Hello Governors!

It’s almost hard to believe, but Celestial Empire has been in Early Access for a whole year! 

On September 23rd 2025, we opened the gates to our Empire and invited you to start building your cities with us. Since then, we’ve spent the past year expanding the game, experimenting with new mechanics, listening to your feedback, and watching the incredible cities you’ve created.

From new maps and production chains to completely new progression systems, buildings and resources, Celestial Empire has changed quite a bit since those first cities began to rise. Some additions fundamentally changed the way you develop your Empire, while others were smaller improvements designed to give you more options and make governing your cities a little smoother.

So, with our first anniversary upon us, we thought this would be a perfect opportunity to look back at everything that happened during our first year in Early Access!

New lands to conquer

One of the first major additions was Mountain Realm, giving you a brand-new map and a very different landscape to build your cities around.

We also expanded the later stages of city development with the Chinese Garden, giving your Elite citizens a new way to shape and enhance their surroundings. 

The Garden introduced its own extension system, with more than a dozen different additions that can be discovered through trade, events and blueprints. Their different rarities and effects gave Governors another way to customize their cities and make each Garden a little different. 

And, of course, the world itself wasn't the only thing that grew. Throughout the year, we continued adding smaller improvements and options to existing buildings and systems, giving you more ways to shape your settlements as they grew from modest beginnings into cities worthy of the Emperor. 

New ways to develop your Empire

Over the following months, Celestial Empire gained plenty of new production and progression options.

We introduced Smoked Eggs, the Egg Smokehouse and the Chicken Coop, alongside new interactions between production buildings.

We also continued expanding existing buildings with new improvements and interactions. Shrines and Temples gained additional development options, Granaries could increase their storage capabilities, and new technologies and production bonuses gave Governors more opportunities to fine-tune the way their cities function. 

Then came one of our biggest additions: Academies and Manuscripts.

This update introduced 9 new buildings, 5 new resources and Manuscripts, creating an entirely new branch of city development. Scholars became an important part of advanced cities, while buildings such as Libraries, Observatories, Debate Rooms and Calligraphy Schools could support their work. New production chains for resources such as Red Ink also connected the system with the wider economy of your city.

Manuscripts themselves became useful across many different areas of the game. They could be spent on advanced technologies and building improvements, increasing Shrine and Temple capacity, extending Monument range, unlocking advanced trade opportunities and helping develop the Celestial Tower.

In other words, there were suddenly quite a few more reasons to keep your Scholars busy!

Cards, Merit and city progression

Our Cards & Merit Update brought two entirely new systems to the game.

Cards introduced another way to specialize both your city and individual buildings. Generated through Academies, their production can be supported by nearby Libraries and Debate Rooms, higher Merit levels and resources such as Red Ink, Paper and Paintings.

Once a Card Pack is ready, you can choose between two Cards and gradually build a collection suited to the city you're creating. Cards come in four rarity levels - Common, Rare, Epic and Legendary - and can provide a variety of bonuses, from increasing production, building range or house capacity to expanding borders, improving religious buildings and helping your city survive the winter.

Buildings also gained Card Slots, with additional slots available through further development, making Cards another layer of customization rather than a simple city-wide bonus.

Meanwhile, Merit introduced a new measure of your city's development, taking your humble Settlement through Village, Town, Small City, City and Regional Capital, all the way to a mighty Capital.

Merit can be earned by developing your city, constructing Monuments, expanding the Celestial Tower and creating Great Decorations. These included the Grand Bonsai Tree, Grand Stone Statue, Grand Gazebo and Grand Gold Statue, giving every social tier another impressive landmark to work towards.

Together, Cards and Merit gave Governors new long-term goals while making the path from a small settlement to an imperial metropolis more varied.

The Gods have been busy too!

Of course, while Governors were busy expanding their cities, the Gods weren't exactly sitting idle either.

We expanded the Relationship Trees of Nüwa, Ao Guang and Wukong, introducing new ways to strengthen your relationship with the Gods and new Garden expansions dedicated to each of them. Progressing through these relationships can unlock additional benefits, making your choice of divine allies an increasingly important part of developing your city.

The Miracle system also grew during our first year. Several Miracles became abilities that could be directly used on selected areas of the city, allowing Governors to react to problems such as fires, demons or epidemics in a more direct way.

Later additions included the Forest Miracle, capable of creating a new forest where you need it, and the Fertility Miracle, allowing you to turn selected land fertile. Together with the expanded Relationship Trees and divine bonuses, these additions made the Gods an even more active part of everyday city management.

Plenty of smaller changes along the way

Not every addition needed its own huge update.

Throughout our first year, we also continued expanding and refining many of Celestial Empire's existing systems. Buildings received new improvements, production chains gained additional connections, statistics became more useful, and Governors received more control over the way their cities function.

We added the ability to adjust difficulty directly in-game, improved the way sub-buildings can be placed, introduced options such as force building and automatic road placement, and continued expanding the information available through the game's interface and statistics.

Support for newer technologies such as DLSS 4.5 and FSR 4 also arrived along the way, alongside numerous optimization and quality-of-life improvements.

Individually, these additions might not be as noticeable as an entirely new map or progression system, but together they've helped shape the Celestial Empire you're playing today.

And we're not done yet…

Most importantly, we want to thank everyone who has been building this Empire alongside us. 

Whether you've been here since day one, joined us somewhere along the way, shared feedback, reported bugs, posted screenshots of your cities, suggested new ideas or simply spent a quiet evening watching your citizens go about their lives - thank you for being part of Celestial Empire's first year.

Looking back, it’s pretty incredible to see how much the game has grown since the day we entered Early Access - but there is still plenty ahead of us.

We recently shared our updated roadmap, giving you a glimpse at some of the bigger additions we're currently working on. Among them are Projects - large-scale undertakings that will take your ambitions beyond the borders of your own city. You'll take part in their development while competing with other cities to become their greatest contributor, with different Projects offering different rewards and bonuses. 

And that's only part of what's ahead. We're also already working on the military and defense side of Celestial Empire, which will eventually bring combat-related challenges to your growing cities. 

The first anniversary may be a good excuse to look back, but we're even more excited about what's still ahead. One year ago, we invited you to start building this Empire with us - and we're very happy to still have you here as we begin its next chapter. 

Happy 1st Anniversary, Governors!