- Polyion Test Build is NOW LIVE! - 13 September 2026
Hi everyone!This is just a quick little update to let you know that the first test build for Polyion is up now on the "test" branch! You can switch over to this branch through the game properties in your steam library. But first; I want to quickly let you know what has been included in this build, what needs fixing and what's being worked on for the next build:In this build:You can choose between two islands before building your town.Build system works like a deck of cards, you receive one building "card" after another, place strategically and place buildings where they provide the most XP.Levels, which can be increased by earning XP from buildings in your town, allow you to choose from 3 different perks/bonuses every time you level up. (Level up a building, acquire a new building "card" and swap out all buildings of a certain type for a different building type).Still working on:Buildin…
- Polyion Early Access Test Builds - 1 September 2026
Hi all!As you know, Polyion's development has been rocky from day one, an initial release that I was not happy with and years of slow and procrastinated development. However over the next 1-2 months I will be releasing new test builds of the game onto the test branch, these builds will come in waves each week and will add new content and fix issues from previous builds right up until the game goes into full release.This is THE final stretch.The game took a new direction, but still retains some core game ideas and design from the previous builds, But this time it is expanded from just tiles and numbers. I will share more as new builds get released and videos and screenshots will be added to the store page as it gets closer to full release.Screenshots do not showcase final visuals or gameplay.The FutureNow to talk about the future of cntblnk and future games, for now and after full releas…
- Early Access Update & Future of Polyion - 28 May 2026
It's been a while since I've posted one of these, but this time it's different.A year ago I posted about several big updates coming to Polyion and a change to its name. Throughout the following months I spent a lot of time considering the future of this game, but one thing I always came back to was that I didn't want to give up on it. The name of the game will not be changing, but the game itself will be changing. Recently the game was completely overhauled, with many parts of the game being rebuilt or either removed or changed, originally it was a city builder that suffered from scope and feature creep and had no true identity or gameplay loop. Going forward the game is now an open-world exploration game, giving you an open mountainous region to explore; consisting of campsites, watchtowers, radio stations, forests, scenic views and more. You will take pictures of discoveries you make…
- Name change and Early Access Update - 6 September 2025
Hi all,A quick little update before I get back to working on the game and take a break over the weekend.Name ChangeGetting the name change out of the way first, "Polyion" will be getting renamed to "The Lone Rover" which better fits the new version of the game. The game has completely changed, and is going in an entirely new direction, so with that I believed a name change was necessary.A request to change the name has been made, while I wait for it to be completed/changed, the store page will show the new name; "The Lone Rover".Development UpdateDevelopment is moving along nicely and a 0.1 update at the end of this month is looking more and more likely as mentioned in the previous post. I am very much focused on getting a playable version of the game out into Early Access and then continuing development over the coming months, I am also in the middle of changing all of the store page i…
- Polyion Development Update - 1 September 2025
DEVELOPMENT UPDATEAs many of you may have seen, Polyion has not had any updates for quite some time, this is due to a variety of issues both during development and in my personal life. Polyion launched almost 3 years ago into Early Access and has changed a lot since the original release, I struggled to find a gameplay loop or game theme that felt right to me for this game. Recently I decided to sit down and take some time planning and thinking about what I want this game to be with no scope-creep or crazy ideas. During this time I looked back on older versions of Polyion, other personal game projects I have been working on and things that have interested me over the years from small scale games to unrelated things like movies and shows. With all of this I have finally landed on a smaller-scope and more focused game, and while I don't want to reveal too much as of right now as the the ga…
- Polyion Patch Notes v0.1a - 22 January 2025
CHANGES AND UPDATES Camera now rotates around a more defined anchor point, making the camera rotation feel less clunky and off. All menus now have a background volume that blurs anything behind it, as well as a faint tinted image to make the menus less bright. Cloud height has been increased. Saves can now be deleted. Building menu now statically appears and disappears when clicking the relevant hotbar buttons. Value of starting resources (Funds, Wood, Stone, Metal) have all been lowered from 10,000 to 1,000. The cost of buildings and the rate of earning resources have also been lowered and balanced in line with the starting resource amount changes, the buildings are also a lot cheaper to buy and build in comparison to their previous costs. (Clone) suffix has been removed from object names. BUG FIXES Child objects of loaded buildings now load in correctly, and any related animation issu…
- Polyion Early Access 0.1 Re-Release - 15 January 2025
EARLY ACCESS 0.1 PATCH NOTES AND INFORMATION Changes A complete overhaul to the visual style; assets have been remodelled, the terrain and worlds have been re-made, change of colour palette, UI design changes and more. Game loop has been re-designed and re-made to be much more simple and consistent, no more additional modes or lots of different features cluttering the main game loop. You have to now maintain the sentiment of your population while placing down buildings, harvesting and earning resources and earning money. Mostly operates as a sandbox/world management game but both can be true. Less cluttered UI, much easier to navigate through menus and settings. Multiple saves now available. Humans leave the world if their sentiment drops too low Humans are assigned jobs when they are created, job related buildings provide funds from general earnings and taxing. Buildings can affect pop…
- An Update on Polyion and the Future - 9 January 2025
Hi everyone! This post is being made to provide clarification on a few things regarding Polyion. As you know I made a post about a month ago stating that release of the game was going to be in December, unfortunately this could not be met for a variety of reasons and I'm going to go into detail about that now as well as talk about my own feelings towards the game and my motivation as of late. Firstly, I ended up being sick just a day or two after I made my last announcement post on here which resulted in me being out of energy and having a lack of motivation to work on Polyion for a week or two. With still so much to do I believe I misjudged how long it would take to finish all the final assets and code clean up. With this in mind I ultimately came to the decision to stop working on Polyion for the Christmas period to take a break and get my thoughts together, after Christmas and leadin…
- Polyion goes into full release in 9 DAYS! - 1 December 2024
Hi everyone! This will be one of the few announcements/community posts that I will write up before the game goes into full release, I am happy to announce that Polyion will release out of early access in just 9 DAYS (10th of December). Before this I will post images and screenshots of the game and talk about some of the fundamental changes, mechanics and aspects of the game I have yet to talk about. As well as revealing the release date in this post, I just want to say a big thank you to people who purchased the game very recently and those who purchased it since it launched. While the launch did not go the way I wanted it to and put me into a severe burn out game development wise, I am happy to say overhauling the game and working on it again for a full release has made me very motivated and excited to work on games again. I'm excited to push the full release version and planned future…
- Polyion is going into Full Release - 5 September 2024
Hi everyone! I know it's been a while... again. But, I'm here with some good news about Polyion and its development. To turn back the clock I want to talk about how 3 or so years ago I started working on this game as a passion project, my second "commercial" game that I went into with the main goal of making something I was proud of and something I could release on Steam, it went through many iterations and unfortunately the early access release was something I was both proud of finally releasing and not proud of because I didn't think it was the game I originally set out to make. For the last 3 years I have been at university working towards a degree and now that journey has come to an end I have been working on Polyion again for a little while. To put it simply the entire game has been overhauled; visually, functionally and the purpose of the game and its game loop has been completely…
- Polyion: EXPLORERS - 25 January 2023
Long time no see! It's been a while since an update or news announcement has been posted regarding Polyion and its early access development. I'm happy to say that next month will be when we begin the road to full release, starting with a new change and expansion to the game. As you can probably tell by the title of this post there is a new mode coming to the game known as EXPLORERS/EXPLORE, this will take the place of the current mode and make it the main experience in the game. However, the timer-based mode will still be available to play. (The game will have three modes after this update including; EXPLORERS, SURVIVAL, CREATIVE). As part of the explorers update, you will be able to build your world across a large open water while collecting resources to place said tiles. Points of interest are also scattered across the map and when you build on one of these an effect will be applied t…
- 0.1.2 Patch notes (17/11/2022) - 17 November 2022
Changes: The amount of reset points you'll earn for placing a tile will now appear above the timer in the bottom right. A build menu has been added to the creative mode to allow for easy access to all of the tiles in the game. Tile information now shows up as a tool tip both when hovering over a tile and when you're placing one, so you know what type of tile it is. You can now view your personal best stats by clicking the player icon on the bottom right of the main menu. Here you'll find basic stats such as longest survival time, most reset points gained in a game and most tiles placed in a game.
- Day one patch (0.1.1) - 11 November 2022
Changes: Implemented better visuals so you know when you are and are not receiving reset points. Camera boundaries have been increased to allow for further movement around the world. Added a hotkey for the building button. Values for the reset points, tiles and calculations have been slightly adjusted to balance out the game. The world clock also has a slightly increased value which it is decreased by. Fixes: Creative button no longer persists on screen when moving back from the create game screen to the main menu.
- POLYION IS OUT NOW! - 9 November 2022
Polyion is out NOW! After a few weeks of fixing, patching and development the game is finally available to purchase! But if you don't want to buy it right now, you can wish list it instead! I hope you enjoy the game and remember to follow my twitter to keep up with new information regarding updates and other game dev related information. Thanks, Luke (WideLuke)
- Polyion delayed to the end of Autumn - 1 September 2022
Hi everyone, so as the title suggests... Polyion has been delayed to the end of Autumn. This is to provide extra time that is needed to shape the game into the best it can be. Early on I allowed the game to be consumed by feature creep and slowly the game became something that I originally had not planned it to become. So, I took a few steps back and have scoped out a new road map for the game up until launch and all post-launch plans will still stay the game! Right now I don't have a new release date, but I expect to be able to share more soon. As the new approach for game takes shape I will share more about the gameplay, reveal the plan for launch and update the store page so that it is consistent with the current version of the game. I hope all the people who have wish listed the game can hold on just a little while longer as I work on giving this game the development time it deserve…
- Polyion will launch in Early Access in September - 25 July 2022
Hello! I am happy to announce that Polyion will be launching into Early Access on the 16th of September 2022, development picked up over the summer and has allowed the game to be released on the aforementioned date. The launch in Early Access will mean the game can have a roadmap inspired by the community leading up to its full release, while still offering a well-rounded and fun experience at launch. On the subject of community, I believe Polyion should be a community-driven game and thus your feedback matters! You can connect with all things Polyion on Discord at discord.gg/xqWRsxMDJx Leading up to launch I will be showcasing more of the game on Youtube, Twitter and Discord. Certain players will also be able to test the game just before launch via an application form that can be accessed through the Discord, this is to help foster a creative community that can continue to thrive throu…
