Celebrating 6 years of Holdfast! September 21st 2023 marks 6 years since Holdfast initially released into Early Access way back in 2017. Since then Holdfast has seen multiple evolutions of the game including, new classes, factions, customisation, a free WW1 total-conversion DLC, the regiment registry and most recently the Howitzer artillery piece just to name a few.


The best thing about it all is that we’re not done yet… Anvil Game Studios are committed to further bettering the experience of this game we all love so dearly. Our development efforts for the remainder of the year and the year to come will continue to be focused on bringing the game into the new era and revolutionise this genre of Roleplay Shooters with new features and mechanics for players new and old. Development on more optimisations making the game increasingly more accessible is also currently ongoing.


Celebrating this remarkable feat, Holdfast and all its DLC’s can now be purchased at a discounted price for a limited time. Gather Holdfast on sale at 60% off and all of its cosmetic DLCs up to 55% off.

Base Game
https://store.steampowered.com/app/589290/Holdfast_Nations_At_War/

Collectors Edition
https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/13424/Holdfast_Collectors_Edition/

Napoleonic Pack
https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/25822/Napoleonic_Pack/

Great War Pack
https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/25824/Great_War_Pack/

These past 6 years have truly been a blast! The community has grown and evolved in ways that we could never truly have imagined. Your ongoing support and dedication are very much appreciated and we look forward to expanding the great Holdfast community even more.



We wholeheartedly thank you and until next time, may good health be yours. :oheart:

http://discordfastgame






- Anvil Game Studios

Refleax, Rycon, Dreas, Walki, Jackson, Rejenorst, Harper, Storey, UberJuice, Stan, Gest, Matt, Grandayy & Winston (The Cat).

Following suit with the previous update to the game this one too has a focus on optimisations, quality of life and bug fixing. However, this time this update will bring with it the return of the soldier medals with a whole new design ready to be displayed at your will on your playercards. Head over to the barracks to check these out.



Soldier medals are back! Now that we’ve tested the robustness of the new playercard system we’re pleased to announce the reintroduction of the class medals into the game. These medals have undergone a complete redesign and to better reflect the class they are associated to so you can display your skill as your favourite class with pride.


You can now also apply previously earned medals onto your playercard, display up to 4 medals from the same class medal on your playercard to showcase your veterancy.



The spectate system has also undergone a rework to make transitioning between player specific spectating and freecam easier, now you can easily swap between the two modes seamlessly by simply pressing ‘E’ (this can be rebound). Swapping to freecam from spectate on a specific player will enter freecam on the players position allowing for easy movement between the two modes.



In-game interaction icons have also been redesigned to compliment the latest UI overhaul and make for more distinguishable and understandable calls to action.


On the game optimisation front we've specifically taken a look at map loading times with this release. Our team will continue dishing out more improvements on this front in more Holdfast updates to follow.

Part of this change is an experimental new option for a reduced main menu which can be accessed by inputting -hddMode as a Steam game launch parameter. This lightweight version of the main menu currently in BETA is intended to aid individuals that have the game installed on a hard drive.



Be sure to take a read of the full change log to see the list of optimisations, bugs and quality of life features that have been addressed in this update. Thank you for your support and until next time, may good health be yours. :oheart:







Changelog 88 - Game Version 2.14.8661.23780

Count
● 3 new features and improvements.
● 11 quality of life additions.
● 4 optimisations.
● 3 graphical additions.
● 23 bug fixes.

Click here for the full change log.





- Anvil Game Studios

Refleax, Rycon, Dreas, Walki, Jackson, Rejenorst, Harper, Storey, UberJuice, Stan, Gest, Matt, Grandayy & Winston (The Cat).

Holdfast has been updated! Following the release of the Howitzer and UI update we’ve been hard at work fixing bugs, optimising and introducing some requested quality of life features to compliment the update.

Important Notices
● Individuals having issues launching the game on Steam Deck are advised to use Proton 8.0-3.
● Be sure to let us know in #bug-reports on http://discordfastgame if you experience further issues.

Known Issues
● We're aware of the chat not unfading when other players type in a chat.



Although extensive BETA testing was undertaken now and again things can slip through the gaps and getting the update into a stable state has been the priority the last few days as a result. Namely, optimisations have been implemented to return the game’s performance back to on par with previous iterations of the game.

Two crosshairs have also been introduced into the Nations At War selection, the 'Nail’ and the ‘Fixate’ crosshairs can now be applied from the game tab in the settings menu.



In addition to this, further customisation of the games UI can now be accessed via the settings, now players can change the colour of the health bar to either a solid red, gradient or dynamic bar.



Be sure to take a read of the full change log to see the list of optimisations, bugs and quality of life features that have been addressed with this hot fix. Thank you for your support and until next time, may good health be yours. :oheart:







Changelog 87 - Game Version 2.13.8650.21866

Count
● 2 new features and improvements.
● 6 quality of life additions.
● 3 optimisations.
● 1 server configuration additions.
● 35 bug fixes.

Click here for the full change log.





- Anvil Game Studios

Refleax, Rycon, Dreas, Walki, Jackson, Rejenorst, Harper, Storey, UberJuice, Stan, Gest, Matt, Grandayy & Winston (The Cat).

The time has come to announce the release of this long anticipated update. For some while now we have been hard at work rejuvenating both Holdfast’s frontend and backend in order to lay the foundations for the updates to follow.

Our goal is to make Holdfast more accessible to a wider audience while staying true to its core. This will prolong Holdfast’s shelf life so that you can continue enjoying Holdfast for many more years to come! This update will be the first big step in that direction.


This long requested artillery piece now makes its way to the battles of Holdfast. With its skilled based air burst and flying shrapnel this new disrupter of organisation will change the way engagements play out across the game.

Load a shot and set the fuse timer on the fuse interface then fire away and watch as chaos ensues from afar. Those wanting a more precise fuse timer can hold down 'Shift' by default and make smaller timing changes.



The Howitzer’s primary attack is the air burst, timing the fuse and judging the distance correctly will allow skilled artillerymen to burst the shell above the enemy causing the most damage and killing those closest.

Shells that land near or at the floor of the enemy will cause damage but will not kill unless they are directly on top of the shell.




One of the biggest changes to come to the game with this update is a complete redesign of the games user interface.

From the moment you launch the game and all the way until you finish a match you’ll see a whole new UI that has been designed and created to further improve the user experience and provide much needed modularity for future updates that the old UI simply didn’t allow for.





This is indeed a big change but comes with a whole new slew of features such as the new playercards, regiment leaderboards, barracks and customisation, in-game regiment registry and much more. There’s plenty to explore so hop on Holdfast and check out everything this new interface has to offer.




This initial introduction of playercards should be considered as a beta version of the full implementation as in updates to follow once we have tested and confirmed the robustness of the new systems, more portraits, banners, medals and unlocks will be available for players to complete specific challenges for.



All of the games DLC has been updated with this update to include unlocks for these and as the systems in place for this have long been in the game.

We’ve also taken appropriate measures to ensure that you can customise the in-game UI exactly to your liking by visiting the games settings menu. Want your minimap smaller or the chat in the bottom left? Simply set it in the settings as shown.



A new option has also been included for the end of round map voting screen. The selection has now been reduced to 3 maps with the 3rd of the options being a random map. This will load a random map from the servers rotation that is viable for the gamemode available in the vote.



Leaderboards have been completely redesigned and now regiments can compete for the top spot in their very own regimental leaderboards. These are seasonal leaderboards that will determine your regiment's position in the game's regiment registry during that season based on XP earned from public servers and official public events.



Another feature of the new user interface is the games in-game cosmetics only store. This new storepage will make purchasing and rewarding DLC's far simpler and enables us to introduce additional cosmetics such as portraits and banners alongside the other content found within the DLCs.



Each of the game's DLC's has been upgraded to include a unique portrait that can be applied in the barracks, some DLC's also include additional banners. You can preview everything you get by heading over the store and selecting a DLC.






Holdfast’s modding competition came to a close a few months back and we’re now ready to announce our winners. The art team took a look at each and every entry into the contest considering not only design but also execution. The level of quality compared to the previous forger contest truly showed how far the modding community has come and made the contest all that more difficult to judge.



Starting with the mapping contest in 1st place we have Spammy McJunkmail with their map Martense Point. This well crafted train yard village features plenty of height variation, close quarter fighting opportunities and flanking routes that all come together to produce a very splendid Frontlines battlefield.

A big congratulations to Spammy, we look forward to implementing this map into the game in the future.


(Martense Point by Spammy McJunkmail)

In 2nd place follows Kill’em with the map Port LeMerc. Set within sporadic islands this naval coastal siege map stood out as a very well designed battlefield for both ocean and siege engagements with its rocky cliff faces offering up a natural defence against the incoming invaders.


(Port LeMerc by Kill'em)

Finally, in 3rd place is Mattrobes and their map Little Map. A quaint little village sits within grassland and trees, segregated by broken fencerows this small map offered up a unique blend of urban and plains combat with plenty of cover within its overgrown outer fields for ambushing the enemy.


(Little Map by Mattrobes)

Now to announce our uniform contest winners, although there were less entries for this side of the contest, those we did receive were of some excellent quality. The attention to details and general execution of work was very impressive.

Kicking things off in 1st place with their entry to be added into the game is Binghampton and their Frontlines WW1 Winter Uniforms. In their dashing winter coats and fingerless gloves these uniforms will offer up some warmth and comfort for those engaging in combat in snow and rain.


(Frontlines Winter Uniforms by Binghampton)

Coming in 2nd place is ApexPhantom with his Napoleonic Winter Uniforms. Once more these fellows look incredible in their long-coats and shako coverings with plenty of variations to pick from. A truly splendid job well done.


(Napoleonic Winter Uniforms by ApexPhantom)

A big thanks to everyone who submitted entries into the contest; Father Merrin, Toonu, Kill’em, Binghampton, CevCon, El Presidente, NPC Charles, Ragnar, thiccpoot, MiSFiT77, Mattrobes, Meal, Maggot, jklirr, Spammy McJunkmail, Banana, Masdock, ApexPhantom, Arsen and AMBLCO


While the road has been long we're committed to bringing Holdfast into the new era and ensuring the game continues to thrive for many more years to come.

Work on the games next update already began some months ago and we're making good progress towards a BETA release in the not too distant future. There’s a whole lot more in store for Holdfast and beyond.

There are many more changes, features, bug fixes and quality of life additions being introduced in this update so be sure to check out the change log! Thank you for your support and until next time, may good health be yours. :oheart:


http://discordfastgame







Changelog 86 - Game Version 2.12.8647.22926

Count
● 18 new features and improvements.
● 6 quality of life additions.
● 28 gameplay additions.
● 7 optimisations.
● 6 graphical additions.
● 25 server configuration additions.
● 24 SDK additions.
● 45 bug fixes.

Click here for the full change log.





- Anvil Game Studios

Refleax, Rycon, Dreas, Walki, Jackson, Rejenorst, Harper, Storey, UberJuice, Stan, Gest, Matt, Grandayy & Winston (The Cat).

Greetings good fellows of the community! After many months of hard work we are now reaching ever closer to the release of the next major update. Internal quality assurance testing have been ongoing these past weeks and we have already undertaken early feedback sessions as we prepare to move into a larger scale closed BETA.

This update has taken some time, however, testing and polishing has been integral for bringing in a fresh lick of paint to the game and laying the foundations for the updates that will follow.



This update will bring with it an entirely redesigned user interface which will introduce some much needed modularity and scalability to the UI while also making Holdfast more accessible for all players.

One feature of this is the new ability to customise your soldier and playercard within the main menu. Before heading into battle, visit the barracks tab and customise your soldier for each and every nation. Any changes here will also be reflected within the in-game spawn menu.



*The above footage is a work in progress and may not be representative of the content upon release.

This introduction of the barracks will be the first phase of a new slew of cosmetic unlocks that will be obtainable through challenges coming with an update later this year. Playercard customisation for this update will be limited to begin with but we look forward to bringing in new medals, banners, weapon designs and much more into the barracks with the coming updates.

Rest assured that our commitment to Holdfast and its community remains as strong as ever! Revealing more of our plans for the year, sappers will be equipped with an improved arsenal of buildables.

The sapper was always intended to have a far great presence on the battlefield and the introduction of these new constructible objects will bolster their impact throughout matches and provide some far greater and robust defences to dynamically change up the battlefield with towers, palisades and much more.





Enlist and fight the foe today, over the hills and far away! Holdfast: Nations At War is now on sale at a grand 60% off! Complimenting this sale all of the games DLC is available at a discounted price for the duration of the Steam Summer Sale.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/589290/Holdfast_Nations_At_War/

https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/13424/Holdfast_Collectors_Edition/

https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/25822/Napoleonic_Pack/

Thank you for your patience and ongoing support.

On behalf of everyone at Anvil Game Studios, I wish you all, our dear community the best of health. :oheart:

http://discord.gg/holdfastgame







- Andrew ‘Refleax’ Farrugia
Game Director

On behalf of all the great folks at Anvil Game Studios.

Greetings good fellows of the community! We now step ever closer to the next update for Holdfast. The team are working endlessly to polish off this first of larger updates coming in 2023 all of which will aid in expanding and maintaining this great community we all love so dearly.

Soon we will be undertaking closed BETA sessions to test and gather feedback prior to the update's full release. While there is indeed a lot of change coming with this update it is a very important stage of our plans to ensure that players new and old can continue enjoying Holdfast for the years to come.


The newest members Gest, Matt and Grandayy slotted into the team effortlessly and have all already begun directly working on multiple sections of this next update coming to the game. They are all very excited for you to see what they have been working on.

Speaking of which, we’re pleased to announce that the long-awaited Howitzer artillery piece will be added to the game with this update. This new foe on the battlefield makes up what it lacks in range with devastating shrapnel explosions and blasts that will knock back those who are near.

Here’s a sneak peek of this beast of the battlefield.




*The above footage is a work in progress and may not be representative of the content upon release.

One of the changes coming to Holdfast with this update is an entire redesign of the game's user interface. Holdfast is a game that has been in development since 2013 and over the years, it has come to be rather dated in a lot of ways, often limiting the development of many features due to its lack of modularity.

Part and parcel of the above-mentioned redesign are customisable player cards. You will be able to brilliantly showcase your hard-earned achievements through a selection of customisable medals, portraits, titles and banners in your own style and liking. It will show to players you kill and also within the game’s leaderboards. These will be visible across all fronts of the game including Naval, Nations At War and Frontlines.

The initial introduction of these cards will have a limited pool of portraits, banners, titles and medals to pick from. Other updates will see the inclusion of a wide selection of customisable elements that can be unlocked by completing service challenges and feats of strength.

We’re doing this to limit the scope of the upcoming release ensuring that we’re able to deliver it to you as soon as humanly possible.



Our systems backend which cares for stats and experience collection as well as the regiment registry was similarly rudimentary in its construct. This severely limited our designers from enlisting features aiding with both community building and player retention. Needless to say, this was quite the involving task to see come to fruition but was a necessary step forward.

Thanks to these changes, the team has brought to life a more robust and responsive regiment registry along with various tools to bolster and assist with community building. The registry has also been made accessible whilst playing a match enabling new players to join a clan with ease.

Here’s a hint at some of the features that will be complimenting the new regiment registry in this coming update. Anvil Game Studios is determined to bring Holdfast into the new age all the while staying true to its core design values and pillars.


*The above image is a work in progress and may not be representative of the content upon release


Should you have yet to enlist and fight for Emperor or King, now’s the ripe moment to do so as Holdfast and all of its cosmetic DLCs will be on sale up to 55% off for a limited time! We hope to see you with us soon on the battlefield.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/589290/Holdfast_Nations_At_War/

https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/13424/Holdfast_Collectors_Edition/

https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/25822/Napoleonic_Pack/

We’ll have plenty more to show soon enough. On behalf of everyone at Anvil Game Studios, I wish you all, our dear community the best of health. :oheart:

http://discord.gg/holdfastgame







- Andrew ‘Refleax’ Farrugia
Game Director

On behalf of all the great folks at Anvil Game Studios.

Welcoming in the joys of spring Holdfast: Nations At War is now on sale at 60% off! Alongside this all of Holdfast’s dashing uniforms, loyalist and collectors edition DLCs can now also be picked up at 35% off their original price.

Since the release of the major update that introduced Austria, the DLCs for the games Napoleonic front have been expanded upon to include additional free uniforms for both the Austrians and the Italians. Check out the Napoleonic Pack and other DLCs below to get yourself suited and booted for the wars to come over the hills and far away.

Base Game
https://store.steampowered.com/app/589290/Holdfast_Nations_At_War/

Collectors Edition
https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/13424/Holdfast_Collectors_Edition/

Napoleonic Pack
https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/25822/Napoleonic_Pack/

Great War Pack
https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/25824/Great_War_Pack/

Complimenting this game sale players new and old to the community can gather an additional haul of 1.5x experience points on official servers starting today and lasting for the remainder of the Steam Spring Sale ending on the 23rd of March 2023.



Speaking about community, feel free to join us on Discord for a chat. It's a great pleasure of ours to chat with fellows having a go at our game! As always and until next time, may good health be yours. :oheart:

We're working on the next update.

http://discordfastgame







- Anvil Game Studios

Refleax, Rycon, Dreas, Walki, Jackson, Rejenorst, Harper, Storey, UberJuice, Stan, Gest, Matt, Grandayy & Winston (The Cat).

Greetings good fellows of the community! Continuing with our commitment to bringing Holdfast: Nations At War into the new age the team has been hard at work laying the foundations for our 2023 plans which are just as much exciting as they are ambitious.

Holdfast has always strived to break through boundaries and revolutionise this genre of roleplay shooters and our year ahead will remain focused on this target. Bringing forth the next chapter of Holdfast will ensure its continued growth and expansion of a community that we have all come to love so dearly.

Once more, we want to ensure that you can continue enjoying Holdfast for the years to come.

With this goal in mind, the Anvil Game Studios team has welcomed 3 additional talented individuals who will be joining us on this journey to uplift Holdfast, and community-focused games from the team beyond to newer and greater heights.



Those eagled-eyed fellows in the official Holdfast Discord server would have already noticed these new faces but as an official introduction, we now have the pleasure of introducing to you the latest members of the team.

Gest - DevOps

Joining us as part of our development operations he's the one that makes systems happen for developers to work efficiently. It is an instrumental role that will enable the team to produce larger, more inspiring releases.

Matt - Game Developer Int.

As an intermediate Game Developer, Matt will be heading the charge forward in our primary efforts to polish up the game ready for the current and next generation of Holdfast enjoyers to get their fix of musket and trench warfare for many more years to come.

Grandayy - Game Developer Jnr.

Covering all things Holdfast, Grandayy will be getting his hands dirty in bringing additional gameplay mechanics and content into the game to enhance the overall experience on the battlefield and at sea.

While the onboarding process of these new fellows does of course take time, especially with Holdfast’s impressive 1 million+ lines of codebase, through the mentoring of our seniors all these chaps have made excellent progress.

You can expect to see content in the game from them very soon.


Serving as a small show of thanks from us for enabling our creative visions to come to life and making a dream come true, starting on the 15th of March 2023 until the 24th of March 2023 players can hop on Holdfast and get an increase of 1.5x for all score earned on all official servers.

Join us on the above mentioned dates and feel free to say hello if you spot these new chaps in the game to bid them welcome!


Even with the team being busy to the brim onboarding these new individuals in the increasingly complex but awe-inspiring and rewarding field of game development, we're still set on bringing you more Holdfast content.

Be on the lookout for our next community-focused update targeting a late April release making accessible the regiment registry (clan system) while playing a match, bringing additional features to the said registry, a game-wide regiment chat, new leaderboards and much more.

This will all be coupled with a complete backend redesign of all the above-mentioned systems enabling us to continue expanding on similar features in the future. Holdfast is built on community and we want to continue showing our support as you have done so generously throughout these brilliant years.

On behalf of everyone at Anvil Game Studios, I wish you all, our dear community the best of health. :oheart:

http://discord.gg/holdfastgame







- Andrew ‘Refleax’ Farrugia
Game Director

On behalf of all the great folks at Anvil Game Studios.

We’re looking for the next Holdfast: Battlefield & Uniform to be added officially into the game!

It’s been almost a month since the 2nd Battlefield Forger contest kicked off and the time has come for a small update on the contest. The dedication of the artisans participating in the contest this year has encouraged us to further extend the contest by an additional 2 months making the new end date March 18th 2023.

This is to allow those partaking the time to truly explore and create their entry as they wish without the worry of a tight time constraint. Coinciding with this extension is the release of the new Holdfast: SDK Tutorial Series. These short but informative tutorials will provide an easy route for those interested in creating battlefields for Holdfast.

Holdfast: SDK Tutorial Series - View On YouTube


The submissions so far have been rather outstanding and we look forward to seeing what can be created within this new additional timeframe for the contest. Check out the Battlefield Forger 2.0 blog for more details on the contest and how to enter.

Battlefield Forger 2.0 Blog

Feeling inspired to get creative? Head over to the official Holdfast Discord server and obtain the Artisan role by visiting the #getting-started channel. There’s plenty of good fellows in there who can lend a helping hand should you need it too. :rheartr:

As always and until next time, may good health be yours.

http://discord.gg/holdfastgame






- Anvil Game Studios

Refleax, Rycon, Dreas, Wrexial, Walki, Jackson, Rejenorst, Harper, Storey, UberJuice, Stan, Headbusta, Gest & Winston (The Cat).

Greetings good fellows of the community. As another delightful year for Holdfast comes to an end, everyone at Anvil Game Studios has their sights set on yet another exciting and ambitious chapter.

It's been a whole 5 years since Holdfast saw a release on Steam Early Access back in 2017. Wondering about whats next for the team? Our commitment to Holdfast and its most-beloved community hasn’t changed.

Staying true to our vision that will bring Holdfast into the new age, in 2023 the team will continue focusing their efforts on a series of planned updates targeted at improving existing content to deliver a smoother experience. You will also not be left wanting new gameplay additions while all of this is ongoing. We have updates in store on that front as well within the same year.

Our strategy is fine-tuned with something big in mind for 2023. We want to ensure players of generations both old and new can continue enjoying Holdfast and all it has to offer for the years to come. To fully enjoy the beauty of multiplayer titles, it is instrumental that at any point during the day one can find like-minded individuals to play with.

You’ll soon have the pleasure of meeting talented new developers joining the team. Those in our Discord have seen some of these new faces cropping up already. We’ll be leaving official introductions for the coming year offering them some peace and quiet as they get accustomed to the codebase and everything else required to make games happen.

Stay tuned for more Holdfast. On behalf of everyone here at Anvil Game Studios, I wish you all, our dear community the best of health. May your 2023 be filled with great joy and happiness! :oheart:

http://discord.gg/holdfastgame







- Andrew ‘Refleax’ Farrugia
Game Director

On behalf of all the great folks at Anvil Game Studios.