Dev Diary: Alpha is Over. What's Next?

Greetings, Survivors!

First off, from the entire development team of Nested Lands, a massive thank you to everyone who took part in our Alpha Test. Over 83,000 players joined the adventure, and we are incredibly grateful for the enthusiasm, detailed feedback, bug reports, and support we received from each and every one of you. Your involvement has been instrumental in helping us shape the future of the game, and we’re thrilled to share what we're preparing next based on your experiences and suggestions.

Your feedback

The Alpha Test was invaluable in highlighting both what players loved and what needed refinement.

A few consistent themes emerged in your feedback:

• Villagers sometimes felt unresponsive or inefficient, especially when their assigned tasks dried up.

• Players wanted more control over production and resource management, especially in larger settlements.

• Many of you loved the world and atmosphere but asked for more depth in NPC interactions and variety in villagers' jobs.

• UI and quality-of-life improvements (like custom settings and key bindings) were highly requested.

• Combat sometimes felt unbalanced, particularly with armor not offering enough protection to matter.

We’ve taken your feedback to heart and are excited to dive into some of the planned changes coming to Nestled Lands.

Upcoming Changes Based on Feedback

Refactored Villagers and Smarter Professions

One of the most requested improvements was to make villagers more intelligent and useful. We’ll restructure villager professions to make their roles more intuitive and efficient. Additionally, we’ll add an option to assign automatic production quotas — for example, setting your Blacksmith to always maintain a stock of 10 Iron Swords and 5 Iron Shields, provided resources are available.

To minimize downtime, villagers will now have a backup profession: “Worker.” If a villager runs out of primary tasks, they will automatically gather resources or assist with construction, so no one stays idle.

New Professions and Expanded Farming

We’re also adding new professions including Trapper (previously Hunter), Cook, Priest, and Tavern Keeper, each bringing new gameplay elements and depth. Farming is getting a major upgrade too: you’ll be able to set specific crop production, utilize larger Garden Beds, and generally reap bigger harvests.

Enhanced Interaction and AI Improvements

Villagers will gain more personality, with new dialogue options during both recruiting and everyday village life. These conversations will reflect villager traits and build a richer narrative connection.

We’re also working on AI improvements, including better pathfinding back to the village — no more villagers dying on their way home! Plus, gatherers, wood choppers, and miners will be able to work outside of village bounds, and resources like trees and rocks will respawn, keeping these professions useful long-term.

The Player’s Home

One of the most common pieces of feedback during the Alpha was frustration over the player character sleeping in an old and torn tent, while building actual homes for your villagers. Well, no longer! We are introducing a new building to serve as the Player’s Home, with a private bed and chest, offering more comfort to the true leader of the village.

Combat System Overhaul

Many of you wanted more from combat, so we’re delivering numerous improvements to the system. These include rebalancing weapons and armor, ensuring armor offers influential protection and survivability, and making every battle more tactical and rewarding.

Plague System Overhaul

The plague is changing in many ways, from new visuals and particle effects to different interactions with both the world and the players themselves. First off, no longer will you need to be stuck in a “burning animation” while dealing with Plague Sites, making fighting back against the deadly disease a more satisfying experience. We are also adding new leveled mechanics to the plague, meaning that depending on what island you have reached, the plague will have different effects and mechanics, turning it into an evolving force in the world of Norovellir.

Quest System Overhaul

Another change coming for the game is in relation to its quests. While you will still see some of the currently available quests in the next stage of the game, many changes will be implemented to align them with the new systems and mechanics of the game, as well as some narrative alterations to dialogue and even the story of Nested Lands itself. Such changes will not only improve the overall atmosphere and playability of the quests, but also allow for more freedom when tackling some of the objectives, making it less linear without necessarily losing the tutorialization of the mechanics the current questline provides.

Customization and Quality of Life

We’ll be introducing a range of customizable settings in the future, including:

• Key Bindings

• FOV Regulation

• Motion Blur Toggle

• Subtitles Toggle

• Difficulty Settings

• Exit to Menu Button

• Tutorials Toggle

• … and more!

Additionally, villager name displays will be updated for clarity, and we’re implementing a multi-crafting queue, allowing you to prepare multiple different items at once — for example, queueing 5 Fiber Ropes, 2 Torches, 1 Stone Axe, and 7 Cotton Bandages.

We’re excited about what’s coming next and committed to making Nestled Lands the best it can be with your help. Your feedback has been priceless, and we can’t wait to show you these improvements in the future.

Stay tuned for more updates and join our Discord — and, once again, thank you for helping us shape Nestled Lands into something truly special.

Check out our Community Discord