Hi guys!

After 2 months of development, 0.37.0 is here! Before I would begin: if you'd like to get access then all you have to do is join my Discord server! Just hit me up and I'll grant you access. I'd love to hear you feedback! :)

Besides the features planned for this milestone, I managed to fullfill 54 feedback reports. Some of them overlapped with the planned features, while some were pretty awesome ideas and improvements which I didn't think of. So thank you to all who contributed, I can't believe how much better the game is just because some of you are willing to help me with your feedback. :)

New World Map!

• The world map is finally reworked, heavily inspired by my beloved Slay the Spire.
• Instead of removing cards from your deck and restoring reputation between every levels, now they can be only found as special nodes on the map, and they are much rarer.
• Islands' modifiers are now illustrated with icons and chevrons instead of a wall of text and numbers. However, if enabled in settings, the actual values can be shown once again.
• New games start in the world map scene, where players can choose from 3 starting islands. Except when the user is a first-time player: in that case the game starts on a random first island already, so they can experience the core of the game instantly.

Upgrade System

• Now cards can be upgraded through the Blacksmith and the Rest Camp node which can be found on the new world map.
• With each upgrade, either the resources/population they provide increase, or the resources they cost decrease. The upgrade ranks are colorcoded for better readability.

Improved UI and UX

• Redesigned and improved the quality and readability of many interface elements. Some of them weren't fully clear, now I think they convey their purpose much better. 90% of the UI received a new look, so I guess we should skip listing them here. ^^
• Cards (while also getting a new look) received new highlight particles!
• Both the startup loading screen and the ones before island scenes got a new and improved look.

Island Scene Changes

• New tile selling visuals: instead of turning into water, they are now indicated with reddish highlight with tents or ships on it.
• Separate draw and discard pile inspecting instead of the previous, combined modal where already drawn cards were semi-transparent.
• Quests and towns' gold generation mechanic are already available on the first level.
• When a new card is added to your deck, you receive it into your hand.
• Card drawing now costs gold.
• Territorial Deed and Contract Labor are now part of the starting deck. (exchanging gold for a tile or workers)
• New tutorial texts added and improved existing ones. Added a button into settings to reset tutorial status.
• Removed "discard card X" quests and made demands harder a bit.
• Improved tile tooltips.

Other Notable Changes

• Added ultra widescreen support and implemented UI scale setting.
• Updated the "What's next?" panel's content.
• Balanced some cards and other mechanics.
• Polish & bugfixes: Many minor polish and bugfix commits, including font adjustments, missing/misconfigured assets, and improved error handling.
• Created a promotional site for the game: https://www.hexlands.com/

For the next patch, I plan it to be a smaller one, because the faster the iteration, the better it is. It will contain mostly new cards and polishing the features added with this patch because I'm sure and hope that there will be tons of feedback.^^ After the next, smaller patch, I'll jump back into the next big feature: a unique final level for the currently available world map (more to come of course), and meta progression!

Once again, thanks for sticking around, and let me know what do you think about these new features, I would really appreciate it. As always, join my Discord server, just hit me up and I'll grant you instant access to the playtest! I'd love to hear you feedback! Thanks for reading, and have a nice week! :) Tudvari a.k.a. Portgate Studios