Hello Castle Crafters! 

After the early access release we focused on balancing and bug fixes. Now we’re turning our attention to adding some of the bigger features and improvements you have suggested. It took us a bit longer, but we’re finally taking the next step on this journey: the Economic Zone update is here!  In this update we put more power in your hands and allow you to increase the minion and platoon limit by building quarters and barracks.

We have also gotten in touch with the amazing Paul Delaross who gave Debimius the unforgettable voice in the trailer and he’s now also given Debimius his ingame voice.

But wait - we have lots of changes coming to the game in this patch and a quick look to the future and our road map for where we plan to take Castle Craft.

🛠️ Minions:

• Quarter Economic Zone: Increase your minion cap across all other zones by building these cozy quarters. More minions = more work being done
  

• Barracks Economic Zone: Increase your platoon cap to defend your castle with a bigger army (instead of just more traps).
  

• Improved Visual Customization: All minions now have distinct faces and can be either male or female, so you can personalize your army even more.
  

• Minion Build Queue: In the Economy Tab of the Skill Book, see exactly which minions are currently being built.
  

• Reliable Minion Distribution: Minions now reliably distribute across all economic zone clusters. No more empty workshops.
  

• Minion Status Icons: A small icon on the minion status bar now tells you what the minion is currently up to: Is he moving, working, or maybe just taking a break?
  

• Improved Tool Placement: Minions now build tools on all disconnected economic zones, making your fortress even more efficient.
  

• Builders Get Smarter: Builders now reserve cubes only if nearby, so no more blocking each other when they could be building! They also build nearby cubes first, leading to faster building.

• No More Minion Vertigo: Minions can now navigate over small bridges/paths of 1 voxel block width, allowing for a wider range of castle constructions.
  

• Productivity Boost: Builders will now check nearby areas for productive props and will build new ones if needed. They don’t wait around!
  

• Minions Avoid Launch Pads and other Traps: Minions will now avoid launch pads—because no one likes a flying minion, right? Substantively fewer minion deaths all around.

🎮 General Gameplay:

• New Debimius Voice Actor Enjoy some fresh audio from King Debimius himself, adding even more of his… charming personality.
  

• Prefab Status Bars: Only show status bars for health and when within range—no more clutter when they're just burning fuel from afar.
  

• Performance Boost: Performance improvements when dealing with large economic zones. More minions, more fun, less lag!
  

• Kingdom View Button in Settings Menu: We’ve added a back to level selection button to the main settings menu that you reach via ESC.
  

⚖️ Balancing:

• Increased Difficulty: The early waves of Stygia and Hyperborea are now tougher. Get ready for more challenges right from the start.
  

• Platoon Food Cost: Building friendly platoons (knights and archers) now costs food, adding some strategic depth to your army planning.
  

• Tweaked End of Wave Gold Rewards: Kingdoms now give increasingly larger gold rewards after each wave.

🐞 Bug Fixes:

• No More Floating Trees: Trees now stay grounded, no more defying gravity.
  

• Friendly Soldier Clipping: No more soldiers falling through the ground. They’re now staying put like they should when the world gets restored or loaded.
  

• Stygia & Hyperborea Skybox Fix: The skybox no longer overlaps with the New Horizons building border—no more celestial interference.
  

• Minion Digging Fix: Players no longer get pushed into the air when minions dig underneath them.
  

• Hellfire Ability Fix: The Hellfire dragon no longer pushes siege towers away when it’s summoned.
  

• Floating Voxels Fix: Salvaging now lets floating voxels fall to the ground as they should!
  

• Bug Report Form Fix: The bug report form now resets properly after submission—no more issues with it getting stuck!
  

• Tree Growth Fix: Trees won’t grow if they were mid-growth when the game was saved.
  

• Gold Fix: Gold in the skill book now updates properly, even when the building pawn is being possessed.
  

• Food Harvesting Fix: Food received from loading a game is now properly counted toward harvested food in the resource UI.
  

• Fall Damage: Double jumping when switching phases: The player no longer takes fall damage when starting a double jump right before the defense phase begins.
  

• Minion Loading: Restoring minions in the first wave: The game now correctly loads minions even when a game in the first wave is being loaded.

In addition we will also be releasing the Castle Craft soundtrack by the talented José Pavli. If you ever found yourself just relaxing to the music while watching your minions work, now you can do the same while doing the dishes… or something more exciting. You get the idea.

While working on the economic zone update, we’ve also continued work on the UI Update, which we will release shortly. This update will introduce a selection wheel to select building skills, revamp the skill book, and lay the groundwork for many exciting additions to the game such as items that you can equip.

Wonder what’s next? We’ve finally created our roadmap that lets you know what Debimius is cooking up for the next patches of the game:

We haven’t put dates on those milestones quite yet. But we expect to have all of them implemented by the end of this year.

The roadmap isn’t set in stone though and YOU can help us shape Castle Craft. Join our Discord and let us know which things you think need to change!

We are grateful for your feedback, your patience, and are excited for what’s to come!

Best wishes,

Marco & Jonathan

The Castle Craft Crew