Fixed a game freeze (and massive RAM consumption) when loading certain games. As a side effect, loading all games got a little faster - well, we'll take it ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Removed incorrect minus sign from number of required yaks when building is non-operational
Added some debug info for helping investigation a very rare bug when money balance just randomly jumps to +/- billion or some bizarre number like that
To see if you have the latest patch, check the ID of your current game version by holding Left Alt in the Main Menu. If it's not the latest ID, restart Steam - this will force it to detect the update.
Hotifx 3 (ID 13879)
Hotifx 3 (ID 13879) is now live!
Patch notes:
First balance tweak! Upkeep of Mr. Plow decreased from 50 to 25 (values for Professional difficulty, proportions are kept between all difficulties). When you have to use it, money is enough of a problem already :')
Thanks to debug info added to crash reports in the last patch, we was able to fix a crash related to sending resources to Trading Post / Lift Station Base, which was the most frequent one!
Cosmetic changes in a few English and Polish texts
Added even more debug info to help investigate some rarely occurring crashes (this have a potential to become a reoccurring theme)
To see if you have the latest patch, check the ID of your current game version by holding Left Alt in the Main Menu. If it's not the latest ID, restart Steam - this will force it to detect the update.
Hotifx 2 (ID 13868)
Hotifx 2 (ID 13868) is now live!
Patch notes:
Fix for a bug (which could even result in a crash) when building multiple mines one after another
Fix in objective text in the German version, where tech text was displayed instead of a proper name of the resource that has to be exported
Fixed for order of camera slots in key bindings menu
Added some more debug info to help investigate some rarely occurring crashes
Cosmetic changes in a few English and Polish texts
To see if you have the latest patch, check the ID of your current game version by holding Left Alt in the Main Menu. If it's not the latest ID, restart Steam - this will force it to detect the update.
Hotfix 1 just landed!
Hi!
We've just uploaded a patch (ID 13848) fixing some of the most common / critical things that were occurring to you since yesterday's launch.
Patchnotes:
Fix (hopefully) for a total game freeze caused by a bug in playing tutorial video clips
Fix for game crashing when launching a map, may not address all the situations, but should certainly help for many of them
Added a message box with info, that save files from demo version are not supported. Attempts to load them were causing all sorts of issues ^^
Automatically unpausing the game during tutorial when Academy is about to generate Research
Button "Show Advanced" hidden from difficulty selection panel (it's not implemented yet anyway ^^)
More debug info about game state added to crash reports, to help us investigate any possible remaining issues
To see if you have the latest patch, check the ID of your current game version by holding Left Alt in Main Menu. If it's not the latest ID, restart Steam - this will force it to detect the update.
Thanks for a great launch!
We'd like to take this opportunity to thank you for all the love, support and feedback we got from you since yesterday! We appreciate every single comment, Discord message and review, keep them coming! We want to know, so we can make informed decisions about how to shape our Early Access journey :)
Once again, huge thanks and happy mountaineering!
Quite OK Team
Surprise! Laysara is out today in Early Access!
Hello everyone!
It’s finally time to grab your yaks and head to the mountaintops! We’re so happy to finally tell you that Laysara: Summit Kingdom has just launched into Steam Early Access! We decided to pair it with a pretty sweet -20% launch discount - a higher discount won’t happen anytime soon, so, you know… :D
If you want to know what exactly the game offers on EA launch, scroll down to our last post explaining that in detail. You can also enjoy our brand-new trailer!
To celebrate the launch, we partnered up with our friends responsible for Timberborn and The Wandering Village - if you had those on your radar too, you can now buy all three games in a neat bundle (or just buy the ones you don’t have to “complete the collection” with a cheeky extra discount)!
What now?
We’re releasing into your hands tons of content never seen before in our demo or other marketing materials, so we’re dying to learn what you think! Please, do let us know, the good and the bad! This is not the end of the journey, we’re excited to work towards expanding and improving Laysara while listening to your feedback :)
Our future plans will be heavily dependent on your feedback, but we of course have a general direction in mind :) Therefore, we’re also sharing the first version of our Roadmap, so you can know right from the start what to expect in the future.
Once again - this is only the first version, we’ll adapt it after hearing from you :) The best place to talk about this and the game in general would be our Discord - everyone’s invited! But if that’s not your thing, don’t worry, we’ll be around in the Steam forums too :)
We also want to say a huge thank you to everyone who participated in our game testing, played the demo and shared their insight about the game so far - it means a ton to us and it truly helped shape Laysara to its current form.
And the most important question…
No, there is no way to rotate buildings in game :’) We explained the rationale behind that in one of our previous posts here, but long story short, each building 3D model is adapted to the angled mountain slopes, so adding a rotation feature would require us to make alternative 3D models for every building :’) As a micro-sized team, we just couldn’t afford it.
Bummer, I know - but on the other hand, it’s kinda fun to rack your brain and come up with optimal town layouts with that extra limitation. I’m 100% the objective person to tell you that, right? ;)
Alrighty, let’s wrap it up! We’re so excited to have taken this big step, and we can’t wait to keep improving the game with all of you :D
Thank you for all of your support so far!
Quite OK Team
Approaching Early Access launch
Hi everybody!
The time has almost come - after years and years of work, we’re really close to launching Laysara into Early Access! We can’t share the exact date just yet, but know this: we’re about to drop the big (and by that I mean BIG) news during the upcoming The Triple-i Initiative showcase, on 10th of April - alongside the brand new trailer, showcasing Laysara in the best shape ever!
In the meantime, we want to give you all an overview of what to expect from EA version of the game.
Laysara Early Access Features
From the launch day, Laysara will contain a set of core mechanics like avalanches, three ways of resource transportation, Summit Temple, and weather breakdowns. The game is heavily focused on managing resource production chains, so you’ll have 70+ buildings and 30+ resources to play around with. These building blocks create an engaging gameplay experience already, but we don’t want to just throw them at you and say: “Here, figure it out and come up with your own goals and objectives for playing this game” - we want to give you some proper game structure from the very beginning.
This is why we decided that all of our game maps (basically a mountain for you to build on) will be not only just maps but rather scenarios - each with a different personality, manifesting itself in simple, yet unique storylines and different objectives, which complement different conditions and characteristics of the mountains themselves. Let’s take a look at a few examples!
Talontop - a beginner-friendly map, not so huge, but rich with natural resources. Nothing crazy, perfect for figuring things out - but don’t take it too lightly, as even here you can easily end up with half of a town buried under avalanche snow if you disregard the danger!
Windslab - an enormous map with plenty of space for farming and expanding your settlement, but with no deposits of rock crystals and salt - therefore you’ll have to resort to trading sooner or later. It’s snowing almost all the time in here, so make sure to put up your best avalanche protection game.
Splintered Soul - this map is divided into two parts, the first of which is ideal for farming, but some resource deposits and rivers can be found only in the second part. Also, some resources can be produced with maximum efficiency only in certain mountain zones, so this map will put your logistical skills to a real test.
On EA launch, the game will feature six scenarios as described above plus one additional, smaller mountain serving as a tutorial to give you some basic understanding of the game.
And a final word about game modes: besides Standard game mode, you’ll be able to freely build all the best-looking towns you can imagine without worrying about the economy at all in Free Build mode. Additionally, we prepared a few Challenges for you, which are essentially puzzles: can you reach a certain objective under limited time and/or space? Beware, these are not easy. Be prepared for multiple attempts!
What will come next?
We have a few (alright, maybe more than a few) things in mind that we’d love to add during Early Access - the most important thing being a new game mechanic or two, and a Campaign mode for 1.0 release. But more importantly, we’ll listen to your feedback and adjust our plans accordingly - that’s the reason why we’re launching in EA in the first place :)
Alright, that’s about it - see you folks on 10th April! In the meantime, come say hi to our Discord channel and let’s finally start a new chapter for Laysara together!
Quite OK Team
Exploring game mechanics: Yaks!
Hello there!
Long time no see :) We’ve been pretty busy with development work (more on that at the end), but it’s about time we do another one of these posts highlighting how different game mechanics work in Laysara. This time, let’s bring yaks to the spotlight!
Yaks in the game’s lore
Yaks are domesticated wild oxen with shaggy hair, humped shoulders and large horns. They can survive altitudes as high as 6000m above the sea level and as such, tend to live on mountains and plateaus. Wild yaks are native to the Himalayan region, which is a huge inspiration for the fictional world of Laysara.
Remember our previous Steam News post about the three social castes in Laysara? Well, yaks are basically the secret fourth. They play an important role in both the economy and traditions. Citizens admire yaks and care for them, making them pets on the one hand, but hard-working and valued members of society on the other.
Applications of the Yakforce
As mentioned before, yaks are quite crucial for the economy. A healthy herd of yaks can provide your kingdom with two key resources: Wool and Milk. Wool is used to weave fabric, which surely is something your people will appreciate given the harsh mountain conditions. Milk can be used to produce Cheese, which is one of the most common food sources in the game, or can be churned into Butter. Butter then can be utilized for brewing Butter Tea and manufacturing Butter Lamps (yes, it is really a thing). So there are quite a few resource chains based on good old yaks, and I didn’t even list them to their full extent!
In the pre-industrial era, yaks are an irreplaceable source of power. Do you need these heavy grinding stones rollin’ to turn grain into flour? Or some way to operate huge bellows to make the furnace temperature hot enough to smelt Ornaments? Heck, maybe you even have to power a whole resource-transporting mountain lift to the very mountain peak? Yep, you guessed it - yaks can do it all!
That brings us to the matter of transportation. You see, you can put only so many bags on a human’s shoulders and expect them to still be able to walk. Using some clever technology, like carts, will get you further, but that’s still not a serious competition for yaks. They will happily deliver all the goods all the way to the second side of the mountain for a handful of feed and a friendly pet.
Last but not least, people just love to be around yaks. A perfect example of that is a Yaks Race (yes, this is also a thing - just google it, I dare you), which attracts people no matter their age or gender, as it’s just so entertaining and ridiculously funny.
Breeding yaks
Alright, there is no prosperous town in Laysara’s kingdom without yaks - I hope we all see this by now. But how we can be sure there are enough of our furry friends around to fulfil all of these various responsibilities we just described? The answer is, of course, yak breeding. In the game, three buildings serve this very purpose:
Yak Pasture
Doesn’t get any more basic than this! A Yak Pasture is just a patch of land with a bunch of yaks wandering around and eating what they find. That’s also the reason why this building gets less effective when you place it on higher mountain zones - less nutritious grass to consume, resulting in fewer baby yaks being born. All in all, a Yak Pasture gives you a few healthy yaks and that’s great, but it takes a ton of space and you’ll quickly start looking for an alternative.
Worth noting, Yak Pasture is the only building unlocked from the very start - you’ll need to increase your Research level to use more advanced breeding facilities.
Compact Yak Breeder
As you can see by the name, this building solves the problem of space by just having yaks tightly packed together. Not the most wholesome thing in the world to do, but you’ll have to compensate for the tight squeeze on our dear yaks by feeding them some high-quality Fodder. This building will provide you with over a dozen yaks no matter the mountain zone you build it in, which is great, but there is one more way to approach the task of having plenty of yaks.
Yak Utopia
This is basically a spa for yaks, with enough space, food and conveniences to make them breed at an optimal tempo. Utilization of Perfumes may seem extravagant at first, but just look at the yaks' happy faces and you won’t question it ever again. And, of course, tons of Fodder to make every single Yak Utopia’s occupant full and happy. One single building of this type increases the yak population by a few dozen, which is exactly what you need if you want to go big with your town’s design.
And that’s how you’ll interact with our furry friends in a yakshell!
Release date status
To be honest, we don’t have any new updates to share in that regard. However, we thought it was worth mentioning that our development work is coming along smoothly and nicely. We hit some really important internal milestones and are now focusing on the final stages of pre-launch development, like translations, bugfixes, optimizations and polishing whatever we can. We leave you with a vague early 2024 release window for now, but it won’t be long before we’ll be ready to make a proper update on that!
Thanks for sticking around and see you in the comments / Discord!
Quite OK Team
Release date and development update
Hi!
As we approach the end of 2023, we want to share with you some updates about our schedule. So, without further ado, let’s get straight to the point.
Despite our efforts, we won’t be able to launch Laysara’s Early Access this year and our new target launch window is now early 2024.
Delaying the Early Access launch was not an easy decision to make. We really want to release Laysara as soon as possible, but we realized we'll need some extra time to deliver a polished and complete experience on launch - there are only three of us, so sometimes things take longer than we'd like to :') However, releasing a solid game enjoyable for every city-builder fan out there remains our top priority, it'll just take us a little longer.
Development status
To give you some more insight into where we’re currently sitting at: Laysara is basically feature complete, meaning all the game mechanics are implemented and working as intended. Some mechanics are pretty much finished, and others require a little more polish and updated final assets. Of course, we’re also constantly playing around with the game’s balance, looking for and fixing bugs, and implementing various optimizations and improvements to our game systems.
We’re also working on creating multiple mountains with different features. These will serve as levels in our game and will give you a variety of sceneries to establish a thriving city in. We’ll probably write a separate post about them in the future to highlight what you can expect :)
We’re also constantly upgrading the visual quality of our game, to make it easier to immerse yourself in the world of Laysara. As an example, we’re in the process of adding new 3D models and custom animations of all the animals and workers!
We also regularly play the game together to review our progress, discuss if we’re happy with recent changes and decide / prioritize what else needs to be done. We’re working remotely from different cities so we usually do this during video calls, but recently we’ve met up to play Laysara together in real life - it’s been actually super beneficial to do this in person. Seeing each other face-to-face has been really nice :)
And that’s all that we’ve got for you today. We’re asking for a little bit more of your patience and going back straight to work - we’re looking forward to launching Laysara as much as you do, believe us :)
Thank you for all the support so far!
Quite OK Team
Exploring game mechanics: citizens’ satisfaction
Hello there!
It’s been a while since our last proper post about the game itself, so it’s about time to look into one of the most essential mechanics in our game: citizens’ satisfaction!
In Laysara, there is no such thing as a global happiness level - instead, every single household has its own satisfaction metric, showing you how its inhabitants feel. It is because you are supplying goods to the houses, and a house could be in the range of a service or enlightenment building, which is usually something that its dwellers desire.
The basic rule is simple - fulfil your citizens’ needs to boost their satisfaction level and upon reaching certain thresholds, you’ll be able to upgrade their housing. Upgraded houses can accommodate more inhabitants, which allows you to create more dense urban districts - which is something you definitely want if you care about efficiency :)
In-game house menu: so close! Fulfil one more need to unlock the sweet “Upgrade” button!
So, in order to make your folks happy you need to fulfil their needs. Needs are divided into three categories:
Food needs: This is pretty self-explanatory, right? Citizens need to live close enough to a Food Market with a steady food supply - the more diverse, the better!
Prosperity needs: People don’t just want to survive - they want to thrive! This means access to service and entertainment facilities (such as Baths, Inn or Yak Racing) and a supply of utility and luxury items from a Commodity Supplier.
Enlightenment needs: Spirituality is very important for Laysara folks! They crave access to a variety of enlightenment buildings, such as Shrines, Mandalas and Yak Guardians. Some even want to live in a Monastery Enclosure!
Needs are divided into three categories - you need some from each one!
To make your citizens happy you need to fulfil different kinds of their needs - everyone has to eat, appreciates having a moment to relax, and wants to spend some time reflecting on the ways of life. The proportions however differ based on folks’ background - their social caste (you can read about them more in our previous post here). Lowlanders really strive for Food variety, as a high-quality diet is crucial for physical labour. Artisans demand lots of Prosperity items and services because high living standards will motivate them to maintain their refined production jobs. And lastly, Monks seek a lot of Enlightenment sources - which kinda makes sense, right?
See these little grey symbols? It means that Monks living here require a lot more Enlightenment needs.
As you may have noticed on the screenshots, some needs are represented by smaller, and some by larger bricks. Well, that’s because some needs could be more desirable than others. Some fulfilled needs will cover two squares in the satisfaction progress bar (hence the double brick!), and some - only one.
The second part of the house menu shows you what folks living there want.
Let’s take a look at Lowlander’s demands - some of them are highly demanded (double brick), others are still appreciated, but not so much. But some needs aren’t there at all - Lowlanders are just not into Perfumes and won’t benefit from living near a Monastery. This means that the desirability of any given need can vary based on the caste of the house’s dwellers.
Food demands of Lowlanders, Artisans and Monks.
Let’s take Cheese as an example. As you can see, Lowlanders would be really happy if they could get it from the Food Market - it’d boost their satisfaction level doubly! Artisans are not that crazy about Cheese, but still, will appreciate it as a nice addition to their menu. Monks, on the other hand, are not interested in having Cheese at all! Even if they have access to Cheese from a nearby Food Market, they just won’t eat it and their satisfaction level won’t change. Looks like you’ll have to find a different way to keep them fed!
There is one more nuance, which you may have spotted already: It is up to you, the player, to choose which demands you’d like to meet, and on which you’d rather pass. Don’t have enough yaks for milk and cheese production? That’s okay - the happiness mechanic won’t require any specific needs like “Now you need cheese for the upgrade!”. You’ll need to fill the satisfaction meter, but the exact tools you use are 100% up to you. It’s your job to find the best strategy in any given circumstance - and circumstances will change quite a lot.
A lot of fertile area makes it really easy to produce Tsampa (barley flour) and distribute it to your people - but you won’t always be that lucky.
You’ll always want to reach these satisfaction thresholds - but in every city and on every slope you’ll have to decide how to do it.
Development updates
As it comes to development updates, we don’t have anything revolutionary to share - we’re working hard to get Laysara ready for our Early Access launch :) No promises about any dates just yet, as we’re still not sure how much more time it will take. We’re improving the game on every front and are really hyped about how it is coming together. As an example, here is a sneak peek of the new carriers’ 3D models and animations:
There is much more going on behind the scenes and we can’t wait to show it all to you, but for now, there is still work to be done - and that’s what we’re focusing on right now :)
As always, if you want to chat, just head to our Discord server :)
Until next time! Quite OK Team
Laysara is in Simfest 2023 right now!
We are delighted to announce that Laysara: Summit Kingdom will be participating in this year’s #Simfest on Steam! 🔨
From today through the 24th of July, 10am PDT 2023, you will be able to experience some of the latest and greatest simulation titles, in addition to what the future holds for the simulation genre with other coming soon games from some other amazing developers.
If you haven't checked out the Laysara demo already, now is a great time to hop in! You should also just generally check out all the stuff Simfest has to offer - the standard of games is so high this year! So throw some wishlists at the cool upcoming stuff, check out some demos, and pick up some bargains from the stuff that's on sale - it's definitely an event worth supporting.
