Idle Colony News

This is a small patch about important issues that I couldn't leave pending until the next update.

• Fixed the crash when resizing the upgrade window.
  This is a temporary solution as this makes the scrolling area move the tabs with the content.
  
  
• Also, I reduced the clicking rate needed when unlocking the ClickClick tech. As I realized that it can be easy to hurt yourself without even realizing by clicking rapidly for extended period of time.
  

Hey folks,

Come have chat today and ask me anything you'd like to know about Idle Colony and it's development. While answering your questions, I'll be making a goofy attempt at speedrunning the game.

See you at 9pm CEST (12pm PST)

I'm adressing some of the issues you have been reporting to me:

[h3]Quality of life / UX[/h3]

• Tech tree open after prestige
  
• Tutorial font size increased
  
• Some popup font size increased
  
• WIP popup no longer in front of main menu
  
• Feedback request happens only after coming back twice from a run
  

[h3]Gameplay[/h3]

• Poop treshold to level up a tree slightly changed:
  BEFORE: 2 - 16 - 128 - 1,024 - 8,192‬
  NOW: 5 - 30 - 180 - 1080 - 6,480
  This should slighlty improve the feeling of progression by reducing the massive snowball early game
  but also making late game less daunting.
  
• Increased max manual click power multiplier from x3 to x4.
  

Don't hesitate to give me your thoughts about the changes !

Dear friends,

After one month of intense work, I'm so glad to share with you this huge milestone.
The Idle Colony Demo is now live, and will remain playable for free until the game is released!
It contains approximately 50% of the features I want in the final game.

Since the playtest in May, I've been iterating based on your feedback, and I will continue to do so going forward. Don't hesitate to reach out to share your experience with the game so we can make it even better! The Discord is the place to be for such matters.

What about the features ?



Last time I shared with you my roadmap from the playtest to the demo.
I've completed everything I wanted to and even more. The only two red lines are features I decided to remove because they were redondant with the Wok Size upgrade, and I plan something else for the fire...
Instead, I added two new core mechanics: The Poop, and the Moles!

Colonists now drop poop which you can use to fertilize the baby trees. Doing so will increase the fruit tier and the yield of the trees. This action can be done manually or automated. Your Colonists will be able to create big stack of Poop that will give you the ability to create very big trees.
The moles are a new source of income. Moles will appear on the map and you can hit them for cash. Of course this action can be automated!

Another important feature is the new path system: you can now connect paths to trees, this will make them last for as long as the tree they're connected to. Additionally, there's a new upgrade to make Colonists run faster over paths. Pro-tip: make an insane big tree with poop, connect it with a path, and cut all the other ;).



My intention is to allow you to choose your playstyle, because some of you are active players, while other prefer to let the game run itself. My frustration with the game I inspired from, Gnorp Apologue, was that I often needed to wait a lot and couldn't do shit to speed things up to the next upgrade.
My intention for Idle Colony is that you can always take an action (gather fruits, cut trees, hit moles...) that have a real impact on the game progression. At the same time, if you choose to be completly idling, you won't be penalized for it. The technologies and upgrades you pick will help you create the playstyle of your choice!

I can't wait to know how you feel about this version and hear your reactions!

Cheers!

Dear Friends,

You've been more than 1800 playing the Idle Colony playtest over the last week. I never had that many people playing one of my game. This makes me feel very grateful.
I received over 400 feedbacks, that are critical to me for improving the game in the right direction.
For that, thanks you!



Your general reception has been incredibly positive for a game that's just a rough bugged soundless prototype.
Speaking of bugs, we managed to fix major crash issues and glitchy visuals, that were impacting AMD GPU users, thanks to your help and patience.
And finally, you've made the wishlist count accelerate to a never-seen-before pace, for a total of
900, meaning that half of you who played are interested in purchasing the game.



Now let's have the real talk.

I initially planned the game as a minimalistic idle experience, with just the epic twist of the thousands of ant-like entities on screen, and nothing more.
Idle Colony is supposed to be a very small game. A last game at the end of my failed game dev journey, so I can go on and do something else with my life.



But now for the first time in my epic-game-dev-adventure, I see a glimpse of hope. Now there's some people caring, and maybe it could make a difference. The strong enthusiasm that many of you showed, went straight to my heart and started seeding in my mind that maybe together, we might be scaling things up...

So just keep making the game right ? Well...

Game dev has become very hard on my mental health over the years. And for the last couple of months I was picturing the 18th of June (initially planned released) as the ultimate summit before flying down to sanity. At 30 years old, I'm still living at mom's place. My home is a trailer in the garden, which becomes unlivable in summer, and last night I found a new leak that's letting rain in.



I don't know yet where I'm gonna live this summer, and I have no idea of when I'll be able to work on Idle Colony past the Steam Fest of June.

But enough with the violins. Here's what's certain:

There will be a demo the 10th of June, and here's the (non-exhaustive) road map for the next month:



I know this is far from the features you're requesting, and I'm already working on a full rework of the techology tree, including many more gameplay mechanics, allowing for strategic choices, and a feel of really unlocking new content as you progress in prestige rather than linearly upgrading what's already existing.

For these reasons, I'm post-poning the release date of Idle Colony to later this year.

Thanks for your time,
Cheers !