Upcoming Demo Changes - Your Feedback Is Shaping City of Atlantis
Thank You for the Feedback - What We Are Changing Next Hello everyone! First of all, thank you. Over the last few days, we received more than 300 direct in-game feedback reports and over 100 survey responses . We have been reading through them carefully, and your feedback is alre
Thank You for the Feedback - What We Are Changing Next
Hello everyone!
First of all, thank you.
Over the last few days, we received more than 300 direct in-game feedback reports and over 100 survey responses. We have been reading through them carefully, and your feedback is already shaping the next updates for the demo.
Before we move forward, we want to fix two communication mistakes on our side.
1. This is a Technical Demo, Not a Release Demo
City of Atlantis is not close to release yet.
This is an Open Technical Demo, not a final gameplay demo and not a vertical slice of the full game. There are still many months of development ahead of us: more content, more systems, more quality-of-life features, more balance work, more optimization, and a lot of UI improvements.
The purpose of this build was to test the foundation with a wider group of players:
Does the setting work?
Is the circular city-building idea interesting?
Do players understand the basic economy?
Are ships fun or frustrating?
Is the god system promising?
Where does the game lose clarity?
What should we improve first?
Some of you expected a more complete demo that shows more of the final game. That is fair, and we should have communicated the technical nature of this build much more clearly from the beginning.
2. Steam Reviews Also Matter
We asked you for feedback, reports, survey answers, and forum comments - and you delivered.
However, we forgot to clearly say one more thing:
Steam reviews are also extremely important for us. Direct feedback helps us improve the game. Steam reviews help Steam understand that there is interest in the game, which improves visibility and helps us reach more players. For a small team, this matters a lot. More visibility means more players, more feedback, and a better chance to keep improving City of Atlantis in the right direction. So if you enjoyed (or not) the idea of City of Atlantis, see potential in the demo, or want to support the project at this early stage, we would be very grateful if you leave a Steam review. Up here: View game page
About the First Day Issues
We also want to apologize for the bugs and soft blocks some of you encountered during the first day.
Even after several weeks of testing, some serious issues managed to slip through. Game development can still surprise you, and this was one of those moments.
Hopefully; Hotfix #1, Hotfix #2, and Hotfix #3 focused mainly on:
Ships becoming stuck or unavailable.
Ships stopping work when the treasury reached zero.
Construction-related soft blocks.
Treasury and tax calculation issues.
Ship upkeep balance.
Additional recovery options for ship-related edge cases.
We hope these hotfixes solved the most painful problems, but we will continue monitoring reports and improving stability, as amount of bugs regardless to those topics has been reduced to almost 0.
What We Learned from Your Feedback
Your feedback was very clear. You like the idea, but the demo needs to explain itself much better.
Players repeatedly told us that the most promising parts are:
Rebuilding Atlantis after the flood.
The circular city layout.
Building on the ocean.
Bridges and city segments.
The lighthouse as a central survival mechanic.
The gods, Hubris, and divine wrath.
A Frostpunk-style survival pressure in an Ancient Greek / Atlantis setting.
The possibility of a large, living city with ships, resources, and long-term development.
At the same time, the most common problems were also very clear:
Resource visibility is not good enough.
Timber and exotic lumber are too easy to confuse.
Production and consumption are hard to track.
The goods screen requires too much scrolling.
Building categories are not clear enough.
Ship tasks are hard to read.
Players do not always know what their ships are currently doing.
Hubris and god favour are not explained well enough.
Decision effects are not always clear.
The lighthouse and sulfur loop needs better explanation and balance.
The city needs more life and clearer visual feedback.
This is exactly why we released a Technical Demo.
Now we know much better what needs to be improved first.
What We Are Changing in the Next Demo Updates
Below are the areas we are focusing on first.
1. Resource and Production UI
Many players told us that the resource and production screens are too hard to read.
We will improve:
Resource visibility at the top of the screen.
Goods screen readability.
Production and consumption information.
Storage information.
Production chain grouping.
Categories such as food, building materials, basic goods, and luxury goods.
Tooltips for important resources.
Clearer distinction between similar resources, especially timber and exotic lumber.
The goal is simple: you should not have to scroll through multiple panels just to understand what your city has, what it needs, and what it is consuming.
2. Building List and Construction Clarity
Several players told us that buildings are hard to find and not grouped well enough.
We will work on:
Better building categories.
Clearer building icons.
Better information about what each building produces or consumes.
Clearer information about how many buildings of a given type you already have.
Better construction state feedback.
Better handling of misplaced buildings and unfinished construction.
We want building your city to feel strategic, not confusing.
3. Ship Management
Ships are one of the core systems of City of Atlantis, but your feedback showed us that they need much better control and feedback.
We are working on improvements such as:
Clearer ship status.
Better information about what each ship is assigned to.
Better task feedback.
Improved recall and recovery tools.
Clearer assignment flow.
Better handling of idle ships.
Better visual tracking of ships at normal zoom levels.
We are also reviewing ship priorities, because several players said they want more control over whether ships focus on construction, scavenging, fishing, or resource transport.
4. Early Game Flow
A lot of confusion happened very early in the demo, especially around timber, research, ships, and the lighthouse.
We will improve the early game tutorial and guidance around:
How to get regular timber.
How timber differs from exotic lumber.
How research is unlocked and used.
How ship upkeep works.
How to recover from low treasury.
How sulfur is used by the lighthouse.
What the lighthouse does and why it matters.
How population needs and happiness work.
The beginning of the game should make players curious, not lost.
5. Gods, Hubris, and Decisions
Many players liked the idea of gods influencing Atlantis, but the current explanation is not good enough.
We will improve:
Hubris explanation.
God favour and anger feedback.
Decision result clarity.
Plus/minus value readability.
Tooltips for divine effects.
Better communication of why gods react the way they do.
Longer-term, gods will become a much more important part of the game, with more meaningful consequences and more ways to interact with them.
6. Lighthouse and Sulfur Balance
Several players mentioned that sulfur consumption felt unclear or too punishing.
We will review:
Early sulfur availability.
Lighthouse upkeep.
How strongly the lighthouse affects happiness and safety.
How clearly the game explains sulfur usage.
Possible future sources of sulfur and long-term resource flow.
The lighthouse should feel like a meaningful survival mechanic, not an unclear resource drain.
This will take more time, but future demos will focus on:
City Life and Visual Feedback
Many of you said that Atlantis has a strong visual concept, but the city needs to feel more alive. We agree. This will take more time, but future demos will focus on:
Clearer people movement.
More readable roads and bridges.
Better visual feedback for active production.
Better distinction between buildings.
More visible city activity.
Improved lighting and readability of ruins and water.
Atlantis should not feel empty. It should feel like a city fighting to survive.
Performance and Accessibility We also received reports about performance, high CPU/GPU usage, Steam Deck readability, and low settings making some objects harder to see. We will continue working on:
Performance optimization.
Better low-settings readability.
Improved visual clarity.
Additional language support.
UI and text fixes.
Audio balance improvements.
What Comes Later
The current demo shows only a small part of the full vision.
Later in development, we want to expand City of Atlantis with deeper systems, including:
More buildings.
More production chains.
More technologies.
More advanced city development.
More meaningful god interactions.
More crisis events.
More long-term resource sources.
More fleet roles and ship progression.
More trade and outside-world interaction.
More reasons to expand and protect Atlantis.
Some of you asked what happens after the early ruins are cleared, what ships will do later, how the city will grow long-term, and how gods, technology, trade, and crises will shape the game.
Those are exactly the areas we want future demos and updates to show more clearly.
Thank you for playing, reporting bugs, filling out the survey, writing on the forums, and helping us improve City of Atlantis. If you see potential in the game and want to support us, please consider leaving a Steam review. It really helps with visibility and helps us reach more players.
May the light of Atlantis be with you. We are going back to development, expect updates in upcoming days and weeks .
[]December 2024: Something is still missing... "Spark"
