Godsworn
Next Fest - Godsworn - watch the developer play - Feb 6
Next Fest - Godsworn - watch the developer play - Feb 5
End of the year devlog 2023
It's been 2 months since the last update and we have been hard at work on Godsworn. We have nearly completed the campaign for Early Access and are quite excited to show you all what’s to come. We spent a lot of time filling the maps with different ways to complete each mission, lots of side objectives and secrets that grant you ways to solve the various challenges you will face. Here’s some examples: you can capture or destroy enemy trebuchets, or convince an exiled tribe to reconquer their converted town and join you as a allied "player". You can buy war machines from Hansa traders, or explore better angles of attack to take down a fortified location.
There are unique powers and units to be found in the campaign in the form of glyphs, such as: Meness being able to spawn shadow wolves, Gabija the goddess of fire allowing you to summon her fire spirits or find a sickle of Giltiné lost in the swamp. You will find these glyphs through completing side objectives or exploring hidden corners of the map.
Not to forget, the campaign is optionally a co-op experience. In singleplayer you get an AI buddy, as both characters are involved in the story. Of course, you could also replay the mission as the other hero and sometimes even have special secrets or sides of the map.
The first act of the campaign that Early Access will ship with will depict the beginning of both the crusades and the celestial marriage mythos. The story is an epic reimagining and not an accurate retelling, both historically and mythologically. For those into history or folk tales, there will be some fun references, such as Meinhard or Bear-Slayer (Lāčplēsis).
We've also been working on a whole bunch of other stuff. Some highlights include: A whole bunch of stuff for Ausrine, her myth unit, her special buildings, and refining her skill lineup. Some of the last buildings for the Order faction, some last Michael skill passes and refinements. And a whole list of various small improvements, torch throw animations, performance optimization, adding more sounds and particle effects. There's still plenty to do and improve, but we're happy with the continuous improvement the game has seen.
A milestone we wanted to mention is that we just hit the 40k wishlist mark! A sincere thank you to everyone rooting for us. An extra special thanks to our Patreon supporters, your contributions are helping to make the game go that extra mile.
Now, with us continuing to silently chip away at development for the coming months, and taking a brief break during the holiday season, we wanted to already wish you a great winter solstice ahead of time (or summer solstice, for those in the southern hemisphere). In the Baltic myth, it a time when the Sun goddess Saule is at her weakest, but great celebrations and rituals create a turning point for her to become brighter once again. This winter has not been easy on us on a personal level, but we are looking forward to bringing the game to you in the new year.
If you want to find out more about what we've been up to, join our Discord. https://discord.gg/r2qBuBXfVc We might even have a little surprise there. ;D
Godsworn update on development progress and release window.
We did more than 3 weeks of playtest + demo, thank you to everyone who played and gave feedback, hope you had fun! It was very good to see people coming back for more.
Now, with all that playtesting, we got a lot of good feedback. With this feedback in mind, we looked at our planning and what features we want to be in for Early Access, and have decided to move the Early Access release to Q1 2024.
We understand that for some, more of a wait is not great news, but this does mean the release will be in a more polished state. This does not delay the amount of work for 1.0, the total stays the same, effectively shortening the time spent in Early Access. For the sake of transparency of why we are delaying Early Access, we will outline our plans for the whole game.
For Early Access launch, this is in the works:
- Baltic and Order factions, both will be playable in skirmish and challenge maps.
- 4 heroes: Saule (sun goddess), Meness (moon god), Michael (leader of heaven’s host) and Ausrine (dawn goddess).
- Around 5 campaign missions that can be played single player or co-op. The campaign is from the perspective of the Baltic faction.
- 10 skirmish maps. A variety from 2 player, up to 8 player maps. These will come in a variety of gameplay flavors, with some more thematic and asymmetrical, while some more balanced.
- 2 challenge maps. Custom maps that have a specific thematic objective, such as wave defense.
- A big list of QoL improvements and polish.
- And of course we need to make a trailer!
During Early Access:
- 1 additional skirmish or challenge map per month until full release.
- Potentially adding 1 or 2 additional heroes, via adapting campaign specific heroes to skirmish.
- UI updates.
- Graphics optimization.
- Improved animations
- Group movement.
- AI improvements.
- End of match stats.
- Localization community support.
- Visual improvements on units and buildings.
- More PvE map content, such as spawners or structures with effects.
- 2 additional thematic environment sets.
- An even bigger list of QoL improvements and polish.
1.0 launch:
- Baltic campaign, around 10 missions, fully voiced.
- 6 to 8 playable heroes.
- 20+ skirmish or challenge maps.
- Languages localization.
- UI visuals overhaul.
All of these are quite some time away, so please note that planning is subject to change. And of course, based on the success of Early Access, we might decide to add more, such as hiring additional people to make a level editor or other cool features. But for now, this is our plan for each of these stages of development.
We will be back to showing development screenshots on Discord, while keeping the bigger updates to a minimum, to simply focus on development for a while. See you around!
Discord: https://discord.gg/r2qBuBXfVc
Steam demo available for a limited time
Hope to see you in-game, and don't forget to bring friends for some coop!
If you have any feedback or want to find a group to play with, join our Discord: https://discord.gg/r2qBuBXfVc
Godsworn campaign details
We asked the Discord community what they wanted to hear about this time, and they said - campaign! So, let's explore what the campaign is going to be like in Godsworn.
We will cover topics such as:
- How the co-op will work in the campaign
- What missions you can expect during Steam Early Access
- The glyph progression system
- How much inspiration are we taking from history and myth
- What will the cutscenes be like
Let's dive into each of these aspects and explore what you can expect in the campaign!
Co-op Campaign
Godsworn's campaign will be playable with 1 to 2 players, allowing you to invite a friend and experience the story together. In single-player mode, the other slot will be filled by an AI player which can be given basic orders. The 2-player campaign is designed to provide the flexibility to switch between player slots, allowing you to experience the campaign as the other hero choice on a second playthrough. While most of the time you will be experiencing the story together, some of the missions might feature an alternate experience for each hero.
Each mission will feature a duo of heroes, which will be part of the story in that mission. The heroes will change based on what is going on in the story, and you will be able to return to a favorite later down the line.
The Missions
To summarize a complex topic in a comprehensive way I will make a couple comparisons to other games. We were inspired by Warcraft 3 and Age of Mythology style of campaign missions. Things like thematic mission maps that are handcrafted, in-game cutscenes, small side missions to help your main objective that grants things like a buff or unit.
With that in mind, I should remind you that Thunderoak is made up of two devs. We will do our best to make it a campaign experience players expect, but usually such campaigns are made with much larger teams. For Early Access, we are aiming to have 6 missions available to play, with the rest finished during Early Access or on full release.
Glyphs
During campaign missions and challenge maps, glyphs can be obtained. These hidden powers can be found in secret areas or be rewarded upon completing certain objectives. These glyphs grant you small bonuses that prove useful in accomplishing your mission. For instance, the glyph in the screenshot below increases the hero character's health regen by 2. The variety of glyphs is extensive, ranging from simple stat boosts to small divine powers or even unique structures.
You get to keep these glyphs after the mission, and before starting the next mission you can choose which ones to have active. Additionally, you can take these glyphs into a custom game, with the option to disable them.
Story, history and myth
Now you might be wondering what the story is about and how historical it will be. The main story will be about the strife between Baltic gods while the Order launches a crusade using it as an opportunity. But as a whole, the focus will be on the gods themselves and their worshippers. We largely take inspiration from Latvian dainas (folk poems) and the Livonian Chronicle.
This world and story, while mostly inspired by the Northern Crusades and Baltic mythology, still remains an original world and timeline. Mixing history and myth, we need to take some liberties to make a coherent world and story. There might be references to stories of myth, or historical battles or places, but all told through our own interpretation.
Cutscenes
A specific question we received on Discord was: how will the cutscenes work? So let's answer that.
The in-mission cutscenes will be using in-game assets and good old camera pans. The text will show up next to portraits, basically the classic RTS way of telling a story. Whether we will have voice acting in-mission, we have yet to see, as it depends on budget and time constraints we have.
Meanwhile, the cutscenes outside of the missions will be illustrations with voiceovers. They will be in a similar style to the cover art image, while considering how much time we can spend per image. The one illustrating these is also the character concept and model artist, so we have to choose where to spend that time wisely.
Thank you for reading about the campaign and I hope that you're excited to see how it turns out. If you have any suggestions or want to see the occasional in-development shot, feel free to head to our Discord: https://discord.gg/r2qBuBXfVc
Also, in August, we have some exciting events lined up for Godsworn! We will be conducting a playtest first and then participating with a public demo during Steam Strategy Fest. There will be more info when these are getting closer. Hope to see you there!
Happy summer solstice celebration!
While the shortest night falls on 21/22 June, in eastern Europe the celebration usually takes place on the 23/24 June.
In Latvia known as Jāņi or Līgo, in Lithuania as Rasos, and in a lot of places known as Kupala night. Wreaths and bonfires are customary.
You can see the traditional wreaths as a worshipper upgrade in Godsworn. As for how we see the solstice in a mythological sense - the rituals on this night were performed to give the sun (Saule) the strength to get through the winter, as the days will only become shorter now.
So for those who celebrate, hope you have a good one, and for the rest I hope you learnt something new today. 😊
P.S. We are just back from a lot of events and travel craziness, so apologies for the silence in the development updates department. But rest assured we are back to making good progress on the game behind the scenes!
Join our Discord to get more updates and hear first about future playtests and demos! https://discord.gg/r2qBuBXfVc
Order Faction Economy
Lets start of by discussing the lowest yet most important, the hovel! This is were your followers live, simple houses that can shelter a small family. However, with some work of the guilds, the hovels can be improved, Increasing the amount of peasants one can cram inside.
One of the core strategies of the Order is to take and hold. This strategy translates itself into individual upgrades for the resource gathering structures. This allows you to turn a simple granary into a mill, which in turn allows your peasants to farm wheat fields.
However, a good lord does need to keep the peasants protected. Building guard towers, walls and castles is of utmost importance to protect and hold your newly claimed land.
We hope you enjoyed this small preview of some of the Order economy and buildings!
If you want to know more about the game or give suggestions, feel free to join the Godsworn Discord: https://discord.gg/r2qBuBXfVc
And don't forget to wishlist and follow if you haven't already!
Godsworn Teaser Trailer and Playable Demo is live during TactiCon!
Watch the teaser trailer and try the game out in the playable demo available during Tacticon 2023! While the event runs May 11-15, the demo will be available till May 21.
Let us know what you think on the forums or the official Discord: https://discord.gg/r2qBuBXfVc
Don't forget to invite your friends for some co-op and hope you enjoy!
Godsworn soundtrack - Descent
"Descent" composed by Claude Houde / OB-Lix Original Music