Genre: Real Time Strategy (RTS), Simulator, Strategy, Indie
Imagine Earth
Game Update 1.17
Dear all,
Before we finally get down to finishing the long-awaited Galaxies DLC, we're serving you one last polish update today. And it's definitely the last tidy-up before we can manage entire galaxies. You wouldn't believe how happy we are about it ( as they say in German ). But as you can see, some important and fundamental things are being straightened out here.
As always, please let us know what you think of all this and don't spare us your ideas and suggestions. It's great that you've all stuck with us and Imagine Earth for so long. Oh, and as a small indie studio, it can't be said often enough. If you haven't written a review yet, you should definitely do it, it helps our game tremendously.
But now have fun with Update 1.17!, Jens & Martin
Switch off voice output
Finally you can choose between voice output, radio noises or complete silence. I personally can forgive the professor for speaking so strangely slowly, especially since the dubbing was so expensive ;D. But voice acting is basically a matter of taste and many people prefer to read and listen to music, especially if they don't understand English.
Game speed
We have built a tutorial into the game that allows you to freely set the time faster and slower, because we have noticed that many people get bored in the game before they realize what extensive control they have over the game speed.
Reset campaign
You can now reset the campaign completely. Of course, you will lose all your progress and savegames, but it's worth the chance to start from scratch!
Security Complex
We have improved the abilities of the security district because some of you found it too superfluous. It no longer creates a negative atmosphere and protects surrounding warehouses from pirate looting. Martin also felt the need to formulate the description of the building in a more positive way ;D
Quick start button
There is now such a button in the competitive and endless game, so that you can quickly colonize a planet without a lot of configuration work.
Building production
We have limited the basic supply of item-generating buildings to a maximum of 5, because we have noticed that sometimes a lot of superfluous items are generated, which players are annoyed to have to sell. Although this is an okay extra income, it somehow doesn't make sense for the game experience.
Music enhancement
When the mission is completed, the enthusiastic success music no longer comes too late, but in time with the dialog and the fireworks. We have optimized the transition of the background music, previously when a threat occurred, the atmosphere seemed to be interrupted and always started again when the danger was over. We've also made sure that the music in the campaign menu is continuous and doesn't constantly restart between planets and galaxies.
Diplomacy
Mood for gifts now improves immediately, sometimes the context was not clear.
Warnings
When you are informed about disasters in the message panel, you can now click directly on the message to jump to the event.
User interface
It has never bothered us, but we have received a lot of feedback about it: When you click on buildings, the information no longer hangs out of the screen. A few modifications make it possible and the camera also pans a little when you click on a building too close to the edge.
Mission corrections
Planet Edora
Fixed: When taking rare resources from a supply capsule on planet EDORA, the number of rare resources available for sale decreases and can go negative.
Planet Bora
Fixed: The landing sequences of the other factions are also skipped on this planet Fixed: The goal "Make fire with the pyramid" stops too many mission hints if you don't fulfill it.
Planet Rounos
Fixed: With 2 new building types, the tech panel opens automatically, but the buildings are not highlighted. Fixed: Leen gives us the financial district, builds it next to him, but you never realize that, he has to get a mission icon.
Bugfixes
Workshop animation when crafting works again If you go to the stock screen with a tool on the cursor, for example, the sell option is not available Item Trader never has room to buy anything City Energy Shield disappears when leveling up and is not centered
Ocean Day Sale
WDC World Ocean Day Charity Sale
We are excited to announce that we are supporting WDC, Whale and Dolphin Conservation for World Ocean Day! The WDC World Ocean Day Sale starts today and runs until 15th June, 10am PDT 2024, and you can save a fin-tastic 55% off Imagine Earth. We will also donate 20% of our net profits to WDC to support their conservation work.*
Who is WDC?
WDC, Whale and Dolphin conservation is the leading global charity dedicated to the protection and conservation of whales and dolphins. Their expert-led teams in the UK, Europe, the Americas, and Australasia work across the whole spectrum of threats, from climate breakdown to accidental entanglements in fishing gear. They bring together, and work hand-in-hand with, businesses, philanthropists, scientists, NGOs, governments and grassroots communities to find solutions to the problems faced by whales and dolphins. Their aim is to reverse the global decline in whale and dolphin populations by creating safe seas for these majestic creatures. Entanglement in fishing gear, or ‘bycatch’ as it’s known, is the biggest threat whales and dolphins face. Many hundreds of thousands die in nets or get tangled up in fishing gear every year. As air-breathing mammals like us, when they get trapped in a net, panic can take over and they can sustain terrible injuries before either escaping, or suffocating. It is a massive problem and so WDC are working on some innovative solutions.
What WDC has been doing so far
WDC have been working across the globe to protect whales, dolphins and porpoises from dying in fishing gear:
They’re collaborating with creel fishers in Scotland to trial new types of fishing gear to reduce entanglements of humpback and minke whales.
They’re working with colleagues and partner organisations in the Central Baltic Sea to develop a recovery plan for a critically endangered group of Baltic harbour porpoises.
On the west coast of the United States, critically endangered North Atlantic right whales are facing extinction. Entanglement is a massive threat to their survival, and WDC have been working with fishers to trial alternative gear types.
Imagine Earth is now available on macOS
That's basically it.
The headline says it all. After Imagine Earth came into Early Access 2014 it’s now today finally available for Mac players. We hope it runs without any unwanted surprises, please try it and let us know what you experience.
Maybe we have some funny record in game development in terms of time spending again ;D.. Of course I wanted to write an epic history for this special moment about the weirdly long development odyssey but to be honest it's far from over…
Not only is there a DLC..
ready to be released as far as the game is on all platforms. Also tomorrow Imagine Earth will be landing on Switch and Playstation!
Please have a look at the brand new game trailer on the store page!
Well ...it's still uploading but i don't have time for that. I'll fire out the news right now ;)
Also check out the cool new cover art
we made for our climate crisis city builder survival thriller! Have good rest of the day! Where ever you are on this little planet.
Greatings, Jens & Martin
Earth Day Donations
Happy Earth Day, Humans🌍!
Today all proceeds from Imagine Earth are donated to reforestation!
The game is also part of the Earth Appreciation Fest starting at 7pm. You'll get 30% off & 10% are donated all week long. You'll notice the banner on top of Imagine Earth's store page as soon as it kicked off later today.
Yearly Impact Report
We document our efforts to generate real world impact with this game project in the annual impact report. Check out what we achieved last year.
Mac Release Date is May 9
Also big news for us: Imagine Earth will release on May 9 for Mac on Steam, Switch , Playstation 4 / 5. Wishlist now!
1.16 Alien Signals
Dear colony managers, we have continued to improve the global management system, but have also found and ironed out a few bugs.
Radio Noises
When characters speak, the voice output is sometimes missing because we have added new content to the game since the dubbing. The replacement sounds no longer sound like talking backwards, which irritated many people. Instead, they sound like real radio interference.
Holographic Projection
We've also added a fancy holographic projection effect. When characters radio in and out.
Building Debris
Damaged and destroyed buildings now emit a rain of components that have been loosened by the explosion. I don't know if anyone noticed, but they were rocks ;D
Cancel actions for items
You can now only cancel item processes with a quick right-click, so that you don't accidentally deactivate them when moving the camera.
Bookmark Panel
Descriptions of buildings are now displayed in the bookmark panel. A planet icon is now displayed outside the construction area.
More Improvements
Warehouse Auto-Harvest remains off when you move a building or build new ones.
Visualizing pause play time more clearly
A guide to user interface, controls and handling. Big thanks to MB for writing a detailed explanation of the interface and all its elements!
Bug Fixes
Merchant pays more for landing permit than he takes
Satellite Hub: Positioning of the satellite
Upgrades are shown in tool ring of foreign cities
Multi-talent achievement does not work
Generated planets have slums
Fish trawlers "being flooded"
Wrong text for explanation of "Indoctrination"
Typo: "Idea bomb" instead of "Ideon bomb"
Tuto landing cutscene broken
Bangka Island cannot be taken over
Explosions from last game no longer stay on the planet after loading a savegame
Mission briefing in pause screen when message is locked
Game rarely hangs in the challenge menu
Error in temperature calculation
Update 1.16.1
Fixed Nootila faction not having audio voices in the faction selection for a new game
Fixed trade panel speakers moving their mouth without actually speaking
1.15 Planet in Crisis
Dear Space Colony Managers,
A lot has been going on behind the scenes in the last few months, we've been working hard on console versions of the game, constantly improving it in many details and carefully fine-tuning proven features. At the end of this update post, there's also a preview of new features that we plan to deliver with the next versions and DLCs in the first half of this year.
Ocean coloration
If the world is on the brink of a climate catastrophe, this is now also reflected in an unhealthy coloration of the oceans.
Land degradation
The reduction in fertility due to soil pollution and harmful environmental influences is visualized even more clearly by the change in soil texture.
What you can also see in this picture are piles of garbage that players can recycle to earn money. These will play a major role in another new game mode called Transformation. Here you are presented with a planet that is already built up with a civilization that is unfortunately already threatening to tip over into a climate catastrophe. You have to try to rebuild it in such a way that it lasts and climate change is stopped.
Moving instead of demolishing
You can now only demolish neighborhoods if you still have enough living space for the population in other parts of the city. This sharpens the perception that these are people and that their lives are something worth protecting. In inhabited districts, the demolition option is now called relocation and can only be triggered if you have built enough modern apartments for your residents to move to.
This will also be of great importance in the Transformation game mode, where you will find outdated and dilapidated slums with little space for people and high energy costs and pollution.
New button for complete campaign reset
To be able to start the campaign from scratch without having to create a new profile, there is now a new Reset Campaign button.
New space backgrounds
There are a number of new space backgrounds for the new Open Space game mode, as you start in a completely new, procedurally generated galaxy. Although this game mode will be released as DLC, the Competitive and Endless game modes will also benefit from this with fancy new start screens.
Improvements
New more open look for the selection ring
New info box style
Prices for tech & research are now fixed instead of being dependent on trade on planets
Population loss is no longer so blatant and fast when the mood is very bad
City Center now only has living space for 50,000 colonists
AI opponents no longer land right next to each other at the start of the game
Xrathul: Damage to the ship also reduces resource hunger before departure
In challenge mode, the ranking on the current challenge planet is now displayed instead of the eternally identical mission description.
Automatic savegame name also shows last activated quest
Back button no longer triggered by right mouse button
No more icons in the pause screen
Lousy performance of fireworks and GameOver explosions improved
New models of fishing boats optimized
We noticed the boats recently because we still had 3D models that really looked almost 10 years old, now they are adapted to the modern style of the game.
Gamepad control
Right stick not only jumps to cities but also to events
Show left shoulder button icon directly on research button if stock trading is not yet available
Tab symbol is no longer displayed for Cities
Preview - Exentensions
For the Open Space DLC, we have been building extensions for some time that can be unlocked so that they are automatically added to every new city center. The whole thing works like a long-term meta-game with which you can improve the working conditions and technical progress in your colonies mission by mission.
Bugs fixed
Trader landing animation hangs
Help dialog hangs over the store menu in the campaign
Streets are faded out too early
Colony value is wrong directly after loading a savegame
No more congress invitations after mission end
Journal hotkey flicker
The Open Space DLC is in production and will be released in Q2 2024. Here are all the details.
Update 1.14.3
Fixed merchant sometime not arriving at all, when a single spaceport is blocked by other traders. E.g. this lead to a quest not being started in the Joma mission
Fixed birds sometimes flying through mountains or buildings
Fixed crash related to birds
Fixed incorrect number of competitors displayed for workshop planets
Fixed dynamic resolution now working anymore, related to problem with linux version
Update 1.14.1
Fixed roads fading out too early.
Bird Watching
From now on you can watch birds in Imagine Earth. Soon, more species will surely be sighted. And then we also assign them a central role in the ecosystem or global simulation of our planet. I'm still not sure if they are the right size or if it's a pity that you never get them really close in front of your lens. For example, it was quite a challenge to take this one snapshot for the update.
Editor improvements
In the editor, the land grab button was overlaid by the purge tool, so you couldn't expand your colony in that mode. Also, when creating new planets, you can now again predefine the difficulty level a player must master of your planets! Would be very interested in how accessible you find the editor as such, would it be more exciting for you if you could play multiple planets in a galaxy map or would it be more interesting for you to be able to script complex missions with a story told by voice actors in dialogues?
New building textures
We have created new roof textures for coal-fired power plants, industrial farm and organic farm. All buildings should create a better visual balancing act between post-industrial look and futuristic appearance. At the same time, the new textures of the roofs should visually connect them, so that they also fit with the quarry and the forestry farm. They now look more like you would build these buildings if you landed on a new planet in a capsule and wanted to provide basic supplies for your colony. I personally feel the style is a successful mix of steampunk and post-industrial age, what do you think?
Icons for tree species
The nine tree species of the third vegetation type, which we have affectionately christened Thicket, now have individual icons that make them more recognizable when planted. Thicket tree species grow on wasteland and frost type planets, these worlds offer the most exotic plant life next to mushrooms and terrestrial forests, check them out to see how appropriate they seem to you.
More Features & Fixes
Pause and select button icons were still displayed in the build menu, but did not work.
Display category and building icons/buttons in build menu with equal spacing at the same height
Cas in cities do not jerk anymore
Optimized build process makes updates easier
As always, thank you very much if you had the interest to read this far! Jens & Martin
Hotfix 1.13.1
Fixed graphic errors in transparent building elements, e.g. when placing a new building or in the shield of frontier towers
