Dear Community, it has been roughly 3 weeks since we talked about the path that A Year of Rain will be following in the future and we are overwhelmed that those of you who tested out the changes have brought up 100% positive feedback about the new state of the game, even though they were sad, that the game wont grow further from this point on - which is definitely understandable. None-the-less, this proves to us, that our decision to change the multiplayer system to a Peer-to-Peer System brought several positive effects with it - one of those being a visibly better performance. Even though we are fully able to stand behind A Year o Rain as it is now, we understand that this version might differ from what was planned in the beginning - this is why we continued the communication with Steam and made some decisions to reflect the changes of the recent weeks. None-the-less we want to make clear as well, that this doesnt mean we are abondoning the game, as some community members were already afraid of that being a possible outcome - We are still keeping A Year of Rain in Maintenance Mode. We are glad to say that everyone of you, who purchased the game until now/until the 27th of February 2020 will find a copy of our Sci-Fi Multiplayer Survival Title Cryofall in their library - as an additional Thank You for believing in our first vision of the game. Additionally we will step out of Early Access and lower the pricing of A Year of Rain after February 27th - this is when you will be gifted your copy of Cryofall as well. So, if you didnt have already - rally up your friends and test out the new changes to the game - we are positive you will enjoy it! Best Regards, The A Year of Rain - Team

Heyho everyone, as explained 2 days ago, the hotfix that will change the multiplayer system among other details, is now live. Please check out all the changes and tell us what you think, as this decision wasnt taken lightly. For an overview about the situation of A Year of Rain you can click here! And for the complete Patch Notes you can click here! We hope you will find that this solution is still preserving the most unique aspects of our beloved title! Best Regards!

Dear Community, We now are able to give you insight on our likely last big Update for A Year of Rain. We are sorry for the time of silence, though we wanted to be completely sure, that everything will work out as we decided on. This means as well, that the Update will already hit in the next 2 days. Our goal from the start was to show our own individual passion and love for the RTS genre, and simultaneously gain new experiences in the world of competitive titles. Over the course of this period we have received a lot of feedback both positive and negative, but usually constructive. We have had tournaments with RTS veterans giving us their opinions and praise and we have had great, honest talks with our community on Discord, Steam and at conventions like Gamescom, PAX South/West, Wacken Open Air, Igromir, Dreamhack and others. Unfortunately, even when this was more than we ever could have asked for on the emotional, personal side the low player base that you have witnessed yourselves hurts us substantially - We reached no more than 5000 players worldwide until today. We are deeply sorry for everyone who felt, or will feel, let down by us and the path we had to choose, considering we are an independent studio with limited resources. We have decided to put the active development of A Year Of Rain on hold and minimize recurring costs by replacing the official game servers with a new P2P System. You will still be able to play multiplayer matches by opening up a lobby that others can join but there will not be any automatic matchmaking anymore. This means as well, that Leaderboards and player statistics will disappear, but, as a positive side effect, portraits and titles are automatically unlocked from the beginning. For now, there will be no further additions or significant improvements to the game. Unfortunately, this means that some of the changes we were working on like the revamped pathfinding will not be coming. Currently we had to choose between the existing pathfinding system, which is not working ideally but functional, and the new pathfinding system, which is more advanced but simply not yet functional at all. There are just no easy or quick solutions for this situation, since the low sales and player base restrict us from finalizing the new pathfinding. However, we will still release the remaining maps as well as the new game mode Against All Odds when we make the switch to the new version. While the new content does not quite match the usual level of quality that we have set as the bar for ourselves, we believe we should not hold them back and really wanted to share what some team members spent their last two years working on. To learn more about the changes we are implementing you can find a detailed changelog below. Please excuse that this is in English only. We hope that you understand the situation we were facing and still find enjoyment with the game in its new form. We were able to preserve as much as possible of the experience and we hope that you are able to see our effort in doing so. Thank you for the overwhelming support you have shown since we launched. You gave us the needed strength to deal with the very painful decision we had to make. Hopefully we made up to it with this specific way of handling the unfortunate circumstances. Best Regards - The A Year Of Rain Team Patch Notes: A Year of Rain Hotfix

A Year Of Rain - Hotfix

• Removed the login screen and the news and Logout button from the main menu.
• Removed the summary, match history, ladder, career and friends list from the player profile.
• Removed role, player and league progressions as well as the Report Player button from the score screen.
• Removed Terms of Service and Analytics, and updated the Privacy Policy accordingly.
• Added the possibility to host a game from within the game client.
• Added the possibility to connect to any game using a server browser.
• Unlocked the whole collection of player portraits, portrait borders and titles for all players. (Supporter Pack content still stays exclusive for supporters).
• Version number is now shown in the main menu.

• New Map - Payload (Beta): Two heroes alone take on two armies with whole bases. Push the Construct to the opposing side of the map to win!
• New Map - Survival (Beta): Four players face an endless horde of ugly menacing fiends. Survive as long as you can!

• Each ping will have different visuals in the game world.
• Each ping will automatically send a different chat message to all team members.
• AI players will ignore enemies on their path when following Move or Help pings.

• Hovering an ability button on the command grid and pressing the Ping hotkey will notify team members of the remaining ability cooldown.
• Hovering a construction button on the command grid and pressing the Ping hotkey will notify team members that you want to construct that building.
• Hovering a living hero portrait and pressing the Ping hotkey will notify team members of the current hero health.
• Hovering a dead hero portrait and pressing the Ping hotkey will notify team members of the remaining hero respawn time.

• New Map - Close Enemies (Beta): A small map, yet the direct path to your opponents is well guarded. Sneak around the center, and don't get caught off-guard!
• New Map - Helix Web (Beta): Many paths lead to victory, but many powerful foes lurk in the shadows of these woods.
• New Map - Small Hassel (Beta): Tiny map without boss. Don't assume this will get easy, though.

• Greatly increased CPU performance. We've been able to achieve as much as 51.88 % improvement in CPU performance, or about twice as good as at initial release. Note that the actual effect on your system might vary, as performance is measured in frame time rather than frames per second. Usually, that means that systems with "very bad" performance should see much more improvement than systems with "rather good" performance.
• Increased hero death timers from 24/29/35/43/53/64/77/91/108/125 to 25/30/35/45/55/65/75/95/115/135 seconds.

• Added more sound effects.
• Removing finished tutorial steps from the quest list now.
• Fixed an issue that prevented music from playing in multiplayer.

• Added more sound effects.
• Removing finished tutorial steps from the quest list.
• Removing Anorium UI highlight after a short time to avoid confusion.
• Fixed an issue that caused the portrait to be missing for the cutscene introducing the second part of the mission for one player in multiplayer.

• Added a boss health bar for the Lead Assassin.
• Added cutscene talk animations for the Lead Assassin.
• Fixed an issue that caused a player without name being shown at the score screen.
• Fixed an issue that allowed players to have Lord Rupah dash through the fallen column.
• Fixed an issue that caused the boss health bar to stay after dodging its ambush.
• Fixed an issue that caused selection outline effects not to be shown on this map.

• Pathfinders are now inside cages and cage doors need to be destroyed in order to free and convert them.
• Added a boss health bar for Cragga.
• Fixed an issue that caused Pathfinders near bridge not to walk to their correct positions after respawning.
• Fixed an issue that allowed Killian to dash into the water.
• Fixed an issue that caused the Pathfinders to suddenly become invisible during one of the later cutscenes.
• Fixed an issue that caused the music not to play properly.

• Fixed an issue that caused rescued Spearmen not to play the correct animation.
• Fixed the portrait of selected tar pits.
• Fixed an issue that caused tar pits to be hidden by fog of war.
• Fixed an issue that caused selection outline effects not to be shown on this map.

• Added lava environmental sound effects.
• Fixed an issue that allowed the first boss to use abilities before their introduction cutscene ended (bad Pango!).
• Fixed an issue that caused Killian and Yin to appear with blueish glowing freshnel at the beginning of the third boss room cutscene.
• Fixed an issue with fog not fading out correctly in multiplayer.
• Fixed an issue with the impact effect of the Cave In ability of the first boss.
• Fixed an issue that caused players without names being shown at the score screen.
• Fixed an issue with inaccurate explosion indicators during the first boss fight.
• Fixed an issue that caused the dialogue about the first illusionary wall to trigger before the first boss was killed.
• Fixed an issue that could cause the dialogue after the first bonus room to trigger during the cutscene.
• Fixed an issue that could cause the dialogue lines at the tree bridge to overlap.
• Fixed an issue that could cause towers in the final fight to spawn on top of each other.

• Added 2D portraits for Mistral.
• Reduced difficulty when playing on Casual level.
• Fixed an issue that could cause attack waves to become stuck.
• Fixed an issue that could cause two Pangobolds to appear to be collecting Anorium at the same time.
• Fixed an issue that caused the music not to play during the cinematic.

• Lord Rupah now starts with Gale Strike as initial ability to prevent players from being blocked if skilling other abilities instead.
• Added a looping sound for the boss fight.
• Slightly adjusted camera bounds.
• Fixed an issue that prevented Shen's fire elementals not to trigger the first cutscene.
• Fixed an issue with the third tree puzzle.
• Fixed an issue that caused the survivor quest counter not to update correctly.

• Players need to return to their base now to have Lord Rupah and the Construct arrive with reinforcements.
• Fixed an issue that prevented melee units from attacking some buildings in the second Undead base.

• Reduced the size of the first two attack waves.
• Gave Pangobolds some supplies to carry in intro cutscene.

• Rampage is no longer unlocked on Casual difficulty.
• Items are no longer placed in bases but dropped by defeated attack waves instead.
• Reduced starting resources by 50%.
• Friendly troops in second base are reduced by 50% and an additional tower has been added to the north side of the base in singleplayer.
• Second base will now be destroyed by a Construct barrage and not by an approaching army.
• Added new animations for Killian in the intro cutscene.
• Fixed an issue with overlapping music and updated cinematic music.
• Fixed an issue that caused the dialogue before the final boss fight not to trigger for both players in multiplayer.

• Fixed an issue that caused the tooltip of Lay On Hands to show incorrect damage reduction values for all levels.

• Added a new sound effect to be played for each target hit by Emberstorm.

• Decreased Skeleton lifetime from 30 to 15 seconds.
• Increased March of the Regiment life leech from 15/20/25 to 30/50/70 %.
• Increased The Way Is Shut cooldown from 60 to 90 seconds.

• Updated Vengeful Strikes visual effects for better readability.

• Decreased Empowered Dreadful Presence duration from 6/8/10 to 4/5/6 seconds.
• Increased Pallid Garden cooldown from 60 to 150 seconds.

• Increased Master Of The Hunt cooldown from 60 to 90 seconds.
• Reduced Master Of The Hunt slow duration from 7 to 6 seconds.
• Reduced Master Of The Hunt damage from 150 to 120.

• Fixed an issue that caused the portrait animation to look odd.
• Fixed an issue that allowed using Assassinate with infinite range if there's no valid path to its target.
• Fixed an issue that caused Shadowdance sound effects not to be played in multiplayer.

• Increased Parasitic Swipe cooldown from 20 to 25 seconds.
• Updated Parasitic Swipe range indicator and visual effects.
• Decreased Fungal Growth radius from 500 to 400.
• Decreased Fungal Growth duration from 15 to 7 seconds.
• Removed Fungal Growth roots mesh to make it less noisy and added range and duration indicator.
• Decreased Spore Mushroom experience reward from 40 to 5.
• Decreased Spore Mushroom lifetime from 20 to 12 seconds.
• Updated All Is Connected visual effects to make it more visible.
• Fixed an audio issue with the Invigorating Symbiont ability.

• Increased Valiant Charge cooldown from 20 to 35 seconds.

• Reduced experience reward from 86 to 56.
• Increased Forlorn Song range from 600 to 700.
• Increased Forlorn Song research duration from 50 to 60 seconds.

• Reduced experience reward from 87 to 83.

• Increased experience reward from 45 to 80.

• Increased experience reward from 45 to 103.

• Increased experience reward from 45 to 133.

• Increased experience reward from 45 to 52.

• Increased experience reward from 45 to 62.

• Increased experience reward from 50 to 80.
• Increased Goodberries range from 650 to 900.
• Updated Goodberries visual effects size and color to make it more obvious who gets healed.

• Increased experience reward from 45 to 68.
• Adjusted player color brightness.

• Increased experience reward from 45 to 110.
• Adjusted player color brightness.

• Increased experience reward from 82 to 86.

• Visual effect of Ancient Fortitude now ignores fog of war.
• Visual effect of Improve is now shown at specific positions for all House Rupah buildings.
• Fixed an issue that prevented the Improve ability from having any effect on training and construction speed.
• Fixed an issue that prevented the projectile impact effect not to fade out completely.

• Visual effects of Anorium Infusion are now applied to more units and buildings.

• Increased construction time from 70 to 80 seconds.

• Increased construction time from 60 to 90 seconds.

• Fixed an issue that caused the top mesh not to be rotated correctly.

• Updated textures and materials for improved visuals.

• Increased construction time from 70 to 80 seconds.

• Increased construction time from 60 to 90 seconds.
• Updated textures for improved visuals.

• Updated textures for improved visuals.

• Decreased construction time from 100 to 90 seconds.
• Updated textures and materials for improved visuals.

• Reduced The Land Provides amount of Anorium received from 10/15/20/25 to 5/10/15/20 %.

• Fixed a missing material.

• Reduced construction time from 110 to 70 seconds.
• Fixed a missing material.

• Increased production time from 60 to 90 seconds.

• Fixed an issue that prevented selection outlines from being shown.

• Changed spawn positions to be 100% the same, adding the same amount of trees within the same distance to the respective spawn positions.
• Removed the Runecaster boss, opening up the center area.
• Added new low level creep camps.

• Changed creep camps and map layout.

• Added hero portraits of allied players in Skirmish.
• Added the recipients of a chat message to be shown along with the message (e.g. all players or team).
• Added dropping items by right-clicking their inventory slot.
• Added selected hero abilities to the observer UI.
• Added option for always showing the observer summary.
• Added a percentage text for boss health bars.
• Added fade out for achievement notifications.
• Hero portraits are now sorted to always show heroes of the local player first.
• Role abilities that are unlocked through roles the player didn't choose are now hidden.
• Increased the maximum chat message length from 40 to 75 characters.
• Player names and health bars are now permanently shown above heroes in Skirmish and Against All Odds.
• Reduced the size of control group icons to prevent them from overlapping.
• Removed snapping of main buildings to locations near Anorium mines, as players considered this feature to be more restrictive than helpful.
• Fixed an issue that caused speaker and spoken text to be shown until the next line is triggered after a cutscene was skipped before a following cinematic.
• Fixed an issue that caused the list of effects above the status window not to update if the current unit becomes deselected.
• Fixed an issue that allowed players to add hostile units to control groups.
• Fixed an issue that caused unit icons and selection indicators not to update when selected units change their owner.
• Fixed an issue with unit sorting in status window which also caused issues tabbing through subgroups.
• Fixed an issue that caused the counting scores not to stop if players rushed through the score screen.
• Fixed an issue that could prevent the cutscene skip progress bar from fading out.
• Fixed an issue that could prevent players from skipping cinematics after cutscenes.
• Fixed an issue that prevented the camera to focus on the location of a unit if that would cause the camera to exceed the bounds of the map (e.g. for idle worker buttons, double-selection).
• Fixed an issue that could cause unlocked passive ability icons to appear locked in the command grid.
• Fixed an issue that caused the Set Hero Spawn Site button to be visible in Campaign missions.
• Fixed an issue that occasionally caused boss health bars not to be shown on clients.

• Added tooltips for tutorials and campaign difficulties.
• Returning to the main menu after a match will now automatically select the same mode again.
• Allowed accessing (but not changing) hotkeys while ingame.
• Intro movies can now be skipped immediately when starting the game, and loading the game will begin afterwards.
• No longer showing player titles in lobbies, as they usually caused player names to be cut off.
• Updated score screen sound effects.
• Fixed an issue that caused the main menu campaign online/offline buttons not to remember their last selection when switching game modes.
• Fixed an issue that caused campaign loading screens not to scale properly on aspect ratios other than 16:9.

• Added Salt Lizard critters to salty desert maps.
• Slightly improved the lighting of all maps.
• Improved textures and shadows of various units, buildings and environmental assets.
• Fixed an issue that caused the outline thickness of various selected units and buildings not to be updated properly.
• Fixed an issue with the visual effects shown whenever a unit left stealth.

• Fixed an issue that caused tutorial pointers not to play audio in multiplayer.

• Fixed a crash that could occur while having a unit selected that is being killed.
• Fixed issues with AI patrols on various campaign maps.
• Fixed issues with overlapping dialogues on various campaign maps.
• Fixed issues with animations, clipping and player colors in cutscenes on various campaign maps.
• Fixed an issue that caused vision not to consider line of sight on some maps.
• Fixed an issue that caused stealthed units to be entirely invisible for observers if the opposing team doesn't have detector.

In 2019, we announced and released A Year Of Rain! This was an incredible journey for us. We'd like to thank everyone involved in A Year Of Rain - ranging from Game- and Daedalic Staff, their families, our Business Partners, our helpful MvPs to all our players and loyal fans (that's you)! A big thank you from the whole team.

See you in 2020!

Like in any other business, job or organization, staff and members are always excited to see the results of their work. Especially in games, after months of work, staff often can't wait to see how players react. Again, we'd like to thank everyone for the constant feedback flow on our channels, giving us great insight into what you guys feel is important for A Year Of Rain. It reflects in our Roadmap and we do our best to deliver improvements as fast as we possibly can. Though, written feedback is not the only thing we take a look at when it comes to evaluating our last 2-years design choices: We got some anonymized stats that show us how certain features are used. Some of you, who enabled the optional GameAnalytics on registration or in the Options menu - also get a voting from time to time, asking to rate the last played map with 1-5 stars. We're keeping track of this. So without further ado, we'd like to share some

Key Statistics of the first week of A Year Of Rain Early Access!

November 15, 2019 In case of questions, please join our Discord server. Campaign

• Fixed an issue that prevented a Pathfinder from moving away from the bridge in mission 2.
• Fixed a server crash/client disconnect that could occur fighting the first boss in mission 5.
• Fixed an issue that caused Anorium pickups to be visible after a cutscene although they shouldn't in multiplayer in mission 5.
• Fixed an issue that prevented players from crossing the tree bridges in mission 6.
• Fixed a visual issue that caused the column not to be appearing as blocking the boss arena although it did in multiplayer in mission 6.
• Fixed an issue that caused AI players to send Builders to unoccupied goldmines in enemy bases in mission 7.
• Fixed an issue that caused players not to receive as many Gnolls as were freed in the second commando mission in mission 9.

• Fixed an issue that caused OculusVR to be initialized.
• Fixed an issue that caused the attack-move key to be locked after ALT+TABing out and in.
• Fixed an issue that caused debug information to be shown after pressing the Apostrophe key.
• ALT+TABing out of a multiplayer match will no longer bring up the ingame menu.

• Fixed an issue that prevented players from being promoted from Bronze to Silver, or from Silver to Gold league.

November 8, 2019 In case of questions, please join our Discord server. Heroes Myconid

• Fixed an issue that caused the Fungal Growth area of effect not to be visible in multiplayer matches.

• Fixed some visual issues related to water and bridges in mission 1.
• Fixed an issue that could cause Lizardmen to spawn on top of the cliff next to Morrig in mission 2.
• Fixed an issue that prevented players from unlocking the Waste Not Want Not achievement after finishing mission 2 in singleplayer.
• Fixed an issue that prevented one player from fighting enemy units while the other was watching a cutsccene in mission 2.
• Fixed several audio issues in missions 1-4.
• Fixed an issue that caused the boss bar not to be properly updated after the Pangoboss has been defeated in mission 5.
• Fixed an issue that caused Anorium pickups to be visible after boss cutscenes in mission 5, while they actually shouldn't be.
• Fixed an issue that caused the Windless achievement to always be triggered in mission 7.
• Fixed a potential blocker that occasionally caused Gnolls get stuck during the last stand in mission 9.
• Fixed several issues with the outro cinematic of mission 9.
• Fixed an issue that prevented players from unlocking the Tempest achivement after finishing the campaign.

• Fixed an issue that allowed users to access various debug view modes through hotkeys.

• Fixed an issue that caused rank 9 to be missing from the ladder.
• Fixed an issue that caused the region selection dropdown not to be disabled after logging out of the game.

• Fixed a crash that could occur while a unit was trying to acquire a target (while being idle, attack-moving or autocasting) that was just killed.
• Fixed a crash that could occur while killed units with buffs selected.
• Fixed a crash/disconnect that could occur when engaging creep camps in specific locations and/or compositions.
• Fixed a crash that could occur while fetching the friends list in the main menu.
• Fixed an issue that occasionally caused players to observe enough players in the loading screen while there actually weren't (e.g. Waiting for players ... (2/2)).
• Fixed an issue that occasionally allowed players to control creeps instead of their own units.
• Fixed various other potential crashes and some of the performance issues throughout the game.

Wow! Thank you! We had a great first day and really appreciated all the new players in our game. Shoutout and congratulations to player NoXOuT, who is currently leading the competitive ranking by MMR points! Well done! Find NoXOuT and other players on our Discord Server and challenge them for a match. steamhappy We'd like to thank you for helping us prioritize our Roadmap. Our Development team is working hard to deliver the most important changes, according to our community:

Exchanging the current Pathfinding System with an improved one

Further optimizing the performance in-game

• A Year Of Rain is best when playing with a friend. Add each other to the in-game friend list and start a party! In a party, you can play the Co-Op campaign together or start a Custom Game Match. Click the "Party" button in the friend list after you both added each other to the list to start a party.
• Here is a YouTube video from us explaining how it works: To YouTube.
• Got technical issues like Crashes on game-startup? We got answers to the common issues HERE!
• Need a buddy or answers to your questions? Our Discord is full of players and MvPs, happy to help!

We're releasing the ambitious new team RTS A Year Of Rain onto Steam Early Access for Windows PC today. A Year Of Rain unites classic strategy elements like expansive base building and deep campaign storytelling with full cutscenes and voiceover, as well as a strong focus on hero units and co-op teamplay. For a limited time only, A Year Of Rain will be available in a 2-player pack on Steam for a discounted price! A Year Of Rains story and multiplayer modes are built from the ground up with teams of two in mind, whether the second player is human or AI. At launch, early access features an expansive story campaign, fully playable in either single-player or two-player co-op. The classic 2v2 Skirmish mode is made to encourage competition - and teamwork - across the entire spectrum of skill levels. At the beginning of a match, both teammates choose between three different roles: Tank, Damage, and Support. Each comes with different bonuses for the respective armies and the overall team, allowing for a multitude of strategic combinations and synergies. Set in a world of fantasy and danger, A Year Of Rain features three playable factions. The wealthy House Rupah is eager to stake its claim to uncharted lands in the name of civilization. The unliving Restless Regiment is a bloodthirsty army of warlords, soldiers, beasts and souls driven by mindless obedience and zealous devotion to their dark leader. And the Wild Banners are an amalgam of fierce survivalists, reclusive nomads, monstrous humanoids and more ready to fight for every scrap of their harsh domain.

Features:

• The ultimate Team RTS. Play together across all game modes
• Ambitious campaign, designed for co-op experience
• A 2v2 skirmish mode that is truly designed for team play
• Unique asymmetric 2v2 multiplayer mode Against All Odds: Two heroes face two entire armies! (To be added during Early Access)
• Three unique factions: House Rupah, the Wild Banners and the Restless Regiment
• Compelling, multi-layered story spanning all factions
• Elaborate, stylized art
• Powerful iconic heroes to lead your army
• Soundtrack by award-winning composer Neal Acree

On September 19th, we started the Closed Beta phase for A Year Of Rain. Our goal was to find bugs that we're unknown, test Matchmaking and make sure our servers offer the right performance to handle the release. Today, we're closing the Closed Beta Test and prepare for our Early Access Release on November 6th, 2019. We're now focussing on fixing bugs you reported during the Closed Beta phase, make slight improvements based on your feedback and getting the first Campaign ready for Early Access.

We're not ending Beta without sharing some fun facts:

• Echo Glades was played double as often as Thirsty Sands. Desiccated Forest runs out of competition since it was released mid-beta.
• TOP Hero Ranking: #1: Wraith, #2: Spark Mage, #3: Paladin. AOE FTW.
• People selected "Damage" as their role 4 times more often than the Support role.
• Amount of players reported during Beta: 4.
• Amount of player reports send by staff to troll community management: 3.

Today is the day. We'll invite a great bunch of players to play our Beta Version of A Year Of Rain. If you signed up in the previous weeks, check your email inbox (and spam folder) if you are one of the lucky ones to play the beta!

HOW TO PLAY THE BETA

Beta Runtime

Where to give feedback

Our closed beta test is right around the corner. We're preparing everything to get it started. That also means, now is the LAST CALL for Beta Registrations! Not yet signed up? Better do it now! Use this special URL to sign up last minute: beta.ayearofrain.com/?c=LastMinute Experience the team RTS A Year Of Rain first in the closed beta phase! Play Skirmish versus real other players or versus the AI. Choose from two factions, the noble House Rupah or the Restless Regiment, and six heroes for play. More information about A Year Of Rain and the first faction House Rupah can be found here: www.ayearofrain.com/. https://store.steampowered.com/app/319540/A_Year_Of_Rain/

At this year's gamescom, we're showing A Year Of Rain with a 2x 4-players Skirmish setup. If you are around, visit us at the LOOTBOY booth, Hall 10.1, B-078 and play the second faction "The Restless Regiment" for the first time.
More pictures on our brand new website: To www.ayearofrain.com. It is the second gamescom day for us right now. Yesterday, press, business- and trade visitors we're already in the holy halls of gamescom, trying out the latest games - also A Year Of Rain. It was moderate. Today, while private visitors are coming in, our booth is always full of players. Shout-out to everyone who dropped by at the LOOTBOY booth (10.1, B-078) already to play A Year Of Rain. We have a great time introducing you to the game. For everyone else planning to go to gamescom this week, come by and say hello! We're looking forward to meeting you! For the first time, you can play the second faction "The Restless Regiment" at our booth. Three new heroes are selectable in this faction. In the next couple of weeks, we'll introduce the Restless Regiment further. Follow our social media channels or join our Discord Server to stay up to date!

Beta Test Sign-Ups open!

Upcoming in our Event Summer: PAX WEST

More Gamescom Updates

It's finally time for us to show A Year Of Rain in video formats! Of course, for a game like A Year Of Rain, there is only one format that would fit for a video content reveal: A live tournament!
4 teams - 6 live streams - BO3 Round Robin online matches and one grand finale! That is Undead Champs 2019! The name is inspired by our second faction Restless Regiment that will be shown to public for the first time in this tournament. So better not miss the live streams!

Timetable

Meet the teams

One of the biggest Metal Festivals in Europe: the Wacken Open Air in Wacken. Every year, ten-thousands of Metal fans join the festival in northern Germany - this time, we were waiting for them on-site. Wacken Open Air was our very first public appearance with A Year Of Rain. We were excited and a little bit frightened by the thought that strangers can play our game for the first time. Our doubts were unfounded. Players loved it - especially those with an RTS background in the past years.
We had a small tent with six game stations. Four of them dedicated to A Year Of Rain. We offered a local 2 vs 2 Skirmish setup. Most of the time, we were able to fill all 4 spots. Only on rare occations we had to get back to our AI opponents to show the game.
We were not only showing the game in our event tent, but also on a stage! Thanks to our friends at HyperX, we had daily spots for matches on the HyperX eSports Truck stage. On the image above, you see the Folk-Metal band HARPYIE practising for their big match against strangers on stage. Two of them versus two players from the audience. Those matches were brilliant!
Thanks to our stage moderators Jonathan from the HyperX eSports Truck stage crew as well as the German video game expert Uke Bosse with whom I (Cleverbyte) moderated two of four shows. One of the matches had to be ended manually because both teams successfully harvested all wood from the map and cleared all mines on the map which resulted in a dead end of the match. Our game design team is onto this issue now.
Meet Arne (image above). Arne was a regular guest at our booth as well as on the stage. He not only beat Game Designer Ahri and me (Community Manager) in a match with a stranger as a team mate, but also beat HARPYIE on-stage single-handed! Arne is truly our Wacken Open Air A Year Of Rain Champion. Together with his team mate Alvar, he won some HyperX and Daedalic prizes on stage - and earned our recognition. GG WP, Arne and Alvar.
We would like to thank everyone who made this event such a great happening: The HyperX eSports truck crew, the Full Metal Gaming Village crew, our booth neighbor Lukas on one side and our booth neighbors from IF(game)SH and eSports Nord e.V. on the other side.

Next up on our Event Summer: Gamescom

To support your and your teammate's strategy, we got different Points of Interest on Skirmish maps. Today, we'd like to give you an overview over those. Keep in mind, the screenshots were taken in an Alpha state of the game.

Anorium Mines

Woods

Creeps

Boss battles

Healing Well

Observatory

Attention Metal Fans: A Year Of Rain goes W:O:A