Hear The Bell Toll — patch notes and updates

Hear The Bell Toll Steam game key art — Hear The Bell Toll official Steam game artwork

Stored observation / content update: 2026-04-21T17:13:32.000Z

Dated developer announcements recorded from Steam. Open the source for the complete update.

Update	Date	Excerpt / source
An update about Hear The Bell Toll	2026-04-21	Hey everyone! I have an update to share: I'm currently putting development for Hear The Bell Toll on hold until my other game Starvester releases. Originally, the plan was to release HTBT late last year, but the demo build wasn't good enough to participate in the October Next Fest, so we pushed it to enter the February Next Fest instead. However, despite multiple updates and months of work, the reception of the game hasn't changed. It has some fundamental problems that I don't think I can currently work through, and I don't feel good about releasing a game that is not set up for a fair shot. Starvester is still on track (still not locking in
Major Demo Update for Steam Next Fest!	2026-02-23	Hey everyone! A big demo update is LIVE NOW for Hear The Bell Toll! This update has the following changes: - A Full Tutorial rework - Main Menu rework - Options menu rework (pause button) - Only 1 biome + difficulty option is now available at the start (this was done to focus on 1 intended difficulty for the demo and get the most balanced version possible) - Balancing changes (windmills) - Reworded times tax from x0.25 to +0.25x- Unlockable biomes + difficulties (meta-progression) - Shop level text - changed from level 1 to level 1/3 - Buildings/UI elements are highlighted when hovering over synergies, statuses - Descriptions of buildings sho
Demo Out Now!	2025-09-29	Hi everyone! Super excited to announce that the Hear The Bell Toll demo is out now on Steam! This is an expanded version of the playtest, with a bunch of balancing changes, 2 new biomes and 2 new difficulty modifiers, as well as more polishing tweaks! The demo content includes: - 30 buildings across 8 classes to build your city and get synergies- 50 unique game-changing modifiers in the form of Banners- 3 Status Effects (Crime, Sickness, Unrest) to manage and 15 Calamities to survive Any and all feedback is welcome :) (best place to give feedback and chat directly with me is the Discord!) Thanks a lot for playing, and I hope you enjoy it!Also
Demo Launches September 29!	2025-09-25	Hey everyone! Really excited to announce that the Hear The Bell Toll demo will release on September 29, 2025 on Steam!The new demo will include: - 30 buildings across 8 classes to build your city and get synergies - 50 unique game-changing modifiers in the form of Banners - 3 Status Effects (Crime, Sickness, Unrest) to manage and 15 Calamities to survive - \ 3 Biomes and 3 Difficulty levels to challenge yourself! - \ Various balancing changes including: changes to Synergies, Gold generation and rewards, Building Upgrades, Calamities and more!- \ Fixes, tweaks and visual + audio effects The demo will be out at 2 pm GMT on Monday. Wishlist the
Public Playtest - Now Live!	2025-08-17	Hey everyone! Quick announcement: Quick news: The public playtest for Hear The Bell Toll (demo) is now live on Steam on the store page! You can request access by clicking the green button on the pageI’ve also set up a Discord server for you all to bounce off ideas, give feedback and send bug/crash reports to me directly :) You can find the link on the game's store page as well as my developer page!There’s a feedback form for the demo (link in Discord as well as in the demo itself) if you wish to provide any feedback! It should take only a couple of mins to fill out. Thanks, and stay tuned for more updates soon! - Shaun
Announcing Hear The Bell Toll!	2025-07-28	Hey everyone, I'm super excited to announce my next game: Hear The Bell Toll! A roguelike city-building game focused on short satisfying runs. Buy unique buildings from a shop, place them strategically and manage class synergies and statuses carefully to meet the tribute requirements and survive for 25 years! Coming 2025! The demo is coming soon as well! Please Wishlist now: Stay tuned for more updates soon! See you all soon, - Shaun (dev)