Greetings Warchiefs!

Our forges are lit, and we're working hard to craft high-quality content for you to experience. Over the past month, we've focused on refining the gameplay experience, writing dialogue, and creating unique models for the game's most prominent characters.

Let’s meet two of them: Thein Chief of Chiefs Azgarar and His Concubine Anakhai.

There is no such thing as a reliable narrator in The Way of Wrath story. Judge what you hear against what you see and find your own truth.

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All rise for the great chief of chiefs of the Thein tribes: Azgarar the Conqueror. Once, he was a mighty warrior mired in tribal conflicts, spilling blood for petty strife and empty glory. Once, he was a dying man in a frozen desert, contemplating the measure of a wasted life.

Azgarar is a charismatic, larger-than-life leader whose ambitions and follies have forged—and then lost—a kingdom. His pride has entrenched your people in a brutal, ten-year-long war, the end of which will see you rise as a new leader, guiding your people through an epic and vicious siege.

Facing his end, lying under the blue sky, he was sent a vision—a vision of glory and marvels achieved by people united under one purpose. In the embrace of the fiercest cold, he found fire in his soul to forge this vision into life.

Igniting the hearts of the Thein with that same fire, he forged them into an unstoppable horde that swept past the confines of their wasteland prison, conquering all the city-states of the Hyrians and forging them into one kingdom. Binding himself to their high priestess, he hoped their marriage would seal the newfound kingdom in lasting peace. And for a time, it did.

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At Azgarar's side always is Anakhai—once a traveling bard and storyteller. Her beauty and wit forever captivated the warlord’s heart and inflamed the passions and envy of many of his followers.

Working hand in hand with Azgarar and his priestess wife, Anakhai's wit and wisdom kept the kingdom whole for many years—until the embers of rebellion grew into a wildfire, consuming your world.

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The design of Azgazar is deeply rooted in the regal aesthetics of the first great civilizations—drawing inspiration from the kings and emperors of Mesopotamia and Sumer.

A ruler of vision and vengeance, Azgazar stands as both a liberator and a conqueror—his path carved in the echoes of ancient glory and the fires of relentless ambition. Every detail was meticulously chosen to embody his spirit, power, and destiny.

His attire, hair, and adornments echo the dawn of metallurgy, when gold and bronze were just beginning to shape the world of rulers and warriors. The colors of his garments hold deeper meaning—his flowing blue robes symbolize his unyielding will for freedom and greatness, vast and limitless like the sky. Draped over this, his crimson cape is the mark of his wrath, a symbol of retribution against his enemies and the unbreakable strength of his warrior soul.

Anakhai is the voice that tempers Azgazar’s rage, the whisper that stirs his ambition. She does not merely advise him—she challenges him, offering wisdom forged from both intellect and emotion.

Renowned as one of the most beautiful women in the land, Anakhai’s presence is mesmerizing. Her keen intellect and aptitude for strategy and politics made her an influential advisor, sought for her wisdom and bold plans. Anakhai’s character draws inspiration from the ambitious women of Byzantine history, particularly the more intriguing tales surrounding Empress Theodora.

She wears a regal deep blue dress, the color of wisdom and the boundless sky, adorned with intricate gold and copper details that shimmer like fire under the sun. Around her forehead, she wears a golden diadem crowned with a massive red ruby—its fierce glow a testament to her unbreakable mind. A second ruby, just as grand, rests over her heart, set into the very fabric of her dress. These twin gemstones are more than mere adornments—they symbolize the duality of her soul. The ruby on her brow signifies her brilliant, strategic mind, always calculating, always watching. The one at her heart represents the depth of her emotions, the fiery passion that guides her in matters of loyalty, love, and counsel.

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We’re continuing to finish the dialogue and polish features as we push toward a playable demo. Soon, we’ll be resuming livestreams and community activities while sharing more about characters, companions, and gameplay.

Thank you for supporting us! And as always, if you have any questions you can reach us through comments, Email, or our Discord Channel.

The Way of Wrath enters the final stages of development!

We're feature-complete and just months away from reaching the beta stage for the whole game. It's been six years since the two of us started on this crazy journey, and now the end is in sight! Just one more mountain of work to overcome.

We compiled a short trailer of the experiences we've crafted for you!



Now, we take a moment to rest, focus (at least as much as we can in these turbulent and uncertain times), and plan the final push.

We wish you all the best for the new year!

Our dream has always been to develop the game hand in hand with our players. Finally, after years of work, we are close to that point. With your help, we can make this dream a reality!

We hope you’ll join us in the activities we’ll launch next year and help us shape The Way of Wrath, the hand-crafted, story-driven, tactical, open-world, deeply immersive RPG, into one of the best experiences out there. With your help, we can turn this big little game of ours into a true love letter to the grandest of game genres.

Cheers, thank you, and all the best to you!
The Way of Wrath Team

Hello Warchiefs!

We have a quick update on the progress and many new screenshots!



In the last update, we received a great question about the game's overall progress, and we thought it would be a good topic to cover in this update.

We are about 75% - 80% finished with development. All the features have been implemented, and we are now in the bug-fixing/polishing phase.

We're about 95% finished with the prologue campaign, which will serve as a demo and beta test campaign for the game.

We also have a good head start on the main campaign, with the story, skills, and game design well planned.



First, we'll finish polishing all the features and complete the prologue campaign. Then, we'll split our time between finishing the main campaign and supporting beta playtests.

The game is coming along nicely. Everything has been upgraded—from gameplay to story to graphics. We've implemented all the features we planned and discussed during the Kickstarter campaign and added some extra surprises.

Lots of exciting stuff to come! ^^

We've also started posting more regular updates on our Discord Server. Everyone is welcome to drop by!


Playtest feedback is essential to us, and we're super excited about the upcoming playtests. After years of development, we can't wait to get to that point. So, we are working very hard to make it happen soon. We believe that player feedback-driven development gives games that extra edge to become truly special, and we hope you'll join us in the upcoming betas!



We only have a few months of development before we finish all the game content. However, player feedback from the upcoming beta tests will weigh heavily on our release plans. We want to ensure we release a well-polished game that’s exciting, engaging, atmospheric, and something you will all enjoy—and hopefully love. We'll take in all the feedback from the beta tests and allocate enough time to polish and improve the areas that need more work. We'll post a dedicated update as soon as everything is ready, and we can set a specific release date.





We've updated our store page with new screenshots and GIFs that reflect our progress since the last update to the store. We have a lot of new images to share with you!

(An updated trailer will be recorded after the prologue is finished.)


















Thank you for supporting us! As always, if you have any questions, you can reach us through comments, Email, or our Discord Channel.

Cheers,
The Way of Wrath Team

We've been working hard on the grand project of completing the game's prologue chapter and finalizing all of its features.



A lot of work was finished! The prologue is shaping up to be very exciting, with over 30 quests and quite a handful of characters who are up to all kinds of shenanigans.



We've added three new prologue origin maps, so now each player-origin gets its own introductory mini-story, highlighting the unique aspects of that origin. Some origins will offer a more open-ended approach, allowing you to roleplay a wider range of characters. Others will have more specific and unique background stories—ideal for players who enjoy getting into the headspace of specific story characters and role playing them.



We've implemented all the quests that go into the prologue and added/modified new areas to explore, such as a new fishing village and a mysterious ruined fort on an island in the middle of a vast lake.




We've implemented fort management gameplay. With it, you can manage and upgrade all the different buildings and outposts you capture. We've also polished and fixed up a lot of small features and development tools.

Overall, it's been a very productive and blissfully smooth few months of development. We've managed to get a lot done, and it's a real joy to see all our efforts come together into a rich, playable experience. ^_^




We'll be super focused on finishing all the missing aspects of the prologue, dialogue, bug fixes, balancing, etc. We'll also be polishing the last few game mechanics that need more attention, like hunting, trapping, and the mastery system.



The prologue is a huge milestone for the game, as it will be a large playable section featuring all the mechanics and setting the stage for the main campaign. It's really exciting for us to be getting closer to this milestone. It's been a long journey during which we've managed to implement all the features we planned for the game, and now we are close to realizing it. This wouldn't have been possible without all your support, and we're very grateful for this opportunity!



As soon as everything is sufficiently polished and bug-free, we'll start planning the beta tests and sharing more gameplay videos and dev diaries ^^. We just have to climb this one more mountain to get there, and we're excited to share with you all that we've worked on for so long.


Similar to our last update. we invite you to participate in our Dev With Community Topic with any feedback and ideas!


As we are close to wrapping up the core code of our features, it's a good opportunity for us to ensure the code architecture supports any QOL feature improvements we might need to add.



So we wanted to reach out to you and ask: what Quality of Life features would you like to see in our game and what do you consider to be the must haves in modern RPGs?



Thank you for supporting us! And as always, if you have any questions you can reach us through comments, Email, or our Discord Channel.

Cheers,
The Way of Wrath Team

In the last update, we summarized all the hard work that went into rebuilding our RPG system and improving our game. We showcased some of the gameplay improvements on a small level.
Since then, we've worked on building up the rest of the prologue chapter with new areas, new combat encounters, and an all-new story.



Depending on which origin you choose, you will enter the prologue chapter with a different background story and motivations. Instead of a linear main story like in our previous demo, the story will present you with a number of possible goals, and it will be up to you how you want to solve them.
It's a playground for learning about the game world, its cultures, conflicts, and game mechanics and seeing how it all comes together. It enables you to confidently take on epic challenges in the main campaign.



You will get to meet the leaders of your faction, see how they approach ruling their people, where they failed or succeeded, and plan how you want to forge the path ahead.
So, what comes next?



The initial pass with the quests is 70% complete, and we'll continue working on finishing the quests in the prologue chapter and preparing the project for the upcoming beta tests. It will involve adding and polishing missing dialogue, refining hunting and siege mechanics, and enhancing the overall game experience. As soon as the project is reasonably polished, major bug-free, and ready for player feedback, we'll commence the beta tests!




Since day one, we've aimed to build The Way of Wrath with input from players and our community. We used to have numerous activities in our Discord channel but had to pause them while we focused on technical aspects. Now that we're back to creating content, it's time to restart our activity sections!
One such section is our "Dev with Community" segment, where you can share your ideas and desires regarding what you'd like to see in the game and help us research some topics.



In addition to all that, we'd like to share major topics that we'd love to receive your feedback on! We'll be sharing these in future development updates.
To kick things off, we want to begin with something unique and interesting!


One of the origin stories you can select during character creation for your character is the mysterious wandering shaman Yarbogha. You mediate between your people, the Thein, and the ever-ravenous manifestation of death that they believe in. To Thein, the cycle of decay and rebirth is dark and terrifying. They see the earth as a cannibal that devours what it gives birth to, stealing souls destined for the skies and dooming them to roam the earth. It is up to you to keep its hunger in check with rituals and balanced judgment.



The ten-year war your people fought has left countless corpses for the earth to feed on. It has upset the balance, and according to Yarbogha's beliefs, this can lead to an apocalyptic outcome. If the war continues, death's appetite could become insatiable, and great calamity will follow.

As a Yarbogha, you seek to prevent this outcome at all costs. You will have a unique opportunity to inspire your allies with spiritual zeal, wrest control from warring chieftains, and inspire(terrify) Thein to walk a more righteous path.

Even as one of the playable origins in an RPG, the cult mechanics cannot be as expansive as they would be in a dedicated cult simulator game, we thought a lot of interesting things could be done even with the limitations we have.



So as the first “Dev with community” topic, we wanted to ask this question:

If you were to start your own dark cult, what kind of mechanics, roleplay options, and stories would you want to encounter?

Thank you for supporting us! As always, if you have any questions, you can reach us through comments, Email, or our Discord Channel.
Cheers,
The Way of Wrath Team

Hearty Greetings Warchiefs!

The year is nearly done and it's been a while since our last development update, so we wanted to share a bit about what we've been working on these past few months.

In every game's development cycle, there comes a time of reckoning!



A time when every developer has to stare into the eyes of all their ambitions and pay a price for each and every one of them. The time of slaying bugs and the toil of polishing. "The dreaded last 10% that is really the 90%".

And so, this time has arrived for us, and what a glorious ordeal it has been! Menus upon menus, features upon features, systems upon systems! Sleeves have been rolled up times beyond counting. To-do lists compiled on scraps of paper, digitally etched in apps, and sinfully heaped upon sleazy back alleys of Discord chats. Devlogs have swelled with entries to such an extent that if written on a piece of paper, they would comically unfurl onto the ground and keep rolling into the far horizons.

But finally, FINALLY! There is a light at the end of this long tunnel. What was once an ocean of work has now dwindled to a mere handful of puddles. In just 2 or 3 weeks, we will complete all the features planned for the game.



Once we are done with improvements and our tests are blissfully free of bugs and our features start to gleam with a well-polished sheen and sparkle, we can move on to the next stage of development.



Next is the fun part! We'll be assembling all the quests, locations, battles, and mechanics that we designed, and we'll be developing the remaining content for the story campaign. We'll share some of it as demos and beta tests, and we'll improve our game based on your feedback.




There are many!

All game systems and RPG mechanics were rewritten with custom implementations to support the numerous features we wanted to include in the game.



The game now accommodates two combat modes: Turn-based and Real Time With Pause. Players can switch between these modes at any point during battles and can save the game mid-battle.



Complex battle situations can now be tracked, allowing for the creation of interesting skills and status effects. For instance, stances that increase damage based on the number of surrounding enemies, or altered victory conditions for specific battles to fit intricate story scenarios.



New fishing, hunting, and trapping systems promise to enhance gameplay immersion and enrich exploration, providing more rewarding experiences.

An entirely new layer has been added to fort and outpost management systems, offering more immersive UIs and strategic options. For example, constructing a scouting camp to spy on enemy camps to warn you of impending attacks, or learn of vulnerabilities in their defense.



Additionally, there are numerous new gameplay features we'll delve into next year, such as an advanced pet system and a new mastery exploration skill tree.

Visual updates include new shaders, fog, and lighting effects! These range from fluffier snow with dynamic trails, to advanced armor shader that highlights the complexity of our model design, to weather effects. The game graphics have been upgraded.



The audio system has undergone an overhaul. Different surfaces now produce distinct footstep sounds, while dynamic audio creates atmospheric effects, such as a whistling gust of wind from cracks between cliffs, intensifying as you approach.

The game can be played with a Mouse and keyboard or a controller. And you can switch between them at any time on the fly. We have designed custom UI and controls for each device!



Speaking of controls, you'll be able to use A,W,S,D, direct movement, or point-and-click style movement. The camera also took on more of a third-person game aspect during exploration.



And speaking of UI. We made ours super modular. So now we can have multiple menus and font sizes, and we can override each individual menu on different devices. What works on a giant TV, might not work on a handheld device. And we can have that covered.




We'll announce the exact release date in a few months. We have a very good idea of how much time it will take us to finish the rest of the game content, but we still have to deal with some unknowns, such as Q/A and polishing time. The extent of polish and tweaking required will become clearer once the game reaches more players. Bearing this in mind, we're working very hard for a 2024 release.

We wish you great holidays and we'll come back with awesome new stuff next year!

Hi everyone! The Way of Wrath and other games published by Hooded Horse are all featured at the Hooded Horse Publisher Sale. Come check it out!

Hooded Horse Strategy Publisher Sale

Hello Warchiefs!

If you’ve been following our game you would have seen images of fearsome Yarbogha, a solitary traveling shaman who acts as an emissary between death itself and the living, administrating burial rites and passing judgment upon the guilty.


(A 3D Printed and Hand-Painted figurine of Yarbogha shaman)

But you may remember, Thein people, the player faction in the game, had another type of shaman called the Skybound!

Unlike Yarbogha, Skybound are much more involved in everyday Thein lives. Their power rivals that of the strongest Thein Warlords. Skybound guide Thein people with a strict spiritual doctrine that has allowed Thein to thrive in the harshest arctic wastelands they call home.

Where Yarbogha dominate the battle through terror and raw brutality, the Skybound inspire their allies through fearsome battle dances and use secret shaman tools, gadgets, and concoctions to control the battlefield. Players who chose the Skybound origin will enjoy a unique experience in social interactions with other characters.

It is finally time to introduce Skybound in all their black & bronze winged glory!







Thein believe they come from the skies, and they shun things of the earth. The word Skybound honors the Shaman’s connection to the skies, and the unearthly, alien visage of the garments inspire reverence and fear in all who meet them.

Designing and modeling Skybound was just one-half of the creative process. To truly come alive in the game we needed to design awe-inspiring rituals and movements for shamans to employ during battles.




And to that end, the peace on the streets of Tbilisi was disturbed by soul-chilling howls and incantations.



Intricate battle dances and bizarre ritual movements could be observed from the windows of our animation recording room.

Dato, our art director put his sanity on the line and channeled his inner shaman.



With the help of our Motion Capture system, we recorded realistic animation of shaman rituals, battle dances, melee attacks, and NPC activities. All in all, we recorded over 300 life-like animations to improve the immersion and depth of our game.

We are getting closer to a new and improved beta demo! We are now polishing and implementing the remaining features and iterating upon the new story and quests. We hope you’ll enjoy all the improvements and changes we made, and we can’t wait to share the game with you ^_^



Stay tuned, and we’ll be back with more updates!
As always, if you have questions or feedback, you can reach us on our website, or our Discord Channel.
Cheers,
The Way of Wrath Team

We’re back with a new progress update!
It has been an incredibly busy few months. A lot of new features and tech are coming together all at once. It was hard work getting it all sorted, almost like an adventure in itself! And it was all in service of a good goal, to realize the potential of our game and create for you an awesome and really fulfilling experience. It makes us very happy and thankful to have this chance.



Now, where to start? Hmm... Let’s start with music. We have a new main music theme!

Grab your best headphones, and make sure there are no weapon-like objects near you. Our melody may accidentally awaken the warrior spirit within you and you might accidentally destroy your earthly possessions (Sorry poor lightbulb). Have a listen!


(Song Of The Tribes - Copyright @ Animmal 2022 All Rights Reserved)

I hope you enjoyed it as much as we did. So much effort and thought went into developing the music style and setting the mood for the game. Our composer, Zviad Mgebry, started with several pages worth of notes from us and he really understood the essence of what we wanted to achieve. He did an amazing job of bringing it to life.



Each instrument was carefully chosen to evoke the spirit of the ancient world in an authentic way. Including some unique handcrafted instruments!

The theme had to reflect inspirations from many ancient cultures but also stand out in its own style. The pacing had to remain fresh and have that “magic of the unexpected” all good game soundtracks possess. All the symbolism of the Thein tribes had to be woven in through the composition.

Together with our sound designer Beso Kacharava and his team at POSTRED Interactive we have developed a lot of game sound systems. Including the footstep system, where each surface generates a distinct sound. From now on, walking in the snow will have this awesome cozy & crunchy feeling to it!



We also created a dynamic wind system that changes sound depending on where you are in the world and what the current weather is. Bone-chilling wind gusts will greet you as you ascend tall peaks or stand next to narrow mountain passes, and howling winds will dominate the soundscape during terrible snowstorms.


(I’m not even sure I want to know how leopard sounds transformed into this!)

The new dynamic ambient tracks will bring the game world to life. Frozen bog ambience got some of the most high-tech treatment. The audio team used custom spatial dynamic audio systems and binaural audio recordings. Through the creative use of dynamic sounds they recreated the emotional and psychological effects nature can evoke when exploring such environments. If you have ever been alone in a forest during twilight hours, you’ll know how the most ordinary sounds can become eerie and otherworldly as your mind plays tricks on you.



A lot of game features have a new sound design. It would surprise you how many individual sound files are involved in creating something as simple as UI notification.
Each notification sound has to serve a purpose. What emotions should it evoke? Reward, urgency, satisfaction, loss? Is it a unique sound that should be very memorable and demand immediate attention - like a leveling-up event - or does it have to be almost invisible, yet remain satisfying, like a sound for picking up loot? Each answer may come in the form of one or multiple sound effects and they can feature truly bizarre combinations of audio sources. Can you guess which sounds the audio team used to create XP-Gain notification?




Pathfinding and Movement upgrades are finally getting into a polished state. This proved to be an especially tricky thing to accomplish. The system had to work with multiple controls (AWSD/Gamepad, Mouse Hold, and mouse click modes), and two different combat modes.
We added new turning animations for improved aesthetics. New ladder/ledge climbing and jumping functionality really opened up what we can do in level design. Especially during combat. But it will also enrich exploration with many new hidden areas for you to find!

We’ve completely overhauled the game HUD. It now dynamically switches between mouse & keyboard and Gamepad controls. We have added new functionality to switch weapon sets and arrow types directly from the HUD. We updated art and UI composition to work well with both real-time and turn-based combat.



Almost all the game menus are now implemented with new art, improved layout, and gamepad support.

The Way of Wrath was nominated as a finalist in GWB Game Awards. We’re very happy to be in the company of such amazing games and congratulations to the winners!



Our main goal right now is to prepare an updated demo, where you'll be able to play part of the all-new story and experience many gameplay features, as well as try out different origin stories. We have a few more features to tackle and polish before we’ll be ready to share this new update demo. You will be able to play it next year during select game festivals and special beta events. We'll make announcements about play opportunities in advance.

With pathfinding and movement systems overhauled, we are now ready to return to NPC activities and routines. We want to put our Motion Capture System to good use and give NPCs many extra activities to do besides just standing around. And with the fort management, resource outposts, and all those cooking spots, there is a lot for your allies to do!



With new hunting/stealth gameplay, we’ll need to update areas of the forest where you encounter wild animals. Large predators will need wider areas to roam, and players will need ample new hiding places!
Thanks to stretch goals unlocked on Kickstarter, we can add cool new gameplay features to our pet system. We’ll be adding a few key new features for the upcoming demo, and then we’ll continue adding more ways to interact with your digital friends in future updates.
As we decided to give new story starting points to each of our character origins, we’ll be going through the story in more detail to make sure it all comes together nicely and gives a balanced and fulfilling walkthrough no matter which origin you choose.



There’s plenty of interesting work left to do, but we are getting very close to the next stage of development where we can share our game with the community, iterate based on feedback and player insight, and prepare the game for release. After working so long on these improvements, we can’t wait to hear your feedback and ideas about our game!

Stay tuned, and we’ll be back with more updates.

As always, if you have questions or feedback, you can reach us through comments on Steam Forums, our website, or our Discord Channel.

Cheers,
The Way of Wrath Team

The Way of Wrath was featured in Hooded Horse’s Publisher Showcase at PAX East. The showcase revealed new content and announcements across Hooded Horse’s strategy games.



The Way of Wrath can be wishlisted here.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/969330/

The trailers for The Way of Wrath and the other games featured in the showcase can be found at the Hooded Horse Publisher Page on Steam:

https://store.steampowered.com/publisher/HoodedHorse