- Next steps for Combolands - 28 August 2026
Hi everyone!To begin with, just wanted to say thank you to everyone for helping us have such an amazing launch week. Let's chat about the future of Combolands and Crux in general. The first thing you should know is that we both work part-time at Crux. We've been been able to be full time for launch, but from next week we'll unfortunately have to be back to part-time - for a while at least. Not only that, but we're both exhausted from a very stressful final push, so yeah, we need to recuperate a bit. With that out of the way, our focus for the next little while is going to be first on localization and second on Steam deck verification.We would have loved to launch with both of these things already done but our timeline didn't allow it.Combolands has a somewhat complex data setup - allowing text to be constructed procedurally in the game. This is great for helping the game's UX but is a n…
- v1.0.6 Jewellery Box + Blueprint stacking fixed - 28 August 2026
Hi everyone, Another patch to fix some more issue that seems to be cropping up. We're going to also be doing a roadmap/explainer post later today. Anyways, full patch notes below: Fix a bug where gems and tomes sometimes wouldn't go into jewllery box / bookshelf Fix a bug where getting more blueprints sometimes wouldn't stack if you already had the same blueprint Fix a bug where you'd be unable to get info while hovering over buildings Fixed an issue where an inn's effect would not work if placed from a blueprint Fix a rare issue where your save would lose progress when saving Fix a bug where removing a watch tower would not create trees on plateaus Made it so that your final "gold score" takes your heirloom sell values into consideration Add a hook so that game checks whether you should get any pending achievements when it opens Your first Council Request refresh is now free - Sam
- v1.0.5 adds the Compendium - highly requested QoL - 26 August 2026
Hi everyone,By far the most requested feature in the game is a way to access more information about your current run, buildings, heirlooms, councillors, etc. So we've added a compendium to the game just for that.It also shows buildings you may have dismissed from the pool for your current run.This build also fixes a bug where the windmill could not be triggered.Happy building-Sam
- Combolands v1.0.4 - 25 August 2026
Hi everyone! We've been overwhelmed by the wonderful response to our mini roguelike, thank you all so much! There are some things that have come up a lot of times in feedback - like wanting a compendium of everything. We are aware of those and we'll get to them! Today's patch is mostly smaller bugfixes and irritations people have been experiencing. Full patch details below: Fix an issue where the Politician's re-select guild effect would make you lose access to neutral buildings Fix a rare issue where the Politician's re-select guild effect would put the game into a messy "no guild" state Fix an issue where hovering over the "reroll info box" would result in it rapidly growing and shrinking Fix an issue where getting a quest reward of an existing blueprint would not properly claim the reward Fix an issue where you got another of an existing blueprint, you would always get only 1 charge…
- Combolands is out now! - 24 August 2026
Hi everyone!! The day is finally here. Combolands, our mini citybuilding roguelike, is out now on Steam! It’s been a nerve-wracking but also incredibly exciting past few weeks. After many months of effort - tweaking the demo, Steam page, even the title - our game finally broke through, mostly thanks to a Polygon article calling it “Steam’s coolest new roguelike in years”. You can imagine how happy we were about that line! Here’s the final ‘launch’ trailer: Of course, this extra attention also meant a new wave of feedback, which we’ve been working hard to implement into the final product. Thank you so much to everyone who has supported us along the way. We really hope you enjoy the finished game :) Best,Sam & Skye
- Tiny final patch before launch v1.0.3 - 24 August 2026
A few final tweaksBlueprints of the same type will now stackTrading post, reliquary, shrine and vault will now show preview scores correctlyCharcoal changed to "campfires burn for 3 times as long"Red, green, gold and blue paint all had their durations reducedRejigged a few unlock progression numbersSee you in a few hours-Sam
- Small pre-release update - faster unlocks - 23 August 2026
Hi folks, I figure I should start posting these on Steam too now.Small pre-launch patch, full details below:Reduced guild unlock thresholds for later guildsAdd debug menu to allow unlocking all guilds if so desiredFix currently placing range cache bugFix a bug where skipping would sometimes not give new buildingsNow you can't reroll while building options are appearingRerolling now toggles off the dismiss buttonFix text layout error with rank 6Nesting dolls now allows placement on ungrown fieldsActivation philtre can now be used on buildings with no triggers leftHappy buildings,-Sam
- Mini roguelike citybuilder 'Combolands' from Terra Nil designer launches August 24 - 5 August 2026
Combolands is a mini citybuilding roguelike! Place buildings, stack combos, and master deep strategy in short bursts. Read the full article here: https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2026/08/mini-roguelike-citybuilder-combolands-from-terra-nil-designer-launches-august-24/
- Combolands is launching on August 24th! - 28 July 2026
Hey everyone!! We have a release date for Combolands! It’s launching on Steam on August 24th. I hope we’ll see you there! You may have noticed some changes to our Steam page, including some tweaked text and key art. This is to reflect a fresh vision for the game overall. We’ve had a lot of feedback from the demo, which we’ve been working hard to incorporate into the final product. The game now has procedurally generated islands and a completely overhauled progression system, plus a wide spread of tweaks and fixes, extra guilds, and some other surprises… We’re extremely excited to show you all what we’ve been working on! If you haven’t already, please give the game a wishlist – we’re a small 2 person team, and getting that last minute boost in the Steam algorithm will make a huge difference :) Thanks so much and happy building!- Sam
- Some highly requested QoL features + NextFest Demo v9 Patch Notes - 15 June 2026
Hi everyone!Ahead of Nextfest this week, we have one last patch that covers some niggles and adds some QoL features, as well as a bit of new content. Full details below:New Content:Added a neutral unlock that allows you to decide whether to end a milestone as soon as you hit the target. If you have an existing save, you'll to need reach Neutral level 7 and finish a run to unlock thisAdded 3 new potions:Add a potion that gives a blueprint of target buildingAdd a potion that allows the next placed building to be placed anywhereAdd a potion that makes the next building roll, blueprint satchel, or heirloom chest only contain rare or betterGameplay Changes:Can now refresh quest selection using gold, but it gets more expensive each timeAdded the ability to view your guild progress from the pause menu after at least 1 victoryEndless mode is now unlocked sooner in the Neutral guildReduce the co…
- Effigy Fire Infinite Bug Fixed + NextFest Demo v8 Patch Notes - 9 June 2026
Hi everyone!We're so happy you're enjoying the new demo, we're really proud of it. A couple of game breaking bugs have come up that we've patched. There a couple of minor tweaks and improvements as well.Changes:Fix a bug where torch with multiple effigy pyres could cause an infinite loopFix bug with recycling potion giving null consumablesFix bug with nesting doll causing the game to become unplayableChange placements counts:Wall 5->6Palisade 7->9Plateau 4->5Rail 3->4Add animation to effigy pyreFix an issue with the victory screen showing the wrong demo crownsAdd a "magic" animation that tracks your combos across the screen when they get sufficiently bigAdd some missing "trigger" animation effectsHappy building!- Sam
- New demo with a New Guild+Proc Gen Maps - 5 June 2026
Hi everyone!We heard your feedback and we're thrilled to let you know that we've got a new, much improved demo available right now!This demo completely overhauls how the progression works. Mechanics, guilds, buildings, and heirlooms are unlocked slowly, not all at once.Some highlights:We've replaced the Maritime guild with the Martial guild - which has all sorts of interesting interactions focused on removing buildings (Maritime will make a comeback in the full release)The demo now features semi-procedural maps, no more playing the same map over and over again.A whole new unlock system, complete with a cool new victory screen.The city council can now give you quests - which are alternative mini-goalsDrastically improved performance, UX, and many bugfixes If you desperately want to still play the old demo, we've made it available on the old_demo beta branch in your Steam library. We can'…
- 2nd Demo with procedural maps coming end of May - 27 April 2026
Hi everyone! Thank you all so much for playing our little demo and being a part of Combolands from the very beginning! We've got loads of really good feedback from this demo and we want to take all of that and roll it into a second demo. We're targeting the end of May for the new demo. The new demo will feature semi-procedurally generated maps, so there will be a much wider variety of play possible. We won't take down the current demo so you can still play to your heart's content. But we also won't be doing small updates to it, we'll just add all our changes and fixes to the new demo. As always, the best place to stay up to date is our Discord https://discord.gg/JRXpcV3gwq Chat soon,Sam
- Steam Demo v6 - Ghost Paint + Patch Notes - 17 April 2026
Hi everyone!Thanks so much for playing the Combolands Demo, it's great to see you all having fun! We've got a new toy for you to play with: Ghost Paint which allows you to change what a building targets (kind of like opposite rainbow paint). There are also a bunch of improvements and bugfixes.Full patch notes below.Happy building!- Sam New Content:Ghost paint - Building Upgrade: Permanently modify target building's affected category to one of your choice. You may only select a new category that already exists on the map. Balance tweaks:Change ranch score for husbandry in range from +40 to +30Change railway placement count from 2 to 3Change plateau placement count from 3 to 4 UX Improvements:Add an indicator for when a consumable is targeting a valid tile.Drastically reduce loading time when the game first opens Bugfixes:Fix a bug where right clicking while waiting for a building animati…
- Designer of Terra Nil reveals Combolands, a deckbuilder where cards are buildings and the map is your deck - 15 April 2026
Based on a hit prototype game Tiny Towns that had over 100K views on itch.io, Combolands is a deckbuilder where cards are buildings and the map is your deck. Read the full article here: https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2026/04/designer-of-terra-nil-reveals-combolands-a-deckbuilder-where-cards-are-buildings-and-the-map-is-your-deck/
- Combolands Announced // Demo out now! - 13 April 2026
This was the idea that inspired Tiny Towns, our hit Itch demo (100k views and counting!). It’s the same core idea for our full game adaption, which we’re calling Combolands, announced just today!Check out this trailer where we talk through how it all works…Sound cool? There’s a free demo out today, so please give it a go and let us know what you think! A little background: Crux Games is a two person studio composed of Sam Alfred and Skye Scott. You may know Sam as the designer of Terra Nil. We’re making the game together, with a little extra help from Landfall (Haste, Content Warning, PEAK).Thanks so much everyone :) We’re working hard on the game, so be sure to follow us here for more updates.Best,Sam & Skye
