Folkands | Nextfest Demo available now! news - Folklands

Hey everyone! We're happy to be part of the Steam Next Fest this month, which means you can try the demo of our retro-inspired settlement builder during Steam Next Fest from Feb 5th! Here



In the demo, you can play through the entire first three tiers of gameplay. Build a peaceful settlement, harvest, produce and trade resources, expand your settlement and meet the changing needs of your people.

In addition to a full tutorial, helping you get going, you can also play freely on random maps as much as you want (within the first three Tiers of course).



If you like the game, remember to add it to your wishlist, and pop by our Discord to chat about the game or let us know what you think! You can also post your thoughts on our Community hub or use the in-game "Send feedback" function. We'd love to hear from you!



The last month we have been working harder than ever on getting the new demo ready in time for the upcoming Steam Next Fest.

The current demo has been out for several months now, and has seen several updates. The last two months, however, we have only pushed out important fixes as we have been working on the updated demo. The changes are too massive to list them all here, but we'll list the most notable highlights, such as a major graphical update with a completely redesigned landscape and environment (including wildlife), tons of new features, building animations, city management options, graphs and statistics, and of course bugfixes. If you want to learn more, read on!

Graphical update

The existing demo is a good teaser for the art direction we're aiming for, but it has always been partially finished with lots of placeholder art. In the updated demo, we have finished the new art style for the landscape and environment, bringing the world of Folklands to life in a way you've never seen before!

In addition to new animals roaming around the landscape, you will also see trees and reeds swaying in the wind, fields rustle was villagers walk through them, and tons of other small details to give you a sense of a living world!

Totally redesigned quests and tips system

Many players have told us that while they understand the basics of the game, it would be nice to have a helping hand to get you going, as well as tell you when things are not working as they should. In the updated demo, we've focused a lot on improving this. One of these improvements is a completely new "Tips" system that will give you helpful tips as you play.

In addition to this, buildings will give you a lot more information on how they are doing, in addition to helpful tips on how to improve things such as production efficiency:

Service buildings such as the Tax collector's office, the Builder's hut and the Fire station have all received updates with helpful graphs and numbers telling you how the service is performing. The screenshot below is from an early version of this:

Villagers will now also tell you when they are experiencing problems, such as going hungry, having nowhere to live, missing their work tool, and a bunch more, which lets you address issues instead of wondering why your settlement is grinding to a halt!

New buildings and features

No update would be complete without new buildings or functionality!

Exploration towers

In the current demo, you were able to expand your settlement by building outposts. These buildings have now been renamed to "Exploration towers", where Explorers can work to gradually expand your settlement borders. These exploration towers are also used to discover mineral deposits - in the full game.

Bridges

Were you blocked by the water in the demo - well, no more! Walk over lakes and rivers using the new bridges. In the full game you will also be able to upgrade to better looking bridges as your city grows!

Improved farming

Farming has also seen a huge graphical updates with dynamic fields growing around your farms

The list is simply too long to mention here, and there are still a couple of surprises hidden in the updated demo. We hope you enjoy playing it as much as we enjoy making it. Expect the updated demo to be released sometime next week!

Enjoy this non-exhaustive changelog mentioning some of the thing we didn't already mention:

• Settlement name + badge / crest
• New in-game music
• Direction-aware sounds
• Onboarding tips
• Villager quests
• Statistics (tax, maintenance, fire)
• Player trading
• Tier information
• Pinnable resources and improved resource information
• Clear stones and trees in specific areas
• New "Socializing" need
• New Pub building with a new Beer resource
• New Brewery production building
• Villager warnings tab
• Villager feedback (icons when unhappy, hungry, homeless, etc)
• Updated animations when building
• Build order prioritization
• Variable villager walking speed depending on road stats
• Folks gather around burning buildings
• New and improved tooltips with keyboard shortcuts