It was a hard decision to make, but I have decided to make the game free to play. It seemed like the right move, as I cannot in good consciensce support the game as I would expect myself a paid game to be supported. From Village to Empire will go free next week. I understand that this might sound a bit frustrating if someone has just recently purchased the game, so please feel free to refund the game if you can, and if you still feel upset about the situation please contact witch.laboratory@gmail.com. The game might go back to paid if it ever comes out of early access, otherwise it remains free. Thanks for understanding ^^

[ 2023-02-10 09:04:37 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi everyone, Update #8 is here, adding 5 new nations to the game (France, Russia, Finland, The Zulu, The Aztecs), each with their own special unit! There are also a couple of fixes and improvements. About the future of the game, I'm aiming to wrap it up into a 1.0 release, and take it out of Early Access sometime during 2020. I plan to add some missing features (e.g. achievements) and improve existing ones (e.g. AI). V1.0 doesn't mean the end of the game, just that it contains everything I wanted it to have. Have a nice Winter Solstice! Changes in Build 20191209 304e91: - Added 5 new nations (France, Russia, Finland, The Zulu, The Aztecs) - Cancel razing a city when another production is queued - Tech tree now correctly shows nation specific units - If a nation has a replacement for warrior (e.g. Hoplites for Greece), they start with that unit instead of warrior - Other smaller features and fixes

[ 2019-12-14 12:54:09 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi everybody, As I wrote in the June progress report I was planning to release the next update in August or September, but since a bug was found which makes the game half-unplayable, I decided to release a hotfix. The specific bug is that nuclear physics (and thus dependent technologies) can't be researched. Most of the game data was converted to a new format while I was adding modding support, and somehow nuclear physics became dependent on nuclear physics. No idea how it happened, but now it's fixed. Other changes include the City list and Unit list browser and new keyboard shortcuts. For the next update Steam Achievements are planned, and some other smaller improvements. Probably coming in September, but I'll see how the development is progressing. Cheers, have fun playing! Changes in Build 20190706 83a092: - Bugfix: nuclear physics and dependent technologies can be researched again - Added keyboard shortcuts for Diplomacy and Research menus (Ctrl-D, Ctrl-R) - Added City list and Unit list browser to HQ menu (Ctrl-C, Ctrl-U)

[ 2019-07-07 16:16:08 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hey everyone! The work on new features and bugfixes is continuing after the May update. The main additions so far are a City list and a Unit list interface.

Other planned features for the next update are Steam Stats and Achievements, and of course some other fixes and improvements are coming too. I'm aiming for an August or September release, but I'll see how the development is progressing. Have a nice summer!

[ 2019-06-23 13:41:20 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello everyone, The waiting is over, the new update is here, thanks for your patience! Implementing modding required a lot of changes under the hood, and it took a long time to get all parts of it working. The Steam workshop is now also enabled for browsing and subscribing to mods. A sidenote for modders, please take a look at the documentation, there are some changes regarding mod file naming, and a new section about uploading mods to the Steam Workshop. As usual, please report bugs in the Steam Forums or on the support channel. I can't wait to see what the community creates! Have fun playing! -- Changes in Build 20190519 24a060: - Added modding support! - Fixed a bug where AIs would start as nations already taken by players - Using two colors for nation borders etc. - Fixed decreasing a city's population when it's conquered - Remove flying units when a city is conquered - Improved rendering - Stronger highlight for hovered and focused GUI widgets - Lots of changes and fixes under the hood

[ 2019-05-26 12:36:11 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello everyone, There have been more and more questions about how the development is going, so I decided to write a Progress report. If it seems useful, I will try to do it monthly. Modding has been available in the open beta branch for a month now, and since then I've been working on Steam Workshop integration. It is going well, uploading mods, subscribing to them and downloading is now working fine. What is still left is adding a menu for checking and reloading loaded mods, and uploading mods into the Workshop.
I also need a couple new graphics assets for the dual colored nation borders, but hopefully that won't delay the next update. If everything goes well the next update could arrive in May, though it might easily slip into June; I don't want to make any promises, it's just an estimation. About longer term plans, the Early Access section of the store page has a list of planned features. Cheers!

[ 2019-04-26 08:22:48 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hey everyone! I'm happy to announce that after a lot of work modding is finally available in the open beta branch! Why only beta? Steam Workshop is not integrated yet, and there are still some convenience features missing, so I feel like it is not ready yet for full release. On the other hand I wanted to make it available early so that modders can start getting familiar with it. (And some players were wondering if the development is still going, so I wanted to show, yes!) To play it please follow the steps below: - right click on From Village to Empire in your Steam library - go to Properties \ Betas - opt-in by picking the "beta - Public beta branch" in the drop-down menu After you do this, your game will update, and you're good to go. There is a modding guide and two sample mods available: - right click on From Village to Empire in your Steam library - go to Properties \ Local Files - click on "Browse Local Files" - go to the "mods" directory where you can find the guide and the sample mods The sample mods are disabled by default, they can be enabled by editing the modinfo.json file. Warning Saves from the newer version of the game are not usable in the current live build, so make sure you backup your progress before playing the updated version. Multiplayer is also restricted to clients with the same version. The next step before the proper release is to add support for sharing mods in the Steam Workshop. Please let me know if you are having any issues running this version of the game. Have fun playing!

[ 2019-03-17 12:29:25 CET ] [ Original post ]

Changes in Build 20181122 8b7092: - Added a leveling system, units can now gain XP and rank up - Android version released - Changed Caravel and Steam boat to have ranged attack - Improved error handling, instead of crashing an error message is displayed when an assertion fails - Improved AI (settling and planning with flying units) - Updated notifications and tutorial messages - Other minor features and fixes

[ 2018-11-23 13:48:06 CET ] [ Original post ]

Changes in Build 20181002 cffda6:

- Added new map types: Continents, Islands, Lakes - Added new map configuration options: water level, climate - Unit's now can not be upgraded without the required resources (e.g. warrior -> swordsman needs iron) - Cities attack back at flying units - Cities' health can't go below zero so that healing is not delayed - The focus stays on nuclear units after dropping the bomb - Improved tooltip messages - Fixed setting LD_LIBRARY_PATH in linux builds which could prevent starting in some cases - Other minor features and fixes

[ 2018-10-05 11:37:26 CET ] [ Original post ]

Changes in Build 20180810 61937e:

- Added tooltip popups - Added buttons to switch to next or previous city without leaving city management mode - Added smoke particle effect for pillaged buildings - Horse units can now move after attacking - Settlers can now fortify, but have less health - Auto-cancel gold production when another production is queued - Other minor features and fixes

[ 2018-08-10 11:41:14 CET ] [ Original post ]

Changes in Build 20180619 104329:

- Added production queues - Added projectiles to ranged units - Improved steam lobby handling - Other minor features and fixes

[ 2018-06-22 09:20:05 CET ] [ Original post ]

Changes in Build 20180601 b397eb:

• Added the ability to set a multi-turn move target for units for automatically travelling longer distances
• Increased tech costs at all game speeds to slow down technological progress
• Added new turorial messages to explain more game mechanics
• Implemented building roads outside of cities
• Added optional minimap border
• Include icon resource in windows executable
• Added support for Steam error reporting on Windows
• Limited zooming
• Some minor balance adjustments
• A bunch of smaller bugfixes

[ 2018-06-02 06:42:45 CET ] [ Original post ]