- Development Summary - August 2026 - 3 September 2026
Hey Explorers,The Monthly Summary for August is here!I managed to make solid progress this month, even if things were a bit lighter than usual between some summer vacation and preparing for and attending Gamescom. August was all about finishing the ore distribution system, implementing little ore signs aaand adding the Geologist! 🙂Before we can build mines on the mountains to gather ore, we need to know where it is hidden. This month, the main focus was implementing the new Geologist Class. You can now recruit Geologists directly from the global menu. To make sure you can easily spot them running around your settlement, I gave them distinct character visuals, with a backpack and a helmet.Their mechanics are now fully operational: they start searching from an initial search location, find the next possible ore deposit and move there. Once they examine a deposit, they mark it with an Ore…
- Development Summary - July 2026 & Patreon Update! - 6 August 2026
Hi Explorers,The Monthly Summary for July is here!It’s been a great month of development for TFE. I've implemented the pause & resume mechanic, the ore distribution on mineable mountains system and invested some more time in improving character movement.This time I also got a Patreon status update for you! 🙂TFE Development Summary - July 2026 & Patreon UpdateMonthly SummaryPause & Resume System Implementation🛠️ Implemented Pausable & Resumable logic for Construction Sites, Farms, Taverns, Cookhouses, Marketstalls, Harvest, Production and Recruitment buildings🛠️ Refactored logic flow for pausing and resuming to make it robust🛠️ Fixed a bug, that output stacks of paused buildings do not count down🛠️ Fixed, that road construction fails after pause/resume logic was implemented🪟 Pause/Resume Button click triggers corresponding core logic and shows an animation if pending🪟 Header of Bu…
- Development Summary - June 2026 - 7 July 2026
Hi Explorers,The Monthly Summary for June is here!It’s been an intense month of development for TFE and I've made some good progress on the logistic side of things, movement systems and some general improvements 🙂TFE Development Summary - June 2026Storage System Implementation🛠️ Implemented Building Class and Store functionality for the Small Storage Building🛠️ Good types are correctly assigned and unassigned + demanded and canceled for storages🛠️ Tools are stored correctly in storage (edge case)🛠️ Added automatic tests for storage functionality🛠️ Fixed a bug, that goods are delivered even during the construction phase🪟 Twofold good selection and Resource Storage Selectors implemented as a widget🪟 Alert Storage Mismatch and act accordingly if assigned good type differs from actual🪟 Improved storage popup window so it's less confusing to which slot it refersCharacter Optimizatio…
- 48 Hours In: You are incredible! 🏰 - 28 May 2026
Hi Explorers,It has only been 48 hours since I launched the Pre-Alpha and the new Patreon tiers, and I am honestly blown away. In just two days, this amazing community has managed to double the monthly income on Patreon!A massive thank you to all the existing supporters who have been backing me and trusting the process for a long time. And a huge, warm welcome to our newest Patrons who just joined the ranks:T. L., Antonio EU, KaZHooeL, Klaus, Lion., Shaun V., Patrick B., GR3ML1N, Heinz F., Thomas K., UncleMoradin, KorbSchmid, Luutzen, Billy, scrabbylous, mrsheep heed, Daniel A., Alex, Alex, Sebastian, Alex, Andre, Florian S., Bleibaum, Louis11101997, David K., Pongy, ElCazador & Danny J.You are awesome! Every single subscription brings me a massive step closer to working on The First Explorers full-time.Want to see your name on the next list and join the journey? The doors are always op…
- Pre-Alpha Access, Patreon Relaunch & New Trailer! - 26 May 2026
Hi Explorers,Today is a massive milestone for The First Explorers and its development. I have decided to open up the development process even further and give my Patreon supporters Pre-Alpha access, starting TODAY.Support the development at the Praefectus tier or higher on Patreon to get your hands on the game right now!Pre-Alpha AccessWhat can I expect from the Pre-Alpha access today and beyond?I'm very happy and proud to present the current state of the game, what's next, and what is planned as we approach the Early Access release together:Why this step now?I will go deeper into this in the FAQ below, but here is the Over the last two years, I have negotiated with several publishers and investors regarding a possible cooperation. For various reasons, it never turned into an actual deal where both sides were perfectly happy. I explored several other ways to fund the project, and I ulti…
- Development Summary - April 2026 & a little teaser - 5 May 2026
Hi ,The Monthly Summary for April is here! Make sure to read to the end of this post, its worth it 🙂April was absolutely packed with exciting stuff: I focused heavily on developing a Bot AI, which is capable of building up a full settlement, recruiting soldiers and eventually attacking the player 🙂TFE Development Summary - April 2026Bot AI🛠️Bot AIs now follow structured build orders (roasters), to build up their settlements🛠️Implemented a "Mental Memory" for the Bot AI so it can remember things like harvestables or enemy settlements (after scouting) to plan its expansions intelligently🛠️Implemented an Expansion Protocol allowing the Bot AI to expand its territory towards unknown areas or scouted harvestables🛠️The Bot AI now automatically gathers squads at frontier towers and launches coordinated attacks on enemy landmarks after peacetime ends🛠️Added a Peacetime option and Bot AI…
- Development Summary - March 2026 - 8 April 2026
Hey there, the Monthly Summary for March is here!March was heavily focused on the new gate siege and yard combat, and I'm really happy with how it is shaping up🙂TFE Development Summary - March 2026Gate Sieges & Yard Combat🛠️ Defenders can now hold the gate, take reduced damage, and retreat to Yard Defender slots if the gate HP drops below a certain threshold🛠️ Gate attacks now utilize SmartObjects, and only specific soldier classes are able to attack the gate🛠️ Refactored attacker and defender slot logic to prevent overcrowding and ensure soldiers engage properly🛠️ Gates get repaired by defenders once the yard is safe and not under siege anymore🛠️ Implemented the new Yard Combat mechanic, which starts after a gate is breached🛠️ When attackers win a Yard Battle, the building owner is changed correctly and the territory polygon is cleaned up🛠️ Added automated Functional Tests for…
- Development Summary - February 2026 - 4 March 2026
Hey there, the Monthly Summary for February is here!February was a massive push for the Combat System and unit responsiveness. It's one of those areas that takes a lot of invisible work to feel "right," but the foundation is now much more solid.TFE Development Summary - February 2026Combat & Unit Logic🛠️ Implement Move+Attack order for soldiers so they intelligently engage enemies while advancing to a destination.🛠️ Implement Damage local bonus for units holding the high ground to reward tactical positioning.🛠️ Implement Armor local bonus for high ground to make elevated positions harder to break.🛠️ Refactor Soldier BP to use the new StateTree approach for better robustness and more predictable behavior.🛠️ Fixed "circling" behavior by fine-tuning the avoidance filters specifically for soldiers in active combat.🛠️ Chaining MoveTo orders now works correctly when holding down the Shi…
- Development Summary - January 2026 - 5 February 2026
Hi The Monthly Summary for January is here! Welcome to the new year. It will be a quite exciting one for TFE, thats for sure 🙂 TFE Development Summary - January 2026 Topbar UI Rework 🛠️ Refactoring of PlayerState class to support new topbar functionalities 🪟 Restructure topbar to show the most crucial info in one row 🪟 Carrier Icon now shows the total carrier count and the busy count together 🪟 Bed Icon now shows the total bed count and the used bed count together 🪟 Added a new trend indicator on good counts to see whether goods are highly requested, so a future shortage can be forseen Character Optimization 🛠️ Refactoring of builders to use new spatial movement system and state trees 🛠️ Refactoring of diggers to use new spatial movement system and state trees 🛠️ Refactoring of workers to use new spatial movement system (state tree integration yet to come) 🛠️ Async moving is n…
- Development Summary - December 2025 - 7 January 2026
Hey there, the Monthly Summary for December is here! Because of Christmas, Holidays etc. December wasn't as productive as other months, but still I got some stuff done: TFE Development Summary - December 2025 Character Related 🛠️ Carrier Logic refactored into State Trees for better robustness and refactorability 🛠️ Movement Logic now works with State Trees 🛠️ Timeout for path avoidance revamped 🛠️ Carriers walk away from spawnpoint after spawn 🛠️ Carriers make space after they finished task like e.g. delivering a good 🛠️ Settlers get pushed to building boundary after construction site was finished if needed Building Preview 🎨 Terrain Hilliness preview is now more robust 🎨 Blocking actors are now drawing a blocked area onto the landscape, so the player can quickly spot where buildings can be placed (this can be water bodies, harvestables, static environment objects, etc.)
- Development Summary - November 2025 - 3 December 2025
Hey! I'm here with the monthly development summary from November, enjoy🙂 TFE Development Summary - November 2025Resource Broker & Character Improvements🛠️ Implemented Urgencies for Production Building stacks (Empty Input & full output have a high urgency and vice versa) 🛠️ Construction sites are prioritized higher than production demands 🛠️ Implemented backend architecture for prioritization mechanic (Internal Ordering System) 🛠️ Character Movement & pathfinding is now a lot more robust 🛠️ Further refactoring activities around character system Optimization🛠️ Character Movement costs way less performance now 🎨 Lighting and Post Processing are now consistent across all graphic settings 🎨 Optimized fish flock system 🎨 GPU optimizations for shadows and reflections Visibility & QoL🛠️ Made notification messages more clear (e.g. Cookhouse missing a nearby marketstall) 🎨 Indirect sh…
- Development Summary - October 2025 - 6 November 2025
Hey! I'm here with the monthly development summary from October, enjoy :) TFE Development Summary - October 2025Minimap🛠️ Click on MiniMap relocates player camera 🛠️ Buildings register with MiniMap 🛠️ Territory borderstones register with MiniMap 🛠️ Harvestables register with MiniMap 🛠️ Characters can register with MiniMap if needed 🛠️ Buildings and territory borderstones have the correct PlayerColor on the MiniMap 🛠️ MiniMap rotates with player camera yaw rotation Unitselection and Commands🛠️ Added UnitSelection backend in player controller ⊞ Implemented Unit Selection Widget (first iteration) ⊞ Implemented Unit Commands Widget (first iteration) ⊞ Units and their counts are displayed together ⊞ Click on Unit Icon relocated player camera to these units Harbor🛠️ Implemented Harbor Building Class 🛠️ Implemented spatial placement checkers for water 🛠️ Added neutral ship that sail…
- Development Summary - August & September 2025 - 8 October 2025
Hey! I'm here with the monthly development summaries from August and September, enjoy :) TFE Development Summary - August 2025📽️ Lots of work for the Gameplay Video, which was shown at gamescom 🛠️ More character system rework 🛠️ Pathfinding improvements 🛠️ Balancing of wood production times 🛠️ Fixed a problem that harvestables were not reachable in certain situations 🛠️ Added a benchmark flyover for consistent performance measurements 🎨 Designed and implemented the Roman Great Fort building (landmark) 🎨 River visual tweaks 📔 Finished evaluation of the playtest from June 📔 Organized & clustered all bug and improvement tickets from that playtest 📔 Organizing and planning upcoming features after the big gamescom milestone TFE Development Summary - September 2025Notification System🛠️ Implemented a Notification System where notifications can be reported to from everywhere (e.g. f…
- New Gameplay Video out now! - 20 August 2025
Hey,I'm super excited to present you the new gameplay video showing what I was up to since last year:New Gameplay VideoNew ScreenshotsAlongside the new gameplay video I also have new screenshots for you:I hope you like the new material and I'm looking forward to hear your feedback!Best,Sebastian
- Live on Stage at gamescom & Development Summary - July 2025 - 14 August 2025
Hey,I have exciting news for The First Explorers. Let's dive right in:Live on Stage at gamescom!Find Your Next Game ShowYes that's right. I will reveal all new Gameplay in the Find Your Next Game Show live on stage at gamescom next week!The FYNG Show starts on Wednesday, August 20th at 05:30pm CEST and my spot will be around 06:15pm CEST. The show is in German, but will be covered worldwide by several outlets to make it also accessible for non German speakers.New Gameplay Video Next WeekAfter the massive success of the commented Gameplay I published last year (over half a million views on YouTube alone!), it was an easy decision to record new gameplay about the current state of the game again.So, I'm happy to announce that the new Gameplay Video will launch directly after the FYNG Live Show on Wednesday, August 20th at 08:00pm CEST on YouTube!Deep Dive Q&ABut that's not all. I'm also pa…
- Development Summary - June 2025 & First Playtest Was A Success! - 4 July 2025
Hey! This month was a lot about preparing the first Playtest. I invested a bunch of time into making sure that the playtesters have a somewhat smooth experience. I'll give a short conclusionof the playtest after the development summary. TFE Development Summary - June 2025 🛠️ Implemented Nvidia DLSS 🛠️ Implemented percentage distributions for good production and unit recruitment (backend) 🛠️ Offensive Combat Power is correctly applied based on where the unit is (inside or outside home territory) 🛠️ Made Building placing a bit more responsive 🛠️ More direct camera movement 🛠️ First iteration of a simple Bot AI that gathers its units around the start landmark and attacks the player after a given time 🛠️ Balancing (e.g. adjusting start good counts, lower amount of beds per residence, etc.) 🛠️ Improved performance of workarea circle tool 🛠️ Fixing bugs (always) 🎨 New visuals for wo…
- Playtest #1 Applications Are Now Open! - 11 June 2025
Hi together, end of June is coming and that means that the first closed playtest for The First Explorers is just around the corner. Here are the infos regarding the application process: - Playtest #1 is running from June 26th until June 30th (incl.) - Applications are open until June 17th 20:00 CET - You have to fill out an application form which is hosted by Google Forms - You won't need a google account - Selected Playtesters will be contacted via mail - NDA is mandatory, so you won't be able show anything from the playtest to the public (no screenshots, no videos, no streaming, etc.) - I won't announce how many playtesters will be allowed in this Playtest #1 - There will be more playtests in the future. This is the first one with the least amount of testers APPLICATION LINK The Playtest Application window is closed. No more applications get accepted. I'm looking forward to a successf…
- Dev Blog #29: Recipes for Success - 5 May 2025
Welcome back, Explorers! We're continuing our journey into the heart of The First Explorers' mechanics. In previous blogs, we touched upon gathering resources and setting up basic production. Today, we're going to delve into something truly vital for your growing settlement: food, meals, and the very people who make your economy hum – your Carriers! These systems are deeply interconnected, forming core loops that will dictate the pace and success of your expansion. Make sure to read until the end: there might be something interesting regarding an upcoming playtest ;) Now let's pull back the curtain on what's been cooking! The Cook's Culinary Crusade: Your Shopping Tour At the heart of your settlement's more complex food needs is the Cookhouse and its diligent Cook. Unlike basic raw food which often goes directly from storage to miners, Meals require preparation. And before a meal can be…
- Devlog #28 - Recap and Plan for 2025 - 16 January 2025
Hi together and welcome to the next devlog! A fantastic year 2024 came to an end. Let me give you a small rundown what happened the last couple of months and why 2025 will be an even more fantastic year for The First Explorers! About the last three months The last couple of months were pretty exciting, both fo me personally, but also for TFE. I've become a dad in October and went on parental leave for two months until December. Needless to say, that I shifted all of my time to my new family during this period :) During that time, while have a short break from the development of TFE, I thought a bit about the current state of the development and decided to get into a more high level view as soon as I was back from parental leave. So after that period, I stepped out of being knees deep in the development hole and spend some time on further structuring the whole content planned for the gam…
- Gameplay Video reached over 500 000 views today! - 19 November 2024
The TFE Spring Gameplay reached over 500 000 views on YouTube today! 😱 I'm really amazed how many people are interested in the game and this motivates me even more 🎉🚀 I will be back with a new devlog in January latest, stay tuned! Thanks for your support. Best, Sebastian
