Choose whether to restore the old cathedral, arena and temples stone by stone, or salvage them to build your own. But the deeper you dig beneath the streets, the more you learn about what emptied the city, and the dark is still down there.

Underneath, the town got deeper too. Goods are carried by haulers and carts, so roads matter. Fields, barns and granaries feed the town, fire, floods, sickness and frost test it, and factions and the lord make their demands.

• Rivers with bridges, docks and a shipwright building fishing boats and trading ships
• Trade with three neighbouring towns, with moving prices and contracts
• Seasons that change the grass, flowers and water, and snow and puddles in the streets
• Four great works: the Great Spire, the Great Harbour, the University and the Royal Palace
• Windows that light house by house at night

About 250 realms, vassals and peoples hold the land, with borders that settle on mountains, deserts and narrow seas, and about 680 cities and towns are linked by their main routes. The British Isles are mapped in full, with some 13,000 settlements, strip fields, woods, fens and Roman roads. Zoom in, and trees, buildings and village names stream in until you're looking at a single village.

The plan is settlements that visibly grow on the map, roads and colonies, people who migrate and carry their culture and religion with them, a deep tech tree, and war measured by what it costs the economy and the population. It's early days, and this devlog will follow it from the first prototype.

Each has its own page, two people to talk to and a history in the Codex once you've visited. Look around once a day for one of 30 new scenes.

The first close view is in too: hamlets, villages and towns generated from rules, with roads, plots facing the street, a church and sometimes a lord's hall behind a palisade. Switch the age and the same village rebuilds itself, from wattle, daub and thatch around 1000 to timber framing, chimneys and tile by 1250.

The AI only writes words. The game still decides what happens, and if a reply is slow, the written line takes over. It needs a 64-bit phone, and both model sizes are free.

Everyone you can talk to has deeper dialogue, with at least 40 different replies a month and follow-up threads on their own topics. People also ask you things back, and how you answer changes how they feel about you.

• A rebuilt dating site with 36 people, each with their own voice
• Longer newspapers about the city's history and politics
• Sound effects and music that change by area
• An isometric view of your apartment

Jobs set the look. Politicians wear suits, Apex officers wear peaked caps, welders wear hard hats and refugees wear worn coats. With 31 hairstyles, 19 hats and 22 kinds of clothing, plus scars, tattoos and cyber eyes, no two faces are alike.

The $2.99 Supporter pack removes the ads and adds two exclusive cosmetics and a badge. Progress, unlocks and purchases follow your Google Play account to a new phone. Rush also has its first soundtrack.

Contraband is real now. Seized goods go into an evidence locker, and for every find you choose: log it, pocket it, hand it back for a cut, or hold it and see who comes to collect. Five smugglers remember how you treat them, and the best of them will give you their number.

• Four newspapers, including a pirate sheet
• The Gilded Lumen casino, with roulette, high card and the Lumen Wheel
• Vantor Motors, with eight cars to buy and keep in your garage
• Optional retirement once you've saved 100,000c

All ten nations have their own flag and passport, and diplomats carry black and gold. Forged papers always have a tell. The game also traded its green screen for a beige old-PC look that's easier to read.

• Ranked tiers from Bronze to Obsidian, colour-coded on the board
• Each tier unlocks a desk finish and a screen colour
• Shift lets you set your own rules

Every five correct in a row adds two seconds. Every ten starts rush hour: eight seconds where each crosser counts double, until you make a mistake. There are also 13 achievements to unlock.

The land carries on past the edge of the map into hills, mountains and forest that fade into haze, with drifting clouds and their shadows. Every older home was rebuilt in the new look, and the founders' campfire can become a Stone Hearth, a statue or a fountain.

There's a proper Settings screen for music, effects, text size, vibration and the CRT flicker. You can call in sick, two paid days in every ten, though your supervisor notices patterns. Every venue has its own emblem on the map, and saves from the current version carry over, with a backup every morning.

The background music used to stream from the internet. It's now an original loop built into the game, so Megacity runs fully offline and collects nothing.

Twenty-two random events and their follow-ups fill the days in between, rumours travel around the city's bars and street corners, and a new STORIES tab in the Codex keeps track of everything you've set in motion.

There are five modes from day one: Rush, Daily Rush, Ranked, Shift and Practice. Leaderboards run through Google Play Games, so there's no account to make.

Settlers keep a daily routine of work, free time and sleep, each with a personality that decides where they go in the evening. The town has 122 buildings to choose from, roads that wear in where people walk, and boats on the river.

• A new build menu with pictures, search and favourites
• The Undercity has lurkers, two bosses, and a company of sellswords to clear it
• Relics with rarities, a Relic Hall and trade caravans
• Every building drawn from one library of photographed stone, timber, plaster and thatch