The game has been out for 24 hours already, and I can say I'm very pleased with the reception and enthusiasm from so many roleplayers worldwide. We're listed as #3 in "New and trending" on Steam main page, and the number of players seems to be on the rise. To all of you I say: Welcome to the Kingdoms, Adventurers!

There has been an update earlier this morning, which fixes a crash experienced by some players at the game start; if you have found this problem please make sure you update the game and it should go away.

That's it for now; I'd like to add that it makes me very happy to think of thousands of people worldwide enjoying the little adventures, surprises and mischief I've laid out for them. Enjoy!

The game has been out for 24 hours already, and I can say I'm very pleased with the reception and enthusiasm from so many roleplayers worldwide. We're listed as #3 in "New and trending" on Steam main page, and the number of players seems to be on the rise. To all of you I say: Welcome to the Kingdoms, Adventurers!

There has been an update earlier this morning, which fixes a crash experienced by some players at the game start; if you have found this problem please make sure you update the game and it should go away.

That's it for now; I'd like to add that it makes me very happy to think of thousands of people worldwide enjoying the little adventures, surprises and mischief I've laid out for them. Enjoy!

I'm pleased to announce there will be no delays on release, and the game will be out today. To make up for my long-winded rant about RPG balance on previous update, here's a brief and practical one with a little advice for beginners:

• Read the initial tutorial screens. They're not many, nor have much text, but what they explain will likely make the game quite more enjoyable for you.
  
• Choose difficulty carefully. I'd suggest Normal or Casual, read the differences in character creation menu.
  
• Configure your own key bindings. Per default the game is designed to be played with mouse + keys for the left hand, but it can be entirely played with mouse or keyboard if you prefer. You can set your own key bindings on the Settings menu.
  
• Save all the time. Maybe even change the default key binding for quicksave, F9. If you quicksave right before dying, don't worry, as you click Continue Game you can click on the yellow folder button and pick the autosave or a manual save.
  
• Read the journal!. It's easy to get lost and not knowing where to go next. The journal is your friend; even if sometimes it's deliberately vague, in most cases you'll be able to deduct your next step or at least in what direction it lies.
  
• Don't be afraid to explore. There's huge rewards and boosts that are hidden or away from the "main path". Take your time and wander around... sometimes you'll pay the price for your curiosity, but it'll often be worth it.
  
• It's all about quests. Quests will grant you the best rewards, both in terms of gear, XP and fun challenges. Do as many as you can and you'll progress nicely, without the need of grinding. Remember that there's no time limit on quests (except for Town Hall Quests, which will appropiately list the time limit in your journal)

That's all, I hope you enjoy playing the game as much as I enjoyed creating it.

I'm pleased to announce there will be no delays on release, and the game will be out today. To make up for my long-winded rant about RPG balance on previous update, here's a brief and practical one with a little advice for beginners:

• Read the initial tutorial screens. They're not many, nor have much text, but what they explain will likely make the game quite more enjoyable for you.
  
• Choose difficulty carefully. I'd suggest Normal or Casual, read the differences in character creation menu.
  
• Configure your own key bindings. Per default the game is designed to be played with mouse + keys for the left hand, but it can be entirely played with mouse or keyboard if you prefer. You can set your own key bindings on the Settings menu.
  
• Save all the time. Maybe even change the default key binding for quicksave, F9. If you quicksave right before dying, don't worry, as you click Continue Game you can click on the yellow folder button and pick the autosave or a manual save.
  
• Read the journal!. It's easy to get lost and not knowing where to go next. The journal is your friend; even if sometimes it's deliberately vague, in most cases you'll be able to deduct your next step or at least in what direction it lies.
  
• Don't be afraid to explore. There's huge rewards and boosts that are hidden or away from the "main path". Take your time and wander around... sometimes you'll pay the price for your curiosity, but it'll often be worth it.
  
• It's all about quests. Quests will grant you the best rewards, both in terms of gear, XP and fun challenges. Do as many as you can and you'll progress nicely, without the need of grinding. Remember that there's no time limit on quests (except for Town Hall Quests, which will appropiately list the time limit in your journal)

That's all, I hope you enjoy playing the game as much as I enjoyed creating it.

"Balance" is a complicated term when applied to RPGs, isn't it? The obvious differences in challenge between classic RPGs and modern RPGs make clear the views on balance have evolved, at least for RPG designers, and by extension to players. This update is not so much about details of the game, but a rant about my views on difficulty and design and why things are the way they are in Exiled Kingdoms.


Once upon a time, games were harsh. They didn't care much about the player's feelings nor self-esteem, and developers didn't worry about player frustration, often throwing in encounters and challenges that even themselves didn't know for sure how to solve. "The players will figure out a way" they thought; and usually they were right. This finding of a way to win became the central part of the game itself, and without that search you were doomed. I can remember many games from my childhood I was never able to complete because back then, there weren't as many clues or hints available and I wasn't able to figure out how to beat them. Wizardry 6 was one of them, as well as Elder Scrolls I: Arena. For years that defeat lingered in my subconscious and only years later I revisited and found a way to beat them. Only then I became worthy and could finally sleep without nightmares :)

Sometimes the difficulty of these games was unfair, or was achieved by poor game mechanics or randomness, relying on constant save & reload. Not everything was perfect in the old days. But the sense of achievement I felt when beating those games was, overall, much higher than with modern games. The main reason is that they didn't feel like walking a road that has been laid out for me.

Over the years, the procedure to balance games became more professional, more refined, and took into account a wider variety of players. Designers came to the conclusion that most people should be able to complete the game, and frustration should be avoided at all costs.

I'm not going to dispute the validity of those conclusions because every game designer has the right to choose what he wants to do and why; and in a way, they could be right. Frustration and failure in themselves are not good things. The problem is that it's very hard to make a game fail-safe when you give full freedom to the player:

• What if he chooses poorly how to develop his stats? Then there must be no possible poor choices, all of them must be good somehow.
  
  
• What if he walks into the wrong area too early? Then we must make the game more linear (even if it still appears to be non-linear), or make sure the challenge scales down to the player's power.
  
  
• What if he becomes bored with a progression that feels too slow? There must be stat increments constantly, which leads to power inflation and in turn aggravates the above point.

These design choices that I perceive as a problem are actually fine for many players. Maybe even to a majority of players, given how most games are designed. But for me, and I suspect for many others, they make games much less satisfying.




While Exiled Kingdoms has been rated very highly since release, some players complained about the balance, often claiming it is too hard. Some of the most common topics are the lack of health/mana regeneration and the high price of potions. Many players find themselves needing to return to town to rest, unable to reach the deepest parts of dungeons or most remote wild areas.

Regeneration is, in general, a very bad idea for offline RPGs. It trivializes any encounter that is not hard enough to kill you; all you have to worry about is to wait long enough, and you'll be fresh healed for the next fight. Certainly staring at a raising health bar is not my definition of "fun" or "strategy". That's why in this game, every goblin fight counts. If you find a way to take less damage from each individual enemy you fight, it can mean a big difference in the end, allowing you to find that extra chest at the bottom of a dungeon. If you break into dungeons carelessly, fighting monsters in groups and not using your skills right, you'll have to back off soon. Potions are meant to be used as emergency lifesavers or as a "little extra" push when you are very close to reaching an objective, and you think their cost is worth it.

This way, EK becomes a game of managing resources and assuming risks. You have several full health recoveries per day... should you use them as soon as half your health is gone? or maybe you can risk a couple more fights in order to optimize and go deeper? This kind of choice would be meaninglessif there was regeneration, obviously.

Regarding world and area balancing, it could be said the world areas have not been balanced at all. For the most part, the encounters have fixed levels. There are high level monsters not too far away from early areas, and they won't care if you are level 1 or 20.

What has been carefully balanced, however, are the quests. Your level 2 character certainly will not be able to "clear out" the early dungeons of the game. But if played right, he can get in, do his business, and escape alive. The quests are the primary way of advancement of your character, especially early on. The game has not been designed to be "grindy", so if you find your character lacks the power to solve a quest, it's time to move to another town and leave it for later.

Now, far from fanaticisms on old-school design, Exiled Kingdoms tries to be a fun game, enjoyable to a wide audience, but striving for the good things in old design. A Casual difficulty has been added, which provides limited regeneration. But this regeneration is capped to half the maximum health, and also hard-capped to 80 health so it is mostly relevant in the early levels. Also, there's a little encounter scaling in the game; not so much as to scale up or down the difficulty, but to keep some areas useful and interesting later on. for instance, at some point the basic goblins (level 1-2) may be replaced by stronger ones (level 4-5) which also provide better XP and loot. But you will not find level 1 dragons or level 30 bandits in Exiled Kingdoms.

Ultimately, a game is about having fun, and "fun" is not an universal concept. It's simply not possible to appease everybody; that's why I think a honest approach on what to expect in this game is essential. Now you know what you'll find in Exiled Kingdoms.

"Balance" is a complicated term when applied to RPGs, isn't it? The obvious differences in challenge between classic RPGs and modern RPGs make clear the views on balance have evolved, at least for RPG designers, and by extension to players. This update is not so much about details of the game, but a rant about my views on difficulty and design and why things are the way they are in Exiled Kingdoms.


Once upon a time, games were harsh. They didn't care much about the player's feelings nor self-esteem, and developers didn't worry about player frustration, often throwing in encounters and challenges that even themselves didn't know for sure how to solve. "The players will figure out a way" they thought; and usually they were right. This finding of a way to win became the central part of the game itself, and without that search you were doomed. I can remember many games from my childhood I was never able to complete because back then, there weren't as many clues or hints available and I wasn't able to figure out how to beat them. Wizardry 6 was one of them, as well as Elder Scrolls I: Arena. For years that defeat lingered in my subconscious and only years later I revisited and found a way to beat them. Only then I became worthy and could finally sleep without nightmares :)

Sometimes the difficulty of these games was unfair, or was achieved by poor game mechanics or randomness, relying on constant save & reload. Not everything was perfect in the old days. But the sense of achievement I felt when beating those games was, overall, much higher than with modern games. The main reason is that they didn't feel like walking a road that has been laid out for me.

Over the years, the procedure to balance games became more professional, more refined, and took into account a wider variety of players. Designers came to the conclusion that most people should be able to complete the game, and frustration should be avoided at all costs.

I'm not going to dispute the validity of those conclusions because every game designer has the right to choose what he wants to do and why; and in a way, they could be right. Frustration and failure in themselves are not good things. The problem is that it's very hard to make a game fail-safe when you give full freedom to the player:

• What if he chooses poorly how to develop his stats? Then there must be no possible poor choices, all of them must be good somehow.
  
  
• What if he walks into the wrong area too early? Then we must make the game more linear (even if it still appears to be non-linear), or make sure the challenge scales down to the player's power.
  
  
• What if he becomes bored with a progression that feels too slow? There must be stat increments constantly, which leads to power inflation and in turn aggravates the above point.

These design choices that I perceive as a problem are actually fine for many players. Maybe even to a majority of players, given how most games are designed. But for me, and I suspect for many others, they make games much less satisfying.




While Exiled Kingdoms has been rated very highly since release, some players complained about the balance, often claiming it is too hard. Some of the most common topics are the lack of health/mana regeneration and the high price of potions. Many players find themselves needing to return to town to rest, unable to reach the deepest parts of dungeons or most remote wild areas.

Regeneration is, in general, a very bad idea for offline RPGs. It trivializes any encounter that is not hard enough to kill you; all you have to worry about is to wait long enough, and you'll be fresh healed for the next fight. Certainly staring at a raising health bar is not my definition of "fun" or "strategy". That's why in this game, every goblin fight counts. If you find a way to take less damage from each individual enemy you fight, it can mean a big difference in the end, allowing you to find that extra chest at the bottom of a dungeon. If you break into dungeons carelessly, fighting monsters in groups and not using your skills right, you'll have to back off soon. Potions are meant to be used as emergency lifesavers or as a "little extra" push when you are very close to reaching an objective, and you think their cost is worth it.

This way, EK becomes a game of managing resources and assuming risks. You have several full health recoveries per day... should you use them as soon as half your health is gone? or maybe you can risk a couple more fights in order to optimize and go deeper? This kind of choice would be meaninglessif there was regeneration, obviously.

Regarding world and area balancing, it could be said the world areas have not been balanced at all. For the most part, the encounters have fixed levels. There are high level monsters not too far away from early areas, and they won't care if you are level 1 or 20.

What has been carefully balanced, however, are the quests. Your level 2 character certainly will not be able to "clear out" the early dungeons of the game. But if played right, he can get in, do his business, and escape alive. The quests are the primary way of advancement of your character, especially early on. The game has not been designed to be "grindy", so if you find your character lacks the power to solve a quest, it's time to move to another town and leave it for later.

Now, far from fanaticisms on old-school design, Exiled Kingdoms tries to be a fun game, enjoyable to a wide audience, but striving for the good things in old design. A Casual difficulty has been added, which provides limited regeneration. But this regeneration is capped to half the maximum health, and also hard-capped to 80 health so it is mostly relevant in the early levels. Also, there's a little encounter scaling in the game; not so much as to scale up or down the difficulty, but to keep some areas useful and interesting later on. for instance, at some point the basic goblins (level 1-2) may be replaced by stronger ones (level 4-5) which also provide better XP and loot. But you will not find level 1 dragons or level 30 bandits in Exiled Kingdoms.

Ultimately, a game is about having fun, and "fun" is not an universal concept. It's simply not possible to appease everybody; that's why I think a honest approach on what to expect in this game is essential. Now you know what you'll find in Exiled Kingdoms.

This post and a few more that'll follow will serve as an informal "manual" of Exiled Kingdoms. The wiki is certainly an exhaustive reference about everything in the game, but it does not "break down" the game for you as a new player. I hope to help a little with that.

The first contact with the game mechanics is, of course, character creation. However this is deliberately a fairly simple process; the player must choose a Class, distribute four Trait Points and assign one Skill Point. While I do love complex RPG systems with dozens of classes and hundreds of spells, the idea behind this simple setup is not forcing the player to make uninformed choices when all the game mechanics are still unknown. The options to endlessly customize your character will unfold later on.


The Character Class is the single most important thing to define during character creation. It will make the game entirely different for you; each class is really unique and has different challenges and advantages. Certainly you can later on specialize your character many different ways within the same class, but important things like the wearable equipment is defined by class, as well as the base Health and Mana and their increments per level.

Each class offers eight basic skills, which can make your character play very differently. Later on will come the Advanced Skills learned from trainers across the world, but for now you don't need to concern yourself with that...

A brief introduction of the four classes may help you choose which one may suit better your gameplay style:

Warrior: likely the easiest and more straightforward class to play. High survivability, plenty of gear choices, and several skills that can harm more than one enemy at the same time. If you're unsure on what to play, a Warrior with the Whirlwind skill is a solid start.

Rogue: more fragile than the Warrior and with less equipment choices, the rogue relies in his skills to survive. Once mastered it can be far more formidable due to his insane damage output. A good first skill to try is Stab, as it can easily one-shot low level enemies.

Cleric: It has a relatively easy start if you pick the Heal Wounds skill, but later on requires careful skill choice to be up to the high level challenges. The cleric is a melee figther, but it is a common mistake to try to play it as a 'warrior that heals'. It is much more than that!

Mage: at the same time the most powerful and the hardest to play. In the early and mid levels your character is little more than an apprentice, struggling to survive. But later on... it really makes up for the hard beginning. Lightning Bolt is a good initial skill choice.



You are also asked to define a difficulty level for the new game. This can NOT be changed later on, and Exiled Kingdoms is a real challenge so don't hesitate to go with Casual Difficulty if you are unsure; despite the name, it is still no joke.

This game doesn't just "look" like the classics, it also shares the challenge level of the old games. Victory is not just a matter of spending enough time, you have to earn it the good, old way. Some fights are designed to be almost impossible, until you realize the importance of certain items or potions for an encounter in particular. And there is no regeneration except in Casual difficulty, so your ability to go deep into dungeons or dangerous areas will depend on your ability to avoid damage. If you explore carelessly and lose Health to every goblin and wolf, you'll end up depleted and returning to the town too often.

Unlike in other games, if you are surrounded by 3 or 4 enemies you will die very quickly. Remember, in Exiled Kingdoms you can play a hero, but not a superhero.



Pay attention to the few tutorial messages in the first area of the game. It's vital information that can make your life much easier later on!

This tutorial area is the only "linear" part of the game; don't worry too much about its outcome as your real adventure begins right after that.

Exiled Kingdoms is truly an open world, but beware what you explore and when. A few encounters will vary slightly in level related to the player, but the majority of the world challenges and rewards are not level-scaled at all. This means you can run into a high level monster if you walk into the wrong place... even at level 1. Luckily, there is an universal solution for that situation: Run away! You will be able to outrun most creatures, taking just a hit here and there. There's no shame in surviving to fight another day.

The final piece of advice is simple enough: complete as many quests as possible. In theory, you don't need to "grind" to reach the high levels and complete the game. However, this means that sometimes you'll have to leave "unfinished businesses" in an area and seek easier quests and challenges elsewhere. Some players obsess over "clearing" completely each geographical region before moving onto another, and that is why they end up grinding too much. This is truly an open world and nothing must tie your character to a particular place.

This post and a few more that'll follow will serve as an informal "manual" of Exiled Kingdoms. The wiki is certainly an exhaustive reference about everything in the game, but it does not "break down" the game for you as a new player. I hope to help a little with that.

The first contact with the game mechanics is, of course, character creation. However this is deliberately a fairly simple process; the player must choose a Class, distribute four Trait Points and assign one Skill Point. While I do love complex RPG systems with dozens of classes and hundreds of spells, the idea behind this simple setup is not forcing the player to make uninformed choices when all the game mechanics are still unknown. The options to endlessly customize your character will unfold later on.


The Character Class is the single most important thing to define during character creation. It will make the game entirely different for you; each class is really unique and has different challenges and advantages. Certainly you can later on specialize your character many different ways within the same class, but important things like the wearable equipment is defined by class, as well as the base Health and Mana and their increments per level.

Each class offers eight basic skills, which can make your character play very differently. Later on will come the Advanced Skills learned from trainers across the world, but for now you don't need to concern yourself with that...

A brief introduction of the four classes may help you choose which one may suit better your gameplay style:

Warrior: likely the easiest and more straightforward class to play. High survivability, plenty of gear choices, and several skills that can harm more than one enemy at the same time. If you're unsure on what to play, a Warrior with the Whirlwind skill is a solid start.

Rogue: more fragile than the Warrior and with less equipment choices, the rogue relies in his skills to survive. Once mastered it can be far more formidable due to his insane damage output. A good first skill to try is Stab, as it can easily one-shot low level enemies.

Cleric: It has a relatively easy start if you pick the Heal Wounds skill, but later on requires careful skill choice to be up to the high level challenges. The cleric is a melee figther, but it is a common mistake to try to play it as a 'warrior that heals'. It is much more than that!

Mage: at the same time the most powerful and the hardest to play. In the early and mid levels your character is little more than an apprentice, struggling to survive. But later on... it really makes up for the hard beginning. Lightning Bolt is a good initial skill choice.



You are also asked to define a difficulty level for the new game. This can NOT be changed later on, and Exiled Kingdoms is a real challenge so don't hesitate to go with Casual Difficulty if you are unsure; despite the name, it is still no joke.

This game doesn't just "look" like the classics, it also shares the challenge level of the old games. Victory is not just a matter of spending enough time, you have to earn it the good, old way. Some fights are designed to be almost impossible, until you realize the importance of certain items or potions for an encounter in particular. And there is no regeneration except in Casual difficulty, so your ability to go deep into dungeons or dangerous areas will depend on your ability to avoid damage. If you explore carelessly and lose Health to every goblin and wolf, you'll end up depleted and returning to the town too often.

Unlike in other games, if you are surrounded by 3 or 4 enemies you will die very quickly. Remember, in Exiled Kingdoms you can play a hero, but not a superhero.



Pay attention to the few tutorial messages in the first area of the game. It's vital information that can make your life much easier later on!

This tutorial area is the only "linear" part of the game; don't worry too much about its outcome as your real adventure begins right after that.

Exiled Kingdoms is truly an open world, but beware what you explore and when. A few encounters will vary slightly in level related to the player, but the majority of the world challenges and rewards are not level-scaled at all. This means you can run into a high level monster if you walk into the wrong place... even at level 1. Luckily, there is an universal solution for that situation: Run away! You will be able to outrun most creatures, taking just a hit here and there. There's no shame in surviving to fight another day.

The final piece of advice is simple enough: complete as many quests as possible. In theory, you don't need to "grind" to reach the high levels and complete the game. However, this means that sometimes you'll have to leave "unfinished businesses" in an area and seek easier quests and challenges elsewhere. Some players obsess over "clearing" completely each geographical region before moving onto another, and that is why they end up grinding too much. This is truly an open world and nothing must tie your character to a particular place.

Hello everyone! I'm overwhelmed by the large amount of people that has wishlisted the game or is contacting me with questions about Exiled Kingdoms. So the first thing I'll say is: Thanks! It's very reassuring and encouraging for a developer to get this kind of warm reception (or pre-reception, whatever). I'll try to answer the most commonly asked questions below.

On development status: the game is complete and ready, and will be released on time. I am still adding some UI/controls enhancements but it is really fine as it is now, so the chances of a delay are almost zero. All the improvements that aren't ready on release will be added in updates later on.

Importing saved games: yes, you will be able to import your saves from iOS/android version. You'll need to use the "export to file" method and then manually move the file between PC and mobile. Maybe I'll add the connection to GPG cloud as well to make it easier, but can't guarantee it as of now (in theory it is not supported by PC games, but there's always a way...).

On future updates: over the last 2 years I've been releasing more areas for free to all versions of the game, and that is not going to change. Any new content will always be free for all platforms. Your saved games will remain compatible after updates.

Mac/Linux versions: will be released the same day as Windows.

Localization: the game was originally written in English and Spanish, and the community is translating it to the rest of listed languages. Some are complete (or >95% complete) and are listed as such at Steam page (German Russian, Portuguese). Other translations are still in progress but should eventually be complete, check our forum for details. Please keep in mind that the most newly added areas of the game may require some time to be translated.

I think that's all. Now back to coding!

Hello everyone! I'm overwhelmed by the large amount of people that has wishlisted the game or is contacting me with questions about Exiled Kingdoms. So the first thing I'll say is: Thanks! It's very reassuring and encouraging for a developer to get this kind of warm reception (or pre-reception, whatever). I'll try to answer the most commonly asked questions below.

On development status: the game is complete and ready, and will be released on time. I am still adding some UI/controls enhancements but it is really fine as it is now, so the chances of a delay are almost zero. All the improvements that aren't ready on release will be added in updates later on.

Importing saved games: yes, you will be able to import your saves from iOS/android version. You'll need to use the "export to file" method and then manually move the file between PC and mobile. Maybe I'll add the connection to GPG cloud as well to make it easier, but can't guarantee it as of now (in theory it is not supported by PC games, but there's always a way...).

On future updates: over the last 2 years I've been releasing more areas for free to all versions of the game, and that is not going to change. Any new content will always be free for all platforms. Your saved games will remain compatible after updates.

Mac/Linux versions: will be released the same day as Windows.

Localization: the game was originally written in English and Spanish, and the community is translating it to the rest of listed languages. Some are complete (or >95% complete) and are listed as such at Steam page (German Russian, Portuguese). Other translations are still in progress but should eventually be complete, check our forum for details. Please keep in mind that the most newly added areas of the game may require some time to be translated.

I think that's all. Now back to coding!