The summer is over by a long shot, the months are flying by and autumn is over us like that musky blanket in the back of your closet that you didn't know you had, never wanted, but can't seem to get rid of. It's time for another devlog - this time showcasing some of the new buildings we've cooked up vs the old ones, and a major reveal if you manage to get all the way to the end. No peeking!

The game visuals so far have served us well. They've managed to convey our idea of a retro-inspired settlement builder, but they haven't really *nailed it down*. Throughout the summer, we've been working closely with a graphics designer to really put our own lick of paint on the way our world looks and feels. We previously talked about some of the buildings getting a fresh coat of paint, but paint can only do so much - this needed a full redesign.

Our dedicated concept artist has really gone to town, and recreated most of the buildings in the first three tiers. Focusing on that same "timeless but at the same time firmly set in the past" feeling that you got when seeing some of the old settlement builder games for the first time, the results speak for themselves. Here are a few of the concept drawings, before they have been turned into in-game buildings:

Transforming these buildings into rendered buildings in our own style is no easy feat, but luckily Simen (yes, all the brothers have names) is a skilled modeller, so have a look at how some of the new buildings turned out in-game:

The keen observer may have noticed how the colors "pop" differently in this picture vs how they looked before. That's because while we were updating the buildings, we also took some time to rework the biomes of the world a little bit, giving the flora some love and attention as well. This is ongoing work that we will continue to tweak and keep working on to make the game look even better - and we haven't really started with the visual effects yet.

This new art style coupled with the updated color palette really brings the whole game a lot closer to what we imagined starting out. Trying to really bring back that feeling of the old settlement builders - with a unified art style - while we still stay true to what the world and vibe of Folklands can bring to the table.

Having proper concept art for the buildings makes them more unified, but also allows us to add subtle hints of the game's lore. Later on, when we do the same work and refinements in the wildlife area, our vision of Folklands and its amazingly rich world will be even closer.

Those who follow us on social media, might have picked up on something even more remarkable than a lick of paint or some new buildings, namely our new mascot

While our artist and designer brother (yes, Simen) has been busy updating the artwork, and our play testing brother (Sebastian) has focussed hard on how to implement what we learned from the demo and the feedback you keep giving us, we have also been "secretly" porting the entire game to Godot throughout the summer.

The challenges of developing games are not new to us, but sometimes you need to revisit your previous technical decisions and challenge them. Once we got past the content of the demo - which is basically a tech demo / vertical slice of what we want the game to be - it became obvious that we needed to find a better solution for several of the technical limitations imposed by our choice of engine.

Porting to Godot was a big task, but with a great community and support, the game is now running in Godot with almost all of the functionality ported over. The choice of switching to Godot has given us a significant performance boost already without even starting to optimize anything. It has fixed some really hard to overcome limitations in our previous engine and will give players on lower end machines better performance and graphical options. In addition to this, it also lets us experiment with more animations, multiple monitor support, edge scrolling, UI scaling, directional sound - to mention a few of the initial benefits.

Our next devlog will have lots more details on the the porting and what developing in Godot brings to Folklands, but in the meantime have another look at the cutest mascot ever.

Summer is over, and it's time for another devlog update! It's been a bit quiet on our front for a while now - our last devlog described the diplomacy feature and how this introduces you to the world around Folklands. In our previous devlog, we also talked a little bit about Raiders, AI and different interaction and conflict modes, spurring some of questions about how invasive these features would be. To put your mind at ease: the Raider, AI, and any other features that moves the game experience away from peaceful settlement building will always be optional settings. We're really looking forward to seeing your relaxing settlements, and at the same time we want the game to provide a challenge for those who want it.

So, what is new with Folklands, what has changed over the summer, and what else is planned?

As we touched on shortly in the last devlog, we wanted to share some exiting news of Folklands and also tell you why we have been quiet. While we can't reveal everything quite yet, we can show you something that will be very visible!

Feedback from players and our own playtesting is unanimous in that many of the buildings have problems with visibility - it can be hard to tell buildings apart, what tier they are, and some of the buildings are - if not boring, then definitely a bit bland. So - over the summer, we have been working closely with a concept artist to help us better make sure our game vision is reflected in the way to world looks.

And the results? Buildings that visualize the tiers, a more stylized look and a more coherent feel! We think they speak for themselves:

As you can see from these new designs and images, the visual style is more stylistic and detailed. Inspired by some of the older games you've played before, we've experimented with a visual style that combines fantasy and realism, while keeping to our original vision of the game. This new style also fits the world art and design of the folks - Sigrid and Olof - much better than before!

In our next devlog we'll have an opportunity to show how all these new buildings look in-game, as well as talk in more detail about something very exciting!

Until next time!