In the previous news, we were a little hasty to announce the release of Alpha 5 update for the Ukrainian urban development strategy Ostriv, but finally, it is already available on Steam.

As promised, stone houses, new types of production, diseases, and much more appeared in the game. The update description is really huge. There’s also a bunch of new buildings – a cheese factory, a barber shop, a smaller pantry, a brick house, a brewery, a distillery, a hop house, a sand mine, an ore mine, stone houses, a well, and related resources, including butter, cheese, and sour cream. Paved roads and new decorative bushes – viburnum and lilac – appeared.

Every citizen in the game now has a personal journal with all the important events of their lives. Everyone now has a health indicator based on food and environment, plus a random disease is added when the population is above 250. From time to time people will have colds, fractures, and toothaches and can get some help (not always appropriate) at the barber shop. Children aged 15-18 can now work as handymen (with lower productivity). And family members of the deceased will sometimes visit the grave.

Together with the update, the second DLC for Ostriv was released – Ostriv – Patron of the Arts. This is an optional, purely decorative DLC with a single building, for those who want to pay tribute to the author who despite the full-scale war and constant air alarms (the author is from Kharkiv) continues the development of the game. Judging by the DLC rating of 100% and the number of reviews, Ostriv has a very grateful community.

Regarding the community. After the release of Alpha 5, Ostriv set a record for the number of players online – yesterday Ostriv was played by 1,252 people simultaneously. In general, according to various analytical services, more than 100 thousand copies of Ostriv were sold on Steam alone. Not bad for a game created by just one person.