UnReal World News

Steam Summer sale lasts for a few days more, so we encourage all the new adventurers to take this advantage of entering into UnReal World with a discounted price. Feel warmly welcomed!

The summer and nightless nights in real world do continue for good while longer and although it's been less attractive to sweat inside the development chambers we'll hereby bring you a little summary summary about the ongoing development stuff. And hey, let's add a few real world summer photos at the end of this post as well, shall we?

So, a brief summery summary from the development chambers goes as follows:



A new light source is coming up as we'll be adding shingles to the game. A shingle, or päre (in finnish), is a thin oblong piece of pine wood which were burnt to produce light - especially for lighting up houses during the dark time of the year.
Shingles are lit by using [a]pply command. Once a shingle is burning you can drop and set it wherever the light is needed, or carry it with you. Traditionally shingles were burnt in a specific stand that kept them in a good angle for proper burning, but in the game dropped burning shingles are imagined to be inserted between the wall logs or set firmly in place by some other means.

Here's a shingle in a traditional shingle stand. In the game a stand isn't needed, but here you'll get a picture of the item in question.

One shingle burns for about 30 minutes in the game so for continuous lighting a new one needs to be lit before the previous one fades out. This sort of shingle replacement is done automatically if your character is located beside the burning shingle and there's a stack of new shingles nearby on the ground. You character then automatically replaces and lights a new shingle when necessary, and you don't need to worry about maintaining the lighting even if the task you were doing would take a long time.

Here a cabin is lighted up by two shingles burning in place. There's also a stack of shingles on the ground and if the character remains beside it a new shingle is automatically lit when the previous one fades out.

Shingles can be crafted by the player character, and they may be needed in quite amounts during the dark season. An axe and a knife and suitable block of wood are needed for splitting the shingles. The preferred tree species is pine so our shingle splitting requirements will look like this.

Steam Open World Survival Crafting Fest 2024 is here ...
... and we welcome you into the far north with a discounted price!

In case of UnReal World it's hard to imagine more suitable Steam Fest to participate in.
First released in 1992 the game sports more than 30 years of active development with still no end in sight and has got Guinness World Records Gamer's Edition (2019) recognizition for being the first open-world survival game. Yes, these titles are always debatable but the content and eligibility is not.

UnReal World is a unique low-fantasy roguelike game set in the far north during the late-iron age.
The world of the game is highly realistic, rich with historical atmosphere and emphasized on survival in the harsh ancient wilderness.

For newcomers we'll highlight a curiosity that the game is created by devs who tend to practice what they code also in their real life. The ways of their ancestors, primitive and wilderness skills, traditional builds and crafts of many sorts.

From left to right, Erkka (co-designer) and Sami (creator) of UnReal World building something else than a computer game.

Steam Open World Survival Crafting Fest is about games where you start with nothing or very little, and eventually end up with... well, maybe still nothing. If you survive long enough though, you might find yourself with a nicely decorated base. But the threat of all of that coming down around you is ever-present.

UnReal World is completely open-ended and it's up to you how you decide or manage to live off the land. If you wish to, you can pick one of the varying start-up scenarios to send you into the far north with different conditions and rough plot to follow. Here's a brief introduction about what you would start with in these scenarios, and where they may lead you. But in the end, everything is up to you, and in the procedurally generated world not even the start-up equipment is always the same.

The Village
Starting at the village provides a safe way to start playing. You may equip your character carefully before going out to the wilderness and have a safe place to return to if you face setbacks or dangers on your journeys. Villages are also sources of quests which may lead you into looking for water spirits, encountering forest maidens, returning lost village animals from the wild, assisting with village chores, and so on.

Runaway slave
Having been slave to Njerpezit for years you finally take a step to escape from your captors.
You are lightly dressed, carrying only few weapons. If you manage to escape, surviving in the wilderness like this, without supplies, may get very hard. On the other hand fighting against superior enemy may be more foolish - even though they are carrying equipment you too could use.

Unfortunate hunting trip
Your father lies dead on the ground and the beast who killed him is still present.
If you manage to down the beast or even escape from it you are on your own in the middle of the wide, unfamiliar environment. The equipment of your late father may become very useful to you if you manage to pick them up - and that way even though you are alone in the world now, your family will be with you.

Lonely settler
You find yourself alone on a foreign ground with two unfinished cottages.
You may want to finish the cottages on your own and settle here - whatever you do there's much to learn about life and making your livelihood. However, the area where your father brought you feels like home to you now more than the unfamiliar wilderness around.

Hurt, helpless, and afraid
Wounded and left for dead, you struggle to survive in the wilderness.
This is a difficult scenario, as you have suffered rather severe injuries, making you incapable of walking. You also lack anything but your knife and a few pieces of clothing. It is very possible to die from the injuries you have suffered.

Traps and trapping
Your character is equipped with various traps and tools to make traps including wooden stakes for building fences and a shovel. Even if you can't make your livelihood immediately learning to use traps can be very interesting.

I want to be a fisherman
One night you sneaked into the fishing shed and took all the equipment you could carry. "I know
enough to make my living by fishing alone", you mumbled as you left your home for good. The days
after that weren't easy but little by little you began to learn to use you your fishing tackle better - and the further you travelled the more friendly the waters seemed to be.

Abandoned trap-fence
You find an old trap-fence in the wilderness.
This scenario gives you an idea of what kind of trap-fences you should build yourself and encourages you to learn by using this starting trap-fence. It will only need repairing and improvement rather than construction from scratch by yourself.

Abandoned camp
You find an old camp with a shelter, firewood and useful items.
What brought you here and what kind of your past is like is a matter of your imagination. You are at a camp where to ponder about the path to take. You can take items lying around as a hint, or you can make a fire and throw them into it one by one... as always everything is up to you.

Agriculture
You posses some valuable seeds and are ready to try out your agricultural skills.
At the age of sixteen you left your home not only with some clothes, weapons and necessary equipment but also with some valuable seeds. When you find a nice place to settle down you can start growing your own crops.

There be robbers!
You encounter a band of ruffians in the wilderness.
This scenario puts you face to face with possible danger. Will you take the offensive or try to escape with your skin intact? The next step is up to you. Keeping your starting equipment means risking your life and fighting the bandits off.

Not all who wander are lost
You set out into the unforgiving wilderness with a four-legged companion.
Left alone with only the supplies and tools you carry and your four-legged companion you set out into the unforgiving wilderness, just another wanderer looking for their place in the UnReal World.


Congratulations for reading this far!
If this all sounded like a lot to digest now bear in mind that this just scratching the surface.
Feel free to go discover - the fest and discount is on.

Cheers! ːurw_sageː

A small patch has been released to fix a few issues as follows:

Version 3.84.2

** Saved characters from version 3.80-> are compatible with this version. **

- fixed: pausable crafting item duplication

In some conditions when you finished crafting an item the work in progress item still remained on the ground.

- fixed: using TEXTILECRAFT skill displaying corrupt "Command:" prompt, eg. TEXTILECRAFTNETMAKING

- changed: Staff item type and role

Staves are now classified as timber type items rather than weapons, and considered mostly as raw material for crafting and construction purposes.
There are no changes to staff making. They are made from slender tree trunks by delimbing and debarking the trunk and cutting it to suitable lengths. A common staff is thought of being about two meters in length with a diameter that fits nicely in one's hand.

MIGRATION NOTICE: Weapon type staves obtained in previous versions do work in crafting the same way as the current version staves.

- updated: STAFF game encyclopedia (F1) entry

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Cheers! ːurw_sageː

A small patch has been released to fix the following issues, which probably occurred only for a subset of adventurers.

Version 3.84.1

** Saved characters from version 3.80-> are compatible with this version. **

- fixed: continuing pausable crafting with inferior tools caused erroneous production times

If inferior tools were used to start and continue pausable crafting tasks the remaining production times were not always set correctly. This glitch occasionally initiated conditions where continued pausable crafting required seemingly endless production times.

- fixed: wrong javelin item tile

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Cheers! ːurw_sageː

Version 3.84 (stable) is now released and live for all the supported operating systems.

Version 3.84 continues the ongoing transition to make all the crafting tasks pausable, features a good deal of related crafting requirement changes, adds BOWYER skill, introduces springs as a new water source and naturally offers a fistful of bugfixes too.

In the midst of big changes in regards to pausable crafting we hope for the bugs to be scarcer than average adventurer's nutrition levels. ;) And whatever is encountered we do our best to maintain a swift update cycle to overcome the issues as early on as possible.

Here's the changelog:

Version 3.84 (stable) changelog

** Saved characters from version 3.80-> are compatible with this version. **

- added: BOWYER skill

The bowyer skill is the ability and knowledge to make bows. Success in the skill determines the quality of the bows crafted. For migrated characters this skill is created upon the first load in this version.
Needless to say, the available craftable bows now call for BOWYER skill in their crafting.

- added: craftable Longbow

You can craft a longbow from [M]ake menu under "Weapons" category.

- added: pausable weapon crafting

Crafting of the items in [M]ake -> "Weapons" category are now pausable tasks allowing you to have breaks and continue at will later on. These weapons are stone-axe, stone knife, club, javelin, spruce quick-bow, shortbow, longbow and bowstring.
To continue paused weapon crafting use the same crafting option again standing beside the said partially finished item. Like the other partially crafted items these will remain on the ground and can be picked up only after they are finished. They are rendered with a different tint and described as "partially crafted", "half-crafted", "largely crafted" etc. when looking at them.

- changed: crafting times and requirements of certain weapons

Now that the weapon crafting is pausable the production times of certain weapons have been increased to more reasonable levels. There are also minor changes in some material or tool requirements.
The changes are as follows, but bear in mind that these are the average set values and poor tools and/or skills may very well double the actual production times.

* Stone-axe

Stone-axe gets the greatest time increase in the production time as on average it now takes 50 hours to make one. That's a lot, but it really is a slow process to get the stone blade knapped and grinded out to shape that is efficient for felling trees.
Thus, stone-axe now becomes a survival option which you won't take up too lightly, but only in extreme need. Crafting a stone-axe now also needs another stone for final sharpening and polishing. Also, the previous requirement for rope has been replaced with strong cordage requirement. This means you can also use for example spruce withes for securing the head in place in the handle.

* Stone knife

It now takes 5 hours on average to make and also requires a stone for final sharpening.

* Javelin

It now takes 2 hour on average to make.

* Shortbow

It now takes 12 hours on average to make. The time increase is signficant compared to the earlier, and only a skilled bowyer with quality tools may manage to craft a shortbow in one day. With mediocre skills and tools it's a process of several work days.

* Longbow

It takes 18 hours on average to make. Thus, crafting a longbow is a process of several work days even for a skilled bowyer.

* Bowstring

It now takes 2 hours on average to make a bowstring from strands of yarn, and 30 minutes on average from a ready-made cord. When using a ready-made cord it often needs to be thinned down to suitable thickness so it's not just tying of the knots.

- added: BOWSTRING game encyclopedia (F1) entry

- updated: SHORTBOW and LONGBOW game encyclopedia (F1) entries

- added: pausable haft crafting

Crafting of the spear, axe and shovel hafts are now pausable tasks.

- added: pausable item trap crafting and loop snare batch production

Crafting of the paw-board fox trap and loop snare are now pausable tasks. There are also some changes as follows;

* Paw-board

Crafting time has been increased to three hours.

* Loop snare

Loop snares can be made in batches of up to ten at a time, and it takes 20 minutes on average to craft one.

- added: pausable lumber items crafting

Crafting of the wooden stakes, staves and wood slats are now pausable tasks. There are also some changes as follows;

* Wood slat

Crafting time for a batch of 20 slats has been increased to 200 minutes.

* Wooden stake

Wooden stakes are made in sets of 5 pieces from one slender tree trunk. Previously it was 8 pieces from one trunk.

* Staff

When crafting staves one slender tree trunk can yield 3 proper straight staves. Previously it was one trunk for one staff.

- added: pausable utility article crafting for some items in the category

Crafting of the wooden shovel, birch-bark box and birch-bark basket are now pausable tasks. There are also some changes as follows;

* Wooden shovel

It is now made from a board instead of a wooden block. The crafting time has been incresed to 8 hours.

- added: springs

Springs are water sources bringing groundwater to the surface. They can be found in the terrain on zoomed-in maps at varying environments in size of one to three map tiles.
Springs do remain unfrozen even in the winter which makes them very useful water sources. A spring found in the wilderness may provide a great spot for a homestead for those who like to live in the forest further away from the lakes or rivers.
From now on the village water supply ponds are also springs. As they don't freeze they are easier to maintain and spot even in the winter.
MIGRATION NOTICE: Water supply ponds in the villages you have visited in the previous version will automatically turn into springs in this version.

- added: "behind your back" reference to asking for NPC whereabouts

When asking the whereabouts of an NPC who is close by but not seen by the player character, the people will now point out that the target NPC is "...over there, just behind your back.".

- changed: pushing allowed to locations not visible to the player character

You can now [p]ush items around regardless of the location being visible or not. This helps to maintain character's daily life also in the pitch dark low visibility conditions.

- fixed: pausable crafts in process occasionally disappearing when finishing crafting something else beside them

- fixed: possibility to remove hafts from sickles

This was mistakenly allowed. Sickles are a special case and not yet included in the hafting mechanics.

- fixed: skin item duplication if tanning got cancelled at the requirements dialog

- fixed: villagers occasionally wandering impractically far from the village area

- fixed: low quality hafts not degrading the finished hafted weapon quality correctly

You pretty much always got fine hafted weapons even with the inferior hafts.

- fixed: "Of wolf and woman" quest related NPCs selection mess

There was a rare occurrence where the said quest dialogues didn't unfold properly due to the game engine picking the related NPCs incorrectly.

- fixed: paused craft remaining time checks

There was a rare condition where the remaining time to continue paused crafting was calculated incorrectly resulting in too fast completion of items at the end of the process.

- fixed: title song playback interruptions and cracks upon the game starting

The issue was with .ogg file loading. The troublesome audio is now loaded before the title song starts, and some .ogg audio has been replaced with .wav files.

- fixed: occasional white screen flash when player character goes to sleep

- fixed: attempt to haft an invalid target item made the item to disappear

- fixed: sickles weighted too much

Sickle item weight was mistakenly set to 3 lbs. This is fixed now, and sickles weigh 1 lbs as intended.


Cheers! ːurw_sageː