This game is stunning in its simplicity and (now) balance between relaxing and strategy. I also love that the maps are dynamically generated, which adds to replayability! This is honestly one of my favourite games on itch, and I can't wait to see where it goes from here.
Constructive Criticism:
I do second TemplarFreak's note about the fyrnbos, I've definitely had to restart a level because there weren't enough trees.
I also think that the green color for the outline of valid tiles and the text makes it blend in to the point of illegibility--maybe a yellow would be better?
Not sure if they're concerned about this, but yellows and reds should be avoided in a use-case like this because they're less colorblind accessible for such a vital feature. They also don't really satisfy as much as a green or blue. I don't totally subscribe to the theory that colors have a heavy impact on how you play and how you feel while playing a game but I think there is some merit to it.
Really enjoy this game, great vibe the later tier takes a little getting used too (get the weather system going asap or you'll go bankrupt) Feels a lot like 'islanders'. But I can't progress past the mountain as, my native resolution is not supported and the play button is off screen(ultra wide 3440x1440).
This game is really solid, but I think a few things are really holding it back. It could do with some speed controls and a bit more consistent world generation. The Fynbos biome is also tricky and a pain in the ass to work with. Some kind of automatic failure detection would also help a lot. A way to restart the map immediately would be a nice addition. I do have a few balance complaints with the game, as well.
At some points on that last level upwards of 40 to 50% of the land would be completely inaccessible. This is due to some of the land spawning as tiny islands. There is also a lot of water. That makes it EXTREMELY tight and a MASSIVE difficulty jump. Under some circumstances, this can also make it impossible if you make a single mistake. You won't be able to reclaim land from burnt buildings, so you won't be able to achieve the right biome balance.
Speed controls would also be nice for when you're waiting for the drone to move around or for rain to start. It takes quite a while for that drone to move around a big map, and rain seems to be on a reliable cycle but a long one. If you want to maximize points by relying on rain, it takes a long time. So if the game could speed up, that would help both of those a ton.
Next, the tree distribution is pretty unreliable. A good distribution would have most of the map covered. Most of the time, that's not the case. This makes working with the Fynbos Biome a lot more tricky than seems intended. It's such a vital and fundamental biome, it seems like it should be more accessible like Wetlands. You have to be very careful to create tiny forests by building an Arboretum while a fire is still burning. Due to that, it instead becomes the hardest ones to meet that coverage goal.
The failure conditions are a bit obnoxious. The game doesn't seem to have any way of detecting if you're in an unwinnable state. On top of this, with no easy and quick way to restart the map, this becomes tiresome pretty fast. There needs to be some way the game communicates to the player better about this. Or the game could have a handier restart function, that doesn't need exiting to the main menu.
What buildings are available can also be a tad strange. Like, Conveyor Ports and Deconstruction Pylons. Why do these need to exist? They seem to only kind of pad the game. If Steam Plants, Hangers, Beacons, and Seed Launchers were cheaper, there'd be no point to them. They seem to only provide you with a way to build money back up in the event you exit Tier 2 with only a few hundred points. This would not be necessary if these other Tier 3 buildings were cheaper.
As for as bugs go, the game is pretty solid. I only found a few. One is due to the isometry of the game. Trying to place things behind cliffs, for instance. The only other issue I found is that sometimes fields will regenerate themselves. Using undo after you've placed a Toxin Scrubber, the fields it cleaned sometimes stay cleaned. I definitely abused this on occasion, it was rarely handy but it did help once or twice. There was very minor UI problems too, but they were very few and far between and not very problematic. They may not even be worth mentioning, as I kind of only stumbled across them by accident.
All that said, those are pretty much my ONLY complaints with this game. There is a lot of clever ideas in here. For instance, with how biomes appear naturally distributed. Simply due to the game's mechanics. Fynbos on the outskirts of forests, wetlands that cluster around rivers. The base generated world having rivers that usually flow from high elevations. Rocks that tend to coalesce around the riverbeds due to your water wheels. It all looks pretty right. The only weird thing is arid plateaus. There should instead be proper rain shadows. I guess that would be too time consuming and resource intensive for the goals of this game, though.
It is also very mechanically satisfying. Other than the few problems I've mentioned, this is a very refined and robust city builder, with a very neat twist. One that I haven't seen exactly before. If this were made into a fuller game or had a more realized sequel, I would definitely buy it. Especially if it had a more roguelike stylization to the gameplay. Where there would be a reason to play it over and over again, because I kind of already want to. There isn't good enough reasons as it stands to do that, though, which is disappointing. I hope this game sees a lot of success. It definitely deserves it!
I've been a bit intimidated about the length of your comment so I haven't replyed to it for a while, sorry about that :D
I agree that the top end of the maps are probably too difficult, and that simply having less available space is not the best way to tweak difficulty, it's something we're aware of.
There is an automatic failure detection system but it's been overly enthusiastic in the past so I've dialed it back, maybe too much.
Speed controls are a fair point as well.
It's interesting to me that you have struggled with the fynbos boime, maybe it's something we need to look into. With our playtesting, the starting trees are almost always enough to get you most of the way there to completing fynbos. I can also look at tree distribution.
The earlier tier 3 buildings are supposed to introduce the idea of recycling and allow a more gradual understanding for new players (they only have to deal with a few buildings once they reach tier 3). Tier 3 is kind of trivial though so it might be something we look into.
I'm really pleased to hear you found the game so mechanically and visually pleasing. We've really put a lot of time and love into those parts of the game, so hearing that players can see it is awesome.
Thanks so much for your feedback, I hope you continue to enjoy the game and I see you around in future <3
Sorry for such a long post, but I just had a lot to say.
At some points, it almost kind of feels more like a classical RTS with a city builder twist just because of how satisfying the "sprawling out" nature of the game is kind of reminiscent of Zerg Creep or Command & Conquer. You odn't normally see this kind of restricted land usage in a City Builder, they usually just let you go full nuts with it and expect you to know where to place things. I think that also makes this game pretty accessible but with a lot of room for players to make their own decisions on the fly.
For Fynbos I don't think it's necessarily that there aren't enough trees, its the distribution can be wacky sometimes. On pretty much all the times on that last level that there were tiny inaccessible islands, there was at least a tree on one of them that could have been on the mainland. Sometimes, trees will also get a bit clustered instead of spread out across the map. Those tend to be the biggest problems, and a few times it made one or two whole corners of that map completely inaccessible normally without tricky and clever timing with arboretums.
You could literally only have like, 4, or 5, trees on the entire map and as long as they are all in the right positions that's more then enough. That could also provide another way people could make a different kind of pleasant-looking reclaimed wastelands, by having a thin stretch of forest that goes everywhere instead of one big cluster.
I must say this is one of the most gorgeous and peaceful games I've played. Thank you for making it! You might consider distributing this on GOG once it is done, I believe the people there are going to love it. (I will also gladly pay for it on GOG, you deserve it).
Saw it on YT and I love it, thanks for that really nice experience. I especially love the rain and the way you end up with a fully green map once all the human clutter is reclaimed at the end!
Now stuck on the island trying to green it again :'D Hope you have as much fun developing it as I enjoyed playing it. Awesome job, get on with it! (Sent a little incentive to you ;) )
Hi, I wanted first of all to thank you for this game! Very nice and relaxing, reclaiming the wasteland with an atmospheric music background is truly a zen experience.
Secondly, I wanted to report a small bug in the 0.40 version, where undoing an action causes a reload of the map (this is probably WAI, though a bit annoying), after which "DEBUG TEXT" is visible in the top right corner.
I tried grabbing a screenshot for posterity but it came up blank. It should be easy to reproduce anyway.
I noticed the same "DEBUG TEXT" message in the top right corner right after launching a new game for the third map. I don't remember seeing it on previous levels, so perhaps it's something to do with the third map.
Speaking of which, I'm a bit stuck on the third map. A frustrating element IMHO is the need for greenery to plant beehives: trees seem to spawn at random around farmland, so you can't plan around that, and arboretums require fynbos flowers to already be present so it can turn into a bit of circular dependency.
Hey! Thanks for the feedback. The circular dependency is definitely on purpose :) maybe try burning an adjacent area to the starting forest (for a new forest) and using the starting trees for fynbos
I was curious because I saw the fire in the picture. I wonder how that came about? This is a simple strategy game. I like pixel style games. It's good to play games with music in the background. The only pity for me was that there was so little to play with.
Same issue. I get a dialog that just says "The application "Terra Nil.app" can't be opened. I think it is related to system lockdowns introduced in this version of macos, but also could be if it's 32bit app for some reason. Suspect answer will be very similar to https://itch.io/post/1666042. Edit: tried it and it was the same.
A great game and a fresh update giving the players some sense of completion. However, I would like to report a bug. On the OSX version I do not see the amount of money I am having (the number is not displayed at all). Also, when running the game my laptop enters the cooking mode (ventilators at max and the temperature still increases).
And a feature request: there should be some information about the key mappings. Ideally, it should be possible to change the keybindings. I had to press all the keys until I found that R rotates the area of the greenhouse. Also, on a German keyboard (qwertz) the keys for zoom in and out (Z and X) are not next to each other.
Hey, just tried the new version 0.4, again on MacOS 10.14.6 and I still have problems with seeing the amount of currency I have (see screenshot). Otherwise, I LOVE the direction that this game is going. It was a great relaxing game and it gets better. Keep up the good work!
This game is incredible. Fresh and truly unique. Beautiful theme and colourful graphics make it really relaxing. Great job! One thing to consider during development is the difficulty curve. Tier I is most difficult, and then II and especially III is a formality - hard to mess up. Secondly, once I mastered tier I in the first and second map, all other maps proven to be easy. The first 2 maps I had to restart many times, second two - did it first go. The last one will most likely be similar. The game needs something to flatten the difficulty spike at the beginning and provide extra challenge in the end game. My gut feeling would be providing more undo levels, and adding more complexity to tier II and III requirements.
Thank you! It's really interesting that you found tier 2 so easy, I agree that tier 3 is easy but most players struggle with tier 2. Why did you have such difficulty on tier 1?
Tier 1 has this "do it right or die" situation. One misplaced river or calcifier and you run out of money. You have some, but not nearly enough to correct your mistake, and a single undo does you no good. You are stuck and need to restart. Before you learn to be efficient you fail several times. On the other hand, once you literally lay the ground work and cover a decent chunk of the land with reclaimed area it is cash out time. You can start with placing bee hives for a big chunk of money for example. You also get the lab, that enables cheap tools to fix small issues. At tier 3 you are even less locked in because you get the ability to recycle buildings... and so on. :) The game gets more forgiving the later it gets so I guess it is "hard to learn easy to master" :D Anyway it is great fun and thank you again for creating it. Pledged 5$ :)
I've been a fan since the Jam version. Having played the current version 0.31 from the previous version, I'm astounded at the transformation of the game's purpose into a system that is more geared towards completion! I like terraforming games like Sim-Earth where you can make lush, green, life inhabitable from barren land.
I've played through the entire MAP. The only change seemed to be in how efficiently you can produce in a small area of land, as what you can do with these things remains the same on every map. If you plan to add new MAPs, I'm hoping for ideas that will change the play style, such as environments with limited natural energy available.
I am reporting a bug that disrupts the game balance. Keys 1-3 are convenient shortcuts to each tier facility selection, and this operation can be used in any development stage. The image shows a rocket silo built and rained on, which is now environment complete.
Why would you make unpowered buildings so punishing?
"Haha, you clicked too fast and didn't notice that you placed an unpowered building so now you need to place another 5 buildings just to stop this one"
Not noticing that you placed a building in the wrong space shouldn't be punished
Hi! Delightful so far, but I'm having a couple issues with the OSX version- some text seems to be missing including the currency counter. I only got partway through flood plain 1 and ran out of money without warning; the continue button on the menu that came up then also does not seem to work.
...editing because i figured out the arrow keys oops... Still having issues with missing text on the currency counter, building cost and the names/labels of structures... I started over several times due to building myself into a corner/running out of money and not having strategy in place, it would help if you could undo more than one step back, or have multiple saves.
Despite all that I managed to complete flood plain 3 and oh my goodness what an experience, im about to cry over the little deer and bears wow...
I too am having issues with text in a number of places not appearing, including the currency counter, which makes the current build unplayable on macOS. I tried launching the game from the command-line (running '/Volumes/MyExtenalDriveName/Games/Terra Nil.app/Contents/MacOS/Terra Nil') to see if any Unity console messages/errors would appear, but that seems to be turned off for this build (no console text appears on the CLI at all), and nothing related appears in the system log (Console.app) either. I've tried installing via the official itch.app and via downloading the zip file from itch.io; same result. I've tried installing on the internal SDD under /Application; same result. I tried completely disabling macOS's Gatekeeper (spctl --master-disable) to ensure it wasn't a file access permission issue; same result.
It appears to be an issue with a some Unity font resource missing from the macOS build, or with the format of a font Unity is using being incompatible with macOS. As I'm sure you know, all of the game's resources are tucked away in sharedassets….assets files, so I can't help debug this any further (in other non-Unity apps/games, I would normally look at system file accesses to see if the executable is looking for any files that don't exist on the FS). And without any CLI/console messages, I can't tell what's going on either. I think it's all up to you to make a debug (console-logging) build and try it on macOS to determine what's going on here. Best of luck getting this patched up.
I'm having this same problem—text doesn't show up in a bunch of places where you'd expect it to show up, most notably the currency counter. Playing v0.4 on macOS 10.14.6.
I really appreciate what you did! The game is awesome, I like the music, and the gameplay is highly rewarding (and innovative, too!).
But a nasty bug (I guess it's a bug) is preventing me from progressing: You see, on the 2nd and 3rd Level, after completing stage 2 about halfway thru, I get stuck. I cannot build any more buildings, nor can I revert my move. In addition, the Menu buttons "Return to Menu" and "Exit" (or was it quit? whatever) no longer work. They make the clicking-animation, but nothing happens. I can still change volume or return to the current game.
It only happens after a while, I'm not sure exactly what causes it (Number of buildings, reaching 20% on Stage II, ...) It happens no matter what type of Biodiversity I complete first, be it arid, wetland or flower fields (with the bees). Restarting the game does not fix it (except if I start a new game, but then it reoccurs after a while).
I play on Windows 7 (64-bit), Version 0.31. Just in case: Does it matter, where the game is located? I'll try 32-bit and my Linux-Laptop if i get the chance.
That aside:
Not sure if it is intended, but while some buildings "update" after you change something around them, meaning if you excavate a new river-bed the water pump fills it, calcifiers, toxin scrubbers and, most importantly greenhouses do not. For calcifiers (they don't convert greenland to stone if water spreads further through their radius AFTER they are placed) it makes sense, as it allows me to control how much stone I want to have (only in some cases though, if they are built at the end of a river or water is still busy spreading). But for greenhouses this is a little annoying, because I have to finish building the toxin scrubbers before "greenifying" everything, which can be fineky if I run out of cash meanwhile. (But it's not a big issue once you realize it :) )
Anyway, thank you for reading this lengthy essay, and keep up the good work!
EDIT 1&2: No difference with 32-bit. It happened BEFORE I reached 20% progress, it is not reliant on the building. It can be "fixed" by restarting the game (which reverts thelast move, smarty you) and performing a DIFFERENT operation. But the chances of it happening seem to increase.
EDIt 3: Admin changes nothing. At some point you get stuck because performing any one operation (building something) gets you stuck. It seems to obviously be on my side, because I didn't find anyone else with the same problem.
Hi Phineaz, thanks so much for such detailed feedback. Can you give me some more info about what happens? Maybe a screenshot? How much currency do you have? What biomes did you complete? What OS are you running?
I'll try: As I said, at some point during the second stage, the game gets stuck. I can select and "place" buildings, but nothing happens (they become green aka "I fit here" and show me how much I would earn). I am still holding the building, no currency gets deducted from my funds, and nothing gets build. As if I hadn't placed it. Selecting a different building and/or spot makes no difference.
SCREENSHOT: As you can see, I tried to place an upheaver on a stone tile. It's green and I have enough money, so it ought to work. I click to place it, and the green radius that is normally there to tell me its range disappears, but no upheaver gets placed nor do I spend currency. This happens no matter what bioms I have completed until then, but so far I usually always have startet at least all but the forest one (in this case Forest was done first, but I have some for all bioms). It happened in all games so far, and my progress was ranging from below 20% on Stage II to almost 40%.
In addition, when pausing the game with Esc, I cannot use the the "return to main menu" or "exit" buttons. they click, meaning their border gets darker and they make a sound, but nothing happens. Up until this point all features work just fine, maps unlock, etc. .
However, it is possible to "fix" this error temporary: By closing and restarting the game, the last move is undone, meaning I am in a "pre-getting-stuck"-state. When I do something else this time, meaning placing a different building on a different spot, it works. But the error occurs sooner or later (more sooner, as in one or two placements later). I can repeat this process a few times, but at some point the games always gets stuck.
I am playing on Windows 7, 64-bit. Using the 32-bit file makes no difference, I tried it. It works fine on my Linux-Laptop (Manjaro), but I couldn't try it on a different Windows-machine yet. The game is NOT installed on C, if that is of any importance. Starting the program as admin has no impact.
PS.: I can make more screenshots if you wish, but I don't think they'll do you too much good, as it's not exactly a "visual" type of error.
PPS.: I played it a bit on Linux, and I love it! Stage III is amazing!
Alright, so I tried Version 0.4 on my Windows machine and this time I manage to complete mountain (and the two before it) with no issues whatsoever. I haven't tried peninsula yet, but I'm pretty confident it'll work as well!
The game looks so great ! And the feeling is really interesting, something between relaxing and stressful.
I did not figure out how to win stage 3, i put beacons and seeds but nothing happens (no tree growing, no drone flying), . How to activate them? Do I have to wait more?
I'm having an issue where I can't seem to build a hangar anywhere. Weather is restored, the silo has been built... I'm not sure if I'm missing something. Running W10 1909.
Hi BaIigant, there's sometimes an issue where the hanger build point is not properly highlighted. It's built ON the rocket silo on the bottom left. You should still be able to build it even if the highlight is not working. Let me know if this works and sorry!
It seems I have no building names and 0 (that is, infinite) money. Is this a common bug or am I in some kind of training wheels mode? I can't find reference anywhere. I'm on OSX 10.13.6
I have a similar problem to this: currency isn't showing up when playing. the slots where numbers are supposed to show up aren't showing any numbers at all.
Minor bug report - when using the seed launcher during stage 3, it seems like the resulting tree sometimes renders underneath other buildings. Also, I notice that the power lines for a windmill are drawn above the windmill's blades.
Is this the best place for bug reports, or should that go somewhere else?
An excellent game with an inspiring narrative, along with a lot of catharsis upon restoring the weather system and cleaning up your own buildings. I especially like how every stage of the game makes you rethink all the buildings and terrain you created in the previous stage.
I found the game more stressful than intended, since I lost three times during the second stage, and started obsessively watching my budget. Still fun, regardless!
I did run into a bug during stage 3; it looks like if you build a new water pump during stage 3 (because you accidentally or deliberately recycled an old one), container docks will prevent the spread of water from the pump. (I forget the exact name of the building.)
Some other minor notes:
The rocket launch button could look more like a button, perhaps?
Is there a way to recycle materials across different elevations during stage 3? I was able to grab some buildings that were near a change in elevation, but I couldn't tell if a pair of container docks could carry recycling up or down a waterfall.
When the recycling boat or drone is facing the screen, it looks like it has a pair of googly eyes on top, and I can't unsee it :P
If you don't happen to have expansion plans yet, a friend noted that you could swap out some of the biodiversity requirements during stage 2 - maybe one game, instead of building desert plants, you build a lake. The diversity requirements aren't of equal difficulty and somewhat depend on each other, so that might be difficult.
Wow, thanks so much for such detailed feedback. I'm really glad that you felt what we intended when you finished restoring the weather system. It's also really useful to know that you found it stressful. Balancing a game like this is difficult and we need all the feedback we can get.
Thanks for all your suggestions and bug feedback!
The conveyance ports do connect across different elevations, and the recycling boats can go up and down waterfalls. The googly eyes are actually intentional! We were trying to make the recycling robots look like Wall-E from the pixar movie. That's an interesting idea about tier 2 and the different biomes
Hello! Great game, I have a suggestion you might like.
When placing a wind turbine, any squares that already have power supplied to it could turn blue instead of green, this would allow the player to reduce overlap of power supply.
I love this game! Played my way through all the difficulties and am so impressed with it. The idea is great and gameplay has a nice strategic depth. Visuals and sound are amazing.
There's obviously also room for improvement, like fixing how forest/fires work in the lategame, maybe 1-2 tutorial prompts at the start and perhaps hotkeys? I'm sure, if you plan to continue -or already have worked on this, you probably already have your own list of things in mind.
Regardless, I will probably boot it up again every once in a while. It's really fun.
It's working great on my Win32 starter Nvidia Ion system now. :) I noticed that the game doesn't seem to save if you click 'Exit' on the score screen after completing a stage though, which is strange. You can win Highland I and then exit, and it doesn't unlock Floodplain.
Damn! Thanks for pointing that out. You should still be able to press continue in the main menu to get back to the point just before you finished Highland
I'm really enjoying this game. Congratulations, it feels nice to interact with. I was a bit confused about how to use/access tier two buildings though. I tried clicking the icon / using some different key commands to select the II icon.
Otherwise thanks again for making it :)
EDIT: I worked it out. I think the first time the tiers unlocked the game also prompted me to change to a new map so I missed the part where I was developing things further after stage 1. A bit of a game flow thing
So apparently if you create a big enough forest you get infinite gold? The fire just keeps burning is it never said anything like "you win" or anything even though I completed the mission. Is this supposed to happen?
What a great game idea! Please add permaculture techniques to the game. I always wanted a permaculture game that could be an edutainment for kids and grownups.
I've found a bug! Or should I say a feature :p When you make forest, and ignite it, it will make infinite rings for you, cause of trees that burn and grow from the ashes again, and again... :D
← Return to game
Comments
Log in with itch.io to leave a comment.
This game is stunning in its simplicity and (now) balance between relaxing and strategy. I also love that the maps are dynamically generated, which adds to replayability! This is honestly one of my favourite games on itch, and I can't wait to see where it goes from here.
Constructive Criticism:
I do second TemplarFreak's note about the fyrnbos, I've definitely had to restart a level because there weren't enough trees.
I also think that the green color for the outline of valid tiles and the text makes it blend in to the point of illegibility--maybe a yellow would be better?
Not sure if they're concerned about this, but yellows and reds should be avoided in a use-case like this because they're less colorblind accessible for such a vital feature. They also don't really satisfy as much as a green or blue. I don't totally subscribe to the theory that colors have a heavy impact on how you play and how you feel while playing a game but I think there is some merit to it.
Thanks for these points you guys!
Really enjoy this game, great vibe the later tier takes a little getting used too (get the weather system going asap or you'll go bankrupt) Feels a lot like 'islanders'. But I can't progress past the mountain as, my native resolution is not supported and the play button is off screen(ultra wide 3440x1440).
Sorry about that! Glad you enjoy it :)
This game is really solid, but I think a few things are really holding it back. It could do with some speed controls and a bit more consistent world generation. The Fynbos biome is also tricky and a pain in the ass to work with. Some kind of automatic failure detection would also help a lot. A way to restart the map immediately would be a nice addition. I do have a few balance complaints with the game, as well.
At some points on that last level upwards of 40 to 50% of the land would be completely inaccessible. This is due to some of the land spawning as tiny islands. There is also a lot of water. That makes it EXTREMELY tight and a MASSIVE difficulty jump. Under some circumstances, this can also make it impossible if you make a single mistake. You won't be able to reclaim land from burnt buildings, so you won't be able to achieve the right biome balance.
Speed controls would also be nice for when you're waiting for the drone to move around or for rain to start. It takes quite a while for that drone to move around a big map, and rain seems to be on a reliable cycle but a long one. If you want to maximize points by relying on rain, it takes a long time. So if the game could speed up, that would help both of those a ton.
Next, the tree distribution is pretty unreliable. A good distribution would have most of the map covered. Most of the time, that's not the case. This makes working with the Fynbos Biome a lot more tricky than seems intended. It's such a vital and fundamental biome, it seems like it should be more accessible like Wetlands. You have to be very careful to create tiny forests by building an Arboretum while a fire is still burning. Due to that, it instead becomes the hardest ones to meet that coverage goal.
The failure conditions are a bit obnoxious. The game doesn't seem to have any way of detecting if you're in an unwinnable state. On top of this, with no easy and quick way to restart the map, this becomes tiresome pretty fast. There needs to be some way the game communicates to the player better about this. Or the game could have a handier restart function, that doesn't need exiting to the main menu.
What buildings are available can also be a tad strange. Like, Conveyor Ports and Deconstruction Pylons. Why do these need to exist? They seem to only kind of pad the game. If Steam Plants, Hangers, Beacons, and Seed Launchers were cheaper, there'd be no point to them. They seem to only provide you with a way to build money back up in the event you exit Tier 2 with only a few hundred points. This would not be necessary if these other Tier 3 buildings were cheaper.
As for as bugs go, the game is pretty solid. I only found a few. One is due to the isometry of the game. Trying to place things behind cliffs, for instance. The only other issue I found is that sometimes fields will regenerate themselves. Using undo after you've placed a Toxin Scrubber, the fields it cleaned sometimes stay cleaned. I definitely abused this on occasion, it was rarely handy but it did help once or twice. There was very minor UI problems too, but they were very few and far between and not very problematic. They may not even be worth mentioning, as I kind of only stumbled across them by accident.
All that said, those are pretty much my ONLY complaints with this game. There is a lot of clever ideas in here. For instance, with how biomes appear naturally distributed. Simply due to the game's mechanics. Fynbos on the outskirts of forests, wetlands that cluster around rivers. The base generated world having rivers that usually flow from high elevations. Rocks that tend to coalesce around the riverbeds due to your water wheels. It all looks pretty right. The only weird thing is arid plateaus. There should instead be proper rain shadows. I guess that would be too time consuming and resource intensive for the goals of this game, though.
It is also very mechanically satisfying. Other than the few problems I've mentioned, this is a very refined and robust city builder, with a very neat twist. One that I haven't seen exactly before. If this were made into a fuller game or had a more realized sequel, I would definitely buy it. Especially if it had a more roguelike stylization to the gameplay. Where there would be a reason to play it over and over again, because I kind of already want to. There isn't good enough reasons as it stands to do that, though, which is disappointing. I hope this game sees a lot of success. It definitely deserves it!
I've been a bit intimidated about the length of your comment so I haven't replyed to it for a while, sorry about that :D
I agree that the top end of the maps are probably too difficult, and that simply having less available space is not the best way to tweak difficulty, it's something we're aware of.
There is an automatic failure detection system but it's been overly enthusiastic in the past so I've dialed it back, maybe too much.
Speed controls are a fair point as well.
It's interesting to me that you have struggled with the fynbos boime, maybe it's something we need to look into. With our playtesting, the starting trees are almost always enough to get you most of the way there to completing fynbos. I can also look at tree distribution.
The earlier tier 3 buildings are supposed to introduce the idea of recycling and allow a more gradual understanding for new players (they only have to deal with a few buildings once they reach tier 3). Tier 3 is kind of trivial though so it might be something we look into.
I'm really pleased to hear you found the game so mechanically and visually pleasing. We've really put a lot of time and love into those parts of the game, so hearing that players can see it is awesome.
Thanks so much for your feedback, I hope you continue to enjoy the game and I see you around in future <3
Sorry for such a long post, but I just had a lot to say.
At some points, it almost kind of feels more like a classical RTS with a city builder twist just because of how satisfying the "sprawling out" nature of the game is kind of reminiscent of Zerg Creep or Command & Conquer. You odn't normally see this kind of restricted land usage in a City Builder, they usually just let you go full nuts with it and expect you to know where to place things. I think that also makes this game pretty accessible but with a lot of room for players to make their own decisions on the fly.
For Fynbos I don't think it's necessarily that there aren't enough trees, its the distribution can be wacky sometimes. On pretty much all the times on that last level that there were tiny inaccessible islands, there was at least a tree on one of them that could have been on the mainland. Sometimes, trees will also get a bit clustered instead of spread out across the map. Those tend to be the biggest problems, and a few times it made one or two whole corners of that map completely inaccessible normally without tricky and clever timing with arboretums.
You could literally only have like, 4, or 5, trees on the entire map and as long as they are all in the right positions that's more then enough. That could also provide another way people could make a different kind of pleasant-looking reclaimed wastelands, by having a thin stretch of forest that goes everywhere instead of one big cluster.
You can use toxin scrubbers to clear ash after a fire, that makes fynbos a lot easier to get
I must say this is one of the most gorgeous and peaceful games I've played. Thank you for making it! You might consider distributing this on GOG once it is done, I believe the people there are going to love it. (I will also gladly pay for it on GOG, you deserve it).
Thank you for your kind words!!
Saw it on YT and I love it, thanks for that really nice experience. I especially love the rain and the way you end up with a fully green map once all the human clutter is reclaimed at the end!
:D so glad you like it, thank you <3
I really enjoyed your game so far.
Now stuck on the island trying to green it again :'D
Hope you have as much fun developing it as I enjoyed playing it. Awesome job, get on with it! (Sent a little incentive to you ;) )
Regards, Lazalatin
Thank you!
Hey there! I'm glad you're enjoying it! Can you send me a screenshot? The third map is supposed to require Arid Scrubland instead of Wetland
Damn that's definitely a bug. I'll check it out. What OS are you btw?
Thanks! I need to get hold of a mac to test and I'll get back to you!
Hi, I wanted first of all to thank you for this game! Very nice and relaxing, reclaiming the wasteland with an atmospheric music background is truly a zen experience.
Secondly, I wanted to report a small bug in the 0.40 version, where undoing an action causes a reload of the map (this is probably WAI, though a bit annoying), after which "DEBUG TEXT" is visible in the top right corner.
I tried grabbing a screenshot for posterity but it came up blank. It should be easy to reproduce anyway.
Ah, thanks for letting me know! Glad you enjoy the game :)
I noticed the same "DEBUG TEXT" message in the top right corner right after launching a new game for the third map. I don't remember seeing it on previous levels, so perhaps it's something to do with the third map.
Speaking of which, I'm a bit stuck on the third map. A frustrating element IMHO is the need for greenery to plant beehives: trees seem to spawn at random around farmland, so you can't plan around that, and arboretums require fynbos flowers to already be present so it can turn into a bit of circular dependency.
Hey! Thanks for the feedback. The circular dependency is definitely on purpose :) maybe try burning an adjacent area to the starting forest (for a new forest) and using the starting trees for fynbos
I was curious because I saw the fire in the picture.
I wonder how that came about?
This is a simple strategy game.
I like pixel style games.
It's good to play games with music in the background.
The only pity for me was that there was so little to play with.
Did you only play level 1 maybe? There's a lot more game still
Maybe so. I hadn't noticed there were other levels, thank u :)
The game doesnt work on MAC Catalina :(
Hey! Sorry to hear that, can you tell me what the error is?
Same issue. I get a dialog that just says "The application "Terra Nil.app" can't be opened. I think it is related to system lockdowns introduced in this version of macos, but also could be if it's 32bit app for some reason. Suspect answer will be very similar to https://itch.io/post/1666042. Edit: tried it and it was the same.
This game is good! You should add custom maps so we can make some!
Thank you! We'll look into it :)
Hello there! I love your game! Is there a way to adjust the resolution?
Thank you! Not right now I'm afraid
A great game and a fresh update giving the players some sense of completion. However, I would like to report a bug. On the OSX version I do not see the amount of money I am having (the number is not displayed at all). Also, when running the game my laptop enters the cooking mode (ventilators at max and the temperature still increases).
And a feature request: there should be some information about the key mappings. Ideally, it should be possible to change the keybindings. I had to press all the keys until I found that R rotates the area of the greenhouse. Also, on a German keyboard (qwertz) the keys for zoom in and out (Z and X) are not next to each other.
Thanks! And thank you for the feedback :)
Hey, just tried the new version 0.4, again on MacOS 10.14.6 and I still have problems with seeing the amount of currency I have (see screenshot). Otherwise, I LOVE the direction that this game is going. It was a great relaxing game and it gets better. Keep up the good work!
Damn I need to get ahold of a mac to test on
This game is incredible. Fresh and truly unique. Beautiful theme and colourful graphics make it really relaxing. Great job! One thing to consider during development is the difficulty curve. Tier I is most difficult, and then II and especially III is a formality - hard to mess up. Secondly, once I mastered tier I in the first and second map, all other maps proven to be easy. The first 2 maps I had to restart many times, second two - did it first go. The last one will most likely be similar. The game needs something to flatten the difficulty spike at the beginning and provide extra challenge in the end game. My gut feeling would be providing more undo levels, and adding more complexity to tier II and III requirements.
Thank you! It's really interesting that you found tier 2 so easy, I agree that tier 3 is easy but most players struggle with tier 2. Why did you have such difficulty on tier 1?
Tier 1 has this "do it right or die" situation. One misplaced river or calcifier and you run out of money. You have some, but not nearly enough to correct your mistake, and a single undo does you no good. You are stuck and need to restart. Before you learn to be efficient you fail several times. On the other hand, once you literally lay the ground work and cover a decent chunk of the land with reclaimed area it is cash out time. You can start with placing bee hives for a big chunk of money for example. You also get the lab, that enables cheap tools to fix small issues. At tier 3 you are even less locked in because you get the ability to recycle buildings... and so on. :) The game gets more forgiving the later it gets so I guess it is "hard to learn easy to master" :D Anyway it is great fun and thank you again for creating it. Pledged 5$ :)
Thank you :))
I've been a fan since the Jam version.
Having played the current version 0.31 from the previous version, I'm astounded at the transformation of the game's purpose into a system that is more geared towards completion!
I like terraforming games like Sim-Earth where you can make lush, green, life inhabitable from barren land.
I've played through the entire MAP. The only change seemed to be in how efficiently you can produce in a small area of land, as what you can do with these things remains the same on every map. If you plan to add new MAPs, I'm hoping for ideas that will change the play style, such as environments with limited natural energy available.
I am reporting a bug that disrupts the game balance.
Keys 1-3 are convenient shortcuts to each tier facility selection, and this operation can be used in any development stage.
The image shows a rocket silo built and rained on, which is now environment complete.
Ah thanks for pointing that out. Also I'm glad you enjoyed it! And we have some ideas for different maps :)
This game is great
I only have 1 complaint so far:
Why would you make unpowered buildings so punishing?
"Haha, you clicked too fast and didn't notice that you placed an unpowered building so now you need to place another 5 buildings just to stop this one"
Not noticing that you placed a building in the wrong space shouldn't be punished
I'm not happy.
Oh no! I'm sorry to hear that. You were so close!
Hi! Delightful so far, but I'm having a couple issues with the OSX version- some text seems to be missing including the currency counter. I only got partway through flood plain 1 and ran out of money without warning; the continue button on the menu that came up then also does not seem to work.
...editing because i figured out the arrow keys oops... Still having issues with missing text on the currency counter, building cost and the names/labels of structures... I started over several times due to building myself into a corner/running out of money and not having strategy in place, it would help if you could undo more than one step back, or have multiple saves.
Despite all that I managed to complete flood plain 3 and oh my goodness what an experience, im about to cry over the little deer and bears wow...
<3 <3 I'm so glad you feel that way, it's really gratifying because those are the emotions we want to be evoking. I'll look into the OSX issues!
I too am having issues with text in a number of places not appearing, including the currency counter, which makes the current build unplayable on macOS. I tried launching the game from the command-line (running '/Volumes/MyExtenalDriveName/Games/Terra Nil.app/Contents/MacOS/Terra Nil') to see if any Unity console messages/errors would appear, but that seems to be turned off for this build (no console text appears on the CLI at all), and nothing related appears in the system log (Console.app) either. I've tried installing via the official itch.app and via downloading the zip file from itch.io; same result. I've tried installing on the internal SDD under /Application; same result. I tried completely disabling macOS's Gatekeeper (spctl --master-disable) to ensure it wasn't a file access permission issue; same result.
It appears to be an issue with a some Unity font resource missing from the macOS build, or with the format of a font Unity is using being incompatible with macOS. As I'm sure you know, all of the game's resources are tucked away in sharedassets….assets files, so I can't help debug this any further (in other non-Unity apps/games, I would normally look at system file accesses to see if the executable is looking for any files that don't exist on the FS). And without any CLI/console messages, I can't tell what's going on either. I think it's all up to you to make a debug (console-logging) build and try it on macOS to determine what's going on here. Best of luck getting this patched up.
I'm having this same problem—text doesn't show up in a bunch of places where you'd expect it to show up, most notably the currency counter. Playing v0.4 on macOS 10.14.6.
Hello!
I really appreciate what you did! The game is awesome, I like the music, and the gameplay is highly rewarding (and innovative, too!).
But a nasty bug (I guess it's a bug) is preventing me from progressing: You see, on the 2nd and 3rd Level, after completing stage 2 about halfway thru, I get stuck. I cannot build any more buildings, nor can I revert my move. In addition, the Menu buttons "Return to Menu" and "Exit" (or was it quit? whatever) no longer work. They make the clicking-animation, but nothing happens. I can still change volume or return to the current game.
It only happens after a while, I'm not sure exactly what causes it (Number of buildings, reaching 20% on Stage II, ...) It happens no matter what type of Biodiversity I complete first, be it arid, wetland or flower fields (with the bees). Restarting the game does not fix it (except if I start a new game, but then it reoccurs after a while).
I play on Windows 7 (64-bit), Version 0.31. Just in case: Does it matter, where the game is located? I'll try 32-bit and my Linux-Laptop if i get the chance.
That aside:
Not sure if it is intended, but while some buildings "update" after you change something around them, meaning if you excavate a new river-bed the water pump fills it, calcifiers, toxin scrubbers and, most importantly greenhouses do not. For calcifiers (they don't convert greenland to stone if water spreads further through their radius AFTER they are placed) it makes sense, as it allows me to control how much stone I want to have (only in some cases though, if they are built at the end of a river or water is still busy spreading). But for greenhouses this is a little annoying, because I have to finish building the toxin scrubbers before "greenifying" everything, which can be fineky if I run out of cash meanwhile. (But it's not a big issue once you realize it :) )
Anyway, thank you for reading this lengthy essay, and keep up the good work!
EDIT 1&2: No difference with 32-bit. It happened BEFORE I reached 20% progress, it is not reliant on the building. It can be "fixed" by restarting the game (which reverts thelast move, smarty you) and performing a DIFFERENT operation. But the chances of it happening seem to increase.
EDIt 3: Admin changes nothing. At some point you get stuck because performing any one operation (building something) gets you stuck. It seems to obviously be on my side, because I didn't find anyone else with the same problem.
Hi Phineaz, thanks so much for such detailed feedback. Can you give me some more info about what happens? Maybe a screenshot? How much currency do you have? What biomes did you complete? What OS are you running?
SCREENSHOT: As you can see, I tried to place an upheaver on a stone tile. It's green and I have enough money, so it ought to work. I click to place it, and the green radius that is normally there to tell me its range disappears, but no upheaver gets placed nor do I spend currency. This happens no matter what bioms I have completed until then, but so far I usually always have startet at least all but the forest one (in this case Forest was done first, but I have some for all bioms). It happened in all games so far, and my progress was ranging from below 20% on Stage II to almost 40%.
In addition, when pausing the game with Esc, I cannot use the the "return to main menu" or "exit" buttons. they click, meaning their border gets darker and they make a sound, but nothing happens. Up until this point all features work just fine, maps unlock, etc. .
However, it is possible to "fix" this error temporary: By closing and restarting the game, the last move is undone, meaning I am in a "pre-getting-stuck"-state. When I do something else this time, meaning placing a different building on a different spot, it works. But the error occurs sooner or later (more sooner, as in one or two placements later). I can repeat this process a few times, but at some point the games always gets stuck.
I am playing on Windows 7, 64-bit. Using the 32-bit file makes no difference, I tried it. It works fine on my Linux-Laptop (Manjaro), but I couldn't try it on a different Windows-machine yet. The game is NOT installed on C, if that is of any importance. Starting the program as admin has no impact.
PS.: I can make more screenshots if you wish, but I don't think they'll do you too much good, as it's not exactly a "visual" type of error.
PPS.: I played it a bit on Linux, and I love it! Stage III is amazing!
Wow thanks for such a detailed response, I'll look into this and get back to you. Glad you got to play tier 3 :)
Alright, so I tried Version 0.4 on my Windows machine and this time I manage to complete mountain (and the two before it) with no issues whatsoever. I haven't tried peninsula yet, but I'm pretty confident it'll work as well!
So: Yay for no getting stuck!
Good job!
I love this game! Found what feels like a bug; you can access any tier before they are unlocked by pressing 2 or 3 on the keyboard
Thank you! And thanks for the bugreport
The game looks so great ! And the feeling is really interesting, something between relaxing and stressful.
I did not figure out how to win stage 3, i put beacons and seeds but nothing happens (no tree growing, no drone flying), . How to activate them? Do I have to wait more?
Hmm, did you restore the weather system and create a hangar?
yes i did
That's very strange. Can you send me a screenshot? Also what OS are you running?
I'm having an issue where I can't seem to build a hangar anywhere. Weather is restored, the silo has been built... I'm not sure if I'm missing something. Running W10 1909.
Hi BaIigant, there's sometimes an issue where the hanger build point is not properly highlighted. It's built ON the rocket silo on the bottom left. You should still be able to build it even if the highlight is not working. Let me know if this works and sorry!
It seems I have no building names and 0 (that is, infinite) money. Is this a common bug or am I in some kind of training wheels mode? I can't find reference anywhere. I'm on OSX 10.13.6
Actually looks like I do have a currency limit - it just reads as zero.
I have a similar problem to this: currency isn't showing up when playing. the slots where numbers are supposed to show up aren't showing any numbers at all.
Edit: I'm on MacOS Catalina 10.15.5
me too.
at macOS Catalina 10.15.5
Sorry about this! Are you all on Mac?
Im on MacOS Catalina 10.15.5. (I've also edited my previous comment to include this)
very good game... I'm waiting for italian translation.. if you need help.. I'm here!
Thank you! :)
Thank you for the video, glad you enjoyed :)
Loved playin this game.
:D
Minor bug report - when using the seed launcher during stage 3, it seems like the resulting tree sometimes renders underneath other buildings. Also, I notice that the power lines for a windmill are drawn above the windmill's blades.
Is this the best place for bug reports, or should that go somewhere else?
Thanks! Here is perfect
Such a wonderful game, been loving it on Linux. What are your plans for it?
Thank you :) we are continuing to work on it and we'll see where it goes!
Great to know, happy to hear that it's going to continue :D
Some sort of sandbox mode with a huge map could be interesting.
An excellent game with an inspiring narrative, along with a lot of catharsis upon restoring the weather system and cleaning up your own buildings. I especially like how every stage of the game makes you rethink all the buildings and terrain you created in the previous stage.
I found the game more stressful than intended, since I lost three times during the second stage, and started obsessively watching my budget. Still fun, regardless!
I did run into a bug during stage 3; it looks like if you build a new water pump during stage 3 (because you accidentally or deliberately recycled an old one), container docks will prevent the spread of water from the pump. (I forget the exact name of the building.)
Some other minor notes:
Thanks a lot for making this game!
Wow, thanks so much for such detailed feedback. I'm really glad that you felt what we intended when you finished restoring the weather system. It's also really useful to know that you found it stressful. Balancing a game like this is difficult and we need all the feedback we can get.
Thanks for all your suggestions and bug feedback!
The conveyance ports do connect across different elevations, and the recycling boats can go up and down waterfalls. The googly eyes are actually intentional! We were trying to make the recycling robots look like Wall-E from the pixar movie. That's an interesting idea about tier 2 and the different biomes
Thanks again, glad you enjoyed it :D
Hello! Great game, I have a suggestion you might like.
When placing a wind turbine, any squares that already have power supplied to it could turn blue instead of green, this would allow the player to reduce overlap of power supply.
Thanks! So glad you enjoyed it :) The update I'm working on right now has a fix for this!
I love this game! Played my way through all the difficulties and am so impressed with it. The idea is great and gameplay has a nice strategic depth. Visuals and sound are amazing.
There's obviously also room for improvement, like fixing how forest/fires work in the lategame, maybe 1-2 tutorial prompts at the start and perhaps hotkeys? I'm sure, if you plan to continue -or already have worked on this, you probably already have your own list of things in mind.
Regardless, I will probably boot it up again every once in a while. It's really fun.
Thanks so much, comments like these mean the world to me <3
I've been hard at work on a new update so there will be more content for you soon!
Thank you so much, new update is on the way :)
Hey, I just downloaded the game on OS X and I have the following error when I open it: "The application “OSX - TerraNil0.2.app” can’t be opened.".
It requires executable permissions, this made it work: chmod +x OSX\ -\ TerraNil0.2.app/Contents/MacOS/TerraNil
i cant acces the game i tried all file
Is there a 32-bit version please? :)
What OS are you?
Windows 7 Starter 32-bit. I was planning to run it on an old NVidia ion chipset computer, but that might be a little too old.
So sorry this took so long but there's a 32 bit build with the new update
Thank you :) I'll let you know how it goes!
It's working great on my Win32 starter Nvidia Ion system now. :) I noticed that the game doesn't seem to save if you click 'Exit' on the score screen after completing a stage though, which is strange. You can win Highland I and then exit, and it doesn't unlock Floodplain.
Damn! Thanks for pointing that out. You should still be able to press continue in the main menu to get back to the point just before you finished Highland
I'm really enjoying this game. Congratulations, it feels nice to interact with. I was a bit confused about how to use/access tier two buildings though. I tried clicking the icon / using some different key commands to select the II icon.
Otherwise thanks again for making it :)
EDIT: I worked it out. I think the first time the tiers unlocked the game also prompted me to change to a new map so I missed the part where I was developing things further after stage 1. A bit of a game flow thing
Ah, thanks for pointing that out :)
So apparently if you create a big enough forest you get infinite gold? The fire just keeps burning is it never said anything like "you win" or anything even though I completed the mission. Is this supposed to happen?
Yeah that's a bug :/ will fix in the next update!
Thanks for playing!
Game looks preeeeeetty neat. Thank you for linux version. You are cool, man!
Thank you ^_^
such a great game, kudos to the developer. also, Linux support rocks!
Thanks :)
What a great game idea! Please add permaculture techniques to the game. I always wanted a permaculture game that could be an edutainment for kids and grownups.
Hmm interesting idea, I'll think about it. Thank you for playing :)
I've found a bug! Or should I say a feature :p When you make forest, and ignite it, it will make infinite rings for you, cause of trees that burn and grow from the ashes again, and again... :D
Thanks for pointing this out!