Folk Emerging

Released: Aug 26, 2026
Platforms
Last updated: 14 Sep 2026, 05:33 GMT

Updates & announcements

20 posts

15 Sep 2026Developer post
Folk Emerging - Balance & QoL
This is an update that addresses more player feedback, focusing on balance and quality-of-life features. It includes the following changes: Design Cultural norm costs increased by +20% per offshoot band in the tribe Relentless difficulty now gives double happiness malus from popu
This is an update that addresses more player feedback, focusing on balance and quality-of-life features. It includes the following changes:
Design
Cultural norm costs increased by +20% per offshoot band in the tribe
Relentless difficulty now gives double happiness malus from population (-0.2 per person) rather than a flat -5 Happiness/turn
Fertility bonuses from food stockpile sizes decreased:
Adequate (0.05 -> 0.03)
Comfortable (0.1 -> 0.06)
Abundant (0.15 -> 0.1)
Risk of Disease tweaks:
Temple of Gibil and Temple of Mokosh give -20% instead of -30%
Reliable Freshwater gives -10% instead of -20%
Medicine Rituals give -25% instead of -50%
Cats give -10% instead of -20%
foraging Bistort gives -0.1 instead of -25%
Unit Proficiency (renamed from Unit XP) now gives +0.5 Attack Strength per upgrade (was +1)
Removed climate adaptation Polar Tundra Tamers as there are currently no domesticable species in the Polar Tundra climate
Provisioning cultural norm now also decreases Production by -30%
Taxation cultural norm boosts Production by +30% (was +20%)
Masons clan now gets +50% Production towards Construction Projects (was +20%), and also gives +25% Band Science/turn while producing Construction Projects
Settlers clan now also gets +25% Morale when defending base if Band has not migrated this turn
Daggers unit cost now costs 3 Training (was 4)
Character development events are less frequent
Programming
Added fullscreen and resolution setting to permanent player preferences
Improved weighted random selections
Increased odds of more advanced units appearing in proving grounds
UI
Added info about item availability across all bands in item summary tooltips
Unit XP renamed to Unit Proficiency, and its description is now clearer about merging units to increase their Proficiency
'Domesticating' production focus now not shown in producibles list until Domestication tech is unlocked, to prevent confusion when domestication points are preemptively gained via climate adaptations before the tech
When a category has more than 30 types, the category summary tooltip shows them as comma-separated list rather than bullet-point list so the long lists don't go off-screen
Text of each domesticated animal whose Food from Livestock bonus decreases by -20% per Turns Since Migration now mentions it explicitly
Added clan symbol to Band column in specialist assignment menu
Rounded decimal attribute values in specialist assignment menu
Updated text of Neanderthal tribe descriptions and effects to provide more context
'Concede' button in in-game menu no longer interactable after having chosen 'keep playing' after victory/defeat
Bugs Fixed
Fixed loaded saves unequipping unit items
Fixed issue where clicking "reveal map" and then starting a new game would leave AI bands visible in the fog of war
Fixed previous specialist's name not being shown in role banner when loading a save where previous specialist has died and replacement hasn't yet been assigned
Fixed visual bug where if a location used to have a claimed structure (and/or an equipped item) and was then destroyed, then claim/item info would show on animal clusters passing through that location or new structures built there
Fixed Royal Archers range to be 5
Fixed wrong conditions for Proto-Indic Drainage Works bonus to Irrigation
Fixed issue where person who was previously taken captive and then taken back by their original tribe wasn't losing their Captive state
Fixed text-bonus mismatch for Proto-Celctic Temple of Aine (Sun deity) and Proto-Egyptian Temple of Geb (Earth deity), now they correctly give Fertility rather than Production
Fixed Potatoes only giving 0.5 happiness when foraging instead of 2
Fixed issue when a non-player tribe doesn't have a viable proto-civ goal
Fixed proto-civ event sometimes only showing "labor and dedication" option
Please leave a Steam review and join the discussions on Discord where we get into prehistory and strategy.
Thank you to everyone that has played the game and shared feedback! More updates coming soon.
Cheers :)
Enkidu
Original post
30 Aug 2026Developer post
Folk Emerging - Customization + Endless Mode Update
This is a larger update that addresses lots of player feedback, adds more customization, and lengthens time with late-game content. It includes the following changes: Design Added the much-requested "keep playing" option after victory/defeat! (only in full game, not demo) WARNING
This is a larger update that addresses lots of player feedback, adds more customization, and lengthens time with late-game content. It includes the following changes:
Design
Added the much-requested "keep playing" option after victory/defeat! (only in full game, not demo)
WARNING: anything beyond that point is outside the designed experience, will not unlock Steam Achievements, and performance will degrade as global population keeps increasing indefinitely!
Added game setting for Victory Threshold, starting with two options: 300 or 400. This should allow for more time spent with late-game content and proto-civilizations. (only in full game, not demo)
More granular difficulty settings:
Calm (used to be "Easier")
Favorable (new default)
Precarious (used to be "Standard")
Harsh
Relentless (used to be "Harder")
(NOTE: if you first load into an older saved game to finish that session, please then exit & restart the game before starting a new playthrough with the new difficulty settings)
"See map" button on game outcome screen reworked to be "Reveal map" and fully reveals the entire map (but if so, cannot keep playing)
Increase splitting threshold preferences for non-player bands, they now split less frequently
Temples now also give +5 VP
Buffed Attack Strength of various units: clubs 2->3; shields 2->3; spears 3->4; daggers 2->3; bows 4->5; raiders 4->6; sumerian war carts 4->6; kurgan chariots 4->6; celtic champions 4->6; indic militia 3->4; chinese ge 4->6
Flint now gives +1 Attack Strength instead of +10% Attack Strength
All three spiritual site worship point levels now give +1 Culture/turn, meaning +1/+1/+1 (cumulative) instead of +1/+2/+3 (cumulative) for each level
All cultural norms now give +1 Worship Point
Clan mediation effect duration increased from 10 turns to 15
Positive happiness levels no longer boost Fertility
Shaman's boost to Fertility decreased from +10% Fertility per 1 Discipline , to +5% per 1 Discipline
Fertility boost from Festivals decreased from +0.2 to +0.1
Mount Ararat's devotee bonus to fertility decreased from +0.2 to +0.1
UI
Green/red in attribute breakdowns now represents "good"/"bad", not just numerically positive/negative
Bugs Fixed
Fixed Steam achievement for winning on Harder difficulty
Fixed Steam achievements for becoming proto-civ worshipping a specific Deity
Fixed issue where gaining VP between turns from births enough to cross victory threshold would trigger victory acknowledgement, but if player then dropped below the threshold due to deaths and another player won on the same turn, there would also be a defeat acknowledgement. Now such victory/defeat acknowledgements only trigger at the start of the player's turn.
Fixed band splitting UX/UI bugs
Fixed saves not loading proving grounds units correctly
Fixed production target resource cost being multiplied by bonuses (e.g. Delver), these costs are now deducted as a second-order modifier
Fixed transferring specialist from one band to another not taking on new band's tile-based bonuses (e.g. Reliable Freshwater)
Please leave a Steam review and join the discussions on Discord where we get into prehistory and strategy.
Thank you to everyone that has played the game and shared feedback! More updates coming soon.
Cheers :)
Enkidu
Original post
27 Aug 2026Developer post
Folk Emerging - Patch, August 27th 2026
This patch includes the following changes: Design Settlers clan effect changed from +0.2 Fertility if Not Migrated This Turn to +25% Production if Not Migrated This Turn Reliable Freshwater now gives -20% Risk of Disease, down from -25% Maker specialist's Courage now gives -5% Ri
This patch includes the following changes:
Design
Settlers clan effect changed from +0.2 Fertility if Not Migrated This Turn to +25% Production if Not Migrated This Turn
Reliable Freshwater now gives -20% Risk of Disease, down from -25%
Maker specialist's Courage now gives -5% Risk of Disease per 1 Courage, down from -10%
Cattle risk of disease increased from +0.01 to +0.02
Urban Dwellings now also give +2 Morale (when defending base)
Proto-Indic Drainage Works: Irrigation now gives -20% risk of disease instead of -30%
Caution norm now gives -20% Risk of Disease instead of -30%
Non-player bands are more likely to upgrade their existing units rather than recruit new ones
Boosted probabilistic outcome of fishing event to give 30 food instead of 20
UI
Turns Since Migration now shown in the selected band's Moves tooltip
Fixed bugs:
Fixed band conquest event sometimes soft-locking player
Fixed Earth tribe effect text leftover from demo
Fixed Hazelnut foraging bonus text mismatch
Fixed Pine foraging bonus, now correctly gives +0.1 Fertility instead of +0.5
Fixed bug in likelihood calculation of non-player bands backing off from intended attacks based on band size difference
Please leave a review on the Steam page,
and join the discussions on Discord!
Original post
26 Aug 2026Developer post
🎮 Game is OUT NOW!
Excited to announce that Folk Emerging is out now on Steam! Compared to the free demo, the full version of Folk Emerging includes: 6 playable Tribes 6 Proto-Civilizations your Tribe could become (36 Tribe-Civ combinations) 2x as many Technologies, extending to the start of the Br
Excited to announce that Folk Emerging is out now on Steam!
Compared to the free demo, the full version of Folk Emerging includes:
6 playable Tribes
6 Proto-Civilizations your Tribe could become (36 Tribe-Civ combinations)
2x as many Technologies, extending to the start of the Bronze Age
2x as many Cultural Norms, allowing a broad range of playstyles & societies
More content across most systems (e.g. events, producibles, items, foodwebs)
Randomized procedurally generated maps with more climates
Steam Achievements
and much more!
Please leave a review for the game,
and join the discussions on Discord.
MASSIVE THANKS to everyone that has supported this game!
Cheers :)
Enkidu
Original post
11 Aug 2026Developer post
Folk Emerging Demo - Glory & Reinforcements Update
This is a larger update addresses lots of player feedback and expands the combat system, including the following changes: Design Reinforcements: Bands preparing for battle can now pull reinforcements from adjacent bands, to increase total available fighters that can be assigned t
This is a larger update addresses lots of player feedback and expands the combat system, including the following changes:
Design
Reinforcements:
Bands preparing for battle can now pull reinforcements from adjacent bands, to increase total available fighters that can be assigned to units. This makes smaller bands less vulnerable if clustered together.
When using reinforcements for an attack, reinforcing bands also go on Attack Cooldown.
Glory:
Total damage dealt to enemies during battle is tracked and displayed, and it accumulates as tribe-level Glory
Every 100 Glory triggers a beneficial event with tribe-wide bonuses, and some factions and norms get other bonuses that scale with Glory, making a militaristic focus more rewarding long-term
Unit size no longer impacts Attack Strength, only Morale. This increases the impact of technology and other Attack bonuses, and means larger units survive longer but without doing more damage.
Injuries:
Total damage taken during battle is tracked and displayed
Injuries no longer work via a probability roll with every unit hit. Instead, total damage taken gets multiplied by Risk of Injuries from Battle to calculate number of injuries. This makes injuries more aligned with battle performance and outcome.
Risk of Injuries from Battle is now baseline 0.1
Warmaster's Curiosity now modifies Risk of Injuries from Battle by -10% for each +1 Curiosity
Battle Objectives:
Attacker bands can now choose 1 of several battle objectives, with different mid-battle effects and victory outcomes:
Repel:
if attackers win, they push away target band
Loot:
if attackers win, they steal a resource (via event)
Plunder:
if attackers win, they steal an item (via event)
Capture:
if attackers win, they take captive a non-fighter (via event)
if attackers win, they push away target band
+0.2 Risk of Injuries during this battle
-5 Opinion from target for 10 turns
-5 Opinion from target's friends for 5 turns
Destroy:
if attackers win with x4 more fighters than target, they fully conquer the target band
else if attackers win, they kill an important character (via event) and push away target band
+0.4 Risk of Injuries during this battle
-10 Opinion from target for 10 turns
-10 Opinion from target's friends for 5 turns
When fighting over structures only the 'Conquer Site' objective is available
Factions agendas (e.g. diplomatic, militaristic) affect which battle objectives they choose
As before, player still conquers target band if it has 0 fighters, no matter the battle objective
If player is defeated in battle, attacker faction gets their own victory event, and player gets a response event
Opinion malus from attacking now gives a base -5 Opinion for 10 turns from the target, and -5 Opinion for 10 turns from the target's allies
Players can now back out of battles they have initiated and begun staging, it's only locked in once the "Start Battle" button is pressed
"Family Member Taken Captive" person state now lowers Charisma by -1
"Invite to Feast" diplomacy action now costs 30 Food, up from 20
Standing Guard production focus now gives -20% Risk from Wildlife per 1 Production, boosted from -5% per 1 Production
Climate adaptations now require 3XP in a climate before triggering Level 1 adaptation event, up from 2XP
Added new tile improvement, Cave Paintings:
unlocked with Controlled Fire
buildable on tiles with Caves
gives +1 Victory Point to faction that completes it
gives +0.5 Culture/turn to band on tile and +0.5 extra if Band has Pigment Items (e.g. Ochre, Malachite)
UI
Events with probabilistic outcomes now also trigger a full pop-up acknowledgement describing what happened, not just a notification
Added explicit mention in Chief's effects of existing mechanic: +1 Reputation per won battle, -1 Reputation per lost battle
Improved layout of military and battle menus
New battle details text with detailed tooltip added to military, battle, and battle outcome menus
Added small animation when running trials to increase clarity of new units appearing
Unit summaries now shown in unit button tooltips in Band > Military page
Enabled tribe relationship summaries to be accessible via event outcome tooltips
Moved person band info to main Person panel so it's more easily accessible
Event outcome text made bold to increase legibility
'ESC' key now also resumes game when in-game menu is already open
Added 'Devotee' hyperlinked concept to make Spiritual Site effects clearer
Enkidu added to tutorial screen :)
Bugs Fixed
Fixed Brawlers unit special ability not triggering correctly
Fixed tradeable button sometimes looking interactable when they are not
Fixed norm-dependent Reputation modifiers not updating when a person is taken captive by a tribe with different norms
Fixed Morale bonus from Standing Guard production focus not applying to new units trained that turn
NOTE: This is a larger update that may break some older demo saves!
Please leave a review on the demo's page to let me know what you think,
and join the discussions on Discord where we get into prehistory and strategy.
The full game comes out very soon, August 26th!
Cheers :)
Enkidu
Original post
28 Jul 2026Developer post
Folk Emerging Demo - Debt & Diplomacy Update
This is a larger update that includes the following changes: Design Improved trade deals offered by non-player factions Added more detailed agendas for non-player factions (e.g. based on clans, norms, etc) to make their diplomacy actions more consistent Non-player factions can no
This is a larger update that includes the following changes:
Design
Improved trade deals offered by non-player factions
Added more detailed agendas for non-player factions (e.g. based on clans, norms, etc) to make their diplomacy actions more consistent
Non-player factions can now issue Requests for a specific item to be delivered within a certain number of turns. If fulfilled, it gives +10 Opinion and triggers a reward event.
New relationship state, Trade Embargo, during which the 2 factions can't trade or issue Requests. Triggered after each battle, lasting 5 turns.
Trade no longer has a minimum Opinion requirement
New relationship state, Non-Aggression Pact, during which the 2 factions can't attack each other. Triggered by 'Declare Friendship' and 'Declare Alliance' diplomacy actions.
Alliances:
New relationship state, Alliance, Triggered by 'Declare Alliance' diplomacy action
Requires 25+ Opinion and both sides having less than 2 ongoing alliances
Comes with an unlimited Non-Aggression Pact and Right of Passage
Triggers an alliance event with a long-term bonus
Causes an Alliance Cooldown for 10 turns, during which the alliance can't be broken
Broken by new 'Break Alliance' diplomacy action, which applies a long-term Opinion malus
Added Opinion malus for attacking another faction's allies
New tribe state, Coalition Leader, which requires being allied to 2 factions with fewer Victory Points, and gives +50% Culture/turn to the Coalition Leader
Too Much Debt no longer impacts Happiness/turn, instead it now blocks issuing of Requests and most diplomacy actions
Debt tolerances at each opinion level are doubled (Angry: 5 -> 10, Upset: 25 -> 50, Cautious: 50 -> 100, Friendly:100 -> 200)
'Right of Passage' diplomacy action reworked into 'Temporary Passage' and only offers right of passage for 2 turns
'Invite to Feast' now costs 30 Food, increased from 20 Food
Added Opinion malus based on number of Spiritual Sites in which both tribes have invested Worship Points
Traders Clan now gives +0.5 Happiness per owned item type, decreased from +1
Band Culture/turn and Science/turn now have their baselines broken down into 0.1/adult (age 15+) and 0.05/child (age 5-14) instead of +0.1/person of any age. This makes high fertility take longer to pay off, and slows down overall pace of progression.
Higher risk outcomes in hunting events now give +30 Food, increased from +20
UI
Improved structure and visuals of Diplomacy menu
Added separate menu showing all relationships between all factions (accessible via new button in top-right toolbar)
Improved faction relationship summary tooltips
Moved Victory Points ranking of all factions to player tribe's own VP tooltip
Made clan synergy effect tooltips easier to access in clans menu
Bugs Fixed
Fixed issue where new diplomatic agreements sometimes didn't cancel existing intentions to attack or trade
Known Issues
Sometimes number of assignable fighters shows a negative number in the numerator
Sometimes an empty acknowledgement appears without text
Sometimes prey cluster 'hunt' action isn't available when it should be (its button remains grayed out). Haven't been able to recreate the issue, please reach out if you encounter it
Linux: game sometimes gets stuck during autosave (seems to be due to dual-boot setup with storing game files on external NTFS drive; works fine when files are moved to EXT4 drive)
NOTE: This is a larger update that may break some older demo saves!
Please leave a review on the demo's page to let me know what you think,
and join the discussions on Discord.
Cheers :)
Enkidu
Original post
09 Jul 2026GamingOnLinux
Stone Age 4x game Folk Emerging arrives August 26
If you want a new 4x strategy game perhaps you'll want to keep an eye on Folk Emerging - like a smaller version of Civilization in the Stone Age. Read the full article here:
07 Jul 2026Developer post
📣 Full game coming AUGUST 26th!
Excited to announce that Folk Emerging will release on August 26th, 2026 ! I had been aiming for a July launch window, but based on the Next Fest feedback, a few more weeks will let me make some important balance and design improvements, especially around diplomacy, combat, and A
Excited to announce that Folk Emerging will release on August 26th, 2026!
I had been aiming for a July launch window, but based on the Next Fest feedback, a few more weeks will let me make some important balance and design improvements, especially around diplomacy, combat, and AI. It also gives the game a better launch runway on Steam after their recent changes to upcoming releases and personal calendars.
In the meantime:
check out the latest demo patch,
please leave a review on the demo's page to let me know what you think,
and join the discussions on Discord.
Thanks again to everyone who has played, wishlisted, tested, or sent feedback!
Cheers :)
Enkidu
Original post
07 Jul 2026Developer post
Folk Emerging Demo - Patch, July 7th 2026
This demo patch includes the following changes: Design Domestication points required to domesticate each species increased by +1 Maker specialist no longer gives Domestication Points Domestication technology now gives +1 Domestication Points to all Bands Agriculture and Pastorali
This demo patch includes the following changes:
Design
Domestication points required to domesticate each species increased by +1
Maker specialist no longer gives Domestication Points
Domestication technology now gives +1 Domestication Points to all Bands
Agriculture and Pastoralism cultural norms now each give +1 Domestication Points
New climate adaptation added that gives +1 Domestication Point while in that climate
Organism populations in foodwebs now recover twice as slow when at very low population sizes
UI
Species icons in foodweb are now highlighted more when selected for foraging or domestication
Active settings are now shown in the tooltip of the in-game menu button in the top-right
Fixed bugs:
Fixed issue where some game-creation settings would affect saved games that had been created with different settings
Fixed non-player factions occasionally still attacking after friendship is declared (friendship was not cancelling existing intentions to attack)
Fixed Cassava science bonus not being applied
Fixed Sorghum not being equippable in Farms
Fixed issue where pressing TAB between turns would cycle through non-player bands
Fixed button anchoring issues in military and foodweb view where a button would drift out of position when UI scaling is increased.
Please leave a review on the demo's page to let me know what you think,
and join the discussions on Discord!
Original post
15 Jun 2026Developer post
Demo in Next Fest now!
Excited to announce that Folk Emerging is participating in the June 2026 Steam Next Fest , which runs from today, June 15th, until June 22nd. Play the newly updated demo now, with a brand new map! View game page Please leave a review on the demo's page to let me know what you thi
14 Jun 2026Developer post
Folk Emerging Demo - Patch, June 14th 2026
This demo patch includes the following changes: Design Food waste now gets calculated based on stockpile that will remain after consumption at the end of each turn Baseline Food Forageable decreased for all species by -5 to account for the overall higher stability of foodwebs sin
This demo patch includes the following changes:
Design
Food waste now gets calculated based on stockpile that will remain after consumption at the end of each turn
Baseline Food Forageable decreased for all species by -5 to account for the overall higher stability of foodwebs since the last update
Happiness bonus from Council norm is now 0.5 X lowest clan Influence instead of 1 X lowest clan Influence
Happiness is now limited to range between -300 and +300
UI
Probabilistic event outcome notifications now list % chance at end of each outcome instead of at start
ESC key now first unstages any staged Scouting mission or structure placement (if any) instead of opening in-game menu
Clicking on units' equipped item slot now also selects the unit
Removed tutorial goal for achieving Minimum Food Stockpile
Added a couple more tutorials
Fixed bugs:
Fixed trade evaluation bug when non-player factions offer deal
Fixed Farm structure still having old resource costs (now 3 Wood, 4 Stone)
Fixed domestication points not getting reset when switching from Domesticating to Foraging production focus
Fixed tooltip bug when interacting with certain dropdowns
Fixed rare crash when starting new game without restarting app
Fixed unassigned fighter count misalignment after switching specialists between bands.
Check out the demo in Steam Next Fest June 15th-22nd!
Original post
12 Jun 2026Developer post
Folk Emerging Demo - Scarcity & Abundance Update
This is a larger update that includes a new demo map seed and the following changes: Design Species in ecoregions uninhabited by Bands now slowly gravitate towards approximately equilibrium populations Resource costs for all structures and tile improvements is now halved Spiritua
This is a larger update that includes a new demo map seed and the following changes:
Design
Species in ecoregions uninhabited by Bands now slowly gravitate towards approximately equilibrium populations
Resource costs for all structures and tile improvements is now halved
Spiritual Site Devotee bonus now also gives +10 Victory Points
Excess Science/turn now overflows to next turn when completing a tech
Cordage tech now unlocks a Nets amenity, which gives passive Food from adjacent rivers and coast
Norm switching is now enabled, at 3x the norm's normal cost
Some Cultural Norms now give extra Influence to certain Clan types
Studying Nature production focus is now unique to the Sages Clan
Food and Fertility rework:
Added Band states based on current level of Food availability: Minimal/Adequate/Comfortable/Abundant Food Stockpile
Food availability states boost Fertility (+0/0.05/0.1/0.15) and Happiness/turn (+1/2/3/4)
Hedonism norm now gives +30% Fertility if Food Stockpile is Adequate (1x population) or higher, but also gives +0.2 Food Waste rate/turn and -20% Production
Reliable Freshwater no longer boosts Fertility, but its Health/turn bonus is increased from +5 to +10, and it now lowers Risk of Disease by -25%
Pressured by Wildlife/Exposure/Discontent band states now also give -30% Fertility
Modesty norm now also gives -20% Fertility
Pastoralist playstyle rework:
Herding production focus is removed
The passive Food/turn from various Livestock items now gets aggregated into a Food From Livestock modifier of Food/turn
Pastoralism norm and Herder trait now boost Food From Livestock
Pastures no longer equip Livestock items, instead they boost Food From Livestock for adjacent Bands, and are much cheaper to construct
Livestock items now reduce Production by -0.1 each (stackable)
Trade:
Trade Value of all items and resources is rebalanced
Trade Value is doubled for the last item of each type
Non-player bands now insist on keeping a minimum of Stone and Wood when trading
Improved balance of deals offered by non-player bands
Combat:
Watchtower now gives Attack Strength instead of Morale, and no longer only when defending
Health/turn malus from Injured In Battle lowered to -40 from -50
Baseline Risk of Injury from Battle lowered to 0.6 from 0.8
Festivals:
Renamed Fire Rituals production focus to Festivals.
Festivals and Medicine Rituals both now also give -50% Training/turn
Artists Clan no longer gets passive +20% Culture/turn, instead gets +50% Culture/turn while producing Festivals
Honoring Chief production focus removed, instead Festivals now give +1 Reputation to Chief for 10 turns each time they're completed
Added difficulty settings:
Easier: 100 starting Happiness, +5 Happiness/turn, lower risks, slower development & less aggression for non-player factions
Standard: 50 starting Happiness, standard development & aggression for non-player factions
Harder: 0 starting Happiness, -5 Happiness/turn, faster development & more aggression for non-player factions
Added game speed settings:
Faster: -50% cost of techs and norms
Standard: normal cost of techs and norms
Slower: +50% cost of techs and norms
Some visible changes related to full game content (lots more behind the scenes):
Added various late-game military units
Proto-Vedic and Proto-Slavic civs are replaced with Proto-Indic and Proto-Kurgan
Fortifications tile improvement added
Last tier of cultural norms now replaced with Taxation vs Redistribution, Law vs Shame, and Matrilinality vs Patrilineality
Nets tech renamed to Intensive Fishing and unlocks a new Fishing Weir structure
Programming
Enabled units special abilities to target themselves
Refactor of production & construction progress and availability tracking
Added separate volume controls for ambience sound effects (e.g. nature sounds)
Enabled remappable controls (for now starting with a couple basic actions, expecting to add more)
Added setting for muting game audio when app is not in focus
UI
Made UI interactions and updates juicier
Added unit categories: infantry, mounted, melee, ranged
When a unit doesn't have an item equipped, empty item slot is highlighted red
Moved tooltip for 'Run Trials' button to be in the bottom-right of the screen so it doesn't block units in Proving Grounds
Top-left tribe icon tooltip now also directly shows player's tribe summary
'Completed Wonder' acknowledgement added when player completes wonder
Added some missing info to Potential Modifiers lists
Added cultural norm icons
Movement Points renamed to Moves, Training Points renamed to Training
Training production focus renamed to Practicing
Fire Rituals renamed to Festivals
Person > Relationships > All sub-page is deactivated
Reworked and streamlined various tutorials
Pressured by Wildlife/Exposure/Discontent notifications are now red
Various other UI tweaks and improvements
Bugs Fixed
Fixed various bugs related to construction projects progress & completion
Fixed potential debt calculation sometimes being done based on wrong band's evaluation
Fixed first tech starting with some progress already made
Fixed some UI elements from specialist assignment panel showing up in specialist transfer panel
Fixed acknowledgements (e.g. Under Attack) between turns sometimes showing up empty
Fixed potential visual bugs due to staging/unstaging conflicts between movement, scouting, splitting, and construction
Fixed newly split offshoot Bands not being able to open Opportunities on the same turn they split
Fixed ESC key not closing diplomacy view
Fixed Delete button in Save/Load menu not working
Fixed autobattler unit tooltip triggers
Known Issues
Sometimes number of assignable fighters shows a negative number in the numerator
Sometimes prey cluster 'hunt' action isn't available when it should be (its button remains grayed out). Haven't been able to recreate the issue, please reach out if you encounter it
Linux: game sometimes gets stuck during autosave (seems to be due to dual-boot setup with storing game files on external NTFS drive; works fine when files are moved to EXT4 drive)
NOTE: This is a larger update that may break older demo saves!
News
Folk Emerging will be in Next Fest next week! If you're able to play the demo on the 15th-16th of June, that would help increase the game's visibility in the fest. Thank you for your support!
Original post
14 May 2026Developer post
Folk Emerging Demo - Natural Disasters Update
NOTE: This is a larger update that may break older demo saves! It includes the following changes: Design Added new weather phenomena and tile states: Wildfires, Burned, Floods, Fertile Soil Added river flooding Reworked world climate changes to now have ramp-up and wind-down peri
NOTE: This is a larger update that may break older demo saves!
It includes the following changes:
Design
Added new weather phenomena and tile states: Wildfires, Burned, Floods, Fertile Soil
Added river flooding
Reworked world climate changes to now have ramp-up and wind-down periods, and with less predictable timing
Heat Waves now have less harsh baseline conditions but more disruptive weather phenomena
Ice Ages now have harsher baseline conditions but fewer disruptive weather phenomena
Expanded and reworked tech tree, including new early/mid-game techs (e.g. Hideworking, Hafting, Cordage), and new late-game techs (e.g. Agrarian Engineering, Administration, Mounted Warfare)
Tech tree now ends with Trade Legacy, State Legacy, and Military Legacy, which are repeatable and grant Victory Points each time they are completed
Urban Dwellings are moved out of Stoneworking tech back to Urbanization tech, and are no longer buildable in the demo
Rafts tech is now obtainable in the demo, which enables traversing water tiles to any visible coastal land tile, and enables sending scouting missions to water tiles
Combat units now also cost resources to recruit, and their Training Points cost varies
Added Spears unit, whose special ability is doing pierce damage to enemy behind its target, unlocked with Hafting tech
Moved Axes unit to unlock with Hafting tech
Moved Shields unit to unlock with Hideworking tech
Hunters and Warriors clan bonuses are now swapped: Hunters get +0.5 Training Points/turn, Warriors get +0.25 Training Points per Production while Training
Camp Amenities now also cost resources to produce
Camp Amenities production cost is significantly lowered
Camp Amenities from original band now copy over into new band when splitting
Reworked Risk from Exposure to now only trigger events related to generally hot/cold/wet/dry conditions, not natural disasters
Disaster events now trigger only when a Band is starting its turn on a tile with certain weather phenomena, e.g. Wildfires, Floods
Increased baseline Risk from Exposure, and added more unlockable bonuses that decrease it (e.g. Hideworking tech)
Limited Scavenging action to once per cluster per player per turn
Added Marine Cluster features in the sea, which can be hunted similar to migratory clusters on land, unlocked with Bone & Wood Tools tech
Increased baseline Food waste rate/turn
Smoke Racks now decrease Food waste rate/turn and increase Food from hunting Marine Clusters
Added Baskets camp amenity that increases Food carrying capacity and decreases Food waste rate/turn, unlocked with Cordage tech
Camels now provide +2 Moves/turn in Desert after Animal Husbandry tech is unlocked
Horses now provide +2 Moves/turn outside Desert after Horseback Riding tech is unlocked
Programming
Optimized map generation algorithms
Optimized map search algorithms
Added separate band attribute for waste rate for each resource
UI
Every attribute tooltip now has a "Potential Modifiers" hyperlink that shows a nested tooltip with a list of everything in the game that can modify that attribute
Most effects of late-game techs that are locked in the demo are now visible in the tech tree and in Potential Modifiers lists (details subject to change, some effects not included)
Hyperlinked text now uses non-breaking spaces so icons and linked text don't break across lines
Climate tooltips now include info about chance of Storms and chance of Wildfires
Fixed delayed status button update when selecting Foraging as production focus while band has automated foraging enabled and multiple foraging points
Various other UI tweaks & improvements
Bugs Fixed
Fixed several rare but critical bugs due to multi-threading. The fix may decrease performance in some situations (e.g. during band movement), please report this if noticeable
Fixed unit summary tooltip on hover throwing error during battle
Fixed equippable item dropdown in Structure panel crashing when clicked
Fixed claimed structure icon not showing claim until following turn
Known Issues
Sometimes acknowledgements (e.g. Under Attack) between turns show up empty
Sometimes number of assignable fighters shows a negative number in the numerator
Sometimes prey cluster 'hunt' action isn't available when it should be (its button remains grayed out). Haven't been able to recreate the issue, please reach out if you encounter it
Autobattler units' attack & morale tooltips only show after first hovering on main unit object, otherwise full unit tooltip shows instead
Original post
23 Apr 2026Developer post
Folk Emerging Demo - Climate Adaptations Update
NOTE: This is a larger update that may break older demo saves! It includes the following changes: Design Removed Band-level Climate XP, added Tribe-level Climate XP. Each turn, if a Tribe has a Band in a Climate, the Tribe gains 1 XP for that Climate Added 'Climate Adaptations' a
NOTE: This is a larger update that may break older demo saves!
It includes the following changes:
Design
Removed Band-level Climate XP, added Tribe-level Climate XP. Each turn, if a Tribe has a Band in a Climate, the Tribe gains 1 XP for that Climate
Added 'Climate Adaptations' as Tribe states obtained via events which trigger when a Tribe's Climate XP reaches certain levels.
This allows extensive specialization in different Climates.
Food Forageable maluses from Foodweb Stability, Ice Age, and Heat Wave are now second-order modifiers, applied together with species local population size modifier.
This increases the impact of foodweb stability and climate change and makes Food yields from Foraging more volatile.
Removed dynamic scarcity modifier of Trade Value, so value of Resources now remains static during a trade
Rebalanced Trade Value of Food so it becomes cheaper with every Food-boosting tech, becoming very cheap by the end of the demo
Ice Age and Heat Wave now increase the Trade Value of Food
Doubled Trade Value of Items so they are even more expensive relative to Food and other Resources
Traders Clan bonus to Happiness from Trade Cooldown now only triggers when a Band has traded with another Tribe that turn. Internal trade no longer triggers it
Restricted initiation of trade deals to only be possible if Tribe Opinion is minimum -10
Exploration norm now gives +1 Band Science to all Bands, instead of +20% Tribe Science
Tradition norm now gives +20% Tribe Culture, instead of +2 Band Culture to all Bands
Training production focus increased to use baseline +0.25 Training Points per Production, instead of +0.2
Hunters Clan bonus to Training Points is no longer a flat +0.5 Training Points/turn, but +0.25 Training Points per Production while Training
Diligence norm bonus is no longer a flat +1 Training Points/turn, but +0.25 Training Points per Production while Training
Warriors Clan bonus to Attack strength increased to +1 from +0.5
Rebalanced domestication XP upgrade event outcomes to offer bigger Food bonus and smaller Production bonus
Decreased production cost of non-wonder structures to 10 from 15
Decreased bonus to Risk from Exposure from foraging Wild Sheep to -20% from -30%
Increased bonus to Risk from Exposure from domesticated Sheep to -40% from -30%
Programming
Reworked AI decision-making to use a more sophisticated and extensible system of prioritization
Used new AI prioritization to improve AI choices around production and movement (which should also mean less frequent cornering of the player). More such improvements in upcoming updates
Reworked AI logic regarding territory
Improved AI choice of person to assign to specialist roles
Enabled AI to handle events and enabled certain event types for AI tribes
AI bands will not trade away Food below a certain limit, to avoid a Food Deficit
Clamped Fertility value to minimum 0 so it cannot become negative
UI
Visibility of terrain and climate-dependent modifiers to Attack Strength and Morale now depends on whether military is viewed in context of a specific battle or outside battle
Renamed "Role Specific Strengths" column to "Relevant Traits" in Specialist assignment view
Tribe tooltips no longer show which technologies a Tribe has, only the total number of technologies they've mastered
Tribe tooltips now show Climate XP for each climate
Bugs Fixed
Fixed bug where Raid events would sometimes give Items that were not yet unlocked technologically
Fixed missing acknowledgements when discovering new Spiritual Sites or meeting new Tribes via increased vision range or from a Watchtower bonus
Known Issues
Sometimes number of assignable fighters shows a negative number in the numerator
Occasionally prey cluster 'hunt' action isn't available when it should be (its button remains grayed out). Haven't been able to recreate the issue, please reach out if you encounter it
Original post
07 Apr 2026Developer post
Folk Emerging Demo - Patch, April 7th
This demo hotfix patch includes the following change: Fixed AI movement bug introduced in the latest update that would sometimes severely limit AI band movement and splitting, which also led to worse AI scores and survival rates overall. A comprehensive rework of AI movement is c
This demo hotfix patch includes the following change:
Fixed AI movement bug introduced in the latest update that would sometimes severely limit AI band movement and splitting, which also led to worse AI scores and survival rates overall. A comprehensive rework of AI movement is coming soon; this small patch is just to fix this specific recent bug.
Original post
30 Mar 2026Developer post
Folk Emerging Demo - Update, March 30th
This is a larger update that includes the following changes: Design Watchtowers now extend visibility in 3-tile radius when adjacent to Band Watchtowers now provide Morale only when defending (both campsite and structures) Caves and Standing Guard now provide Morale only when def
This is a larger update that includes the following changes:
Design
Watchtowers now extend visibility in 3-tile radius when adjacent to Band
Watchtowers now provide Morale only when defending (both campsite and structures)
Caves and Standing Guard now provide Morale only when defending campsite, not structures
Morale boost from Standing Guard increased to +2 from +1
Enabled equipping Items in combat Units, and now such Items only affect the Unit they're equipped in
Added critical hit system, where some units have a chance of dealing double damage when attacking
Obsidian now grants +0.2 critical hit probability instead of an Attack Strength bonus
Sages clan now gives +0.05 critical hit probability
Added Tactician trait for Warmaster and Chief, which boosts critical hit probabilities
Ferocity bonus to Attack Strength lowered to +1 from +2
Risk from Wildlife, Risk from Exposure, and negative Happiness levels now trigger states (Pressured by Wildlife/Exposure/Discontent, respectively), which lowers Production by -30%
Maximum 1 of these per turn will trigger an Event instead of a Pressured state, making these events less repetitive and more of an opportunity to avoid the default Production malus
Production modifier from population now split into adults (age 15+, 0.1/person) and children (age 5-14, 0.05/person)
Production cost of most producibles is decreased to account for overall lower Production
Increased baseline Food Forageable from all species to account for overall lower Production
Reworked many foraging bonuses from various species, converting most multiplicative bonuses to be additive, and making them smaller overall
Production bonus from Soapstone Item reduced to +0.5 from +1
Risk of Disease now increases with Population once it is 30+, at 0.005/person
Urban Dwellings now increase Risk of Disease by +20% instead of +0.1
Maker's Courage now decreases Risk of Disease instead of Risk from Wildlife
Health bonus from Healing Ceremonies increased to +10 from +5
Happiness levels now affect Fertility as well
Happiness level effect on Production and Culture increased (1=20%, 2=40%)
Ice Ages now increase Risk From Exposure more (+0.2 --> +0.4) in Cold Climates, and no longer decrease it in Warm Climates, vice versa for Heat Waves
Ice Ages and Heat Waves no longer affect Food Huntable (from clusters), only Food Forageable (from foodweb)
Ice Ages and Heat Waves now both lower Food per Production from Farming
Clan Influence bonus per band led increased to +7 from +5
Post-hunt clan dispute events now slightly more rare
Programming
Improved AI military development, consistency, and unit composition
AI will not attack if their fighters are below a certain number
Lowered fertility handicap for AI
UI
Tile tooltips now more compact by not listing all climate/feature/state effects (that info is still available via nested tooltips)
Combined Band-level notifications into 1 Tribe-level summary notification for each notification type
Population breakdown by age group now shown on Band Population tooltip
Bugs Fixed
Fixed various Chief traits only getting aplied to their assigned Band instead of all Bands
Fixed modifier conditions not getting checked correctly for Tribe, Tribe Relationship, Clan, and Clan Relationship attributes
Fixed Band XP for foraging, domestication, and climate not getting copied to offshoot band when splitting
Fixed Band XP for climate not accumulating when staying on one tile
Fixed bug where foraging/domestication point assignment buttons remained active after switching production away from Foraging/Domestication
Fixed sorting of specialist candidates by role-specific strengths
Fixed crash when saving with a file name that is too long, now has a character limit
Fixed crash when quickly clicking on the 'Forage' status button when foraging is automated
Known Issues
Sometimes number of assignable fighters shows a negative number in the numerator
Sometimes raid events grant Items that are not yet unlocked
Original post
18 Mar 2026Developer post
Folk Emerging Demo - Patch, March 18th
This demo patch includes the following changes: Increased Health bonus from Herbalist trait (from +7 to +10 for Shaman, from +3 to +5 for Chief) Person view and pinned characters view now update after each event Specialist role summary tooltips now show any role-specific strength
This demo patch includes the following changes:
Increased Health bonus from Herbalist trait (from +7 to +10 for Shaman, from +3 to +5 for Chief)
Person view and pinned characters view now update after each event
Specialist role summary tooltips now show any role-specific strengths the assigned person has
Fixed rare crash due to multithreading issue
Fixed duplicate health bonus from Reliable Freshwater after splitting Band next to river
Fixed Opportunity icons sometimes not updating their color correctly when interactable
Fixed Herbalist bonus not getting applied correctly
Original post
12 Mar 2026Developer post
Folk Emerging Demo - Update, March 12th
This is a larger update that includes the following changes: Design Added a new Band action, "Scouting Mission", which lets players select a visible tile and temporarily reveal any unrevealed tiles adjacent to it. It costs 1 Training Point. Exploration still relies on moving the
This is a larger update that includes the following changes:
Design
Added a new Band action, "Scouting Mission", which lets players select a visible tile and temporarily reveal any unrevealed tiles adjacent to it. It costs 1 Training Point. Exploration still relies on moving the entire Band, but the Scouting Mission provides a little more flexibility and some new strategic trade-offs. It will also be a fun event hook in future updates
Added a new diplomatic agreement, "Right of Passage", which lets the player's Bands step through another Tribe's Bands (and vice versa). This provides a peaceful way to get out of situations where a Band is cornered somewhere on the map or needs to go through a narrow passage that is blocked by other Tribes. The agreement requires 0+ Tribe Opinion and 10 Food, lasts 10 turns, and is cancelled if one Tribe attacks the other
Declaring Friendship now costs 20 Food (up from 10), and also grants Right of Passage
Hunters Clan no longer provides a passive Fertility bonus, but their bonus to Food Forageable from Animals is increased from +20% to +25%
Fire Rituals production focus now also gives +0.2 Fertility, in addition to its existing Happiness bonus
Happiness/turn malus for each Malnourished band member is decreased from 0.5/person to 0.25/person
AI is now less likely to attack if enemy has a larger fighting force
Specialist upgrade events now happen every 10XP instead of every 5XP
UI
In-text icons updated to include latest additions
Personality attributes (Curiosity, Charisma, Discipline, Courage) now have colored icons
Standardized UX/UI of band map actions, e.g. movement, splitting, construction, and now scout missions. The use of tile highlights & arrows for such actions is now standardized, and there is more visual feedback for the tile being hovered over
Tile icons showing Wood and max Food no longer trigger their own tooltips, instead their details are shown on the tile tooltip itself. This decreases tooltip flickering when moving the cursor over tiles and their icons
Programming
Added modifier-based visibility effects per tile, enabling special actions (e.g. Scouting Missions) to add visibility that expires after X turns. This also prepares the way for other upcoming visibility-related updates, e.g. a rework of Watchtowers
Added a sound effect for when a band is set to stay on its current tile
Bugs
Fixed Food waste modifier sometimes not updating correctly after certain actions
Fixed Tribe Relationship states (e.g. Feast Cooldown) not counting down each turn
Fixed soft-lock on battle prep screen where player couldn't start the battle when under attack and their Band has 0 members of fighting age. For now, such battles are allowed to proceed so the game doesn't lock. In a future update it'll be handled better (e.g. with an automatic loss or an event)
Original post
09 Mar 2026Developer post
📣 Full game coming JULY 2026!
Excited to announce that Folk Emerging will release in July 2026 ! More details and the exact release date will be announced closer to the launch. Here is the most recent major demo update, which you can play now: View game page Please leave a review on the demo's page to let me
23 Feb 2026Developer post
Folk Emerging Demo - Patch, February 23rd
This demo patch includes the following changes: Game files size optimized down from 3.1 GB to 1.5 GB Fixed incomplete urban dwellings not getting saved correctly Fixed urban dwellings not showing when loading saved game Fixed text color not getting applied correctly when opening
This demo patch includes the following changes:
Game files size optimized down from 3.1 GB to 1.5 GB
Fixed incomplete urban dwellings not getting saved correctly
Fixed urban dwellings not showing when loading saved game
Fixed text color not getting applied correctly when opening clans menu for the first time
Original post

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