Genre: Hack and slash/Beat 'em up, Adventure, Indie
Len's Island
Len's Island 1.0 Roadmap Update
Hi everyone,
We've been working incredibly hard on developing co-op multiplayer and other major additions for the 1.0 launch. We've been a bit quiet recently, this is because the roadmap and launch window have changed. I thought explaining it all over a video would be best, so please watch the below!
Important Updates
You can play Len's Island multiplayer via the next round of testing in a few days, details are below
1.0/multiplayer launch is delayed until early-mid 2025
We've expanded our plans for 1.0, and Len's Island will be even better than expected
Sorry for the delay, we've been trying our hardest, and we need more time to finish
Multiplayer Testing
The next closed Alpha test for co-op multiplayer will become available via our Discord server in a few days. If you’d like to participate, please follow the steps below!
How to Join:
1. Join the official Len’s Island Discord. 2. Opt into the Tester role in the #get_roles channel to access the new tester's waiting room. 3. You will be notified when the closed alpha test is released on this channel! (Make sure you have notifications enabled)
Community Questions
We greatly appreciate your feedback and encourage you to ask your questions in the new #game_questions channel on our Discord server. If you have any questions about 1.0 or multiplayer, we will do our best to answer them here!
October Community Wrap-Up
October is coming to an end, Halloween is approaching, and it’s time for another community wrap-up! What’s on your agenda this spooky season?
Happy Halloween!
Last weekend our lead dev Julian got a taste of pumpkin farming in real life! It got us thinking… Should we add spooky items like jack-o-lanterns and scarecrows to Len’s Island?!
Update on Multiplayer Testing
We’re full steam ahead developing co-op multiplayer at Flow Studio! With help from some dedicated alpha-testers we’ve been able fix a bunch of bugs, make quality of life improvements, and gain first hand insight into how major multiplayer will be for Len’s Island gameplay!
We want to give a big thank you to everyone who has helped test multiplayer so far. The pool of testers will be expanding very shortly as a new test is set to go live in the next week or so. If you are on our Discord waiting to test multiplayer, we appreciate your patience.
Fishing Build Challenge
Last week we asked our Discord community to share their most creative builds inspired by Fishing in Len’s Island, and we were not disappointed! Community member, wendercharles won the challenge with their wonderful pagoda fishing hut filled with fishing decorations on a cherry blossom island. We just love the colours and creativity in this one!
It’s Not a Bug, It’s a Feature
Our beta tester Wombat (James) graciously demonstrating how to leave Len’s Island in a hurry!
Creator Showcase
We loved watching Project Gamer ID’s latest video where they fight their way through the mega spawner cursed dungeon!
Get Juicing!
Check out this awesome fan art by community member Toenes! They said that their juicer creation is intended to combine fruit into a juice that when drunk, can boost the health and hunger of a player much more than if the fruits were eaten raw. Such a creative idea to expand on the cooking in Len’s Island!
Show me the Stuff!
If you made something cool or saw something cool, reach out! Tag us on X or share it on the Discord.
September Community Wrap-Up
Welcome to our first-ever community wrap-up! At the end of every month, we'll share a Steam post dedicated to keeping the community updated on all things Len's Island! We'll cover a range of topics including upcoming events, sneak peeks of exciting 1.0 content, community announcements, and we'll also showcase awesome creations made by the community. So let’s get into it!
We Want Your Feedback!
It's been two weeks since we released the Controllers & Steam Deck update that improved the controllers and Steam Deck experience - we know many of you have been waiting for this!
About 90% of the work is now complete and in the game, however, we still need to tweak it a little further in order for it to be perfect. If you have any ideas on how we can further improve the controller and Steam Deck support, please recommend them in the Discord Server or Steam Forums. We'd love to hear your feedback!
Join the Testing Team
In case you've missed the big news, a closed Alpha test for co-op multiplayer will become available via our Discord in early October. If you'd like to participate make sure to join the official Len's Island Discord for more information!
A new Sea Creature?!
We held a vote on Discord to see what new sea creature the community expects to see at 1.0. We were saddened find out that the community don't want a sea cucumber with a top hat by any means!
Surprise! Here's a sneak peek of the new shark that'll be added to Len’s Island at 1.0 launch. What do you think, will it be a friend or foe?
Farming Build Challenge
Last week we held a fun build challenge on our official Discord where we asked the community to share a screenshot of their best farms in Len’s Island. We’re pleased to announce the winner, community member Wendercharles for their grand seaside farm!
Creator Showcase
We had a lot of fun watching this video from Friendly Craft. Follow him as he discovers Bridgewater town, survives his first night on the island, and builds a massive home for Len!
Shield, Axe & Sword Hotel Resort
Look at this unbelievable build made by Discord community member, Myke Van Dyke! He said in his post, "I spent hours and hours experimenting with unusual and probably unintended building techniques within this lovely game and this is what I came up with: A modern Hotel Resort."
Hey all! A minor update today to change over some of the new controller/Steam Deck controls and building.
We received feedback that the X/Y or West/North buttons for the hotbar didn't feel good. We have changed the hotbar controls to be on the d-pad instead and made the left and right arrows scroll the hotbar, up arrow equip and long hold up arrow to unequip. You can now equip items quicker, and to unequip you need to hold for a lot longer so you don't accidentally do it.
We've also re-added the inventory automatically opening to the build page when entering edit mode. We didn't realise that people use edit mode as a way to quickly enter the build menu too. So we've added this back in and we also improved the controller inputs and general handling of this. Now the menu won't annoyingly go away when going from build to edit mode, or cancelling a build item.
We will continue to make tweaks and changes to the new controller and Steam Deck inputs as we draw closer to full release. So please continue to provide feedback on how we can make things better!
~ Julian
! New additions and changes:
Build menu will now open when to enter edit mode, and consistently stay open during edit and build mode
Moved hotbar controls to the d-pad on controller, and changed their layout slightly, making the hotbar easier to navigate.
Moved edit mode, inventory, and compendium controls to the buttons on controller
Alpha Test for Multiplayer - Join now!
We’re now one BIG step closer to completing co-op multiplayer for Len’s Island and we want to share this progress with you!
As you may know, we’ve spent many months implementing multiplayer into Len’s Island in preparation for 1.0 at the end of this year. It’s been a massive undertaking for our small dev team. However, we know how incredible it’ll be to see all of you play Len’s Island co-op with your friends and family very soon!
A closed Alpha test for co-op multiplayer will become available via our Discord server in early October, so if you’d like to participate please follow the steps below. This is the first of several tests we will be running over the next few months. We will let in as many players as we can, if you don't make it through in the first round don't be discouraged, there will be more testing rounds to join soon!
Opt into the Tester role in the #get_roles channel to access the new tester's waiting room.
You will be notified when the closed alpha test is released on this channel! (Make sure you have notifications enabled)
We will post on Steam and Discord whenever a new round of testing starts. All communication to testers beyond these announcement posts will happen in the tester's waiting room channel, so make sure you keep an eye on it!
PLEASE NOTE: While we do our best to offer multiplayer testing to everyone interested, there may be limitations as to who can participate due to player capacity.
Thanks again to the community for all of the love and support throughout Early Access. With your help, we hope to make Len’s Island the absolute best it can be at 1.0!
Controllers & Steam Deck Update
The time has come, we have spent the past couple of months completely overhauling the gamepad and Steam Deck controls for Len's Island!
Len's Island is now far more enjoyable, easier, and more accessible to play on various devices. We will still be tweaking and making some changes to the gamepad controls and Steam Deck support for the 1.0 launch, however, 90% of the work is now complete and in the game :)
If you have any ideas on how we can further improve the controller support and Steam Deck support, please recommend them in the Discord Server or Steam Forums. We would love to hear your feedback!
This update also includes some tweaks to rebalance some of the base-defense mechanics. I think we went a little too far in recent updates, making the enemies at night and during harvest moons a little too difficult. We have done a lot of balancing and testing and have found a much better format and difficulty for everyone.
~ Julian
+ New Features
Completely remade the gamepad and Steam Deck controls across the game
Overhauled all UI and cursor navigation for gamepad and Steam Deck across the game
Added various new systems for selecting the hotbar, navigating through inventory, and moving the camera, specifically for gamepad and Steam Deck
Added ability to choose to respawn at dungeon entrance or bed whenever you die inside a dungeon
~ Balancing Changes
Enemies no longer target beds, and will only ever target the player. Making it easier to defend your home and build outposts
Removed ammo requirements from small and large ballistas
Lowered enemy spawn rates during night and harvest moons
Decreased the difficulty ramp of enemies during night and harvest moons
! Bug Fixes
Added safety check to stop rare bug allowing players load position to be out of bounds (would cause infinite loading screens in the caves)
Fixed bug with fish items disappearing from the hotbar
Fixed rotation speed curve during attacks not correctly applying
Fixed rare bug with spawning under the map
Patch 0.8.04
Hey all! Just some small balancing changes to help make base defence a little easier in the game, especially at the start. These changes combined with the last two patches overall make night time and base defence a lot better balanced. Also don't forget you can adjust night time enemies and harvest moons at any time in the new game settings!
~ Julian
! Balancing Changes:
Reduced bed attraction radius for enemies from 20m to 10m (Enemies will need to be closer to beds to attack them)
Increased ammo conversion for ballistas from 1 iron = 10 bolts to 1 iron = 25 bolts
Removed cloth from small ballista crafting cloth and replaced it with fibers, so it's easier to build early-game
Patch 0.8.02
! Bug Fixes & Changes:
Fixed enemies spawning at night in peaceful mode when they shouldn't
Added a new feature to stop enemies spawn camping. If your bed is destroyed and you die at night, the night skips to daytime and kills all enemies.
Lowered spawn rates for night enemies & harvest moon enemies at the start of the game
Added in ocean tiles that fill parts of the map that haven't loaded so the world looks nicer in screenshot mode
Fixed rare issue with save files with their playtime past 2 years and 2 months in-game
Patch 0.8.01
! Bug Fixes & Changes:
Fixed Lightstone Wards not working correctly to block enemy spawns
Fixed Large Tesla Tower ammo UI not selecting
Slightly lowered spawn rates for night enemies at the start of game
Slightly lowered spawn rates for harvest moon enemies
Fixed some pagoda build items not fading correctly
Fixed issue with respawning after bed being destroyed when a building is over the top of the spawn point
Len's Island - Gamemodes Update
Test your survival skills with new hardcore and perma-death gamemodes, defeat dangerous night raids, and uncover mysterious new underground biomes.
This is the final major update before the multiplayer full release in a few months, so we thought we would make it a big one!
Play through Len's Island in Peaceful, Survival, Hardcore, Permadeath, and Custom game modes.
Many new specific game mode settings you can change at any time
Enemies will now roam the overworld at night, and harvest moons are more difficult
Build many new home-defence items such as palisade walls, tesla towers and landmines.
New underground cave biomes to explore
To celebrate the new update, Len's Island will be on sale for 34% Off starting 10am, the 17th July to the 24th of July PDT.
See below for a detailed list of everything new, improved, and fixed! ~ Julian
New Hardcore game mode with tweaked settings that focus on a more survival-focused experience that's more challenging and brutal
New Perma-death game mode. Same settings as Hardcore with one major difference, you only have one life to beat the game.
New Custom game mode. Tweak individual settings such as resource multipliers, enemy spawn rates, starting health, day length, harvest moon frequency, and many more. Create your own custom game mode to cater to your exact desires, or to create unique challenge runs.
Reworked Peaceful mode. We have tweaked the settings in peaceful mode as well as allowing the ability to freely change specific game mode settings at any time during gameplay. So you can now make your peaceful experience perfect for you.
Enemies will now spawn at night across the overworld and become harder as you unlock more dungeons and disturb the balance of evil. You can modify this setting in the new game settings menu.
New Ballista Bow. Shoot down enemies in the early game with this cheaper and smaller alternative to the Ballista Tower, which can also be placed onto boats.
New Small and Large Tesla Towers. Zap nearby enemies with the new tesla towers, the perfect short-range home defence items.
New Landmines. Build explosive landmines that automatically trigger when an enemy walks over them.
New Palisade walls in every style. Build new wall types directly on terrain to help protect your home from unwanted visitors.
New Lightstone Ward. Wards will stop enemies from spawning within a large radius, helping to keep your homestead safe from enemies at night.
Harvest moons are now more difficult, and enemy raids can happen anywhere on the map, not just at outpost locations.
Allowed snapping of foundation steps above each other, so you can now build staircases up from foundations.
Enemies will now also target beds during night raids and can destroy them.
Automatically firing towers now require ammo. Raw materials convert into ammo when placed in a tower, for example, 1 iron shard = 10 ballista bolts
! Bug Fixes & Changes
Fixed rare issue with some enchantments not working on old save files
Fixed issues with houses not fading correctly and some houses being cut in half and fading wrong just for one portion
Fixed canons on boats being difficult to select and edit
Performance improvements to enemies that help the framerate when large amounts of enemies are on screen
Tweaked descriptions and names for various skill tree effects and enchantments to be more descriptive and accurate
Tweaked Voidtroll boss fight to be slightly more difficult and fixes various bugs with the troll's behaviour
Fixed pet collar collection amount not including new red panda
Tweaked some areas of the desert tomb dungeons to be better balanced in cursed mode
Fixed various areas across frozen islands where you could get stuck between icebergs
Made buying from vendors also count resources in hotbar
Fixed Ornate and Pagoda boats not refunding contents of small storage box
Lots of small balancing tweaks to enemy health and damage. Overall making the Act 4 frozen areas a little more difficult, and better balancing damage and health ratios
Made construct rotating more consistent
Fixed baked good vendors having incorrect icons and names
