Devlog #23 - First Internal Playtest & Community Spotlight

Hi guys and happy new year everyone!

2024 will be a very exciting one for The First Explorers and we're starting right away with a new devlog. From now on I will call these updates devlog and number these so I can reference them better.

First Internal Playtest

In the beginning of December the first internal playtest started for the game. I selected a couple of people, that have been part of the TFE discord from a very early stage on and signed a NDA some months ago as well. To recap from the last update, this test was about the new gridless building and how the game is perceived in regards to the Look & Feel.

So How Did The Test Go?

As this was the very first playtest of the game, of course a lot of bugs were found and this is a good thing, because it lets me fix gamebreaking bugs very early in the development. Finding and pinpointing issues is easier when there are not all features yet implemented. So this really helped me in fixing a ton of stuff already.

Also quite some new input was generated regarding the gridless building mode. A lot of features were implemented in that regard in the last weeks and it feels way smoother now.

The test also showed that I'm heading into the right direction for my vision. I want to shortly quote one of the testers preliminary test verdict when being half way into the test:

I would pick this game up over any RTS game so far. The look and feel of it all is taking shape so fast, and it’s going directly into the direction of a game we’ve all missed since the original Settlers 3 and 4. Economy based, simple yet complex gameplay that keeps you on your toes but also allows you to relax and just build and optimize your entire settlement. I seriously can’t wait for the next steps and where it’s all going. I sincerely mean when I say this; I’m extremely happy for you @Buchwald Interactive , that you’ve managed to get this far and amazed by the progress you’ve made so far. Keep this up, this is going to go far.

A lot of stuff is still missing, that's very clear. But it's awesome to get this early feedback, it really motivates me and the game is getting better and better every single day.

Stay tuned for the next internal test. It will happen most likely in this quarter, I will keep you updated!

Community Spotlight

Apart from updates regarding the development I also want to share community releated content in the future. I will start this community spotlight with two really nice submissions I got from two guys from the community!

Lord Helmchen sent over a funny picture of him with the official The First Explorers T-Shirt he got during the last month's special offer and he also suited up with some Roman accessories. Is this the very first cosplay of The First Explorers? :D

Another member of the community, NTL, asked me whether he could make himself a snapback with the TFE logo on it. He said, that he wants to support me and the development of the game and would donate the amount of money that he spends on buying the snapback. Of course I said yes and here are a couple of pictures of him and the snapback. The guinea pigs also loved the snapback as you can see!

The level of support