Folklands Enters Early Access on March 24th!

Hi everyone! We're thrilled to announce that Folklands, our relaxing, peaceful settlement builder, officially launches in Early Access on March 24, 2025! To celebrate, we've just released a brand-new trailer giving you a fresh look at gameplay and what you'll experience on launch day: [previewyoutube=ZHACoFkWP-8;full][/previewyoutube]

Here's what you'll find in Early Access:

Relaxing Settlement-Building: Build your dream community, manage resources, and keep your villagers safe, happy, and thriving. Procedurally Generated Worlds: Each playthrough is unique, offering new opportunities and surprises every time. Single & Multiplayer Modes: Build solo or team up with friends to create your settlements together.

Your Feedback Shapes the Future!

Throughout Early Access, your input will directly influence how Folklands evolves. We're looking forward to your suggestions as we introduce more buildings, new resources, improved graphics, expanded mechanics, and much more! See you in Folklands on March 24th!

[ 2025-02-28 15:47:40 CET ] [ Original post ]

Patch notes playtest build 0.5.1

Thank you to everyone who's reporting issues on the current playtest! We're gathering lots of feedback via Discord, and are working hard to make sure the playtest is running smoothly for everyone! We've identified and fixed several bugs in the initial playtest build. For more information, see the full changelog below:

New in this build

* Added an option to choose between exclusive and borderless fullscreen mode * Added an option to specify which screen the game starts on * Added resource tooltips to storage picker slots

Adjustments

* Slightly increased the walk speed of villagers * Slightly decreased the resource harvest time for basic resources * Noticeably reduced the frequency of the Rutai stone wall quest

Bugs fixed

* Fixed an edge case where a villager could reserve the last berry forever * Fixed several issues with pathfinding over bridges * Fixed several issues with pathfinding over resource deposits * Fixed a case where two buildings would lock off each others entrances if built with a path running through one of their entrances * Fixed several cases where villagers would report getting stuck * Fixed some untranslated texts * Fixed a case where you could store more than the allowed number of resources in a storage building by simply typing it * Fixed a bug that could cause the game to seem soft-locked if starting the game without Steam running * Resized bread so it is no longer enormous

[ 2025-02-19 15:11:03 CET ] [ Original post ]

Devlog #15

Hey everyone, it's time for a new update! Weve got some exciting updates coming your way as we get ready to release our new and updated demo close to the Early Access release in Q1 2025. We wanted to take a moment to chat about whats in store and what you can expect in the upcoming updates.

What is Folklands?

A basic question, but one that is easily overlooked - what is Folklands about, and how does it differ from many of the other games out there? At its core, Folklands is a settlement building game trying to stick closely to a well-established formula - but its still a bit different from other games in the same genre. While were not reinventing the wheel, weve set out to blend what we feel is the best parts of classic city-builders like Caesar, Age of Empires, Transport Tycoon, Settlers, and Anno with modern features and mechanics that todays city-building games have to offer. Weve always loved the nostalgia of these games - not just for the gameplay, but for that special feeling they gave you; the satisfaction of building something from the ground up and seeing your people thrive. With Folklands, were aiming to recreate that feeling while at the same time focusing more on the folks in your settlement - their happiness, their desires and how it affects the flow of your settlement.

The Heart of Folklands: Your Folks

The real challenge in Folklands isnt military conquest but rather keeping your people happy as you grow your settlement. Youll need to balance the needs of the common folk with the demands of the upper classes, manage your economy, and make sure your city is thriving in every way. Want to impress the nobles? Youll need guards. Too many guards? That will annoy the commoners! Also, guards are expensive! And while placing that toolmaker smack in the middle of your settlement would be perfect for distribution, doings so could stunt growth as higher class folks don't want to live in cramped industrial areas. Its all about finding that sweet spot where your people are content - with luxuries, leisure, and even the occasional kingdom that comes knocking at your door for peaceful assistance. Whats the harm in denying them a few bags of grain?

New Challenges on the Horizon

Keeping your folks happy is only part of the equation, and some players want more challenges. As we work through the EA period, expect to see optional challenges like floods, earthquakes, crop failures, pests, raiders, and more. The world of Folklands wont always be kind, and youll need to adapt to survive. These random events will keep you on your toes, but with clever planning and management, you can weather any storm (literally).

Bring a Friend, or Seven!

From the very start of Folklands, multiplayer has been a core part of the functionality. As three brothers who love to play games together, we knew it was important to design the game so that we could play even with our different schedules -and we wanted the same flexibility for you. Whether youre playing solo, with one friend, or a whole group, you can easily jump in or out of the game whenever you want. No need to worry if life gets in the way: if someone needs to step away for work, family, or anything else, the game can continue running with the settlement progressing in their absence. If all players go offline, no worries! Just save the game and pick it up again when youre ready to return. Folklands lets you play at your own pace, with your settlement always growing, no matter whos around.

Looking Ahead

As were getting closer and closer to the Early Access release, we're getting more and more excited to see the towns, villages, and kingdoms youll create in Folklands. Your feedback has been invaluable so far, and we cant wait to keep building upon this with the feedback you'll provide as you get to play the early access version. As always, you can follow the development of Folklands on our Discord channel, where we sometimes stream live and chat along with the players. Were looking forward to seeing you all in the world of Folklands very soon!

[ 2025-02-05 07:42:25 CET ] [ Original post ]

Devlog #14

Hello, everyone! In todays devlog, were diving deeper into our decision to make the switch to the Godot game engine, and why its been a crucial move for the games future. We'll also have a look at how the updated graphics are coming along!

Moving to Godot

As we talked about in our previous update we took at step back to really review the feedback and suggestions from our community and players after releasing an updated demo last fall. During this review we uncovered several limitations with the original game engine we were using which would have been very hard - if not impossible to overcome. After investigating our options and looking for the option that would give us maximum re-use of the code and functionality we had worked on so far, we made the difficult but ultimately worthwhile decision to port the game to Godot. Porting everything to Godot promised a more robust engine, better performance and most importantly allowing us to expand and build the game in ways we had previously been limited. So, what has this rewrite / port given us? Performance & framerate: Despite all our efforts to optimize the game within our old engine, there were still significant performance bottlenecks that caused the game to struggle - not only on lower-end systems, but we were not able to take proper advantage of more performant hardware either. While the demo looked and felt polished (when it ran well), the performance wasnt up to our standards. With Godot, however, the game runs at a smooth 60+ fps on decent hardware with very little optimization, and even on lower-end systems, we're getting stable and usable framerates an improvement were really excited about! Memory Usage: The demo was notoriously memory-hungry, requiring over 4GB of RAM just to start and play. As a result of this we had to scale back on animations and image quality in the demo just to ensure it ran smoothly. With Godot weve reduced memory usage by over 75% with the same content - already a massive improvement in efficiency. Animations & Building Quality: One of the biggest compromises in the previous engine was the quality of animations, especially for characters. Because of memory constraints and increased load times we had to lower image quality just to make things run properly. With Godot, weve more than doubled the quality of each animation without any performance loss, and load times are snappier than ever. As we continue to work on and expand the game, were excited to introduce new character professions, which will come with more complex animations. The power of Godot is allowing us to make what we want and add it to the game with no issues so far.

Sneak Peek of New Buildings and Characters:

That's a lot of technical talk, but we're excited and hope you are too! Of course weve also got a sneak peek of some exciting new additions to the game! Check out these concept drawings of some of our new buildings and an introduction to the new "Baker" character who will be wandering around town. (Keep in mind, this is still an early version, so expect plenty of changes as we continue to refine things along the way to the final release.)

Thats all for now, folks! Were thrilled with the progress weve made so far, and we cant wait to share more with you in the coming months. Until next time!

[ 2025-01-07 09:04:00 CET ] [ Original post ]

Devlog #13

Wet paint and something else

The summer is over by a long shot, the months are flying by and autumn is over us like that musky blanket in the back of your closet that you didn't know you had, never wanted, but can't seem to get rid of. It's time for another devlog - this time showcasing some of the new buildings we've cooked up vs the old ones, and a major reveal if you manage to get all the way to the end. No peeking!

Visuals

The game visuals so far have served us well. They've managed to convey our idea of a retro-inspired settlement builder, but they haven't really *nailed it down*. Throughout the summer, we've been working closely with a graphics designer to really put our own lick of paint on the way our world looks and feels. We previously talked about some of the buildings getting a fresh coat of paint, but paint can only do so much - this needed a full redesign. Our dedicated concept artist has really gone to town, and recreated most of the buildings in the first three tiers. Focusing on that same "timeless but at the same time firmly set in the past" feeling that you got when seeing some of the old settlement builder games for the first time, the results speak for themselves. Here are a few of the concept drawings, before they have been turned into in-game buildings:

Transforming these buildings into rendered buildings in our own style is no easy feat, but luckily Simen (yes, all the brothers have names) is a skilled modeller, so have a look at how some of the new buildings turned out in-game:

The keen observer may have noticed how the colors "pop" differently in this picture vs how they looked before. That's because while we were updating the buildings, we also took some time to rework the biomes of the world a little bit, giving the flora some love and attention as well. This is ongoing work that we will continue to tweak and keep working on to make the game look even better - and we haven't really started with the visual effects yet. This new art style coupled with the updated color palette really brings the whole game a lot closer to what we imagined starting out. Trying to really bring back that feeling of the old settlement builders - with a unified art style - while we still stay true to what the world and vibe of Folklands can bring to the table. Having proper concept art for the buildings makes them more unified, but also allows us to add subtle hints of the game's lore. Later on, when we do the same work and refinements in the wildlife area, our vision of Folklands and its amazingly rich world will be even closer.

Not just paint

Those who follow us on social media, might have picked up on something even more remarkable than a lick of paint or some new buildings, namely our new mascot

While our artist and designer brother (yes, Simen) has been busy updating the artwork, and our play testing brother (Sebastian) has focussed hard on how to implement what we learned from the demo and the feedback you keep giving us, we have also been "secretly" porting the entire game to Godot throughout the summer. The challenges of developing games are not new to us, but sometimes you need to revisit your previous technical decisions and challenge them. Once we got past the content of the demo - which is basically a tech demo / vertical slice of what we want the game to be - it became obvious that we needed to find a better solution for several of the technical limitations imposed by our choice of engine. Porting to Godot was a big task, but with a great community and support, the game is now running in Godot with almost all of the functionality ported over. The choice of switching to Godot has given us a significant performance boost already without even starting to optimize anything. It has fixed some really hard to overcome limitations in our previous engine and will give players on lower end machines better performance and graphical options. In addition to this, it also lets us experiment with more animations, multiple monitor support, edge scrolling, UI scaling, directional sound - to mention a few of the initial benefits. Our next devlog will have lots more details on the the porting and what developing in Godot brings to Folklands, but in the meantime have another look at the cutest mascot ever.

[ 2024-10-21 21:37:52 CET ] [ Original post ]

Devlog #12

Summer is over, and it's time for another devlog update! It's been a bit quiet on our front for a while now - our last devlog described the diplomacy feature and how this introduces you to the world around Folklands. In our previous devlog, we also talked a little bit about Raiders, AI and different interaction and conflict modes, spurring some of questions about how invasive these features would be. To put your mind at ease: the Raider, AI, and any other features that moves the game experience away from peaceful settlement building will always be optional settings. We're really looking forward to seeing your relaxing settlements, and at the same time we want the game to provide a challenge for those who want it. So, what is new with Folklands, what has changed over the summer, and what else is planned? As we touched on shortly in the last devlog, we wanted to share some exiting news of Folklands and also tell you why we have been quiet. While we can't reveal everything quite yet, we can show you something that will be very visible!

A noticeable redesign

Feedback from players and our own playtesting is unanimous in that many of the buildings have problems with visibility - it can be hard to tell buildings apart, what tier they are, and some of the buildings are - if not boring, then definitely a bit bland. So - over the summer, we have been working closely with a concept artist to help us better make sure our game vision is reflected in the way to world looks. And the results? Buildings that visualize the tiers, a more stylized look and a more coherent feel! We think they speak for themselves:

The original sawmill:

The current sawmill:

Concept art and new, updated sawmill:

As you can see from these new designs and images, the visual style is more stylistic and detailed. Inspired by some of the older games you've played before, we've experimented with a visual style that combines fantasy and realism, while keeping to our original vision of the game. This new style also fits the world art and design of the folks - Sigrid and Olof - much better than before! In our next devlog we'll have an opportunity to show how all these new buildings look in-game, as well as talk in more detail about something very exciting! Until next time!

[ 2024-09-04 12:39:44 CET ] [ Original post ]

Devlog #11

One thing we haven't talked much about is the world and setting in which the Folks reside in. We've heard people ask if they are vikings - or what specific time period Folklands is trying to represent, so it's high time we talked about it. Folklands is set in our own fantasy world - a world we have been building and working on for the past 10 years: The land of Erendor, where creatures like dragons once lived, but are now a thing of legend. Keen observers may have noticed something unusual about the berry bushes already, or heard about Erendor from our previous game, Dragon Evo. As the development of the game progresses you will start to see more and more creatures from this world roaming the lands - such as the mysterious Drak Eagle. Although the game is set in this fantasy world, the lore will not directly affect gameplay as much, at least not yet. However, this is a good opportunity to introduce you to the three major kingdoms - or factions - battling it out for control over the world in which your folks live. It is the time after a great war, where a frail peace exists between these three kingdoms. This brings us to ...

Diplomacy, story and missions

As mentioned, there are 3 major factions in Folklands, which you'll encounter throughout the game. In the full game (after Early Access), we plan on having specific story-based campaign missions, but the progression, prosperity and happiness of the folks in your settlement will be driven by the interaction with the surrounding factions. The factions are: The Rutai Empire, The Highwind Nation and the Hologev Resistance.

The three factions have their very own personality, desires and goals, and how you interact with them will heavily influence how your game plays out. Fulfilling quests and missions from The Rutai Empire will reward you with plenty of gold - in return the missions become increasingly more difficult - and the Empire increasingly more demanding as you become increasingly involved as their trusted ally. The Highwind Nation will task you with complex quests that unlocks new buildings, resources and improvements. Their mission is making you succeed, as a happy ally will be more than willing to lend a helping hand when special situations occur. The Hologev Resistance will ask for help to rebuild their own faction and in turn give you temporary or permanent bonuses to production. While appearing united, you will soon realize their many shortcomings and you might even start to feel empathic towards them and their mission. Obviously - interacting with one or more of these factions will influence how the other factions sees you - as well as impacting the happiness, production and progression of your own settlement!

Raiders and AI

The peaceful mode of the current Folklands demo may feel closer to a sandbox mode where your choices don't matter much, than a story rich game where your choices influence the progression and world around you. In addition to the mentioned factions, the Early Access release will also see Raiders becoming a part of your day to day life as your settlement grows. Fend them off by building walls and sending out patrolling guards, or - if you dare - ask for help from the Rutai Empire. In addition to Raiders, you will also encounter one or more optional minor settlements on the map - either competing for valuable resources and land, or roaming around asking to trade. We'll expand more on these features in a later devlog, but if you have questions or feedback, feel free to join our Discord or leave a comment in the Steam forums. We will also make sure that these settings can be tuned to maintain the peaceful experience we want the game to be - while we still offer a challenging and fun game that feels fresh every time you play it. Stay tuned for our June update where we'll show you more screenshots and the current state of the game!

[ 2024-05-08 10:51:33 CET ] [ Original post ]

Devlog #10

The days are quickly going by, and it's already time for devlog #10! Time is money, so we won't waste any more of your precious time on this introduction part. Speaking of money...

Taxation

One of our main goals when making Folklands is to create a game that is enjoyable both for ourselves as well as other players. Different services has always been part of that, but the taxation service never sat quite right, and didn't really fit with the theme and the way the rest of the game worked. Player feedback has consistently pointed out how taxation feels "off", and including it breaks the immersion for some players. This meant we had to go back to the drawing board and make some changes. The result is a total revamp of how money works in the game, and that the taxation service will no longer be a game feature. In the early tiers, money and gold coins will now be related to trade - either with the AI or other players - to help you kickstart your settlement or get access to resources that you can't produce yourself. As you level up your settlement you will get the ability to prospect for minerals, gold being one of the minerals that you can mine. This gold ore can then be used to mint your own coins, which in turn will let you pay for more advanced goods and services that your now much higher tier folks will most certainly demand. All construction costs are now simply the materials required to build the structure. This makes it easier to plan out your settlement and your progression no longer feels artificially limited by tax income. We're really eager to see how this change affects gameplay, so let us know your thoughts as you get your hands on the updated release later this year.

Services

With taxation no longer being in service (ha), the next service we took a look at was fire safety. The way services work in our game has always been inspired by the "walker system" in games like Pharaoh/Caesar/Cleopatra e.t.c., but internal play testing and overwhelming player feedback revealed several issues with fire - mainly the stopping of it. We have made several changes to how the fire service behaves, but the biggest and most noticeable change is how all your fire guards will now co-operate to put out fires throughout the settlement. Water distribution has also been improved, to make sure that your fire stations don't run out. The fire station distribution through your village will still play an important role in how effective fire safety will be, and the time it will take them to reach the burning building will still be heavily influence by where you put your fire stations, but this change will make it less confusing and annoying when Gnther sets the market on fire for the fourth time. Not a lot of screenshots this time, but we hope you enjoyed this little update! Until next time!

[ 2024-04-18 07:58:31 CET ] [ Original post ]

Devlog #9

It has been a whole month since the nextfest happened in the beginning of February, and boy did we get a lot of feedback! We have been going through all the streams, system reports and messages you've sent and it has honestly been quite overwhelming! Good, but still a lot! First of all we want to thank everyone who tried the demo, reported issues, joined our discord, or gave us feedback on the game, pros and cons. We really appreciate the messages we got both on how much you loved the game, art style and nostalgia, as well as the feedback on how the game performed, issues you experienced and suggestions for improvements. A tip: if you've played the game and want to have a chat, remember that our Discord is quite active, so do join if you haven't already!

Folks coming to life

A key feature we haven't talked that much about is how we want you to feel the folks being alive, living their lives separate from - but dependent on - your decisions. To give them more personality, we have worked on giving the folks more animations, more traits that will present themselves during the game, and other details that we think you will enjoy. In the future, you will see folks giving you a quest or two, like going on a strike if they don't have food or work is too far away, or even start fighting in the street because they don't have anything better to do!

Money money money

Something that caught us a bit by surprise, but we've seen mentioned repeatedly during next fest and from people trying out the demo is how the money, taxation and income system really doesn't make sense in the world and settlement as it is now. Taxation and money will be a big focus in the upcoming builds to see how we can better incorporate this game mechanic in a way that works better with the games features. Some of the ideas we will be exploring is changing (or removing) the gold cost for buildings, focusing the money around trading and services instead, and a few other ideas. If you have suggestions, we're definitely interested in hearing from you!

QoL

As always, we are implementing a load of quality-of-life updates for the game based on all the amazing feedback you've given us. This includes new options in the build menu, day/night lighting, better performance on low and high-end systems, hotkeys overview, updates to the tips and quests system, and better insight into what is happening in your village. We're excited to share more about this in the coming months. On a related note, we've seen increasing feedback regarding performance and optimization issues on various hardware and configurations, causing the game to feel sluggish or unresponsive at certain times. We are working hard on identifying the causes of the issues and finding ways to improve this.

Options and Accessibility

The early access version will feature more options, both in terms of map generation (rivers, snow, map types), difficulty settings, disasters and more. We are also adding some accessibility features, such as mouse rotation / navigation options, UI scaling and several other options for people who need this. As always, we're super happy to hear from all of you, and we look forward to letting you know what the next months bring!

[ 2024-03-04 11:06:57 CET ] [ Original post ]

Demo bugfix update

The demo build has been updated, with several bugfixes.

Fixed a bug that made it possible to assign workers to buildings before they were built
Fixed a bug that prevented quests from being updated while the game was paused
Updated a text in the quest popup that directed users to a non-existant tab in the Settlement-overview
Fixed a bug that caused the Steam overlay to appear upside down when in-game
Fixed a bug the made OBS streams appear upside down in some cases

Thank you to everyone who's using the "Send feedback" function in the game to send us bug reports and updates!

[ 2024-02-07 14:32:50 CET ] [ Original post ]

[STEAM NEXT FEST] Mac version update

Hey everyone! We're super happy to see so many people trying out and enjoying the game. We read all the feedback you send, but will be focusing on fixing critical bugs first, of course! This morning we released a critical bugfix for the Mac demo. If you have the demo installed, it should automatically download the update next time you launch Steam.

Changelog

Fixed a bug that made it impossible to continue playing after placing the first Settlement / Camp

Please continue sending your feedback - it helps!

[ 2024-02-06 08:16:01 CET ] [ Original post ]

Gameplay live stream

Our live demo will be taken for a thorough run in this live stream. Watch us play the game, chat and banter and maybe even set a house or two on fire!

[ 2024-02-05 14:15:33 CET ] [ Original post ]

Developer Q&A

Watch the developers play the game while answering any questions you may have. We look through all the feedback from the next fest so far and tell you more about what we're doing in the months ahead.

[ 2024-02-05 14:15:33 CET ] [ Original post ]

Play Folklands during Steam Next Fest

Hey everyone! We're happy to be part of the Steam Next Fest this month, which means you can try the demo of our retro-inspired settlement builder during Steam Next Fest from Feb 5th! [previewyoutube=DlpVomPJStc;full][/previewyoutube] In the demo, you can play through the entire first three tiers of gameplay. Build a peaceful settlement, harvest, produce and trade resources, expand your settlement and meet the changing needs of your people. In addition to a full tutorial, helping you get going, you can also play freely on random maps as much as you want (within the first three Tiers of course).
If you like the game, remember to add it to your wishlist, and pop by our Discord to chat about the game or let us know what you think! You can also post your thoughts on our Community hub or use the in-game "Send feedback" function. We'd love to hear from you!
Keep an eye out for our upcoming live stream(s) - especially our Q&A live stream later this week where we answer all your questions!

[ 2024-02-04 21:18:54 CET ] [ Original post ]

Devlog #8

Getting ready for nextfest and a freshly updated Demo

Welcome to another devlog, a week late this time - but for good reason! The last month we have been working harder than ever on getting the new demo ready in time for the upcoming Steam Next Fest. The current demo has been out for several months now, and has seen several updates. The last two months, however, we have only pushed out important fixes as we have been working on the updated demo. The changes are too massive to list them all here, but we'll list the most notable highlights, such as a major graphical update with a completely redesigned landscape and environment (including wildlife), tons of new features, building animations, city management options, graphs and statistics, and of course bugfixes. If you want to learn more, read on!

Graphical update

The existing demo is a good teaser for the art direction we're aiming for, but it has always been partially finished with lots of placeholder art. In the updated demo, we have finished the new art style for the landscape and environment, bringing the world of Folklands to life in a way you've never seen before! In addition to new animals roaming around the landscape, you will also see trees and reeds swaying in the wind, fields rustle was villagers walk through them, and tons of other small details to give you a sense of a living world!

Totally redesigned quests and tips system

Many players have told us that while they understand the basics of the game, it would be nice to have a helping hand to get you going, as well as tell you when things are not working as they should. In the updated demo, we've focused a lot on improving this. One of these improvements is a completely new "Tips" system that will give you helpful tips as you play.

In addition to this, buildings will give you a lot more information on how they are doing, in addition to helpful tips on how to improve things such as production efficiency:

Service buildings such as the Tax collector's office, the Builder's hut and the Fire station have all received updates with helpful graphs and numbers telling you how the service is performing. The screenshot below is from an early version of this:

Villagers will now also tell you when they are experiencing problems, such as going hungry, having nowhere to live, missing their work tool, and a bunch more, which lets you address issues instead of wondering why your settlement is grinding to a halt!

New buildings and features

No update would be complete without new buildings or functionality!

Exploration towers

In the current demo, you were able to expand your settlement by building outposts. These buildings have now been renamed to "Exploration towers", where Explorers can work to gradually expand your settlement borders. These exploration towers are also used to discover mineral deposits - in the full game.

Bridges

Were you blocked by the water in the demo - well, no more! Walk over lakes and rivers using the new bridges. In the full game you will also be able to upgrade to better looking bridges as your city grows!

Improved farming

Farming has also seen a huge graphical updates with dynamic fields growing around your farms

The list is simply too long to mention here, and there are still a couple of surprises hidden in the updated demo. We hope you enjoy playing it as much as we enjoy making it. Expect the updated demo to be released sometime next week! Enjoy this non-exhaustive changelog mentioning some of the thing we didn't already mention:

Settlement name + badge / crest
New in-game music
Direction-aware sounds
Onboarding tips
Villager quests
Statistics (tax, maintenance, fire)
Player trading
Tier information
Pinnable resources and improved resource information
Clear stones and trees in specific areas
New "Socializing" need
New Pub building with a new Beer resource
New Brewery production building
Villager warnings tab
Villager feedback (icons when unhappy, hungry, homeless, etc)
Updated animations when building
Build order prioritization
Variable villager walking speed depending on road stats
Folks gather around burning buildings
New and improved tooltips with keyboard shortcuts

[ 2024-01-19 19:50:53 CET ] [ Original post ]

Devlog #7

Greetings, fellow folks and gamers. Its a new month and time for a new devlog with an update on what we have been working on the last month! But first a quick backstory:

Three brothers from the Fjords

Folklands is made by our indie studio named Bromantic Games. Our little studio consists of three brothers from the scenic landscape of Norway. Our game is not just a nod to our shared heritage; it's a reflection and a remake of the classics that shaped our gaming childhood - like Settlers, Caesar, Age of Empires, and Transport Tycoon. It's a journey into nostalgia, inspired by the games we grew up playing. Folklands emerged as a tribute to the classics. It's more than just a game; it's a labor of love that reflects our shared memories, cultural influences, and a deep bond as brothers.

Connecting Through Folklands

Folklands is created to be played both single- and multiplayer, where we will try and give you a full game experience whether you choose to play on your own or with someone you know. This means that the multiplayer aspect of the game is not just an additional feature; it's an essential part of the experience.

Playing together has always brought us closer as brothers and having multiplayer in Folklands provides an avenue to enjoy the game not just with each other but with old friends as well. From very early in the development cycle we have been making the game with both multiplayer and singleplayer in mind, making sure it is fun and engaging to play in both modes. That's why features like being able to invite a friend into your existing singleplayer game makes sense to us - sometimes you'll be playing on your own and a friend or brother comes online and you just want to share the game experience together. Having different schedules means being able to easily hop in or out of games, and resume them when you want is crucial. This month we have been hard at work integrating the mulitplayer feature of Folklands with the Steam networking service.

Make love not war

Folklands never has - and never will - focus on war, conflict or conquest, but it's made to be relaxing and challenging while you're building the medieval settlement of your dreams. We're including ways to interact with players, whether it's racing for territory domination, building exchanges or trading. The game will also include settings for difficulty and ways to compete for certain areas of the map, but all in the spirit of relaxing engagement. We look forward to show you more of the multiplayer gameplay and how this all works together in a upcoming streaming video.

[ 2023-12-13 14:54:21 CET ] [ Original post ]

Devlog #6

A home for everyone

A new month, a new devlog as usual. The new demo has been playing smoothly and mostly stable. Weve recieved a lot of love and feedback on the new demo so far and we have patched some minor and some bigger issues for a better experience. This month we've also finalized the new store artwork and interface details!

Next Tiers

The demo contains 90% of the first 3 planned tiers, but the full version of the game has many more tiers of progression planned. Right now we are working on completing the demo tiers at the same time as we implement the next tiers - sowing it all together to make them fun, relaxing and challenging all at the same time. If you want to see what we're working on, there is an official wiki with the progression system explained in more detail, here: https://folklands.fandom.com/wiki/Progression Two of the features that have been essential to get right are the trading system and the way your settlement population grows - how new people arrive to your settlement and advance through the tiers.

Trading

Since the demo does not unlock mining or producing your own tools, we wanted you to be able to continue playing and building your settlement in the demo if you feel like it. That's why one of the recent demo updates introduced the first preview of the trading system. This gives you a sneak peek into the surrounding Folklands kingdoms, as well as a little look at how trading and interactions will work. For now, it lets you get hold of tools to expand and grow your settlement with the features that are available in the demo. We've already seen some impressive settlements, and can't wait to see what you're all building!

Rewritten folk arrival and progression

Until very recently, our solution to settlement growth was to spawn new folks when you built a house. This is true to the mechanics of some of the games that inspired Folklands (think Settlers and Anno), but play testing and streams have shown us that for Folklands, this doesn't really work well. So, we've updated the demo with a new folk arrival system, where folks will regularly immigrate to your settlement as long as you keep your existing population happy, and have enough free housing. This also means that if people start becoming unhappy because you deny them berries and water, they will actually start to leave!

Gameplay improvements

The last thing we want to highlight are some gameplay improvements we're working on. Many of the game buildings provide service with coverage areas, so one of the improvements coming to the demo is an adjusted visualization of service coverage when building and selecting service buildings such as tax offices, builder's huts and fire stations. In addition to this, placing roads have been improved by adding entrance markers when you build roads or buildings - so you can see where and if your buildings are connected to your road network. This also outlines the building footprints, so you can see why you can't build a road straight through the backyard of Gnthers house.

The updates are coming soon to the demo, as we continue working towards the Early Access release. Let us know what you think in the comments or forums!

[ 2023-11-10 11:41:55 CET ] [ Original post ]

Devlog #5

A new month means a new devlog! This last month we have been compiling the results from a play test involving over 500 players, gathering feedback on which systems work, and which areas to focus on. All of this - in addition to the to the great feedback you're giving us - will go into the updated demo, laying the foundation for the early access release later.

Building progress renders

You've told us that you didn't like the build animations as much as we thought. This month we've worked hard on improving this. All buildings now have progress renders when being built, making the building process a more visual enjoyable experience.

New biomes and graphical improvement

A functionality that's not part of the demo, but will be important in the full game, is being able to survey the map for resources and precious minerals - but they will not all be found in the same location. This month we improved the rock biomes, and added snowy landscape as part of the preparation for this later functionality. The main terrain has also gotten a big facelift with plants, grass and more adding to the variety of the world.

New map generator

Building on the new biomes and improved terrain, the new start menu now lets you tweak and generate the random map each time you start a new game.

New settlement overview

A recurring theme in the feedback we've gotten is the lack of information being delivered to the player about what happens around the settlement, and how it impacts the way the settlement functions. This month we added a brand new settlement overview window, which is exactly what you need to manage your town.

Notifications when things need your attention

A flashy overview window won't help you much if your mind is focused on building new buildings while half of your settlement is on fire. Our new notifications system will alert you when things go bad or if anything needs your attention.

New quests & Event system

The game now has a new quests and event system which does a better job at giving you more information on how to improve and grow your settlement. Visual cues have also been added to the interface to guide you to where you need to click. This new quest system is the starting point for the random event and quest functionality that will be added later.

Huffs and puffs

The settlement is starting to come alive with more animations being added as your folks carry out their activities. All this and a ton more has been added to the new demo, which you can try out already now! Until next time!

[ 2023-10-09 14:59:32 CET ] [ Original post ]

Devlog #4

Hey there, everyone! A long devlog this month, since so many things have been happening. Let's get rolling! First of all: This last month, we landed a deal with a fantastic publisher, Tribal-Storm, who also publishes two other upcoming indie titles! Check them out here: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1717090/Into_the_Necrovale/ https://store.steampowered.com/app/2261350/Cozy_Keep/ Ok, moving on to what else we did since the previous update! This last month, we had several round of playtesting done for the current demo build. Lots of players played the game, gave feedback - told us what they liked and didn't like, and what they want more of. We always listen to all player feedback, so this was super exciting!

A brand new look

We always wanted to have the look and feel of the older games of which we draw our inspiration from. One of the decisions we made early on was to adapt a UI that reminded us of these old games (think Settlers 2/3/4, Caesar, etc.). Listening to player feedback, however, we realize that this kind of interface hasn't aged well, and doesn't scale with the features we wanted to build. Taking on board player feedback, we have completely redone the entire UI: menus, buttons, windows, popups and much more. At the same time, we added many requested features and improvements requested by players, trying to make it a much more pleasant experience. It still needs some more finishing touches, but here is a sneak preview of the UI for the Steam next fest demo update: [previewyoutube=q1w2Y1l2ikg;full][/previewyoutube] Graphical updates: Having a publisher, means we can focus more on some much needed graphical updates. New in-game graphics for animations have already been added, and next on the list is a brand new tile set (landscape). Although we cant show it yet, we're confident that it will be ready in time for the upcoming Steam Next Fest. This lets us add new biomes, new trees, new game mechanics and a lot more! Other things we're looking forward to showing you are updated roads, bridges, gardens and many many other adjustments based on much feedback from the players.

Quality of life improvements

We've made major improvements to the roads and pathfinding to make it a smoother gameplay experience. Several buildings now have animations to show you that they're doing stuff, and we added animations for more character actions. There is much yet to be done before the game is ready for Early Access, but this is all shaping up to be an awesome demo update for the upcoming Next Fest! What features would you like to see added to the game? Tell us about it in the comments!

[ 2023-09-09 07:19:54 CET ] [ Original post ]

Patch notes demo 0.2.8

Hey! Today we're back with another update teaching our folks new ways to fight fire! This version is live now for Windows and Linux, with a Mac build on its way.

Changelog

Fixed an issue that caused fire fighters drained for energy to never return home and refill, so they never kept working because they had no energy

[ 2023-08-20 14:03:43 CET ] [ Original post ]

Patch notes Demo 0.2.7

Thank you so much for playing Folklands! Another update has been released for the demo. Hopefully, all issues with fires spreading and resources not being properly transported have been eliminated!

Changelog

Fixed an issue that caused water present at fire stations to not be registered correctly
Fixed an issue that prevented fire guards and tax collectors from properly servicing buildings in their coverage area
Fixed several resource transportation issues
Updated the tutorial with the Storage instead of the Warehouse
Adjusted fires so it's easier to see which building is burning

[ 2023-08-17 22:08:28 CET ] [ Original post ]

Patch notes demo 0.2.6

Hey! Just a small update to the demo today, with a few building entrance tweaks.

Changelog

Added an extra entrance tile to the fire station
Improved the way the entrance is highlighted when placing buildings

[ 2023-08-16 10:34:38 CET ] [ Original post ]

Patch notes demo 0.2.5

We've pushed another update to the demo, and this time with an exciting new feature: A Mac OS build! This means the game now runs natively on all three major platforms: Windows, Mac and Linux! In addition to this, the update contains some improvements to pathfinding and building road layouts!

Changelog

NEW: Mac OS build
Fixed an issue that caused folks to wander over buildings to get to roads
Fixed building road entrances from all directions
Improved the way road connections are shown

[ 2023-08-15 12:22:42 CET ] [ Original post ]

Patch notes demo 0.2.3

Thank you to everyone who helps us find and fix issues with the demo! If you're having problems running the game, please don't hesitate to reach out!

Changelog

Fixed an issue that caused the game to hang on "Loading images" for certain users
Fixed an issue that caused the game to hang on a blurred background screen if you didn't have a savefile present when launching the game
Fixed and issue that caused a two-minute delay when launching the game via steam on certain systems

[ 2023-08-12 21:32:30 CET ] [ Original post ]

Patch notes demo 0.2.1

We have released a small update to the demo, adding fixes for some known issues, and adding some logging functionality to help us track down bugs that are preventing players from launching the game. If the game does not launch for you (or the game is stuck at the loading screen), please check the %AppData%/folklands/logs folder and forward any logs to help@bromanticgames.com Because of the changes introduced in this version, it is not compatible with existing save files.

Changelog

Added more prominent road tiles to all buildings
Added right-click-to-cancel building roads and buildings
Improved pathfinding for all folks except Gunther
Taught all folks new stacking techniques for wood and planks
Fixed an issue that could cause players to get stuck on the game loading screen
Fixed an issue that could prevent players from launching the game
Changed phaser dependency from 3.61-beta to 3.60 in an attempt to fix flickering issues for players on linux systems

[ 2023-08-12 00:23:10 CET ] [ Original post ]

Demo available now!

Today marks an important milestone with the official release of the Steam demo! If you've been wanting to try out the game, now is your chance.

Demo content

The demo lets you play through the tutorial and the first two tiers of the game. You can also save the game if you want to continue later! For extra dedicated players, there's also a preview of some of the content that will be available later, such as the mining and tool smith chains.

We will keep updating the demo as we work towards the early access release. Check it out and let us know what you think!

[ 2023-08-11 07:18:13 CET ] [ Original post ]

Devlog #3

These last few weeks have been full of content updates, but nothing that could be shown until it was all ready! But now it is! Read on to see what it's all about!

Art style update

Previous screenshots and gameplay videos have all been using our placeholder buildings, which were only meant to give you an impression of the game while we finalized the art style. Now with the art direction settled, it is time to show you some of our wonderful new buildings which have all been put into the game builds.

House tiers 1 and 2

Here is an example of the house building with a Tier 1 and Tier 2 (upgraded) house. In addition to this, we've also updated all the basic buildings you will experience throughout the demo and tutorial.

Gameplay and UI improvements

We have also made several improvements to the way we show information in the UI. Almost all of the information screens have had an update, here are some of the highlights: Energy and keeping folks happy with food, water and other desires plays a key role in making sure your settlement runs smoothly. We've updated the information screen for folks so it's easier to see their different levels of happiness, energy and needs:

When assigning folks to available jobs, you can now pick and choose who to assign, based on the distance from where they live to where they work. Reducing this distance means more time to work and less time to travel when going home to restore.

Storage buildings such as the warehouse and market now have an improved storage information screen and and easier way to choose what to store. They also now have storage capacities and storage slots for different resources:

Quality of life improvements

We're always looking at streamers playing the game and receiving feedback from play testers, so we've added several QoL improvements from looking at how the game is played. We now tell you a bit about what the best placement is for various buildings, as well as how you can rotate them:

We also tell you a bit about how to move around the map, just in case you haven't done so before:

Statistics screens now have a bit of information about what they show:

What's next?

These screens are all in various stages of being complete, so expect them all to be even more improved and refined as we keep working on the game in the upcoming months.

What do you think of these improvements and how do you like the new buildings? Let us know!

[ 2023-08-02 16:09:23 CET ] [ Original post ]

Build 1746 Patch notes

Build 1746 is now live on the beta / (p)review branches!

In this release

Added display options for screen and fullscreen
Added background music
Added volume sliders for music and sound
Added animation when demolishing buildings
Added walk/carry animations for water buckets and berries
New resource images for water buckets and berries
Added "Production ON/OFF" buttons for all related buildings
Improved display of building production
Fixed "Continuous production" buttons
Moved settings and save paths into system-specific userdata folders
Fixed hitbox issues on buildings when clicking on them
Fixed flickering and inconsistent statistics overlay

[ 2023-07-16 21:05:02 CET ] [ Original post ]

Build 1745 Patch notes

Patch notes for build 1745:

Added animation when villagers are building buildings
Improved handling of assigning and unassigning workers from occupations
Destroyed buildings now give back almost all resources
Tax collector now works properly, and shows how much tax they collect in their status window
Other small bug fixes

[ 2023-07-14 19:32:01 CET ] [ Original post ]

Devlog #2

Welcome to our second devlog. A lot has happened since we gave you a glimpse of our retro inspired settlement builder game! Let's try and sum it up!

New UI

Moving more towards the retro feel we have been working hard on implementing a beautiful yet retro inspired user interface. We are excited to show you the progress:

Our goal for the UI is that it should feel retro but at the same time be functional and "familiar". This is the first iteration of the UI, and we still have more to add and more to polish, but we think we've managed to find a combination of both!

First look & Teaser trailer

We were fortunate enough to be showcased in the IndieGamiacs - Virtual Indiebooth #35. If you want to see the game being played, have a look at their playthrough: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ybY40_PgWzA If you have not had the opportunity to check out the teaser for the trailer yet, head over to the store page to check it out!

Demo

Since our last devlog we have been working hard on the first early preview build. This special demo will now be released to a selection of streamers and reviewers and we are looking forward to their feedback.

New features

Last, but not least - here is a short list of the new features we have been working on since our last devlog: New buildings New animations Fire system implemented in tier 2 New wildlife animations New population animations Work prioritaztion optimization Undocumented number of bugfixes

Up next

We have more to share with you in our next devlog in August! Until then, here is Sigrid And Olof working hard on producing materials:

[ 2023-07-11 10:43:34 CET ] [ Original post ]

Devlog #1

Welcome to this first devlog. We at Bromantic Games are super excited to start this devlog series to give you a glimpse of what we're working as we keep on developing this game. We will continue posting these development updates as often as we can, so let us know if you have feedback or questions!

Current state of the game

The game builds we use internally are very playable. The base game mechanics such as resource distribution, harvesting resources, transforming goods and assigning occupations have been completed for quite a while. The last months we have been busy working with artists and designers, finishing our game style and art direction, making sure it all fits together with the game theme.

Internally, we also play multiplayer games weekly, making sure this functionality is always working. Our developers play on a mix of Mac, Windows and Linux computers, so we also test crossplay functionality every time we play. We want the game to be playable regardless of which computer you use, or whether you enjoy single- or multiplayer games.

Feature overview

We can't disclose all the game features just yet, as we're still hammering some of the details out, and we want to make sure it all comes together in an enjoyable game experience. All of us have grown up playing the Settlers, Anno, Caesar / Pharaoh games, as well as other games such as Populous, Black & White, etc, and we all have a good idea of the type of game we want to make - a cross section of the fun game mechanics we liked from the series we've played the most. Folklands is a resource management / distribution game at heart and every resource you see and use needs to be harvested and transported. A woodcutter cuts down a tree and turns it into a log - it gets picked up by the plank maker in the sawmill who turns it into planks - which in turn is transported to a building site for construction. However, none of them can work without a hammer or a saw - at its core, the entire game revolves around making sure your resources are properly distributed and the needs of your population met. In addition to this, we are inspired by other games' approach to services, which means taxation, fire and security as well as health will all play a crucial role in making sure your settlements is working well. Your guards, doctors, tax collectors and fire brigade all patrol the streets, and need their resources to work efficiently. Without a proper supply of water, fires may spread uncontrollably. Unless your doctors have access to a range of herbs or remedies, sickness can render your folks unable to work - and properly trained and equipped guards are crucial to avoid a settlement-wide crime spree. We can't wait to show you how these systems all work together!

Sigrid and Olof

The last few weeks we have started to add our folks to the game, with the finalized appearance of Sigrid and Olof. Of course, everyone won't be named Sigrid and Olof, but that's the name of our art characters.

The folks in the game will of course all be styled according to their occupation, and we're looking forward to seeing Olof and Sigrid in their work outfits! What are your favorite settlement builder gameplay mechanics? Tell us in the comments! Until next time!

[ 2023-06-22 14:36:18 CET ] [ Original post ]

Folklands

Bromantic Games Developer

Bromantic Games Publisher

Coming soon Release

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Game News Posts: 31

🎹🖱️Keyboard + Mouse
🕹️ Partial Controller Support
🎮 Full Controller Support

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https://victorycraft.studio/

Steam Store

Folklands is a grid-based, relaxing settlement builder with simulated citizens. Grow your settlement from humble beginnings to a bustling town. Harvest resources, manage food supply and make sure your folks are happy, employed and safe from the dangers of the land (and themselves).

Set up trade routes to stock up on resources you don't have, or create production chains to produce them yourself as you tend to the needs of your folks. Compete or cooperate with your friends in online or local area multiplayer games, all in a procedurally generated world.

Planned Steam workshop support will let you create new resources and buildings or modify the game rules to your liking.

MINIMAL SETUPOS: 64-bit Ubuntu 22.04+ or equivalent
Processor: Intel iCore i3-530 or AMD FX-6350Memory: 4 GB RAM
Memory: 4 GB RAM
Graphics: Nvidia GeForce GTX 460 or AMD ATI Radeon HD 5870 (1GB VRAM). or AMD Radeon RX Vega 11 or Intel HD Graphics 4600Network: Broadband Internet connection
Storage: 1 GB available space

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