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Foundation

A New Era of Organic City-Building Simulation!

Devlog

by Polymorph Games on Dev News, Devlog

Devlog #17: Desirability, Safety, Castle and More!

Hello everyone and welcome back to Devlog’s! Today we present you with Devlog #17 and news from the team. We know it’s been a while since the last Devlog but now is a perfect time to update you all on the current progress of upcoming updates and what we have been working on.

First, we would like to take a moment to thank everyone for their feedback on the recent updates. There have been a lot of changes to the game which we have been happy to see very positive feedback for. We are aware of some needed quality of life (QOL) improvements highlighted by the community, such as the sub-building flow which we are working on improving for the next update. Please do keep your feedback coming as it helps us improve the game as we continue development.

Fall Plan

With the now expanded team we are working on multiple updates concurrently. These are namely the upcoming 1.9.6 update which focuses on Housing Desirability & Beautification, the new Safety system and the Kingdom update. Let’s take a closer look at what we have been working on…

Upcoming update 1.9.6 (Desirability & Beautification)

Though not a major update, calling it a minor update doesn’t do it justice. Update 1.9.6 brings some significant changes that will pave the way for the Kingdom update. More on the Kingdom update in a moment.

This update will bring a change to the Desirability system. Where currently houses will be allowed to upgrade if a housing area is desirable enough based on a single factor, with the new system houses now have different requirements in order to upgrade to the next tier. Essentially, Beautification will be an additional and separate factor when it comes to housing upgrades.

With the new system, houses will only upgrade from low to medium quality if all of the following criteria are met:

  • Desirable neighborhood – Build away from undesirable buildings
  • Beautification – Build within a Beautification area
  • At least one villager of Commoner status or higher looking for medium-quality housing

Note: Removing a house requirement will eventually result in the house being downgraded or its occupant moving away.

These changes will allow you to have better control over where you wish housing to upgrade as well as potentially downgrade housing.

Desirable Neighborhoods

Houses need to be built in pleasant neighborhoods, away from noise, bad smells and grime and hence undesirable environments. Some buildings will now have a clearly defined undesirable area based on the building’s footprint. These will include buildings such as the Lumber Camp, Sawmill, Gold Smelter and all types of Quarries. Medium-quality housing needs to be outside of this undesirable area.

Beautification

Beautification is now becoming a Desirability factor in its own right. For houses to upgrade they must be in an area of Beautification, i.e. within a clearly defined Beautification area created by decorations or buildings that provide Beautification.

The range of the Beautification area will be based on a decoration’s Beautification value combined with its footprint. The overall Beautification area will increase if placed next to another similar area.

Information Layers

In order to accommodate the above changes we will be updating the visibility layers.

  • The Housing Desirability layer will now show residential areas, undesirable areas as well as any medium-quality housing areas.
  • A new Beautification layer will show Beautification areas, items supplying Beautification and housing affected by Beautification.

Other Improvements

Update 1.9.6 will also come with more QOL improvements to the game as a whole including an improved Monument experience with improved sub-building flow and a new dedicated Monument tab in the Build menu, and more. You can check out the full changelog on release.

The 1.9.6 update is very close to an experimental deployment, so keep an eye out for further announcements if you would like to try it out before its full public release on the main branch.

Also In The Pipeline…

As mentioned earlier, we are working on multiple updates concurrently, so what else is in the pipeline?

Safety System

The Safety system will be a new way to control Housing Density via Patrols and Fortifications. The system itself requires a number of changes to integrate it into the game and work is progressing well. We will bring you more news on this in a future communication.

Walls

The current system for walls has always been a temporary measure and we are now working on incorporating walls into the construction flow. Walls will be integrated into Monuments with their own construction costs and visual building steps.

Kingdom Update

The Kingdom update is also being worked on and it is going to be huge! We won’t go into too much detail here but progress on this update is now well under way. The new Castle Monument is under construction (hype!) as well as a new system to create Companies and Battalions to send your Army off to war. Stay tuned for more news but we will leave you with this teaser…

Don’t forget to follow us on social media to keep up-to-date with future developments, teasers and more!

 
by Polymorph Games on Dev News, Devlog, Release Notes

1.8 Fall Update is now live!

Consulter la version française de cet article

Greetings beloved builders,

We hope you’ve been enjoying the user interface update we pushed last June. We know you’re eager for even more Foundation content, which is why today should be of particular interest to you as we officially launch the 1.8 Fall Update to shake things up! 

New Buildings For All! 

One of the most widely requested features for Foundation is the addition of new buildings for your settlements. You’ll be glad to know that the team has been hard at work to introduce not one, but two fresh production buildings for the game: the candle workshop and the common wares workshop!

Candle Workshop
Common Wares Workshop

Sharp-eyed players will also notice “Citizen” promoted villagers now have a second “Goods” need under their status. In addition to common clothes, they will now require common wares to be 100% satisfied. Talk about being entitled!

Construction Step Bundles for Added Immersion

While looking at ways to improve Foundation, it became apparent that the construction process for buildings needed work. We’ve asked ourselves how we could create a more logical and immersive experience. Before 1.8, builders would try to complete their tasks and stop if resources were insufficient. Now, they have to gather the required materials to the construction site beforehand. Only then will they be able to start working. 

To go into more details, materials will be brought following the bundles’ order, to complete them as fast as possible. If a bundle is missing a material that is not in inventory, then the transporter will start to bring the resources for the other bundles.

Building parts’ progression can be easily seen by hovering over the construction progress bar

Construction steps allow more flexibility for your city planning with the added benefit to be more in line with what you’d expect from working on buildings. You can start with the foundation of, say, a church, and come back to it later in order to complete work on the next step. This way, you’re never stuck in a rut! 

The Ins and Outs of Stockpiling

One feature we recognized as in need of improved communication relates to stockpiling. 

This feature allows you to prevent villagers from using resources by toggling the stockpiling function on or off in the resource panel. Or, alternatively, directly in the resource list of the Book. Very helpful when looking to complete delivery missions! 

With 1.8, we have improved this communication with a warning when there are missing resources in a workplace due to stockpiling. Additionally, the stockpile icon now shows over resource icons in other panels and windows such as workplace inventories.

New stockpiling presentation within workplaces

Even more QOL changes

Each new update is a chance for us to optimize the overall gameplay experience and refresh our existing systems. The 1.8 update is no exception. Here’s a preview of what’s in store for you the next time you launch Foundation:

  • Added related resources in the villager needs tooltips
  • Added tooltips on information module checkboxes
  • New trader blocked notification
  • Added inventory for all workplaces in condensed view
  • Improved inventory issues feedback
  • Building panels remember collapsed groups of parts
  • Estates layout is now more compact
  • Confirm renaming with Enter key
  • And more!
The new Needs tooltip in all its glory!

Continued support towards the modding scene

Modding is close to our hearts. We enjoy how imaginative some of you are with Foundation. Get your creative juices flowing, because 1.8 introduces custom mandates for bailiffs! You heard that right: thanks to mods, bailiffs are no longer limited to gaining influence or inspecting mineral deposits. We can’t wait to see what you’ll end up with! 

Previously, one of the only ways to contact modders was through the report tool—which proved to be a problem, as it’s not designed for this. Starting with 1.8, we fixed this by adding web links to all mods so it’s easier for you to connect with mod creators. The new link will open a browser where you can comment and get help directly from the mod creator.

Weblinks to Mod.io in Foundation

We also added a dropdown filter for your mods. Rejoice!

Mods dropdown in Foundation 1.8

We are eagerly looking forward to hearing from the community about the 1.8 update for Foundation!

1.8 Changelog

add: Common Wares Workshop
add: Candle Workshop
add: Additional parts can be unlocked for these buildings
add: construction step bundles
add: new tooltips
add: new resource icons
add: workplaces condensed view now displays a combined inventory (condensed view)
add: “trader blocked” notification
add: confirm renaming with Enter
add: collapsed masterpiece parts groups are remembered through all building panels
add: construction bundles topic in the help menu
add: tooltips and localization for building parts “Locate” and “Destroy” buttons

update: community localizations
improve: stockpile communication
improve: storage issues feedback
improve: hyperlinks style
improve: buttons (red/disabled/small)
improve: compacted estates layout
improve: now communicates max instance of a part
improve: dynamically update when unlocking building parts

fix: wooden keep doors
fix: info module buttons

Modding

add: custom mandates for bailiffs
add: debugging tools
add: weblinks to mod.io
add: mods dropdown sorting
add: expose wax resource

improve: minimized text cutoff in mod buttons that were too short

Modding Wiki

Modding documentation and changes can be found over on the modding wiki.

– The Polymorph Games Team

Pages: 1 2
 
by Polymorph Games on Dev News, Devlog, Update News

Devlog #16

Greetings Lords and Ladies!

With the new UI out it’s a good time to take a look at what else we have been working on and where our focus is now headed.

Before we do though, we would like to mention our growing team here at Polymorph Games. As a relatively new indie studio we are always looking to expand the team and as such we have seen some new faces since the last Devlog.

We have recently been joined by a senior gameplay programmer that will help us as we move our focus to new and improved gameplay features. We also have been swelled in ranks by a new engine programmer as well as a gameplay programmer that is completing an internship with us.

Getting back to the team’s focus, the first thing of note is that in a revised change to our roadmap earlier this year, we are planning to bring you a game update in the Autumn/Fall whilst in the background we also work toward the bigger Core II update.

Let’s take a look at what the team has been working on…

Art

The art team have been hard at work overhauling the current buildings to create a more cohesive and detailed style throughout the game.

You can see an example below of the completed bakery revamp in all its splendor.

Before/after shot of the Bakery

You’ll see the majority of these as part of a larger update, most likely sometime next year, however we will be bringing 2 new buildings to the game much sooner that have been designed from the ground up with the new and improved styling already implemented.

Currently the focus is on these two buildings which will see both a Candle Workshop as well as a Common Wares Workshop added to the game in the Fall Update. Check out some concept art of the Common Wares Workshop below.

Common wares workshop concept art
Gameplay

In the longer term the gameplay team is now focused on Core Update II which will see a complete overhaul of the Estate system and progression. The final design of the Estate system overhaul is now almost complete and work has begun on its implementation. The team are also working on balancing tools to make for easier balancing as we add more content to the game.

In the more immediate future however, the team has also been working on implementing a new feature for the Fall Update that will bring more immersion when building your village. This feature will see construction step bundles implemented to the game.

These bundles will create a more logical construction process, where materials will be required on construction sites in a relevant order. For example a building’s foundation/basement will be built first and require a specific portion of the overall building resources on site before construction begins. The next step might be walls that require the next bundle of resources.

Construction step bundles essentially break down the overall resource requirements into separate bundles that need to be delivered to construction sites prior to builders starting work on each construction step.

UI/UX

We are still working to further improve the UI with subsequent updates such as the recent UI/UX patch. We still have many more improvements to come.

To this end, the UI/UX team is working on a number of important small improvements and fixes that will come in the Fall Update. Alongside this the team is also working on UX design for the bigger core update, in support of the Estates overhaul, which will require a number of new screens and information panels.

Game Engine & Modding

As you can probably imagine the Engine team is busy working to support any processes that the whole team are working on, such as new Hurricane editor tools for feature integration.

Furthermore the team continues to collate and analyse any crash reports coming in and fixing any instability as quickly as possible. Our crash rate is at an all time low with the biggest crash issue now being graphics drivers. Note: if you are experiencing any crashing on startup please update your GPU drivers with (importantly) a clean install of the GPU drivers.

Modding is also one of the larger projects for the Engine team which has seen them continue to work on exposing more features, such as exposing the mandate system to create custom mandates. They have also been looking to support modders even further with work on Lua debugging support.

In addition to this we continue to work closely with the modding community to gather modding feedback and suggestions, as well as look at ways to improve our feedback gathering to better support the modding community.

We will bring you more news as soon as we have it and keep an eye on our social media channels for more teasers, as we get closer to the Fall Update release.

 
by Polymorph Games on Devlog, Update News

Devlog #15

Hey everyone!

It’s been a little time since our last communication but this does not mean we have been resting on our laurels. We know you are all eagerly anticipating the new UI and the improvements that will come with it.

An update on the UI rehaul progress

The very first phase of the new UI implementation is nearing completion. With that said, we would like to share with you some of the work that has been involved with creating the new UI, and to let you know what has been going on in the background for the past few months.

Late last year, we teased you all with some sample images of our UI rehaul. These initial images were conceptual and only a taste of what to expect. Since that time, our UI/UX designer and a good chunk of the team have been busy implementing the full redesign in-engine.

If you have played the game and seen the old UI you will be well aware that although it was functional, it was lacking in many places, not particularly intuitive and also not very aesthetically pleasing. As such, the redesign has required major work. Every menu, icon, HUD element, feedback module… it’s a long list… needed to be updated, redesigned and in some instances built from scratch. Such is the cost of progress.

Once the new design foundation (pun intended) was laid out and agreed upon, work could begin on asset creation, whilst in the background, we ramped up work on the engine. What came out of this was a brand new Interface tool (imaginatively called the GUI editor). This tool effectively allows us to build, visualize and tweak the interface without programming (because yes, the old interface used to be generated purely by code). As we progress, we’re constantly making the editor even more powerful, to allow for new features in the game for you, the players.

On top of this we have been making further updates to the engine to allow for enhanced UI visuals including better font rendering, to improve scaling, for the large differences in resolutions throughout the player base.

Much of the new interface is now in place and we are on the final run toward testing, feedback, tweaking and subsequent release. There are still a few elements that need to be worked on, some remnants from the old UI that need to be replaced and we will need to further tweak and improve on the work so far before release.

We know you are eager to see more teasers of what’s to come and of course we wish to oblige…

In other news

The UI has not been the only focus of recent development work. Some of the team have also been working in the background on more long-term goals such as overall art direction and preparation for future content updates.

Some of you may have noticed the changes to the market tents in a social media post some time ago, this was only the start of a broader improvement in the overall art direction. Further work has since been carried out on buildings such as the bakery and in time we will revamp and enhance the majority of the art and assets within the game.

The art team has also been working to design and create tools that will allow for a better way to render environmental aspects and transitions within the game, such as those between grass, sand and rocks. Similarly, they have been looking at ways in which to improve the look and variation of environmental factors such as vegetation, lighting and overall ambiance.

These changes and improvements to the art style will not be part of the upcoming UI but you will be seeing more of them in the future.

We will update you all with an ETA for the release of the UI update in the coming weeks.

 
by Polymorph Games on Dev News, Devlog, Update News

Devlog #13

Hey everyone and welcome to Devlog #13!

The Mineral & Craftsmanship update added some big content and systems to the game and the team have been working to fix any remaining bugs but also to polish the content that was added.

Consequently, we are now working on a content patch that will add some further improvements to the recent update. This patch will not only improve on some of the visuals but will also expand the masterpiece parts.

1.6 Content Patch

More specifically the 1.6 Content Patch will include:

  • Visual improvements to the quarry depots
  • Visual improvements to the mineral deposits including improved textures
  • Improved mineral distribution
  • Visual tweaks to Masterpieces
  • New parts for the Gate Masterpiece
  • New sounds for mining and workplaces
  • New animations including workshop and building animations

We are sure you will be excited to hear that the 1.6 content patch will also include the following QoL improvements:

  • Promotion window sorting
  • Many more villager names and the option to rename villagers (planned)

With that, let’s take a closer look at what the team are currently working on…

Buildings & Masterpiece Polish

Claudine and Loup-Gabriel have been enhancing some of the building visuals, polishing current buildings with improved basements and grounded doors as well as working on the new Masterpieces.

The Gate Masterpiece, in particular, will see a new wall part as well as even more parts for you to build that perfect entrance to your city.

More Visual Polish

Enhanced textures are being worked on for the Mineral Deposits with Claudine currently working on a more refined Gold texture. You can expect to see more improvements to the deposits and quarry depots for the upcoming content patch.

Quality of Life Improvements

Christopher has been busy on a number of improvements including, updating the notification panel to remember your severity choice and refining the action button and warnings. These changes can be seen live right now in last week’s hotfix which also included Christoper’s work to allow multiple Masterpieces on the same monument.

On top of these changes, he is currently working on the villager promotion window to show more information in addition to some added control in the form of a sortable promotion list!

Building & Workshop Animations

Something we have been wanting to add for some time is more interaction between workers and the buildings, for example, the gold smelter pouring liquid gold from the cauldron when smelting.

Up until recently it hasn’t been possible… but now it is! With this newly created ability, Michaël has been working on new interactions between buildings and workers that includes moving parts on the buildings themselves.

Winepress now in action
Is the sheep checking in on the weaver?
Modding

In the past few weeks, we have been gathering feedback from the modding community to see what new features and content they would like to see unlocked. Armed with this feedback Max has been busy opening up new options for modders to create extra content.

For example, last week’s patches saw a new behavior tree for custom guard behavior. This will allow modders to create custom locators for guards so that they can patrol your villages.

Additionally, the recent patches have exposed a whole host of assets for modders to play with, such as building functions for the new quarries and workshops, masterpiece parts, villager jobs and much more. Full modding changelogs can all be found on the modding wiki pages.

Alongside this, Max has been working to add in some quality of life improvements and bug fixes for both modders and players alike. Modding logs have been augmented to catch errors in created mods and a useful QoL update has seen a new prompt when a player loads a save that might be missing mods. This will allow you to download the missing mods directly when starting a save game.

Both Max and Leo continue to work on performance optimizations improving the game for players and modders alike.

And Finally…

Vincent has been working on a top-secret project for a future update. Unfortunately, we can’t bring you more news on this just yet but it will bring some extra life to your villages.

To wrap up this Devlog we have some particularly exciting news that we know you will all be very happy to see. Dan has been working on the UI redesign whilst also improving the user experience wherever possible. The design phase is progressing very well and thanks to the UI tool that is being created by Ben, integration will start soon.

Once that big chunk of work is done, we will iterate both on the UX and the style of the menus, so expect changes along the way.

We are excited to reveal to you an exclusive sneak peek of the work so far:

You can see more samples of the work in progress UI in the recent article from Rock Paper Shotgun.

We would love to get your feedback, so don’t forget you can join us on our Discord server and let us know your thoughts.

– The whole Polymorph Games team

 
by Polymorph Games on Dev News, Devlog

Devlog #12

Hey everyone, welcome to Devlog #12!

With the Winter update and bonus Anniversary update now out and running smoothly, you are probably wondering what is next for development. The next update will be a good chance for us to consolidate on the work we have already undertaken and with this in mind we are looking at many Quality of Life improvements and minor bug fixes. There will be more content to come, of course, and we will be bringing more news on the next update in the coming weeks.

So, on to the devlog! Let’s find out what the team has been working on for the last few weeks.

Update planning

Phil, our Creative Director, (and CEO) has been busy planning and designing the content for the next update as well as refactoring the event system, a long due task, to make it more user-friendly. He has also been working on ‘some boring admin stuff’.

Statues and new production lines

Loup-Gabriel has been working on new production lines, that center around quarries and new extractable resources. Those quarries will be a major part of the next content update. Stay tuned for more details soon!

A WIP Quarry

You may have noticed the new statues in the recent anniversary update, these statues not only add aesthetics to your villages but also increase the desirability of an area. More statues are still to come and Loup-Gabriel has been at work on a whole selection of new statues covering the 3 different estates.

QoL improvements

As mentioned above, we are looking at QoL improvements and Christopher has already made great progress on improving and fixing many of the in-game notifications.

These improvements will, for example, allow the player to easily focus on and cycle through villagers that are lacking housing or cycle through workplaces that have no workable zone, more easily identifying workplaces that require the player’s attention.

The immigration notification has also been adjusted to pop-up when new villagers reach the village centre rather than when entering the map. The Global Happiness tooltip has also been improved to show every factor affecting happiness.

Chris has also been working on expanding the Bailiff’s functionality to give it more depth. This is still very much at concept stage and there will be more news on this in a future communication.

Animations

We are always looking to improve on the (not so) little details that bring your villages/cities to life. A big part of this immersion comes from the animations and Michaël has been busy on new animations for workplaces and more finer details.

The sawmill will see new hewing and saw animations. The Charcoal hut now has workplace animations for both shoveling and process monitoring with a 3rd animation in the works.

Monks will now take care of their bees and hives in the Apiaries.

He has also been working on those finer details such as animated cloaks for the envoys as well as animations for an upcoming feature which we have already hinted at in the Audinity Q&A feature recently.

Villager life cycle

Those of you that have checked out our updated Roadmap may have spotted the entry for Villager Lifecycle and Aging. Though still in its infancy (pun intended), Vincent has been working on both the older generation of villagers and has now moved on to the younger generation. With new facial aging and hairstyles, your villagers will become more diverse and varied. As mentioned this feature is still in the early stages of development and will be for a later update.

New UI

Work is continuing on a large project that will bring a fresh new look to Foundation. The new UI is coming along well and Ben has been working on improvements to the Hurricane engine to facilitate the creation of the new UI design, as well as allowing for quick styling changes and future improvements.

Claudine has also been working on preparing the new UI, testing new concepts, color variants and cleaning visual elements as well as other work on improving in-game textures and other concept art and feedback on new assets.

Modding improvements

Modders will be happy to hear that more modding improvements are coming. Maxime has been working almost exclusively on exposing more features and improving modding capabilities.

We have previously introduced the ability for modders to create custom components and now we are looking to expand upon this by allowing modders to create more custom features such as custom workplaces. In order to do this, Max has been working on creating custom modding classes as well as exposing more classes and features for modders.

Hurricane engine improvements

And finally our technical director, Léo, has been working under the hood, improving the engine. Improving performance as well as adding to the aesthetics of the game. Improvements to grass are underway and Léo has been experimenting to improve the near/far blending and handling of more grass diversity for an improved landscape.

New vs old grass

– The Polymorph Games Team

 
by Polymorph Games on Devlog

Devlog #11

Hey everyone!

Welcome to Devlog #11, where I will be giving you some insight into what the team has been working on since the last update.

I don’t often do this but let’s kick off by talking about me! Well… not so much me but at least what I have been up to.

In the last update we introduced a way for players to create their own custom maps that can be uploaded to mod.io for everyone to play. With this in mind, I have been learning some basic modding and creating a custom map that is available now in-game. I have then gone on to use this map as a template for a custom map tutorial video which can be found on our YouTube channel.

Check it out if you fancy making your own map.

For any queries and help with map modding we have a very knowledgeable modding community over on our Discord server that will be more than happy to help.

For those that would prefer to wait for a map generator, it will come before the full release, in fact, over the last couple of weeks, Ben has started work on an early prototype for a procedural map generator.

Moving on to Vincent, who also hasn’t been mentioned in a recent devlog, but for good reason, as he has been hard at work on job outfits for villagers. This has been no small task with multiple job roles for both female and male villagers.

You can see a few examples below of the new outfits:

More recently Christopher has also been working with Vincent on villager outfits, though for Christopher he has been looking at the villagers themselves and allowing for the integration of all the new outfits as well as hair styling. Alongside this, he has been working on some performance optimizations for villagers which should hopefully see some fps improvements in the future.

I know this one will make you happy… one further thing that Christopher has started initial work on is the possibility to force villagers to move home!

Having done some great work on the new workplace animations in the last update, Michaël has also been working on the villager job outfits, in his case he has been looking at skinning the new outfits on the 3D villager models.

Needless to say, the villager outfits are coming together well.

Claudine has begun work on some visual research for new environment biomes, creating mock-ups and sample textures for visual reference. Here you can see a couple of mock-ups of how things might look:

She has also been looking at a ways to improve and polish some of the current in-game assets and textures, such as improvements to trees, water and ground textures.

Some time ago we teased the Brewery and now we have a Tavern but no beer. Never fear though, Loup-Gabriel has been working to complete the brewery as well as working on the hop farm.

Loup has also been working on a new production chain but there will more info on that in a future news update, however he has also been working on some new decorative items that will work with the new production chain, so I’ll leave that one to your imagination for now.

Maxime has been continuing work on improving performance for low-end systems, as well as general optimizations, when generating models, and improving LOD generation.

He has also been working on ways to provide pathing feedback to players when placing buildings and creating the dev tools required to configure this in our Hurricane engine.

Nicolas has, as always, been thoroughly testing improvements and gathering information from the community regarding any bugs and feedback.

As well as this he has been working with the engine programmers investigating possible performance optimizations, one of which was released in a hotfix patch last week to improve performance for larger cities.

Talking of large cities and performance, Phil has been looking at ways to improve villager needs efficiency. This, tied in with villagers moving home will see some major improvements to your overall village/city efficiency in future updates.

Finally Léo has been looking at many aspects of the Hurricane engine, working with and helping the team.

In no particular order he has been looking at

  • Improvements to our shader system
  • Improvements for our skinning system (new villager outfits)
  • Investigating RAM usage with an eye to improve memory allocation tracking
  • Undertaking performance analysis between updates
  • Prototyping terrain improvements that support more ground types and vegetation (Biomes)
  • Improving the dev tools including the in-house Hurricane editor. For example we now have a new Asset Preview allowing the team to easily explore game assets.

I hope you enjoyed the read! We have a lot of improvements coming and work is well underway for the next update but there is still much to do.

Until next time…
Cheers!
-Ash (Community Manager)

 
by Polymorph Games on Devlog

Devlog #10

Hey everyone!

In the last Devlog some of the team, were packing their bags and heading off to Köln for gamescom 2019. The team are now back and working hard on the next update and we are very happy to report that gamescom was a resounding success with Foundation being nominated for Best Strategy Game in the gamescom 2019 awards!. 

We met many new fans as well as veterans of the game. The booth was full from start to end and we would like to say a big thank you to everyone that dropped by the booth during the week! Thanks also to those that braved the photobooth where it was all getting very medieval.

Whilst we were in Germany showing off Foundation, the rest of the team were still back in Quebec City so let’s find out what they have been up to whilst we were away.

To help the Gameplay Programmers Ben has been working on a behaviour tree Debugger which will show the current state of a villager in the Hurricane editor. This will make a big difference when searching for issues and bugs in the behaviour of the villagers, particularly as we add more content to the game.

Max has also been hard at work on the dev tools to improve the development process. One such improvement is allowing the Hurricane editor to be ‘moddable’, using Lua, by any of the developers. This will allow them to create their own functions/actions in the editor which are more targeted at their own individual workflow and job role.

On top of this, he has also been working on LOD generation, in order to increase optimization for low-end graphics cards.

Christopher and Loup-Gabriel have been working on Weather Systems. This will be a new environmental feature that has no direct impact on gameplay but will help to immerse the player in the world.

Each map will have Weather Systems configured individually to both add variety and ambiance to the maps.

Weather Systems are still work in progress but below you can see a couple of examples of work so far.

Additionally, Christopher has been taking an initial look at Villager life cycles including aging and eventually the death of a Villager. 

As well as the Weather Systems Loup-Gabriel has also been creating placeholders for all the upcoming buildings in the game. These are basic visuals that will help to get an idea of how everything will look in the final game and make sure everything is fitting together visually.

He has also been working on some new decorative items for the stone bridge that will be placeable on bridge nodes.

You may have seen a horse rider in need of coffee in a recent Social Media post… Well, Michaël has been working to polish the horse and rider animations including the King’s Envoy animations as well as uphill and downhill animations for the horse itself.

Here you can see the new horse reins and improved rider animations as the envoy heads into town.

We have also been keeping an eye on player feedback and working on some of the major issues currently affecting many players. Phil has been looking at a fix for the housing building loop bug where houses will continue to be built and not occupied. As well as this he has been looking to improve the collision on the granary which can be too easily create stuck villagers.

Thanks for reading and we’ll catch you all soon with more news from the team.

The Whole Polymorph Games Team

 
by Polymorph Games on Devlog

Devlog #09

Hey everyone!

We are taking Foundation to gamescom next week! If you are heading to Köln, you can drop by and say hello and we even have a photobooth where you can get your photo taken with some of your favourite characters from the game. We will also have 6 stations where you can try out Foundation, if you haven’t already.

As some of the team are packing their bags to head off to gamescom this is a perfect time for us to catch you all up on what the team have been up to in the last few weeks.

Environment and ambience

Claudine has been researching some visual variations to increase the ambience of the Foundation environment, including new weather effects as well as looking at options to increase the variation of vegetation.

You might also be pleased to hear that she has also started visual research for future buildings and monuments such as the Castle monument! 

Vehicles concept

As you have previously seen, Michaël has been creating a new ‘vehicle’ for use in the game which Christopher has now been working to implement for a future update. Its first use will be for the when envoy is coming to town to deliver a mission from the King.

Animations

The last update saw a number of new animations added to Foundation, for instance the farming cycles have seen a lot of love with new seeding as well as harvesting animations with the scythe.

Michaël is now hard at work on some new animations for production buildings where we will be increasing workstations in some of the buildings and adding new ones to others. For example, the bakery will see a new workstation for a second baker to be working at the oven whilst the other kneads bread.

He has also been working on new walking cycles for specific jobs as well as new animations for some tools with both single and double-handed uses.

Character visuals

Concept art for job visuals are being worked on and expanded by Vincent, which will see new outfits for jobs such as the Hunter, Forester, Miner and more. On top of this he has been working to increase the variety for character visuals, such as new haircuts for both female and male villagers.

Villager immigration improvements

Immigration is something that we are looking to improve and with this in mind, Christopher has been working on new immigration factors. These factors will see the way current immigration works changed to give you more control over the growth of your city.

With these changes, new factors will affect the quantity of villagers joining your village per immigration wave.

Assignable Building Functions

Phil has been working on some changes to the way monument functions are implemented. In an upcoming update we will see some of the current monument parts become generic.

Some building parts will have a “capacity” which can be assigned as a villager capacity for that building or if players choose that part to be a treasury, for example, then the “capacity” will be combined with a treasury multiplier to create an overall treasury capacity.

This will free up some of the existing parts to allow them to be used more creatively whilst giving you more control over what parts will have particular functions.

The Great Hall

Speaking of assignable building functions, one such function we are currently developing is the Great Hall, which can only be set to 1 building part in all the city. This function will allow you, the Lord, to determine where you will receive requests from envoys. This functionality will also expand in the future.

Hurricane improvements

We are always working hard in the background to improve the game engine to allow the team to improve both the way we create assets, transitions and new features.

Ben has been working on a timeline feature as mentioned in a previous devlog, this is being improved to allow for better handling of the AI and behaviour tree. These improvements will help for game optimization as well as debugging for future updates and improvements.

We have also been testing and working on improvements for GPU compatibility, specifically Léo has been testing AMD graphics cards for better compatibility as well as investigating crash reports to smooth out the player experience.

Max has been hard at work on Improvements to graphical optimization as well as modding compatibility across game versions to prevent crashes when mods are removed from existing savegames.

Stay tuned for announcements as we will be bringing you more news during gamescom.

The Whole Polymorph Games Team

 

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