Hi everyone! We're releasing a small update, together with two new languages! And not just any language... the game is now available in Icelandic thanks to our friends from Nrd Norursins!

Changelog:

Added

• Added Icelandic localization
• Added Traditional Chinese localization
• You can now retry submitting highscores in case of network errors

Changed

• Reorganized bottom bar to give it more space
• Trimmed the tutorial to make it easier to digest for new players
• When you're about to lose heart due to the maximum, we no longer jiggle the maximum but show a proper tooltip with the house icon to make this easier to understand for new players

Thanks! Mario, Michael & Mathias - Sonderland

[ 2024-10-24 08:34:18 CET ] [ Original post ]

Fixed

• Fixed an exploit where you could unlock infinite perk stacks
• Fixed an exploit where you could gain unlimited mastery points
• Fixed upgrade progress not appearing on home tile when triggering the next during an ongoing upgrade
• Fixed two issues with the focus navigation between renown screen buttons

[ 2024-03-14 13:13:01 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi everyone, today we're excited to release a new content update for the game and a few other changes! In this patch, we introduce a new game mode called the "Weekly Gauntlet". This mode has been teased in our previous post and you had the chance to playtest it on the beta branch and give feedback - thanks to all who participated and gave feedback, we've made some adjustments and it is now added to the game. The Weekly Gauntlet offers introduces a new element: alternate win conditions! You will be challenged to complete a series of three tasks and settlements without losing, each featuring a different objective to complete. The set of tasks will reset every week on Wednesdays and add in a new rotation. Each week, you will have three attempts at completing the tasks and top the leaderboard! We are looking forward to extending some elements to other game modes if you guys like this new kind of challenge and look forward to your feedback See you in Iceland! Mario, Michael & Mathias

Changelog:

Added

• Weekly Gauntlet: a new game mode where you compete in a weekly leaderboard, completing a series of settlements with alternative win conditions

Changed

• Re-designed the top bar to display both the tasks and homestead update progress
• Improved button highlight visibility
• Improved readability of bottom UI bar
• Increased and streamlined size of input prompts everywhere
• Increased minimum font size for better readability on small screens

Fixed

• Fixed an issue where Expeditions wouldn't unlock Achievements
• Fixed an issue where the amount of available mastery points in the home menu wouldn't show immediately after upgrade completion
• Fixed an issue where you would lose button focus when switching between clans and perks on the renown screen
• Fixed an crash upon exploring two tiles at the same time when there are no more events left
• Fixed Sacred Meadow build duration (12 -> 6)

[ 2024-03-04 13:59:26 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi everyone! We've just opened a beta branch for Landnama's v2.3 content update which brings a brand new game mode with alternate win conditions: the Weekly Gauntlet! It is available for play testing already and we would love to hear your feedback, suggestions... and bug reports. In the Gauntlet, you are challenged to complete three tasks in a succession without failing. Each task introduces a new win condition to the settlement for which you will have to strategize and make the best of the randomly selected region and clan. Choose your task, complete all of them and win the Gauntlet! Here's a sneak peak at the new tasks and win conditions for the mode:

• Build 10 houses
• Reach 10 production with the Gothi
• Produce a 100 Heart with one of the production buildings
• Explore 10 sea tiles
• Reach 15 production with one of your production buildings
• Build 10 buildings around curiosities or landmark
• Reach 5 production with each production buildings

Each week, a new selection of tasks, regions and clans will be added for you to complete in a maximum of three attempts. We are looking forward to hearing what you think. See you in Iceland! Mario, Michael & Mathias

Warning:

• only localized in English for now
• switching to the beta branch will invalidate saga / daily / expedition, so they should move those somewhere else if they want to keep 'em (simply copy the whole folder or finish your in-progress games first)

How to test:

• Head over to your Steam library and right click on Landnama > Properties > Betas
• Select "beta - Content Update v2.3 Beta"
• Hit Play (you might have to restart the Steam client)
• Select "Weekly Gauntlet" in the main menu selection of game modes

[ 2024-02-23 10:05:49 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi everyone! Our next free content update is now live and brings balancing changes, some visual improvements, quality of life features, two new clans to unlock, new daily trial modifiers and a new difficulty level! The Mastery system has been changed to grant more points (from 3 to a total of 6 now). The design goal is to make the choice less restrictive, the power curve steeper and generally allow you to have more tools at your disposal to tackle challenging maps. You will be able to try more versatile builds depending on the needs. Support production buildings (all except Shipbuilder) can now also be built on any biome type (except Glacier). With this change, we want to allow you to create more interesting and fun synergies by connecting production lines which the biome type hard requirement was preventing in most cases. We also swapped the default and quality bonus for Hallowed Grounds (and halved their build times) so the Gothi/Hallowed buildings are much less dependant on RNG and become more accessible. We hope you like the changes and wish you happy holidays! Mathias, Mario & Michael P.S.: Some of the changes we made unfortunately made the save games incompatible; once you update and play the new version, any previously saved sagas, expeditions or daily trials will be reset.

Changelog:

Added

• The Wise clan: Starts with an extra mastery point and completes upgrades twice as fast
• The Curious clan: Starts with a curiosity close to home and gets 10 maximum heart for each discovered curiosity
• New Daily Trial: Start with 6 mastery points
• New Daily Trial: Everything is completed instantly
• A new difficulty level where you have to scale production to 70 while fighting a more aggressive winter
• Inactive buildings are now highlighted on the map

Changed

• You now get 2 and 3 mastery points on the second and third upgrade respectively (for a total of six points!)
• Revamped the home and mastery menus for more clarity and better usability
• Kiln, Weaver, Carpenter and Tanner can now build on any terrain except Glacier
• Halved the build time for Gothi and the Hallowed Grounds
• The Hallowed Grounds now grant the Gothi multiplier as the default bonus, and the bonus production for the Gothi if built on quality
• The Winter's Toll screen now only ever shows either the Continue button or the Vegvsir button (if you still have one and would otherwise lose the settlement)
• Events which set buildings on fire now say which building and center the camera on it

Fixed

• Fixed a bug where building Houses next to the Gothi would mess up its production

[ 2023-12-21 09:55:45 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi everyone! We've just opened a beta branch for Landnama's v2.2 update! We'd love to get your feedback on the content patch over the weekend. The update brings balancing changes, some visual improvements, quality of life features, two new clans to unlock, new daily trial modifiers and a new difficulty level! The Mastery system has been changed to grant more points (from 3 to a total of 6 now). The design goal is to make the choice less restrictive, the power curve steeper and generally allow you to have more tools at your disposal to tackle challenging maps. You will be able to try more versatile builds depending on the needs. Support production buildings (all except Shipbuilder) can now also be built on any biome type (except Glacier). With this change, we want to allow you to create more interesting and fun synergies by connecting production lines which the biome type hard requirement was preventing in most cases. Let us know what you think about those changes and share your feedback to help fine-tune the update before the release! Thank you for your support! Mathias, Mario & Michael

Changelog:

Added

• The Wise clan: Starts with an extra mastery point and completes upgrades twice as fast
• The Curious clan: Starts with a curiosity close to home and gets 10 maximum heart for each discovered curiosity
• New Daily Trial: Start with 6 mastery points
• New Daily Trial: Everything is completed instantly
• A new difficulty level where you have to scale production to 70 while fighting a more aggressive winter
• Inactive buildings are now highlighted on the map

Changed

• You now get 2 and 3 mastery points on the second and third upgrade respectively (for a total of six points!)
• Revamped the home and mastery menus for more clarity and better usability
• Kiln, Weaver, Carpenter, Shipbuilder and Tanner can now build on any terrain except Glacier
• The Winter's Toll screen now only ever shows either the Continue button or the Vegvsir button (if you still have one and would otherwise lose the settlement)
• Events which set buildings on fire now say which building and center the camera on it

Fixed

• Fixed a bug where building Houses next to the Gothi would mess up its production

Warning:

• monthly saga / daily trial highscores are not sent
• switching to the beta branch will invalidate saga / daily / expedition, so they should move those somewhere else if they want to keep 'em (simply copy the whole folder or finish your in-progress games first)

How to test:

[olist]

Head over to your Steam library and right click on Landnama > Properties > Betas

Select "beta - Content Update v2.2 Beta"

Hit play! (you might have to restart the Steam client) [/olist]

[ 2023-12-14 11:51:26 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi everyone! While we're already prepping the next content update, we have a smaller update for you, which brings some fixes, quality of life improvements and visual improvements we're excited about. Enjoy and stay tuned for more soon! Added

• All saga screens now have a button to access the monthly leaderboard
• Added visuals for each production building to be shown on adjacent bonus tiles

Changed

• Improved visibility of the focus highlight for buttons
• The Hrosskell clan ability's wording has been improved; when playing this clan, the Winter's Toll screen includes the clan ability
• The winter tooltip is more clear by showing "Last Year's Production"
• The mastery menu now automatically preselects the mastery with the most points
• The mastery menu buttons now highlights the selected one better
• Increased the fade duration between menu screen music tracks
• Improved the layout of the leaderboards for better readability
• Improved visuals and animations for several buildings
• Changed harvest pop effect visuals

Fixed

• Sagas with a lower score or hagalaz level no longer overwrite a better previous score
• Clans which build buildings instantly show the build time correctly

[ 2023-11-16 08:09:35 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi everyone! Were thrilled to release the first major update to Landnama, and its a big one! Weve overhauled the game quite a bit and are really excited to hear what you think. One of the main areas we really wanted to focus on was how difficulty worked in the game. Weve tried to move away from anything that felt too random or unfair, and changed events to allow more player choice with less punitive outcomes. Frequency of negative events is now tied to player chosen difficulty levels and the region selection has become part of the difficult scaling. Overall we wanted to give players autonomy around deciding what kind of challenge they wanted and when. Another big area we wanted to focus on was adding depth, especially with how a settlement played out. With this in mind, the building system has been rethought entirely and has been completely rebuilt around production. From there we streamlined how the upgrading system works, basing it on harvest thresholds for a more organic path to the objective. These two rethought systems work in tandem to make settlements feel exciting and engaging throughout. The following is an overview of the biggest changes, but there have also been many more quality of life tweaks. This is a big shift, so please share with us what you think, what you want to see, and any feedback you have on these core changes. For those of you that would like an experience more in line with the launch version, there is Landnama Classic branch available on Steam. Theres more coming, but we want your help and ideas as we move forward, so please do continue to share your thoughts! A massive thanks to our Discord community for providing crucial feedback and bug testing, especially with the recent beta of this update. We honestly appreciate it so much. Your feedback around what you like and what you would still like to see is crucial in helping us continue to evolve Landnama. Were excited to get this in your hands for feedback, thank you so much for playing our game and we hope you enjoy the changes!

Objective and Upgrade System

• Rather than paying for an upgrade with heart, players now need to reach a certain level of production per harvest.
• Once the harvest threshold has been met, the upgrade automatically begins, but is only completed via player interaction.
• Heart capacity is now increased by building houses and is no longer tied to the upgrade system.
• Upgrade levels have been reduced from five down to four.
• Players will now need to build right up until the final threshold is met, creating a more consistent experience throughout a settlement with less waiting.

Difficulty

• Now three main variables that impact difficulty: the player-selected Hagalaz difficulty levels, events that players choose when to interact with, and map generation that changes based on region.
• Hagalaz difficulty levels have been changed from five levels to three and streamlined for a more intuitive difficulty scaling.
• Hagalaz levels now impact the upgrade threshold requiring higher production.
• Effects are no longer time-based but now last for the duration of a settlement, and negative effects are no longer as punishing.
• The Althing has been removed entirely.

Events

• Events no longer happen on their own, but are found when exploring unique tiles giving the players choice about when to engage with them.
• Events have a chance to be either positive (blessings) or negative (curses), with the ratio of positive to negative changing along with increased player-chosen difficulty levels.
• Hagalaz levels determine the ratio of positive blessings to negative curses, with more blessings than curses occurring at normal difficulty while scaling up to exclusively curses at Hagalaz 3.
• The challenge auto-pause setting has been changed to an event auto-pause that triggers for both positive and negative events.
• Special tiles like the Landmak

World Generation

• The biome algorithm has been tweaked to make regions more distinct with a predominant biome that will feature more prominently.
• Glaciers are now unbuildable dead tiles with their frequency increasing based on the difficulty level indicated on the region selection screen.
• Higher difficulty levels make finding buildable biome clusters more of a challenge.
• Unique tiles are more evenly distributed and have been increased to 25 per map.
• Exploring unique tiles will reveal an event, curiosity, or the landmark, and more will continue to appear as you explore.

Buildings

• Each production building now has two support buildings that unlock with home upgrades for powerful builds that grow with a settlement.
• All buildings now have adjacency requirements and synergies with adjacency being a core element of how the entire build system functions.
• Each building also has both a primary effect and a secondary bonus that is given when built on a quality tile.
• Sacred buildings have been reimagined as a separate, unique heart production group accessible.
• Caches have been replaced with Houses which are now the only avenue to increasing heart capacity.
• You can now open the build and home menus while the action is disabled.
• The building auto-pause setting now triggers not only when buildings are built but also when they're salvaged or destroyed.

Play Modes

• There is now a quick play mode where the player can select a clan, region, and difficulty level for a single settlement.
• The daily challenge still exists but can now be played multiple times, though only the first play will count towards the leader board.
• The monthly leaderboard now only allows one entry per player.

Masteries

• Once a player completes a home upgrade they receive a point to spend on a static mastery bonus tree.
• Each mastery has three tiers tied to a production type for choice based on need and strategy, and allowing the player to better adapt to map generation.

Clans

• Clans now have a starting bonus and a clan ability allowing for different play styles and strategies.
• Sagas will now require settling each region with a different clan, though if a settlement fails that clan may be used again.

Winter

• The winter formula has been simplified and is less punitive towards exploration and building.
• Fixed an issue where you could click the Vegvsir button after finishing winter.
• Vegvisirs now reduce both your Heart and Winters Toll to 0 when used.

Renown

• Players now collect Renown after each successful settlement.
• Playing a Saga rewards more Renown (Saga multiplier) but you can earn Renown for playing both Expedition and Daily Trial modes.
• Renown can be spent to unlock new Clans as well as Favors which are permanent bonuses. The Renown menu can be accessed from the main menu.

General

• The top UI has been redesigned to be more clear and intuitive.
• Added Production breakdown tooltip when hovering over the production per harvest number in the top UI.
• Exploration time is now capped between one and six months.
• The game no longer auto-saves at the start of the year but after the last harvest.
• In the settings you can now override the language chosen via Steam UI.
• The Steam Cloud now properly syncs between different platforms.
• The Demo was updated to allow to play an entire settlement (would previously end after 7 years).

[ 2023-10-16 11:48:19 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi everyone, We're excited to share our first big update for Landnama! It's been almost exactly two months since the release and we have been hard at work to address all your feedback, and we'll continue to listen so we can evolve Landnama into the game you want it be. While staying true to the core gameplay mechanics, we've overhauled many of the game systems to add more depth and strategy, reworked difficulty scaling, and removed a lot of the punishing random elements that didn't feel fun. To play the beta version of v2.0.0 right-click Landnama in your Library and choose "Properties". In the following menu select the tab "Betas" and choose the branch "v2_beta". Please note the beta branch is fully localized only in English, German and French as of now. We'd love to hear your feedback on the changes, it has been and still is crucial in helping us shape the future of this game! Heres what this update is bringing to the game:

Objective and Upgrade System

We really wanted to streamline the game flow and have the upgrade system feel more organic. While the goal of a settlement is still upgrading the home tile to a great hall, the path there is quite different.

• Rather than paying for an upgrade with heart, players now need to reach a certain level of production per harvest.
• Once the harvest threshold has been met, the upgrade automatically begins, but is only completed via player interaction.
• Heart capacity is now increased by building houses and is no longer tied to the upgrade system.
• Upgrade levels have been reduced from five down to four.
• Players will now need to build right up until the final threshold is met, creating a more consistent experience throughout a settlement with less waiting.

Difficulty

Something we spent a lot of time looking at is how difficulty works in Landnama. We tried to move away from anything that felt too random or unfair, and allow scaling in a way that supports player autonomy. We now have three main variables that impact difficulty: the player-selected Hagalaz difficulty levels, events that players choose when to interact with, and map generation that changes based on region. For example, a normal difficulty level in the first region will be a substantially different challenge than Hagalaz 3 in the sixth region.

• Hagalaz difficulty levels have been changed from five levels to three and streamlined for a more intuitive difficulty scaling.
• Hagalaz levels now impact the upgrade threshold requiring higher production.
• Effects are no longer time-based but now last for the duration of a settlement, and negative effects are no longer as punishing.
• The Althing has been removed entirely.

Events

Something that was important to us was to try and give players more choice around when events happened and have the outcomes feel less punitive. We also wanted to have events be a part of the difficulty scaling to add a more substantial difference in the experience between normal difficulty and Hagalaz 3.

• Events no longer happen on their own, but are found when exploring unique tiles giving the players choice about when to engage with them.
• Events have a chance to be either positive (blessings) or negative (curses), with the ratio of positive to negative changing along with increased player-chosen difficulty levels.
• Hagalaz levels determine the ratio of positive blessings to negative curses, with more blessings than curses occurring at normal difficulty while scaling up to exclusively curses at Hagalaz 3.
• The challenge auto-pause setting has been changed to an event auto-pause that triggers for both positive and negative events.

World Generation

We wanted the regions to feel more distinct from one another while also allowing for more diversity in difficulty between them. If a player chooses to play the regions in order of difficulty through a saga they will have a noticeably increasing challenge.

• The biome algorithm has been tweaked to make regions more distinct with a predominant biome that will feature more prominently.
• Glaciers are now unbuildable dead tiles with their frequency increasing based on the difficulty level indicated on the region selection screen.
• Higher difficulty levels make finding buildable biome clusters more of a challenge.
• Unique tiles are more evenly distributed and have been increased to 25 per map.
• Exploring unique tiles will reveal an event, curiosity, or the landmark, and more will continue to appear as you explore.

Buildings

We wanted to change the building flow from the start to the end of a settlement. With this in mind, the building system has been rethought entirely and has been completely rebuilt around production.

• Each production building now has two support buildings that unlock with home upgrades for powerful builds that grow with a settlement.
• All buildings now have adjacency requirements and synergies with adjacency being a core element of how the entire build system functions.
• Each building also has both a primary effect and a secondary bonus that is given when built on a quality tile.
• Sacred buildings have been reimagined as a separate, unique heart production group.
• Caches have been replaced with Houses which are now the only avenue to increasing heart capacity.
• You can now open the build and home menus while the action is disabled.
• The building auto-pause setting now triggers not only when buildings are built but also when they're salvaged or destroyed.

Play Modes

• There is now a quick play mode where the player can select a clan, region, and difficulty level for a single settlement.
• The daily challenge still exists but can now be played multiple times, though only the first play will count towards the leader board.
• The monthly leaderboard now only allows one entry per player.

Masteries

• Once a player completes a home upgrade they receive a point to spend on a static mastery bonus tree.
• Each mastery has three tiers tied to a production type for choice based on need and strategy, and allowing the player to better adapt to map generation.

Clans

• Clans now have a starting bonus and a clan ability allowing for different play styles and strategies.
• Sagas will now require settling each region with a different clan, though if a settlement fails that clan may be used again.

Winter

• The winter formula has been simplified to depend only on the settlement's production.
• The Vegvsir now lets the player survive winter at the cost of all available Heart.
• Fixed an issue where you could click the Vegvsir button after finishing winter.

Renown

• A new rewards system for unlocking boosts, clans, and other game elements. The player accumulates renown by playing the game, with increased difficulty providing higher payouts.

General

• The top UI has been redesigned to be more clear and intuitive.
• Exploration time is now capped between one and six months.
• The game no longer auto-saves at the start of the year but after the last harvest.
• In the settings you can now override the language chosen via Steam UI.
• The Steam Cloud now properly syncs between different platforms.

This is an overview of the biggest changes, but there have also been many quality of life tweaks. There are a lot of changes, so please help us test, find bugs, tell us what works or doesnt, what you want to see, and any feedback you have on these core changes. Theres more coming, but we want your help and ideas as we move forward, especially with content for the renown system. Were excited to get this in your hands for feedback, thanks for playing Landnama and we hope you enjoy the changes! Mario, Michael & Mathias - Sonderland

[ 2023-09-29 06:08:18 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi everyone, Thanks for your patience while we plan and work on this big update. Weve really tried to take in everyones feedback and evolve the game in a way that addresses how you want it to grow while maintaining the elements you enjoy. We wanted to share an overview of what were working on and get your feedback so we can make Landnama as good as it can be. So please, share any of your thoughts and feelings about this, we want to hear from you! The main areas we are currently working on are making the randomly generated elements less punishing and not as much of a focus, and adding more depth and replayability. Here are some of the solutions were working on. Wed love to hear as much feedback as possible from you over the next week or two while we work on this update, then well share a detailed breakdown with a version for you to test as soon as we can. We can then continue the conversation from there. Difficulty All difficulty levels will now be available from the start, with additional rewards gained from higher levels. The Althing wont appear in the normal difficult level. Challenges are being reworked to feel less punishing and encounters to feel more rewarding. World Generation Weve made a significant change with how tiles spawn, now appearing in clusters of the same biome. Each region's predominant biome spawns more often as well, and quality tiles can now be found on the sea biome. Winter's Toll Were simplifying the calculation of Winters Toll. Instead of basing it on explored tiles, buildings and home upgrades, it will increase it by a certain amount each year that scales with difficulty. Winters Toll will also have a smaller range it rolls from. Challenges and Encounters Instead of having a guaranteed negative event every year, there will be an equal chance its a positive one, and positive events will now have a choice of reward much like the negative ones. Events you encounter while exploring then will no longer only be positive, but can be negative as well. Masteries Masteries in their current form have been removed with the most fun and powerful effects moved to clans so they can be accessed without relying on a random roll. Buildings This is probably the biggest change were working on. We've changed buildings to work with production as a system, and almost all buildings will have adjacency requirements and production multipliers. Buildings will retain their special abilities, but only if built on a quality tile. Example:

• The Woodcutter functions the same as a production building
• The Carpenter needs to be built adjacent to the woodcutter and will add x1 multiplier, doubling production
• Another tier of buildings adds an additional multiplier, in this example the Smithy can be built adjacent to the Carpenter adding an additional x1 multiplier, tripling production
• Sacred buildings have had a big overhaul and now need to be built adjacent to the Gothi; they provide a separate path to a x1 multiplier, in this example the Sacred Grove would add an additional x1 multiplier, quadrupling production

Because of the shift in how sacred buildings function, the Providence chain will be removed. Canceling construction will work a bit differently as well; it will only be free if the action hasnt started, once it has only half the cost will be returned. Clans We want the clans to feel more unique and offer different ways to play the game. Were still working on these and will share more details soon, but we wanted to keep you in the loop on our approach. Each clan will have several abilities, including a unique alternative path to completing a settlement. Another change weve made is that you must now choose a different clan for each settlement in a saga. This goes hand in hand with how new clans are now obtained, the first six clans unlock with each of the six settlements in a saga. Additional clans are obtainable through the new Renown system. Renown (New) For every settlement you play, youll gain Renown. Even if your settlement perishes, youll still collect some. Youll gain more Renown the higher the difficulty chosen. Renown can then be spent on new clans, consumables, permanent upgrades, and cosmetics. It will take a bit of time to build this out, but wed love to hear what content you would be excited about being able to purchase with Renown. We think these changes will add more depth and replayability to a settlement while giving the player more control over their destiny, but were really curious to hear your feedback. Please know if these changes address what you want Landnama to be, and keep sharing ideas as theres more to come and we want to know what you want! Mathias, Michael and Mario / Sonderland

[ 2023-08-18 07:10:06 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi everyone! This update doesn't have any balancing or new content yet, for this we will need some time we want to get this right and deliver you a content update that makes as many of you as happy as possible. But we're very happy to release a new update with an completely reworked Chinese localization and some bugfixes in the meantime: CHANGED - Completely reworked the Chinese localization - The Vegvsir button on the winter screen now has a confirm dialog to avoid misclicks - Default music volume is now at 75% FIXED - The pause button now always has the correct state at the start of a settlement - The exploration time cost no longer displays negative values but the correct value of 1 month Thank you for your support! <3 Mathias, Michael and Mario a.k.a Sonderland

[ 2023-08-03 15:09:30 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi everyone! Thank you again to all that purchased, played the game and gave us feedback or left a review so far! Were really humbled by the response the game received at launch. Were a small studio, it is our first game as a team and we definitely didnt expect it to get that much exposure. Unfortunately, we also hear from those of you who have not found the game to their liking, be it for its simplicity, overall difficulty and balancing, lack of content or replayability or the subpar chinese localization. Were sorry the game did not live up to your expectations and wanted to thank you again for your feedback. The past days have been a roller coaster of emotions for us as you can imagine. We worked on this project for almost two years, took risks, tried our best but ultimately ended up letting some of you down and many more who have it on their Wishlist waiting to see how we stir the ship before committing to purchasing the game. That is fair and understandable were Steam shoppers too.

So, what happens now?

For our three-people team, the main objective for the coming weeks will be to take the feedback and work on rolling out meaningful updates to make as many of you as happy as possible. For that, we intend to address two main areas:

Overall Difficulty and RNG:

We always wanted for Landnama to be a game that challenges you in a meaningful way - with just the right level of intricacies and mechanics to make you think and come up with your own strategies. We also wanted it to be a fun roguelike survival game in which the hardship of Iceland's nature is unpredictable and punishing. We realize that while we managed to partially do that, many of you found the base game too difficult while some of you got bored before trying to beat Hagalaz 5 and we want to fix that. We have already introduced balancing changes to make the onboarding experience and overall difficulty scaling more streamlined in v1.1.0 and we will continue to improve on this in future updates.

Replayability:

We received feedback that the game gets repetitive after a while and that there is a lack of content or incentive to keep playing after a few sagas. For that, we added difficulty levels, leaderboards and content unlocks but ultimately understand that those may not be the strongest incentives. In more recent updates, we added the masteries which already greatly improved the variety of runs compared to previous versions. The clans are the part were the most frustrated about as they were meant to be much more meaningful than this and play a bigger role in making things fresh and exciting. But they did not so far. We will be addressing the content issue and replayability fatigue hard as one of our key items for the upcoming updates. Wed love to hear your feedback and ideas on what this would mean for you. Were going to need some time to gather the feedback and come up with changes meaningfully addressing those issues, while also continuing on fixing bugs and adding quality of life changes. We are wholeheartedly committed to making this game better, and we would love to do that together with you. We are a small team of three, were not asking for your indulgence but to forgive us for our mistakes and give us a hand to make this game live up to its potential! Thank you all, and see you in Iceland! Mathias, Michael and Mario a.k.a Sonderland

[ 2023-08-02 09:09:58 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi everyone! First of all, thank you to the many players who purchased and played the game! We're thrilled to have had so many of you excited about the game's release and received a ton of feedback. We understand that many of you were disappointed with the general difficulty of the game and reliance on RNG. We want to say we're sorry that the game did not meet your expectations. We hear you and assure you we're working hard to take the game to the next level! As a first step in that direction, we want to highlight two changes from the patch notes below. Casual is now the default difficulty and called Normal We hear you on the difficulty levels and realize that the "Normal" difficulty level was the wrong entry point for new players. If you found the game too difficult, we strongly recommend starting a new saga on the new, improved "Normal" difficulty! Masteries now only grant bonuses, no more maluses We removed the maluses from Masteries to make the game more rewarding and make sure you get to experience the many different strategies and builds possible with those. These are the first of many changes to come. Keep the feedback coming so we can make the game as good as possible together. We are also in the process of reworking the Chinese localization of the game, that many of you reported was subpar. Thank you for your support! Mario, Michael and Mathias a.k.a Sonderland PATCH NOTES v1.1.0: CHANGED

• Casual is now the default difficulty and called Normal
• Masteries now only grant bonuses, no more maluses
• Naturalism now grants 2 per empty quality tile (previously 3)
• Sacred Ground now grants 3 per adjacent sacred building (previously 5)

FIXED

• Moved the adjacent bonus icon to the right side of the tile so they don't overlap with hearts

[ 2023-08-01 09:10:19 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi everyone! Landnama is officially out! Iceland beckons your Viking clans, go forth and try to settle the land of fire and ice! Thank you all who have helped us along the way with feedback, suggestions and support! We're thrilled to enter a new chapter for both our studio and the game. We are a tiny self-funded independent team of three from Germany, France and Canada. We've put our humble hearts and souls into this game and we hope you will enjoy it See you in Iceland! Mario, Michael & Mathias a.k.a. Sonderland https://store.steampowered.com/app/2339040/Landnama/

[ 2023-07-31 07:00:47 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi friends! To start off, wed like to thank all of you for your awesome support, patience and feedback! After almost two years of hard work, we're thrilled to announce that Landnama will release on Steam on 31/07/2023! Yes, in just two weeks time. We've also just updated the demo with many changes and language options (DE, FR, RU and CN). So jump in and check them out until the full release is here! We can't wait for everyone who's been waiting and many more to embark on epic sagas! Cheers, Mario, Michael & Mathias aka Sonderland https://store.steampowered.com/app/2339040

[ 2023-07-19 10:44:50 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hey everyone, we're happy to announce our livestream to celebrate the Steam Next Fest! Two thirds of our team will be answering your questions and will try to settle Iceland with you. We'll also be showcasing a new mechanic that will be in the release version of the game, so even if you've played the demo or playtests, you have a reason to tune in! ;-) We're looking forward to seeing you, ehrm, being seen by you? Michael, Mario & Mathias

[ 2023-06-09 11:50:16 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hey everyone, we're happy to announce our livestream to celebrate the Steam Next Fest! Two thirds of our team will be answering your questions and will try to settle Iceland with you. We'll also be showcasing a new mechanic that will be in the release version of the game, so even if you've played the demo or playtests, you have a reason to tune in! ;-) We're looking forward to seeing you, ehrm, being seen by you? Michael, Mario & Mathias

[ 2023-06-09 11:34:57 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi, friends! We're super excited to announce that we've just released the DEMO for Landnama! Be ready to set sail and survive the Icelandic winter for four cold years with the clans of your choice! Learn the ropes of establishing a thriving homestead that you will need to settle the whole island in the upcoming full version of the game! It's a huge milestone for our tiny team, and it has been an awesome (and crazy) journey from the early sketches to the version we have now! It wouldn't have been possible at all without all the support we received from the community and during our Alpha #1 and Alpha #2 playtests on Steam! THANKS TO YOU ALL! You can add Landnama to your Wishlist on Steam to stay up-to-date with future news and information about the game! :) Do you have friends who missed the last playtests? Share the news with them that they can now try it out! Cheers, Michael, Mario & Mathias

[ 2023-06-01 10:24:47 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hey friends! the first playtest a few weeks ago was tremendously helpful for us and we walked away from it with weeks worth of work. Now we're happy to announce that we've implemented most of the feedback we got from you so this coming weekend we're inviting you to round two of the public alpha playtest for Landnama!

Alpha Playtest #2

From Friday, May 19th at 6PM CEST to Sunday, May 21st at 6 PM CEST. As with the last playtest there's no embargo on streaming the game or making videos about it. Do share if you feel like it! The platform of choice to share feedback is our friendly Discord server again! Thank you all for your feedback so far and for your interest in our game! <3 Cheers, Michael, Mario & Mathias P.S.: You can already take a sneak peak at the preliminary patch notes below: ADDED - You can now pan the camera with WASD keys or the right thumb stick - Added tutorial steps about difficult terrain and unique tiles - Added new daily trial modifiers CHANGED - The maximum yield per tile has been removed - The Woodcutter and Pasture now gain bonus yield for unbuilt adjacent tiles of any quality - The Hunter and Peat Farm now work exactly like the Woodcutter and Pasture - Winter now increases by 1 for every 2 explored tiles (previously every 3) - The progress bar on tiles now has segments equal to months - For challenge events you now have a choice between two effects - The wharf and dragonship chain each give +1 interest per 5 heart (previously 3) - Base chance to find encounter event upon exploring is now 15% (previously 10%) - In the first year of a settlement there now are no challenge events - Salvaging buildings now uses your construction workers FIXED - The game automatically pauses when the window is not in focus - The law which disables sacred buildings now does so properly - The Providence chain progress no longer shows if you've already unlocked it - The UI on tiles is no longer affected by the winter tint

[ 2023-05-17 06:52:51 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hey friends! we're happy to announce the first public alpha playtest for Landnama! If you've registered for the playtest, you will be able to play the game the coming weekend!

Alpha Playtest #1

From Friday, April 28th at 6PM CEST to Sunday, April 30th at 6 PM CEST. A note to the content creators among you: there's no embargo on streaming the game or making videos about it. Do share if you feel like it! We would love for you to join us on our friendly Discord server, where you can share your feedback and help shape the game in the months to come before the release. Thank you so much for your interest in the game, we're hyped and can't wait to hear what you all think about this game! Cheers, Michael, Mario & Mathias

[ 2023-04-25 08:13:55 CET ] [ Original post ]