As the summer draws to a close and we see the first glimpses of autumn starting to show, it’s time for us to bring you some development news on Foundation!
How is development going?
We are sure this is a question on all of your minds and we’d first like to note that the game’s development is on track for our target release date.
Development is moving at a great pace and a lot has happened since our last Devlog:
- Most gameplay features have been integrated such as Patrols, Walls and Fortifications and a new Military gameplay iteration.
- We have worked a lot on the overall art direction of the game, including the lighting, vegetation and building revamps.
- We are still hard at work on more technical features, like high density housing and paved roads.
- We had a Community Private playtest where 150 players were invited to test and provide feedback (more on that later)
When will you reveal the new content and release date?
We will make further announcements as soon as we have integrated all that we feel needs to be in the game before publicly showing it. We are specifically working hard on the high density residential and the new environmental vegetation.
In the meantime, here’s a sneak peek of our work on the environment. This is in-engine stuff but please keep in mind that it’s work in progress.
How was the community Playtest and what was the feedback?
As we mentioned above there have been many changes since Devlog #18 and these changes and features have been integrated into the game. Players were invited to sign up for a private playtest on Discord so that we could gather feedback and make further improvements where necessary.
150 players took part in the private playtest and had a chance to test out the changes and work so far. The playtest ran from July 4 to July 15 and 98 of those playtesters completed the feedback form.
Of those 98 playtest responses, over 40% of them tested the game for more than 20 hours. 10% of the playtesters were totally new to the game, which gave us valuable insight into the learning curve for new players.
The feedback we gathered from the playtest was very positive and we received a lot of constructive comments. Some general conclusions from the playtest:
- Safety, Patrols and Fortification were much appreciated, and we identified areas of improvement.
- We had the new iteration of the Military system tested. A lot of interesting feedback was received, but that showed us there’s still some further iterations to do on this system.
- Playtesters told us how much they love to build and customize their cities which has further focused us on the creative aspect of the game.
- There was a lot of feedback on the UI/UX which will be a top priority for the full release.
Will there be another playtest?
Probably yes.
We expect to do one more playtest before the full launch. If you would like to take part in any future playtests please join us on our Discord server for further playtest information.
What are you working on now?
On top of all the improvements and refinements based on the above playtest we are also focusing our work on:
- High density housing
- Environment overhaul
- Road handling and paved roads
- Full art revamp of all remaining buildings
- Improving the overall monument creation experience
- Polish, polish, polish!
We will be back with further news once the last planned elements for the release version are ready to show. Stay tuned and thank you for your [more than we should be asking] patience!
The Polymorph Games team
