Skyward Collapse to get first expansion, Nihon no Mura

Skyward Collapse is a game of village building, civilian nurturing, and war quashing, as you attempt to keep aggressive factions alive by arming them just enough that they can't wipe each other out. Aiding you in this were mythological creatures; the two factions balanced by the protective (and occasionally murderous) nature of Greek and Norse beasties. Now developer Arcen Games want to not so much tip the scales, as knock them over completely - with a third, Japanese faction, to be introduced in the upcoming first expansion: Nihon no Mura.

"The Japanese of Luminith have a very strong military and a very strange pantheon of gods," explains the description. "Their gods are much more active and aggressive than their Greek and Norse counterparts, and each god has three unique creatures rather than three god tokens." The plan is to shake up the flow of the game, with a more direct faction that plays differently from the existing two - forcing them to alter style in response.

The expansion will also add hamlets. "These non-combative, non-factional villages can be built in the remains of the fallen towns of either faction. Ignore the hamlets and they will be taken over by slums. Tend to them and you can build up a mix of nobles and peasantry that will generate a new Culture resource for you. Culture allows you to activate some powerful new abilities, such as enlarging the radius of your factional towns." Culture is also a resource towards the Luminith Tower - a new game-winning structure.

If you get sick of the bickering, Nihon no Mura will also introduce 'Hamlet Idyll' - letting you cultivate hamlets without a military presence. You'll find the full feature list on Arcen's expansion page .

Nihon no Mura is in beta right now, and is due out later this month. It's available for $2.99.

Phil has been writing for PC Gamer for nearly a decade, starting out as a freelance writer covering everything from free games to MMOs. He eventually joined full-time as a news writer, before moving to the magazine to review immersive sims, RPGs and Hitman games. Now he leads PC Gamer's UK team, but still sometimes finds the time to write about his ongoing obsessions with Destiny 2, GTA Online and Apex Legends. When he's not levelling up battle passes, he's checking out the latest tactics game or dipping back into Guild Wars 2. He's largely responsible for the whole Tub Geralt thing, but still isn't sorry.