Hey everyone! 👋
I've been carrying this project around in my head for almost 10 years. For most of that time it lived only as a "maybe one day" — that vague kind of dream you tell yourself you'll get to eventually but probably won't. And now, somehow, I'm suddenly here. The game in front of me is completely different from what I first imagined, and yet at its core it's exactly the thing I dreamed about. Funny how that works.
This week reminded me why "maybe one day" took 10 years to become "actually doing it."
I spent two full days hunting a single bug in the save/load system. Sometimes loading a saved game allowed movement. Sometimes it didn't. No error message. No console output. No obvious pattern. Just vibes. I felt like a mole in the middle of a parking lot — completely lost, no idea which direction to dig. 🫠
I eventually found it. The kind of bug where the effort-to-reward ratio is genuinely insulting. But hey — it's fixed. And so is a pile of other things in v1.5:
🎓 Tutorial — full rework
This was the biggest change of the week. The old tutorial was a series of popup windows that explained mechanics in isolation — informative, but it didn't really teach anything. Players read the text, clicked through, and immediately forgot half of it.
The new tutorial is built more like a story. It introduces mechanics gradually, gives the player room to actually try them, and lets understanding grow through play instead of through reading. It feels much closer to how a tribe would actually learn — by doing, failing, and adapting.
🪨 New: Resource Gathering
You can now actively gather resources (flint, bone, hide) for 1 AP. The Crafter has a +50% chance to find a second resource. Up to twice per turn. Different biomes favor different materials — so where you stand now matters even more.
❄️ Multi-level Difficulty
The "Harsh Winter" and "Hostile World" challenges now have three intensity levels (-1, -2, -3 / +15%, +30%, +45% enemy HP). True Winter just got a lot meaner.
🗺️ Minimap Tooltip
Hover over the minimap to see your tribe name, active modifiers with levels, and purchased upgrades. A small thing, but it makes long runs much easier to track.
⚔️ Combat Rebalance
A few abilities were stacking too aggressively. "Weak Spot" and "Mark Prey" now use diminishing returns (10% / 16% / 20%) with per-stack timers. The Mammoth spirit now scales multiplicatively with HP bonuses. Scavenging is capped at 4 uses per battle (shared between all Crafters) — no more endless looting.
🐛 Bugs squashed — a lot of them
Most of these weren't game-breaking, but they made the game feel off — small weird moments that pulled you out of the experience. The game is noticeably cleaner now. A few highlights:
Funeral dialog wasn't appearing after combat deaths (your fallen will now be properly mourned)
Lambda capture errors after kills (WeakRef saved my sanity)
Tech tree dimmer blocking clicks on Adaptation victory popup
Famine event firing without actual hunger
Knockback floaters appearing over old positions instead of new ones
💾 Save Management
Deleting a tribe also deletes its saves. The load dialog has new filters (Manual / Auto), no more 40-save cap.
If you've been following the project — thank you. Genuinely. Every wishlist makes a 10-year dream feel a little less crazy. If you're new here, welcome to the Ice Age. Things will go wrong. People will die. But hey, at least now they get a proper funeral. 🔥
Feedback always welcome — drop a comment below.
— Solo dev, slightly less buggy than last week 😄