Ratopia News

I really quite like how simple a title Ratopia has. It's a 2D strategic survival city builder, where you have to build a nice place for rats to live. Ratopia! It gets straight to the heart of it, and it just received its 1.0 release today after an early access period of 18 months. The game has had a lengthy development time too, starting way back in 2020, and in a Steam post discussing the 1.0 release, developers Cassel Games left a nice and lengthy list covering everything that's been added across its early access release.

Read more

Rimworld with rats. It's a simple concept, yet a tremendously appealing one. Cute colony sim Ratopia has just left early access after 18 months, and developer Cassel Games has a special Steam sale to celebrate. Boasting an impressive 88% user rating, its adorable art style and clean UI gives its detailed social simulation and intricate systems an immediately eye-catching look, and 1.0 brings a whole swarm of upgrades to the table.

Read the rest of the story...

RELATED LINKS:

Punishing ARPG No Rest for the Wicked bounces back with brutal Breach update

The best indie games on PC 2025

Clair Obscur Expedition 33 director recommends another new RPG you should try

Some parts may still need correction. If you find anything that feels unnatural or seems like a mistranslation, please report it via Discord! We’ll fix it as quickly as possible.

- Use the perk system to grant various effects to your leader!
- Leader Perk Points are gained as Prosperity increases and can be activated through the Admin function.
Added related effects to some Milestones due to the addition of the Leader Perk system.

- You can access the information through the menu or the Admin function.
- Information is registered when the leader attacks enemies, hunts animals, or gathers plants.

- A feature has been added to select the upper biome composition in the settlement settings.
- The lock on the Rainfall adjustment function has been removed.

- The variety of biomes appearing on the map has been expanded, and existing biome terrain has been revised to appear more natural.
- Tile and object placement in battle maps during invasions by other nations has also been adjusted to appear more natural.

- Change season order
- Enable/disable crime
- Set types of invading enemies
- Enable/disable underground tunnel generation by enemies
- Configure mid- and lower-level biome composition

- Gold Block
- Gold Wallpaper
- Straw Roof
- Stone Roof
- Umbran Throne
- Purgon Throne
- Iron Plate Wallpaper
- Glass Wallpaper
- Ash Wallpaper
- Slime Wallpaper
- Bone Wallpaper
- Thorn Log Wallpaper
- Jungle Log Wallpaper
- Frame of Proof
　　- A frame where you can display your achieved achievements.
- Heater
　　- A structure that consumes electricity and allows plants to grow even in winter.

- You can change hotkeys in “Settings” → “Controls.”

- Earn new starting costumes and flag emblems as achievement rewards!

- If you do not wish to watch it, you can disable the intro in “Settings.”

- Royal Bed HP recovery: 5 → 6
- Golden Beetle Bed HP recovery: 7 → 8

- Fish Food effect: 32 → 28
- Anglerfish Food effect: 40 → 35
- Grilled Fish price: 40 → 32

- Armadillo price: 60 → 40

- Product amount: 8 → 6
- Workload: 800 → 600

- Electric Spikes damage: 6 → 4
- Reforging Stage 1 Electric Spikes damage: 2 → 1
- Reforging Stage 2 Electric Spikes damage: 6 → 3

Self-destruct damage: 30 → 45

Reappearance cooldown: 24 days → 48 days

Although we slightly deviated from our original idea of simply adding upgraded versions of existing structures, we introduced 35 new Electricity structures that give a real sense of technological advancement. To indirectly boost productivity, we implemented Ratrons and Surveillance Cameras as new supporting features.

We initially planned to add decorative objects suited to each Biome—like rocks and fallen trees—but due to limitations in how decorations are processed and space-related issues, we ended up only adding Biome ladders to improve movement convenience. Additionally, we made adjustments to ensure that Biomes are generated more naturally.

We did implement a user workshop, but due to our lack of experience, the structure seems to have ended up being inconvenient for modders. We also needed to improve aspects like the editor and testing environment, but unfortunately, we weren’t able to give them enough attention. This experience taught us that expanding a game’s content and lifespan through a workshop requires much deeper preparation.

Dozens of new character costumes were added, which can be changed via the starting settings and the Royal Wardrobe structure. Each time we added more, we kept thinking, “It’d be great to add just a little more here,” and the desire to expand kept growing. However, due to image optimization issues, we weren’t able to continue adding more as aggressively as we wanted.

Alongside the addition of 9 new Shrines, we also implemented 9 new skills that can be used by the player. I still remember the challenges we faced when trying to describe the effects of each skill, as well as creating their visual and audio effects. In addition to Shrine skills, some aspects of the Leader Perk system currently in development are also expected to offer a similar experience to player skills.

We added two minigames: a Ratron assembly minigame at the Ratron Assembly Plant, and a cooking minigame in the Royal Kitchen. While we had the desire to add even more minigames like fishing or a card game, they weren’t core gameplay elements—so they ended up lower in development priority and didn’t make it in.

We added the King’s Chamber, a boss dungeon located in the desert biome, but unfortunately, its usage rate was extremely low. It was a task that required a large amount of time and effort, but its development efficiency turned out to be quite poor. Since bosses are late-game content and not core gameplay elements—similar to minigames—we ultimately decided to prioritize work that was more central to the core experience.

We added the Volcanic Biome to the previously empty bottom of the map and placed resources there that can be used to produce Electricity structures and advanced unit types. There were also several technical experiments—like adding lava tiles that damage rats, and introducing unique monsters. In addition, we added objects that help players respond to city crises or enhance their equipment.

Starting from Prosperity level 7, we added a new crisis where Lizards invade in the later stages of the game. Unlike previous invasions, these enemies expand their own territory and steal resources covertly, encouraging the player to take the offensive and attack the Lizards’ outposts. Adding decorative structures for their bases and designing 8 different types of Lizards turned out to be a much larger task than we had initially expected.

We considered implementing a system where prices would fluctuate based on the money supply, as well as supply and demand. However, we ultimately decided not to include it.
Since supply and demand are entirely controlled by the player, and the economy is primarily domestic, along with the fact that currency is produced using limited, tangible resources like copper and gold, we felt that such a system wouldn’t align with the game’s direction or the real-world principles of inflation. We briefly considered adding inflation mechanics in a limited way for international trade scenarios—but the current trade system is already quite complex and cumbersome as it is.

Originally, Exploration was a simple system where players paid a cost and waited for it to finish. We enhanced it by allowing players to send Ratizens to acquire resources, and we also added a quick exploration option for convenience. As for Diplomacy, we added various features such as city-state-specific events, relationship changes based on diplomatic actions, and systems for territory control and conquest.

At first, we considered removing structures like the Rabbit Pasture and Apiary, which were only usable for certain animals, and planned to add new structures with a fresh system that would allow raising all animals and collecting resources from them.
However, because this would have required a large-scale system overhaul—and the end result (getting resources from animals) remained the same—it was ultimately deprioritized. Currently, we’ve developed a similar concept where animals grow by interacting with plant objects, and players can summon animals through the Animal Portal.

As new content was added to the game, we continued to add related events alongside it.
Around 150 new events were added during the Early Access period. At one point, we wanted to rework the event presentation to make it more engaging through dialogue-style storytelling. However, due to the complexity of modifying existing event scripts and handling all the exceptions involved, we ultimately weren’t able to implement that change.

Campaign Mode was something we intended to begin developing once the game’s content had stabilized to a certain degree. However, because we were constantly adding new content each month, we never got the chance to even begin. As the game’s overall volume continued to grow, we decided to prioritize enhancing the continuity between existing events, aiming to create a similar feel to a campaign—rather than building an entirely new Campaign Mode from scratch.

We added seasonal loading screens and festival events as part of the season system. Currently, we’re working on a natural disaster feature where pest outbreaks occur during autumn. In the beginning, we also had ideas like adjusting plant and animal growth rates, as well as varying day and night lengths depending on the season. However, we decided to scrap those features because it would be too difficult to clearly communicate the effects to players.

Thanks to user feedback, several languages—including English, Chinese, and Russian—were revised and improved. We also newly added Ukrainian, Brazilian Portuguese, and Spanish. Currently, we're in the process of adding Thai and Vietnamese as well. We sincerely thank everyone who contributed to improving the translations and offered their support.

We’ve continuously worked to improve quality of life features by closely monitoring user feedback.
Basic UI enhancements such as displaying current resource amounts and showing tooltips on mouse hover were implemented. We also added functional improvements like time controls, auto-deployment, drone commands, Ratizen call buttons, quick travel, and shared Storage. Even after the official release, we plan to keep gathering suggestions from new players to continue improving convenience features.

We enhanced the tutorial and in-game help systems, added instructional images for various features, and introduced notification markers for newly added content. Currently, we’re also working on an in-game encyclopedia that provides information on animals, plants, and enemies.

We are currently experimenting with a feature that allows players to change the starting Biome. However, since this requires extensive testing and review, it’s uncertain whether it will be ready before the official release. This feature is mainly intended for returning players and those seeking higher difficulty, but we’re concerned about cases where city development could become nearly impossible in the early stages,
or that beginners might enable the option by mistake and suffer setbacks because of it.

During Early Access, we worked on an Xbox port, and we plan to revisit it again after the official release. Once the full version is stable, we’re also planning to attempt porting the game to PlayStation and Nintendo Switch.