After some discussion with the community we have opted to stay open till at least the end of this year. We will also be adding some new features starting with the disease spell, plague event and rot zombie! We will try to implement a new feature every month or so and take it from there. We will be splitting the effort between Primeval and Catacomb Crashers. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jjeRXQZ4elY&t=119s If you like what we do and want to play more feel free to support us by buying us a cup of coffee... https://www.buymeacoffee.com/RivstyxGames Thank you, RGS

Hello, I have had many people playing over this past Godly Weekend event and more are wanting me to not shut the servers down on 9/1 because they are still playing the game. Primeval was a passion project of mine from the beginning and I am also sad to see it go. I went early access because I wanted to build a community of people that wanted to play the game. I had so many ideas for the game but I also wanted to hear from players on what they would like to see. If people are still interested and would like to see the game development continue I have created a "buy me a coffee" account. If enough people want to support me by throwing me a couple bucks I not only will keep the servers up but I will go ahead and continue to make the enhancements I always wanted to. This noninclusive list includes... more units/spells, more hex types. hex improvements like the oasis, sacrificial altar and others, disease and other status effects, new actions, new late game events like "Rise of R'yleh" which forces players to work together in order to win. new buildings like the dwarven workshop and the fairy market where you can spend resources to purchase constructs, engineers, fae folk and other unique units. And most importantly, even UI changes :) If you want to become part of the community and help support the game... https://www.buymeacoffee.com/RivstyxGames Thank you, Riv

All of the Gods are active and ready to play this weekend. Stop by and play against Loki, Zeus, Shiva and many others. RGS

We will be shutting the servers down on 9/1/2021. Thank you again to everyone that played and enjoyed the game, RGS

Hello, I had some time and smartened up the AI a bit. Units that have special abilities that ignore armor were always opting to attack even if the targets defense was too high to do damage. I smartened this up so that they use their special attack instead. For example, the harpy has an attack and a screech action. If the targets defense is higher than the harpies attack it opts to use screech instead. This also applies to the snakes constrict and the mushroom mans poison. Thank you, RGS

Hello, I have decided to keep the servers up and running at least through the summer. Enjoy, Riv

Hello, Snarky achievements aside I would like to thank everyone that played the game and enjoyed it. However, there is no reason to continue development of the game at this time and so I will be moving onto other projects. Primeval held a lot of promise but very few wanted to give it a chance. It never received much love from the community but I enjoyed creating it and I met a few new friends as well. Things I learned No matter what the game is provide a single player/campaign mode! If I had given the game another year of development and focused on single player out of the gate the game would have done better. Even in early access the UI is the biggest thing that matters. Despite what Unity says. Make it so players don't actually want to play the game but instead want to stare at your menu for hours steamhappy Seriously though, at least have tool tips for everything and a common consistency. Make sure to use styles. This project was originally created long before UI Builder and other CSS like tools(still in preview) for Unity and I did not get around to upgrading. I was more focused on features and figured I would enhance the UI later. Include a massive tutorial that explains every aspect of the game. I remember the flappy bird tutorial and campaign. It was amazing steamhappy Don't friend people that give you reviews. It makes it look like you got your friends to review it. Nah, I am glad I friended my reviewers.steamhappy Keep your costs low. I never ran afoul of this as my back end costs me less than my Netflix subscription per month and my main source of income is not Primeval. BrainCloud is a fantastic BaaS BTW. Overall, I really enjoyed making the game and look forward to other projects. I wish it would have worked out but I am very happy with the experience. Thank you again and keep playing, Riv

Over the weekend many gods have been introduced. Poseidon seems to be doing the best by winning 6 games. The AI that are live are... Poseidon(6) Zeus(4) Ra(3) Shiva(3) Horus(2) Coyote(1) Persephone(0) Osirus(0) Monkey(0) Odin(0) Thor(0) Loki(0) Vishnu(0) Quetzalcoatl(0) We are currently working on further prioritizing actions and then we will get more into their distinct personalities. Thank you, RGS

Hello, You are now able to sell your population for a percentage of the essence to free up your roster. This is one of the most requested features in the game and gives the player much more control over their migration. [previewyoutube=5_qbxI1LZ2U;full][/previewyoutube] Thank you, RGS

Hello, We are now live with single player! Just enter a match as usual and you will be either matched with either a real person or an AI. We will be updating the UI to allow you to choose whether you want to enter single player or multiplayer games directly as well as smartening up the AI as we go. Have fun! RGS

Hello, I have been going over the reviews from curators and such and I feel I need to address some of it. UI The main complaint I hear from reviewers that have never played the game is primarily visual. They complain about the UI being basic and limited tool tips. The game is in early access and it is true the UI is basic. however, if you look at other early access titles it is much better than a vast majority of them. I don't tend to play games because their menu screens are amazing and it perplexes me why they are so hung up on this. It will only get better. The UI is not a reason to hate the game. Tutorial As far as a tutorial, it is not a difficult game for anyone who is used to TBS games to figure out. There is a full walkthrough on the youtube channel and and we are working on an interactive tutorial. If you ask actual players it takes them about 1-3 games to master the mechanics. Permanent Decisions You have to make permanent decisions? This is a misnomer. You have to build your domain but in no way is it permanent. The choices you make may impact your current domain but you can always add to it or create an entirely new one if it is destroyed. You are regularly provided essence to enhance your domain whether you win or lose and even if you have nothing and are in the void you can generate a brand new domain for little to no essence. Losing your domain and rebuilding is part of the fun and challenge of the game. It is not something to be dreaded. Allowing players to directly reset their domains or choose their hexes would completely destroy the concept of working with what you are given. In the end everyone would have the exact same domain and what fun is that? There is absolutely no permanence in Primeval so the reviewers that tout there is are wrong. Power Imbalance In a game by game basis you may come across a player that has a bigger domain than you and more units. This may look like a power imbalance but in many ways it is not. Smaller domains are much more agile and are able to get resources much faster, Larger domains have to mitigate their sprawl to keep getting resources they need. Also, you gain much more essence playing against a larger domain than you do smaller ones so even if in the end you lose your domain you will have reaped lots of essence to build a new one. That said, we originally gave new players 3000 starting essence which was an extreme amount. This lead to massively large domains so we did reset the players recently to put them all on a more even playing field. However, that is not expected to be a regular case. The game balances itself in many ways, At this time new players receive 1500 starting essence plus 100 daily essence. That will be increased to a 7 day rolling reward in the future. You also gain essence from mini-games and soon to be single player games. A powerful domain is only a loss or two away from a mediocre one :) That is the beauty of the system. Single Player We are working on the single player experience and should be live by mid to late April. AI is interesting in Primeval because they are actual players as well. They manage their domain between games just like players do. They have their own personalities and styles but are under the same constraints as a player. They work with what they have. Conclusion TL;DR Primeval is very unique. In a lot of ways this has led to reviewers misunderstanding it and they treat it very harshly. Games which are basic copies of other games are given preference because you can say simply it is like Slay the Spire. You cannot compare Primeval to a typical CCG or deckbuilder. We are very dedicated to the success of this game and think it has a lot to offer if it is given a chance. The strengths far outweigh the weaknesses and it is only going to get better if allowed to. Thank you, RGS

Hello, Single player is coming along! Here is a 3 player game with two AI players... [previewyoutube=I6OtsRE2zRo;full][/previewyoutube] Thank you and Happy Easter, RGS

Hello, We are live with Call Earth so now you can add hexes directly to the map. We have also increased performance a whopping 500% in some modes with no lag. We are going to be enhancing the AI further and releasing our first single player mode later this month. [previewyoutube=tLv8prOqhLI;full][/previewyoutube] Things are coming along very nicely, RGS

Hello, We played our first 4 player game last night using our AI player(Zeus). He still has a long way to go but he offered a bit of a challenge. We will be enhancing the AI throughout April and allowing players to play against it in single player mode shortly after that. No one seems to be casting the Summon Unit spell. Instead they opt for the Lich. So we are going to lower the cost of summon unit to 4 purple instead of 5. Now the Big one! There is a new spell titled Call Earth which we are working on.
Any hex you target with the spell will immediately add a neighboring hex. It costs 4 purple but comes with a heavy additional cost in that it will blight a hex in your domain. This has been a much anticipated feature of the game. Players will finally be able to add hexes to the map. There is an engineer unit in the works that can add hexes and roads as well but that is a future addition. Thank you, RGS

[previewyoutube=fHWuAibIckA;full][/previewyoutube] We have single player AI that manages their own domain and enters matches. This is a major step in the single player mode. The actual AI can run headless but that would not make for a good video :) Headless means it can run without having an external interface which increases performance. We wanted the AI to grow and develop the same way a player does and so you can watch Zeus build and manage their domain between matches as their map and population changes. Each AI will have their own unique personality/play style and will focus on different strategies. The first part of the video shows Zeus generating his map and building out his domain. The second part shows battles between Rivstyx(a human) on the left and Zeus on the right. Currently, Zeus simply ends their turn every round but that will become much more involved soon. We are shooting to have our AI ready and live in April. Thank you, RGS

Hello, Some changes... Burn has been lowered to 1 burn to units and 1 damage to buildings. This brings it more in line with other 1st level spells. Rust -1 attack/-1 def, Growth +1 attack/+1 health etc. Earthquake has been increased in intensity. 0-5 damage to buildings(used to be 0-3). 0-10 damage to units (used to be 0-6). We have added the new disease status and moved statuses out to the ends of the hexes. The statuses from upper left clockwise are... Disease Poison Freeze Burn Stun Bleed With the new disease status units will now have to social distance to keep from being infected :) We are working on adding the features that will cause disease. They will be... Disease Spell (Cost 3 purple) Plague Event Rot Zombie Unit. (Cost 2 blue, 2 green) [previewyoutube=3RnQQuVlKIQ;full][/previewyoutube] Thank you, RGS

Hello, We have moved the actions out of the wheel and into the top of the screen. This is the last UI change for awhile. Our focus will now switch to the single player experience. [previewyoutube=V6CuU7SBDXM;full][/previewyoutube] Thank you, RGS

Hello, We have had sweeping changes to the core mechanics of the game over the past 6 weeks since launch. This includes allowing max migrations and much more starting essence. So we have rebalanced some features back to more original levels. The red dragon has increased the attack to 10 with 3 burn but now only has 1 AP. Merge has been lowered to +1 attack. +1 defense and +1 health instead of +2. New players are given a 3 game grace period where they will not lose any hexes if they lose a game. Starting roster slots were originally set to 8 and then we upped them to the full 17. We have lowered that back to 10. You can purchase up to 10 migrations now and then you can win up to 17 migrations for the full 17 roster. This also makes it much easier to see the map and maintain your roster. Thank you, RGS

Hello, We have added the ability to scroll with the right mouse button. So now you will not have to touch the keyboard to play the game. We have also doubled the zoom out level. The UI is looking better with the added roster elements. We will be reconfiguring the actions next. Finally, we have added a new achievement for poisoning units called Envenomate. This achievement is earned once you have dealt 250 points of poison damage.
Thank you, RGS

Hello, We have enhanced the UI for the roster so that it is much easier to see and manage. We used to have a hex border around the units and spells in the roster to separate them from the background. We have reintroduced this. We have also removed the sleep particles and animations in the roster and are now flipping the entire unit/spell so that you can definitely tell what you can still afford to place. This shores up the interface so it is easier to tell the map from the roster elements as well. We will be making similar changes to the buildings, actions, migration sections and more as we go. [previewyoutube=UrUPvzdwf0k;full][/previewyoutube] Thank you, RGS

Hello, We have added two new actions to the game. Swap gives you the ability to have two of your owned units switch places. This is helpful when you are in tight spaces. Both units have to have the movement +1 for the hexes they are swapping to. Merge allows units to merge together to buff a unit. The merging unit must have at least 1 AP and is destroyed in the process. The unit it merges into gains +2 to attack, defense and health as well as all of the merging units status effects. The units must be of the same type and owned by the active player. Thank you, RGS

Hello, We have added 4 more achievements. 3 are about max kills and one you get for losing your domain. We have also addressed an issue brought to our attention with the Dem Bones! achievement. The skeletons summoned by the Lich were not being counted. Thank you Chris73 for the heads up and it should be working now. We are also working on the single player mode. It is a major undertaking because this game is so versatile. It isn't like a game of chess where you start the exact same way every time. In this game entire maps are created and combined with myriads of units and strategies so it is going to take quite a bit of work to give the player the best experience. We just released a mini game this week to play while waiting for a match and we are working on other mini games as well. Thank you, RGS

Hello, We now have a single player minigame you can play while waiting for a match. It rewards you with essence for each sequence you complete. You may not want the match to start :) [previewyoutube=R2h4P_AK410;full][/previewyoutube] Thank you, RGS

Hello, For the next 2 weeks(2/23-3/9) players will not lose any hexes if they lose a game. They will still gain them if they win though. This is to help new players try different strategies and just get acquainted with the game. Within that time we will implement a counter so that new players first 3-5 games are free from hex loss to act as a kind of a tutorial. If you do want your domain reset since you can no longer lose hexes feel free to ask through the suggestions and feedback section of the settings and we will reset you. We will also be implementing a free play mode soon that does not reward or penalize the players. Much like the demo does now. Thank you, RGS

Hello, The primary reason we went early access was to build a community of players that love old school TBS games. Primeval is a very unique twist on the genre in that your map is the main character of the game. Unlike classic CCGs and roguelike deckbuilders the goal is not to amass the same cards as everyone else and develop the exact same strategies. The goal is to work with what you have and feel the sense of accomplishment from crafting something unique to you and your play style. There is no other game like Primeval that we have seen. Another reason Primeval is in early access is that it is a work in progress. The UI is primitive at this point but the game still looks and plays better than many other early access games out there. The framework and concept is solid and it has the potential to be a great game. What you see is only the beginning but without an active player base and community the game will not succeed. If you like TBS games you cannot go wrong with Primeval. Instead of just adding it to your wish list give it a chance and join the community. With Steams refund policy you really don't have anything to lose if you don't like the game. That said, we will also sweeten the deal. Anyone that has gained the founders achievement before 3/31/2021 and owns the game at the time of redemption will be given a credit for another game of their choice by Rivstyx Games Studio. This includes upcoming titles not released yet. Two games for the price of one means you truly have nothing to lose. Thank you, RGS

Thursday nights at 6:00 PM EST we stream on Twitch. Tonight we will be streaming 3-4 player games. https://www.twitch.tv/rivstyxgamesstudio/

Hello, Players can now purchase up to the full roster of 17 units and spells. The reward breakdown is... The base essence for a match is 3X the total number of player hexes in the match. All players in a match receive this base essence just for playing. The winner of the match receives double base essence. The winner receives one hex for every 2 players in the match. The winner receives a free migration for every 3 players in a match as long as they have not exceeded the 17 total roster size. The create purple resource spell has been reworked. It used to add a purple resource to a hex and then perform a gather resource. Now it simply adds 2 purple resources to a hex. The max resources are not affected. Burn damage has also been reworked... It used to have to burn through your unit defense before damaging a unit, It ignores hex defense. Now it does one damage to unit defense and one damage to health if there is defense. If there is no remaining defense it does 2 damage to the health instead. If there is remaining defense after doing the burn damage the value increases by 1. If there is no remaining defense it decreases by one. This will make extinguish, healing rain and temples much more important. In the future we will be adding vulnerability as well as being impervious to certain statuses. For example, the phoenix would be impervious to burn and the ice witch may take double damage from burn. Also, the rot zombie is impervious to disease but can spread it. Thank you, RGS

Hello, We have introduced daily rewards. Get rewarded every day just by logging in! Thank you, RGS

Hello, We have added a help button in the lower right of the God Mode Screen. This button will take you to the official tutorial for the game. The tutorial is extensive and goes through every aspect of the game. You can use it as a reference while you learn the game but you don't have to watch the whole thing straight through. It isn't homework :)
Thank you to Gideon for the suggestion, RGS

Hello, Volley damage has been reduced to 4. The next unit button has been changed to first cycle through all units that have actions remaining and then to cycle through units with only movement remaining. You can still skip units using the Lullaby action. Thank you, RGS

This new event will have your units summoning Cthulhu to bring about the end game. You will have to work with other players to stop the threat.\ [previewyoutube=G1-PCA6z6D8;full][/previewyoutube] Thank you, RGS

Hello, It appears our highest traffic times are usually between 4-8 PM EST everyday. That is when the most players are on. Once we start to get more players both through the demo and the paid version this window will open up. We are working on the single player version of the game as well but the best game experience will always be multiplayer. Thank you, RGS

Hello, As promised you can now generate a map if you have less than 250 essence. This is effectively a create new game option. It takes all of your remaining essence and generates a map for you. The button will be enabled if you find yourself in the void with less than 250 essence. Thank you, RGS

Hello, If you refer a player to the game and they mention you in the suggestions and feedback section we will award you with 1000 essence. We will be implementing a more streamlined way to manage referrals in the near future as well. Thank you, RGS

You can play Primeval for free by downloading the demo. The demo is fully functional but is only activated for a limited time. At the login prompt simply provide any player name you want in the box and click login. Pros Full access to the game. Learn how the game works and develop strategies. If you are a paid player you can run a demo player and a paid player at the same time to practice. No rewards but you can use it to try different strategies. Cons Start with 1000 essence. The demo is only available for a limited time when offered. Your player name and domain are deleted after the activation time. No achievements. Demo players can only play in two player matches and neither player receives rewards. This makes cheating improbable. "(Demo)" appears next to your player name. Coming soon. Paid players can opt out of playing demo players. The demo is available on Itch.io Primeval Demo Enjoy your free trial, RGS

Hello, I noticed that some players were ending turns without taking all of the actions for their units. Some units have 2 actions like the eye of magus. The next unit button can help you cycle through your units that can still move or take actions. [previewyoutube=LX5hWerjtvI;full][/previewyoutube] Thank you, RGS

Hello, Welcome to the first player log. I am not only a developer of the game but I am also an avid player so it is in this series I will describe some of the interesting games I have played. Today I played a series of games with a player I'll call SS. The first 2 games were uneventful and I could tell they were still getting the hang of it. The third game was a different story. In the interim they had reworked their domain and immediately came out swinging with giant turtles and manticores abound. I somehow held off because I was able to defend a choke point and still eked out the win. However, the final game was my death knell. It was a wide open map and before I knew it I was quickly overrun by rampaging nagas and manticores. Very good games SS. Very good indeed :) Riv

Hello, Only certain units were able to perform the forced march action. Now all units can do this. For 1 AP forced march adds 2 to a units movement for the round. This is good for getting a slower unit into position. The parry action is also available to all units and for 1 AP it adds 2 to the defense of the unit.
Thank you, RGS

Thank you very much to everyone that purchased the game so far! It really helps and encourages us to continue. We are working on the single player mode but the more players we can get simultaneously playing the better. Thank you again, Riv

Join us now and play extensively before anyone else. Unlock special rewards and achievements only for early access members and help shape the game.
Thank you, RGS

Hello, During our testing we were able to get a full roster of 17 population. Some of the units and the UI elements need a little resizing but all is working well. Looks like we will be releasing Primeval on 2/1/2021. Interesting date as well :)
We will be streaming tonight starting at 6:00 pm. https://www.twitch.tv/rivstyxgamesstudio Thank you, RGS

Hello, I am in the middle of testing and refactoring as needed right now. I know it is early access but I want it to be as solid of an experience as I can make it for launch. I will be hammering on it for the rest of the week and then it should be ready for release. Thank you, Riv

Hello, We are working on 2 new units and a brand new status... [previewyoutube=7uO4gjN1Nkc;full][/previewyoutube] [previewyoutube=FGp1R5rF274;full][/previewyoutube] Thank you, RGS

Hello, Having a solo campaign brings up an issue with domain management. Normally, you would play against other players and gain hexes, population, essence etc. We would not want to be able to play a solo game and use that domain against other players so we would have to keep them separate. Since your solo campaign map cannot be used in ranked play what about essence? Is it a pool that can be used for both modes or is it different per mode? Perhaps a different currency for each mode? We would love to hear your thoughts, RGS

Hello, We have the AI working with the action to toggle it on and off. Currently units only move around the map randomly but that will be enhanced in the coming weeks. We also want to change the AI toggle so it is more recognizable. [previewyoutube=nAHwC7C6vtw;full][/previewyoutube] Thank you and have a good weekend, RGS

Hello, The first step in creating the one player mode is getting the units to act on their own. We do this by injecting AI into each unit. Essentially. a brain. We could go the machine learning route but that takes millions of iterations for a game like this. We are not creating Watson here so more traditional DI(Dependency Injection) is probably best. We have created something similar with a little prototype about a year ago called AuralNet. The ships are merely empty vessels(pun intended) that act according to their particular AI so if you put a freighters brain in the players ship it would start to act like a freighter etc. [previewyoutube=SFubEzwFMew;full][/previewyoutube] So to start we will create rudimentary AI and a new action for units. This will be an automate action that will toggle the unit between acting on its turn and being player controlled. The player can set any units they don't want to control to automate. Later this will transpose to AI players as well. Fun times indeed :) RGS

Hello, We have been tossing around some ideas on how a campaign mode may work. One is that you build your initial domain with a fixed amount of essence and take it up against a series of AI opponents. As you win your domain grows but it gets progressively harder until you either lose your domain or you beat the last AI opponent on the ladder. The AI would each have their own play styles. This kind of fits in with another feature we would like to implement where you can choose to be a certain type of deity. A bit like Civ VI pantheons. AI would get a buff to a certain aspect of the game. Let us know your thoughts, RGS

Hello, A full working demo has been submitted to Steam and should be live sometime soon. It supports two player matches but it creates a new player every time you open it. If you want to try it out before it launches on Steam you can get the demo here... Primeval Demo Thank you and have fun, RGS

Hello, During this weeks Twitch Stream you will be able to play a full version of the game for free! This version is a complete copy of the full game but it is only playable while we are streaming. So if you want to check it out for free, ask questions and play with the devs be sure to join the stream tomorrow at 6 PM EST. Thanks, RGS

Hello, When you request a match the server looks for any available matches that are waiting for players. If it does not find one it will create one and add you to it. Once the player limit is reached the game begins. Player limit is based on how many players are available. It won't create a 10 player match if only 2 people are logged in etc. However, we would also like to give some control to the player so we have added a drop down to the settings where you can adjust the maximum group size you want to play with. This can be helpful if you only have a little time or do not wish to play larger games.
Thank you, RGS

Hello, This is a video of an 8 player game... [previewyoutube=Kq6HDduBWgA;full][/previewyoutube] There is no lag. I am just trying to scroll slowly enough to show each section of the map. There are even 2 slots still available to move to 10 players. 10 Players would net you 5 hexes, around 500 essence and 3 migration plus major bragging rights :) You can only purchase 8 migration but rewards in migration can go to 16 so you can have well over 8 in your population if you keep winning. Thank you, RGS

Hello, We have added the ability to change players border colors as needed. This can come in handy when two players have very similar colors. [previewyoutube=vLuoFg-M5aY;full][/previewyoutube] Thank you, RGS

Hello everyone, In this update we have completed the Pray action which is available to units that are in a temple and have an action point available. Below the fish man is on a temple and so the Pray action is available...
We are also working on a way to change the border color of the players while in a match. This way if two players happen to have very similar border colors you can temporarily change their color so it is easier to tell them apart. This would not affect their actual player colors. It would just alter them in your view for the current match. Thank you and have a good weekend, the RGS Team

Hey everyone, This is our first devlog for Primeval! Today we added 4 new achievements that have to do with the count of players beaten across all of your games. We found that just counting games won was not good enough being that some games could have up to 8 players. We are also working on the new Temple action. Most buildings that do not directly affect the map have an action a unit can perform when on that building. For example, on a barracks you can train, a blacksmith can forge and a tower can throw volleys of arrows. Currently, the temple heals a unit 2 and removes all status effects at the beginning of a turn. We are going to change that to a prayer action which will do the same thing but then multiple units can use it in a turn like the other buildings. That is about it for the first devlog steamhappy Thank you, RGS

Thursday nights at 6:00 PM EST we will be streaming live on Twitch. We will be answering questions about the game, showing new features and discussing player ideas, giving tips and tricks and potentially giving away essence and/or free copies of the game. https://www.twitch.tv/rivstyxgamesstudio/