Mar 27, 2022

A response to criticism and feature overview

Heads Will Roll - death and rebirth

Hello.

About a week ago we've made an official announcement of HWR: Reforged and HWR: Downfall that received some criticism from the community. In my eyes the main reasons for that are misunderstanding and miscommunication that might've taken place. So, with this blogpost, I would like to clarify what exactly are HWR: Reforged and HWR: Downfall.

HWR: Reforged — What will be new?

1. Story

Reforged will properly conclude both English and French storylines adding several new chapters to each of them, introducing a lot of new characters (including girls) and making the game at least twice as big in terms of story content.
On top of that, some of the existing chapters (like Dartford for example) will be overhauled, the number of random quests and events will be increased.

2. New artstyle

Reforged will have a new (way superior in our opinion) artstyle for girls, dialogue character models and all the romance scenes. High-resolution versions of the models will also be included in the digital artbook that will be available together with the game.

3. New gameplay features

Reforged will have a tremendous amount of new features and mechanics (see list below).

4. New items

Reforged will introduce about 100 new items including all kinds of trinkets (some with active abilities), new armor (including leg armor for a dedicated slot), new weapons and new consumables.

5. Localization and bugfixing

With publisher's assistance we will be able to provide a way better localization and also work together with a QA team that will make sure there're no critical or major bugs on release. Considering the big amount of new content this is a very significant moment. This also means that the game might be translated into more languages.

HWR: Reforged, with all of that new stuff, will be available with a launch discount and a discount for those who own the original HWR which will allow you to purchase the game for 50% off.

What is HWR: Downfall?

Downfall is a free-to-play 4 chapter long game that will act as a prologue for HWR: Reforged. Downfall's story will take place before the original game and will expand upon its lore and characters.
Downfall will also have ALL THE NEW GAMEPLAY FEATURES so you'll be able to tell if you like the improved version of the gameplay or not.

In future blogposts I intend to do in-detail overview of some of the new features (like reworked armor system, party management, new weapon mechanics, unique and active-ability trinkets, crafting skill overhaul etc.) so stay tuned for more news.
I would also like to once again say thank you to everyone who supports this project. 1917 Studios is only two people (one of us does all the artwork and the other - everything else), we're not a huge money-hungry company and this is our first experience developing and releasing a game so naturally there're bumps along the road in every possible department. But we have our vision of this project and are striving to achieve it. And once the work is done - we're sure it won't disappoint you.

Cheers,
1917 Studios (literally just two people)

P.S.

The long and incomplete changelog for features (stuff is still being added and tweaked so keep it in mind)

1. Prestige system (items and equipment that you put on your character determine how respectable he looks in the eyes of folks around; dressing like a knight or a nobleman invokes respect, dressing like a dirty peasant makes you laughed at).
2. New difficulty modes: mildly challenging Story mode with quicksaves and quickloads at any time and hardcore Ironman mode with permanent death, Profile levelling and roguelike mechanics.
3. Dedicated slots for gorgets, bracers and leg armor.
4. Reworked armor system.
5. Several types of item repair: cheap but partial (that makes item lose stats) or expensive but full.
6. New camp activities (praying, ritual self-punishment etc.).
7. Scabbards and in-battle weapon swapping.
8. New attacks and mechanics for weapons (including Spear Throw and wounds infected by rust).
9. An obtainable and upgradable chest, where player can store items while in camp.
10. Improved virtue mechanics and new dialogue interactions.
11. About a 100 new items. Including many consumables with various in-battle effects (alcohol, alchemy brews).
12. Tweaks to scavenging mode that will allow the player do decide beforehand what kind of resources he'd like to search for.
13. Huge balance changes for armor, weapons and trinkets.
14. New (and not braindead this time) AI for allies.
15. Hiring and managing a party of allies.
16. More boss battles with unusual enemies.
17. Dungeon system for some battles. Battles have several (usually 3-4) stages with increased rewards for completing each of them but also with increasingly tougher enemies. Player can back out of the fight after completing/surviving through any stage.
And a lot of other stuff!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/687800/Heads_Will_Roll_Reforged/

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1903060/Heads_Will_Roll_Downfall/

Mar 27, 2022

To: The Prospectors of Europa

Bot Wars - danielhillsmoab

It's been a while since we've seen you, but we hope this digital postcard finds you well. We settled on the ice moon called Europa about two months ago. Here, we began a terraforming project in preparation for our next update. This new terrain is the right place to test and refine our vehicles and we suspect they'll be ready for the market some time this year. Life on Europa can be rough though, if you consider this Mechanical existence a life. There's a lot for a robot to think about, gazing up at these stars. It ain't all philosophizin' and stargazin' though. The miners here are in a constant state of revolt, but the magnet operated brine pumps are still functioning well enough; you just need to prime the pump. In the mean time expect a shipment of Rock Ice soon...

-The Frompy Dev Team

Originally Europa was occupied solely by automated mining bots from a long since absorbed company lost to time. Their intent was to retrieve water after Earth's supply was deemed biohazards. Unfortunately for humanity Fromptech soon purchased Europa itself and filed a lawsuit against the already struggling mining business leading it to bankruptcy and a later acquisition by Fromptech. Shortly there after Fromptech never so much as touching the ice moon, forgot about it. It was nearly a century before Fromptech relized they needed to add a new ingredient to Fromp as it had been liquid free for decades. That ingredient was water. So Fromptech restarted the mining operations all the while constantly fighting off the now feral bots belonging to the long dead business. Drawn by the value of this newly rediscovered resource, the other companies joined the fray.

Battle for control of the magnetic brine pumps, ice mines, and transfer stations while you fend off miner bots, major bots, and rival companies.

-Updated the menu UI
-Added new Level
-Added new feral bot
-New song by Muchkin

Minor adjustments:
-Reduced reload time for grenades
-Reduced reload time for basic rocket launcher
-doubled the damage of the grenaider's shotgun
-sniper control gets stronger the further you are zoomed out
-sniper controls are no longer effected by movement

Mar 27, 2022

Version 0.3.6

Two Clusters Cold Haven - TC_Dean

⨭ Added

1. Nick will have another monologue.

2. A story phase “Stand off” added. This is where you’d choose to side with Aurora if you didn’t choose Cass. Of course, since I am working on Cass route first, the option to side with her will be disabled.

3. John the girl returns as a unique character. If you don’t remember her, exterminating rats in her apartment is the first quest you do in the game. She now has a unique portrait, and her quest arc will veer off the main story. The arc will trigger automatically once you reach a certain point in the main story. Once triggered though, it will veer off as a side quest arc.

↹ Changed

1. There are three large crates stacked together on section C. Those have some sort of LCD panels on them. Those will now blink.

2. A small bug fix with the story.

3. The social panel was all broken when you reach the end of content. Fixed.

4. Fixed a bug where Nick will continue to claim that Cass is nearby when trying to contact her via PMC after their first intercourse.

5. Fat has been removed from the walkthrough.

6. Section B elevator location was a bit … wrong. Corrected.

7. The Kitty cat sign on section B will now flash.

Mar 27, 2022

【Playmeow】《Estella's Nightmare》Prefew!!

Border Conqueror - s0300455

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1925210/_/

In order to find the herbs to cure her father's illness, Estella, a cat-eared girl, enters the Cursed Forest alone. Estella, who accidentally activated a mysterious crystal, was sucked into a different dimension sealed by a magical boundary by the crystal...

■ Gameplay
This is an action game that uses a special turn-based system.
Thieves, beasts, monsters ...... in the dangerous foreign space to find a way to go home it.
If you lose to the enemy, you can also get "essence" in defeat H to upgrade Estella's fighting ability.

◇Game Features
◇H scenes triggered during the battle and smooth defeat H animation made with Live2D, totaling about 20 minutes in length
◇Rich enemy types, each boss enemy has its own H-animation
◇The difficulty level is low, so players who are not good at fighting can easily enjoy the game content
◇All CGs can be unlocked in the flashback screen after passing the level

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✦Upcoming✦

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1870310/_/