Hi Everyone,

Quick update for you today, the beta version of our upcoming Dragon Taming Update has been available for testing for a little while now and we've been hard at work incorporating your feedback and fixing bug reports. If you haven't tried out the beta version and would like to test it, here's how:

• Right click on the game in the Steam library
  
• Click properties, then choose betas
  
• Choose the next-version-preview branch

We've been fixing bugs and tweaking and tuning the dragons, their upkeep, diet, damage, and how they integrate into the world. We set up gamepad controls for the dragon buildings so the new stuff in the update beta should be playable for Steam Deck now. We've also got the first pass on translations in for the new text.

Finally, here's a preview of another new building - the Flight Training Course - it'll help keep your dragons happy, nimble, and their wings in good shape:




We're getting close to a final release of the update, working on final translations and last bug fixes. Thanks for your patience!

Until next time,
- Pete, Michael, and Sam

Hope everyone is having a happy holiday so far!

We've got the beta version ready for the Dragon Taming update. There is a sticky thread in the forums where there's a more detailed list of all the new changes that are ready for testing, but here's a little preview of how bad a time you'll be able to give the vikings with dragons on your side:



And you'll also need to keep your dragons clean:



Of course, we'll do our usual big update post when the Dragon Taming Update is ready for final release.

If you'd like, you can try it out now by switching to the beta branch (keep in mind there will be bugs and things to fix). Here's how:

• Right click on the game in the steam library
  
• Click properties, then choose betas
  
• Choose the next-version-preview branch

No code is necessary, your game should automatically update once you switch. Everyone who has been playing on the alpha branch will be kept up to date as well.

Once you're on the beta branch check out the new research in the Great Library to get started with the new dragon stuff.

Please send your feedback and bug reports to contact@lionshieldstudios.com, chat with us directly in our discord, or post here in the forums!

Until next time,
-Pete, Michael, & Sam

Hi Everyone!

We are currently working on a big new content update. It focuses on something you folks have brought up a few times, but we weren't sure if it was possible. With a lot of hard work behind us and some left to go, we're pleased to announce the next update coming up will be ... Dragon Taming!

Here's a preview of a couple of the new incoming buildings:

A 5x5 building that provides a potential home for two adult dragons and one offspring. If you place this building and add a tempting pile of gold, a dragon may choose to make this their home. If you care for them well and meet their needs they will defend not only their nest but your kingdom from invaders!



A 3x3 building that provides critical care to your dragons. A tamed dragon can get pests and dirt in its scales and also needs its teeth cared for. The dragon doctors take care of this to make sure your dragons are happy and healthy.



Thanks for your patience as the three of us work on this (and also our next game ancient roman city builder Nova Roma). We'll have more to announce about this upcoming update soon!

Until next time
-Pete, Sam, & Michael

Hi Everyone,

Quick update for you today - we're excited to announce we're now Steam Deck Verified! The game should now run great, look great, and control great on the Steam Deck.

While we've been focusing on the console ports for Kingdoms and Castles and on our new game Nova Roma, we've still been monitoring your feedback and bug reports and have implemented a bunch of much requested improvements and fixes.

• Allow carts and ships to deposit resources at stockpiles and docks even if those buildings have their desired amounts set to zero.
  
• Allow carts to pick up and drop off from swineherds and fishing huts
  
• Reduced cost of the Well
  
• Reduced cost of Transport Ship
  
• Increased radius of the Large Fountain
  
• In gamepad controls, disallow selecting empty tile when units are selected.
  
• Optimize catapult target finding
  
• Increase camera zoom range during map select
  
• Increase favor gained when you humor the AI during the joke conversation

• Fixed issue in gamepad controls where building selection did not clear unit selection
  
• Fixed input issue on Steam Deck when using Steam Dock and starting the game with a keyboard and mouse where the game would get stuck in gamepad control mode.
  
• Fixed issue where fires could start too soon if playing with AIs
  
• Fixed person UI and transport ship/cart UI being too small on Steam Deck
  
• Fixed rare bug where AI units could get stuck unloading and loading their troops
  
• Fixed bug where damage calculations for archer units with only the general still alive were wrong
  
• Fixed bug where 'Clear Map' on the map edit mode wouldn't clear fish
  
• Fixed performance issue with UI when looking at an AI owned island
  
• Fixed issue where catapults would stop auto targeting
  
• Other small fixes

Also, while we're on the topic of gamepads, we're excited to announce Kingdoms and Castles will be coming to Xbox Series S/X/One ... today! If you've got friends with Xboxes who wanted to try the game, this would be for them! We'll have more news on other platforms in the future.

Thanks for being fans! And thanks for all your feedback and bug reports!

Until next time,
-Pete, Michael, & Sam

Hi Everyone,

Nominations for this year’s Steam Awards are underway and we’d like to ask for your support by nominating Kingdoms and Castles for the Labor of Love Award.


We first launched Kingdoms and Castles in the summer of 2017 and in those six years we’ve continued to work on the game and improve it with lots of big updates. Compared to the original 2017 release, the game today has more than doubled in content. We've worked hard to incorporate lots of your feedback and suggestions into the game to make it the best it can be.



We've been very grateful for your support over the years. There's certainly a lot of other deserving games for this award, so your nomination means a lot us. You can check the nominate button right here in this post if you'd like to consider us for the Labor of Love award.

Until next time,
-Pete, Michael, and Sam

• Added building name and size to hover info
  
• Added option to disable sending game crash data
  
• Reduced cost of archer school and barracks
  
• Small UI fix

• Fixed overlay and irrigation display being different for larger reservoir
  
• Fixed building info going of edge of screen on steam deck
  
• Removed ping to our old shopfiy store from when we were selling the dragon plushy

Hi Everyone!

Thanks for your patience, the Industry & Infrastructure Update is out now on the main branch! Our last major update (War & Diplomacy) was focused on combat and interaction with the AI. For this update we've focused back on the city building and economy! It's got a bunch of new stuff folks have been requesting. Let's get right to the notes!



This is a 2x1 structure (shown on the right) that houses a bit more gold than two small treasure rooms. You can place them adjacent to small treasure rooms to make some creative building shapes (shown on the left).




This is another 2x1 structure, which can store more fruit than two small produce storages. This brings fruit storage closer to parity with the grain storage buildings.




This is a 3x3 structure that sits completely on top of an iron deposit. It produces more iron than 3 small iron mines but requires more space and more workers. It's ideal for later in the game when you've got more of a worker surplus.



This is also a 3x3 structure you place on top of (rather than adjacent to) a stone deposit. It also produces more stone than 3 small quarries. While it produces more stone, the tradeoff is that is requires tools to operate. You'll want to make sure you have a blacksmith and tool production chain established before building this one.



This 2x2 building produces more charcoal than 4 small charcoal makers but requires more workers. Great for later in the game when you need to be more space efficient but have plenty of people.




This is a 2x2 reservoir with a much larger radius of effect as compared to the small reservoir. While more expensive than the small reservoir, it's handy for serving lots of fountains around your city center at once or by irrigating a large swath of land for your farms.



This is a 2x2 tavern. Great for dense cities to make your city center more lively and adds another way to meet your peasants' need for good drink!



And to break of the trend of larger versions of everything, we've got a small church - the chapel! It's a 1x2 building you can fit into the smaller spaces the normal 2x3 church is too big for.

• Increased some text sizes on the Steam Deck.
  
• Increased damage of Greek Fire Tower
  
• Fixed rare issue where viking ships could get stuck on custom maps with a particular layout
  
• Fixed issue where AI could use suboptimal job priorities
  
• Fixed issue where large quarry/iron mine could be placed over trees
  
• Fixed issue with hazard pay when conquering an AI island

Until next time,
-Pete, Michael, & Sam

Hi Everyone,

Hope everyone is having a happy holiday so far. We've got the beta available for the next update - Industry & Infrastructure! We've got a sticky thread in the forums where there's a more detailed list of all the new changes that are ready for testing, but here's a little preview of just a few of the things you can look forward to:





And more! Here's a recap of the dev stream we did showing off all the new stuff for this update:


Of course, we'll do our usual big update post when the Infrastructure & Industry Update is ready for final release.

If you'd like, you can try it out now by switching to the beta branch (keep in mind there will be bugs and things to fix). Here's how:

• Right click on the game in the steam library
  
• Click properties, then choose betas
  
• Choose the next-version-preview branch

No code is necessary, your game should automatically update once you switch. Everyone who has been playing on the alpha branch will be kept up to date as well.

Please send your feedback and bug reports to contact@lionshieldstudios.com, chat with us directly in our discord, or post here in the forums!

Until next time,
-Pete, Michael, & Sam

• Tweak dragon difficulty
  
• Improve doctor healing algorithm to work better on large cities
  
• Fixed case where ship could get an invalid building destination
  
• Added wage information to building info highlight in the build menus
  
• Improved text readability on Steam Deck
  
• Fixed building info highlight going off screen on Steam Deck