Dev Blog, December 2023 - Our spin on the 4X genre
Hello aspiring Tribe Leaders,
One of the biggest inspirations for The Tribe Must Survive is the 4X strategy genre and its core elements: Explore, Expand, Exploit and Exterminate. However, we have added our own special spin on how Extermination works within the game. Though the game doesn’t have combat, there are threats that rise from within the Tribe and threaten its existence. In this Dev Blog, we want to tell you a little bit about The Tribe Must Survive’s spin on the tried and true 4X design pillars.
Exploration
As highlighted in our earlier Dev Blog, exploration happens through Journeys launched from the Tribe’s Explorer Platforms. Journeys take a small group of Tribe Members away from the safety of the Camp and into the Outer World. As they uncover the region, they also encounter different challenges and discoveries, presented through Journey Events. Your choices during these Journey Events can either strengthen your Journey or push it one step closer towards failure. Limited resources and the strange dangers that await mean you have to balance what you wish to gain with getting the Journey safely back home.
Expansion
Once enough of an Outer World region has been uncovered, you are able to unlock it and set up an Outpost. This consists of Tribe Members and the limited amount of resources they’re able to carry with them. You might want to set up Outposts not only to gather new resources, but also to manage the tensions within the Tribe.
No single Outer World region will be able to provide you with all types of resources, so the further your Tribe expands, the more resources you’ll have at your disposal.
Exploitation
Establishing an Outpost is only the first step towards benefiting from its riches. To transport necessary resources both into and out of Outposts, you’ll have to manage the trade routes, which transport people and resources. Outposts need people and materials to build themselves up, and the resources they find need to be transported to where they’ll be most useful.
Critical resources used for high-level upgrades, such as Copper and Relics, can only be acquired through Outposts. Also, as the resources of your Camp deplete, you might need Outposts to acquire even the most basic resources, so make sure to set them up before it’s too late.
Extermination
Though we don't have combat in The Tribe Must Survive, there is definitely no lack of conflicts. You don't build armies and go to war, but instead have to fight against the threats rising from within the Tribe.
Many Events of the game will force you to make sacrifices to appease your Tribe Members. Additionally, the growth of the Tribe will give birth to Factions with opposing ideologies. Keeping them at peace with each other will require careful control over the Tribe. The Tribe’s inner sense of unity is represented through Cohesion, which is affected by things such as population and any additional modifiers you might gain throughout your run.
The lower the Cohesion falls, the more likely it’ll be that an Inner Conflict is triggered. During Inner Conflicts, two Factions will turn against each other, and your support will determine the outcome. It is even possible that one Faction and its people will be entirely eradicated.
You can discover the depths of these features and learn more once the game releases. For this, remember to wishlist The Tribe Must Survive on Steam, and click the Follow button on the store page to receive notifications about our announcements.
Feel free to also share your thoughts about the features! You can do it here or on our TTMS Discord server, where we will share more information and you can get directly involved in the discussions.
And remember; whatever it takes... The Tribe Must Survive!
The Tribe Must Survive: December Playtest
Hello aspiring Tribe Leaders,
Do you believe you have the skills to help your tribe survive and grow, in this unforgiving world, in which any mistake might be your last? Well this is your chance to find out!
Starting right now, we’re hosting a 5 day playtest open to anyone in the Tribe Must Survive Discord server. Join in and help the Tribe push back the shadows. You can claim your key by visiting our Gleam campaign, found here: https://gleam.io/BZYYj/the-tribe-must-survive-playtest-2-reward
A few things to keep in mind;
This game is meant to be hard, you probably won’t survive on your first try. If you fail, get up and try again.
Explore new territory by setting out on Journeys.
You can set up Outposts by completing Journeys, they are an important part of gaining access to new resources and expanding your Tribe.
Establish trade routes between Outposts and your Tribe to manage resources between both the main tribe area and the Outposts.
There’s more than resources to be found on journeys. While each journey poses a risk, they also offer the chance to find powerful Perks.
For those of you who played in the previous playtest back in September, here is a summarized list of the changes implemented in the interim;
Rebalanced Wood and Food Economy
Rebalanced available Stone amounts and stone costs for buildings
Rebalanced Building Upgrade Costs
More disasters have been implemented, do take care as you pass day 50...
Major content updates, Journeys have been re-hauled, more events including rare events, new perks as well as the aforementioned new disasters.
There’s a choice offered at the start of each Tribe that can impact how the run progresses.
Tribe trait and behavior options via events.
Improved the general feeling of movement of the camera and placement of buildings.
This game is still in development, as such we appreciate any feedback you are willing to give! There is a survey available in game that we'd love for you to complete after playing. We also want to hear about any bugs you encounter or suggestions to improve the game. Let us know on Discord, Steam or social media.
And remember; whatever it takes... The Tribe Must Survive!
Dev Blog, November 2023 - Endless replayability
Hello aspiring Tribe Leaders,
In today’s Dev Blog, we want to take a look at the big picture of The Tribe Must Survive. Namely, its big game loops and the RNG elements that make it a roguelike. Our goal is to make each playthrough feel unique, which’ll keep the gameplay fun and challenging even after many runs.
The Acts
A single playthrough of the Tribe Must Survive is divided into Acts. Each Act has its own characteristics, such as special Act Perks, new Buildings, and a unique Disaster. Naturally, the latter Acts will provide a greater challenge that’ll keep testing your skills and resourcefulness.
Disasters are drastic changes in the environment unique to each Act. They are the final challenge which measures the strength of your Tribe before they can continue to the next Act. If you have only been able to crawl your way up to this point, the Disaster will probably cut the playthrough short. You will have to adapt and switch up your priorities in order to survive through them.
The Disasters also provide visual variety by drastically altering the gameworld. Whether their origins are natural or otherworldly is unclear. The Disasters test not only the Tribe’s physical capabilities, but also their mental fortitude. To reflect this, each Disaster also includes a set of unique story events.
Escalation
Beyond all other challenges, even the Disasters, there is something more dangerous brewing. Tensions keep rising as the world around the Tribe threatens to crush them. The longer the game goes on, the harder it becomes for them to survive in an increasingly harsher world.
Fear of what awaits in the Dark becomes a bigger danger as time goes on, and you will have to learn to manage its effects on the Tribe. With more people, it will be harder to deal with the problems that emerge, especially as people get more and more desperate.
Even the strongest minds might not survive through such struggles unscathed. Eventually, something breaks. The Tribe must then ask themselves, what will they do if they cannot rely on their sanity anymore?
The Loops
One of the central motives of The Tribe Must Survive is loops. Like other roguelike games, ours is meant to be played repeatedly. You will learn more about the game with each run, which will improve your mastery of it. The RNG elements also introduce an element of luck, and you will have to form your strategy based on the knowledge you have gained and what the game offers you in this specific run.
Perhaps the most important parts of such loops are the beginning and the end. In the case of The Tribe Must Survive, the end is inevitable, and your success is measured by how long you can stand against it. That end may, however, be followed by a new beginning. Just like the survivors of the Tribe can escape and start anew, you too can use what you have learned to build things bigger and better next time.
This endless pattern of beginning and ends also extends to the history of the world. You will find traces of ancient civilizations who rose to great highs, only to be brought down to ruin. Their knowledge can be a valuable asset in your fight against the Dark.
You can enjoy the thrills of this roguelike experience once the game releases. For this, remember to wishlist The Tribe Must Survive on Steam, and click the Follow button on the store page to receive notifications about our announcements.
Feel free to also share your thoughts with us! You can do it here or on our TTMS Discord server, where we will share more information and you can get directly involved in the discussions.
And remember; whatever it takes... The Tribe Must Survive!
The Tribe Must Survive Playtest
Dear Tribe Leaders,
The time has come for a new playtest for The Tribe Must Survive! This Playtest has begun today at 3pm CET and will continue until Sunday the 3rd of December!
How To Join the Playtest In order to participate in this playtest, simply follow this link and join the TTMS Discord channel and you will be sent a key! If you took part in the Alpha test, you are already good to go!
In this playtest, we want to focus on the following features of the game:
Disasters For the unprepared Tribe, any number of things can lead the Tribe into a downward spiral, chief among them, Disasters can mean a rapid and horrific end. The Tribe Must Survive consists of several Acts, each Act will culminate with a new Disaster for the Tribe to face. In this playtest, you will face disasters like the eclipse, flood or locusts. Once the Tribe survives a Disaster, the next Act will begin introducing new mechanics and content to unlock. It will be up to you to, predict and prepare for Disasters, adapting your strategy to overcome all that stands between the Tribe and survival!
Speaking of Disasters - what type of disasters would you like to see in the future?
Perks A Journey is a feature in which the players send Tribe Members into the “Outer World” with the goal of exploring new areas of the map in the hope of bringing back great rewards, including things like resources or perks. The nature of The Tribe Must Survive means that different rewards will be given each time, challenging you as a Tribe Leader to make the right call. Each playthrough the perks that you are offered will change, so no one Tribe will feel the same.
Events Throughout The Tribe Must Survive, you will face several different types of strategic decision-making, in addition to the regular Tribe-management.
Let us know if there are any particular types of events you would like to see being added!
Rogue-like elements of the game The Tribe Must Survive is a game that will offer you a challenge - do not expect your first Tribe to survive on the first try! There are many rogue-like elements of the game that you will need to understand over time through trial and error - with potential fatal consequences for your Tribe. While luck is indeed a factor, your skill as a Tribe Leader will ultimately be the thing that matters most. Many different strategies can lead to success, it’s about finding what the right one is for you, your current circumstances and your tribe.
If you already haven’t, make sure to join our TTMS DIscord server, where we will share more information and you can get directly involved in the discussions.
Good luck out there, and remember - The Tribe Must Survive!
Dev Blog, November 2023 - The Tribe
Hello aspiring Tribe Leaders.
Today, we wanted to give you a deeper look into the Tribe Members themselves. On the outside, they are hardy survivors in a harsh and mysterious world, but underneath there are several gameplay systems that make each Tribe Member distinct. With these, we want to create emerging group dynamics that will result in a wide range of situations, so that no two playthroughs feel exactly the same.
Going Mental
The mental state of each Tribe Member is guided by their Needs, Discontent and Fear. The Needs consist of Food, Sleep, Social and Spiritual. Each can be satisfied through different means, which requires you to manage your Tribe and prioritize its production accordingly. Failure to satisfy a Need may lead to punishing Events, but they also feed into the Tribe’s Discontent. Fear, on the other hand, is increased through time spent in Darkness or other traumatic events.
High Discontent and Fear can become a big problem for the Tribe by leading to behaviors such as Riot, Shock, or Tribe Members leaving the Tribe. To avoid this, you will need to keep satisfying the Tribe Members’ Needs and decrease their Fear by ensuring your Fires burn bright enough.
Behave Yourselves
Tribe Members are mostly autonomous. You can assign them to buildings and influence them in other ways, but overall they will do what they want. Their behavior is guided by many factors, most importantly by their Needs and personalities. Behaviors also have an impact on the Tribe Members’ opinions and the Factions that will emerge based on them.
The Big Five Personality Traits
Each Tribe Member spawns with their own Personality Trait values. These Personality Traits are Openness to Experience, Extraversion, Neuroticism, Agreeableness and Conscientiousness. Each is given a value between -3 and 3.
The resulting 16000 combinations make it so that each Tribe Member behaves uniquely and has a set of potential strengths and weaknesses. For example, the right combination of Traits might earn them a valuable Perk or trigger an Event. Personality Traits are also critical in determining which Faction Opinions will emerge within the Tribe. Though the Traits are assigned randomly, you may find ways to manipulate them, and thus affect the direction of your Tribe.
From Fractures to Factions
Another fully automatic behavior type is the Interactions. Tribe Members will interact with each other based on proximity, their personal preferences, and other factors. The result of the Interaction, whether negative or positive, will affect Tribe Members’ opinion both on each other and the ideas they hold.
If enough Tribe Members gain strong opinions on a certain set of ideas, they form a Faction. Factions will emerge naturally as the Tribe grows, and with this, there is the possibility of an Inner Conflict happening. Inner Conflicts pit two opposing Factions against each other in a struggle for power and survival. Your choices and the makeup of your Tribe will determine the result of the Inner Conflict, which can significantly alter the rest of your playthrough.
You can discover the depths of these features and learn to understand your Tribe once the game releases. For this, remember to wishlist The Tribe Must Survive on Steam, and click the Follow button on the store page to receive notifications about our announcements.
Feel free to also share your thoughts about the features! You can do it here or on our TTMS Discord server, where we will share more information and you can get directly involved in the discussions.
And remember; whatever it takes... The Tribe Must Survive!
Dev Blog, October 2023 - The World
Hello aspiring Tribe Leaders.
We hope you enjoyed the Playtest Alpha we released last month! Our development team is already back in the midst of expanding the game and its content. In the meantime, we wanted to share with you our vision for the world of The Tribe Must Survive, giving you a taste of what you can experience with the full game!
The World
The Tribe Must Survive takes place at the dawn of humanity, when the natural phenomena were beyond our comprehension. Thus, the Tribe Members rely on stories and legends to explain them. These stories might conflict with each other, and the line between natural and supernatural is often blurry. You cannot always be sure if the threat you are facing is natural, supernatural, or born out of sheer madness!
Though the game is set far in the past, its world already has an extensive history. Great cities have crumbled. Wondrous beings have fallen to extinction. Dire warnings have faded from memory. The cycle of destruction and birth keeps repeating itself. By exploring the world, you will find pieces of these histories, and perhaps learn to better understand what you are facing against.
The gameworld is strongly inspired by the cosmic horror genre; worlds inhabited by beings whose true nature is too immense and horrifying for us to comprehend. You can expect to witness hints of these beings in the game, since even if they cannot be understood by mortal minds, their mere presence will inevitably impact the world.
The Tribe
Of course, living in such an unforgiving world has left its mark on the Tribe. These are tough, stoic people, whose lives have been defined by hardship and horror. Yet they go on, refusing to die.
To that end, anything is justified, and different opinions will give birth to Factions and Conflict. Keeping the Tribe united will require careful balancing, or you might be forced to sacrifice one Faction for the sake of another. Whatever the case, chaos must be contained. Because if the Tribe ends up tearing itself apart, there is little hope for survival.
Whether it be through technology, mysticism or iron-clad ideologies, the Tribe Members are determined to push back the Darkness. It will be up to you to decide which tools you want to rely on.
The Gods
Among the many strange beings of this world, there are also those the Tribe believes to be their Gods. Their true nature is unknown. Some even question their existence altogether, claiming them to be nothing more than hallucinations of the Tribe’s collective psyche.
Those who have chosen to follow these Gods seem to be willing to do anything to gain their favors. What this might ultimately lead to, no one can tell. Do the zealots truly believe that their God will bring salvation, or are they using these beliefs to gain what they want?
Only one thing is clear: as the Tribe’s belief in a God grows stronger, so does their power.
That's it for now! Stay tuned for further development updates, and share your thoughts on what topics you'd like us to cover in the future. And remember to wishlist The Tribe Must Survive on Steam, and click the Follow button on the store page to receive notifications about our announcements.
You can also join our TTMS Discord server, where we will share more information and you can get directly involved in the discussions.
And remember; whatever it takes... The Tribe Must Survive!
Dev Blog, October 2023
Hello aspiring Tribe Leaders.
We hope you enjoyed the Playtest Alpha we released last month! Our development team is already back in the midst of expanding the game and its content. In the meantime, we wanted to share with you our vision for the world of The Tribe Must Survive, giving you a taste of what you can experience with the full game!
The World
The Tribe Must Survive takes place at the dawn of humanity, when the natural phenomena were beyond our comprehension. Thus, the Tribe Members rely on stories and legends to explain them. These stories might conflict with each other, and the line between natural and supernatural is often blurry. You cannot always be sure if the threat you are facing is natural, supernatural, or born out of sheer madness!
Though the game is set far in the past, its world already has an extensive history. Great cities have crumbled. Wondrous beings have fallen to extinction. Dire warnings have faded from memory. The cycle of destruction and birth keeps repeating itself. By exploring the world, you will find pieces of these histories, and perhaps learn to better understand what you are facing against.
The gameworld is strongly inspired by the cosmic horror genre; worlds inhabited by beings whose true nature is too immense and horrifying for us to comprehend. You can expect to witness hints of these beings in the game, since even if they cannot be understood by mortal minds, their mere presence will inevitably impact the world.
The Tribe
Of course, living in such an unforgiving world has left its mark on the Tribe. These are tough, stoic people, whose lives have been defined by hardship and horror. Yet they go on, refusing to die.
To that end, anything is justified, and different opinions will give birth to Factions and Conflict. Keeping the Tribe united will require careful balancing, or you might be forced to sacrifice one Faction for the sake of another. Whatever the case, chaos must be contained. Because if the Tribe ends up tearing itself apart, there is little hope for survival.
Whether it be through technology, mysticism or iron-clad ideologies, the Tribe Members are determined to push back the Darkness. It will be up to you to decide which tools you want to rely on.
The Gods
Among the many strange beings of this world, there are also those the Tribe believes to be their Gods. Their true nature is unknown. Some even question their existence altogether, claiming them to be nothing more than hallucinations of the Tribe’s collective psyche.
Those who have chosen to follow these Gods seem to be willing to do anything to gain their favors. What this might ultimately lead to, no one can tell. Do the zealots truly believe that their God will bring salvation, or are they using these beliefs to gain what they want?
Only one thing is clear: as the Tribe’s belief in a God grows stronger, so does their power.
That's it for now! Stay tuned for further development updates, and share your thoughts on what topics you'd like us to cover in the future. And remember to wishlist The Tribe Must Survive on Steam, and click the Follow button on the store page to receive notifications about our announcements.
You can also join our TTMS Discord server, where we will share more information and you can get directly involved in the discussions.
And remember; whatever it takes... The Tribe Must Survive!
The Tribe Must Survive - Team Introduction!
Hello Tribe Leaders,
Today we wanted to the people behind the scenes of the game and start things off by giving you some insights to the process of making The Tribe Must Survive! While the game is published by Starbreeze in Sweden, the development team is based in the southern part of Germany, and consists of a small group of passionate individuals who are bringing you the cozy braniac experience of TTMS.
🎩 Simon - Project Management and Design
"Hi, I am Simon! I oversee the production and the vision. So I am basically talking with everybody all the time, focusing on making the gameplay fun and helping to get things done."
💻 Georg - Developer
"My name is Georg and I work on all the technical aspects of our game."
💻 Alexander - Developer
"Hey, I’m Alex! I am one of the devs and I mostly work on the technical stuff in our game 🙂 (Unless you encounter a bug. In that case, I am an artist working on the game and my name is not Alex)."
🎨 Norbert - Art
"Hey! My name is Norbert and I draw/paint things that get put into the game!"
🧠 Steffen - Design
"Hi, I’m Steffen and I turn food into pixels. Chonky, fun pixels. At Walking Tree Games, I’m responsible for game & system design. I also do pixel art as my side gig. 😃"
📝 Niko - Narrative & Design
"Hello! My name is Niko, and I do content design, writing, and narrative stuff for The Tribe Must Survive. Before joining the team, I studied literature, creative writing and media studies, and worked as a freelancer on multiple game projects."
These names will become more recognizable as we start to talk more about the development of the game. But you don't have to stop there, join the conversations about TTMS on the official community Discord!
Any and all feedback is appreciated for the game, so get in there and tell us what you think! And remember; whatever it takes... The Tribe Must Survive!
//SBZ_Elisabeth
Thank you for participating in our Closed Alpha!
Hello Tribe Leaders,
With the Alpha playtest coming to an end, we want to thank everyone who took part and provided us with their feedback! Your opinion is incredibly important to us. We already did a number of changes you suggested in the patches we released over the past 2 weeks and will continue to do so.
For now we are switching back to expanding the game and its content, but we will keep you in the loop and give you updates on the development process frequently. So keep an eye on our Discord server and Steam page to make sure you don’t miss any future news or playtests!
And remember; whatever it takes... The Tribe Must Survive!
//SBZ_Elisabeth
Closed Alpha - Version 0.29.7 Patch Notes
Hello Tribe Leaders,
We're back with another patch to improve the game! In this one we've focused mainly on quality of life improvements, but also a few new pieces of content for you. You can read the detailed list below.
If you'd like to help support the development of the game, please make sure to wishlist it on Steam!
Here are the patch notes for v0.29.7:
💡 Improved tooltips to explain better how systems work (e.g. Fear, Discontent, Needs, etc.).
🖱️ Many notifications are now clickable.
🖼️ Added new artwork for when the Eclipse ends. (as seen above!)
🎟️ Added a new Event.
🎥 Improved camera movement which now is smoother and faster.
✨ Added Several small improvements and bugfixes.
As mentioned previously your feedback is very important to us, so let us know your thoughts! If you haven't already, you can join the Closed Alpha here!
