It has been a while since the last update here on Steam, but development of Age of Failon: Birth of the Hero certainly hasn’t stopped.
Quite the opposite.
Over the past months, the game has gone through some of the largest changes since development began. Several core systems have been rebuilt, the visual direction has changed significantly, and Age of Failon is now much closer to the game I originally wanted to create.
With the next stage of development approaching, this is a good time to look at what has changed.
One of the most visible changes is the world itself.
The original version made the underlying square grid very visible. While the grid still exists and remains fundamental to movement, exploration and gameplay calculations, it no longer defines how the world looks.
Terrain is now rendered using shaders, while forests, mountains, decorations, resources, roads and neutral locations have all been reworked.
The result is a much more natural top-down fantasy world while keeping the deterministic grid-based gameplay underneath.
The progression system has been fundamentally redesigned.
Instead of treating maps as mostly isolated scenarios, Age of Failon now follows one persistent journey across 357 campaign maps.
Your hero, army and castle continue developing throughout the campaign.
Traditional weekly unit growth has been replaced by a progression economy built around rewards earned through exploration, objectives and battles.
Unit Cards increase the units available to your army, Building Points allow your castle to develop, while additional rewards advance your hero, skills and spells.
Age of Failon uses cards as a progression resource — it is not a deckbuilding game.
Exploration is no longer simply about clearing everything on the map.
Campaign maps contain objectives that determine how the scenario develops.
You may be asked to defeat enemy armies, capture or destroy guarded locations, collect resources, develop your castle or defeat an enemy commander.
Completing objectives can activate new locations, trigger story events or cause enemy heroes to enter the map.
This allows each map to tell a small part of the larger campaign while still using procedurally generated worlds.
Castle progression has also been heavily expanded.
There are six playable races, each with 19 unit lines developing through four Ages.
As your castle advances, units evolve into stronger versions while preserving the progression you have already earned.
Across all races and Ages, the game contains 456 units.
And because your castle persists throughout the campaign, every upgrade contributes to the same long-term journey.
The battle system has received extensive visual and mechanical work.
Battles now use a new 2.5D presentation while retaining deterministic grid-based tactical movement.
Battle environments, shaders, UI, targeting visualization, ranged attack effects, spell effects, animations and sounds have all been reworked.
Enemy armies can also be supported by generated heroes whose attributes, skills and spells influence the battle.
And for encounters where the outcome is already obvious, Quick Battle provides a faster alternative.
The old brown interface has been replaced by a new dark fantasy visual identity built around dark materials, metallic details and purple magical energy.
But this wasn't only a visual redesign.
Almost every major interface has been rebuilt or updated to support the new systems — including the Castle, Hero, Skills, Spellbook, Army, Rewards, Quests and Battle interface.
UI scaling has also been reworked to better support different resolutions and aspect ratios.
The campaign now has a fully integrated story and objective system.
The journey begins when the northern lands of Kalgerion come under attack and the young commander Failon is sent north by King Eldar.
Alongside the experienced warrior Gudin, Failon begins a campaign that will eventually grow far beyond the invasion that started it.
Story events are integrated directly into maps and objectives, supported by character portraits, voiced dialogue and cinematic sequences.
The opening cinematic and the first campaign chapter are already integrated into the game.
There is still plenty of work ahead, but Age of Failon is now entering a very different stage of development.
The foundations of the new progression, world generation, objectives, battles, castle systems and story are in place, and the current focus is increasingly shifting toward polishing and preparing the game for players.
Over the coming weeks, I'll be sharing more detailed updates about these systems and the road toward the Age of Failon demo.
Thank you to everyone who has followed the project so far.
The journey of Failon is only beginning.
If you want to follow the development of Age of Failon, don't forget to wishlist and Follow the game on Steam.