June was big.

First ship sails · 2026-06-07

There is no island empire without ships, and while the asset is just a placeholder, it was incredible to see it sail from one island to the next.

Great people

Great people make great games. I'm happy to share that we have the first game music track, composed by an old friend of mine. He will also do all the sound design, so I'm sure you'll feel the immersion.

I was lucky enough that a talented 3D artist reached out to me and started making some draft buildings as well! The first set is almost complete and hopefully you'll get to see them in the next dev log.

Finally, I hired an environment artist for all of July to help me create some beautiful visuals. The work has been going on for a week and the month already feels short, but I'm absolutely stoked about the progress.

They are all greatly appreciated and I can't wait to share it with you all!

Implementation progress

New buildings and UI improvements

Just a few days ago this all ...clicked together - I played ~10 minutes and felt the settlement grow and tick. Been waiting for this moment for too long.

The full loop just feels satisfying already: producers make goods -> carts haul them along roads -> storage -> the population eats -> the population grows -> more workers staff the buildings -> production speeds up -> the settlement grows.

We have the first 2 sets of buildings producing and servicing the community. Full inventory is shown, foods are consumed and you can allow or forbid each food type. A statistics panel shows whether stocks of each good grew or shrank over the last minute.

A homelessness system was designed and implemented and a starvation mechanic as well. The impact of your decisions will be felt. Cutting off food took a settlement of ~1,000 down to 25 survivors over ~7 minutes. It was brutal... you will have to design your supply routes and production carefully!

The road building system got a lot of love too and it's starting to feel really comfortable and fast to me, without sacrificing flexibility. I'll be testing this game so much, it has to feel flawless.

What's next

July is focusing on visuals, a tiny island getting the full art treatment, from terrain to buildings. Subscribe below if you would like to see it!