070/Synergy/

Synergy is a city-building game in which humanity must survive in a strange and hostile world. Build a city while respecting the ecosystem. Explore and analyze your environment. Provide for the needs of your citizens.

[h3]Watch our pre-recorded stream featuring some gameplay of Synergy, and make sure to try out our first public demo![/h3]

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

[h3]Wishlist now:[/h3]

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1989070/Synergy/

For any feedback or suggestions, feel free to join our Discord server. ♥