Category Archives: Blog

1.17 – Voices Choices

Before we finally get down to finishing the long-awaited Galaxies DLC, we’re serving you one last polish update today. And it’s definitely the last tidy-up before we can manage entire galaxies. You wouldn’t believe how happy we are about it ( as they say in German ). But as you can see, some important and fundamental things are being straightened out here.

As always, please let us know what you think of all this and don’t spare us your ideas and suggestions. It’s great that you’ve all stuck with us and Imagine Earth for so long. Oh, and as a small indie studio, it can’t be said often enough. If you haven’t written a review yet, you should definitely do it, it helps our game tremendously.

Please enjoy Update 1.17!, Jens & Martin

Switch off voice output

Finally you can choose between voice output, radio noises or complete silence. I personally can forgive the professor for speaking so strangely slowly, especially since the dubbing was so expensive ;D. But voice acting is basically a matter of taste and many people prefer to read and listen to music, especially if they don’t understand English.

Game speed

We have built a tutorial into the game that allows you to freely set the time faster and slower, because we have noticed that many people get bored in the game before they realize what extensive control they have over the game speed.

Reset campaign

You can now reset the campaign completely. Of course, you will lose all your progress and savegames, but it’s worth the chance to start from scratch!

Security Complex

We have improved the abilities of the security district because some of you found it too superfluous. It no longer creates a negative atmosphere and protects surrounding warehouses from pirate looting. Martin also felt the need to formulate the description of the building in a more positive way ;D

Quick start button

There is now such a button in the competitive and endless game, so that you can quickly colonize a planet without a lot of configuration work.

Building production

We have limited the basic supply of item-generating buildings to a maximum of 5, because we have noticed that sometimes a lot of superfluous items are generated, which players are annoyed to have to sell. Although this is an okay extra income, it somehow doesn’t make sense for the game experience.

Music enhancement

When the mission is completed, the enthusiastic success music no longer comes too late, but in time with the dialog and the fireworks. We have optimized the transition of the background music, previously when a threat occurred, the atmosphere seemed to be interrupted and always started again when the danger was over. We’ve also made sure that the music in the campaign menu is continuous and doesn’t constantly restart between planets and galaxies.

Diplomacy

Mood for gifts now improves immediately, sometimes the context was not clear.

Warnings

When you are informed about disasters in the message panel, you can now click directly on the message to jump to the event.

User interface

It has never bothered us, but we have received a lot of feedback about it: When you click on buildings, the information no longer hangs out of the screen. A few modifications make it possible and the camera also pans a little when you click on a building too close to the edge.

Mission corrections

Planet Edora

Fixed: When taking rare resources from a supply capsule on planet EDORA, the number of rare resources available for sale decreases and can go negative.

Planet Bora

Fixed: The landing sequences of the other factions are also skipped on this planet
Fixed: The goal “Make fire with the pyramid” stops too many mission hints if you don’t fulfill it.

Planet Rounos

Fixed: With 2 new building types, the tech panel opens automatically, but the buildings are not highlighted.
Fixed: Leen gives us the financial district, builds it next to him, but you never realize that, he has to get a mission icon.

Bugfixes

Workshop animation when crafting works again
If you go to the stock screen with a tool on the cursor, for example, the sell option is not available
Item Trader never has room to buy anything
City Energy Shield disappears when leveling up and is not centered

Update 1.17.1

Fixed rare error in Rounos mission, where Leen could not land on the planet
Fixed exception related to parallel access to sounds
Fixed exception related to movement of units

Update 1.17.2

Fixed bug that allowed to apply world congress results multiple times (thanks HenryG123789!)

Update 1.17.3

Removed outdated privacy button
Introduced opt-in for crash & error reporting

Updates

Switch & Playstation Release

Ecological City Builder Imagine Earth Arriving on Nintendo Switch and PlayStation Consoles on May 9

Developer Serious Bros. Continues Real-World Environmental Support with Donations During Earth Appreciation Festival on Steam

Berlin, Germany (April 18, 2024) – Indie game developer Serious Bros. is delighted to announce that ecological sci-fi city builder Imagine Earth will be released on Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4 and 5 consoles on May 2, 2024. Already available on PC via Steam, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S consoles, Imagine Earth’s combination of laidback strategy gameplay and sustainability themes has earned it critical acclaim and multiple awards.

Watch the Imagine Earth Nintendo Switch and PlayStation release date trailer:

As part of Steam’s Earth Appreciation Festival, from April 22 to April 29,  Imagine Earth will be on sale for 30% off. Serious Bros. will donate 100% of proceeds to reforestation around the globe on Earth Day and 10% for the remainder of the festival. This continues the company’s support of sustainability and environmental protection efforts, detailed in a yearly impact report.

Set in the not-so-distant future of 2084, Imagine Earth envisions a universe where the player, as a space colony manager, must head out into the cosmos to establish a new home for humans. After corporate greed and resource exploitation led their home planet to ruin, players will explore a variety of (initially) healthy planets throughout space, aiming to raise and grow great cities in a more sustainable way.

In the story-based campaign and competition game modes, Imagine Earth players can build up their civilizations on eleven diverse planets, with terrain dotted with rich blue waters, snow-capped peaks, and lush green expanses, all ready to be explored, populated, and mined for resources. 

Trade natural goods and resources with space traders for profit and satisfy the capitalist quest for expansion by building power plants, farms, and factories to keep both corporations and civilians happy. Turn technological and monetary gains into research and discover how to advance society in a sustainable way. Do it all while fending off the economic competition as battles for corporate dominance break out on discovered planets, forcing players to sell shares, outsize opponents, and perform hostile takeovers of competing colonies.

Corporate greed isn’t the only threat players face in Imagine Earth, though, as failure to balance expansion and ecology could result in climate disaster. With real-time planetary simulation, players can see the consequences of their own exploitative actions, as natural disasters — including wildfires, volcanoes, dying forests, radioactive contamination, pollution, and rising sea levels — see less sustainable civilizations (literally) go under, and citizens rallying and rioting against poor living conditions.

Key Gameplay Features of Imagine Earth:

  • Go Beyond: Complete the multi-mission story and embark on fresh space colony adventures, including a competition mode against up to five AI factions and a freeform mode with procedurally generated planets
  • It’s Not Easy Being Green: Face a range of ecological challenges, from chemical spills and oil slicks to melting polar ice caps and terribly destructive natural disasters caused by the player’s planetary exploitation
  • Space Invaders and Traders: Make friends with cooperative colonies and alien tribes inhabiting some discovered planets and fend off hostile alien invaders using shields and lasers in tower defense gameplay as they try to wipe puny human colonies off of the map
  • Sustainability Among the Stars: Successfully fight corporate greed and civilian demand for growth and resources by researching new technology and maintaining a healthy ecosystem to become a sustainable civilization

Imagine Earth will be released on Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4 and 5 consoles, as well as a macOS version (via Steam), on May 9, 2024. It is currently available on Windows PC and Linux via Steam, as well as on Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S.

For more information on Imagine Earth, follow the Serious Bros. team on X (Twitter), Facebook, and YouTube, and join the Discord community.

A full press kit, including logo, screenshots, key art, and trailers, can be found here: https://uberstrategist.link/Imagine-Earth-press-kit 

About Serious Bros.

Serious Bros. was founded in Germany in 2014 by good chums Martin Wahnschaffe and Jens Isensee with the ambition to make something special: a compelling strategic sim with a heartfelt environmentalist message. They’ve been working as a team to make Imagine Earth a game that turns the overwhelming threat of the climate crisis into a motivating challenge, with help along the way from the composers Tilo Alpermann, Zevik Perry, illustrator Marko Fiedler, and programmers Rico Possienka and Alex Leps.

World News

1.16 – Alien Signals

Dear colony managers, we have continued to improve the global management system, but have also found and ironed out a few bugs.

Radio NoisesWhen characters speak, the voice output is sometimes missing because we have added new content to the game since the dubbing. The replacement sounds no longer sound like talking backwards, which irritated many people. Instead, they sound like real radio interference.

Holographic ProjectionWe’ve also added a fancy holographic projection effect. When characters radio in and out.

Building DebrisDamaged and destroyed buildings now emit a rain of components that have been loosened by the explosion. I don’t know if anyone noticed, but they were rocks ;D

Cancel actions for items You can now only cancel item processes with a quick right-click, so that you don’t accidentally deactivate them when moving the camera.

Bookmark PanelDescriptions of buildings are now displayed in the bookmark panel. A planet icon is now displayed outside the construction area.

More Improvements

  • Warehouse Auto-Harvest remains off when you move a building or build new ones.
  • Visualizing pause play time more clearly
  • A guide to user interface, controls and handling. Big thanks to MB for writing a detailed explanation of the interface and all its elements!

Bug Fixes

  • Merchant pays more for landing permit than he takes
  • Satellite Hub: Positioning of the satellite
  • Upgrades are shown in tool ring of foreign cities
  • Multi-talent achievement does not work
  • Generated planets have slums
  • Fish trawlers “being flooded”
  • Wrong text for explanation of “Indoctrination”
  • Typo: “Idea bomb” instead of “Ideon bomb”
  • Tuto landing cutscene broken
  • Bangka Island cannot be taken over
  • Explosions from last game no longer stay on the planet after loading a savegame
  • Mission briefing in pause screen when message is locked
  • Game rarely hangs in the challenge menu
  • Error in temperature calculation
Updates

1.15 – Planet in Crisis

Dear Space Colony Managers,

A lot has been going on behind the scenes in the last few months, we’ve been working hard on console versions of the game, constantly improving it in many details and carefully fine-tuning proven features. At the end of this update post, there’s also a preview of new features that we plan to deliver with the next versions and DLCs in the first half of this year.

Ocean coloration

If the world is on the brink of a climate catastrophe, this is now also reflected in an unhealthy coloration of the oceans.

Land degradation

The reduction in fertility due to soil pollution and harmful environmental influences is visualized even more clearly by the change in soil texture.

What you can also see in this picture are piles of garbage that players can recycle to earn money. These will play a major role in another new game mode called Transformation. Here you are presented with a planet that is already built up with a civilization that is unfortunately already threatening to tip over into a climate catastrophe. You have to try to rebuild it in such a way that it lasts and climate change is stopped.

Moving instead of demolishing

You can now only demolish neighborhoods if you still have enough living space for the population in other parts of the city. This sharpens the perception that these are people and that their lives are something worth protecting. In inhabited districts, the demolition option is now called relocation and can only be triggered if you have built enough modern apartments for your residents to move to.

This will also be of great importance in the Transformation game mode, where you will find outdated and dilapidated slums with little space for people and high energy costs and pollution.

New button for complete campaign reset

To be able to start the campaign from scratch without having to create a new profile, there is now a new Reset Campaign button.

New space backgrounds

There are a number of new space backgrounds for the new Open Space game mode, as you start in a completely new, procedurally generated galaxy. Although this game mode will be released as DLC, the Competitive and Endless game modes will also benefit from this with fancy new start screens.

Improvements

  • New more open look for the selection ring
  • New info box style
  • Prices for tech & research are now fixed instead of being dependent on trade on planets
  • Population loss is no longer so blatant and fast when the mood is very bad
  • City Center now only has living space for 50,000 colonists
  • AI opponents no longer land right next to each other at the start of the game
  • Xrathul: Damage to the ship also reduces resource hunger before departure
  • In challenge mode, the ranking on the current challenge planet is now displayed instead of the eternally identical mission description.
  • Automatic savegame name also shows last activated quest
  • Back button no longer triggered by right mouse button
  • No more icons in the pause screen
  • Lousy performance of fireworks and GameOver explosions improved

New models of fishing boats optimized
We noticed the boats recently because we still had 3D models that really looked almost 10 years old, now they are adapted to the modern style of the game.

Gamepad control

  • Right stick not only jumps to cities but also to events
  • Show left shoulder button icon directly on research button if stock trading is not yet available
  • Tab symbol is no longer displayed for Cities

Preview – Exentensions

For the Open Space DLC, we have been building extensions for some time that can be unlocked so that they are automatically added to every new city center. The whole thing works like a long-term meta-game with which you can improve the working conditions and technical progress in your colonies mission by mission.

Bugs fixed

  • Trader landing animation hangs
  • Help dialog hangs over the store menu in the campaign
  • Streets are faded out too early
  • Colony value is wrong directly after loading a savegame
  • No more congress invitations after mission end
  • Journal hotkey flicker

Update 1.15.1

The new game mechanic, which prevents the demolition and replacement of districts if there is not enough free living space for the population, has unfortunately led to problems, as population growth is often too fast.
We have therefore removed this aspect for the time being and will bring it back in a modified form as part of the next update.

Update 1.15.2

  • Fixed “demolition” still being called “resettle” for districts
  • Fixed city centers still having high tax revenue and resource consumption although population was halved with the update

Update 1.15.3

  • Fixed unlimited tech licenses provided by supply capsules
  • Fixed error in editor when trying to use functions without having the related high-tech constructs

Update 1.15.4

  • Fixed missing ground texture for native camps
  • Fixed icons hidden within fires and their smoke particles
  • Fixed start animations of traders sometime not being shown
  • Fixed right click no longer closing in-game panels like research
  • Fixed active tool (e.g. repair) blocking game from ending
  • Fixed error when starting another planet after leaving a planet that had fires
  • Changed mixed colors of trader and native storage to a single color
  • Make sure that players see landing animation for other factions arriving on the planet in most of the missions


The Open Space DLC is in production and will be released in Q2 2024. Here are all the details.

Blog, Updates

1.13 – Customizable Controls

Serious Bros. proudly present the latest minor update for our building and simulation game, Imagine Earth. From now on, you can enjoy customizable keyboard controls! You can imagine how busy we two are keeping the global climate simulation up to date and adding new features. Nevertheless, we wanted to prioritize this feature due to interested inquiries from players.

We know how important control and precision are in gameplay. Every second counts when you’re building a thriving civilization and want to expand faster than your competitors. With this latest update, you now have the ability to fully customize your keyboard layout to suit your individual playstyle and preferences.

Efficient and intuitive navigation and management of your cities is the key to success. Above all, we look forward to seeing how you, our dedicated and creative player community, will use this feature.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank all of you. Without your support, your feedback, and your passion for Imagine Earth, this update would not have been possible either.

Further Improvements

  • The duration for the production of items through buildings and upgrades has been increased by 25%.
  • Additionally, the influence of additional buildings has been reduced. Previously, the time was halved with 8 buildings, but now it’s only reduced by 25%.
  • Rare resources are now immediately visible again after the blasting of mountains.
  • Merchant Quest on Tuto and Joma is now triggered correctly again, even when a dialogue is still open.
  • Merchant no longer sells Machinery on Tuto in order not to undermine the corresponding quest.
  • We don’t show building menu details while hovering over the CityCenter panel.
  • We made explosions a bit louder.
  • No more warning to be played while a message to the player is active.

In this spirit, we wish you a lot of fun with the new update! Best regards, Jens & Martin.

Blog, Updates

1.14 – Bird Watching

From now on you can watch birds in Imagine Earth. Soon, more species will surely be sighted. And then we also assign them a central role in the ecosystem or global simulation of our planet. I’m still not sure if they are the right size or if it’s a pity that you never get them really close in front of your lens. For example, it was quite a challenge to take this one snapshot for the update.

Editor improvements

In the editor, the land grab button was overlaid by the purge tool, so you couldn’t expand your colony in that mode.
Also, when creating new planets, you can now again predefine the difficulty level a player must master of your planets!
Would be very interested in how accessible you find the editor as such, would it be more exciting for you if you could play multiple planets in a galaxy map or would it be more interesting for you to be able to script complex missions with a story told by voice actors in dialogues?

New building textures

We have created new roof textures for coal-fired power plants, industrial farm and organic farm. All buildings should create a better visual balancing act between post-industrial look and futuristic appearance. At the same time, the new textures of the roofs should visually connect them, so that they also fit with the quarry and the forestry farm. They now look more like you would build these buildings if you landed on a new planet in a capsule and wanted to provide basic supplies for your colony. I personally feel the style is a successful mix of steampunk and post-industrial age, what do you think?

Icons for tree species

The nine tree species of the third vegetation type, which we have affectionately christened Thicket, now have individual icons that make them more recognizable when planted. Thicket tree species grow on wasteland and frost type planets, these worlds offer the most exotic plant life next to mushrooms and terrestrial forests, check them out to see how appropriate they seem to you.

More Features & Fixes

  • Pause and select button icons were still displayed in the build menu, but did not work.
  • Display category and building icons/buttons in build menu with equal spacing at the same height
  • Cars in cities do not jerk anymore
  • Optimized build process makes updates easier

As always, thank you very much if you had the interest to read this far!
Jens & Martin

Blog, Updates

1.12 – Gamepad Controls

Welcome to our latest update, with which we deliver nothing less than the hopefully final version of the gamepad controls. We hope you like it at lot and serve you some more crisp features with update 1.12, but read for yourself. Summer greetings, Jens & Martin

Gamepad – Major changes

We have once again intensively rethought and optimized the gamepad controls for Imagine Earth. It should be almost more dynamic to control than with the mouse, give it a try.

  • Digitalpad controls the main UI elements: Tree menu, resources, building list, trader menu.
  • Left shoulder: research, tech, stocks
  • Right shoulder: city navigation
  • Select & Start: Navigation, game menu, journal, statistics
  • Therefore no more additional menüring
  • Significantly more overlays directly in the UI

New construction ring

An amazingly simple, yet effective change. The build ring just got bigger and now includes all the available build options plus the tools, functions and inventory. We studied other simulation games and their gamepad controls to come to this conclusion. As a result, the building ring is now also much more distinct from the building options and the individual building categories.

Hitech building in technology panel

This move was only logical since we put the Hitech special buildings for terraforming and geoengineering into one category in the build menu, making them so much more available, look in the technology panel for better what a wide variety of build options, Imagine Earth offers.

The Takeover Panel

We have also redesigned this to make the acquisition of competing cities clearer. With the necessary majority of shares in a corporation, you can directly take over individual cities and bring them under your control.

More optimizations and fixes

  • Dialogs no longer overlay pause screens and other panels that pause the game.
  • Improved Storytelling – First entry in planetary journal reports that no story has yet taken place on untouched planets.
  • Bora Mission – Added direct rebuild target for city centers.
  • Unintended city placement basically disabled.
  • Jump to cities – buildings no longer appear with delay
  • Midras merchant, permanent icon is out of the game

Updates

1.11 – Linux Support and Planet B

Welcome to our latest update, with which we deliver nothing less than the long-awaited native Linux version. We hope for a good start on this new platform and serve you some more crisp features with update 1.12, but read for yourself. Summer greetings, Jens & Martin

Native Linux Support

We have good news for all Linux users. After receiving a lot of requests to provide a native Linux version of Imagine Earth, the time has finally come.
We have ported all functionalities and tested the game on Ubuntu and SteamOS – so Imagine Earth can now be played as a native version on the Steam deck.
We appreciate feedback from all of you and hope you will enjoy the game!🚀🌎

New Challenge – Saving Planet B

We have a special challenge for you this week, a new planet to basically explore the idea for a new game mode in Imagine Earth. Would be happy if you feel like thinking with us about how we can make this more interesting.

The basic idea is that the players don’t have to build up a civilization first, but find a relatively heavily built-up planet with cities. So you become directly the rebuilder and improver of the world, which is an exciting challengel. The emissions balance is also already tipping into the negative, so climate change is imminent. So you have to consider with all expansion steps to compensate the additional emissions of the new buildings and additional supply buildings with reforestation and other methods.
In return, you’ll find plenty of infrastructure and technology on the planet that you can take over and optimize through strategic realignment.
As I said, we’re testing this out and seeing that we need to balance planets in this game mode to make it fun and challenging.

New construction ring

An amazingly simple, yet effective change. The build ring just got bigger and now includes all the available build options plus the tools, functions and inventory. We studied other simulation games and their gamepad controls to come to this conclusion. As a result, the building ring is now also much more distinct from the building options and the individual building categories.

Hitech building in technology panel

This move was only logical since we put the Hitech special buildings for terraforming and geoengineering into one category in the build menu, making them so much more available, look in the technology panel for better what a wide variety of build options, Imagine Earth offers.

The Takeover Panel

We have also redesigned this to make the acquisition of competing cities clearer. With the necessary majority of shares in a corporation, you can directly take over individual cities and bring them under your control.

Population free areas on the planet

When we built the above planet B, we wanted to enable the scenario of finding more cities or soon maybe slums on the planet that could be taken over and transformed in an efficiency and environmentally friendly way. To do this, we first had to create the condition that even in areas not controlled by factions, people live in the cities and are supplied by farms and power plants in the surrounding area.

Gamepad – Major changes

  • We have once again intensively rethought and optimized the gamepad controls for Imagine Earth. It should be almost more dynamic to control than with the mouse, give it a try.
    [Digitalpad controls the main UI elements: Tree menu, resources, building list, trader menu.
    [Left shoulder: research, tech, stocks
    [Right shoulder: city navigation
  • Select & Start: Navigation, game menu, journal, statistics
  • Therefore no more additional menüring
  • Significantly more overlays directly in the UI

More optimizations and fixes

  • Dialogs no longer overlay pause screens and other panels that pause the game.
  • Improved Storytelling – First entry in planetary journal reports that no story has yet taken place on untouched planets.
  • Bora Mission – Added direct rebuild target for city centers.
  • Unintended city placement basically disabled.
  • Jump to cities – buildings no longer appear with delay
  • Midras merchant, permanent icon is out of the game

Please vote for us in the Player’s Choice Award

The Green Game Jam has started! Many game studios have launched Green Activations to save the planet’s most important habitats, and so have we. If you click on the image, you will be taken to Imagine Earth’s contest page and you can support our project in this jam.

Updates