Foundation's 1.0 launch comes after 6 years in early access.
(Image credit: Polymorph Games)
It's been a long road for medieval city builder Foundation, but after six years it's just launched out of early access and into version 1.0. I first tried it out in 2019, and it quickly became one of my favorites, a beautiful and chill builder that I return to every so often to see what's new.
And there's a lot that's new in the 1.0 update. So much that the developer, Polymorph Games, says "it may seem like a whole new game!" The update includes a new main menu and reworked UI, lots of difficulty customizations to tailor your experience, an editor to create and customize your own village banner, new tiers of residential buildings, an improved progression system, and lots more. Even the art has been overhauled for the launch. Here are the full patch notes.
If you've been playing Foundation in early access, there's a bit of bad news: the game has changed so much your cities won't be compatible with the 1.0 version. All isn't lost, however: Polymorph says you can roll back the game to version 0.9 in the Steam Beta options, which will allow you to keep building your older cities. Just be warned: "the older 1.9 version will likely receive no updates and may be shut down eventually."
I'm not too worried about my own defunct cities: I had a lovely time building them but a big part of the enjoyment in a city builder is starting over from scratch, and the 1.0 launch of Foundation seems like the perfect excuse to start building again.
You'll find Foundation on Steam, where it's on sale for 25% off until February 14. Peep the 1.0 launch trailer below.
Foundation Launch Trailer | 1.0 Out Now! - YouTube
Chris started playing PC games in the 1980s, started writing about them in the early 2000s, and (finally) started getting paid to write about them in the late 2000s. Following a few years as a regular freelancer, PC Gamer hired him in 2014, probably so he'd stop emailing them asking for more work. Chris has a love-hate relationship with survival games and an unhealthy fascination with the inner lives of NPCs. He's also a fan of offbeat simulation games, mods, and ignoring storylines in RPGs so he can make up his own.
