Greetings fellow deities,

Rise to Ruins is planning to launch out of Early Access this year. Release 1 will be a huge milestone for Rise to Ruins' nearly 5 year development cycle! I've put a ton of work into this game, and I'm proud to finally see it complete enough I can call it a "ready" in 2019.

But here's the thing; Development won't end. I have no intention on stopping development once the game leaves Early Access, nor do I plan to stop anytime soon. As long as you are all here supporting my work, I will be here to support it too. After Release 1 expect plenty of additional content over, hopefully, years of future development.

Before release, I have a few more major patches planned, one of the most important ones being a complete redesign of the save system that will hopefully nearly eliminate your saves becoming "obsolete" and having to reset your progress. As for content, I am planning a bio, hygiene, trash, fishing, hunting, and cooking systems, as well as workshop support for custom skirmish maps and a fundamental redesign of the corruption system before release. All of these will likely span 3-4 major patches throughout the year, starting with InDev 33, introducing the new save system.

As for post release content, I'm still planning a procedural map generator, more holy/religion things, bridges, building walls on water, more equipment, spells, monsters, per-map difficulty/weather, more goals, perks and a ton of other content I couldn't even begin to list out in a single post. So while the game is going to be released this year, it'll never be done. There's always more to add, and I'll be here to add it.

For the nitty gritty business side of things, roughly a month prior to release, Rise to Ruins will increase it's price and the standard 50% discount price will change to 33%. Although what that price will be is still somewhat up in the air, and I'd love to hear your feedback down in the comments what you think the price should be.

I thank all of you that have stuck with this long journey, working alone has been both an overwhelming challenge and very rewarding, I am grateful for all of your support all along the way. Without your support, I couldn't have made this game what it is today. It's because of you I get to live my lifelong dream of being a game developer. :rtrheart:

The likely final InDev 32 series patch has been released! This patch is mostly optimizations and a complete overhaul of the entire particle system. Although it does include several gameplay tweaks and bug fixes, so checkout the change log for all the juicy details!

Early reports from some "In-house" testers on discord are claiming great frame rate improvements! Let me know down in the comments how much better (or worse?) the game is running for you compared to InDev 32b. :)


Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue with the new dedicated particle thread that could cause it to hang with game speed was increased past 1x, causing performance to tank rapidly.
  
• Fixed a minor text key issue for the "Kill Monsters" goal.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed a crash when trying to upgrade roads before the tile set data for the next upgraded road type was loaded into the game.

Particle Engine

• Particles can now be more than just 1x1 pixels/dots, they can be all shapes and sizes, and even animations. As a result, almost all the particle effects in game have been updated/improved.
  
• Particle data is no longer saved with your save data, previously, some "long lasting" particles like blood splatters were saved.
  
• All particle and emitter logic has been shuffled off to a new dedicated thread, users with at least 4 CPU threads (Dual Cores with Hyperthreading, Quad Cores or better) should see a very nice performance boost as a result.

Miscellaneous Changes

• An eclipse and a blood moon can no longer happen on the same day.
  
• Workshop Uploader tool now allows you to select predefined tags.
  
• Fire Elementals now take much more damage when it's raining, or when thrown in water.
  
• Fire Elementals no longer take water damage when being grabbed and hovering over water.
  
• Initial batch of migrant and courier spawns when starting a new region are now arrive nearly 3 times faster than before.
  
• The Barracks, Outposts and Equipment Storage can now all store wood swords and wood shields.
  
• Mobs no longer "Scream" when they die of natural causes.
  
• Hide Topography button re-enabled.
  
• Hide Topography now shows a "ghost image" of the topography rather than hiding it completely.
  
• The hide topography shortcut now works in play mode.
  
• Added building and tile counts to the right panel.
  
• You can now use the farm and road tools as soon as you place the building for construction.

Bug Fixes

• Static tower damage is now correct in the GUI.
  
• Implemented a short term fix to prevent translation mods from corrupting save data if there's a comma in a goal description.
  
• Red Crystals generate particles again.
  
• Missile, Combobulator and several other particles are no longer generated when not in view of the camera.
  
• Fixed a theoretical crash related to lighting striking outside the map.
  
• Road type upgrade text when using the road upgrade tools are now properly translated when a language pack is loaded.
  
• The perk "Dundar's Determination" now displays correctly in game.
  
• Fixed a bug where migrants could crash the game trying to leave the village if there's no available space tiles on the map to leave.
  
• Fixed a minor statistics bug for courier resources delivered per day.
  
• Tweaked the text color coding system slightly so it does not crash when incomplete color codes are inputted at the end of a string. (This only applies to localization mods with incorrectly formatted strings)
  
• When the migration panel is manually active, selecting a Courier Station now properly overrides it with the Courier panel.
  
• Game will no longer crash when you try to change game states while the debug menu (F3) is enabled.
  
• The farm and road work tools no longer gray out when your only building is being upgraded.

This patch is fairly small, it just covers a few hiccups from InDev 32's release.

If you're looking for the big change log from InDev 32, check out this announcement.

Note that this patch also allows localization modders to translate the loading tips, and as a result, all previously 100% completed translations are now hovering around the mid 98% range.


Localization Modding

• All loading tips can now be translated.

Miscellaneous Changes

• Adjusted red sands terrain slightly.
  
• Mobs "complain" more when grabbed.

Bug Fixes

• You can no longer place abandoned buildings or auto-built buildings on topography, without the topography being auto-erased.
  
• Fixed a rare bug where a mob can get "stuck" on the player's hand when grabbed.
  
• Fixed a bug where you could not draw the accent layer on the base terrain.
  
• Fixed several minor text key errors. Note that some of these errors, if occurred in your save before, may still exist when you load the game. Next time the game calls for the text they'll be generated correctly.

After months of toiling, one of the most ambitious code overalls in Rise to Ruins history has been completed, and I am proud to introduce full localization modding support on the Steam Workshop! If English isn't your primary language, or, if you don't speak English at all, you can now easily download a user made language pack and play the game in your native tongue!

That's not all either, this patch has a plethora of miscellaneous improvements, from better render performance, bug fixes, new tile art, a new shadow engines and a ton more! Check out the change log below for detail.

If you're interested in checking out some of the new localization mods, here's a few highlights of several 100% or practically 100% completed localization mods made by the community!

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1633739624&searchtext=
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1632036634&searchtext=
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1638986110&searchtext=
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1639348623&searchtext=
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1631870896&searchtext=
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1634275992&searchtext=
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1633693835&searchtext=
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1633130908&searchtext=
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1633031151&searchtext=
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1632152097&searchtext=

If you've made one that isn't listed above, feel free to spam it down in the comments. :)

If you're interested in following development much more closely, don't forget to follow me on Twitter or join the awesome community on Discord!


Localization Modding

• All game text can now be edited by players to be made into mods.
  
• Steam workshop support has been added for localization mods.
  
• The game now supports any TrueTypeFont, and should support all kinds of character sets, including Russian, Chinese, Japanese, etc.
  
• A new Steam Workshop tool, created by BeepDog has been included in the game install, allowing you to upload your mods to the new workshop.
  
• Tons of default flags have been added to the game, created by Crowbob, for you to use in your mods. They are located in /localization/flags/.
  
• Word wrapping system now much more accurate.

Visual Improvements

• All terrain, roads and walls have been given over 150% more transition tiles, giving the terrain much more complexity and depth. This fixes all kinds of visual ugliness, like double-width roads "grid patterns", or 1x? trails of terrain "dotting" along the map.
  
• Shadow generation has been greatly improved, allowing for much more visually complex shadows in the game.
  
• All mobs now cast more realistic shadows.

Miscellaneous Changes

• You can now place buildings on top of most topography, and workers will clear it before starting construction.
  
• Building construction phases now no longer change until construction has actually began.
  
• The map and shadow rendering speed has been greatly improved.
  
• The game now uses less overall VRAM.
  
• Maximum game speed controls can now be changed by editing "maximumGameSpeed" in the settings.properties file. (Use at your own risk!)
  
• New preferred village pathfinding has been added. Villagers will now be extremely unwilling to leave the village, opting for longer paths to get to their destination, if the longer path allows them to remain in the village at all times.
  
• Added the finalized version of the sound track, with many improved/remastered tracks.
  
• Updated the bundled JRE for all operating systems to Java 8u202.
  
• Dropped support for 32-Bit Windows (Note: In theory, Win32 users can still launch the game via RtR.bat)
  
• Updated RtR64.exe's launch icon.
  
• Changed out several of the text based "floaters" with icons, like pregnancy and equipping items.
  
• Countless minor changes to various text all over the game.
  
• Selecting a profile now has a button click sound.
  
• Patreon links and icons removed from the game.
  
• Lowered flash rate of buttons.
  
• Removed the tip counter on the tip page when you have multiple tips.
  
• Temporarily disabled the hide topography button. (They'll be back next patch!)

Balance Changes

• Migrants now award god XP doing actions.
  
• Slowed down Fire Elementals movement speed, but increased their hit points.
  
• Night time in the Winter has been made slightly shorter, to help nerf the large bump in monsters on the 15th and 16th day.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed the announcement page URL so announcements will correctly load on the main menu again.
  
• Fixed a bug where departing migrants were not granting god experience or ticking up the "send villagers" goal.
  
• The dedicated data thread very rarely crashing on exit has been fixed.
  
• Implemented an experimental save validation check to avoid save corruption issues on some machines.
  
• You can now press the "Abandon Region" button when debug view is on and you lose a region.
  
• Fixed a bug where resources inside the corruption's buildings were being counted in the player's totals.
  
• Statistics page tooltips for resources and mobs no longer show a description block containing the same value as the title.
  
• Fixed a few node reset issues on various A* algorithms.
  
• Fixed world data being wiped out if you attempted to forcefully exit the game on the loading screen.
  
• Added additional save validity checks to the save system

Greetings guys, after some very, very careful consideration. I've decided to shut down the Patreon. The reason being Rise to Ruins easily sustains my livelihood and a nice rainy day account that can keep SixtyGig Games running through the hard times now, so I don't feel right taking additional money from you guys! Your support has and always will be appreciated and I thank you all for your pledges, reviews and of course, buying the game.

Rise to Ruins has been doing increasingly well over the last 6 months or so, and to return the thanks you gave me by pledging, I would like to return to you 2 times the amount you pledged to me since the Patreon began. Meaning, if you've pledged $10, I'll return $20!

(EDIT: There has been some minor confusion, so to clarify, this is your lifetime pledges, meaning if you donated $1 for 6 months, for a total of $6, you will get $12 back!)

Anyone who wants to take me up on this offer, simply send me a message on Patreon with your PayPal information (Or post a comment in the Patreon announcement linked below) and I'll handle the rest! If you don't have a PayPal. I can also offer Steam gift card codes.

Please, don't look at this as a negative, I greatly appreciate everything you guys have and will do! This is actually a great thing; as Rise to Ruins has become so successful a rainy day fund this Patreon set out to build is no longer necessary. :)

Thank you guys for everything! I look forward to your messages.

The original post can be found here:
https://www.patreon.com/posts/24404678

Click here for help on accessing the Unstable branch!

Another huge step towards moving out of Early Access this year, Rise to Ruins Unstable 2 is finally here, and supports localization mods on the Steam workshop!!

Players may now create their own localization mods and upload them to the Steam workshop to share with others. But in order to access the workshop before InDev 32 Stable is released, you must be a member of the Rise to Ruins Workshop Alpha group.

I am also paying a bounty to translators. Anyone who can 100% translate the game accurately before InDev 32 Stable is release I will pay $200 or $300 USD (depending on the language) via paypal, or in Steam gift cards. For more information/rules/requirements check out the announcement in the work shop group!

This patch also introduces a ton of small tweaks and improvements. So be sure to checkout the change log. :)

Bonus; Unlike most new unstable builds, your InDev 31e saves still work with this patch!


Localization Modding

• Added several more missing text keys to the default text.yml file.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed several more minor GUI issues not loading the proper text keys.
  
• Fixed a save corruption issue if you save the game with the module names translated.

Localization Modding

• Added several more missing text keys to the default text.yml file.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed several more minor GUI issues not loading the proper text keys.
  
• Fixed a bug in the Workshop Uploader that could cause it to hang trying to upload.
  
• "No Resources" text overlay on buildings now displays the correct resources.
  
• Fixed a save corruption issue if you save the game with a crystal storage building built.

Localization Modding

• Added several missing text keys to the default text.yml file.
  
• You can now change the behavior of word wrapping by changing/adding "wordWrapUseCharacterPositions" to your configuration file, and setting it to "true". This will allow the game's built in word wrapper to break words in half and wrap the line, rather than wrap at the last space detected.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed several minor GUI issues not loading the proper text keys.
  
• The game no longer crashes on load for Linux users.

Localization Modding

• All game text can now be edited by players to be made into mods.
  
• Steam workshop support has been added for localization mods, in order to use the workshop you must join the Rise to Ruins Workshop Alpha group.. Documentation is location in Rise to Ruins' new /localization/ folder.
  
• The game now supports any TrueTypeFont, and should support all kinds of character sets, including Russian, Chinese, Japanese, etc.
  
• A new Steam Workshop tool, created by BeepDog has been included in the game install, allowing you to upload your mods to the new workshop.
  
• Tons of default flags have been added to the game, created by Crowbob, for you to use in your mods. They are located in /localization/flags/.

Miscellaneous Changes

• New preferred village pathfinding has been added. Villagers will now be extremely unwilling to leave the village, opting for longer paths to get to their destination, if the longer path allows them to remain in the village at all times.
  
• Added the finalized version of the sound track, with many improved/remastered tracks.
  
• Updated the bundled JRE for all operating systems to Java 8u202.
  
• Dropped support for 32-Bit Windows (Note: In theory, Win32 users can still launch the game via RtR.bat)
  
• Updated RtR64.exe's launch icon.
  
• Changed out several of the text based "floaters" with icons, like pregnancy and equipping items.
  
• Countless minor changes to various text all over the game.
  
• Selecting a profile now has a button click sound.
  
• Patreon links and icons removed from the game.
  
• Lowered flash rate of buttons.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed a bug where resources inside the corruption's buildings were being counted in the player's totals.
  
• Statistics page tooltips for resources and mobs no longer show a description block containing the same value as the title.
  
• Fixed a few node reset issues on various A* algorithms.

After careful thought, I have decided to re-prioritize a bit. InDev 32 is no longer the "Improvements Update", it is now the "Localization Modding" update. The patch will still include many improvements from the original roadmap, but some of them are being pushed to InDev 33, and my original plans for InDev 33 (the hygiene update) are now being pushed to 34.

I am really excited about this one! I am introducing workshop support for localization modding and time permitting, map sharing! You will be able to create your own localization mods into any language you wish, and upload them to the Steam workshop for your fellow native speakers to download.

Currently, InDev 32 Unstable 1 is already released, and includes a few of the items in the road map below already. InDev 32 Unstable 2 is introducing alpha testing of the new localization mod support, hopefully coming out in about a week or two.

Sadly, the biggest loss to the revision is pushing the much-requested road upgrade tools to InDev 33, but they're still planned! You'll still get them in roughly the same timeline as before, it'll just be officially in the next patch. Basically, nothing is being delayed, I am just restructuring my plans so I can push a stable release to you sooner, then work on what is effectively "InDev 32 part 2" as InDev 33 shortly after.

Just like the original road map, I encourage you to post your nitpicky tweaks/gripes/suggestions below! InDev 32 (and now 33) are both squarely focused on general improvements and polish. So now is the time to complain about all those "little things" that bug you! :)


Localization Mod Support

• The entire game will be completely modifiable to be localized for any language, including Chinese, Japanese, Korea, Russian, and other difficult to localize languages.
  
• Font will also be customizable, so you can pick the font that works best for your language.
  
• Full True Type Font and Unicode support will be added. The modder can customize the font settings in their mods configuration file, to fine tune it for their needs.
  
• Workshop support will be added for players to create, upload and update/support their own custom language files.

Miscellaneous Changes

• Time permitting, map sharing will also be added to the workshop, so players can share their custom maps.
  
• All terrain, roads and walls will get more transition tiles, fixing a ton of minor visual issues, like 1x? length water tiles just being a series of dots, or large areas of roads having a weird "grid pattern".
  
• The foundation of the code required to add bridges, as well as build future walls and some buildings on the water.
  
• Completely redesigned rendering engine for the map and shadows, reducing GPU load.
  
• New shadow system that has a 2-depth system, allowing for more refined and detailed shadows.
  
• Tons of minor GUI improvements.

Click here for help on accessing the Unstable branch!

Wohoo! After 2 solid months of drawing new artwork, InDev 32 Unstable 1 has arrived! This patch is almost entirely a polishing patch, but also has a ton of minor fixes and tweaks.

Part of this patch was re-designing the entire shadow engine, making shadows a bit more realistic, but some of the shadow data (particularly on buildings) has not been fully converted to the new system. So, if you see any visual errors on buildings, don't worry about it! They'll be gone in Unstable 2.

I hope you enjoy the improvements! Check out the change logs for all the details! The change log may be a bit short, but the changes are quite extensive to the underlining code. :)

Bonus; Unlike most new unstable builds, your InDev 31e saves work with this patch!


Visual Improvements

• All terrain, roads and walls have been given over 150% more transition tiles, giving the terrain much more complexity and depth. This fixes all kinds of visual ugliness, like double-width roads "grid patterns", or 1x? trails of terrain "dotting" along the map.
  
• Shadow generation has been greatly improved, allowing for much more visually complex shadows in the game. (Note: Many buildings are still not using the new system. They will next patch.)
  
• All mobs now cast more realistic shadows.

Miscellaneous Changes

• You can now place buildings on top of most topography, and workers will clear it before starting construction.
  
• Building construction phases now no longer change until construction has actually began.
  
• The map and shadow rendering speed has been greatly improved.
  
• The game now uses less overall VRAM.
  
• Maximum game speed controls can now be changed by editing "maximumGameSpeed" in the settings.properties file. (Use at your own risk!)

Balance Changes

• Migrants now award god XP doing actions.
  
• Slowed down Fire Elementals movement speed, but increased their hit points.
  
• Night time in the Winter has been made slightly shorter, to help nerf the large bump in monsters on the 15th and 16th day.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed the announcement page URL so announcements will correctly load on the main menu again.
  
• Fixed a bug where departing migrants were not granting god experience or ticking up the "send villagers" goal.
  
• The dedicated data thread very rarely crashing on exit has been fixed.
  
• Implemented an experimental save validation check to avoid save corruption issues on some machines.
  
• You can now press the "Abandon Region" button when debug view is on and you lose a region.

InDev 32's development has begun! Every so often, I plan one of these polishing and improvement updates. The main focus of this update isn't to add any new core mechanics, but to improve on the existing foundation.

Unlike regular updates, these improvement updates do not have extensive detailed road maps. Most of the updates are miscellaneous changes that just make things "better", and a lot of it comes from your feedback. So, be sure to post down in the comments with your minor gripes and nitpicks about, well, anything!

The following road map is not a complete list in any way, this is just the "Big stuff" I'll be working on in addition to a ton of optimizations and small improvements, as well as what you suggest down in the comments that I can find time to work in.


Miscellaneous Changes

• All terrain, roads and walls will get more transition tiles, fixing a ton of minor visual issues, like 1x? length water tiles just being a series of dots, or large areas of roads having a weird "grid pattern".
  
• A new road UI will be added, that allows the player to much more easily place roads.
  
• The foundation of the code required to add bridges, as well as build future walls and some buildings on the water.
  
• Time permitting, walls and gates that can be built on the water.
  
• Completely redesigned rendering engine for the map and shadows, reducing GPU load.
  
• New shadow system that has a 2-depth system, allowing for more refined and detailed shadows.
  
• Tons of minor GUI improvements.

Greeting everyone,

To both celebrate a wonderful week long sale (Thanks guys! :rtrheart:), and to kickoff the new Steam Broadcaster box I've setup on the store page, I'm giving away $10 Steam gift card codes every 4 hours 3 times a day, starting at noon, every day until I run out!

The codes will be pasted in the steam broadcast chat roughly around Noon, 4PM and 8PM every day, central standard time.

If you're interested, simply stick around on the store or broadcast page chat and wait for the code-drop! Both chats are linked, so pick whatever works best for you.

Store Page link

Broadcast Link

As of writing this, the first code will be released in about 20 minutes! Good luck guys. :)