As promised, we are happy to let you try Foundation’s upcoming 1.9 Update before its official release.
Starting right now, you can opt into the public playtest on Steam and have a taste of what the team has been working on for the past several months. You will find detailed instructions on how to configure your game further below.
Update 1.9 marks a significant milestone in the development of our medieval city-building game. We encourage you to play on the Clergy progression path, as it is the most advanced in terms of narrative and unlockables out of the three available Estates in Foundation.
Here’s some highlights from Update 1.9:
The Monastery monument (from the Clergy Estate) has been significantly enhanced. There are plenty of new functions available, including a Hospitum (to host visitors), a Scriptorium (to produce Manuscripts, a new resource) and Nun Dorms to which you can concede female villagers for the first time!
Monuments can now have sub buildings. For instance, you can build a Chapel inside your Monastery, or a Great Hall in your Manor House, both made from multiple parts. You can also switch the functions of sub buildings at will should you require so.
Progression in Foundation has been completely redone. At the beginning, you will unlock buildings from a common progression path, then you will have to choose which of the three Estates—Labor, Kingdom or Clergy—you want to invest towards.
The economy has also shifted dramatically from being market-centric to now relying heavily on taxation. You will have to build a Tax Office, assign a Tax Collector and strike a balance between filling your coffers without tanking your global Happiness factor!
You will notice that narration plays a bigger role in Foundation than ever. Indeed, we’ve added a large number of interesting events and opportunities, ranging from hosting fairs to improving trades with neighbors and much, much more. In that same regard, players will feel they have more of a say as Lord/Lady thanks to the addition of more extensive narrative choices.
Edicts and privileges let you bend the rules in your favor. The former are laws you enact for your village, while the latter are special ‘gifts’ handed out by Estates to their most loyal followers.
Onboarding quests will help new and returning players alike get their bearings. Of course, you can choose to skip them altogether!
How can I participate in Foundation’s Update 1.9 Public Playtest on Steam?
Open the Steam client
Right-click on Foundation
Click on Properties
Click on BETAS
Under Select the beta you would like to opt into, choose preview
Launch the game
We hope you have fun while you give this update a go! Feel free to discuss the update here on Steam or on our official Discord channel.
Coming Soon: Update 1.9 Public Playtest!
Hi Steam community! Today we have awesome news to share with you.
For the past few months, we've been hard at work on Foundation's Update 1.9.
We are happy to confirm that you will be able to participate in a public playtest starting next Monday, September the 19th.
This will be an opportunity to explore several new gameplay features and overhauled mechanics, including:
Taxation
Sub buildings
Progression paths
Estate system with trade-offs
Narrative choices
Edicts and privileges
Village Aspirations
Onboarding
And more!
Stay tuned for more details as the public playtest draws closer!
Update Preview: Edicts & Privileges
Hello everyone!
Progress on our next major update (1.9) is going at a steady pace and today we have yet another new feature to delve into, so let’s get started!
While overhauling the progression system—one of our priorities for 1.9—we have thought about new ways to reward your efforts after investing time and resources either in the common progression path or towards specific Estates.
We also wanted the unlockables to feel impactful and add a new layer of decision making to the game. This is how edicts and privileges and technologies came to life, each influencing the inner workings of your village.
Edicts are special laws you can enact in your village. More often than not, they have a negative tradeoff you should be aware of, which adds to the weight of your decisions. Reaching new progression tiers, which is achieved by raising your Prosperity, will let you enact even more edicts.
Edict examples:
An edict that double minerals production but halves food production
An edict that halves serfs’ comfort need but reduces their taxation rate
An edict that refunds half of the tools spent after completing a construction but slightly raises construction time
Privileges let you bend the rules of the game and reflect how well you are doing with a specific Estate—be it Labor, Clergy or Kingdom. As you gain Splendor for each Estate, you will be granted various benefits that will make your city-building experience that much more immersive…and fun!
Privilege examples:
A Labor privilege that allows you to develop your splendor with another estate at half the net splendor penalty
A Clergy privilege that adds a new taxation type, the Tithe (revenue with churches), and you will get a share of it
A Kingdom privilege will half the normal territory recurring fees
At the moment, the number of edicts and privileges you can have at once depends on the progression tier you’ve reached either in the common path or with a specific Estate.
We hope this preview has you pumped about the future of Foundation. More details about the evolution of the 1.9 update and the availability of a public playtest will follow soon.
Playtests for Update 1.9 Are Underway!
Greetings Foundationeers! At last we have some news to share with you concerning update 1.9!
We are happy to confirm that since last week, we have started two waves of private playtests for the new update, with more waves to follow.
The 1.9 update is one of our most ambitious updates yet, with many improvements to the core experience that represent the culmination of what Foundation is about.
The private playtests will be followed by a public preview phase—accessible to all—during which we’ll also assist modders to transition their mods toward update 1.9.
We can’t wait for you to try out what we have been working hard on these last few months. We’ll keep you posted once we have a target for the release.
In the meantime, know that the team is pouring its heart out to deliver you an update with the same high level of quality that you expect us to deliver.
Rejoice: The Steam Summer Sale 2022 Is Finally Here!
Hi everyone!
Once again this year, we are pleased to celebrate PC gaming with a great discount for Foundation.
Starting right now and until July 7, 2022, enjoy 25% off on our game.
It's time to scratch that itch to play a different kind of medieval city-builder. Create unique-looking villages bustling with life. Customize monuments and thrive as you optimize supply chains. It's our own twist on the genre which offers you a serene experience based on organic growth...and freedom of action!
Have fun!
Update Preview: Your Progression, Your Choice
Hi everyone and welcome to a new sneak peek of our upcoming update.
With Foundation 1.9, we reworked how players progress through the game. There will now be a common progression path, which is divided into different tiers just like Estates. Each tier—and its accompanying core buildings—will be unlocked once specific score thresholds are met (Prosperity).
Alongside our new common progression path, players will also be able to dedicate themselves to one or more of the three available Estates (Kingdom, Labor or Clergy). Essentially, what this means is that players will get to experience Foundation in a very different and meaningful way. This is also part of our plan to further encourage replayability.
Say for example that a player dedicates himself or herself to the Labor Estate. In this case, the gameplay will revolve around a careful balancing act between happiness and taxation. As progression is made, new taxation options will become available, thus rewarding players with features that feel right to them.
One thing to keep in mind is that dedication to one Estate makes it harder (but not impossible) to make progress with another’s.
We hope you will enjoy the added depth to progression systems coming up in 1.9. Player agency is something we believe helps create better, more immersive games. This is one of the few steps we are taking to achieve that goal with Foundation. Next time, we will cover a new kind of unlockable that is sure to spice things up!
Foundation’s Spring Sale Is a Go!
Hello Lords & Ladies!
This is a public service announcement to let you know Foundation is now available at a discounted price.
Grab it now to enjoy a sweet 20% reduction.
Create your own medieval village in this unique, gridless city-building experience which is based on organic growth.
We can't wait to welcome new players to the game. Have fun!
Update Preview: Live Long & Prosper
Hello everyone! Today, we’re back to give you more details about what’s cooking with Foundation.
Back in March, we introduced our new taxation system. This time, let's leave economics behind for a moment and discuss another new feature: Prosperity.
Starting with content update 1.9, Prosperity will replace the current progression system, which is based on growing and promoting your population. It will be something that feels much more in line with your own choices. For example, a small priory relying on trade will be able to progress as much as a village promoting its own population, or a village relying on war efforts.
By raising your Prosperity, you will reach common unlockable tiers, similar to current Estates Unlockable Tiers. These unlockables will give you access to new common buildings and functionalities within Foundation.
The Prosperity score will be based on various core game mechanics. These include:
Population
Commerce
Territory extent
Splendor
Beautification
That’s it for now. Next time, we will talk about how progression paths are evolving with 1.9 and why they will dramatically change the way you play.
Update Preview: Taxes for All
Welcome to the first of multiple preview posts dedicated to our upcoming 1.9 content update. Today, we would like to focus on the new taxation system that will be added to the game.
We are indeed reworking the way your villagers will generate revenue. Your market won’t directly generate revenue anymore when villagers purchase food or goods. Instead, you will be able to tax villagers. Preserving their happiness will be the key to efficiently tax them, so providing them with what they need from the market will keep playing a central role for revenue.
Be careful though as each building will have a maximum amount of taxes it can accumulate. You will need enough tax collectors to get your hands on all of this precious money!
Lastly, you will have control of the taxation rate of your villagers. Know that if you ever feel too greedy, the happiness of your villagers will be negatively affected!
The Midweek Madness Sale is Live!
Hello everyone!
Steam's Midweek Madness is live right now.
For a limited time, we are offering a 25% discount on Foundation.
This is the perfect opportunity to discover our medieval city builder :)
