I'm excited to announce our newest regular update, version 0.6.7! In this update, I've added various new game mechanics, animations, quality-of-life improvements, and bug fixes. Thanks to the feedback that many of you have shared with me privately and here on Steam, I was able to find various places where improvements could be made while making the game more fun.
If you haven't had a chance yet, please consider supporting the development of Creo by becoming a Patron on Patreon.
Funds received from Patreon go towards the development of Creo, such as by paying artists to create more game art, having our composer write more music for the game and more!
Without further adieu, let's hop right into the newest update!
The Arrival of the Ancient Willpower Fragments
Long ago, the ancients of Creo created curious tablets infused with powerful willpower. They would use these tablets to power their ancient machines, while also using them to transmute matter to whatever they needed. Over the years, these fragments became buried under the ground of Creo, but sensing your presence as the new Creostrider, they've begun to rise from the ground. Collect these ancient fragments to grow your power, gain valuable resources, and unlock powerful ancient technology!
Willpower Fragments are a new gameplay mechanic I've added that performs (and will perform) a variety of functions, such as:
Will allow the player to gain resources (gold and metal) at any time if one is found and clicked
Will help prevent the player from accidentally soft-blocking themselves in the early game
Will be collected and used as a form of currency to unlock certain ancient technologies that will add big improvements to the resource management of the player's city
Will be used as a target resource to collect for quests
These new fragments will appear regularly around the map, and it's up to the player to find them. At any time, there are no more than two fragments on the map. Additionally, these fragments only exist for three minutes, after which they disappear, opening a slot for another to appear elsewhere on the map.
Placing Buildings Now Create Building Supports
Several members of our community have asked for some sort of indicator to show where buildings have been placed that are under construction. I certainly agreed with the suggestion and went forward and created 34 unique voxel model construction supports for each structure in Creo.
These supports appear to show where buildings are under construction, but additionally, they also appear when buildings are being repaired. Though this a purely a quality-of-life improvement, I love the look of them, and would love to hear all of your opinions too!
Buildings Can Now be Rotated by 45 Degree Imcrements
You read that right: no more trying to gently rotate buildings to get the perfect angle! You can now hold the shift key while pressing the building rotation buttons to rotate buildings by 45 degrees! This was another solid community suggestion, and I was more than happy to get it added in since it makes things much easier.
In a future update, I plan on adding 45-degree angle snapping for roads as well, so you can have straight roads too, and set up solid city grids!
What's Next
As I've mentioned in the previous update posts, I want to keep a regular cadence of updates every 2-4 weeks. For the following update, I've been thinking about a few items that I think I would be able to accomplish in the update timeframe:
An updated inspiration/tech tree, with more of a shop feel. I would like to have unlockable techs and items where some are useful, and others are purely aesthetic but can be placed to customize your city!
The addition of cosmetic city items, such as placeable trees, parks, fountains, benches, etc.
The creation of a new quest system, where a handful of new quests will be created, such as collecting a set number of Willpower Fragments, getting to a certain population, etc.
A new Large Willpower Well, so that players don't have to build so many small wells
I'm trying my best to make time in my evenings to work on Creo, and your support has been crucial to my work on the game. Please, if you haven't yet, support the development of Creo God Simulator by becoming a Patron on Patreon.
Funds received from Patreon go towards the development of Creo, such as by paying artists to create more game art, having our composer write more music for the game, and many more ways.
Any amount helps tremendously, and I deeply appreciate any support for our game. Thank you all again for taking the time to play Creo: I look forward to continuing to make it an outstanding gaming experience!
- Esteban
Creo Changelog for Version 0.6.7
Big Changes
Added new Willpower Fragments game mechanic - up to two of these ancient relics spawn in the world lasting up to 3 minutes, and if found and clicked, will give the player willpower and either gold or metal. This is to prevent softblocking in the early game, and will have lead into additional gameplay mechanics in the future.
Added construction supports that appear when structures are being built or repaired: this is to help better gauge what things are being built.
Added ability to snap rotate buildings by 45 degrees by holding left shift key and pressing rotation buttons.
Small Changes
Added lumberyard sound effect.
Updated images playing in the main menu background slideshow.
Added a new section in the tutorial covering building construction, and how it can be accelerated.
The main Creostrider Plaza now provides 10 additional population capacity.
Added ability to pause game speed in-game.
Fully opening the pause menu actually pauses the game, rather than making it run in very slow motion.
Bug Fixes
Major bug fixed where upon loading, certain villager jobs would be filled multiple times over, exceeding the workplace's job's open limit.
Major bug fixed where when turning 70, retired elderly villagers were not being registered as retired in their workplaces, and would still take up a slot even though they were not working.
Fixed bug where rain collider was messing with villager colliders unnecessarily.
Fixed bug where homes under construction would still apply their addition to the population cap before finishing construction.
Fixed bug where saving and loading were broken due to the timescale being 0 during a pause.
Fixed bug where clouds and rain clouds would spawn outside the bounds of the map.
Fixed bug where the player couldn't resume the game from the pause menu after tabbing out of/unfocusing the game window.
Fixed language bug where god power willpower costs were incorrect in Spanish.
Fixed a small typo in the tutorial.
Update v.0.6.5 is Here
Creo's Newest Update
Hey there Creostriders! I'm excited to announce Creo God Simulator's newest update: version 0.6.5. In this update, I've added several new game mechanics and improvements, namely:
A new construction system with a new construction workshop building
Replaced the old 2D pixel-art villagers with physics-enabled 3D villagers
Added Autosave option in addition to allowing saving during disasters/events
The full changelog will be listed below, but overall, a rather large set of improvements was added to Creo in this update. I have all of you Creostriders in the Creo community to thank for the outstanding feedback, bug reporting, and game improvement suggestions you have all shared with me on our Steam Community pages: it is because of this direct insight and feedback from you all that I can make a better gaming experience, so thank you!
The Rise of Creo God Simulator
Honestly speaking, in the last few weeks, I've been shocked by how much our Creo community has grown and how many new Creostriders are out in the world playing my little game. To put it in perspective for you all: more people have downloaded and played Creo in the last two weeks than have in the last 3 years... Yes, I'm shocked by this as well! There are thousands of new players who are providing me extremely useful insight into how I can improve the game, and what they would like to see.
Creo's Patreon Returns!
Because of this incredible growth of our game community, I'm excited to announce the re-opening of Creo God Simulator's Patreon page and community. Many of you have personally shared an interest in supporting the development of Creo more deeply, and so I'm opening up our Patreon page to help generate some money that I can use to accelerate the development of Creo.
I'm planning on using funds generated by Patreon to:
Work more with talented graphic designers to create beautiful loading screens, concept art, and user interfaces
Have several more original songs written for Creo, adding to our already extensive soundtrack which you can check out on Spotify!
Hire an additional part-time programmer who can help me complete my tasks a bit faster, and accelerate our momentum toward the full release
Hire a writer to help me create a more cohesive lore/world for Creo God Simulator
If any of these things sound exciting to you, please show your support for Creo by joining our Patreon community! There are various Patreon rewards as well, and I'd love to add any additional Patreon rewards the community would want.
I'll now go over several of the new changes I've added to Creo God Simulator, many of which were directly inspired by your suggestions and requests!
New Construction System
As I continue moving forward with my overall vision and roadmap for Creo, one crucial aspect of the game will be having buildings be built, rather than simply plopped down. This new feature will allow you to build a Construction Workshop, which will employ builders and more rapidly build new structures.
Additionally, you can use your Willpower to speed up building construction by simply hovering over a building under construction! Along with this change, there are now building limits applied to certain buildings (specifically, on the construction workshop for now). Having limits to the number of specific buildings you can place opens up a new avenue in the gameplay loop for Creo: building limits will be able to be increased through unlockable upgrades and rewards.
Villagers Physics (Villager go boom)
As part of my overall effort to make Creo more fun, I've decided to make villagers 3D, in addition to adding physics to villagers. I plan on adding more God Powers in the future, such as the ability to pick and move around villagers, tornados, etc. I want to make the world of Creo much more interactive, and I believe this is a solid first step as I move toward that goal.
Added Saving During Events and Autosaving
One of the most common requests the community has made in the last few weeks has been an improvement to Creo's saving system, which I wholeheartedly agree with. Because of this, I've now made it so:
You can save during disasters in the game (for better or for worse)
There is a save confirmation dialog now, to prevent accidental saving
There is now an autosave option in the game settings, which will save the game automatically every 15 minutes
What's Next?
I've got a big vision for what the next update will be. As I've thought of how to make Creo God Simulator a more fulfilling and enjoyable gaming experience, I realized that I would like to make the main Creostrider character a controllable, in-world character. This will open the door for me to add numerous new gameplay mechanics, such as:
Giving the player the ability to harvest resources on your own, with no need for structures (early game)
Allowing the player to move around the map, and interacting with ancient monuments which will grant technologies, powers, and resources
Giving the player more direct abilities, such as a convert power, which will convert villagers within a small area around the player
Many, many more
So in summary, the next update will hopefully contain the beginnings of this new gameplay mechanic, with all of the logic and new features that will go with it.
If you would like to follow the development of this new feature, among many more, please hop on over to our Patreon page to unlock exclusive development content, in addition to being able to have voting power over future features, improvements, and more.
As always, I'm deeply grateful to you all for all the support and kindness you have shown me as I work on my game, and I look forward to providing you all with an awesome experience. Please feel free to create Steam Community > Discussions if you have any questions, concerns, bug reports, or suggestions. Keep on smiting Creostriders!
All the best, Esteban
Creo Changelog - 03/10/2024
Big Changes
Added new building limits mechanic - certain buildings have a maximum number of structures placeable (only applies to construction workshops currently).
Added autosave game option in the settings menu (autosaves every 15 minutes).
Added ability to save the game during all disasters excluding earthquakes. Fires, swarms, and other disasters will save when game is saved.
Added villager physics to respond to explosions and god powers!
Replaced villager 2D sprites with 3D villagers - this was due to game design limitations with 2D sprites.
Added Construction Workshop - allowing you to hire builders who can automate construction process.
Added new building system - all buildings take time to build. This can be accelerated by building a Construction Workshop or by hovering over the building under construction.
Small Changes
Added Ultrawide (5420x1440) monitor UI support.
Added a save confirmation dialog when clicking "Save Game" to prevent accidental saving.
Re-added Patreon support button on the main menu to help fund and accelerate development.
Added ability to build buildings using willpower by hovering over a building under construction.
Improved the effectiveness of the rain power by detecting all event objects in a vertical pillar up to the cloud, rather than a sphere at the floor.
Added new tutorial sections stating where the number of available workers can be found, in addition to a new tutorial section that teaches camera movement.
Added mining sound effect to metal mine.
Updated build/effect area projection method to not project on terrain mesh - improved performance dramatically when many projectors are active.
Updated villager logic to reflect changes in villager design and physics.
Added explosive force physics to the meteor and lightning god power.
Added UI elements to show when buildings are being built, or when construction is paused.
Upgraded saving/loading system in the game, which should make adding new building types/building functionality much easier in the future. *This breaks all prior saves unfortunately*
Updated building selection outline to not show silhouette, only outline.
Improved navmesh accuracy for all building models.
Bug Fixes
Fixed info icons still showing if "show info icons" was deactivated.
Fixed bug where the delete load confirmation dialog was not removing itself if another menu was selected.
Fixed a bug where fires that destroyed a building were never removed from event lists.
Patched exploit where small altars under construction would still have their build area available before completion.
Fixed bug where prayer icon collision shape was too small to click.
Fixed bug where rain clouds' sphere collider would interfere with villager pathfinding.
Fixed bug where buildings could be placed overlapping other buildings under construction.
Fixed bug where clicking on the prayer icon above villagers did not work. Updated villager prayer icon to have its own collider.
Added work area projector to water well, which was missing for some reason.
Fixed bug where windmill collision checker object would trigger Repair buildings scan, which should only work on placed buildings.
Fixed bug where a player was able to quit during the saving process.
Fixed Spawn Trees god power not spawning trees in the exact position the player selects.
Removed a bug in the load menu where deleted slots were still being checked and triggering an error.
Progress Update - Dev Diary 1
Hey there, Creostriders!
Yes, it's me, the sole developer behind Creo God Simulator. To get things cleared up, the development of Creo is indeed in progress. There certainly has been a large gap of time from the previous update, and I wanted to thank you, and the over 50,000 Creostriders, for your patience, suggestions, and reviews of the game so far.
The purpose of this first dev diary is to help bring you all up to speed on the progress I've made with Creo, on the upcoming large content update, and on the future release of the game, so let's hop right into it!
Where have you been?
I wanted to get this question out of the way first. As many of you know, I graduated from university earlier this year. Shortly after graduating, I was extremely fortunate to get a stable job as a product manager at an AI startup. I've got a wife, several children, and a tail-less cat to help take care of.
My job has proven to be extremely demanding, and though I've learned a tremendous amount in the space of project management, AI, and innovation, my time to dedicate to Creo has been very limited.
I'll be honest with you all, during these times when I haven't worked much on Creo, a deep part of my mind was troubled: it's as if an integral part of my being was neglected. Call it what you will, but for me, Creo has been my creative outlet, and is certainly the magnum opus of my life. I've been working on Creo for 5 years, and have spent thousands of hours on the game.
In recent months, I couldn't neglect this part of my life any longer, and taking much of what I've learned in my job in regards to project and engineering management, I'm trying my best to establish a regular pattern of work on Creo in the late evenings, when my kids are in bed and I've got a few hours of freetime.
I'll be working on Creo using a new sprint structure: meaning every few weeks (2-3), I will try to release a game update or at least a progress update if the content is too much for one sprint. I'm hoping doing this will create a more regular pattern of progress, and will help you all feel more informed as to what's in the pipes for our little game.
The Future Release of Creo God Simulator
As I've resumed work on Creo for a few months now, I've explored the possibility of re-releasing the game for purchase on Steam. I would like to hire a few individuals to help with the development of the game, but need to have the game generating revenue in order to fund faster development of Creo, so that it can be finished in a reasonable amount of time.
Unfortunately, I recently realized that I had made a mistake when I made the game free while in Early Access on Steam. According to Steam developer guidelines, once made free, an Early Access game cannot charge for purchase until it's out of Early Access and fully released.
This means that I need to fully release Creo God Simulator, out of Early Access.
The full release will not be the finished version, rather, it will be a solid base for continued development. Here are a few notes surrounding the future full release of Creo God Simulator:
Though I'm not certain of the date yet, I would like to put a rough estimate of re-release in Q4 of 2024, perhaps around October or November.
I'm thinking of a US$ 11.99 price for the full release version of the game.
The full release of Creo will have significant improvements to the game, including Steam achievements and trading cards, additional god powers, quests, and disasters, and a clear path to "beat" the game.
My biggest focus on Creo will simply be making it more fun, and making it more satisfying to play. This means I'll be working on improving the gameplay loop, and adding in more mechanics to make your average play session more fun.
Progress Update - What's Being Added
As you can see in the GIF above, I've been making some pretty significant updates to the game. I'll list some of the large updates being built out during this sprint, which should be pretty significant:
- Added Physics-Enabled 3D Villagers
While I was playtesting my game, I felt that previous 2D pixel-art villagers—while certainly being charming—were really lacking a certain "oomph" when it came to their presence in the game world. Previously, destroying them simply made them disappear. I fixed this by replacing the 2D villagers with 3D ones. This allows me to make them have much more realistic physics applied to them, and I'm talking about destruction physics. Additionally, replacing them with 3D villagers added a slight performance improvement to the game as well.
- Added New Building Construction System
As seen above on the right, there is a new Construction Workshop building which is necessary in your city in order to build structures. Your skilled builders will get right to work building any new structure you've placed in your city, and there will be upgrades you can unlock that speed up construction of your new buildings.
- Various Bug Fixes and Small Changes
In addition to the several significant changes I'm making to Creo, there's been numerous bug fixes and smaller updates made to the game. Here's a selection of changes from my long list of updates which will be released in the next update:
Updated build/effect area projection method to not project on terrain mesh - improved performance dramatically when many projectors are active.
Upgraded saving/loading system in game, which should make adding new buildings types/building functionality much easier in the future. *This breaks all prior saves unfortunately*
Improved navmesh accuracy for all building models.
Added explosive force physics to the meteor and lightning god power.
Fixed bug where prayer icon collision shape was too small to click.
Added work area projector to water well, which was missing for some reason.
Fixed Spawn Trees god power not spawning trees in exact position player selects.
Building the World of Creo - Step by Step
Progress on Creo continues, and now in a more organized and regular fashion. I'm looking forward to communicating better in the future to keep everyone in the loop.
I really want to thank you for your patience while I've been building Creo God Simulator. I'm not a perfect developer, and I make mistakes, but I really do want to build something awesome and fun. So please, continue to build your cities, smite your villagers, and share Creo with your friends as we continue building out the Creoverse together.
All the best, Esteban
The Reignition Update
Back at it Again!
Hey there all you Creostriders! I'm excited to announce that Creo God Simulator is back in active development after a long hiatus.
As many of you know, Creo God Simulator is currently being developed by only myself. For the last few years, I've been getting my university degree. To be frank, the university was much more challenging and intensive than I initially assumed, and I was severely limited in what I could accomplish game development-wise. However, I'm excited to announce that this is my final semester, and I'm graduating with my degree in May!
This means that I will have much more time to dedicate to the development and growth of our game in the coming weeks, though I've already started ramping up development and updates, and am entering into a new daily routine where I work on the game regularly.
Upcoming Plans
Recently, I've had the time to plan out my vision for a "completed" version of Creo. Though I plan on creating a visual infographic progress map, I will list the crucial components I think will make Creo God Simulator an outstanding game:
An end game and story to the main game mode. I've been writing the lore behind the world of Creo, and part of this lore involves you (the Creostrider) building certain specific structures in order to unlock "waypoint" events, which will help you progress in the story.
Steam trading cards.
Steam achievements.
Several new structures and tiered production buildings (think a sawmill to create even more wood, or a large bakery to produce food more quickly).
Various new randomized events (I plan on adding at least one new event per game update).
Several new songs for our outstanding soundtrack.
Various new god powers that will help balance new game mechanics and events.
Because of the new focus being placed on Creo and its entering active development, I would like to let you all know that Creo God Simulator will now cost $4.99 USD to download and will no longer be free to play. However, please note that if you already downloaded the free version, I will not make you pay for it! Please consider it my gift for showing your support and playing my game while it was free! This price change will occur most likely be in 1-2 weeks from the date of this update.
The Reignition Update Details
This update contains various exciting new mechanics and features, not to mention a multitude of bug fixes and improvements. Please note that this update breaks all previous saves, so no cities prior to this update will be playable.
Randomized Event Improvements
Many of you have stated that negative random events occur far too regularly, and seriously impede your city's development. I completely agree! So, I've now modified the code to allow for both a positive and negative event timer. This means that positive and negative events are now categorized as such, and their regularity is now directly based on the map's difficulty you selected when you created the new world.
MOUNTAINS
That's right! Your maps can now have mountains dotting the landscape, adding beauty and challenge to your maps. Though mountains currently only take up space, I plan on adding buildings and mechanics in the future that use mountains.
And Much More...
This update includes a variety of other improvements and changes, so please feel free to try out the update and let me know what you think! I love seeing your city designs and screenshots, in addition to answering questions and hearing your suggestions on how to improve the game.
Big Changes:
Updated random event system so that negative events occur much less often than positive ones, and how often they occur is based on the map difficulty.
Added in mountains to the game - can be controlled in the world creation menu.
Added a new level of detail system which increases game performance significantly, especially when zoomed out.
Increased game performance overall through several system refactorings and rendering improvements.
Small Changes:
Cleaned and refactored the entire project, decreasing build and install size by 33%
Added villagers leaving if they are homeless.
Added villagers dying of old age.
Increased villager birth rate.
Added "Create migrant caravan" as a developer mode option.
Improved UI of the developer mode screen.
Attempted to add more contrast to in-game UI text (prayer answered/loot drop clicked).
Added text indicating the amount when loot drops are clicked.
Added particle animations to more buildings.
Removed Patreon link.
Changed game developer back to MKSM Design LLC.
Updated villager animators and billboard logic to not run when culled, increasing performance.
Updated other (clouds, buildings) animators to not run when culled, increasing performance.
Bug Fixes:
Fixed dev mode not disabling when the game is paused.
Fixed earthquake disasters killing more people than were available.
Fixed Creostrider Plaza placement object not despawning when the game is paused.
Fixed metal meteors, cat, and locust swarms spawning outside of the map area.
Fixed bug where willpower well placement could toggle housing construction.
Fixed wells not stopping fire extinguishing on their destruction.
Fixed meteor not destroying trees on collision.
Fixed repair shops not stopping repairs on their destruction.
Fixed "Buy" and "Sell" button text in the trade menu not translating to correct localization.
Major Balancing Update
Please note that this update breaks savegames, please read to the end to see how to still use old versions' savegames.
Hey Creostriders - You Spoke, and I Listened
Based on the reliable feedback and suggestions of the community, I've made a large number of balancing updates and bug fixes to Creo God Simulator. With the large number of players we now have experiencing the world of Creo, I've received a large number of insightful and helpful suggestions and bug reporting - I've done my best to address them, which I believe will improve your gaming experience dramatically!
Balancing the Game
A major facet of creating a resource-management game is nailing the balance between challenge and playability, which I admit needed a lot of work. Based on your feedback, I've made several balance changes that I hope will improve your next playthrough in your quest for the first 300-villager city.
Some of these updates include:
Reduced the cost of all structures by around 15-25% depending on the structure.
Reduced the cost of all willpower inspiration unlocks.
Increased the building resource refund amount when demolished to 1/4 rather than 1/6.
Many more balancing updates (can be read below).
Resource Creation Powers
That's right! After seeing the large demand for a solution to deposits/resources running out too quickly and being left with no resources other than trade, I've added in the ability to spawn forests and stone deposits! (To help improve resource balancing, I've also increased the number of resources stored in each forest/stone deposit/ore deposit, you can read more below).
I hope that you all make sure to use these new powers extensively, as they allow you to create new resources from Willpower itself. I've also got in mind several other randomized events that should help improve your access to resources.
Trade Menu Upgrade
I also saw a need to improve the previous versions' trade menu interface, which was not very clear and was at times confusing and unwieldy. I've updated it to allow for push-button amount increasing and decreasing, so you can quickly change the quantities of resources you are transacting, in addition to improving the clarity of the "Buy" and "Sell" icons. I hope that these changes make it easier to take advantage of the trading system!
Moving Forward
These are just some of the improvements I've made to Creo, though I'm confident that they will improve your experience overall. Please, let me know in our Steam Community if there's any additional bug or need for improvement - I try my best to respond to any earnest suggestion or report!
Coming up next, I've got in mind adding a few more game elements, especially structures that unlock certain god powers. These structures will be needed to "beat" the game, as I'm currently working on an "end game" of sorts, so that the Creo experience isn't solely a sandbox, though it won't be required to complete the challenges at all!
I'm still hoping to improve the balancing of the game, and adding gameplay elements and systems that make it a fairer, more balanced game, while remaining challenging.
On a personal note, I just finished my first semester back in University for my Electrical Engineering degree after being out of school for years - I was fortunate enough to do well and get good grades! I've got several years left in my degree, and I'm excited for all that the future holds.
Thank you everyone for your support and feedback for our little game. Please, continue to help me improve the game, and send your suggestions my way! And also, if you've been enjoying the game, please leave a positive review on Steam so others are encouraged to try it out as well!
Cheers!
- Esteban
PS. Here's a gif of our new vertically bobbing notification icons for your viewing pleasure:
Guide to Use Old Version Savegames
As I mentioned earlier, this update breaks previous versions' savegames due to me changing my company name. To continue to use your old saves from the previous version, please follow the guide below (this is for PC users):
Enable seeing hidden files on your computer.
Find the "\AppData" folder on your file explorer, generally contained in the "C:\Users\USERNAME" folder.
Click the "LocalLow" folder.
Click the "MKSM Design LLC_" folder.
Click the "Creo God Simulator" folder.
Copy all of the numbered folders (0,1,2,3,4,etc.), these contain your savegames.
Return to the "LocalLow" folder.
Click the "Aviodrone Robotics LLC_" folder.
Click the "Creo God Simulator" folder.
Paste the numbered savegame folders you copied earlier into this folder.
Your saves will now appear in the updated version of Creo God Simulator (V.0.5.5).
Version 0.5.5 Changelog
Big Changes
Added "Place Stone" god power - can place stone deposits at the cost of willpower - will add tech unlock soon.
Added "Plant Forest" god power - can spawn forests at the cost of willpower - will add tech unlock soon.
Large trade menu UI upgrade - can now increase amounts with pre-set value buttons + more easily readable.
Balancing - Reduced cost of all structures by around 15-25% depending on structure.
Balancing - Reduced cost of willpower inspiration unlocks.
Small Changes
Updated company name from MKSM Design to Aviodrone Robotics, to reflect company renaming.
Increased default wood resource amount per forest to 1500.
Increased default stone resource amount per stone deposit to 1000.
Increased default metal resource amount per ore deposit to 800.
Gave locust swarms a max lifetime, now they will simply disappear after 3-5 minutes.
Gave cat swarms a max lifetime, now they will simply disappear after 3-5 minutes.
Added small vertical movement animation to repair and extinguishing icons.
A destroyed building (not demolished) will not refund resources.
Increased building resource refund amount to 1/4 rather than 1/6.
Added Patreon link on the main menu.
Bug Fixes
Fixed Steam profile image not loading on game start in main menu.
Fixed bug where repair shop would not repair main plaza or large temple.
Fixed issue where demolishing buildings did not refund 1/4 of resources.
Patreon is Live!
Patreon is now live!
With the recent change to making Creo free to play, I wanted to allow any aspiring Creostrider to help support the game's development by joining our community on Patreon! I've added a variety of different support tiers with their respective rewards, and I look forward to posting exclusive content and polls on the Patreon page!
Contributions received from Patreon will help me continue the development of Creo God Simulator, in addition to:
Composing new songs to add to our original soundtrack.
Hiring additional engineers to optimize Creo's code architecture.
Contracting artists to create additional renderings, concepts, loading screens, and potentially artbooks for the game.
Many more Creo-related improvements!
I'm excited to see that even over the course of a few days, we've gotten thousands of new players and Creostriders-in-training to our ranks, and I look forward to continuing to improve and update our little game!
All the best, Esteban
The Willpower Update
The Power of Willpower
Hey there Creostriders! I'm excited to bring you Creo God Simulator's newest update: The Willpower Update! This newest update introduces several new game mechanics to Creo, specifically regarding the willpower resource and how it is managed/obtained. It also adds a few new buildings and other small improvements that I'll cover in this post.
The Prayer System
Yes, you read that right—your villagers can now have prayers that you're capable of answering. As a Creostrider, your goal is to help improve the lives of all the inhabitants of your town and Creo, and one of the greatest ways to do that is by helping answer the burning desires of some of your villagers!
You can easily tell which villagers have a prayer that needs answering by simply looking for a small blue flame above their heads: this indicates that they have a prayer in their hearts and are wanting an answer! Once you find someone with a prayer simply clicking on them will answer their prayer, and grant you with a randomized amount of willpower.
This mechanic has been added as a difficulty balancing aid in order to help you gain willpower faster while also keeping it random and not fully consistent—there may be times where many prayers will be available to answer, giving you plenty of free willpower, but there may also be times when barely anyone will have a prayer to answer!
Willpower Isn't Infinite!
I've been slowly developing the lore of the world of Creo—which I hope to one day formalize more into the gameplay itself—and I've come to realize that willpower is not some ethereal force that has no measure or value, rather, it is a physical force that must be conserved and used wisely.
On Creo, there is pure energy which the Gods have given mortals in order for them to reach them. This energy, when touched by a chosen mortal—known by many as a Creostrider—becomes obedient to the commands of the mortal, and can bend reality and perform incredible feats and miracles.
However, this energy we call willpower actually has a physical form: a light blue glowing liquid. Willpower being somewhat sentient must be contained within special structures that have been empowered and blessed to keep willpower in its place. These structures are simply referred to as willpower wells by many of the Creostriders before you. Though expensive, willpower wells are crucial in order to gain more willpower and unlock new technologies, powers, and continue on the quest to Godhood!
This all Sounds Cool, But Why?
A good friend of mine and playtester pointed out an extremely destructive exploit in the willpower system of the previous updates, in addition to helping see how the system was completely broken as you began to grow your city. We found that it was too easy to accrue the most important resource in the game, so I began thinking of a better way of balancing our special liquid power.
By making willpower a capacity-limited resource, and decreasing how often it is received from every second to every 16 seconds (or a season on Creo), it has become a much scarcer and more valuable resource. However, knowing how much more valuable it has become, I'm devising novel ways of being able to acquire willpower outside of just having your believers generate it.
I created the prayer system to be one solution to help balance it, but I plan on having other randomized events and situations that will give you willpower if handled correctly.
Overall, I believe that by making gradual improvements in balance and resource management, I can help Creo become a much more satisfying gaming experience, especially when you can create a successful and thriving city!
I'm excited to have many more people try Creo as of today, since the game is becoming free. I look forward to getting much more feedback on how we can improve the game, and how we can really create something special and fun. So please, leave reviews and reach out to me with helpful feedback and suggestions for what you would like to see in the game! And please let me know if you find any bugs or odd behaviors—I try my best to keep improving Creo as much as possible!
- Esteban
P.S. Here's a look at a new shop model I added in this update—I felt that the shops were all square, and we needed a long boi to balance things out.
Changes in this Update
Big Changes:
Added willpower capacity mechanic - players now need to increase the capacity of willpower storage available to them by building physical willpower storage structures.
Added villager prayer system - you can now click on villagers who have a prayer to answer their prayer for them. This will give you a randomized small amount of willpower between 20 and 100.
Balance - Modified willpower system to accrue every season (16 days). Each follower generates 1
(faith
0.0025) willpower / season.
Small Changes:
Integrated Steam API into main menu - will do more with this in later updates.
Added tutorial section regarding the new prayer and willpower capacity system.
Balance - Halved small and large temple's willpower production rate.
Load slots now sort by most recent save to oldest.
Added additional long shop model.
Updated copyright year under MKSM company logo.
Balance - Made it so only one instance of each power can be summoned at one time - this is to prevent power-spamming.
Bug Fixes:
Fixed bug where two instances of powers could be spawned at a time due to async issue in monitoring toggle.
Updated town background sound to remove discernable words in Español.
Fixed save slot rendering issue due to incorrect usage of sorting using Linq library.
Creo God Simulator Becoming Free on 9 March, 2022
Free you say?
That's right! After months spent considering the best courses of action for the future of Creo, I've decided that the best course would be to make the game completely free. This will enable many people who haven't gotten the chance to play Creo to join our community and play our game. Creo God Simulator will become a free game on 9 March 2022, so please take this into consideration before purchasing the game!
Why is it becoming free?
I will be completely frank with you, I have not been able to put the amount of time I have wanted into this project since I've recently started a new highly intensive degree program at a University. I am currently working on the next update, which will include several game-balance improvements, such as creating a "Willpower Capacity", and associated structures to increase that capacity. This will come in addition to various other improvements such as new buildings, events, and features.
I'm very excited to continue working on Creo God Simulator, but I feel that it is correct to make it a free experience. This does not mean that the quality of updates will decrease, or that production will stop. Production on Creo God Simulator will continue indefinitely, however, as it's been in development for so many years, I consider it a true passion project, and one that I plan on working on for a long time.
What can I expect?
As I stated above, the fact that Creo is becoming free in no way will affect the quality or regularity of the updates I've been posting. I've got various updates and improvements in the works right now, which I hope to release shortly, but I've also got a variety of other things in my life that command my time and attention. Frankly, Creo has not been paying any bills for a long time, and I've got to work and study in order to provide for me and my family - I sincerely hope our community will be understanding of this.
Creo will continue to be updated, you will continue to smite villagers and learn new god powers, and over time, I'm truly excited to see all the incredible cities you all will get to build. I know that one day, my work will be considered "over" for Creo, but today is not that day, and it won't be that day anytime soon.
Again, please take this update into consideration before purchasing the game. I am giving a 2-week notice to any potential purchases to simply wait until the 9th of March 2022, to be able to download the game on Steam for free, and to hop on this journey with us! Please feel free to direct any questions to contact@mksmdesign.com - I will do my best to answer them in the order received. Thank you all!
- Esteban
Holiday Surprise Update
Happy Holidays Creostriders!
Yes, it's really me! Yes, Creo is still in progress! I'm excited to bring y'all a new content update that adds a variety of new events, buildings, and other improvements. Before elaborating a bit more on this update, I'd like to thank those in the community who have been patient and understanding during this time of personal growth and change for me - regardless of whatever life tends to bring - good or bad - I always find myself being given direction and purpose thanks to Creo. We've really come a long way, haven't we? So thank you all for being a part of something that really helps me stay motivated and moving forward!
The Update
Loot Drops
The community has spoken - loot drops have been added to Creo! These fantastic little objects give you a random amount of resources when clicked, and appear when certain events are defeated or are created by randomized events. These new loot drop rewards really enable me to get creative with new events/powers, so stay tuned for some awesome stuff implementing these loot drops!
Improved Building Selection
I've reworked the building selection system, opting for a more visual method of outlining which building you've chosen. This color outline also makes it very easy to see area-of-effect structures, such as Lumberyards, Wells, and Repair Shops—as seen in the gif above!
Bibanat & Porcudu Ranching
World-building starts early, so what better way to begin creating the unique fauna of the world of Creo than by ranching it! The new Ranch building allows you to passively generate a constant stream of food, rather than the once-in-a-while nature of farms. Additionally, you get to farm the surprisingly aggressive Bibanat—a horned duck-like creature who is docile in small groups, but extremely destructive in large flocks—and its much calmer friend, the Porcudu—a wooly pig-like creature that's content to spend its days eating your villager's leftovers.
The Actual Small Temple
So, I may have made the original "Small Temple" a pretty large and impressive structure—a little too large and impressive. With this in mind, I created a smaller, more reasonably priced Small Temple which performs the same function as the original but has fewer priests. Additionally, the Large Temple now can be unlocked in the Inspiration Tree by researching the "True Discipleship" inspiration.
Metal Meteors
Another classic Creo dilemma: you're running low on metal ore, but you know you haven't experienced a random event in a while—do you wish for a potentially destructive meteor full of metal to come screaming down to Creo? Or do you wait your turn at the market? Well, lucky for you, I've made the decision for you! Metal meteors now can randomly fall down from the heavens anywhere on the map: and I mean anywhere... *We're not responsible for meteors crashing into the center of your city causing 500 damage to any structure in its blast radius*
Rain Storms
Running low on Willpower in order to water your crops? No problem! I've added randomly-generated rain storms that will periodically appear on the map and water anything in its path. They are generally harmless—there is a possibility that a rain cloud may create lightning along the way, but that probability is low (I hear it's around a 5% chance, but what do I know).
Conclusion
To summarize this update: new buildings, new technologies, new events, new gameplay improvements, and way more! I'm certain someone will find a new bug or issue with some of the wilder events I'll be creating/have created, so if you see them, please let me know in the discussion section of our Steam page! I'm very excited to continue working on Creo—here's a sneak-peek of what I'm eyeing for the next update (which I promise will be much sooner than the last one!):
Conjuration God Power - Ability to convert willpower into a random resource - risky, but potentially very profitable!
Trading Guild - a building that allows for a random resource to be generated, in exchange for gold.
Stonecrafter's Workshop - a building that generates gold from stone, thanks to all the amazing crafts the stonemasons will create!
Spontaneous Growth God Power - Ability to grow a small forest anywhere you see fit!
A whole lot more...
Thank you all again for continuing to be on this journey with me. If you've been enjoying Creo, please make sure to leave a review on our Steam page—it helps others see and experience our small game! And if you have any questions or suggestions, don't hesitate to reach out to me here on our Steam Discussions page! Have a great holiday season everyone!
- Esteban
Big Changes
Added new "Metal Meteor" random event, where a metal-containing meteor crash lands on Creo
Added the "True Discipleship" technology in the Inspiration Tree, allowing for the building of Large Temples
Added new small temple building, while also changing current temple building to be "Large Temple", which has many more priests but is a higher-tier unlock
Added new ranch building with two different animal types, Bibanat, and Porcudu
Added loot drops (wood, food, gold, metal, stone) for defeating certain events (locust/cat swarms)
Small Changes
Updated intro splash screen and decreased duration
Slightly improve town center spatial sounds
Improved rain/storm spatial sounds
Added rain clouds to game: can increase crop growth, but can also create dangerous lightning
Added 2 more shop models/building variations, bringing the total to 6
Added 2 more house models/building variations, bringing the total to 7
Removed Discord links due to server closure
Made loot drops inspectable with inspection tool, to see how many resources they contain
Added loot drop and selected building outline effect
Removed old 3D model of small trees from market
Bug Fixes
Fixed rain clouds not spawning out by the end of the animation
Fixed rain effect clipping through the map floor
Removed Creobrine
Fixed audio settings not saving correctly (mainly music and sound sliders auto-saving on game start)
Corrected typo in "Organized Religion" inspiration unlock description
Fixed navmesh placement issue on villagers where very rarely a villager would not be placed on navmesh surface
MAJOR UPDATE - V.0.5.2 - Spanish Language and Countless Improvements
Bienvenido a Creo!
Hey there Creostriders! It's so exciting to finally be able to reach out to all of you and let you know about our exciting new version of Creo - V.0.5.2! I've been hard at work for the last several months developing a myriad of improvements and changes to our beloved game, and with all the hard work being done, the time has come to release the update.
That's all great news, but where have you been for the last few months?
That's an excellent question, random stranger! If you all haven't noticed, I've been somewhat quiet about Creo's development for the last few months - this hasn't been out of laziness or me not caring about the game, I've actually been fortunate enough to co-found a tech startup in my hometown, and with this new startup, a massive new set of responsibilities and work were added to my plate. For the last few months, I was working a full-time development job, afterward, I would do a variety of work for our startup, and then I would make time to work on Creo.
I can't tell y'all just how cathartic it has been to work on Creo. With life being as crazy as it is, making time to work on Creo feels like coming home - it's my warm space where I can let my imagination run wild, and work on making an awesome gaming experience for all of you. So I would set aside time late in the night to work on the game - after my son was put to bed and all was quiet.
I recently left my other full-time job to focus on our startup, which has also opened up quite a bit of time for me to work on Creo! With this increased free time, I was able to wrap up a variety of improvements and updates for the game, in addition to squashing a variety of bugs! I'm excited about what's in the works for Creo, but enough about me, let's talk about this update!
What the update contains
A large part of my time was spent working on two massive undertakings for Creo - adding language localization support, and a huge refactoring of my code architecture. Adding language localization support has been something I've always wanted to add to Creo, but I knew that it would take me a large amount of time to update all of the code to support this (this was due to a terrible game dev decision made when I just started working on Creo - all you beginning game devs out there, make sure to add language support right at the beginning!)
I finally decided to bite the bullet, and after dozens of hours of refactoring, I've got Creo and my workflow updated to allow for various languages! I've currently added Spanish support since that's my native language, but I'm hoping on adding a variety of other languages as time goes on, so let me know which ones you would like to see!
I also drastically improved Creo's core programming structure, which will allow me to add buildings and new game features much more simply and quickly than before. The changelog for this update is very long, so I will post it below, but I will highlight the ones which I think you will be most excited to hear about:
Updated tree models to match the building's voxel style
Made a variety of UI improvements, including asking if "you're you want to delete your save" - no more accidentally deleted saves!
Improved the water animation quality (intersection foam, waves, transparency
The game now saves your camera's position, rotation, and zoom - no more having to load a game with the camera in a weird position
Dozens of other improvements and bug fixes
The future
What does the future hold for Creo God Simulator? Well, in the short term, I'm thinking about adding in a variety of new buildings, such as the trading guild and the tribute altar. I've also built about 75% of the new prophet spawn event - beware, though they might increase your believer's faith in you, they might also overzealously trigger disasters! I'm also going to be adding in a reward/loot drop system where when you successfully defeat/survive certain events, resources are dropped. This is being done to help prevent you from running out of wood/stone/etc. I've also got several new events in the work (we're needing many more positive events, to help balance out disasters).
I'm wanting to keep things a bit wacky at times, so please make sure to join our Discord server and let me know what randomized events you would like to see!
As a final word, I just want to thank you all for being so patient with my little game - I'm trying my best to make time to grow this game, and I know that we'll keep adding improvements and making it better as time goes on, just as we have been up to now! Hope you all continue to have an awesome summer - stay safe out there, and don't go casting lightning bolts too often!
- Esteban
Big Changes:
<*> Added language localization support (Spanish) <*> Game now saves/loads camera position, rotation, and zoom on save/load <*> Drastically improved code structure of all buildings, improving performance and making it easier to add/modify buildings
Small Changes:
<*> Made small temple generate a passive amount of willpower based on priests working at the location <*> Improved smite animation, added small crater when smiting area <*> Upon language change, a notification box will clear itself <*> Added confirmation box appearing when clicking on the "delete save" button to prevent accidental deletion <*> Updated load buttons UI to be more easily readable (moved save date) <*> Updated farm vertical position so that farmers don't sink too deeply into farm <*> Updated trees to match other game art (Breaks previous saves) <*> Added caret to trade menu inputs <*> Added language support to trade system <*> Added Spanish version of the tutorial <*> Improved selected building info UI (hp, text positioning) <*> Improved water quality (intersection foam, waves, transparency)
Bug Fixes:
<*> Fixed loading menu's save slots not showing correct incompatible version warning message on hover <*> Fixed main quest not successfully rewarding player upon completion <*> Fixed main quest icon triggering issues in different situations <*> Fixed meteor having choppy movement during fall due to not interpolating the position of rigid body <*> Fixed placeholder text appearing in inspiration menu when first opened <*> Fixed "Advanced training" technology appearing at the end of the inspiration menu <*> Fixed quality level not being rendered correctly in the options menu <*> Fixed camera pan not applying bounding limits - the camera will now limit pan distance <*> Fixed bug where roads could be built regardless if there are insufficient resources <*> Fixed roadbuilding exploit where short roads would cost no wood/metal. Resolved this by making any road cost at least 2 wood, 1 stone, 1 metal <*> Fixed bug where when workers died, they did not remove their filled role at their workplace <*> Fixed villagers death sound effects not outputting to correct audio output channel <*> Fixed typos in tutorial <*> Removed Creobrine <*> Fixed logic error where basic Market logic was being applied incorrectly due to a typo <*> Fixed birthrate error where more villagers would be born than population capacity <*> Fixed villager animation bug where working animations would be triggered on villagers that do not have working animations <*> Fixed camera issue not showing water transparency <*> Fixed building rotation being fps-locked <*> Fixed zoom speed being fps-locked <*> Fixed building menu not closing on right click for high fps machines
