Hello, everyone!

We hope you’ve enjoyed your holidays and the new content from Update 1.

Before we head into 2022, we thought it was a good moment to look back at the most important (and wild) year for Timberborn so far… and maybe catch a cryptic glimpse into the future?

As weird as it sounds, twelve months ago Timberborn was still in the invite-only closed beta that began in June 2020. Exactly a year before Update 1, we added the last missing puzzle to the game’s core gameplay: irrigation mechanics and droughts.



With the patch well received, we officially entered the planned release window of Q1 2021 (heh). The final test and push for Timberborn’s pre-launch visibility were about to happen at Steam Game Festival, the indie-friendly Steam event now known as Steam Next Fest.

To participate, we replaced the closed beta with a publicly available Timberborn Demo. The player’s goal was to survive two droughts. Also, we finally updated the beaver models.



We were not prepared for what would happen at the Festival. Timberborn Demo stayed among the top three played demos, was downloaded close to 100.000 times, and at one point, about 28.000 viewers were watching the beavers on Twitch. Our Discord exploded, and so did our heads.

With the massive amount of feedback and the sudden spike of high profile coverage, we realized that Timberborn had a chance to become the Next Big Thing. We needed more time for that, though, so we decided to postpone the release to “later in 2021” as we wanted more good stuff in.



As the said “good stuff” grew behind the scenes, we updated the demo with better visuals, more music, improved performance, and some QoL features such as the build priorities.

We also added the first in-game translations - sadly, the Asian languages were blocked by a nasty bug in the engine. Back then, we hoped this would be a brief inconvenience. Little did we know - it wasn’t fixed until months later, almost jeopardizing the release.



In the demo, we only had a single temporary faction called Beavers of Demoria. However, unique factions were going to be among Timberborn's key features, and since we felt the game was nearing a shippable Early Access state, it was time to reveal the first faction. Hi, Folktails!



We also wanted to prepare our players for the addition of the districts system. Compared to the beta and demo, districts eliminated many problems often encountered in the early game, made managing large settlements easier, and brought Timberborn a huge performance boost.

By the way, we know that there are areas we can improve here. We’ll be gradually rolling out updates that should make district-wide operations smoother and require less micromanaging.



Bracing for more delays, we kept telling our players that Timberborn was coming “later in 2021”. This finally changed on one hot, crazy August night, at the peak of summer gaming festivals.

Within two hours, at two different Gamescom shows (Future Games Show by GamesRadar and Awesome Indies Show by IGN), we introduced the second playable beaver faction AND announced that the game was releasing… in three weeks. There was no turning back.



Mechanistry is a fully remote team but for the launch week, we all gathered in Gdansk, Poland, to work in one place for the first time. On September 15, at 5 PM, our lead designer Bartek hit the “release” button… and fifteen minutes of horror began. For some reason, the game didn’t go live as expected, and it wasn’t until 5:15 PM that it did (with Steam’s timely intervention). It was probably the most terrifying quarter of an hour in the game’s history.

What followed was a blurred mess of sleepless nights, reading feedback, and rapid hotfixing. Fortunately, players kept flowing in, and we closed the launch week with over 130.000 copies sold. The “Overwhelmingly Positive” rating came right after that. We couldn’t be happier.



After the launch madness and the initial surge of tweaks, we took turns taking some time off, but the work on Timberborn is now an ongoing process. We even squeezed in a little new content patch (yay, fences!) but we were mostly focused on preparing for the first large update.



This is where we are now. Having tested the new content on the newly launched Experimental Branch, we deployed our first major post-launch update. We added infinite metal production, mechanical water pumps, new resources, new attractions, and more - and your feedback made it all better.



The last-minute delay in February, Iron Teeth breeding woes, the bug with Asian localizations, multiple water physics tweaks - this year alone showed that in game development, things happen. Because of that, we’re hesitant to talk big, post roadmaps, and risk breaking promises.

But we understand that many of you came here for this, and we want to let you know that our current plan is to continue bundling changes into large patches that first land onto Experimental Branch, similarly to Update 1. We’re already working on Update 2 which will use Timberborn’s post-apocalyptic setting to make our beavers more futuristic. No spoilers yet but we’ve had this idea for a while now, and we believe it may also result in an interesting late game with a twist.

Other than that, we’re constantly keeping an eye on what the community desires (pro tip: our tracker helps your voices be heard). This applies both to new content ideas and quality of life requests, so keep them coming. We’ll evaluate them and do our best to include as much as possible as the game grows. Update 1 was just the beginning.

Alright, enough with the teasers. We thank you for your amazing support this year, and we’re looking forward to showing you what we have in store for 2022. It’s going to be awesome!



Happy New Year!
Team Timberborn

• Decreased Shrine's Working Speed bonus from 30% to 5% and Temple's Working Speed bonus from 30% to 25%.

• If the user previously denied access to the Documents folder on macOS, the game exits and opens privacy settings instead of crashing.

Ho-ho-ho!

Holidays are upon us and we’ve got a gift: our first major content update for Timberborn, now available for everyone! Big thank you to all eager beavers testing (and breaking) new stuff on the experimental branch. You helped us make it better for today’s official release.

We have the full patch notes below. Even if you've been keeping up with the experimental version, you may find a little surprise to fit the holiday spirit.

Watch the new trailer to see the update’s highlights!



To celebrate the new content, come join Jon and Michal for a holiday live stream on December 23, 2 PM CET! This will be a perfect opportunity to see Update 1 in hands of a pro. Of course, this means Jon will be the one playing.

• Twitch
  
• YouTube
  
• Facebook

And if you can’t join us live, let us send you the season’s greetings already. May your lodge stay leakproof and full of holiday cheer!



IMPORTANT, please read. Once you update the game on the main branch, existing saves become largely incompatible, as indicated by a warning. Please start a new game!

If you want to continue building pre-patch settlements without the new content and changes, we have added a pre-patch branch called “Old version 0.0”. You can access it the same way you enable the experimental branch, as explained here.

If the save was made on Experimental Branch, you can ignore that warning and continue playing. Just make sure you move your files from ExperimentalSaves to Saves.

As a reminder, Timberborn on Steam is now available to play via GeForce Now.

Scraping down ex-hooman buildings was not enough, we get it.

• New resource node: Underground Ruins. These large, rich in metal remnants of hooman civilization can only be placed in the map editor. They provide an infinite source of scrap metal, but are difficult to adapt for beaver needs.
  
• New building: Mine (4000 SP; 250 logs, 200 treated planks, 350 gears; 10 workers; can only be built on top of Underground Ruins). In exchange for a stream of gears and treated planks, beavers are now able to get infinite amounts of scrap metal.
  
• New building: Efficient Mine (4000 SP; 300 logs, 300 treated planks,450 gears; 10 workers; can only be built on top of Underground Ruins). This mine can only be built by the Iron Teeth, and produces more Scrap Metal. Additionally, it has a secondary recipe that includes Explosives and produces even more scrap metal.
  
• New building: Smelter (300 SP; 50 planks, 20 gears, 30 scrap metal; 200 HP; uses logs as fuel; 1 worker). To be used in buildings, scrap metal needs to be turned into metal blocks here. This also applies to the scrap from the “normal” ruins, previously processed in Shredder.
  
• Shredder was removed from the game. But don’t fret, there are shredding enthusiasts in the team and the building may return in some form one day! \m/

The ability to transfer water to higher levels is one of the most popular requests so we’ve got you a mechanical water pump! Also, Water Wheels’ behaviour is now more immersive. Check their new variants to feel the difference!

• New building: Mechanical Water Pump (5000 SP; 100 gears, 50 treated planks, 50 metal blocks; 700 HP). This pump sucks the water below and dumps it at a higher level.
  
• New building: Deep Mechanical Water Pump (5000 SP; 100 gears, 50 treated planks, 50 metal blocks; 700 HP). This is the Iron Teeth variant of the pump. It has a longer, 6-tile deep pipe matching that of a Deep Water Pump.
  
• New building: Compact Water Wheel (25 logs; Iron Teeth only). Unlocked right from the start, this provides a little surge of hydro energy at the early stage of the game.
  
• Updated building: Water Wheel: it is now a Folktails-only building.
  
• New building: Large Water Wheel (200 SP; 70 logs, 80 planks; Iron Teeth only). This beast requires additional support on the side but is much more efficient.
  
• Water Wheels now have variable HP output, depending on the current’s strength. If placed well, they’ll be even more effective than before.
  
• Water Wheels will now slightly slow down the water passing through.
  
• Water Marker was renamed Stream Gauge. It now also indicates the water current’s strength.
  
• Made numerous tweaks to the water physics system to address the addition of Mechanical Water Pumps and changes made to Water Wheels.

Metal is not everything, yo. We’ve got new plants as well.

• New resource: Chestnut trees. These trees with thick trunks grow slowly, but they provide your beavers with chestnuts in addition to logs.
  
• New resource: Cattail. Yields cattail roots. Can only grow in water, as indicated by the Aquatic keyword.
  
• New resource: Spadderdock. Yields spadderdock (duh). Can only grow in water, as indicated by the Aquatic keyword.
  
• Updated resource: Pine. Pines are now also a source of pine resin.
  
• Updated resource: Maple. You’ve guessed it, you can also gather maple syrup.

Updates to resources required an expansion of available buildings.

• New building: Wood Workshop (800 SP; 20 logs, 40 planks, 50 gears; 1 worker; 250 HP). Creates treated planks from planks and pine resin.
  
• New building: Aquatic Farmhouse (150 SP; 30 logs, 10 planks; 2 workers). Similar to the ordinary Farmhouse, beavers employed here grow cattail and spadderdock in the designated areas (in shallow waters).
  
• New building: Tapper’s Shack (500 SP; 20 logs, 20 planks, 10 gears; 1 worker). A beaver employed here gathers pine resin and maple syrup from trees in range. You can pick the prioritized good.
  
• Updated building: Gatherer’s Flag. Gatherers are now able to gather chestnuts in addition to blueberries. You can choose the prioritized good.

As a continuation of the above, we’ve implemented the ability to pick from different recipes – as already mentioned in the case of Iron Teeth’s Efficient Mine.

• Updated building: Grill. You can now pick between Grilled Potatoes, Grilled Chestnuts, and Grilled Spadderdock. Yield numbers vary.
  
• Updated building: Gristmill. You can now pick between Wheat Flour and Cattail Flour.
  
• Updated building: Bakery. You can now pick between Bread, Maple Pastry, and Cattail Crackers.
  
• If a building allows multiple recipes, you need to pick one before it starts working. If you don’t, the building will display a warning and “?” in the building panel. You can choose the recipe before the building is built.

Let the beavers gaze into the stars for too long and you end up with Inventor’s Hut on steroids.

• New building: Observatory (1000 SP; 80 planks, 30 gears, 10 pine resin; 200 HP; employs 4 workers). Generates SP at a high rate and has cool rotating pieces!

It’s post-apocalypse alright but a beaver’s existence should not be just about trying to survive.

• New building: Lido (250 SP; 40 logs, 30 planks; can only be built on a riverbank). You wanted the swimming pools, and here they are. Lidos satisfy Fun.
  
• New building: Mud Bath (1800 SP; 50 gears, 50 treated planks, 30 water; 50 HP). Rivers aren’t always available but getting down and dirty (with bubbles!) can be Fun too.
  
• New building: a little beaver secret, totally not leaked before and not shown in the feature trailer. Enjoy your spiritual holidays!

• All included maps have been updated to include Metal Deposits and Chestnut Trees. To maintain the in-game balance, we have removed some of the existing ruins and other trees.
  
• It is now possible to place Metal Deposits and Chestnut Trees in the map editor.

• Average Wellbeing needed to unlock Iron Teeth increased from 8 to 11.
  
• Engine now generates 400 HP, up from 200 HP.
  
• Large Windmill now generates up to 400 HP, up from 300 HP.
  
• Windmill now generates up to 200 HP, up from 120 HP.
  
• Changed the time to grow Maple to 30 days.
  
• Made tweaks to the Nutrition needs so that it’s possible to satisfy all of them.

• Added more flavor texts to buildings and resources. Can you spot all the references?
  
• Updated descriptions for many buildings.
  
• Added Vyna, the Masterful Architect of Helix Mountain, as well as our awesome moderators and new Eager Beavers, to the in-game credits.

• When in full screen, the game is now played in borderless windowed mode.
  
• Updated some icons for buildings and resources.
  
• Foresters and Farmhouses now receive a "Nothing to do in range" status when there is no field in their range.

• The game should no longer freeze on macOS during launch or when changing resolution.
  
• Fixed a bug causing the game to freeze while loading on full screen.
  
• Fixed a bug with Tribute to Ingenuity not working properly.
  
• Fixed a bug that allowed the Iron Teeth to place Platforms on a particular tile within Rooftop Terrace.
  
• Beavers occupying slots in buildings will now be properly displayed.
  
• Fixed a bug with highlighting text in text fields.
  
• Fixed a bug with kits being unable to grow because of too many attractions nearby. Sorry, Peter Pan.
  
• Fixed the bug that allowed gathering goods from dead crops after reloading the game.
  
• Fixed the gears overlapping in Large Windmill.
  
• Fixed Water Dumps sometimes overflowing reservoirs.
  
• Resources are now sorted alphabetically in the building’s inventory panel.
  
• Fixed a bug with a settlement named “nul” blocking the game. Nice find. o_O
  
• Water below level 0 is now hidden. The magically flooded Underground Warehouses are no more!
  
• Fixed Lumberjack's status sometimes not deactivating when it should.
  
• Fixed the "Nothing to do in range" warning icon not disappearing at night.
  
• Exhausted beavers now receive a status over their heads while sleeping.
  
• Fixed the highlight not disappearing after blowing a marked-for-tree-cutting area up with dynamite.
  
• Tree stumps no longer block building a Water Dump.
  
• Tree stumps no longer prevent Lumberjacks' warning icons from appearing.
  
• Fixed the “drought incoming” sound playing incorrectly and scaring beavers.
  
• Updated the Shrub's incorrect sound effect.
  
• Fixed the FPS drops after marking a large area for tree-cutting.
  
• Fixed several crash causes.

Fixes

• Fixed beavers not cutting dead trees.

Mechanical Water Pump and Deep Mechanical Water Pump were changed in a few ways. Their models were updated to reflect the changes.

• The pumps no longer stop waterflow.
  
• They are buildable on any stackable building, not only on Levees.
  
• They discharge water one block lower than before.
  
• Shafts can only be connected from the two shortest sides.

Save version compatibility checks were added.

• Loading any save made before this update will result in a warning but you can ignore it if the save was made on Experimental Branch.

• The game should no longer freeze on macOS during launch or when changing resolution.
  
• Tree stumps no longer block building a Water Dump.
  
• Tree stumps no longer prevent Lumberjacks' warning icons from appearing.
  
• Fixed the "Nothing to do in range" warning icon not disappearing at night.
  
• Fixed the highlight not disappearing after blowing a marked-for-tree-cutting area up with dynamite.
  
• Fixed the “drought incoming” sound playing incorrectly and scaring beavers.
  
• Updated the Shrub's incorrect sound effect.
  
• Fixed Floodgates' colliders.
  
• Fixed Large Water Wheel not applying water resistance at every occupied tile.
  
• Fixed the FPS drops after marking a large tree cutting area.
  
• Fixed beavers preferring Grilled Spadderdock over other types of food. That one was perfectly understandable, though.

• Mine now produces 2 Scrap metal instead of 1.
  
• Efficient Mine now produces 3 Scrap metal instead of 2.
  
• Efficient Mine now has an additional Scrap metal recipe: 1 Gear, 1 Treated plank, 1 Explosives produce 6 Scrap metal.
  
• Observatory is now cheaper to build (100 -> 80 Planks, 50 -> 30 Gears, 10 Pine resin). It consumes less HP (300 -> 200), and produces Science Points twice as fast as before.
  
• Mine is now cheaper to build (300 -> 250 Logs, 300 -> 200 Treated planks, 600 -> 350 Gears).
  
• Reduced the number of Gears required to finish Wood Workshop (50 -> 40), Efficient Mine (600 -> 450), and Mud Bath (50 -> 40).

• Made further tweaks to Water Wheels' behaviour.
  
• Updated various descriptions.
  
• Foresters and (both) Farmhouses now receive a "Nothing to do in range" status when there is no field in their range.

• Fixed an exploit where placing a Levee in front of a Water Wheel increased its efficiency.
  
• Removed the leftover Observatory need.
  
• Fixed Large Windmill not rotating correctly.
  
• Water below level 0 is now hidden.
  
• Fixed Lumberjack's status sometimes not deactivating when it should.
  
• Exhausted beavers now receive a status over their heads while sleeping.

Hello everyone,

the Experimental Branch is meant to test things and gather your feedback – and this shows! We hear your words of praise for the new content but also the valid concerns you raise.

We had already patched in some fixes, balance adjustments, and tweaks to water behaviour. Today, we’re addressing feedback regarding the new buildings and the faction diversity.



Not really a patch note but Timberborn on Steam is now available to play via GeForce Now. We know many of you asked for that. Enjoy!

You have noted that traditional mining does not necessarily fit the lumberpunk theme and the faction differences. Also, it made Shredders obsolete once the ruins were depleted.

• Updated resource node: Metal Deposit was renamed Underground Ruins. It is now an infinite source of Scrap metal. Ruins remain a limited source of scrap metal.
  
• Updated building: Mine. Has an updated model, and is now a Folktails-exclusive building.
  
• New building: Efficient Mine. Has an updated model compared to the Folktails version, and has an output of 2 Scrap metal instead of 1. It is Iron Teeth-exclusive.
  
• Updated building: Smelter. It is now used to process Scrap metal from all sources into Metal blocks. Science and buildings cost adjusted to match the Shredder's: 300 SP, 50 Planks, 20 Gears, 30 Scrap metal.
  
• Shredder was removed from the game. But don’t fret, there are shredding enthusiasts in the team and the building may return in some form one day! \m/

Ah, water wheels. A welcome sight when they spin, a herald of doom when they don’t. How about getting more variants to further differentiate the factions?

• Updated building: Water Wheel. It is now a Folktails-exclusive building. Note: If you had the OG Water Wheels built in an Iron Teeth settlement, they will be there but you won’t be able to build more.
  
• New building: Compact Water Wheel (starts unlocked; 25 logs; 50 hp/cms; Iron Teeth-exclusive). Perfect for tight spaces and/or limited power needs. Can be daisy-chained if needed.
  
• New building: Large Water Wheel (200 SP; 70 logs, 80 planks; 180 hp/cms; Iron Teeth-exclusive). Now we’re talking! This beast needs to be supported from the side at a height of two tiles, and cannot be daisy-chained that easily.
  
• Updated building: Water Marker. It was renamed Stream Gauge, and now it also indicates the water’s current speed.
  
• Updated building: Mechanical Water Pump (Iron Teeth). The Iron Teeth variant now has a 6-tile deep pipe matching the faction’s Deep Water Pump.

Let’s hope using them will be less confusing!

• Updated Aquatic Farmhouse’s description and icon to better explain the building’s role.
  
• Added a new keyword to the aquatic crops: Aquatic. Aquatic crops can only grow when partially submerged in the water.

We get it, we have underestimated the scientific value of gazing into the stars.

• Updated building: Observatory. This Inventor’s Hut on steroids now produces Science Points at a high rate and no longer is an attraction.
  
• Science cost adjusted to 1000 SP, building costs adjusted to 100 Planks, 50 Gears, 10 Pine Resin. Employs 4 workers.

Just some small number changes to leisure buildings.

• Updated building: Lido. Science cost adjusted to 250 SP, building costs adjusted to 40 Logs, 30 Planks. The beavers can enjoy their evenings in the water even earlier. Note: because of the Lido fixes (below), you will find out that your already-built Lidos have disappeared.
  
• Updated building: Temple. Science cost adjusted to 400 SP, building costs adjusted to 150 Logs, 60 Planks. It’s now a bit more expensive, as beavers prefer to play rather than pray.

• Fixed the bug that trapped beavers in the Metal Deposit (now: Underground Ruins) after a Mine’s removal.
  
• Fixed the bug that allowed gathering goods from dead crops after reloading the game.
  
• Fixed the gears overlapping in Large Windmill.
  
• Fixed a bug with beavers focusing on eating berries with other food available. Kits in Breeding Pods send their regards.
  
• Fixed Water Dumps and Mechanical Water Pumps sometimes overflowing reservoirs.
  
• Fixed Mechanical Water Pump (Iron Teeth) working four times faster than intended. They’re efficient but come on.
  
• Fixed bugs in how the text was displayed in the resource panel and on the save list.
  
• Resources are now sorted alphabetically in the building’s inventory panel.
  
• Fixed a bug that allowed building a Lido with a single platform acting as a “riverbank”. This fix will cause your Lidos to disappear after loading the game.
  
• Fixed a bug that prevented building a Lido partially hanging in the air.
  
• Fixed a bug with a settlement named “nul” blocking the game. Nice find. o_O
  
• Fixed several crash causes.

• This patch adds an extra parameter for diagnostic use only.

Here's a small patch for today, this time for Timberborn's main branch.

• The game should now run natively on Apple Silicon / M1 hardware. Please let us know your results.
  
• Updated Steam SDK to the latest version.

In other news: our game designer Jon will be taking Timberborn's Experimental Branch for a spin LIVE today at 3 PM CET. You can watch the live stream here on Steam as well as on our Twitch channel. 🔴

You're probably busy breaking our game's Experimental Branch - and we're equally busy trying to keep up. And if you do not own Timberborn yet, it's a good moment to change that because the game is now available with a 10% discount!

Either way, now that our debut title is out in Early Access, we'd like to give Steam Awards a shot. The nominations process has just begun. The competition is fierce but it would mean the world to us if you could nominate our beaver city builder in the Sit Back and Relax category above (*).



The voting lasts until the Autumn Sale ends on December 1. The top 5 nominees for each category will then be available for final voting during the Steam Winter sale. Please help the beavers get there.

Thanks!
Team Timberborn

(*) For some of us, it's more of the "Best Game You Suck At" territory. But we can probably agree that it's quite soothing seeing the little buggers run their errands while warehouses are full and water wheels spin. Of course, that's when the drought hits. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯