Ave Aspirants!
Since the last update, we've been working non-stop - there's a lot to update you on, so let's jump right in.
We're now Aegic Entertainment!
I'm very proud to be introducing you to our studio. It has been 10 years in the making. It's been a crazy journey, from solo dev in my underpants to game studio (in our underpants).
I'm glad to finally have a name now too. https://aegicentertainment.com/ (We're also hiring!)
Want to keep up to date, join our discord here and subscribe to our newsletter (No spam, only big announcements and giveaways etc!)
The next Major Update: Blood & Sand!
Some amazing news I can share first is we've designed most of game all the way to 1.0 now. We're very much in the end-game now. Sandbox Mode is part of a larger plan related to 1.0 as well. We've also brought WWAATD up to the last viable engine version which should provide stability.
The next update, v0.8 is Blood & Sand, introduces many overhauls across both combat and career, and brings the long awaited Sandbox Mode! We've been cooking with this one. Aside from generally polishing things, these are the goals we had for this update:
- Big focus on Combat + add Sandbox mode (Blood & Sand!)
- Design the rest of the game till 1.0 so it all fits in a larger plan
- Address common feedback + tackle all weaker features/aspects (unify the game's quality)
- >>> For Career that is: Patrons, Betting, Notifications (Redesigns, reworks and overhauls)
- >>> For Combat: Hit impacts and reactions, physics stability, Polearm design (Redesigns, reworks and overhauls)
- >>> Fix big gaps in the equipment arsenal and content
- >>> Fix visually jarring elements and optimization issues (Low framerate characters, expensive FX etc)
Sandbox Mode
What is Sandbox Mode?
I've been looking forward to making Sandbox Mode for about 6-7 years. Personally super excited it's almost ready.
My vision as a game designer is that games are ultimately a toy - the magic is interaction. So I had the idea to let players mess with the game on a much deeper level. Why not expose all the endless variables in the code? What if the player could adjust things the game to their liking? A bit like modding, but made super convenient - so anyone can do it. AAA studios might freak out about how players could easily break the game, but well, in this case it's on you! The settings are ultra flexible including all the hazards that come with that.
Sandbox will allow people to make their own flavor of the game, make challenge runs, tweak things they don't like and generally experiment.
How does Sandbox Mode work?
In short, you can create Sandbox Profiles with your own custom settings.
Settings go from 50+ base variables in the game (Max HP, stamina, costs, match frequencies, pacing, difficulty pacing, ...) to toggling traits and items, to starting gear, toggling backstories and more.
Open this image to get a sense for some of the options.
Infinite Runs!
Want a 1HP run? More Stamina? Go for it. Dislike Peg-leg, hate 2 handers? Disable them. Want a duels only, high item cost, negative traits only, no heals run? Go nuts.
The amount of possible runs is infinite.
I've done the rudimentary math: 10^233. There are more builds than atoms in the universe. In fact, if you build a new Profile every nanosecond for every atom since the dawn of time, you wouldn't make a dent in this number.
Workshop Support!
You can then even share your Profile with other players on the Steam Workshop . Or of course, browse and test other people's crazy run designs. More on that and a much more in-depth look at all the options, in a later Preview!
Sandbox mode is a scary feature to make. It was a huge and very complicated amount of work, diving deep into the game's core, and we're hoping for people to experiment and share cool challenges on the Workshop or via our Discord. Fingers crossed it was worth it! As usual, if people love it, we intend to expand it and listen to the community about how they want it expanded. Your feedback shapes this game.
Combat Changes
The update is named Blood & Sand - Sand for Sandbox, Blood for the vast combat related overhauls. Check it out:
New Combat Attack UI
We've completely remade and drastically improved the combat UI. It's also context-sensitive based on the weapon type. This UI is way more intuitive and I hope it primarily helps new players figure out the attack dragging mechanic.
Animation Overhaul
The animation systems in the game have seen major changes:
One common feedback we got a lot was that hits feel weak - sometimes it feels like "punching in a dream". I tackled this problem from both sides: hits and hit reactions.
Animation Overhaul - Pelvis turning, footwork & foot planting
First, because of an ignorant technical mistake ~10 years ago when I was a clueless whippersnapper, it was very hard to add decent pelvis and foot rotation to attacks. I've tried to patch this a few times over the years, but I've finally managed to crack it by using a few clever tricks together to circumvent the problem.
Now characters rotate on their attack-readying and then turn into a strike - including pelvis, knees and foot-work! Bonus of this approach is its completely dynamic, so it even changes per weapon type etc.
Here's 2H swings, notice the legs especially:
Here's it is on 1H swings:
You have to play to properly understand the huge impact (ha!) on the game - the game-feel and power of a hit - is through the roof.
This has gameplay implication: WWAATD's damage model is physics-based, so the added rotation actually adds velocity aka damage to an attack.
It also gets more or less intense based on weapon/attack type and current speed. It's maxed out if you stand still - now you have a reason to plant your feet, because you'll do a much more powerful attack. Essentially, this feature adds emergent "Heavy Attacks".
Animation Overhaul - Hit Reactions
Hits also felt bad - in large part due to a lack of proper hit reactions. So far, they were a simple physics-impulse (did that because of solo dev - limited time).
Now we've added actual animation-based hit reactions, but as usual, in a very dynamic way.
Characters will turn and respond in several ways based on the attack impact location. They also use their arms dynamically to balance when they got knockback (in any direction). Even shield impacts get this effect, hitting a shield barely did anything in the past. This is all layered together to get satisfying reactions.
Here's some longer, higher quality video previews on the new combat feel, OLD vs NEW:
https://youtu.be/dF7aOQ1lX1E
Animation Overhaul - Stamina
Stamina was another common point of feedback. There's no clear visual cue for the character's stamina level, and on low stamina, you get very floppy and unwieldy. Decent in theory but not fun in practice. Now, low stamina is a more animation-based state relying much less on pure physics, and there's a dynamic breathing layer added to the animation on top of the sound.
Animation Overhaul- Many more tweaks
The entire animation system has seen performance improvements, vastly better blending and smoothing, I've improved a huge amount of the attacks, fixed look-at animation (so character keep eye contact much better - does more than you think!) and so on.
It's really just too much to tell.
And that's not all for Combat changes, there's a lot more. There's new & improved FX, a complete Phyiscs rework, a Polearm Overhaul, Weapon Stance Switching, and so on. I'll expand on those in the next Previews!
Patrons, Career & more!
It's not just Sandbox + Combat, we also worked on the Career side - including expansions on the Patrons and Shop, overhauls on things like Betting, Post-Battle Notifications and more.
Blood & Sand, as every major update, will also have new content, performance improvements and general improvements here and there across the entire game. It's a big boy.
Join us on the next Previews when we dive into these topics!
Please let us know in the comments what you think. Which feature are you most excited for? What sandbox profile do you want to make? Are you interested in testing this update ahead of release?
Your reactions are extremely motivating - let us know!
Want to stay up to date on the game and studio's development?
As always,
We who are about to die salute you!
Jordy