From all of us at Mechanistry, we wish you happy and safe holidays and a great new year full of only pleasant surprises. Let’s hope 2024 will be as satisfying for Timberborn, its community, and the studio as the past twelve months.
So, before we sign off and fully get into the festive spirits, here are the highlights of 2023… and a little extra information about the very near future.
January 30, 2023 - The community shines
We kicked off the year by launching the official Timberborn hub on Mod.io. The game might not have built-in mod support (yet) but our talented creators quickly embraced Mod.io as a platform-agnostic go-to place for custom maps and mods. Today, Mod.io hosts over 800 maps and over 130 mods - and with Update 5 around the corner, we expect these numbers to spike.
To see what our creative players come up with, check the results of the two Build-a-Map Contests we’ve hosted so far (1, 2). The three winning entries in each edition earned their authors 1000 EUR, and we plan to have more contests in the future, so keep an eye out!
As for the mods, have a look at the Mod showcase we published in the summer. Our players’ ingenuity knows no bounds, resulting in QoL additions and crazy stuff like the entirely new playable faction. Of course, there’s also a handy mod manager to keep that chaos in check.
Also, in early 2023, we moved our community Wiki over to Wiki.gg. Thanks to the help of our community members, we accompanied the relaunch with a major layout makeover.
April 17, 2023 - Earth Appreciation Festival returns
After the first edition’s success in 2022, we made our Earth Day-focused Steam sale an even bigger deal. Co-organized with Stray Fawn (the studio behind The Wandering Village) and Slug Disco (Empires of the Undergrowth), EAF 2023 gathered over 150 games. Like the first edition, the event featured a double theme of post-apocalyptic and nature-focused titles.
The selection included big fish such as Dying Light 1 & 2, The Long Dark, Frostpunk, Farming Simulator 22, and Far Cry: New Dawn. We’ve also had a share of indie hits: Against the Storm, Islanders, Dorfromantik, Rain World, The Riftbreaker, and Going Medieval, to name just a few.
Timberborn was on sale, too. We donated 15% of the revenue to the Viva! foundation - a charity that runs a fox asylum in Korabiewice, Poland. Thanks to the generosity of Timberborn players, the asylum now has a mini-hospital for our beavers’ furry friends! As a studio, we pride ourselves in supporting noble causes. As of December 2023, we’ve donated over 1,000,000 PLN to charities such as Polish Humanitarian Action and Campaign Against Homophobia.
May 24, 2023 - Update 4, baby!
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Shortly before the EAF, Update 4 was released onto the experimental branch, and by the end of May, we made it public. U4 split the Iron Teeth from Folktails in a dramatic fashion. Our industrial beavers received their exclusive food production chains (the corn rations, yum), eight crops (mangrove fruits, yum), and a set of buildings such as the Food Factory, Hydroponic Garden, Oil Press, and Coffee Brewery (yum, too).
We distinguished the factions even further by replacing several other buildings. This included monuments that were now all faction-specific. For example, the Iron Teeth would make the world gawk with their Tributes to Ingenuity, while Folktails showcased their family spirit with Fountain of Joy. We also implemented Craters, our twelfth built-in map.
Finally, Update 4 did away with the original implementation of districts, which now became a fully optional optimization tool rather than a sometimes annoying necessity. We paired that with an overhaul of the distribution system and a huge performance boost. Based on the players’ reports, our bold “up to 80% higher FPS!” claim may have undersold the result.
July 30, 2023 - What a company!
When we launched the game in 2021, we were a team of seven. At the company meeting in 2022, there were already eleven of us. And in 2023, we met as a team of twelve - this time, we held the weeklong celebration in Poland’s capital city of Warsaw. For a week, we would brainstorm future ideas for Timberborn. That’s when the initial concept of badwater (and the threat’s clever name) were born.
Mechanistry is a fully remote studio with members scattered across Poland, so the meet-up was a rare opportunity for us to spend quality time together. And while we didn’t dare to hop into an air tunnel, we still had some beaverish fun that left us smelling of burnt logs and fuel.
As we’re writing this, we’re already a team of fourteen, with the fifteenth member about to join us. So next year, we’ll probably need to look into renting a small beaver village.
September 14, 2023 - One million copies
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Shortly before hitting the game’s second anniversary, Timberborn’s sales exceeded 1,000,000 copies. We celebrated that double milestone with the fresh gameplay trailer featuring some developments and the new content added since launch - from terraforming and bots to the Update 4 additions. We’re very happy with the trailer, and it seems the players also liked it - especially the voiceover provided by Elle Newlands (Horizon in Apex Legends, among others).
Knowing Timberborn is an indie Early Access title with no publisher, and that before Timberborn, we had no proven track record, getting so many copies out within two years is a huge accomplishment for us. We wouldn’t get here without our players’s support. We thank you all for your ongoing trust. That allows us to grow the game and the studio at a healthy pace.
September 28, 2023 - How about Update 5?
Two weeks later, we launched the experimental branch for the most ambitious Timberborn update yet. Adding badwater, the first new great threat to the beavers and the land, was no easy task, and it triggered a series of tweaks and reworks, also applied to the base game. At this point, Update 5 has received thirteen experimental patches, with their scope exceeding simple bug fixes and, ahem, changes to the badwater’s color.
Badwater comes with multiple faction-specific buildings such as the contamination barriers and badwater source seals. New production chains also allow you to process badwater into extract, produce more powerful dynamite, or even breed adult beavers instantly. All built-in maps needed reworks, and so did our hallmark irrigation system. There are many new decorations and attractions (the air tunnel! the dance hall! the motivatorium!). U5 will also add several requested quality-of-life improvements such as flippable buildings and custom keybinds.
December 22, 2023 - What’s next?
That’s where we’re at - and today, we’re excited to announce that Update 5 will hit the main branch on January 18, 2024. Some final additions and tweaks are still coming to the experimental branch, but on the 18th, we’re all dipping our [strike]feet[/strike] tails in badwater.
What comes afterward must remain a secret, but we have quite a few surprises coming to the game next year. We’ll keep you updated.
For now, we wish you happy holidays, and we'll see you in 2024!
~Mechanistry, a.k.a. Team Timberborn
