Mechanistry has officially locked in the full release date for Timberborn, the “lumberpunk” city builder that puts you in charge of an ambitious beaver society and the waterways that keep it alive. After years of steady growth in early access, Timberborn launches as version 1.0 on March 5 this spring for Windows PC, available through Steam, GOG, and the Epic Games Store.
First released in early access in 2021, Timberborn has built an impressive reputation among city-building and colony simulation fans. The game has sold more than 1 million copies and kept an Overwhelmingly Positive Steam rating throughout its early access run, thanks in large part to its distinctive premise and its deep sandbox systems. Players aren’t just placing buildings and watching numbers go up—they’re engineering rivers, managing seasons, and building vertically in a world where water is the difference between survival and collapse.
Ahead of launch, the 1.0 build is already playable for anyone who wants an early look. It’s available on the Experimental branch, where it’s receiving ongoing tweaks and updates leading into the March 5 release. To mark the announcement, Mechanistry also shared a new lore-focused trailer narrated by Shaun Dooley, adding a cinematic introduction that sets the tone from the moment you start a new settlement.
That opening frames Timberborn’s world as harsh and fragile: a place pushed to the edge after industry has scarred the land and drained nature’s strength. But the game’s central idea remains hopeful. With smart planning, careful construction, and a lot of clever water control, your beavers can rebuild, adapt, and restore what was lost.
One reason Timberborn became a standout city builder is how much it evolved during early access. Mechanistry spent that time iterating closely with the community, shaping new systems around what players wanted most and refining the core gameplay loop across seven major updates. Those updates didn’t just add small extras—they expanded how the game plays, how cities grow, and how players solve problems.
Over time, Timberborn developed two distinct beaver factions with their own identities and progression paths. That means different approaches to expansion, including unique production chains, specialized buildings, and architectural style differences that change how your settlement looks and functions. The game also pushed its building systems further with 3D water physics, 3D terrain, and more vertical construction options, letting players create layered beaver cities that interact with the landscape in more dynamic ways.
Modding became a major part of the experience too, with official mod support and Steam Workshop integration opening the door for community-made maps and gameplay additions. Meanwhile, survival challenges expanded with the arrival of badwater and badtides, introducing dangerous seasonal threats similar to droughts but with their own risks and planning demands. For players who love long-term projects, the addition of end-game goals—called wonders—gave the sandbox a satisfying sense of direction without taking away the freedom to build creatively.
The beavers themselves also got new options as the roster expanded: more workshops, more decorative choices, and the introduction of bots, which broadened how you can automate work and scale up production. Transportation developed in exciting, faction-specific ways too, including fast ziplines for the nature-focused Folktails and advanced Tubeway technology for the industrial Iron Teeth. And for explorers and map strategists, the selection of built-in maps grew from 7 to 16, offering far more variety in starting conditions and terrain challenges.
With its full release arriving March 5, Timberborn looks ready to graduate from beloved early access success to a definitive city builder for fans of resource management, colony sims, and creative sandbox engineering—especially for anyone who likes the idea of turning a struggling wasteland into a thriving beaver-built civilization, one dam at a time.
