Idle Colony News

This small update fix some concerning bugs and bring some gameplay balance with the goal of providing a less frustrating experience on a couple points. It should also make the pace of the demo a bit faster.

There will be less frequent updates going forward (except for major issues) so I can focus on making efficient progress on new exciting gameplay features.
Thanks for your abundant feedback that I keep reading every day!

[h2]Patch Note[/h2]

[h3]Bug fix[/h3]

• Colonist should no longer get stuck inside walls
  
• Performance stats window (fps...) no longer merge with the stats pannel (production/gathering rate...)
  
• House level 1 effectively spawn two colonists when getting the second pallier technology.
  
• Fixed a bug that could reduce the Fertilizer stack count by one (and other technologies related bonus)
  

[h3]UX[/h3]

• You can now disable drawing the colonists tracks in the settings
  
• Fertilizer stack hitbox fixed to better fit the sprite
  
• Fertilizer count appear hover the little plant when hovered.
  

[h3]Gameplay[/h3]

• Tree fruit tier is no longer capped at 5 (before being fertilized). Thus enabling for a wider RNG range, you might sometimes see very rare trees spawn.
  
• Tree fruit tier is now clamped to avoid having very low tier fruit where you would not expect them.
  
• Mole Money upgrade scaling increased from 1.57 to 1.7
  (means the $amount n+1 = $amount n+0
• 1.7)
  
• Flower max. combo increased to 8, and 16 with the technology (from 6 and 12)
  
• Flower base money increased to $10 (from 5)
  
• Flower money upgrade increment increased to $10, and upgrade price scaling reduced from 3.0 to 2.8
  
• Flower combo time increased to 2.0 seconds (from 1.5)
  
• Flower hitbox increased by 25%
  
• Flower nb of hovering required reduced to 4 (from 5)
  
• Manual watering time reduced by 66%
  

[h3]Polish[/h3]

• Watering sound pitch now increase with the progression
  
• Tree have now a spawn animation with a sound.
  

Given your feedback, some things aren't easy to understand, and many of you don't like the upgrade pannel on the left by default.
My goal with this update is to make the ui clearer, and the prestige goals more intuitive.
As always, your feedback is very welcome so we can keep improving things!
(The feedback form has been reinitialized so don't hesitate to use it again)

[h2]Patch note 3.3.2[/h2]

[h3]Bug fixes[/h3]

• Fixed a bug that made impossible to draw path when UI was disabled in some cases.
  

[h3]UI/UX[/h3]

• Changed general UI layout.
  
• Income rate/Fruit goals, now blink when they are reached.
  
• Prestige button blink with color when tech point are incremented.
  
• Stats simplified with icons, can be dropped down by clicking on the arrow to show more stats. Hints are showing when hovering the stats with the mouse.
  
• Stats menu now also display the mouse gathering rate.
  

This update focus on artistic choices and quality of life improvements.
In theory it should be compatible with your save files, but I cannot guarantee it a 100%. Let me know if you had any issues. Because I splitted some tech into multiple ones while making sure that you still have the same progress with your current save, you may end up in some cases with negative prestige points, but don't worry it's not a bug.

You've been a majority to request a change in the game theme because you found it too dark.
And also you were mitigated regarding the UI.
A lot of you didn't realize you could delete path, or didnt' felt the fertilizing mechanic intuitive, so I added non-blocking tutorialisation in the form of hints that disappear once you do the requested action once.

Then I made quite a substensial number of changes to improve your quality of life overall.
There's still a lot of things to be done and I reopened a new feedback form to check if we are going in the right direction, the link is in the game.

Keep in mind this is both a demo and a work in progress.

[h2]Patch note:[/h2]

[h3]Art[/h3]

• Changed the color theme to something more cozy and green
  
• Improved the sprite for obstacles
  
• Improved the sprite of every fruits
  
• Improved the gradient borders of the map
  
• Improved the sprite of the fertilizer to look less chaotic.
  
• Added slight animation on fertilizers.
  
• Added slight color-animation to path when connected to a tree.
  
• In-game text improved with a border
  

[h3]UI [/h3]

• New UI theme by default to fit the new art style
  
• UI colors are now moddable through assets/config/ui_theme.json
  (I'll make a tutorial at some point to explain what value correspond to what UI element)
  
• The range of possible UI scales have been widened
  
• Default UI scale when opening the game for the first time now take into consideration the screen resolution
  
• Better transitions from main menu/tech tree/run.
  
• Fertilizer count is now displayed next to the stats window and no longer next to the mouse.
  
• Changed every "Poop" mention to "Fertilizer".
  
• Moved notifications UI in the bottom left cause I noticed some of you like having the upgrade window in the top right.
  

[h3]UX [/h3]

Upgrades Pannel:


• Upgrades can now be sorted by price
  
• Upgrades can be bought in chunk of 1, 3, or 10
  
• Upgrades category no longer move with the scrolling
  
  Camera:
  
  
• Camera have more step in zooms, and zoom transition are smooth.
  
• Camera movement can be done with RIGHT CLICK
  
• Camera anchor point when being dragged is now fixed and coherent.
  
• Camera can now be moved more freely and extend further from the map's borders.
  
• Camera no longer move when pressing CTRL+Z to delete path on azerty keyboards
  
  Wok Pannel:
  
  
• You can now hover the fruits in the wok right pannel and know about their tier and money
  
• Fruits that aren't inside the wok are still displayed in the wok right pannel but grayed out.
  
• The wok right pannel now also shows the next fruit tier to unlock.
  
• Tutorial now breifly explain how money is generated from fruits.
  
  Other:
  
  
• Chopping tree is now either DOUBLE RIGHT CLICK or C
  
• Added multiple hints to better explain some game mechanics (they disappear once the requested action has been done once)
  
• Game window is now maximized when launching the app
  
• Run is now saved when exiting the game with ALT-F4 or clicking the red cross of the window.
  

[h3]Bug fixes[/h3]

• Actually fixed the crash when resizing upgrade window
  

[h3]Gameplay[/h3]

• Increased the minimum distance between trees.
  
• Tech tree reorganized in a more comprehensible way.
  
• "Analytics" tech has been removed and is now enabled by default
  
• Added two income rate palliers to unlock prestiges points
  
• Fertilizer stack now start at 1 when you unlock the tech (previously 0)
  
• Watering little plants come with a bit of delay (0.5s) so you don't accidentaly grow a plant you wanted to fertilize.
  
• Manual watering speed increased by 20%
  
• ClickClick tech improved: You no longer have to click so fast and the max bonus is now x5 (from x4)
  
• Balanced the Mole mechanic. Mole should now give a reasonnable amount of money across the whole run duration.
  
• Auto-mole hit rate now stack up to 10 times max. (when it's higher than Mole Spawn rate)
  
• The currency limit is now more than one tredecillion and is practically impossible to reach.
  
• Reduced the density of obstacle on the right side of the map.
  
• Introducing the flowers:
  Initially planned just for decoration, I had fun adding a little mechanic of combo that goes with it.
  Also this is a good economy boost in early game, and I hope this leverage out a little bit the frustration of starting back from zero.
  

[h3]Audio[/h3]

• Added chop tree sound
  
• Added technology selection sounds
  
• Added sound when connecting path to a tree
  

Dear friends,

First I just wanted to say thank you. You've been more than 9000 people to play Idle Colony demo in less than two weeks. It's not been two months since the Steam Page opened and you're already 5500 to have wishlisted the game!

Additionally, 1200 of you have been kind enough to fullfill the feedback form that gave me precious data on how to make a better game!
I'm still reading through your all of your comments and taking notes to know what's a priority for you

You're all being very enthusiast and lovely, thank you for your amazing support.



Something that came back a lot is that you don't like much the dark colors of the game. And I agree with you, so this is something I'm working on at the moment.



But one if not the most important thing for you (and for me too) is the lack of gameplay mechanics allowing for choices and strategies!
I don't want to say much about my plans because I'm still in a brainstorming phase. My miro is filled with sticky notes.



I'm working on a full rework of the tech tree, and I'd like to add a special currency during runs allowing for unique upgrades. Much like the Zybellium in (the) Gnorp Apologue (go play this game if you haven't already)

My two keywords are: Synergies and Choices. I want you to be able to carefully pick your techs and upgrades to choose both your playstyle and unlock cool synergies.

And there will be flowers!



I'm gonna wrap this up with another thanks for the Youtubers who made very good videos and helped a lot with raising awareness about Idle Colony!

Special shout out to:
Wanderbots who made a great in-depth review.
InterdotGif for an hilarious style!
DarkJedi Plays with a very didactic video.
and Hultutigamer I must say I love hearing Idle Colony said with a Japanese accent!

Finally don't hesitate to hop in the Discord if you want to have a chat!

Thanks for your time,
Cheers