Prospect Hollow is growing again: two new eras and 30 deeper mine puzzles

Prospect Hollow has grown into a much bigger game than the little frontier town I first imagined. The next update is being tested in preprod, and it pushes the village beyond Tomorrow City into two warmer futures. There are thirty more puzzles below ground, too. I’m especially excited by the character going into those neighborhoods. This is the first update that makes me want to take a slow walk around town before I go back to chasing gems.

Canopy Age: the garden comes home

Canopy Age follows Tomorrow City. The sheltered greenery of the biodomes spills out into the streets: leaf roofs, timber supports, flowering terraces and little shared porches soften the skyline. It’s still Prospect Hollow, with its old landmarks and working town underneath, but the gardens no longer feel tucked away behind glass.

Three new places anchor the garden district. There’s a riverside tea house for a quiet stop, the Seed & Blossom atelier where planting and making things meet, and orchard cottages around a shared fruit garden. Buildings change through their upgrade stages, so the town doesn’t suddenly repaint itself when you enter a new era. You choose which familiar places to bring forward.

And then there are the Willowkin, our treemen. In Canopy, three small tree companions tend the park, the river garden and the atelier, or the biodome until that new garden opens. They have pale wooden bodies, branching arms, roots for feet and sideways willow canopies. I love the idea of finding one quietly at work while I’m checking on a building project.

Riverlight Age: the valley after sunset

Riverlight carries that gentler future into another chapter. Crystals from the mine are worked into glass that catches daylight; pearl roofs, lavender glazing and amber lanterns give the town a soft evening glow. The new glassworks, warm springs retreat and Riverlight pavilion give the river district places to make, rest and gather. It’s a future built around the valley rather than over it.

The Willowkin grow with the town. The little garden saplings become taller neighbors with scarves and satchels, and in Riverlight they leave their garden loops to walk their own neighborhood streets. They keep their familiar homes and routes instead of appearing as an unrelated new crowd. That feels right for Prospect Hollow: people and places carry a history from one era to the next.

More life between the buildings

The wildlife is part of that story as well. You may spot deer near the meadow, an otter by the riverbank or a hedgehog out on the verge. Bluebirds join the pigeons above the town. Dogs, cats and even a fox can have brief encounters with other animals, while the Willowkin share paths with the ordinary residents. These are occasional visitors, so you won’t see every creature in a single glance. I’m looking forward to the moments you notice while going somewhere else.

Thirty new puzzles, five new places underground

The mine grows from level 372 to level 402 in this preprod update. The five new chapters run from the geothermal forge through fossil beds, a glowshroom grotto and a root-bound vault to an underground reservoir. Each board has its own silhouette: a missing corner, a narrow chute, a divided chamber or a funnel that pulls everything toward one exit. You can read the shape of the challenge before making your first swap.

The forge teaches you to charge braziers and make useful bonuses. The next chapter makes that lesson matter: a fossil is sealed in solid casing, and a well-placed earned bomb breaks it open. Mushrooms send a spore burst in the direction shown by their arrows, roots connect across separated wells, and pearls must find their way down a narrowing funnel to one basket. There is more to think about, but the mine still gives you unlimited moves and room to experiment.

Watch the fossil lesson

This is a capture from the running preprod game, showing how a familiar brazier becomes the key to the first fossil. The recording is hosted on this blog, so it stays with the article even if the repository changes.

The quieter work you should feel

I’ve also been working on how the game feels while you move around it. The town now avoids redrawing things that haven’t changed, keeps distant villagers out of work the camera can’t see, and paces its frames more consistently on faster displays. The mine prepares levels when you need them and does less unnecessary work between moves. Those changes are still under test; the goal is a village that feels easier to explore and puzzles that respond cleanly, especially later in the campaign.

Canopy, Riverlight and the new mine chapters are in preprod testing; they are not in the public beta yet. You can play the current beta now, or look at the preprod build while it is being checked. I’ll share a proper town walkthrough when the new eras are ready to show in motion. Until then, I hope this gives you a sense of the places we’re heading next.