Folklands News

Welcome to another devlog, a week late this time - but for good reason! The last month we have been working harder than ever on getting the new demo ready in time for the upcoming Steam Next Fest.

The current demo has been out for several months now, and has seen several updates. The last two months, however, we have only pushed out important fixes as we have been working on the updated demo. The changes are too massive to list them all here, but we'll list the most notable highlights, such as a major graphical update with a completely redesigned landscape and environment (including wildlife), tons of new features, building animations, city management options, graphs and statistics, and of course bugfixes. If you want to learn more, read on!

[h2]Graphical update[/h2]
The existing demo is a good teaser for the art direction we're aiming for, but it has always been partially finished with lots of placeholder art. In the updated demo, we have finished the new art style for the landscape and environment, bringing the world of Folklands to life in a way you've never seen before!

In addition to new animals roaming around the landscape, you will also see trees and reeds swaying in the wind, fields rustle was villagers walk through them, and tons of other small details to give you a sense of a living world!


[h2]Totally redesigned quests and tips system[/h2]
Many players have told us that while they understand the basics of the game, it would be nice to have a helping hand to get you going, as well as tell you when things are not working as they should. In the updated demo, we've focused a lot on improving this. One of these improvements is a completely new "Tips" system that will give you helpful tips as you play.


In addition to this, buildings will give you a lot more information on how they are doing, in addition to helpful tips on how to improve things such as production efficiency:


Service buildings such as the Tax collector's office, the Builder's hut and the Fire station have all received updates with helpful graphs and numbers telling you how the service is performing. The screenshot below is from an early version of this:


Villagers will now also tell you when they are experiencing problems, such as going hungry, having nowhere to live, missing their work tool, and a bunch more, which lets you address issues instead of wondering why your settlement is grinding to a halt!

[h2]New buildings and features[/h2]
No update would be complete without new buildings or functionality!

[h3]Exploration towers[/h3]

In the current demo, you were able to expand your settlement by building outposts. These buildings have now been renamed to "Exploration towers", where Explorers can work to gradually expand your settlement borders. These exploration towers are also used to discover mineral deposits - in the full game.

[h3]Bridges[/h3]
Were you blocked by the water in the demo - well, no more! Walk over lakes and rivers using the new bridges. In the full game you will also be able to upgrade to better looking bridges as your city grows!


[h3]Improved farming[/h3]
Farming has also seen a huge graphical updates with dynamic fields growing around your farms


The list is simply too long to mention here, and there are still a couple of surprises hidden in the updated demo. We hope you enjoy playing it as much as we enjoy making it. Expect the updated demo to be released sometime next week!

Enjoy this non-exhaustive changelog mentioning some of the thing we didn't already mention:

• Settlement name + badge / crest
  
• New in-game music
  
• Direction-aware sounds
  
• Onboarding tips
  
• Villager quests
  
• Statistics (tax, maintenance, fire)
  
• Player trading
  
• Tier information
  
• Pinnable resources and improved resource information
  
• Clear stones and trees in specific areas
  
• New "Socializing" need
  
• New Pub building with a new Beer resource
  
• New Brewery production building
  
• Villager warnings tab
  
• Villager feedback (icons when unhappy, hungry, homeless, etc)
  
• Updated animations when building
  
• Build order prioritization
  
• Variable villager walking speed depending on road stats
  
• Folks gather around burning buildings
  
• New and improved tooltips with keyboard shortcuts
  

Greetings, fellow folks and gamers. It´s a new month and time for a new devlog with an update on what we have been working on the last month!

But first a quick backstory:

Folklands is made by our indie studio named Bromantic Games. Our little studio consists of three brothers from the scenic landscape of Norway. Our game is not just a nod to our shared heritage; it's a reflection and a remake of the classics that shaped our gaming childhood - like Settlers, Caesar, Age of Empires, and Transport Tycoon. It's a journey into nostalgia, inspired by the games we grew up playing.

Folklands emerged as a tribute to the classics. It's more than just a game; it's a labor of love that reflects our shared memories, cultural influences, and a deep bond as brothers.


Folklands is created to be played both single- and multiplayer, where we will try and give you a full game experience whether you choose to play on your own or with someone you know. This means that the multiplayer aspect of the game is not just an additional feature; it's an essential part of the experience.



Playing together has always brought us closer as brothers and having multiplayer in Folklands provides an avenue to enjoy the game not just with each other but with old friends as well. From very early in the development cycle we have been making the game with both multiplayer and singleplayer in mind, making sure it is fun and engaging to play in both modes.

That's why features like being able to invite a friend into your existing singleplayer game makes sense to us - sometimes you'll be playing on your own and a friend or brother comes online and you just want to share the game experience together. Having different schedules means being able to easily hop in or out of games, and resume them when you want is crucial.

This month we have been hard at work integrating the mulitplayer feature of Folklands with the Steam networking service.


Folklands never has - and never will - focus on war, conflict or conquest, but it's made to be relaxing and challenging while you're building the medieval settlement of your dreams. We're including ways to interact with players, whether it's racing for territory domination, building exchanges or trading. The game will also include settings for difficulty and ways to compete for certain areas of the map, but all in the spirit of relaxing engagement.

We look forward to show you more of the multiplayer gameplay and how this all works together in a upcoming streaming video.

A new month, a new devlog as usual. The new demo has been playing smoothly and mostly stable. We´ve recieved a lot of love and feedback on the new demo so far and we have patched some minor and some bigger issues for a better experience.

This month we've also finalized the new store artwork and interface details!



[h2]Next Tiers[/h2]
The demo contains 90% of the first 3 planned tiers, but the full version of the game has many more tiers of progression planned. Right now we are working on completing the demo tiers at the same time as we implement the next tiers - sowing it all together to make them fun, relaxing and challenging all at the same time.

If you want to see what we're working on, there is an official wiki with the progression system explained in more detail, here: https://folklands.fandom.com/wiki/Progression

Two of the features that have been essential to get right are the trading system and the way your settlement population grows - how new people arrive to your settlement and advance through the tiers.

[h2]Trading[/h2]
Since the demo does not unlock mining or producing your own tools, we wanted you to be able to continue playing and building your settlement in the demo if you feel like it. That's why one of the recent demo updates introduced the first preview of the trading system. This gives you a sneak peek into the surrounding Folklands kingdoms, as well as a little look at how trading and interactions will work. For now, it lets you get hold of tools to expand and grow your settlement with the features that are available in the demo. We've already seen some impressive settlements, and can't wait to see what you're all building!

[h2]Rewritten folk arrival and progression[/h2]
Until very recently, our solution to settlement growth was to spawn new folks when you built a house. This is true to the mechanics of some of the games that inspired Folklands (think Settlers and Anno), but play testing and streams have shown us that for Folklands, this doesn't really work well. So, we've updated the demo with a new folk arrival system, where folks will regularly immigrate to your settlement as long as you keep your existing population happy, and have enough free housing. This also means that if people start becoming unhappy because you deny them berries and water, they will actually start to leave!



[h2]Gameplay improvements[/h2]
The last thing we want to highlight are some gameplay improvements we're working on. Many of the game buildings provide service with coverage areas, so one of the improvements coming to the demo is an adjusted visualization of service coverage when building and selecting service buildings such as tax offices, builder's huts and fire stations.

In addition to this, placing roads have been improved by adding entrance markers when you build roads or buildings - so you can see where and if your buildings are connected to your road network. This also outlines the building footprints, so you can see why you can't build a road straight through the backyard of Günthers house.



The updates are coming soon to the demo, as we continue working towards the Early Access release. Let us know what you think in the comments or forums!

A new month means a new devlog! This last month we have been compiling the results from a play test involving over 500 players, gathering feedback on which systems work, and which areas to focus on. All of this - in addition to the to the great feedback you're giving us - will go into the updated demo, laying the foundation for the early access release later.

[h2]Building progress renders[/h2]
You've told us that you didn't like the build animations as much as we thought. This month we've worked hard on improving this. All buildings now have progress renders when being built, making the building process a more visual enjoyable experience.



[h2]New biomes and graphical improvement[/h2]
A functionality that's not part of the demo, but will be important in the full game, is being able to survey the map for resources and precious minerals - but they will not all be found in the same location. This month we improved the rock biomes, and added snowy landscape as part of the preparation for this later functionality. The main terrain has also gotten a big facelift with plants, grass and more adding to the variety of the world.



[h2]New map generator [/h2]
Building on the new biomes and improved terrain, the new start menu now lets you tweak and generate the random map each time you start a new game.



[h2]New settlement overview[/h2]
A recurring theme in the feedback we've gotten is the lack of information being delivered to the player about what happens around the settlement, and how it impacts the way the settlement functions. This month we added a brand new settlement overview window, which is exactly what you need to manage your town.



[h2]Notifications when things need your attention[/h2]
A flashy overview window won't help you much if your mind is focused on building new buildings while half of your settlement is on fire. Our new notifications system will alert you when things go bad or if anything needs your attention.

[h2]New quests & Event system[/h2]
The game now has a new quests and event system which does a better job at giving you more information on how to improve and grow your settlement. Visual cues have also been added to the interface to guide you to where you need to click. This new quest system is the starting point for the random event and quest functionality that will be added later.



[h2]Huffs and puffs[/h2]
The settlement is starting to come alive with more animations being added as your folks carry out their activities.

All this and a ton more has been added to the new demo, which you can try out already now!

Until next time!

Hey there, everyone! A long devlog this month, since so many things have been happening. Let's get rolling!

First of all: This last month, we landed a deal with a fantastic publisher, Tribal-Storm, who also publishes two other upcoming indie titles! Check them out here:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1717090/Into_the_Necrovale/
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2261350/Cozy_Keep/

Ok, moving on to what else we did since the previous update! This last month, we had several round of playtesting done for the current demo build. Lots of players played the game, gave feedback - told us what they liked and didn't like, and what they want more of. We always listen to all player feedback, so this was super exciting!



We always wanted to have the look and feel of the older games of which we draw our inspiration from. One of the decisions we made early on was to adapt a UI that reminded us of these old games (think Settlers 2/3/4, Caesar, etc.). Listening to player feedback, however, we realize that this kind of interface hasn't aged well, and doesn't scale with the features we wanted to build. Taking on board player feedback, we have completely redone the entire UI: menus, buttons, windows, popups and much more.
At the same time, we added many requested features and improvements requested by players, trying to make it a much more pleasant experience. It still needs some more finishing touches, but here is a sneak preview of the UI for the Steam next fest demo update:
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Graphical updates:
Having a publisher, means we can focus more on some much needed graphical updates. New in-game graphics for animations have already been added, and next on the list is a brand new tile set (landscape). Although we can’t show it yet, we're confident that it will be ready in time for the upcoming Steam Next Fest. This lets us add new biomes, new trees, new game mechanics and a lot more!

Other things we're looking forward to showing you are updated roads, bridges, gardens and many many other adjustments based on much feedback from the players.


We've made major improvements to the roads and pathfinding to make it a smoother gameplay experience. Several buildings now have animations to show you that they're doing stuff, and we added animations for more character actions.

There is much yet to be done before the game is ready for Early Access, but this is all shaping up to be an awesome demo update for the upcoming Next Fest!

What features would you like to see added to the game? Tell us about it in the comments!