Hello mates, The Baron here and I am delighted to share that Blade & Sorcery has been nominated for VR Game of the Year!
From humble beginnings... we are really honoured that you guys voted to nominate us for this award, as it is a wonderful punctuation to the early access development and full release. Many of you guys have followed the game since the start and you know firsthand that from 2018 to now has been one hell of a journey.
13 updates, 5 years of Early Access development, 4 of which were initially unplanned. What started as a one-man project by KospY became a studio of almost 30 people, and I am proud to tell you that Warpfrog has been a player-built, grassroots studio.
"Sorcering" - very early multiplayer prototype that would later evolve into Blade & Sorcery, circa 2016
It all began with the little arena game that wanted to do something different. Whereas the "wiggle sword" type game dominated the scene pre-Blade & Sorcery, Warpfrog was the first to introduce full physics simulation in an effort to make VR more immersive and tactile. The idea was that you were not just playing a 2D game in VR, but that you got the sensation that you are inside another physical world.
Update 2 - The Modding Update, 2018
Fans responded to what KospY was doing and the approach to realistic melee physics proved so popular that it essentially killed off the "wiggle sword" game design in Virtual Reality.
The game and community grew. This was when Warpfrog became an actual studio. With no publishers or shareholders the studio philosophy was to be hardcore indie in philosophy. Community first, modder friendly, no nickle and diming the players, underpromise and overdeliver, and avoid all "gamey" design trends in modern gaming that spoonfeed players - after all, this was an immersive simulation we were creating.
True to the mission, we listened to the players and the community shaped a lot of early features in the simulation that have become core to the game - dismemberment, grappling, climbing (remember the early iterations of climbing with your fist? lol), map modding - these were all player requested additions.
With more and more features the simulation expanded to new heights.
Update 5 - The Dismemberment Update, 2019
By U7, this was "the game" as intended when the development journey first began; the plan had been 1 year of early access and the product was to be a little arena sandbox fighter.
However, the Blade & Sorcery fanbase was so hardcore and dedicated that it seemed like a crime to just end things there. The studio had received such tremendous support from the players that we now had the resources to give something back - this led to a complete revamp of the game in an effort to swap out the mix-matched store assets for new custom made ones, and improve what people would often tease as "Playstation 2 graphics" lol.
Update 8 - The Sorcery Update, 2020
Update 8 brought all new visuals, VFX, spells, an armour system, and new tons of new content.
The game had shook of the super-indie one-man project type look, but something still didn't feel right in wrapping development. Players continued to see potential in Blade & Sorcery and craved something more than "just" an arena game.
Support for the studio was still extremely strong, so we took a massive plunge into the great unknown by extending development to introduce "Dungeons" in Update 10 - a dungeon crawl mode.
Update 10 - The Dungeons Update, 2021
This was a massive undertaking, because it meant we now needed enemy that patrolled, could be idle, and susceptible to stealth. We also had to invest a lot of R&D into the actual dungeon tech for semi-procedurally generated dungeons. We didn't want a completely procedurally generated dungeon system as the outcome of full procedural generation can often result in nonsense rooms that are samey or just a mashing together random assets, so instead we opted for hand-crafted rooms that would load in random configurations to create a fresh dungeon crawl each time.
Dungeons was a big success and the game had reached new heights with U10, giving it a whole new lease of life with players. The scope of the game had now far exceeded the humble ambitions of being a simple arena fighter, and yet...
One of the biggest and most difficult asks of the community since the earliest days had always been for a non-sandbox progression gamemode with lore. This was always going to be extremely tricky, mainly because it was so wildly beyond the scope of the game that was already developed, but also because from a practical game design stance Blade & Sorcery was a full simulation that rejected everything "gamey" - no UIs, no HUDS, no health bars, no stats, etc - so how on earth do you design a gamey gamemode without gaminess? lol
Nonetheless, the team was in unison that if we were going to finally wrap Early Access then this was something important that the players would truly love to see.
Cue the 2+ years of additional development that led to 1.0 and the massive Crystal Hunt update. ːamadeus_spookedː
1.0 - The End Update, 2024
1.0 was our love letter update to the fans. From a development standpoint it was madness as it was like dropping a whole new game on top of the old game and game designing backwards. The workload was huge, but it was also cathartic as we were finally able to create lore and give context to the world of Blade & Sorcery.
This epic journey of Blade & Sorcery's development was only possible thanks to the insanely hardcore and dedicated community we have. To go from nothing to VR GOTY nominee really blows us all away here at Warpfrog, and we wanted you all to know we love you guys and you made Warpfrog happen. Thank you for supporting our studio. ːluvː
As for the future of Warpfrog... this is where the fun begins... With the experience we have acquired across these past 5 years, we can't wait to show what we are cooking next. Your support has empowered the studio to go on to develop bigger and better games.
We are just getting started. ːtmntdonː