The next playtest will start at 1pm Pacific on 07-23-2026 and will run through 07-27-2026. This playtest features a new 1v1 tournament event, a queue for ranked duels, 1-handed weapons and shields, and much more. The tournament consists of a group stage where you are put in a group of similar elo players. Group winners then compete in a bracket stage which will contain players of all elos. In a…
The next playtest will start at 1pm Pacific on 05-21-2026 and will run through 05-25-2026. This playtest features a massive expansion to the T1 dungeon, a new boss, helmets, a party system, combat tweaks, visual improvements and much more. A preview of a portion of one of the new dungeon areas is below The new boss spawns every hour on the hour and has no portals nearby so you have to work your…
Playtest 9 will run from 1pm Pacific on 03-26-2025 through 03-31-2025. This playtest features major additions to the game including proximity voice chat, reworked animations, a compass, end boss rewards, and of course the Othari Raid world event. The Othari Raid will run every 4 hours starting at 3pm Pacific . Details on the raid are here: In addition to the new world event, this playtest featu…
Playtest 9 will start at 1pm Pacific on 03-26-2026 and will run through 03-31-2026. This playtest features the Othari Raid, proximity voice, new animations, new npcs, a new sword type, a new vendor, performance optimizations, QoL and more. Introducing the Othari Raid The Othari Raid is a new world event that takes place in the non-loot / non-PvP zone where the Othari General and his horde attac…
Major Updates and New Features This month I've focused on the new Othari Raid Event which is a co-op PvE focused event where an army of Othari swarm the sect outpost and players must defend with turrets, guards and the sect elders. Killing NPCs during the event gives special raid tokens which can be used to upgrade the sect turrets and guards to bolster your defenses. The goal is to survive the…
Major Updates and New Features Since playtest 8, in addition to working on addressing all of the player feedback, I've redone a lot of the animations, added proximity voice chat, a friend system with cross server dms, and tons more. Name Change I decided to change the name of the game from Swordai to Swordeye. I picked the name years ago before generative AI was a big thing like it is today. I…
Playtest 8 will run from 1pm Pacific on 12-17-2025 through 12-23-2025. This playtest features major additions to the game including a massive open world, potion crafting, sword smelting, cultivation expansion, combat changes and more. A rundown of the biggest changes is here: That is just the highlights, for full patch notes see discord . As usual, gold name tags are up for grabs! See discord f…
Playtest 8 will start at 1pm Pacific on 12-17-2025 and will run through 12-23-2025. This playtest features tons of new content including a giant open world where you can siege the Othari castle, gather herbs to craft potions, explore the underground mines and find new bosses and much more. Everyone who requests access will be able to play on 12-17. What's new in Playtest 8? Below is just the hi…
Major Updates and New Features This month I've primarily been working on a new map but I've also made some core combat changes, loot changes, a few ability tweaks, and more. Here is a video sneak peak of the new map. Combat Changes · Riposte Damage Reduction: The base incoming damage reduction while riposting was increased from 50% -> 75%. The riposte invulnerability passive was removed and rep…
Playtest 7 will start at 1pm Pacific on 9-3-2025 and will run through 9-8-2025. This playtest features tons of changes based on your feedback from playtest 6 as well as a greatly expanded quest line, new 1vX NPC code that is unparalleled in the slasher genre, a new enemy type, new control options, tons of QoL and more. Right after playtest 6 I also released a new official game trailer . Huge sh…
I'll be hosting a 2v2 tournament on Saturday August 30th at 1pm pacific time on the NA East freeform server. To participate, please join discord and see the signup instructions. If you don't have a partner, you can just show up and pair up with someone that day. The 2v2 tournaments are always a ton of fun and are a great way to hone you skills with Playtest 7 approaching! All fights will be don…
Huge thanks to everyone who tried the game this playtest. It was awesome to hop on and fight with you all. Had a blast in duels, 3v3s and getting stream sniped with Firebox in the tower by players hunting my bounty. Counting only new players who hadn't launched the game before this playtest, there were over 10,000 tower runs, over 100K PvE kills, 30 million online damage dealt by players, 16K P…
Join us this weekend (July 17-21) for Swordai playtest 6 and battle the upgraded Flame Acolytes, experience the new Endboss, duel Elder Xun, fight the updated Puppeteer, take the new Combat Trial, and much more. Playtest 6 features everything from major QoL improvements, control improvements, optimization work to new enemies, new abilities, and new quests. The playtest will only run for 4 days…
Playtest 6 will start on 7/17/2025 and features a ton of improvements based on your feedback and new content. · There is a new End boss with a massive persistent health pool (per region eg. NA/EU/ASIA). When a region defeats him, players who dealt damage to him will get special rewards based on their damage contribution. · A new "Combat Trial" has been added to the entrance, test your skills on…
Major Updates and New Features This patch contains all the new features for playtest 5 which starts on 4/30/2025. Between now and then I will just be working on bug fixes and QoL. · Bosses: There are two new bosses, the Basalt Golem in the tier 1 area and the Ice Wraith in the tier 2 area. · Swords: You can now loot unique swords by killing enemies or looting chests. There are different types o…
Major Updates and New Features A pretty substantial update today containing some significant progress on items and loot as well as some performance optimization and an engine update to UE 5.5. Because of the engine update the download for this patch will be big as most of the files changed. · Amulets: Introduced a new gear item, amulets, which give a damage absorbing shield that recharges rapid…
Major Updates and New Features The latest patch notes reflect what has been added since the last Steam update, alongside a sneak peek at the exciting features planned for this weekend. · Recent Patch Highlights - Improved Weapon Mechanics: · Introduced unique charge speeds, stamina drain, and base damage values for each of the four base sword types. · Black Claymore: Slowest charge speed (2s),…
As the year comes to a close, I want to take a moment to thank everyone for your continued support and enthusiasm for Swordai. It’s been an amazing journey developing this project alongside such an engaged and passionate community. Whether you’re climbing the tower, perfecting your duels, or just enjoying the freeform modes, I hope Swordai brings you some fun and challenge this holiday season.…
I’ve made significant updates to Swordai over the past few weeks, focusing on gameplay improvements, balancing, and bug fixes. Below is a summary of all changes, along with an exciting announcement for this weekend's events! The servers will be opened from the 15th until the 22nd of December following our special weekend events! Special Weekend Events Join me for two exciting events this weeken…
Hey everyone! I'm back with a new playtest from November 22nd to 25th. Don't forget to sign up, engage in duels, explore the tower, and use the new QOL patches I've implemented. I joined Stridah on his podcast on Sunday, there was a ton of great discussion and we covered aspects of the game that I haven't talked about anywhere else so definitely check it out: If you missed out on the Puppeteers…
Hey everyone! Thanks to your feedback, I’ve pushed out Patch 0.6.11 to address some of the biggest pain points you’ve brought up. This is a small, midweek patch that I’ve focused on the areas I could tackle quickly, with a few key updates to combat and early-game balance. Here’s a quick rundown of what’s changed: What's New in Patch 0.6.11: Combat Tweaks: · NPC Block Rework : I’ve reworked the…
Thanks to everyone who took part is this playtest, it was awesome playing with you all. Over the course of the week, about 1,000 chests were looted and millions of damage was dealt. The least killed boss was Korgothok with only 20 kills, followed by the puppeteer with 55 kills. Over the next few months I'll primarily be focused on implementing the loadout / ability system and integrating it wit…
Today's update is just a small hotfix for 2 issues that came up in the first day of the playtest: · Fixed a bug with bind stones telling you that you were already bound if you bound to them in a previous tower run and then tried again without exiting the server · Fixed a bug with the chest loot scaling over time. They were giving out more essence / tower time than was intended in most cases
Update 0.5.3 is out and contains a lot of polish as well as a few significant gameplay tweaks for the next playtest which will start later this week. Be sure to follow the game and to click "Request Access" for the playtest on the main steam page. You'll get an email when you get access to the playtest. Here are the full patch notes. · When you run out of tower time, rather than being removed f…
Patch notes for 0.4.8 This patch is designed to get more feedback / data on the single player content by forcing you through the challenge of initiation prior to unlocking multiplayer. · Added riposting and combo blocking to the block trainer based on a video @Fantas shared of using the block trainer on medium speed to practice block -> riposte -> combo block in a loop. The block trainer also n…
This patch has some focuses on tweaks to the new player experience and changes to the controls. · Gave click-drag mode a more clear indicator that is designed to help new players adapt to the mouse controls more easily. When you click and hold a direction selection display appears and you can see your current drag direction as an arrow that grows as you continue to drag. A direction is selected…
This patch is the release candidate for the 1st public playtest which I am currently planning to open up mid next week, I'll probably release one more update with some minor visual improvements and fixes for any bugs that come up but no new features. The highlights · Added a sequential progression throughout all the game content where one thing unlocks another. This means that to an extent Memo…
This patch expands on some of the changes in 0.4.1 with the following. · Fixed a camera issue when holding an up block while landing from a jump. As part of this, also changed the way the jumping animations work so they also should look a fair bit more smooth when you are doing left side attacks in mid air. · Added a popup at startup that dynamically pulls from an HTML file so that I can share…
Announcements are the developer’s own posts to the game’s Steam news feed: updates and their patch notes, in-game events, releases and sales. The important ones are marked on the players chart.