Odd Realm 1.0 - Coming August 16th, 2024!

A lil somethin somethin: You can find the details for this event on the announcement page here.

That's right friends, 1.0 is coming out Friday, August 16th! Less than two weeks away.

As well, version 1.0.21.0 is now the official stable build for the early access which you can play now. All players should be on this version if you already own the game.

Let's take a look at what is in store for 1.0.

New and Improved UI
Tons of work has been put into UI to add functionality, improve performance, and unify the overall look and design.

Tooltips
I've gone through and added as much important information to tooltips as I can while trying to avoid making them too overwhelming. I'm especially happy with the location tooltip which now shows a detailed graphic of what is in a block, as well as what's below.



Entity tooltips also have a ton of added functionality and information.



Bigger Icons
I've gone through the icons and updated them with larger icons to help with their legibility. This is so they are easier to see in menus, but also when layered in the location tooltip.



New Research Tree and Progression
In the days of old, one would unlock each research node in the research tree with a special tome. Now, players select a node for their settlers to research which unlocks after a time. Tomes do still come into play, but are used to reduce the total time it takes to research something instead of outright unlocking it.



Gwdir
In addition to the Ancients, Ardyn, and Human playable races, you can now play as the Gwdir. The Gwdir are similar to Humans in that they also need to drink water and eat food. However, they differ in how they reproduce and build their structures. The Gwdir have a symbiotic relationship with the T'Thdir tree. This tree grows exceptionally fast and lets the Gwdir build on a grass, Nelescuro, which spreads out from the tree's base.





The Gwdir are led by a single female queen called the Gwnvayth. She is responsible for planting and growing male Gwdir to increase the population. Only one female Gwdir can exist in the settlement at one time. If she dies, she drops her crown (the Rose Crown) which can be planted by male Gwdir to grow a new queen.



Improved Custom Loadouts
You can now access all items and entities in the game to make your own starting loadout.



Increased World Depth, Improved Terrain Gen, and New Tile Transitions
The new world depth max is now 256 from 128. I wanted players to explore and be able to dig deeper if they wished. Or, if they want huge towers, they can build much higher into the sky. But, be aware, there are more challenges going in each direction.



I've put a lot of work into making terrain generate super fast. And, the tiles now have seamless transitions between one another. This means, you can have combinations of biomes appearing. Take for example, above, Taiga and Voidlands.

Lastly, the terrain will now generate bigger cave systems with easily added themes.

New Simulation System
My goal with Odd Realm is to have a world that continues to change as you play. To this end, I've added in a simulation system to affect the world over the passing of the years. For example, when you load up a tile you've never been to before, the game simulates 500 years of plant growth and water flow.



This is most obvious with the tree growth which is also new functionality. Trees are no longer simple prefabs I randomly spawn around the map. They start off as a sapling, and I have them simulate their growth over hundreds of years, their leaves, branches, and roots growing outward over time.

The eventual goal with simulations is to see how time affects settlements you've left behind, or that you come across while exploring the overworld map. I want them to appear to have grown due to entities building there, or decay from a lack of upkeep.

Overworld Kingdoms
This feature is just in its infancy. There's a loooot of potential here that I want to explore. The eventual goal is to allow players to interact much more with the kingdoms around them. Right now, the other kingdoms will send you merchants, but I still need to make it so you can dispatch scouts, merchants, and envoys of your own. You can send migrants to claim more territory, but I also want to improve upon this more in the future. Lots more to come with this!



Other Window Updates
Every single piece of UI has been updated for 1.0. One that has seen a lot of work is the production window. I've organized rooms into collapsible lists, and added lots of options (especially for auto-job conditions) to this UI. Plus, the requirements should be much clearer and editable (selecting specific items or workstations to use).



The entity lists have seen a great deal of polish. For example, settler lists now fit on screen (width-wise) requiring no horizontal scrolling. And its much easier to tune skills, professions, diets, and default starting values.



Going Forward
There's so much more in this update that I haven't mentioned, but I'll let you discover these on your own. The 1.0 isn't the end of development. There's still a mountain of work to do. Namely, expanding upon kingdoms, and adding the Tomek playable race will be my main focus. Additionally, I want to work on localization and modding tools. Big tasks! But the 1.0 is a great starting point for the game in terms of foundation. I've put so much work into making the game extendable. Every single element of the game is derived from easily edited data objects. Most of my efforts for 1.0 have been getting all the systems up and running. I want to put more focus into content and player story progression. I'm really excited for what's next!

That's all for now, but I do want to take a moment to give a heartfelt thanks to everyone that has supported the game over the years. The Odd Realm community is amazing, and I wouldn't have reached 1.0 without their help. A special shoutout to all the beta testers that spent an insane amount of energy providing bug reports and feedback. Thank you so, so much!

You can look forward to more news and updates as we lead up to August 16th. And, as always, please feel free to join our discord or chat with me in the forums. :)

Waylon