Wrestling Empire cover
Wrestling Empire screenshot
PC Switch Steam
Genre: Fighting, Simulator, Sport, Indie

Wrestling Empire

Street Fighter Combos
v1.5.8 introduces a handful of classic moves to celebrate the return of Street Fighter! It has been a fun experiment in animating unorthodox attacks with unique mechanics. They're not distributed among the characters as standard, so purists needn't fear as you'll never see them unless you go looking for them.



This is also the long-awaited update that finally allows personalized team names under the "Relationships" tab, as well as a handful of the usual bug fixes:
http://mdickie.com/guides/wempire.pdf

Why Did The Chicken Cross The Rhodes?
You never know what each update could contain when you're trying to keep a wrestling game topical! After taking a month off to see how Wrestlemania panned out, I found myself creating a rubber chicken. I also finally got around to adding my version of the "Cross Rhodes" - which was every bit as hard to animate as I feared, but benefits from being used as a running/flying move from the rear for some wild spots. Inspired by Vikingo's antics on Dynamite, I've also made it possible for especially agile wrestlers to perform SOMERSAULT grapples! You can study the full patch notes here:
http://mdickie.com/guides/wempire.pdf

Mid-Air Collisions
Inspired by last month's Royal Rumble spot, mid-air collisions are now a spectacle in this game! Whenever 2 flying attacks meet in mid-air, BOTH participants can hit each other and tumble to the ground in a variety of ways. This is, of course, quite rare unless you get performative in multiplayer mode! You're more likely to see it at ground level, where 2 running attacks can also result in a double clothesline.



Flying or jumping opponents are also now vulnerable to any attack powerful enough to knock them out of the air! We're seeing a steady flow of new such attacks. Inspired by the re-release of Weekend Warriors, its "Spinning Back Kick" and "Spinning Back Elbow" have made a welcome return to this game - as well as a "Shove", which makes its 3D debut after being one of my favourites in 2D.

v1.5.5 also features a handful of new animations elsewhere, and alternative referee voices courtesy of Ross Foad:
http://www.mdickie.com/guides/wempire.pdf

Sign Of The Times
Fresh out of the Christmas break, the project is entering its 3rd year of free updates! The big news is that being able to write text in 3D is changing the way the world communicates with you, as a poster backstage indicates who is in the ring should you choose to interfere. The train also now indicates 8 different destinations through each of its doors. Another nice detail is that the new weather FX are now visible through the windows of indoor locations!



Having lost several people in real life since the last update, v1.5.4 also includes the "Split Kick" from IK+ in memory of Archer Maclean - as well as Jay Briscoe's "Jay Driller" underhook piledriver. Being able to keep things topical is one of the many great privileges of having this much creative freedom!

I've spent much of January fine-tuning how controllers are used in my games, so those users may be interested to take advantage of the new "Calibration" option (via "Cast>Controllers" or the C key from the titles). I did my best to accommodate Xbox & Playstation as standard, but it's good to know you can now adapt to anything else as well.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...
It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas, as seasonal weather such as rain & snow is forecast in my games for the first time! There are also gifts large & small that you can actually open to reveal secret weapons, and the last event of each year now has fun with these festive gimmicks. To celebrate the World Cup at the same time, you may even see a few balls lying around with their own unique physics...



Speaking of physics, if you double-tap to either side with an agile wrestler you can now show off a graceful new cartwheel animation! You can even hone this skill in the gym by doing it over the blue mats to score a stat increase. v1.5.3 also fixes its fair share of bugs that were caused by too many particle FX or spawned objects. Hopefully, the chaos is more foolproof now:
http://mdickie.com/guides/wempire.pdf

Tacked On
My games were arguably the first to ever use thumbtacks as a weapon (in both 2D & 3D), so now they're back and badder than ever before! An improved higher-resolution effect finally separates each puddle of tacks from the bag itself, allowing you to create your own trails wherever it's dropped. Even broken furniture can now shed a few nails too! Improved collision detection then punishes each individual limb that touches them - including holds.



This update also makes the game playable at 60fps via a new "Smooth" camera setting beyond 200% speed. I have mixed feelings about it, as I accomplished a lot at lower frame rates and would hate for this to became the "new normal". It also has a floaty quality that exposes some of the animation instead of making it "better" in my opinion. It never hurts to have options, though, so it's there for you to make your own mind up.

v1.5.2 also includes a fistful of niggling bug fixes that you can study here in further detail:
http://mdickie.com/guides/wempire.pdf

In Your Head
You won't believe your eyes when you see the spooky v1.5.1 update through the new "First Person" camera! Although it's obviously a novelty, it's surprisingly playable and makes roaming even more immersive than it was already. Fighting is every bit as disorientating as it would be in real life, however - and even more likely to leave you with a headache!



This creepy Halloween update also introduces a shovel as a weapon with a unique ability to deface the scenery - and the rare possibility of intruders bursting through the floor! On the other hand, the broom can now be used to literally clean up any mess, and fully interactive reading material now lets you in on the secret:
http://mdickie.com/guides/wempire.pdf

Lots of niggling glitches have also been fixed to offer the most stable experience yet.

Press Start
Keeping things topical after recent events, press conferences are now part of YOUR life as a wrestler too! It's a whole new location branching off the backstage area, where you can go during the hour before any high profile 1-on-1 match to put things into context. It's also accessible in exhibitions & booking if your prefer, via a whole other "Broadcasting" promo category.



v1.5.0 also includes a healthy dose of bug fixes. Turning heads no longer get stuck in the wrong direction, and I'm doing my best to reduce clipping and other unsatisfactory interactions with scenery. As my first update as a Steam Deck owner, this is also the one that fine-tunes everything for the handheld - ensuring early adopters have everything running smoothly from now on...

Hands On Deck
I've been blindly developing for the Steam Deck all year, so I'm relieved to see it working so well out of the box with my own eyes! Anything that needs fine-tuning can now happen under my watch, ensuring that PC gaming remains part of my portable revolution. As with the Switch, I set aside a lot of time - and endured a lot of abuse - to keep my games light enough to ride this wave. By the time this tech becomes commonplace, I hope to have a whole series of games that are getting the best out of it.



So far I've only encountered 2 issues:

1) It's a good job the speed option went live in v1.4.9 because it turns out the Steam Deck NEEDS to run at a speed between 101-200%! The animation chokes at 100%, but changing it to so much as 101% knocks it into shape. Now that I know, this will be easy to fix in the next update.

2) Synching with your desktop via the cloud currently inherits some non-existent controller preferences instead of prioritizing the Deck itself. Again this is easy to fix now I've seen it, but in the meantime simply head to the Options > Cast > Controllers option to confirm you're playing on a handheld.

Speed Freaks
In a feature currently unique to PC users, the speed can now be set precisely between 100% and 200%. Depending on how agreeable your spec is, you may experience some choppier animation or tearing at speeds other than the default - but you at least have the opportunity to see for yourselves. If you get on with it, this preference is also now automatically restored for every other playable scene - allowing you to breeze through the roaming segments as you please!



This update also makes working for Hollywood slightly more relevant, as you'll find most of those fights now happen at "Backstage" locations like a movie shoot! You can also now choose to start at Hollywood without being moved to a competitive roster.

As ever, all manner of other bug fixes & balancing also help to stabilize your experience:
http://mdickie.com/guides/wempire.pdf
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