UnReal World News

Today, February 28th, Finland celebrates Kalevala Day and the Day of Finnish Culture in honor of The Kalevala - a 19th century work of epic poetry regarded as our national epic. That's something to celebrate, but we've got some more for you on this special day...

In early 2020 we received an interesting e-mail from a player (Cheers, Travis!) sending congratulations on a milestone: UnReal World had lasted 10,000 days in the real world.
This was calculated from the date stamp in executable file of version 1.00b distribution archive. We don't even remember the exact release date, but it was summer of 1992. So the continuing lifespan of the game is at least 10,000 days - and well, it's quite something.

Needless to say, The Kalevala and UnReal World go well together. It is not so much about direct influence as a book, but the game draws inspiration from the same pool of oral tradition, folklore and mythology of our ancestors. Of this content some is rooted in ancient unrecorded history dating back thousands of years, and some is closer to Iron Age - where the game takes place. So let this day be a celebration of The Kalevala, but also 10,000 days of digital Finnish Culture in the form of UnReal World.


10,000 days is a long time. Lines of source code in the game now sports somewhere around 140,000.
On average that makes:
14 lines of code per day for 10,000 days.

Changelogs for version releases contain around 15000 lines of text, so that makes:
1,5 lines of changelog entries per day for these 10,000 days.


That's just some numbers to give an idea of the long history, which is continuing as we speak. It seems to be 69 days since the last announcement. So on average there should be around 966 new lines of code and 103 lines of changelog entries written.
We haven't checked but we are continuing.

Would you buy an old but continuously developed fenno-ugric roguelike from these guys?
From the left: Sami (creator) and Erkka (co-designer) of UnReal World

We wish you happy Kalevala Day and the Day of (digital) Finnish Culture.
Let's continue.

It's evident that you have noticed it already...

[h2]Steam Winter Sale has begun[/h2]
...but we thought of reminding you personally in case you want to give it a shot.

Sami (creator) and Erkka (co-designer) in the real world, not too far away from the development chambers.

We've given our shots for this winter and are ready to enter the holiday season.
The last release of this year (version 3.61) came live just a few days ago and has been happily received.

[h3]Best of the season to all of you, and see you again after yet another winter solstice![/h3]

Last update of the year 2019 is live now.
In addition to fistful of bugfixes there's also a small bag of new features of which some are long-awaited and suggested improvements. Enjoy!




Saved characters from previous versions (3.40 ->) are compatible with this version.


- added: companions can help you with hauling and pushing items

Unoccupied companions spontaneously help you when pushing or hauling heavy loads is being proceeded.

- added: fence gate

Gates can be [o]pened and [c]losed just like doors. They can be also built by player character from [M]ake menu under uilding options.

Screenshot from version 3.61.
This settler is happy to finally be able to add gates to his fence. There are two gates to be seen in half-constructed pen.

- added: when [C]ommanding animals the animal name is displayed in the menu title

For example, if you would command a dog called Rekku the menu title appear as:
"ANIMAL COMMANDS: REKKU"
This helps owners of multiple animals to be sure they chose to command the desired one.

- added: target selection if multiple creatures occupy the same location where an action is to be done

If there are multiple creatures at the location where you proceed to execute certain actions
you will be asked to select the target creature. This applies to following actions:

- melee attack
- packing and unpacking animals
- looking at the location

- added: limping and animal size tracking information

When examining tracks now you can also see if the creature is limping. This requires character's TRACKING skill to be 25% or more. Severity of the actual leg injury can't be interpreted so crippled animals also leave limping tracks.
Animal size, big or small, can be also seen from their tracks now. This is so obvious that only absolutely untrained trackers will fail to notice it.
Moreover, the actual track graphics are also shown smaller or larger depending on the creature size. Notice that as the young animals smaller in size their tracks pretty much always appear as small ones.
The new information is displayed in tracking messages for example like this:
"You see here fresh limping tracks of small elk..."

Screenshot from version 3.61.
A flock of forest reindeers have escaped from the hunter. There's bunch of tracks to be seen, and now we really want find out where did the crippled one go.

- added: tree in front of the character automatically selected when cutting branches

You don't have to specify a direction for cutting and peeling actions if there's a tree in
front the character you. That tree is always automatically selected for these actions.

- added: chat option to ask for a sage in the village

When chatting with NPCs there's now a way to find out ask if there's a sage in the village. "Is there a sage around?" chat line can be found from "Ask for help/company" chat options. If there's a sage you will be told his whereabouts in the village.

- changed: need for heated room, fireplace or fire are checked first in cookery recipes

It's more convenient that way as you aren't bothered with meaningless ingredient selections if these requirements aren't met.

- fixed: failed hideworking with "somebody else got the skin" message diplayed and no skin obtained

This rare occurrence might happen if the hideworking got cancelled at the very last minute of the hideworking process.

- fixed: agriculture graphics representing a planted tile disappearing soon after planting certain crops

This was a result of crops mistakenly entering wintering state if the planting was done early enough, and thus the planted graphics was removed. They still sprouted properly though.

- fixed: wrong inventory weight with certain startup scenarios

When starting a new character the inventory weight was displayed wrong until you made your first move.

- fixed: gaining skill options during character creation by hovering over encyclopedia hotspot

- fixed: wrong tying equipment requirements when making patches of items

This was noted eg. when making arrows. Crafting multiple arrows mistakenly increased both tying equipment length and amount requirements.

- fixed: pushing duplicates items

The issue was related to ice breaking messing up item data while pushing action was proceeded.

- typo corrected: "coffing" -> "coughing" in herb effects dialog

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Cheers! ːurw_sageː

The dev's cat said it.
Autumn Sale is on, allowing you to enter the far north with discounted price.



Autumn is actually long gone here in Finland and the winter is coming -- and so is yet another update. The latest major UnReal World release 3.60 is still warm but we're already heading for a new patch before the year is over. So be prepared. It's gonna be about bugfixes, extending some new goodies the latest major version launched, and also a bunch of little suggestions featured.


Aaand here we'll take moment to get your full attention with hi-res winter scenery with the dev and cat. The cat is on the left, if you are new to UnReal World and were wondering.


Oh yes. 2019 Steam Awards is also going on. If you're hesitating what to vote for The Labor of Love Award it seems like UnReal World kind of fits in there. The criteria speaks of things like:
This game has been out for a while.
Yes. Since 1992. 28 years or so.
The team is well past the first unveiling of their creative baby, but being the good parents they are, these devs continue to nurture and support their creation.
Oh yes. Continuos development since 1992.
This game, to this day, is still getting new content after all these years.
Yep. I think we said something about very recent and near future patches already in this post.

You'll find the nomination buttons on the store page.

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Now you should have plenty of buttons to click and stuff to do, so let's continue later on.
Best of the autumn winter to all of you!

Now don't spook out, but UnReal World version 3.60 is now live. The beta period for this version is over and the new version is auto-updating for the game owners on Steam as we speak. You can find more details about the release below, and we're sure you have already noticed that we are taking part in the ongoing Halloween Kekri Sale big time with the pleasing numbers and content images.
Join us... into the Far North we shall take you...


Kekri is an ancient Finnish harvest festival celebrated in the fall when the annual agricultural activities were all accomplished and the harvest collected. Kekri meant the end of the crop year, which was a big turning point. It was the time when the souls and spirits of the dead wandered around and visited the living. The ancestors were respected and welcomed. Sauna was heated up for them, and meal prepared too. The living celebrated accordingly, and so do we. We have harvested and processed the bugs and to-dos since the last beta and now together with Kekri celebrations 3.60 stable is out.



Kekri time included tradition of Kekripukki (Kekri goat) figure. People would dress up as horned creatures, wearing furs or coats upside down, and went around in their disguises and were offered food and drink. So, what does a decent developer of tradition rich game do to follow the tradition?

Well, hello there, any foods or drinks to offer? Some purchases will do as well.


We are coming up with special with Kekri-themed title screen which updates to your UnReal World at some point during this sale & festivity period.
[EDIT: Oct-31-2019 - The special title screen is now live.]


Those who participated in 3.60 beta branch already know what it is about. For those who only now got their hands on it we'll briefly mention that the key features deal with NPCs, companions, domestic animals, village properties, and crafting additions. You can find the full changelog in this previous beta release post:
https://steamcommunity.com/gid/103582791441301369/announcements/detail/1589132691050003005

And since that previous beta release, we've worked out the following for this 3.60 stable release:

UnReal World version 3.60 (stable) changelog:
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- added: tree saplings

There are now small saplings of spruce and birch trees appearing on zoomed-in maps. Saplings are not obstacles for movement like the bigger trees but you can walk right through them. Saplings can be cut down like any trees, and they have use in making of withes.

MIGRATION NOTICE: Saplings can be found only on newly generated maps. If your character has explored the world extensively you may want to run map maintenance (key command [7]) which removes unimportant previously generated zoomed-in maps.

- added: withe - a new type of tying equipment

Withes are tying and binding equipment made from flexible, slender saplings of spruce or birch trees. Your character can make withes from [M]ake-menu under Tying equipment category.

- added: WITHE game encyclopedia entry [F1]

- added: fence building now requires two bands of tying equipment

Fences have been traditionally tied with spruce withes, which are the preferred and convenient choice, but any other tying equipment will work as well.

- added: villagers now cook their raw meat and fish

Villagers will now cook raw meat and fish in their possession. This doesn't necessarily happen instantly upon obtaining the meat or fish, but at convenient moment for the villager in question.

- added: inventory auto-filtered to show timber when birch-bark raw material requirement selection is being made

- changed: upon planting something the sprouts are not immediately visible

Only after some days you will be able to see the sprouts of what you had planted. Before the sprouts, planted tiles appear in thicker prepared soil graphics so you will be able to recognize them.

- adjusted: village dogs don't bark at sleeping characters

Watchdogs barking at restfully sleeping characters made it impossible to have good nights sleep in a village.

- fixed: using length based items as weight based crafting material got their properties modified confusingly

For example tanning with birch-bark strips.

- fixed: hunting NPCs might choose to hunt player character's domestic reindeers

- fixed: villagers rejecting traps in trading, claiming that they have enough even though they had none

- fixed: raft weight reasoned

They've been super light earlier, but now weigh around proper 1200 pounds. This makes hauling the only option for moving rafts around on dry land.

- fixed: young leaves could be picked immediately when plants sprouted

Now the plant needs to be few weeks old before picking of leaves is possible.

- fixed: double animal skin when skinning the same carcass as your NPC companions

- fixed: young animals meat yield occasionally being as high as that of the adult animals

- fixed: NPC butchering/skinning processes in the background might cause player spend times to jump or reset

- fixed: NPC owned dogs not leaving tracks in the wilderness

- fixed: tying equipment return issues after drying/smoking

If several stacks of food was dried/smoked at the same location using same kind of tying equipment all the tying equipment got returned when the first batch of food was ready.

- fixed: player crafted items occasionally appearing as roasted foods (if there was NPCs cooking nearby)

- fixed: when looking at tree harvested of its bark the tree info mistakenly said "partially felled"
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We wish you happy Kekri time - or happy Halloween if that suits you better.
All in all, now just celebrate and participate in the festivities at this special time of the year.

ːurw_sageːːurw_fireːːurw_treeː