Thanks to your feedback, we’ve identified a few issues:
Fixed the Random map seed name button in the Map Generation menu. It was not working properly.
Adjusted the tile selection to spawn Civvies was not at the bottom-left, causing Civvies to fall out of the world and the Stockpile never built.
Disabled building placement on Map View and removed the step from the Tutorial. There is a major performance drop when a building was placed from the Map View, so we have temporarily disabled this functionality until we debug the broader performance issue.
There are some known issues and work-in-progress art and design that needs to be implemented. But hey, this is early access after all - bugs will be squished! We are also prioritizing optimization to reduce load times.
A gameplay session looped on our Steam page will help players learn about the game and help new players to decide.
Thank you to those who purchased and played Civatlas at launch! Welcome to the early access development process - we look forward to bringing you more updates based on your feedback!
Civatlas Early Access
Greetings, Civvies!
We have a major milestone update and rebranding for Early Access launch of our game… Civatlas!
Huh? What the heck is a “Civatlas”!?
Civatlas is an invented compound word combining Civitas (or Civilization) and Atlas. The essence of the game is about making an atlas of city maps!
You are about to launch your game and you rebrand it NOW!?
Yes, but not necessarily by choice. Long after we announced Civitas and hosted a demo during Steam Next Fest, another web3-NFT-crypto game cropped up using the Civitas name. Yeah, it’s a great name, we agree… but hey, we did our homework and never would have used the name if it was already in use. But these guys didn’t do their ethics homework. So, in order to avoid any sort of trademark disputes, we will change our name to avoid confusion between the two products. Frankly, we want nothing to do with cryptocurrency.
Ok, that’s crazy, but makes sense, so what has changed with the game then?
The game-formerly-known-as-Civitas stays the same, it’s just a renaming. We are not pivoting the premise or core gameplay with this name change. However, we are making changes based on the recent public playtest and survey feedback. Here is what you can expect in the next game update:
Tutorial! The most requested feedback is a tutorial to help guide players to start building their city. We deliberately left out a tutorial from the playtest to gauge the usability of our work-in-progress user interface and discovered the UI needs a lot of work too.
UI Updates! There are some elements still in progress, but overall we have worked on refining the usability of the UI to be more cohesive.
Culture Selection! When generating a new world, players can now select the culture of Civvies living in their world. When selecting a culture, the Seed names of the generated world will use the primary language of the selected culture. Also, the Civvies generated in the world will have names derived from the culture. Cultures include Gaelic, Pictish, Visigothic, Norman, Franks, Polish, and more!
Starting Progression Level! When starting a new map, the player can select a Progression Level to start from. This will unlock more structures at the beginning of the game.
Language Support! We have added a flag to the table in the Main Menu. Click on the flag to cycle through the language options and see the game’s text change! So far, we have English, French, German, Polish, Spanish and Portuguese supported, with more to come.
How will the game evolve through early access development?
Bug fixing - Always a top priority, we will be fixing any bugs. There are plenty of known bugs on our list right now to address in after-launch patches. Optimization - Always an ongoing task is ensuring the game runs as smoothly as possible. User Interface - Placeholders will be replaced and new systems introduced. Civvie Systems - Fixing any Civvie related systems, such as task manager, relationships, purposes, and more. More Content - Introducing the City and Capital level content to the progression tree. Mod Support - Opening the game up for players to add their own cultures, biomes, purposes, buildings, resources and more!
Please let us know what you think of the game on our Steam forums!
Civitas Play Test Survey
Today, we are welcoming more players into the playtest! For those who have tried Civitas, please fill out the following survey so we can assess our priorities and plan to launch Early Access!
Survey form is found here: https://forms.gle/gWHq4ySgE3paSoRC8
Thank you!
Civitas Limited Play Test Begins!
Greetings, Civvies!
We are ready to launch the first, limited playtest of Civitas in anticipation of our Early Access release! Since our Demo launch in January 2022, we have implemented core features that we will build upon during our early access development period. We have received valuable feedback from our community regarding what you want to see in the game and we look forward to continuing to improve the game with you and for you!
Our design approach is to research from academic and primary sources to design gameplay mechanics that make sense for the material but also within the genre conventions. We want to explore new ideas and not just remake what other games do. We hope Civitas can differentiate from other games in the City Builder genre - hardcore medieval builders are typically about survival, but Civitas is a softcore game about thriving! We look forward to hearing testers' feedback on these new systems and are ready to improve them.
The current state of the game is not perfect. There are a few bugs, and we need your help identifying and replicating the steps that caused them. Please post feedback on our forums, or submit a bug report from in-game by pressing the F12 key.
A preview of the major features you will play in Civitas at the Early Access launch, currently available in the playtest build:
Civvies: We now have Civvies, the people in your world you need to make happy. They will harvest the resources, construct the buildings, and consume your resources.
Progression: The Civitas progression tree contains all the buildings that can be constructed, grouped by their purpose: Common, Labour, Law, Faith, Arts and Trade; and by Civitas level: Boro, Hamlet, Village, Town. To advance up the tree, all buildings in the node must be constructed to access the next node level.
Plotting: Plots are areas where buildings are placed manually in any unique shape. There is no fixed grid in Civitas, the player crafts the grid. Creating every plot by hand can be a bit tedious. You can plot buildings much quicker now with the new selection menu that automatically generates the plot area when placing your building of choice. There’s also a way to automatically snap new plots to existing plots. Overall, building a city is quicker!
Resources: Civvies will harvest resources from the landscape when you instruct them to do so.
UI is WIP The user interface has been completely overhauled, and now the in-game menus display Resource and Population data, Tools, and more.
Map View: Zooming out of the world will enter the Map View, a top-down view of the city, where plots and roads can be placed.
What is currently NOT implemented or planned to change while we are working in Early Access:
Fewer Bugs! The number one goal of this play test is to squash as many bugs as reported.
Road Tool Overhaul This system is leftover from our original prototype, and we’ve been meaning to overhaul it entirely.
Wall Tool We need to design a way to construct walls far easier than currently placing each segment.
Progression Balance With feedback and statistics, we will optimize the progression rates.
Multiple Cities Per World The ability to load a new world tile and construct new cities.
City and Capital Levels Increasing the prestige of buildings and the style closer to Tudor and Renaissance-era architecture.
Intercity Trade With multiple cities in your world, having the ability to trade resources automatically with others in the same world.
World Generation Improvements Two major features of world generation that we would like to implement include heightmap import and manual heightmap creation.
New Biomes Support for tropical, desert, arctic biomes and more!
Mod Support! We want to open the game up for new content by the community, with full mod support.
What is planned to come as paid DLC once core features are implemented:
New Eras and Cultures: Ancient Rome, Feudal Japan, China Dynasties, Indigenous Americas, and more! Each DLC would come with an entirely new set of architecture, progression and biomes to support the theme.
Community-made content: We are open to releasing community-made content as paid DLC if there is enough value built in!
Since we are a self-funded indie studio, our Early Access launch is critical to help gain enough development funding to keep us going. Your feedback will help us attain this goal! So please don’t hesitate to post comments and suggestions about how you feel the game is at the moment.
Play Test Preview Broadcast!
Hello, Civvies!
We are very excited to present a preview of the upcoming Play Test for Civitas.
Prior to launching into Early Access, we will run a play test via Steam that anyone can sign up for to test the game and give us feedback. This help make our launch smooth as silk.
Check out the broadcast on our Steam store page, and please add Civitas to your wish list!
Demo Removed... For Now...
Hello Civvies!
We have removed the Civitas Demo on Steam, as the game has completely changed based on player feedback and implementing more of our vision for Civitas. In the coming months, we will initiate a Play Test for the public to try the game before our Early Access launch.
Production on Civitas continues to move forward, with lots of action happening behind the curtain.
A quick summary: progression system is implemented, resources are implemented, Civvies are implemented and now gather resources and construct buildings! Our art style has been finalized and every single building has been updated. The landscape material has been fixed and revised. The Boro system has been overhauled, so plots will now group together automatically when three adjacent plots are created. The Map View has received an art pass to resemble an antique map feel. All of the above features will be revealed in the coming weeks!
This month, we plan to make a significant partnership announcement that ensures Civitas will grow to its full potential. In the meantime, please join our community on Discord and follow us on Twitter!
Civitas moves forward!
Steam Next Fest
Thank you to everyone who gave the Civitas demo a try, and especially to those who added the game to your wishlist! Through the NextFest event, we more than doubled the total number of wishlists for Civitas.
We received validating feedback from our community that indicated we are focused on the areas and features that players are looking for. A progression gameplay mode is in high demand, along with resources and Civvies to make the maps come alive. These are our top priorities to bring into the game in time for our launch into Early Access (more on that below).
Funding support from Ontario Creates
Sharp End Studio Inc. is proud to announce that we are receiving production funding support from the Ontario Creates Interactive Digital Media Fund. This is an incredible opportunity to sustain development throughout our planned Early Access period in 2022.
Early Access launch date now June 2022
As a result of the two factors mentioned above, we have decided to keep Civitas in development three months longer until we have attained the features that will enable our launch into Early Access to meet player expectations. As a startup with limited funding, by necessity, we scoped Civitas features to meet an earlier launch date. Now that we have secured funding to continue development, we will implement in-demand features and increase our marketing presence in the lead-up to Civitas coming to market.
Re-broadcast of livestream
We are continuing to loop the pre-recorded broadcast from our Next Fest livestream to help players learn how to play the game.
Livestream Repeat
Join creative director Andrew Spearin in this pre-recorded livestream to learn how to play Civitas and hear about future plans! With guest team members dropping by to chat.
Pre-Recorded Broadcast - Learn About Civitas!
This is a recording of the livestream by creative director Andrew Spearin on Feb 22, 2022.
We will replace this recording with our upcoming livestreams coming on Thursday and Saturday!
Thanks for watching. Please direct any questions to the Steam Community.
