Dear friends,
After one month of intense work, I'm so glad to share with you this huge milestone.
The Idle Colony Demo is now live, and will remain playable for free until the game is released!
It contains approximately 50% of the features I want in the final game.
Since the playtest in May, I've been iterating based on your feedback, and I will continue to do so going forward. Don't hesitate to reach out to share your experience with the game so we can make it even better! The Discord is the place to be for such matters.
What about the features ?
Last time I shared with you my roadmap from the playtest to the demo.
I've completed everything I wanted to and even more. The only two red lines are features I decided to remove because they were redondant with the Wok Size upgrade, and I plan something else for the fire...
Instead, I added two new core mechanics: The Poop, and the Moles!
Colonists now drop poop which you can use to fertilize the baby trees. Doing so will increase the fruit tier and the yield of the trees. This action can be done manually or automated. Your Colonists will be able to create big stack of Poop that will give you the ability to create very big trees.
The moles are a new source of income. Moles will appear on the map and you can hit them for cash. Of course this action can be automated!
Another important feature is the new path system: you can now connect paths to trees, this will make them last for as long as the tree they're connected to. Additionally, there's a new upgrade to make Colonists run faster over paths. Pro-tip: make an insane big tree with poop, connect it with a path, and cut all the other ;).
My intention is to allow you to choose your playstyle, because some of you are active players, while other prefer to let the game run itself. My frustration with the game I inspired from, Gnorp Apologue, was that I often needed to wait a lot and couldn't do shit to speed things up to the next upgrade.
My intention for Idle Colony is that you can always take an action (gather fruits, cut trees, hit moles...) that have a real impact on the game progression. At the same time, if you choose to be completly idling, you won't be penalized for it. The technologies and upgrades you pick will help you create the playstyle of your choice!
I can't wait to know how you feel about this version and hear your reactions!
Cheers!