Hello there! In this post, we'll update you on our current whereabouts. We have some exciting news to share!

Screen Queensland Support

For starters, we are now supported by the Queensland Government through Screen Queenslands Games Grant program. We're very excited about this support!

Expanding Team

We've hired a professional pixel artist to help us get TFC to v1.0. The artist is an experienced pixel artist who was part of the team behind the amazing and successful game Unpacking.

Discord Developer Updates

Recently, we started sharing snippets of improvements coming to the game for our Discord community more regularly. However, we know that not everyone prefer to use Discord, and so we're sharing it with our Steam community as well here.

Arabian Ostrich

2024 kicks off by showing some more hints at what's coming. The Arabian ostrich was an important subspecies of ostrich in The Fertile Crescent. Sadly, it went extinct around 1966, but will be featured in the game.

Buldings seperate into Civilian and Military buildings

We're also busy implementing general improvements! As an example, we've ran out of space for building icons in the construction menu. Therefore, we have split construction into two categories: civilian and military buildings, and drawn some new art for these.

Rivers

"For seven years, my feet have wandered, traversing endless plains, with only flat horizons stretching before me. Land, both fruitful and arid, offered the sole variety. The vast openness seemed unending!!! Yet today, a revelation unfolded. My eyes beheld something unfamiliar. A glistening, flowing substance. 'Is it a river? And a path to traverse it?' I marveled. Have I truly arrived? Will there dawn a day when walls need not encircle our entire village for protection?"

Food Trend Indicator

The food trend indicator is making a comback!
In the past, TFC used to show if your food gathering was higher than your food consumption in general. This way (in theory) you would get a better idea if the amount of foragers and farmers were enough to sustain your population or not. It hasn't been easy to provide a good representative for this, since it keeps varying based on villager walking distances, etc. The previous solution didn't work as well as we wanted, and so we ended up abandonining it altogether. Since then, we've given it another attempt to implement this, and we're much happier with the new solution! There will be up to 3 arrows up or down based on the speed of increasing/depleting your food stock.

Visible Counter System

We'll talk more about new modes and features at some point, but for now, here's another "general improvement" that we've been working on.
There's a few things to notice here! For one, we've seperated melee armor and ranged armor in this panel, whereas now this panel just shows if a unit generally has good or bad armor. The reason for this change in 1.0 is that the disctinction between melee and ranged armor will become more important. Another is that you'll get hints about what units it generally counters and gets countered by. These are not VERY hard counters like in comparable RTS games, but they are a good guide, and there will be further balance changes to make these counters slightly more profound. The last thing to notice is the ?. What's this unannounced unit that counters slingers? Stay tuned!

Improved AI

Another area that will see some improvements is the AI. As an example, AIs on higher difficulty levels will now make additional granaries when farms are not close to any delivery points. This will boost their late game economy and make them a more formidable foe.
That's it for now! Of course, these snippets are just a small taste of everything that is to come. Stay tuned for more updates on TFC: The Fertile Crescent!

[ 2024-02-15 02:49:30 CET ] [ Original post ]

TFC is a classic base-building RTS inspired by the struggles of growth, advancement, and conquest in the cradle of civilization. Establish your village near fertile lands, and balance your food surplus against the size of your civilian and military might, as you build your village.

Food is responsible for more than just feeding your troops. It determines the rate your population grows, and how quickly you can gain Knowledge Points. Keeping your village fed will ensure your prosperous expansion, but allowing your farms to be compromised can bring even the strongest economies to their knees.

Inspired by the real history of the Near East Bronze Age era, TFC utilizes classic RTS elements while offering a unique perspective for the genre. Taking technological limitations and advancements into account, players will need to carefully consider how to spend their precious Knowledge Points, as they explore the Village Improvements that are designed to enable players to quickly counter an opponent’s strategy.

Strategic Options From The Beginning

Heavily inspired by the giants of the genre, TFC looks to expand on the mechanics of its contemporaries in interesting ways, giving players multiple strategic actions to explore from the very beginning of a match. There are multiple paths to victory, and players can quickly adapt their strategy to respond to enemy actions. How well players leverage this freedom will determine whether they experience glorious victory, or crushing defeat.

Consequential Fertility Mechanic

Food is the foundation of every successful village. Locate fertile ground and build your village around it to ensure that there is enough to sustain your growing population. Balancing your food surplus against your villagers and growing military is important, and protecting your farms is critical if you want to keep your village alive. Likewise there’s no better way to demoralize your opponents’ populations than by destroying their farms, and decimating their economy.

Advance Your Village

Increase the strength of your village as you explore Village Improvements. TFC features a collection of powerful improvements that allow commanders to spend points to quickly react to their enemy’s advancements, or perhaps create a window of opportunity to strike. With various ways to boost your economy and military, your strategic options are always clear to understand, and easy to implement.

Play Online With Up To 4 Players

An AI can be quite the challenge, but nothing can replace a real player. Available at launch, battle it out with up to three other commanders in order to prove who is the best at managing their village, army and food supplies. Challenge your friends or complete strangers, and visit our Discord to find new rivals. May the most prosperous village win, or perhaps the smarter commander? Everything is in your hands!