Hey there folks!

The last opportunity for playing a public build of The Hand of Merlin has arrived! Today is the start of the Steam Games Festival: Autumn Edition, and we’re participating! If you haven’t tried it yet, there’s no time to lose! It only lasts until the 13th of October, after which we close shop until release!

The demo for this festival will be mostly similar to previous versions - the entire first zone of Albion is playable from start to end, culminating with a fight against a Behemoth. A large moth.
There are a lot of changes and improvements in this build, most notably around 25 new relics for you to either buy or find during your travels, and Mat has listened to your feedback and done some work on making the game easier by changing the stats on all enemies. Another thing we’ve introduced is gaining some attribute stats as your units rank up, which currently means that your units will gain small health bonuses per rank. The same feature technically allows for enemies to gain bonus stats based on their spawned rank, which allows us to bump their power slightly for later zones as your units get more powerful.



Additionally, we have changed how some of the gameplay mechanics work. At the start of the game, you are given the Grail from whoever rules Albion. The Grail is a relic that can be equipped on units, however, if that unit dies, the game is immediately over because relics are destroyed along with their heroes. The big change here is that the Grail has received its own stash slot, which means it cannot be lost due to combat, and if the unit carrying it dies, it automatically goes into that stash slot, preventing immediate loss. The old mechanic seemed interesting on paper, but after more playtesting, it was just too annoying and felt bad.
We still have some work planned to be done for the festival demo by the end of this week, so there will be a mid-festival update with an additional landmark encounter for the Stonehenge with an accompanying combat map, more particles for abilities, improvements to visuals, tweaks to AI and probably more stuff that are too detailed to list here. I’ll have to improve my “what’s changed” game once we start pushing out patch notes :-P



We will also have a live stream on Friday and maybe Monday, exact time should be available on the festival event schedule if you want to look it up front, and we’ll most likely post an event post an hour prior, so if you want to tune in, follow the Hand of Merlin page so you can get notified of this!

Tanks fur reeding. Join our Discord server to chat with us and axe questions about the game, we’re really a fun crowd! For instance, I love puns.

MarkoP

https://store.steampowered.com/app/600610/The_Hand_of_Merlin/

Hey there folks!

A little bird told me you really dig the story encounters in the Hand of Merlin and we're thrilled you like them so much! The driving force and the culprits behind all these stories are Jonas and Verena, husband and wife in literary crime.

Mia, our mighty quest designer, handles the mechanical setup of the encounters that pertain to flow, rewards and balancing, but it's Jonas and Verena who write all the lore and flavor texts.

As a heavily story-oriented game, for this Hand of Merlin blog post, I decided to do a quick interview with Jonas and Verena, so let's hear their side of the story.

Q: Hi Jonas & Verena! Where did you get the inspiration for the story for The Hand of Merlin?
A: The inspiration initially came from trying to find a type of story that would work well in a roguelike, allowing us to have story encounters without getting repetitive. From there we got to parallel universes, and then we hit on the way in which the many contradictory versions of the Arthurian stories complement that idea. We’ve also simply always had an interest in that material.

Q: How do you approach writing the story for individual zones? (i.e. Albion or Marca Hispanica)
A: A number of elements go into each encounter: overall theme, tone, research, etc., but the proportions change. So some are heavily based on some historical or literary detail specific to that region which we want to build upon (e.g. a character from Le Morte D’Arthur or a chanson de geste), while others are more about the atmosphere in general. Albion is a faded kingdom; in the Marca Hispanica we see the effects of constant religious warfare; whereas Al-Andalus is actually more civilized, but at the same time the Cataclysm is much more advanced there.

Q: Do you feel confined in the strict structure of the encounter templates?
A: Not really, since there’s plenty of flexibility, and if something really doesn’t work, we can talk about it and find a solution.

Q: How do you get started on writing individual encounters?
A: It usually starts with a core concept, either a premise (“you meet a robber in the woods”) or something drawn from worldbuilding needs (“the player should meet Sir Brastias”). Then we develop it as we write it, and later return to add more variations and details.



Q: How much do you collaborate with the designers?
A: We usually have weekly meetings to keep up to date, because there is some overlap between our jobs and both sides need to know what the other is doing.

Q: What is the biggest challenge you face when writing encounters?
A: Creating interesting choices for the player without being too random or punishing them too much. We have to keep players paying attention over multiple runs, but what happens must never feel arbitrary.

Q: Do you ever request a specific template for an encounter?
A: We need templates for classes of encounters so that we know we are serving the needs of the gameplay. If we have a specific idea for an encounter, that usually means we already know how to structure it. Then what we need to request is input on rewards/costs for the player, to keep the game balanced.

Q: What else do you write for The Hand of Merlin?
A: Pretty much everything, except blog posts. While there are some placeholder elements in the game currently, so the designers can do their thing, in the final product every item and spell and message should be part of a cohesive whole.

Q: What was the most fun/interesting thing to write?
A: The most fun to write is probably everything to do with the metagame progression and the deeper mysteries of Merlin’s universe because it’s like peeking behind the curtain and seeing where the legends come from.

Q: Do you ever get writer’s block when writing for the game? If yes, how do you get over it?
A: No. Getting stuck doesn’t have to do with writer’s block, but with unresolved narrative design issues. If you’re getting stuck, something is usually wrong and the only way out is to figure out what it is and fix it (or circumvent it).

Q: Would you like some ice cream?
A: Yes, we would like some ice cream.

Thanks for reading, and a big thank you to our writers for taking the time to answer these burning questions! If there’s anything you want to know that hasn’t been answered, come join our Discord server and ask! We’re all a friendly bunch!

MarkoP

https://store.steampowered.com/app/600610/The_Hand_of_Merlin/

Hey folks!

The Cataclysm monsters that are invading the world Merlin is trying to save are weird creatures that came from the minds of our creative art team. Says a lot about their weird heads, eh?

So far, we’ve shown 4 monsters through either the blog posts or the demo itself. The first demo we put out was structured for a 5 world location journey across two paths, with a total of 3 fights against a combination of Mandrake, Behemoth, and Wyvern enemies. This was during the Steam Summer Games Festival.
After that, we decided to apply/be on more events during the year, like the PAX event that just finished or Gamescom a few weeks ago. Our current event participation means that the current demo will be available all the way until September 27th (27.09.2020), when it’ll take a break from being ravaged by all you players, and then return strong for the Steam Autumn Games Festival on October 7th (07.10.2020) for some 6 days. The later demo should receive some fixes as we make them, but no new content is planned (not planned doesn’t mean there won’t be any added if we decide it’s worth it).

The monsters you’ve seen in the current demo won’t change, and we will likely keep the same structure for them for the full game as well. Mandrake, Wyvern, and Redcap are monsters you’ll be seeing during your Albion travels, with a Behemoth at the end. In Marca Hispanica we’ll be introducing the Thorntoad, with a Cockatrice at the end. In Al-Andalus, the sandy zone, we add the Lindworm to round up the monster roster (heh it rhymes). The final battle in Jerusalem will remain a secret.



Here’s a short development story: In our old engine, we had a worm enemy as well, given life by yours truly, and i made sure to make it as annoying as possible. It had an attack that ignored all obstacles, essentially lobbed a projectile at you from behind cover at a large range. So naturally, the AI moved that enemy to a position that was fully shielded from ALL of your units and attacked you from there. It also didn’t help it had unlimited movement range, to facilitate the fantasy of it burrowing into the ground and emerging just about anywhere. This meant you had to spend at least 1 action point to get to a position from which you can attack it, and spend the other action point to deal damage.
And the best part?
Every time you hit it, it split into two, each copy having half health of the original, then both copies moved into a new position.
The team hated it (and me through proxy), but I found it hilarious!
Hopefully, the new Lindworm won’t be as annoying, eh? :)



As a final note, some abilities and relics will have effects that apply only to these monsters. For instance, there is a relic that reduces damage against humans and increases damage against aliens. Mat wanted a different name instead of “aliens”, so the writers have come up with the term “abominations”, which we’ll use in all ability tooltips that affect them specifically.
What are your thoughts on this name? Give us your opinion on our Discord server, or in the comments!

MarkoP

https://store.steampowered.com/app/600610/The_Hand_of_Merlin/

Hey there!

PAX Online is currently ongoing, and it’s integrated with Steam, so a bunch of cool demos are available for playing. Our demo is also available, so make sure you try it if you haven’t already. It contains the entire zone of Albion, and includes an epic fight at the end of the zone! Some people on our Discord have even managed to win that fight without losing any units!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/600610/The_Hand_of_Merlin/

Speaking of units, in the demo there are six units you can start your run with. Our current idea is to have only three units available at the start, and the rest have to be unlocked as you play through the game. The idea was inspired by FTL, where you unlock ships as you play the game, as a meta progression aspect. There were mentions within the team that unlocking heroes isn’t ideal and there were some issues with it, so we’ll have to discuss what the final form of hero meta progression will be.
That said, there are three heroes in the game that are not available in the demo. Their descriptions below are pulled from our document describing them, as written by the writers.

The Warrior among them is Zahra al-Zakiyya: a young Arab woman, she has no use for faith and as such doesn't bother wearing a veil. Instead, she wears trousers and a revealing blouse, reasoning that if her sword fails her, she might have to rely on her feminine charms to get out of a tricky spot.

The Mystic’s name is Rumayla al-Qriqiyya: An older woman of Greek descent, grey-haired and wise. She is seeking to understand the cause of the Cataclysm.



The Ranger is called Salim al-Darir: a young archer in the caliph's army who lost his job when he accidentally shot his superior. Tall, gangly, maybe a bit goofy. He has been stripped of his rank and uniform, and as such his outfit is that of a commoner, but he still has his trusty bow. (dude is still missing a texture - he'll get there!)




You’ll be able to play with these heroes in the final game. Mat made sure that each hero has unique stats and interesting starting Skills, so every run should start differently, coupled with the fact encounters and special node locations are random in the world.
Thanks for reading! Come join our Discord server and tell us what you think about the game!

MarkoP

https://store.steampowered.com/app/600610/The_Hand_of_Merlin/

Wait... we're at PAX and The Hand of Merlin is a PAX Rising title? All of this feels surreal, and we're beyond excited to hear your thoughts on the demo.

Yes, the PAX Online demo is tweaked and ready, so download it now and drop by our Discord server and let us know the things you liked, and - we know this sounds farfetched - perhaps there are also things you didn't like!? We'll gather all the feedback at PAX and then tweak it some more until it's perfect! ːsteamhappyː

https://store.steampowered.com/app/600610/The_Hand_of_Merlin/

Hey there!

As you continue walking the earth an inching closer to your ultimate goal, you’ll have to pass through the region of Al-Andalus. As you progress through the game, we wanted to show as many distinct regions as possible. Albion is a region of greenery and pastures. Marca Hispanica is a region of mountains and snow. At some point during discussions on how the story might be structured, we settled on the third zone being a sand/desert/oasis type region.



Naturally, as you progress through the world, the Cataclysm becomes more violent and pervasive. The presence of alien enemies and environmental destruction is much more apparent and frequent. While Albion should have a fairly low amount of alien encounters, Al-Andalus will have a lot more of them. Each subsequent zone also introduces a new alien enemy, along with those previously seen (who should pose less of a threat due to upgrades and gained abilities). The world itself should have more corrupted nodes, and most encounters will tell a story of shit hitting the fan. Bandits are less frequent compared to Albion, but will probably still be there - likely in the form of infrequent opportunists, who should pose no threat to your ranked up and boosted party.



The maps themselves are much more corrupted by default. Since we are making a corrupted and non-corrupted version of every skirmish map, this means that the non-corrupted version will have some amount of corruption (let’s say 30%), while the corrupted version will be almost completely covered with alien goo (let’s say 70%). The contrast between the vibrant colors of the region and the alien corruption should be interesting to see.



Thanks for reading! Come join our Discord server if you wanna chat! We’re open to suggestions and answer all questions!

MarkoP

https://store.steampowered.com/app/600610/The_Hand_of_Merlin/

Hi folks!

So how did you like this year's Gamescom? While we prefer the actual event and getting to meet everyone in person, it sure was nice seeing The Hand of Merlin featured in the RPG section as one of 35 selected games, out of hundreds that applied!

More than 500 people played The Hand of Merlin Demo and we got some great feedback on our Discord server. Did you miss the chance to grab the demo? Read on!

We’ve talked about it and decided that the demo will be available only during the events in which we’re participating, ending with the Steam Games Festival: Autumn Edition. The demo will always be limited to the first zone, but we’ll keep updating it with any crash fixes, typo fixes, and gameplay rebalancing if needed. If you have anything to report, your best bet is to tell us over at our Discord server, where we’re always listening and trying to gather feedback for improvement. There will most likely be minor content additions as well, like an intro cutscene when the game starts, a couple of new skills, etc.

Half of the team is currently on vacation, so the rest of us has now moved on to making the rest of the game. The status of the rest of the game is as follows:

• The world map of zone 2 (Marca Hispanica) is done (but will receive visual tweaks), and zone 3 (Al-Andalus) is partially modeled and needs to be finished. Our lead artist assures me it’s quick work to finish it, and after that, it needs to be textured.
  
• The node network layouts for zone 2 are being worked on, but in general, they’re not difficult to create and aren’t a development bottleneck. The node network layouts for zone 3 will be coordinated with the world map model itself, but we have a good idea of how it’ll look in general.
  
• The encounters for zone 2 and zone 3 have to be written since each zone has its own unique setting and stories. Our quest designer Mia has created a bunch of templates for zone 1 which can be reused for all the other zones, and it comes down to our writing duo Verena&Jonas to write them in their specific style.
  
• There are 10 combat maps for each of the second and third zones, and our plan is to create around 5 more unique maps for each zone, and then create the alternative versions of them all (corrupted and non-corrupted version).
  
• There are 3 more monsters that haven’t been seen yet, and we have their abilities on paper, so those need to be created, and after those are working the AI needs to be done. Our tools allow us to quickly create both the abilities and AI, so those should be quick once we work out how the monsters should behave.
  
• Every ability available to player units has been created, and what’s left is mostly creating their upgrades, which should also be extremely easy for some (decreasing cooldown or cost), and just marginally difficult for others (ones that change how they work mechanically).
  
• Moar relics! Creating them is also pretty straightforward and fast.
  
• Particles and destructions of environment objects.

So as you can see, there’s work to be done, but everyone knows what they’re doing and we’re getting used to our tasks so the speed of production is increasing, we should have little trouble meeting the deadline for release. We’ll see what our plans are for post-release, and I’m sure I’ll communicate our plans once we get closer to that period of our lives.

If you haven’t tried the demo, don’t worry, there will be more opportunities for that during the coming weeks. If you have, come join our Discord server and tell us what you think!

MarkoP

https://store.steampowered.com/app/600610/The_Hand_of_Merlin/

Have you ever been to Gamescom? It's the biggest game show in the world. It's hot, humid, loud, exhausting, and expensive. Sometimes it rains, too. And we miss it all!

Well, maybe not all of it, and certainly not the crowds, but we do miss talking to everybody, watching people when they get their first victory in The Hand of Merlin, and cackling nervously when they ragequit after the wipe. :)

This is why we'd like you to at least drop by our Discord server and let us know how did you like the game:
https://discord.gg/ej8sjxx

Oh, didn't we tell you? The complete Albion Demo is available during this year's Gamescom as a limited time Demo on Steam - grab it today!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/600610/The_Hand_of_Merlin/

PS Please take a moment to support us by wishilisting and following The Hand of Merlin on Steam. Cheers!

Hey folks!

After the success of the Steam Summer Games Festival, we wanted to join some other conventions to show the game. Helps with marketing and getting the game a bit more visibility.
We’ve applied to several conventions (all of which are digital due to the alien invasion), and so far we’ve gotten a confirmation of attendance from GamesCom, PAX Online, Digital Dragons, Tokyo Game Show and the Steam Game Festival: Autumn Edition. They will all be linked to our upcoming demo on Steam which will feature the entire first zone of Albion playable. We’ve been running playtesting for the past week, and so far the internal feedback has been positive - which is a testament to the efforts made by Mia and Mat for the overworld gameplay and combat gameplay respectively. There are still bugs to fix, which MarkoZ and I are working on as fast as we can, and will most likely continue fixing as long as we get them reported.

The first of these conventions is GamesCom, which starts tomorrow (at least from what we’re told). The demo will be available normally through Steam, so should you play it, we’d appreciate any actionable feedback. Things that don’t work as expected, crashes, issues with UI, unexplained features, etc. I know Mat will be present in most of these discussions on our Discord server relating to gameplay, while I will be there for technical issues. We're still not 100% sure if the demo will be available between the conventions and festivals, so be sure to try it out just in case, and let us know what you think on the Discord!

I want to get back to fixing those pesky bugs we have on our issue tracking spreadsheet, so I’ll leave you with a few screenshots of the combat action. Join our Discord server if you wanna chat and report those bugs, and follow my Twitter so I can feel wanted.







MarkoP

Hey there!

As we’re working frantically on getting everything done for the impending demo, I wanted to show some of the maps you’ll be able to see in it.
Just a short preface: we’re making a demo of the game with the entire first zone playable. This includes enough encounters to have different experiences in consecutive runs, 3 heroes recruitable in case you lose some, all of the tier 1 Skills for all hero classes, the first 3 Spells for Merlin’s Guardian Core, about X Relics, etc. We’re hoping to get the demo into PAX and Gamescom for their digital shows, but even if we don’t get in, we’ll at least be able to give you the ability to play it and give feedback which we can use to improve the game for the final version. :)

So here are some screenshots. Join our Discord server if you wanna chat, and follow my Twitter for no reason.

















MarkoP