Hey everyone! Recently I brought Hexborn to DreamHack (a big gaming festival here in Sweden) and ran the demo live on the show floor. It was the first public showing of the demo, so I was honestly pretty nervous. But I was really happy to see how well it was received. People were leaning into the chaos, the arenas felt satisfying, and the “snowball into a monster” fantasy came through. After DreamHack playtests, I reworked Active perks to be easier to use mid-chaos. The result is Flow + the Active Wheel, one quick choice that turns into a big power spike.
One thing I noticed during playtests: players weren’t using Active perks as much as I expected and occasionally they were triggered by accident in the middle of the chaos.
In my previous Steam update I shared Actives as a meter-based system with high-impact abilities. The abilities themselves felt great, so this wasn’t about power, it was about making them feel more intentional and easier to access mid-fight. After watching a bunch of playtests, I started thinking: how can I make this even smoother? Then it clicked:
Actives now plug into a Flow meter:
Flow fills during combat
When it’s full, you open a radial wheel
Pick one owned Active perk
Huge thanks to everyone who stopped by the booth, played, and gave feedback, it genuinely helped shape the demo.
Thanks for reading! If you haven’t wishlisted Hexborn yet and you like retro FPS combat mixed with roguelite progression, wishlist it to get notified when the demo and eventually the game drops.
See you in the next update 🩸🤘
Sohrab