Today we’re pushing the very first update that should address all the game breaking bugs and issues you have reported so far. We’ve included a bunch of small QoL changes and we’ve already started working on a bigger update that should come next week.
We’d like to send a big Thank You to all the people who have already bought the game and are supporting us with positive feedback, suggestions and bug reports. We’re very aware that the game is still in an early stage of development and would like to say that it’s totally fine to wait with purchasing GC until it’s more fleshed out / a more complete experience. Nonetheless, we’re very happy to see that a number of players are already having fun with the game in its current state and believe in the final product we’ve envisioned.
Bug fixes:
Fixed a bug with the forever-alive tooltips.
Fixed a bug with battles not loading after teaching the Agile captain an ability.
Fixed a bug with not being able to select the captain unit in the unit panel.
Fixed a bug with swapping Unit Stash Right Hand item with the Right Hand item.
Fixed a bug with langs not loading in the character creation screen.
Fixed the lang NOQUESTS not showing properly.
Fixed long names overflowing in the Tavern screen.
Fixed a bug with Rotating costing AP even when rotating to the current direction.
Fixed a bug with NPC Lords sometimes giving you the same quest twice.
Fixed the level and exp UI elements in battles.
Fixed a rare bug with overlapping music from the world map in battle.
QoL improvements and tweaks:
Tweaked the world map HUD “hitboxes” to hopefully be less annoying when scrolling.
Disabled the camera following player projectiles.
Using all of your unit's AP will now switch to the next one.
Lords now acknowledge you’ve completed quests for them.
Tweaked the camera’s tilting in battle so it works smoothly when zooming in and out.
Added Volume options. (!)
Added a tutorial popup explaining Quests after the first one is taken.
We’ve disabled the auto update of the langs database feature at the game’s startup for now since a number of users have reported issues with missing strings (the large traffic at the release might’ve caused this). Instead all the strings will now be always included in the build itself.
Next update tease
Expanding on the Options menu with rebindable input settings and some graphical settings.
A bunch of new abilities
New neutral enemies
Food System
...and more!
Glorious Companions is now out in Early Access! (+ DEV ROADMAP)
We can’t believe it’s been almost 10 years since the first time the initial idea for Glorious Companions sprinkled into our minds. We had been dabbling in pen-and-paper RPGs for a while and we thought it’d be really cool to one day create a video game, where we could share the vision for all the mechanics and the world of Navaroth with a broader audience. At that time, the game was really tiny. 2D avatars moving around the board in an awkward and sluggish way and yet we were so happy to our ideas come alive. This is why we have stuck with game development as it’s a very satisfying medium to share your vision.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xWTGDnHtST8
Today marks a very special day. We’re releasing Glorious Companions in Early Access - the first milestone out of many others to come. While the day in itself is special, we want to stay humble and treat it as a beginning of something new, not a finale to the whole journey. We’ve got amazing plans for this game and we’d love to invite you all to get on that ride with us.
Here’s a rough content & feature plan for the Early Access. There are all the planned features that we want to complete before moving out of Early Access. Keep in mind that depending on the game’s financial success, some of those features and content might be out faster and some of them might take a little bit longer to roll out.
Short Term Continuous Updates (aka things you can expect in the coming weeks)
Valrenay Abilities Updates
New Weapon Types Updates
AI Updates
Hair Style Options for Player Characters
Bug Fixes & QoL tweaks
Balance Patches
Big Content & Feature Updates
Scarres Fully Playable Race Update
Camping System
World Map 2.0 (region based, roads, simulated trading, new environment assets)
Settlement Management and Sieges Update
Procedural Generation of Battle Locations (based on their position on the world map)
Anderia Fully Playable Race Update
Trigoths Fully Playable Race Update
Politics & World Map AI Update
Peer-2-Peer Multiplayer Update
Mercenary Faction Update
Ancient Guardians Uprising Update
The first few months are going to lay a lot of groundwork for the future and we want to take that time to see what the community thinks of the game and the direction you guys would like to see it go. Ultimately, our aim is to create something that people can legitimately have fun with for a long time, and we’re not afraid of criticism of our ideas. That’s why for now we’re committed to the following 6 months plan while the further future is something we intend to craft with your feedback in mind.
Top 10 Biggest Changes in Glorious Companions After 2 Months of Crunch Time
Hello there, Companions!
We’ve been a bit quiet for the past couple of months, but we really wanted to focus on the project to ensure that we can deliver the best product that we can for the EA launch. Today we’re releasing an ultimate video update, showcasing the top 10 biggest changes that the project has seen in that time. Make sure to watch the whole thing!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=itc61QHLQ8M
We’ll be releasing a content & feature plan as well as the roadmap for the Early Access tomorrow, alongside all the details that you’re asking for. Tonight though, we’ve still got some work to do and a few bugs to iron out, so set your alarms for tomorrow, 8:00 AM PDT, 17:00 CST. You don’t want to miss it.
How We Created The New Steam Capsule for Glorious Companions
As you might've noticed we've just updated our Steam capsule for Glorious Companions.
Now instead of a dull landscape it features a vibey artwork that shows a Trapper sitting by a campfire, resting between tough battles. What do you think of this scene?
Here's a gif showcasing all the steps of progress:
It's been a few years since I drew anything and I'm not perfectly happy with the outcome here, but we think it'll do better than the last version for now.
We plan to revisit the capsule artwork in the coming months, hopefully with better results. Do you have any cool ideas on what it may feature? Something brighter perhaps ːsteamhappyː
We've also sent out the first batch of closed alpha invites to that applied through our Glorious Companions website. Check your email inbox to see if you got selected in the first wave! :cozybethesda:
Sign up for the Closed Alpha Tests of Glorious Companions!
Greeting, Companions!
We’ve just opened a sign up form on our website for Closed Alpha participation. You can also sign up for the newsletter if you only want to get a notification on the release. There will be a few waves of the closed access invitations, starting with the smallest one which will be probably around 20 people.
We’ll be sending the game out to randomly selected people that signed up for the closed access. Companions with access to the Closed Alpha will have their own secret channel on our Discord server and will be able to post on our secret forum here on Steam.
We hope to gather insightful feedback about the gameplay, mechanics and the user experience in Glorious Companions. We’ll also gladly welcome any suggestions for future features and other ideas.
We’ll appreciate if you spread the word about our Closed Alpha sign ups for Glorious Companions. And get ready to dive into the world of Navaroth!
New Gameplay Trailer and Development Update
Greeting, Companions!
Today we have released a new gameplay trailer for Glorious Companions ːsteamhappyː
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y_dvHOrAVSs
Let us know your thoughts on it in the comments!
Moreover we've had some long discussions and in the end decided to postpone the Early Access release a bit further down the road. We know that many of you waited for the upcoming release but we don't want to disappoint you as we can make the first impression only once. Saying that, we really appreciate the positive reactions and feedback we receive from the community here on Steam and we want to deliver a great game!
There are some features and (more so) content that we really feel like we need to include in the EA release, to name a few: visual representation of armors which requires a lot of parts designed for each unit archetype separately, special abilities and spells, and improvements to the battles such as fog of war.
However, as to not leave you empty handed we'll be hosting some closed alpha tests for the game, we'll let you know how to get into them in the next devlog. You can also join our Discord server to not miss them: https://discord.gg/732xV6N
As always we'll really appreciate sharing the word about our project and / or the new gameplay trailer. Thanks for staying with us and we hope you understand our decision!
Official Discord Server and New Screenshots
Hello there Companions,
Today our Steam store page has received a bit of a lifting. Be sure to check out all the new screenshots as there’s a couple of new interesting things to be found.
We’ve also created a Discord server for our community as we’re getting closer and closer to the EA launch, which should happen this month, in April. Be sure to join the server if you want to chat and mark your calendars!
We’ve reached out with preview access to some youtubers that we thought would like Glorious Companions and we’ll see if anyone picks it up. If you know any good content creators that would be interested in GC, let us know in the comments!
Here’s our email address for press inquiries: contact [at] gloriouscompanions.com
First Official Gameplay Video (10 minutes) with a Developer Commentary
Hello there Companions,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rbywG3Qx5tc
Today we have something special to show you - the first official gameplay video from Glorious Companions, and it's whole 10 minutes of unedited gameplay with a developer commentary on top!
Let us know your thoughts and please share it, we'll greatly appreciate it ːsteamhappyː
Devlog: Company Leader Skills & Unit Attributes
Hello there, fellow Companions!
This time we want to share with you some informations about the company leader’s skills. However, we should start with explaining the basic attributes that each character in Glorious Companions possesses and is defined by. Let’s cover them one by one.
[STR] Strength - it’s used to calculate your companion’s melee attack accuracy. On top of that most weapons have at least some STR damage modifier, and while when fighting with a sabre the amount of Strength your companion has won’t make that much of an impact on the resulting damage, having more STR will significantly increase your damage output with weapons such as axes, maces and polearms. The only weapon types that don’t take STR into consideration are firearms and crossbows. Strength is also used to calculate companion’s chance to Parry an attack (which can be only done in melee combat).
[AGI] Agility - used to determine the accuracy of ranged attacks, as well as your companion’s ability to dodge incoming strikes and projectiles.
[DEF] Defense - reduces the amount of damage your companion receives and is also used to calculate the probability of blocking an incoming strike with a shield.
[MND] Mind - it’s crucial for both casting powerful spells / special abilities and surviving arcane attacks or curses.
[SPD] Speed - a permanent attribute which can not be leveled up, each unit archetype starts with a given amount of speed and it’ll stay that way forever (unless the companion breaks their ankle or something). It determines how many AP points it costs to move a given distance. It’s also used to calculate the travel speed of the whole company on the world map.
[HP] Health - this one is pretty obvious, don’t let it get down to zero or your character will die.
[AP] Action Points - a crucial attribute, the more AP your companion has, the more it can do on the battlefield. First off in each turn you can only use up to half of unit’s Action Points for movement. Then each possible action has its own AP cost assigned, be it swapping weapon sets or rotating (positioning in very important in GC). Also each weapon has a different cost for attacking (and some also have an additional cost for reloading), for example a dagger uses only 4 AP per attack, while a heavy halberd will require 8 Action Points.
[RES] Resource - each race in Glorious Companions has its own resource along with a unique mechanic paired up with it. In short it allows units to use the special abilities they have learned.
That sums it up pretty well, we didn’t want to go with too many base attributes as to make each one count - so the players don’t just keep leveling up only a single stat.
Next we have the Leader Skills, and as the name suggests, only the company’s leader has those. Let’s cover them one by one as we did with the attributes.
Leadership - increases the maximum party capacity, the more you level it up the bigger your company can get.
Trading - increases your bartering ability, you’ll receive fairer prices when buying items from the merchants of Navaroth and you’ll be able to make a bigger profit when selling.
Tactics - increases the range of your deployment zone at the beginning of a battle.
Intelligence - when leveling up this skill the tooltips will start giving you more and more info on enemy parties in the world map and on enemy troops on the battlefield.
First Aid - increases the chances of your companions not permanently dying after receiving a fatal wound.
Spoil - increases the amount and/or quality of loot your receive after a won battle.
Wayfaring - impacts your company’s travelling speed on the world map.
Construction - decreases the amount of time it takes to construct new buildings in the settlements you own, as well as the time it takes to properly fortificate your camps (more on that in future devlogs).
Surgery - increases the rate at which your companions regenerate their health passively on the world map.
That’d be it for this week’s update, thanks for staying with us! Which Leader Skill will you be “maxing out” at the beginning of your journey?
As always remember to add Glorious Companions to your Steam wishlist and share the game with your friends!
Character Creation Process: From Concept Art to In-Game Model
Hello Companions!
Come and see how we’ve made the new character for the Valrenay race - from the concept stage to the finished low poly, textured model.
We start off with a blueprint for each character, it’s a base for further modelling. We focus here on the general proportions and the silhouette of a unit, as well as its color scheme. However, we often change the latter in the later stages of production. The blueprint is also a nice reference for texturing further down the line.
The next step is creating a “sketch” of the character in high poly. It’s important to get the overall proportions of the model right at this stage. Considering that it allows us for a faster iteration speed, it’s the stage where we can implement any of the last minute ideas that we had not thought of during the concept art phase. After that, we try to make it a rule to leave the geometry alone and use texturing to polish everything up.
The low poly model is subsequently created based on the high poly version. After that, we get to the most important part in bringing the character to life - the hand painted texture.
On top of that, to be fully game-ready, the model needs to be rigged and properly animated.
Engineer is the 4th Tier unit of the Valrenay race and has unique access to the Engineering skill tree. She is known for her vast array of different gadgets that she deploys on the battlefield as well as surprisingly high defence capabilities. She’s able to control the battlefield well, making it harder for enemies to pass through the initial line of your formation. Pair her up with a couple of Marksmen and suddenly you’re cooking with gas.
That’s all for this week, make sure to tune in for the next week’s devlog!
As always remember to add Glorious Companions to your Steam wishlist and convince your friends to do so too! ːsteamsaltyː
