Can you believe that it’s nearly been two weeks since Empyreal launched? Time has flown by and it’s been amazing to watch your journeys unfold, talk strategy, and discuss the secrets of the Monolith over in the Silent Games Discord.
During that time, we gave you an additional task: to ask the developers questions! This blog is a summary of what was discussed with the development team. Still have questions eating away at your core afterwards? The team are regularly hanging out in Discord, so join the conversation there.
Questions answered by CEO Sally Blake, Co-Founder Joseph Roberts, and 3D Artist Dan Powell.
Question from EnigManic: “Is there a benefit to donating a charge to an apparition?”
A - Sally: “If you donate a charge, if another player runs out of charges, they might be saved by you in your game! I often donate some if I have some to spare. Also, I have been saved by players before, I managed to kill a tough boss after being saved by another player
There is no direct reward for doing it, but the more people do it, the more people will be saved if they run out of charges.”
Question from Lemz: “Where is the Studio based? If England, I think you got the tone exactly right for the voice actors and Empire characters. If not - even more impressive!”
A - Dan: “Newcastle upon Tyne, England. All the voice actors are local.”
Sally: “Thank you! The blacksmith is based on my dad, we’re from Yorkshire.”
Follow up question from Thief: “How based on your dad is John Kent? Like, are we talking inspired by what he says or waking up face down next to a waterfall?”
A - Sally: “Welllllllll. Not far off reality lmao. Also my dad is a blacksmith which is a pretty uncommon trade these days!”
Question from Rkgamer: “Are there plans for more weapon types? For example Dual Daggers, Pistols, Two handed swords etc?”
A - Joseph: “We don't have any new Weapons currently in development, the big variety in Empyreal comes from a combination of Weapons, Abilities, Sets, Consumables and Stats.
There are many, many Build options when considering there are ~50 Abilities, ~30 Modified Abilities, 18 Sets, dozens of Consumables and hundreds of Stats.
With all that said, new Weapons (and/or new Abilities, Sets etc) are always a possibility for the future but not something we're working on currently.”
Question from Ludvera: “Just asking for science of course but can bosses be Obliterated?”
A - Joseph: “They can but they have 100% Obliteration Resistance, so you will need to find ways to stack your Obliteration Chance really high. Most Abilities that Obliterate only have about 20% chance to do so.”
Question from Bidou: “Is there end-game content? I mean, once I finished the story, is there any incentive to keep playing?”
A - Sally: “Yes, there is New Game+ (NG+) which introduces new features, and also every NPC has a questline with different endings, so if you want to see them you would need to do NG+. There are a ton of end game sets to farm/try out”
Question from Z-Boy: “Any chance the Filter function at the Trading Post can be expanded upon? For example, if I want a mask from the storm set I'd like to be able to target cartograns that specifically drop it instead of scrolling through gloves, cloaks, and legs from the same set before finding one.“
A - Joseph: “Possibly, that will need proper investigation but we can certainly look into it. We keep a list of all suggestions, some we can easily implement but this one would be more complex. It definitely goes on the list though!”
Question from HotnFresh: "Walking into the Monolith for the first time was so eerie and amazing. But we only get to walk in the Monolith one time? And as far as I know it’s not needed again. The music & atmosphere was amazing walking into the Monolith. Can we please get more of that?"
A - Joseph: "Thank you! That was very much our intention with the Monolith sequence! You do walk across the Bridge again in NG+ and we even added an extra surprise in that Level for NG+ only."
Question from Ludvera: “What was the thought process and intent by giving us a fancy Slow Mo Shot of our character during Ultimate Abilities that only slows down time for the Player, thus giving Enemies / Bosses are free ride out of Paintown more often than not and totally wasting our Energy?”
A - Joseph: “I believe it does slow down the Enemies also but we can look at adjusting that, I.E. increase the slow-down for the Enemies so they are pretty much in the same spot as when you started your animation.”
On the topic of adjustments and changes, we thank you all so much for the questions and feedback that you’ve sent in so far on Empyreal. We are already in discussions on updates, changes, and further improvements. If you, or someone you know, is yet to dive into Empyreal and wants a taste of what to expect, a quick reminder that the Empyreal Demo is once again available for free on Steam.
We’ll continue to share details on future plans as they get locked in, and the team will be active both here and on Discord to take as many questions as possible. Thank you all so much!
We’d love to hear how your journey is unfolding over on our Discord. Follow us on X, Bluesky and TikTok for future information on Empyreal.