Genre: Point-and-click, Racing, Real Time Strategy (RTS), Simulator, Strategy, Indie
Godus
Coming Soon: A Brand New Land
Today, we’re going to give an early look at what’s right around the next bend for Godus, including: a mysterious new tribe, herds of sheep, a massive hidden treasure, an enormous Ark… and an entirely new world for your followers to inhabit.
There were many of you who, after dealing with the Astari (either through destruction or benevolence), were curious about whether that was all there was to see, or if there was more to discover elsewhere in your Homeworld. Also, what about that last expansion shrine? Is there nothing left to do after unlocking it? As it happens, there will soon be much to do after unlocking that very last shrine. So what exactly will we be adding in?
Well we’ve got this notion that we’d quite like to sail the ocean. This is where the Ark comes into play. Some of you early players may even remember there being a large unreachable boat all the way back in version 1.3. That model, eventually, got used for Voyages. For the Ark, however, we took a look and deicided “we’re going to need a bigger boat”.
So let’s take a look! (Please bear in mind that the following screenshots are only mock-ups; the final in-game version will have at least 6.8 times as much awesome.)
Unlock that Beacon and hey presto, you’ll suddenly have access to this brand new Ark! Well, perhaps ‘brand new’ is a bit of a stretch. It seems the Astari weren’t exactly doing a good job of maintaining their Ark over the years and it appears to be in shambles. Typical Astari, too busy partying.
Getting the Ark to be seaworthy is a monumental task and will take an unprecedented amount of workers to restore it to its former glory. However, worry not, just like with everything else the more builders you have the faster the process will be. For the Ark, you’ll be able to leash up to 500 followers to work on it at once.
To begin repairing the Ark, you’ll need to amass as many builders as you can manage and once they arrive on site they’ll immediately begin working hard on the repairs. You’ll also need ore to reinforce those repairs and, of course, you’ll need crops both for the build and for the daunting journey ahead.
Commit enough builders and resources to the task and before too long you’ll have an entire Ark to call your own. Once finished, you’ll be able to stock it full of Followers.
You can fit up to 500 of them into the Ark at one time but if, for whatever reason, you feel compelled to only send a handful you can do that too. Just be aware that you may need all the help you can get when establishing your new civilisation across the waters.
After filling (aka, cramming) your Ark full of followers, you’ll be able to embark on a quest to new lands!
A whole new world
Welcome to Wayworld. Wayworld, as it happens, will be a much harsher and challenging environment than you or your Followers are used to. It will also have different visuals and overall aesthetics. Instead of trees there’s now a vast desert of cacti. Instead of rocks there’s now mounds of sand and dirt. It’s a less forgiving landscape than your Followers will have ever experienced before, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t beauty to be found in this strange new world.
Although seemingly barren, herds of sheep roam the land in search of grass and water. Springs of water will help fertile land grow. Every few days, the water levels will rise and the lowest desert lands will flood. So while it might seem a challenging land, it’s one that is far more dynamic than any land your Followers will have visited before.
Unsurprisingly, however, the Astari seem to have beaten you to Wayworld. There are now two separate Astari tribes to contend with. The Astari also seem to be up to something this time, as rumor has it that they’re hiding a rather massive treasure of some kind.
What’s more, there’s a third tribe on this land; a tribe that is far more sinister and devious than the Astari. In short, Wayworld will introduce a number of interesting new additions:
A vast desert landscape with cacti and sand.
One area type that’s best for crops and another area type that’s best for abodes.
Super abodes and super Settlements.
Two Astari tribes hiding a massive secret treasure.
A mysterious new, more sinister and more devious, third tribe.
Roaming sheep (to be used in conjunction with a future Settlement).
In addition to an entirely new land, there’s also many more abilities and abodes that you’ll have access to. Most of this is still being developed and worked on so be sure to keep the usual caveat in mind: things may get tweaked as development continues, but by and large this an overview of the additional abilities that we’re planning for Wayworld to include:
New God Powers
Comet
Dig Down
Level 3 cliff sculpting
Level 9 and 12 sculpting upgrades
Sculpting sand generates Belief
New Shrines <*>For example, a Shrine to collect all the Wheat or Ore in a given radius
New Abode styles
Sand Abodes
Grass Abodes
Mountain Abodes
Frontier Abodes
Monasteries
New Abode ranks
Sand Ranks 5 & 6
Grass Ranks 5 & 6
Mountain Ranks 1 & 2
New Age Stickers & new Buffs
We will be adding a new set of stickers and buffs to compliment the new Age.
Also, if after spending some time in Wayword you find yourself pining for the Homeworld fjords, worry not – the Homeworld is just a menu button away. You’ll be able to return at any time to manage your Homeworld’s Followers, continue any sculpting projects, and collect resources. However, be wary: Wayworld is so far across the ocean that any resources you collect in Homeworld won’t be available in Wayworld.
Until next time
We’re pretty darn excited about Wayworld and it is, we assure you, just one step of many in making GODUS a more dynamic (and, dare we say, delicious) place to play and engage. Thank you all for going on this crazy development Ark with us and we look forward to seeing you all in Wayworld.
Version 2.2.1 Now Available to Download on PC & Mac
Over the last few weeks, we’ve been working on completely overhauling our save game system for Godus on both Steam and iOS. This will prevent players from losing their progress or running into problems recovering their saves in future.
Today, we’re rolling out these fixes for all Godus players on PC and Mac, along with a few new bits of gameplay content too.
New Gift & Swampland!
We’ve also implemented a brand new Gift to help boost the Happiness level of your Followers – take a look at our totally tropical Tiki Torch!
That’s right, swamps are no longer just the preserve of your godly abilities but now appear organically within your Homeworld as well, adding an additional layer of challenge when commanding your Followers to spread out and explore the land.
Changes in v2.2.1
Please find below the full list of changes and fixes found in Godus v2.2.1 for PC & Mac.
New content:
New Tiki Torch gift which can be placed and turned on and off by selecting,
Swamps added to home world
Swamp tutorial
New 5000 Belief card available in the Exchange
Fixes:
Save Game fixes to prevent crashing on recovering a save and to minimise save corruptions.
Build time for Voyages of Discovery Temple reduced.
General performance optimisation.
Please be aware that you may have to restart Steam in order to download the new version of Godus.
NOTE: If you have a bug to report or some feedback to submit please take a look at the Submitting Feedback and Bug Reports thread. Also, please be sure to take a look at the Known Issues thread for the latest information on issues the team are currently investigating. Thanks everyone!
As always, we would love to hear your feedback, so please feel free to speak up in our official forums, or if you’re feeling especially community-spirited then why not lend a hand expanding and refining the Godus wiki?
We are continuing to work on developing new content, features and functions for Godus and we look forward to updating you on what’s up next in our pipeline very soon. In the meantime, we thank you for your belief and patience.
Since releasing Godus v2.1 last Friday we’ve had a lot of really useful comments from the community (as well as more than few support requests, too). This week, we’ve been hard at work implementing a ton of changes based on this feedback.
The update, released on Steam today, includes a bunch of exciting new cards, new gifts and some important bug fixes.
New stuff:
New Gift: Flag - allows you to put a flagpole in your world to increase happiness and look cool. (more flags to come!)
New Gift: School of Fish - Fish can now be placed in the sea.
New Card: Statue of Belief Collection - added, enables you to store some belief when you're not there to pick it up.
New Card: Tree Buff - The tree buff upgrade card further increases the amount of belief produced by
abodes in the vicinity of trees.
New Card: Super Follower Boost - Boost your followers even more, making them work harder and longer.
Fixes:
Stopped campfires being created on top of gem seams and granite
Fix for rock colours being wrong in some situations
Fix for part of the fountain tutorial not appearing.
Destination button in events now only appears if there is at least one event to pick from.
Happiness and gift balancing
Fixed some tooltip locations
Reduced Astari Fire damage, to fix bug with them being too easy to kill
Tree of joy springs up out of the floor rather than being dropped
Gems only rewarded after all followers have climbed pit of doom steps
Fix to prevent temples ending up in the water whilst sculpting
Tweaks to happiness for homeless followers
During leashing tutorial leashes, will only be accepted if they end on the layer of the temple itself or the one under it.
Removing rotation snap back
Balance file changes
Settlements with courtyards now allow followers to go back home
Minor colour tweaks to trees and beautify
Fixes to Mac audio when sacrificing followers
New splash screen text
Revised colours for trees on various landscapes
Coming soon – mod our balance files!
Probably the most frequently requested changes we make to the game by the Steam Early Access community and our Kickstarter backers is that we reduce the wait timers for Godus on PC and Mac.
In the spirit of collaboration with the community, we will be implementing a major change to the way we set our balance files for all aspects of Godus.
In the near future, we will be providing you with the ability to manually set many of the values within the balance files for yourself. We will then collate your feedback with the intention of making global adjustments to Godus on PC and Mac based on your collective contributions.
You’ll be able to access the balance file values form with the settings menu:
A simple interface will allow you to set these values however you wish. Want everything to be built instantly or to have Belief costs set to zero? Now you’ll have the ability to do so from within the game.
However, what we really, [I]really[/I] want you to do is share your edited balance files with us and let us know how and why you think your changes make the game more enjoyable.
We’re hoping there’s consistency in your replies, but we’re also aware that people will want to play according to their own preferred play style.
It’s here that your feedback will be vital to help us understand why you’ve made particular changes. So, be bold! Be detailed! And please don’t skimp out on any of the more juicy parts to your reasoning.
Introducing Godus’ new, improved Settlements for PC & Mac
Last week we released the hotly anticipated Settlements revamp for PC and Mac to the main branch of Steam. It’s worth mentioning up-front that this will require you to restart your game, however the upside of that is that you’ll get to play our rather charming new intro sequence, first described here: What are we working on right now?
In this video, Fabs (of 22can's coding group) takes time out to tell you all about how he got started in the games industry, why he chose to throw his lot in with the 22cans team and what it's like to work for Peter Molyneux.
Fabs also describes his favourite aspect of Godus as well as the parts of the game of which he's the most proud, plus he reveals his all-time favourite game that he likes to play when not up to his neck in complex code.
Enjoy!
http://youtu.be/0Fks4fl3-TY
Contribute to the Godus wiki for loot and glory!
One of our major goals with Godus is to connect players from all walks of life and of different gaming backgrounds together. The principle way we want to do this is in Godus is with Hubworld… but we’re a canny bunch (even if we do say so ourselves) and that’s not the only trick up our sleeves.
If you take a close look at the row of social media icons at the top of our website, you’ll notice a new addition on the right-hand side…
This is all thanks to our fantastic friends over at Gamepedia who host what is now the official, definitive Godus wiki!
Of course, wikis are only as good as their content and that content needs to be kept up to date… and that’s where you come in.
We’re on the cusp of releasing the biggest and bestest update for Godus yet – the Settlements revamp we’ve been coyly talking about on our blog and in the forums for the last month or two – and on its release, a lot of the articles on that wiki will be rendered as little more than historical curiosities, relics of a bygone era when the game was in its infancy.
So, we would like you – our passionate, knowledgeable community – to assist us in bring the Godus wiki up to date. Not just for Godus on PC either, but also for the mobile version too.
We will be scouring the wiki on a regular basis and those who contribute the most interesting, informative and helpful articles will receive signed Godus merchandise, like the kind you see below:
If you think your particular wiki contribution is crying out for our attention, then get in touch! Drop us line via Community@22cans.com and we’ll take a look and see if it’s truly prize-worthy (chances are, it will be – we’re a soft touch like that).
If you’ve never edited a wiki before, don’t be shy! You can visit the Gamepedia Help Wiki, a great resource for both new editors and even experienced editors looking to hone their skills. You can check out the pages for Basic Editing and Formatting to get started today. You can also get in touch with the Gamepedia staff through their IRC Channel or by e-mailing community@gamepedia.com.
It’s Peter’s desire to create the most cooperative, collaborative and communicative group of players for any of his games yet, regardless of platform, so you can expect to see further initiatives like this in the future.
New forums and Facebook for Godus on mobile
Facebook page update for Godus on PC/Mac & mobile devices
We’re looking forward to the worldwide release of Godus on iOS – we’re so close now we can smell our servers sweating with anticipation – and to support the forthcoming launch, you’ll also notice a change to our Facebook pages. In future, our 22cans Facebook page will be the home of the PC, Mac and eventually Linux versions of the game, as well as for any company announcements. Meanwhile, the Godus Facebook page will be the home of mobile version. This is to allow for any differences between the two versions as we continue to develop the game for both PC and mobile devices and also help prevent confusion as to what version we’re talking about when we’re providing tech support or sharing new videos and screenshots.
That’s it for now – we’d like to close by thanking Ben Robinson and Benjamin Tarsa of Gamepedia for all their help with the Godus wiki and to say we’re very much looking forward to seeing all your wiki contributions!
Meet the Team #3: Peter Molyneux, Lead Game Designer
In this video, games industry legend Peter Molyneux (22can's Lead Creative & CEO) takes time out to tell you all about how he started making videogames and the changes he's seen over the course of his career, the reasons behind his decision to set up 22cans and the working atmosphere he's fostered, as well as what makes the studio's approach to development so unique.
Peter also describes his favourite aspect of Godus as well as the parts of the game of which he's the most proud, plus he reveals what games he likes to play and how he likes to relax when not dreaming up his next brilliantly bonkers idea.
...oh and there's another cheeky tease right at the end for all Godus players looking forward to our forthcoming Settlements revamp update. Enjoy!
http://youtu.be/besM4KvsRc8
Coming Soon to Godus… New & Improved Features
As you’re no doubt aware (especially if you’re amongst the forum regulars with whom we speak on a daily basis), the forthcoming Settlements revamp is actually a much bigger, more involving update than just fixing the issues previously outlined in this article on our blog..
Today, we’re sharing details of just a few of the visual improvements on which we’ve been working over the last month-and-a-half and we’ll be following up with details about some of the new features and functions soon.
In this video, Gary Leach (22can's Lead Game Engineer) takes time out to tell you all about how he got started in the games industry, why he became a founding member of the 22cans team and what it's like to work with Peter Molyneux and lead our posse of programmers.
Gary also describes his favourite aspect of Godus as well as the parts of the game of which he's the most proud, plus he reveals his all-time favourite game that he likes to play when not up to his neck in complex code.
...oh, and there's another cheeky tease in there for all Godus players looking forward to our forthcoming Settlements revamp update. Enjoy!
http://youtu.be/e48PMUV6bFA
Meet the Team #1: Paul McLaughlin, Art Director
In this video, Paul Mac (22can's Art Director) takes time out to tell you all about how he he got his break in the games industry and why he came to help set up the 22cans studio. He also describes his favourite aspect of Godus as well as the parts of the game of which he's the most proud, plus the kind of games he likes to play when not slaving away creating gob-smackingly beautiful bits of art.
...oh, and there's a cheeky tease in there for all Godus players looking forward to our forthcoming Settlements revamp update. Enjoy!
