Brightest greetings Underlord!

While you’ve been tunnelling your way through the molten dukedom of Phaestus, summer has arrived (though barely if you live in the UK). Now you step forth onto the northern shores of the world, witnessing golden sands and turquoise seas, flush from the heat of Mount Phaestus!

Your Workers haven’t seen the sun in aeons, and while most skulk away from the light and back away into your dungeon, Aloha Worker is unpacking his suitcase - bucket and spade? Check! Flip-flops? Check! Hawaiian shirt? Most certainly, check!



Though judging by his skin tone, he might have forgotten to pack the sunscreen ... Anyway, you’ll need to be careful, Underlord - if this craze catches on the next thing you know you’ll have an entire dungeon full of flowery-coloured minions, more dazzling even than Kasita’s Home Realm!

https://youtu.be/pgGa0gqsl1g

Unpack your Aloha Worker skin on Steam and receive a special summer discount for a limited time - then bask with him in Skirmish, Sandbox, Scenario, and Multiplayer modes!

Priced at just £0.79 / $0.99 / 0.99€, the Aloha Worker is waiting for you on the Steam store.

You can also pick up all our current Worker Skins as part of a single bundle for a small discount!

In addition, backers of our original Kickstarter campaign using the Steam version of the game will receive this skin for free!

Have a lovely summer, Underlord ... And don’t forget the sunscreen.

Cheers!

– Brightrock Games Team

Click here to discuss this update on our forums
Click here to chat about this update on our Discord

Never miss an update! Sign up to our newsletter!

Brightest greetings Underlord!

While you’ve been tunnelling your way through the molten dukedom of Phaestus, summer has arrived (though barely if you live in the UK). Now you step forth onto the northern shores of the world, witnessing golden sands and turquoise seas, flush from the heat of Mount Phaestus!

Your Workers haven’t seen the sun in aeons, and while most skulk away from the light and back away into your dungeon, Aloha Worker is unpacking his suitcase - bucket and spade? Check! Flip-flops? Check! Hawaiian shirt? Most certainly, check!



Though judging by his skin tone, he might have forgotten to pack the sunscreen ... Anyway, you’ll need to be careful, Underlord - if this craze catches on the next thing you know you’ll have an entire dungeon full of flowery-coloured minions, more dazzling even than Kasita’s Home Realm!

https://youtu.be/pgGa0gqsl1g

Unpack your Aloha Worker skin on Steam and receive a special summer discount for a limited time - then bask with him in Skirmish, Sandbox, Scenario, and Multiplayer modes!

Priced at just £0.79 / $0.99 / 0.99€, the Aloha Worker is waiting for you on the Steam store.

You can also pick up all our current Worker Skins as part of a single bundle for a small discount!

In addition, backers of our original Kickstarter campaign using the Steam version of the game will receive this skin for free!

Have a lovely summer, Underlord ... And don’t forget the sunscreen.

Cheers!

– Brightrock Games Team

Click here to discuss this update on our forums
Click here to chat about this update on our Discord

Never miss an update! Sign up to our newsletter!

Darkest Greetings Underlord,

Reception to Heart of Gold and patch 1.4 has been absolutely fantastic, we’re pleased to see so many of you enjoying the latest iteration of War for the Overworld. As we promised yesterday we have a new minor but not insubstantial patch for you today, chocked full of features and fixes based off community feedback.

It’s also a good day to be a DRM-Free player as we’re finally updating the build from v1.2.3 to this very patch. That means you can finally put the map editor to use and experience all the improvements we delivered in Patch 1.4.

We’re sure you’re eager to see what’s changed so without further ado read on Underlord!

• The DRM-Free build of War for the Overworld has been updated to v1.4.1, if you own the DRM-Free version you can download it via Humble
  
• Achievements & Unlockables have been added to the DRM-Free version
  
• Be aware Heart of Gold, Steam Workshop, and several other features are not present in the DRM-Free build as they rely on the Steamworks API (see the DRM-Free FAQ)

• Revealed areas that are not actively part of current gameplay (such as the top of neutral terrain) are now darkened
  
• Important gameplay elements such as gold and claimed territory remain lit
  
• This causes these elements of the game pop more compared to the background and helps to reinforce a darker atmosphere while allowing lighting to shine
  
• https://youtu.be/GSFm0pTdf5Y

• We’ve normalized the unit spawning values so you can more reliably figure out how large a room needs to be to attract a certain number of units.
  
• 1 Prop per unit:
  
  • Sanctuary - Cultist or Priestess
    
  • Archive - Cultist or Priestess
    
  • Foundry - Chunder or Warden
    
  • Barracks - Gnarling or Templar
• 1.5 Props per unit:
  
  • Spirit Chamber - Witch Doctor
    
  • Alchemy Lab - Crackpot or Firebreather
    
  • Torture Chamber - Succubus or Inquisitor
    
  • Crypt - Necromancer or Matriarch
• 2 Props per unit
  
  • Garrison - Augre or Juggernaut
• 4 Props per unit
  
  • Arena - Beastmaster or Huntress (Every flat edge tile counts as a ‘prop’)
• Room tooltips have been updated to display this information.

• Added a glow effect to active rally flags, making it clear which flags are currently active
  
• Warbands are now automatically expanded when active, displaying the cancel button
  
• Improved look of the ability selection in possession UI and added a little number above each ability to show their associated hotkey
  
• Room tooltips now show how many units the room has attracted versus how many units it can possibly attract at its current size
  
• It is now possible to switch abilities in Possession with the scrollwheel
  
• Improved accuracy of the “Zoom To” function eg. when a unit portrait or any other button is right clicked.

• The “Heart of Gold Now Available” and “Access Heart of Gold” arrows can now be dismissed permanently by clicking a small X button
  
• Updated the descriptions of several Skirmish maps

• Construction Ritual will now explain that it cannot construct Outposts on certain maps
  
• Upgraded Barracks Tooltip now correctly accounts for training support slots which can be used by Gnarlings to support other minions

• Unidentified artefacts are now random by default, if no weight is set for any effect (previously these would always identify as gold artefacts)
  
• Neutral defences can no longer be placed (they were not fully supported and resulted in various issues)
  
• Existing Neutral defences on custom maps will self-destruct upon map start

• Removed a sequence in Level 11 where the player was forced to view the introduction of a summoning stone

• Delayed the initial rush by Underlord Draven by an additional 4 minutes. Allowing the player more time to prepare

• Resolved an issue that prevented roaming parties of heroes from attacking your dungeon and providing a steady source of bodies to turn to gold...

• Reduced the level and number of units that attack the player as they defeat enemy bosses

• Sentinels and Stone Knights can now be dismissed by throwing them into a Gateway
  
• It is now possible to transform critters (micropiglets and rats) into golden statues with the Blood Money spell

• Improved the memory and processor footprint of critters (micropiglets and rats)

• Added sounds to Lava, Lava Falls and Water

• “You have found a neutral minion” alert now correctly plays only when a unit joints your side rather than when it is just visible to any player
  
• Fixed Taverns in Seastead II and Flood
  
• Fixed HoG outro narrator line could play too fast if user was had game speed set to 150%
  
• HoG2 - Empire forces no longer scream when leaving the combat zone peacefully… how disappointing...
  
• Disabled one of the Matriarch’s abilities in the Arena to prevent incorrect behaviour
  
• Sappers no longer require sleep, enhancing their performance in several campaign levels. The same cannot be said for coders.
  
• Fixed a repeating voice line on level 2
  
• Fixed level 13 waves being blocked by the main siege door
  
• Fixed an issue with the Glacial door which could occur upon loading a saved game
  
• While chatting in multiplayer games the spacebar won’t skip our beloved narrator’s lines
  
• Beds are once again correctly removed in multiplayer games
  
• Clients in multiplayer games will now see units XP correctly
  
• Clients in multiplayer games will now correctly see units training in Barracks
  
• Titan Stone spawning VFX will now disappear if the stone is destroyed early
  
• All clients in multiplayer are now correctly informed if a titan has been slain
  
• Fixed the Spirit Chamber flooring issue under the prop
  
• Fixed an issue which caused barracks to produce noise even when concealed by fog of war
  
• Fixed an issue where Stone Knights would not use the full range of available attack animations
  
• Beds are now correctly only shown if their tile is visible
  
• Fixed an odd case where a spirit could survive when dropped onto a Spirit Chamber prop
  
• Fixed a visual glitch that occured when viewing allied Sanctuaries
  
• Fixed a deserialization process in MightyQuest (Which impacted quite a small portion of campaign players)
  
• Fixed Survival not finishing on Core death
  
• Fixed a rare case where a Unit could still damage another while in Hand or outside Arena
  
• Adjusted win condition on C9 to prevent occurrences where it was not possible to win, despite achieving objectives
  
• Fixed and issue where the Bonechiller VFX could remain after the bonechiller is destroyed
  
• Fixed an issue where unit shields could get left behind if the unit was teleported away and then revived
  
• “Unit lost” alerts no longer play when Blood Money is cast on a minion
  
• Fixed an issue where Rituals were greyed out, when new Rituals were started and canceled, while a current Ritual was active
  
• Fixed an issue where doors would close automatically while a worker is fortifying an adjacent wall from inside the door, which pushed the worker, causing them to restart the task and thereby trapping them in a never ending circle of fortifying hell
  
• Fixed an issue where Constructs placed on higher terrain than ground zero (eg. Volcanic bridge) could never be sold
  
• Fixed an issue where the barracks in older saved games only had one training slot and only attracted half the correct amount of Gnarlings
  
• Fixed an issue where flying units fruitlessly tried to fly on the top of walls, causing no visible issues but a few background errors which in turn lead to lag
  
• The Sin Orb will now correctly flash when Mendechaus reminds the player they have a sin available
  
• Clients in multiplayer can now correctly see the units current activity in tooltip, unit panel and warband detail panels
  
• Fixed an issue where clients in multiplayer were unable to add units to the peace band/group
  
• Fixed an issue which didn’t inform the UI for clients in multiplayer about an active rally flag, preventing the rally flag cancel button from being correctly highlighted
  
• Fixed several issues found in user logs which may resolve some unreported bugs or lag issues
  
• Fixed an issue where loading an original campaign level while playing heart of gold or vice versa would cause the player to load with an incorrect Underlord colour
  
• Fixed an issue where enemies killed in the arena would take an extended period of time (to rot and disappear) before their fight slot was once again made available. Enemies slain in the arena now disappear after 3 seconds (down from 120)
  
• Fixed an issue on Heart of Gold level 4 where the work slot of a prop could be moved outside of map bounds, making minions unable to find them
  
• Fixed an issue where minions that are immune to lava damage were still taking damage from lava if dropped directly onto it from the Underlord’s hand.

That covers this patch for now. Rest assured we’ll be keeping our eyes on your feedback and there’s plenty more to come in the oncoming weeks and months.

Cheers!

– Brightrock Games Team

Click here to discuss this update on our forums
Click here to chat about this update on our Discord

Never miss an update! Sign up to our newsletter!

Darkest Greetings Underlord,

Reception to Heart of Gold and patch 1.4 has been absolutely fantastic, we’re pleased to see so many of you enjoying the latest iteration of War for the Overworld. As we promised yesterday we have a new minor but not insubstantial patch for you today, chocked full of features and fixes based off community feedback.

It’s also a good day to be a DRM-Free player as we’re finally updating the build from v1.2.3 to this very patch. That means you can finally put the map editor to use and experience all the improvements we delivered in Patch 1.4.

We’re sure you’re eager to see what’s changed so without further ado read on Underlord!

• The DRM-Free build of War for the Overworld has been updated to v1.4.1, if you own the DRM-Free version you can download it via Humble
  
• Achievements & Unlockables have been added to the DRM-Free version
  
• Be aware Heart of Gold, Steam Workshop, and several other features are not present in the DRM-Free build as they rely on the Steamworks API (see the DRM-Free FAQ)

• Revealed areas that are not actively part of current gameplay (such as the top of neutral terrain) are now darkened
  
• Important gameplay elements such as gold and claimed territory remain lit
  
• This causes these elements of the game pop more compared to the background and helps to reinforce a darker atmosphere while allowing lighting to shine
  
• https://youtu.be/GSFm0pTdf5Y

• We’ve normalized the unit spawning values so you can more reliably figure out how large a room needs to be to attract a certain number of units.
  
• 1 Prop per unit:
  
  • Sanctuary - Cultist or Priestess
    
  • Archive - Cultist or Priestess
    
  • Foundry - Chunder or Warden
    
  • Barracks - Gnarling or Templar
• 1.5 Props per unit:
  
  • Spirit Chamber - Witch Doctor
    
  • Alchemy Lab - Crackpot or Firebreather
    
  • Torture Chamber - Succubus or Inquisitor
    
  • Crypt - Necromancer or Matriarch
• 2 Props per unit
  
  • Garrison - Augre or Juggernaut
• 4 Props per unit
  
  • Arena - Beastmaster or Huntress (Every flat edge tile counts as a ‘prop’)
• Room tooltips have been updated to display this information.

• Added a glow effect to active rally flags, making it clear which flags are currently active
  
• Warbands are now automatically expanded when active, displaying the cancel button
  
• Improved look of the ability selection in possession UI and added a little number above each ability to show their associated hotkey
  
• Room tooltips now show how many units the room has attracted versus how many units it can possibly attract at its current size
  
• It is now possible to switch abilities in Possession with the scrollwheel
  
• Improved accuracy of the “Zoom To” function eg. when a unit portrait or any other button is right clicked.

• The “Heart of Gold Now Available” and “Access Heart of Gold” arrows can now be dismissed permanently by clicking a small X button
  
• Updated the descriptions of several Skirmish maps

• Construction Ritual will now explain that it cannot construct Outposts on certain maps
  
• Upgraded Barracks Tooltip now correctly accounts for training support slots which can be used by Gnarlings to support other minions

• Unidentified artefacts are now random by default, if no weight is set for any effect (previously these would always identify as gold artefacts)
  
• Neutral defences can no longer be placed (they were not fully supported and resulted in various issues)
  
• Existing Neutral defences on custom maps will self-destruct upon map start

• Removed a sequence in Level 11 where the player was forced to view the introduction of a summoning stone

• Delayed the initial rush by Underlord Draven by an additional 4 minutes. Allowing the player more time to prepare

• Resolved an issue that prevented roaming parties of heroes from attacking your dungeon and providing a steady source of bodies to turn to gold...

• Reduced the level and number of units that attack the player as they defeat enemy bosses

• Sentinels and Stone Knights can now be dismissed by throwing them into a Gateway
  
• It is now possible to transform critters (micropiglets and rats) into golden statues with the Blood Money spell

• Improved the memory and processor footprint of critters (micropiglets and rats)

• Added sounds to Lava, Lava Falls and Water

• “You have found a neutral minion” alert now correctly plays only when a unit joints your side rather than when it is just visible to any player
  
• Fixed Taverns in Seastead II and Flood
  
• Fixed HoG outro narrator line could play too fast if user was had game speed set to 150%
  
• HoG2 - Empire forces no longer scream when leaving the combat zone peacefully… how disappointing...
  
• Disabled one of the Matriarch’s abilities in the Arena to prevent incorrect behaviour
  
• Sappers no longer require sleep, enhancing their performance in several campaign levels. The same cannot be said for coders.
  
• Fixed a repeating voice line on level 2
  
• Fixed level 13 waves being blocked by the main siege door
  
• Fixed an issue with the Glacial door which could occur upon loading a saved game
  
• While chatting in multiplayer games the spacebar won’t skip our beloved narrator’s lines
  
• Beds are once again correctly removed in multiplayer games
  
• Clients in multiplayer games will now see units XP correctly
  
• Clients in multiplayer games will now correctly see units training in Barracks
  
• Titan Stone spawning VFX will now disappear if the stone is destroyed early
  
• All clients in multiplayer are now correctly informed if a titan has been slain
  
• Fixed the Spirit Chamber flooring issue under the prop
  
• Fixed an issue which caused barracks to produce noise even when concealed by fog of war
  
• Fixed an issue where Stone Knights would not use the full range of available attack animations
  
• Beds are now correctly only shown if their tile is visible
  
• Fixed an odd case where a spirit could survive when dropped onto a Spirit Chamber prop
  
• Fixed a visual glitch that occured when viewing allied Sanctuaries
  
• Fixed a deserialization process in MightyQuest (Which impacted quite a small portion of campaign players)
  
• Fixed Survival not finishing on Core death
  
• Fixed a rare case where a Unit could still damage another while in Hand or outside Arena
  
• Adjusted win condition on C9 to prevent occurrences where it was not possible to win, despite achieving objectives
  
• Fixed and issue where the Bonechiller VFX could remain after the bonechiller is destroyed
  
• Fixed an issue where unit shields could get left behind if the unit was teleported away and then revived
  
• “Unit lost” alerts no longer play when Blood Money is cast on a minion
  
• Fixed an issue where Rituals were greyed out, when new Rituals were started and canceled, while a current Ritual was active
  
• Fixed an issue where doors would close automatically while a worker is fortifying an adjacent wall from inside the door, which pushed the worker, causing them to restart the task and thereby trapping them in a never ending circle of fortifying hell
  
• Fixed an issue where Constructs placed on higher terrain than ground zero (eg. Volcanic bridge) could never be sold
  
• Fixed an issue where the barracks in older saved games only had one training slot and only attracted half the correct amount of Gnarlings
  
• Fixed an issue where flying units fruitlessly tried to fly on the top of walls, causing no visible issues but a few background errors which in turn lead to lag
  
• The Sin Orb will now correctly flash when Mendechaus reminds the player they have a sin available
  
• Clients in multiplayer can now correctly see the units current activity in tooltip, unit panel and warband detail panels
  
• Fixed an issue where clients in multiplayer were unable to add units to the peace band/group
  
• Fixed an issue which didn’t inform the UI for clients in multiplayer about an active rally flag, preventing the rally flag cancel button from being correctly highlighted
  
• Fixed several issues found in user logs which may resolve some unreported bugs or lag issues
  
• Fixed an issue where loading an original campaign level while playing heart of gold or vice versa would cause the player to load with an incorrect Underlord colour
  
• Fixed an issue where enemies killed in the arena would take an extended period of time (to rot and disappear) before their fight slot was once again made available. Enemies slain in the arena now disappear after 3 seconds (down from 120)
  
• Fixed an issue on Heart of Gold level 4 where the work slot of a prop could be moved outside of map bounds, making minions unable to find them
  
• Fixed an issue where minions that are immune to lava damage were still taking damage from lava if dropped directly onto it from the Underlord’s hand.

That covers this patch for now. Rest assured we’ll be keeping our eyes on your feedback and there’s plenty more to come in the oncoming weeks and months.

Cheers!

– Brightrock Games Team

Click here to discuss this update on our forums
Click here to chat about this update on our Discord

Never miss an update! Sign up to our newsletter!

Darkest Greetings Underlord,

On the 31st of May we undertook our third ever Reddit AMA. We invited all members of our community to participate by asking us anything that came to mind, and we have to say we were incredibly impressed with the turnout.

For those who missed it you can read the whole thing here. Otherwise sit back whilst we regale you with some of the highlights.


Dr Kersh kicked us off with the big questions

#Discussions_QuoteBlock_Author

Q: Do you regret releasing the game in a beta state and getting not so good reviews vs what would you get now?

Do you have plans to re-release it as a goty edition to try to get new reviews?
How many more big DLC have you planed for the game?

#Discussions_QuoteBlock_Author

Most definitely. It has been the single biggest failure in our short history so far. Even today if you search for our game on YouTube you'll find TotalBiscuit's harsh but completely fair preview of the release version as the top result. There is no doubt that kind of initial reception hurts us even today, over a year later.

Those are the cards we played. We're on the other side of it now and pushing our hardest to recover from it. This latest release goes a long way from the games' perspective, but possibly more importantly I think it has improved our relationship with our fans - We're not here to make a quick buck and run. We want to build a reputation for a quality dev house.

#Discussions_QuoteBlock_Author

1. Yes and no. Yes because, well, it was pretty awful all around. There's no denying that and no excusing it. But we simply had no other choice other than not releasing the game at all - the entire team had gone several months without pay and various other things were already in motion, the boxed release being one.

2. We attempted to do that when releasing this DLC and get very little traction with the press, both traditional and enthusiast. A 'complete' edition later after all planned content is released may be something else we try, but that's still a while away!

3. Can't say for sure right now. We've got some free content already in the works though - more info in this answer.

Shazzam606060 looks for some advise on how to kickstarter his career as a voice actor.

#Discussions_QuoteBlock_Author

How did you do the voice work for the game? I was/am looking to get into doing some voice acting, specifically for video games, and frankly it seems that the barrier to entry is quite daunting, so any tips or advice for someone to either get into game design or VO would be amazing.

#Discussions_QuoteBlock_Author

For VA, we worked with an arseload of incredibly talented people. Richard Ridings, Lani Minella, Stephen Fitts, Lauren Synger to name a few. They made bringing these characters to life an absolute pleasure.

I got into acting on an amateur level back in 2009. I don't think I actually recorded anything that didn't make me cringe until this time last year.

As with most things, it's really about practice, and hurling yourself at the work for as long as it takes to hone your craft. A couple of general things:

You don't need an extravagant mic to record something worth listening to.
Listen to yourself. If it makes your testicles shrivel back up inside your body, get used to it. Being good is on the other side of that wall, and the only way is through.

Dick around. Experiment with voices. Learn accents. Go psychotic on car rides. Mastering the vocal apparatus is an extended learning process, and one of the best ways is to play with it. Have fun with performance, it'll keep you going.

As for penetrating the industry: send demos to people! Take a look around subreddits like /r/gamedevclassifieds or /r/recordthis, the indieDB boards, the TES/Fallout mod communities, whatever it takes to get practice in while making connections. If you're good, you enjoy it, and you try, you'll inevitably find something.

I wish you the best of luck. It's a riot.

Arscortica takes an interest in the artisitc side of development and Pat’s all too happy to answer.

#Discussions_QuoteBlock_Author

Q: As far as visual design goes:

Was it your intention to have WftO appear a little bit darker/mature than the original DK games? I.e., in the design of design of the torture chamber (and the actual pained screams coming from it), the blood-filled sanctuary, and the spirit chamber?

I'm curious about the visual design ideas behind the Beastmaster and the Behemoth. For the former, most people probably would have expected some kind of minotaur rather than a micropiglet of unusual size. Meanwhile, the Behemoth with its enormous tusks sorta reminds me of a mix between the Demon of Doom Classic and a (very large) zergling from Starcraft 1.

Just in how far was the Huntress inspired by the Demon Hunter class from Diablo three? Or was it more of a case of convergent evolution?

#Discussions_QuoteBlock_Author

Both the tone and the lighting have been intentionally made darker to push the flavour of our vision for this game. It’s been challenging balancing these aspects to a level we were happy with, making sure we kept in mind both our audience and the performance of the game. Making sure the atmosphere we intended to create worked in conjunction with the readability of all the units and rooms, was something that also took multiple iterations and much consideration.

It’s been really interesting gauging the suitable balance between gore and humour across the whole game. It was important for us to pay homage to this genre of game whilst pushing it out further with our ideas. Certainly the characters are indicative of this mixture of classic designs and more unique ones. The Behemoth is a personal favourite of mine, developed by our concept artist, Bobby. I can see the aspects it draws from different designs which make it feel very suited in the War for the Overworld setting, but it has a freshness which makes it really different from the traditional dungeon creatures.

I like the likeness in your description of the Behemoth. I see it more as the lovechild between a cat and a mutated dinosaur. I think a convergent evolution has been common in the process of most designs since we wanted to mix familiarity and recognisability with our own style.

Meanwhile Dante asks all the questions you needed to know about Richard Ridings.

#Discussions_QuoteBlock_Author

Does Richard Ridings have a firm handshake? Is he as awesome as he seems? How did he get to be so big and strong?

#Discussions_QuoteBlock_Author

Richard Ridings handshake is as firm as a steel girder.

He is even more awesome than he seems, so awesome that his voice will melt you if you're exposed outside of protective gear.

He became strong by voicing the Mountain in Game of Thrones and eating Peppered pigs.

There’s so many more questions that we answered; many about the state of the game, upcoming content or even a little on future projects. Be sure to drop by and read it all!

For now we’ll be leaving you with news that Patch 1.4.1 will be releasing tomorrow! There’s a few small features requested by the community included as well as dozens of fixes and other tweaks, we hope you’re looking forward to it!

Cheers!

– Brightrock Games Team

Click here to discuss this update on our forums
Click here to chat about this update on our Discord

Never miss an update! Sign up to our newsletter!

Darkest Greetings Underlord,

On the 31st of May we undertook our third ever Reddit AMA. We invited all members of our community to participate by asking us anything that came to mind, and we have to say we were incredibly impressed with the turnout.

For those who missed it you can read the whole thing here. Otherwise sit back whilst we regale you with some of the highlights.


Dr Kersh kicked us off with the big questions

#Discussions_QuoteBlock_Author

Q: Do you regret releasing the game in a beta state and getting not so good reviews vs what would you get now?

Do you have plans to re-release it as a goty edition to try to get new reviews?
How many more big DLC have you planed for the game?

#Discussions_QuoteBlock_Author

Most definitely. It has been the single biggest failure in our short history so far. Even today if you search for our game on YouTube you'll find TotalBiscuit's harsh but completely fair preview of the release version as the top result. There is no doubt that kind of initial reception hurts us even today, over a year later.

Those are the cards we played. We're on the other side of it now and pushing our hardest to recover from it. This latest release goes a long way from the games' perspective, but possibly more importantly I think it has improved our relationship with our fans - We're not here to make a quick buck and run. We want to build a reputation for a quality dev house.

#Discussions_QuoteBlock_Author

1. Yes and no. Yes because, well, it was pretty awful all around. There's no denying that and no excusing it. But we simply had no other choice other than not releasing the game at all - the entire team had gone several months without pay and various other things were already in motion, the boxed release being one.

2. We attempted to do that when releasing this DLC and get very little traction with the press, both traditional and enthusiast. A 'complete' edition later after all planned content is released may be something else we try, but that's still a while away!

3. Can't say for sure right now. We've got some free content already in the works though - more info in this answer.

Shazzam606060 looks for some advise on how to kickstarter his career as a voice actor.

#Discussions_QuoteBlock_Author

How did you do the voice work for the game? I was/am looking to get into doing some voice acting, specifically for video games, and frankly it seems that the barrier to entry is quite daunting, so any tips or advice for someone to either get into game design or VO would be amazing.

#Discussions_QuoteBlock_Author

For VA, we worked with an arseload of incredibly talented people. Richard Ridings, Lani Minella, Stephen Fitts, Lauren Synger to name a few. They made bringing these characters to life an absolute pleasure.

I got into acting on an amateur level back in 2009. I don't think I actually recorded anything that didn't make me cringe until this time last year.

As with most things, it's really about practice, and hurling yourself at the work for as long as it takes to hone your craft. A couple of general things:

You don't need an extravagant mic to record something worth listening to.
Listen to yourself. If it makes your testicles shrivel back up inside your body, get used to it. Being good is on the other side of that wall, and the only way is through.

Dick around. Experiment with voices. Learn accents. Go psychotic on car rides. Mastering the vocal apparatus is an extended learning process, and one of the best ways is to play with it. Have fun with performance, it'll keep you going.

As for penetrating the industry: send demos to people! Take a look around subreddits like /r/gamedevclassifieds or /r/recordthis, the indieDB boards, the TES/Fallout mod communities, whatever it takes to get practice in while making connections. If you're good, you enjoy it, and you try, you'll inevitably find something.

I wish you the best of luck. It's a riot.

Arscortica takes an interest in the artisitc side of development and Pat’s all too happy to answer.

#Discussions_QuoteBlock_Author

Q: As far as visual design goes:

Was it your intention to have WftO appear a little bit darker/mature than the original DK games? I.e., in the design of design of the torture chamber (and the actual pained screams coming from it), the blood-filled sanctuary, and the spirit chamber?

I'm curious about the visual design ideas behind the Beastmaster and the Behemoth. For the former, most people probably would have expected some kind of minotaur rather than a micropiglet of unusual size. Meanwhile, the Behemoth with its enormous tusks sorta reminds me of a mix between the Demon of Doom Classic and a (very large) zergling from Starcraft 1.

Just in how far was the Huntress inspired by the Demon Hunter class from Diablo three? Or was it more of a case of convergent evolution?

#Discussions_QuoteBlock_Author

Both the tone and the lighting have been intentionally made darker to push the flavour of our vision for this game. It’s been challenging balancing these aspects to a level we were happy with, making sure we kept in mind both our audience and the performance of the game. Making sure the atmosphere we intended to create worked in conjunction with the readability of all the units and rooms, was something that also took multiple iterations and much consideration.

It’s been really interesting gauging the suitable balance between gore and humour across the whole game. It was important for us to pay homage to this genre of game whilst pushing it out further with our ideas. Certainly the characters are indicative of this mixture of classic designs and more unique ones. The Behemoth is a personal favourite of mine, developed by our concept artist, Bobby. I can see the aspects it draws from different designs which make it feel very suited in the War for the Overworld setting, but it has a freshness which makes it really different from the traditional dungeon creatures.

I like the likeness in your description of the Behemoth. I see it more as the lovechild between a cat and a mutated dinosaur. I think a convergent evolution has been common in the process of most designs since we wanted to mix familiarity and recognisability with our own style.

Meanwhile Dante asks all the questions you needed to know about Richard Ridings.

#Discussions_QuoteBlock_Author

Does Richard Ridings have a firm handshake? Is he as awesome as he seems? How did he get to be so big and strong?

#Discussions_QuoteBlock_Author

Richard Ridings handshake is as firm as a steel girder.

He is even more awesome than he seems, so awesome that his voice will melt you if you're exposed outside of protective gear.

He became strong by voicing the Mountain in Game of Thrones and eating Peppered pigs.

There’s so many more questions that we answered; many about the state of the game, upcoming content or even a little on future projects. Be sure to drop by and read it all!

For now we’ll be leaving you with news that Patch 1.4.1 will be releasing tomorrow! There’s a few small features requested by the community included as well as dozens of fixes and other tweaks, we hope you’re looking forward to it!

Cheers!

– Brightrock Games Team

Click here to discuss this update on our forums
Click here to chat about this update on our Discord

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Greetings All,

We've just unleashed another hotfix patch unto the world and this one includes fixes for a large number of user reported issues.

Remember if you're suffering from an issue please report it to us on our Bug Tracker!


In-Game UI

• Improved the contrast of the gold cost numbers for payday overlay
  
• Added secondary icon for Artefact identified notification
  
• Added secondary icons for Ritual ready and Ritual activated notifications (to differentiate own, ally and enemy rituals)
  
• Removed active state tooltip from gold vortex, instead the gold vortex is now always active.

Menus

• Added a new loading screen drawing

All Home Realms

• Your Dungeon Core is now correctly indestructible
  
• Fixed Kasita’s identity crisis - She no longer identified as Oberon

HoG1 - The Wizard

• Fixed the reminder to use blood money on Mandalf

HoG2 - The Summoning Stone

• Cultists are now correctly grabbable after being affected by a booby trap

HoG3 - The Colossus

• Fixed the “Gold Statue” achievement

HoG4 - The Heart of Gold

• Fixed a potential issue preventing entrance by the west gate

C3 - The Breach

• Closed the door next to O’Theland, so he once again has some privacy (to brush his hair)

• Optimized audio assets, as a result memory usage has been reduced by approximately 600MB
  
• Optimized a number of subsystems, increasing FPS on large maps with large numbers of units by 15% to 20%

• The game will now provide an informative error dialogue before quitting if an issue is encountered during loading.
  
• Fixed an exploit where the Help button could be used to scout/cheat in multiplayer
  
• Fixed an issue where high level units (with wages between 1000 and 1333) would suddenly stop doing jobs (eg. Torture, Potion brewing, Ghoul summoning, Garrison recharge, ...) after having payday
  
• Fixed gold statues counting towards the player’s population and thus slowing down the spawn rate from gateways
  
• Fixed support units (eg. healers) incorrectly applying their buffs (eg. Heal) to units in range while they sleep (which made them visually toggle from sleeping to buffing animation)
  
• Huntress now fights with her full toolset, she can once again get rid of Vampires forever!
  
• Fixed an issue with Vampires failing to drink blood from victims in a loop, causing the game to lag
  
• Fixed an issue where your own units could die after fighting in the arena, if they got a damage input modifying debuff applied (such as the Cultist’s “Desecration” ability.)
  
• Fixed imprisoned empire units didn’t move inside the prison, when they were following a patrol route
  
• Fixed the “Barracks too small” notification. This popped only when the Barracks was big enough, while it was supposed to notify the opposite
  
• Fixed an issue that caused a crash on game load due to a Japanese language translation mod which was out of date
  
• Fixed an issue which prevented Augres from recharging the Garrison Aura, when the game was saved and loaded after the Aura was halfway depleted
  
• Fixed that Cultists ignore newly added channeling slots in the Sanctuary, when it is enlarged while a Ritual is channeled
  
• Fixed possession doors sometimes playing their lock sounds in unintended circumstances
  
• Fixed a lot of subtle and minor errors and issues found in player logs
  
• Fixed an issue where unused Veins of Evil slots would show lock icons, making the player think it was inaccessible content
  
• Fixed an issue where the payday overlay can extend past the gold bar when payments are higher than 100% of owned gold

That about does it for now enjoy!

Cheers!

- Brightrock Games Team

Greetings All,

We've just unleashed another hotfix patch unto the world and this one includes fixes for a large number of user reported issues.

Remember if you're suffering from an issue please report it to us on our Bug Tracker!


In-Game UI

• Improved the contrast of the gold cost numbers for payday overlay
  
• Added secondary icon for Artefact identified notification
  
• Added secondary icons for Ritual ready and Ritual activated notifications (to differentiate own, ally and enemy rituals)
  
• Removed active state tooltip from gold vortex, instead the gold vortex is now always active.

Menus

• Added a new loading screen drawing

All Home Realms

• Your Dungeon Core is now correctly indestructible
  
• Fixed Kasita’s identity crisis - She no longer identified as Oberon

HoG1 - The Wizard

• Fixed the reminder to use blood money on Mandalf

HoG2 - The Summoning Stone

• Cultists are now correctly grabbable after being affected by a booby trap

HoG3 - The Colossus

• Fixed the “Gold Statue” achievement

HoG4 - The Heart of Gold

• Fixed a potential issue preventing entrance by the west gate

C3 - The Breach

• Closed the door next to O’Theland, so he once again has some privacy (to brush his hair)

• Optimized audio assets, as a result memory usage has been reduced by approximately 600MB
  
• Optimized a number of subsystems, increasing FPS on large maps with large numbers of units by 15% to 20%

• The game will now provide an informative error dialogue before quitting if an issue is encountered during loading.
  
• Fixed an exploit where the Help button could be used to scout/cheat in multiplayer
  
• Fixed an issue where high level units (with wages between 1000 and 1333) would suddenly stop doing jobs (eg. Torture, Potion brewing, Ghoul summoning, Garrison recharge, ...) after having payday
  
• Fixed gold statues counting towards the player’s population and thus slowing down the spawn rate from gateways
  
• Fixed support units (eg. healers) incorrectly applying their buffs (eg. Heal) to units in range while they sleep (which made them visually toggle from sleeping to buffing animation)
  
• Huntress now fights with her full toolset, she can once again get rid of Vampires forever!
  
• Fixed an issue with Vampires failing to drink blood from victims in a loop, causing the game to lag
  
• Fixed an issue where your own units could die after fighting in the arena, if they got a damage input modifying debuff applied (such as the Cultist’s “Desecration” ability.)
  
• Fixed imprisoned empire units didn’t move inside the prison, when they were following a patrol route
  
• Fixed the “Barracks too small” notification. This popped only when the Barracks was big enough, while it was supposed to notify the opposite
  
• Fixed an issue that caused a crash on game load due to a Japanese language translation mod which was out of date
  
• Fixed an issue which prevented Augres from recharging the Garrison Aura, when the game was saved and loaded after the Aura was halfway depleted
  
• Fixed that Cultists ignore newly added channeling slots in the Sanctuary, when it is enlarged while a Ritual is channeled
  
• Fixed possession doors sometimes playing their lock sounds in unintended circumstances
  
• Fixed a lot of subtle and minor errors and issues found in player logs
  
• Fixed an issue where unused Veins of Evil slots would show lock icons, making the player think it was inaccessible content
  
• Fixed an issue where the payday overlay can extend past the gold bar when payments are higher than 100% of owned gold

That about does it for now enjoy!

Cheers!

- Brightrock Games Team

Greetings All,

We've just unleashed another hotfix patch unto the world and this one includes fixes for a large number of user reported issues.

Remember if you're suffering from an issue please report it to us on our Bug Tracker!


In-Game UI

• Improved the contrast of the gold cost numbers for payday overlay
  
• Added secondary icon for Artefact identified notification
  
• Added secondary icons for Ritual ready and Ritual activated notifications (to differentiate own, ally and enemy rituals)
  
• Removed active state tooltip from gold vortex, instead the gold vortex is now always active.

Menus

• Added a new loading screen drawing

All Home Realms

• Your Dungeon Core is now correctly indestructible
  
• Fixed Kasita’s identity crisis - She no longer identified as Oberon

HoG1 - The Wizard

• Fixed the reminder to use blood money on Mandalf

HoG2 - The Summoning Stone

• Cultists are now correctly grabbable after being affected by a booby trap

HoG3 - The Colossus

• Fixed the “Gold Statue” achievement

HoG4 - The Heart of Gold

• Fixed a potential issue preventing entrance by the west gate

C3 - The Breach

• Closed the door next to O’Theland, so he once again has some privacy (to brush his hair)

• Optimized audio assets, as a result memory usage has been reduced by approximately 600MB
  
• Optimized a number of subsystems, increasing FPS on large maps with large numbers of units by 15% to 20%

• The game will now provide an informative error dialogue before quitting if an issue is encountered during loading.
  
• Fixed an exploit where the Help button could be used to scout/cheat in multiplayer
  
• Fixed an issue where high level units (with wages between 1000 and 1333) would suddenly stop doing jobs (eg. Torture, Potion brewing, Ghoul summoning, Garrison recharge, ...) after having payday
  
• Fixed gold statues counting towards the player’s population and thus slowing down the spawn rate from gateways
  
• Fixed support units (eg. healers) incorrectly applying their buffs (eg. Heal) to units in range while they sleep (which made them visually toggle from sleeping to buffing animation)
  
• Huntress now fights with her full toolset, she can once again get rid of Vampires forever!
  
• Fixed an issue with Vampires failing to drink blood from victims in a loop, causing the game to lag
  
• Fixed an issue where your own units could die after fighting in the arena, if they got a damage input modifying debuff applied (such as the Cultist’s “Desecration” ability.)
  
• Fixed imprisoned empire units didn’t move inside the prison, when they were following a patrol route
  
• Fixed the “Barracks too small” notification. This popped only when the Barracks was big enough, while it was supposed to notify the opposite
  
• Fixed an issue that caused a crash on game load due to a Japanese language translation mod which was out of date
  
• Fixed an issue which prevented Augres from recharging the Garrison Aura, when the game was saved and loaded after the Aura was halfway depleted
  
• Fixed that Cultists ignore newly added channeling slots in the Sanctuary, when it is enlarged while a Ritual is channeled
  
• Fixed possession doors sometimes playing their lock sounds in unintended circumstances
  
• Fixed a lot of subtle and minor errors and issues found in player logs
  
• Fixed an issue where unused Veins of Evil slots would show lock icons, making the player think it was inaccessible content
  
• Fixed an issue where the payday overlay can extend past the gold bar when payments are higher than 100% of owned gold

That about does it for now enjoy!

Cheers!

- Brightrock Games Team

Greetings Underlords,

Just issuing a quick reminder in case you missed it the first time. We'll be hosting a Reddit AMA at 7PM UK Time where you can ask us anything you want about WFTO, HoG, Game Development, our lives or well anything. Don't miss it!

Here's the full announcement:

Patch 1.4 and Heart of Gold are available now, and they’ve been met with an overwhelmingly positive response from you. We’re pleased that the changes we’ve made and the new expansion have met, and in some cases, exceeded your expectations!

Anyway we’d like you to know that we, the Brightrock Games team, will be holding an “Ask Me Anything (AMA)” discussion on Reddit and we’re eager to invite you all to join us and well... ask us anything!

Just pop on over to /r/IAmA at 7PM UK Time on Tuesday the 31st of May and we’ll be answering anything that comes in. We’ll have a few different members of the team from different disciplines so feel free to ask us questions on what it’s like to work in those fields, questions on WFTO, about our lives as indie devs or anything you can think of!

Team members who will be participating:

• Josh “Simburgur” Bishop - Creative Director
  
• Scott “Strich” Richmond - Programmer & Producer
  
• Tim White - Writer
  
• Patrick “Patackular” Hore - Art Director & 3D Artist
  
• Lee “Noontide” Moon - Community Manager
  
• Dante De Glanvill - SFX Artist, Voice of Duke Magnanimous and more!

We look forward to seeing you and your questions then!

Cheers!

– Brightrock Games Team

Click here to discuss this update on our forums
Click here to chat about this update on our Discord

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