Smalland: Survive the Wilds News

Hello Smallfolk, as a commitment to keeping you all informed, here's a quick recap of what we've been posting on socials the last two weeks! So you don't miss out!

The last week we've been focusing on showing off travel and environment, giving you a broader perspective of the new look of the game!

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Hello Smallfolk!

Tom here! The community manager for Smalland!

First off, apologies that It's been a little quiet on our end whilst the team have been hard at work on Smalland. The world has come on leaps and bounds since you last heard from us, we've been working a lot on the world design and incorporating some of the fantastic feedback we've had from the last playtests ramping up the sense of scale in Smalland.

Here's a glimpse into what's been going on & we'll be sure to get back to sharing more of Smalland with you as development progresses!

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Make sure to follow us on Twitter and join our Discord so you don't miss an update!

Hey everyone,

We wanted to show you a little more of what is going on behind the scenes are we continue development towards the early access release.

Recently, team Smalland took on a new level designer who has been working hard on the topography of Smalland and how the player is guided through each zone. We've also had a lot of great feedback from recent closed playtests, and some of that feedback has been making its way into development.

We've always had scale at the forefront of Smalland and everything is built around that. We felt that the sense of scale could be further improved so we've been working to heighten the sense of scale when exploring Smalland.

Nothing is final yet, but here's a work-in-progress look at how the starting area is shaping up.



One element that has been scaled up significantly are the main trees dotted around Smalland.



You can still climb your way up to the top and establish a base of operations up there, but they feel truly gargantuan now!

Coming back down to ground level there's some new scaling work in progress which you can see with one of our ants.



There's lots of exciting progress being made by the development team and we'll continue to share news and progress on the game as we continue building towards the early access release.

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Hey Smallfolk!

We're back to dive a little deeper into some of your questions that we've picked up from the community!

How does the season system work?

Seasons touch the game world in a number of ways. Firstly, the visuals. You can expect bright, sunny days in the summer, and gloomy, grey days in the winter. The landscape will change to reflect, with the leaves turning from fresh greens to the mellow shades of autumn and disappearing entirely in some cases in the winter.

Weather will change depending on the season too, and in gameplay terms, you'll want to prepare your armour setup accordingly when you set out into the world.

Lastly, the wildlife of Smalland will adapt to the seasons, with some creatures being more abundant in one season than another.



Will there be baby insects and animals and will we also see each stage of insects such as beetles, moths, butterflies etc?

Insects in Smalland will all appear at the same size, we don't have different stages of growth in the game, though we do currently have baby spiders (approach with caution, mum is never too far away...). There are also some unqiue variations of various insects that will require a little hunting down.



Can I play a beta?

We've been getting asked this a lot lately so a good opportunity to share the process of getting hands-on with any Smalland testing.

We have a group here at Merge Games called the MVP Group, signing up for the group requires agreeing to an NDA, and you can find the details and signup form here here.

Being a member of the group might see you get offered to join a beta test for a number of different titles, including Smalland. We'll select a segment of testers based on the answers given during signup, some tests will be quite broad and have a large number of keys available, some will be more focused and have fewer keys available.

Currently, builds are watermarked with each user's unique, numerical Steam ID, as a small number of people, unfortunately, chose not to respect the NDA and share footage of a test (which have since been taken down).

Joining the group doesn't guarantee everyone will get hands-on with a particular Smalland test, but that's the place to be if you want to throw your hat into the ring!

As always, thanks for the questions, we'll catch you next time!

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https://store.steampowered.com/app/768200/SMALLAND/

Hey everyone!

Hot off the back of Smalland closing out the MIX Showcase at GDC with a fresh look at gameplay, we're back to show you a little more on what we've been working on lately!

Something we've been really excited to share is antennae mode. The antennae of the Smallfolk aren't just there for show, they provide a radar vision of sorts to highlight important things in the world. The system is work-in-progress currently, but as you can see in the video below, activating this mode will give allow you to pierce the darkness and see better at night, as well as highlight nearby creatures and their state (aggressive etc, and highlight harvestable resources.

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The next thing to share isn't something we can show you quite yet, but our Product Manager Ross has been hard at work on the next trailer, and what we've seen so far is awesome! We cannot wait to share the finished trailer when the time is right!

Lastly, we've been continuing work on the building system and have a small, closed test underway this week via our testing group (feel free to join the group!) to get some player feedback on the system. Below is a bit of a deeper look at a build and how you can create your own little home in Smalland.

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Thanks, and we'll be back with more soon!

Find us on Twitter
Find us on Discord
Wishlist Smalland
https://store.steampowered.com/app/768200/SMALLAND/