Hi Everyone!
As you probably already know, Hellcard II is coming later this year. In this post, I want to focus on how the lessons we learned while making the first game led directly to the new features in the sequel.
We had plenty of ideas for extra content for Hellcard 1, especially after Bruja: The Blood Witch was so warmly welcomed. However, we hit a wall with our old custom engine.
As some of you remember from our roadmap post last year, we decided to switch to UE5. Sustaining our own tech became, sadly, too much for a small team like ours. With UE5 came both challenges and massive opportunities for growth.
We needed a project that would let us get proficient with the new tech before focusing full-time on Book of Aliens. And since we already had all those ideas that didn't make it into Hellcard... This was the obvious choice.
First of all, we wanted 4-player co-op. This is something the game has to be balanced for from the get-go; while we could have "shoehorned" it into the first game, it would have been a poor experience. And we don't like making shoddy stuff. So that's the first big one: Hellcard II will support four-player co-op!
When making the first Hellcard 1, we assumed that controlling the whole party while playing single-player would be overwhelming and that no one would like it. Welp, we were wrong ːarchduckː. Gradually, we added ways to manage AI companion decks, but giving full control in our old engine and UI system was complex and destined to be clunky.
Hellcard II is designed from the ground up to have 4 heroes in the party. When playing solo, you will have full control over each character. What's more, when playing co-op with fewer than 4 players, players get to control more than one hero. It's always four.
Title says it all. Our engine was 2D, and we had to go to great lengths to fake some effects and make the game look good. While we are still learning, Hellcard II already looks much better than the first installment. Suffice to say, we can have the action take place in an actual pop-up book with pages flipping and everything!
This, of course, comes with trade-offs. Modern 3D renderers will never be as lightweight or as fast as our purpose-built 2D engine, but we strive to keep hardware requirements as low as possible.
The first Hellcard was quick and fun, with battles telling the story. But we always envisioned a "cozier" atmosphere, not unlike a tabletop RPG session with friends. Most of this had to be cut originally due to time, budget, and tech constraints.
This time, we can do it and lean into the dungeon-crawling-with-friends aspect. There will be events with choices for party members. You'll have to decide: put the team before personal needs, or do quite the opposite? A larger story will also unfold slowly across multiple runs.
Unlocking new cards and artifacts is fun, but it doesn't always convey a sense of character growth. Same with cosmetics - Hellcard outfits did a great job, but you often asked about tying them to specific artifacts. All this stuff couldn't be done in Hellcard, as it would flip the table and become a different game. It can be done in Hellcard II, though.
In Hellcard II, achievements truly matter. For heroic feats, you will earn specific gear that you can equip in future runs, altering your hero's look, base mechanics, and starting decks.
Enjoying fiery havoc? Probably best to take the Brimstone Mace and start the game with fire-based cards while looking the part ːarchduckː
The list of stuff we can do now is much longer. I will make sure to cover it all in future posts. For more info, check out (and, hopefully, wishlist) Hellcard II:
As Always,
Stay Safe in Paper Dungeons ːarchduckːKonstanty