… but first we would like to take this opportunity to thank every single one of you!
We have recently surpassed 200,000 sales of Foundation and thanks to all of your support and feedback we are able to realize the game of our dreams, and hopefully yours too.
From the whole team… Thank you!
The December Update
As you can probably tell from the title we are planning to release the next update before the end of the year. We will bring you more news and more details on the update once we are closer to release but in the meantime here are some of the things that will be making it into the next content update:
Villagers will move house when too far from their workplace. The lord will also have the authority to force them to move.
Jobs will be directly linked with villager status where you as the Lord will have more control over status promotion.
Improved military system with stats, levels, and equipment.
New production chain with two new buildings; The Hop farm & the Brewery.
New buildings parts and function for the Wooden Keep.
New Character visuals including new job outfits.
New weather visuals.
New sounds including workplace animation SFX as well as UI SFX.
New modding capabilities: Custom components and behavior trees .
The changes to job roles and villager status will be major and due to this, we are planning to release a preview build in order to test and gather player feedback on the new feature. Keep an eye out for further announcements on the preview build release.
We have even more planned for the December Content update and we will bring you more information soon.
And finally…
We are excited to announce our attendance at MEGA & MIGS 2019 this coming weekend!
If you are in and around Montreal this weekend then you can check out more here.
We look forward to seeing you there! -The Polymorph Games Team
We have a lot of exciting new content in the Fall Update as well as new features, changes and fixes.
You can check out the full changelist below:
Dairy Farm
The Fall update sees the addition of a new production chain starting with the Dairy Farm.
Produces Milk from Cows
Added: CowsAdded:
Milk resource
Cheese Maker
The Cheesemaker is the next progression in the new production chain. Milk, produced at the Dairy Farm will be processed into Cheese by the Cheesemaker.
Cheese can then be sold at the market as a food resource to satisfy villagers’ food needs.
Produces Cheese from Milk
Added: Cheese resource
Tavern
The Tavern will be a place for your villagers to relax after a hard days work, where they can purchase some wine and also get themselves a hot meal if there is one available.
The Tavern, as all other Monuments, consists of multiple Monument including a Service Counter, for storage and staff, which combined with the Public Lounge will allow you to sell wine to your citizens. The Kitchen will provide meals that will be bought (if available) when wine is purchased.
There are also many decorative items that you can place on your Tavern which will give you even more creative options to decorate and personalize your creations.
Bridge decorations
The stone bridge now includes a host of new decorative items added that you will can snap to the bridge. With gates, a portculis and bridge towers, to name but a few, you will be able to make an impressive waterside entryway to your cities.
Added: Bridge decorations
Improved Bridge Collision and pathfinding
Added: Warning of incorrect placement
Monument functions will see some changes in the new update, these changes bring a new feature to Monuments which will allow you to choose which Monument part is assigned a particular function.
Some factors of the Monument parts will have an influence on the Monument functions, for instance, the capacity of the part and the quality of the materials used.
The Fall update will also see the introduction of the Great Hall, where you will host any Envoys that visit your settlement but will also bring an added bonus of doubling the Splendor for the Monument part that it is assigned to.
The Horse
For now, the Horse will only be used by the Envoy to bring you quests but there will be more functions for the Horse in future updates.
Added: the Horse
Envoy visits the Great Hall
Another new feature on its way in the Fall Update will see the introduction of multiple workstation animations which will increase the number of animations within a production building.
We have also updated and improved on some of the previous animations.
Added: Envoy animations
Added: Grindstone animation
Added: Bakery oven animation
Added: Market tender animations
Improved: Harvesting animations
Fixed: Some animation character rotation
Monuments now have 3 tabs:
General – General Information
Edit – Edit Monument
Parts – Shows parts; allows function assignation. – New delete option per part
Within the Parts tab you will be able to assign varying functions to some of the parts using the new assignable functions feature.
Some functions will require extra maintenance costs, hovering over the function will show the effects of the function being assigned.
Other changes to the UI and UX include:
Updated Tutorial
Confirmation popup on part deletion
Taxes collected now show in the budget window
Major improvement to the Monument assemblage experience
– Monument parts can now be attached in 3D, so players only need to place the mouse to a node to have the part attach.
New Immigration factors
Immigration is now governed by:
Happiness
Employment
Residency
Buildings
Added Capacity to some building parts
Bonus to bailiff depending on building part splendor
Updated maintenance costs to include capacity
Resources
Removed: Leather
Map importer
For the first time, modders will be able to import their own map in the game.
Added: Map importer – Allows for the import of heightmap data for the creation of custom maps
Here’s an example of a Quebec City imported map:
Other Modding Additions
Livestock and tool prefabs are now exposed and usable for modding
New buildings, building parts, resources and jobs assets are now available.
A resource can now have multiple resource types
The market tender behavior is now available
Building part functions are now assets, declared individually. – Core building part functions have also been exposed to the API.
Fix: Infinite loading on low-end computers
Fix: Bridges (pathfinding / collision)
Fix: Do not remove bridge pathfinding connections when placing an obstacle under it
Fix: Removed housing lvl 2 door at the wrong location
Fix: Adjust housing collider sizes
Fix: Warehouse & granary resource visuals
Fix: Granary Collision
Fix: Forester planting multiple trees standing at the same spot
Fix: Fishing spot heights (all maps)
Fix: Rustic Church Basement
Fix: Beekeeping entrance
Fix: Avoid crashes when mods are disabled or changed
We are excited to bring you news on the plans for the upcoming content update!
This update will bring a plethora of new content to the game, so without further ado let’s take a look at what is to come in the next update.
New Monument: The Tavern
If you have seen the recent teaser you may have already guessed it but the next update will see the introduction of a new Monument, The Tavern!
As the Tavern is a monument it will consist of multiple parts. These parts will include a Public Bar room, Kitchen, Sleeping Room, Stables and many decorative items.
The Tavern monument will have limited functionality in this update but more functions will be added in future updates.
New Production Chain
A new production line will be introduced in the next update which will see the addition of the Dairy Farm and Cheese Maker.
These new production buildings will add both Milk and Cheese resources into the game, as well as new buildings and of course Cows!
A first look at the new Dairy Farm
Assigning Monument Functions
One exciting new feature, coming soon, will be the ability to assign functions to monument building parts.
With this new feature, the player will have the ability to assign some generic parts a function that is relevant to that monument type, allowing players much more control over their monument building functions and overall creativity with building parts.
The Lord Manor monument set, for example, currently includes a treasury building and a Bailiff office. These building parts will become generic and the players will be able to assign the treasury and Bailiff functionality to the generic parts.
The new update will also see the addition of the Great Hall to the Manor monument functions. The Great Hall is where you will host any Envoys that visit your settlement. Assigning the Great Hall function to a building part will have the added bonus of doubling the splendour for that building part.
Some factors will have an influence on the Monument functions, for instance, the capacity of the part and the quality of the materials used.
Further Monument functions are planned to be added in later updates.
New Immigration Factors
Currently, new villagers join a players village in pairs, with the time between immigration waves being governed by overall villager happiness. The new update will bring some major new changes to immigration, we will be introducing new factors to govern the size of the immigration wave giving you more control over the growth of your city.
In a change to the current system, ‘Happiness’ will affect the immigration count rather than the time between waves. A happier populace will increase the number of new villagers joining a settlement.
In addition to this, ‘Employment’ will also factor in to the quantity of new villagers arriving in a settlement. Having more unemployed villagers in a settlement will reduce the amount of new arrivals in the next immigration wave.
A third factor being introduced will see a players homeless villagers having an impact on new arrivals. The ‘Residency’ factor will require villagers to be housed and if they aren’t, each homeless villager will be factored in to the next immigration wave, reducing the number of new settlers joining a village.
More Workstation Animations
We will be adding even more animations in the next update alongside a workstation animation feature.
The new feature will bring multiple animation to workstations which will increase the number of animations within a production building. For example, the bakery will see a new workstation where one villager will be working the bread whilst a second villager is working the oven.
In a similar vein, the blacksmith will see a new grindstone workstation animation added that will have a second villager grinding tools whilst the first works with a hammer on the anvil.
Coal hut workstation animation
Weather variation
With the new update we plan to add some weather variation to the standard gaming environment.
The new weather effects won’t have the same impact on the challenge to the game as the bad weather event but will increase the level of immersion with variations in the weather environment between sunny, cloudy and rain effects.
Bridge Improvements
Bridges will be getting more detailed with the addition of bridge decorations! There will be a whole host of additional options to improve the look of your bridges, from simple banners to more ornate gates and towers.
Additionally we are looking into improving pathfinding and collision for bridges to ensure they are usable once built and placed correctly.
A Horse of course!
That’s right, we will be introducing the horse into the game, starting off as a vehicle for the Envoy.
And finally…
We will be adding in the possibility to import heightmap data! Initially this will allow modders to include custom maps with their mods or even create a mod that is just a map.
We will be including more villager outfits and applying many bug fixes and improvements, including fixes to improve blocked pathing issues.
Release schedule
We plan to have the update ready for release within the next few weeks so keep an eye out for further announcements.
We are happy to present to you what you can expect in our next content update!
For this update, we are focusing on improving the core game experience as well as adding new features and buildings. Expect major changes in the gameplay meta!
Bad Weather
A weather system will be added in the next update, starting with the introduction of rain. Not only will this add to player immersion with suitably gloomy clouds, lighting and of course rain effects but the weather is also going to bring with it additional challenges.
Rain will indeed impact your crop yields, but will improve fish yield! You will need to be careful to produce enough food to sustain your population needs during this period.
A new building: The Granary
The bad weather and reduced yields are going to require you to plan ahead as poor preparations will see your people starve and leave. To aid in this we will be introducing a new building: The Granary!
This new building will allow you to store a reserve of food resources. It will prove useful when undergoing bad weather. In addition, the Warehouse has been modified to only stock non-food resources. Don’t worry about food trading, the traders will visit your granaries as well.
Major changes to balancing
Balancing will be a large focus for the next update. As we add more content to the game, the economics and flow of balance is evolving as well.
One of the things you can expect is having a limit to berry bushes and schools of fish yields. They will replenish over a time cycle. As such, fulfilling your population with berries will be more challenging.
Further balancing changes will focus on a building’s desirability. There are a number of buildings that we have introduced to the game during the alpha phase, that are missing their desirability influence.
Desirability has an effect on housing upgrades, whether negatively or positively, and as such will have an influence on where you choose to zone housing for your villagers. Not only that but desirability gives you some control over housing upgrades by making an area more (or less) desirable to live.
With that in mind, we will be adding desirability influence to those missing buildings, such as the Rustic Church & Lord Manor buildings as well as those that negatively influence desirability.
We’ve also improved the desirability visual representation.
Building Construction
In order to make them more immersive, we’ve been improving the visual of building construction steps. We will be integrating a couple of those in the next update.
Warehouse resource visual
Currently, many of the resources stored in the warehouse are stored in boxes. This makes it somewhat difficult to identify, visually, which resources are being kept in each warehouse.
It has always been our intention to allow easy identification of warehouse storage and the next update will bring a couple of new visuals to help you see ‘at a glance’ what a warehouse is stocking.
Modding
We will be adding support for modding dependencies. While downloading a mod, you’ll be able to download all dependencies from that mod in a single click.
Release schedule
The update release date will be announced soon, so keep your eye out for more news on the ETA.
Firstly we would like to start with word on a new Quality of Life Update!
Since the Early Access launch, we have received a bunch of great QoL improvement suggestions from the community. We’d like to know which ones are most important to you.
We have submitted 10 suggestions for you to vote on and we will prioritize the top 5 for a QoL update!!
If you have any suggestions that you would love to see implemented, you can add yours for review on our tracker here.
Back from voting? Let’s tell you what we have been working on!
Modding Preview
In the last Devlog we announced the release of the modding preview. Thanks to the modding community testing has gone well with only a few small bugs that were quickly fixed.
We still have some more work and testing to do on the modding update but we hope to release it on the main branch within the next couple of weeks. Though this will depend on further testing and fixes.
Farms and Crops
We have already hinted that we will be introducing some new crops into the game. With these new crops will also come new farm buildings! Here is a little visual hint to those crops the team have been working on. Can you guess what they are?
New Military Quest System
In the last couple of days we have begun initial testing of the new military quest system that will be the focus of the Kingdom Estate progression.
We will start out by testing the basic mechanics of the system with a single multi-level mission. Once we are happy that the quests are acting as they should we can begin to add more missions and depth.
One new aspect of these missions is the probability of success and failure. To increase the chances of a successful mission you will need to train your soldiers or they could end up like this…
or worse!
Of course, the soldiers will need weapons and those weapons won’t make themselves
… And there’s more
As you can see, we continue to work on the animations that will make the game even more immersive.
For all the equestrians out there, here’s a little peak of a beautiful moment between man and horse
There has also been some great work done on a new monument! That’s just a teaser though as there is still more work to do. We’ll let you know more in a future devlog.
We will bring you more news in the next couple of weeks, all that’s left to do, if you haven’t already, is go and vote on the QoL update! Voting closes on Monday so don’t delay to have your say… did we just rhyme that?!
Friday is upon us once again and it’s time for another Devlog!
This week we are going to focus in on modding… Everyone loves a good mod, including us!
What have we been up to this week?
Whilst work continues hard on the Major Content Update we have also been working on opening up the modding capabilities. Over the past weeks, some of the team have been working on the modding tools, code and API to give modders a plethora of new tools and options.
As we write this the team are hard at work on a preview build that includes some major modding features that will allow the modding community to take their mods to a whole new level.
This preview build (1.2.0) will be available on a public preview branch in Steam (Betas) whilst we work with the modding community to stress test the new features.
If you are a modder and would like to test the new update, you can provide feedback and chat with other modders on our Discord Server where we have a dedicated channel for feedback of the preview build.
To gain access to the preview build on Steam: -> Right click Foundation in your game library -> Click Betas tab -> In the drop down choose modding_preview
To gain access to the preview build on GOG: On The Foundation game page… -> Click More -> Settings -> In the Beta Channel dropdown click ‘On’ -> In the Channel drop down click Modding Preview
What can the modders do with this update?
Some of the new features include:
Create workplaces
Create monuments and bridges
Create walls
Create particle effects
We have also included a new mod example that will show the possibilities of new modding features.
And there’s more! You can check out the full list of new features as well as check out the modding documentation on the modding wiki here.
How can players help?
Good question! Any mods created for the preview build will not be available in the main branch of the game but both the preview build and test channel on Discord are open to all players so you can keep an eye on progress and if you would like to test the mods and the build you are welcome to join us.
Once the preview has been thoroughly tested (and fixed if needed) we will move it to the main branch and modders will then be able to add their new mods to mod.io for integration into the game.
Time for a teaser
Here is a first look at one of the new buildings you will find in the upcoming Content Update.
It’s thirsty work out in the fields but a good local beer can help quench that thirst…
Testing can be fun!
Our QA Manager has been testing Foundation to its limits this week and sometimes the question ‘What will happen if?’ can get out of hand!
Renaître de ses cendres
A couple of weeks ago we commented on the devastating fire in Paris and the community’s reaction. This week we would like to follow up on that with this outstanding reproduction by MajesticIX.
We hope you enjoyed this weeks Devlog and have a great weekend everyone!
Another week has flown by and another minor update has been released to clear a few more bugs as we continue to work on the Content Update.
As you may have seen we have been cleaning and improving the live build recently, we hope you have enjoyed the minor changes.
So what else has been happening?
Bug Reporting
We have been working to improve the bug reporting system and player feedback loop via the tracker. This has helped greatly with both pre-testing and release of the recent updates. Going forward this will help to ensure we can release future major updates as clear of issues as possible.
2019 Quebec NUMIX Awards
We recently found out that Foundation has made it to the finals in 2 categories at the 2019 NUMIX Awards!!
– III Independant Games (TRIPLE I) – Production with the highest International profile
Winners will be announced on May 9th! Less than 2 weeks!!
But what about the Content Update?!
We hear your calls for more… even everyone at the back.
It is coming but there is still much work to be done. We are keeping things under wraps for a little bit longer but we can tell you there has been good progress. We will begin preliminary testing on one new feature next week. Hopefully more news on that in next weeks’ devlog if all goes well.
A few weeks ago a little easter egg was spotted in the photo of Michael. If you missed it then here is a bigger hint:
More Improvements
Along with the new content that is being created we have also been working on improving what is already in the game. We saw a quality of life update a couple of weeks ago and we will continue to improve the current content as we integrate the new.
As you can see job assignation has been getting a medieval makeover:
That’s all we have for you this week Lords and Ladies, but we will leave you with one of our favorite community created screenshots of the week.
As you may have noticed Alpha v1.1.8.0418 was released yesterday!!
The new update brought with it some bug fixes and balancing tweaks as well as a few quality of life changes. Amongst other changes, you can now adjust the game resolution and change from fullscreen to windowed mode.
We have improved the budget window to give more information particularly on traded goods.
There have also been some optimisation fixes so you should find you have a few extra fps, particularly on larger villages/towns.
You can see the announcement and full change log here.
As mentioned in the last Devlog we have a tracker for reporting bugs. Please feel free to discuss bugs here on the Forums or Discord but the best place to report bugs is via the tracker which is being monitored by our QA Manager.
A week in focus
This week with the sad and shocking fire in Paris some of the Discord Community decided to try and recreate Notre Dame in Foundation. One of our Moderators, Helron, created this beautiful reproduction:
What we have been working on
This week has seen a focus on the minor QoL update though work continued on the upcoming Major content update. With the release of the 1.1.8.0418 update it is full steam ahead on the next content update.
We will be bringing you more news of the update in the coming weeks.
As always a big thank you to everyone providing bug reports, suggestions and feedback.
That’s it for this week… We hope you enjoy the new QoL update! Let us know if you find any issues and stay tuned for more news.
Welcome to the first issue of the Foundation devlog!
Q. So what is this devlog thing all about?
The community is requesting more information about updates and the progress of the game and this and the future devlogs will hopefully help to keep you updated on what we are working on.
We plan to bring you a weekly (or at least every 2 weeks) devlog with information on what the team have been working on and as we get closer to a major content update, maybe share a few sneak peeks of the new content.
Q. When will you be releasing updates?
Each update we put out will need to be tested and balanced as much as possible and as such if we keep putting out minor updates with small content patches this will ultimately take longer to create fix and balance them all.
Due to the nature of the game and genre it is more efficient for us to build and test major updates with as much content as we can fit in. So expect larger gaps between major updates though we will put out smaller bug fixes and balancing tweaks between major content updates.
Q. So what have you been up to?
Well, it has been a very busy period since the Early Access release, which was followed by a flurry of bug fix patches. The art team have been busy through all this creating new content, animations and environmental effects. We have also been showing the game at PAX east as well as expanding the team to not only increase the speed of production but also to create a better feedback system to you, the community.
We plan to have a new testing and feedback system for each update to try to ensure as bug free releases as possible whilst also feedback to the community regarding any issues that may be found.
The bug/suggestion tracker will be used to its full capability so if you have any bugs please report them to our bug tracker where we can review them and feedback information regarding fixes: https://www.polymorph.games/tracking
We have expanded the team
Since the start of this project the team has grown from the original beginnings with our two co-founders Phil & Leo to a fantastic team of 10 talented people. One of the (not so) new members to the Team is Michael…
Michael has been working tirelessly on new animations for the villagers plus other more hardy beasts 😉
As mentioned above we are working on a better feedback system to the community. Leading this project is Nicolas our new QA Manager, along with myself the Community Manager we will do our best to feedback as much information as possible to keep you all in the loop.
About those updates
As you may have already heard we are working hard on the next major content update, which will see a major overhaul of the mission quest system. This, plus more content will take some time. We will bring you more news regarding the content update in future devlogs.
We are also working on a smaller quality of life update which will be coming soon! The plan is to release the update next week but this will depend on how testing goes and if we find any major bugs in the build.
With the minor update we will be focusing on some food production balancing issues. Fish consumption will be lowered (halved) and flour production will be increased. We also plan to look at some of the costs for buildings, decorative items and in particular Fish trading.
More QoL changes coming with this update will see:
Windowed mode and resolution selection
Auto-save and quick-save cloud options
Auto assign will assign the villager with the closest house
There will also be a variety of fixes and optimisations:
Building will turn red and be forbidden to place. This is currently not working correctly on some buildings
Prevent doors being blocked on higher density housing
Prevent planting in water
Optimise wall rendering
Optimise wheat rendering
These last 2 points should help out some fps issues.
There will be more improvements and fixes to add but as you can see this next minor update will bring some needed fixes and changes.
To close the devlog we will add that the Soldiers and monks will now have seperate needs… Talking of monks…
That’s it for this week, look out for more news next week and if testing goes well we should see an update!
Welcome to the 5th Edition of the Foundation Dev News! In this edition:
Early Access follow-up
Foundation continues to win awards
What we are working on
Expanding the Team
Chats with the Community
PAX East
Early Access Follow-up News
It is now nearly 2 months since Foundation released on to Early Access on Steam and GOG!
The successful Early Access release brought with it a lot of new players with various system specifications. Since then we have been busy fixing crashes and focusing on smaller patches to improve the gameplay experience of the current content.
Some statistics since Early Access launch:
On launch day, there was 1 crash for every 11.17h played
Today, there is 1 crash for every 140.31h played
A total of 1 764 248 hours played. This is the equivalent of 201 years of playtime!!
Foundation Winning Awards
December 2018 saw the return for the 9th time of the IndieDB, Indie of the Year Awards.
Thousands of Indie games were voted on and whittled down to the Top 100 with Foundation coming in second overall for the Best Upcoming Indie, voted for by players.
In addition, we were delighted to take home the prestigious, Editor’s Choice Best in Show Award!
In March, Foundation continued its winning streak by landing the National Bank’s Coup de Coeur Award at the Ubisoft Indie Series!
What We Are Working On
The Early Access release was a busy period of fixes and optimization but you will be happy to hear that we are working hard toward the next content update!
We will be announcing more detail of the upcoming content update soon but for now we are excited to tell you that we will be:
Expanding some of the current in-game features, focusing on improvements to the estate progression system.
Expanding the capabilities of the modding API.
And of course we will continue to fix any bugs and improve the balancing.
Anyone fancy a beer?! 👉*hint*👈
To keep track of any news and announcements follow and wishlist us on Steam or join our fantastic community on Discord!
New Faces At Polymorph Games
Since our last Dev News we have been joined in the Studio by Michael, who has been beavering away animating the Foundation Villagers.
You will soon be seeing more of Michael’s work in-game!
We will also soon be joined by a 2D artist and a QA Manager taking the Team to 10 members, but it doesn’t stop there. We are looking to expand further with the addition of 2 programmers.
Questions With The Team
The Early Access release gave us the opportunity to chat about the future for Foundation as well as enjoy answering some questions from the community. If you missed the streams you can catch up with them here:
Skye Storme Q&A with Philippe:
Obearry talks to Ash our Community Manager:
We talk about Foundation with our friends at Berzerk Studio:
PAX East 2019
We are taking Foundation on the road again next week and heading to Boston, MA for PAX East.
There will be 8 stations to try out the game so if you are heading to PAX East this year come and meet the team and play Foundation at booth #21225
Thanks as always to all our friends, fans and supporters!
