Hello!

Big thanks to everyone who shared their opinion about golems in Update 2! Today, we’re making several changes to address your feedback. We also have the second batch of the new content, this time related to the needs system. But before you order an overheated beaver…




It’s a good moment for a follow-up to our developer’s log. Let us explain why we’ve decided to torment your already miserable-at-times beavers with more negative effects.

• It’s a tool to counterbalance overpowered mechanics, both existing ones and those that we will introduce in the future. Before, we had to shelve many cool ideas that, without any way to nerf them, could ruin the game’s difficulty curve.
  
• Keeping your beavers starved or dehydrated used to be a good strategy to reduce food and water consumption - and you could fix an excessive hunger with a few carrots. It did not have any bad consequences, except perhaps on the player’s conscience.
  
• Similarly, extended lack of sleep or shelter now meaningfully affects beavers’ behaviour. With overheating in place, droughts become a deeper threat that’s harder to ignore.
  
• The ability to add negative effects allows us to expand existing features when it makes sense, for example by adding stinging bees to Beehives, broken teeth for lumberjacks, and work injuries of varying likelihood and severity in workplaces.
  
• At the same time, we have another area where we can add more raw, lore-friendly content - such as teeth grinders, dandelions, medical beds, and healer huts.

We hope you'll like what we're adding today. Please let us know what you think!




You have already seen certain temporary statuses thanks to the addition of golems. Now, we’re expanding this system to cover the post-apocalyptic fate of regular beavers, too.

• New status: Overheated. After spending too much time in the heat of drought, beavers suffer from a heatstroke (read: -10% working speed and -10% walking speed).
  
• New status: Wet fur. For some time after leaving the water, beavers gain a 5% increased walking speed as well as immunity to Overheating.
  
• New status: Bee sting. Bees from Beehives will now sometimes sting nearby beavers which results in the beaver feeling unhappy, thanks to its swollen face.
  
• New status: Broken teeth. Lumberjacks will now occasionally break teeth, reducing their effectiveness. The more trees they cut, the more likely it is to happen.
  
• Every few hours, all beavers working in factories have a chance of receiving an Injury (a temporary status that had already been inflicted by exploding golems). Injuries decrease walking speed by 50% and cause the beaver to refuse to work until healed. The chance of receiving and the duration of a received injury differ between workplaces.

Alright, alright, we don’t want your beavers to just suffer!

• New building: Shower (Folktails-only, 1 slot). Thanks to its long pipe submerged in water, this thing makes your beavers wet even if they’re working well above the water surface. ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
  
• New building: Water Jet (Iron Teeth-only, 1 slot). Installed directly in water, this compact attraction ensures your beavers stay in water for a longer period of time.
  
• New building: Teeth Grindstone (1 slot). Beavers visit this to sharpen their broken teeth while hoomans squirm at a thought of how this torture device works.
  
• New building: Medical Bed (1 slot). Injured beavers go here to be healed. And if you have an access to Medicine, it is super effective!
  
• New building: Healer (1 worker). A good doctor working here produces and distributes Medicine to beavers resting on Medical Beds.
  
• New resource: Dandelion. Found in the wild or grown by Foresters, and cut by Gatherers. Used as the primary Medicine ingredient.

Food and Water (previously: Thirst and Hunger) were updated in the initial Update 2 release, now Sleep and Shelter get a similar treatment.

• Sleep and Shelter can now also reach negative values.
  
• Sleep-deprived beavers fall unconscious when the bar reaches its minimum value. (It works the same as it used to, but it’s now consistent with other “bidirectional” needs).
  
• Shelter no longer provides any stat boost when fulfilled.
  
• With Shelter below 0, beavers suffer from -20% Life Expectancy. Base life expectancy has been increased, so if Shelter is above 0, the average lifespan remains the same.
  
• Beaver needs that had a boring “no effect” tooltip have received short descriptions.
  
• Needs are no longer equal in the wellbeing scores - harder-to-fulfil needs give more wellbeing.
  
• Wellbeing score required to unlock the Iron Teeth has been adjusted but still requires a similar amount of progress.
  
• Need bars now have a small area that’s always displayed to better communicate that the need has a non-zero value.

Yeah, the first Control Tower turned out pretty bland. We’re giving it an ability to add a specific AoE boost instead of being a simple SP sink and a “do Cogheads in this area suck” check.

• Control Towers now allow you to pick a specific work speed boost (to Construction, Cooking, Woodworking, Metalworking, Assembly, Farming, and Forestry). The boost applies to all Cogheads operating in range (on top of the Tower’s regular bonus).
  
• Activating that secondary boost costs between 1 and 2 extra SP per hour, depending on the boost.

Everybody loves playing with numbers!

• Workplaces now only consume energy while actually operating.
  
• Engine will no longer consume logs while there’s a zero need for energy in the connected power grid.
  
• Disposal Facility’s capacity is now 5 times larger.
  
• Broken golems will no longer leave the Disposal Facility or the Maintenance Station when these buildings become unoperational.
  
• Changed Barrelbots’ lifespan to 70 days.
  
• Broken golems now wander for 2 days instead of 1, which should lower the rate of spontaneous explosions.
  
• Golem wreckage now disappears faster.
  
• Lowered base Control Tower cost from 2 to 1 Science Points per hour.
  
• Adjusted Inventor and Observatory output numbers slightly to get rid of decimals.
  
• Engine now uses 0.2 logs per hour, down from 1, and its internal storage has been lowered to 10 logs. (Translation: the full storage now sustains the engine for 2 days, up from 1).
  
• Increased the weight of Scrap Metal from 9 to 11.
  
• Increased the weight of Golem Chassis from 10 to 11.

Costs related to the Numbercruncher were too high so we’re tweaking them… but we’re taking it one step further. To further differentiate the factions, we’ve removed the Observatory from the Iron Teeth building pool and pushed the more-effective and worker-less Numbercruncher to be available at a similar stage.

• Observatory can no longer be built by Iron Teeth.
  
• Numbercruncher now uses 500 HP, down from 1000,
  
• Numbercruncher’s SP unlock costs is now 1500, down from 10000.
  
• Numbercruncher’s building cost has been reduced to 30 planks, 100 gears, and 25 metal blocks.
  
• Numbercruncher’s SP output has been lowered from 12 to 10 per hour.

When creating the new buildings, we missed our chance to add more stackability to the game. We’re making some fixes today, and we’ll be more mindful of that in the future. Also, you can now better see how the wasteland life treats your beavers.

• Golem Part Factory (both factions) received a new, stackable model.
  
• Golem Factory models (both factions) have been updated to allow easier clustering and shaft connecting.
  
• Added some heart-wrenching visuals to beavers suffering from pollution, injuries, broken teeth, or those stung by bees. Yes, more than one effect can apply. F

• All included maps have been updated to feature wild dandelions.
  
• Beavers and golems are now always able to carry at least one good, even if it exceeds their maximum carrying capacity. If it does, they will move slower.
  
• Implemented several new sounds for golems and their buildings.
  
• Cleaned up the order of ingredients displayed in buildings.
  
• Added a new “Swimming speed” bonus, currently provided by Lido.
  
• “Water handling speed” is no longer used when calculating swimming speed.
  
• “Advanced production” has been renamed “Assembly”.
  
• Each “X efficiency” bonus has been renamed “X speed” (for example: “Cooking efficiency” became “Cooking speed”) to be consistent with the universal “Work speed” bonus.
  
• “Strength” bonus has been renamed “Carrying capacity”.
  
• Some older tooltips, notifications, and status texts have been cleaned up.
  
• Added an additional tooltip to better explain why it’s impossible to migrate the population.
  
• Updated the Beaver/Golem switch and several other elements across the UI.
  
• ISpecificationService has been added. If you’re a modder, you may know what this means.

• Fixed framerate drops caused by marking tress for cutting.
  
• Fixed several weird golem behaviours.
  
• Floodgates can now be synchronized in the Construction site stage.
  
• It is now possible to pause the Numbercruncher without pulling the plug.
  
• The productivity of paused buildings is now correctly calculated.
  
• After you dispose of all your golems in the settlement, you can now switch back to beavers on buildings that used to be set to golems.
  
• Fixed a bug with trees getting their preview and regular models blended together, as well as some other minor visual bugs.
  
• Fixed a broken animation of a broken golem.
  
• The farming speed bonus no longer applies to kits.
  
• Fixed an incorrect warning on flooded Breeding Pods.
  
• Fixed a rare game crash.
  
• Charging Station now correctly appears in the Population Panel.
  
• Fixed a bug with golem wreckage resetting its remaining duration upon saving and loading the game.

Hello everyone!

Starting today, you get to test the next big thing in Timberborn - the mechanized beavers, a.k.a. golems. If you want to know more about how they came to be, why we’re adding them, and what else is coming with Update 2, read Developer’s Log #5: Golems first.

If you need a refresher on how to play on Experimental Branch, check this thread.




Update 2 adds an entirely new in-game system and with the reworked needs, this might turn the balance upside down (hi, Vecna). Please start a new game and share your opinion! During the Update's experimental phase, expect us to make numerous changes based on feedback from players.

Golems are super-efficient mechanized beavers that perform most duties of regular beavers. Faction-specific features and buildings are described further below.

• New dweller type: golem. Golems work at all available workplaces with an exception of Inventor, Observatory, and Power Wheel. Golems are not affected by working hours and regular needs but they need to be manufactured and taken care of.
  
• Only select workplaces are available to golems right from the start. The rest needs to be unlocked with Science Points.
  
• Windows and entrances of buildings where golems are employed light up in light blue rather than normal yellow.
  
• New building: Golem Parts Factory (1 worker, powered). It uses faction-specific recipes to produce Limbs, Chassis, and Heads. Iron Teeth also have access to a Golem Repair Kit recipe.
  
• New building: Golem Factory (2 workers, powered). Assembles a golem from 4 Limbs, 1 Chassis, and 1 Head.
  
• New hazard: if golems are not properly maintained or disposed of, they will explode and leave behind wreckage that negatively affects beavers and other golems walking by.

Barrelbots are limited-lifespan golems that help Folktails with their favourite jobs so that their chonky overlords can spend more time enjoying life in the wasteland.

• New golem type: Barrelbot (+25% Farming efficiency, +25% Cooking efficiency; +25% walking speed when wet and for some time after leaving water).
  
• When a Barrelbot’s durability drops to zero, it starts wandering around before exploding and leaving dangerous wreckage.
  
• New building: Biofuel Refinery (2 workers). Creates Biofuel from Carrots, Sunflower seeds, Potatoes, or Spadderdock seeds.
  
• New building: Biofuel Tank (unmanned). Barrelbots stop here to refuel.
  
• New building: Disposal Facility (1 worker, powered). Recycles expiring Barrelbots before they explode. You regain some resources in the process.

Cogheads aid the Iron Teeth in hard industrial labour. Properly maintained, they will do that indefinitely, but their delicate metal parts require carefully planned out areas of operation.

• New golem type: Coghead (+25% Woodworking efficiency, +25% Metalworking efficiency; -25% walking speed when in water and for some time after leaving water).
  
• When a Coghead’s durability drops to zero, it starts wandering around before exploding and leaving dangerous wreckage.
  
• New building: Control Tower (unmanned, uses SP to operate). Allows Cogheads in range to operate efficiently. Outside of the Tower’s range, Cogheads suffer from -75% Working speed and -75% Walking speed.
  
• New building: Charging Station (1 slot, powered). Cogheads need to visit this building to be wound up.
  
• New building: Maintenance Station (1 worker, powered). Using repair kits produced at Golem Parts Factory, Stations restore Cogheads’ durability and prevent them from exploding.

In addition to implementing multiple Science Points consuming unlocks, we’re adding new ways of generating SP.

• New building: Numbercruncher (Iron Teeth-only; unmanned, powered). Running endless calculations to predict all 14,000,605 post-apocalyptic beaver futures, this automated structure generates SP for everyone to enjoy.
  
• New recipe in the Mine (Folktails-only). Instead of digging up hooman junk, Folktails can search for underground traces of human civilization, learning a lot and earning SP.

As explained in the Developer’s Log, what you see below is just a part of a larger update. We’ll deploy further changes, new statuses, and related buildings onto the experimental branch later. Also, we’re aware that today’s changes may result in a difficulty spike, especially if you load a pre-patch game in progress, so be prepared, start a new game, and share your feedback!

• Hunger and Thirst needs have been renamed Food and Water, respectively.
  
• Food and Water needs can now reach negative values which are displayed on the new bidirectional status bars. The longer a need remains unsatisfied, the longer it takes to recover.
  
• When Food and Water needs are below 0, negative effects kick in. Hungry beavers suffer from lower carrying capacity and work speed, and thirsty beavers both work and walk slowly. Extensive periods of hunger and thirst still result in death.
  
• The “Work Speed” bonus is now split into general Work Speed (increasing all work speed) and separate “X Efficiency” bonuses, applying only to a certain group of jobs (for example, Woodworking).
  
• Building panels now contain information about which effect (for example: Cooking efficiency increased by Roofs) affects that building’s operations.

We’ve tweaked some numbers, and we’ll tweak more after we hear your golem- and needs-related feedback.

• Gear Workshop: Gears now take 3 hours to make, instead of 6; storage space for Gears and Planks has been expanded from 8 to 10 to compensate for the larger output.
  
• Large Metal Platform: now costs 1000 SP to unlock.

• All workers and dwellers assigned to a building are now highlighted on the map after selecting it (and vice versa).
  
• Range lines are now always displayed outwards from the District Center.
  
• Added “blocked entrance” warnings.
  
• Updated several status and building icons.
  
• Unavailable workplaces and dwellings are no longer counted in the free slot numbers.
  
• It is no longer possible to build dynamite at the map’s lowest possible level. A beaver is not a mole, m'kay?

• Updated smaller buildings (Bench, Beaver Statues, Scarecrow, Bell) so that they can be built under platforms.
  
• Fixed the Observatory’s erroneously huge hadron collider.
  
• Iron Teeth Haulers now also provide nutrient delivery services as part of their already exhausting jobs.
  
• Left-handed mouses are now supported.

• Engine no longer burns logs when paused.
  
• A Certain Building We Tried To Rework But Failed (For Now) no longer uses water when paused.
  
• Fixed a bug that caused stairs to limit ranges.
  
• Tribute to Ingenuity no longer works at full efficiency when not fully powered.
  
• Construction sites can no longer reach over 100% progress. No, not even the Iron Teeth ones.
  
• The number of vacancies can no longer reach negative values.
  
• Removed the flame from Shrine’s construction site preview.
  
• Fixed a visual bug in the Distribution Post’s model.
  
• Fixed a bug with the “Migrate” button getting blocked in the District Center panel.
  
• Fixed a bug with shafts not rotating.
  
• Fixed a bug with the “Paused” status icon not appearing immediately.
  
• Status icons no longer appear above beavers’ heads after clicking them while they’re inside buildings.
  
• You can no longer catch your beavers in inappropriate positions after loading the game.

Hello everyone!

It’s finally time to unveil that big (and futuristic) thing coming to Timberborn in the next patch. In Update 2, we will add a new category of advanced beaver dwellers, collectively called golems. These artificial beavers are mechanically unique for each faction, they use new buildings, and change how Timberborn is played, especially closer to the endgame. Dive in to learn more!

Golems are mechanized beavers that perform most duties of regular beavers. They’re very efficient and don’t worry about mundane things such as food or sleep. On the other hand, they need to be assembled, powered and maintained in special buildings. Golems of each faction have unique strengths and life cycles, and if not cared for, they pose a danger to their masters.

• Golems made by Folktails are called Barrelbots. They run on biofuel, a new resource created from spare food. They cook, plant and harvest crops at higher rates, and they move faster when wet. After reaching their lifespan, they start rotting and spilling toxic waste (*). You will need to dispose of (and recycle) the old golems fast. And yes, you’ll get some materials back.

Concept arts for Folktails' golems

• The Iron Teeth counterpart is a Coghead. It’s a clockwork contraption that works faster when placed in a factory but you should avoid exposing its metal body to water. To keep it operating efficiently, you also need to create a grid of Control Towers. Properly maintained, Cogheads work indefinitely, but neglected, they may break down and explode violently (*).

Concept arts for the Iron Teeth's golems

(*) We are still working on the end-of-life mechanics, and they're subject to change. We'll need your feedback on what works best here when the update hits the Experimental Branch.

We’ve heard your requests for a more engaging and branching endgame. Golems and related buildings are just that. We expect them to come into play in mid to late game. With their superior performance, golems are invaluable in the largest cities and during the harshest of droughts.

At the same time, they make Timberborn more sandbox-y. Want to build a dedicated district that specializes in metal production? Send your golem crews to the mines and see the production skyrocket. Do you feel like building a beaver utopia with maxed out well-being numbers? Let the golems do the hard work 24/7 while their beaver overlords just chill in the mud bath.


Concept arts for (left to right): Maintenance Station, Disposal Facility, Golem Factory

We’ve had a rough idea for golems for a long time now but their current form was shaped after the Update 1 release in December. In the end, golems turned out to be a larger feature than originally anticipated but it was made possible by gradually expanding our team. For context, while we shipped Update 1 as a team of six, Mechanistry is now a team of twelve.

A larger team means we could try many different concepts for this feature. We brainstormed and scrapped multiple ideas for golem-related features, such as the Tree-D Printer that would manufacture all types of resources (too OP), a farm where Barrelbot parts grew in garden-like vats (too elvish), or the mechanic with golem buildings draining the surrounding areas (too easy to avoid). What we have gone forward with feels much more coherent and fits the gameplay.


An early prototype for Folktails' Chassis Farm, later replaced with a Golem Parts Factory

You’ll learn more about the new buildings and golem mechanics when Update 2 comes to the experimental branch, but here’s a quick rundown of what to expect.

The main building additions are related to the golems’ life cycles.

• To assemble a golem, you need Limbs, a Chassis and a Head. All parts are made in a Golem Part Factory (using different recipes) and turn into a golem in a Golem Factory.

Golem Factory and Golem Parts Factories for the Iron Teeth

• You will need to take care of the power for your golem. Barrelbots are refuelled at Biofuel Tanks, smelling of a new resource produced from spare food at the Biofuel Refinery. Cogheads need to be wound up in Charging Stations.

Biofuel Refineries and a Biofuel Tank

• Barrelbots have a finite lifespan, and you need to recycle the worn-down ones at the Disposal Facility before they poison your beavers. And to prevent Cogheads from blowing up, ensure they can visit the Maintenance Station every now and then.

Disposal Facilities at work. Look how happy the Barrelbots are to be recycled!

Golems allowed us to add multiple new Science Point sinks to Timberborn. You need to unlock the new buildings (duh) but also only select workplaces are available to golems right away. Assignment slots in other buildings need to be unlocked first. Also, Control Towers – the buildings that allow Cogheads in range to operate quickly and efficiently – constantly consume the SP.


As soon as a Coghead enters the range of a Control Tower, its efficiency gets a huge boost

Golems themselves cannot work at the Inventor and the Observatory, which makes sense lore-wise. We’re giving each faction a new, golem-friendly way of generating the SP, though.

We have mentioned that rotting Barrelbots spill toxic waste, making beavers sick. That’s yet another big thing coming with Update 2. We’re reworking some of the existing needs and expanding our system to include more temporary effects as well as ways to interact with them.

Multiple new beaver statuses are coming, and since Timberborn is a post-apo game, guess what, most of them are negative! For example, lumberjacks will break their teeth, bees from beehives will sting, and during a drought, overheating will become a real risk. Yay!


Broken teeth? Nothing a bit of grinding wouldn't solve!

Of course, there will be countermeasures to that… but if you think you can handle these new hurdles easily, think again. We’re also changing how basic needs (food, water, shelter, sleep) work. They will now hit negative values. No longer can you keep your workers hungry for extended periods of time and then magically fix that by tossing them a few leftover carrots.

The basic needs rework will go live on the experimental branch alongside the golem content. Additional statuses and related buildings will be added a little later.

As always, we don't want to give any dates until we're sure the new stuff works but Update 2 is coming to the experimental branch soon. No, really, you’ve waited long enough. In the meantime, feel free to ask your questions on our Discord.

~Team Timberborn

Hello, Timberborn community!

We want to tell you that you’re awesome. Thanks to the sales of Timberborn and Timberborn OST at the Earth Appreciation sale, we’ve just donated $29.724,28 to save foxes, raccoon dogs, and other animals in need taken care of by the Viva! Foundation in Poland. Thank you!

It’s a perfect moment to announce a very special community project. See, we know that our players enjoy listening to the Timberborn soundtrack composed by Zofia Domaradzka. They also record the game-related songs on their own. So… why not both?!



Watch the video above and join us in recording “The Shores of Beaver Bay” - a beaver version of a 19th-century sea shanty! The music was arranged by Zofia Domaradzka, we have the community members on the verses, and we’re inviting you to join the chorus. Some of the devs will be there, too!

The deadline for submissions is May 13, 2022. For other key information as well as the early mix of the song feat. our player DerHouy, please watch the video above. There's also a FAQ section below.

We hope you'll join us and we'll make "The Shores of Beaver Bay" the summer hit 2022 deserves!
~Team Timberborn


No, we're not adding warships to the game but hey, it's a sea shanty!


What is this about?
We’re recording a Timberborn-themed rendition of “The Shores of Botany Bay”, a traditional Irish shanty from the 19th century.

Is this official? Who’s doing that?
Yes. The music was arranged by Zofia Domaradzka. The song features guitar and mandolin performance by Krzysiek Łochowicz and violin performance by Magdalena Szczebiot - Murawska. The lyrics and main vocals are provided by community members Synthron and DerHouy, and the chorus is open to everyone. Some of the Timberborn devs will also join the chorus (yikes!).

What do I need to do?
Watch the video above. After Miami finishes his part, DerHouy takes over to help you with singing. Put on the headphones, get yourself comfortable, prepare your mic and recording software, and sing along! If you record that on the video, it will help us make a cool video for the final montage.

What are the lyrics?
Here are the lyrics for the chorus (they’re also in the video description and in the video itself).

Good morning little beavers, good morning happy life,
Let’s build a big and mighty dam before the drought arrives!
With plenty trees for chopping, we'll block the water's way
in the riverbed, keeping this land wet, living here in Beaver Bay!

What if I can't sing this?
You can! The more participants we have, the more harmonical the song gets, with the voices blending into one big, impressive chorus. Do not worry about your pitch, tone or perfect pronunciation. It’s about us all coming together to have fun!

How and when do I send my contribution?
We have a submission form for that. The deadline for submissions is Friday, May 13, 2022.

Please note that:

• there's some selection process - we're not going to be very restrictive but if a recording has a very bad sound quality or we get too many submissions to handle, it may be rejected
  
• if selected, you will be asked to digitally sign a copyright transfer contract with us - if you fail to do that, we legally can't use your contribution.

What’s the deal with that copyright transfer contract? How do I sign this?
If your entry is selected, we'll e-mail you to ask for details to be used in the contract (real name, address, and ID number). You'll then receive a contract to sign via DocuSign. If you haven't signed anything via DocuSign before, they will need to verify your identity in a video call first. This requires downloading a mobile app.

Here is the contract that we’ll need to sign with you if you want to review that in advance. We're sorry for all the hassle but Polish copyright laws oblige us to sign a contract.

How do you want to use the song after the final mix?
We’ll put together a final montage with a video to unveil that at a special occasion. And who knows, perhaps it will not be the last you hear of that song.

I have another question.
Feel free to ask that on our Discord!

Hello everyone!

The experimental Timberborn update has just been pushed to the main branch. Before we dive into the full patch notes, let’s talk about what’s going to happen a bit later today.

World’s Earth Day is just two days away and today at 7 PM CEST (10 AM PT), a very special Steam sale event begins. Earth Appreciation Festival is a collection of 100 released and upcoming games that showcase the beauty of nature and our home planet, or warn us all about what can happen due to climate change, lack of sustainability, conflicts, and other perils. We'll add the link once the sale is live.

This event has been organized by us so it won’t surprise you that Timberborn and its OST are present with a 20% discount. What’s important is we’ll donate 15% of all our revenue during the sale to Viva!, a trustworthy animal welfare organization from Poland (KRS number 0000135274).



One of the initiatives we’ll support this way will be an expansion of a fox asylum located in Korabiewice, Poland, where foxes and raccoon dogs saved from fur farms find peace and security. Beavers building a shelter for foxes - how cool is that! :3

To celebrate, our game designer Jon has recorded a special Earth Day-themed Timberborn challenge. Can they turn the entire map green again? Find out on our YouTube channel at 7 PM CEST (10 AM PT)!



And if you’d rather watch some hot live action, watch the mighty Sean “Day9” Plott take on Timberborn on Twitch today at 10 PM CEST (1 PM PT)!

Alright, onto the meaty part. The experimental update has gone through several iterations and has now been deployed to the main branch of the game. As a reminder: this is not Update 2. Our major futuristic patch is still in the works and we hope to start unwrapping things soon-ish.


We’ve made a series of tweaks to the lighting to diversify how the game looks depending on the time of day, whether the drought is in progress, and so on. To get an idea of what to expect, watch the video above but please note that it was recorded before several tweaks to the fog etc.

• Added dawn and dusk to the day/night cycle, each with unique lighting effects.
  
• Adjusted the lighting’s colors and intensity across the day.
  
• Added variable length to in-game shadows – it changes depending on the time of day.
  
• Added unique fog effects to droughts and temperate seasons, most visible during dusk and dawn.
  
• Added a new skybox that gradually transitions between day and night.

Per popular request, we’ve added a panel that lists all beavers and buildings in one place (in six tabs). This allows you to control the colony, and that includes setting the newly added job priorities! You can browse global or, which probably makes more sense, district-based lists.

• Added job prioritization. Similarly to building prioritization, there are five priority levels, which affect where your beavers go to work first.
  
• Added population panel to the game. It contains data split into six tabs: Characters, Housing, Workplaces, Storage, Power, Attractions.
  
• The population panel is accessed with a new button in the upper left corner or with a hotkey (“G”). While the panel is open, the game is paused.
  
• Using the panel you can pause buildings, change their recipes, mark the building as a priority for the haulers etc. Most importantly, you can pick a job priority for the building.
  
• Clicking an object on the list shows its location in the game. Each tab contains information about currently active status effects such as “Building paused”.
  
• The panel also displays data such as workplace productivity and how attractive your colony’s attractions actually are.
  
• The upper left panel now contains only key information such as population count.
  
• As part of panel-related changes, we added clickable district indicators in individual building and beaver panels.

Beaverome wasn’t built in a day, and neither will be your settlement here. This brand new map challenges you to follow the steps of the beaver pioneers who transformed seven water-filled craters into the heart of the modern beaver civilization.

• Beaverome (192x192) is now a part of the built-in map roster.
  
• With this map, we’re trying a more challenge-like approach. The available areas are narrow and the slopes steep, and it’s not that easy to find a strong water current – but hey, at least there’s enough to drink for everyone, right?

The map co-created with the community and used in our city-building contest turned out to be so popular we wanted it permanently in the game! To ensure smooth gameplay, however, we made a series of changes to the map, including moving the mountain.

• Helix Mountain (256x256) is now a part of the built-in map roster.
  
• The map underwent significant changes, including moving the mountain closer to the map’s center. The mountain is also larger, which makes creating your settlements a bit harder, as the water takes longer to flow down.

We have added two new faction-specific decorations.

• New building: Wind Gauge (Folktails) helps you measure wind speed.
  
• New building: Bell (Iron Teeth) signals the start and end of the workday.

We have realized that the number of gears needed to grow your colony is too dam high.

• Wood Workshop: Gears cost reduced from 50 to 40.
  
• Mud Bath: Gears cost reduced from 50 to 40.
  
• Mine: Gears cost reduced from 500 to 350.
  
• Efficient Mine: Gears cost reduced from 600 to 450.

After you launch the game for the first time after the update, you will be prompted to pick your preferred language. As a reminder, Timberborn is now available in 12 languages: English, Polish, Ukrainian, Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese, French, German, Italian, Russian, Simplified Chinese, Korean, and Japanese.

• All models in the game have had their models updated to reduce the number of polygons and improve the game’s performance.
  
• Updated all flag models with cute little lamps. We’re doing the below just for consistency’s sake. Totally.

• Windmill, Large Windmill: Shafts can be connected from any side now.
  
• Added missing flavor texts to buildings and resources.
  
• Resources have received updated panels to better communicate what, when, and how they yield.
  
• Many panels are now available during the construction stage. Most importantly, the warehouse inventory panel – you can micro your warehouses right after placing them!
  
• Builders now use the Working Speed bonus to put up constructions faster.
  
• Added the names of new team members to in-game credits.
  
• You can now hear them… those little, jumping, green frogs.

• Beehives no longer work underwater.
  
• Crops affected by the Beehive are now correctly highlighted.
  
• Fixed the torches not lighting up in the Temple.
  
• Fixed a bug with water becoming too bright at the deepest levels.
  
• Underwater buildings and plants are now correctly highlighted when selected.
  
• Fixed the collider in Mechanical Water Pump.
  
• Fixed a bug that allowed building a Mine in the middle of two adjacent Underground Ruins.
  
• Fixed a bug that prevented beavers from using books directly from the Printing Press.
  
• Fixed a bug with stock counts in the district distribution panel calculated differently than in the top panel.
  
• Fixed a bug that allowed Farmers, Gatherers, Lumberjacks and Tappers to pick up goods not belonging to their workplace.
  
• Fixed a visual bug where Smelter’s worker would not sit in the door when there was nothing to do.
  
• Fixed the camera switching places when the game was paused or unpaused with a beaver selected inside the building. Uh-oh.
  
• Fixed a bug where moving a cursor slooowly over buttons broke their highlighting and the ability to click them.
  
• Fixed a bug with attractions not accounting for Power Efficiency.
  
• Fixed a bug with hot single beavers in your area not pairing with each other in Lodges.
  
• Fixed a bug forcing children to grow up only in the morning.
  
• Fixed a bug with water not being hidden after selecting a construction site.
  
• Fixed a crash when trying to connect two districts.

Surprise! We have added two new faction-specific decorations.

• New building: Wind Gauge (Folktails) helps you measure wind speed.
  
• New building: Bell (Iron Teeth) signals the start and end of the workday.

Having reviewed the player feedback, we realized that the experimental irrigation changes, while helpful, created a different set of issues. We’re working on another iteration of the fix but for now, we’ve reverted the irrigation mechanics to the pre-Experimental state.

• Reverted changes to irrigation mechanics.
  
• Reverted changes to Irrigation Tower. One Tile, One Dump is back on the menu, boys.

• Builders now use the Working Speed bonus to put up constructions faster.
  
• Added the names of new team members to in-game credits.

• Fixed the mismatched Harvesting and Planting icons.

Hello everyone!

This update is a little different. The war is raging in Ukraine – that’s right behind the borders of our studio’s country of Poland. Everyone deserves life in peace, and we’re still shocked by the horror happening right there, in the heart of 21st century Europe.

We’re just a studio making a game about beavers but we want to stress the fact that Ukraine is a sovereign country with its own rich culture. That’s why today, we’re adding Ukrainian to the pool of available in-game languages, along with a little nod to our neighbours’ beautiful folklore.

Ukraine needs more than gestures, though. To support victims of the Russian invasion, at the end of February we donated $50.000 to Polska Akcja Humanitarna (Polish Humanitarian Action). We encourage you to contribute too.



While this update is now live on the main branch, the new content such as the settlement panel and the new day/night cycle remains on Experimental Branch only as we continue iterating on it.

Timberborn is now officially supported in 12 languages. You can change the language in the game’s settings.

• Timberborn is now available in Ukrainian.

We’ve added an additional crop your farmers can grow.

• New crop: Sunflowers. Sunflowers yield seeds that are eaten raw.

• Updated the skybox to reduce banding.

• Removing trees (High priority) is now correctly prioritized over building (Low priority).
  
• Fixed a crash on macOS.

Hello everyone!

Timberborn comes with 9 maps (with two more already on the Experimental Branch) but with the magic of Map Editor, there’s always more to get. Until we add Steam Workshop support, it requires a few additional clicks but getting the new map is as simple as downloading a file.

Right now, the go-to place for all Timberborn cartographers is this player-made collection of maps big and small (and medium). Other than that, you can check the Map section of the mod repository you already know, browse our forums, subreddit, and/or the dedicated channel on Timberborn Discord.

Download the map file from the repository of your choice and copy it to the Maps folder located in C:\Documents\Timberborn\Maps. Start a new game and pick the map normally – it will have a [Custom] prefix in its name. You can use both new (.timber) and old (.json) custom map files.

For this showcase, we chose 10+1 amazing maps. Each uses a very different layout and was designed around a specific experience. All maps we picked were created or adjusted after the release of Update 1 in December, which means they feature Undergrounds Ruins and are Mine-compatible.




Mulien’s creation tasks the player with reaching the source of life-giving water located at the end of a very narrow map. This challenge is not for the faint of heart: your starving colony has to beat several “stages” before getting there. “Quest…” is one of the coolest challenge maps we’ve seen created for Timberborn, and Mulien has recently modified it to add Update 1 content.




Creating this map took Oombalol a lot of time – not just because of all the small details but also due to the carefully planned out water flow. Here, it changes direction back and forth over the course of the game, so account for it as you make plans for a drought. By the way, if you enjoy the intricate map design like this, check the author’s pre-Update 1 creation, Pinewood Hills.




At a first glance, surviving on this map may seem like an impossible task – your beavers begin trapped in a small area cut off by high walls. Can you get them out before the resources run out? And once you do, will it even get easier? The margin for error is small in the beginning but once your beavers put their paws on the upper level, you’ll find some relief… for a moment.




Timberborn’s water physics is put to a good test here as the map was designed to mimic how real-life ecosystems form. Water sources are located at higher elevations, surrounded by thick forests, and the cascading waters spread out, “eroding” the terrain to create a large riverbed in the map’s centre. Just be careful – the metal sources are scarce in the wilderness like this!




This is just one of the many maps our players have crafted based on real-life locations - in this case, a famous canyon on the Colorado River. For dramatization purposes, we took the screenshot during drought but when the river is there, the large flat areas make for well-irrigated future fields where early power management is easier thanks to strong water currents.




We love all these wacky, unpredictable maps… but why not create an in-game chessboard that serves as a training tool? This flat creation allows you to experiment with the concept of artificial rivers that can keep the drought at bay even in Hard Mode. When this unique setup is properly adapted, you get a bidirectional river that continuously powers up water wheels and even makes the water management semi-automatic. Now, that’s the clever use of game mechanics.




Wonderlust’s author calls it a beginner-friendly map, and having several water sources right behind the hill helps indeed. The challenge is still there, however, as you need to be careful about where you put your first fields and water wheels. The starting area’s elevation results in tighter green areas and limits the access to the riverbank, at least until Stairs™ are discovered.




Can you tell which rather popular game served as a base for this map? By the way, it was really difficult to pick a creation from sukunabikona to feature. This author’s other amazing maps include areas from The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, renditions of real-life areas such as Hiroshima City and Taipei Basin, or even a “reversed” version of the basic Plains map. Respect!




Beavers who land on this walled-off map sit on a ticking time bomb – except that bomb is actually the ever-increasing water level. This leads to a great twist – you are actually looking forward to the upcoming droughts as they give you some breathing room. Just don’t even think of blowing up a hole in the outer wall to escape. We’re not in a certain critically acclaimed Jim Carrey movie.




The paradise in question is waiting at the hill looming above the town - and if you get your beavers up there, the reward will be grand. We love the simple premise behind this map – and even though the goal is clear, each player may come up with a different approach.




The final creation is more of a save-map hybrid because the area has some structures prebuilt. Your beavers (Folktails only!) begin stranded in a dry wasteland where the only water sources belong to the titular mad King Ludwig. While he’s chilling there in his mud bath behind the ruin-filled moat, your colony desperately searches the desert for leftover resources and abandoned workshops. If you’re quick enough, you’ll build bridges over the moat to put an end to Ludwig’s tyrannical reign.

As you can see, there’s a lot our players can do with the map editor and Timberborn’s mechanics – and there are so many maps deserving a spotlight. After you go through the entire repository, let us know about the best maps you’ve found… or made!

PS Don't miss out on the previous Community Showcase where we focused on player-made mods for the game!

Until next time!
~Team Timberborn

Hello everyone!

We’ve been keeping an eye on your feedback and today, we’ve got an update for the experimental branch to address that... and to change everyone's favourite Folktails building. Thank you for all the suggestions!


The new panel has received both functional and visual updates.

• Added a new tab that allows you to monitor the popularity of your settlement’s attractions. This data is also displayed in the attraction’s individual panel.
  
• Added workplace productivity indicators in the Workplaces tab.
  
• Updated and reorganized some of the panel’s buttons and icons.
  
• The panel now allows you to switch between districts and the global view.
  
• As part of panel related updates, we added clickable district indicators in individual building and beaver panels.
  
• Added a panel hotkey – G.

We think we’ve fixed the issue with drought being too hard on the eyes but please tell us how you find the new effects.

• Changed color of the “drought fog” to improve image clarity during drought, especially at dusk and dawn.
  
• Changed colors of the night during drought.

We’ve made some changes to make Irrigation Tower less of a meme. These changes also affect how irrigation works on the maps. While the built-in maps have been tested for that and work fine under the new behaviour, custom maps may be affected more.

• The evaporation rate now becomes faster depending on the number of tiles surrounding the water tile, maxing out at four tiles. This includes both the ground tiles and levees.
  
• The water consumption of the Irrigation Tower has been dramatically reduced.

We’re doing the below just for consistency’s sake. Totally.

• Updated all flag models with cute little lamps.

This actually went live with the initial experimental release but we’ve never mentioned that.

• Added missing flavor texts to buildings and resources.

• Fixed a bug with range lines disappearing at certain camera angles.
  
• Fixed a bug with water not being hidden after selecting a construction site.
  
• Fixed some panels not being visible in entity panel during the construction stage.

Let us know what you think!