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I have uploaded an update to improve a number of issues that crept in and make some all-around improvements. It is live on preview now, if there are no issues it will go live on the main branch in a few days. Here's the list of changes:
This is a major behind-the-scenes update, it includes:
I've uploaded a new build to the testing/beta branch. This is a major behind-the-scenes update, with a new engine major version and considerable code updates. It fixes a small number of bugs as well. Please test and let me know if you run into any problems. The sooner I get some feedback, the sooner I can send it live for everyone.
From time to time, players have asked if the game is available in their language. Until now, I always had to say sorry no. I speak English and German good enough. Other languages need a native or good speaker. I found one person to translate parts of the game to French, very happy about that. Now, you can all help translating the game into your language. Maybe just a few words, maybe a whole story block - as you wish. I've set up an online translation system here: https://weblate.lemuria.org/projects/black-forest/ Go there, select your language and start translating. The system has good documentation for all needs, and if you need another language, tell me and I'll add it. The game's texts are split up into a number of chunks, due to the way the export and import work, but the actual translation work is basically: It shows you the English original and you enter your translation. You can also make suggestions if you're not sure and other players can vote on them. I'll be happy to offer the game in as many languages as possible.
This update should fix all but one of the known bugs and includes a number of other improvements. I recommend that you install it as quickly as possible. Note: I have changed some parts of the save game files. The game should load old saves without any issues, but new saves made with this version will not be compatible with older versions of the game.
Hot on the heels of the previous update, here are two more bugfixes:
ATTENTION - this is part 2 of the major walls update, this one is destructive. Old saves (by now 3 months or more old) may not work or not correctly restore any walls built. This update also fixes a number of bugs, adds French translation and more. Here's the full changelog:
If you've been holding off, now is the perfect time to get the game into your collection. Black Forest will be on sale during the Steam Summer Sale. It's also a great time because the game just received a major update, and another (smaller) update is on the way. Go and defend these villagers, they'll be eaten without you !
I'm working on part 2 of the major update. This will have far fewer changes, but the important part is that I will be cleaning up old, no longer used things. So if you have any quite old saves (from before the last update), now is the time to finish those game. In the next update, I will be removing old walls and no longer used buildings. This might break old saves, meaning that those buildings won't exist anymore if you load a game where they were still present. In other news, the update will also include French localization. I know it's been asked a few times, it's finally coming.
Black Forest is on sale. Steam tells me that over 10,000 of you still have it on your wishlist. Now, with the sale and the big update that just came out, is the perfect time to get Black Forest into your library.
This is the first of a two-part major update to the game. I am re-focussing on the core gameplay and removing elements that distract from it. That includes the night watch option for villagers and the armoury, weapons and guard posts. The game was always meant to be unique in that you don't have combat as a serious option, and having these elements in the game creates the false impression that this is how you could (or should) defend your village, when it was only ever meant to be a small part of your total strategy.
I'll be streaming gameplay of the new version today evening, showcasing changes and new features. Stream will be on my Twitch channel: https://www.twitch.tv/blackforestdev/ If I can manage it I will upload a recording to YouTube afterwards. The time is 21:00 local time. Check here to convert to your time: https://www.zeitzonenrechner.net/at/2761369
Still preparing for the next update. Here is a teaser of what you can expect:
I've been working on a major update for the game, re-focussing on the core gameplay and removing elements that distract from it. That includes the night watch option for villagers and the armoury, weapons and guard posts. The game was always meant to be unique in that you don't have combat as a serious option, and having these elements in the game creates the false impression that this is how you could (or should) defend your village, when it was only ever meant to be a small part of your total strategy. In addition to that, I have given several maps small upgrades, added tools to many of the villagers' jobs, completely reworked the way walls are generated (you won't see a big difference, but it's a lot easier for me to manage them now) made monster spawn timing more predictable and interesting. I'm still working on more bugfixes and improvements. Looking forward to putting this big update into your hands.
Hi everyone - if you were thinking about getting the game, now is a great time to do so.
Hi everyone! If you were thinking about getting the game, now is a great time to do so as we are part of the Steam Spring Sale! From March 14th until the 21st, the game will be on sale for 50% off! Make sure to check out Freedom Games' Steam Spring Sale page to pick up some great games to play. Get Black Forest here.
For the holidays, here is a fairly big update with interesting new features for you:
Hi everyone! If you were thinking about getting the game, now is a great time to do so as we are part of the Steam Winter Sale through our publisher Freedom Games! From December 21st until January 8th, the game will be on sale for 50% off! Make sure to check out Freedom Games' Winter Sale 2023 page to pick up some great games to play over the holiday season. Whether you like to play alone or with friends, there are some great deals you won't want to miss out on! https://store.steampowered.com/app/523070/Black_Forest/
Hi everyone!
We're excited to announce that Black Forest is part of the Turn-Based Carnival event on Steam and is available for 20% off until the event ends!
Turn-Based Carnival will be live from November 14th to the 21st to bring together a bunch of exciting games for a delightful experience. Check out the event page here to discover some other amazing games!
Don't forget to join our Discord community!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/523070/Black_Forest/
Bugfixes:
New Features:
Greetings, Resilient Survivors of the Black Forest, The moment we've all eagerly awaited has finally arrived! Black Forest 2.0 is now officially launched, marking a new era of survival. My heartfelt gratitude goes out to my dedicated community for making this journey possible. Are you prepared to face the horrors that dwell within the forest? Darkness reigns, and sinister secrets stir. Can you defend your village from the relentless attention of the woods' malevolent inhabitants? The darkness awaits, and its time to embark on your journey to survive the unrelenting horrors that await you.
Greetings, brave villagers and survivors of the Black Forest! It's been a long, treacherous journey through the darkness of Early Access, but the time has finally come. I am thrilled to announce that Black Forest is stepping out of the shadows and into the light of its full 2.0 release! Prepare yourselves for a harrowing experience like no other, where danger, death, and despair are your constant companions. If you haven't been keeping tabs on the project, or just tried it out somewhere along the way, below is a quick recap of what Ive added to the game during Early Access. If youre curious to see all of the updates we have done through EA you can look back through the NEWS section here on steam! New Additions in Early Access:
New:
Hello everyone! I have a couple of different updates for you this week. Now that I have a publisher, I plan to swap to being a premium (paid) game. Current owners of the game will keep the game! This swap will occur later today Having a publisher has opened up new opportunities to do more with the game and Id like to take that opportunity and run with it! Aside from the usual bug fixing and polishing, the next upcoming main update is the addition of buildings, actions and code to enable night guards in the village. Peasants can be armed and ordered to stand guard (they will sleep the next morning) or mercenaries can be hired in the tavern. The code is still simple and will need player feedback and improvement, but its there now and will be continuously improved in the next updates. Also, I have added more peasant details, which can be opened by clicking on a peasant in the 3D view or on their name in the peasant list. This also allows players to send peasants to rest (if you want them to heal faster). Some upcoming minor changes:
Hello everyone! I am pleased to announce that Black Forest is now being published by Freedom Games (freedom.gg) For those of you who may not know, a game publisher can take care of a lot of the business and marketing side of releasing a game. That includes managing our store pages, marketing and advertising the game, helping showcase the game at digital and live events, PR, and much more. Having Freedom Games as a publisher is pretty motivating as it will allow me to reach more players and make Black Forest the best it can be! The best thing about Freedom Games is that they are fully behind my creative vision of the game and Ill have all the freedom (heh) going forward to build the game in the way I think is best. In other words: I have complete creative and development freedom and thats exactly what Freedom Games and I want from this partnership. You may also be concerned about the stories of publishers ruining the vision of a game or forcing arbitrary restrictions on the dev team. For Freedom, that cant be further from the reality I have experienced with them. Freedom has been a great partner to me, only enhancing and supporting my vision. I was conscientious when considering whether to go with a publisher or not, and selected Freedom because they are committed to my vision of the game, and only want to see it reach its full potential as I see it. I maintain complete creative and development freedom, and Freedom (heh) wouldnt have it any other way! Weve got more updates coming, so stay tuned! Dont forget to join our Discord for sneak peeks and more.
Not everything I'm working on becomes immediately visible in the game. Some things just take a long time to work on. (cough, mercenaries, cough)
One thing I've been working on for a while and am somewhat close to figuring out is dynamic paths. The following screenshot does not look spectacular:
...until I tell you that only the main village path near the right edge of the screen was placed by me during the level development. All the paths connecting the houses to each other and to the main path are dynamically calculated and placed when the house is built.
They connect to each other, wind around other buildings, arc naturally, clear grass and other vegetation in their way and eventually end at a larger road organically.
I still need to test these in larger amounts and make optimizations, figure out edge cases and other stuff, but I've wanted this for a long time, to make the villages look more real.
Oh yes, and these roads will also disappear again when the house is demolished or destroyed.
It's been a while, and I'm starting slowly, so here's mostly bugfixes and small things such as balance changes:
Attention "testing" users: With this update I'm inverting the branches. "Testing" now becomes "stable" for those who intentionally want to be behind the regular schedule or to go back to if the default branch breaks. The default branch will now always be ahead of the new "stable" branch.
Patching a few important bugs and adding a new level for teaser testing:
If you read the forums you know that I've got a broken finger right now and can't type or code well. So this is a small update, but know that I continue working on the game.
Mark the date and tune in. This Thursday (October 27th), starting around 8 pm GMT, the Content DLC pack will be released and we celebrate the release with a multi-streamer event. Tom, the developer of Black Forest, will be streaming around the release time, tune in on either YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCO87uw8EBo4arsOS64iRuVw or Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/blackforestdev There will be a few more streamers as well, I invite them to post their channels and times below. And if you are a streamer, YouTuber or content producer and want to participate, contact me or post below.
Fixed: Critical save game bug also includes the previous update:
BREAKING CHANGES Note that this update is incompatible with your old save games and will automatically delete them. If you want to complete a game, do so before updating ! Also: Contains new screen resolutions. Check and correct your resolution in the options menu. This big update contains tons of bugfixes as well as gameplay improvements and new features:
Getting ever closer to being able to release 1.8
This hopefully last RC before the 1.8 release contains a bunch of bug fixes.
This update includes a few but crucial bugfixes. I still have a small number of bugs I know about that I want to fix, please test this version and report any bugs, we are close to the 1.8 release.
If you are on the "testing" branch, you now get the next build that might become the 1.8 release. Please test it and report any bugs you find.
This update is only for the testing branch:
I'm getting ready to move into the 1.8 version, which is a huge update that will bring procedural houses to the game, meaning every hovel, hut and house looks different. To make this possible, I had to rework how houses are constructed, control their appearance and even set the work spots for their construction workers. Note that this is a BREAKING UPDATE - your previous save games will probably not work, and once I'm releasing it properly, it will break/delete your previous save games. Since this has so much potential to break things, I'm releasing it on the testing branch first. If you feel like helping all of us to get this quickly, switch to testing and report any bugs you find so I can fix them.
This update completes a list of bugfixes and additions I've been working on. With the new story level and new monster from the previous updates, and the new building and sounds in this one, you get a refreshed game experience. Enjoy your games.
Here's a quick screenshot of what I have been working on recently. Procedural generation of houses. Instead of having 3 or so different houses, I will generate them procedurally, which means that no two houses are the same, but the algorithm behind it is a kind of predictable randomness, so when you load a game again, all the houses are the same as they were, and if I during level design put a specific house into the initial village layout (say, with the door a certain direction), then it will be like that in every game. The procedural generation is not just the walls, location of the door and chimney, but also windows and some props outside the house (stack of firewood, a table or bench next to the door, etc.). And it is all rule-based so that it makes sense - such as if the house has a bench, it will be next to the door, not on the other side of it. I also generate the construction tools and work places for the peasants building the house procedurally, so that again these are all different for each house. I've got the basic huts pretty much done, and hovels around 50%. Next up will be the wood and stone houses, but since I've figured most things out by now, these should be much faster. I have also started adapting my various game logics to the new setup. There is a lot that depends on how a house is constructed as a game object, such as the construction animation, the damage effects and lots more. The new houses are also more efficient on game performance, as I don't have to store all versions of a house (ghost, under construction, finished, damaged) but only one set. Speaking of which: One thing I haven't completed yet is the ruined house versions. These will also be procedural, but they are a bit more tricky to figure out. If I can manage it in time, this will be a big update for the one-year anniversary of the game, coming up next month. Yes, it's been one year and look how far we've come. Would you be interested in a comparison? I could make a new branch in Steam with a very old build so those who want can switch to it. Would that be something interesting? Comment below to let me know.
This update contains a lot of small fixes and updates. Note that the 2nd story is now available, but it is very, very incomplete. It is there purely to get a glimpse and for early feedback.
The testing branch now has rangers available for hire in the tavern. If you are on the testing branch, please try them out and post some feedback to the forum. If you are not, you can switch to the testing branch in your Steam options for the game. I generally keep testing in line with the normal branch and it is fairly rare for testing to be (more) broken.
Small but important updates, especially for the tutorial.
Something broke in the last update, I'm reverting it so you all can play.
I've uploaded a patch to testing (only, at this time) to enable saving/loading for story mode. This comes with a rework of the main menu level selector. Let me know what you think of the new one.
This update brings the main branch up with the testing branch since everything seems stable.
It's been a long time, but finally, it is on its way. Right now, only the testing branch has only a short chapter (a few days of gameplay). This is for testing, so please, please post feedback. This testing case should contain a good portion of the tutorial, but in a different format, as well as a few quests and dialogs to guide you. Story mode is a different gameplay experience. It is much more guided, and at least in this first story that serves as tutorial quite restrictive in what you can do (more options open up as the story progresses). The most important thing for me now is feedback. Do you like it? Is it too much or too little dialog? Do you like the choices you are given or would you like something else? What is missing, what is too much? Known limitations:
Here's a quick hotfix for a small main menu issue and to re-balance the (now a bit too powerful) large monsters. It also includes the previous largerpatch:
Streaming Black Forest one hour from now (15:00 GMT/UTC) on Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/blackforestdev on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLv--8Vtj1LLpJ9yXdwGE9u1hUU8QIc6oC
One of the most common requests is the ability to fight the monsters.
So I've used my break to start working on that, and I'm here to announce that it will come to the game soon. I have the first version working and here's an exclusive teaser screenshot:
Yes ! - as you can see, I have decided that instead of giving you NPC warriors, I am adding an FPS mode. At night, you yourself don your armour, take out your sword (or other weapon, depending on your smithy level, more on that later) and go defend the village !
Excitment, action, more defense - but also a right of injury and death which (on normal or hard) will end the game in defeat (if you are injured, the next day your camera view will be a bit blurry).
Let me know how excited you are about this in the comments below!
A number of important quick fixes I just uploaded:
Welcome our first level with castle-like defenses. And a unique challenge - keep the fragile market place working.
After testing it on beta and not seing any major issues, here's the large update for the default branch. Reminder of changes:
This is a big one, which is why I'm pushing it out to testing first. The main thing is that you can have a first glance at the completely new vegetation system in the new level Kroburg. Which is also a new level in many regards - the longest yet with 40 days, and much more focussed, with a different take and a fully fortified settlement. You can also find two new buildings in this build: The fishery (only available on levels with water) and the Stone Gate to complement the stone walls. Full list of changes:
I've uploaded a small update that fixes a DLC buildings issue and some smaller bugs. If you are on the beta branch, please test it and post below if everything works for you.
This update includes a few behind-the-scenes changes that you won't notice, and a potential bugfix for a problem where loading a save game wouldn't start the day correctly sometimes.
bringing the main branch in line with the testing branch:
bringing the main branch in line with the testing branch:
This is an urgent bugfix update, tackling three serious issues related to starting a new game and to loading save games. Please apply this update immediately.
This update contains a couple of bugfixes, including one nasty bug that caused night to not end sometimes. There is also an experimental version of the new wall-building system included for you to test.
This build contains the first iteration of the new wall builder - build walls by dragging instead of by pieces. This is a test. It contains only the plank wall (to the very right of the defenses menu). Please test it, please break it, please tell me any bugs or problems.
This quick update contains only a number of small bugfixes. Recommended to apply it immediately, at least one fixes a game-breaking bug.
This update includes all of the beta updates of the past days, and a few more updates:
Here is a couple of updates. I plan to move this build to the main/stable branch as soon as there's been a bit of testing and no major bugs:
This update brings the default (main/stable) branch in line with the beta/testing branch, bringing you all these goodies that the beta users have tested for you:
Here are some statistics from the analytics backend.
If you haven't checked the privacy page: The game does collect a few analytics data, such as which buildings you construct, which levels you play, etc. - this is necessary for some of the achievements, and it also helps me to understand how the game is played. The data collected not for achievements is anonymous, so all I get is numbers.
Here are some of these numbers:
Here are the levels played during the past few days. Clearly, Schramberg ist the favorite level to play, and in general easy levels are more popular than normal or hard. The large number of Tutorials being played (this number is large because they are 4 short levels and add up here) shows that a large number of new people are trying the game, which is probably why easy levels (where most people start a new game) are so popular.
Here are the most popular buildings:
I expected palisades to dominate, from the videos I've been watching. For some reason, plank walls are not as popular. I blame this in part on the bad icon I'm using, but I simply don't have a better one.
I'm surprised that lamp posts are so popular. Apparently some people like to light up their village. Nice. :-)
What surprised me was that not one of the support buildings (workshops, etc.) even made it on the list. They are somewhere in "others", I'm sure, which all together is still a seizable number. Sadly, the backend doesn't give me a breakdown of that. I'd much like to see that.
I'm also surprised that rabbits are the most popular animal pens. My money would have been on chickens.
All in all, I find these things interesting. Anything that lets me understand a bit how you all are playing the game helps me to make it better. The very best feedback are gameplay videos. I make a point of watching each and every one that I can find. If you want to make sure I find it, post it on YouTube or Twitch and make sure to put "Black Forest" into the title, maybe also "Steam" or "Indie Game" or something.
The latest update on the beta/testing branch includes an experimental sandbox mode, which has been requested many times. Features:
After lots of bugfixing and testing, here is the 2nd attempt to bring this huge update to everyone. This update was tested on the beta branch, though as always some bugs may have slipped through. Please do report any issues you find.
With the latest updated I've uploaded to the testing/beta branch, I believe we are close to having a working game again. Remapping of keys is still incomplete, but aside from that everything should be working again. Please test and report so that I can bring it to the default branch.
This is the first update with the new Rewired input system and a bunch of things I improved on the way. Input remapping is still incomplete in many ways. The whole build is for testing purposes. Please let me know if it works or doesn't (both is valuable information for me).
I've opened a testing branch that will get future updates first. If you want to always have the latest update, and don't mind if there's a few bugs or it breaks a bit, then right click on "Black Forest" in your Steam library list, go to "Options" and "Betas" and switch to the "testing" branch. I will post new features and bigger updates there first, hoping that any issues that slipped through my testing will be caught by you, while the default/stable branch stays a bit behind but won't break. As a small goodie, the version uploaded there now is the latest version with all the recent updates and a new one, an in-game compass (off by default, switch it on in the options menu). I have applied the last input issue fixes to this, hoping that this eliminates the input issues. So if you were having problems with that (main menu not working, etc.) please go and try out testing. Thank you all for your support and kind words. It's been a rough two weeks with these game-breaking updates and bugs. I hope it'll be more smooth from here on, because I still have a lot of plans...
Due to all the issues the game currently has, I have reverted everything back to the December 18 build. That was the last build before the large code refactoring I added. Yes, old bugs are back. Yes, new features are gone. But so should the recent large input issues that prevent some from playing at all. Please bear with me. Come to the forum to find out how you can help, ESPECIALLY if you experienced game breaking bugs.
My next attempt to fix the input issue that some of you are facing. My apologies for so many updates and tries, but as I posted on the forum: I tried many times to reproduce this bug and can't. Everything works for me. That makes it really tricky to figure out what's going wrong. If you still experience issues with input (nothing works, main menu not working, in-game something not working) please include your operating system (windows, mac, linux) in the bug report.
Another attempt to fixing the input problem. Please post to the forum if this makes the main menu (and other parts of the game) work again or not.
My apologies, but because I can't reproduce the problems some of you are reporting, it's a bit trial & error to fix them.
This update fixes lots of bugs that made it into the recent large update. There are likely to be a few left, please report them on the forum. Also, you can now configure your hotkeys and change your mouse move/rotate/zoom speeds (instead of just zoom).
Due to the vast number of changes in the major update, I half expected to introduce new bugs. But there's also new content here:
Happy New Year everyone ! This is a huge update, though most of the changes are behind-the-scenes and invisible to you when you play the game. However, with a large rework of the code, bugs should disappear and new bugs can be found more easily. A lot of beautification was also added, and streamlining of gameplay. This is a big update and it may break a few things. It almost certainly will break your savegames. Sorry for that, but there was no way around it. Here is the full changelog, and as always, please post feedback and report any bugs you find to the Steam forum.
If you're following the discussion forum, you know I'm working on a large update and it will go live in a few days (I'm mostly done and testing / bugfixing now). There is a good chance that this update will break savegames. We are still in Early Access, remember. So if you have open games, finish them before downloading the update (or tell your Steam Client to download the update later). I'm trying hard to not break things, but this time I have changed so many things in the code that I cannot guarantee that savegames from before the update will properly load in the game after the update. Sorry for that, but the cool things that I've added and the improvements to the code I've made are well worth it.
just a tiny update to bring more of the new achievements online and fix a few small bugs.
oh, and also three new achievements, one of them hidden - for you to discover...
This is a hotfix that contains only one change that should enable load/save finally. Old code had kept the continue button disabled. Saving always worked since the massive update - so you should actually see the continue button enable now with whatever your latest game was.
The little peasants being a success, I looked at the sales and decided that there's a bit of budget again and let's spend it on more peasant models with more variety and all. Plus a bunch of other improvements, such as:
This is the largest update yet, with tons of new features and changes, see the full list below. The main highlight is that I am giving you a TEST version of save/load, the most requested feature. The game auto-saves every morning at sunrise and you can reload the last save from the main menu ("Continue"). Once save/load works properly, of course, there will be more than one save game. Please see this as a test. If something breaks, please report it. Saving is very complex in a game like this and while I have tested it, there may be details or small things I have missed. Let me know and they'll be fixed in the next update. You also get a new map, new monsters, more beautifications and the second major highlight that was a long time in the making: Villagers that actually go to their tasks, return home, walk around the village and all that. There are also a lot of bugfixes and a couple balance updates. Have a couple games and enjoy all the new things the game now has:
This might look like the standard map to you, but for me it is a big milestone. This is the first time a village was saved and re-loaded correctly.
This is not a complete save, yet. Right now it stores which buildings are there (built or demolished, etc.) and in which condition they are. I still need to add tasks peasants are assigned to, the growth status of fields, animal pens etc.
So while there is quite a distance to go, this was the most difficult part. It seems to easy, but to track buildings where players can freely place and demolish them is quite tricky. After all kinds of issues (starting buildings duplicated, or the whole village loading empty) I've finally done it. The rest is relatively simple, as it is simply restoring state to existing objects. I just need to store how much eggs are in the chicken pen, etc. That is a bit of work, but not complicated anymore.
So, fairly soon we will have saving and loading of games !
It happens, sorry. That's why we are still in Early Access.
Hellhafen is a unique map showing off some of the flexibility of the game. It lasts only 15 days and is pretty brutal.
The village of Hellhafen has survived hell already, and much of the village is damaged or destroyed. Rebuild before more enemies arrive - and you have received a warning that a week or so from now a large kobold tribe is going to arrive in the area...
This map features timed waves of attacks, and a set-up based on an actual game in the predecessor game, which some fans here still remember fondly...
also:
This update contains a ton of changes, as you can see below, including two new monsters and a lot of new monster intelligence. Also lots of bugfixes (and probably a whole lot of exciting new bugs). It also contains a DLC which you can find on the store page. The DLC is only cosmetic, does not change the gameplay, and its main purpose is to create some income for me that I can invest into more stuff to add to the game, especially better villager models and icons.
Join me today evening as I'll be playing a bit, developing a bit, and talking about upcoming features and the upcoming DLC. There will be exclusive information, things you see here and only here for the first time, and an opportunity to chat with me and ask questions. To watch and check your local time, visit my Twitch channel: https://www.twitch.tv/blackforestdev/schedule
Here are some thoughts to share about what will be the next few updates and where I want to take the game. I'm working hard on making more and more interesting enemies. The "wolf-rockets" as someone called them are just the first step. Harpies are already more refined as are the kobolds, which use actual pathfinding to go through holes in your defenses. I want a good number of different creatures which work in different ways, and when there's a good selection, then maps can have only a subset. So on one map you need to focus on those creatures and that means you need these kinds of defenses. Anything to reward strategy and thought. This is also the requirement to start developing the story mode of the game. Some of the next buildings will also bring more automation, at the cost of semi-permanently assigning workforce. I also watch every stream and video of the game that I can find, checking on how you play, what features you don't spot, which parts are frustrating, and adapting the game to address those issues. All of these things are there to make the game more interesting, more challenging and to give different experiences to different maps. The old "Test Village" is where I throw most things in just to test them, but other maps will get their individual flavour. Already Endraville plays very different from the other maps and this will continue. I won't be adding a new map in the next few updates, but I have a few plans for some very interesting new maps that will come soon. One is the mountain map which will be boxed in by cliffs on two sides, so that attacks come not from all around - you will need a more concentrated defense there. I also plan to have attacks in waves on some maps - where many nights are quite calm and you have several days to rebuild what's left after the nights with very intense attacks. So those are some thoughts for the near future. Stay tuned, check the update news, and see you in-game.
Steam Support was so kind to fix the mistake I made, and the game is now officially back in Early Access, as it should be. Sorry for the confusion and all. You all see how much is still in progress.
Experimenting with a new way to display building status - it looks like this:
please let me know what you think. Is this better than the icons? (currently it is active only on wheat fields and one type of hut)
this hotfix patches two errors that slipped past me:
Throwing down the gloves here: The last update included a brand-new map set in winter, Return to Endraville. This is the toughest map I have designed so far, and the inability to use fields makes even food a struggle. Who can beat it? Show me. Stream it or make a screenshot (F12 in Steam) of the victory screen. I myself will be streaming my attempt to beat the map today evening (European time) on my YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCO87uw8EBo4arsOS64iRuVw/live Join me there to watch, or stream your own and let us know when and where!
Do you want a challenge? Is the game too easy for you? Do you want a bit more of the city-building and expansion feeling? Try the new map "Endraville", and see if you can survive the winter. This is a hard difficulty map, with no fields due to the weather, in which you are rebuilding a demolished village before your peasants freeze to death in their tents - can you do it? Also in this update:
What I am currently working on: Snapping already works, look here: [previewyoutube=WpuZ0cwabnk;full][/previewyoutube] And I am working on saving and loading games. This is the most complex single feature so far, and it is taking quite a bit of effort. I hope to have it ready in the next update.
Watch me play the latest version, looking for bugs and things to improve, or just for fun. Follow me on https://www.twitch.tv/tanaziel if you feel like it.
Pushing this one out despite it has not as many changes as I wanted, but there are a few important bugfixes inside.
After being away from home for a few days, I'm starting again to work on the game. The main items on my list right now are a few more levels and challenges, and more buildings.
* Constructing fences/palisades/walls now easier - they will not exit construction mode, but spawn a new ghost, so you can easily build multiple ones in a row. * Chicken pens now produce eggs (send a peasant to collect them) * Can no longer start tasks at night. * A few more model variations * Game Over screen now correctly displays your score and results. * A few minor bugfixes * Personal high-score display added * Monsters now eat peasants when destroying or seriously damaging a house * Peasant info panel now correctly displays dead peasants
We have reached that point - the current version of the game is playable. You can download and play it again, and please do post feedback.
Changes to last internal build:
This is a big update, containing a ton of small changes that bring the demo version fairly close to being a playable game:
Much improved preview version, including the following changes:
This is a Preview-Release of the single-player re-write. There is no gameplay yet. A single map where you can build some buildings (most buttons simply build a hut, but house, wall, palisade, tower and chicken pen already work). Don't expect much. Wait for the next version unless you really, really can't wait. But yes, it's coming.
Long thinking and a few updates to my Unity assets, as well as a few fan-mails have led to a re-imagining of the game.
I am currently working on single-player standalone relaunch of Black Forest. The core gameplay will remain the same, but a lot of the details as well as the visuals will be completely redone. In fact, I am re-writing the whole game from the ground up.
Below is a screenshot of the current development status - very basic as you can see. Building construction is the first element I am adding. But the new game will be so much better in many ways, so stay tuned.
A new client build has been uploaded to Steam. This build should hopefully solve the various issues that trouble windows players. Gameplay has been kept the same, this is mostly a bugfix release.
I've released build 31, trying to fix the recent bugs that some players suffer from. If you have any issues, please switch to the beta branch and update to build 31, then let me know if it helps. If you have no issues, there is no reason to update, no features were added, this is purely a bugfix build.
I've released build 31, trying to fix the recent bugs that some players suffer from. If you have any issues, please switch to the beta branch and update to build 31, then let me know if it helps. If you have no issues, there is no reason to update, no features were added, this is purely a bugfix build.
If you experience problems with the current build, I have made Build 30 available on the beta branch. It is built with a beta version of the Unity player and may or may not be stable. If you can currently play without problems, no need to switch to beta build 30 (no changes to the game). To switch to beta, right-click on the list in Steam and in the game properties enable beta.
If you experience problems with the current build, I have made Build 30 available on the beta branch. It is built with a beta version of the Unity player and may or may not be stable. If you can currently play without problems, no need to switch to beta build 30 (no changes to the game). To switch to beta, right-click on the list in Steam and in the game properties enable beta.
A new client build has been uploaded. It has been compiled with the latest Unity version, which might solve some of the recent crash bugs. As there are no other changes, the version number has not been increased. New client should auto-update through Steam.
A new client build has been uploaded. It has been compiled with the latest Unity version, which might solve some of the recent crash bugs. As there are no other changes, the version number has not been increased. New client should auto-update through Steam.
The build bug of the last release should be fixed. If you update your client now, it should work again. My apologies for the issue.
The build bug of the last release should be fixed. If you update your client now, it should work again. My apologies for the issue.
The new beta version, build 28, has been sent live. Server is updated. Changes: * instant action added * games are now force-started after 6 days instead of 9 days * games can start if there are at least 4 human players * in-game purchases have been removed The main new thing is "instant action". With this function you can jump right in to an already running village, taking over a randomly selected NPC family. This also means that if you are playing a game, NPC families can suddenly "come alive" as players at any time. The game will always select families that are in good condition, with no immediate starvation and all family members still alive. It will select games up to day 10, not later.
The new beta version, build 28, has been sent live. Server is updated. Changes: * instant action added * games are now force-started after 6 days instead of 9 days * games can start if there are at least 4 human players * in-game purchases have been removed The main new thing is "instant action". With this function you can jump right in to an already running village, taking over a randomly selected NPC family. This also means that if you are playing a game, NPC families can suddenly "come alive" as players at any time. The game will always select families that are in good condition, with no immediate starvation and all family members still alive. It will select games up to day 10, not later.
We have a Discord channel to gather, discuss and also to find players for games: https://discord.gg/uYdCf7E Meanwhile, a new version is being worked on. There will be a few bugfixes and resource plundering from dead families.
We have a Discord channel to gather, discuss and also to find players for games: https://discord.gg/uYdCf7E Meanwhile, a new version is being worked on. There will be a few bugfixes and resource plundering from dead families.
The game is not dead. Hey everyone! So here is my thoughts on how to complete it, given that my time available has dropped dramatically: Planning Mode is shelved for the moment In-Game Store is shelved for the moment, probably coming back but with in-game currency only (i.e. no real money transfers) I want to add more competitiveness to the end game, so a new feature will be that if a family is defeated, its resources are distributed, equally, remainders are dropped. That means in the early game, typically nothing will be left (family dies with 12 wood, 16 families still in the game - nobody gets anything). But in the end game, killing off someone can ensure your survival (family dies with 10 stone, 3 families still left in the game - everyone gets 3 stone, 1 stone is lost). Later on, I want to add a few special events to the deep forest, to raise both risk and reward. Once a couple bugs are fixed, the game will also need a polishing and marketing drive to restore the player base to something more serious. For this I will need a small team. Not programmers (though one more wouldn't hurt), but artists and social media people.
The game is not dead. Hey everyone! So here is my thoughts on how to complete it, given that my time available has dropped dramatically: Planning Mode is shelved for the moment In-Game Store is shelved for the moment, probably coming back but with in-game currency only (i.e. no real money transfers) I want to add more competitiveness to the end game, so a new feature will be that if a family is defeated, its resources are distributed, equally, remainders are dropped. That means in the early game, typically nothing will be left (family dies with 12 wood, 16 families still in the game - nobody gets anything). But in the end game, killing off someone can ensure your survival (family dies with 10 stone, 3 families still left in the game - everyone gets 3 stone, 1 stone is lost). Later on, I want to add a few special events to the deep forest, to raise both risk and reward. Once a couple bugs are fixed, the game will also need a polishing and marketing drive to restore the player base to something more serious. For this I will need a small team. Not programmers (though one more wouldn't hurt), but artists and social media people.
As written before, I moved to another country over the year end, started a new job, bought a house, all in a few weeks. Naturally, that put Black Forest on the back burner a little.
Meanwhile, as you can see here my new desk has arrived and I've finally set up my working room. Cat is already sleeping on it, so it will not be long until I start up development again.
The main project on my list is the "planning mode" that I wrote about in the forum. This will dramatically lighten the pressure of logging in every turn, making the game much more playable especially over weekends, etc.
Expect more news to follow soon.
As written before, I moved to another country over the year end, started a new job, bought a house, all in a few weeks. Naturally, that put Black Forest on the back burner a little.
Meanwhile, as you can see here my new desk has arrived and I've finally set up my working room. Cat is already sleeping on it, so it will not be long until I start up development again.
The main project on my list is the "planning mode" that I wrote about in the forum. This will dramatically lighten the pressure of logging in every turn, making the game much more playable especially over weekends, etc.
Expect more news to follow soon.
Earlier than planned, Beta Build 27 has been released.
Earlier than planned, Beta Build 27 has been released.
The newest release, beta build 25 is out.
The newest release, beta build 25 is out.
I've sent a small update live bringing the client to build 24. This is a backwards-compatible update, so you can update or not, as you wish. Changes: * private game joining is fixed * "gather food" button no longer visible during winter (anyway you would gather nothing) * game now automatically pre-selects the first idle peasant on actions - less clicking * market will not allow you purchases if you can't store them (no home) * a few small bugfixes
I have released Beta 23, which includes statistics and many bugfixes and also the first release of private games:
Beta 23 Changelog
* can no longer set sleeping home to other peoples homes
* action to harvest foreign fields no longer showing up (it wasn't working anyway, just a display bug)
* some statistics are now available, both in-game (check right-hand edge of screen) and after-game.
* dragon damage to stone buildings has been reduced to 1.
* private games are partially working. You can play around with them, but there might be bugs left.
* visual updates
* several small text fixes
* lots of small bugfixes
There was a bug with the dragon achievement. I had to reset it after fixing the bug, because those who got it will have noticed that it had nothing to do with any dragons.
Beta build 21 has been released with the following changes: * plot actions updated - can now attack common and own buildings and repair others buildings * updated visuals * number of wolves now displayed correctly * improved turn notifications * bugfixes
The latest beta build has been released, including these updates: * Watchtower model slightly updated * Bugfix for the new reinforced walls * Better game mode indicators * Small visual improvements * Conflicts are now visible on the map * Your coins are now displayed among your scores in the menu * XP system replacing old scoring * games can now be 12 hours instead of 24 per turn, for those who want a more active, faster game. * higher starting resources for smaller families
This is a small update, which is why I'm posting it only on Steam where you download a patch and not the whole client. Changes: * Watchtower model slightly updated * Better game mode indicators * Small visual improvements
A short change list, but a big update. Build 16 is going live while I write this, and it contains two big changes, which complete the core gameplay. The first is the kennel, already posted yesterday. This gives you one more building option and a more risky forest experience. The second is the market, which will be semi-operational in Build 16. By semi I mean that there will be no real money store, but everyone will get three gold coins to play with, and of course you can earn more during play. With this you can test the market and check if everything works and how it works.
Sneak preview of the last building that I had on my drawing board, and that will be in Beta 16: The Kennel.
Once you built this home for your dog, you can explore the deep forest, where a trip will bring you random resources, with a good chance of gaining more than normal gathering actions can. But there is a risk. A risk that you find less or even nothing. But also a risk that you meet your doom in the forest. A small risk, but a risk. And if the tower is not manned, it is doubled.
While the client-side updates come together with new builds, a lot of updates also happen server-side. One of them just went live: Better turn notifications. If you have turn e-mails turned on and a confirmed e-mail address, you will now receive much better turn notifications. If you haven't, now is the time to update your e-mail address, which will send you a new confirmation mail, confirm that, and enjoy learning everything important about the turn as soon as the turn is done!
Beta Build 15 has been released. Changes:
A new build has been released. Beta 14 is a small update containing mostly bugfixes and minor improvements. There are also several backend updates in preparation of the next steps.
I have added a support site for questions, problems, bug reports and everything related: http://lemuria.org:8080/servicedesk/customer/portal/1 If you open an issue there, I will get informed by e-mail, making it more likely that you get a fast response. Also, it is easier to check if someone else has the same problem, and maybe a solution or a workaround.
The influx of new players is overwhelming. Thank you all ! On the downside, this might result in short periods where no games are available. I am starting new games regularily, so if you don't see any available games, simply come back a few hours later. I am at this time working on so many different things at the same time, from fixing bugs to setting up a proper support site and knowledge base, to putting the final gameplay elements in so it all comes together to fielding questions, adding more Steam integration and a hundred other things. I am a one-man indie developer team, so I hope you are all patient with me if things do not all work immediately. Thank you all again for your interest so far, let's complete this game together! Your feedback is much appreciated.
The new beta version is live. Here is a list of changes:
Due to an outdated in-game message, there is currently some confusion over confirmation mails and what to do if they do not arrive. You can still play the game ! The only thing that will not work without a confirmed e-mail is that you won't get e-mail notifications when a game starts or a turn has run. The game itself can be played without. However, you should confirm your e-mail address anyway because if the game can not send you e-mails, one of the things it can't send is a reminder e-mail if you forget or lose your id/key.
I have been a bit overwhelmed by the interest and number of new players coming in. Thank you all. As a result, the mechanics for automatically creating and starting games are not yet running well. If you see no open games, just wait for some hours and they will appear as I check constantly. If your full games are not starting, the same.
The beta build has finally been approved and we are now live in Early Access. Join the game, post your comments, screenshots and reviews. Let's get this party started!
The Steam build is still waiting for approval, but the beta builds are available for download from the official Black Forest website. Three games are waiting for additional players at this time. One of them will start very soon, last chance to join.
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