Hello, everyone! We hope you’ve enjoyed your holidays and the new content from [url=https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1062090/view/3146325282014603123]Update 1[/url]. Before we head into 2022, we thought it was a good moment to look back at the most important (and wild) year for Timberborn so far… and maybe catch a cryptic glimpse into the [i]future[/i]? [h3]The first drought (December 17, 2020)[/h3] As weird as it sounds, twelve months ago Timberborn was still in the invite-only closed beta that began in June 2020. Exactly a year before Update 1, we added the last missing puzzle to the game’s core gameplay: irrigation mechanics and droughts. [img]https://clan.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/images//36026812/e99cdb384420a6c77f13680c7ce796e134f14302.png[/img] [h3]Timberborn gets a demo (January 26, 2021)[/h3] With the patch well received, we officially entered the planned release window of Q1 2021 (heh). The final test and push for Timberborn’s pre-launch visibility were about to happen at Steam Game Festival, the indie-friendly Steam event now known as Steam Next Fest. To participate, we replaced the closed beta with a publicly available Timberborn Demo. The player’s goal was to survive two droughts. Also, we finally updated the beaver models. [previewyoutube=n4UEtIN_VW4;full][/previewyoutube] [h3]The great flood (February 3 - 9, 2021)[/h3] We were not prepared for what would happen at the Festival. Timberborn Demo stayed among the top three played demos, was downloaded close to 100.000 times, and at one point, about 28.000 viewers were watching the beavers on Twitch. Our Discord exploded, and so did our heads. With the massive amount of feedback and the sudden spike of high profile coverage, we realized that Timberborn had a chance to become the Next Big Thing. We needed more time for that, though, so we decided to postpone the release to “later in 2021” as we wanted more good stuff in. [img]https://clan.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/images//36026812/9adb6ab07eb78c1426fb930d4d746a024cf33a5c.png[/img] [h3]Work, work, work! (March - May 2021)[/h3] As the said “good stuff” grew behind the scenes, we updated the demo with better visuals, more music, improved performance, and some QoL features such as the build priorities. We also added the first in-game translations - sadly, the Asian languages were blocked by a nasty bug in the engine. Back then, we hoped this would be a brief inconvenience. Little did we know - it wasn’t fixed until months later, almost jeopardizing the release. [img]https://clan.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/images//36026812/89e90df9f09d00c3d703e25f6bdd0998a69c0aa9.png[/img] [h3]Folktails enter the chat (June 2, 2021)[/h3] In the demo, we only had a single temporary faction called Beavers of Demoria. However, unique factions were going to be among Timberborn's key features, and since we felt the game was nearing a shippable Early Access state, it was time to reveal the first faction. Hi, Folktails! [previewyoutube=FvGHZpKkjPU;full][/previewyoutube] [h3]Districts are in (July 14, 2021)[/h3] We also wanted to prepare our players for the addition of the districts system. Compared to the beta and demo, districts eliminated many problems often encountered in the early game, made managing large settlements easier, and brought Timberborn a huge performance boost. By the way, we know that there are areas we can improve here. We’ll be gradually rolling out updates that should make district-wide operations smoother and require less micromanaging. [img]https://clan.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/images//36026812/e9c1bbeacadf0525f58ecf25645fa046508392d9.png[/img] [h3]Iron Teeth! Release date! Oh my! (August 26, 2021)[/h3] Bracing for more delays, we kept telling our players that Timberborn was coming “later in 2021”. This finally changed on one hot, crazy August night, at the peak of summer gaming festivals. Within two hours, at two different Gamescom shows (Future Games Show by GamesRadar and Awesome Indies Show by IGN), we introduced the second playable beaver faction AND announced that the game was releasing… in three weeks. There was no turning back. [previewyoutube=8K47y-dUsCo;full][/previewyoutube] [h3]The big day (September 15, 2021)[/h3] Mechanistry is a fully remote team but for the launch week, we all gathered in Gdansk, Poland, to work in one place for the first time. On September 15, at 5 PM, our lead designer Bartek hit the “release” button… and fifteen minutes of horror began. For some reason, the game didn’t go live as expected, and it wasn’t until 5:15 PM that it did (with Steam’s timely intervention). It was probably the most terrifying quarter of an hour in the game’s history. What followed was a blurred mess of sleepless nights, reading feedback, and rapid hotfixing. Fortunately, players kept flowing in, and we closed the launch week with over 130.000 copies sold. The “Overwhelmingly Positive” rating came right after that. We couldn’t be happier. [previewyoutube=wY_C5qJX_rI;full][/previewyoutube] [h3]Work, work, work… again! (October - November 2021)[/h3] After the launch madness and the initial surge of tweaks, we took turns taking some time off, but the work on Timberborn is now an ongoing process. We even squeezed in a little new content patch (yay, fences!) but we were mostly focused on preparing for the first large update. [img]https://clan.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/images//36026812/f13651f59fdbb158f649382620e8cfd99cf100b1.png[/img] [h3]Update 1 drops (December 17, 2021)[/h3] This is where we are now. Having tested the new content on the newly launched Experimental Branch, we deployed our first major post-launch update. We added infinite metal production, mechanical water pumps, new resources, new attractions, and more - and your feedback made it all better. [previewyoutube=f0exbNzV3oQ;full][/previewyoutube] [h3]What’s next?[/h3] The last-minute delay in February, [url=https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1062090/view/2987563884523313736]Iron Teeth breeding woes[/url], the bug with Asian localizations, multiple water physics tweaks - this year alone showed that in game development, [i]things happen[/i]. Because of that, we’re hesitant to talk big, post roadmaps, and risk breaking promises. But we understand that many of you came here for this, and we want to let you know that our current plan is to continue bundling changes into large patches that first land onto Experimental Branch, similarly to Update 1. We’re already working on [b]Update 2[/b] which will use Timberborn’s post-apocalyptic setting to make our beavers [i]more futuristic[/i]. No spoilers yet but we’ve had this idea for a while now, and we believe it may also result in an interesting late game with a twist. Other than that, we’re constantly keeping an eye on what the community desires (pro tip: [url=https://timberborn.featureupvote.com/]our tracker[/url] helps your voices be heard). This applies both to new content ideas and quality of life requests, so keep them coming. We’ll evaluate them and do our best to include as much as possible as the game grows. Update 1 was just the beginning. Alright, enough with the teasers. We thank you for your amazing support this year, and we’re looking forward to showing you what we have in store for 2022. It’s going to be awesome! [img]https://clan.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/images//36026812/736ebdb9aada1e06b21623ced965f131043baf12.png[/img] Happy New Year! Team Timberborn