What's New
A settlement game lives and dies by its buildings. This week, we're pulling back the curtain on how the buildings of Novus Terminus: First Flags come to life -- from the very first sketch to a fully animated structure your settlers can call home. And we've got a lot of them: 32 unique buildings for the Iron Clan alone, spanning homes, workshops, mines, military outposts, and civic centres.
Every building in the game follows the same journey. It starts as a design concept tied to a specific role in the production chain -- a butcher needs a chopping block and meat rack, a baker needs an oven, a pig farm needs a muddy pen with a shelter. From there, each building is modelled as a 3D object, rendered from four angles (front, side, top, and a classic isometric view) for our internal reference catalogue, and then imported into the game engine where it becomes a living, interactive part of the world.
What makes these buildings special is how they're constructed in-game. When your settlers start building, they don't just plop down a finished structure. You watch the construction unfold stage by stage: first the stone foundation goes in, then the timber frame rises, the roof goes on, walls fill in between the beams, and finally the finishing touches appear -- glass windows, iron-banded doors, decorative shutters. A simple dwelling might go through four stages; the grand fortress takes seven, starting from a massive stone platform and ending with corner towers, a portcullis, and battlements. Each stage is a visible, satisfying milestone.
The military buildings received special attention during this pass. The watchtower now features proper half-timbered construction on its base with elegant diagonal braces, while its upper tower has arrow slits and a pyramid roof crowned with a flag. The fortress is a proper medieval stronghold -- a central keep surrounded by four corner towers and curtain walls, with a double gate that swings open on both sides. Even the humble barracks got a complete rethink: it's now a rough-hewn wood plank hut with a lean-to roof, a weapon rack with three spears propped against the wall, and board gaps that follow the roof slope for an authentically rustic look.
Once a building is finished and occupied, it comes alive with small animations. Doors swing open when settlers arrive and close behind them. Chimneys send up wisps of smoke when someone is home. Flags flutter atop watchtowers and fortresses. These details are small individually, but together they make the difference between a static diorama and a settlement that feels like it's bustling with activity.
We also completed several new production chain buildings this round: the butcher's workshop (with its chopping block and hanging meat rack), the armoury (forge, anvil, and weapon rack), and the pig farm (a fenced pen with a lean-to shelter). Alongside the buildings, new settler types, tools, and even animals were added -- including a raven that will eventually circle over the meadows as ambient wildlife.
Behind the Scenes
One of the interesting challenges with 32+ buildings is maintaining visual consistency. We developed a standard quality checklist that every building must pass: logical build stages, proper wall panels around window and door openings (instead of solid blocks), correct door pivot points for animations, chimney positions for smoke effects, and clean integration of decorative elements like flags and weapon racks. Several buildings went through multiple complete rewrites to meet this bar -- the guard house, fortress, and barracks were all rebuilt from scratch. The design process also fed back into our game design document: modelling the buildings revealed gaps in the production chains, leading us to add new roles (like the cook) and remove others that didn't work (the shipyard was cut, with boat production moved to the sawmill).
What's Next
32 buildings down, two more clans to go. The Iron Clan's settlement is taking shape -- next we'll be putting settlers to work inside these buildings and watching the production chains come alive.