Hello everyone, friends! Pirozhok Studio is in touch. Today's patch has brought some new mechanics and significant improvements of the existing ones. Let's take a closer look!

• New threat.
  
  
  
  Rebuilding another area undreground, a player may run into cobolds, searching for ore and gems. After beating the cobolds, a player will be able to claim their treasures.
  
  
  
  
• Heroes rework.
  
  
  
  Heroes levelling up was reworked. The level cap was increased to 12, and every ability has 3 grades, affecting their effectiveness - spell damage, duration, cooldown, etc.
  Besides, after reaching a new level, heroes not get extra damage and health points.
  For example, on the first level of "Death call" spell the Death Knight summons one lesser skeleton, on the second - one skeleton warrior, and two skeleton warriors on the third.
  
  
• Resource carrying.
  This mechanics was also reworked. If a minion who carries resources changes his occupation, he drops a bag with the resources on the ground. The bag can be carried to the town hall by any free minion. Moreover, a new profession - carrier - was introduced. Carriers will pick bags and flay dead animals.
  
  
  
  
• End of the game.
  When a player goes through all chalengess, offered to him, he'll have a choice, either to leave, or to keep playing.
  
  
  
  
  Minor changes.
  • Now you can ask the ambassador to postpone the payment of tribute. After two days, he will request resources again, and there won't be such an option.
    
    
    
    
  • The size of the map has been increased.
    
  • Now there is a possibility to cut down a particular tree. Minions don't carry the wood to the town hall, a bag with resources apears next to the logging site.
    
    
    
    
  • Behaviour modes were added to heroes.
    
  • Heroes levels don't reset after death anymore.
    
  • Notification system was reworked.
    
  • Minions skills panel was reworked.
    
    
    
    
  • Heroes spell descriptions were rewritten.
    
  • Rations menu was reworked.
    
    
    
    
  • The ration menu and sacrifice menu indicate the current amount of food and the current god's grace.
    
  • The health bars of all units were aligned.
    
  • Control of a minion isn't removed after assigning him to job.
    
  • Minions automatically rebuild beams in the mine in the absence of resources in the accessible zone. After the construction of the beam minions continue their previous work.
    
  • Research points are given after the final construction of the town hall.
    
  • The term for hiring mercenaries, a priest and a jester can be extended to an indefinite number of days for money.
    
  • Minions breed automatically from time to time.
    
  • The northern citizens do not attack player units first.
    
  • Now, when taking damage from disease and cold, minions cough.
    
  • The spawn rate of animals has been reduced.
    
  • In winter, the subjects of the God of sun do not take damage from cold and move twice as fast as others.
  
  
  Bug fixes.
  The following bugs were fixed in this patch:
  
  • Units attack nearby enemy, even if you tell them to attack a different target.
    
  • Nord towers don't switch to the nearest target, while the first spotted one is in sight.
    
  • Hunters get stuck on the spot.
    
  • NPC workers get stuck on the spot.
    
  • Mage projectiles get stuck in the air.
    
  • Elves do not leave at the end of the Winter Solstice.
    
  • Villagers are running around on the spot after being kileedt.
    
  • Villagers do not receive damage from the "Killing touch" spell.
    
  • Fire elementals do not receive damage from the "Killing touch" spell.
    
  • Minion's disease icon appears to be too small sometimes.
    
  • Transparent buildings interface.
    
  • Incorrect display of the hero’s experience scale.
    
  • Incorrect display of text in the workshop.
    
  • Incorrect display of text in the dialogues of the hero.
    
  • Lack of text in the merchant's dialog window.
    
  • Bowmen at the gates trying to shoot themselves.
    
  • Mages get stuck on the spot if the distance to the attacked target is too little.
    
  • Hiring soldiers and mages causes lags and freezes.
    
  • The cursor disappears from time to time.
    
  • Minions appear in multiple slots on the people menu (T).
  
  That's all for now, folks! Leave your comments, share your opinion, as it helps me to improve the game!

Hello everyone! Just wanted to announce that I'm currently focused on bug fixing and thank you for your help.
Together we've managed to fix about 30 bugs and small glitches in 10 days!
I'm also working on new content - new gathering system and decorations are to appear really soon!

If you want to help me in bug fixing, join our Discord: https://discord.gg/pirozhok

Sincerely yours,
Life is Hard dev.

Good day everyone! Pirozhok Studio is in touch.
Today's patch affects the late game. Many players told us there was nothing left to do after beating the nords and the necromancer. Well, the time has come to change it.


I've done a great work on new random events, which may happen with your settlement in the late game.

• First event that I proudly present to you is the undead scourge.
  
  All the world plunges into chaos and destruction during the event:
  
  
  • Weather. The sun is shrouded by the plague fumes that rise from the ground, and at night the bloodmoon shines:
    
    
    
    
    
    
  • Invasion of the undead. Numerous graves full of undead ready to massacre everyone alive appear all over the world. In this situation living beings unite in attempt to save their lives. The sun does not burn the undead armies down during the day, making it even more difficult to fight them off.
    
    
    
    
  • Refugees. Catastrophe like that will undoubly cause people from other settlements flee to cover behind the walls of your settlement. The player will have to choose either to let them stay or to drive them off (you don't need more eaters, do you?). Some of them will obediently go away, but others might try to take what's theirs by force.
    
    
    
    
  • Fallen peasants and soldiers will turn into undead, slaughtering their former brothers-in-arms, whatever the matter of death is.
    
    
    
    
  • The event ends in a few days but might happen again in the span of the next 15 days.
  
  
• The second event is the peasant uprising. Peasants that are displeased with your rule might start an uprising. You can distinguish them from the loyal ones by the masks and special icons above their heads.
  
  
  
  
• The third event is lycanthropy. Some of your subjects get sick with a strange disease. It might lead to irreversible consequences if you don't take care of them...
  
  
  
  
• Besides, many small random events were added, like crop diseases or hop weevil (Hi, Stronghold!)
  
  
  
  
  World map.
  
  
  • I've seriously reworked world generation in this patch. Now the world is created randomly from one of pre-packaged presets and gets filled with random ruins, towns and bandit camps. Such a way of world generation was chosen, as it allows to combine replayability with the advantages of manual level design.
    
    
    
    
    A nothern town may now spawn to the left of the player's settlement
    
    
  • A serious work on the minimap was done.
    Now it shows the current situation on the global map. Besides, the fog of war affects it too.
    
    
    
    
    New personal traits.
    
    Player's subjects now have 6 new traits:
    
    
    
    
    • Quick - this minion moves 10% faster than others.
      
    • Hesitant - this minion moves 10% slower than others.
      
    • Drunkard - this minion's mood can be increased only with booze.
      
    • Holy - this minion doesn't drink beer. At all.
      
    • Tireless - this minion's energy decreases twice slower.
      
    • Sleepyhead - this minion's energy decreases twice faster.
    
    
    Miscellaneous.
    
    
    • The "game over" window was also updated. There will be at least three types of it depending on the player's success during his reign and the end of it.
      
      
      
      
      
      
    • Leather armor was also redrawn. The old armor looked bad and didn't fit. The new armor looks like that:
      
      
      
      This peasant lost his head over himself
      
      
    • New northern raiders have arrived!
      
      
      
      
    • Many dialogues and descriptions were rewritten. Okri and Maxold had sunk into the abyss, meet Berthold the craftsman and Godric the fletcher instead:
      
      
      
      
      
    • New sounds were added to the game - 4 for each type of weapon and armor!
      
    • I'm also proud to introduce you to the new nordern raiders theme. This theme was heavily inspired with the northern folklore and culture. Vocal and drums are widely used in the Scandinavian music, so we used them in this soundtrack to make it sound authentic. Hope you'll like it:
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TyK3kV-_35g
    
    
    Bug fixes.
    
    
    • Firing units from farms doesn't cause problems anymore
      
    • Minions don't get stuck at the hospital anymore
      
    • Minions don't get stuck after having a bath
      
    • Several sprites were shown incorrect at the necromancer's hideout
      
    • Northern citizens used to behavy incorrect after their defeat
    
    That's all for now, folks! Leave your comments and criticism. You help the game to get better!
    
    Yours,
    Life is Hard dev :eitolstii:
    
    -----------------------------
    Some useful links:
    
    Discord: https://discord.gg/pirozhok
    Twitter: https://twitter.com/pirozhokstudio
    VK: https://vk.com/pekaclub
    
    

For the last two months we've been working hard on the upcoming patch.
I'm happy to announce that it will come out in the next few days.
Important changes were made in sound design - there will be two new soundtracks and a plethora of new sound effects - 4 per weapon/armor type.
So, I'm proud to introduce you to the new nordern raiders theme:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TyK3kV-_35g
This theme was heavily inspired with the northern folklore and culture. Vocal and drums are widely used in the Scandinavian music, so we used them in this soundtrack to make it sound authentic.
It took a lot of effort to study the subject and compose this theme, so feel free to share your opinion, as it really helps Life is Hard to get better!

P.S. This art is to become a cornerstone of a new cinematic trailer.
All the artwork used in the cinematic will be available in-game as loading screens and on Steam as profile backgrounds.

Hello everyone! Pirozhok Studio is here. I'm glad to announce new mechanics for today's update. There are so many of them that I could hardly find where to start.

• First of all, world map was changed. Eastern Kingdom, Islands and naga were removed from the game. World map looks like that now:
  
  
  
  Nord location's appearance was also changed - now it's a rocky sea shore:
  
  
  
  
  
• Different difficulty levels were finally implemented.
  
  
  
  
• Your subjects have learned to construct two new buildings!
  
  A school will help your minions to improve their skills in different professions. You'll need a minion with a "Teacher" trait or a master in one of professions to make it work:
  
  
  
  A market attracts trading caravans from other towns, bringing money to the settlement:
  
  
  
  
• Meat the mages! You can train mages in a wizard tower. Mages can wear robes and leather armor and use wands as weapons. Low armor is compensated with high damage and high effectiveness against heavy armored units.
  
  Mage without a wand:
  
  
  
  Mage with a fire wand:
  
  
  
  
• Shields were implemented. Soldiers can use one of three shield types -a round shields, kite shields and tower shields. Every one of them has advantages and disadvantages. Shields can be crafted in the workshop.
  
  
  
  
• Mercenaries were redesigned. Now you'll be able to hire those cutthroats instead of five similar units. Every one of them has their one weapon and armor types:
  
  
  
  Before:
  
  
  
  After:
  
  
  
  
• You'll be able to find treasure in the mine. Or ruins of an ancient settlements. Explore carefully!
  
  
  
  
• Two new weapons were added. Military picks effectively puncture heavy armor, and two-handed axes deal terrible damage to unarmored units:
  
  
  
  
  
• Two new effects were added. Some weapon types provoke bleeding, dealing periodic damage. Weapons of the undead might provoke poisoning, making your units miss with a 40% chance.
  
  
  
  
• New traits were added:
  
  1) Undead slayer - your unit deals 25% more damage to the undead
  2) Nords slayer - your unit deals 25% more damage to the nords
  3) Fear of undead - your unit deals 25% less damage to the undead
  4) Fear of nords - your unit deals 25% less damage to the nords
  
  

• Hero and soldiers can descend into the mine now.
  
  
  
  
• Workshop interface was noticeably changed. Items were divided into three types - "weapons", "armor" and "miscellaneous":
  
  
  
  
• Soldiers Control panel was also changed - now they have personal traits:
  
  
  
  
• Behaviour mode or attack move for all chosen units were implemented.
  
  
• Pressing Shift you'll move to a free minion now.
  
• Pressing Tab one chooses hero, pressing it twice will move the camera to him.

• Banners were redesigned:
  
  
  
  
• Loading screens were redesigned:
  
  
  
  
• Helmets were redesigned too. Ancient helmets might be dropped from the skeletons. They are slightly better that the leather ones, but are quite bulky to use, slowing your minions down:
  
  
  
  
• Names and appearance of the minions were redesigned:
  
  
  
  
• Iron armor and weapons were redesigned too.

• Incorrect hero behaviour in battles
  
• Impossibility to hire minions to farms using the control menu (T)
  
• Incorrect soldiers and mercenaries behaviour near hunting minions
  
• Incorrect rations pictures after loading the game
  
• Incorrect dialog texts after loading the game
  
• Incorrect villagers behaviour
  
• Massive dear migration
  
• Incorrect ore spawn in the mine
  
• Incorrect bears behaviour
  
• Incorrect fence length on the background
  
• Incorrect bakery sprite after loading the game
  
• Ore and stone amount that is gained from villages was slightly decreased
  
• Minions quit their job after bathing
  
• Minions bug out after hiring them into the mine using control panel
  
• Ammunition choice bugs out using control panel
  
• Goblin and dwarf traders bug out
  
• Incorrect expedition wagon behaviour
  
• Heroes ranged attacks bug out
  
• Quests are not loaded
  
• Towers are not loaded
  
• "No soap" icon bugs out
  
• Catapult armor type is not shown
  
• Incorrect skeletons behaviour during the daytime
  
• Incorrect underground skeletons behaviour
  
• Incorrect support beams sprites while building
  
• Buildings overlap
  
• Childrens' heads bug out
  
• "Fighter" and "Puny" bug out
  
• Forest background bugs out
  
• Nords bowmen' armor types bug out

That's all for now, folks! I'm planning to implement secondary weapons for arches and random words generation. Share your opinion and don't forget to join our Discord-channel!

Hello, ladies and fellas!
It's been a long time since I wrote a post on Steam - much was changing in my life, so I had time only to support the project and fix the bugs you found.
However, I'm in charge again, and I'm glad to announce some new features & mechanics for the next patch:

UPD: it's not out yet, this post is just an announce!

• First of all, money is finally going to appear in Life is Hard.
  A player will be able to construct a new building - market - that attracts merchants and caravans from all over the tiny world. They will buy goods from your minions and pay with gold!
  
  
  Hiring mercenaries, monks, jesters etc. will require money from now on. No more barter!
  
  
• Secondly, mages will stand by your side.
  You'll be able to hire new units at the mage's tower. Seems legit, doesn't it? Mages are equipped with light armor & wands. Soldiers will lose ability to use them.
  
  
  A "work in progress" mage's outfit
  
  
• To compensate for the loss, soldiers will be able to use shields.
  Shields have a chance to reflect hits/projectiles. The stronger the material is - the higher the chances are.
  I'm also considering giving secondary weapons to ranged units like archers, as using bow at close range seems illogical. I’d love to hear your thoughts about it in the comments.
  
  
  A wooden shield
  
  
• In this regard, i've changed weapons system, making weapon & armor types more balanced. Here's a small table:
  
  
  Weapon type

  Damage scale to unarmored units

  Damage scale to light-armored units

  Damage scale to medium-armored units

  Damage scale to heavy-armored units

  Firsts, fangs, horns etc.

  100%

  100%

  75%

  75%

  Cutting weapons

  125%

  100%

  75%

  75%

  Piercing weapons

  125%

  75%

  125%

  125%

  Blunt weapons

  125%

  100%

  75%

  50%

  Ranged weapons

  125%

  100%

  100%

  75%

  Magic

  125%

  100%

  100%

  125%
  
  I believe this system will make players to have a balanced army with light-armored bowmen and mages. I'm still working on it, so feel free to share your opinion.
  
  
• New mercenaries sprites have arrived to replace the old ones.
  Every one of them has unique attack & armor type according to the table above.
  
  
  
  
• The last updated mechanics in this patch is rations system.
  Players will be able to choose manually whether to use a resource in their minions' rations or to keep it for trading.
  
  
  
  That's all for now. There's still much work to do, but I hope to release this patch on New Year's holidays. As I already mentioned, I'd love to hear your opinion about the patch in the comments!
  
  
  Yours,
  Life is Hard dev

Check out a new interface mockup

Greetings! After a long pause caused by an absence of money we are ready to continue our development.

Let’s start with a report about work we done.

Recently we’ve added feudal villages, which can be built after reaching a certain level of a development. Agricultural, industrial, mining or blacksmithing villages can be founded. They will share some of their resources with a player once in a while.



In-game's fauna was also extended by adding birds, which tend to fly away to warm countries late summer. We hope it'll help to create the atmosphere of a passing summer.



Talking about in-game mechanics and controls, now you can switch between soldiers with arrow keys, which allows you to quickly select the desired unit. The TAB key brings player’s view to the battlefield and you can always check how much food your minions recently gained.

We will also continue our work on the interface to make it more convenient and easier to interact with.

After that, we’ll be ready to leave Steam Early Access at any time after fixing all the bugs (just like DayZ, me-he-he). However, we don’t want to release an unstable product, which Life is Hard is. So, please report any bug you found on our Steam Forum. Thank you for your support!

Hello! Life is Hard devs are on (the) line. As a minor patch, we've introduced unique spells for each god instead of "hand of vitality". This is how they look like now:



What would you like to see in Life is Hard? We've been thinking for a while about adding more wandering traders/caravans with different tools/improvements to sell, but we're unsure if this is what our game needs right now. Please respond thoughtfully, as it's very important for the game's further development

Hello! Life is Hard devs are on (the) line. As a minor patch, we've introduced unique spells for each god instead of "hand of vitality". This is how they look like now:



What would you like to see in Life is Hard? We've been thinking for a while about adding more wandering traders/caravans with different tools/improvements to sell, but we're unsure if this is what our game needs right now. Please respond thoughtfully, as it's very important for the game's further development