New key art, new minigame, map querying and statistics!

You probably noticed it: the Steam page is showing a brand new key art! The new illustration is an original and was made by Happy Toast, a very talented artist from Peru. Be sure to check their work, it is stunning! I am really happy with the new key art, I feel it really captures the vibe of the game! I also updated the rest of the page, especially the About section, to have a more accurate description of the content now that is has gone through weeks of iterations.

Also, I am releasing today a Playtest patch! It adds a new minigame that spawns after building a Wonder pedestal, so right at the end of the content available. It is related to the lore of the game, so I'm keeping it mysterious and not telling too much about it here. You will have to see it for yourself!

This patch introduces map querying too, a small but neat quality of life feature. Below the sector map, you will find buttons to create a query and highlight certain cities on the map, for instance those with access to a certain raw material, or those producing a certain item. This can be very useful to quickly find what you want when you search for a new place to settle a city or when you create routes.

This update also adds the encyclopedia tab in the game menu. This is a place with achievements and various statistics about your current game. I hope you will enjoy nerding out with those numbers!

Other than that, I made plenty of bug fixes and tiny improvements. As always, full changelog is below, along with the one from the previous patch I did not write a dedicated post for (it introduced multiple save files!).

This is probably the last Playtest patch, as it will transition to an official demo soon! Probably early July, as I'm trying to sync it with a festival. Thanks a lot for your support, please keep reporting bugs and sharing suggestions, this helps me a lot! I hope you will enjoy the update, and I'll see you next time!

-Radiant Sloth

Changelog v0.4i:

• New key art!

• Added a new minigame that spawns after building a Wonder pedestal

• Added encyclopedia tab with list of achievements and various statistics on current save file

• Added 16 achievements to unlock (displayed only in-game, Steam achievements will be enabled only for the full game)

• Added a way to query the map to highlight cities meeting a particular condition (such as having access to a certain raw material, or producing a certain resource)

• Tweaked the Wonder pedestal model and texture

• Tweaked the upgrades costs and locked some in the copper tier because they require new resources that will only be in full version

• Added an idle indicator above route markers on the map when the route is completely idle (and tooltip will show the reason why idle)

• Added icons on city markers to quickly see on the map which cities have special building spots

• Added an icon in the city menu that can be hovered to get the full list of city and sector bonuses that exist there. When building, the icon highlights and shows which effects apply to the current building candidate

• Added an explicit 'Free' mention to buildings that are free instead of showing no cost at all

• Renamed prestige spots into guild spots

• AddedRemoved the button in the game menu to change the cycle speed. Instead2 new key shortcuts to speed up / slow down (by default Left / Right arrows). Hovering the cycle icon in the bottom right corner prints a tooltip with the cycle and shortcuts info. The current speed is showed at all time right below the hourglass icon

• Added the controller mappings in the controls tab of the settings menu

• Fixed minimap markers not updating properly for the second quest (the one with directional arrows activated)

• Fixed building being destroyed applying instant transformation on the resources given from the destruction itself

• Fixed typos in the localization

• Fixed treasure hunts giving always the same blueprint instead of iterating the reward pool

• Fixed docks of new cities not having the correct orientation after loading a save (not retroactive for older saves, only for new games)

• Fixed deletion of a disabled building creating a new inhabitant

Changelog v0.4h:

• Added support for multiple save files (up to 6)

• Reverted to old title screen because it will look better with the new key art in the near future

• Updated the game logo

• Improved some UI icons

• Changed the map fog to work in chunks (now uses a lower resolution image internally, which decreases the save file size)

• Improved controller support. Should be mostly playable and show the correct icons for XBox/Playstation (if you play on Steam Deck, please let me know if you encounter any difficulties with specific menus)

• Changed some internals in the save data format to optimize the save file size and prevent any lag or stutter when saving. Therefore, the game now autosaves more often

• Fixed game sometimes not paused while in the city pinning menu

• Fixed icon in directional arrow not updating after changing the city marker icon

• Fixed resource bubble of trading routes being sometimes visible from another sector

• Fixed checkbox buttons being slightly off-centered