Idle Colony News

This small patch fixes minor issues that have been frequently reported.
Thanks for your feedback!

• Auto-Flowering is no longer automatically set to 1 when the Flower Spawn Rate is high enough to get the combo all the time. Because most of you got confused and thought it was a bug. You'll have to manually set the auto-flowering threshold to 1 whenever it is appropriate for you.
  
• Saplings will no longer spawn within an obstacle tile.
  
• "Click again to refund" will no longer appear in the main menu.
  
• "Tickle me" has been replaced by an animation to better explain how to bloom the flower. Some of you thought it was a bug.
  
• Fixed a bug where clicking Exit & Save would actually not save the run and rely on the auto-save instead.
  
• Improved the Prism's description to better explain the build conditions.
  
• Improved the Flowered Tree's description to be less confusing.
  

[h3]Dear friends,[/h3]

What an amazing ride 2024 has been. I hope you had a great year.
I started Idle Colony in February, and I couldn't imagine that 10 months later, it would be the successful release it is today.
And it all started as a questionable game jam game:
https://f417h.itch.io/lovecolony
(Yes it was a completly different game)

[h2]My journey[/h2]

I want to thank you for your renewed support all over the year. Idle Colony would definitely not be the game it is today without your enthusiasm and encouragements. In fact, I originally planned the game to be nothing more than the first demo you maybe played (back when the game was all gray).
I expected to push the game on Steam, maybe sell a hundred copies, then find a "real job" lol.

But now, I'm most likely going to be able to keep doing what I like: making video games. I can't tell how great it feels, after 7 years of learning, trying, and failing multiple times, now finally making something that sounds valuable in the eyes of others.

[h2]The game[/h2]

I will keep listening to your feedback and making QOL improvements, bug fixes, and polish.
If the game does well, it is possible that I'll invest in some translation later in 2025. (I heard you, Chinese people!)
Gameplay-wise, I don't want to set any expectations, and I am at a point where I need a little break. So I don't know at the moment of today if I will keep adding content to the game.

You will be able to keep your progress if you played the last version of the demo (with the building). If you have any issues, read these instructions.
Also, feel welcome to chat about the game in our community Discord. There's a lot a friendly people there who might answer your questions if I'm not connected.

[h2]Special thanks[/h2]

Thanks to the dedicated beta-tester, who did an amazing job at helping me fine tune the gameplay, finding bugs, and correcting typos.

Thanks to myco, the creator of (the) Gnorp Apologue, for inspiring Idle Colony.
Go play his game if you haven't already!

Thanks to all the YouTubers who found an interest early on and who helped discover the game.
I recommend you check their channels to discover amazing new games every day:

@LetsTryGG @orbitalpotato @RealCivilEngineerGaming @Sifd @DanFieldGaming @wanderbots @DangerouslyFunny @InternDotGif @Blitz @ImCade @AngoryTom

Click any link above and give them a thumbs up!

I hope you have a great time,
don't forget to hydrate and take walks sometimes :).

Dear friends,

We're getting closer and closer to the release date. I'm happy to announce that I will be shipping in time.
I'd like to present you a new trailer for the game, (the release date is at the end of it):

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

You can now have access to a brand new demo! It is now an accurate preview of the full version. If you like the demo, you'll love the game.
Also you can now leave a Steam review for the demo, which have it's very own Steam page. I encourage you to do so :).

For the price, it's very simple, you've been more than 2000 to give me your feedback from the previous demo, and you told me how much you want to pay:



The average of all of your answers is 6.23 USD, which I rounded up to 5.99 USD.
The price will be different depending on your country.

I'm very excited to know how you feel about all this.
I'll see you on the forums and the Discord!

Dear friends.

Because images are better than words, I'm happy to share with you this very short video about everything I've been working on during the last month.
NOW WITH A GOOD MICROPHONE OMGGG
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
Here's the points we go across during this 2min. devlog:

• Automation of the wood
  
• New sources of income multiplier
  
• New special currency for unique upgrades
  
• New types of colonists
  
• Special buildings interacting with colonists
  
• Bees!
  
• Meta-score
  

As always, I'd be very happy to know what you think about all that.

Dear friends,

I'm making good progress on the development.
I've been lucky enough to find a place to live for the summer and I'm working full time on Idle Colony.
I've got a strong deadline for releasing the game this year and I have a solid idea of what all the features will be. (It's all written down in my GDD)
It is now all about production and it feels good to have a precise plan when going forward.

I wanted to share with you the progress made over the last couple of weeks so you have the opportunity to tell me what you think.
I thought the best way to do so was through a concise video, so here's my first Idle Colony devlog:
(It's only 2 min long!)

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
Yes you can roast me about my mic... Next time I'll have access to my usual recording gear.

Long story short here's the main points I've been working on:

-Rework of the fertilizing feature and it's automation, there's now a new type of colonists: the farmers.
-Introduction of the buildings: they help categorize the upgrades and sweeten the progression curve.
-Optional pathfinding optimization to make the game playable on a wider range of machines.
-Ton of various QOL including the transparency when drawing path
-A brand new tutorial that's non-blocking, skippable, more precise, and more polished.
-A new prestige animation.
-Last but not least, keys rebinding, wow!



Next time we'll talk about the stuff I'm the most excited about: the full rework of the technology tree and all the features that comes with it.