Prospect Hollow is reaching for the Moon — a big update in testing

The last previews followed Prospect Hollow into Canopy and Riverlight. I thought the valley had plenty of room to grow there. The build now being tested in preprod has a much bigger horizon: four more eras, a new settlement on the Moon, and 144 additional puzzles below the mine.

This is a look at work in progress, not an announcement that the update is live. There is still a lot to test and polish. These screenshots come from completed demo towns in the preprod build, so you can see where the journey is heading.

A town that learns to look up

After Riverlight comes Skysail Age. Its rooftops gather sailcloth and little pennants, while floating orchards bring the gardens up into the breeze. The Willowkin are still here, tending the new greenery. Prospect Hollow does not forget the town it used to be; the familiar buildings take on a new shape as you bring them forward.

Then Stargazer turns the town towards the night sky. Copper-trimmed domes appear above deep blue buildings, and a Great Telescope joins the new Skyward quarter beyond the railway. It finds something worth looking at on the Moon. By Moonward, the valley has a space elevator standing beside the old mine, sending supplies and settlers upwards. Its moon-white buildings still have porches and gables that recall Prospect Hollow’s frontier beginnings.

Two Hollows, one home

The fourth era, Twin Hollows, lets you open the Moon map and build New Hollow. There are settler domes, a well drawing on crater ice, an Earthlit greenhouse, a rover barn and a Willowkin garden under glass. Earth hangs over the lunar hills, and the ribbon connects this small new town to the valley below. Friends visiting a shared town can see its Moon settlement too.

I like that it still feels like one community. There is one wallet, and the valley’s spare food and water help the Moon grow. Back on Earth, only a few homecoming landmarks are brought into the Twin Hollows style; the rest of your Moonward town keeps the history you built. New Hollow is another place to care for, without a separate currency or a countdown hanging over it.

A much deeper mine

The campaign in the preprod branch now runs from the current level 402 through level 546. Those 144 new puzzles span 24 chapters. Floatstones rise towards hatches at the top of a board. Mirrors turn beams into places you could not reach in a straight line. Portals move falling gems between parts of a cavern, while moon locks and dials can turn gravity upside down. Peridot and starmetal join the gems along the way.

That should make the later mine feel like a new expedition rather than another stretch of the same boards. Some caverns even have two directions of gravity at once. The rules that matter to me are staying put: you can keep working at a puzzle without a move limit or a hard timer, and a board with no legal match can reshuffle for free.

Leave your mark on the valley

There is more to make a town your own, too. You can choose a crest for the town banner, and optional monument sites offer different designs as you travel through the eras. A monument is a lasting choice for that site, with stages that turn it into something more substantial over time. These are places to show a bit of your town’s character; they do not gate the story or add an economic advantage. Earned Town Honours can also appear on a plaque at the mine.

On the practical side, the new Mayor’s Office brings account controls into the game: see and download the data held about you, change your details, or delete an account. There has also been work on loading and drawing the much larger town, as well as another pass on where its animals and birds appear. Those less glamorous details matter when you want to settle in and look around.

Where things stand

All of this is in preprod while the update gets more testing and fixes. Some details may change before release, and I do not have a date to give you yet. If you want to begin your town now, the current Prospect Hollow beta is live here. I will say clearly when this next chapter reaches the live game.