Hey everyone, I just have a few bug fixes for this week:

Bug fixes

• Fixed a bug with Mercenaries that would sometimes cause them to not attack enemies if they were going to be unpaid on the next turn
• In the first campaign tutorial, it was possible to navigate to the resource icons using a controller before they were visible - this has now been disabled until those icons are all present
• Fixed the bug where the word Redraw would appear even if the redraw button is not visible

Thanks again to everyone who reported bugs on the Steam forums :) Here's the updates for this week:

Balance changes

• In the 2nd Acan campaign mission, Paid in Blood, reduced the amount of food and gold that is needed to be gained from playing rituals to 20
• In the same campaign mission, increased the likelihood of finding the gold ritual card in the Harvest Shop
• Increased the starting food for the above level too

Bug fixes

• If multiple Research Libraries generate a Discovery card on the same turn, they now increase the research cost by the correct number of steps - once per Discovery card generated - instead of once in total
• When placing a Gladiator School next to an Amphitheatre and adding and removing workers via clicking on the buildings, the gold lost of gained per turn was not immediately updated to reflect the correct amount - this has been fixed
• Fixed the bug in the campaign mission Seasons of Fire, in which the boss wouldnt spawn until wave 11 instead of wave 6

Bug fixes

Hello, Islanders! Today marks a significant milestone These Doomed Isles has officially launched out of Early Access and into its full 1.0 release! We are immensely grateful for the valuable feedback and support from our community throughout development, which has helped shape the game into its final form. Now, we are excited to present the full These Doomed Isles experience for you to explore. These Doomed Isles invites you to wield divine powers, construct thriving island civilizations, and defend against waves of ever-encroaching invaders. Lead your followers, build intricate deck strategies, and unlock powerful synergies to overcome the trials that await your civilization.

Watch the Official These Doomed Isles 1.0 Release Trailer

It all started one rainy day back in August 2021 (it might not have been raining, but this is England so the chances are pretty high). Id been prototyping what feels like 1000 different ideas but none of them felt particularly inspiring until I started making a kind of Tetris island thing:
There wasnt much to it, just a fun toy to fiddle around with until I started adding rabbits into the mix!
Oh, and cards too And so it really just kind of spiraled from there until here we are, 3 years later, 1 day away from 1.0. 1.0 is a scary thing. Even after the 100s of bugs Ive fixed over the past year, theres always that underlying worry that somethings slipped through the net. The problem with bugs when you have a game with this many systems and modes is that, when you fix one thing, theres always the chance that it breaks something else. Aside from the bugs, theres been some pretty big changes to the structure of the game.

Challenge Mode

Hey everyone, It's with MASSIVE excitement that I can say These Doomed Isles 1.0 is coming October 30th!

The full launch comes with some cool new ways to play, including:

Thanks for all your support!

Hello everyone! We're excited to dive into the deep strategy of deck-building that drives the core game-play of These Doomed Isles. In this post, we'll explore various deck builds for Cernunos and Plutus that you can create to overcome the challenges that await you. Whether you prefer to focus on economic growth, devastating attacks, or utilising unique mechanics, there's a deck that suits your style.

Cernunos Decks

Rapid Scaling

Ready for Battle

Plutus Decks

Prepare for Prosperity

The Greater Good

Fixed the following bugs: [olist]

Hey everyone! These Doomed Isles and our brand new Deckbuilder update will be showcased as part of SimFest from right now until the 29th of July. There are also tonnes of other intricate and exciting simulation games taking part in the festival that you can check out right here!

How to build your deck

Update to Tutorial 3

Fixed bug with Tutorial level 3

Hey everyone, please find below the full patch notes for our deckbuilding update! Really excited to see your reactions to this update and hopefully it addresses some of the issues players had with the game. We have been really listening to community feedback and feel this is a big step in the right direction!

New features

• The Research Library can now be built. This allows you to gain Discovery cards, which can be used to increase the rate at which you will see specific cards in the Harvest shop
• 21 new objectives have been added, meaning that you will have to play differently each time in order to win the game
• You will no longer trigger events from connecting to islands, these will instead trigger at specific population thresholds and give you a side quest to complete. Success or failure will lead to consequences
• You can now discover houses, enemy camps and ruins on islands
• You can now choose the cards that make up your starting hand
• You can now set an additional challenge to complete a run within a certain number of years. Success will reward you with stars that can be used to unlock more powerful cards for your starting deck. Failure will lead to your island falling into the sea
• A new tutorial has been added, guiding you through a series of short missions in order to learn to different aspects of the game

Bug fixes

• Saving and loading the game will no longer reset the number of turns before an enemy wave attacks
• The red flash for when the enemy warning is off screen will now scale to still fill the screen edges even when zoomed out
• You will now get the red enemy warning flash on the edge of the screen when the warning icon is behind the resources at the top or the cards at the bottom
• All resource icons can now be right clicked on to see more information (previously it was preventing workers, stone and some others from loading and just started moving the camera instead)
• Followers will no longer fade out and disappear when working on Rice Fields
• Trees will no longer disappear beneath Rice Fields

Balance changes

• Updated the Greek card Raised from Dust. Its effect now reads: When you redraw your hand this turn, the next card that you play has zero resource costs
• Yet another tweak to how population works! Its still affected by happiness, but now you get a range of followers depending on happiness level:
  • At 100%+ you will gain 2-5 followers
  • At 95%+ you will gain 2-3 followers
  • At 85%+ you will gain 1-3 followers
  • At 70%+ you will gain 1-2 followers
  • At 50%+ you will gain 1 follower
  • At less than 25% you will begin to lose followers
• You now start with 65% happiness
• Reduced the cost of the relocate card to 6 faith
• Reduced the iron cost of the Weaponsmith to 6
• Reduced the cost of Re-arm to 8 iron
• Reduced the cost of Build it Up to 6 stone
• The Haru, Natsu, Aki and Fuyu cards that Inari uses have had the unplayable effect removed when it is the wrong season to play them. Now if they are played in the wrong season, they will instead discard and redraw your cards, giving faith for each card discarded in this way - please note that, as they are all single-use, the Seasonal cards (Torii Gate, Kitsune and Export) are still not playable in Winter
• Hokora now generate 2 faith per turn

Quality of life

• You can now zoom out a lot more (until you can see the whole map). However, for performance reasons, the game will no longer draw the health of all buildings when you mouse over a single building after you zoom past a certain level
• Palisades and Stone Walls can now be placed a single tile at a time
• You will now receive a warning of the impending enemy attack when placing a Wonder
• Added more relics to be unlocked

The Deckbuilder update for These Doomed Isles is live RIGHT NOW! The Deckbuilder update introduces a host of features allowing you a deeper level of control over the cards you start a run with and the cards you want to see during a run with all 4 of the gods! This will help negate any issues with negative RNG and enable you to go more in depth of strategy. This is something we have been working on for a while after taking your feedback on board so we can't wait to hear how you find these changes!
We are also introducing the star system to give players additional challenges that will give new and existing players additional goals to pursue throughout their experience which can then provide a valuable resource to unlock new starting cards.
The Deckbuilder Update also features a new tutorial sequence that aims to give all players regardless of experience a deeper understanding of the existing mechanics within the game, while also providing a small glimpse of what is yet to come from the campaign mode that will be introduced in the 1.0 update of These Doomed Isles. You can find the full list of patch notes here

TactiCon

Brand New Features

• The Research Library will be available to build. This allows you to gain Discovery cards, which can be used to increase the rate at which you will see specific cards in the Harvest shop. This will hopefully reduce the impact of RNG and increase the control you have over your strategy!
  
• 21 new objectives will be added, meaning that you will have to play differently each time in order to achieve victory!
• You will no longer trigger events from connecting to islands, these will instead trigger at specific population thresholds and give you a side quest to complete. Success or failure will lead to consequences.
• You will discover houses, enemy camps and ruins on islands.
• You will be able to choose the cards that make up your starting hand. This is an effort to give you the ability to strategise more ahead of each run and have more control over your strategy!
  
• It will be possible to set an additional challenge to complete a run within a certain number of years. Success will reward you with stars that can be used to unlock more powerful cards for your starting deck. Failure will lead to your island falling into the sea
  

  Balance Changes

  
  
  • Yet another tweak to how population works! Its still affected by happiness, but now you get a range of followers depending on happiness level:
    • At 100%+ you will gain 2-5 followers.
    • At 95%+ you will gain 2-3 followers.
    • At 85%+ you will gain 1-3 followers.
    • At 70%+ you will gain 1-2 followers.
    • At 50%+ you will gain 1 follower.
    • At less than 25% you will begin to lose followers.
    
    

Introducing the Deckbuilder Update - Releasing July 18th

Steam Summer Sale

We're in the Steam Tacticon Event

We're bringing this series back, and we're going to be taking a look into all the enemies that youll encounter when you play as Icari, the Japanese god of rice cultivation and prosperity. The Inari update introduces new threats your island will encounter, including:

Tengu

Tanuki

Itsumade

Akurojin-no-hi

Kyuuketsuki

Added a fix for the 'Awe' prayer, which could ask you to build more Wonders than are possible to build. It will now limit the number of Wonders required by the number that are available to each God.

New stuff in numbers

• 1 new god!
• 74 new cards
• 5 new enemies
• 3 new bosses
• 5x difficulty levels

New mechanics

• Rice - a new resource that can be gathered from Rice Fields. It is required by certain cards, but can also be exported for gold or converted to food by a number of other cards and buildings.
• Nengu - Some cards have a Nengu cost, which is a tax paid in rice. This increases with each Nengu card that you play, making each future Nengu card require more rice to be played. There are a number of cards that interact with Nengu in other ways, such as reducing it or using it to affect how effective they are.
• Anshin - Some cards and buildings have the Anshin tag. Other cards and buildings are more or less effective depending on the number of Anshin buildings within range or on your island. Some buildings also trigger their effect when you play an Anshin card or place an Anshin building.
• Seasons - Some cards can only be played in certain seasons, whereas there are other cards that have different effects depending on the season.
  • Haru - These cards can only be played in spring.
  • Natsu - These cards can only be played in summer.
  • Aki - These cards can only be played in autumn.
  • Fuyu - These cards can only be played in winter.
• Frozen - Cards can now apply the Frozen status effect to enemies. Enemies that are Frozen do not move or attack on their turn, and can also be shattered if you have the right card!

Military units

• Ashigaru - Ashigaru units will return to your deck automatically when no enemies are present.
• Samurai - Samurai units can be trained by Dojos to increase their abilities, but require Samurai Houses to be built.
• Cavalry - Cavalry units attack at range and are very powerful, but they will automatically be returned to your deck each winter.

New enemies

• Akurojin-no-hi
• Tanuki
• Tengu
• Itsumade
• Kyketsuki

• Shuten-dji
• Kuchisake-onna
• Haradashi

Some standout cards

• Castle - Castles will generate gold and are required to build houses for your Merchants and Samurai.
• Dojo - Dojo are used to train your Samurai units and increase their abilities.
• Swordsmith - The Swordsmith increases the efficiency of your Dojo.
• Theatre - Theaters bring happiness to your followers and allow you to play the Noh Drama card if you need a sudden boost in happiness.
• Tranquil Garden - adds Rejuvenate cards to your deck after you play a set number of Nengu cards.

• Plague - Played on WET enemies, this will cause them to take damage based on just how wet they currently are!
• Shatter - Playing this on Frozen enemies causes them to take damage equal to their Frozen stack. If this kills them, then they will damage any other enemies who are stood adjacent or diagonal to them!
• The Wind Rises - This allows you to pick up and move an enemy to any empty tile on your island!
• Respite and Rejuvenate - These are cards that allow you to increase the number of uses that your unit cards have, so that they dont disappear if they keep getting recalled to your deck.

Balance changes

• At 100%+ you gain 5 followers per year
• At 95%+ you gain 4 followers per year
• At 90%+ you gain 3 followers per year
• At 75%+ you gain 2 followers per year
• At 50%+ you gain 1 follower per year

Quality of life updates

• A warning now flashes on-screen to show you where enemies will attack from
• If that icon is off-screen, the edge of the screen will flash
• Militia now clarifies that it is its start health that is equal to the trees in range, not ongoing health

Bug fixes

• Fixed issue with resource bar where loading games could lead to the icons being mixed up
• Health of Wonders and Palisades will no longer appear through the Harvest shop screen
• Mouse will no longer disappear on loading screen
• Game will no longer crash if you check the Wood info after building a foundry
• Building a Wonder will no longer indicate a large scale attack on Ascensions 1 and 2
• Ascensions 12+ are no longer greyed out despite being available to select
• Fixed a crash when selecting ascension level 13

Hey everyone, It's finally here - you can now play as the fourth god, Inari (the Japanese god of rice cultivation and prosperity) in the newest update! [previewyoutube=N-Vx7Us93tY;full][/previewyoutube]

Check out our new roadmap

we want to make the core game experience the best it can be[/b rather than just stacking on more and more gods]. Here's the upcoming changes to look forward to:

Follower growth has now been fixed!

We heard you - we've sorted the issues with follower growth and the fix has gone live in this latest update. Thanks so much for flagging these bugs with us, your comments have been incredibly helpful to us. If you notice anything else, please do let us know.

Discord challenges coming soon for the new Inari update!

Join us on Discord to take part in new challenges coming very soon. Chat with the team, share your strategy with other players, and meet new people. Thanks everyone and I hope you enjoy the new update! Andrew

Hey everyone, I'm stoked to be bringing back this mini-series to deep dive into our fourth god, Inari! She is the Japanese god of rice cultivation and prosperity, and we'll be covering off some of the new features that make her unique...

Inari's starting abilities are:

Inari's god power cards allow for some powerful synergies:

Base god power

We are gearing up to introduce and welcome the Japanese God of rice cultivation and prosperity, Inari Inari is the Fourth god added to our roster. She brings new magic powers, a plethora of new units to play with and many unique buildings including huge castles, tea rooms, theatres, and of course dojos. totalling over 70 new cards for the game Be aware that there are also new enemies seeking to take you down! - Haradashi, Shuten-dji, and Kuchisake-onna. Inari will bring a new, strategic gameplay style to These Doomed Isles as well as a huge FREE content update which will be live on 4 April 2024 - Just under two weeks time! Check out Inari's trailer now! [previewyoutube=TFgrXc75d-o;full]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TFgrXc75d-o[/previewyoutube] We're incredibly excited for you all to get your hands on the new update for our game, and we want to thank each and every one of you for your ongoing support

Fixed a bug that would cause starvation to increase your number of followers

Hey everyone, Just wanted to jump on here and let you know that the newest update is now live, and there's new cards and mechanics to play with. Check the patch notes here Secondly, we're part of Digital Tabletop Fest 4: Roll of the Dice! This Steam festival showcases loads of awesome tabletop-themed games, including These Doomed Isles.
From now until March 11th, there's heaps of games to discover, as well as discounts and panels. Check out the event here.

Thanks for playing the prologue!

Hey, there's some big changes and fixes in this patch - which is why it's been a little longer than planned! Here are the changes:

New cards

Hi everyone, Thanks for your continued support and feedback, it has been incredibly helpful. While we're working on a much bigger update (and a brand new god - coming soon!), I just wanted to let you know about some smaller additions we're making to These Doomed Isles. This mini update is coming next week, and includes:

You can now reposition your units!

Follower growth has changed

Play with new cards

Join our Discord & take part in challenges!

Just an update to replace Krampus Chaos with a non-festive Horde Mode

Happy New Year, everyone! Hope you all enjoyed the holidays. I just wanted to jump on here and give you a couple small updates on These Doomed Isles:

• The Jolly Onslaught update will be taken down on the 11th January at 2pm GMT. If you haven't defended your island against Santa Claws and his army of naughty elves, then now's your chance!
  
• Thanks to all your feedback on the game so far, we are going to be rejigging our roadmap slightly to make the game even better. We'll be able to share more in the near future but I wanted to say a big thanks to everyone who has continued to play and share their thoughts with us, your input has been super helpful!
• However, exciting updates are on the horizon and as per the original roadmap...

Fixed a crash related to duplicate cards being drawn at the harvest screen

Added localisation for new game modes

Fixed a crashed caused by surviving past 30 years in Krampus Chaos mode

Uploaded a fix for repeated crash when clicking on certain cards

New features

• Added Creative Modes, which includes Builder, Sandbox and Custom modes of play
• Krampus Chaos wave survival mode has been added

Bug fixes

• All of the Mayan Specialist cards had zero cost when played - this has been fixed and they will now take the resources listed on the card

Balance changes

• All Gods now start with the Maneuvers card, which allows you to move units around the map
• Maneuvers has been moved to the common card pool and has had its cost reduced to 6 gold to play
• Battlefield Tactics card now unlocks 2 levels earlier for the Greek god
• Defensive towers and units will now attack in the most efficient order, ensuring that the most number of enemies will be hit at the end of your turn (towers/units with fewest enemies in range attack first)

Quality of Life

• Items are no longer drawn offscreen when playing on an ultra-widescreen monitor
• You can now select multiple screen sizes within the visual options
• You can now select to play in Borderless Windowed mode within the visual options

Hey everyone, Just wanted to let you all know that the update is coming out on the 11th of December just so we can give it a bit more balancing and fix a couple little bugs. If you just can't wait until Monday, you can play it now on the Experimental branch! To do so right click on the app in Steam, select Properties, then Betas and then Experimental from the drop down menu there Hope you are all looking forward to it!

I've just pushed a quick patch to the experimental branch with some big updaates. If you are a keen bean and want to help us with balancing - this is now there! Details on how to access that are here.

New features

• Added Creative Modes, which includes Builder, Sandbox and Custom modes of play
• Krampus Chaos wave survival mode has been added

Bug fixes

• All of the Mayan Specialist cards had zero cost when played - this has been fixed and they will now take the resources listed on the card

Balance changes

• All Gods now start with the Maneuvers card, which allows you to move units around the map
• Maneuvers has been moved to the common card pool and has had its cost reduced to 6 gold to play
• Battlefield Tactics card now unlocks 2 levels earlier for the Greek god
• Defensive towers and units will now attack in the most efficient order, ensuring that the most number of enemies will be hit at the end of your turn (towers/units with fewest enemies in range attack first)

Quality of Life

• Items are no longer drawn offscreen when playing on an ultra-widescreen monitor
• You can now select multiple screen sizes within the visual options
• You can now select to play in Borderless Windowed mode within the visual options

Hey everyone, Just wanted to jump on here and let you know that These Doomed Isles is getting a visit from Santa this year... Coming on December 7th, you'll be able to play The Jolly Onslaught update! If you are a keen bean and want to help us with balancing - this is now live on the experimental branch! Details on how to access that are here.

Introducing Krampus Chaos mode

Our first MAJOR content update!

Thanks for your support!

I've just pushed a quick patch to the experimental branch with the following updates: Bug fixes

• All of the Mayan Specialist cards had zero cost when played - this has been fixed and they will now take the resources listed on the card

• Items are no longer drawn offscreen when playing on an ultra-widescreen monitor
• You can now select multiple screen sizes within the visual options
• You can now select to play in Borderless Windowed mode within the visual options

Quality of life updates

• Added an option to close all notifications at once instead of having to click on them individually (this will only appear when there are at least 2 notifications)
• When viewing the screen that shows which cards have been removed by the Tomb, you will see an explanation of how to remove cards if you havent removed any yet
• Improved game speed when enemies are attacking
• You can now select event choices using the numbers on your keyboard
• The game camera is now constrained to the playable area

Bug fixes

• Villagers will no longer glitch between their walking and swimming sprites when walking close to the edge of land
• Fishing boats can no longer be placed on top of fishing platforms
• When playing cursed cards to remove them, they will no longer be triggered if you have Deja Vu or the Echoes relic active
• The Build it up card can no longer be used on Stone Walls, only Palisades (as stated on the card text)
• Mayan Noble houses would trigger the no worker warning at the start of each turn, even if they had workers, and this has now been fixed

Hey everyone, Just wanted to give a little update to let you all know that These Doomed Isles has been officially verified on Steam Deck meaning that you should be able to play the game with no issues on the move with the handheld device! We have been hard at work recently with balance tweaks such as reworking the card harvest and bringing new features such as the "Tomb" which allows you to better control which cards you will find in your deck as well! With all this it is great to see that the game is still making progress and getting additional visibility on Steam. Thanks for all the support and stay tuned for more news about what else is coming throughout early access! Join our Discord for sneak peaks and to get involved in the discussion and playtesting!

Balance changes

Bug fixes

• Fixed a crash caused by relicParent draw event
• When playing Mayan Specialists, they would remove a random card from your deck each turn - they now only remove Trade cards, which is what they were supposed to do all along
• Relocate will no longer leave buildings red when you are no longer mousing over them
• You are no longer able to click SKIP rewards button when the game is paused
• Unlocked cards are no longer grayed out if you unlock them at the end of a run that ended in defeat

New features

• Added Tomb as a card, which unlocks the ability to remove cards from harvest. Each tomb built allows for 5 cards to be removed for that run and increases the cost of the next Tomb that you build

Balance changes

• Unlocking new cards requires less XP
• Shop prices reduced for some cards
• Jotnar now only heals part of his health when attacking your towers and units
• The Graea (Deino, Enyo and Pemphredo) now only add cursed cards to your deck when they spawn, instead of every turn

Quality of life updates

• Buildings and units in the worker menus are now sorted by number of spare worker slots, then alphabetically
• Cards are now sorted alphabetically when you Delve, sell to Loki or view the library
• Made it clearer that you only select 1 modifier for that run when you choose your God

Hey everyone, We have some new things being tested on the experimental branch now including some actual art for the Tomb card! So be sure to check out the "experimental" branch (right click on the app in Steam, select Properties, then Betas and then Experimental from the drop down menu there)

• Wonders will no longer keep appearing in Harvest after you've bought them
• Wonders can no longer be 'buried' by using the Tomb (as this can prevent a soft lock)
• God specific sprites added for Tomb building
• Tomb can now be seen in the Card Library
• You can no longer select to skip rewards whilst the game is paused, which lef to card draw issues
• Card unlocks are no longer greyed out when you unlock them after losing a run

Hey everyone, This is all being tested right now on the experimental branch so if you're interested in having trying those features early, be sure to check out the "experimental" branch (right click on the app in Steam, select Properties, then Betas and then Experimental from the drop down menu there)

Bug fixes

• Fixed a crash caused by relicParent draw event
• When playing Mayan Specialists, they would remove a random card from your deck each turn - they now only remove Trade cards, which is what they were supposed to do all along

Balance changes

• Card weighting system update to offer more balanced cards through a run (new run required for this to take effect)
• Wonders are now added back into the harvest deck upon being destroyed to prevent soft lock (only built Wonders count towards the Awe objective)
• Unlocking new cards requires less XP
• Shop prices reduced for some cards
• Jotnar now only heals part of his health when attacking your towers and units
• The Graea (Deino, Enyo and Pemphredo) now only add cursed cards to your deck when they spawn, instead of every turn

Quality of life updates

• Buildings and units in the worker menus are now sorted by number of spare worker slots, then alphabetically
• Cards are now sorted alphabetically when you Delve, sell to Loki or view the library
• Made it clearer that you only select 1 modifier for that run when you choose your God

Hey everyone, First off, I just wanted to say a massive thanks to everyone who have downloaded These Doomed Isles. Its so exciting (and nerve-wracking!) having our game finally out there for everyone to play, and it wouldnt have been possible without all your feedback from our playtests. Cheers!

If you can, please leave a Steam review

Were continually working on These Doomed Isles!

Hey everyone, thanks for the continued feedback - I'll keep working to make the game better! I'm working on a bigger update to make the game more balanced and ease some of the RNG woes, so if you're interested in having trying those features early, be sure to check out the "experimental" branch (right click on the app in Steam, select Properties, then Betas and then Experimental from the drop down menu there)

Bug fixes

Fixed crash caused by obj_showHealth object

We have another fun feature to test out in this version to help with getting the cards you want to see in harvests - this time it is tombs! To opt-in you have to right click on the game in your Steam library and select properties. Then click on Betas and from there you will have the option to select the beta you would like to opt into. Once there click on that dropdown and select experimental. You can see all of the changes we have introduced in this experimental branch update here:

• Updated with balance changes, QoL updates and bug fixes from public 0.1.44 build
• Added Tomb as a card (placeholder art for now!), which unlocks the ability to remove cards from harvest. Each tomb built allows for 5 cards to be removed for that run (you cant current view or edit the cards that have been removed, but will be adding this as a feature - theres also no effect if the tomb is removed/destroyed currently)
• Added Creative Modes, which includes Builder, Sandbox and Custom modes of play (all of these are pacifist, but we will be adding violent game modes too in the future)

Hey everyone, Thanks for all of the feedback and for those of you who've been helping out with testing new features on the experimental branch. There's quite a few fixes and changes in this update, so be sure to have a look through below!

New features

Fixed crash caused by the Smelter building when clicking on the Wood resource information panel

Hey everyone! Thank you for all the feedback on the game over the last week! As we look to update and balance the game throughout early access to effectively respond to your feedback, we will be introducing/testing some new features/mechanics. Some of these changes are going to be quite significant so we wanted to do this in a place that wouldn't change the game too much for those who are already enjoying it! To solve this problem, we have decided to use an experimental branch that will allow you to check out some of the big changes and give feedback on them before they go out to the rest of the players on the main branch. To opt-in you have to right click on the game in your Steam library and select properties. Then click on Betas and from there you will have the option to select the beta you would like to opt into. Once there click on that dropdown and select experimental. The first update just going out now on the experimental branch is testing a whole new system that will allow you to control what cards you get in the harvests a bit better. You can check the patch notes here: https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1840710/view/3745363008522175144 We are collating feedback for this experimental update here if you want to contribute: https://fireshinegames.jotform.com/build/232704028719961 And in the Discord: https://discord.gg/wJXJ6dZTn2 We really appreciate all of the feedback you have so please do keep it coming!

Hey everyone! Thank you for all the feedback on the game over the last week! As we look to update and balance the game throughout early access to effectively respond to your feedback, we will be introducing/testing some new features/mechanics. Some of these changes are going to be quite significant so we wanted to do this in a place that wouldn't change the game too much for those who are already enjoying it! To solve this problem, we have decided to use an experimental branch that will allow you to check out some of the big changes and give feedback on them before they go out to the rest of the players on the main branch. To opt-in you have to right click on the game in your Steam library and select properties. Then click on Betas and from there you will have the option to select the beta you would like to opt into. Once there click on that dropdown and select experimental. You can see all of the changes we have introduced in this experimental branch update here:

New features

• Cards can now be removed from the harvest pool until the end of the current run - this can be done by clicking on the x above the card whilst in the harvest screen (it will trigger a warning)
• You are now able to redraw the random cards offered at the start of a run

Balance changes

• Increased the variety of cards that are offered at the start of a run
• Connecting to islands now gives you resources based on the number of the things that you can see on the island. This is how it is broken down:
  • 1 villager = 1 follower
  • 1 sheep = 4 food
  • 1 rock = 2 stone
  • 1 tree = 2 wood
  • 1 treasure chest = 12-24 gold
• You can now see what resource and how much of it you will get when you mouse over an unconnected island
• Houses are now more likely if you have high homeless and fewer housing cards in your deck
• Basic houses are no longer subject to inflation when you purchase them during harvest. This includes the following cards:
  • Cabin
  • Mud house
  • Small common house
• Increased the chances of drawing the storehouse during harvest

Bug fixes

• Rewrote how Wonders are offered in the harvest, as it was common for Acan to only be offered 1 or 2 during an entire run. All Gods will now be offered at least 4 different Wonders on a more regular basis

Fixed crash caused when your shrine is destroyed at the end of the turn you place a wonder and trigger an attack

Fixed an issue where stone could be capped at 20 even when you have greater capacity

Fixed crash related to Temple of the Cow being pulled into the harvest deck

Balance changes

HOTFIX

Fixed crash on loading for first time users who hadnt previously played demo/prologue caused by the language fix in previous update

Build number 0.1.36

26th September 2023

Bug fixes

Hey everyone! Fresh off the heels of releasing into early access this morning, we are in the Fireshine Games Publisher sale alongside a host of other awesome indie games! If you love indie games, check out Fireshines Steam page for loads of great discounts across their portfolio of titles - including These Doomed Isles at 10% off. From strategy games to co-op adventures, theres a whole bunch to choose from. There are also a host of great upcoming indie titles that you can show your support for by wishlisting them now! The publisher sale kicked off at 6pm BST today and can be found here

The trinity of gods is finally here! Hey everyone, With huge excitement I can finally say These Doomed Isles is out TODAY in Early Access! Acan, the Mayan god of wine, has finally landed and opens up a whole new way of playing. You can see our out now trailer below: [previewyoutube=VXlWgsZwblA;full][/previewyoutube]

Save 10% off until 2nd October!

Hi everyone, Just wanted to post a quick message to let you know our demo has now been taken down while we work on getting everything ready for our launch into Early Access. You can still play the prologue if you haven't already. A big thanks for supporting These Doomed Isles throughout our journey, we can't wait for you to be able to play the new god on the 25th September!

In the 3rd (and final!) part of this mini-series, were going to take a look into all the enemies that youll encounter when you play as Acan, the Mayan god of wine. These creatures are themed around both mythological and real enemies that their civilisation would have faced.

Aztec

• The Aztecs were a Mesoamerican culture that flourished in central Mexico in the post-classic period from 1300 to 1521.
• Aztec warriors were skilled and disciplined fighters, and were highly honoured.
• Known to be quite bloodthirsty, Aztec warriors preferred to capture their enemies so that they could sacrifice them to the gods.
• Aztecs were the first people to discover chocolate.
• In These Doomed Isles, Aztec steal a Trade card from your deck when attacking a building!

Conquistador

• The main goal of the Spanish conquistadors was to claim land and resources for their investors and conquer land for treasure and glory.
• The word conquistador comes from Spanish and means "he who conquers."
• Wherever the conquistadors went, death, disease, and misery for the natives followed.
• When a conquistador invades your island, theyll take 1-5 gold when they attack a building!

Cipactli

• In Aztec mythology, Cipactli was a primeval sea monster, part crocodilian, part fish, and part toad or frog.
• Every joint on its body was adorned with an extra mouth.
• This animal had an insatiable hunger which threatened to devour ever creation on earth.
• When Cipactli rocks up on your land, they gain +1 attack strength after attacking.

Cueyatl

• Cueyatl are a frog-like race of humanoids that make their homes in swamps and dense jungles.
• They have poisonous tongues that could corrode a demigod's body.
• When they hop onto your land, they will spawn a copy of themselves if they take zero damange during a turn!

Camazotz

• Camazotz is described as an anthropomorphized leaf-nosed bat and is the Mayan god of bats, night, death and sacrifice.
• He supposedly fed on blood, and is fiercely dangerous to anyone that comes across it.
• In These Doomed Isles, Camazotz will attack housing (or your shrine if its closer!)

Huay Chivo

• Huay Chivo is a legendary Mayan beast.
• He is a half-man, half-beast creature, with burning red eyes.
• He was thought to be an evil sorcerer who can transform himself into a supernatural animal, usually a goat, dog or deer, in order to prey upon livestock!
• He will cause chaos on your island, so be ready to defend your settlement!

Hey everyone, These Doomed Isles is coming to Steam Early Access on the 25th of September at 11am BST. We have just released a brand new trailer revealing gameplay footage of Acan, the Mayan god of wine. Check it out below: [previewyoutube=Fa32OjeP-lA;full][/previewyoutube] I cant wait for you all to play the game again at the early access launch and check out all the new stuff weve added. Weve got 3 gods with different playstyles, 10 ascension levels, 15 unique enemies, 9 unique bosses, over 250 cards and over 30 relics and curses ready for the Early Access launch, so theres plenty there to be getting your teeth into! This is just the beginning of the adventure for These Doomed Isles, and we will be sharing a roadmap for the early access journey on the 25th of September as well. In the meantime, please help an indiedev out by wishlisting the game on Steam and joining our Discord! Thanks / Andrew

In the 2nd part of this mini-series we are going to do a deeper dive into all of the enemies that you can face playing as Plutus, the Greek god of wealth. The enemies that invade the isles varies per god and they are themed around both mythological and real enemies that their civilisations would have faced.

Harpy

• Half-human, half-bird and said to be the personification of storm winds, the harpy was known to carry away unsuspecting humans from their homes and blinding them!
• Attacks housing unless your shrine is closer

Immortal

• An elite heavy infantry unit belonging to the Persian army, these units were a thorn in the side of the Ancient Greeks legend has it they were called immortals because whenever one of their men died they would recruit someone to take their place immediately.
• Attack power is equal to the total number of Immortals

Gryphon

• Half lion, half eagle this terrifying amalgamation of apex predators could be considered the king of all beasts. Famous for guarding treasures but without doubt vicious when provoked.
• Attacks your shrine

Usabari

• Another enemy from the lands of Persia, the Usabari were warriors who rode camels into battle. The Usabari were particularly useful against Western foes as their cavarly would often get skittish in the face of camels.
• Attacks gold sources unless your shrine is closer

Siren

• Infamous for luring sailors to a watery grave, the siren is often depicted as a mermaid-like creature. Sirens are known to sing an entrancing song that captivates unsuspecting sailors and before they know it they have dashed their ship among the rocks.
• Attacks units and defensive buildings unless your shrine is closer

Hydra

In this mini-series we are going to do a deeper dive into all of the enemies that you can face playing as each god, starting with Cernunnos, the Celtic god of nature. The enemies that invade the isles varies per god and they are themed around both mythological and real enemies that their civilisations would have faced.

Viking raider

• The isles of Scotland and Ireland often faced raids from Vikings from the 8th through 13th centuries and these mean customers mean to pillage your gold if you dont stop them.
• Attacks gold sources unless your shrine is closer

Saxon raider

• Vikings werent the only problem that the isles of Scotland and Ireland were facing with Saxons also invading from the 7th 10th centuries
• Attacks food sources unless your shrine is closer

Blight witch

• A common myth throughout the histories, this witch is rumoured to plague livestock, corrupt crops and bring famine wherever they go
• Attacks food sources unless your shrine is closer (attacks in an AOE)

Sluagh

• These mythological creatures were said to be the hosts of the unforgiven dead in Irish and Scottish folklore that would terrorise locals by dropping them from heights or transporting them to other islands.
• Attacks housing unless your shrine is closer

Banshee

• Irish and Scottish folklore wailing at night was believed to foretell the death of a member of the family of the person who heard the spirit. In These Doomed Isles banshees dont just foretell, they can also bring down devastation as well.
• Attacks housing unless your shrine is closer

Balor

Hey everyone, TLDR:

• We are doing a closed test of the Mayan God starting this Friday!
• Join the Discord and react to the post in #Announcements before Friday at 2pm BST
• You will then receive a DM with an NDA that you must sign to take part
• You will then get a special role and have access to a private section of the Discord where we will share more details on Friday!

Hey everyone! These Doomed Isles is taking part in The Yogscasts Tiny Teams Steam event! As a solo developer I really appreciate showcases like this highlighting the work of small teams! As part of this we are bringing back the demo so you can play for the duration of the event again with both Cernunnos, the Celtic god of nature and Plutus, the Greek god of wealth! This build has some fixes and balancing changes since the build we took to Steam Next Fest so definitely check it out! All progress should carry over to the main game when it comes out in September as well! There are also a bunch of other great indie games participating in the event so check them out here and hopefully These Doomed Isles will be covered as part of The Yogscast streaming schedule as well so keep your eyes peeled! Wishlist the game to help an indie dev out and to stay notified when it releases in September! Also join our Discord to get involved in the discussion and playtesting! / Andrew

In part 2 of the mini-series well be taking a deep dive into Plutus, the Greek god of wealth, and what makes them unique! Plutus starting abilities are:

• When you redraw your hand, gain gold equal to how many times you have redrawn this turn
• When you place land, gain 1 gold for each statue on your island
• At the start of each year, if you do not have a statue card in your deck, add a random statue card to your deck

• Hands of the Fates Repeat the effects of any statues that have been built since the last harvest
• Empsychos 8 damage to enemies adjacent or diagonal to statues
• Raised from dust cards played this turn have zero resource cost

Over the coming weeks we'll be taking a deep dive into each god and their abilities, first up is Cernunnos, the Celtic god of nature! All of the gods have 3 different starting abilities, each incentivising slightly different styles of play and enabling synergies with the god power cards as well. Cernunnos' starting abilities are:

• At the start of the year if you do not have a palisade card in your deck, add a palisade card to your deck
• In addition to faith, you also gain 1% happiness per turn for each follower within range of your shrine
• Enemies sustain 1 stack of bleed when they attack a tile on your island

• Bloody Roots - +1 bleed to all enemies when you place a tree this turn
• Spiky Walls 8 damage to enemies adjacent or diagonal to palisades or defensive walls
• Healing Roots - +2 maximum health to buildings, units, palisades and walls

Hey everyone, These Doomed Isles is part of TwitchCon! If you are at TwitchCon Paris you can check out the demo in person and speak to members of the Fireshine Games team about the game! You can see a sneakpeak of the stand before entry later today:
Don't worry if you weren't able to travel to Paris though, the demo is still playable on Steam as well and will be available until Monday the 10th of July at 2pm BST! We should also have more news about other opportunities to play These Doomed Isles before it launches in September this year soon! Including the opportunity to playtest the 3rd god, Acan the Mayan god of wine. To have a chance of taking part in August, please join the Discord here

Hey everyone, We have updated the demo with the following changes:

• Statues now only remove a maximum of 25% rocks/trees/fish when built
• Statues cost less stone
• Town houses, villas and Taxation costs reduced
• Land frequency increased in harvest (at most every 7 rerolls)
• Rockfall offered more frequently in harvest (Greek only)
• Happiness buildings offered more frequently in harvest (Greek only)
• Mud houses now cause unhappiness on build, not each turn
• Fixed bug with Hydra freezing
• Hydra also skips the rest of its turn when killed, instead of immediately attacking again

Hey everyone, Get a look at some gameplay with Plutus, the Greek god that is available for the first time in our new demo! You can unlock Plutus by reaching level 3 with Cernunnos and the progress should carry over if you have already played the prologue so you may be able to jump into it straight away!

Hey everyone, Get a look at some gameplay with Plutus, the Greek god that is available for the first time in our new demo! You can unlock Plutus by reaching level 3 with Cernunnos and the progress should carry over if you have already played the prologue so you may be able to jump into it straight away!

Hi everyone, Happy to announce that These Doomed Isles is going to be part of Steam Next Fest, and that our new demo is now live! [previewyoutube=_58UCv0kNKE;full][/previewyoutube] For the first time, this new god is playable to the public, and it features new cards, god powers, and more enemies. This demo will only be around for a limited time so make sure you go and check it out! As always, your feedback is super helpful to me, so if you do have any suggestions please do let me know. Hope you enjoy playing as Plutus, the Greek god of wealth! Cheers, Andrew

Hey everyone! I hope you all really enjoyed the trailer we revealed as part of the OTK Showcase! If you didn't see it live you can watch it below: [previewyoutube=1gJctcLfArA;full][/previewyoutube] The trailer gives an overview of how the game of These Doomed Isles came to be and introduced us to the first 3 gods we will have at the start of early access. Cernunnos the Celtic god of nature, Plutus the Greek god of wealth and Acan the Mayan god of alcohol! All 3 of these will be playable from the start of early access and I am pleased to announce that you will have the chance to play with Plutus before then as well! The trailer also confirmed that we will have a brand new demo coming on the 16th of June at 2pm BST just before we participate in Steam Next Fest! As part of this demo we are opening up Plutus so you will be able to play as a whole new god and check out what their unique cards, powers and enemies! I can't wait for you all to check it out and keep your eyes peeled for more information about Plutus soon!

Hey everyone! Some exciting news for you all. These Doomed Isles is going to be part of the OTK Showcase on the 10th of June! The showcase goes live on Twitch.tv/Asmongold at 7pm BST! We will be revealing a brand new trailer with a sneak peak of what's to come and some information about the release date so do tune in! Hope you are all excited for what we have in store!

Hi everyone, Firstly Id like to say a big thanks to everyone who has played The First God prologue so far, its been great reading your Steam reviews and weve had some really useful feedback from it. So, thanks! Secondly, weve been working hard on the next god, and were now looking for playtesters! The second god comes with new powers and cards, and your feedback on the gameplay would be SUPER helpful.

Fancy playing this new version of These Doomed Isles? Join our Discord!

Hey everyone, We are excited to announce that These Doomed Isles: The First God is OUT NOW! Featuring new cards, new ascension levels, loads of quality of life improvements and balancing that we have implemented based on your feedback from the demo. Not forgetting the little people now inhabiting the world! In These Doomed Isles: The First God, wield the power of Cernunnos, the Celtic god of nature as you build, defend and lead your Celtic civilisation to victory. Thanks to everybody that has given feedback on These Doomed Isles so far, it has already helped to bring so many improvements to the game! We would really appreciate it if the feedback continues and if you left a review as it really helps us out. To keep up with the latest on These Doomed Isles, you can follow @DoomedIsles on Twitter or join the community on Discord.

Hey everyone! It is official, the prologue is coming to Steam on May 5th! Just over 2 weeks so go! In order to focus on the prologue we will be taking down the demo tomorrow on April 21st but then it is only 2 weeks to wait until the prologue! The prologue will have a few differences to the most recent demo aimed particularly at balance, onboarding and polish: We're going to be putting more of a focus on the onboarding part of the game, as well as looking to give you more reliable options to deal with the various difficulty spikes in the game. The first thing is the addition of new ascension levels; a new level 1 and 2, which will be available from the start. These levels will be easier than the current level 1, and designed to help you learn the game more smoothly, experiment with different options and not get absolutely crushed because you didn't have any workers on your farm at harvest time (I have done this too many times...) Next we're adding in some additional cards for each of the Gods that can be used as basic defence cards. These will be weaker and cheap to buy and use than the other options, but you will start with one in your deck and they will have an infinite number of uses. We're also looking again at the card weighting in the harvest, to try and make sure it's offering you the more broadly useful cards more often, rather than the cards that are particularly context dependent. Finally, there's been a lot of feedback about how rubbish some of the God Power cards are (particularly "Bloody Roots"). We're going to fix that too. I was worried about making them too strong, but you don't get them very often so I think it's probably fairer if they're a little bit OP! All of the above have come from suggestions from the Steam community, which has been awesome! So PLEASE keep leaving me feedback there because it will make a HUGE difference to how good the game can become As well as the balance tweaks, we've also been working on some little additions, such as the ability to continue your run peacefully after defeating Balor. There's also a little visual update that I'll leave you to find out about when you download the prologue To keep up with the latest on These Doomed Isles, you can follow @DoomedIsles on Twitter or join the community on Discord.

The These Doomed Isles demo will be up for the duration of the London Games Festival which comes to an end on the 9th. London is one of the most diverse spaces for games and interactive entertainment in the UK, and the London Games Festival is one of the biggest celebrations of video games of the year. Our publisher, Fireshine Games, is proud to be hosting the London Games Festival Steam Event this year, which is running from today until the 9th of April. There are so many incredible games being developed in or published by studios in London, and we are very happy to be part of this exciting festival, celebrating the successes of our industry peers! We hope you take advantage of the time the These Doomed Isles Demo is available and enjoy leading your people to victory! You can browse the event here: https://store.steampowered.com/developer/FireshineGames/sale/londongamesfest2023 To keep up with the latest on These Doomed Isles, you can follow @DoomedIsles on Twitter or join the community on Discord.

From 23rd 27th March, These Doomed Isles will be part of the Digital Tabletop Fest: Blood & Dice. This awesome event showcases board, card, and tabletop-inspired indie games.

Our demo is back!

These Doomed Isles: The First God prologue is coming soon!

Were super excited to share that well be releasing These Doomed Isles: The First God on Steam next month!

Download and play for free

Hey everyone, Our closed alpha test is now live and will be active from the 10th-24th of February! If you want to take part please join the Discord here and all you have to do is type "/claim closed alpha" in one of the chats to get your key and start playing! Experience the new prayer system, events, new resources, curses and relics and help shape the game!

Hey everyone, Just a quick note to say that the demo has officially been retired for now. In the meantime please do join our Discord where we will be giving out keys for the Closed Alpha testing that will be starting on the 10th of February! We hope you are all excited to check out all the new features coming with the Closed Alpha testing! We are going to have new resources, new cards, new buildings, new victory conditions, events and more!

Hey everyone! We wanted to give you all a heads up that we are going to be taking down the demo on the 30th of January... but don't worry because we are going to be holding closed alpha testing from the 10th of February with a much improved build with a whole host of new features! With all the work that has been going on behind the scene the demo is starting to feel a bit out of date but all the new features we have added need some testing before going to a wider audience so that is why we want to get your help to start testing these! We are going to have new resources, new cards, new buildings, new victory conditions, events and more! We hope you are as excited as we are to take part in this! All you have to do to take part is join our Discord and then on the 10th of February we will be distributing keys in there via a Discord bot so be sure to join before then!

Hey everyone! We are going to be part of Steam's Base Builder Fest from the 23rd to the 30th of January alongside a host of other fantastic games! We will have our demo available for the duration of the event but after the 30th of January we are going to be taking the demo down to focus on a hugely updated version. More information on that to come very shortly because it doesn't mean you won't be able to play These Doomed Isles for long... Join the Discord to keep up to date with this!

Hey everyone, and welcome to the latest update for the These Doomed Isles demo :) I've made the following changes to the game:

Bugs

• Fixed crash with obj_treeStamp trying to draw a non-existent sprite
• When using options in the pause screen, it would sometimes draw a huge black rectangle over the top of everything
• Music wouldnt start on game load, even if you had volume turned up
• Buildings that dont require workers would appear in the workers menu
• Spike pits didnt make enemies skip their movement (this actually only happened following the building of a Wonder, but its fixed now anyway)
• Fixed issues where the game screen would go super tiny when losing focus (it still does, its a Windows thing, but now it goes back to fullscreen when it comes back into focus!)
• Nature Reserve card now shows the correct placement shape

Quality of Life

• Buildings, units and enemies now display their health as a number
• Enemies now do their damage all in one attack, rather than bumping for 1 damage at a time (I have no idea why I did it like that originally)
• Added damage numbers when things get hurt
• Key remapping added for keyboard (only accessible from the start screen currently)
• Added in the following new audio:
• New sound for chopping down trees
• New sound for buildings being built
• Sound for meteor impact
• Sound for launching meteors
• Sound for playing any God card
• Updated building sound so that it triggers when you place the card, not after the building animation has finished
• When you play a God card or effect that does not have a range or tile to place, you will now actually pick up the card to play (before it was a little purple square, which was an odd choice of placeholder)
• When using a gamepad, you can now use the dpad to snap to the resources at the top and the cards at the bottom
• Updated collision code so that it checks by tile rather than by sprite (makes it easier to click on units and enemies in particular)
• Updated how scoring works
• Optimised snow, leaves, blossom and meteor trails as they caused slowdown on older machines

Balance

• Increased Panning Hut gold per worker
• The following building effects no longer stack:
• Brewery
• Park Rangers
• Bakery
• Lumbermill
• Planning Office
• Goldsmith effect changed to: Each worker provides +4 gold per turn when a panning hut or goldmine is in range
• Slightly nerfed Divine Inspiration

New stuff!

• Added the card Relocate (no art yet): Destroy any building and add it back to your hand (excluding your Shrine and any Wonders)
• Replaced Demolish with a new version - it now covers a single tile and gives you a random amount of wood when you demolish a building
• Added a score breakdown screen when you finish a run, so you can see how your score was worked out
• Added a Steam leaderboard to check your high score against your Steam friends

We're excited to have been picked for Turn Based Fest! Happening until 12th December, this festival showcases loads of awesome turn-based indie games!

Discover your new favourite game

Yogscasts Jingle Jam is back, celebrating loads of brilliant games and raising money for a worthy cause!

Tune in to watch These Doomed Isles live gameplay

The countdown is on until the most jolly day of the year, and some festive creatures have decided to pay a visit to These Doomed Isles

Santa Claws is coming to town!

The new demo is ready to play

Fancy winning one of three 25 Steam Vouchers? Weve partnered up with our pals at EGX to give you the chance to get your hands on a 25 Steam voucher! This competition closes November 7th, and entering is super easy. Just head to this link here: https://gleam.io/SsWSf/these-doomed-isles-x-egx-giveaway Good luck!

Until 10th November, our demo will be available to download and play as part of Tabletop Gathering 2022! This awesome event is a celebration of digital board games, bringing fans together to try out new and upcoming indie titles. Were excited to have the These Doomed Isles demo included, and theres a handful of bug fixes that have been added to enhance gameplay, including: *Fixed resolution error *Lumberjack won't cut trees down when adding a worker *Enemy text shows target *Can't click end turn from enemy screen *Can't click resource icons when placing a tile *Health is now drawn over the cursor for buildings, units and enemies We hope you have a great time discovering some brilliant games being showcased over the next week. If you do get a chance to play our demo, feel free to come and join us on Discord where you can chat with the dev, ask questions, and share your strategy tips! To keep up with the latest These Doomed Isles news, you can follow us on Twitter.

Hey Everyone! We are going to have a special "Spooktastic" event from October 25th to November 1st where your settlement will be troubled by a lot more than viking and saxon raiders! Prepare your defences for invasions from some extra spooky enemies in this time-limited in-game event. You will have more to worry about than just raiders and saxons in this demo, if I were you I would maybe wear some garlic when you play this time... Don't be too scared though you will still be able to rain meteors and cast lightening down upon the invading ghouls! Play the These Doomed Isles Halloween event on the 25th of October as part of Steam's Scream Fest!

Join us on Discord!

Starting from today until Sunday 23rd October, These Doomed Isles will be part of the DreamHack Beyond event in the Indie Showcase!

Play our new & improved demo

*Ability to micromanage workers
*Tower prioritisation
*New options menu

Join us on Discord!

Thanks for all of the feedback from the last demo. With it being so early in development, feedback is super important. So, please keep giving feedback in the Steam forums and on the discord! Anyway, here's a list of updates to the demo (and there's plenty more to come):

QoL

• Worker menu - click the worker icon to rearrange all workers
• Added resource menus - click on any resource icon to see where you are gaining/losing each resource
• You can also return cards to your hand by pressing escape
• When placing fish, the fishing platform will show its range
• When placing rocks, the goldmine will show its range
• When placing trees, the foragers and lumberjacks will show their range
• Added a pre-title screen so that players know that its an early demo
• You can see how many workers are in each building when you hover over the worker icon
• Added a symbol for when a building has no resources in range
• Towers now target the nearest living enemy and no longer attack dead enemies if another valid target is within range
• Conscripts now attack the nearest living target
• Expanded tutorial to include dealing with invasions
• Updated tutorial with additional gameplay tips
• Tutorial is now a separate from the main game and ends when you defeat the first wave of enemies
• Options menu can now be accessed from within the level

Balance

• Added a base rate of gold for 1st ascension level
• 1 turn cards (Whole Lotta Wood, Windfall etc) now last until the start of your next turn (so you can use Windfall to buy things at harvest)
• You will be offered a defensive card in the first 4 cards of harvest if you are being attacked or are about to be attacked
• Small palisades (the 1 and 2 tile versions) are rarer than the 4 tile versions
• Limit the number of Wonder cards that can be drawn in a single harvest - it will now randomly choose 1 or 2
• Increased the likelihood of drawing a forest or land card early on in the harvest if you have 2 or less of them
• Increased the likelihood of drawing a rockfall and fish card if you have 1 or 0 of them
• Replaced the different shapes of fish cards with a single card that will place 3-5 fish within a range (so long as there are enough empty tiles, otherwise it will just place as many as it can)
• Earthquake now does 3 damage to your buildings instead of destroying them
• Added Wet as a keyword (wet enemies take double damage from electrical attacks)
• Heavy rain now also applies +2 wet to enemies
• Lightning base damage reduced to 3 but will do 6 damage to wet enemies
• Increased the range on heavy rain

Audio added

• New title theme
• New level theme
• New arrow sound
• New sound for enemies arriving
• Generic sound for enemy attacking
• New sounds for season notifications
• Ambient sounds for each season
• Generic enemy death sounds
• Sound for destroying rocks
• Sound for destroying trees
• Sound for highlighting cards
• UI confirm and cancel sounds
• Sound for rotating tiles

Bug fixes

• Fishing platform can no longer be built on land
• Forager resource warning text no longer refers to your lumberjacks
• Enemies no longer stand on each other
• Fishing boat can no longer be placed half on land
• You can no longer accidentally select a card in your hand while viewing the cards in your deck or discard pile
• Fixes the cards that got infinite replayability (999 decay)
• Fixed the crash caused by having a menu open when enemies attack
• Fixed an issue where enemies would sometime not take their bleed damage until the following turn
• Repair now fixes all of the tiles in a farm, even if only one is selected (as long as they are a part of the same farm)
• Fish animations are now drawn on the layer beneath the fishing platform
• Logging camp will no longer send multiple warnings when it cuts down a tree, it will just send one
• Hover text was in the wrong place when placing certain buildings when zoomed out - this has been fixed
• The recall button in the conscript pop-up menus will no longer appear in the wrong place when zoomed out
• Stopped the mouseover text from appearing while the game was still loading the save file
• Fixed the freeze on end turn going into harvest - would occur in later years and was caused by the harvest object being able to find any Wonder cards (for example, if youve already bought them all)
• Fixed the freeze on end turn caused by the Blight Witch checking for food producing tiles
• If you load a save while defending an attack from all sides, the game will no longer spawn an extra attack
• If you win the game by defeating an enemy wave, your victory will no longer be prevented by going into harvest
• The survey button no longer leads to the bug report
• Fixed various issues with the saving and loading of the extra islands that surround your starting island - save should now load everything correctly
• Stopped the Foragers from chopping down trees even though it has no workers
• Fixed crash caused by building a Wonder while defending an attack from all sides
• Spike pit now consistently applies bleed to enemies instead of not doing so on their last

If you havent played yet, the These Doomed Isles demo is available on Steam until Thursday 29th September.

Your opinion helps!

EGX 2022 & TactiCon

Join the community and chat with us on Discord!

Hey, were on Twitter!

Whats in the pipeline?

The demo will return

Hey everyone, A lot of news for one day! That's right you can play the first demo of These Doomed Isles right now on Steam. The demo is only going to be available for the duration of Tacticon (from the 22nd - 26th of September) so make sure to give it a shot before then! The build for the demo is essentially an alpha version of the game as there is a lot more content to come before it launches in the Summer of 2023 but there is a good chunk of gameplay there for you to check out! I also have a Discord channel now so you can give direct feedback on the game and chat with others about the best strategies are! Feel free to join it here You may notice we have a livestream going on the Steam page right now and for that I have to thank Wanderbots. Definitely check them out, they do great videos on a load of indie games! I am at the event EGX now in London with the game in the Tentacle Zone if you want to pop by and say hi and check out the game there! Finally, I am also now working with Fireshine Games to help me publish the game which is awesome! Some new important links below: Discord Twitter

Hey everyone, and welcome to the 2nd devlog for These Doomed Isles. I had planned on doing these updates monthly, so this one is *checks watch* about 2 months late Who knew that developing games took up so much of your time!? Ill be getting back to doing video updates, probably more as deep dives on individual systems or on how different parts of the game are designed and developed, but for these monthly progress updates I think Ill most likely be sticking to text updates (like this one). If you do want to see more videos, then please let me know in the comments! Anyway, this is a pretty hefty one, so make yourself a cup of tea and settle in for a pleasant read :)

New enemies

Special abilities (for example, an enemy that summons other enemies instead of attacking) [/olist] By playing around with these different variables, I was able to come up with a whole bunch of new designs - too many for me to actually fit in during the time that Id scheduled for this work. So, like all lazy gamedevs, I decided to work on the enemy designs that were easiest to add into the game (pro-tip: always try doing it the easiest way first). Heres what I ended up with:

Viking Raider

I told you I was lazy! So, Im cheating a bit here. The Viking Raider was technically already in the game, but I did at least put in the effort to make them a little bit less dumb. Theyre now set to have a low movement range, with moderate attack and health values. They attack in smallish numbers and target your gold production (seemed like a good fit for Vikings), before then heading to your shrine to finish you off.

Saxon Raider

Even lazier still, the Saxon Raider has the exact same stats as the Viking Raider, but instead of targeting your gold production, they focus on destroying all of your food before going for your shrine. Hey, dont complain, at least I did a different sprite for them

Banshee

Okay, so this is where I started to put a little bit more of an effort in ;) The Banshee is a relatively weak enemy, but they attack in larger numbers and have a wider movement range. Theyre also the first enemy that has a unique attack. They target your houses and have an AoE wail attack which, while it doesnt cause a great deal of direct damage, scares your population and causes the happiness of your settlement to fall.

Blight Witch

The Blight Witch also has an attack effect, similar to that of the Banshee. They only attack adjacent tiles (including diagonals), but they target your food production and, if they successfully attack a food tile, then their attack also destroys food that you have stored. Theyre just as weak as Banshees too, but they attack in higher numbers and have a higher movement range.

Jtnar

The Jtnar is a big boy for sure. He attacks alone, and moves pretty slowly, but if you let him get too close then youre going to regret it! His attack is the highest of all of the enemies, and his health isnt particularly low. Definitely the kind of enemy that you want to focus your fire on!

Dragon

The Dragon also attacks alone, and completely ignores all of your walls and buildings. With high health and a wide movement range, the Dragon will swiftly make its way to destroy your gold production, followed by your food production, before finally turning your shrine to ashes. Their attack isnt hugely powerful, but it is an AoE attack and it sets things on fire, so theres that to consider (unless its snowing, in which case you dont need to worry about that). I also added a Sluagh enemy, which is kind of like a celtic zombie, but the sprite for that is pretty horrible so youll have to wait for the demo (when Ive had a chance to update the art) to see it

Status effects and defensive units

With all of the new enemies, the game was starting to become a little unfair. It was interesting to have different setbacks during your run, where you had to recover from all of your food getting blighted for example, but all too often youd have what felt like a good run being stamped into the dirt by a unfortunate enemy alliance (a Dragon with Banshees always seemed to get me). So, it was time to add in more ways to defend yourself. The first thing that I added was a small number of status effect cards. This felt like a good way to not only give you more defensive options, but also to give you a way to build more synergy into your deck. Once again, I designed a whole bunch of these and then added in the ones that would be the easiest to implement:

Bleed

This causes damage to enemies every turn and can stack. The amount of bleed on an enemy decreases each turn. I also added Blood Bomb as a card, which causes an enemy to deal their current bleed stack as damage to any enemies in range when they die (probably need to think of a better name for that card)

Flammable

This increases the damage that fire causes to enemies (except dragons, who have a resistance to fire damage). This can also stack, which can make it a very powerful status effect! But also dangerous, because its only really easy to start fires; you dont have much control over them once theyve started

Curse

This causes enemies to take damage whenever you play a card. It declines every turn but can be stacked (so useful with cards that create a weaker version of themselves in your hand when played, or cards that make you copy cards etc).

Enfeeble

This reduces the attack power of enemies, and you can stack the number of turns that it lasts for.

Fear

This causes enemies to take more damage and can be stacked. I also added a number of God power cards that can cause these (and synergise with these status effects in various ways) - as well as things that you can build in your settlement that work with the effects. Along with status effects, you can now also draft units. These are different from the spells and the buildings in the game as they only stay on the board for a set number of turns (using the keyword service). The first type of unit that has been added is the Conscript type. These are militarised versions of your current population/worker pool, and so will be removed from your population if they are killed. They also cause unhappiness per turn (and more so if they are killed). Once their service is complete, their card is returned to your deck so that you can play them again (up to three times per copy of each card). There are now 4 types of Conscript Units that you can draft:

Shield Knights

These have a high defence (theyre basically walls that fight back).

Brutes

These have a high attack but not a great defence.

Javelineers

These have a short-ranged attack and cause the status effect bleed.

Archers

These have a longer range but low defence. Ill be adding more types of conscripts, as well as other cards and buildings to support them and to put interesting builds together. But more on that in a later update!

New art

Ok, so the art in the game isnt quite there yet. Its something that I started on, decided was good enough and then started to focus on adding more depth to the gameplay. The problem is that, even with pixel art games, you need to do what you can to help the game stand out visually and, as you can see with the screenshots and video on the store page, it just wasnt doing that. Overall, the game looks kinda flat and uninspiring. I want to make this a game where you end up having built up a settlement that you really enjoy looking at, so it was time to go back to the drawing board! This is what it looked like before:
The first thing was to define a clear art direction, so that all of the new art would be coherent and work together (unlike the original art, which was a little bit all over the place). I picked out the following pillars for the art direction with my reasoning below:

Vibrant

Use stronger colours, with a wider range of values between the part of the sprites in shade and the parts of the sprites in the light. Also using colours in the light and shade to add contrast between warm colours and cool colours.

Chunky

This is partly my personal taste. I was looking at what kind of pixel-art I personally like best, and it fell into either stuff like Songs of Conquest or stuff like you see from folks like Nitrome and Chucklefish. I settled on the chunky side of things because of the amount of time it would take to go for the more detailed pixel-art. Its also a style that I have no experience of creating, so it could have taken up all of my development time just to end up with art that wasnt good enough to be in the game.

Clean

Strong, clean lines and simple textures. Avoid making things too detailed. This is because theres going to be a LOT of information on screen at once, so its going to become an issue if every pixel is screaming for your attention!

Tactile

Like a board game or toy. As though its something physical that you can pick up and hold in your hands. Tough to do with pixel art, but a good goal, particularly since the game is heavily inspired by tabletop games. I started with the UI redesign, as this was going to be on-screen all of the time, so it would be a good yardstick to make sure that the rest of the art matched the style. I also updated the cards to give them more personality and hint what the purpose of the card is, as you can see here:
After the UI, I turned my attention to the grass / land. This is effectively the canvas that youre painting on, so I wanted to simplify this quite a bit. You can see from the edges that Ive chunkified it a bit, as well as toned down the colour to allow the other sprites to stand out against it (you can see as well that I changed the trees and rocks to pop a bit more):
Then I started working on finding a new, chunky look for the sprites, whilst also trying to work some more colour and lighting contrast into them. I updated the shrine:
The cabin:
The tax collector:
And the crossbow tower:
You'll notice that, as well as adding to the contrast, the colour and the chunk, I also rounded the bottoms of the buildings and rounded the shadows to contrast with the squareness of the land tiles. I ran out of time, but the next thing Im planning to work on is the water. It takes up a lot of the screen, so it will make a big difference to the overall look (although it will take up less of the screen space when I add in more islands that are surrounding yours - I think this will make a big difference). Im going to add shallow and deep water, where the water is lighter around the islands. This should help highlight them and give me an opportunity for an appealing animation in the water. Im also planning to experiment with the following: [olist]

Hey everyone, Thanks very much for your interest in my game, These Doomed Isles :) We're still pretty early in development, so I thought it'd be a good time to start doing some devlogs. This is my first one right here: [previewyoutube=38T_I1bOqck;full][/previewyoutube] It covers what the game is in a little more detail (and why I wanted to make a CCG/city-builder), how you play it, and what systems I'm working on next. Enjoy! Cheers, Andrew