Hello again! Devlog #6 is 31 October, the day we got Hearthroad ready for other people to play. We went through the whole game like a stranger would, and the worst thing we found was in the first hour. Everything below was filmed in the game as it was that night.
Stuck at six people
A new player who did exactly what the game's own Next goal said ended the first hour with the Hearth's six founders and nobody else, 2,700 bronze sitting idle, and a goal that said "research Agriculture" for 55 minutes. Agriculture waited for 10 hides, and nothing told you a Hunter's Lodge makes them. Worse, the tutorial's one gatherer brought in about six berries a minute, exactly what six people eat, so the stores never held spare food and nobody new moved in.
The goal names the real next step
Now the goal puts food first when food is what holds you back, and it names what a research is waiting for: research Hunting (Agriculture needs 10 hides, and a Hunter's Lodge makes them). Show me takes you there. We played the same guided hour again: 22 people at minute 63, where it used to be 6.
The Workshop
A new Civic building. Its craftsmen work out improvements one at a time, beside research, and each one fits every building of its kind, the ones you build later too. Ten kinds of building get three steps each: more speed, fewer workers or more reach. Press P to open it.
Readable everywhere
There's an interface size setting now, from Smaller to Largest, and the panels, dialogs and tooltips grow together while the map keeps its own zoom. Text got a minimum size and stronger contrast, and keys work on focused buttons.
Whole coins, plain words
Every price, purse and amount of coin is a whole number now. A refund lands whole too: half a gold comes back as 50 silver. Under one coin a minute, a rate reads per hour. And every refusal says why, in the game's words, instead of an engine code. If something breaks, the realm stops with a page that says what happened, and a hidden tab catches up when you come back.
What's next
Devlog #7 is 1 November: we played the first two hours ourselves, wrote down twenty things that bugged us, and fixed them. It's out tomorrow. The game isn't open to play yet: leave your email on the home page and we'll write when it is.
Patch notes · 31 October 2026
10 changes- Readable everywhere: an interface size setting, larger minimum text, stronger contrast, and keys that work on focused buttons.
- A refund lands whole: half a gold comes back as 50 silver.
- Coins always show whole: under one coin a minute, the rate reads per hour.
- Every refusal says why, in the game's words, and the Workshop is in the menu and the keys.
- No silent failures: a hidden tab catches up when you return, and an error stops the realm with a page that says what happened.
- The first hour no longer stalls: the next goal puts food first and names what a research is waiting for.
- The Workshop: improvements in three steps for ten kinds of building, worked out beside research.
- Every price, purse and amount of coin is whole.
- Homes rise past level 4 only once their people stay content for a while.
- Smoother big realms: the fog, land signs, coin pops and working animations cost less.
Behind the scenes: An audit of the whole game before early access.