One of the big things I have needed to resolve for Swords and Sandals Immortals is this conundrum: what happens if, after 300 days, you are not prepared to fight the Starbound Gladiator?
Firstly, how do we become the most powerful gladiator in the realm? We level up, fight local champions and eventually become invited to Doomtrek to fight Grand Champions. There are twelve of these elite gladiators for you to fight. Once you are invited to Doomtrek, you can compete against these Grand Champions at any time. The only cost is stars for teleportation to the arena.
Of course, you must defeat the first to face the second and so on - this is much like how Swords and Sandals III worked. Once you have defeated the twelfth and final Grand Champion, you become the Grand Sentinel and we fast forward to the arrival of the Starbound Gladiator for the final showdown.
But again ... what if you're not the Great Sentinel? I had a lot of thoughts on this over the months. At first , I thought, well lets let the player fight the Starbound Gladiator anyway, even if they totally destroy our gladiator. This would show you , I figured, the true power of what you were up against.
Thinking on that more, it did not make sense. Why would *you* be the one to fight the Starbound Gladiator if you were not the most powerful gladiator in Brandor? The story tells us that the Automatons have set up tournaments all through the realm to determine a single fighter powerful enough to challenge the Starbound Gladiator and appeal to his hubris.
That gladiator, of course, could not be you, if you were not the most powerful!
So that led me to second option. Perhaps then, after 300 days, the game just ends and you get a 'better luck next time, the world is destroyed' screen! It felt a little cheap, as we as players are still expecting some kind of showdown, even if we ourselves are not part of it.
Which then led me to this third option:
If you reach the 300 day mark and you have not risen to become the Great Sentinel, the game ends - but we are treated to quite a fun and interesting event. Our gladiator, along with many other great citizens of Brandor, are invited to Doomtrek to witness the final battle. The Starbound Gladiator arrives, addresses the crowd and then proceeds to do battle against Brandor's chosen Great Sentinel - who is , of course Grand Champion XII ( the final Grand Champion you must face! ) . A mighty and epic gladiator in their own right!
What I've been able to do is pit these two gladiators against each other and allow the player to witness the battle in real time, using the game's real logic and rules. The Starbound Gladiator wins every time, just because they are the most powerful. Technically it is possible for him to lose, but I have not seen it in a hundred battles! I may have to put a failsafe in there just in case, but so far he is undefeated. We then 'enjoy' a final end of the world cutscene and the game ends.
I figured this was a much fairer way of addressing failure in the game instead of a quick ' you lose' screen, and it encourages a lot of replayability as the player strives to do better next time. For the moment, this is the only ending possible in the game because I have not yet built all of the arenas and Grand Champions. These will be coming in the first weeks of Early Access so there won't be too long of a wait.
I hope you enjoy this 'bad ending' to the game as much as I enjoyed creating it.
Only ten days until launch!
Cheers, Oliver Joyce Whiskeybarrel Studios
Less than a month until Early Access Release!
We are now less than a month away from Early Access launch. I submitted a test build to Steam last week for official approval - another big step on this long journey.
As I've said in past updates, despite my best efforts not everything is going to be in the game come Early Access. I set up the game to support quite a lot of systems and expandability, but actually filling in that content can be very time consuming. Now, I could push back the launch date but that is not without complications and at some point I need to actually start making money out of the game as it's been in development for nearly 18 months now, so the finances start to run low!
The good news is, right off the bat you will have access to at least 75% the bosses and arenas, with updates coming each week (at least) featuring new bosses / arenas before I finally unveil the Starbound Gladiator and the great showdown at the end. You won't be waiting 6 months for this, it'll be a month or two at most after EA launches, maybe even less.
Also, multiplayer will be coming sooner than I thought - my multiplayer coder has got the gladiators talking to each other now, challenges can be issued, there's a chat lobby and more. In the next few weeks we should be able to issue commands to gladiators and have the commands play out for both gladiators on each others screen. I think it'll be awesome, given how much fun S&S 3's multiplayer was. No matter how much work I do on the computer gladiator's AI logic, they will never be as fun as a multiplayer enemy.
Anyway, this week I've been powering my way through designing the Arena Champions. Although I have a boss creation tool , it's still very time consuming and often I have to go back and tweak older bosses based on some new parameter I had just thought of. At any rate, we now have 25 champions in the game now ( 21 regional and 4 Grand champions ) and in a week or two I should have at least another 15. As I was saying, I hope to have over 75% of the champions in the game at the time of launch!
One cool addition to the game ( that sidetracked me for a day ) is the new 'color cycling' on magical enchanted armour! So , looking at the GIF above, a fire enchanted helmet now glows like hot magma. Other effects include soft glows on other enchanted items and the simple 'colour shift' we saw in S&S 3.
You'll notice gladiators are a *LOT* more colourful the more high level you get , with all sorts of zany colour combinations depending on the magical gear they are wearing.
Until next time, I salute you my friends!
Cheers, Oli
Noble Steeds and Magic Items!
It's time to talk about the next addition to the game, steeds to travel the world on. When you move around the map, the game calculates how far it is to each town on foot. In short, it takes quite a while to travel around. Even the closest town is several days' walk by foot, and in a game where you only have 300 days before doom arrives, this simply won't be enough time!
That's where steeds come in. Available for purchase at the tavern keeper, steeds increase your travel speed significantly. So far there are only horses available in the game but even the slowest horse will increase your overworld movement speed by 200%+ . An invaluable (though expensive at 5000g plus) addition to the game.
There will be a few other steed types available ( lions, even giant spiders ) that increase your movement speed further and you'll be able to select your mount from the overworld screen. A fun little addition to the game that just adds a bit of depth and gives you something to save your gold for!
The other big update this week is all about loot in Swords and Sandals Immortals. Who doesn't love opening a treasure chest and finding a "Deadly Axe of Beserking!"
Ever since the original Diablo, I've always loved the idea of random treasures in games. Of course, random loot had origins that go way back before that to the early roguelikes, but it seemed to really hit the public consciousness with Diablo and more specifically Diablo 2.
Swords and Sandals III was the only S&S game to feature random loot and had a huge variety of items for players to buy in shops. That template has proved the inspiration for Swords and Sandals Immortals, where randomized loot makes its long awaited return. So, the system in S&S Immortals is as follows:
When you first start the game, you'll see no random loot. But from level 5 and onward, you will start noticing the shops stocking rare items. The quality and frequency of these items will grow and grow as your level grows, to the point when where you are max level the shops will be stocked with richly powerful items for you to buy. The tier of items is as follows:
Common - just regular gear
Uncommon - one prefix or suffix
Rare - more powerful again, still one prefix or suffix
Epic - both a prefix and a suffix, very powerful
Legendary - hugely powerful, prefix and a suffix
What are prefixes and suffixes ? In essence, they're just words to describe the item at a glance. They represent ability scores and talents that can be upgraded.
A prefix is something like "King's" , which might increase your strength +6. A suffix is something like "of Infernos" which could add +2 to Fire Mastery.
So you combine these with a humble greatsword to make a King's Greatsword of Infernos which when worn adds +6 to strength and +2 to Fire Mastery.
Both weapons and armour will be enchanted and I'm exploring special effects to colourize them in special ways to make them stand out.
At some point in Early Access I will be adding "Blueprints" to the enchanter that you can buy. So you could buy a "Inferno" blueprint which you can then take to the armourer and he will forge an item of your armour to be Inferno. So your helmet might become a Helmet of Infernos!
You will also find blueprints on felled enemies, in chests throughout the world and so on. This will all be added during Early Access.
In addition to these magical prefix-suffixes you find at the weaponsmith and armourer, I am now looking at adding in Runes to the game. You find these in your travels too, and can take them to the Enchanter. She can then add "Frost Damage", "Fire Damage" etc to your weapons to really customize your gear.
It's a smallish but really exciting addition to the game which I'm sure you'll enjoy!
Until next time, I salute you!
Cheers , Oliver Joyce Whiskeybarrel Studios
Adventures on the Road
One of the hallmarks of the Swords and Sandals series has always been the 'choose your own adventure' style choice scenarios. As far back as Swords and Sandals II, our hero would be presented with many decisions - sometimes whether to help out a villager in danger, sometimes to compete in a test of strength, some scenarios were even stranger.
I've always enjoyed having these mini-adventures in the games as not only do they break up the monotony of combat, they also add a sense of a larger world to the game. Getting a glimpse into the lives of the citizens of Tritonia, of strange and interesting locales and events, of dangerous foes and mysterious strangers. You don't need big fancy graphics or detailed mazes to convey this kind of stuff - a few well written paragraphs of text combined with some choices for a player can be a very effective way to make your adventure feel more 'real'.
Swords and Sandals Immortals now has over 50+ of these mini adventures! A few were written by myself but the great bulk of them were written by my long time friend Tom Gattenhof, (also known as the tavernkeeper in S&S V) - he's a great writer with a flair for adventure and comedy.
These adventures present themselves in the forms of small map icons that pop up from time to time on the overworld map. When you leave a town, these adventures will disappear and be placed elsewhere in the map, so if you see one a few days ride from where you are , it is worth investigating as it may not be there next time you are in the area!
When you click on an adventure icon and visit it, you will be presented with a paragraph of text describing your adventure scenario, and two options. Each has a positive or negative outcome, for a total of 4 results - meaning if you encounter the scenario again in your travels, you can try the other option.
Once you have selected an option, the familiar D20 die will appear - you must roll 10 or higher for a successful adventure!
Following that, you will see what happened next and either gain a reward or suffer a penalty! In addition to that, some adventure scenarios ask moral questions of you. For example in the images that accompany this blog post, our hero encounters a broken. They are given the option to help the merchant repair the cart, or rob them blind. Should you choose the latter, your alignment will shift towards *evil* , which will have small repercussions through the game.
In the next post, we talk about rideable steeds in the game!
Until next time,
Cheers, Oliver Joyce Whiskeybarrel Studios
Eat, drink and get ready for the dungeons!
Greetings, gladiators! The road to May 27th's Early Access launch continues and the game continues to take shape quickly.
This update is all about the Halgraxx of Pilthia, the cheerful tavern keeper who travels with your Battle Caravan - and the dungeons he will supply you items for!
Halgraxx's tavern "The Rolling Barrel" does not appear in the demo but he joins you shortly after you defeat the second Regional Champion, Tewtiy the Jovial. Halgraxx sounds a variety of foods and drinks, as well as utility items to keep you alive in the dungeons of Brandor.
When I first designed the Battle Caravan, I always knew I would have a tavern as part of the setup, though I wasn't sure of its purpose. Taverns of course have featured prominently in previous S&S games - in fact a whole game (S&S IV) was set inside a tavern!
In Swords and Sandals Medieval, the tavern was hugely important for keeping you alive thanks to the ever present hunger / fatigue clocks. S&S V's tavern followed a similar pattern and also offered supplies you could buy for dungeon crawling. The hunger clock in S&S games has always been a controversial topic. Some people hate it and find it distracting. Others enjoy the strategy and 'simulation' aspect of keeping your gladiator alive and well fed. For S&S Immortals, I already have the doomsday clock, where we countdown to the Starbound Gladiator's impending arrival.
The game has a lot of systems and strategies already so I kept the hunger clock out of the day to day aspect of the game. We can assume our gladiator is dining at the tavern each day, or perhaps fishing in his spare time. So then, what use for a tavern? Without a hunger clock, what would be the point of food and drink - we already have potions at the tavern to heal you, convey magical powers and so on.
To partially solve this, our tavern keep will still offer food ( reason still to come! ) but also *steeds!* . Horses, tigers, other creatures, that will allow you to travel around Brandor faster. Right now it takes 50+ days to get from Willard's Sound to Eldor Hath. We only have 300 days to play with so that's not going to cut it - but invest in a good steed and this travel time will be cut down dramatically! In addition to these, the tavern keep will sell *utility items* for dungeons.
I have talked briefly about dungeon crawling being a future addition to S&S Immortals in the past, and it came to me that the tavern (much like in S&S V) could sell you such utility items. Things like torches, lanterns, shovels, lockpicks to keep you alive down there. And of course food.
The dungeons will be very simple affairs, much simpler than in S&S V. Think of them like board game dungeons, ala HeroQuest or similar board games if you have ever played those. We will encounter these dungeons in the wild as optional adventures, simple mazes with a dungeon champion waiting at the end with a powerful reward.
These dungeons will most likely be designed by me rather than procedurally ( to be determined!) Our hero will be represented by a circular tile with their face on it. Traps, locked doors, even monsters will be also represented by icons on this map. Battles will be simulated , you move next to a monster and it tells you whether you defeated them or not and how much health you lost.
There will be a *hunger clock* in the dungeons to keep you pressing forward, as well as a light meter. The further you go into the dungeon, the more your food and light will dwindle. Be caught without these and you could face certain death. Again, much like S&S V but quite stripped down. This is not a major component of Immortals, just something to give the players a bit of variety from the many arenas in the game.
Dungeons will not be coming to the game for quite a few months, not until after Early Access will I start working on them. It's hugely important for me to get a fully playable game world and loop ready for you all before I start adding extra features, but rest assured they are coming. The tavern will not seem that important when we start Early Access, but once dungeons come into play, we will be glad we have a friend like Halgraxx.
Also , through March I've been locking down the remaining skills for characters to use in the game. Each one takes quite a while to put in , 1-2 hours at least on average. I've been working on elemental effects to do with the main wizard skills in the game. Fireballs now cause Immolation for a turn ( 10% health lost and cannot use special items like potions while immolated)
Another example is Poisoned. When poisoned, you cannot regenerate health and also lose 10% health per turn. (The 10% is standard, but it can be reduced with talents from the survival tree).
You can check out these elemental effects in the latest demo build!
Cheers, Oliver Joyce Whiskeybarrel Studios
Patch 0.2.3.A is live!
Hey gladiators!
With Early Access down the road ( the game goes into EA on May 27! ), work now continues on building the 'rest of the game' outside what you've seen so far in the demo. This doesn't mean work has stopped on updating the demo, however! Changes I'm implementing in the EA build also go into the demo - your feedback on the demo so far has been so invaluable I figure I should keep updating the demo as much as I can, almost consider it a free 'early-early-access preview' of the game.
With the addition and implementation of many new skills and status effects like being immolated, frozen, poisoned etc, I feel like the game is somewhat harder than previous builds. Warriors are no longer the juggernaut they once were and I feel like the balance has shifted towards the wizard a little! Never fear, if your favourite class feels underpowered now, thats what Early Access will be for - I'll be tweaking and refining this thing for many months to come.
Here are the latest changes to the demo build for Swords and Sandals Immortals! Lots of bugfixes, balance changes and improvements in this one. Some of the patch notes refer to things you won't get to experience until the full game opens up, but there's definitely enough there to warrant another playthrough if you're curious about where the game is going!
Enjoy and let me know what you think in the comments below.
Cheers, Oliver Joyce Whiskeybarrel Studios
Patch 0.2.3.A notes ---------------------
Added new class special skills Blood Pact, Purify, This Is Brandor
Changed how knockback is calculated (damage based instead of just strength)
Undead are no longer immune to sonic attacks. Instead they gain a bonus for night fighting
Updated map artwork with new details
Added many new high level ( non demo ) skills to the game (total of 70+ now!)
Added massive footstep sounds when gladiator is huge
Added food items to tavern
Sped up and redesigned regional champion intro animation sequence
Sped up campfire sleep animation sequence
Sped up level-up animation sequence
Increased amount of essence gained per stamina point to 4
Sped up stressed/inspired animations by 1 second
Added random flip jump for gladiators with high agility
Reworked item levels for armour / weapons for better distribution across all character levels. This means fewer items to choose from at lower levels and may affect previous demo character's weapon choices.
Sped up random enemy generation at higher levels
Added SFX when healing and gaining essence
Restructured item categories for enchanter and tavernkeeper (simplified)
Removed enemy yell when they lose their head.
Fixed a bug where using spells while having a ranged weapon equipped would fire the bow
Fixed bug where stunned gladiators sometimes could choose options from the battle bar
Fixed bug where enemy gladiators could still use skills with low essence
Fixed a bug where species with invulnerability to effects (poison, fire etc) were still getting those status effects
Fixed bug with essence being gained instead of lost after certain skills being used
Fixed bug with shop discounts adding cost to gladiators instead of subtracting!
Version 0.2.2.A Patch Notes
Greetings, mighty gladiators!
With the Steam Next Fest successfully completed, the road to Early Access continues! With less than three months to go, I have a ton of work to get through. This patch represents the last big 'content update' for the demo build of the game. I will of course be patching it with subtle bugfixes and balances from here on, but now all my energies will be going towards getting that Early Access build up and running.
Please enjoy this new build of the game, there are tons of changes and no doubt a few oddities I need to fix, so let me know what you think in the discussion forums!
Increased variety range of gladiator enemy levels at the fight selector
Increased chance of enemies wearing armour
Increased essence cost of many abilities
Increased armour value and cost of shields
Added hit chance penalty for dual wielding
Added Shield Block Skill to game. If you are holding a shield and raise it, defence is increased by 25% and all damage goes to the shield until it breaks or the skill's duration ends.
Added many other new skills into the game including Gale, Lightning Bolt, Poison Cloud and Death Ray
Enemy gladiators can now use potions and items in battle
Gladiators can now attack with their shield arm if they lose a weapon arm ( 25% damage )
Gladiators can now kick if they lose both arms ( 25% damage )
Gladiators can now headbutt if they lose both arms and legs ( 25% damage )
Added back button to shop panel/learn skills panels in shop to return to shop main menu
Added special status effects "Immolated/Electrified/Poisoned/Frozen"
Doubled the speed of fireball/frost bolt projectiles
Added +2 agility bonus / penalties to the dice roll at the start of battle
Improved enemy AI slightly to react better to your moves
Armour damage text now shows on damage splat instead of just 'physical'
Fixed bug where element resistance talents did not actually protect you (lol)
Fixed weapon hold offset positions
Fixed bug where fighting after 10pm at night caused you to rest in the daytime after the battle
Fixed bug where Charisma did not provide discounts at the shop
Fixed bug where location levels on the overland map showed incorrect values
Fixed a bug where clicking the character info panel too quickly /often caused errors
Various typo fixes and miscellaneous changes
Join us in the Arena! It's time to play Swords and Sandals Immortals!
"Swords and Sandals, gladiatooooooor"
If that epic refrain means anything to you, you're going to want to tune into this second exclusive Next Fest video. The time has finally come to check out the demo for the upcoming gladiatorial epic Swords and Sandals Immortals.
I'll be creating a new character and battling my way from Willard's Sound through to Shackleford, encountering . There'll even be a special guest battle against YouTube legends Charlie "Critikal" White and John Ryan "Tewtiy" Phillips who have graciously lent their vocal talents and likenesses to the game as arena champions!
I can't wait to show you the latest from the game and talk about where it's going next as part of this all important Steam Next Fest.
Save the date, gladiator - I'll see you in the arena!
Cheers, Oliver Joyce Whiskeybarrel Studios
The Next Fest DEMO version for Swords and Sandals Immortals is now live!
Gladiator, the time has come for you to test your mettle against the new demo for Swords and Sandals Immortals!
It's been a long time coming but I'm thrilled to announce the demo build for Swords and Sandals Immortals is now live, and we've been selected to be part of Steam's Next Fest starting today!
This demo will allow you to create a gladiator and battle your way through the first two tournaments right up to the second Regional Champion. You'll travel across a small section of Brandor, meeting enchanters, skeletal warriors and brave knights, and you'll defeat them all.
The demo represents just a small taste of what's to come in the Early Access build ( arriving in late May this year) and I'd love to get your feedback on what you think so far. There's so much more to come, dungeons, crafting, tons more skills, different fighting modes, dozens of new arenas and some of the toughest Arena Champions ever to grace the world of Swords and Sandals ...
And of course, the impending arrival of the Starbound Gladiator, who seeks to destroy the world - will you be the one to stop him.
Check out the demo right here and take your first step on a great journey. I've said this before but I truly believe this is the greatest Swords and Sandals adventure ever created.
Cheers, Oliver Joyce Whiskeybarrel Studios
Gladiators, let's play Swords and Sandals Immortals! Streaming Live on 22 Feb.
"Swords and Sandals, gladiatooooooor"
If that epic refrain means anything to you, you're going to want to tune into this exclusive Next Fest video. The time has finally come to check out the demo for the upcoming gladiatorial epic Swords and Sandals Immortals.
I'll be creating a new character and battling my way from Willard's Sound through to Shackleford, encountering . There'll even be a special guest battle against YouTube legends Charlie "Critikal" White and John Ryan "Tewtiy" Phillips who have graciously lent their vocal talents and likenesses to the game as arena champions!
I can't wait to show you the latest from the game and talk about where it's going next as part of this all important Steam Next Fest.
Save the date, gladiator - I'll see you in the arena!
