Wastelander

Released: Jul 12, 2024
Platforms
Last updated: 13 Sep 2026, 11:16 GMT

Updates & announcements

20 posts

28 Dec 2025Developer post
1.0.5 Controller Overhaul and QoL Patch
CONTROLLER/STEAMDECK switched to a software cursor instead of hardware due to input lag + cursor invisibility issues with on some Linux distros and steamdeck added support for joystick sensitivity, pan sensitivity and zoom sensitivity many dialogues had buttons that did not show
CONTROLLER/STEAMDECK
switched to a software cursor instead of hardware due to input lag + cursor invisibility issues with on some Linux distros and steamdeck
added support for joystick sensitivity, pan sensitivity and zoom sensitivity
many dialogues had buttons that did not show controller button hints and did not react to controller buttons. Standardizing this to fix as many cases as possible
GAMEPLAY
Isolated Fortifications - Remote buildings are shielded while they are not adjacent to any OF YOUR other buildings. (supply drops, relics etc. will no longer block the shield function of this augment)
Reactive Lava - fixed bug where some explosion chaining was not working OR displaying correctly. Most notable was interacting with Storm Overload but also sometimes impacted by position of explosion vs. location of neighbouring tile.
VISUALS
resolution options are now determined by your device and the default resolution is picked based on highest supported resolution of your device (only for new users). This should help users on steamdeck or laptops get better matched resolutions that are not stretched/distorted.
added 3 new layers accessible via hotkeys.
F1 defaults to standard layer
F2 defaults to mitigation layer (how much metal has been saved by protecting each tile)
F3 defaults to econ layer (per turn income from tiles)
F4 defaults to xray layer (buildings hidden so you can see underlying tiles and effects easier)
PERFORMANCE
significantly improved performance of drive anomaly. Shouldn't chunk nearly as hard especially on larger maps
improved performance of tooltips significantly
improved performance of building placement and end turn slightly
MISC
fixed bug where players with corrupted save files could never get rid of them in-game (and would need to delete file manually to unbrick their game). Thank you to Wizzer for the detailed report.
fixed bug where hotkeys like escape could still function while control mapping window was open.
Original post
01 Dec 2025Developer post
Animation Overhaul and Bug Fixes
VISUALS The main beef of this patch has been to re-write our animation system. The one we had in place was from early development and was never set up to support all animation timings. As a result more than half of animations we intended to play in the game never actually did. Li
VISUALS
The main beef of this patch has been to re-write our animation system. The one we had in place was from early development and was never set up to support all animation timings. As a result more than half of animations we intended to play in the game never actually did. Listed some cases below
almost all animations triggered by end turn were not playing (grassing, explosions etc.) Should work now
almost all animations triggered by a storm were not playing. Should work now
Hurricane Force relic ability now has a disperse animation
Harvest and Core Mine now have a new wasteland animation
cleaned up various visual artifacts in desert and shield assets
fixed aquaduct assets that were not lining up properly at connection points
GAMEPLAY
Sustainable architecture slightly altered because there were a few cases where the old behaviour could affect the player negatively. "Constructing a water storage building next to ice tiles also converts any sand tile underneath it to grass."
MISC
tons of clarifications, spelling fixes etc in descriptions based on discord feedback
reduced wait time for tutorial steps and no longer have to wait to close dialogue if you click into an objective manually
fixed bug where scroll was not working correctly when changing selection in wiki
fixed a bug where the wiki didn't have items (dynamite, seed bombs etc)
fixed various visual artifacts with tips (flickering, lagging etc)
fixed a bug with daily window that allowed you to click navigation multiple times which caused various loading issues and also allowed you to play dailies in the future
fixed a bug in daily leaderboard display where some entries were missing or duplicated when navigating between pages
fixed a bug where going back from the daily page took you to the homescreen instead of back to game mode selection
Original post
22 Aug 2024Developer post
Bug fixes and stability improvements
Animator bug fix This one is a little complicated but there was a bug where building sprites and animators were being reset when you right-clicked or hovered over tiles. This will likely have wide ranging implications but so far this addresses some of the following: Fixes bug whe
Animator bug fix
This one is a little complicated but there was a bug where building sprites and animators were being reset when you right-clicked or hovered over tiles. This will likely have wide ranging implications but so far this addresses some of the following:

Fixes bug where right clicking on a gateway spawned by would flip the gateway back into a ruin (but only visually)
Fixes bug where right clicking on a relic spawned by would flip the relic back into a ruin (but only visually)
Fixes bug where hovering past animated tiles (e.g. windmills) "resets" the animation as you pass with your cursor. This makes it look like the animation is stuttering when you mouse over
Editor Rescue
Our sprint towards 1.0 had left the map editor in a terrible state. Cleaned up some of the most critical bugs. Will revisit again in future

Fixed crash when editing ruins
Fixed crash when editing supply drops
Fixed issue where you couldn't properly change which blueprint was in a supply drop
Fixed bug with editor fogging ruins when they should always be visible
Fixed bug preventing player from using items or placing deployments in the editor
Destroy ability in editor now also removes scrap walls
Misc Fixes

Fixed bug where the Passageways scenario was unwinnable. Also updated it to be more interesting (and reset broken leaderboards for this map)
Tutorial videos now have a countdown before you can dismiss the dialogue. Many players were skipping these critical pieces of information and then getting confused about what to do
Fixed several bugs with especially around how it placed grass.
Thank you to everyone who reported bugs, and submitted feedback via our Discord, or Steam discussions. If you've been playing the game and enjoying it, please leave us a Steam review as it really helps us out!
Original post
19 Jul 2024Developer post
First post-launch stability + QoL patch
Welcome back! This is just a quick post-launch QoL + stability patch. To everyone that reported issues through discord and steam discussions thank you so much for helping to improving the game! Endless moved to level 4 We noticed that players were frequently going from tutorial o
Welcome back! This is just a quick post-launch QoL + stability patch. To everyone that reported issues through discord and steam discussions thank you so much for helping to improving the game!
Endless moved to level 4
We noticed that players were frequently going from tutorial or their first beginner game directly into an Endless game. Our best guess is that they're assuming it's a "sandbox" type game mode when in fact it's a very large, high difficulty map with no time limit. For this purpose we're moving it to level 4 so players can have a little more experience before attempting it.
QoL improvements

All standard games will have a "next game" option. For non-tutorial games this option will take you to the game creation screen instead of needing to navigate between several menus
Restarting a game now has a 3rd option - "new game" to take you directly to a game creation screen if you don't want to restart the exact same game you were just playing.
Bug Fixes

Mac users might find themselves starting the game with a black screen. This occurs when the in-game resolution EXCEEDS your current screen resolution. We're not sure exactly what causes this to affect some devices but not others but to be safe when you start the game for the first time it will automatically set your game resolution to the nearest one compatible with your screen. If you've already gotten stuck behind the black screen issue please see this discussion for recovery steps https://steamcommunity.com/app/1688350/discussions/
Fixed a bug where you could earn the Speed Run achievement by completing a game in X hours and 10 minutes or less when it should be 10 minutes max.
Fixed several bugs related to daily navigation and post-game stats. These were mostly related to the leaderboards pagination not working correctly
Fixed a bug in the tutorial where you can get stuck permanently if you use both your scrap walls without scrap walling the objective targeted tile
Shortage tooltip now specifies that the base cannot be disabled even in a shortage
Please keep reporting any bugs or QoL issues you find, and we'd love to hear any other suggestions / feedback that you have. Also, if you enjoy the game please leave us a Steam review, it helps us out a ton!
Thank you.
Original post
12 Jul 2024Developer post
Wastelander 1.0 is Live!
Wastelander 1.0 Has Arrived! It's been a long road but we're finally ready to remove the Early Access tag from Wastelander. With the 1.0 release comes a fairly large amount of QoL changes and improvements! Re-mappable keybinds & Controller Support We've completely reworked ou
Wastelander 1.0 Has Arrived!
It's been a long road but we're finally ready to remove the Early Access tag from Wastelander. With the 1.0 release comes a fairly large amount of QoL changes and improvements!
Re-mappable keybinds & Controller Support

We've completely reworked our input system to support re-mappable keybinds for all players.
Added a bunch of new controls and menu navigation features.
Controller support! As of right now XBOX, Playstation, and generic gamepad style controllers have been fairly heavily tested.
Improved Menus

Home Screen, Daily Challenge, and Standard / Custom game creation screens have been significantly improved both visually and functionally!
Post-game screen has received visual improvements
Desolation Level Badge

You can now see your current highest desolation level on the main menu as well as the game creation menu
More tutorial improvements

In our endless quest to improve our tutorial, we've made another round of improvements to our tutorial.
General polish and stability

This patch contains a huge amount of polish and stability fixes, too many to list.
What Comes Next?
We really appreciate all the support up until now, from everyone who's played the game in Early Access, Wishlisted the game, made content, chatted with us on discord, and more.
While this milestone represents what we feel is a solid V1 of Wastelander, we'd very much like to hear your feedback about the game. We plan to continue releasing support and improvement patches to make the game the best it can possibly be, so please send us your feedback, suggestions, and any bug reports via Discord or Steam discussions.
Also if you play the game and enjoy it, please leave us a Steam review as it really helps us out!
Thank you all!
Original post
18 Jun 2024Developer post
Unlock/Level System + v1.0 Release date!
Release Date We're finally nearing v1.0 and releasing the game from Early Access! Our planned release date is July 12 and we'll be working hard on polish and release prep right up until that date! Leveling System One of the last major gameplay components we've added is the leveli
21 May 2024Developer post
Major visual update! New Animations / VFX.
Ability / Item / Augment trigger Animations! This is a major milestone on the road to release. The game desperately needed animations to make it feel more "alive" and we've finally made some major progress on this front. This patch contains a large amount of new animations. Const
14 May 2024Developer post
New Trailer is live!
As we continue prepping for launch from Early Access, we'll be doing more social media posting and promotional work as well. Here's a brand new Trailer for Wastelander that's just gone live to our Youtube and Steam page. Check it out!
10 May 2024Developer post
Tutorial updates and polish
This patch contains another round of updates and improvements to the tutorial. It now contains videos to show specific gameplay elements as well as reduced amounts of text. Please let us know if you see any issues or have any suggestions.
06 May 2024Developer post
SFX Overhaul, Lots of Bug Fixes and Polish
Sound Effects Overhaul The game now has more than just 3 sound effects. A ton of abilities and interactions now have unique sounds. Menus, UI elements, and several other dialogues that didn't previously have sounds now do! This is the first of a series of large planned polish tas
Sound Effects Overhaul
The game now has more than just 3 sound effects. A ton of abilities and interactions now have unique sounds. Menus, UI elements, and several other dialogues that didn't previously have sounds now do!
This is the first of a series of large planned polish tasks, and should help make the game feel a lot more alive. Let us know what you think, and stay tuned for more updates!
Bug fixes + other

You can now click on objective banners to bring up the last objective and its details
Completed a minor rewrite on the camera which fixed a long-standing issues with panning and zooming that could create strange jumps, and sticky points while navigating around the map.
Fixed an issue where zooming out near the edges of the map would snap you back into the center of the map aggressively.
Fixed an issue with tooltips where they could sometimes stretch off the top and the bottom of the screen and get cut off
Fixed an issue where loading wiki & recent winner dialogues would lock up your client
Fixed an issue where the new player dialogue that prompts you to try the tutorial didn't actually do anything
Fixed a few crashes/do nothing issues with editor buttons and loading behaviours caused by our recent rewrite of game engine performance
Fixed an issue when creating a "standard" game where the starting storm counter was not properly being set when you change difficulty from the dropdown. This means if you were using this menu to create games they will now be harder on harder difficulties as the starting storm level isn't supposed to be 0.
Fixed an issue that was causing a small amount of achievements to be unlocked erroneously upon losing a game.
If you're enjoying the game, please leave a review, it helps us out a lot! Likewise if you have feedback, suggestions or questions, come chat with us on our Discord - we're always happy to talk to our players!
Your feedback lets us make the game better for everyone! :)
Original post
24 Apr 2024Developer post
Tutorial Improvements, Bug fixes
Tutorial pass The tutorial has become significantly outdated so we've been working it again. A lot more visual aids and explanations have been added to ease the onboarding process. Feedback would be greatly appreciated! Bug Fixes Push Left ability from hurricane engine was not fu
Tutorial pass
The tutorial has become significantly outdated so we've been working it again. A lot more visual aids and explanations have been added to ease the onboarding process. Feedback would be greatly appreciated!
Bug Fixes

Push Left ability from hurricane engine was not functioning correctly at all. Fixed
removed all references to "infinite" mode. These were just mislabeled endless mode games
storm text for endless games had typos and said that connecting ruins would win you the game (this isn't true in endless mode)
starting a new endless game wouldn't warn you that any existing game would be deleted
error dialogue now correctly shows up when trying to load an in-progress game from another player
If there's something you like or don't like about the game, leave us a review, it helps us out, and your feedback lets us make the game better for everyone! :)
Original post
16 Apr 2024Developer post
Endless Mode is Here!
New Game Mode - Endless Endless mode is our latest game mode release, and a long awaited feature for many players. This game mode allows you to play Wastelander without turn limits, on a MASSIVE map and push your base building skills to the limit without being limited by the leng
New Game Mode - Endless
Endless mode is our latest game mode release, and a long awaited feature for many players. This game mode allows you to play Wastelander without turn limits, on a MASSIVE map and push your base building skills to the limit without being limited by the length of the game.
Create massive and intricate colonies over a large number of turns.
The goal in endless mode is to accumulate enough resources to activate the optional "Repair Ship" ability in order to escape the planet and survive!
Engineering Lab
For balance reasons, the Metallurgy Lab deployment does not exist in Endless Mode, and has been replaced with the Engineering Lab.
This will unlock the "Upgrade Storage" ability. This costly ability allows you to upgrade a basic storage building into it's deployment counterpart regardless of the underlying tile type. Use it wisely!
Performance improvements
Endless mode required us to overcome some major performance hurdles for the game. Due to the dramatically larger size of the Endless map we had to rewrite a lot of the engine. Creating games, loading games, idle FPS and click performance all got significant performance improvements in ALL game modes.
Miscellaneous

Tectonic engine description stated that the effect had no radius cap. This was incorrect it was actually capped at 5 radius. For balance reasons we kept it this way and updated the description to match.
Reduced the amount of scroll wheel steps required to go from max to min zoom.
Improved loading menu to be more clear about progress and not lock up the process.
General string and clarity improvements throughout the entire game.
This marks the final major planned feature for our Early Access goals. We'll be continuing to work on the game for the next several weeks and we'll likely release a series of polish and improvement patches, at which point we'll remove the Early Access state from Wastelander and decide what the next steps for development are at that point!
Thanks for your support and we'd love to hear your feedback on the new game mode!
Original post
11 Mar 2024Developer post
0.7.6 - Map Generation and Bug Fix patch
In preparation for our Infinite mode release we have had to dramatically improve our map generation efficiency and resting FPS performance. These changes WILL affect how maps are created slightly but should also significantly improve performance and load times. + bug fix - "Unkno
01 Feb 2024Developer post
Early Access Patch 0.7.5
It took a bit longer than expected, but this patch will contain the first pass of our map editor. Make your own scenarios and play them, or share them with others. The UI for this version is not polished, but we will continue to improve it over time. Please report any issues and
18 Jan 2024Developer post
Hotfixes
- hotfix a bug with agriwall - fixed an issue with reward dialogues
16 Jan 2024Developer post
Small improvement patch.
- escape will now close general dialogues and popups (except for item and augment selection dialogues). - text improvements - slightly increased small font size - Unstoppable Fissure now reveals all tiles in vertical line, not just tiles that exploded (behavior now matches descri
10 Jan 2024Developer post
Update Notes For Jan 10
We're back from vacation and working hard to get through the Early Access goals. We had a bunch of new users join us over the holidays so we're addressing some problems we noticed thanks to the increased activity. + Tutorial limit is now 100 turns (previously 30) + Fixed an issue
22 Dec 2023Developer post
Fixed soundtrack bug
- Fixed a bug that was causing the soundtrack to only play a single song. Hopefully there is some more variety in the in-game soundtrack again :)
11 Dec 2023Developer post
UI Improvements Phase 1
This patch contains a large round of UI improvements. Almost all of our button and menu assets have been replaced. Please send any feedback you have on these changes, or report any bugs you see to our Discord server. This will be our last patch of the year, but we'll likely be fo
27 Nov 2023Developer post
Scenario Maps + Map Editor Coming Soon!
Features Scenarios This patch contains several "Scenario" maps, which are custom maps that have interesting layouts and new challenges to solve. In order to create Scenario maps we had to develop a map editor tool which is currently being used internally only, but will be availab

Updates & announcements

CONTROLLER/STEAMDECK

GAMEPLAY

VISUALS

PERFORMANCE

MISC

VISUALS

GAMEPLAY

MISC

Endless moved to level 4

QoL improvements

Bug Fixes

Wastelander 1.0 Has Arrived!

Re-mappable keybinds & Controller Support

Improved Menus

Desolation Level Badge

More tutorial improvements

General polish and stability

What Comes Next?

Release Date

Leveling System

Leaderboard changes

New Augment

Nerfs/Buffs

Bugs and miscellaneous

Ability / Item / Augment trigger Animations!

Sound Effects Overhaul

Bug fixes + other

Tutorial pass

Bug Fixes

New Game Mode - Endless

Engineering Lab

Performance improvements

Miscellaneous

Features

What's Next