Public Playtest Event: Samurai Royale WIP Mode - Wednesday Dec 22nd @ 10pm EST
Samurai Royale Test - Details
Tonight we will begin testing gameplay changes, new features and more. We will be testing on a BETA BRANCH during these events, which require some action in Steam. You can opt-in to our testing branch following the steps below:
Step 1) Right click on Hanako: Honor & Blade in your Steam library and click Properties. Step 2) Click the Betas section. Step 3) In the "Enter beta access code to unlock private betas:" enter hanakotestingbranch Step 4) Click Check Code Step 5) In the beta dropdown choose testing_branch Step 6) This will now download the beta branch patch.
Join us on http://discord.gg/playhanako around 10pm EST for our first post-launch Defeat the Devs.
Testing Agenda for Tonight
- We will be testing our Battle Royale mode called Samurai Royale in a VERY WIP/Prototype state. This is only our second test of the mode.
WE ARE NOW FREE-TO-PLAY + F2P PATCH NOTES
WE ARE NOW FREE TO PLAY
We are now officially a F2P title. We look forward to this next chapter of our long decade+ journey. We hope this allows more gamers like you to see what we've put into our game, for free and have an easier decision to make to stick around, join our community and help us grow the game more.
For this patch we wanted to focus on a few important areas: Adding more content to the item store, taking the three largest areas of feedback on the game: 1) dEaD GaMe (why we are going F2P to let anyone play any time); 2) "Needs more Impact"; 3) "Game is clunky in spots".
New Content
- Unicorn & Kintsukuroi Sets - All helmets, hats, masks, hair are equippable on both classes. All items in these sets have a different version for Hanako & Yamai (to help with recognizing which team is which). - Unicorn Set: 12 items total: 4 player skins, 4 weapon skins, helmet, hat, hair, mask.
- Kintsukuroi Set (inspired by the "golden-repair" style of Japanese pottery): 11 items total: 4 player skins, 4 weapon skins, helmet, hat, mask.
New Features
- New "ripout" animations for melee hits on the Kenshi and Nagi on basic attacks. - New "combo counter" FX for hitting enemies with combo abilities. - New ability hit FX for increasing the impact of hitting enemies with abilities. - Updates to hit detection to be more responsive.
Bug Fixes
- Major bug fixes/crash fixes for server stability. - Major bug fix for "hit reactions" causing rubber banding/general clunkiness. We believe this was responsible for most of the game's clunky "feel" at times. - Major localization fixes for missing text in various menus (custom game and killstreaks). - Other minor bug fixes in other areas of the game.
What's Next
- Samurai Royale - We will start public testing of our Battle Royale mode (24 players) starting after the holidays in early 2022. - Challenges/unlocks - Depending on how the playerbase grows, we will begin systems to unlock items based on daily/weeklies and other in-game challenges. - AI improvements - New classes and map (for Samurai Royale)
Thank you for all of your support. At this stage, we're about a 4 person team working on this after our jobs and we will do our best to keep the game updated and address issues, but please be patient with us as we manage what comes next. Most bugs can only be fixed by one of our devs and requires investigation. We will always do our best to prioritize and make our game the best it can be.
-Hanako Dev Team
Final F2P Patch Test Night - Wednesday December 8th @ 10pm EST
F2P Patch Testing - Details
This is our last test before the F2P patch ships on Friday. We will be testing all of our current features, bug fixes, etc. to make sure the build is stable for release.
We will be testing on a BETA BRANCH during these events, which require some action in Steam. You can opt-in to our testing branch following the steps below:
Step 1) Right click on Hanako: Honor & Blade in your Steam library and click Properties. Step 2) Click the Betas section. Step 3) In the "Enter beta access code to unlock private betas:" enter hanakotestingbranch Step 4) Click Check Code Step 5) In the beta dropdown choose testing_branch Step 6) This will now download the beta branch patch.
Join us on http://discord.gg/playhanako around 10pm EST for our first post-launch Defeat the Devs.
Testing Agenda for Tonight
- Fixed some issues with the Tutorial. - Fixed issues with missing text on custom game screen and killstreaks in any non-English language setting. - Major updates to the Ability hit system
Hanako: Honor & Blade to go Free-to-Play
We are going Free-to-Play
We have decided as a dev team that is in our best interest, as a small independent game, to go Free-to-play as soon as possible to give our multiplayer title the best chance at reaching more players.
Why F2P?
We worked on Hanako, with everything we have, during our free time for 14 years and our launch, quite frankly has been a tremendous disappointment because we think we made a near-AAA quality multiplayer game, but never had the exposure, support or budget (Hanako was made with $0) to adequately get eyes on it. So we want to remove the barrier to entry and let as many people as could put their eyes on it, to play and hopefully get enough influx of new players to fill up servers, even scale them up and turn our focus to providing more content, new classes, maps, modes, etc.
Despite being a team of 4 people, doing this after work, we have built our item store up to about 75 items (when we ship the F2P patch) and believe there's enough there to make this shift.
What if I bought the game already?
We will be offering in-game items in our Discord by showing us proof-of-purchase (steam key or receipt email/screenshot showing your Steam ID) via a DLC key or some other means. We're still working out the specifics on this and are happy to offer something like that, especially as a thank you for supporting us and continuing to want to play and have access to the game.
Free-to-Play Patch Preview
We'll be releasing our first major patch with this change on December 10th. This will feature over 24 new items in our item store, addressing of the top feedback items from launch feedback gathering, refund notes, forum posts, testing, etc. and other fixes we've run into.
Improved hit impact/feedback: New "ripout" system for melee classes, to have successful hits "stick" and "Rip out" of enemies for more visceral feel. Also our new ability/combo hit system that includes combo counter numbers, additional particle FX and presentation.
Two new full item sets: Unicorn set & Kintsukuroi set added for purchase in the item store. These bundles include: Skins for all classes & weapons, helmet, hat, mask & hair (Unicorn set only for Hair). Items can be individually purchased as well.
Improvements to hit detection/consistency of hits.
Fixes for various server crashes and issues.
Localization updates, fixes to variety of missing text/strings in non-English langauges.
[What happens after F2P Patch?
We will be keeping a close eye on how player numbers change and our development roadmap and we will become public testing of our Samurai Royale (battle royale) mode and iterating towards a new BR map/mode patch release and adding more item sets. Should the game earn a self-sustaining playerbase we will move into retention mechanics like daily/weekly/monthly challenges, achievement-based item unlocks (some exist in-game already) and expanding giving you guys more reasons to keep coming back.
We'd like to thank all of you for your support, especially those that participated in Early Access testing. We know it's been a slow burn, and we see everyone's reviews/comments/feedback about the player base, we hate it as much as you do and this is why we're doing what we're doing.
-Hanako Dev Team
Public Playtest Event: Defeat the Devs - Wednesday Dec 1st @ 10pm EST
Defeat the Devs - Details
Tonight we will begin testing gameplay changes, new features and more. We will be testing on a BETA BRANCH during these events, which require some action in Steam. You can opt-in to our testing branch following the steps below:
Step 1) Right click on Hanako: Honor & Blade in your Steam library and click Properties. Step 2) Click the Betas section. Step 3) In the "Enter beta access code to unlock private betas:" enter hanakotestingbranch Step 4) Click Check Code Step 5) In the beta dropdown choose testing_branch Step 6) This will now download the beta branch patch.
Join us on http://discord.gg/playhanako around 10pm EST for our first post-launch Defeat the Devs.
Testing Agenda for Tonight
- Unicorn set should be fully equippable during the test. Will go out with the next patch. - Fixes to the hit feedback for abilities and combos. - Kenshi now had "rip out" animations for successful hits. - Fix for server crash. - Few other minor fixes.
We Need Your Nomination: Labor of Love
We would love your nomination for Labor of Love. Hanako: Honor & Blade started as a tribute to my late mother, who passed away from cancer. The game's backstory of samurai lore serves as a metaphor for al lost loved ones battle against disease.
Over the course of our journey, many of our dev team have lost a parent to cancer and our game expanded as a growing tribute to many of our lost.
We worked on this game after hours, after our jobs, late at night, through college in 2008; through a gruelingly long Early Access period from 2017 to 2021; and finally released in September 2021!
Our team is still hard at work making the game better, working on new features, fixing bugs, making new cosmetic items and doing so with $0 budget, as we always have, in our free time. Even though our launch wasn't as big as we hoped, we still love our game, think we made something very high quality and deserving of Labor of Love, as one of the longest in development Indie Games in history.
Public Playtest Event: Defeat the Devs - Wednesday Nov 17th @ 10pm EST
Defeat the Devs - Details
Tonight we will begin testing gameplay changes, new features and more. We will be testing on a BETA BRANCH during these events, which require some action in Steam. You can opt-in to our testing branch following the steps below:
Step 1) Right click on Hanako: Honor & Blade in your Steam library and click Properties. Step 2) Click the Betas section. Step 3) In the "Enter beta access code to unlock private betas:" enter hanakotestingbranch Step 4) Click Check Code Step 5) In the beta dropdown choose testing_branch Step 6) This will now download the beta branch patch.
Join us on http://discord.gg/playhanako around 10pm EST for our first post-launch Defeat the Devs.
Testing Agenda for Tonight
- The Kintsukuroi and Unicorn sets (WIP) will be equippable during this test. - Ability hit feedback system has been fixed/working appropriately. - Fix for major bug causing dead players to never disappear, leading to FPS drops. - Improvements to ability hit FX.
Event Tonight: Defeat the Devs - Wednesday Nov 10th @ 10pm EST
Defeat the Devs - October 13th @ 10pm EST
Tonight we will begin testing gameplay changes, new features and more. We will be testing on a BETA BRANCH during these events, which require some action in Steam. You can opt-in to our testing branch following the steps below:
Step 1) Right click on Hanako: Honor & Blade in your Steam library and click Properties. Step 2) Click the Betas section. Step 3) In the "Enter beta access code to unlock private betas:" enter hanakotestingbranch Step 4) Click Check Code Step 5) In the beta dropdown choose testing_branch Step 6) This will now download the beta branch patch.
Join us on http://discord.gg/playhanako around 10pm EST for our first post-launch Defeat the Devs.
Testing Agenda for Tonight
- New Kintsukuroi skin set (all characters, few weapons, helmet, hat mask) - Hit feedback FX changes. - Audio changes on Nagi attacks/ripouts. - Combo counter FX prototype.
Event Tonight: Defeat the Devs - Wednesday October 13th @ 10pm EST
Defeat the Devs - October 13th @ 10pm EST
Tonight we will begin testing gameplay changes, new features and more. We will be testing on a BETA BRANCH during these events, which require some action in Steam. You can opt-in to our testing branch following the steps below:
Step 1) Right click on Hanako: Honor & Blade in your Steam library and click Properties. Step 2) Click the Betas section. Step 3) In the "Enter beta access code to unlock private betas:" enter hanakotestingbranch Step 4) Click Check Code Step 5) In the beta dropdown choose testing_branch Step 6) This will now download the beta branch patch.
Join us on http://discord.gg/playhanako around 10pm EST for our first post-launch Defeat the Devs.
Testing Agenda for Tonight
- Hit detection changes. Misses should be less frequent. - Nagi has prototype for hit "Ripouts" to give hits more impact. VERY ROUGH. - Small audio fixes in tutorial.
Event Tonight: Defeat the Devs - Wednesday October 6th @ 10pm EST
Defeat the Devs - October 6th @ 10pm EST
Tonight we will begin testing gameplay changes, new features and more. We will be testing on a BETA BRANCH during these events, which require some action in Steam. You can opt-in to our testing branch following the steps below:
Step 1) Right click on Hanako: Honor & Blade in your Steam library and click Properties. Step 2) Click the Betas section. Step 3) In the "Enter beta access code to unlock private betas:" enter hanakotestingbranch Step 4) Click Check Code Step 5) In the beta dropdown choose testing_branch Step 6) This will now download the beta branch patch.
Join us on http://discord.gg/playhanako around 10pm EST for our first post-launch Defeat the Devs.
Testing Agenda for Tonight
- Hit detection changes. Misses should be less frequent. - Nagi has prototype for hit "Ripouts" to give hits more impact. VERY ROUGH. - Small audio fixes in tutorial.
