It’s been over a week since the Steam Next Festival went live - TFM: The First Men was participating in the event with the Demoria campaign. We’ve had plenty of amazing feedback from you all, along with some incredibly helpful bug reports.

Store Visitors : 58,267
Total Downloads : 18,640
Total Wishlists : 17,626
Discord Visitors : 480

The demo is offline now, but don’t worry! - we will be starting a Steam Playtest after making some changes based on the feedback from Demoria. To enter the playtest all you have to do is to join our Discord and show some courage and commitment in our Discord Minigame and become a Champion!



It was quite a great experience for us to have a demo live the whole week, we felt that it was a tiny version of an actual release week, which was a great experience for us besides collecting feedback and figuring out which parts of the game the players enjoy or struggle.

We will continue developing the game as we’ve planned, gladly most of the struggles were the things we were already aware of. You could understand that we don’t choose the day for the festival, so we had to go live with whatever was ready at the beginning of last week.

If we summarize the feedback and development plan until the Early Access, we can divide them all into three different categories;

We’ve separated paths and crafts into two different panels. Paths will require path points again and be only about the character’s development and progression. Moved all of the constructions, doodads, and items into another panel called the Crafts, where you will be able to freely open and craft anything that your characters unlocked as long as you can pay for it.

This will add another level of importance for the character’s progression, and their crafting abilities, while making it easier to use and understand, lowering the confusion and stress of choosing an action either for the settlement or for the character’s own good, you will feel that some of your characters will be more important for your settlement and try to make use of them before they die, or pass their knowledge to the next generation!

We also will be having a couple more changes regarding being able to force undrafted characters, giving them simple assignments like attacking, hauling, or looting.

The whole User Interface will become much clear with additional tooltips, notifications, and replacements, and we will have a campaign called “Tutoria” for the release, which will be an interactive tutorial campaign that will make sure you’ve learned everything.

We’ve encountered some bugs during the demo week, most of them were in our schedule but thanks to the participants and our community who’ve used our in-game feedback and bug reporting tool, we’ve caught many more.

Before the Steam Playtest begins we want to clear the bugs as much as possible and make a run again with our champions to hunt even more bugs until the release and make the game as bug-free as possible.

Some design and content optimizations will be happening as well. We plan to make some changes on the pregnancy, infancy, and childhood phases of the characters, will check the element and aptitude traits deeper, and make a lot of additions for the late-game content.

Yes, the demo was available only in English, and we read many of you want it in your native languages, which is why we are doing our best to make it ready for release.

We will be separating all of the text strings into two categories; Feature and Content - and we plan to translate 100% of the features by the Early Access release while we can’t foresee how much of the content will be available for other languages.

TFM has a lot of content and the hardest part is not that, we constantly add and change the content and update the game, so there has to be some kind of a flexible translation system that updates the changes quickly. We plan to use a community translation tool for the content part of things. More of that will be announced later. If you want to help us with the translations, please join TFM Discord Server and click your language’s flag on the translations channel.


As Gathering Tree we want to thank everyone who participated in the demo again, we will follow our vision to make a fresh and beautiful strategy simulation game with emergent storytelling and loads of content and strengthen the parts that set TFM apart from all the other games out there.

“I’ve spent about an hour with this Steam Festival and I’m pleased to say it’s an interesting game! It’s saddled somewhere in between like a God game, Rimworld, and RPG.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9NQi18P6J14
“Neat. I want to see more of it. Now that I know what I’m doing - I was very lost for a long time, I went in there with this idea of Rimworld and Colony Sim - that’s what I originally thought, clearly it’s not that.”

“Compared to a lot of the demos I’ve been playing this time around it’s been really good.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KcIELyUrsio
They've kindly put TFM: The First Men in their "Xbox Wishlist" in this post about upcoming Xbox games that are participating in the festival.

Welcome back, adventurer!

This was such an exciting week, the pre-alpha demo got a lot of attention and we are super happy to collect much feedback from everyone participating in the festival!

As we incorporate your feedback, we continuously update and prioritize our road map, keep in mind that you can always see our upcoming plans here on the TFM Trello Board.

Another reminder is that we plan to start a Steam Playtest soon after we finish clearing some of the game-breaking bugs and enhance the gameplay a little bit more. Join TFM Discord if you want to participate in the playtest.

• Several content additions and changes for Demoria.
  
• Updated fonts and added alternative letters to cover more languages.
  
• More outfits for the passion traits.
  
• New skills for several new armors.
  
• New starting combat feats for classes.
  
• New crafting options for Tinker.
  
• Some small tutorial additions. (Also we’ve decided to create a new campaign called TUTORIA, will be working on that).
  
• Characters with combat classes now gain 3 extra Path Points if they cast a skill that's the same color as their class.
  
• Elder characters no longer reduce Endurance by percentage and passively generate 10 Unity every minute.
  
• Some changes in Pregnancy.

• Several User Interface fixes and changes.
  
• Tooltip typo fixes.
  
• Refactoring of the character traits.
  
• An issue that makes characters stuck when they are interrupted while doing a path activity.
  
• Healers should no longer try to tend unconscious characters who're in combat.
  
• If a character starts a cast, they will no longer check again if the target is still in range when the cast ends.
  
• Fog of war and ground sorting issues.
  
• Learn button particle scale issue.
  
• A crash occurs while selecting some of the Traditions.
  
• Feedback panel problems.
  
• Removed unnecessary outfits from the hauling activities.
  
• An issue occurs while displaying item prerequisites.
  
• Force engaged characters now appear on the threat tables properly.
  
• Kor Gatai’s difficulty. The centaurs should not annihilate the settlers anymore. At least as it was...

See you all next week!

Offsprings of the first men welcome again!

In this broadcast, we will go quickly through the game basics and see how the first men in this gameplay will end up by one of our developer's guidance!

You can download the demo and experience our Demoria campaign until the end of the Steam Next Festival!

And give us your feedback, so we can make better additions until the actual release!

Offsprings of the first men! Are you ready for Demoria?

Prior to our Early Access release, we wanted to join this multi-day celebration of upcoming games on Steam - to get feedback from you all and to make sure we are on the right track. We will incorporate your feedback and continue the development while this festival will be a huge opportunity for us to see the weak parts of the game, and which parts would require most of our focus for the remaining months before the release.

From the bottom of our hearts, we all thank you for helping us make TFM: The First Men a better game!



During the festival, we also plan to do a Livestream event! Come join us on Steam - or on TFM Discord server, let us know what you think, and ask us anything you would like to know!

Offsprings of the first men welcome back!

We are super excited about next week, as you know we will be releasing a short demo of the game, and we can't wait to hear what you all think about it.

Check below to see the new additions to the game and fixes - keep in mind that we will be announcing the date and time of our Developer Gameplay Stream soon, where you can ask us anything you would like to learn about the game and give us your feedback.

• New Paths Panel! Players now can navigate between possible outcomes using the new tabs and choose a reward for the character between several different outcomes based on the settlement’s surroundings and the character’s stats and traits.
  
• Several new additions to the Demoria campaign, the overhaul of the flow, and campaign objectives.
  
• New Shelters for the first men!
  
• New main menu art, animated with sound effects to provide a better first impression.
  
• New mini-icons to show character paths on character HUDs.
  
• New Cooking-related activities and outcomes.
  
• More visual progress options for growing trees.
  
• Elders now look older and better.
  
• Added more information for the Learn panel, also added a call to action for the beginning of the game.
  
• More additions for the crash and exception reporting tool.
  
• More crops, such as Corn, Tomato, Eggplant, Orange Tree, Carrot, Turnip, Oak Tree, Cabbage, Celery, Lemon Tree.
  
• Character text bubble improvements.

• Several combat-related issues.
  
• A Problem occurs when a character is trying to reach a map object which is demolished.
  
• An Issue occurs during the system is trying to spawn a new character.
  
• Issues that occur when a character dies and creates a looping sound.
  
• Issues occur on map objects placed at the hill regions.
  
• Replaced placeholder map thumbnails with the new ones.
  
• Several fixes that are related to the sound player, volume settings adjustments.
  
• Sound problems that occur at gunshots.
  
• Item stat requirements overhaul.
  
• Properly set escape keys function to close panels.
  
• Edge scrolling is now optional, can be enabled at the Options panel.
  
• Minor fog of war fixes.
  
• Victory and Defeat popup issues.
  
• An issue occurs while a character’s stats are loaded.
  
• An issue that makes all male humans bald.

Welcome adventurers! Now we only have 10 days before the Steam Next Festival begins, working so hard to add more content for all of you and fixing popping issues rapidly.

Another super productive week has been passed, you can find the additions and fixes down below.

• Several additions for the Demoria campaign, new regions, and content.
  
• Gathering Waygates to all over Demoria, parties can teleport between the gates if they met necessary requirements.
  
• Several sound effects for new content.
  
• Mod switcher tool for organizing game assets before playtests.
  
• New Learn panel, which includes tutorial information.
  
• Map information screen, which includes information and images for a selected map.
  
• Funeral content. Dead settlement characters can now be transported to a Bier for a funeral, and when the funeral is over, the player is able to place that character's graveyard for future generations to pray & mourn.
  
• Visiting Merchant content. We now have other settlement characters coming to our region and selling goods!
  
• New animator template for harvestable trees.
  
• New UI for the Possessions panel.
  
• Several improvements around the User Interface. Icons, buttons, tooltips, etc.
  
• Welcome to the Demo panels and texts.
  
• Map descriptions for Dunya and Lindaris.
  
• New prerequisites and condition nodes.
  
• New Bragging Rights content.
  
• Entity objectives.
  
• Game end-state overlay, we now have Victory and Defeat screens.
  
• New options for the options!

• An issue that occurs when deselecting a map object.
  
• An issue occurs at the top bar, displaying points and time.
  
• Issues occur while saving and loading the game with hotkeys.
  
• Map object placement query fixed for false positives.
  
• Possession call for action on game start.
  
• Map object placement input blocking by characters and items.
  
• Input states on combat end.
  
• Some issues on the feedback form occur only while playing on Steam.
  
• Some issues occur on the Relations panel.
  
• Some camera settings and issues.
  
• An effect area caster character id related issue.
  
• The wrong output parameter fix of some decisions.
  
• An issue that occurs while calculating a party’s speed.
  
• Outcome selection panel cost scale issue.
  
• Entity details view showing wrong entity main construction id.
  
• An issue about hidden map objects when the fog of war is deactivated.
  
• Items that stay visible even after the fog of war is no longer active.
  
• Prerequisite search overlay issue for bragging rights.
  
• Missing character id checks for some signal listeners on character mediator.
  
• Entity tech selection issue in condition nodes.
  
• Unimplemented prerequisite check issue.
  
• An invalid cast issue.
  
• Character size calculation.
  
• Toggle UI issues.
  
• An issue that occurs when non-settlement characters are forced to be added to a party, which shouldn’t be happening in the first place.
  
• Set a cap for the progress of map objects.
  
• Issues that occur at construction states while saving and loading the game.
  
• Character indicators display issues.
  
• PathtoItem action node.
  
• Initiate combat node extended to cover settlement to settlement engagements.
  
• Removed some unused logs.
  
• An issue occurs at character portraits.

We are planning to record a new gameplay video soon, have a great weekend you all, and stay tuned!

Hello and welcome to another weekly development diary for TFM: The First Men!

We kept adding new stuff for the Demoria campaign this week, and continue the content overhaul, trying to balance the game and experiment on new fun stuff for both character and settlement progressions.

We are trying our best to make a good campaign until the Steam Next Fest begins!

• Several additions for the Demoria campaign.
  
• Continue for the content overhaul of Tier 0 content.
  
• New additions and completion of Feedback and Bug Reporting Tool.
  
• New Races: Adder, Meatbug, Mudbug, Crow.
  
• Several new traits, decisions, activities, items, outcomes.
  
• Testing a new quest system where a character in another entity gives the player settlement a quest.
  
• Testing a new invasion system.
  
• New teleportation-related effect outcomes.
  
• New variations for some region tiles.
  
• Several sound effects for new content.
  
• New skill impact effects for the melee weapons. Slash and Blood!
  
• New tree progression visuals.
  
• Addition of the session real-world time to the ESC menu.
  
• Removed frame limit.
  
• Many new injuries, invasions, diseases, and problems.

• Animator issues at map object progressions.
  
• An issue at Bonfire construction.
  
• Issues at outcome tooltips.
  
• An issue occurs during a loot attempt while in combat.
  
• An issue occurs at the demolish button.
  
• Mod switcher fixes.
  
• Some issues with the main menu.
  
• Edge scrolling issues.
  
• Issues at the relations panel.
  
• Effect area problems on dead characters.
  
• Call to action issues at the possessions panel.
  
• Several save/load related issues.

See you all next week!

Welcome back offsprings of the first men!

Another week has been passed, we are here to update you about what we have been working on the whole week.

• Demoria campaign added.
  
• The first layout of all Demoria regions (Driftvale Forest, Krush Varok, Ravencrest, Kirin's Reach, The Quagmire) and dungeons are done.
  
• New entities for Demoria's regions: Kor Gatai Clan, Guardians of Adberil, Khawazin Tribe, Remnants of Naz'Garoth, Stormclaw Clan, Gruk Doha, Bloodring Clan, Venomscale Coasthunters, Blindfury Tribe, Grimback Clan.
  
• Content overhaul for all Tier 0 traditions.
  
• "Bonfire" is now a progression construction and it slowly decays.
  
• "Shrine" is now a progression construction.
  
• All "Fruit" strings are renamed to "Apple"
  
• Several activity renamings.
  
• "Gathering Strawberries" and "Gathering Apples" activities now require Gathering tradition instead of Cultivating.
  
• "Gathering Strawberry Seeds" and "Gathering Apple Seeds" activities now have a base weight of 0.
  
• Renamed "Seed Container" construction to "Seed Rack".
  
• Renamed "Seed Container" interaction point to "Seed Stockpile".
  
• Overhauled Apple and Strawberry seed collecting decisions to make them accessible for "Seed Stockpile" interaction point now and gave them the "Grant Outcome" node to make sure they can reward seeds at the end of their outcome decision.
  
• New traits; Entomophobia, Hylomania, Kleptomania, Clumsy, Thanatophobia, Hemophobia, Zoophobia, Seed Collector, Guard, Gatherer, Tinker, Trapper, Purifier, Lorekeeper, Condemner.
  
• New items; Queststone, Fishtrap Tools, Mudlarking Tools, Firewood, Bone Club, Bone Armor, Bone Cap.
  
• "Seed Rack" outcome now requires "Gathering" tradition.
  
• "Strawberry Field" and "Apple Tree Field" outcomes now reward 3 stacks instead of 10 and require the "Seed Rack" construction built.
  
• "Seed Collector" and "Gatherer" passions are now obtainable on random path outcomes as long as their prerequisites are matched.
  
• "Picking Plainshrooms" is a starting activity now.
  
• "Oversuspicious" characters now have a chance to obtain "Entomophobia" while doing gathering activities.
  
• "Guard" can now be obtainable by characters with sufficient Heart.
  
• Guarding activity now prioritizes "Guarding Spot"s, if there are none it chooses a random "Region Border".
  
• Guarding activity can only be performed by characters with the "Guard" passion trait.
  
• Removed unnecessary Patrol Spot construction entries from DB.
  
• Mud Ornaments are now obtainable through path outcomes.
  
• "Unhappy" trait now drains Path Points and reduces all stats. It's also stackable up to 3.
  
• "Greedy" is now a T0 personality, instead of T3.
  
• Female characters now go inside Gathering Tree to get "Pregnant".
  
• Progression visual changes to Bonfire.
  
• Renamed "Dancing Aimlessly" to "Dancing for Fun".
  
• New decision and activity: "Practicing Stonethrowing"
  
• Renamed "Fallen Branches" to "Twigs"
  
• Renamed "Full Grown Grassland Tree" to "Grassland Tree".
  
• Trap Table is now obtainable as an outcome with "Hunting" tradition.
  
• Stat, effect, and balance changes to several traits.
  
• Focus trait outcome weight changes.
  
• Kleptomania trigger test; characters can now steal Industry and items from their own settlement.
  
• New tooltips for several traits.
  
• Deleted several unused activities due to overhaul changes.
  
• New Icons for all Tier 0 additions.
  
• New condition nodes; CanPlaceDoodad and CanPlaceConstruction.
  
• Map object progression extended to cover constructions, added proper action nodes, prerequisite checks, and weight modifiers for the progression as well.
  
• New constructions; Gathering Mound, Scavenging Mound, Targeting Rock.
  
• New items: Bone Mace, Armor & Cap.
  
• New path outcomes. Deleted several unnecessary path outcomes.
  
• New doodads; Rodent Trap, Bird Trap, Bug Trap, Reptile Trap, Fish Trap, Lorekeeping Rock.
  
• Increased Risky Pregnancy's negative genetics chances by a margin and made the tooltip more understandable.
  
• Lustful Pregnancy is now obtainable through Green wild paths.
  
• Moved all combat-related items and feats to Red trait paths, and linked them to appropriate element traits.
  
• All available Passion traits are now obtainable through white wild paths, as long as the prerequisites are matched.
  
• Removed old Proficiency outcomes from databases.
  
• Campaign maps now have loading screen images.
  
• Added rare versions of Red Apple, Strawberry, and Plainshroom for cooking recipes.
  
• Several new activities.
  
• Several "Steam Next Demo" related updates.
  
• New races; Fox, Scavenger, Spider, Giant Spider, Bear, Goblin, Harpy.
  
• New in-game Feedback and Bug Reporting Tool.
  
• Proper speech bubbles for characters.
  
• Improved Path Outcomes User Interface.

• Refactored map object preview screen.
  
• Refactored trait triggers.
  
• Region painted cursor problems.
  
• Proper links to social buttons on the main menu, and icon fixes.
  
• An issue occurs at map object definition preview and camera position.
  
• An issue occurs at intensity stack type traits affecting GainPoint and LosePoint effect outputs.
  
• An issue occurs at entity inventory consumable item prefab.
  
• An issue occurs during a character has maximum endurance.
  
• Removed unnecessary whitespaces on some of the decision parameter strings.
  
• Several map maker object drag and placement fixes.
  
• An issue occurs at the possessions panel while displaying consumables.
  
• Pregnancy activity's problem where characters couldn't get inside Gathering Tree.
  
• Contemplating characters will stay closer to Shrine now.
  
• An issue occurs while checking entity points accumulation and which character collected the most.
  
• An issue occurs at character movements after their party is drafted.
  
• An issue that allows the player to control a character returning to settlement after defending against an enemy.
  
• An issue where characters couldn't loot a 100% Mudlarking Spot
  
• Bone Set's cost, where it required Prosperity instead of Industry.
  
• An issue on the "Practicing Stonethrowing" activity where base weight would always turn up as 0.

We are getting a demo ready for the Steam Next Fest, you will be able to taste our new campaign “Demoria” during this multi-day celebration of upcoming games on Steam!

While we are making the finishing touches for the demo, we need a hand from everyone who is willing to help us with the translations.

Since we are expecting many new gamers on our Steam Page, we’ve updated the old positioning texts, which requires translation right now, you can use the link below to access the PO Editor project and help translate the Steam Page now!

https://poeditor.com/join/project/Quy2laNiFA

Welcome back! We hope you’ve all had a wonderful week.

Let's see what we've added to the game this week and what has been fixed!

• Prerequisite overhaul for all current personality outcomes, transitioning into a "trait only" requirement tree.
  
• Unity 2020 update, removal of splash screens.
  
• The new navigation/pathfinding system has been replaced with the old one.
  
• Characters now have a proper walk and target lines.
  
• New effects for races; Lizard, Ooze, Orc, Dracon, Tortu.
  
• New races; Revenant, Naga,
  
• New couple art variations for the main menu characters.
  
• Component search tool for the editors.

• Several combat-related interactions, inputs, and feedback.
  
• An issue occurs on teleport skills.
  
• An issue occurs on impacts of projectile skills.
  
• Character vision range issues.
  
• All issues occur on combat character selection flow.
  
• Some issues on region painter.
  
• Map config file issues on the build.
  
• Mouse edge scrolling issues, still working on the remaining problems that occur on the build.
  
• Characters can't start camping in the Ocean regions anymore...
  
• An issue occurs on item detail tooltips.
  
• Search field excluding ids for some trait database fields.
  
• Adjusted character stride values in combat.
  
• Setting default game config values if config file cannot be found.
  
• Some animations at Ogre and Troll characters.
  
• Some issues on character portraits.

Offsprings of the first men! Since we will update the game constantly during the early access, we’ve decided to begin posting feature updates and get ourselves ready for telling everyone what we’ve been working on between the updates. Enjoy the very first weekly #featurefriday now!

• New Race: Gargoyle.
  
• New Race: Accursed.
  
• We can now officially summon banners during combat and benefit from their aura effects. 6 types of banners are implemented; Tenacity, Vigor, Chivalry, Intimidation, Wizardry, Outlaw.
  
• Effect area scale component added.
  
• New Skill: Meteor Shower.
  
• Added visibility maps into save files.
  
• New Race: Djinn.
  
• Sound effects for map object selections, several constructions now have on-click sounds.
  
• Combat AI improvements for the selection of proper skills.
  
• New Race: Cat!
  
• Female versions of Ogre and Troll characters.
  
• Overall revamp for AOE skills.
  
• New Race: Void.
  
• New Race: Ghazi.
  
• New Race: Sylvari.
  
• New Race: Dracon.
  
• New soundtrack: The Herdsman - with shepherd outfits for the human race!
  
• New Race: Draug.
  
• New Race: Ooze.
  
• Spirit variations for some races: Bear, Wolf, Boar, and Cat.

• Complete overhaul of the input system.
  
• Map object database deletion issue on map maker.
  
• An issue causing problems in the area of effects.
  
• Removed no selection condition from map object selection in map maker.
  
• An issue happens when loading the game while a character is selected.
  
• Doodad replacement on loot action.
  
• Fixing problems occur at character animations for Bear, Boar, Camel, Cattle, Chicken, Crab, Crocodile, Deer, Dog, Donkey, Dragon, Elemental, Fox, Frog, Beetle, Lizard, Rat, Scorpion, Spider races.
  
• Fixing missing unused slots issue for Giant, Goat, Golem, Harpy, Horse, Hyena, Jackal, Lich, Lion, Rabbit, Saproling, Scorpion, Sheep, Snake, Sphynx, Spider races.
  
• An issue occurs on character stat thresholds and prerequisite checks.
  
• Folder structure issues.
  
• Pointer action click handling issues.
  
• Several mouse hover and highlight issues.
  
• Converted some of the existing AOE sound effects to loopable.
  
• Refactored character target lines.
  
• Refactored item highlights.
  
• Refactored character highlights.
  
• Refactored skill cast.
  
• Refactored indicators manager.
  
• Refactored character UI.
  
• Skill decision overhaul for 300 skills. All character selection skills use the refactored version now.
  
• Region painter of the map maker now uses the new input system.
  
• Several fixes for Character HUD.
  
• Several fixes for combat inspecting.
  
• Several fixes on map object interaction points.
  
• Several fixes for the camera.

We also want to share that we’ve made a minigame in our discord, and there is a chance you may win the Steam Playtest key if you decide to participate! Consider joining our discord and check the game out, many of the settlers there have been enjoying it for a while now!