Patch 2.1.2, Imp Plushies & New Worker Skin
Were pleased to announce that a dark pact has been sealed with the fastidious creators over at Makeship to bring your loyal imps to life in a dastardly soft new form. Bear witness and tremble Underlord!
You can place your orders now for this devilish, yet delightfully squishy, Imp plush over at Makeship, make haste Underlord as it is made to order and shall be available only for a flicker of time before it is consigned to history. You have but 21 days to place your order! Should you wish it you could also acquire the fabriced visage of Medi from our latest endeavour Galacticare. Perhaps, should the whimsy take you you may find a way to combine them into the horrifying Medi Imp?!
Dont miss your chance Underlord, grab them now at Makeship!
Woven magics seal the pact and allow our mana to form a new soft and squishy vessel. As of today all Underlords can now choose to summon Plushie Workers into their dungeons instead of their regular blood and bone workers.
This Worker Skin is unlocked automatically for everyone, for use in any non-campaign game mode.
As with our prior minor updates were continuing to adjust some of the visuals in the game. This is a minor side-project as WFTO is well and truly into its maintenance phase of life. The Sanctuary has had its lighting & shadow overhaul, the room generally always had a moody tone and we were keen to preserve and enhance this. Outside of the major change with the Altars light the changes are subtle but hopefully give the room a signature sinister feeling.
The Hero Sanctuary meanwhile needed much more work, neglected because it doesnt appear in any official levels and thus only appears if youre playing non-campaign modes as an empire dungeon theme it didnt really get much love. We've looked to rectify this historic oversight, giving the room it's own identity other than "Blue".
The rituals that are cast also had a lighting & shadow overhaul so they should now light up more of the room when being cast. Another area of interest was the default worker skin which now benefits from a more modern shader which was implemented for the Plushie Worker. The underlying art is still the same but the way it appears is updated, more consistent and respectful of in-scene lighting and aligned with the intended appearance even when team coloured.
This change should make the worker fit into the environment a bit better while still standing out enough that they can be seen.
A few weeks ago some of our development imps were at a mighty meeting of malevolent minds known only to the underworld as Gamescom. It was there that we spied our evil brothers in arms Myron Games and their unique VR twist upon the quintessential evil-em-up. Underworld Overseer! https://store.steampowered.com/app/2909910/Underworld_Overseer/
If you're the kind of Underlord who's longed to take the slapping of minions and building of dungeons into your own evil hands then perhaps this is the experience for you, as at long last you can god game with your own hands!
As you no-doubt know we love this most evil of genre's dearly so it's always a pleasure to share fellow developers embarking on their own crusades for the good of all evil. We hope you'll give them a wishlist!
Until next time Underlord, - Brightrock Games Join our community on Discord Follow us on Steam Signup to our newsletter!
[ 2024-09-19 13:58:08 CET ] [ Original post ]
Darkest Greetings Underlord, Today we bring tidings of a new minor patch, a new pact through which you can take home a little devil and new allies whose efforts to bring despair upon the goodly folks of the surface may excite you. Read on Underlord!
Highlights
Brightrock Games x Makeship
Were pleased to announce that a dark pact has been sealed with the fastidious creators over at Makeship to bring your loyal imps to life in a dastardly soft new form. Bear witness and tremble Underlord!
You can place your orders now for this devilish, yet delightfully squishy, Imp plush over at Makeship, make haste Underlord as it is made to order and shall be available only for a flicker of time before it is consigned to history. You have but 21 days to place your order! Should you wish it you could also acquire the fabriced visage of Medi from our latest endeavour Galacticare. Perhaps, should the whimsy take you you may find a way to combine them into the horrifying Medi Imp?!
Dont miss your chance Underlord, grab them now at Makeship!
Free Worker Skin: Plushie Worker
Woven magics seal the pact and allow our mana to form a new soft and squishy vessel. As of today all Underlords can now choose to summon Plushie Workers into their dungeons instead of their regular blood and bone workers.
This Worker Skin is unlocked automatically for everyone, for use in any non-campaign game mode.
Visual Updates
As with our prior minor updates were continuing to adjust some of the visuals in the game. This is a minor side-project as WFTO is well and truly into its maintenance phase of life. The Sanctuary has had its lighting & shadow overhaul, the room generally always had a moody tone and we were keen to preserve and enhance this. Outside of the major change with the Altars light the changes are subtle but hopefully give the room a signature sinister feeling.
The Hero Sanctuary meanwhile needed much more work, neglected because it doesnt appear in any official levels and thus only appears if youre playing non-campaign modes as an empire dungeon theme it didnt really get much love. We've looked to rectify this historic oversight, giving the room it's own identity other than "Blue".
The rituals that are cast also had a lighting & shadow overhaul so they should now light up more of the room when being cast. Another area of interest was the default worker skin which now benefits from a more modern shader which was implemented for the Plushie Worker. The underlying art is still the same but the way it appears is updated, more consistent and respectful of in-scene lighting and aligned with the intended appearance even when team coloured.
This change should make the worker fit into the environment a bit better while still standing out enough that they can be seen.
Patch 2.1.2 Release Notes
Units
- New Unit: Unbound Disciple - By community request weve added a Unbound version of the Disciple similar to the Ghoul, this is a Disciple that does not require a master, good for map making!
- New Worker Skin: Plushie Worker - Sinister, Soft & Squishy this new worker skin is sure to brighten your dungeon corridors and is free for everyone!
Visuals & Art
- The Default Worker utilises a new shader, this should allow the underlying detail to pop more.
- Room Visual Updates
- Sanctuary - Lighting & Shadows pass, New Underfloor
- Hero Sanctuary - New Water Material, New Colour Palette, Lighting & Shadows Pass, New Underfloor
- Spirit and Soulbound workers now appear as dwarves in hero based themes.
- Updated the VFX of several ritual cast animations.
Performance
- Disabled shadow casting on a large number of VFX planes, this should yield some performance increases when shadows are enabled in certain conditions.
Bug Fixes
Visual Bugs
- Corrected a normal map error on the default worker skin
- Fixed the dwarven dungeon theme incorrectly using the standard sanctuary props
Something from our friends, Underworld Overseer! A VR Dungeon Management Game
A few weeks ago some of our development imps were at a mighty meeting of malevolent minds known only to the underworld as Gamescom. It was there that we spied our evil brothers in arms Myron Games and their unique VR twist upon the quintessential evil-em-up. Underworld Overseer! https://store.steampowered.com/app/2909910/Underworld_Overseer/
If you're the kind of Underlord who's longed to take the slapping of minions and building of dungeons into your own evil hands then perhaps this is the experience for you, as at long last you can god game with your own hands!
As you no-doubt know we love this most evil of genre's dearly so it's always a pleasure to share fellow developers embarking on their own crusades for the good of all evil. We hope you'll give them a wishlist!
Until next time Underlord, - Brightrock Games Join our community on Discord Follow us on Steam Signup to our newsletter!
Patch 2.1.1 "From Beyond" Release Notes - Galacticare Release & Worker Skin
To celebrate the release of our new game, Galacticare, we have added a new worker skin to the game, the Medi Worker Skin! Your faithful blood imp workers have slain invaders from beyond an aethereal rift and salvaged their unusual armour as their own.
This fantastic new skin can by deployed into the dungeon by owners of Galacticare which released today!
In return, owners of War for the Overworld will be able to bring the essence of the Blood Imp to Galacticare with the Blood Imp Medi Skin.
We hope that you'll check out our new game Underlord, and we humbly thank you for all the support you've given us over the years. We would not have made it this far without you! [previewyoutube=R55ftpZEpK4;full][/previewyoutube] https://store.steampowered.com/app/494730/Galacticare/
We didn't want this patch to just be about the new worker skin however, so some of our development chunders have devoted their personal time to delivering something a little more substantial for your dark tastes. Continuing on the developments brought in Patch 2.1, where we looked at all of the existing cores and shrines in the game we've started to dedicate some eyes onto the other rooms. Specifically in this case the Barracks, Archive, Garrison, Lair and Slaughterpen and the Empire equivalents of these rooms.
As part of this we've enabled dynamic shadows in all of these rooms, provided your graphics settings are set to the appropriate level. We've also added a new level of shadow setting which will enable extra shadow casters on certain lights in these rooms (primarily to provide more options in balancing fidelity with performance)
Additionally the Barracks and Garrison have also had new (old) wall decor added to their tilesets, which greatly increases the detail of the room.
As we detailed when we first added dynamic shadows, please remember that they are a super expensive graphical feature and will cost a lot of FPS due to the number of dynamic light sources that WFTO uses. For best performance we recommend using Low Shadow Distance when using "All" Shadows and Medium Shadow Distance when using "Important & Optional" Shadows. Not all of the visual improvements require shadows to be enabled and the visuals may be different with shadows off (as the lights will no longer be blocked by objects.
[ 2024-05-23 14:05:34 CET ] [ Original post ]
Darkest Greetings Underlord,
Today we release both a new creation, Galacticare and a small but mighty patch for War for the Overworld. Read on Underlord!
Patch v2.1.1 "From Beyond"
Patch Highlights
Medi Worker Skin
To celebrate the release of our new game, Galacticare, we have added a new worker skin to the game, the Medi Worker Skin! Your faithful blood imp workers have slain invaders from beyond an aethereal rift and salvaged their unusual armour as their own.
This fantastic new skin can by deployed into the dungeon by owners of Galacticare which released today!
In return, owners of War for the Overworld will be able to bring the essence of the Blood Imp to Galacticare with the Blood Imp Medi Skin.
We hope that you'll check out our new game Underlord, and we humbly thank you for all the support you've given us over the years. We would not have made it this far without you! [previewyoutube=R55ftpZEpK4;full][/previewyoutube] https://store.steampowered.com/app/494730/Galacticare/
Further Visual Developments
We didn't want this patch to just be about the new worker skin however, so some of our development chunders have devoted their personal time to delivering something a little more substantial for your dark tastes. Continuing on the developments brought in Patch 2.1, where we looked at all of the existing cores and shrines in the game we've started to dedicate some eyes onto the other rooms. Specifically in this case the Barracks, Archive, Garrison, Lair and Slaughterpen and the Empire equivalents of these rooms.
As part of this we've enabled dynamic shadows in all of these rooms, provided your graphics settings are set to the appropriate level. We've also added a new level of shadow setting which will enable extra shadow casters on certain lights in these rooms (primarily to provide more options in balancing fidelity with performance)
Additionally the Barracks and Garrison have also had new (old) wall decor added to their tilesets, which greatly increases the detail of the room.
As we detailed when we first added dynamic shadows, please remember that they are a super expensive graphical feature and will cost a lot of FPS due to the number of dynamic light sources that WFTO uses. For best performance we recommend using Low Shadow Distance when using "All" Shadows and Medium Shadow Distance when using "Important & Optional" Shadows. Not all of the visual improvements require shadows to be enabled and the visuals may be different with shadows off (as the lights will no longer be blocked by objects.
Improvements & Changes
Units
- Permanent spirit workers (spawned by the Artefact of Workers) have been renamed to Soulbound workers and have a new appearence to differentiate them from temporary spirit workers
Visuals & Art
- The following rooms have had dynamic shadows enabled on their light sources:
- Barracks & Empire Barracks
- Archive & Empire Archive
- Garrison & Empire Garrison
- Lair & Empire Lair
- Slaughterpen & Empire Slaughterpen
- Beast Den
- Severral Stone Bridges
- New Wall Decor has been added to the following rooms:
- Barracks & Empire Barracks
- Garrison & Empire Garrison
- Additional wall meshses have been added to the empire version of the Slaughterpen.
- An additional option has been added to the shadows option to enable more shadow casters on room and other lights
- Spirit Workers & Soulbound Workers will no longer cast shadows (because they're ghosts)
- Spirit Workers & Soulbound Workers now also feature worker lights with their team colour
Bug Fixes
- Gregor Valench should now be placeable again in the map editor and god mode
- Fixed incorrect shaders used on Slaughterpen Floor
New Worker Skin Details, Galacticare Release Date & WFTO Community News
Recently, incursions from a previously undiscovered realm have been occurring all over Kairos metal clad invaders, no larger than a Skarg, have breached the defenses of the dungeon. Fortunately they proved to be unbelievably inept fighters, waving their arms as if to greet our defenders with cheer. When the dust settled, the ones which werent rendered to scrap metal retreated to the breach from whence they came. The remains of those left behind are now donned by your loyal workers.
This new skin will be available for free to all Underlords who acquire a copy of the video game Galacticare for themselves. So rest not on your laurels Underlord, the time is nearly upon us.
Our Cultists have scried this realm through the Aether and, to our shock, have discovered an advanced civilisation that seems obsessed with, of all things, helping others. Sickening stuff really. See for yourself Underlord. [previewyoutube=R55ftpZEpK4;full][/previewyoutube] Whats more, it seems their metal spies returned knowledge of our activities to their world, and have seemingly adopted the aspect of the ignoble blood imp. To what purpose we are unsure, perhaps a fetishistic tribute to their new foe?
In any case, a new adventure awaits beyond the Aether; you need only take the leap. https://store.steampowered.com/app/494730/Galacticare/ Galacticare is releasing on May 23rd at 07:00 PDT / 10:00 EDT / 14:00 UTC / 15:00 BST / 16:00 CEST / 23:00 JST.
But perhaps your attentions remain somewhat closer to home, and an invasion of some far-off realm does not yet excite you. While our foundries lie quietened, and the attentions of the development chunders are focused on the void, other Underlords have been busy crafting devious realms with which to test your mettle. Heres a selection of such creations from the workshop. As always, featured authors will receive the coveted Golden Imp.
Some time ago, news of an ancient evil completing its most momentous task yet reached our ears. After many, many years of hard labour, our fellows in evil at Keeper Klan released version 1.0 of Keeper FX an open-source remake and expansion to Dungeon Keeper, which served as a great inspiration to War for the Overworld. Visit the KeeperFX Website for details. KeeperFX uses all new, original code to create a much improved experience on modern computers, with UX Improvements, Higher resolutions, Bug Fixes, Multiplayer Support, New Campaigns and even modding support! Be sure to check it out, theres no better time to discover our inspiration. Until Next Time Underlord, - Brightrock Games Join our community on Discord Follow us on Steam Signup to our newsletter!
[ 2024-05-07 16:00:12 CET ] [ Original post ]
Darkest Greetings Underlord, Beyond the walls of the dungeon the aether continues to churn and new discoveries are stumbled upon by your most loyal cultists. Read on to discover the latest developments from across the Aether.
New Worker Skin & Galacticare Release Date
Recently, incursions from a previously undiscovered realm have been occurring all over Kairos metal clad invaders, no larger than a Skarg, have breached the defenses of the dungeon. Fortunately they proved to be unbelievably inept fighters, waving their arms as if to greet our defenders with cheer. When the dust settled, the ones which werent rendered to scrap metal retreated to the breach from whence they came. The remains of those left behind are now donned by your loyal workers.
This new skin will be available for free to all Underlords who acquire a copy of the video game Galacticare for themselves. So rest not on your laurels Underlord, the time is nearly upon us.
Our Cultists have scried this realm through the Aether and, to our shock, have discovered an advanced civilisation that seems obsessed with, of all things, helping others. Sickening stuff really. See for yourself Underlord. [previewyoutube=R55ftpZEpK4;full][/previewyoutube] Whats more, it seems their metal spies returned knowledge of our activities to their world, and have seemingly adopted the aspect of the ignoble blood imp. To what purpose we are unsure, perhaps a fetishistic tribute to their new foe?
In any case, a new adventure awaits beyond the Aether; you need only take the leap. https://store.steampowered.com/app/494730/Galacticare/ Galacticare is releasing on May 23rd at 07:00 PDT / 10:00 EDT / 14:00 UTC / 15:00 BST / 16:00 CEST / 23:00 JST.
WFTO Community Spotlight
But perhaps your attentions remain somewhat closer to home, and an invasion of some far-off realm does not yet excite you. While our foundries lie quietened, and the attentions of the development chunders are focused on the void, other Underlords have been busy crafting devious realms with which to test your mettle. Heres a selection of such creations from the workshop. As always, featured authors will receive the coveted Golden Imp.
- Keepers Comeback - Campaign by Padelboot
- Oberon Reforged - Campaign by 123
- Seven Sins. Trials of Inquisitor. Church of Light Chronicles. - Campaign By Green.Sliche
- Binding of Mendechaus - Randomised Map by Dismellion
- The Number of the Beast - Scenario by 123
- My Pet Dungeon 2021 - My Pet Dungeon by Ripps
An Old Evil, Renewed - KeeperFX
Some time ago, news of an ancient evil completing its most momentous task yet reached our ears. After many, many years of hard labour, our fellows in evil at Keeper Klan released version 1.0 of Keeper FX an open-source remake and expansion to Dungeon Keeper, which served as a great inspiration to War for the Overworld. Visit the KeeperFX Website for details. KeeperFX uses all new, original code to create a much improved experience on modern computers, with UX Improvements, Higher resolutions, Bug Fixes, Multiplayer Support, New Campaigns and even modding support! Be sure to check it out, theres no better time to discover our inspiration. Until Next Time Underlord, - Brightrock Games Join our community on Discord Follow us on Steam Signup to our newsletter!
Geforce Now Support, Regional Pricing Updates & Unity...
As of this week and by popular request, War for the Overworld is finally available on Geforce Now! Geforce now is a cloud gaming platform that allows players to connect to their accounts with various PC storefronts (including Steam) and stream games that they own straight from Nvidia's servers to any compatible device! With WFTO being added to the lineup of games available on the service you can now build your dungeons practically anywhere you can think of without needing to carry your PC with you. Weve heard from the people whove been playing this week that it handles very well and that it works great. So if youre a Geforce Now member then be sure to check it out!
Way, way back in 2017 we posted an update on War for the Overworlds regional pricing in the name of transparency, we even accidentally leaked news of the upcoming addition of the Australian dollar! Whoops! Today were returning to the topic and updating our regional prices once more and we wanted to be as transparent as possible of what this process is and how it affects you.
For those uninitiated, pricing on Steam is based on the USD price for any game, set by the developer and advised by Valve. The myriad of other currencies that Steam also supports are also set on the developer side and again are advised by Valve on the basis of the purchasing power of said regions vs USD. Back in 2017 we opted to align all regions to the advised pricing given to us by Valve with a critical exception, we chose to forego any changes that would increase the price of the game in any given region. Today we have reached a point where we must again revisit our regional pricing, this time to align it fully with Valves recommendations, which means many currencies will see the price of the base game and expansions increase (along with a small handful of decreases for DLC pricing in some regions). For full clarity: The base USD price is not changing, only pricing in other currencies. Affected Currencies:
The root of this is changes to Steams minimum price thresholds that Valve put into place last month, and the recommended pricing changes published in October 2022. War for the Overworlds pricing in several regions has now become so divergent from Steams recommendations that in some cases, where markets have shifted substantially, theres quite a substantial gap between the recommendation and the prices we have listed. While this isnt necessarily a big issue on the face of it, the price has dropped so low in some regions (vs USD pricing) that we can no longer discount certain products without locking some regions out of being able to buy that content at all. It also goes without saying that WFTO is still our only released product (at least until Galacticare releases next year!) and it represents the only income stream we have, and we believe that both the game and expansions are priced very fairly - especially as we regularly run fairly deep discounts. But in many regions this fair price is not accurately reflected, accounting for changes in markets, inflation, and purchasing power since the prices were originally set in 2015. This means that the price is fair in some regions and more fair in others. Therefore in respect to wanting to be fair to both ourselves and our customers and to resolve the issue with not being able to offer discounts on some products we have decided the best course of action is to apply Steams recommendations across the board. Of course we know that some of these swings may look quite extreme, but this is because we have maintained the price at parity with 2015 levels for so long (and refused to increase any pricing in 2017). Edit 15/09/2023 - We wanted to confirm that we will be reviewing these prices more regularly going forwards following these increases, we'll be looking to Valve's recommendations for decreases to help allay some of these as the global market settles. We hope that clarifies why weve taken this decision and we apologize for any disruption caused to those of you who shop in the affected currencies.
If theres anything you still want to buy and these pricing changes affect you then rest assured that the game and its DLC will be on sale again in the near future. Steams policy wisely prevents games going on sale for 30 days after a price adjustment, but we will be placing it on sale as soon as possible. Finally, as were sure this question will be asked, for the time being we are not planning adjustments to the base game price, as mentioned above we still feel the game is fairly priced as our only revenue stream and this is especially so when it is on sale! Hopefully that clarifies everything there is to know about the regional pricing update! If you have any questions please feel free to comment!
Finally as were here and given recent events some of you may be wondering about our relationship with Unity and how their announced changes may impact us, WFTO and Galacticare. Our official statement went out on our socials a few hours before this post:
The impact of these changes from Unitys side cannot be overstated, this is going to severely impact many developers who rely upon the engine for their work. It is unlikely that we will be working with Unity for the future after the release of Galacticare even if this requires significant retooling and retraining on our part. It is not that we are opposed to paying a fair fee for the tools we use, we have been paying significant sums for Unity for the majority of our 12 years in partnership with them. But the way this is being leveraged and the failure to consider the potential risks and edge-cases in their chosen model while ignoring the concerns of the partners means we can no longer see a future with them. We hope that our customers will continue to support the developers of games you love that have brought great experiences to you via the Unity Engine for the last decade. Many studios will be in a similar position to us and will be carefully considering their options on the road ahead. Update 15/09/2023 - Just a small clarification that this new policy from Unity does not currently directly impact War for the Overworld in its current state, because it would fall below Unity's yearly revenue requirements. So there's no impact here for WFTO. WFTO is not going anywhere. We are simply stating our displeasure and our intentions to move away from Unity for future projects, as stated it's not a matter of not being willing to pay a fair price, it's the principle that Unity would foist this massive change in fees upon developers and apply it retroactively to old projects, running massively deprecated versions of Unity, despite assurances this kind of thing would never happen. It's not the idea, though the exact implementation is poorly thought out and full of holes, it's the principle that Unity is not a trust worthy partner anymore, which is deeply, deeply upsetting. Until Next Time Underlord, - Brightrock Games Join our community on Discord Follow us on Steam
[ 2023-09-14 22:55:33 CET ] [ Original post ]
Darkest Greetings Underlord, We have a couple of short, almost businessy, announcements for you today, first a long requested service becoming available at last and second some updates regarding War for the Overworlds regional pricing which may see the price of the game increase to parity with Steams recommendations in some regions.
Geforce Now Availability
As of this week and by popular request, War for the Overworld is finally available on Geforce Now! Geforce now is a cloud gaming platform that allows players to connect to their accounts with various PC storefronts (including Steam) and stream games that they own straight from Nvidia's servers to any compatible device! With WFTO being added to the lineup of games available on the service you can now build your dungeons practically anywhere you can think of without needing to carry your PC with you. Weve heard from the people whove been playing this week that it handles very well and that it works great. So if youre a Geforce Now member then be sure to check it out!
Regional Pricing Updates
Way, way back in 2017 we posted an update on War for the Overworlds regional pricing in the name of transparency, we even accidentally leaked news of the upcoming addition of the Australian dollar! Whoops! Today were returning to the topic and updating our regional prices once more and we wanted to be as transparent as possible of what this process is and how it affects you.
What is happening?
For those uninitiated, pricing on Steam is based on the USD price for any game, set by the developer and advised by Valve. The myriad of other currencies that Steam also supports are also set on the developer side and again are advised by Valve on the basis of the purchasing power of said regions vs USD. Back in 2017 we opted to align all regions to the advised pricing given to us by Valve with a critical exception, we chose to forego any changes that would increase the price of the game in any given region. Today we have reached a point where we must again revisit our regional pricing, this time to align it fully with Valves recommendations, which means many currencies will see the price of the base game and expansions increase (along with a small handful of decreases for DLC pricing in some regions). For full clarity: The base USD price is not changing, only pricing in other currencies. Affected Currencies:
- GB Pounds () - 22.99 -> 24.99
- Euros () - 27.99 -> 28.99
- Russian Rubles (p) - 499 -> 1,100
- Brazillian Reals (R$) - 55.99 -> 88.99
- Japanese Yen () - 2,980 -> 3,400
- Indonesian Rupiah (Rp) - 139,999 -> 245,999
- Malaysian Ringgit (RM) - 51.00 -> 72.00
- Philippine Peso (P) - 649.95 -> 910.00
- Thai Baht () - 379 -> 590
- Vietnamese Dong () - 249,998 -> 385,000
- Korean Won () - 31,000 -> 32,000
- Turkish Lira (TL) - 49 -> 280
- Ukranian Hryvnia () - 379 -> 600
- Mexican Peso (Mex$) - 269.99 -> 334.99
- Canadian Dollar (CDN$) - 32.99 -> 38.99
- Australian Dollar (A$) - 42.95 -> 43.95
- New Zealand Dollar (NZ$) - $35.99 -> 43.59
- Norwegian Krone (kr) - 200 -> 335
- Polish Zloty (z) - 107.99 -> 138.99
- Swiss Francs (CHF) - 29 -> 33.50
- Chinese Yuan () - 88 -> 108
- Indian Rupee () - 699 -> 1300
- Chilean Peso (CLP$) - 11,500 -> 15,500
- Peruvian Sol (S/.) - 53 -> 63
- Colombian Peso (COL$) - 39,500 -> 70,000
- South Afriacan Rand (R) - 175 -> 270
- Hong Kong Dollar (HK$) - 129 -> 187
- Taiwanese Dollar (NT$) - 438 -> 488
- Saudi Arabian Riyal (SR) - 46.95 -> 61.49
- Argentine Peso (ARS$) - 329.99 -> 2,100.00
- Kazakhstani Tenge () - 3,900 -> 7,600
- Qatari Rial (QR) - 59.99 - 64.99
- Uruguayan Peso ($U) - 619 -> 885
Why is this happening?
The root of this is changes to Steams minimum price thresholds that Valve put into place last month, and the recommended pricing changes published in October 2022. War for the Overworlds pricing in several regions has now become so divergent from Steams recommendations that in some cases, where markets have shifted substantially, theres quite a substantial gap between the recommendation and the prices we have listed. While this isnt necessarily a big issue on the face of it, the price has dropped so low in some regions (vs USD pricing) that we can no longer discount certain products without locking some regions out of being able to buy that content at all. It also goes without saying that WFTO is still our only released product (at least until Galacticare releases next year!) and it represents the only income stream we have, and we believe that both the game and expansions are priced very fairly - especially as we regularly run fairly deep discounts. But in many regions this fair price is not accurately reflected, accounting for changes in markets, inflation, and purchasing power since the prices were originally set in 2015. This means that the price is fair in some regions and more fair in others. Therefore in respect to wanting to be fair to both ourselves and our customers and to resolve the issue with not being able to offer discounts on some products we have decided the best course of action is to apply Steams recommendations across the board. Of course we know that some of these swings may look quite extreme, but this is because we have maintained the price at parity with 2015 levels for so long (and refused to increase any pricing in 2017). Edit 15/09/2023 - We wanted to confirm that we will be reviewing these prices more regularly going forwards following these increases, we'll be looking to Valve's recommendations for decreases to help allay some of these as the global market settles. We hope that clarifies why weve taken this decision and we apologize for any disruption caused to those of you who shop in the affected currencies.
Final Words
If theres anything you still want to buy and these pricing changes affect you then rest assured that the game and its DLC will be on sale again in the near future. Steams policy wisely prevents games going on sale for 30 days after a price adjustment, but we will be placing it on sale as soon as possible. Finally, as were sure this question will be asked, for the time being we are not planning adjustments to the base game price, as mentioned above we still feel the game is fairly priced as our only revenue stream and this is especially so when it is on sale! Hopefully that clarifies everything there is to know about the regional pricing update! If you have any questions please feel free to comment!
A Reflection on Unity
Finally as were here and given recent events some of you may be wondering about our relationship with Unity and how their announced changes may impact us, WFTO and Galacticare. Our official statement went out on our socials a few hours before this post:
The impact of these changes from Unitys side cannot be overstated, this is going to severely impact many developers who rely upon the engine for their work. It is unlikely that we will be working with Unity for the future after the release of Galacticare even if this requires significant retooling and retraining on our part. It is not that we are opposed to paying a fair fee for the tools we use, we have been paying significant sums for Unity for the majority of our 12 years in partnership with them. But the way this is being leveraged and the failure to consider the potential risks and edge-cases in their chosen model while ignoring the concerns of the partners means we can no longer see a future with them. We hope that our customers will continue to support the developers of games you love that have brought great experiences to you via the Unity Engine for the last decade. Many studios will be in a similar position to us and will be carefully considering their options on the road ahead. Update 15/09/2023 - Just a small clarification that this new policy from Unity does not currently directly impact War for the Overworld in its current state, because it would fall below Unity's yearly revenue requirements. So there's no impact here for WFTO. WFTO is not going anywhere. We are simply stating our displeasure and our intentions to move away from Unity for future projects, as stated it's not a matter of not being willing to pay a fair price, it's the principle that Unity would foist this massive change in fees upon developers and apply it retroactively to old projects, running massively deprecated versions of Unity, despite assurances this kind of thing would never happen. It's not the idea, though the exact implementation is poorly thought out and full of holes, it's the principle that Unity is not a trust worthy partner anymore, which is deeply, deeply upsetting. Until Next Time Underlord, - Brightrock Games Join our community on Discord Follow us on Steam
Celebrating Simfest 2023
[ 2023-07-21 17:36:31 CET ] [ Original post ]
Darkest Greetings Underlord,
Cast through the aether news of a grand festival has reached the ears of our eager cultists. Simfest 2023 is on and our friends at Auroch Digital have extended us an invitation. Naturally we would be remiss not to involve ourselves and spread the evil word of the dozens of fine sim games which you can find one Steam!
[url=https://store.steampowered.com/sale/simfest]
Click to discover more games in the Simfest!
Speaking of simulation games don't forget to check out our latest game, Galacticare which will be releasing soon!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/494730/Galacticare/
Until next time Underlord,
Brightrock Games
Join our community on Discord
Follow us on Steam
Hotfix: Newsletter Signup & Postal Worker Skin Unlock
[ 2023-07-13 12:23:17 CET ] [ Original post ]
Darkest Greetings Underlord, This is a minor fix to ensure that users can still unlock the Postal Worker Skin by signing up to the Brightrock Games newsletter.
Bug Fixes
- Fixed an issue which prevented users from signing up to the Brightrock Games newsletter
- Fixed an issue which caused the postal worker skin to not be unlocked when signing up to the newsletter
Invaders From Beyond
These feckless automatons have managed to reach our realm of Kairos through tears in the fabric of space. Fortunately, our creatures reacted appropriately to the intrusion of these machines, and have bashed every such intruder to death with hammers.
An early look at the new skin. Coming this year for owners of Galacticare! Your workers are now busy havesting the dead machines steel, Underlord, and youll soon get to see them adorn their meaty bodies with the metals harvested from these useless, smiling invaders when the tome known as Galacticare is safely stored within your Steam Archive following its release later this year. No doubt we shall also find some way to make your presence known in their world as well Underlord speaking of which.
Rest assured that the time will come when our powers will wax once more, but for now we must bide our time and observe. Fortunately our cultists have developed a way to pierce the aether so that you may partake in a demonstration of the latest developments for the next few days while the Steam Fest runs. Indeed until the 26th of June you may now experience this Galacticare for free via the Steam demo.
Should you find yourself short on time, or wish to speak to the development imps we have sent forth to survey this new realm, then you can join them via the gameplay streams on Twitch, Youtube and Steam:
[ 2023-06-20 17:28:38 CET ] [ Original post ]
Darkest Greetings Underlord, Far above the warmth of your dungeon, something stirs in its antipode; cold, unfeeling beings, drifting in the void, tending, and tinkering, and mopping up strange vomit, and driven overall by the benign intent to make things better. Sickening, really.
A New Worker Skin is Coming?
These feckless automatons have managed to reach our realm of Kairos through tears in the fabric of space. Fortunately, our creatures reacted appropriately to the intrusion of these machines, and have bashed every such intruder to death with hammers.
An early look at the new skin. Coming this year for owners of Galacticare! Your workers are now busy havesting the dead machines steel, Underlord, and youll soon get to see them adorn their meaty bodies with the metals harvested from these useless, smiling invaders when the tome known as Galacticare is safely stored within your Steam Archive following its release later this year. No doubt we shall also find some way to make your presence known in their world as well Underlord speaking of which.
Galacticare Demo
Rest assured that the time will come when our powers will wax once more, but for now we must bide our time and observe. Fortunately our cultists have developed a way to pierce the aether so that you may partake in a demonstration of the latest developments for the next few days while the Steam Fest runs. Indeed until the 26th of June you may now experience this Galacticare for free via the Steam demo.
Galacticare Gameplay Streams
Should you find yourself short on time, or wish to speak to the development imps we have sent forth to survey this new realm, then you can join them via the gameplay streams on Twitch, Youtube and Steam:
- Wednesday June 21st @ 18:30 UTC (20:30 CEST / 11:30 PDT)
- Saturday 24th @ 23:30 UTC / (00:30 CEST / 16:30 PDT)
From the Underworld to the Stars
A youthful WFTO team with Richard Ridings and some community volunteers meeting for the first time at EGX London 2013. Weve not provided much of an update from the studio since then - so lets dig into the past few years and the road to Galacticare.
We first started talking about Galacticare (or Project Star Wards) in 2015, shortly after the initial release of War for the Overworld. Although we still had a long way to go in order to fully realise our ambitions for WFTO, we couldnt stop ourselves from theorising about future projects in parallel.
Early concept art for Project Star Wards A very common request from our fans during (and after) the development of WFTO was that we revisit other legendary Bullfrog and Lionhead titles. Theme Hospital was at the top of that list, both for us and the community. However, we wanted to do more than create another spiritual successor (not that theres anything wrong with that - we just wanted more of a challenge!), our desire was to push the boundaries of the management game genre and create something unique. So, we had a hospital and a broad goal. What next?
Lets consider the core building blocks of the hospital management experience: patients, diseases, and treatments. What better way is there to push the boundaries of these concepts than by setting the game in space? Aliens, exotic diseases, crazy treatment technologies? Yes please. However, an exciting setting alone isnt going to push the genre forwards. For that, we needed to go deeper. What other elements did we want to add to the mix? What else did we want to look at for inspiration?
There were many answers to that question, and throughout our teams discussions the overarching theme was that we wanted to create a much more cohesive experience than the genre typically provided. As opposed to traditional management games, we didnt want to create a series of independent, semi-sandbox levels with no interconnection. We wanted to create a longer adventure that you, the player, are actually a part of. We wanted you and your capabilities to grow as the game progressed. We wanted you to feel like you were inside a real (albeit ridiculous) universe. Were bringing a mix of god-game and RPG mechanics into the hospital management genre... This led to us exploring numerous gameplay systems and narrative features to build up the rich connective tissue which binds together the systems, content, and stories of Galacticare. Well be exploring plenty of these systems and features on this blog over the coming months!
Another key goal was that each level should feel like an episode of a comedic sci-fi anthology. We wanted everything to feel characterful - not just the doctors, patients and mission givers, but also the rooms and everything else, all the way down to the individual conditions that your patients are suffering from. In order to achieve this, we needed to continue our strong use of voice talent that started in War for the Overworld. Every character and all dialogue in the game will be fully voiced. Were happy to announce that well have several returning cast members from WFTO, along with a few newcomers - the first of which is Ben Kearns. We cant wait to reveal more of the cast! We also wanted to evolve the gameplay side of things. Were bringing a mix of god-game and RPG mechanics into the hospital management genre by giving the player an ever-growing arsenal of tools and unique hero characters. This is the area were most excited to talk about in this blog, so keep your eyes peeled for more updates.
However, the future remained mostly on the backburner until we released patch 2.0 for WFTO in 2018, at which point we moved most of the team over to Galacticare. And then for a while, we stuck our heads down and worked in peace and quiet - until 2020, when the Coronavirus pandemic turned the world upside down.
We switched to remote working as soon as it hit the UK, thinking wed only be home a few months. As weve all since learned, the universe had other plans. Over the next few months we evolved and reinvented many of our practices and processes. We had to rethink how we reviewed each other's work - no longer could we simply walk across the office and peek over a shoulder. We were also able to change how we approached meetings, as it became more practical for team members to listen in whilst still being at their desk and working.
Some of our Discord channels at the time this post was being written. Although we already made extensive use of Slack, the video calling features werent able to keep up with our needs. We also spent some time with Google Meet and, eventually, moved over to Discord. The permanent voice channel structure was a huge hit within the team; it let us easily stay in contact with each other, demo our work using screenshare, and even communicate with our development partners. Towards the end of the year we made the decision to go remote permanently, and decided to donate the remainder of the lease to our neighbours on the floor below us - the wonderful Clocktower Sanctuary (a frequent recipient of GamesAid funding) - as they needed additional space to maintain social distancing whilst continuing their vital work. Going fully remote has given us the benefit of being able to freely recruit from further afield. As a result, several new face (and one returning face) have joined the team!
Say hi to the expanded crew! Something we knew we wanted to do this time around was work with a publishing partner. While we enjoyed the experience of releasing WFTO solo it was a lot of work, and publishing a game really does distract from its development. We spoke with quite a few publishers over the years, many of which we admired, but could never find a set of terms that we were comfortable with. We had resigned to the fact that we wouldnt be able to find a publisher that wed be happy working with until CULT reached out to us last year. We immediately hit it off, they wanted the same things we did - to make cool things and have fun. Within a few months wed signed a deal.
We're not far from each others' offices, as CULT is located in the heart of London. And with all that, we were at long last finally ready to announce the game! Which is exactly what we did a few months ago: [previewyoutube=TXLRtmf5DgE;full][/previewyoutube]
Eager to learn more about Galacticare? Youre in luck! Today weve published not one, but two blog posts. The second is a deep dive into the gameplay, narrative, and visuals of some of the alien species in the game. Check it out here.
We're starting to ramp up testing and, just like we did with War for the Overworld, we'd love to get the community involved in giving us feedback on bugs, balancing, and everything else in order to help make our game as good as it can be. Recently we've opened up very pre-early alpha builds to a small group of community testers, and we'd like to slowly grow this group over the coming months. If you'd like to get involved please head on over to our sign-up form.
Game development is hard. Weve been lucky to do it in the company of an amazing team, both in the past and now, and seeing the project weve dreamed of take its final shape is incredibly fulfilling - but ultimately, the thing we most look forward to is getting our game in the hands of the players were making it for. Its been incredibly exciting to share bits of Galacticare with you over the past two months, and weve been amazed by the reception so far. We hope this has been an interesting insight into some of our goals for the project, its history, and where things are going from here. Until next time Director, - Brightrock Games ----------- Dont forget to join us on Discord!
[ 2023-05-10 16:24:29 CET ] [ Original post ]
Darkest Greetings Underlords,
After a long period of silence, wed like to provide an update as to what weve been doing the past few years.
This post is being crossposted from the new Galacticare development blog, where we also just posted a first look at our alien species, but future posts wont appear on WFTO pages. If youd like to receive further updates from us, please be sure to wishlist & follow Galacticare on Steam, join us on Discord, follow us on Twitter, and sign up to our newsletter.
We hope you will join us on our journey to the stars, and although WFTO is very much in maintenance mode with the release of the final update (Patch 2.1) last year, rest assured that the dark, homely, depths of the underworld are never far from our evil hearts.
Patch 2.1s graphics & performance Improvements were a surprise to be sure, but a welcome one
Now without further ado, Read on Underlords!
----------------
Im Josh: resident Brightrock robot, creative director of Galacticare, and primary author of these blog posts. Over the coming months, well be diving into the features, characters, gameplay, world, and development of the game. Well give you insights into what Galacticare is, why we made it this way, and how weve grown along the journey.
The post you are about to read focuses on the past, and what brought us here as a studio. Were going to take a stroll through the last few years and talk about our road from War for the Overworld, to the inspirations for Galacticare, and squeeze in some updates from the studio.
For those of you unfamiliar with our history, Id like to start by providing links to a few blog posts, videos, and interviews.
- Some of the biggest Dungeon Keeper fans assemble to create War for the Overworld (Eurogamer, November 2012)
- Update #1: 31 Hours & 21k (WFTO Kickstarter, December 2012)
- A Year in Retrospect (WFTO Blog, February 2014)
- State of the Game (WFTO Blog, April 2015)
- The story behind War for the Overworld's messy development (Eurogamer, July 2016)
- Rocky Road: How Good Communication Can Save a Bad Launch (Rezzed, 2017)
A youthful WFTO team with Richard Ridings and some community volunteers meeting for the first time at EGX London 2013. Weve not provided much of an update from the studio since then - so lets dig into the past few years and the road to Galacticare.
Galacticare
We first started talking about Galacticare (or Project Star Wards) in 2015, shortly after the initial release of War for the Overworld. Although we still had a long way to go in order to fully realise our ambitions for WFTO, we couldnt stop ourselves from theorising about future projects in parallel.
Early concept art for Project Star Wards A very common request from our fans during (and after) the development of WFTO was that we revisit other legendary Bullfrog and Lionhead titles. Theme Hospital was at the top of that list, both for us and the community. However, we wanted to do more than create another spiritual successor (not that theres anything wrong with that - we just wanted more of a challenge!), our desire was to push the boundaries of the management game genre and create something unique. So, we had a hospital and a broad goal. What next?
Lets consider the core building blocks of the hospital management experience: patients, diseases, and treatments. What better way is there to push the boundaries of these concepts than by setting the game in space? Aliens, exotic diseases, crazy treatment technologies? Yes please. However, an exciting setting alone isnt going to push the genre forwards. For that, we needed to go deeper. What other elements did we want to add to the mix? What else did we want to look at for inspiration?
There were many answers to that question, and throughout our teams discussions the overarching theme was that we wanted to create a much more cohesive experience than the genre typically provided. As opposed to traditional management games, we didnt want to create a series of independent, semi-sandbox levels with no interconnection. We wanted to create a longer adventure that you, the player, are actually a part of. We wanted you and your capabilities to grow as the game progressed. We wanted you to feel like you were inside a real (albeit ridiculous) universe. Were bringing a mix of god-game and RPG mechanics into the hospital management genre... This led to us exploring numerous gameplay systems and narrative features to build up the rich connective tissue which binds together the systems, content, and stories of Galacticare. Well be exploring plenty of these systems and features on this blog over the coming months!
Another key goal was that each level should feel like an episode of a comedic sci-fi anthology. We wanted everything to feel characterful - not just the doctors, patients and mission givers, but also the rooms and everything else, all the way down to the individual conditions that your patients are suffering from. In order to achieve this, we needed to continue our strong use of voice talent that started in War for the Overworld. Every character and all dialogue in the game will be fully voiced. Were happy to announce that well have several returning cast members from WFTO, along with a few newcomers - the first of which is Ben Kearns. We cant wait to reveal more of the cast! We also wanted to evolve the gameplay side of things. Were bringing a mix of god-game and RPG mechanics into the hospital management genre by giving the player an ever-growing arsenal of tools and unique hero characters. This is the area were most excited to talk about in this blog, so keep your eyes peeled for more updates.
Updates from the Studio
However, the future remained mostly on the backburner until we released patch 2.0 for WFTO in 2018, at which point we moved most of the team over to Galacticare. And then for a while, we stuck our heads down and worked in peace and quiet - until 2020, when the Coronavirus pandemic turned the world upside down.
We switched to remote working as soon as it hit the UK, thinking wed only be home a few months. As weve all since learned, the universe had other plans. Over the next few months we evolved and reinvented many of our practices and processes. We had to rethink how we reviewed each other's work - no longer could we simply walk across the office and peek over a shoulder. We were also able to change how we approached meetings, as it became more practical for team members to listen in whilst still being at their desk and working.
Some of our Discord channels at the time this post was being written. Although we already made extensive use of Slack, the video calling features werent able to keep up with our needs. We also spent some time with Google Meet and, eventually, moved over to Discord. The permanent voice channel structure was a huge hit within the team; it let us easily stay in contact with each other, demo our work using screenshare, and even communicate with our development partners. Towards the end of the year we made the decision to go remote permanently, and decided to donate the remainder of the lease to our neighbours on the floor below us - the wonderful Clocktower Sanctuary (a frequent recipient of GamesAid funding) - as they needed additional space to maintain social distancing whilst continuing their vital work. Going fully remote has given us the benefit of being able to freely recruit from further afield. As a result, several new face (and one returning face) have joined the team!
Say hi to the expanded crew! Something we knew we wanted to do this time around was work with a publishing partner. While we enjoyed the experience of releasing WFTO solo it was a lot of work, and publishing a game really does distract from its development. We spoke with quite a few publishers over the years, many of which we admired, but could never find a set of terms that we were comfortable with. We had resigned to the fact that we wouldnt be able to find a publisher that wed be happy working with until CULT reached out to us last year. We immediately hit it off, they wanted the same things we did - to make cool things and have fun. Within a few months wed signed a deal.
We're not far from each others' offices, as CULT is located in the heart of London. And with all that, we were at long last finally ready to announce the game! Which is exactly what we did a few months ago: [previewyoutube=TXLRtmf5DgE;full][/previewyoutube]
Aliens?
Eager to learn more about Galacticare? Youre in luck! Today weve published not one, but two blog posts. The second is a deep dive into the gameplay, narrative, and visuals of some of the alien species in the game. Check it out here.
Want to help us improve Galacticare?
We're starting to ramp up testing and, just like we did with War for the Overworld, we'd love to get the community involved in giving us feedback on bugs, balancing, and everything else in order to help make our game as good as it can be. Recently we've opened up very pre-early alpha builds to a small group of community testers, and we'd like to slowly grow this group over the coming months. If you'd like to get involved please head on over to our sign-up form.
Final Words
Game development is hard. Weve been lucky to do it in the company of an amazing team, both in the past and now, and seeing the project weve dreamed of take its final shape is incredibly fulfilling - but ultimately, the thing we most look forward to is getting our game in the hands of the players were making it for. Its been incredibly exciting to share bits of Galacticare with you over the past two months, and weve been amazed by the reception so far. We hope this has been an interesting insight into some of our goals for the project, its history, and where things are going from here. Until next time Director, - Brightrock Games ----------- Dont forget to join us on Discord!
We're The Fools
[ 2023-04-01 08:00:30 CET ] [ Original post ]
Darkest Greetings Underlord,
Is it strange to apologize for the lack of an unobligated yet fun yearly gaff? Were honestly not sure. Weve certainly never seen it happen but we cant remain silent today.
What we do know is that on this day, every year, without fail, we have pushed out jokes both big and small. Weve had a lot of laughs with you and, over time, it became something of an institution - something many of you look forward to as much as we do.
Each year we thought of ways to push the boat, to raise the bar on the years before or at least keep it high. It became a challenge for us to push ideas out there that made you, our players who are the reason we get to pursue our dreams, sensibly chuckle on your morning commute, say Is this real? I unironically want this, or even, on occasion, fool you entirely.
This is definitely a real game
This year weve not been able to make it in time. Its been a busy year with work on our upcoming new game Galacticare (Don't forget to wishlist!) taking a focus in preparation for its announcement last month.
Before we knew it, it was the 31st of March, 3:30PM and we realized we had to do SOMETHING. We scrambled for ideas in a team-wide meeting, scratched some things together, knuckled down for a mad dash. But we didnt want to disappoint you with something that fell short, and we feel you deserve a better laugh than...this.
Dr. Medichunder was unironically some of our finest work,
For years, in each April Fools, we joked that Aftercare had been canceled, that we had a new plan entirely. Well this year the tables have indeed tabled and Aftercare, now Galacticare, has canceled April Fools.
This year, were the fools. Next year itll be you.
Dr. MEDIChunder isn't real, Dr. MEDIChunder can't hurt you.
In the meantime you can enjoy the previous years gaffs from these links:
Cult of Duty
The Power Hand of Evil
Street Fight for the Overworld
War for the Overworld: Console Edition
Dungeon Hearts
Skargz
War for the Overworld: Australia Edition
The Cynical Imp (Which became real for charity!)
The Democorn
Until next time Underlord,
- Brightrock Games
Join us on Discord
War for the Overworld & Galacticare Developer Q&A
[ 2023-03-13 11:59:44 CET ] [ Original post ]
Darkest Greetings Underlord, This Thursday the 16th of March we will be hosting a Q&A Session on our Discord server where we'll be answering your questions regarding our upcoming new title: Galacticare! [previewyoutube=8Hi-ECvDQgM;full][/previewyoutube] https://store.steampowered.com/app/494730/Galacticare/ We'll also be taking any other questions on War for the Overworld and we'll be joined by our partners at CULT Games to answer questions regarding our partnership with them to bring Galacticare to your Steam library. Q&A with Brightrock Games & CULT Games
- Date & Time - 16-Mar-2023 21:00 GMT (Click for your timezone)
- Venue - Brightrock Games Discord - #stage
Introducing Galacticare! | Announcement Trailer
[ 2023-03-09 09:00:47 CET ] [ Original post ]
Hello everyone!
Today were thrilled to finally unveil our next game: Galacticare, a hospital management game set in a weird and wacky sci-fi universe, releasing later in 2023. Check out the reveal trailer below.
[previewyoutube=TXLRtmf5DgE;full][/previewyoutube]
Be sure to wishlist and follow Galacticare on Steam for more updates!
Well be hosting a Q&A about Galacticare next Thursday on our Discord server. Be sure to post your question and well get to as many of them as we can!
- Brightrock Games
Wicked Ones RPG HQ Print Run Kickstarter w/ WFTO Book!
For the past few weeks Bandit Camp have been running their final (as far as we/they know) Wicked Ones kickstarter for an ultimate, collected release of Wicked Ones and its expansions physically realised in its greatest form yet via high-quality print-run.
This will deliver the books in a superbly high-detail greater than the print-on-demand releases previously run. Needless to say such an offering has neatly destroyed their initial goals
Well firstly Wicked Ones is a great game that if you love Dungeon Management and TTRPGs we highly recommend you play. Secondly, the WFTO supplement for the game realises the WFTO style of gameplay better than any RPG we are familiar with. It's become a cult classic amongst the Bandit Camp community. Thirdly, the book includes the Dungeoneer's Guide to the Underworld, and as such is the only way to get this awesome collection of lore and art physically.
Finally, most crucially, that self-same supplement will as of a few days ago benefit from the same high-quality print-run as the other books as an improved add-on option. Still wholly for charity and we'll even throw in a free copy of WFTO for anyone who backs it. How's that for a trade deal?!
But rest not on your laurels, for the end of the Kickstarter is fast approaching with just a week from writing remaining. This may be the last chance to grab such a high-quality release and save on the postage you might otherwise incur buying them separately. Find out more on the Kickstarter Page Bandit Camp have also made us aware that sometime in the near future print-on-demand options for hardcovers of their releases will soon be retired. So if you're hankering for a hard-cover book now is the best time to grab it! For our part we expect that this will be the last time we promote the WFTO Wicked Ones book, and though it will likely remain available via Drive Thru RPG indefinitely we wouldn't want you to miss out on this chance.
To find out more and back the Kickstarter: Visit the Kickstarter Page That's all Underlords, and as always thank you for your support. We can't wait to talk to you very soon about our upcoming new game. Until next time Underlords, Brightrock Games Team Visit the Wicked One's Kickstarter Follow us on Steam! Click here to chat about this update on our Discord Never miss an update! Sign up to our newsletter!
[ 2022-08-23 19:24:16 CET ] [ Original post ]
Darkest Greetings Underlords,
If you were to cast your dark minds back to the year of 2019 you might remember brighter days or indeed darker ones.
You might also remember the start of our partnership with Bandit Camp the devilishly delightful designers for Wicked Ones, a deeply realised free TTRP where you and your friends assume the role of evil dungeon dwelling denizens who through depraved acts of the dark heart expand their dungeon, plunder riches from the goodly folks of the above-lands and squash hapless heroes that wander into your domain. Why does that sound ever so familiar?
In any case last year our partnership bore fruit as the War for the Overwolrd campaign guide for Wicked Ones was unleashed. Allowing you to take explore the realm of Kairos as never before; through the guise of a tabletop RPG by building on top of Wicked One's all too familiar systems!
Better yet it is a product solely devoted to charity as all profits from this book for both ourselves and Bandit Camp are instead donated to Child's Play. In fact we're proud to say thus far we've raised $3380 for this grand cause, and soon we hope to break the $5000 barrier!
But there's more than this good news to share with you today. Indeed whilst we labour hard at our next game the folks at Bandit Camp have worked tirelessly towards their magnum opus.
Wicked Ones High-Quality Print Run Kickstarter
For the past few weeks Bandit Camp have been running their final (as far as we/they know) Wicked Ones kickstarter for an ultimate, collected release of Wicked Ones and its expansions physically realised in its greatest form yet via high-quality print-run.
This will deliver the books in a superbly high-detail greater than the print-on-demand releases previously run. Needless to say such an offering has neatly destroyed their initial goals
So why might this interest you?
Well firstly Wicked Ones is a great game that if you love Dungeon Management and TTRPGs we highly recommend you play. Secondly, the WFTO supplement for the game realises the WFTO style of gameplay better than any RPG we are familiar with. It's become a cult classic amongst the Bandit Camp community. Thirdly, the book includes the Dungeoneer's Guide to the Underworld, and as such is the only way to get this awesome collection of lore and art physically.
Finally, most crucially, that self-same supplement will as of a few days ago benefit from the same high-quality print-run as the other books as an improved add-on option. Still wholly for charity and we'll even throw in a free copy of WFTO for anyone who backs it. How's that for a trade deal?!
Time is ticking
But rest not on your laurels, for the end of the Kickstarter is fast approaching with just a week from writing remaining. This may be the last chance to grab such a high-quality release and save on the postage you might otherwise incur buying them separately. Find out more on the Kickstarter Page Bandit Camp have also made us aware that sometime in the near future print-on-demand options for hardcovers of their releases will soon be retired. So if you're hankering for a hard-cover book now is the best time to grab it! For our part we expect that this will be the last time we promote the WFTO Wicked Ones book, and though it will likely remain available via Drive Thru RPG indefinitely we wouldn't want you to miss out on this chance.
TL;DR
- Wicked Ones, a dungeon-building, village pillaging, goodie bashing TTRPG from our friends Bandit Camp is having its final kickstarter for a High-quality print run.
- We worked with them previously to make a WFTO supplement for Wicked Ones that translated the feeling of playing War for the Overworld into the TTRPG format.
- This was wholly for charity, raising $3380 so far for Child's Play with $5000 quickly approaching.
- This same supplement is available as an add-on to the print run in the same high-quality form as the rest of the books.
- It's all still for charity, any profits either of us would get from the WFTO add-on go to child's play.
- We're giving them Steam Keys for WFTO's base edition anyone who pledges for the WFTO add-on
- It's likely the last chance to get this book in a high-quality hardcover print. Even the print-on-demand medium quality will be retired soon.
- There's a week left to get it.
- We won't be bothering you any more about this!
To find out more and back the Kickstarter: Visit the Kickstarter Page That's all Underlords, and as always thank you for your support. We can't wait to talk to you very soon about our upcoming new game. Until next time Underlords, Brightrock Games Team Visit the Wicked One's Kickstarter Follow us on Steam! Click here to chat about this update on our Discord Never miss an update! Sign up to our newsletter!
Hotfix Patch 2.1.0f4 Release Notes
[ 2022-04-14 13:56:47 CET ] [ Original post ]
Hotfix Patch 2.1.0f4 - Release Notes
- Fixed a random crash issue
- CopyMightyScript and ImportMightyScript debug commands now function again, are no longer case sensitive and do not require debug mode to be unlocked
- Fixed an issue where Shadow Distance would always reset to Medium
- Increased default gamma from 20 to 30
Patch 2.1 "Deeper Darker Dungeons" Release Notes
One of my deepest desires for many years has been to see the game with real-time shadows, the light from torches casting long shadows of workers passing through, structures casting equally imposing presence on the environment. Ideal for dark, gritty dungeons.
Theres very real reasons why we never touched this. Frankly its super expensive performance wise, WFTO has a lot of dynamic lights already and each light is an expense, doubly so if they cast shadows. Then as time went on and performance generally improved, working backwards to introduce this was a non-starter because so much of the game had been done without it intended, as an example many objects that should have cast shadows, simply didnt because they werent set up to. Anyway a lot of that work has been a focus of my efforts, and now this is now a supported graphical feature. Largely I focussed on structures: Dungeon Cores, Shrines or significant light sources like the hand of evil. If you enable shadows this is the bare minimum you get.
Some other shadow sources can also be optionally enabled, mostly this means corridor torches right now but may be expanded in the future to include room props and more if theres enough performance headroom.
Speaking of performance, it should be expected that this is a net-loss in performance if you enable this. Ive provided options to help offset this and the recommended finds a nice middleground. But you can totally kill your FPS if you want to get the best looking picture, I just wouldnt recommend it for moment to moment gameplay.
Part of my goals with my tinkering was to try and give the game a deeper atmosphere with an emphasis on feeling the effects of the terrain that surrounds you. First and foremost I wanted to communicate the sense that the player was underground with more oppressive shadows and lighting, whilst still allowing the player to see what theyre doing. Its hard to communicate these changes so heres a few comparison screenshots.
Just over a year ago now we asked our Discord community whether they wanted to see the Power Hand of Evil, which was that years April Fools, make its way to the game. To say that the response was a resounding yes would be an understatement. So we finally got around to doing that.
The new hand can be selected via the gameplay options menu.
Thanks to feedback from the community we managed to isolate a few significant performance monsters in the UI. This should greatly improve the performance of the Main Menu but also parts of the in-game UI that are known to cause problems such as the units panel and veins of evil. In some brief logging I confirmed a significant 41.8% reduction in UI overhead on the main menu in a steam thread:
Gains for the In-Game UI are more circumstantial but the unit panel in particular is much, much faster taking only 0.1ms to render down from 5ms when fully populated and in advanced mode. Thats a massive 5000% gain in performance!
The Hand of Evil now casts a larger light which is colour toned based on the terrain theme Players can override the colour of this light via a new setting in the options menu The games default lighting is now darker in tone and with a very slight orange hue Increased the intensity of SSAO Explored fog of war is now tinted based on the terrain theme, its cold out there amongst the ice
[ 2022-04-12 17:05:16 CET ] [ Original post ]
Darkest Greetings Underlord,
As promised a mere 11 days ago we have returned to this realm, dragging a surprise War for the Overworld patch kicking and screaming from the depths. This patch is a special one as it celebrates, somewhat belatedly, the 7th Anniversary of WFTOs release and contains a few new features we, and you, might never have expected to see in WFTO.
But first an introduction. Im Lee, one of the designers and the community manager at Brightrock. Im better known in the community as Noontide. Id like to take a moment to talk about the patch and why its a bit larger than our intended scope for maintenance.
A large part of this is a result of several months of on and off tinkering that Ive been doing with the WFTO project. With input from my colleagues and assistance from the code team weve managed to wrap these changes up into this patch alongside the originally scheduled work and maintenance we had planned.
All of this is to say that this patch is meatier than first anticipated but also a little experimental and I would invite your opinions on changes that are being made here.
I expect this isnt the last tinkering I will do with WFTO, but to set some reasonable expectations. Im not a coder, I wasnt involved in WFTOs production directly and Im still getting to grips with the project and its intricacies. A fair chunk of the work here involved a lot of help from others on the team who similarly supported me out of love and passion for the game.
So please understand that the inclusion of some unexpected features doesnt change our intended plans for WFTOs maintenance cycle. Which remains primarily an exercise in keeping a wary eye out for serious issues, triaging and addressing them with short bursts of activity between our work on Project: Aftercare.
With all that said I hope that you will enjoy the changes included in Patch 2.1 and youll keep an eye out for further news on Project: Aftercare this year :)
Now onto the patch notes!
Patch Highlights
Real-Time Shadow Support
One of my deepest desires for many years has been to see the game with real-time shadows, the light from torches casting long shadows of workers passing through, structures casting equally imposing presence on the environment. Ideal for dark, gritty dungeons.
Theres very real reasons why we never touched this. Frankly its super expensive performance wise, WFTO has a lot of dynamic lights already and each light is an expense, doubly so if they cast shadows. Then as time went on and performance generally improved, working backwards to introduce this was a non-starter because so much of the game had been done without it intended, as an example many objects that should have cast shadows, simply didnt because they werent set up to. Anyway a lot of that work has been a focus of my efforts, and now this is now a supported graphical feature. Largely I focussed on structures: Dungeon Cores, Shrines or significant light sources like the hand of evil. If you enable shadows this is the bare minimum you get.
Some other shadow sources can also be optionally enabled, mostly this means corridor torches right now but may be expanded in the future to include room props and more if theres enough performance headroom.
Speaking of performance, it should be expected that this is a net-loss in performance if you enable this. Ive provided options to help offset this and the recommended finds a nice middleground. But you can totally kill your FPS if you want to get the best looking picture, I just wouldnt recommend it for moment to moment gameplay.
Visual Tone Overhaul
Part of my goals with my tinkering was to try and give the game a deeper atmosphere with an emphasis on feeling the effects of the terrain that surrounds you. First and foremost I wanted to communicate the sense that the player was underground with more oppressive shadows and lighting, whilst still allowing the player to see what theyre doing. Its hard to communicate these changes so heres a few comparison screenshots.
Power Hand of Evil
Just over a year ago now we asked our Discord community whether they wanted to see the Power Hand of Evil, which was that years April Fools, make its way to the game. To say that the response was a resounding yes would be an understatement. So we finally got around to doing that.
The new hand can be selected via the gameplay options menu.
UI Performance Optimisations
Thanks to feedback from the community we managed to isolate a few significant performance monsters in the UI. This should greatly improve the performance of the Main Menu but also parts of the in-game UI that are known to cause problems such as the units panel and veins of evil. In some brief logging I confirmed a significant 41.8% reduction in UI overhead on the main menu in a steam thread:
Gains for the In-Game UI are more circumstantial but the unit panel in particular is much, much faster taking only 0.1ms to render down from 5ms when fully populated and in advanced mode. Thats a massive 5000% gain in performance!
Patch Notes
Performance Optimisations
- Significant improvements to the Main Menu UI will deliver up to 100% improved performance on the Main Menu
- Significant improvements to several in-game UIs including but not limited to:
- The Veins of Evil
- Units Tab
- Potions Tab
- Groups UI
Visual Changes
Dynamic Shadows
- Dynamic Shadows can now be enabled in the options menu with various configurations
- Shadows can be enabled or disabled and configured to be cast only by important lights or specified optional lights
- The distance at which shadows are rendered is set by the Shadow Distance setting
- The resolution of shadows is affected by the Shadow Resolution setting
Tonal Updates
The Hand of Evil now casts a larger light which is colour toned based on the terrain theme Players can override the colour of this light via a new setting in the options menu The games default lighting is now darker in tone and with a very slight orange hue Increased the intensity of SSAO Explored fog of war is now tinted based on the terrain theme, its cold out there amongst the ice
Dungeon Themes
- Rhaskos Dungeon Theme
- Improved visuals on the Dungeon Core, fixed a few errors and introduced new elements to spruce up the granddaddy of all cores
- Improvements to the Rhaksos wall topper
- Arcane Dungeon Theme
- Dungeon Core now has a visible ebb in its visual effects
- All Dungeon Cores and walls have had a lighting pass in support of visual tone changes and shadow support
Shrines, Structures and Environments
- All Shrines & Structures (such as gateways) have had a lighting overhaul to make best use of the new shadow system
- Artefacts of all types cast slightly more light
- The Underworld Gateway now fully team colors to your factions colour
Terrain
- Gold now has a glittering effect in all themes, this is adjusted based on the terrain theme
- Ice theme terrain now has a reflective component, making it look a little more icey
Units
- Workers now have a small team coloured light to help identify them amongst the crowds
- Oni Ashigaru Worker - Reduced Brightness, more consistent with other skins
- Survival workers now have a more consistent brightness with other workers
- Easter worker no longer dyes his fur to suit your team colour, animal cruelty is ended
- The Cynical Imp no longer changes his skin color, instead he just picks different colors to emphasize his suit
Miscellaneous Changes
- Dramatically improved loading times for the custom campaign menu and other menus where many levels are loaded sequentially
- The War for the Overworld launcher is deprecated and has been removed.
- Loading screens now feature the War for the Overworld logo without patch banners.
UI & Interface
- Controller input for possession can now be disabled in the options menu
Bug Fixes
Crashes & Gamebreakers
- Fixed an issue which would cause the game to enter a softlock state on loading transition in and out of levels
Visual Issues
- Fixed an issue which prevented a specific arcane theme floor from being teamcoloured
- The Cynical Imp is now appropriately teamcoloured
- Fixed an issue where the worker claim vfx would not persist long enough in some tasks
- Quartz now appears correctly in all terrain themes
- The Team Indicator for perception shrines no longer hides underground
Audio Issues
- Fixed an issue where the Rhaskos core heartbeat would not play in sync with the animation
Levels / Campaigns
- War for the Overworld - Level 1 - Fixed an issue where the edge highlighter for tiles in the tutorial would not display correctly
- War for the Overworld - Level 9 - Enemy units in the arena now count towards objective completion.
UI
- The description for the frostyweaver unit has been updated to correctly reflect its passive abilities
- Fixed stick drift causing the possession camera to turn permanently if the player has an analog input device plugged in
- If the UI fails to load it will no longer default to google.com, therefore removing your ability to google the issue immediately
- Fixed an issue that would cause part of the unit panel to become inaccessible after losing a unit at certain UI scales
- The unit panel should now behave properly at all normal UI scales probably.
Map Editor
- Fixed an issue that could cause a dungeon core to become deserialized, making it untargetable and unremovable in the map editor. Killing your map.
Mighty Script
- Patrols added via the spawn party action should now behave as intended.
Multiplayer
- Fixed an issue where users on the GOG platform and Steam platform could not see each others multiplayer games
GOG Version
- Custom campaigns will now be unpacked outside of GOGs cloud save area, preventing an overload of your cloud save capacity
Introducing our next game Cult of Duty! & WFTO v4.1
Cult of Duty: Dungeon Warfare is a brand new First Person Gun em Down (FPGED) from our crack team of developers that specialize in real-time strategy management games. In it you will assume the role of a nameless cultist burdened with an exceptional duty. Hence the name, you see youre a cultist in a cult, and you have a duty. Pretty clever.
Hes looking this way! Quick burn the rest of his face off! We intend to completely redefine the genre of the FPGED, and weve spent literal years gathered around a chalkboard, generating ideas, writing on chalkboards, taking notes, eating chalk, and promoting synergy all to bring you a game that will truly change your perspective on the gaming world of First Person games. We know. You cant believe it. Its long overdue that someone redefines, innovates and revolutionises the FPGED space. Well, hold onto your flaps, because youre about to get blasted with the sickest FPGED featureset youve ever seen:
Here at Brightrock Games we believe in absolute honesty and transparency with our valued fanbase. So were going to call this what it is. Were going to fleece the absolute gosh-darned pants off you with all sorts of tasty, metric raising, arguably-abusive microtransactions, cosmetics, voice lines and more which you can rub into the faces of those less fortuante. Were not hiding it anymore, no one is, gone are the days where wed charge you honestly for the hours of sweat and toil we put into this content, were going to find every possible way to nickel and dime you. It's just the way of things you understand? Once upon a time, the idea of paying money for horse armour was so absurd that it broke the community of Gamers. Fortunately, were long past the days of those plebeian concerns, and microtransactions have since been embraced by the whole gaming community as a force for good. Pay-to-win? Weve got that too! You dont want to fall behind do you? Damn right you dont you little scamp, basically, you'll want to buy our tat or that's what will happen. Falling behind is what losers do, and we both know you're too awesome to be a loser right?
Multiplayer is a great opportunity to show off your choice in robe colours! So now we both know you want to be a winner you can check out our list of Day 1 DLC & Microtransactions, complete with pricing so you can start budgeting now! All of these can be purchased together at a 5% discount in the Certified Winner pack which comes with a special title Im better than you!
Coming soon to a video game retailer near you Until then well be answering any questions you may have in the comments and well include the most pressing ones in our Cult of Duty FAQ below. Now before we forget we have big news for WFTO as well!
We know youre all desperate to get your hands on the Cult of Duty, but the demands of our artistic vision are so exacting that its going to take a bit more time to ship. We also know that all of you beautiful, gorgeous, charismatic fans deserve more than a when its done - so were also happy to reveal our original and uncompromised vision and finally provide you with the game WFTO was always meant to be. War for the Overworld: Non Fungible Tokens for the Overworld (WFTO:NFTFTO) is a radically new content experience in the video-game landscape. The industry at large has refused to acknowledge the power and labour of Gamers, and we at Brightrock think its far past time this was remediated. With WFTO:NFTFTO, the time you invest in WFTO:NFTFTO will be rewarded with novel, fun tokens which are unlocked upon the arrival of the minions in your dungeon. Minions have long had unique personalities, attributes, names, and backstories, all buried deep within the code for the original WFTO. In our new version, each minion summoned will be assigned a token, and if summoned into your dungeon, that token becomes yours - forever.
Some example chunderbois from our first minting. Get them while theyre hot, or not, being hot is a variation that can happen. Much value. Each minion token has an intrinsic value generated by the hash matrix of our new DungeonCoin crypto-market. This technology will allow you to trade minions between dungeons, or even sell them outright to new players. Do you have a Chunder who spends more time than usual in the Foundry? Is he called Jim? Have you spent nights tossing and turning on white-hot pillows, thinking about how desperately you want Chunder Jim to be your boyfriend? Well, in a year from now, Chunder Jim will be worth over five million dollars, and his token can be yours to own - provided that he gets summoned to your dungeon. Whats more, WFTO:NFTFTO will constantly hash new DungeonCoins as you play the game - and each successful hashing increases the value of all the DungeonCoins and minion tokens you own. Finally, you can actually enjoy playing a computer game, comforted by the knowledge that every hour spent playing has boosted the value of your Minion Wallet!
Some of our chunderbois are fully animated! Great for showing off your investments to your friends. We cant overstate how exciting it is to be spearheading this initiative to bring substantial product value to our fans and players, and were incredibly grateful that youve all stuck with us long enough for the true WFTO vision to be revealed. Keep hashing those Chunders, Underlords! [spoiler]Brightrock Games is not liable for any personal, interpersonal or hardware damage caused by the appropriation of your computer for the hashing of DungeonCoin. End user is solely liable for any incidents of overheating, melting, CPU fan explosions, thermal paste ingestion, boils, burns, bankruptcy, and any other outcomes of the proprietary DungeonCoin technology.[/spoiler]
Q. If my Robe is reduced to 0% durability am I naked? In order to avoid affecting our ratings board scores (15) we are legally required to confirm the Cultist does indeed wear his skivvies in this case. However we plan to release a De-Censor DLC for 69.69 which will make your cultist appropriately naked. This comes with a free weapon! The Massive(ly exaggerated) Rod of Evil. Q. When I do a 360 quickscope upon my enemies, will I be rewarded with Experience Points? Yes. Every successful Quickscope will result in you being rewarded with Experience Points, which can be spent on unlocking attachments for your weapon of choice. Q. I enjoy playing video games, because its exciting when the marios bounces around. However, I often feel anxious that Im wasting my time watching a computer character collect coins on the screen, which is where I watch the game on. Is there any solution to this? There is! The recent deployment of DungeonCoin allows you to generate value merely by playing our game - and then trade or sell your minions to other savvy consumers. Not a single minute spent in WFTO will be wasted, and the line always goes up! Q. I have lost the ability to go to the toilet by myself Until April 12th Underlords, Brightrock Games Team Follow us on Steam! Click here to chat about this update on our Discord Never miss an update! Sign up to our newsletter!
[ 2022-04-01 08:30:30 CET ] [ Original post ]
Rarest Greetings Underlords, Once again, we pop out from the dingy depths of our caverns and gaze upwards towards the untarnished and needlessly fungible Overworld! The surfacers schemes bring them ever closer to ruin, and we must merely wait until their weaknesses crumble their world down to bare stone. The Great Plan has long been in motion, and its tendrils now find purchase in the broader culture of the surfacers. This is the perfect time to strike, and the two blades of our strike are named: 1. Project: COD 2. Project: WFTO:NFTFTO Let us pull back the curtain and reveal screaming murder victim behind as we delve into our first Project. Project:COD also known as CULT OF DUTY: DUNGEON WARFARE.
Join the Cult of Duty
Cult of Duty: Dungeon Warfare is a brand new First Person Gun em Down (FPGED) from our crack team of developers that specialize in real-time strategy management games. In it you will assume the role of a nameless cultist burdened with an exceptional duty. Hence the name, you see youre a cultist in a cult, and you have a duty. Pretty clever.
Hes looking this way! Quick burn the rest of his face off! We intend to completely redefine the genre of the FPGED, and weve spent literal years gathered around a chalkboard, generating ideas, writing on chalkboards, taking notes, eating chalk, and promoting synergy all to bring you a game that will truly change your perspective on the gaming world of First Person games. We know. You cant believe it. Its long overdue that someone redefines, innovates and revolutionises the FPGED space. Well, hold onto your flaps, because youre about to get blasted with the sickest FPGED featureset youve ever seen:
- An Armoury of Evil - Your cult is armed with an assortment of weapons, forged with steel and imbued with the magical power of blood. Choose from weapons such as the Sacrificial Dagger, The BAFU Launcher, the Power Hand of Evil and the Chunder Thunderer, the most powerful weapon in your Arse-nal.
- A Campaign to Remember - Across fifteen expertly crafted levels experience an epic cinematic tale of love and betrayal, woven relationships and beautifully choreographed cutscenes that will leave you wanting more. Then when youre done, jump on Netflix and binge our tie-in anime which concludes the story.
- Bloody Magic - Theres more to being a cultist than sleeping, eating, collecting payday and performing occult rituals. Your own brand of magic will service you in addition to your weaponry, wield dozens of unique spells as you fight your way through the goodly forces of the surface world. But remember your magic is powered by blood, your blood.
- Know Your Place - As the loyal servant of an Underlord you must never forget who your master is, worship them, praise them with your every working moment, when they slap you then you will feel pleasure like never before. Let them do it, embrace it, enjoy it. Yes, just like that, you like that dont you my little minion *ahem* where were we?
- Defeat Greater Parts of Yourself - In the Massively Multiplayer mode Korvek Royale youll discover the canon backstory to Korvek, one of the most important and beloved characters in War for the Overworld. Fight other parts of yourself is a massive deathmatch as you take on the form of a lowly cultist amidst the twisted, fractured realm that Korvek calls home. Who will be winner winner micropiglet dinner?
The Honest Truth
Here at Brightrock Games we believe in absolute honesty and transparency with our valued fanbase. So were going to call this what it is. Were going to fleece the absolute gosh-darned pants off you with all sorts of tasty, metric raising, arguably-abusive microtransactions, cosmetics, voice lines and more which you can rub into the faces of those less fortuante. Were not hiding it anymore, no one is, gone are the days where wed charge you honestly for the hours of sweat and toil we put into this content, were going to find every possible way to nickel and dime you. It's just the way of things you understand? Once upon a time, the idea of paying money for horse armour was so absurd that it broke the community of Gamers. Fortunately, were long past the days of those plebeian concerns, and microtransactions have since been embraced by the whole gaming community as a force for good. Pay-to-win? Weve got that too! You dont want to fall behind do you? Damn right you dont you little scamp, basically, you'll want to buy our tat or that's what will happen. Falling behind is what losers do, and we both know you're too awesome to be a loser right?
Multiplayer is a great opportunity to show off your choice in robe colours! So now we both know you want to be a winner you can check out our list of Day 1 DLC & Microtransactions, complete with pricing so you can start budgeting now! All of these can be purchased together at a 5% discount in the Certified Winner pack which comes with a special title Im better than you!
- Robe Colour Pack 1 (3.99) - Customise your robes like never before with all new colors including: Cherry, Merlot, Jam, Wine, Mahogany, Blood, Currant, Scarlet and more!
- Scowl Pack (5.99) - Bad guys never smile. Now put your own spin on the iconic expression with 5 brand new scowls to wear into battle. Guaranteed to make enemies and friends alike jealous.
- Grimace Pack (5.99) - On no occasion do Evil Dudes grin. Right this second redefine expectations on this defining appearance with more than four and less than six pristine grimaces to don in war. Assured to inspire envy in foes and allies all the same.
- Frown Pack (5.99) - Sinister males always forgo beaming. At this moment, rework the recognisable guise with a few more than a couple fresh frowns to have on in a scrap. Unfailing to assign desirous feelings in companions and rivals
- Glower Pack (5.99) - At no time do villainous men twinkle teeth. Presently place a rotation upon the archetypal countenance with the square root of 25 virginal glowers to sport to a confrontation. It is certain your antagonists and confidantes will be covetous.
- Iconic Voice Pack (9.99) - Tired of running around without running your mouth? Grab this pack and you too can spout such lines as I never get hungry in here for some reason and Who the hell is Brian approximately 97 times a minute.
- Weapon Honing Bundle (5.99) - Your weapons could always be better, with this pack of raw materials youll need to improve the killing power, range and much more. No more grinding, just swipe!
- Modern Warfare Pack (59.99) - Tired of getting stomped by noobs? Change the field of engagement with the Modern Warfare pack. Containing all your favorite modern weaponry fill your foes full of lead whilst they babble their magic spells, or call in a tactical airstrike should you find yourself outmatched.
- Developer Abuse Pack (9.99) - You just give us money to verbally abuse you. Whenever you do anything in game youll have bespoke developer responses reminding you how bad you are and how much better you would be for purchasing our microtransactions.
Coming soon to a video game retailer near you Until then well be answering any questions you may have in the comments and well include the most pressing ones in our Cult of Duty FAQ below. Now before we forget we have big news for WFTO as well!
WFTO Patch 4.1 Preview: NFTs for the Overworld
We know youre all desperate to get your hands on the Cult of Duty, but the demands of our artistic vision are so exacting that its going to take a bit more time to ship. We also know that all of you beautiful, gorgeous, charismatic fans deserve more than a when its done - so were also happy to reveal our original and uncompromised vision and finally provide you with the game WFTO was always meant to be. War for the Overworld: Non Fungible Tokens for the Overworld (WFTO:NFTFTO) is a radically new content experience in the video-game landscape. The industry at large has refused to acknowledge the power and labour of Gamers, and we at Brightrock think its far past time this was remediated. With WFTO:NFTFTO, the time you invest in WFTO:NFTFTO will be rewarded with novel, fun tokens which are unlocked upon the arrival of the minions in your dungeon. Minions have long had unique personalities, attributes, names, and backstories, all buried deep within the code for the original WFTO. In our new version, each minion summoned will be assigned a token, and if summoned into your dungeon, that token becomes yours - forever.
Some example chunderbois from our first minting. Get them while theyre hot, or not, being hot is a variation that can happen. Much value. Each minion token has an intrinsic value generated by the hash matrix of our new DungeonCoin crypto-market. This technology will allow you to trade minions between dungeons, or even sell them outright to new players. Do you have a Chunder who spends more time than usual in the Foundry? Is he called Jim? Have you spent nights tossing and turning on white-hot pillows, thinking about how desperately you want Chunder Jim to be your boyfriend? Well, in a year from now, Chunder Jim will be worth over five million dollars, and his token can be yours to own - provided that he gets summoned to your dungeon. Whats more, WFTO:NFTFTO will constantly hash new DungeonCoins as you play the game - and each successful hashing increases the value of all the DungeonCoins and minion tokens you own. Finally, you can actually enjoy playing a computer game, comforted by the knowledge that every hour spent playing has boosted the value of your Minion Wallet!
Some of our chunderbois are fully animated! Great for showing off your investments to your friends. We cant overstate how exciting it is to be spearheading this initiative to bring substantial product value to our fans and players, and were incredibly grateful that youve all stuck with us long enough for the true WFTO vision to be revealed. Keep hashing those Chunders, Underlords! [spoiler]Brightrock Games is not liable for any personal, interpersonal or hardware damage caused by the appropriation of your computer for the hashing of DungeonCoin. End user is solely liable for any incidents of overheating, melting, CPU fan explosions, thermal paste ingestion, boils, burns, bankruptcy, and any other outcomes of the proprietary DungeonCoin technology.[/spoiler]
Cult of Duty FAQ
Q. If my Robe is reduced to 0% durability am I naked? In order to avoid affecting our ratings board scores (15) we are legally required to confirm the Cultist does indeed wear his skivvies in this case. However we plan to release a De-Censor DLC for 69.69 which will make your cultist appropriately naked. This comes with a free weapon! The Massive(ly exaggerated) Rod of Evil. Q. When I do a 360 quickscope upon my enemies, will I be rewarded with Experience Points? Yes. Every successful Quickscope will result in you being rewarded with Experience Points, which can be spent on unlocking attachments for your weapon of choice. Q. I enjoy playing video games, because its exciting when the marios bounces around. However, I often feel anxious that Im wasting my time watching a computer character collect coins on the screen, which is where I watch the game on. Is there any solution to this? There is! The recent deployment of DungeonCoin allows you to generate value merely by playing our game - and then trade or sell your minions to other savvy consumers. Not a single minute spent in WFTO will be wasted, and the line always goes up! Q. I have lost the ability to go to the toilet by myself Until April 12th Underlords, Brightrock Games Team Follow us on Steam! Click here to chat about this update on our Discord Never miss an update! Sign up to our newsletter!
Supporting Child's Play: War for the Overworld Campaign Guide for Wicked Ones
Cast your mind back Underlords to the heady year of 2019, the year before the time of ending, before the great plague and before this humble community manager had aged into his 30s Great times indeed We had just started the early stages of development on our latest work when we received a most curious message from a Kickstarter Campaign. A pen and paper roleplaying game in which you control the dark denizens of a world in which they build, defend a dungeon, explore the world and raid the settlements of goodly heroes. We both agreed a dark partnership was in order.
The War for the Overworld Campaign Guide for Wicked Ones is entirely a charitable endeavour. All proceeds from Brightrock Games, Bandit Camp and DriveThruRPG will be donated to the Childs Play charity to help improve the lives of children through the power of play. Thats right 100% of our proceeds and that of our partners from sales of this book will be going to charity forever. Who said you cant do good while doing a little evil?
This Campaign Guide is a massive 81-page, full-colour tome and includes everything you need to know to place your games of Wicked Ones in the War for the Overworld universe, to build your Wicked One wholly as or inspired by one of our minions and to serve a great underlord (of your own design) as you strike out against together with your fellows against the goodly forces of the Empire. The Guide adjusts the core gameplay of Wicked Ones to bring it closer to the experience of playing War for the Overworld. With the unique mix of Roleplay, dungeon keeping and surface raiding theres sure to whet any Underlords bloodthirsty tongue.
Dont know what Wicked Ones is? Well you can read a bit about it below!
From the Wicked Ones product page: Even for those who are not familiar with the War for the Overworld video game, this campaign guide has a lot to offer including new rules, a map. Also, as with Wicked Ones Deluxe Edition, all graphics in the book have been converted to high quality tokens and figures for VTT play and do-it-yourself printing. The campaign itself and the factions are well described within the book, which makes for great inspiration even without experience playing WFTO. A new sandbox map for Wicked Ones, Mount Desmos, with a detailed scenario focusing on underground raids before bursting forth into the Overworld. Underlords, powerful spirits from the Aether, leading your dungeon. Theyre a single character shared by the entire group and can cast spells and compel their minions towards action. Their abilities replace the core function of a dungeon.
A dungeon core at the center of your dungeon. Located on the first level, it replaces the sanctum and second level of the dungeon. Defend it well, because if it falls, your Underlord is banished from the realm. Shrines and portals littering the Underworld, discovered while tunneling to the edges of the map to go on raids. 12 beasts from WFTO to serve your dungeon as creatures and a new way to bring them along on raids with you when necessary. 3 powerful titans that can be summoned by acquiring the Kenos artifact and finishing a tier 3 ritual. Each titan has its own unique bonus. 10 unit archetypes and new primal abilities to build WFTO-style PCs with. 15 heroes of the Empire, adventurers strongly connected to the factions within and around Mount Desmos. Active participation in dungeon defense by the PCs, who make a placement roll as an invasion occurs just like their minions do. Once you become aware of the invasion, you are free to move about the dungeon making invasions much more chaotic and dynamic. The Dungeoneers Guide to the Underworld, an in-world field guide for the evil and good units in War for the Overworld written by Brightrock Games. This was previously available to those that bought the Underlord Edition of the game, but has been made available for inclusion with this supplement to give GMs and players way more background information on the denizens of Kairos.
The Campaign Guide is available in both digital and print-on-demand physical formats, naturally this means you can get both an awesome supplement to the Wicked Ones game but also for the first time ever get your hands of evil on a physical copy of the Dungeoneers Guide to the Underworld which is included in the book. The Hardback format and excellent print-quality make these truly great additions to any Underlords collection.
Just check out these awesome pictures of the physical book in person!
You can grab either Digital or Physical editions of the War for the Overworld Campaign Guide for Wicked Ones right over on DriveThruRPG! Pricing:
Put simply, Wicked Ones is awesome but for a more objective description well turn to the folks at Bandit Camp to summarise!
WICKED ONES is a Forged in the Dark tabletop RPG about a group of fantasy monsters building a dungeon, launching raids on the surface to gather a hoard, and pursuing your nefarious master plan. Along the way, theres pillaging, rituals, concoctions, contraptions, discoveries deep in the ground, dungeon rooms, traps, creatures, minions, and so much more! You build your dungeon over time throughout the campaign and no two dungeons will ever be alike.
You bask in choosing the greater of two evils as your group strives to accomplish its master plan and terrorize the region around your dungeon. However, your vile deeds lure increasingly greedy and powerful adventurers into your dungeon. Can you stave off the inevitable onslaught of heroism that your notoriety brings?
If youd like to find out more then be sure to drop into the Bandit Camp Discord! And remember you can try the game entirely for Free with the Free Edition! Lastly in the interests of supporting the wonderful talent at Bandit Camp wed like to make you aware of their next endeavour Relic, which is currently in the pre-Kickstarter phase. That concludes our final update on this unique partnership. We hope that we can count on your support of the new product for Childs Play and we hope that you enjoy playing Wicked Ones and especially the WFTO Supplement! Finally all that remains is for us to wish you all a great remainder of 2021 while we look forward to pulling back the curtain on Project: Aftercare in 2022! Until next time Underlords, Brightrock Games Team Brightrock Games Team Follow us on Steam! Click here to chat about this update on our Discord Never miss an update! Sign up to our newsletter!
[ 2021-10-11 21:54:52 CET ] [ Original post ]
Darkest Greetings Underlords,
It has been some time hasnt it? Rest assured that the dark work on our next project continues undeterred and unabated and that soon enough all shall be revealed to you.
In the meantime we once more reach out to you across the aether to share news of interest.
Specifically with regards to the culmination of our partnership with the most devious folks of Bandit Camp, and the long-awaited release of the War for the Overworld Campaign Guide for their excellent dungeon-building, surface-raiding, pen and paper RPG Wicked Ones!
But first, in case you missed the news. In late September we released patch 2.0.8 for War for the Overworld to fix a serious crash on startup issue on the latest intel CPUs. If you were affected by this crash or have had issues since, please check out this post.
Now without further ado, onto the main event!
WFTO Meets Wicked Ones
Cast your mind back Underlords to the heady year of 2019, the year before the time of ending, before the great plague and before this humble community manager had aged into his 30s Great times indeed We had just started the early stages of development on our latest work when we received a most curious message from a Kickstarter Campaign. A pen and paper roleplaying game in which you control the dark denizens of a world in which they build, defend a dungeon, explore the world and raid the settlements of goodly heroes. We both agreed a dark partnership was in order.
Supporting Childs Play
The War for the Overworld Campaign Guide for Wicked Ones is entirely a charitable endeavour. All proceeds from Brightrock Games, Bandit Camp and DriveThruRPG will be donated to the Childs Play charity to help improve the lives of children through the power of play. Thats right 100% of our proceeds and that of our partners from sales of this book will be going to charity forever. Who said you cant do good while doing a little evil?
War for the Overworld Campaign Guide for Wicked Ones
This Campaign Guide is a massive 81-page, full-colour tome and includes everything you need to know to place your games of Wicked Ones in the War for the Overworld universe, to build your Wicked One wholly as or inspired by one of our minions and to serve a great underlord (of your own design) as you strike out against together with your fellows against the goodly forces of the Empire. The Guide adjusts the core gameplay of Wicked Ones to bring it closer to the experience of playing War for the Overworld. With the unique mix of Roleplay, dungeon keeping and surface raiding theres sure to whet any Underlords bloodthirsty tongue.
Dont know what Wicked Ones is? Well you can read a bit about it below!
Whats Included in the Campaign Guide
From the Wicked Ones product page: Even for those who are not familiar with the War for the Overworld video game, this campaign guide has a lot to offer including new rules, a map. Also, as with Wicked Ones Deluxe Edition, all graphics in the book have been converted to high quality tokens and figures for VTT play and do-it-yourself printing. The campaign itself and the factions are well described within the book, which makes for great inspiration even without experience playing WFTO. A new sandbox map for Wicked Ones, Mount Desmos, with a detailed scenario focusing on underground raids before bursting forth into the Overworld. Underlords, powerful spirits from the Aether, leading your dungeon. Theyre a single character shared by the entire group and can cast spells and compel their minions towards action. Their abilities replace the core function of a dungeon.
A dungeon core at the center of your dungeon. Located on the first level, it replaces the sanctum and second level of the dungeon. Defend it well, because if it falls, your Underlord is banished from the realm. Shrines and portals littering the Underworld, discovered while tunneling to the edges of the map to go on raids. 12 beasts from WFTO to serve your dungeon as creatures and a new way to bring them along on raids with you when necessary. 3 powerful titans that can be summoned by acquiring the Kenos artifact and finishing a tier 3 ritual. Each titan has its own unique bonus. 10 unit archetypes and new primal abilities to build WFTO-style PCs with. 15 heroes of the Empire, adventurers strongly connected to the factions within and around Mount Desmos. Active participation in dungeon defense by the PCs, who make a placement roll as an invasion occurs just like their minions do. Once you become aware of the invasion, you are free to move about the dungeon making invasions much more chaotic and dynamic. The Dungeoneers Guide to the Underworld, an in-world field guide for the evil and good units in War for the Overworld written by Brightrock Games. This was previously available to those that bought the Underlord Edition of the game, but has been made available for inclusion with this supplement to give GMs and players way more background information on the denizens of Kairos.
Print on Demand Physical Copies
The Campaign Guide is available in both digital and print-on-demand physical formats, naturally this means you can get both an awesome supplement to the Wicked Ones game but also for the first time ever get your hands of evil on a physical copy of the Dungeoneers Guide to the Underworld which is included in the book. The Hardback format and excellent print-quality make these truly great additions to any Underlords collection.
Just check out these awesome pictures of the physical book in person!
How to Get It?
You can grab either Digital or Physical editions of the War for the Overworld Campaign Guide for Wicked Ones right over on DriveThruRPG! Pricing:
- PDF Only $10.00
- Hardcover, Premium $25.09
- Hardcover, Standard $18.81
What is Wicked Ones?
Put simply, Wicked Ones is awesome but for a more objective description well turn to the folks at Bandit Camp to summarise!
WICKED ONES is a Forged in the Dark tabletop RPG about a group of fantasy monsters building a dungeon, launching raids on the surface to gather a hoard, and pursuing your nefarious master plan. Along the way, theres pillaging, rituals, concoctions, contraptions, discoveries deep in the ground, dungeon rooms, traps, creatures, minions, and so much more! You build your dungeon over time throughout the campaign and no two dungeons will ever be alike.
You bask in choosing the greater of two evils as your group strives to accomplish its master plan and terrorize the region around your dungeon. However, your vile deeds lure increasingly greedy and powerful adventurers into your dungeon. Can you stave off the inevitable onslaught of heroism that your notoriety brings?
If youd like to find out more then be sure to drop into the Bandit Camp Discord! And remember you can try the game entirely for Free with the Free Edition! Lastly in the interests of supporting the wonderful talent at Bandit Camp wed like to make you aware of their next endeavour Relic, which is currently in the pre-Kickstarter phase. That concludes our final update on this unique partnership. We hope that we can count on your support of the new product for Childs Play and we hope that you enjoy playing Wicked Ones and especially the WFTO Supplement! Finally all that remains is for us to wish you all a great remainder of 2021 while we look forward to pulling back the curtain on Project: Aftercare in 2022! Until next time Underlords, Brightrock Games Team Brightrock Games Team Follow us on Steam! Click here to chat about this update on our Discord Never miss an update! Sign up to our newsletter!
Patch 2.0.8 Release Notes
Last year we began receiving reports that the game was instantly crashing upon launch on certain PCs. Upon investigation we found that this issue affected all users with Intel CPUs of 10th Generation or newer. Once we acquired an affected PC we confirmed that this issue was a seeming incompatibility with the Unity Engine version WFTO was built upon as a blank project in that same version would yield the same crash. Through the stellar work of our code team we've completed the tumultuous move to a newer version of the Unity Engine from 5.4.6 to 5.6.7. This addresses the crash and allows War for the Overworld to run as intended on these machines with no workarounds required. Great care has been taken to ensure that the player experience should be unaffected by this move but engine updates, even ones as seemingly minor as this are often very involved and rarely done once a game is launched. We would therefore ask you to remain aware of any changes in behaviour in the game and report any issues directly to us via Userecho. We'd like to thank all the fans on our Discord server who helped test this new patch on the beta branch.
[ 2021-09-20 19:17:38 CET ] [ Original post ]
Patch Highlights
Engine Update & Major Crash Fix
Last year we began receiving reports that the game was instantly crashing upon launch on certain PCs. Upon investigation we found that this issue affected all users with Intel CPUs of 10th Generation or newer. Once we acquired an affected PC we confirmed that this issue was a seeming incompatibility with the Unity Engine version WFTO was built upon as a blank project in that same version would yield the same crash. Through the stellar work of our code team we've completed the tumultuous move to a newer version of the Unity Engine from 5.4.6 to 5.6.7. This addresses the crash and allows War for the Overworld to run as intended on these machines with no workarounds required. Great care has been taken to ensure that the player experience should be unaffected by this move but engine updates, even ones as seemingly minor as this are often very involved and rarely done once a game is launched. We would therefore ask you to remain aware of any changes in behaviour in the game and report any issues directly to us via Userecho. We'd like to thank all the fans on our Discord server who helped test this new patch on the beta branch.
- Unity Engine updated from version 5.4.6 to 5.6.7, addressing a serious crash on Intel CPUs.
Gameplay / Balance Changes
Units
New Unit - Unbound Ghoul
- Special variant of the Ghoul that can be placed in the Map Editor
- The Unbound Ghoul is a normal Ghoul except it is not treated as a "slave" unit i.e. it does not require a master
- The Unbound Ghoul will not go feral without the guidance of a necromancer and instead can be placed freely as a hostile unit.
Shambler
- Can now be affected by the Blood Money spell
Restless Spirit
- Can now be affected by the Blood Money spell
Bug Fixes
Crashes & Gamebreakers
- Fixed a serious Intel crash on launch due to incompatibility with Unity 5.4.6.
- Fixed a few other unrelated crashes.
Units
- Cynical Imp workers are now appropriately team coloured.
UI
- Fixed an issue where the multiplayer chatbox would still be clickable even if it was hidden
- Fixed an issue which prevented users from signing up to the newsletter in-game and receiving their
- Several other minor UI fixes.
Up to 80% off War for the Overworld & Free Worker Skin!
Login any time before the end of April and you will immediately unlock the Oni Ashigaru worker for use in non-campaign modes. Once you've logged in you will receive an unlockable and should find the worker available for selection in Skirmish, Multiplayer, My Pet Dungeon, Crucible and Custom modes.
If he's missing do not fret, simply restart the game and then check again. You should find him waiting for you!
With the worker's return you'll also find the game massively discounted until the 26th! If you've been waiting for an opportunity to complete your collection or have yet to delve into the depths of the Underworld then now is the perfect opportunity to do so! Check out the on sale items over on the store page! Until next time Underlord, Brightrock Games Team Follow us on Steam! Join us on our Discord and chat with developers and fans! Never miss an update! Sign up to our newsletter!
[ 2021-04-19 17:00:17 CET ] [ Original post ]
Darkest greetings Underlord,
Every year the Oni Ashigaru worker returns from his year-long wanderings. Waging honourable warfare, saving the denizens of the Underworld from roving imperial bandits. From where he has returned we don't rightly know but each year he comes bearing gifts in the form of discounts.
Get the free Oni Ashigaru Worker
Login any time before the end of April and you will immediately unlock the Oni Ashigaru worker for use in non-campaign modes. Once you've logged in you will receive an unlockable and should find the worker available for selection in Skirmish, Multiplayer, My Pet Dungeon, Crucible and Custom modes.
If he's missing do not fret, simply restart the game and then check again. You should find him waiting for you!
Mid April Sale - Up to 80% off!
With the worker's return you'll also find the game massively discounted until the 26th! If you've been waiting for an opportunity to complete your collection or have yet to delve into the depths of the Underworld then now is the perfect opportunity to do so! Check out the on sale items over on the store page! Until next time Underlord, Brightrock Games Team Follow us on Steam! Join us on our Discord and chat with developers and fans! Never miss an update! Sign up to our newsletter!
Grab the Power Hand of Evil
We know that many of our Underlords have longed for the day where they could reach into their dungeon and pluck their minions from its dark corridors and drop them elsewhere, or even deliver a hefty slap of your own.
Well with the POWER HAND OF EVIL you can do just that, simply don its moulded plastic form and youll be able to reach directly into your screen and enact your godly will directly. Note: This may be an exaggeration, we do not recommend actually reaching directly into your screen. The POWER HAND OF EVIL features full finger tracking, and emotive motion sensing engines; it is fully compatible with all your favourite War for the Overworld actions and with the full power of your normal UI functions youll quickly find yourself throwing your keyboard and mouse out the window for this vastly superior control scheme. You can probably even use it in other titles, though were not sure why youd be playing anything other than War for the Overworld, the greatest game ever made.
No doubt youre already reaching for your wallets and who can blame you? Not only will the POWER HAND OF EVIL will not only improve your gameplay, but also undeniably make you more attractive to those around you.
Obviously the current state youve seen is still an early prototype but we have opened up pre-orders of the super special founders edition! For a low markup of 2,500 you can get early access to the POWER HAND OF EVIL and any early hardware faults it develops! Bargain! If youre ready to take the plunge grab your founders edition version of the hand soon for the low-low price of 3,500. Look forward to more announcements from us this year! Until next time Underlord, Brightrock Games Team Follow us on Steam! Join us on our Discord and chat with developers and fans! Never miss an update! Sign up to our newsletter!
[ 2021-04-01 08:30:38 CET ] [ Original post ]
Most Overdue Greetings Underlord,
It has been some time since we shared news from within the fortified walls of the Brightrock foundry but for good reason! Our Augres have been hard at work crafting the true form of Project: Aftercare and it is the thing youd least expect
Thats right Brightrock has long since left the software space and were now entering the hardware race. So with an exultant howl we present to you at last Project: Aftercare or more accurately THE POWER HAND OF EVIL!
Meet the POWER HAND OF EVIL
We know that many of our Underlords have longed for the day where they could reach into their dungeon and pluck their minions from its dark corridors and drop them elsewhere, or even deliver a hefty slap of your own.
Well with the POWER HAND OF EVIL you can do just that, simply don its moulded plastic form and youll be able to reach directly into your screen and enact your godly will directly. Note: This may be an exaggeration, we do not recommend actually reaching directly into your screen. The POWER HAND OF EVIL features full finger tracking, and emotive motion sensing engines; it is fully compatible with all your favourite War for the Overworld actions and with the full power of your normal UI functions youll quickly find yourself throwing your keyboard and mouse out the window for this vastly superior control scheme. You can probably even use it in other titles, though were not sure why youd be playing anything other than War for the Overworld, the greatest game ever made.
Handy Features
- Grab, Drop, Slap and Flick for Victory - Your hand movements are perfectly translated directly into the game. Pinch your fingers to pick up, wave your hand to slap and even utilise new flick functionality to drive your minions forward over long distances!
- Place, Cast, Rally - The power of your UI is at your fingertips! You can select rooms, place flags and cast spells using the handy, dandy keyboard embedded into the hand of evil.
- Hot Swappable Keys - We realise that options are power in the hardware space and fundamentally theres too many awesome things in WFTO to fit on one gauntlet. To that end you can purchase key packs which contain random keys for WFTO Aspects, pry your room keys off and replace them for instant access! Naturally you can also find Shiny RGB keys in the packs. Gotta get em all!
- Go Hand in Hand - Sometimes 18 keys isnt enough. If you need more you can chain POWER HANDS OF EVIL together, ride them up your arm, glue them together, maybe even wear one on your other hand! The options are endless!
- Track Ball, Track All! - Weve included a swish trackball, well understood to be the best 3D object to use in navigating a 2D space. Its so rad!
- Radical Gauntlet Appearence - Speaking of Rad, the moulded plastic of the glove matches that of designs in WFTO itself, now you can truly feel like a cheap version of an Underlord.
- VR Compatibility - The Power Hand is fully compatible with all VR Headsets, explore WFTO like youve never seen before and look awesome while doing it!
- Mo Money, Mo Features - Of course for our whales weve got more features on the premium founders edition, complete with OLED buttons and actual tesla coils with which to zap your foes. More on that below!
Become Radical!
No doubt youre already reaching for your wallets and who can blame you? Not only will the POWER HAND OF EVIL will not only improve your gameplay, but also undeniably make you more attractive to those around you.
Obviously the current state youve seen is still an early prototype but we have opened up pre-orders of the super special founders edition! For a low markup of 2,500 you can get early access to the POWER HAND OF EVIL and any early hardware faults it develops! Bargain! If youre ready to take the plunge grab your founders edition version of the hand soon for the low-low price of 3,500. Look forward to more announcements from us this year! Until next time Underlord, Brightrock Games Team Follow us on Steam! Join us on our Discord and chat with developers and fans! Never miss an update! Sign up to our newsletter!
Lunar New Year Sale - Grab your Dragon Worker!
[ 2021-02-11 18:00:55 CET ] [ Original post ]
Most Auspicious Greetings Underlord,
The Lunar New Year is upon us once more and in celebration, the ever lucky Dragon Worker has returned to bring you his blessings.
Were also pleased to announce that the game is on sale with up to 80% off all War for the Overworld products until the end of the Steam Lunar Sale! Check out the store page!
To Unlock the Dragon Worker, Simply log-in to the game any time before the 20th of February to unlock this awesome, unique skin for your workers to use in any non-campaign game mode. But act fast, once he's gone he won't return for another year!
Until next time Underlord,
Brightrock Games Team
Follow us on Steam!
Join us on our Discord and chat with developers and fans!
Never miss an update! Sign up to our newsletter!
Wicked Ones Release & End of 2020 Community spotlight
This quarter's spotlight contains gems recently hewn from the rock which forms the strata of the Steam Workshop. Five new realms to assert your dominance across and a grand campaign produced by a partnership of skilled artisans that inhabit the workshop. It's a truly momentous experience playing through a campaign which several of our most dedicated community members worked on together, we certainly hope to see more such cooperation from our loyal Underlords! As always each and every spotlighted author will receive a code for the Golden Imp, if they have not already. So be sure to check the private comments on your items for your code!
Deathmatch Levels
[quote]Fanart by @InspektorPL[/quote]
Back in June 2019 we were proud to put our support behind Wicked Ones, an innovative and ambitious tabletop RPG which neatly translates the dungeon building concept into a roleplaying experience.
With the help of our Underlords they managed to hit their Kickstarter goals and more, unlocking not just all their stretch goals but also goals which unlocked access to WFTO themed content for the game! We are pleased to announce that our devilish friends at Bandit Camp have now released the core rules for the game, which have achieved great success over at Drive Thru RPG, hitting #2 on the best selling charts!
So what are you waiting for Underlord? Grab some of your fellow lords, a copy of the Wicked Ones rules and a virtual table top and explore this awesome game right now!
Buy Wicked Ones now at Drive Thru RPG! [quote=Wicked Ones]WICKED ONESis a Forged in the Dark tabletop RPG about a group of fantasy monsters building a dungeon, launching raids on the surface to gather a hoard, and pursuing your nefarious master plan. Along the way, there's pillaging, rituals, concoctions, contraptions, discoveries deep in the ground, dungeon rooms, traps, creatures, minions, and so much more! You build your dungeon over time throughout the campaign and no two dungeons will ever be alike. You bask in choosing the greater of two evils as your group strives to accomplish its master plan and terrorize the region around your dungeon. However, your vile deeds lure increasingly greedy and powerful adventurers into your dungeon. Can you stave off the inevitable onslaught of heroism that your notoriety brings?[/quote]
As for the War for the Overworld content? Well rest assured that's still on the horizon, we are in talks with Bandit Camp for the next phase as development ramps up on the splatbook to bring your games of Wicked Ones into the setting of War for the Overworld! You'll be able to build your dungeon as an Underlord, possess your very own minions and crush the goodly forces of the Empire as you race to establish your notoriety within Kairos!
We'll be sure to keep you informed as we approach release! That's all for now Underlords, all that remains is to wish you and your families a safe and hopefully more stable 2021, we'll see you soon... Until next year Underlords! Brightrock Games Team Follow us on Steam Chat with us and other fans on Discord Never miss an update! Sign up to our newsletter!
[ 2020-12-31 22:13:43 CET ] [ Original post ]
Darkest greetings Underlords,
Through the darkest of tunnels we can see a light flickering at the end, not a mere torchlight but one of blazing radiance. With the last hours of the cursed year 2020 quickly fading we hope that our message reaches across the aether and finds you safe and well.
As we close out the year we have a few small announcements, firstly that of our final Community Spotlight for this year, which features some more excellent maps from the community and then news from our partners at Bandit Camp, developers of the tabletop RPG Wicked Ones!
Read on Underlords!
Quarter 4 Community Spotlight
This quarter's spotlight contains gems recently hewn from the rock which forms the strata of the Steam Workshop. Five new realms to assert your dominance across and a grand campaign produced by a partnership of skilled artisans that inhabit the workshop. It's a truly momentous experience playing through a campaign which several of our most dedicated community members worked on together, we certainly hope to see more such cooperation from our loyal Underlords! As always each and every spotlighted author will receive a code for the Golden Imp, if they have not already. So be sure to check the private comments on your items for your code!
Deathmatch Levels
- Dark Underdepths by Girlycat9001
- Blood Money by Phonix
- Battle Bugs by Vodka
- Ren of Life v2.0 by Green.Sliche
- Korvek's Return - Community Collaboration Campaign by Korvek, Biervampir, Cr4nk, Vodka, Padelboot, Green.Sliche & Roysten712
[quote]Fanart by @InspektorPL[/quote]
Wicked Ones Releases!
Back in June 2019 we were proud to put our support behind Wicked Ones, an innovative and ambitious tabletop RPG which neatly translates the dungeon building concept into a roleplaying experience.
With the help of our Underlords they managed to hit their Kickstarter goals and more, unlocking not just all their stretch goals but also goals which unlocked access to WFTO themed content for the game! We are pleased to announce that our devilish friends at Bandit Camp have now released the core rules for the game, which have achieved great success over at Drive Thru RPG, hitting #2 on the best selling charts!
So what are you waiting for Underlord? Grab some of your fellow lords, a copy of the Wicked Ones rules and a virtual table top and explore this awesome game right now!
Buy Wicked Ones now at Drive Thru RPG! [quote=Wicked Ones]WICKED ONESis a Forged in the Dark tabletop RPG about a group of fantasy monsters building a dungeon, launching raids on the surface to gather a hoard, and pursuing your nefarious master plan. Along the way, there's pillaging, rituals, concoctions, contraptions, discoveries deep in the ground, dungeon rooms, traps, creatures, minions, and so much more! You build your dungeon over time throughout the campaign and no two dungeons will ever be alike. You bask in choosing the greater of two evils as your group strives to accomplish its master plan and terrorize the region around your dungeon. However, your vile deeds lure increasingly greedy and powerful adventurers into your dungeon. Can you stave off the inevitable onslaught of heroism that your notoriety brings?[/quote]
As for the War for the Overworld content? Well rest assured that's still on the horizon, we are in talks with Bandit Camp for the next phase as development ramps up on the splatbook to bring your games of Wicked Ones into the setting of War for the Overworld! You'll be able to build your dungeon as an Underlord, possess your very own minions and crush the goodly forces of the Empire as you race to establish your notoriety within Kairos!
We'll be sure to keep you informed as we approach release! That's all for now Underlords, all that remains is to wish you and your families a safe and hopefully more stable 2021, we'll see you soon... Until next year Underlords! Brightrock Games Team Follow us on Steam Chat with us and other fans on Discord Never miss an update! Sign up to our newsletter!
Studio Update Q3 Community Spotlight
We know it's been some time since we provided you with updates on the state of affairs at Brightrock and we know many of you are curious and even worried about us at the studio, especially with the challenges that many are facing in the current climate. We honestly appreciate the messages of concern we've received and we'd first like to assure everyone that we are all well and working hard on Project Aftercare. On the state of our studio here are the highlights:
Your cultists have retrieved an incredible wealth of impressive works from across the vast archives of the underworld. This Quarter's spotlight is packed to the brim with some truly impressive accomplishments which are sure to be excellent additions to your domain. Congratulations to all our spotlighted creators who have all earned the fabulous golden worker skin this month. Remember if you have any fan creations at all related to War for the Overworld we'd love to see them. Simply drop us a line on our Discord, Forums, Twitter or elsewhere and we'll try to include them in the spotlight!
The coveted Golden Worker could be yours! This quarter we have just under a dozen maps for you and an incredibly awesome campaign for you to try out, making this spotlight one of the largest we've ever put together. Moreover, as you'll see from the list below some of the maps included are ingenious feats that truly demonstrate how far Mightyscript can be pushed and needless to say it's beyond our wildest expectations!
Deathmatch Levels
[ 2020-09-07 18:02:27 CET ] [ Original post ]
Darkest greetings Underlords,
As the world above battles with the seemingly cursed year that is 2020. The crash of steel on reverberates through the long-dormant halls of the Underworld. Hushed whispers on cultists lips carry words of great works undertaken by skilled artificers; and that something greater still is being forged in the furnaces of the deep.
It is time once more Underlord to delve into the untold depths to uncover the deeper dungeons and shimmering gems, crafted by your fellow underlords.
But before you do let us first regale you with what news returns from those pesky development imps, shuttered away as they are in the darkest levels of the dungeon.
Updates from the Studio Floor(s)
We know it's been some time since we provided you with updates on the state of affairs at Brightrock and we know many of you are curious and even worried about us at the studio, especially with the challenges that many are facing in the current climate. We honestly appreciate the messages of concern we've received and we'd first like to assure everyone that we are all well and working hard on Project Aftercare. On the state of our studio here are the highlights:
- Given ongoing Covid-19 Pandemic, we're continuing to encourage our developers to work at home and expect this will continue for the foreseeable future.
- Baring some initial challenges, adjusting to work from home has not greatly affected our productivity and we are still hard at work on Project Aftercare.
- We are using this as a trial period to determine whether a permanent change could be ultimately beneficial for us as individuals and as a studio.
- Work continues apace on Project: Aftercare and the game is shaping up well.
- We cannot announce anything specific right now but we hope to be sharing more news with you in the coming year.
- We're continuing to expand the team with additional talent and working with new contractors to shape up various areas of the game.
Quarter 3 Community Spotlight
Your cultists have retrieved an incredible wealth of impressive works from across the vast archives of the underworld. This Quarter's spotlight is packed to the brim with some truly impressive accomplishments which are sure to be excellent additions to your domain. Congratulations to all our spotlighted creators who have all earned the fabulous golden worker skin this month. Remember if you have any fan creations at all related to War for the Overworld we'd love to see them. Simply drop us a line on our Discord, Forums, Twitter or elsewhere and we'll try to include them in the spotlight!
The coveted Golden Worker could be yours! This quarter we have just under a dozen maps for you and an incredibly awesome campaign for you to try out, making this spotlight one of the largest we've ever put together. Moreover, as you'll see from the list below some of the maps included are ingenious feats that truly demonstrate how far Mightyscript can be pushed and needless to say it's beyond our wildest expectations!
Deathmatch Levels
- Scavenge by Sageboba
- Undead Lands by Vodka
- Domination by Tai Yagami
- SharpD1 by SharpDog
- All Hallows by Kasrkin84
- King of the Arcane Fortress by Kasrkng84
- Cooldown by Cr4nK
- Map Randomiser by Korvek
- Map Randomiser 2 by Korvek
- Cathedral of the Damned by Green.Sliche
- The Mirror Campaign - Reversed Base Campaign by Korvek & Kasrkin84
WFTO'S 5th Birthday! Feat. Sale, Spotlight Worker Skin
In celebration of War for the Overworld hitting its first major milestone, were working with Steam to put the game and DLC on its biggest sale yet, and for a whole week! Thats right! Were bringing the game down deeper than even any Underlords home realm, to numbers never before seen! If youve still not completed your collection, or you know someone that would make a great Underlord, then now is the time to check it out via the links above. Here are the all-important numbers:
Every quarter we bring together our favourite maps from across the War for the Overworld community, and we thought that tying this into the anniversary would only make things more convenient for you.
This quarters spotlight contains a cavalcade of content ready for your twisted exploration: Deathmatch Levels
As the sakura petals bloom marking the arrival of Hanami to Japan, the Oni Ashigaru worker has returned from his ronin adventures. He now stands ready to carve a path through the earth and anyone that stands in the way of his new master - if you can secure his fealty.
Remaining from now until the end of April, this exclusive time-limited worker skin will be available to all players for free if you launch the game during this time. Once you have him, he will remain with you in perpetuity, such is his sworn loyalty. Act fast however, because if you miss the arrival of this wandering warrior, then come the end of April he will be gone for another year!
That concludes all of the festivities! Thank you all for your support over the last five years, and from even before then as well! Please look out for further announcements from Brightrock in 2020! And to all of you, please stay safe throughout the Covid-19 outbreak. Team Brightrock have returned to our roots and gone fully remote for the time being, so we can all work from home. Be sure to follow the recommended advice from your government, and well see you all on the other side! Until next time Underlord, Brightrock Games Team Join us on Discord and chat with us and other fans! Never miss an update! Sign up to our newsletter!
[ 2020-04-02 17:00:47 CET ] [ Original post ]
Darkest Greetings Underlords, We hope you enjoyed our April Fools yesterday! Its always a pleasure to work on something totally out there for a few days. Today were coming to you with different news entirely and a whole lot more genuine! As some of you may know, War for the Overworld launched from early access on April 2nd, 2015. That means that today is officially War for the Overworlds fifth birthday! Incredible isnt it? Five years ago we launched a game that was already three years in the making (or well over a decade, depending on who you ask!). But what that basically means is that WFTO has been around one helluva long time! That journey has been a transformative one for us here at Brightrock. So much of our lives have been defined by War for the Overworld for so long that many of us forgot what the surface world actually looked like. Heres what were doing to mark the occasion!
Fifth Birthday Sale!
In celebration of War for the Overworld hitting its first major milestone, were working with Steam to put the game and DLC on its biggest sale yet, and for a whole week! Thats right! Were bringing the game down deeper than even any Underlords home realm, to numbers never before seen! If youve still not completed your collection, or you know someone that would make a great Underlord, then now is the time to check it out via the links above. Here are the all-important numbers:
- War for the Overworld - 85% off
- Underlord Edition - 85% off
- Ultimate Edition - 73% off
- Heart of Gold Expansion - 75% off
- My Pet Dungeon Expansion - 50% off
- The Under Games Expansion - 25% off
- Seasonal Worker Skins - 50% off
Spring Community Spotlight
Every quarter we bring together our favourite maps from across the War for the Overworld community, and we thought that tying this into the anniversary would only make things more convenient for you.
This quarters spotlight contains a cavalcade of content ready for your twisted exploration: Deathmatch Levels
- Mandala by Korvek
- Mandala 4 by Korvek
- Finders Keepers by Sageboba
- Mandala 2 (Core Shards) by Korvek
- Spread Thin by 100thfail
- Mandala 3 (KOTU) by Korvek
- Curse the Empire (Possession Level) by Ivysaur
- The Frozen Shores by Green.Sliche
- Crimson Depths by Memnus
Oni Ashigaru Worker Returns!
As the sakura petals bloom marking the arrival of Hanami to Japan, the Oni Ashigaru worker has returned from his ronin adventures. He now stands ready to carve a path through the earth and anyone that stands in the way of his new master - if you can secure his fealty.
Remaining from now until the end of April, this exclusive time-limited worker skin will be available to all players for free if you launch the game during this time. Once you have him, he will remain with you in perpetuity, such is his sworn loyalty. Act fast however, because if you miss the arrival of this wandering warrior, then come the end of April he will be gone for another year!
That concludes all of the festivities! Thank you all for your support over the last five years, and from even before then as well! Please look out for further announcements from Brightrock in 2020! And to all of you, please stay safe throughout the Covid-19 outbreak. Team Brightrock have returned to our roots and gone fully remote for the time being, so we can all work from home. Be sure to follow the recommended advice from your government, and well see you all on the other side! Until next time Underlord, Brightrock Games Team Join us on Discord and chat with us and other fans! Never miss an update! Sign up to our newsletter!
Coming Soon: Street Fight for the Overworld (April Fools!)
Auspicious Greetings Underlord, The long wait is finally over! The time has come and your patience is to be justly rewarded. Indeed we are ready to pull back the curtain and reveal the totally true identity of Project: Aftercare! But first we must address the elemental in the treasure room. Its been made clear to us that those among our learned comrades of the PC Gaming Elite, as most of our fans are, have no need for console editions of existing games. The fog now serenely lifted from our folly by your cold, hard feedback, we have taken the right course and cancelled the upcoming Sony PlayStation release of War for the Overworld.
Who even owns a PlayStation anyway? With that much needed course correction now well and truly behind us, we needed to consider once more what it is that our most valued fans truly want... No... What is it they need? There can be only one answer! Introducing ULTRA Street Fight for the Overworld Hyper XX Accent Plus Double Overload Turbo!
ULTRA Street Fight for the Overworld Hyper XX Accent Plus Double Overload Turbo (USFFTOHX2A+DOT for short) is the premier 2D fighting game from the team here at Brightrock. Looking at our core cast of characters we knew that the next big thing our fans would truly need is to see these devilishly diverse characters beat each other senseless.
Youll duke it out in richly-detailed environments straight from WFTO! You and up to one additional friend will pick from 20 wickedly awesome dungeon dwelling characters, all drawn from War for the Overworlds pool of both Underlord and Empire units! Not only that, but each one will be realised in a jaw-dropping retro pixel-art style! Each character also features a full move set to call their own, from the blood-wielding cultist Brian to the ever charming and deeply disarming Lord of the Land, Lord OTheland. There are even 3 hidden characters to unlock!
Here comes a new challenger! But what makes USFFTOHX2A+DOT truly unique and special in this highly competitive genre? Well were glad you asked gentle beat em up aficionado! In addition to choosing your character youll also pick a master for them, an Underlord if you will (or otherwise!) to command them in the arena and provide even more unique powers! For example, choosing Underlord Kasita as your master will grant your chosen warrior the Blood Money trait. This means that for every point of damage they do to the enemy you gain gold. This gold can then be spent between rounds or even mid-match for special boons such as:
USFFTOHX2A+DOT is what we like to call a living, breathing, fleecing game. By that we mean that it will continue to evolve in new ways to make us money and to offer you, our valued player, valuable but overpriced downloadable content. This includes new characters, masters, skins, hair colour changes, music, UI interfaces, cheat codes, story skips, and mutators! Needless to say, if we can think of it well put a price on it! Weve already planned out our first fifty DLCs for the 2020 Season Pass; heres some of the highlights:
Cover up and protect yourself from those harmful rays and gazes! If you dont feel like paying extra for your post-release characters dont worry - well be releasing ULTRA Street Fight for the Overworld Hyper XX Accent Plus Double Overload Turbo - Revision Reload (USFFTOHX2A+DOT - RR) within the next two years! This edition will include all DLCs and space for plenty more to be added later! Finally, all that remains to be said is that USFFTOHX2A+DOT will be coming soon to PC and also to the cutting edge Super Nintendo Entertainment System.
Sega owners... dream on. RRP 59.99 - PC Digital Download 69.99 - SNES Cartridge See you in the arena, Underlord! Brightrock Games Team Join us on Discord and chat with us and other fans! Never miss an update! Sign up to our newsletter!
[ 2020-04-01 08:00:07 CET ] [ Original post ]
Auspicious Greetings Underlord, The long wait is finally over! The time has come and your patience is to be justly rewarded. Indeed we are ready to pull back the curtain and reveal the totally true identity of Project: Aftercare! But first we must address the elemental in the treasure room. Its been made clear to us that those among our learned comrades of the PC Gaming Elite, as most of our fans are, have no need for console editions of existing games. The fog now serenely lifted from our folly by your cold, hard feedback, we have taken the right course and cancelled the upcoming Sony PlayStation release of War for the Overworld.
Who even owns a PlayStation anyway? With that much needed course correction now well and truly behind us, we needed to consider once more what it is that our most valued fans truly want... No... What is it they need? There can be only one answer! Introducing ULTRA Street Fight for the Overworld Hyper XX Accent Plus Double Overload Turbo!
Deadly Dungeon Combat Confirmed!
ULTRA Street Fight for the Overworld Hyper XX Accent Plus Double Overload Turbo (USFFTOHX2A+DOT for short) is the premier 2D fighting game from the team here at Brightrock. Looking at our core cast of characters we knew that the next big thing our fans would truly need is to see these devilishly diverse characters beat each other senseless.
Youll duke it out in richly-detailed environments straight from WFTO! You and up to one additional friend will pick from 20 wickedly awesome dungeon dwelling characters, all drawn from War for the Overworlds pool of both Underlord and Empire units! Not only that, but each one will be realised in a jaw-dropping retro pixel-art style! Each character also features a full move set to call their own, from the blood-wielding cultist Brian to the ever charming and deeply disarming Lord of the Land, Lord OTheland. There are even 3 hidden characters to unlock!
Here comes a new challenger! But what makes USFFTOHX2A+DOT truly unique and special in this highly competitive genre? Well were glad you asked gentle beat em up aficionado! In addition to choosing your character youll also pick a master for them, an Underlord if you will (or otherwise!) to command them in the arena and provide even more unique powers! For example, choosing Underlord Kasita as your master will grant your chosen warrior the Blood Money trait. This means that for every point of damage they do to the enemy you gain gold. This gold can then be spent between rounds or even mid-match for special boons such as:
- Healing Potion - Buy a potion mid-match and chug it to immediately heal to full health.
- Sentinel - Construct a Sentinel mid-match which will assist you for 10 seconds.
- Bodyguard - Purchase another character from the character select screen to fight alongside you for the duration of the next round.
- Match Rigging - You slip your opponent some cash to throw the match convincingly - their damage is reduced by 95% and instant kills are disabled.
- Hitman - Your opponent is assassinated between rounds and you immediately win the match.
Expand Your Experience!
USFFTOHX2A+DOT is what we like to call a living, breathing, fleecing game. By that we mean that it will continue to evolve in new ways to make us money and to offer you, our valued player, valuable but overpriced downloadable content. This includes new characters, masters, skins, hair colour changes, music, UI interfaces, cheat codes, story skips, and mutators! Needless to say, if we can think of it well put a price on it! Weve already planned out our first fifty DLCs for the 2020 Season Pass; heres some of the highlights:
- Chunder Reinforcement Pack - 15.99 - Introduces 23 Chunder variants into the pool of characters, replacing characters randomly each time you enter the character select screen.
- Korvek Master Pack - 29.99 - Hes destroyed far greater parts of himself than you.
- Uber Characters & Masters - 15.99 - Adds Uber character versions e.g. Uber Lucius. Also adds the Uber masters Mendechaus and Kira.
- Pay2WinPack - 99.99 - Unlocks several pay to win mechanics such as invisible skins, invulnerability in multiplayer, one button KO and more!
- Swimsuit Skins - 9.99 - Adds swimsuit skins for:
- Beastmaster (Board Shorts)
- Necromancer (Speedos)
- Bard (Skinny-Dipper)
- Lord OTheland (G-String)
- Succubus (Victorian Bathing Suit)
- Chunder (Mankini)
- Skarg (Flip-Flops)
- Thunderling (Thong)
Cover up and protect yourself from those harmful rays and gazes! If you dont feel like paying extra for your post-release characters dont worry - well be releasing ULTRA Street Fight for the Overworld Hyper XX Accent Plus Double Overload Turbo - Revision Reload (USFFTOHX2A+DOT - RR) within the next two years! This edition will include all DLCs and space for plenty more to be added later! Finally, all that remains to be said is that USFFTOHX2A+DOT will be coming soon to PC and also to the cutting edge Super Nintendo Entertainment System.
Sega owners... dream on. RRP 59.99 - PC Digital Download 69.99 - SNES Cartridge See you in the arena, Underlord! Brightrock Games Team Join us on Discord and chat with us and other fans! Never miss an update! Sign up to our newsletter!
Community Spotlight Q1 (Winter) 2020
As always wed like to remind you we're eager to include anything WFTO related in our spotlights. Anything creative such as levels made with our editor, campaigns, art, videos, sound, cosplay you name it we want to share it! If you have something that you think might fit the bill then get in touch viaDiscord, Twitteror ourSteam,GOGorOfficial Forums! You might just be chosen to receive the coveted Golden Worker skin!
Now let us jump right in with our selection of glimmering maps from across the community this quarter! Remember you can download all these maps individually or as part of our Steam Collection!
You can download all of our spotlighted content from theSteam Collection. Deathmatch Levels
For the Lunar New Year the exclusive Dragon Worker skin has been made available once more. If you missed the sales and the announcement, fear not as you can still login until the 20th of February and get your hands on this awesome skin!
Don't miss your opportunity to grab this excellent skin as if you do he will not return until next Lunar New Year! Until next time Underlords! Brightrock Games Team Follow us on Steam Chat with us and other fans on Discord Never miss an update! Sign up to our newsletter!
[ 2020-01-31 18:01:00 CET ] [ Original post ]
Subscribe to theSteam Collection
You can now subscribe to all spotlights via ourcombined collection!
Darkest Greetings Underlord,
We have returned once more to deliver unto you another community spotlight, packed to the brim with the most excellent maps from across the community! This week we've brought forth three deathmatch levels, three scenarios and a king of the underhill level. Read on Underlords!
Community Spotlight
As always wed like to remind you we're eager to include anything WFTO related in our spotlights. Anything creative such as levels made with our editor, campaigns, art, videos, sound, cosplay you name it we want to share it! If you have something that you think might fit the bill then get in touch viaDiscord, Twitteror ourSteam,GOGorOfficial Forums! You might just be chosen to receive the coveted Golden Worker skin!
Now let us jump right in with our selection of glimmering maps from across the community this quarter! Remember you can download all these maps individually or as part of our Steam Collection!
You can download all of our spotlighted content from theSteam Collection. Deathmatch Levels
- Auenposten des Imperium by Aurora
- The Fortress by Vodka
- Dual Beat by KtsMachine
- All Along the Underhills by Kasrkin84
- DnD Adventure by SoybeanArson
- Tingstad by Shocky
- Paralysis by Vodka
The Dragon Worker Remains!
For the Lunar New Year the exclusive Dragon Worker skin has been made available once more. If you missed the sales and the announcement, fear not as you can still login until the 20th of February and get your hands on this awesome skin!
Don't miss your opportunity to grab this excellent skin as if you do he will not return until next Lunar New Year! Until next time Underlords! Brightrock Games Team Follow us on Steam Chat with us and other fans on Discord Never miss an update! Sign up to our newsletter!
Lunar New Year Sale: The Dragon Worker Returns!
[ 2020-01-23 18:25:48 CET ] [ Original post ]
Most Auspicious Greetings Underlord,
The Lunar New Year is upon us once more and in celebration, the ever lucky Dragon Worker has returned to bring you his blessings.
Were also pleased to announce that the game is on sale with up to 75% off all War for the Overworld products until the end of the Steam Lunar Sale!
To Unlock the Dragon Worker, Simply log-in to the game any time before the 20th of February to unlock this awesome, unique skin for your workers to use in any non-campaign game mode. But act fast, once he's gone he won't return for another year!
Until next time Underlord,
Brightrock Games Team
Follow us on Steam!
Join us on our Discord and chat with developers and fans!
Never miss an update! Sign up to our newsletter!
Autumn Community Spotlight Halloween Sale
With the spookiest of days descending upon Steam, were pleased to announce that War for the Overworld and all its DLC will be on sale in this Halloween! From now until 1 November were running the following discounts:
If youve ever fancied getting your hands on these 4 exclusive skins then nows the best opportunity!
Before we jump into our selection of community-made maps for this spotlight, were announcing a few changes to the format! Firstly, as WFTO continues to ramp down with the flow of community maps, and our resources available to curate them become less, were changing the cadence of spotlights to once every three months, or each quarter. This means that this quarters spotlight will be the Autumn (Q4) spotlight covering October, November and December. In January well review the maps from the last few months and choose our favourites, and then continue for the foreseeable future! In addition, where previously weve tried to select maps to match a predefined format and template, well instead be more variable each quarter, selecting between 5 and 10 items from the workshop to feature, regardless of their category! That covers our changes, so lets get on to what youre here for: the maps!
You can download all of our spotlighted content from the Steam Collection. Deathmatch Levels
That covers our news today. As we said in the opening, we know things are quiet right now, but for Brightrock Games big news is on the way. However, that doesnt mean weve forgotten WFTO - were still eager to push out some fixes to your issues in the coming months! So if you encounter any be sure that its in our triage queue on UserEcho, so that we can give it the due consideration. And of course, dont forget the Halloween Sale before this haunting season sadly comes to an end. See you soon Underlords! Brightrock Games Team Click here and follow us on Steam! Click here to chat about this update on our Discord Never miss an update! Sign up to our newsletter!
[ 2019-10-28 17:37:45 CET ] [ Original post ]
Darkest greetings Underlords,
Subscribe to our Collections! Subscribe to the Steam Collection.
The nights grow dark and the days grow ever shorter as we head into the twilight months of 2019. Its been a busy year for us at Brightrock Games, though we realise its been quiet on the news front for all of you, our valued fans, eagerly awaiting info on whats next.
To that, we say that 2020 should be quite an exciting year for us all in which Brightrock takes the next step. We cant wait to share what were cooking up with you!
In the meantime, were keeping the dungeon core of War for the Overworld beating with this months community spotlight, and our participation in the Steam Halloween Sale!
So without further ado lets get cracking!
Halloween Sale
With the spookiest of days descending upon Steam, were pleased to announce that War for the Overworld and all its DLC will be on sale in this Halloween! From now until 1 November were running the following discounts:
- War for the Overworld - Base Game - 75% Off
- Underlord Edition Content - 75% Off
- Heart of Gold Expansion - 65% Off
- My Pet Dungeon Expansion - 40% Off
- The Under Games Expansion - 20% Off
- Seasonal Worker Skins - 80% Off
If youve ever fancied getting your hands on these 4 exclusive skins then nows the best opportunity!
Autumn Spotlight
Before we jump into our selection of community-made maps for this spotlight, were announcing a few changes to the format! Firstly, as WFTO continues to ramp down with the flow of community maps, and our resources available to curate them become less, were changing the cadence of spotlights to once every three months, or each quarter. This means that this quarters spotlight will be the Autumn (Q4) spotlight covering October, November and December. In January well review the maps from the last few months and choose our favourites, and then continue for the foreseeable future! In addition, where previously weve tried to select maps to match a predefined format and template, well instead be more variable each quarter, selecting between 5 and 10 items from the workshop to feature, regardless of their category! That covers our changes, so lets get on to what youre here for: the maps!
You can download all of our spotlighted content from the Steam Collection. Deathmatch Levels
- Octocave by Vodka
- Deaths Deep by Girlycat9001
- Cha0s Caverns by Cha0s
- Lost Messervere by Keeper Frost
- Unexplained Lands by Vodka
- Imperial Defense by Korvek
That covers our news today. As we said in the opening, we know things are quiet right now, but for Brightrock Games big news is on the way. However, that doesnt mean weve forgotten WFTO - were still eager to push out some fixes to your issues in the coming months! So if you encounter any be sure that its in our triage queue on UserEcho, so that we can give it the due consideration. And of course, dont forget the Halloween Sale before this haunting season sadly comes to an end. See you soon Underlords! Brightrock Games Team Click here and follow us on Steam! Click here to chat about this update on our Discord Never miss an update! Sign up to our newsletter!
July 2019 Community Spotlight
As always wed like to remind you we're eager to include anything WFTO related in our spotlights. Anything creative such as levels made with our editor, campaigns, art, videos, sound, cosplay you name it we want to share it! If you have something that you think might fit the bill then get in touch viaDiscord, Twitteror ourSteam,GOGorOfficial Forums! You might just be chosen to receive the coveted Golden Worker skin!
Now let us jump right in with our selection of glimmering maps from across the community this month. Remember you can download all these maps individually or as part of our Steam Collection!
You can download all of our spotlighted content from theSteam Collectionor via our website! Deathmatch Levels
Last month we announced our collaboration with B-design.io who are developing a tabletop RPG game, Wicked Ones, essentially a mix between your traditional tabletop RPG mixed with the dungeon management concept you all know and love. You can read all about that here. We're pleased to share the news that the Wicked Ones kickstarter hit all of its goals with room to spare and as such all the War for the Overworld collaboration rewards will be made available.
That means all of the following were successfully unlocked:
[ 2019-07-30 11:10:22 CET ] [ Original post ]
Subscribe to theSteam Collection. You can now subscribe to all spotlights via ourcombined collection!
Darkest Greetings Underlord,
It is that time of month again Underlords. The dark moon waxes high in the sky, not that we can see it from down here in the depths. Fortunately, another source of light is to be found, 7 glorious maps and a whole custom campaign.
Community Spotlight
As always wed like to remind you we're eager to include anything WFTO related in our spotlights. Anything creative such as levels made with our editor, campaigns, art, videos, sound, cosplay you name it we want to share it! If you have something that you think might fit the bill then get in touch viaDiscord, Twitteror ourSteam,GOGorOfficial Forums! You might just be chosen to receive the coveted Golden Worker skin!
Now let us jump right in with our selection of glimmering maps from across the community this month. Remember you can download all these maps individually or as part of our Steam Collection!
You can download all of our spotlighted content from theSteam Collectionor via our website! Deathmatch Levels
- Hell War by Vodka
- The Trench by Dexter
- Battlefield by Korvek
- Underworld - Stronghold by Wolf
- Legend by Holmesrick
- Bloodrose by Onyxdog07
- Grandum Arcanum by Green.Sliche
- Kasita's Gilded Rise by Korvek
Wicked Ones Kickstarter Update - All Stretch Goals Unlocked
Last month we announced our collaboration with B-design.io who are developing a tabletop RPG game, Wicked Ones, essentially a mix between your traditional tabletop RPG mixed with the dungeon management concept you all know and love. You can read all about that here. We're pleased to share the news that the Wicked Ones kickstarter hit all of its goals with room to spare and as such all the War for the Overworld collaboration rewards will be made available.
That means all of the following were successfully unlocked:
- Augre True Monster Unlock the ability to play as a War for the Overworld Augre, featuring special skills and abilities based upon the smith you all know and love. Crush your foes and augment yourself with the scraps of their destroyed battle armour!
- Chunder True Monster The Chunder joins the fight! This portly hammerhead will make short work of any heroic adventurer, with deadly headbutts and viciously viscous bowels.
- Heroes of the Empire Cards What good is being a Monster if you cant wail upon a goodly adventurer or two? Each of these goals will add another set of hero cards based upon Empire units from WFTO.
- War for the Overworld Splatbook The Big One! With this tome in your hands youll be able to create your very own adventures in the realm of Kairos! Featuring special rules, an Underlord mode, a sandbox map, faction details and much more, this will give your group the freedom to explore Kairos like never before!
Community Spotlight - June 2019
Yesterday we announced our collaboration with B-design.io who are developing a tabletop RPG game which is currently on Kickstarter. You can read all about that here. For now we're pleased to announce that the first WFTO stretch goal, the addition of the Augre as a playable "true monster" class has been reached. Meaning these awesome augmented monstrosities will be coming to the Wicked Ones RPG when in releases in 2020!
If you're into Tabletop roleplaying games (Dungeons and Dragons, Pathfinder etc.) then we think you'll love the Wicked Ones which crosses the DNA of those games with that of Dungeon Management games like War for the Overworld. It's the perfect experience for you and a group of your fellow Underlords!
As always wed like to remind you we're eager to include anything WFTO related in our spotlights. Anything creative such as levels made with our editor, campaigns, art, videos, sound, cosplay you name it we want to share it! If you have something that you think might fit the bill then get in touch viaDiscord, Twitteror ourSteam,GOGorOfficial Forums! You might just be chosen to receive the coveted Golden Worker skin!
Now let us jump right in with our selection of awesome maps from across the community this month. Remember you can download all these maps individually or as part of our Steam Collection!
You can download all of our spotlighted content from theSteam Collection. Deathmatch Levels
[ 2019-06-28 15:46:39 CET ] [ Original post ]
Subscribe to theSteam Collection.
You can now subscribe to all spotlights via ourcombined collection!
Darkest Greetings Underlord,
From the darkest abyss a new Spotlight emerges, bringing to you a collection of the most incredible, creative and even downright strange maps from the realm of Kairos. This month another seven realms and a massive twenty level campaign will be packaged together for you!
But first, a quick update on the Wicked Ones kickstarter that we are collaborating with!
Wicked Ones Kickstarter - Augre "True Monster" Class Unlocked
Yesterday we announced our collaboration with B-design.io who are developing a tabletop RPG game which is currently on Kickstarter. You can read all about that here. For now we're pleased to announce that the first WFTO stretch goal, the addition of the Augre as a playable "true monster" class has been reached. Meaning these awesome augmented monstrosities will be coming to the Wicked Ones RPG when in releases in 2020!
If you're into Tabletop roleplaying games (Dungeons and Dragons, Pathfinder etc.) then we think you'll love the Wicked Ones which crosses the DNA of those games with that of Dungeon Management games like War for the Overworld. It's the perfect experience for you and a group of your fellow Underlords!
Click here to visit the Wicked Ones Kickstarter Page
Community Spotlight
As always wed like to remind you we're eager to include anything WFTO related in our spotlights. Anything creative such as levels made with our editor, campaigns, art, videos, sound, cosplay you name it we want to share it! If you have something that you think might fit the bill then get in touch viaDiscord, Twitteror ourSteam,GOGorOfficial Forums! You might just be chosen to receive the coveted Golden Worker skin!
Now let us jump right in with our selection of awesome maps from across the community this month. Remember you can download all these maps individually or as part of our Steam Collection!
You can download all of our spotlighted content from theSteam Collection. Deathmatch Levels
- Ranch Handsby Serene Tepes
- 3 Lane Pushby Keatsmachine
- Volcano of EVIIIILby 100thfail
- Dualityby Austin the Super-Duper American
- Rockhardby Kasrkin84
- Moonfolk Castleby Kongdej
- Kasita's Fortressby B I G Step
- Draven's Conquest of Aurelisby Korvek
War for the Overworld joins the Wicked Ones Tabletop RPG
Darkest greetings Underlord, Have you ever felt that theres more to life than amassing your armies of darkness, plundering the towns of innocents, and slaughtering goodly heroes? No? Us neither. In fact, we are so driven by these desires we cant help seeking out new ways to indulge them. One such way we have discovered recently is the joyous evil of Wicked Ones, a new tabletop RPG that is currently on Kickstarter. Lets see here, what do they say about themselves?
This sounds strangely familiar... Wicked Ones is a Forged in the Dark tabletop RPG where you play fantasy monsters raiding human lands, hoarding the gold they loot, and building a dungeon to protect it. Your notoriety lures increasingly greedy and powerful adventurers to your dungeon. Can you stave off the inevitable onslaught of heroism that your notoriety brings?
Well, that sounds right up our tunnel doesnt it, Underlord? It should, after all both War for the Overworld and our genre-mates have served as inspiration for this game. We like it so much that we have something truly special to reveal today.
Those of us who dwell in the dark have to stick together. It is for this reason that we proudly declare a collaboration with the delightfully devilish designers of Wicked Ones, in which our dark world collides with their own. We are joining Hands of Evil on special stretch goals for their Kickstarter, drawing forth elements from War for the Overworld for your gaming pleasure.
Theres quite a range of content up for grabs: from True Monsters, playable classes which put you in the shoes of one of your favourite minions from Kairos, to hero cards for the goodly forces of the Empire. It all culminates in a splatbook which will enable you to bring your games to Kairos, with special rules inspired by War for the Overworld. If you ever wanted to roleplay as an Augre, crushing the hapless heroes of the Empire with your augmented hands, and then forging the battered remains of their armour into your very own skin - nows your chance!
Familiar faces join the fray, just be glad they're on your side What are all the WFTO Stretch Goals you ask? Well get a load of this:
Wicked Ones already hit their Kickstarter goal of 1,080,000 (~$10,000 USD) and at the time of writing have raised 1,614,660 (~15,000 USD), enough for two of their stretch goals with 13 days to go!
Each session of Wicked Ones will see you striking out into the world of heroes, one of these worlds could very well be Kairos! But bringing the denizens of Kairos through the rift will prove challenging. The Augre will soon pass the precipice at 1.7M (~$15,800 US) but well need your help to take us all the way to the Splatbook. You can support Wicked Ones via their Kickstarter page.Pledging your support will net you a set of awesome rewards based upon your tier. Tier 1 - The Game - 2,150 (~$20 USD) This tier will net you the game and all unlocked stretch goals, excluding the Toolkit hero cards and Heroes of The Empire hero cards.
Tier 2 - The Game & The Toolkit - 4,300 (~$40 USD) Grab this tier and youll not only get the game but also a set of Toolkit cards with which to manage those heroes who would dare enter your domain. At this tier youll get all stretch goals.
Tier 3 - The Game, Toolkit & WFTO - 5,000 (~$46.50 USD) To support the cause weve offered a number of War for the Overworld Steam codes to Wicked Ones, adding this new tier to their campaign. If youve somehow yet to grab War for the Overworld then this is the perfect opportunity to do so, and get your hands on an awesome RPG at the same time!
Cheers, Brightrock Games Team Visit the Wicked Ones Kickstarter Brightrock Games Team Click here to follow us on Steam Click here to chat about this update on our Discord Never miss an update! Sign up to our newsletter!
[ 2019-06-27 17:11:26 CET ] [ Original post ]
War for the Overworld joins the Wicked Ones Tabletop RPG
VISIT THE KICKSTARTER
Darkest greetings Underlord, Have you ever felt that theres more to life than amassing your armies of darkness, plundering the towns of innocents, and slaughtering goodly heroes? No? Us neither. In fact, we are so driven by these desires we cant help seeking out new ways to indulge them. One such way we have discovered recently is the joyous evil of Wicked Ones, a new tabletop RPG that is currently on Kickstarter. Lets see here, what do they say about themselves?
This sounds strangely familiar... Wicked Ones is a Forged in the Dark tabletop RPG where you play fantasy monsters raiding human lands, hoarding the gold they loot, and building a dungeon to protect it. Your notoriety lures increasingly greedy and powerful adventurers to your dungeon. Can you stave off the inevitable onslaught of heroism that your notoriety brings?
Well, that sounds right up our tunnel doesnt it, Underlord? It should, after all both War for the Overworld and our genre-mates have served as inspiration for this game. We like it so much that we have something truly special to reveal today.
Wicked Ones Come to Kairos
Those of us who dwell in the dark have to stick together. It is for this reason that we proudly declare a collaboration with the delightfully devilish designers of Wicked Ones, in which our dark world collides with their own. We are joining Hands of Evil on special stretch goals for their Kickstarter, drawing forth elements from War for the Overworld for your gaming pleasure.
Theres quite a range of content up for grabs: from True Monsters, playable classes which put you in the shoes of one of your favourite minions from Kairos, to hero cards for the goodly forces of the Empire. It all culminates in a splatbook which will enable you to bring your games to Kairos, with special rules inspired by War for the Overworld. If you ever wanted to roleplay as an Augre, crushing the hapless heroes of the Empire with your augmented hands, and then forging the battered remains of their armour into your very own skin - nows your chance!
Familiar faces join the fray, just be glad they're on your side What are all the WFTO Stretch Goals you ask? Well get a load of this:
- Augre True Monster - 1.7M (~$15,800 USD) - Unlock the ability to play as a War for the Overworld Augre, featuring special skills and abilities based upon the smith you all know and love. Crush your foes and augment yourself with the scraps of their destroyed battle armour!
- Chunder True Monster - 2.3M (~$21.4K USD) - The Chunder joins the fight! This portly hammerhead will make short work of any heroic adventurer, with deadly headbutts and viciously viscous bowels.
- Heroes of the Empire Cards - 2.1M, 2.5M, 2.9M (~$19.5K USD, ~$23.3K USD, $27K USD) - What good is being a Monster if you cant wail upon a goodly adventurer or two? Each of these goals will add another set of hero cards based upon Empire units from WFTO.
- War for the Overworld Splatbook - 3.3M (~$30.7K USD) - The Big One! With this tome in your hands youll be able to create your very own adventures in the realm of Kairos! Featuring special rules, an Underlord mode, a sandbox map, faction details and much more, this will give your group the freedom to explore Kairos like never before!
Support the Kickstarter
Wicked Ones already hit their Kickstarter goal of 1,080,000 (~$10,000 USD) and at the time of writing have raised 1,614,660 (~15,000 USD), enough for two of their stretch goals with 13 days to go!
Each session of Wicked Ones will see you striking out into the world of heroes, one of these worlds could very well be Kairos! But bringing the denizens of Kairos through the rift will prove challenging. The Augre will soon pass the precipice at 1.7M (~$15,800 US) but well need your help to take us all the way to the Splatbook. You can support Wicked Ones via their Kickstarter page.Pledging your support will net you a set of awesome rewards based upon your tier. Tier 1 - The Game - 2,150 (~$20 USD) This tier will net you the game and all unlocked stretch goals, excluding the Toolkit hero cards and Heroes of The Empire hero cards.
Tier 2 - The Game & The Toolkit - 4,300 (~$40 USD) Grab this tier and youll not only get the game but also a set of Toolkit cards with which to manage those heroes who would dare enter your domain. At this tier youll get all stretch goals.
Tier 3 - The Game, Toolkit & WFTO - 5,000 (~$46.50 USD) To support the cause weve offered a number of War for the Overworld Steam codes to Wicked Ones, adding this new tier to their campaign. If youve somehow yet to grab War for the Overworld then this is the perfect opportunity to do so, and get your hands on an awesome RPG at the same time!
- Includes Rewards from Tier 1 & 2
- Includes War for the Overworld - Base Game Steam Key
Support the Wicked Ones Kickstarter
Cheers, Brightrock Games Team Visit the Wicked Ones Kickstarter Brightrock Games Team Click here to follow us on Steam Click here to chat about this update on our Discord Never miss an update! Sign up to our newsletter!
Daily Deal - War for the Overworld, 84% Off
[ 2019-05-17 17:10:00 CET ] [ Original post ]
Today's Deal: Save 84% on War for the Overworld!*
Look for the deals each day on the front page of Steam. Or follow us on twitter or Facebook for instant notifications wherever you are!
*Offer ends Sunday at 10AM Pacific Time
Japanese Language, New Worker Skin and Patch 2.0.7
When we launched our community translation toolkit with Patch 1.5, all the way back in December 2016, we werent sure what, if any, languages we would see introduced by our community. But given our Japanese fans had already managed to translate the game, even before we launched user-friendly tools, we shouldnt have been surprised that they led the charge once more!
Throughout every patch and update we released, the incredible team of policeofficer110, CURRY_DAYS, and the War for the Overworld Japanese Localizing Group kept pace, making their translation the most complete on the Workshop. They were diligent in keeping us updated with challenges they faced and areas we missed with the tools, and we were pleased to have their feedback so we could keep improving. Most importantly they made us aware of the dedicated and growing Japanese fanbase. It made sense then that our next officially-supported language should honour the incredible support these fans have shown. So we are proud to announce that Japanese language support is now included in the base game! Weve worked closely with our official localiser to build on top of the community translation, and to make sure that everything meets both our own high standards and the standards laid down by the community translators. But if you do run into any problems, please let us know!
Whether youre playing the game in Japanese or not, youll be pleased to know that to celebrate this momentous occasion weve created a special Worker skin! The Oni Ashigaru Worker is ready to leave behind the bright beauty of this years Hanami festival, and step into the darkness of your dungeon. With his visage exquisitely crafted to strike fear into your foes, he will join any Underlord who plays the game before the end of May.
Way of the Worker If youve not recruited him before the end of May, he will resume his ronin lifestyle. But fear not, because he will return from his travels in April each year for Hanami. Once you have him in your employ he shall be yours permanently, such is the fealty of the Oni Ashigaru Worker. So be sure to take up his offer now, or miss out for a year!
The Workers fearsome reputation preceded him of course, and his demands were that the game and its DLC be placed on sale in preparation for his arrival. Naturally, we didnt want to cross him, so we have indeed arranged a sale for you! From the 17th to the 19th of May, the game and its content will be on sale for up to 84% off on Steam.
But thats not all! With the Japanese release in the works, we took the opportunity to divert our code team's efforts temporarily from our new project, to address the issues youve reported to us. You can read the full patch notes here. Since most of these issues are bugs, theres not much in the way of headline features. But weve made a few small performance improvements, as well as improvements to a couple of Mighty Script features by request (and we were careful to ensure backwards compatibility). And remember, if youve yet to take the plunge into the dark depths of War for the Overworld, there are currently big savings on the game and its content until the 19th of May, with up to 84% off on Steam! Cheers, Brightrock Games Team Click here to follow us on Steam Click here to chat about this update on our Discord Never miss an update! Sign up to our newsletter!
[ 2019-05-17 17:05:04 CET ] [ Original post ]
Darkest greetings Underlord,
It has been some time since we last delved into the depths of War for the Overworld, but as promised we have returned with a not insignificant patch, addressing many of the issues you reported to us on our bug tracker.
But before we delve into the devils details of Patch 2.0.7 and the Steam sale were currently running, theres a very special announcement for both the community as a whole, and one very dedicated part of it.
Japanese Release
When we launched our community translation toolkit with Patch 1.5, all the way back in December 2016, we werent sure what, if any, languages we would see introduced by our community. But given our Japanese fans had already managed to translate the game, even before we launched user-friendly tools, we shouldnt have been surprised that they led the charge once more!
Throughout every patch and update we released, the incredible team of policeofficer110, CURRY_DAYS, and the War for the Overworld Japanese Localizing Group kept pace, making their translation the most complete on the Workshop. They were diligent in keeping us updated with challenges they faced and areas we missed with the tools, and we were pleased to have their feedback so we could keep improving. Most importantly they made us aware of the dedicated and growing Japanese fanbase. It made sense then that our next officially-supported language should honour the incredible support these fans have shown. So we are proud to announce that Japanese language support is now included in the base game! Weve worked closely with our official localiser to build on top of the community translation, and to make sure that everything meets both our own high standards and the standards laid down by the community translators. But if you do run into any problems, please let us know!
Oni Ashigaru Worker Skin and a Hefty Sale!
Whether youre playing the game in Japanese or not, youll be pleased to know that to celebrate this momentous occasion weve created a special Worker skin! The Oni Ashigaru Worker is ready to leave behind the bright beauty of this years Hanami festival, and step into the darkness of your dungeon. With his visage exquisitely crafted to strike fear into your foes, he will join any Underlord who plays the game before the end of May.
Way of the Worker If youve not recruited him before the end of May, he will resume his ronin lifestyle. But fear not, because he will return from his travels in April each year for Hanami. Once you have him in your employ he shall be yours permanently, such is the fealty of the Oni Ashigaru Worker. So be sure to take up his offer now, or miss out for a year!
The Workers fearsome reputation preceded him of course, and his demands were that the game and its DLC be placed on sale in preparation for his arrival. Naturally, we didnt want to cross him, so we have indeed arranged a sale for you! From the 17th to the 19th of May, the game and its content will be on sale for up to 84% off on Steam.
Patch 2.0.7 Now Live!
But thats not all! With the Japanese release in the works, we took the opportunity to divert our code team's efforts temporarily from our new project, to address the issues youve reported to us. You can read the full patch notes here. Since most of these issues are bugs, theres not much in the way of headline features. But weve made a few small performance improvements, as well as improvements to a couple of Mighty Script features by request (and we were careful to ensure backwards compatibility). And remember, if youve yet to take the plunge into the dark depths of War for the Overworld, there are currently big savings on the game and its content until the 19th of May, with up to 84% off on Steam! Cheers, Brightrock Games Team Click here to follow us on Steam Click here to chat about this update on our Discord Never miss an update! Sign up to our newsletter!
May Community Spotlight Patch Update
We set out putting together these spotlights as a monthly endeavor but for 2019 this has not been as consistent as we would like. Initially what started as a month hiatus due to staff leave in February extended beyond our initial projections. In the spirit of transparency and our commitment to doing our best we can for our community we thought we might briefly explain this. As stated, we announced that February would be skipped as our community manager, Lee, was on vacation. We intended to go ahead with the community spotlight in March and resuming monthly spotlights after that, this didn't go according to plan and was simply a matter of resourcing limitations. As we transition away from War for the Overworld and onto "Project: Aftercare" we have to be careful where we spend our team's time; spending our time efficiently and dividing resources to critical/high-priority tasks is important to the functioning of a small team like ours. Unfortunately ancillary projects such as this community spotlight can fall by the wayside if our resources are overly stretched. Specifically in March we were working towards a significant milestone on "Project: Aftercare", one that we knocked out of the park, but resulted in us having little time left to cover War for the Overworld. Similarly April faced some knock-on effects as we reshuffled our team's roles to further support development on the new game, and later shifted back onto maintenance efforts for War for the Overworld. Initially April's spotlight was planned to go ahead and was indeed mostly ready to go but a sudden bout of illness cost us a few days at the end of the month slipping the spotlight to today. We're committed to supporting the War for the Overworld community as we move forwards and we want to avoid cases where we miss multiple spotlights in a row. As such, we'll be aiming to ensure that spotlights are ready for the beginning of a month instead of the end and continue monthly for as long as we are able, which will be as long as you keep creating awesome maps! Inevitably things will heat up in other development efforts and we may find time further pressed. In these cases we'll try to communicate any changes to the schedule and work to ensure we keep disruption to a minimum. Hopefully that helps to explain the lack of recent spotlights and add some clarity to our plans moving forwards. With regards to War for the Overworld's ongoing maintenance we have further news after the community spotlight, so stick around to find out more!
Now with the democorn appropriately addressed, lets move onto the main event and your awesome creations! But before we start wed like to remind you that we include all sorts in our spotlights. Anything creative such as levels made with our editor, campaigns, art, videos, sound, cosplay you name it we want to share it! If you have something that you think might fit the bill then get in touch via Discord, Twitter or our Steam, GOG or Official Forums! You might just be chosen to receive the coveted Golden Worker skin!
Now let us jump right in with our selection of awesome maps from across the community this month. Remember you can download all these maps individually or as part of our Steam Collection!
You can download all of our spotlighted content from the Steam Collection or download all spotlights at once by subscribing to the primary collection Deathmatch Levels
Fanart is one of our favourite things to receive at Brightrock Games, that there are players out there who love our game enough to create something new for us to pin on our wall. It's always deeply humbling when we receive a piece of art. Just today Serioustoni shared this piece of our Official Forums.
Hiding or Ambush? You decide. Serioustoni commented about how excited they are for the upcoming Patch 2.0.7 and wanted to give something back for our continued support of War for the Overworld, it's always nice to be appreciated! Speaking of Patch 2.0.7...
As we promised last year although we were moving away from active development on War for the Overworld we still intended to continue supporting it for some time to come. Over the course of the last month we've moved to do just that, catching up on the backlog of issues you've reported to us on our bug tracker and reviewing a number of your suggestions of where we might be able to introduce some improvements. The result of this is Patch 2.0.7 that we're preparing to deploy next week. Although this is a maintenance patch we've tried to get as much out of our time as possible so we've fixed hundreds of issues, improved some features particularly those surrounding the Map Editor and addressed some balance issues based on feedback from our dedicated QA volunteers. In particular, one large issue we identified was a significant memory leak associated with the material management subsystem, this could result in a significantly large amount of memory being taken up by the game over time, eventually resulting in a crash when no more memory could be assigned. This would only occur in some scenarios when certain units or terrain types were present on a level I.e. the Aureate Monolith and should hopefully improve the experience for those of you who were affected by the issue. Curiously the solution for this issue actually came from Project: Aftercare as we found we could port our more robust code from that project backwards to War for the Overworld, a rare case of overlap! We hope you'll look forward to the release next week, moving forwards we'll continue releasing maintenance patches at irregular intervals so if you encounter any problems once the Patch is out then please feel free to drop us a line on our bug tracker! See you soon Underlords! Brightrock Games Team Click here to follow us on Steam Click here to chat about this update on our Discord Never miss an update! Sign up to our newsletter!
[ 2019-05-10 16:21:55 CET ] [ Original post ]
Subscribe to the Steam Collection,
You can now subscribe to all spotlights via our combined collection!
Darkest Greetings Underlord,
Welcome once more to our Community Spotlight, the moment in time where we highlight some of the best, most interesting or peculiar levels to be created by the War for the Overworld community and collect them together in a single downloadable resource for your convenience.
This month we've got some great maps for you and also some news regarding the ongoing maintenance of War for the Overworld. But before we dive right in we should address the democorn in the dungeon.
Devilish Disruptions
We set out putting together these spotlights as a monthly endeavor but for 2019 this has not been as consistent as we would like. Initially what started as a month hiatus due to staff leave in February extended beyond our initial projections. In the spirit of transparency and our commitment to doing our best we can for our community we thought we might briefly explain this. As stated, we announced that February would be skipped as our community manager, Lee, was on vacation. We intended to go ahead with the community spotlight in March and resuming monthly spotlights after that, this didn't go according to plan and was simply a matter of resourcing limitations. As we transition away from War for the Overworld and onto "Project: Aftercare" we have to be careful where we spend our team's time; spending our time efficiently and dividing resources to critical/high-priority tasks is important to the functioning of a small team like ours. Unfortunately ancillary projects such as this community spotlight can fall by the wayside if our resources are overly stretched. Specifically in March we were working towards a significant milestone on "Project: Aftercare", one that we knocked out of the park, but resulted in us having little time left to cover War for the Overworld. Similarly April faced some knock-on effects as we reshuffled our team's roles to further support development on the new game, and later shifted back onto maintenance efforts for War for the Overworld. Initially April's spotlight was planned to go ahead and was indeed mostly ready to go but a sudden bout of illness cost us a few days at the end of the month slipping the spotlight to today. We're committed to supporting the War for the Overworld community as we move forwards and we want to avoid cases where we miss multiple spotlights in a row. As such, we'll be aiming to ensure that spotlights are ready for the beginning of a month instead of the end and continue monthly for as long as we are able, which will be as long as you keep creating awesome maps! Inevitably things will heat up in other development efforts and we may find time further pressed. In these cases we'll try to communicate any changes to the schedule and work to ensure we keep disruption to a minimum. Hopefully that helps to explain the lack of recent spotlights and add some clarity to our plans moving forwards. With regards to War for the Overworld's ongoing maintenance we have further news after the community spotlight, so stick around to find out more!
Community Spotlight
Now with the democorn appropriately addressed, lets move onto the main event and your awesome creations! But before we start wed like to remind you that we include all sorts in our spotlights. Anything creative such as levels made with our editor, campaigns, art, videos, sound, cosplay you name it we want to share it! If you have something that you think might fit the bill then get in touch via Discord, Twitter or our Steam, GOG or Official Forums! You might just be chosen to receive the coveted Golden Worker skin!
Now let us jump right in with our selection of awesome maps from across the community this month. Remember you can download all these maps individually or as part of our Steam Collection!
You can download all of our spotlighted content from the Steam Collection or download all spotlights at once by subscribing to the primary collection Deathmatch Levels
- Imperium by Sarah140392
- Hourglass by HPoltergeist
- The Stronghold of Pin'in by Kio5853
- Bloody Dawn by Ph4nToM
- Unforgiving Fire Realm by Polis Ranger
- Frosty Fortress by Doogy
- The Elements by Calebloki
- Tales of Dwarfs and Greed by Taktikus
Featured Fanart
Fanart is one of our favourite things to receive at Brightrock Games, that there are players out there who love our game enough to create something new for us to pin on our wall. It's always deeply humbling when we receive a piece of art. Just today Serioustoni shared this piece of our Official Forums.
Hiding or Ambush? You decide. Serioustoni commented about how excited they are for the upcoming Patch 2.0.7 and wanted to give something back for our continued support of War for the Overworld, it's always nice to be appreciated! Speaking of Patch 2.0.7...
Patch 2.0.7 Coming Soon
As we promised last year although we were moving away from active development on War for the Overworld we still intended to continue supporting it for some time to come. Over the course of the last month we've moved to do just that, catching up on the backlog of issues you've reported to us on our bug tracker and reviewing a number of your suggestions of where we might be able to introduce some improvements. The result of this is Patch 2.0.7 that we're preparing to deploy next week. Although this is a maintenance patch we've tried to get as much out of our time as possible so we've fixed hundreds of issues, improved some features particularly those surrounding the Map Editor and addressed some balance issues based on feedback from our dedicated QA volunteers. In particular, one large issue we identified was a significant memory leak associated with the material management subsystem, this could result in a significantly large amount of memory being taken up by the game over time, eventually resulting in a crash when no more memory could be assigned. This would only occur in some scenarios when certain units or terrain types were present on a level I.e. the Aureate Monolith and should hopefully improve the experience for those of you who were affected by the issue. Curiously the solution for this issue actually came from Project: Aftercare as we found we could port our more robust code from that project backwards to War for the Overworld, a rare case of overlap! We hope you'll look forward to the release next week, moving forwards we'll continue releasing maintenance patches at irregular intervals so if you encounter any problems once the Patch is out then please feel free to drop us a line on our bug tracker! See you soon Underlords! Brightrock Games Team Click here to follow us on Steam Click here to chat about this update on our Discord Never miss an update! Sign up to our newsletter!
War for the Overworld - Console Edition
For our learned comrades of the PC Gaming Elite, you may be questioning how it is possible for such a technical marvel and masterpiece as War for the Overworld to run on consoles. We understand your confusion, and we can assure you that we have not lost our marbles. Indeed, consoles have come a long way since we last looked. Gone are the humble days of Atari, Commodore and Coleco. Arrived now has the day of Sony and their impressive hardware for a console. So it is then that we are pleased to declare War for the Overworld is coming to Sony PlayStation!
The future is NOW! Madness we hear you cry! Impossible! But rest assured this is no tomfoolery! Behold we have prepared a short video for you, to demonstrate the power of this new console running our premiere Dungeon Management Game. https://youtu.be/emn0yTM_wio Our launch trailer is standing by - Behold the AWESOME 3D POWER of PlayStation! As you can see, the game looks quite spectacular on this new system, a testament indeed to how far the console market has come, and to our incredible programming team. They spent no less than five minutes optimising the port by clicking the Port to PlayStation button in Unity. Of course, we want to make sure that our new console users have the best experience they can, so weve filled the new edition of the game to the brim with special features:
Face-melting graphics require a face-melting poster! As you can see its really hip to the now. Unfortunately these publications dont seem to have email, so weve had to contact them on snail mail; although we thought we would have heard back by now, were still confident they wont be able to turn us down. We hope youre as excited as we are to finally see War for the Overworld make this leap to the modern console generation. But when will it be out you ask? Well thats the thing; since digital distribution is yet to arrive on consoles, were hamstrung by the extensive lead times of physical publication and distribution. Well let you know as soon as the game disc goes gold! So come release day (which we hope to call War for the Overworld Wednesday) we look forward to you heading on down to your local video game and electronics merchant on the high street (if you still have one), to grab yourself a copy for as little as 49.99 (UK RRP international prices may vary). For those Sega and Nintendo fans out there, never fear! Were planning a Sega Saturn release just as soon as we figure out how these blasted processing units work. And we will have a Nintendo 64 port as soon as we can compress the game down enough to fit it on a cartridge. For those of you who just want to get your hands on the radical graphics, were also pleased to announce that a PlayStation mode will be coming to War for the Overworld on PC in a future patch. Peace out, Brightrock Games Team Discuss this update on the Steam Discussion Boards Click here to chat about this update on our Discord Never miss an update! Sign up to our newsletter!
[ 2019-04-01 10:31:58 CET ] [ Original post ]
Most Auspicious Greetings Underlord,
At Brightrock Games we always aim to keep our ears close to the ground, measuring the temperature and tasting the rhythm of the games industry to ensure we stay ahead of the curve.
For that reason we need to sadly announce that our Dungeon Hearts project, formerly codenamed Project: Aftercare, is no more (though you can still play the original demo). Its clear to us that the PC Master Race no longer values such asinine concepts as true love and romance, so we too have evolved beyond such outmoded concepts.
Its better to have loved and lost
Project: Aftercare as you knew it is dead, long live Project: Aftercare! With our noses squarely sniffing out the pulse of the games industry, weve heard murmurs that the console market is becoming increasingly viable, for such magnificent creations as those we are able to build on our monolithic PCs. To that end we are pleased to announce War for the Overworld: Console Edition!
War for the Overworld Comes to Consoles!
For our learned comrades of the PC Gaming Elite, you may be questioning how it is possible for such a technical marvel and masterpiece as War for the Overworld to run on consoles. We understand your confusion, and we can assure you that we have not lost our marbles. Indeed, consoles have come a long way since we last looked. Gone are the humble days of Atari, Commodore and Coleco. Arrived now has the day of Sony and their impressive hardware for a console. So it is then that we are pleased to declare War for the Overworld is coming to Sony PlayStation!
The future is NOW! Madness we hear you cry! Impossible! But rest assured this is no tomfoolery! Behold we have prepared a short video for you, to demonstrate the power of this new console running our premiere Dungeon Management Game. https://youtu.be/emn0yTM_wio Our launch trailer is standing by - Behold the AWESOME 3D POWER of PlayStation! As you can see, the game looks quite spectacular on this new system, a testament indeed to how far the console market has come, and to our incredible programming team. They spent no less than five minutes optimising the port by clicking the Port to PlayStation button in Unity. Of course, we want to make sure that our new console users have the best experience they can, so weve filled the new edition of the game to the brim with special features:
- Awesome 3D Graphics Utilising special blast processing programming techniques, we have squeezed every bit of power from the PlayStations GPCPRAMU microchips, to deliver incredible 3D Dungeon Management never before seen on consoles!
- Revamped Control Scheme We have worked around the clock to translate War for the Overworlds intense control scheme to the strange devices known as Dual Shocks. E.g. whilst holding L2 and Select, press R2 twice, R1 a single time, followed by holding down X, O and Start at the same time. This will place a Lair tile!
- Splitscreen Multiplayer For all the incredible strides of the console market, it seems Internet gaming is not quite there yet. To address this shortcoming we have developed an innovative solution of splitting the screen into equal parts, allowing up to four Underlords to battle it out simultaneously on a single TV!
- Special Game Modes Strategy is a foreign concept on consoles and not everyone may want to spend their time building the perfect dungeon. So weve included some console-like game modes: who doesnt want to take Stumpy the Blood Imp on a platforming adventure! Watch out Crash Bandicoot!
- All Expansions Included It just costs too much to distribute new content separately without downloads. So we bundled it all together on five CD-ROMs!
Face-melting graphics require a face-melting poster! As you can see its really hip to the now. Unfortunately these publications dont seem to have email, so weve had to contact them on snail mail; although we thought we would have heard back by now, were still confident they wont be able to turn us down. We hope youre as excited as we are to finally see War for the Overworld make this leap to the modern console generation. But when will it be out you ask? Well thats the thing; since digital distribution is yet to arrive on consoles, were hamstrung by the extensive lead times of physical publication and distribution. Well let you know as soon as the game disc goes gold! So come release day (which we hope to call War for the Overworld Wednesday) we look forward to you heading on down to your local video game and electronics merchant on the high street (if you still have one), to grab yourself a copy for as little as 49.99 (UK RRP international prices may vary). For those Sega and Nintendo fans out there, never fear! Were planning a Sega Saturn release just as soon as we figure out how these blasted processing units work. And we will have a Nintendo 64 port as soon as we can compress the game down enough to fit it on a cartridge. For those of you who just want to get your hands on the radical graphics, were also pleased to announce that a PlayStation mode will be coming to War for the Overworld on PC in a future patch. Peace out, Brightrock Games Team Discuss this update on the Steam Discussion Boards Click here to chat about this update on our Discord Never miss an update! Sign up to our newsletter!
Brightrock Official Store Closing with a Monster Sale!
A:Without the certainty of outlook as to what the UKs relationship with the EU will be on the 29th of March we cannot anticipate the requirements this store will place on us. We have decided it is best to shut down the store until such a time where we are certain of our obligations. We hope to get as much of our stock into the hands of our true fans before the exit date via this sale.
A:The Brightrock Store is currently a very minor part of our business and is almost entirely independent from all our other activities. There will not be any disruption caused by shutting the store down. For the most part the store has always been about getting our existing Merchandise out to our loyal fanbase and not primarily a money-making endeavour. Everything else will remain on track!
A:Unfortunately we are the only sellers of official War for the Overworld merchandise. If you wish to get your hands on some awesome swag then to avoid disappointment we recommend you grab it now while its deeply discounted! War for the Overworld and its DLC will continue to be sold digitally at all our partners and via the Humble Widgets on wftogame.com provided there are no further unforeseen disruptions.
A:The store will close at 17:30 GMT on Tuesday the 5th of March, you may still be able to access the pages after this time but you will not be able to place an order. You can place an order at any point up to this time but we advise you order soon as our stocks are strictly limited.
A: We will be shipping all orders beginning the week starting the 4th of March and will aim to ensure all orders are shipped by the end of the 6th of March. No orders will be dispatched prior to the 4th of March due to staff leave.
A:We understand your frustration and as always we believe in trying to do the best we can by our customers. We had not planned for this sale to take place but are simply reacting to the current political climate. In respect to our valued fans and customers, were prepared to offer an even deeper discount if you placed an order which included a physical product in the last four months. Email us at store@brightrockgames.com with your previous order number and well get back to you!
A: This should not affect our presence on any of our partners stores. You should still be able to purchase War for the Overworld and its DLC from them.
A:You can support us by following our social media accounts (WFTOGame, Brightrock Games), signing up to our newsletter (In-game for a free imp!) and playing the game! Thank you for your support!
A:We have enjoyed the adventure of running our own storefront exclusively for our own products. We are always keen to continue exploring avenues and would love to discover ways to bring our worlds to life in the hands of our fans. Although its certainly never going to be our primary business, that will always remain making awesome games, we will certainly keep our eyes open. If all goes well the store may well re-open. But for now we cant commit until the dust has settled.
A:Although or ability to service UK customers should not be affected by the outcome of the coming weeks, a large percentage of the business the store receives is international. As it stands the overheads of operating the store is simply too high for the UK alone to support. Sadly this means we cannot continue to operate the store solely for UK customers.
[ 2019-02-26 17:26:05 CET ] [ Original post ]
Hey folks
Unfortunately we have some bad news today: Were having to shut down our merchandise store due to uncertainties surrounding the UKs exit from the European Union.
As such, we will take our last orders on March 5th, with all remaining orders being dispatched during that week. This date has been chosen as it allows our slowest delivery options to still arrive before the currently scheduled exit date (March 29th). For the remainder of the time the store is online, were having a (rather significant) end of the world sale which means:
- 80% off all physical only products - That makes 2.39 for shirts and posters, 5.59 for boxed copies of the game and 0.55 for Soundtracks!
- 70% off the boxed complete edition (Game + Soundtrack) which includes instant access steam keys for the game and its expansions emailed directly to you! No need to wait for the box.
- Up to 75% off other digital codes, it's the perfect opportunity to complete your collection.
FAQ
Q: Why are you shutting the store down?
A:Without the certainty of outlook as to what the UKs relationship with the EU will be on the 29th of March we cannot anticipate the requirements this store will place on us. We have decided it is best to shut down the store until such a time where we are certain of our obligations. We hope to get as much of our stock into the hands of our true fans before the exit date via this sale.
Q: Will this affect your other work such as the development of Project: Aftercare, support of War for the Overworld or other customer-facing duties
A:The Brightrock Store is currently a very minor part of our business and is almost entirely independent from all our other activities. There will not be any disruption caused by shutting the store down. For the most part the store has always been about getting our existing Merchandise out to our loyal fanbase and not primarily a money-making endeavour. Everything else will remain on track!
Q: Is there anywhere else I can purchase War for the Overworld merchandise or digital codes?
A:Unfortunately we are the only sellers of official War for the Overworld merchandise. If you wish to get your hands on some awesome swag then to avoid disappointment we recommend you grab it now while its deeply discounted! War for the Overworld and its DLC will continue to be sold digitally at all our partners and via the Humble Widgets on wftogame.com provided there are no further unforeseen disruptions.
Q: When does the store close? What is the last order date?
A:The store will close at 17:30 GMT on Tuesday the 5th of March, you may still be able to access the pages after this time but you will not be able to place an order. You can place an order at any point up to this time but we advise you order soon as our stocks are strictly limited.
Q: When will my order be shipped?
A: We will be shipping all orders beginning the week starting the 4th of March and will aim to ensure all orders are shipped by the end of the 6th of March. No orders will be dispatched prior to the 4th of March due to staff leave.
Q: I placed an order on some physical merch from you recently and I feel short-changed.
A:We understand your frustration and as always we believe in trying to do the best we can by our customers. We had not planned for this sale to take place but are simply reacting to the current political climate. In respect to our valued fans and customers, were prepared to offer an even deeper discount if you placed an order which included a physical product in the last four months. Email us at store@brightrockgames.com with your previous order number and well get back to you!
Q: Will this affect your presence on other digital stores (Steam, GOG, Others)
A: This should not affect our presence on any of our partners stores. You should still be able to purchase War for the Overworld and its DLC from them.
Q: With your official store shutting down how can I best support your development efforts?
A:You can support us by following our social media accounts (WFTOGame, Brightrock Games), signing up to our newsletter (In-game for a free imp!) and playing the game! Thank you for your support!
Q: Will you be reopening the store or selling digital codes and physical merchandise in the future by some other means?
A:We have enjoyed the adventure of running our own storefront exclusively for our own products. We are always keen to continue exploring avenues and would love to discover ways to bring our worlds to life in the hands of our fans. Although its certainly never going to be our primary business, that will always remain making awesome games, we will certainly keep our eyes open. If all goes well the store may well re-open. But for now we cant commit until the dust has settled.
Q: Why not keep the store open for UK customers?
A:Although or ability to service UK customers should not be affected by the outcome of the coming weeks, a large percentage of the business the store receives is international. As it stands the overheads of operating the store is simply too high for the UK alone to support. Sadly this means we cannot continue to operate the store solely for UK customers.
Happy Chinese New Year: Dragon Worker Returns!
[ 2019-02-05 01:40:05 CET ] [ Original post ]
Most Auspicious Greetings Underlord,
The Chinese New Year is upon us and in celebration, we have made the much-sought Dragon Worker available once more!
Join us in welcoming in the Year of the Pig and this fiesty fellow will permanently bring the festivities to your dungeon.
Simply log-in to the game any time over the coming weeks to unlock this awesome, unique skin for your workers to use in any non-campaign game mode. But act fast, once he's gone he won't return for another year!
Underlord,
Brightrock Games Team
Discuss this update on the Steam Discussion Boards
Click here to chat about this update on our Discord
Never miss an update! Sign up to our newsletter!
Community Spotlight - January 2019 Maintenance News
Now let us jump right in with our selection of awesome maps from across the community for this month of January. Remember you can download all these maps individually or as part of our Steam Collection!
You can download all of our spotlighted content from the Steam Collection Deathmatch Levels
Before we go. We also have some news. Weve always said that were going to continue providing support for War for the Overworld over the coming months with updates targeted to fix issues you report to us and improve your experience. As weve been progressing with our new project weve been looking to how we can fit continued WFTO maintenance with the demands of production on our new project. Weve opted to release updates a few times a year after doing a pass through your reported tickets and our known issues each time. The first pass is due to occur in March so you can expect our first maintenance patch in the next few months. If you encounter any issues with the game be sure to drop us a report on our bug tracker! We hope to continue doing these passes at regular intervals as and when we can afford to do them. Due to the nature of our ongoing production on Project: Aftercare we cant confirm when each will be released but rest assured were still committed to providing you support for some time to come and do so with the same clear, transparent communication youve come to expect from us. Cheers, Brightrock Games Team Click here to follow us on Steam Click here to chat about this update on our Discord Never miss an update! Sign up to our newsletter!
[ 2019-01-31 17:24:01 CET ] [ Original post ]
Subscribe To Our Collections! Subscribe to the Steam Collection
Darkest Greetings Underlord,
The new year is well-underway and we here at Brightrock Games are all working fervently on our next project. Though our development imps efforts may be focussed elsewhere for now, the under-caverns of Kairos continue to expand with new realms and dungeons created by you, our most devilishly evil community.
Each month we select our favourite of such creations and feature them in our spotlights for you to discover, download and play. So ready yourself Underlord to delve into the ever-expanding depths.
But before we start wed like to remind all our fans that we include all sorts in our monthly spotlights. Anything creative such as levels made with our editor, campaigns, art, videos, sound, cosplay you name it we want to share it!
If you have something that you think might fit the bill then get in touch via Discord, Twitter or our Steam forums! You might just be chosen to receive the coveted Golden Worker skin!
Community Spotlight
Now let us jump right in with our selection of awesome maps from across the community for this month of January. Remember you can download all these maps individually or as part of our Steam Collection!
You can download all of our spotlighted content from the Steam Collection Deathmatch Levels
- Divided by HPoltergeist
- Molten Crossroads by Mr.Jordi
- The Old Realm 2.0 by Blindfhire
- Abandoned Caverns by Korvek
- Four Fronts by Stygian Emperor
- Gore Heart by Ollie the Autist
- Beasthold by Calebloki
- Rise of the Overseers by Green.Sliche
Maintenance News
Before we go. We also have some news. Weve always said that were going to continue providing support for War for the Overworld over the coming months with updates targeted to fix issues you report to us and improve your experience. As weve been progressing with our new project weve been looking to how we can fit continued WFTO maintenance with the demands of production on our new project. Weve opted to release updates a few times a year after doing a pass through your reported tickets and our known issues each time. The first pass is due to occur in March so you can expect our first maintenance patch in the next few months. If you encounter any issues with the game be sure to drop us a report on our bug tracker! We hope to continue doing these passes at regular intervals as and when we can afford to do them. Due to the nature of our ongoing production on Project: Aftercare we cant confirm when each will be released but rest assured were still committed to providing you support for some time to come and do so with the same clear, transparent communication youve come to expect from us. Cheers, Brightrock Games Team Click here to follow us on Steam Click here to chat about this update on our Discord Never miss an update! Sign up to our newsletter!
December Spotlight Winter Merch Sale
Before we delve into the Spotlight we wanted to ask whether youve ever felt you needed more War for the Overworld in your life? The answer, as we all know, is of course yes!
Will you don a comfy Tri-blend shirt featuring your favorite minion? We are currently running a sale on our official store which includes discounts on some excellent War for the Overworld merch! With 33% off all our incredibly comfy Tri-blend shirts and 20% off the awesome Necromancer poster you can finally. decorate your lair to your evil tastes.
This Necromancer Poster features unique art from our concept artist and is available in strictly limited quantities! Drop by our store to check out the deals, we ship worldwide and will be ensuring all our physical products go out as soon as our team is back after January 14th. The sale will end on January 10th so grab them while theyre hot! Now that the requisite Merch shilling is out of the way, lets dive into the Spotlight!
For our Spotlight this month we had to remember how many of you will be adding new games to your already heaving backlogs so our selection this month features a choice of interesting new ways to play the game, from the possession focussed Squad Leader campaign to the minigame filled Kasitaware Inc. Theres something to be enjoyed between your latest holiday conquests. Of course we have the usual selection of Deathmatch, King of the Underhill and Core Shards levels to expand your skirmish experience as well! Heres our full selection:
You can download all of our spotlighted content from the Steam Collection or via our website! Deatmatch Levels Anvil of Khorne (2 Player) by Stygian Emperor Caverns of Sins (3 Player) by Ph4nToM Bloody Islays (4 Player) by Cerber91us King of the Underhill Cliffs of Insanity (4 Player) by Ph4nToM Core Shards Cursed Triangles (3 Player) by Ph4nToM My Pet Dungeon Muster Your Defences by Calebloki Scenario KasitaWare Inc. by A Very Festive Scarecrow Custom Campaign Squad Leader by Taktikus Featured Creator Knightly Knave Congratulations to all the creators who have had their work featured today! Well be delivering your Golden Worker codes (provided youve not had one already!) in January! Keep checking the private forum attached to your featured work for your code. If you have any questions please get in touch with us directly! Thats all we have for you this month and for 2018 Underlords! We look forward to seeing you once more in the new year and wish you all happy holidays! We cant wait to share the awesome stuff in the pipeline for us here at Brightrock Games! See you next year! Cheers, Brightrock Games Team Click here to follow us on Steam Click here to chat about this update on our Discord Never miss an update! Sign up to our newsletter!
[ 2018-12-23 00:26:09 CET ] [ Original post ]
Subscribe to the Steam Collection or Download from our forums.
Darkest Greetings Underlord,
Another year closes and as we here at Brightrock Games begin to shut up shop and prepare for our travels to see our families. But before we go we have one last duty to perform, to share with you another set of excellent levels direct from our community!
So put down your mince pies and stash away that port. Theres evil to be done and a whole new selection of awesome domains to conquer.
As always wed like to remind all our fans that we include all sorts in our monthly spotlights. Anything creative such as levels made with our editor, campaigns, art, videos, sound, cosplay you name it we want to share it!
If you have something that you think might fit the bill then get in touch via Discord, Twitter or our Steam or Official Forums! You might just be chosen to receive the coveted Golden Worker skin!
For some creative content, this special and coveted Worker could be yours!
Official WFTO Merch Winter Sale
Before we delve into the Spotlight we wanted to ask whether youve ever felt you needed more War for the Overworld in your life? The answer, as we all know, is of course yes!
Will you don a comfy Tri-blend shirt featuring your favorite minion? We are currently running a sale on our official store which includes discounts on some excellent War for the Overworld merch! With 33% off all our incredibly comfy Tri-blend shirts and 20% off the awesome Necromancer poster you can finally. decorate your lair to your evil tastes.
This Necromancer Poster features unique art from our concept artist and is available in strictly limited quantities! Drop by our store to check out the deals, we ship worldwide and will be ensuring all our physical products go out as soon as our team is back after January 14th. The sale will end on January 10th so grab them while theyre hot! Now that the requisite Merch shilling is out of the way, lets dive into the Spotlight!
Community Spotlight
For our Spotlight this month we had to remember how many of you will be adding new games to your already heaving backlogs so our selection this month features a choice of interesting new ways to play the game, from the possession focussed Squad Leader campaign to the minigame filled Kasitaware Inc. Theres something to be enjoyed between your latest holiday conquests. Of course we have the usual selection of Deathmatch, King of the Underhill and Core Shards levels to expand your skirmish experience as well! Heres our full selection:
You can download all of our spotlighted content from the Steam Collection or via our website! Deatmatch Levels Anvil of Khorne (2 Player) by Stygian Emperor Caverns of Sins (3 Player) by Ph4nToM Bloody Islays (4 Player) by Cerber91us King of the Underhill Cliffs of Insanity (4 Player) by Ph4nToM Core Shards Cursed Triangles (3 Player) by Ph4nToM My Pet Dungeon Muster Your Defences by Calebloki Scenario KasitaWare Inc. by A Very Festive Scarecrow Custom Campaign Squad Leader by Taktikus Featured Creator Knightly Knave Congratulations to all the creators who have had their work featured today! Well be delivering your Golden Worker codes (provided youve not had one already!) in January! Keep checking the private forum attached to your featured work for your code. If you have any questions please get in touch with us directly! Thats all we have for you this month and for 2018 Underlords! We look forward to seeing you once more in the new year and wish you all happy holidays! We cant wait to share the awesome stuff in the pipeline for us here at Brightrock Games! See you next year! Cheers, Brightrock Games Team Click here to follow us on Steam Click here to chat about this update on our Discord Never miss an update! Sign up to our newsletter!
Community Spotlight - November 2018
Once more we've rifled through the vast repository of maps and campaigns held within the Steam Workshop picking out the best, most interesting and fun maps to play on. As always we've discovered an incredible number of excellent maps and added more to our backlog of maps we'd like to include here in the future, so rest assured if your favourite map is not here it could well appear in the coming months! We've done our best to pick out a variety of content to best represent the different ways that you experience the game. Now behold our recommendations below!
Naturally, you can download all of these maps as part of our workshop collection right here, or you can subscribe to them individually below! For our friends on GOG we expect the non-steam version to be uploaded to our foundry next week. Keep your eyes on the GOG forums for that! Deathmatch Levels Greed - Die Gier (4 Player) by Ph4nTom HP004 - Too Close (4 Player) by HPoltergeist Fly Away Home (4 Player) by Addoom King of the Underhill Valley of Blood by Ph4nToM Core Shards Charred Web by Kasrkin84 My Pet Dungeon Shifting Gears by Slydra Wolf Scenario Maps Icey Peak by Shocky Custom Campaign True Mystical Journey by Green.Sliche Featured Creator Green.Sliche Congratulations to all of the creators who have been highlighted today! We will be reaching out to you to deliver your Golden Worker codes early next week. Usually via the private forum attached to your highlighted work. If you do not receive your code then please contact us directly and well be sure to sort you out!
Were always super excited to receive fan art of War for the Overworld. As creators and artists ourselves it is deeply heartwarming to see love shown by other talented artists for our work and to see the unique touch they bring to our beloved game. Were only a small team with a pretty niche game so its always a great honour for us to see such love shown! When we see such work, we can't help but share it so when we discover a new fanart and gain permission from the author we like to share it with you here. This month is no different!
These cultists are enjoying their newly purchased modern hoodie robes This awesome and amusing work was discovered in the Artwork section of the Steam community. It seems cultists are always well loved by the community and their cookey zealotry rarely goes unnoticed. These particular ones have decided to celebrate with some excellent hoodies, now we want some of these too! Huge thanks to Kodiak for this awesome bit of art. It gave us a good laugh in the office! Were always looking for more Fanart to showcase so if youre aware of any that could make the cut then please drop us a line or drop it into our Discord with the Artists details. We award artists with the same Golden Worker skin we offer for level creators so if youve got a talent for art and you want to get an exclusive worker skin be sure to drop your art in! Thats all we have for you today Underlords, but rest assured theres plenty more to come in next months spotlight. Remember if you have levels, art, stories or anything youd like to share then get in touch via our Discord, Twitter or Directly to us via any other means! For map creators, you can drop your levels into our Steam Thread for consideration and potential inclusion in future spotlights. Well see you again soon Underlords! Cheers, Brightrock Games Team Click here to follow us on Steam Click here to chat about this update on our Discord Never miss an update! Sign up to our newsletter!
[ 2018-11-30 23:37:42 CET ] [ Original post ]
Subscribe to our collections
Darkest greetings Underlord,
We have returned once more to extoll upon you knowledge of the most interesting, well designed and/or fun content from across the community. We welcome you to the November community spotlight!
As always we'll remind you all that these updates can include anything, typically levels or campaigns created by you in our map editing tools but we welcome art, stories and more. Anything that WFTO has inspired you to create!
Creators/Authors who have their work highlighted will receive the coveted Golden Worker Skin to show-off to their fellow Underlords. So if you think you have something worthy of this not-so-noble prize then be sure to reach out either by dropping your map/campaign in our dedicated steam thread or contacting us directly via our Discord, Twitter or elsewhere!
Coveted by many, owned by few. The Golden Worker Skin.
Now let us delve into the depths with the community spotlight!
Maps & Campaigns
Once more we've rifled through the vast repository of maps and campaigns held within the Steam Workshop picking out the best, most interesting and fun maps to play on. As always we've discovered an incredible number of excellent maps and added more to our backlog of maps we'd like to include here in the future, so rest assured if your favourite map is not here it could well appear in the coming months! We've done our best to pick out a variety of content to best represent the different ways that you experience the game. Now behold our recommendations below!
Naturally, you can download all of these maps as part of our workshop collection right here, or you can subscribe to them individually below! For our friends on GOG we expect the non-steam version to be uploaded to our foundry next week. Keep your eyes on the GOG forums for that! Deathmatch Levels Greed - Die Gier (4 Player) by Ph4nTom HP004 - Too Close (4 Player) by HPoltergeist Fly Away Home (4 Player) by Addoom King of the Underhill Valley of Blood by Ph4nToM Core Shards Charred Web by Kasrkin84 My Pet Dungeon Shifting Gears by Slydra Wolf Scenario Maps Icey Peak by Shocky Custom Campaign True Mystical Journey by Green.Sliche Featured Creator Green.Sliche Congratulations to all of the creators who have been highlighted today! We will be reaching out to you to deliver your Golden Worker codes early next week. Usually via the private forum attached to your highlighted work. If you do not receive your code then please contact us directly and well be sure to sort you out!
Featured Fanart: Modern Clothing in the Underworld by Kodiak
Were always super excited to receive fan art of War for the Overworld. As creators and artists ourselves it is deeply heartwarming to see love shown by other talented artists for our work and to see the unique touch they bring to our beloved game. Were only a small team with a pretty niche game so its always a great honour for us to see such love shown! When we see such work, we can't help but share it so when we discover a new fanart and gain permission from the author we like to share it with you here. This month is no different!
These cultists are enjoying their newly purchased modern hoodie robes This awesome and amusing work was discovered in the Artwork section of the Steam community. It seems cultists are always well loved by the community and their cookey zealotry rarely goes unnoticed. These particular ones have decided to celebrate with some excellent hoodies, now we want some of these too! Huge thanks to Kodiak for this awesome bit of art. It gave us a good laugh in the office! Were always looking for more Fanart to showcase so if youre aware of any that could make the cut then please drop us a line or drop it into our Discord with the Artists details. We award artists with the same Golden Worker skin we offer for level creators so if youve got a talent for art and you want to get an exclusive worker skin be sure to drop your art in! Thats all we have for you today Underlords, but rest assured theres plenty more to come in next months spotlight. Remember if you have levels, art, stories or anything youd like to share then get in touch via our Discord, Twitter or Directly to us via any other means! For map creators, you can drop your levels into our Steam Thread for consideration and potential inclusion in future spotlights. Well see you again soon Underlords! Cheers, Brightrock Games Team Click here to follow us on Steam Click here to chat about this update on our Discord Never miss an update! Sign up to our newsletter!
Help WFTO Become the "Labor of Love"
Darkest greetings Underlords, The year is quickly approaching its close and the incredible Steam Autumn sale is once again upon us, with incredible deals all round (including WFTO at up to 75% off!). And alongside them is the reincarnation of the Steam Awards for 2018. For our long-time fans you may remember that we made our bid last year, hoping to be your nomination for the Labour of Love award. Alas we were unsuccessful, but we feel 2018 has been a big year for the game, as we sent it out on a high with the massive Patch 2.0 and The Under Games expansion. So today we approach you once more, hat in hand, to humbly request your nomination for this prestigious honour.
As before were hoping that this announcement doesnt appear self-serving, but instead accurately reflects what we - and hopefully you, our wonderful fans - feel about the journey of WFTO over the past six years. Wed like to believe that our commitment to the game, and our dedication in listening and reacting to the community, are indicative of our continued love for WFTO and its fanbase. To illustrate our full bid, weve updated our infographic to contain a full summary of our journey to War for the Overworld 2018. Afterwards, you may also like to check out our previous bid, as it remains very relevant today.
If our graphic has already convinced you then you can vote on our Store Page right now. If not, then read on for our run-down of an awesome year!
We dont believe that its an exaggeration to say that 2018 has been the best year yet for WFTO. At the end of 2017 we promised that Patch 2.0 and The Under Games expansion would be the largest combined content drop ever - it turned out to be just that, and then some! The Under Games introduced a whole new type of campaign, built around more skirmish-like gameplay, and included 2 new game modes and 3 new Underlords, each with their own unique traits and playstyles. It has become a distinctive and highly-replayable experience, unlike anything in WFTO thus far. But it also had this lot going for it:
New Units, Items and Features galore! It was a huge expansion, but the greatest wealth of content came in the free update - the gargantuan Patch 2.0 Untold Depths. This also included many features developed for The Under Games, made free to all. This content drop touched more parts of the game than any patch before; its the largest single patch weve ever released, and included hundreds upon hundreds of changes. Any part of Patch 2.0 alone would have made a great feature for a patch, but together they redefined the WFTO experience. There were so many changes in the patch itd be impossible to list them all, but here are a few highlights:
Mighty Script puts the power in the player's hands
All in all, 2018 has been an incredible year! Though we are now done with mainline development on WFTO as we look towards the future and new projects, we have not left War for the Overworld out in the cold. As our firstborn, it will always hold a special place in our hearts, and we plan to continue to support it. We will be returning to it at occasional intervals to answer your issues, and maybe even introduce a few small new features. Rest assured, War for the Overworld will always be our first love, and we hope to see it alive for many years to come through both our continued support, and the community content pouring into the Workshop. Looking at War for the Overworld today, it is a very different game from the one we first launched in 2015. Thanks to your support weve been able to dedicate ourselves to it for three and a half further years, to make it ever larger and greater. For all of us, this has always been a labour of love, and we hope that you will consider us for your nomination in the Labour of Love category. If you believe that it may just match your criteria for that great honour, then you can vote for us on our Store Page. And remember, you can still grab the game and its expansions at a great discount! You can also nominate us for the Best Developer award, if you believe that Brightrock Games are worthy of your vote. As always, thank you for your encouragement and support. Cheers, Brightrock Games Team Click here to follow us on Steam Click here to chat about this update on our Discord Never miss an update! Sign up to our newsletter!
[ 2018-11-23 18:42:56 CET ] [ Original post ]
VOTE NOW!
Darkest greetings Underlords, The year is quickly approaching its close and the incredible Steam Autumn sale is once again upon us, with incredible deals all round (including WFTO at up to 75% off!). And alongside them is the reincarnation of the Steam Awards for 2018. For our long-time fans you may remember that we made our bid last year, hoping to be your nomination for the Labour of Love award. Alas we were unsuccessful, but we feel 2018 has been a big year for the game, as we sent it out on a high with the massive Patch 2.0 and The Under Games expansion. So today we approach you once more, hat in hand, to humbly request your nomination for this prestigious honour.
As before were hoping that this announcement doesnt appear self-serving, but instead accurately reflects what we - and hopefully you, our wonderful fans - feel about the journey of WFTO over the past six years. Wed like to believe that our commitment to the game, and our dedication in listening and reacting to the community, are indicative of our continued love for WFTO and its fanbase. To illustrate our full bid, weve updated our infographic to contain a full summary of our journey to War for the Overworld 2018. Afterwards, you may also like to check out our previous bid, as it remains very relevant today.
If our graphic has already convinced you then you can vote on our Store Page right now. If not, then read on for our run-down of an awesome year!
War for the Overworld in 2018
We dont believe that its an exaggeration to say that 2018 has been the best year yet for WFTO. At the end of 2017 we promised that Patch 2.0 and The Under Games expansion would be the largest combined content drop ever - it turned out to be just that, and then some! The Under Games introduced a whole new type of campaign, built around more skirmish-like gameplay, and included 2 new game modes and 3 new Underlords, each with their own unique traits and playstyles. It has become a distinctive and highly-replayable experience, unlike anything in WFTO thus far. But it also had this lot going for it:
- A campaign which expands the story and lore of WFTO, and builds upon the relationships between the devilish Underlords
- New units, including the mighty Thunderling and volatile Banshee
- New items like the Moongate, Mana Vault, Alchemine Storm Vortex and Infernal Urn, Reincarnation and Thunderling Potions
New Units, Items and Features galore! It was a huge expansion, but the greatest wealth of content came in the free update - the gargantuan Patch 2.0 Untold Depths. This also included many features developed for The Under Games, made free to all. This content drop touched more parts of the game than any patch before; its the largest single patch weve ever released, and included hundreds upon hundreds of changes. Any part of Patch 2.0 alone would have made a great feature for a patch, but together they redefined the WFTO experience. There were so many changes in the patch itd be impossible to list them all, but here are a few highlights:
- Remastered Main Campaign - We revisited the main campaign, smoothing and polishing the experience, and remastering the story with new cutscenes.
- Scripting in the Map Editor - We released our scripting tools in the form of Mighty Script, allowing creators to make their own scripted scenarios and campaigns. (As we expected, it didnt take long for our community to get busy - check out the Steam Workshop, or our recent October Community Spotlight.)
- Map Editor Support for Nearly All Game Modes - We added support to the Map Editor for the new games modes introduced in The Under Games, and the fan-favourite My Pet Dungeon mode!
- Underlord AI Completely Reworked - We rebuilt the Skirmish AI from the ground up. Its now more menacing and challenging than ever, capable of using the Veins of Evil to its fullest, just as a player would.
- Sacrifice Ritual - We added this fan-favourite as a callback to a certain older dungeon management game that you might know, allowing you to sacrifice units to receive a special one in return.
- Much More - We added new unit variants for the Empire including the Wizard and Lord of the Land, new terrain themes (Sanguine and Obsidian), and more spit and polish than a Chunder would give to their anvil!
Mighty Script puts the power in the player's hands
Love For All Time
All in all, 2018 has been an incredible year! Though we are now done with mainline development on WFTO as we look towards the future and new projects, we have not left War for the Overworld out in the cold. As our firstborn, it will always hold a special place in our hearts, and we plan to continue to support it. We will be returning to it at occasional intervals to answer your issues, and maybe even introduce a few small new features. Rest assured, War for the Overworld will always be our first love, and we hope to see it alive for many years to come through both our continued support, and the community content pouring into the Workshop. Looking at War for the Overworld today, it is a very different game from the one we first launched in 2015. Thanks to your support weve been able to dedicate ourselves to it for three and a half further years, to make it ever larger and greater. For all of us, this has always been a labour of love, and we hope that you will consider us for your nomination in the Labour of Love category. If you believe that it may just match your criteria for that great honour, then you can vote for us on our Store Page. And remember, you can still grab the game and its expansions at a great discount! You can also nominate us for the Best Developer award, if you believe that Brightrock Games are worthy of your vote. As always, thank you for your encouragement and support. Cheers, Brightrock Games Team Click here to follow us on Steam Click here to chat about this update on our Discord Never miss an update! Sign up to our newsletter!
Developer Livestream Starting Now!
[ 2018-11-21 17:40:16 CET ] [ Original post ]
Darkest Greetings Underlord, We are about to go live with our regular developer Livestream! Join us over on our Broadcast Page or Store Page for a chat and to ask any questions you have of our developers whilst we chill and play through some My Pet Dungeon content. We'll be live for roughly an hour and a half and then will rebroadcast the recorded stream so you don't miss out if you can't catch us live. For further news we're planning to roll out the November community spotlight in the coming days. Once again picking and choosing some of the best maps and content from the community and packaging them together for you to try! So keep your eyes peeled and in the meantime check out the October Spotlight! See you in the Stream! Cheers, Brightrock Games Team Click here to follow us on Steam Click here to chat about this update on our Discord Never miss an update! Sign up to our newsletter!
Daily Deal - War for the Overworld, 80% Off
[ 2018-10-29 17:05:00 CET ] [ Original post ]
Today's Deal: Save 80% on War for the Overworld!*
Look for the deals each day on the front page of Steam. Or follow us on twitter or Facebook for instant notifications wherever you are!
*Offer ends Wednesday at 10AM Pacific Time
Community Spotlight - October 2018
Weve been rifling through the stacks of the Steam Workshop picking out the best, most interesting and fun maps to play on. There have been dozens that made our shortlist and it was truly hard to narrow it down to just a couple in this spotlight, but rest assured many of the others which did not make the cut this month will surely appear in the future! When choosing maps weve also looked to highlight particular custom campaigns or authors for you to look out for! We want to ensure that you have ample content to chew through for the coming month without overloading your plate so weve provided an ample starting course if maps for you today, if you feel youd like your future servings of delicious content to be larger dont hesitate to say so in the comments! Now without further ado behold our chosen levels, with our thoughts printed below!
You can download all of these maps as part of our workshop collection right here, or you can subscribe to them individually below! For our fans on GOG we will be uploading a copy of the spotlight to our own Brightrock Foundry tomorrow so you too can access these maps without jumping through further hoops! It should be said that weve not included any of our Featured Authors maps in the spotlight, simply because their work is so extensive that it would overload the spotlight! But you should definitely check out A Festive Scarecrows workshop items and discover the excellent content within for yourself. Deathmatch Levels Mana Collapse (4 Player) by Shadowleard France (3 Player) by Webbernever1 Prison Breakout (4 Player) by Polis Ranger King of the Underhill Levels Strongholds by Daniel Foster Old Wizard Tower by Webbernever1 Core Shards Flowey by Simonevo Bloody Moon by FightX Scenario Maps Spirit Sanctum by Knightly Knave Custom Mode Maps Silverstorm Siege by Green.Sliche Custom Campaign Master of Possession by Taktiku Featured Creator A Very Festive Scarecrow Congratulations to all of the creators who have been highlighted today! We will be reaching out to you to deliver your Golden Worker codes tomorrow. Usually via the private forum attached to your highlighted work. If you do not receive your code then please contact us directly and well be sure to sort you out!
Were always super excited to receive fan art of War for the Overworld. As creators and artists ourselves it is deeply heartwarming to see love shown by other talented artists for our work and to see the unique touch they bring to our beloved game. Were only a small team with a pretty niche game so its always a great honour for us to see such love shown!
Evil can be adorable as well! This excellent piece was shared on our Discord depicting what lies behind the mask of the Archon, frankly, we never imagined she could be so cute! Our fans on Discord immediately fell in love and we have too! We offer a sincere and warm thank you to Fallen Star Art for making our day! If youd like to see more of their awesome work then check out their Instagram and Twitter! Were always looking for more Fanart to showcase so if youre aware of any that could make the cut then please drop us a line or drop it into our Discord with the Artists details. We award artists with the same Golden Worker skin we offer for level creators so if youve got a talent for art and you want to get an exclusive worker skin be sure to drop your art in! Thats all we have for you today Underlords, but rest assured theres plenty more to come in next months spotlight. Remember if you have levels, art, stories or anything youd like to share then get in touch via our Discord, Twitter or Directly to us via any other means! For map creators, you can drop your levels into our Steam Thread for consideration and potential inclusion in future spotlights. Well see you again soon Underlords! Cheers, Brightrock Games Team Click here to follow us on Steam Click here to chat about this update on our Discord Never miss an update! Sign up to our newsletter!
[ 2018-10-22 17:47:21 CET ] [ Original post ]
Darkest greetings Underlord,
Its been a long time coming but the time has finally arrived. Today we begin our community spotlights of awesome content created by the most talented members of our community. These updates can include anything, typically levels or campaigns created by you in our map editing tools but we welcome art, stories and more. Anything that WFTO has inspired you to create!
Creators/Authors who have their work highlighted will receive the coveted Golden Worker Skin to show-off to their fellow Underlords. So if you think you have something worthy of this not-so-noble prize then be sure to reach out either by dropping your map/campaign in our dedicated steam thread or contacting us directly via our Discord, Twitter or elsewhere!
Coveted by many, owned by few. The Golden Worker Skin.
Each month well bring to you a selection of curated content that we know youll enjoy from the fanbase. So get ready to delve back into the depths as we dive right into our revivified community spotlight!
Maps & Campaigns
Weve been rifling through the stacks of the Steam Workshop picking out the best, most interesting and fun maps to play on. There have been dozens that made our shortlist and it was truly hard to narrow it down to just a couple in this spotlight, but rest assured many of the others which did not make the cut this month will surely appear in the future! When choosing maps weve also looked to highlight particular custom campaigns or authors for you to look out for! We want to ensure that you have ample content to chew through for the coming month without overloading your plate so weve provided an ample starting course if maps for you today, if you feel youd like your future servings of delicious content to be larger dont hesitate to say so in the comments! Now without further ado behold our chosen levels, with our thoughts printed below!
You can download all of these maps as part of our workshop collection right here, or you can subscribe to them individually below! For our fans on GOG we will be uploading a copy of the spotlight to our own Brightrock Foundry tomorrow so you too can access these maps without jumping through further hoops! It should be said that weve not included any of our Featured Authors maps in the spotlight, simply because their work is so extensive that it would overload the spotlight! But you should definitely check out A Festive Scarecrows workshop items and discover the excellent content within for yourself. Deathmatch Levels Mana Collapse (4 Player) by Shadowleard France (3 Player) by Webbernever1 Prison Breakout (4 Player) by Polis Ranger King of the Underhill Levels Strongholds by Daniel Foster Old Wizard Tower by Webbernever1 Core Shards Flowey by Simonevo Bloody Moon by FightX Scenario Maps Spirit Sanctum by Knightly Knave Custom Mode Maps Silverstorm Siege by Green.Sliche Custom Campaign Master of Possession by Taktiku Featured Creator A Very Festive Scarecrow Congratulations to all of the creators who have been highlighted today! We will be reaching out to you to deliver your Golden Worker codes tomorrow. Usually via the private forum attached to your highlighted work. If you do not receive your code then please contact us directly and well be sure to sort you out!
Featured Fanart: Archon by Fallen Star Art
Were always super excited to receive fan art of War for the Overworld. As creators and artists ourselves it is deeply heartwarming to see love shown by other talented artists for our work and to see the unique touch they bring to our beloved game. Were only a small team with a pretty niche game so its always a great honour for us to see such love shown!
Evil can be adorable as well! This excellent piece was shared on our Discord depicting what lies behind the mask of the Archon, frankly, we never imagined she could be so cute! Our fans on Discord immediately fell in love and we have too! We offer a sincere and warm thank you to Fallen Star Art for making our day! If youd like to see more of their awesome work then check out their Instagram and Twitter! Were always looking for more Fanart to showcase so if youre aware of any that could make the cut then please drop us a line or drop it into our Discord with the Artists details. We award artists with the same Golden Worker skin we offer for level creators so if youve got a talent for art and you want to get an exclusive worker skin be sure to drop your art in! Thats all we have for you today Underlords, but rest assured theres plenty more to come in next months spotlight. Remember if you have levels, art, stories or anything youd like to share then get in touch via our Discord, Twitter or Directly to us via any other means! For map creators, you can drop your levels into our Steam Thread for consideration and potential inclusion in future spotlights. Well see you again soon Underlords! Cheers, Brightrock Games Team Click here to follow us on Steam Click here to chat about this update on our Discord Never miss an update! Sign up to our newsletter!
Developer Livestream Starting Now!
[ 2018-10-10 13:12:01 CET ] [ Original post ]
The cultists have begun their dark rituals permitting us to hijack your airwaves and bring our glorious developer Livestream straight to your demonic transmission enabled device. Today we'll be commentating on and discussing the design of Heart of Gold's levels, playing community made maps, exploring the inner-workings of the Underlord AI and of course answering your questions. Be sure to drop by our Store Page or Broadcast Page and say join us for merriment and insightful delves into the minds of our developers. See you there, - Brightrock Games Team
Patch 2.0.6 Upcoming Dev Stream
Were issuing a quick reminder to all our fans that our next Developer Stream is tomorrow at 2 PM UTC+1 (Click here for the start time in your timezone).
This stream will be our longest yet and well bring back Josh, the managing director of Brightrock Games and creative lead for WFTO to play through and talk about the design in some of the Heart of Gold levels! After that, well dive into another custom level from one of our community members and finally, well finish up with a special debug look into how the Skirmish AI thinks whilst playing a match and our regular Developer Q&A, remember to submit your questions via our Steam Thread! You can join into the Stream on our store page and broadcast page!
[ 2018-10-09 18:03:44 CET ] [ Original post ]
Darkest Greetings Underlord,
Entrusted with the darkest messages we reach out across the aether once more to bring you news from the realm of Kairos. Today were launching another minor patch, v2.0.6 which fixes a few problems youve raised about and heralds a few minor improvements specifically to the UI in menus.
We also have news on our next Stream! But before we begin we've just released a new and final version of our main trailer which we thought you might like to see:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vnexl2RTjNE
We want to thank all our fans who have supported us over the years. We never imagined that we'd be here in 2018 with a game that looks so very different from the one released in 2015. We couldn't have done it without you!
Developer Stream Tomorrow at 2PM UTC
Were issuing a quick reminder to all our fans that our next Developer Stream is tomorrow at 2 PM UTC+1 (Click here for the start time in your timezone).
This stream will be our longest yet and well bring back Josh, the managing director of Brightrock Games and creative lead for WFTO to play through and talk about the design in some of the Heart of Gold levels! After that, well dive into another custom level from one of our community members and finally, well finish up with a special debug look into how the Skirmish AI thinks whilst playing a match and our regular Developer Q&A, remember to submit your questions via our Steam Thread! You can join into the Stream on our store page and broadcast page!
v2.0.6: Seriously Searched Strata - Release Notes
UI & UX Improvements
- Further tweaks and adjustments to the main menu
- Small improvements to the Crucible and My Pet Dungeon menus
- Small change to the Skirmish menu buttons
- Styling improvements to some older menu UI elements to bring them visually in line with the 2.0 UI
- Limited UI scaling to 120% to prevent scaling which affects the accessibility of the menu
Bug Fixes
Crashes & Showstoppers
- Fixed an issue where the game would softlock when attempting to restart a level
Units
- Corrected some broken animation bones on the Dwarven Cultist
UI, Localisation & UX
- The Unit Tab should no longer become invisible at certain UI scales above 100%
Levels & Campaigns
- Fixed an issue which would prevent campaign progress from saving on the Linux version of the game from GOG
Patch 2.0.5 Release Notes
[ 2018-10-01 17:14:02 CET ] [ Original post ]
Darkest Greetings Underlord,
As promised in our previous post we are unleashing Patch 2.0.5 upon the world. This update comes with a number of tweaks and improvements to the game, chiefly a set of additional Unit VO for units which were previously overly quiet. As always we've also addressed a number of bugs which you have reported to us over the past few weeks and months, including a fix for a significant issue which affected GOG users on the installer version of the game.
We thank our fans for your patience as we address your reports, although WFTO is now in maintenance mode we still take your reports seriously and encourage you to report any issues you encounter to our Userecho support site. This will allow us to triage and subsequently address issues if we can.
Don't forget that our first Community Spotlight since 2.0 released is on its way this week so keep your eyes peeled Underlord! We'll be bringing you a selection of great maps to add to your ever growing collections.
Now onto the Release Notes!
v2.0.5: “Relentlessly Researched Ravines” - Release Notes
Graphics & Visual Changes
- Founders theme Dungeon Core now has death VFX
- Improved animation transitions on the Kasita Theme Core
Audio Changes
- New Unit Voice-Over for the following units:
- Necromancer - He can raise the dead with his new lines
- Beastmaster - Finally found his voice
- Oculus - But how?
- Units which are based on a common template (I.e. Temple Guard and Templar) will now use VO and SFX from their template unit if they did not have specific VO and SFX previously
Localisation & Community Translation
- New localisation batches completed and available for Community Translations including:
- UI Text, mostly related to Map Editor 2.0 features
- Minion Ability Tooltip Updates
- Map Editor Tooltip Updates
- Mutator Tooltip updates
- Updated Localisation Notes available in Batches to assist translators
- Copied existing translations for Spells, Potions, Rooms, Rituals, Defences,
- Constructs into their Magic Finder (Mighty Script) labels, as they are used in editing My Pet Dungeon waves.
- Chinese now has consistent numbers & Latin Chars
- Updates to Polish translation for intro cinematic
- Revised polish subtitle timings for intro cinematic
- Updated Japanese Font
- Tweaks to Map Editor Artefacts panel tooltips (EN only)
UI & UX Improvements
- Small improvements to Main Menu layout
- Minor changes to the styling of version number on Main Menu
Miscellaneous Changes
- Unit name pool adjustments
- Renamed Fantastic -> Devilish in the Launcher, accessible by holding alt as the game loads
- Dungeon Hearts April fools added to the Extras menu
Bug Fixes
Crashes & Showstoppers
- Updated UI Middleware which should fix a rare crash at launch & improve performance
Units
- Piggys should no longer become trapped in a panic state
- Fixed some minor issues with the Evil Arcane worker
Defences
- Blade Lotus' area indicator now more accurately represents the Blade Lotus' effective radius
Rooms
- Fixed alignment issues with the Founder's theme Dungeon Core.
UI, Localisation & UX
- Fixed an issue which would prevent the Skirmish menu from appearing under specific circumstances whilst playing the GOG version of the game deployed with GOG installers
- Corrected an issue that caused display issues with euro characters under certain conditions
- Audio buffer size for UI doubled to prevent skipping in UI videos
- Warning when missing password when setting up a MP game now displays correctly
- The tooltips for level and achievement progress now translate correctly
Levels & Campaigns
- War for the Overworld - Level 5 - Empire area now correctly uses the "Dwarven" theme
- Fixed issues where achievements were not correctly completing after loading a save game on certain Heart of Gold levels
Graphics & Visuals
- Fixed a visual error with Permafrost tiles whilst using the Sanguine terrain theme
- Permafrost now blends correctly with other tiles in the Snowy terrain theme Miscellaneous
- Fixed a number of null reference exceptions
Commuunity Update Developer Stream Tomorrow!
As promised we’re continuing with our Developer Streams and are planning to run these more regularly from now on. We’re very content with the format that we’ve developed allowing us to show off community content and play our existing content whilst providing insightful commentary.
The Streaming Chamber is ready to accept our tributes In particular, we love interacting with you and answering your questions about us, development and WFTO in general! We invite you to drop by our Steam Store or Broadcast Page on Wednesday at 3:30PM UK Time. (Click here for the start time in your Time Zone) This week we’ll be attempting a no-doubt ill-fated speedrun of a Heart of Gold level and explore more of the community’s creations. Wrapping up with our regular Q&A session where we’ll answer the questions from chat and questions left for us in our dedicated steam thread!
We’ve mentioned it was coming and now there’s only one more week to wait! We’ve spent some time delving into the Steam Workshop searching high and low for the most exceptional, fun and downright impressive maps and campaigns. There’s honestly so many out there that it’s difficult to pin them down into a single list and we’re sure that we’ll have quite a few to highlight in comings months as well! And as always we welcome both creators and players to suggest maps they think would make the cut in our dedicated thread. We’ll be releasing our first spotlight sometime during the next week, keep your eyes peeled Underlords!
To wrap up we want you to know that we’re still dedicating some of our time each week to maintaining War for the Overworld. To that end, we have a minor patch releasing sometime in the near future. Although we’re not actively developing new content moving forwards we do have a few things coming in with the patch beyond the usual fixes and improvements. Namely some new VO for a few more units and some updated localisation assets.
The Beastmaster has found his pipes at long last Naturally, we will certainly be fixing a number of issues that you’ve reported to us as well as deliver a few improvements in a couple of places. We’ll see you tomorrow Underlord! Cheers, – Brightrock Games Team Click here to follow us on Steam Click here to chat about this update on our Discord Never miss an update! Sign up to our newsletter!
[ 2018-09-25 19:03:46 CET ] [ Original post ]
Darkest greetings Underlord,
The dungeons of Kairos rest dormant, waiting for their next opportunity to strike at the innocent and hapless world above. But in their depths, the foundry fires still burn, the development imps stoke the flames and strike the anvils within, less fanatically but still unperturbed.
Today in our update we’re announcing another of our now regular developer streams with Lee and Cian as well as some details about the upcoming v2.0.5 minor patch and community spotlight.
So equip your torch and light the way into our dungeon’s depths, there’s always more to explore.
Streaming to Steam on Wednesday 26th of September
As promised we’re continuing with our Developer Streams and are planning to run these more regularly from now on. We’re very content with the format that we’ve developed allowing us to show off community content and play our existing content whilst providing insightful commentary.
The Streaming Chamber is ready to accept our tributes In particular, we love interacting with you and answering your questions about us, development and WFTO in general! We invite you to drop by our Steam Store or Broadcast Page on Wednesday at 3:30PM UK Time. (Click here for the start time in your Time Zone) This week we’ll be attempting a no-doubt ill-fated speedrun of a Heart of Gold level and explore more of the community’s creations. Wrapping up with our regular Q&A session where we’ll answer the questions from chat and questions left for us in our dedicated steam thread!
Community Spotlight Next Week!
We’ve mentioned it was coming and now there’s only one more week to wait! We’ve spent some time delving into the Steam Workshop searching high and low for the most exceptional, fun and downright impressive maps and campaigns. There’s honestly so many out there that it’s difficult to pin them down into a single list and we’re sure that we’ll have quite a few to highlight in comings months as well! And as always we welcome both creators and players to suggest maps they think would make the cut in our dedicated thread. We’ll be releasing our first spotlight sometime during the next week, keep your eyes peeled Underlords!
Minor Patch 2.0.5 Coming Up
To wrap up we want you to know that we’re still dedicating some of our time each week to maintaining War for the Overworld. To that end, we have a minor patch releasing sometime in the near future. Although we’re not actively developing new content moving forwards we do have a few things coming in with the patch beyond the usual fixes and improvements. Namely some new VO for a few more units and some updated localisation assets.
The Beastmaster has found his pipes at long last Naturally, we will certainly be fixing a number of issues that you’ve reported to us as well as deliver a few improvements in a couple of places. We’ll see you tomorrow Underlord! Cheers, – Brightrock Games Team Click here to follow us on Steam Click here to chat about this update on our Discord Never miss an update! Sign up to our newsletter!
Next Developer Stream – 5 September 2018 VOD
Following on from last week’s success we decided to host another one sooner than first intended. In fact, it’s in just a few days starting this Wednesday at 5:30PM UK Time. Mark the date in your calendar’s Underlords! (Click here for the start time in your Time Zone) The Stream will be live on the Steam Store and Broadcast pages! Cian and Lee will once again be hosting and exploring some great User Created maps and then diving right into our latest campaign, The Under Games! Wrapping up with a session of My Pet Dungeon and Q&A. As before we’re eager to answer your questions, both throughout the stream and from our dedicated Steam Thread. So leave us some comments, we’ll be sure to answer every question we deem appropriate or ones that tickle our fancy. Let us know if there are any custom maps you’d like us to take a look at and also which Underlord you think we should play as in The Under Games. We’ll see you on Wednesday! Cheers, – Brightrock Games Team Click here to follow us on Steam Click here to chat about this update on our Discord Never miss an update! Sign up to our newsletter!
[ 2018-09-03 17:27:10 CET ] [ Original post ]
Darkest greetings Underlord,
Last week we sat down in the latest addition to our dungeon, the Streaming Chamber, to host our very first developer Livestream since 2015. After facing down and resolving a bedevilling affair of emergent technical difficulties we’re pleased to say it was a roaring success and a brilliant opportunity to interact with our fans and have a gutturally evil, laugh together.
The Streaming Chamber stands ready to transmit our Developer’s thoughts to your home realm
You can catch a recording of the stream over on twitch if you missed it. Needless to say, we’re keen to put what we’ve learned to the test. So to that end…
Streaming to Steam on Wednesday 5 September
Following on from last week’s success we decided to host another one sooner than first intended. In fact, it’s in just a few days starting this Wednesday at 5:30PM UK Time. Mark the date in your calendar’s Underlords! (Click here for the start time in your Time Zone) The Stream will be live on the Steam Store and Broadcast pages! Cian and Lee will once again be hosting and exploring some great User Created maps and then diving right into our latest campaign, The Under Games! Wrapping up with a session of My Pet Dungeon and Q&A. As before we’re eager to answer your questions, both throughout the stream and from our dedicated Steam Thread. So leave us some comments, we’ll be sure to answer every question we deem appropriate or ones that tickle our fancy. Let us know if there are any custom maps you’d like us to take a look at and also which Underlord you think we should play as in The Under Games. We’ll see you on Wednesday! Cheers, – Brightrock Games Team Click here to follow us on Steam Click here to chat about this update on our Discord Never miss an update! Sign up to our newsletter!
WFTO Dev Stream on Tuesday!
First up, and perhaps a surprise as it wasn’t mentioned in our previous plans: We’re hosting a developer stream on Steam, on Tuesday 28 August (Tomorrow!) at 3:30 p.m. UK time! Mark the date Underlord and join us for an exploration into the depths of our developers’ minds. This will be our first developer stream since our launch all the way back in 2015. So why now and why Steam only? Well we’re hoping to make our streams a regular feature moving forwards, but we need to get back on the saddle first. Back when we used to stream it was always somewhat ad hoc, with webcams and headsets pilfered from the bedroom of our Managing Director.
Bedroom Streams, featuring Josh, Scott, Pat, Lee, Sammy the Cat and approximately 50 pixels! Now we have an office and a professional space, and with our work settling down, we’re looking to make future streams more professional as well. So we’re using Tuesday’s stream as a test and a learning experience – a way for us to develop ourselves and for you to offer feedback, ahead of us doing them more regularly and hopefully branching out to other platforms such as Twitch and Youtube as we work out the kinks.
Begone webcam microphones! Welcome to our more professional setup. We’ve opened up a Steam thread for you to drop in any suggestions on what you’d like to see, and questions that you’d like us to answer during the stream. So please drop by there and tell us what you’d like to see! For the moment we’re thinking along these lines:
Since we launched the 2.0 version of the Map Editor we’ve seen some incredible maps and campaigns, and we really want to signal boost the best ones! We’re in the process of picking our shortlist for the first spotlight; one of these will be included in the aforementioned stream, but once we’re done we’ll be posting up the full list. As there are so many great maps out there we’d love to know what your favourites are, and if you have any nominations for our spotlights going forward. We welcome any and all suggestions over in our Community Spotlight thread!
The Golden Worker stands ready to be shipped to the best map makers. As always, maps highlighted will not only be given the prestige of being counted amongst our favourite maps, but their creators will also receive the coveted Golden Worker skin, which is only given out to community members that participate in such events! It’s our intention to repackage these maps into spotlight downloads, allowing one-click access for our players on and off Steam, so you can enjoy them without having to search through the Workshop. Moving forwards we plan to do spotlights either once a month or once every two months as our time allows. We’d like to invite creators to put their work forwards directly to us if they feel it has what it takes to reach the top. And remember, if your work isn’t included in one spotlight that doesn’t mean it can’t be included in the next. We expect our first spotlight will be live by the middle of September.
We know that there’s a demand to get some additional insight into Mighty Script and how it works; to that end we’re still working on the video tutorials. We’ve planned out where we’ll be taking these and how we’ll be putting them together, so now all that’s left is to get them up. We’re planning to release these in waves starting with the most basic tutorials and working our way up to more complex things. We’ll be supplementing them with a few examples and additional reference materials as well. We expect the first wave of tutorials to be available towards the end of September, and we’d love to know what you’d like to see us cover. We hope that helps give you some insight, and as always we’d love to hear your feedback. Don’t forget to note Tuesday 28 August at 3:30 p.m. (UK time) in your calendar, as we go live with our stream on our Store Page! Cheers, – Brightrock Games Team Click here to follow us on Steam Click here to chat about this update on our Discord Never miss an update! Sign up to our newsletter!
[ 2018-08-27 15:29:57 CET ] [ Original post ]
Darkest greetings Underlord,
Time marches ever onwards and before we knew it months had passed since our last community update. Now that our team is focussed primarily on our upcoming new project, we know you may be worried about long-term support for War for the Overworld. So to keep you in the loop it’s time to talk once more about the community initiatives that we’re planning.
So sit down at our tavern table, and listen to the relaxing sounds of the screams that echo from the neighbouring torture chamber, as we share our vision of things to come!
Streaming on Steam -Tomorrow!
First up, and perhaps a surprise as it wasn’t mentioned in our previous plans: We’re hosting a developer stream on Steam, on Tuesday 28 August (Tomorrow!) at 3:30 p.m. UK time! Mark the date Underlord and join us for an exploration into the depths of our developers’ minds. This will be our first developer stream since our launch all the way back in 2015. So why now and why Steam only? Well we’re hoping to make our streams a regular feature moving forwards, but we need to get back on the saddle first. Back when we used to stream it was always somewhat ad hoc, with webcams and headsets pilfered from the bedroom of our Managing Director.
Bedroom Streams, featuring Josh, Scott, Pat, Lee, Sammy the Cat and approximately 50 pixels! Now we have an office and a professional space, and with our work settling down, we’re looking to make future streams more professional as well. So we’re using Tuesday’s stream as a test and a learning experience – a way for us to develop ourselves and for you to offer feedback, ahead of us doing them more regularly and hopefully branching out to other platforms such as Twitch and Youtube as we work out the kinks.
Begone webcam microphones! Welcome to our more professional setup. We’ve opened up a Steam thread for you to drop in any suggestions on what you’d like to see, and questions that you’d like us to answer during the stream. So please drop by there and tell us what you’d like to see! For the moment we’re thinking along these lines:
- Developer Community Spotlight – We’ll play through a community-made map we’re planning to include in the upcoming spotlight (see below). You’ll get to see us explore a map we had no hand in making!
- Developer Face-Off – A 1v1 between two of our developers on a Skirmish map. What game mode would you like to see? Deathmatch, King of the Underhill or Core Shards?
- My Pet Dungeon Playthrough, Commentary and Q&A – We’ll play through an MPD map, talking about the design decisions we made and the journey to make MPD a reality. This is when we’ll answer all your questions from the Steam thread, and be most able to answer questions in real time.
Community Map Spotlights
Since we launched the 2.0 version of the Map Editor we’ve seen some incredible maps and campaigns, and we really want to signal boost the best ones! We’re in the process of picking our shortlist for the first spotlight; one of these will be included in the aforementioned stream, but once we’re done we’ll be posting up the full list. As there are so many great maps out there we’d love to know what your favourites are, and if you have any nominations for our spotlights going forward. We welcome any and all suggestions over in our Community Spotlight thread!
The Golden Worker stands ready to be shipped to the best map makers. As always, maps highlighted will not only be given the prestige of being counted amongst our favourite maps, but their creators will also receive the coveted Golden Worker skin, which is only given out to community members that participate in such events! It’s our intention to repackage these maps into spotlight downloads, allowing one-click access for our players on and off Steam, so you can enjoy them without having to search through the Workshop. Moving forwards we plan to do spotlights either once a month or once every two months as our time allows. We’d like to invite creators to put their work forwards directly to us if they feel it has what it takes to reach the top. And remember, if your work isn’t included in one spotlight that doesn’t mean it can’t be included in the next. We expect our first spotlight will be live by the middle of September.
Map Editor Tutorials
We know that there’s a demand to get some additional insight into Mighty Script and how it works; to that end we’re still working on the video tutorials. We’ve planned out where we’ll be taking these and how we’ll be putting them together, so now all that’s left is to get them up. We’re planning to release these in waves starting with the most basic tutorials and working our way up to more complex things. We’ll be supplementing them with a few examples and additional reference materials as well. We expect the first wave of tutorials to be available towards the end of September, and we’d love to know what you’d like to see us cover. We hope that helps give you some insight, and as always we’d love to hear your feedback. Don’t forget to note Tuesday 28 August at 3:30 p.m. (UK time) in your calendar, as we go live with our stream on our Store Page! Cheers, – Brightrock Games Team Click here to follow us on Steam Click here to chat about this update on our Discord Never miss an update! Sign up to our newsletter!
Linux Crash Fix Patch 2.0.4 Release Notes
Because we have expedited the release of this Patch on Linux it will not be deployed today for Windows or OS X users. This is to allow us the appropriate time to QA test for these platforms but rest assured if all goes well Patch 2.0.4 will make its way to you before the end of the week. This means for a short time Linux players will not be able to join multiplayer matches hosted by Windows or OS X users and vice versa until Patch 2.0.4 is made available on those platforms. We want to thank all our affected Linux users for their patience and assistance over the last few weeks and we can only deeply apologise for the poor experience many of you have put up with. We are confident this release will resolve your issues but if it does not or you wish to provide other feedback please do so in the lead User Echo ticket for this issue. Thank you once again. Please find the full Patch Notes below!
This Patch has been deployed today for Linux as an immediate solution to critical show-stopping crashes. It is currently in testing for Windows and OS X and will be deployed later this week.
Linux Crash & High GPU Utilisation Fix For the past few weeks since the release of Patch 2.0.1 a number of our Linux players have been affected by spontaneous and random crashes, during this time we’ve been working with our player base to identify and correct the source of the problem. We believe that we have finally uncovered the cause for these random crashes. An experimental feature in Unity’s rendering pipeline which caused instability on some Linux configurations. Furthermore, this feature was also causing unusually high GPU utilisation on some setups using other Operating Systems. We apologise for the poor experience for all affected users on both Linux and other platforms. We’re eager to hear from all our fantastic Linux customers who have been providing us with information and feedback over the course of these trying weeks to confirm that this release has indeed corrected their issue. Please report back to us in the lead topic on User Echo.
Archon (Titan)
[ 2018-08-01 16:54:44 CET ] [ Original post ]
Darkest Greetings Underlord,
As many of our Linux users will be aware for the past few weeks (since we deployed 2.0.1) we have been wrestling with a serious show-stopping crash issue on many different Linux configurations. During this time we have been taking information from as many affected users as possible and have deployed several attempted fixes in previous patches with varying degrees of success for different players.
Today we’re confident that we’ve finally identified the root cause, an experimental setting in the Unity rendering pipeline which was not only causing the instability on Linux but also abnormally high GPU utilisation on some setups using other operating systems.
We’re deploying the fix for this in today’s Patch 2.0.4 which should resolve the intermittent crashes you are experiencing.
Patch 2.0.4 on Windows & OS X
Because we have expedited the release of this Patch on Linux it will not be deployed today for Windows or OS X users. This is to allow us the appropriate time to QA test for these platforms but rest assured if all goes well Patch 2.0.4 will make its way to you before the end of the week. This means for a short time Linux players will not be able to join multiplayer matches hosted by Windows or OS X users and vice versa until Patch 2.0.4 is made available on those platforms. We want to thank all our affected Linux users for their patience and assistance over the last few weeks and we can only deeply apologise for the poor experience many of you have put up with. We are confident this release will resolve your issues but if it does not or you wish to provide other feedback please do so in the lead User Echo ticket for this issue. Thank you once again. Please find the full Patch Notes below!
v2.0.4: “Comprehensively Cleared Caverns” - Release Notes
This Patch has been deployed today for Linux as an immediate solution to critical show-stopping crashes. It is currently in testing for Windows and OS X and will be deployed later this week.
Patch Higlights
Linux Crash & High GPU Utilisation Fix For the past few weeks since the release of Patch 2.0.1 a number of our Linux players have been affected by spontaneous and random crashes, during this time we’ve been working with our player base to identify and correct the source of the problem. We believe that we have finally uncovered the cause for these random crashes. An experimental feature in Unity’s rendering pipeline which caused instability on some Linux configurations. Furthermore, this feature was also causing unusually high GPU utilisation on some setups using other Operating Systems. We apologise for the poor experience for all affected users on both Linux and other platforms. We’re eager to hear from all our fantastic Linux customers who have been providing us with information and feedback over the course of these trying weeks to confirm that this release has indeed corrected their issue. Please report back to us in the lead topic on User Echo.
Gameplay/Balance Changes
Units
Archon (Titan)
- Basic Attack
- Damage decreased from 400 to 350
- Exterminate
- Damage decreasesd from 500 to 400
- Recuperation (Out of combat health regeneration)
- Regeneration rate increased from 0.25% to 0.45% of maximum health per second
- Relentless (In combat health regeneration)
- Regeneration rate increased from 0.025% to 0.045% of maximum health per second
- Time Vortex (Slowing Aura)
- Now slows enemies by 50% down from 60%
Visual Improvements
- The Evil Arcane theme now has its own worker. Evil dorfs arrive!
Audio Changes
- Added Additional Unit VO:
- Democorn
- Sentinel & Stone Knight
- Rat
- Highguard
- Thunderling
- Adjusted VO
- Chunder
Miscellaneous Improvements
- Updated Steamworks implementation on Steam versions of the game
- Users on all platforms who were suffering from abnormally high GPU
- Utilisation should no longer suffer from this issue
Bug Fixes
Crashes & Show-stoppers
- As described in the highlight section a number of graphics related Linux crashes should no longer occur
Levels / Campaigns
- Fixed an issue on Level 13 of the War for the Overworld campaign where Arcane Templar’s shields would appear without their texture
Miscellaneous
- Fixed some minor warnings
Patch 2.0.3 Release Notes
[ 2018-07-10 13:32:03 CET ] [ Original post ]
Darkest Greetings Underlord,
Another Maintenance Patch for War for the Overworld is making the rounds across the dark caverns of the Internet. But just because it's now long-term maintenance for the foreseeable future doesn't mean we can't have some fun.
Today we bring you some additional voices for units which have long wished upon a star for some lines of their own and this is just the beginning we expect there will be more to come in future patches.
As always please keep all your feedback coming via the forums and of course report any issues to us via User Echo!
Now without further a do, read on for the Release Notes!
Patch 2.0.3: "Effectively Explored Excavations"
Underlord AI Changes
- Various Build Order tweaks
Audio Changes
- Added Additional Unit VO:
- Wizard
- Inquisitor
- Adjusted VO
- Lord of the Land
Localisation & UI
- Continued localisation work on the Mighty Script features of the Map Editor
Bug Fixes
Crashes & Gamebreakers
- Updated the Coherent GT UI Middleware which may have been the cause of a recurring intermittent crash experienced by some users on Linux
- If you are a linux user that was affected by regular crashes please try this latest version and report back to us if the issue was correctly fixed. Otherwise please contact us directly on our Bug Tracker
- If crashes on Linux are still occuring you can find the Linux Stable Build in the betas list on Steam. This is running version 2.0.
Units
- Fixed an issue with Unit Physics which was causing units to overshoot their destinations when not on screen
- This was the root cause for issues where Workers were being propelled into lava and dying, units stuck in walls, units becoming trapped in Prisons and Arenas and possibly affected unit need fulfillment if the player was not watching
- Ember Demons that are defused by the Infernal Urn should no longer explode and deal damage
Constructs
- Losing a Mana Vault whilst at Maximum Mana should no longer cause a reduction in permanently available mana.
Visual Fixes
- Fixed a visual issue with the Augrum Wall
Map Editor - Mighty Script
- Math Operations should now produce the correct outputs for Decimals
- Fixed an issue which prevented the “On Templates Spawn” trigger from triggering correctly
Map Editor - UI
- Fixed an issue where world object coordinates would always appear as “23, 3” in the Magic Finder List
Levels / Campaigns
- Fixed an Issue on Level 13 of the War for the Overworld campaign where one of the Emperor’s miscellaneous voice lines wouldn’t play
- Fixed an issue where Artefacts dropped upon the “Road” in Level 2 of the Heart of Gold campaign could not be retrieved by workers
- Fixed an issue where it was not possible reset The Under Games campaign progress
- Fixed an issue where some VO would not play correctly when claiming an Underhill as Volta or Kasita in Level 5 of the Under Games campaign
- Fixed a stack overflow that could occur on Level 3 of the Heart of Gold campaign
- Fixed a number of issues with the Golden Statues displayed at the end of the Heart of Gold Campaign
Multiplayer
- In-Game chat should once again show up correctly in Multiplayer Matches
UI
- Fixed an issue which may have caused the Skirmish menu to not appear correctly for some users on the GOG installer versions
Patch 2.0.2 Release Notes
Augre
Volcanic Bridge
Underlord Shale
European and Chinese localisations now in game for various text edits that were done for 2.0 and 2.0.1:
[ 2018-06-28 16:07:01 CET ] [ Original post ]
Darkest Greetings Underlord,
It's been only a week week since the release of the surprisingly massive 2.0.1 patch and the work has continued unabated. As always we've been taking feedback directly from you and have a few smaller adjustments to make alongside a handful of fixes to the issues you've helped us identify. Patch 2.0.2 is the result of this weeks work and should help stabilise the game further in the wake of our last two massive releases.
Beyond the release of this patch we don't have much news to share other than the fact that there's still a few issues we're still interested in tidying up and of course we're always happy to receive feedback or reports straight from you so please keep all your feedback coming via the forums and of course report any issues to us via User Echo!
Also if you missed our previous post, you may want to give that a read as it outlines some of the future plans for War for the Overworld. Fear not, even as we begin to shift our team across to working full-time on Project: Aftercare we plan to continue providing some support for WFTO in the coming months.
Now without further a do, read on for the Release Notes!
Patch 2.0.2 "Sufficiently Surveyed Surfaces"
Gameplay / Balance Changes
Units
Augre
- Now slightly less likely to use the Foundry and slightly more likely to use the Garrison
- Now slightly less likely to use the Foundry and slightly more likely to use the Garrison
- Updated needs to match the Cutlist
- Movement speed reduced by 10%
- Work speed reduced by 25%
- These changes do not affect Spirit Workers created by the Spirit Worker potion
- Updated needs to match the Witch Doctor
Spells
Volcanic Bridge
- Mana cost reduced from 100 to 50
Underlord AI Changes
- Underlord AIs can now make use of the Besiege ritual to attack enemy Dungeons
- Sloth focussed AIs will now be able to make use of the Infernal Urn to transform Brimstone into Quartz
- The AI can now use Hellfire potions
- Added 7 New Build Orders
- Adjusted a number of existing Build Orders
- The Medium Difficulty AI has received a number of tweaks
- Now has the ability to drop units near rally flags
- The rate at which it can pick up and drop units has been reduced
- The rate at which is is allowed to spend sins has been reduced
- It will now be slightly more aggressive
- The AI will now trigger Sentinels more intelligently
- The Master AI is now able to use defence parts to heal existing defences
- The AI will now make more intelligent use of Work-A-Lot potions
- When using Overcharge the AI will now wait until its Mana is exhausted
- before triggering the ritual
- The AI is now able to more accurately predict if it needs to return its forces to defend its Dungeon Core
- Further optimised the behaviour of the AI on master difficulty
- AIs will now hesitate less whilst attacking and will execute their plans more aggressively if they are confident of victory
- Bankrupt AIs now wait longer before selling rooms
Level / Campaign Changes
The Under Games
Underlord Shale
- Beast spawn rate reduced from 666% to 444%
- Defence gold & mana cost increased from 150% to 200%
Visual Improvements
- New Animations
- Democorn - Receive Pay
- Baby Democorn - Receive Pay
- Arcane Chunder - Sanctuary work
- Visual Tweaks to the Foundry Floor
- Improved the possession view of the Firebreather
- Adjusted the viewpoint position of the Behemoth in possession
Localisation & UI
European and Chinese localisations now in game for various text edits that were done for 2.0 and 2.0.1:
- Various user-interface text improvements, including tooltips and campaign map names
- Pre-2.0 Skirmish maps have had their creators’ names added to the end of their descriptions
- Fixed various old text style issues such as asterisks being used to show sound effects in subtitles
- Lord of the Land unit subtitles (for future use in the Mighty Script Editor) have been tweaked to match chosen audio takes
- New Mendechaus voice-over (for future use in the Mighty Script Editor) has had unique text keys added for each unique audio take being used
Miscellaneous Improvements
- Debug logs which are generated upon game crashes are now fully GDPR compliant
Bug Fixes
Crashes & Gamebreakers
- Fixed a rare issue that prevented some players from opening the Under Games if they had not completed the War for the Overworld campaign
Units
- Fixed an issue that would cause units to attempt to walk out of prisons and arenas
Defences
- Alchemines should now always load in with their potions after loading a save game
Visual Fixes
- Units are now react to the visual height of shrine floors (such as the siege shrine) and can walk on the surface without clipping
AI Fixes
- Underlord AI's will no longer ignore the last item in their build order
- Fixed an issue where the Underlord AI would not use the Wisdom Juice potion on Vampires
- Fixed an issue where the Underlord AI would issue an attack without removing units from it's Peaceband, meaning sometimes attacks were not correctly planned and did not meet AI expectations
- Fixed an issue where Workers were not correctly receiving new tasks and thus would revert to older tasks such as nearby reinforce wall tasks over newer claim tile tasks
- Fixed an issue where the Underlord AI would be unable to determine an appropriate attack vector on large maps where the enemy is well fortified and defended
Map Editor - General
- The Empire Theme selector can now correctly select any theme, even if it is locked
Levels / Campaigns
- Fixed an issue where the cutscene which plays after Mandalf is turned to gold in Heart of Gold level 1 could be disrupted if he was mined by workers during the cutscene, preventing the level from ending
- Fixed an issue where the VFX on the objective forge on Heart of Gold level 3 would not play correctly
- Capturing Pre-Placed rooms in the "Seastead II" skirmish level will now correctly allow units to work in them
Localisation
- Fixed an issue where Chinese fonts were not displaying correctly on OS X
UI
- Fixed an issue on the Scenario Lobby where the mutators button was not accessible if the map could not be finished
Miscellaneous
- Fixed a number of minor issues in the codebase
Patch 2.0.1 Now Available Other News
Mighty Script has been a hugely ambitious undertaking and has already seen incredible use with hundreds of mappers already getting to grips with the new tools on the Workshop. We’ve been taking feedback on Mighty Script from the community on what you’d like to see implemented and there’s a handful of really cool features in the new patch as well as some improvements and optimisations to make existing scripts more powerful. Here’s a quick summary:
We’ve livened up Skirmish audio with speech from ALL the Underlord opponents! They will now taunt you and react to various events as the battle progresses. You’ll hear Oberon gallantly face defeat as his health dwindles; Kasita celebrate her victory by welcoming you into her treasure trove; Korvek proclaim that he is greater than the sum of his parts!
Now Mira can tell you herself that you are nothing but an earthworm to be squashed beneath her metaphysical boot We got all the original actors back to reprise their roles, and added over 400 new lines of speech! This also includes the trio of Underlords introduced in The Under Games – Shale, Lamash, and Volta! We hope this feature adds an extra layer of character and charm; but if you do want to turn the voices off you can do so from the Sound Options.
Stefan, our artificial intelligence wizard, made huge renovations to the Underlord AI for Patch 2.0. But he hasn’t stopped there, and has continued to conjure and tinker with the goal of giving you the ultimate challenge. And judging by the feedback from our loyal Foundry tester imps, he may well have succeeded! AI improvements include:
The entire game has undergone a substantial balancing pass, along with tweaks to certain modes and levels, and fixes to a number of bugs. All can be garnered from our full release notes. Warning, it’s very long!
At the start of this month, we outlined our thoughts and feelings in the wake of John “Totalbiscuit” Bain’s tragic passing, and how his work had helped to ensure our success with War for the Overworld. In that same post, we announced our partnership with our friends at Chrono.gg to place War for the Overworld on a 24-hour sale with 100% of our proceeds going to John’s family as a small way of repaying him and honouring his memory. We’re pleased to announce that the campaign was a huge success and together with Chrono.gg we raised a staggering $32,905 for John’s wife Genna and their son Orion. This amount was so much more than we could ever have dreamed of raising and we can only be thankful for everyone who bought the game in support of this cause.
All funds raised were donated to the John Bain Memorial GoFundMe on the 7th of June contribuuting to the $338,411 raised so far that will go towards ensuring the security of John’s family in these difficult times.
Genna has posted her personal thank you and talked more about the challenges ahead in a recent Reddit post which you can read here. We’d like to thank all the incredible support offered by the WFTO community in helping us to honour the memory of a man who is hugely responsible for the success of this project.
As you may have heard Valve have recently deployed new developer and publisher profile pages for the Steam Store these new pages provide a central location to hear from your favourite developers about their latest games.
We’re pleased to be amongst the first to adopt this new development and we’d like to invite all our fans to drop by and follow us to ensure you get notified as we move into the future of Brightrock Games!
As we said last time, Patch 2.0.1 is probably going to be the last content update for WFTO. However, we’ll still be listening out for your bug tickets and triaging them accordingly, so please still send them our way. We’re still working on improvements to the Mighty Script Editor as well, and are in the process of locking down the text ready for translation. However, we’ve made the decision to only translate into French, German, and Russian for now, because these are our most active communities; since there is a large amount of text to translate, we feel this will strike a good balance between cost and benefit. We’re also going to add new banks of speech and sound effects to certain units, to help improve the atmosphere. We’ll of course let you know when all these updates are added to the game. We hope you enjoy Patch 2.0.1, which is free to download now! And don’t forget the Steam Summer Sale, with huge discounts to be had across all War for the Overworld products. Bring the heat! Cheers, – Brightrock Games Team Click here to follow us on Steam Click here to chat about this update on our Discord Never miss an update! Sign up to our newsletter!
[ 2018-06-21 17:03:41 CET ] [ Original post ]
Darkest greetings Underlord,
As promised in our most dark and sacred oath to you, Patch 2.0.1 has arrived in War for the Overworld, don't be fooled by the name though it's amongst our largest patches ever! Here’s what lurks within:
- Expanded Mighty Script functionality
- Skirmish speech for Underlord opponents
- Further improvements to Underlord AI
- LOTS of balance changes
- Hundreds of fixes and other changes
Patch 2.0.1 Now Available
Mighty Script Becomes Mightier
Mighty Script has been a hugely ambitious undertaking and has already seen incredible use with hundreds of mappers already getting to grips with the new tools on the Workshop. We’ve been taking feedback on Mighty Script from the community on what you’d like to see implemented and there’s a handful of really cool features in the new patch as well as some improvements and optimisations to make existing scripts more powerful. Here’s a quick summary:
- 10 New Triggers such as detecting when a spell is cast, a unit imprisoned or when a unit is attacked
- 2 New conditions including checking if players have a particular success key from the custom campaign features
- 24 New Actions with new AI commands, Dynamic Party configuration, Dialog Boxes, Tile Flashing or unit customisation actions
- Parties are now easier to setup and support additional unit configuration such as setting the speed and scale of the unit
- Numbers can now be Decimals as well as Integers
- Lists can now contain more types of variables and most values can accept input from variables or actions output to lists
- Other flow improvements and optimisations
- Various fixes
Skirmish Smack Chat
We’ve livened up Skirmish audio with speech from ALL the Underlord opponents! They will now taunt you and react to various events as the battle progresses. You’ll hear Oberon gallantly face defeat as his health dwindles; Kasita celebrate her victory by welcoming you into her treasure trove; Korvek proclaim that he is greater than the sum of his parts!
Now Mira can tell you herself that you are nothing but an earthworm to be squashed beneath her metaphysical boot We got all the original actors back to reprise their roles, and added over 400 new lines of speech! This also includes the trio of Underlords introduced in The Under Games – Shale, Lamash, and Volta! We hope this feature adds an extra layer of character and charm; but if you do want to turn the voices off you can do so from the Sound Options.
AI Advancements
Stefan, our artificial intelligence wizard, made huge renovations to the Underlord AI for Patch 2.0. But he hasn’t stopped there, and has continued to conjure and tinker with the goal of giving you the ultimate challenge. And judging by the feedback from our loyal Foundry tester imps, he may well have succeeded! AI improvements include:
- More entertaining gameplay, and more challenge for highly-skilled players
- The AI will play the Sloth tree in the Veins of Evil much more effectively
- Significant increase in the number of Aspects the AI can use and more build order variety per personality
- Optimised to work with the 2.0.1 balance changes
- Substantial AI performance improvements
Everything Else and Release Notes
The entire game has undergone a substantial balancing pass, along with tweaks to certain modes and levels, and fixes to a number of bugs. All can be garnered from our full release notes. Warning, it’s very long!
WFTO & Chrono.gg raise $32,905 for Totalbiscuit’s family
At the start of this month, we outlined our thoughts and feelings in the wake of John “Totalbiscuit” Bain’s tragic passing, and how his work had helped to ensure our success with War for the Overworld. In that same post, we announced our partnership with our friends at Chrono.gg to place War for the Overworld on a 24-hour sale with 100% of our proceeds going to John’s family as a small way of repaying him and honouring his memory. We’re pleased to announce that the campaign was a huge success and together with Chrono.gg we raised a staggering $32,905 for John’s wife Genna and their son Orion. This amount was so much more than we could ever have dreamed of raising and we can only be thankful for everyone who bought the game in support of this cause.
All funds raised were donated to the John Bain Memorial GoFundMe on the 7th of June contribuuting to the $338,411 raised so far that will go towards ensuring the security of John’s family in these difficult times.
Genna has posted her personal thank you and talked more about the challenges ahead in a recent Reddit post which you can read here. We’d like to thank all the incredible support offered by the WFTO community in helping us to honour the memory of a man who is hugely responsible for the success of this project.
Introducing our Steam Developer Page
As you may have heard Valve have recently deployed new developer and publisher profile pages for the Steam Store these new pages provide a central location to hear from your favourite developers about their latest games.
We’re pleased to be amongst the first to adopt this new development and we’d like to invite all our fans to drop by and follow us to ensure you get notified as we move into the future of Brightrock Games!
What’s Next?
As we said last time, Patch 2.0.1 is probably going to be the last content update for WFTO. However, we’ll still be listening out for your bug tickets and triaging them accordingly, so please still send them our way. We’re still working on improvements to the Mighty Script Editor as well, and are in the process of locking down the text ready for translation. However, we’ve made the decision to only translate into French, German, and Russian for now, because these are our most active communities; since there is a large amount of text to translate, we feel this will strike a good balance between cost and benefit. We’re also going to add new banks of speech and sound effects to certain units, to help improve the atmosphere. We’ll of course let you know when all these updates are added to the game. We hope you enjoy Patch 2.0.1, which is free to download now! And don’t forget the Steam Summer Sale, with huge discounts to be had across all War for the Overworld products. Bring the heat! Cheers, – Brightrock Games Team Click here to follow us on Steam Click here to chat about this update on our Discord Never miss an update! Sign up to our newsletter!
Remembering John "TotalBiscuit" Bain
When we heard the news in the early hours of Friday morning, we were devastated. A deep sense of loss was felt by many of us on the team, not least those who had the opportunity to meet John in person.
Josh meeting John and Genna at Coxcon 2015 A few of us posted on social media shortly after, to join the many voices offering tributes. But posting our immediate reaction didn’t leave much opportunity to reflect, and identify just why John was such an important figure in the collective memory of our company. Looking at John’s career, his contributions to the gaming community are well known. He was renowned for always providing his honest opinion on any topic, and reviewing games in a thoroughly structured and thoughtful manner. He never shied away from being blunt about the truth, no matter how much it cost him. He was an unyielding advocate for consumers in an industry that is often anti-consumer – and this is no doubt something that we took to heart ourselves. But it’s how he used his position to shine a light upon smaller developers and content creators, who were emerging upon the scene, which had the greatest impact on us as a company. His support enabled us and many others to get off the ground, and have a chance in this challenging industry. All the way back in 2012, when we launched the War for the Overworld Kickstarter, we were a plucky band of unknowns strewn across the world, with nothing but a dream to bring about the return of dungeon management games.
Our campaign was met with a reasonable reception, but the momentum didn’t hold for long, and we soon found ourselves looking at the possibility of a failed Kickstarter. But on the 22nd of December we received a huge influx of backers, and a momentum that drowned out even the start of our campaign, exactly when we needed it. It was all thanks to a single video created by John: https://youtu.be/rWgcg6aqgLU The impact was incredible, with the upswing over the next two days accounting for over a quarter of our funding. The momentum created steadily pushed us past our funding goal, and the rest is history. Without this extra push, it’s unlikely that the Kickstarter would have succeeded, and the project would have most likely failed at the first hurdle. The past five years would have looked very, very different.
The Totalbiscuit effect in action.
That wouldn’t be the last time that John’s coverage would change the course of our project either. Shortly after we launched into Early Access, he released a second video, once again resulting in a massive uptick in sales and support, which would prove invaluable for what was to come. https://youtu.be/x5CRtNAQ6Sc It is safe to say that a lot of things did not go according to plan in the War for the Overworld project, we’d alluded to some of them in early blog posts, and would share much more about them over the coming years. A lack of experience on our part led us to many harsh lessons about how truly difficult developing a game like War for the Overworld could be. The early access video came at a time when we were struggling to make ends meet, the project had been blown off track and we were working feverishly to recover. But a huge amount of damage was done. Once again John’s timely coverage boosted support enough for us to put together a plan of stability for the coming years, and sustain ourselves until very near the 2015 release. We would interact with John a few more times after his coverage of us, and each time he was a delight. We were even fortunate enough to be able to use his likeness for “The Cynical Imp” in raising funds for charity, which to date has generated over $40,000 in revenue for GamesAid.
The Cynical Imp has raised over $40,000 in revenue for the GamesAid charity, helping disadvantaged and homeless children throughout the UK. And all throughout this and the last years, John continued to dedicate himself to the gaming community, inspiring and supporting other developers like us, building communities, and providing his trademark wit and a critical but fair eye towards the games that released. So to John “TotalBiscuit” Bain, who we owe more than we think he ever knew: May you rest well and forever be remembered for the great things you’ve accomplished, and the incredible, tireless effort you poured into your work.
Our thoughts now rest with Genna and Orion, who have suffered most from this loss. To that end, we have partnered with our friends at Chrono to donate to the John Bain Memorial GoFundMe. We have placed War for the Overworld and The Cynical Imp on sale for the next 24 hours, with 100% of Brightrock Games and Chrono.gg proceeds going straight to the fund. This fund was arranged by David Sievers, to help provide financial support to Genna and Orion and alleviate some of the challenges they now face. It is our sincerest hope that this small contribution will go some way towards helping them through this trying time. We could never truly repay John for the support he lent to War for the Overworld, and by extension our futures. But we hope that this contribution can help provide some stability to his family’s future, in the way John provided for ours. Thank you for your support, – Brightrock Games Team Click here to visit the Chrono.gg Fundraiser Sale Page
[ 2018-06-01 16:02:23 CET ] [ Original post ]
Hello everyone,
As most of you likely already know, John “TotalBiscuit” Bain passed away last week after years fighting a courageous and protracted battle with cancer.
John Peter Bain
July 8, 1984 – May 24, 2018
He is survived by his wife Genna and son Orion, whom all our thoughts are with. We hope that they will find strength and support in each other as well as their friends, family and the gaming community at large, in the wake of this immeasurable loss.
Today we wish to share our thoughts and feelings in the wake of a great man’s passing. Like many of you, we have been following his career a long time, and it’s safe to say that his influence has had, and continues to have, a great impact on our lives.
What follows is entirely our own reflection upon an individual who played a key role in the formative years of our company, and to whom we owe a great deal. To us, this is our opportunity to honour his memory as well as a chance for us to give back in the best way we can: by using our game to raise funds to support Genna and Orion.
John and War for the Overworld
When we heard the news in the early hours of Friday morning, we were devastated. A deep sense of loss was felt by many of us on the team, not least those who had the opportunity to meet John in person.
Josh meeting John and Genna at Coxcon 2015 A few of us posted on social media shortly after, to join the many voices offering tributes. But posting our immediate reaction didn’t leave much opportunity to reflect, and identify just why John was such an important figure in the collective memory of our company. Looking at John’s career, his contributions to the gaming community are well known. He was renowned for always providing his honest opinion on any topic, and reviewing games in a thoroughly structured and thoughtful manner. He never shied away from being blunt about the truth, no matter how much it cost him. He was an unyielding advocate for consumers in an industry that is often anti-consumer – and this is no doubt something that we took to heart ourselves. But it’s how he used his position to shine a light upon smaller developers and content creators, who were emerging upon the scene, which had the greatest impact on us as a company. His support enabled us and many others to get off the ground, and have a chance in this challenging industry. All the way back in 2012, when we launched the War for the Overworld Kickstarter, we were a plucky band of unknowns strewn across the world, with nothing but a dream to bring about the return of dungeon management games.
Our campaign was met with a reasonable reception, but the momentum didn’t hold for long, and we soon found ourselves looking at the possibility of a failed Kickstarter. But on the 22nd of December we received a huge influx of backers, and a momentum that drowned out even the start of our campaign, exactly when we needed it. It was all thanks to a single video created by John: https://youtu.be/rWgcg6aqgLU The impact was incredible, with the upswing over the next two days accounting for over a quarter of our funding. The momentum created steadily pushed us past our funding goal, and the rest is history. Without this extra push, it’s unlikely that the Kickstarter would have succeeded, and the project would have most likely failed at the first hurdle. The past five years would have looked very, very different.
The Totalbiscuit effect in action.
Beyond Kickstarter
That wouldn’t be the last time that John’s coverage would change the course of our project either. Shortly after we launched into Early Access, he released a second video, once again resulting in a massive uptick in sales and support, which would prove invaluable for what was to come. https://youtu.be/x5CRtNAQ6Sc It is safe to say that a lot of things did not go according to plan in the War for the Overworld project, we’d alluded to some of them in early blog posts, and would share much more about them over the coming years. A lack of experience on our part led us to many harsh lessons about how truly difficult developing a game like War for the Overworld could be. The early access video came at a time when we were struggling to make ends meet, the project had been blown off track and we were working feverishly to recover. But a huge amount of damage was done. Once again John’s timely coverage boosted support enough for us to put together a plan of stability for the coming years, and sustain ourselves until very near the 2015 release. We would interact with John a few more times after his coverage of us, and each time he was a delight. We were even fortunate enough to be able to use his likeness for “The Cynical Imp” in raising funds for charity, which to date has generated over $40,000 in revenue for GamesAid.
The Cynical Imp has raised over $40,000 in revenue for the GamesAid charity, helping disadvantaged and homeless children throughout the UK. And all throughout this and the last years, John continued to dedicate himself to the gaming community, inspiring and supporting other developers like us, building communities, and providing his trademark wit and a critical but fair eye towards the games that released. So to John “TotalBiscuit” Bain, who we owe more than we think he ever knew: May you rest well and forever be remembered for the great things you’ve accomplished, and the incredible, tireless effort you poured into your work.
Fundraiser with Chrono.gg
Our thoughts now rest with Genna and Orion, who have suffered most from this loss. To that end, we have partnered with our friends at Chrono to donate to the John Bain Memorial GoFundMe. We have placed War for the Overworld and The Cynical Imp on sale for the next 24 hours, with 100% of Brightrock Games and Chrono.gg proceeds going straight to the fund. This fund was arranged by David Sievers, to help provide financial support to Genna and Orion and alleviate some of the challenges they now face. It is our sincerest hope that this small contribution will go some way towards helping them through this trying time. We could never truly repay John for the support he lent to War for the Overworld, and by extension our futures. But we hope that this contribution can help provide some stability to his family’s future, in the way John provided for ours. Thank you for your support, – Brightrock Games Team Click here to visit the Chrono.gg Fundraiser Sale Page
Post 2.0 - What happens now?
Following Patch 2.0 we’ve unleashed a number of smaller hotfixes to address the most critical issues. You can read the compiled notes for these here. However, we’ve also been working on a larger update not only to pile in some content which missed the boat, but also to address some excellent feedback from all of you. Over the next few weeks, we’ll be hard at work on this patch which we aim to release in mid-June, if not sooner. As you might expect it won’t be as all-encompassing as 2.0, but it should still be quite a significant update nonetheless. Here’s a taste of what’s to come:
Moving beyond the release of 2.0, we’ve already stated that we’d like to focus more on community-driven content as part of our long-term support of WFTO. But what does that mean for you? Well, first of all, we’ve started planning a structure for more regular Community Spotlights, which we’ll use to highlight the most creative, interesting and fun maps from our community. Each spotlight will focus on the varied game modes now within WFTO - expect to see spotlights for Deathmatch, King of the Underhill and Core Shards, alongside Scenarios, Custom maps, My Pet Dungeon and of course Custom Campaigns! We’ll be looking to work with our content creators to package all our spotlights up into easily downloadable formats, such as Steam Workshop collections and single files on our forums (for those players not on Steam). We may also look towards integrating some maps directly into the game so that everyone can enjoy them without needing to explore our spotlights!
The Golden Worker and more awaits the most dedicated and talented creators! Naturally, we’ll always be on the lookout for awesome creations, and we’ll be announcing our full plans for this in the comings weeks and months - so keep your eyes peeled! We’re also planning to make getting into map creation as easy as possible, with new tutorials on the use of the Map Editor and Mighty Script, as well as more expansive documentation for creators to reference.
Over the past few months as we worked towards Patch 2.0 and The Under Games release, we discussed briefly what our plans are moving forward. We’ve already announced that following this huge release we will start to transition our development team onto the upcoming Project Aftercare, and away from WFTO. Though we’ve yet to make this transition we will be doing so after the release of Patch 2.0.1. What this means is that 2.0.1 will likely be our last patch to have new official features or content; and though there are still some things in the pipeline beyond it, we won’t be working on anything new for WFTO which isn’t already in that pipeline. This doesn’t mean the end of support, however, and for the foreseeable future we’re going to focus some members of our team on supporting community content and maintaining the game’s longevity. They’ll occasionally patch in community-made levels, and provide important bug fixes as necessary. We should be clear that this meanswe will now be more particular with how we approach developing and releasing fixes. In most cases, due to work on Project Aftercare, our team won’t have time to work on expansive patches - rather we’ll be putting out smaller patches and fixes as they are needed. We’d still recommend that you submit any issue you have to our bug tracker following the release of 2.0.1 - but be aware this will go into our long-term maintenance triage process, where we determine the scope of work required versus the value of the overall fix. Ultimately whilst this is the end of a great chapter for War for the Overworld and Brightrock Games, it’s far from the end of the story. There’s so much more we want to do with not just this universe but many more to come. So please keep an eye out for us in the next few years - we can’t wait to share our full plans with you! And as always we must humbly thank you, and all our backers, supporters, fans and customers for your support. This magical journey has only been possible thanks to your constant devotion, and we hope to repay that back a thousand-fold for years to come! Cheers, – Brightrock Games Team Click here to discuss this update on the Steam Forums Click here to chat about this update on our Discord Never miss an update! Sign up to our newsletter!
[ 2018-05-09 17:26:00 CET ] [ Original post ]
Darkest greetings Underlord,
It’s been just a couple of weeks since we unleashed the gargantuan Patch 2.0 and The Under Games expansion; the reception has been incredible! We can’t thank all our fans enough for making this release our best yet!
In the wake of release the momentum hasn’t yet stopped carrying us forward, and today we’re going to expand upon on our plans for War for the Overworld beyond 2.0. We’ll be addressing a few elephants which have made a home in our lair and answering your lingering questions. So join us as we unveil our plans!
Upcoming Patch 2.0.1
Following Patch 2.0 we’ve unleashed a number of smaller hotfixes to address the most critical issues. You can read the compiled notes for these here. However, we’ve also been working on a larger update not only to pile in some content which missed the boat, but also to address some excellent feedback from all of you. Over the next few weeks, we’ll be hard at work on this patch which we aim to release in mid-June, if not sooner. As you might expect it won’t be as all-encompassing as 2.0, but it should still be quite a significant update nonetheless. Here’s a taste of what’s to come:
- Mighty Script expansion - we’ll continue to enhance the tools with some key improvements like:
- Using Variables (Numbers, Switches, Lists) as an input in many cases
- Most Events will be usable as an output, where you can set one of the above variables
- More flexible Parties that can be dynamically adjusted while the map is running, or even randomised using Lists
- More Events, Conditions and Actions to further enhance your scripts
- Skirmish AI voice-overs - the enemy AI Underlords will now taunt you, giving you more reason to wipe the floor with them
- Adjustments to The Under Games - in particular the playable Underlords will receive some rebalancing
- Further balancing across the whole game, following up from the huge balance pass in 2.0
- Fixes for many issues not yet addressed by our hotfixes
Community Content
Moving beyond the release of 2.0, we’ve already stated that we’d like to focus more on community-driven content as part of our long-term support of WFTO. But what does that mean for you? Well, first of all, we’ve started planning a structure for more regular Community Spotlights, which we’ll use to highlight the most creative, interesting and fun maps from our community. Each spotlight will focus on the varied game modes now within WFTO - expect to see spotlights for Deathmatch, King of the Underhill and Core Shards, alongside Scenarios, Custom maps, My Pet Dungeon and of course Custom Campaigns! We’ll be looking to work with our content creators to package all our spotlights up into easily downloadable formats, such as Steam Workshop collections and single files on our forums (for those players not on Steam). We may also look towards integrating some maps directly into the game so that everyone can enjoy them without needing to explore our spotlights!
The Golden Worker and more awaits the most dedicated and talented creators! Naturally, we’ll always be on the lookout for awesome creations, and we’ll be announcing our full plans for this in the comings weeks and months - so keep your eyes peeled! We’re also planning to make getting into map creation as easy as possible, with new tutorials on the use of the Map Editor and Mighty Script, as well as more expansive documentation for creators to reference.
The Future of War for the Overworld
Over the past few months as we worked towards Patch 2.0 and The Under Games release, we discussed briefly what our plans are moving forward. We’ve already announced that following this huge release we will start to transition our development team onto the upcoming Project Aftercare, and away from WFTO. Though we’ve yet to make this transition we will be doing so after the release of Patch 2.0.1. What this means is that 2.0.1 will likely be our last patch to have new official features or content; and though there are still some things in the pipeline beyond it, we won’t be working on anything new for WFTO which isn’t already in that pipeline. This doesn’t mean the end of support, however, and for the foreseeable future we’re going to focus some members of our team on supporting community content and maintaining the game’s longevity. They’ll occasionally patch in community-made levels, and provide important bug fixes as necessary. We should be clear that this meanswe will now be more particular with how we approach developing and releasing fixes. In most cases, due to work on Project Aftercare, our team won’t have time to work on expansive patches - rather we’ll be putting out smaller patches and fixes as they are needed. We’d still recommend that you submit any issue you have to our bug tracker following the release of 2.0.1 - but be aware this will go into our long-term maintenance triage process, where we determine the scope of work required versus the value of the overall fix. Ultimately whilst this is the end of a great chapter for War for the Overworld and Brightrock Games, it’s far from the end of the story. There’s so much more we want to do with not just this universe but many more to come. So please keep an eye out for us in the next few years - we can’t wait to share our full plans with you! And as always we must humbly thank you, and all our backers, supporters, fans and customers for your support. This magical journey has only been possible thanks to your constant devotion, and we hope to repay that back a thousand-fold for years to come! Cheers, – Brightrock Games Team Click here to discuss this update on the Steam Forums Click here to chat about this update on our Discord Never miss an update! Sign up to our newsletter!
Patch 2.0 Compiled Hotfixes
Crashes & Gamestoppers
[ 2018-05-09 17:25:55 CET ] [ Original post ]
Darkest greetings Underlord,
It’s been nearly three weeks since wew unleashed the massive Patch 2.0 and The Under Games expansion. Since that time we’ve been hard at work trying to address any problems our players have encountered the slipped through the cracks of our testing.
Through the incredible efforts of our stalwart volunteers as well as our programmers and of course the ever-patient community we’ve squashed a whole swathe of bugs in our recent hotfixes and there’s more fixes to come in the upcoming Patch 2.0.1!
In case you haven’t been following our efforts thus far we’ve compiled together the results of the 2.0 hotfixes here for your convenience. The following patches are all included in these notes:
- 2.0f2 - April 20th
- 2.0f3 - April 20th
- 2.0f4 - April 21st
- 2.0f6 - April 21st
- 2.0f8 - April 24th
- 2.0f9 - April 25th
Compiled Patch 2.0 Hotfixes
Bug Fixes
Crashes & Gamestoppers
- Fixed some users not being able to load into The Under Games if they did not also own Heart of Gold
- Fixed an issue related to a corrupted options file that caused some users to not be able to load into certain campaigns
- Resolved an issue that caused Banshees to be immune to projectile attacks
- Fixed an issue that sometimes caused Blade Lotuses to not deal damage
- Fixed being able to accidentally add all units to the Peaceband
- Resolved an issue that caused the Heal spell to sometimes fail to cast
- Fixed some issues with several Blade Lotuses in the first level of Heart of Gold
- Fixed custom campaigns not uploading
- Fixed the community translation upload screen not functioning
- Fixed a pathfinding issue that would cause units to attempt to talk through Dungeon Cores and Gateways
- Some minor AI-related fixes
- Further fixes to the minimap-going-black issue - this is still not entirely resolved but should now occur far less often
- Resolved most instances of flickering in the UI
- Fixed an issue that caused the Skirmish menu to not load correctly
- Empowered Banshee tutorial VO is now correctly hooked up
- Fixed animation issues with The Duke and various Chunders
- Fixed some animations issues with the Emperor, Priestess and Matriarch
- All languages should now display correctly in all parts of the game & the editor - including the Japanese community translation
- Fixed Chinese subtitles in Kasita's Under Games intro
- Fixed a font-related issue caused by an earlier hotfix
- Fixed an issue causing the Chinese localisation to not display properly under certain circumstances
- Minor error fixes & performance improvements
- Fixed several errors that related to poor performance
- Fixed Skirmish achievements not awarding correctly
- Fixed a minor issue with cutscenes
- Further fixes to corrupted options files
The Under Games Patch 2.0 Released!
The Under Games is underway and it awaits a new champion to claim the title of strongest Underlord! The reward will be exquisite: leading the charge into the pathetic realm of Kairos! Will you take the mantle in this new fully-featured expansion? Available now on Steam and the new Brightrock Store (which also has physical copies of the game and other goodies)! We’re also putting the game and all DLC on sale with up to 75% off for the next 48 hours, so grab them while you can! https://youtu.be/0OO87VOO5vE The Under Games represents a distinct departure and challenge from any experience we’ve released before. Its focus is on Underlord vs Underlord combat in a Skirmish-like campaign, set across a variety of game modes – two of which are brand new! Choose your champion, realise their unique powers, then carve your bloody path through your kin to reach the final.
This is a game of strategy Want to know more? Take a deep dive into each of the new Underlords and their new Aspects:
Alongside The Under Games we’re unleashing the truly gargantuan free Patch 2.0 upon the unsuspecting Underworld, packed to the brim with features, content and improvements. It’s the largest single update ever released for War for the Overworld! In fact it’s so big that we couldn’t compile all the release notes in time. So instead we’ve compiled a list of the major features and improvements, as well as details on the huge balance update. Even with just that focus the list is longer than any other update we’ve ever released; but rest assured that there are many more fixes and minor improvements in there as well. You can read our release notes here (English only). If you’d rather dive right in then here are the headlining changes:
We can’t wait to see what you build when you get your Hand of Evil on the new tools! With that in mind we’ve overhauled both the Steam Workshop and our own Foundry forum to help with sharing this content. In the coming weeks and months, we also plan to start spotlighting the work of our industrious content authors in a new series of Community Spotlights. There will be rewards!
To bring the complete experience of War for the Overworld together as we round off the game, we’re launching the Ultimate Edition! This includes everything you need to get the most out of the game – and it’s all wrapped up in a package with a permanent 10% discount! Kasita can barely keep her Hand of Avarice off of it!
As always we’ll be continuing to monitor the release; if you run into any issues please let us know through our usual support channels. For our future plans regarding War for the Overworld, we’re still trying to determine exactly what small updates may be coming and when. At the very least we’ll likely be rolling out one more minor patch with a few small features, such as custom voice-over to support map creators; so if you have any suggestions please let us know! We’ll also be discussing in the coming weeks exactly what future support for WFTO will look like. So please be patient with us and expect an announcement soon. Beyond that we’re not quite ready to announce anything else just yet. Watch this space. But for now, don your Hand of Evil, get ready to run the gauntlet, and seize your copy of The Under Games from Steam or our very own store. It’s time to make your move! And remember: If you’re yet to experience the wonders of running your own dungeon, there’s never been a better time to be bad than with the new and heavily-discounted Ultimate Edition! Claim it now on Steam or our store! We’ll see you underground. Cheers, – Brightrock Games Team Discuss this update on the Steam Discussion Boards Click here to chat about this update on our Discord Never miss an update! Sign up to our newsletter!
[ 2018-04-20 18:53:37 CET ] [ Original post ]
Darkest greetings Underlord,
The wait is over! Through the broiling, discordant mass of the Aether the end is in sight and the prize within our grasp. Kairos lies ahead, unprotected but for a smattering of would-be heroes and the ever elusive deity Kira. The conquest of new realms is your raison d’être but you know what they say: Practise makes perfect Underlord!
This time there can be no mistakes, no failures, and Kira will not escape your wrath yet again. To that end we must prepare. Now answer this call-to-arms: join The Under Games, and prove yourself the greatest of the Underlords! But beware: the rules of war have changed with the gargantuan free Patch 2.0, and there is much for you to learn. And don’t look now, but the Ultimate Edition is casting its monstrous shadow across the Overworld as well!
Read on Underlord!
The Under Games Expansion (£7.59, $9.99, €9.99)
The Under Games is underway and it awaits a new champion to claim the title of strongest Underlord! The reward will be exquisite: leading the charge into the pathetic realm of Kairos! Will you take the mantle in this new fully-featured expansion? Available now on Steam and the new Brightrock Store (which also has physical copies of the game and other goodies)! We’re also putting the game and all DLC on sale with up to 75% off for the next 48 hours, so grab them while you can! https://youtu.be/0OO87VOO5vE The Under Games represents a distinct departure and challenge from any experience we’ve released before. Its focus is on Underlord vs Underlord combat in a Skirmish-like campaign, set across a variety of game modes – two of which are brand new! Choose your champion, realise their unique powers, then carve your bloody path through your kin to reach the final.
Key Features
- An all-new 7-level campaign
- Choose your Underlord and participate in a deadly tournament, set across a series of scenarios that call back to classic Dungeon Management gameplay!
- Each of the 4 playable Underlords has a unique playstyle, driven by their powerful traits and exclusive minions and Aspects.
- Each Underlord has their own path through The Under Games, meeting distinct opponents en route and experiencing their own story!
- A completely overhauled AI awaits with 5 difficulty levels and a multitude of personalities to put you through your paces.
- Conquer arenas with distinctive layouts and a variety of visual themes, including the new blood-soaked Sanguine theme.
- 2 new games modes
- Race to capture and hold key positions in King of the Underhill, which will then blast your opponent’s Dungeon Core from distance.
- Mount a multipronged attack against your opponent’s Core Shards, then watch as their dungeon crumbles.
- 3 new Underlords with their own unique unlockable Dungeon Themes.
- 9 new Aspects expand your Veins of Evil, with new defences, constructs, potions and spells!
- New terrain features and shrines await in the Underworld, such as the ultra-hard Quartz and Moongate teleportation shrine.
This is a game of strategy Want to know more? Take a deep dive into each of the new Underlords and their new Aspects:
- Meet Underlord Shale – The Wild Stampede!
- Meet Underlord Volta – The Infernal Contraption!
- Meet Underlord Lamash – The Rotting Reaper!
Free Patch 2.0: Untold Depths
Alongside The Under Games we’re unleashing the truly gargantuan free Patch 2.0 upon the unsuspecting Underworld, packed to the brim with features, content and improvements. It’s the largest single update ever released for War for the Overworld! In fact it’s so big that we couldn’t compile all the release notes in time. So instead we’ve compiled a list of the major features and improvements, as well as details on the huge balance update. Even with just that focus the list is longer than any other update we’ve ever released; but rest assured that there are many more fixes and minor improvements in there as well. You can read our release notes here (English only). If you’d rather dive right in then here are the headlining changes:
- Remastered Main Campaign including new cinematic cutscenes, new terrain themes, rebalanced levels, and improved tutorials.
- Vastly expanded Map Editor features as long-requested by our fans: build maps for nearly any mode, including My Pet Dungeon, and use the new Mighty Script Editor to trigger complex events. Now you can truly create the levels you’ve always wanted to, and even chain them together to make narrative campaigns!
- More types of content on the Steam Workshop, with scripted custom scenarios and campaigns arriving when our industrious community get their hands on the new tools. The best will be curated by us, so you won’t miss a beat.
- New game modes to use in Skirmish, Multiplayer and the Map Editor: claim key positions in King of the Underhill, or destroy fragments of your opponents in Core Shards.
- Devastating New Underlord AI, rebuilt from the foundations to challenge even the most scheming players. Our new AI can use all the tools and tricks you’ve come to rely on – can you rise to the challenge?
- Sanguine and Snowy terrain themes now available in the enhanced Map Editor, which recast levels in either blood red or ice white.
- New Sacrifice ritual calls back to the origins of the Dungeon Management genre: drop different combinations of minions onto your Sanctuary Altar, and if the dark god Mendechaus is feeling generous, you might get something exciting in return!
- Polished to a shine! You’ll find countless new animations, gameplay improvements, balance adjustments, significant performance optimisations, and other changes and fixes – as you’ve come to expect from us in our quest to create the ultimate Dungeon Management experience.
We can’t wait to see what you build when you get your Hand of Evil on the new tools! With that in mind we’ve overhauled both the Steam Workshop and our own Foundry forum to help with sharing this content. In the coming weeks and months, we also plan to start spotlighting the work of our industrious content authors in a new series of Community Spotlights. There will be rewards!
The Ultimate Edition ($24.40, £17.89, €23.29 for the next 48 hours, or $59.99, £43.99, €56.99 normally)
To bring the complete experience of War for the Overworld together as we round off the game, we’re launching the Ultimate Edition! This includes everything you need to get the most out of the game – and it’s all wrapped up in a package with a permanent 10% discount! Kasita can barely keep her Hand of Avarice off of it!
- War for the Overworld Base Game & Free Crucible Expansion
- Heart of Gold Expansion
- My Pet Dungeon Expansion
- The Under Games Expansion
- Underlord Edition Extras (dungeon theme, soundtrack, lore books)
Where to Next?
As always we’ll be continuing to monitor the release; if you run into any issues please let us know through our usual support channels. For our future plans regarding War for the Overworld, we’re still trying to determine exactly what small updates may be coming and when. At the very least we’ll likely be rolling out one more minor patch with a few small features, such as custom voice-over to support map creators; so if you have any suggestions please let us know! We’ll also be discussing in the coming weeks exactly what future support for WFTO will look like. So please be patient with us and expect an announcement soon. Beyond that we’re not quite ready to announce anything else just yet. Watch this space. But for now, don your Hand of Evil, get ready to run the gauntlet, and seize your copy of The Under Games from Steam or our very own store. It’s time to make your move! And remember: If you’re yet to experience the wonders of running your own dungeon, there’s never been a better time to be bad than with the new and heavily-discounted Ultimate Edition! Claim it now on Steam or our store! We’ll see you underground. Cheers, – Brightrock Games Team Discuss this update on the Steam Discussion Boards Click here to chat about this update on our Discord Never miss an update! Sign up to our newsletter!
Daily Deal - War for the Overworld, 75% Off
[ 2018-04-20 17:00:00 CET ] [ Original post ]
Today's Deal: Save 75% on War for the Overworld!*
Look for the deals each day on the front page of Steam. Or follow us on twitter or Facebook for instant notifications wherever you are!
*Offer ends Sunday at 10AM Pacific Time
Daily Deal - War for the Overworld, 75% Off
[ 2018-04-20 17:00:00 CET ] [ Original post ]
Today's Deal: Save 75% on War for the Overworld!*
Look for the deals each day on the front page of Steam. Or follow us on twitter or Facebook for instant notifications wherever you are!
*Offer ends Sunday at 10AM Pacific Time
Meet Underlord Lamash - The Rotting Reaper
Lamash was resurrected from limbo by Mendechaus to serve in his armada. She was once a powerful sorceress who was recruited as Underlord Shale’s understudy. But Lamash was more interested in dark magic than lobbing random ingredients into a cauldron - and so she was right to be, because it was an unfortunate combination of ingredients (Rat teeth, Augre bogeys and Chunder vomit) that one day exploded in her face and killed her. So now she’s an Underlord, out to win The Under Games, and out to get revenge.
Lamash sees that the path to victory is paved with the dead, and the only care she has for the living is as fodder for her Crypts and Necromancers. Her undisputed mastery of the dead originates primarily from her trait Undead Horde.
With this trait Lamash is able to raise incredible numbers of undead very quickly - with just a few corpses she’ll soon have a vast force of shuffling skeletons at her disposal, with her Necromancers easily shepherding up to twenty Ghouls each. And that’s before we even get to the readily-attracted Shamblers and Restless Spirits.
It's close to midnight, something evil's lurking from the dark
Lamash has unlocked ancient necromantic secrets which have long lain dormant, and through these deploys yet unseen horrors from the realm of death. Brewed into the unholy Reincarnation potion, the forces within this vial will raise a small legion of volatile Banshees when they are splashed onto fresh corpses.
“WRISE FROM YAWR GRAVE!” These floating abominations are deadly in their volatility, being literal living bombs which will make their way towards the nearest enemy-held objective, whether that is a Dungeon Core, Core Shard or Underhill. Upon reaching an obstacle they will explode, to create a clear path towards their target ready for the rest of the slithering masses to come through. These unliving torpedos are also regularly spawned from the new Nether Shrine, which Lamash will certainly be trying to seize with her decaying Hand of Evil as soon as she can.
Summon Banshees from the nether regions! Wait, wut?!
Lamash cares little for the living denizens of her dungeon, and it’s safe to say that there is no love lost there. In fact, since she often uses these beings as fodder or resources to produce more dead, it’s become increasingly difficult for her to attract living units at all. As a result of her trait Hazard Pay, the wages of all living units are tripled in cost - if they’re going to die for her, they want to live a little before they snuff it. This means she can only keep a small and compact dungeon of live units, while sacrificing others to the various “recycling” mechanics at her disposal.
As with Shale and Volta her Veins of Evil are modified and trimmed to focus on her playstyle, though Lamash has a versatile selection with plenty of core rituals and potions available.
So as we leave Lamash to enact mass slaughter and raise an army of the dead, we now look towards Friday and the beginning of The Under Games! Volta, Shale, Lamash, and the rest of the Underlords are ready and waiting. Are you? Cheers, – Brightrock Games Team Discuss this update on the Steam Discussion Boards Click here to chat about this update on our Discord Never miss an update! Sign up to our newsletter!
[ 2018-04-18 15:41:23 CET ] [ Original post ]
Darkest greetings Underlord,
Soon The Under Games will commence and there is one final challenger who has yet to make their debut. Although Lamash may be last she is certainly not least! As master of death itself she has quite the unique set of talents to bring to bear. This is best summarised by the dead waker herself:
https://youtu.be/ynZnkgCwnXQ
Underlord Lamash - The Rotting Reaper
Lamash was resurrected from limbo by Mendechaus to serve in his armada. She was once a powerful sorceress who was recruited as Underlord Shale’s understudy. But Lamash was more interested in dark magic than lobbing random ingredients into a cauldron - and so she was right to be, because it was an unfortunate combination of ingredients (Rat teeth, Augre bogeys and Chunder vomit) that one day exploded in her face and killed her. So now she’s an Underlord, out to win The Under Games, and out to get revenge.
Lady of the Dead
Lamash sees that the path to victory is paved with the dead, and the only care she has for the living is as fodder for her Crypts and Necromancers. Her undisputed mastery of the dead originates primarily from her trait Undead Horde.
With this trait Lamash is able to raise incredible numbers of undead very quickly - with just a few corpses she’ll soon have a vast force of shuffling skeletons at her disposal, with her Necromancers easily shepherding up to twenty Ghouls each. And that’s before we even get to the readily-attracted Shamblers and Restless Spirits.
It's close to midnight, something evil's lurking from the dark
Banshee Barrage
Lamash has unlocked ancient necromantic secrets which have long lain dormant, and through these deploys yet unseen horrors from the realm of death. Brewed into the unholy Reincarnation potion, the forces within this vial will raise a small legion of volatile Banshees when they are splashed onto fresh corpses.
“WRISE FROM YAWR GRAVE!” These floating abominations are deadly in their volatility, being literal living bombs which will make their way towards the nearest enemy-held objective, whether that is a Dungeon Core, Core Shard or Underhill. Upon reaching an obstacle they will explode, to create a clear path towards their target ready for the rest of the slithering masses to come through. These unliving torpedos are also regularly spawned from the new Nether Shrine, which Lamash will certainly be trying to seize with her decaying Hand of Evil as soon as she can.
Summon Banshees from the nether regions! Wait, wut?!
The Cost of Living
Lamash cares little for the living denizens of her dungeon, and it’s safe to say that there is no love lost there. In fact, since she often uses these beings as fodder or resources to produce more dead, it’s become increasingly difficult for her to attract living units at all. As a result of her trait Hazard Pay, the wages of all living units are tripled in cost - if they’re going to die for her, they want to live a little before they snuff it. This means she can only keep a small and compact dungeon of live units, while sacrificing others to the various “recycling” mechanics at her disposal.
As with Shale and Volta her Veins of Evil are modified and trimmed to focus on her playstyle, though Lamash has a versatile selection with plenty of core rituals and potions available.
So as we leave Lamash to enact mass slaughter and raise an army of the dead, we now look towards Friday and the beginning of The Under Games! Volta, Shale, Lamash, and the rest of the Underlords are ready and waiting. Are you? Cheers, – Brightrock Games Team Discuss this update on the Steam Discussion Boards Click here to chat about this update on our Discord Never miss an update! Sign up to our newsletter!
2.0 Preview: Map Editor Mighty Script
[ 2018-04-16 20:57:54 CET ] [ Original post ]
Darkest greetings Underlord!
Today we're going to be diving in to the new Map Editor features & Mighty Script editor. As this is an incredibly lengthy preview that pushes the limit of Steam's announcements supported length we're going to ask you the terrible inconvenience of clicking this link in order to view it on our website
We're also sharing knowledge that we will be updating our EULA with Patch 2.0 and we felt it was important to let you know in advance. So when you've had your fill of the Mighty Script editor please have a read of that!
Cheers,
– Brightrock Games Team
Discuss this update on the Steam Discussion Boards
Click here to chat about this update on our Discord
Never miss an update! Sign up to our newsletter!
Meet Underlord Volta - The Infernal Contraption
Volta is a steam-powered Underlord created long ago. Was he the result of Mendechaus playing Frankenstein, or a now-lost civilisation building their own monster to fend off invaders? Regardless, Volta is now the workhorse that drives the Underlords and their machine of war across the cosmos. Unable to comprehend the difference between good and evil, he is less sadistic than his brethren; but as a cold and calculating contraption, his indifference to life makes him even more sinister. He believes he will win The Under Games because he is the only one that can fathom the optimum strategy.
Volta makes no secret of the fact that he thinks other Underlords, such as Shale and Rhaskos, are misguided in their volatile and overtly aggressive strategies. In contrast, he is a cool player that bides his time in any situation, fully preparing his battle line and gradually creeping across the map in an unstoppable tide of fire and iron, achieved through his trait Iron Curtain.
Through this powerful trait Volta is going to be diving right into building his defences as soon as he hits the ground. With vastly improved Defence Part build speed and reduced costs to all his defences, it should be expected that wherever Volta is, there will be a nigh-impenetrable wall of iron between him and his adversary. Moreover, with Chilli, Chilly and Arcane Chunders at his disposal, he’ll have a larger workforce ready to produce Parts, who can fulfil other roles as well!
But it’s not just the defences you’ve come to know that will be making up Volta’s fortifications – in fact he’s got a whole new set of tricks up his sleeve! The Storm Vortex is a brand new defence that is both deadly and disruptive: its primary mode hurls bolts of lightning at enemies, and its secondary mode opens wholesale into a vortex, which warps enemies back to their own dungeon in exchange for a slice of the Vortex’s health relative to the target’s power.
A well placed Storm Vortex can be the key to disrupting an attack from a hot-headed Underlord The flexibility of his defensive line is enhanced further through the Alchemine, a booby trap which can hold any potion; when an enemy gets too close the trap will spring, and the potion’s contents will be splashed all over them! This keeps his enemies at bay, and allows him to spend more time planning out his next move. Perhaps that next move will involve an assault of Thunderlings, the devastating elemental bruisers that he can amass behind closed doors.
The Alchemine pairs well with the new effects granted to many of the potions And if you think there might be a chink in Volta’s armour-plated dungeon, then you might be surprised by what you find in the Infernal Urn, a mystical defence which channels the power of flame. It burns nearby enemies in an area, but can also be activated to absorb nearby sources of fire, whether that be by turning Brimstone into Quartz, vanquishing Ember Demons, or destroying Underminers! So for those thinking of assaulting Volta with explosive power… think again!
For all of Volta’s virtues in the defensive arts, his cautious calculating nature causes him to spurn anything unruly or chaotic. To him the height of Underlordliness is to preserve order within one’s own domain, like a carefully crafted piece of clockwork. To this end his negative trait Civilised prevents him from attracting any Beasts, or building the Beast Den at all – after all, Beasts cannot be controlled so readily as those that can be employed.
If by some circumstance he does find himself in possession of a Beast Den then he’ll be attracting Badass Flying Chunders to his dungeon – the closest he’ll ever come to owning a true Beast. As with the other new Underlords, Volta’s Veins of Evil have also been modified and trimmed to focus on his playstyle, as you can see below:
And thereby ends our dive into the mechanical machinations of Volta. We hope you’ll join us again next week for the final Underlord reveal; but first join us in three days for a look at the new Map Editing functionality headed your way! Volta is certainly chomping at the bit to get his Hand of Evil on these new tools. Until next time, bide your time. Cheers, – Brightrock Games Team Discuss this update on the Steam Discussion Boards Click here to chat about this update on our Discord Never miss an update! Sign up to our newsletter!
[ 2018-04-13 18:13:26 CET ] [ Original post ]
Darkest greetings Underlord,
The march towards The Under Games continues unabated, and today we’re delving into the dungeon of Underlord Volta! Just like Shale, he has some comments to make about his own chances of winning The Under Games, so we invited him to explain his strategy to you:
https://youtu.be/s56Qo5K0jls
Underlord Volta – The Infernal Contraption
Volta is a steam-powered Underlord created long ago. Was he the result of Mendechaus playing Frankenstein, or a now-lost civilisation building their own monster to fend off invaders? Regardless, Volta is now the workhorse that drives the Underlords and their machine of war across the cosmos. Unable to comprehend the difference between good and evil, he is less sadistic than his brethren; but as a cold and calculating contraption, his indifference to life makes him even more sinister. He believes he will win The Under Games because he is the only one that can fathom the optimum strategy.
Defend Yourself!
Volta makes no secret of the fact that he thinks other Underlords, such as Shale and Rhaskos, are misguided in their volatile and overtly aggressive strategies. In contrast, he is a cool player that bides his time in any situation, fully preparing his battle line and gradually creeping across the map in an unstoppable tide of fire and iron, achieved through his trait Iron Curtain.
Through this powerful trait Volta is going to be diving right into building his defences as soon as he hits the ground. With vastly improved Defence Part build speed and reduced costs to all his defences, it should be expected that wherever Volta is, there will be a nigh-impenetrable wall of iron between him and his adversary. Moreover, with Chilli, Chilly and Arcane Chunders at his disposal, he’ll have a larger workforce ready to produce Parts, who can fulfil other roles as well!
We Have the Technology
But it’s not just the defences you’ve come to know that will be making up Volta’s fortifications – in fact he’s got a whole new set of tricks up his sleeve! The Storm Vortex is a brand new defence that is both deadly and disruptive: its primary mode hurls bolts of lightning at enemies, and its secondary mode opens wholesale into a vortex, which warps enemies back to their own dungeon in exchange for a slice of the Vortex’s health relative to the target’s power.
A well placed Storm Vortex can be the key to disrupting an attack from a hot-headed Underlord The flexibility of his defensive line is enhanced further through the Alchemine, a booby trap which can hold any potion; when an enemy gets too close the trap will spring, and the potion’s contents will be splashed all over them! This keeps his enemies at bay, and allows him to spend more time planning out his next move. Perhaps that next move will involve an assault of Thunderlings, the devastating elemental bruisers that he can amass behind closed doors.
The Alchemine pairs well with the new effects granted to many of the potions And if you think there might be a chink in Volta’s armour-plated dungeon, then you might be surprised by what you find in the Infernal Urn, a mystical defence which channels the power of flame. It burns nearby enemies in an area, but can also be activated to absorb nearby sources of fire, whether that be by turning Brimstone into Quartz, vanquishing Ember Demons, or destroying Underminers! So for those thinking of assaulting Volta with explosive power… think again!
The Price of Patience
For all of Volta’s virtues in the defensive arts, his cautious calculating nature causes him to spurn anything unruly or chaotic. To him the height of Underlordliness is to preserve order within one’s own domain, like a carefully crafted piece of clockwork. To this end his negative trait Civilised prevents him from attracting any Beasts, or building the Beast Den at all – after all, Beasts cannot be controlled so readily as those that can be employed.
If by some circumstance he does find himself in possession of a Beast Den then he’ll be attracting Badass Flying Chunders to his dungeon – the closest he’ll ever come to owning a true Beast. As with the other new Underlords, Volta’s Veins of Evil have also been modified and trimmed to focus on his playstyle, as you can see below:
And thereby ends our dive into the mechanical machinations of Volta. We hope you’ll join us again next week for the final Underlord reveal; but first join us in three days for a look at the new Map Editing functionality headed your way! Volta is certainly chomping at the bit to get his Hand of Evil on these new tools. Until next time, bide your time. Cheers, – Brightrock Games Team Discuss this update on the Steam Discussion Boards Click here to chat about this update on our Discord Never miss an update! Sign up to our newsletter!
2.0 Preview: Campaign Remaster AI
First up we have the brand new Sanguine terrain theme! This meaty coating redefines what it means to poke through the depths, turning your pickaxe into a scalpel, and dungeon management into an autopsy!
I hope your constitution can take it Underlord, because when combined with the new Blood Chasms, it can make for a redder than red sanguine nightmare. Don’t go fainting on us now..
And of course this new terrain theme will be available for use in the new Map Editor, alongside the whiter than white Snowy theme you became familiar with in My Pet Dungeon.
Over the years we’ve expanded War for the Overworld well beyond our initial concepts and beyond what we could ever have dreamed possible. With the wealth of new content, features and improvements since 2015, and with 2.0 looking to be the final major patch, we thought now would be a great time to look back at the Main Campaign and give it a spitshine. But what exactly does that mean? Read on! Firstly, using the new terrain theming we can now vary the environments across the original campaign. So when for example you travel through the Shifting Bond portal, expect to see the new Sanguine theme; this fittingly turns Rhaskos’ realm into the bloodbath it was always meant to be. Meanwhile, if you’re preparing your ambush for the none-too-clever dwarves in Belmorne’s Pass, then make sure you pack some sweaters for your minions, because it’s suddenly got quite cold in the mountains.
That’s not all that we’ve tweaked in the campaign however: There are a number of gameplay and tutorialisation improvements in the earlier levels, as well as a completely rebuilt Level 12. with Draven, Kasita and Korvek all making appearances in The Under Games, we felt it was high time their level got a few layout changes.
We’ve also introduced a slew of new cutscenes throughout the campaign, to improve the areas where we felt the storytelling was missing something. We feel these new cinematics help tell the story we originally set out to, but in a way we couldn’t have possibly done way back then; especially where the ending is concerned, we hope you now get more clarity and resolution.
There’s a number of smaller changes as well, including more than a few balance adjustments. We hope that together all these updates make the campaign feel like a much more refined experience.
Oh yes, this one has been a long time coming! One of the few things we revealed about Patch 2.0 a very long time ago was the fact that we were working on improvements to the Skirmish AI, which drives how your rival Underlords behave. We’ve been wanting to do this for quite some time, as our original AI was developed during the rushed months leading up to release. Though it has received some improvements over the years, its available strategies were still limited – and more crucially it had an all too shallow understanding of the Aspects in the Veins of Evil.
Bombards and how to place them – a concept which confused the old AI, now realised by the new! For 2.0 we’ve gone the whole hog! Rather than taking what already exists and improving on it, we’ve instead taken the lessons learned and built a whole new AI from the ground up. Trained on the tactics used by our most seasoned community members, experienced in the ways of placing Bombards, and fed on a steady stream of fears, tears and nightmares, this new AI really does put the “Fright” in “Steven Fright”! The AI is capable of analysing situations within its vision, making tactical decisions, and determining an appropriate course of action. If it identifies potential chokepoints it may decide to fortify them, or it may choose to pursue objectives which are least-defended by enemy forces.
The AI makes its decisions based on many variables – here’s a visualisation of its brain! As always the AI comes in many different flavours, with the original five difficulty levels returning as realised levels of intelligence. Alongside these we have new personality sets, which showcase distinctly different playstyles, and which are paired with individual Underlords. This means that Underlords will behave befitting of their personalities, in both The Under Games, and within Skirmish and Multiplayer. Steven Fright meanwhile has retired to sunnier pastures, a little too intimidated it seems by the recent advances in AI. But eagle-eyed Underlords may yet spot his handsome face within The Under Games:
The handsome face of Evil, who bears an uncanny resemblance to our AI developer, Stefan Furcht… This about wraps us up on this feature preview, but rest assured that the biggest is yet to come (a little thing called the Map Editor). But first, on Friday we’ll be diving into yet another of the new Underlords: the mechanical mastermind that is Volta! Cheers, – Brightrock Games Team Discuss this update on the Steam Discussion Boards Click here to chat about this update on our Discord Never miss an update! Sign up to our newsletter!
[ 2018-04-10 16:01:55 CET ] [ Original post ]
Darkest greetings Underlord,
On Friday we revealed the first Underlord to make their claim upon the spot as greatest Underlord in The Under Games. Today we’re going to delve into the other half of the upcoming release with a focus on some of Patch 2.0’s features!
What goodies can we coax out of the Cultists today? Let us delve right in!
Sanguine Terrain Theme & Blood Chasms
First up we have the brand new Sanguine terrain theme! This meaty coating redefines what it means to poke through the depths, turning your pickaxe into a scalpel, and dungeon management into an autopsy!
I hope your constitution can take it Underlord, because when combined with the new Blood Chasms, it can make for a redder than red sanguine nightmare. Don’t go fainting on us now..
And of course this new terrain theme will be available for use in the new Map Editor, alongside the whiter than white Snowy theme you became familiar with in My Pet Dungeon.
Campaign Remaster
Over the years we’ve expanded War for the Overworld well beyond our initial concepts and beyond what we could ever have dreamed possible. With the wealth of new content, features and improvements since 2015, and with 2.0 looking to be the final major patch, we thought now would be a great time to look back at the Main Campaign and give it a spitshine. But what exactly does that mean? Read on! Firstly, using the new terrain theming we can now vary the environments across the original campaign. So when for example you travel through the Shifting Bond portal, expect to see the new Sanguine theme; this fittingly turns Rhaskos’ realm into the bloodbath it was always meant to be. Meanwhile, if you’re preparing your ambush for the none-too-clever dwarves in Belmorne’s Pass, then make sure you pack some sweaters for your minions, because it’s suddenly got quite cold in the mountains.
That’s not all that we’ve tweaked in the campaign however: There are a number of gameplay and tutorialisation improvements in the earlier levels, as well as a completely rebuilt Level 12. with Draven, Kasita and Korvek all making appearances in The Under Games, we felt it was high time their level got a few layout changes.
We’ve also introduced a slew of new cutscenes throughout the campaign, to improve the areas where we felt the storytelling was missing something. We feel these new cinematics help tell the story we originally set out to, but in a way we couldn’t have possibly done way back then; especially where the ending is concerned, we hope you now get more clarity and resolution.
There’s a number of smaller changes as well, including more than a few balance adjustments. We hope that together all these updates make the campaign feel like a much more refined experience.
AI Update
Oh yes, this one has been a long time coming! One of the few things we revealed about Patch 2.0 a very long time ago was the fact that we were working on improvements to the Skirmish AI, which drives how your rival Underlords behave. We’ve been wanting to do this for quite some time, as our original AI was developed during the rushed months leading up to release. Though it has received some improvements over the years, its available strategies were still limited – and more crucially it had an all too shallow understanding of the Aspects in the Veins of Evil.
Bombards and how to place them – a concept which confused the old AI, now realised by the new! For 2.0 we’ve gone the whole hog! Rather than taking what already exists and improving on it, we’ve instead taken the lessons learned and built a whole new AI from the ground up. Trained on the tactics used by our most seasoned community members, experienced in the ways of placing Bombards, and fed on a steady stream of fears, tears and nightmares, this new AI really does put the “Fright” in “Steven Fright”! The AI is capable of analysing situations within its vision, making tactical decisions, and determining an appropriate course of action. If it identifies potential chokepoints it may decide to fortify them, or it may choose to pursue objectives which are least-defended by enemy forces.
The AI makes its decisions based on many variables – here’s a visualisation of its brain! As always the AI comes in many different flavours, with the original five difficulty levels returning as realised levels of intelligence. Alongside these we have new personality sets, which showcase distinctly different playstyles, and which are paired with individual Underlords. This means that Underlords will behave befitting of their personalities, in both The Under Games, and within Skirmish and Multiplayer. Steven Fright meanwhile has retired to sunnier pastures, a little too intimidated it seems by the recent advances in AI. But eagle-eyed Underlords may yet spot his handsome face within The Under Games:
The handsome face of Evil, who bears an uncanny resemblance to our AI developer, Stefan Furcht… This about wraps us up on this feature preview, but rest assured that the biggest is yet to come (a little thing called the Map Editor). But first, on Friday we’ll be diving into yet another of the new Underlords: the mechanical mastermind that is Volta! Cheers, – Brightrock Games Team Discuss this update on the Steam Discussion Boards Click here to chat about this update on our Discord Never miss an update! Sign up to our newsletter!
Meet Underlord Shale - Chaos Incarnate!
Shale has ventured to the four corners of the cosmos like the debris from a supernova. She is perpetually confused, and doesn’t really know who she is or where she’s going. She’s had many mishaps, like when she accidentally blew up her understudy, the mortal Lamash. But somehow along the way she’s acquired an element of wisdom, gaining insight into the explosive foundations of the universe. She believes she has the key to victory in The Under Games, because how can her opponents defeat what they cannot predict?
As you might have surmised, Shale does not care much for the structured approach to dungeon life; she’s much too chaotic and carefree for that, and as such Beasts are a natural fit for her. Through her trait The Swarm she’ll be ready to overwhelm her foes in the blink of an eye.
The Swarm is a serious game changer that plays well into Shale’s aggressive, Wrath-focussed Veins of Evil. With it she will quickly amass a game-ending force of Beasts, including powerful mutations of the Shadow, Bafu and Skarg, which can steamroll her adversaries.
Worse still, these Beasts can be supplemented by the powerful effects of potions, many of which now affect enemies caught in the area, as well as allies. More dangerous even is the mighty Thunderling, literal lightning trapped in a bottle, which once dropped releases a powerful elemental capable of decimating ranks of enemies – albeit for a hefty gold and mana cost:
As if her Beasts weren’t dangerous enough, Shale is blessed with a veritable array of maddening spells, constructs and abilities to wreak havoc upon her adversaries and remain unpredictable. Through her use of Aspects such as the new Shackle spell, which temporarily disables enemy defences, and of course the well-known Ember Rift, she is able to quickly overwhelm even the most entrenched Underlord.
Few can anticipate the pandemonious nature of Shale, with her forces seeming to pop from one place to the next. This is in fact achieved by one of her new constructs: the Moongate. The Moongate acts as a teleportation point connected to all other Moongates that belong to her, including the new Moongate Shrines if she can claim them. This makes her forces hard to pin down, as they zip across the map in a flash of lunar energy.
Ultimately all this chaos comes at a price, coalescing in Shale’s negative trait Reckless. Not only does this prevent her from placing all but the most basic of defences ( Bombard, Blade Lotus, and Wooden Door), but it also means that any defences she does place are more gold and mana hungry. The rate at which Defence Parts are produced is also significantly reduced.
All in all you won’t be fortifying many choke points as Shale; but when your minions are moonbeaming around the map, Thunderlings are crashing down like bolts of lightning, and Beast stampedes are running down your opponents – who needs a fortress?
Beyond their core functionality and design, each of the playable Underlords in The Under Games has had their Veins of Evil tweaked. This will guide them along a certain critical path, which is conducive to their playstyle while still providing options. As you might imagine, Shale’s is focussed heavily around her Beasts, and precludes access to a great deal of the Sloth tree. Here’s what that looks like in game:
As with Skirmish matches, the way you receive mana in The Under Games is to research Sins and unlock new Aspects; but with such a wide swathe of the Veins being locked out, as well as the mana cap being raised to 2000, you may wonder how you will generate enough mana. Fortunately, all Underlords now have access to a new construct: the Mana Vault. Each one increases the owner’s total available mana; but be sure they are protected, otherwise you might suddenly lose access to the mana you’ve come to rely on.
Other sources of mana can be claimed within a level, such as the new Mana Shrine, which provides an even larger increase to your mana pool. Fear not though, as the functionality of the old Mana Shrine (to reduce the mana cost of spells) still exists, albeit in the more aptly named Incantation Shrine. That about wraps up our dive into Underlord Shale’s strategy for The Under Games. But there are still two more Underlords left to go: Volta and Lamash. Join us on Tuesday for our next reveal! Until next time – or as Shale might say, “Good riddance, and stay out of my way!” Cheers, – Brightrock Games Team Discuss this update on the Steam Discussion Boards Click here to chat about this update on our Discord Never miss an update! Sign up to our newsletter!
[ 2018-04-06 16:32:57 CET ] [ Original post ]
Darkest greetings Underlord,
Today we’re delving into the chaotic mind of Shale and her devious arsenal of deadly Aspects. As one of the playable Underlords in The Under Games, we thought it’d be best if she introduced herself. We asked for a comment, and here’s what she had to say:
https://youtu.be/zdufPhlusXI
Underlord Shale – Chaos Incarnate
Shale has ventured to the four corners of the cosmos like the debris from a supernova. She is perpetually confused, and doesn’t really know who she is or where she’s going. She’s had many mishaps, like when she accidentally blew up her understudy, the mortal Lamash. But somehow along the way she’s acquired an element of wisdom, gaining insight into the explosive foundations of the universe. She believes she has the key to victory in The Under Games, because how can her opponents defeat what they cannot predict?
Master of Beasts and Alchemy
As you might have surmised, Shale does not care much for the structured approach to dungeon life; she’s much too chaotic and carefree for that, and as such Beasts are a natural fit for her. Through her trait The Swarm she’ll be ready to overwhelm her foes in the blink of an eye.
The Swarm is a serious game changer that plays well into Shale’s aggressive, Wrath-focussed Veins of Evil. With it she will quickly amass a game-ending force of Beasts, including powerful mutations of the Shadow, Bafu and Skarg, which can steamroll her adversaries.
Worse still, these Beasts can be supplemented by the powerful effects of potions, many of which now affect enemies caught in the area, as well as allies. More dangerous even is the mighty Thunderling, literal lightning trapped in a bottle, which once dropped releases a powerful elemental capable of decimating ranks of enemies – albeit for a hefty gold and mana cost:
Sowing Chaos
As if her Beasts weren’t dangerous enough, Shale is blessed with a veritable array of maddening spells, constructs and abilities to wreak havoc upon her adversaries and remain unpredictable. Through her use of Aspects such as the new Shackle spell, which temporarily disables enemy defences, and of course the well-known Ember Rift, she is able to quickly overwhelm even the most entrenched Underlord.
Few can anticipate the pandemonious nature of Shale, with her forces seeming to pop from one place to the next. This is in fact achieved by one of her new constructs: the Moongate. The Moongate acts as a teleportation point connected to all other Moongates that belong to her, including the new Moongate Shrines if she can claim them. This makes her forces hard to pin down, as they zip across the map in a flash of lunar energy.
Ultimately all this chaos comes at a price, coalescing in Shale’s negative trait Reckless. Not only does this prevent her from placing all but the most basic of defences ( Bombard, Blade Lotus, and Wooden Door), but it also means that any defences she does place are more gold and mana hungry. The rate at which Defence Parts are produced is also significantly reduced.
All in all you won’t be fortifying many choke points as Shale; but when your minions are moonbeaming around the map, Thunderlings are crashing down like bolts of lightning, and Beast stampedes are running down your opponents – who needs a fortress?
The Veins of Evil
Beyond their core functionality and design, each of the playable Underlords in The Under Games has had their Veins of Evil tweaked. This will guide them along a certain critical path, which is conducive to their playstyle while still providing options. As you might imagine, Shale’s is focussed heavily around her Beasts, and precludes access to a great deal of the Sloth tree. Here’s what that looks like in game:
As with Skirmish matches, the way you receive mana in The Under Games is to research Sins and unlock new Aspects; but with such a wide swathe of the Veins being locked out, as well as the mana cap being raised to 2000, you may wonder how you will generate enough mana. Fortunately, all Underlords now have access to a new construct: the Mana Vault. Each one increases the owner’s total available mana; but be sure they are protected, otherwise you might suddenly lose access to the mana you’ve come to rely on.
Other sources of mana can be claimed within a level, such as the new Mana Shrine, which provides an even larger increase to your mana pool. Fear not though, as the functionality of the old Mana Shrine (to reduce the mana cost of spells) still exists, albeit in the more aptly named Incantation Shrine. That about wraps up our dive into Underlord Shale’s strategy for The Under Games. But there are still two more Underlords left to go: Volta and Lamash. Join us on Tuesday for our next reveal! Until next time – or as Shale might say, “Good riddance, and stay out of my way!” Cheers, – Brightrock Games Team Discuss this update on the Steam Discussion Boards Click here to chat about this update on our Discord Never miss an update! Sign up to our newsletter!
Calling all Intrepid Underlords: Closed Alpha Soon
In the meantime, we’re looking for some committed and dedicated members of our community to join us on our (not so) top secret community testing team, as part of a closed alpha process for the Patch 2.0 and Expansion 4 release. In particular, we’re very keen to introduce some of our community map creators to the extensive suite of new features and improvements coming to the Map Editor in 2.0. We’ll be reaching out directly to some of the content creators; but if you’re interested in getting a sneak peek, and helping us ensure the new features are working well and are expansive enough to enable highly-creative endeavours, then please get in touch. Send us your Steam Workshop profile in this thread or send us a private ticket on UserEcho! Cheers, – Brightrock Games Team Discuss this update on the Steam Discussion Boards Click here to chat about this update on our Discord Never miss an update! Sign up to our newsletter!
[ 2018-03-09 13:37:45 CET ] [ Original post ]
Darkest greetings Underlord,
Work continues unceasingly on the upcoming Patch 2.0. There’s so much exciting stuff happening right now that we’re dying to share with you; but alas the secrets must be kept for a little while longer, as we prepare for the biggest release since WFTO’s launch!
In case you missed it, a few months ago we put out some videos highlighting the lesser known heroes of Patch 2.0. These showcased new animations for a whole swathe of units, which you can catch here:
https://youtu.be/f-C2ZGuLclM
There’s still quite a few more that are underwraps, but hopefully that taster should satiate your cravings for now.
Calling All Map Makers & Intrepid Underlords: Closed Alpha Test!
In the meantime, we’re looking for some committed and dedicated members of our community to join us on our (not so) top secret community testing team, as part of a closed alpha process for the Patch 2.0 and Expansion 4 release. In particular, we’re very keen to introduce some of our community map creators to the extensive suite of new features and improvements coming to the Map Editor in 2.0. We’ll be reaching out directly to some of the content creators; but if you’re interested in getting a sneak peek, and helping us ensure the new features are working well and are expansive enough to enable highly-creative endeavours, then please get in touch. Send us your Steam Workshop profile in this thread or send us a private ticket on UserEcho! Cheers, – Brightrock Games Team Discuss this update on the Steam Discussion Boards Click here to chat about this update on our Discord Never miss an update! Sign up to our newsletter!
Forwards to 2018!
In the Steam Autumn sale, we humbly put forward our bid to become a nominee for the Labour of Love award, the award in the 2017 Steam Awards that we felt the best fit the five-year journey since first leaving Kickstarter! If you missed it we hastily put together a small infographic on the journey thus far which you can see below and we also shared our thoughts and feelings as to that journey in our Labour of Love and Message of Thanks posts.
Five years of sweat and toil summed up in a handy image! It is with a tang regret that we must announce that we have not made it as one of the nominations for this award despite the best efforts of ourselves and the community. This result was not entirely unexpected, we knew it would be an uphill battle to top many of other great games out there with incredible teams and we have to congratulate all the nominees for every Steam Award and we’d like to thank all our fans who took the time to vote for us and encourage you to now vote for the games you’d most like to see win the Awards!
Warm congratulations to the nominees, there's a lot of great games on display! Even though we did not make the cut we were deeply humbled by the response we saw to our bid. You came out in force to support us and showed us just how much you love WFTO in its current state. You showed us that our game is something we could be proud in a way we never thought possible by raising our review score a whole percentage point overall and up to a staggering 98% recently!
Unmanly tears were shed upon reading this figure Time and time again we’ve leant on the support of the community as we’ve gone through hard times, we’ve faced delays, difficult releases, countless bugs and issues and even the spectre of bankruptcy together and as always we cannot thank you enough. Together we’ve made WFTO into something great and the best is yet to come, inspired by your support we’re confident 2018 will bring the best version of WFTO yet!
We can’t deny that next year is going to be a bittersweet one for War for the Overworld, with Patch 2.0 and Expansion 4 travelling down the tunnels of the internet to usher in the final form of War for the Overworld in Q1-Q2 2018. This collective update will be the largest, most involved and significant in War for the Overworlds and is likely to touch nearly every corner of War for the Overworld, shifting the game into high gear and hopefully delivering what will be the ultimate version of our first and most loved game. Sadly we’re still quite some ways away from a release so we’re not quite ready to spill to beans on everything that will be coming, and a few of you will already know the features revealed so far but for the benefit of those not yet in the know here’s some of what’s coming:
And it’s not just units getting some love, this defence, in particular, has been needing a touch up for a while
We can’t wait to get all this in your hands, but alas we’re not quite ready yet. Rest assured that in the new year we’ll be able to share so much more as our final update is realised. After that, we’ll keep our eyes on WFTO and arrange to make some passes on supporting existing features but we’ll also be moving our team fully onto our new project, which we’ll likely share some details on later in 2018!
All that remains to be said now is from all of us at Brightrock Games we wish you all happy holidays, merry Christmas and happy new year regardless of who, what or how you celebrate and we hope that the new year will bring you all joy and happiness.
It remains to be said that until the new year our office will be closed but some of us will continue patrolling our forums and support infrastructure to answer questions or help if needed, but response times will be slower. That’s it for now Underlords, we’ll see you in 2018! Oh and don’t forget that for the duration of the Winter Sale WFTO products are up to 72% off! Cheers, – Brightrock Games Team Discuss this update on the Steam Discussion Boards Click here to chat about this update on our Discord Never miss an update! Sign up to our newsletter!
[ 2017-12-22 19:11:31 CET ] [ Original post ]
Darkest greetings Underlord,
The hoar frost has settled across the once verdant fields of the Overworld, coating the land in the icy fingers of encroaching death. In the caverns below the fires of the foundry lie extinguished for the first days in months as the development Imps close up shop to spend time with loved ones and family.
While we lock up the office and make our way out of the door until 2018 we wanted to reach out and extend our festive greetings to all our fans and customers and wish you all the very best of times. We thought we’d also use this opportunity to share a few messages, thoughts and previews of things that were, things that are and some things that have not yet come to pass.
So please Underlords before you indulge in the season’s graces read on!
Steam Awards 2017 - Thank You for Your Support!
In the Steam Autumn sale, we humbly put forward our bid to become a nominee for the Labour of Love award, the award in the 2017 Steam Awards that we felt the best fit the five-year journey since first leaving Kickstarter! If you missed it we hastily put together a small infographic on the journey thus far which you can see below and we also shared our thoughts and feelings as to that journey in our Labour of Love and Message of Thanks posts.
Five years of sweat and toil summed up in a handy image! It is with a tang regret that we must announce that we have not made it as one of the nominations for this award despite the best efforts of ourselves and the community. This result was not entirely unexpected, we knew it would be an uphill battle to top many of other great games out there with incredible teams and we have to congratulate all the nominees for every Steam Award and we’d like to thank all our fans who took the time to vote for us and encourage you to now vote for the games you’d most like to see win the Awards!
Warm congratulations to the nominees, there's a lot of great games on display! Even though we did not make the cut we were deeply humbled by the response we saw to our bid. You came out in force to support us and showed us just how much you love WFTO in its current state. You showed us that our game is something we could be proud in a way we never thought possible by raising our review score a whole percentage point overall and up to a staggering 98% recently!
Unmanly tears were shed upon reading this figure Time and time again we’ve leant on the support of the community as we’ve gone through hard times, we’ve faced delays, difficult releases, countless bugs and issues and even the spectre of bankruptcy together and as always we cannot thank you enough. Together we’ve made WFTO into something great and the best is yet to come, inspired by your support we’re confident 2018 will bring the best version of WFTO yet!
War for the Overworld in 2018
We can’t deny that next year is going to be a bittersweet one for War for the Overworld, with Patch 2.0 and Expansion 4 travelling down the tunnels of the internet to usher in the final form of War for the Overworld in Q1-Q2 2018. This collective update will be the largest, most involved and significant in War for the Overworlds and is likely to touch nearly every corner of War for the Overworld, shifting the game into high gear and hopefully delivering what will be the ultimate version of our first and most loved game. Sadly we’re still quite some ways away from a release so we’re not quite ready to spill to beans on everything that will be coming, and a few of you will already know the features revealed so far but for the benefit of those not yet in the know here’s some of what’s coming:
- New Singleplayer Campaign - Focussing on the Underlords and replayability factor
- New Underlord AI - Built from the ground up to be more flexible, intelligent and challenging
- New Veins of Evil Aspects - New units, defences, spells and more make their debut
- New Dungeon Themes - New Underlords come with their own new themes, including Dungeon Hands!
- More Map Editor Features - Get creative with new features in the Map Editor including My Pet Dungeon support and more!
And it’s not just units getting some love, this defence, in particular, has been needing a touch up for a while
We can’t wait to get all this in your hands, but alas we’re not quite ready yet. Rest assured that in the new year we’ll be able to share so much more as our final update is realised. After that, we’ll keep our eyes on WFTO and arrange to make some passes on supporting existing features but we’ll also be moving our team fully onto our new project, which we’ll likely share some details on later in 2018!
Happy Holidays from Brightrock Games
All that remains to be said now is from all of us at Brightrock Games we wish you all happy holidays, merry Christmas and happy new year regardless of who, what or how you celebrate and we hope that the new year will bring you all joy and happiness.
It remains to be said that until the new year our office will be closed but some of us will continue patrolling our forums and support infrastructure to answer questions or help if needed, but response times will be slower. That’s it for now Underlords, we’ll see you in 2018! Oh and don’t forget that for the duration of the Winter Sale WFTO products are up to 72% off! Cheers, – Brightrock Games Team Discuss this update on the Steam Discussion Boards Click here to chat about this update on our Discord Never miss an update! Sign up to our newsletter!
Support Charity with the Yogscast Worker
Indeed, this stout little fellow was recently unearthed in an old mineshaft deep in the Underworld, where he was found munching his last Jaffa Cake. He doesn’t speak much, and we don’t even know his name; but what he will do is sing about digging a hole. Oh, endlessly will he sing it! Ceaselessly!
“I am an imp and I'm digging a hole, diggy diggy hole, diggy diggy hole!” You can acquire the Yogscast Worker and his diamond pickaxe, along with dozens of other games, in this year’s Yogscast Jingle Jam. By donating the calling price of $35, this annoyingly chipper fellow and a whole slew of incredible games and content can be yours, with every drop of the proceeds going to charitable causes!
“... I am an imp and I'm digging a hole, diggy diggy hole, digging a hole!” Who says that a little evil can’t change the world for the better? Now please take him off our hands and use him as a Worker skin in War for the Overworld, before his warbling attracts a wandering Augre and we have a little accident.
Before we leave you, Underlord, the other member of our growing troupe of charitable Workers, has asked us to remind you that he is still fighting for the (no doubt deserving) cause of dungeon workers’ rights. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JMS-tQxTFdY If you’re feeling particularly charitable, The Cynical Imp will hit the campaign trail for a small donation of £1.99, with all of Brightrock Games’ proceeds going directly to GamesAid, our partnered charity (Registered UK Charity # 1081706). They are a team of incredible individuals that work with the UK games industry, acting as an umbrella for smaller charities, to help those in need. For Underlords willing to give a little extra, you can also get your Hand of Evil on the previously-exclusive Kickstarter and Founders Dungeon Themes - all in the good name of charity!
“... diggy diggy hole, diggy diggy hole!” Where is that incessant racket coming from, wondered The Cynical Imp. You can acquire The Cynical Imp and the exclusive Dungeon Themes via the Steam Store or our website! Thank you for your support! – Brightrock Games Team Discuss this update on the Steam Discussion Boards Click here to chat about this update on our Discord Never miss an update! Sign up to our newsletter!
[ 2017-12-13 17:40:56 CET ] [ Original post ]
Darkest greetings Underlord,
The end of the year is fast approaching, and our imps are hard at work on new content for you to sink your gnarled teeth into in 2018. In the meantime we have a short announcement for you: another Worker has joined the cause, and made a call for charity!
Introducing the Yogscast Worker
Indeed, this stout little fellow was recently unearthed in an old mineshaft deep in the Underworld, where he was found munching his last Jaffa Cake. He doesn’t speak much, and we don’t even know his name; but what he will do is sing about digging a hole. Oh, endlessly will he sing it! Ceaselessly!
“I am an imp and I'm digging a hole, diggy diggy hole, diggy diggy hole!” You can acquire the Yogscast Worker and his diamond pickaxe, along with dozens of other games, in this year’s Yogscast Jingle Jam. By donating the calling price of $35, this annoyingly chipper fellow and a whole slew of incredible games and content can be yours, with every drop of the proceeds going to charitable causes!
“... I am an imp and I'm digging a hole, diggy diggy hole, digging a hole!” Who says that a little evil can’t change the world for the better? Now please take him off our hands and use him as a Worker skin in War for the Overworld, before his warbling attracts a wandering Augre and we have a little accident.
The Cynical Imp Is Still on the Campaign Trail
Before we leave you, Underlord, the other member of our growing troupe of charitable Workers, has asked us to remind you that he is still fighting for the (no doubt deserving) cause of dungeon workers’ rights. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JMS-tQxTFdY If you’re feeling particularly charitable, The Cynical Imp will hit the campaign trail for a small donation of £1.99, with all of Brightrock Games’ proceeds going directly to GamesAid, our partnered charity (Registered UK Charity # 1081706). They are a team of incredible individuals that work with the UK games industry, acting as an umbrella for smaller charities, to help those in need. For Underlords willing to give a little extra, you can also get your Hand of Evil on the previously-exclusive Kickstarter and Founders Dungeon Themes - all in the good name of charity!
“... diggy diggy hole, diggy diggy hole!” Where is that incessant racket coming from, wondered The Cynical Imp. You can acquire The Cynical Imp and the exclusive Dungeon Themes via the Steam Store or our website! Thank you for your support! – Brightrock Games Team Discuss this update on the Steam Discussion Boards Click here to chat about this update on our Discord Never miss an update! Sign up to our newsletter!
Hotfix Patch 1.6.66f1 - A Message to our fans and sneak peek!
Our development imps have been hard at work for the past week addressing some issues you highlighted to us in the latest patch. As always we’ve looked to resolve any reports as efficiently and speedily as possible, and we’re always looking for more. Never ones to cease our constructive efforts though, there are a few minor improvements sprinkled on top of this hotfix too.
Before we begin the main course below, we thought we’d make a shoutout to remind you all that the Steam sale will be ending tomorrow! If you’re yet to embrace your dark side, WFTO products are up to 72% off. Don’t miss your chance!
(Click to expand) We’d like to take a moment to thank every single person who has supported our bid to become “The Labour of Love” in the 2017 Steam Awards. When we scrambled to post up our appeal to our fans, we could not have imagined the response we’d receive! The positive feedback was so overwhelming, and we simply cannot thank you enough. In our bid we talked about our journey: the work, energy and lifeforce that we have poured into War for the Overworld; the trials and tribulations that we’ve faced, and with them how the strength and support of our community has helped us drive WFTO to become something truly worthwhile. Your response has driven that home more than ever. The fact is that there’s a great deal with the WFTO project that we were not happy with. The launch stands chief among them, where we made so many mistakes. We’ve always been hard on ourselves, but also driven to make WFTO something truly special. Nevertheless, there’s been a looming spectre of our numerous failures in the project, which has hung over us for a long time. When we made our bid last week, we did so knowing that we had done a lot for WFTO and our customers, but not knowing what that had truly meant to you. To be told by so many of you that we deserve such a nomination was deeply touching and extremely humbling. You showed us that the work we’ve put in from the very start, past release, and right up to today is praiseworthy; and that although WFTO may never be the perfect child we want it to be, that it has some right to claim a spot as a respected title. What more can a developer wish for with their first project? So from everyone at Brightrock Games, we’d like to humbly thank everybody who took the time to nominate us, leave a comment, or even leave us a review. We cannot thank you enough for an incredible five years!
We want to give an extra special shoutout to everyone who left a review, because you’ve raised us past the 78% barrier on Steam! This 1% may not seem like much, but it means a whole lot to us! As a small reward, here’s one more teaser of our upcoming content.
From concept to work-in-progress VFX!
If you’re not sure what all this is about, you can read our bid for the award here. If you’d like to support us (and you don’t already have a deserving nomination for the category!) then you can do so on our store page. Thank you all once again, and remember, Underlord: Keep it evil. Cheers, – Brightrock Games Team Discuss this update on the Steam Discussion Boards Click here to chat about this update on our Discord Never miss an update! Sign up to our newsletter!
[ 2017-11-27 17:22:07 CET ] [ Original post ]
Darkest greetings Underlord,
The relentless march towards the much anticipated Patch 2.0 and Expansion 4 continue, with great strides being made each and every day. Though we are super excited about the upcoming content, we know better than to neglect our valued Underlords that have encountered issues. So we’re rolling out a hotfix to steel you against the approaching winter months.
We also have a few announcements for you, namely reminders of the upcoming end of Steam sale, as well as the rapidly approaching closure of submissions for Steam Awards nominations!
Read on Underlord.
Hotfix Patch 1.6.66f1
Our development imps have been hard at work for the past week addressing some issues you highlighted to us in the latest patch. As always we’ve looked to resolve any reports as efficiently and speedily as possible, and we’re always looking for more. Never ones to cease our constructive efforts though, there are a few minor improvements sprinkled on top of this hotfix too.
Gameplay
- Volcanic Bridge spell can now be cast on Blood tiles
- When you sell a defence or construct on a Stone Bridge it will no longer also sell the bridge
- Removed push forces caused by livestock and Ghouls, meaning they can no longer push other units, but can be pushed themselves
Visual Changes
- Reduced the saturation on the instruction arrow, making it a little less obnoxious
- Small visual changes to the Spirit Chamber
- Some corrections to the possession view of units based off the “Lord O’theland” model
Text Updates
- Updated Juggernaut name to make it more appropriate in Simplified and Traditional Chinese
- Updated mutator tooltips to give more information about disabling Fortified Walls, and disabling the ability to dig them out (all languages)
- Fixed a few typos
Miscellaneous
- Updated Unity Engine to 5.4.6f3 from 5.4.5p5 yielding a few minor improvements
- Please note that game engine updates are complicated affairs and can cause unexpected issues. This is only a minor leap and we believe we caught every issue, but please don’t hesitate to report anything that seems out of place.
- Added secret holiday cheer!
- Removed some unused audio.
Bug Fixes
- Sacred Earth will now display the correct gold texture in the icy terrain theme
- Fixed an issue where prisoner AI would continue to search for a bed to make in the Lair, which they could not reach, causing performance issues when a player had many prisoners
- Icy terrain theme should now load more consistently
- Empire Workers should now only play Empire audio
- Fixed a number of issues with the Ember Rift textures
- Unit animations should now slide slightly less when the animation displays them as stationary
Steam Sale Ending Soon
Before we begin the main course below, we thought we’d make a shoutout to remind you all that the Steam sale will be ending tomorrow! If you’re yet to embrace your dark side, WFTO products are up to 72% off. Don’t miss your chance!
Last Chance to Help WFTO Become “The Labour of Love”
(Click to expand) We’d like to take a moment to thank every single person who has supported our bid to become “The Labour of Love” in the 2017 Steam Awards. When we scrambled to post up our appeal to our fans, we could not have imagined the response we’d receive! The positive feedback was so overwhelming, and we simply cannot thank you enough. In our bid we talked about our journey: the work, energy and lifeforce that we have poured into War for the Overworld; the trials and tribulations that we’ve faced, and with them how the strength and support of our community has helped us drive WFTO to become something truly worthwhile. Your response has driven that home more than ever. The fact is that there’s a great deal with the WFTO project that we were not happy with. The launch stands chief among them, where we made so many mistakes. We’ve always been hard on ourselves, but also driven to make WFTO something truly special. Nevertheless, there’s been a looming spectre of our numerous failures in the project, which has hung over us for a long time. When we made our bid last week, we did so knowing that we had done a lot for WFTO and our customers, but not knowing what that had truly meant to you. To be told by so many of you that we deserve such a nomination was deeply touching and extremely humbling. You showed us that the work we’ve put in from the very start, past release, and right up to today is praiseworthy; and that although WFTO may never be the perfect child we want it to be, that it has some right to claim a spot as a respected title. What more can a developer wish for with their first project? So from everyone at Brightrock Games, we’d like to humbly thank everybody who took the time to nominate us, leave a comment, or even leave us a review. We cannot thank you enough for an incredible five years!
We want to give an extra special shoutout to everyone who left a review, because you’ve raised us past the 78% barrier on Steam! This 1% may not seem like much, but it means a whole lot to us! As a small reward, here’s one more teaser of our upcoming content.
From concept to work-in-progress VFX!
If you’re not sure what all this is about, you can read our bid for the award here. If you’d like to support us (and you don’t already have a deserving nomination for the category!) then you can do so on our store page. Thank you all once again, and remember, Underlord: Keep it evil. Cheers, – Brightrock Games Team Discuss this update on the Steam Discussion Boards Click here to chat about this update on our Discord Never miss an update! Sign up to our newsletter!
Help us become "The Labour of Love"
War for the Overworld has dominated our lives for the five years since we successfully funded the project on Kickstarter, not a day has gone by where some work hasn't been poured into it on some level. It's no secret that we've had our ups and downs and that the journey has been fraught with challenges and hurdles including one of the most disastrous launches a newly formed indie developer could imagine. But through it all we've stayed strong, we reaffirmed our commitments to our backers, customers, fans and the game itself. We've worked hard, sometimes through nights, weekends and holidays and into the next morning to see WFTO take the shape we hoped it would. We've released patch after patch, update after update bringing new features, fixes and releases. We've deployed platforms to help us best facilitate your needs and we've taken on board as much community feedback as we can. We have built our company, Brightrock Games around our community. Our hope that one-day WFTO could live up to the lofty expectations both we and our fans have for it. We've done so much in the 5 years of development, not least bring a uniquely challenging and large scoped game to life. In just over two and half years since the launch from early-access we've:
For us all here at Brightrock Games, War for the Overworld has truly a labour of love and we hope that you will consider us for your nomination in "The Labour of Love" category! If you believe that we are worthy then you can vote for us on our store page (or just grab the game at a huge discount!) Thank you for your support, Cheers, – Brightrock Games Team Discuss this update on the Steam Discussion Boards Click here to chat about this update on our Discord Never miss an update! Sign up to our newsletter!
[ 2017-11-22 20:56:11 CET ] [ Original post ]
Darkest greetings Underlord,
We have a somewhat peculiar and spontaneous announcement for you today. As you have no doubt noticed the Steam Sale is now live (WFTO products up to 72% off!) but also the nominations are now open for the Steam Awards of 2017.
We'd like to humbly request that our fans, customers and fellow Underlords consider nominating WFTO for the "Labour of Love" category. A category defined by the commitment shown by a developer towards their game and community long after the release of the game itself.
We know that this must appear somewhat self-serving and it is not usually in our nature to seek any sort of recognition beyond the appreciation we already receive from our fans for the work we do. But we felt that this category so accurately summed up our journey with WFTO thus far and where we hope to take it over the coming months.
To help illustrate our commitment we've even (very hastily) prepared a small infographic about this journey.
(Click to expand)
If you're happy with all that you can head straight to our store page if you're happy to nominate us.
For the Journey
War for the Overworld has dominated our lives for the five years since we successfully funded the project on Kickstarter, not a day has gone by where some work hasn't been poured into it on some level. It's no secret that we've had our ups and downs and that the journey has been fraught with challenges and hurdles including one of the most disastrous launches a newly formed indie developer could imagine. But through it all we've stayed strong, we reaffirmed our commitments to our backers, customers, fans and the game itself. We've worked hard, sometimes through nights, weekends and holidays and into the next morning to see WFTO take the shape we hoped it would. We've released patch after patch, update after update bringing new features, fixes and releases. We've deployed platforms to help us best facilitate your needs and we've taken on board as much community feedback as we can. We have built our company, Brightrock Games around our community. Our hope that one-day WFTO could live up to the lofty expectations both we and our fans have for it. We've done so much in the 5 years of development, not least bring a uniquely challenging and large scoped game to life. In just over two and half years since the launch from early-access we've:
- Released 56 Free Patches, 6 Major and encompassing over 2400 fixes, changes and features
- Added much requested features like the Map Editor into the mix
- Introduced new game modes through the Crucible and My Pet Dungeon expansions
- Pushed out maps, balance adjustments and much more as fast as we can
- Released three expansion
- Heart of Gold - We gave away free to anyone who owned the game up to one month after launch
- Crucible - Which was free for everyone!
- My Pet Dugeon - Developed at huge community request, and offered on a try before you buy basis!
- Underlord AI Overhaul
- A New Single-Player campaign with focus on Underlords & Replayability
- More than half a dozen new aspects in the Veins of Evil!
- New Dungeon Themes
- More Map Editor features (Yes including My Pet Dungeon support!)
For us all here at Brightrock Games, War for the Overworld has truly a labour of love and we hope that you will consider us for your nomination in "The Labour of Love" category! If you believe that we are worthy then you can vote for us on our store page (or just grab the game at a huge discount!) Thank you for your support, Cheers, – Brightrock Games Team Discuss this update on the Steam Discussion Boards Click here to chat about this update on our Discord Never miss an update! Sign up to our newsletter!
Patch 1.6.66 Release Notes
As announced in our previous post, and in today’s announcement, we’re proud to reveal that the discontinued European languages are now updated and back in the game, and we’ll be continuing their support into the future! We welcome your feedback!
Spirit
Assembly
[ 2017-11-16 15:16:16 CET ] [ Original post ]
Darkest greetings Underlord,
The patch number of the beast marks an auspicious occasion for our fans in a number of countries over on the continent! At long last we’re in a position to update our unsupported but not forgotten European languages, and bring them in line with the English, French, German, and Chinese localisations.
You can read our full announcement post here.
European Languages Return!
As announced in our previous post, and in today’s announcement, we’re proud to reveal that the discontinued European languages are now updated and back in the game, and we’ll be continuing their support into the future! We welcome your feedback!
- Updated previously deprecated European Languages to include all the game’s text updates since Patch 1.0.1:
- Spanish
- Italian
- Polish
- Russian
- Added subtitles in various pre-rendered cinematics throughout the game for the above languages
Gameplay Changes
Units
Spirit
- Can no longer pass through Possession Doors
- Can no longer pass through Possession Doors
Constructs
- Constructs may no longer be placed inside shrines or Dungeon Cores
Rituals
Assembly
- Now has an effect if used twice on the same defence.
AI Improvements
- Workers will no longer attack anything except rival Workers, regardless of how high their chances are to win. This is to keep them on task when working near low-threat objects such as doors.
Mutator Changes
- Extra Workers granted by increasing the default minimum Worker amount no longer grant mana when sacrificed in the Dungeon Core
- Undiggable walls can no longer be tagged
- Wall tooltips will now update to correctly reflect if undiggable walls is enabled
Performance Optimisations
- Improved the performance of Worker scouting behaviour
- Optimised unit behaviour to significantly reduce “garbage” created on unit spawn
Game Text Updates
- Clarified the mutator behaviour on tooltips for disabling Fortified Walls, and disabling the ability to dig them out, in relation to certain Aspects (prompted by a user forum issue)
Visual Changes
- Small improvements to Slaughterpen lights
- Increased brightness of Slaughterpen slightly
Miscellaneous
- Gold Piles will now be placed up to 17 tiles from where they are dropped in the Vault, rather than 5
- Achievements for My Pet Dungeon unlockable themes are now listed in level order on the unlocks screen
Bug Fixes
General
- Fixed an issue that allowed units to teleport into walls/map border
Gameplay
- When a Dungeon Core is claimed, the gold it held now correctly enters the new owner’s Vaults
- The Garrison buff will no longer incorrectly stack for multiple activated props
- Aureate Monoliths now correctly update the minimap after use
- Removed Last Stand from Templar abilities list as the ability had been disabled for some time
Levels
- Fixed an incorrectly rotated “corridor” on My Pet Dungeon level Ponygrasp
Visuals
- Highlight effect on the Dwarven Dungeon Core should no longer present with visual artifacting
- Garrison prop range corrected, now more representative of actual range
- Corrected a minor clipping VFX in the Spirit Chamber
Audio
- Removed duplicate line from War for the Overworld Level 3
- Fixed some errors caused by missing audio on War for the Overworld Level 3
- Arcane Chunder now correctly uses the Chunder voice
- The Arcanist boss should now correctly play her post sleep voice-over Necromancer, Gnarling, and Chunder all now issue battle cries when in the Arena
- Gave Duke and Duchess missing voice-over from their base unit
- Vampire now correctly plays his eating voice-over when in the Tavern
Multiplayer
- Fixed missing VFX and SFX for Lightning and Shockwave spells for clients
- Fixed missing animation and effects on Bombards for clients
Text
- Made "fortified wall" a proper noun on tooltips for Siege Shrine, Underminer, and Augrum Wall (consistency issue)
- Fixed a tooltip typo for the Ember Demon Rally Flag
- Fixed the time limit on the War for the Overworld Level 5 timed achievement, so that it now correctly reads 23 minutes, not 18 (in Simplified and Traditional Chinese)
Spanish, Italian, Polish, and Russian Return Triumphantly
All game content released after the initial April 2015 launch has been localised into Spanish, Italian, Polish, and Russian, by our professional localisation partner. This brings these languages up to speed with the English, French, German, and Chinese, and means that their translations are now 100% complete! Naturally, this covers quite a sizeable amount of content, not least the three expansions that have come since launch: Heart of Gold, Crucible, and My Pet Dungeon! But that’s not all. It also covers:
We talked about this in our previous post on the subject, and what it boils down to is that the initial translations were graciously handled and paid for by our physical-publishing partner; after launch, no additional funds were apportioned to support the ongoing localisation of content. We assessed the possibility of continued support for all languages, but unfortunately could not justify maintaining all of them at that time with the limited resources at our disposal. We’ve never been happy that these languages fell by the wayside. But today they return to front-line service!
We must also once again take a moment to thank the stalwart bastion of community translators, who stepped up to fill the void left when support for Spanish, Italian, Polish, and Russian was withdrawn. Thanks to these people, there has still been an option for players of some of these languages - not to mention that they have also brought the game to languages we have never been able to support officially! So from the whole Brightrock Games team: thank you! We cannot ever demonstrate enough our appreciation for all the hard work you’ve put in as community translators; but if you head on over to your personal developer forums on your Steam Workshop items, you will find codes for each listed member of your team. These will grant you access to the exclusive Golden Worker skin, awarded only to the most dedicated members of our community!
All community translations still exist, both on the Steam Workshop and in our own Foundry content repository; so if you as a player have a preferred fan translation, you can still happily load it in. We’re also more than happy to take feedback from our fans on the new official translations, so please feel free to share your thoughts!
The new official localisations were released today as part of the fiendishly named, Patch 1.6.66, which also contains a number of bug fixes. We have prepared full release notes for your perusal (English only). Now we must leave you, and return to the depths of the Underworld; Patch 2.0 and Expansion 4 won’t unearth themselves, after all. So until next time, Underlord: Keep it evil. Cheers, – Brightrock Games Team Discuss this update on the Steam Discussion Boards Click here to chat about this update on our Discord Never miss an update! Sign up to our newsletter!
[ 2017-11-16 15:15:50 CET ] [ Original post ]
Darkest greetings Underlord,
You may recall in the not-too-distant past that we announced the return to War for the Overworld of the four languages we were unable to support post-launch; namely Spanish, Italian, Polish, and Russian. Well, our translators have been beavering away like a colony of Workers who’ve just had a Work-A-Lot potion smashed over their heads!
So lo and behold, with today’s release of Patch 1.6.66, the new localisations are now live in the game! It is our hope that they will be as well-received as our recent Chinese release.
What Has Been Localised?
All game content released after the initial April 2015 launch has been localised into Spanish, Italian, Polish, and Russian, by our professional localisation partner. This brings these languages up to speed with the English, French, German, and Chinese, and means that their translations are now 100% complete! Naturally, this covers quite a sizeable amount of content, not least the three expansions that have come since launch: Heart of Gold, Crucible, and My Pet Dungeon! But that’s not all. It also covers:
- Subtitles for the voiced Dynamic Tutorial System
- Closed captions for the pre-rendered cinematics
- Names and descriptions for the full range of Skirmish and Sandbox maps
- All the title-screen and miscellaneous narrator lines
- Map Editor user-interfaces
- Mutator user-interfaces
- And more!
Why Did We Leave These Languages Languishing?
We talked about this in our previous post on the subject, and what it boils down to is that the initial translations were graciously handled and paid for by our physical-publishing partner; after launch, no additional funds were apportioned to support the ongoing localisation of content. We assessed the possibility of continued support for all languages, but unfortunately could not justify maintaining all of them at that time with the limited resources at our disposal. We’ve never been happy that these languages fell by the wayside. But today they return to front-line service!
Community Translations
We must also once again take a moment to thank the stalwart bastion of community translators, who stepped up to fill the void left when support for Spanish, Italian, Polish, and Russian was withdrawn. Thanks to these people, there has still been an option for players of some of these languages - not to mention that they have also brought the game to languages we have never been able to support officially! So from the whole Brightrock Games team: thank you! We cannot ever demonstrate enough our appreciation for all the hard work you’ve put in as community translators; but if you head on over to your personal developer forums on your Steam Workshop items, you will find codes for each listed member of your team. These will grant you access to the exclusive Golden Worker skin, awarded only to the most dedicated members of our community!
All community translations still exist, both on the Steam Workshop and in our own Foundry content repository; so if you as a player have a preferred fan translation, you can still happily load it in. We’re also more than happy to take feedback from our fans on the new official translations, so please feel free to share your thoughts!
Patch 1.6.66
The new official localisations were released today as part of the fiendishly named, Patch 1.6.66, which also contains a number of bug fixes. We have prepared full release notes for your perusal (English only). Now we must leave you, and return to the depths of the Underworld; Patch 2.0 and Expansion 4 won’t unearth themselves, after all. So until next time, Underlord: Keep it evil. Cheers, – Brightrock Games Team Discuss this update on the Steam Discussion Boards Click here to chat about this update on our Discord Never miss an update! Sign up to our newsletter!
Patch 1.6.5 Now Available!
Cultist
Blood Money
My Pet Dungeon
Crashes
[ 2017-10-18 18:10:58 CET ] [ Original post ]
Darkest Greetings Underlord,
With the Chinese language release successfully completed, we’ve not stopped for a moment immediately moving to address any issues that have been reported to us. The release itself has been fantastic and we have to thank our community for the incredible reception and support we’ve seen.
We hope our continued support and the features, improvements and fixes below help to demonstrate our commitment to delivering the best experience possible and that we can repay all the dedication shown by our community over the many years of WFTOs life!
We also have great news for anyone affected by the startup loading issue where the loading bar would freeze, by working with our partners at GOG.com we have identified the cause and have moved to fix the third-party DLL that was causing the issue. Hopefully this should now be resolved and you should be able to play the game. We’d love to receive feedback on this to confirm!
Read on for the full patch notes!
Gameplay Changes
General
- It is now vastly easier to grab gold piles from vaults
Units
Cultist
- Toned down the Cultist debuff stacking effect which previously allowed a stack of three cultists to one shot a level 10 unit
Spells
Blood Money
- Gold Statues can now be claimed
- On Neutral ground will remain with their previous owner
- When the tile below them is claimed the statue will become owned by the new tile’s owner
- Gold Statues can be dropped on allied tiles to transfer ownership
Audio Changes
- New Audio setting “Unit Voice Volume” added, separating it from the primary SFX slider
Visual Changes
- Units dropped into Tavern Spitroast now fall in and play and SFX while being mulched
- The Dungeon Core in the menu scene plays now a pulsating VFX as intended
- Made some improvements to the Foundry textures
Map Editor Changes
- The “Paint Gold” tool in map editor now places gold piles on ground tiles, in addition to vaults or wall blocks
- Vaults in map editor which have had gold added (via “Paint Gold”) no longer spawn loose gold piles when removed
- “Paint Gold” can remove gold from vaults and tiles
Level Changes
My Pet Dungeon
- The MPD Tutorial video now has Spanish, Italian, Russian and Polish subtitles
Miscellaneous Improvements
- Several improvements to game text
- Removed some walls in the Main menu to reduce clipping on camera transitions
- Removed unnecessary logs which could eventually cause the game to slow down
Bug Fixes
Crashes
- Fixed an issue with a GOG Library causing an loading error which prevented some users from starting the game, becoming stuck on the loading screen
- Fixed an issue where the Oculus slimy SFX continued playing even if it has been killed (until fully rotten) or transformed into a golden statue
- Fixed an issue that made a loaded skirmish map incompletable when it was saved a split second before the win condition was met
- Fixed an issue that made Garrison duplicate its buff on blocks in range each time it was reactivated
- Fixed an issue where the Beast Den would never be upgraded if a non-upgraded Beast Den was removed before upgrading
- Fixed an issue where the Garrisons active state ring would not show after saving and loading
- Fixed an issue which would made prisons with a certain non rectangular diagonal layout (stair like) spawn rats into the map origin (location 0,0,0) rather than into the prison, after many months of listening to walls and yelling “They’re in the frakin ship!”
- Fixed an issue where units would not be removed from minimap when not killed by a normal attack (eg. tortured)
- Fixed an issue where dropped units never have shields again if "Always show" is selected for shields in the options menu
- Fixed an issue which caused log spam when a flying unit was fleeing too low over chasm, probably causing the game to lag for a moment
- Fixed map editor placed doors were logically closed but visually open when they were set to open and “Disable AI Control” was selected
- Fixed an issue which made artefacts not disappear from the artefact panel after being used when they were already present in a save game
- Fixed an issue where the menu scene would not transition to the correct part of the menu dungeon after the Load button was clicked
Chinese Release, Sale, Worker Language News!
We’re happy to announce that for the past few months we’ve been working on a Chinese localisation of the game. This work is now complete, and as of today we have officially launched WFTO in China, with both simplified and traditional localisations!
When loading into the game you’ll now find the new language selections in the Options menu. If your computer has either simplified or traditional Chinese selected as its default language, the game should load into that language automatically. The whole game has been completely translated from start to finish, but please let us know if there’s anything missing! To celebrate the Chinese launch, our perky mascot, Stumpy the Blood Imp, has donned a delightful new costume, to show his appreciation to all our Chinese fans!
But that’s not all we’re doing to celebrate the new release! From 5th to 18th of October there will be big discounts across all WFTO content on Steam, GOG.com as well as a number of other partners, not least a 70% discount on the base game!
And still there’s more! We’ve spent the last few weeks working on a few new features, improvements and fixes to help further enhance your experience in WFTO. As such, Patch 1.6.4 is now seeing the light of day, and it’s certainly not insignificant! You can of course read the full patch notes here; but to give you a brief taste, here are the headlines:
With all this talk about the Chinese localisation, we’re sure there are many of our fans wondering about the existing and deprecated European languages - namely Italian, Spanish, Russian, and Polish, which we’ve unfortunately been unable to maintain since the original launch. We’ve talked at length about this decision in the past, but the long and short of it is that the initial localisations were handled by our physical publishing partner, who graciously arranged and paid for the localisations. After release, no additional funds were apportioned for the maintenance of these languages, and upon making our cost assessment, we could not justify continued support for all languages at the time. We’ve never been happy with this state of affairs, and we know that this feeling is reflected across our fan base. We’ve always wanted to return to the deprecated languages, and now we’re finally in a position to do so. So we’re proud to announce that at long last we’re once again working with our localisation partners, to return official and complete support to Italian, Spanish, Russian, and Polish languages. This process will be commencing hot on the heels of the Chinese release, though it is a substantial undertaking (WFTO is a surprisingly text-heavy game) - we will update you on progress over the coming months. We’d like to thank all our fans for their patience in waiting for these localisations. We know it has been a difficult road, and we’re sorry for the delay in returning these to active status. We’d also like to thank those that have stepped in with community translations - these will of course be going nowhere, and will still be available from the Steam Workshop, should you prefer to use them. So, that just about wraps up our update. Don’t forget the big discounts that are now available on WFTO content for the next two weeks. Until next time, Underlord: Keep it evil. Cheers, – Brightrock Games Team Discuss this update on the Steam Discussion Boards Click here to chat about this update on our Discord Never miss an update! Sign up to our newsletter!
[ 2017-10-05 17:07:41 CET ] [ Original post ]
Darkest greetings Underlord,
Following our update last month we’ve been hard at work returning to the world of War for the Overworld, and beginning to pile in on the upcoming Patch 2.0 and Expansion 4. While we work on these we have a few more items of news to announce, not least that there are currently big discounts across WFTO content, to coincide with our new patch!.
But first of all we have a big announcement for a growing portion of our community!
China Release, Dragon Worker Skin, and New Sale!
We’re happy to announce that for the past few months we’ve been working on a Chinese localisation of the game. This work is now complete, and as of today we have officially launched WFTO in China, with both simplified and traditional localisations!
- People of China, meet the people of Kairos!
When loading into the game you’ll now find the new language selections in the Options menu. If your computer has either simplified or traditional Chinese selected as its default language, the game should load into that language automatically. The whole game has been completely translated from start to finish, but please let us know if there’s anything missing! To celebrate the Chinese launch, our perky mascot, Stumpy the Blood Imp, has donned a delightful new costume, to show his appreciation to all our Chinese fans!
- Enter the Dragon
But that’s not all we’re doing to celebrate the new release! From 5th to 18th of October there will be big discounts across all WFTO content on Steam, GOG.com as well as a number of other partners, not least a 70% discount on the base game!
Patch 1.6.4 Now Live!
And still there’s more! We’ve spent the last few weeks working on a few new features, improvements and fixes to help further enhance your experience in WFTO. As such, Patch 1.6.4 is now seeing the light of day, and it’s certainly not insignificant! You can of course read the full patch notes here; but to give you a brief taste, here are the headlines:
- Added 14 new Skirmish and Scenario maps
- Significant performance improvements which should yield positive results especially on lower specced GPUs, up to 25% gains in FPS and reduced Stutter.
- Dozens of changes and bug fixes
European Languages Return
With all this talk about the Chinese localisation, we’re sure there are many of our fans wondering about the existing and deprecated European languages - namely Italian, Spanish, Russian, and Polish, which we’ve unfortunately been unable to maintain since the original launch. We’ve talked at length about this decision in the past, but the long and short of it is that the initial localisations were handled by our physical publishing partner, who graciously arranged and paid for the localisations. After release, no additional funds were apportioned for the maintenance of these languages, and upon making our cost assessment, we could not justify continued support for all languages at the time. We’ve never been happy with this state of affairs, and we know that this feeling is reflected across our fan base. We’ve always wanted to return to the deprecated languages, and now we’re finally in a position to do so. So we’re proud to announce that at long last we’re once again working with our localisation partners, to return official and complete support to Italian, Spanish, Russian, and Polish languages. This process will be commencing hot on the heels of the Chinese release, though it is a substantial undertaking (WFTO is a surprisingly text-heavy game) - we will update you on progress over the coming months. We’d like to thank all our fans for their patience in waiting for these localisations. We know it has been a difficult road, and we’re sorry for the delay in returning these to active status. We’d also like to thank those that have stepped in with community translations - these will of course be going nowhere, and will still be available from the Steam Workshop, should you prefer to use them. So, that just about wraps up our update. Don’t forget the big discounts that are now available on WFTO content for the next two weeks. Until next time, Underlord: Keep it evil. Cheers, – Brightrock Games Team Discuss this update on the Steam Discussion Boards Click here to chat about this update on our Discord Never miss an update! Sign up to our newsletter!
Patch 1.6.4 Release Notes
As of today War for the Overworld is now available in Traditional and Simplified Chinese, you can read our full announcement here.
To celebrate the Chinese release we’ve unleashed a special worker skin upon the world.
The Dragon Worker has a very special unlock condition, upon logging into the game between now and Chinese New Year (In February) you will be treated to a special achievement and find the new worker already available in game. Should you miss this window it will be available again every Chinese New Year!
Once again we’re introducing a number of new maps all loving crafted by our excellent team of volunteer QA members. As always a huge thank you to them for their time and efforts, be sure to give them a pat on the back if you see them.
We’ve implemented a number of significant performance optimisations which should greatly enhance game experience, especially on lower end GPUs. We’re really pleased with these improvements and of course we’ll continue to keep seeking opportunities to further improve the performance of the game.
Lockshackle (My Pet Dungeon)
Styx
Crashes
[ 2017-10-05 17:03:04 CET ] [ Original post ]
Darkest Greetings Underlord,
As part of the unleashing the huge undertaking of supporting an entirely new language we’ve developed a large number of fixes and improvements to your game! Want to know more about the aforementioned language? Read here! Otherwise, read on for all the awesome changes that have come in Patch 1.6.4!
Chinese Language Support
As of today War for the Overworld is now available in Traditional and Simplified Chinese, you can read our full announcement here.
Special Worker Skin - Dragon Worker
To celebrate the Chinese release we’ve unleashed a special worker skin upon the world.
The Dragon Worker has a very special unlock condition, upon logging into the game between now and Chinese New Year (In February) you will be treated to a special achievement and find the new worker already available in game. Should you miss this window it will be available again every Chinese New Year!
New Maps
Once again we’re introducing a number of new maps all loving crafted by our excellent team of volunteer QA members. As always a huge thank you to them for their time and efforts, be sure to give them a pat on the back if you see them.
Localisation & Community Translations
- Cutscenes now showing subtitles on all cinematics
- Improved reliability of game loading into the correct language
Performance Optimisations
We’ve implemented a number of significant performance optimisations which should greatly enhance game experience, especially on lower end GPUs. We’re really pleased with these improvements and of course we’ll continue to keep seeking opportunities to further improve the performance of the game.
- Numerous Performance Optimisations with up to 25% increased FPS and reduced stutter:
- Implemented a new deferred renderer
- Optimised Unit Shields
- Improved Minimap Performance
- Refactored a number of older scripts for to improve performance in newer Unity versions
- Improved Animations to reduce memory & rendering load
- Improved Floating Emoticon performance
- Optimised dynamic battle music performance
- General pathfinding performance improvements
- Huge vaults now build and destroy much faster
Sound Changes
- Vastly improved battle music system to improve reactivity in combat
- Sound Effects volume slider now affects more sounds
- Spirits now play an appropriate death sound
- Added an attack sound to the Archon
- Improved Audio Levels during cutscenes
Visual Changes
- Piggy Projectiles in the tavern are now appropriately flambeed
- Improved image quality of Floating Emoticons and Unit Shields
- Improved Animations when units eat piglets in the Slaughterpen
- Added a new Kasita Hand and Pickaxe
- Improved Cutscene Quality
- Added Warden Work Animation
- Added VFX on Juggernaut Work
- Traing dummys in the Barracks are now more reactive to hits
- Improved menu transitions
- Improved visuals on the Wormhole potion
- Brightened the Walls, Floor and Tiles of the Mira theme to bring them in line with the rest of the theme
- Improved Alchemy Lab lights
- Updated the main menu
- Chunders now play work animation
- Skarg plays sleep animation
- Fixed brightness of the campaign map
- Realigned torture chamber vfx
Multiplayer Changes
- The minimum character limit for creating a lobby in Multiplayer has been reduced to 1
Level Changes
Lockshackle (My Pet Dungeon)
- Beasts will no longer become angry on this level
Skirmish Maps
Styx
- Replaced Artefacts of Greater Sin with Artefacts of Sin
- Added extra outer defenses for the Empire
- Changed inner water areas to use Empire Water tileset
- Changed Wooden Bridges to Empire Granite Bridges
- Changed Artefacts of Greater Sin back to Artefacts of Sin (unintended change)
- Set Destroyable setting of Empire Gateways to True so they can no longer be captured.
- Moved the Core of all players closer to the middle of the continent, distance between players is now equal
- Fortified path between players with Augrum Walls
- Tweaked central area, now with more building space and gold!
Miscellaneous Improvements
- Upgraded to Unity 5.4.5p5
- Updated game credits
- Tutorial videos are now played from a local file rather than streamed
- Port Forwarding Advice link now takes players to the updated Userecho Article
- Clicking on the Port Forwarding Advice link will no longer revert the player to the main menu upon return
- Gold Statues can now be dropped on allied ground and thus transferred into an Ally’s control
Bug Fixes
Crashes
- Possessing a Piglet that gets placed into an Oven will no longer soft lock the game
- Fixed an issue that could cause the game to seize on startup, this only affects the GOG version
- Double clicking buttons on the main menu will no longer cause them to disappear
- Fixed an issue which prevented dynamic battle music from playing
- An Empire owned tile will no longer appear next to the player’s Dungeon Core on Lagoon (Sandbox)
- Ghouls now correctly follow necromancers on Snowhope (MPD)
- Rhaskos’ Dungoen on Hell’s Deep (MPD) is now correctly revealed by Revelation
- Optional Objective on Hell’s Deep (MPD) now correctly required Rhaskos to be defeated to complete
- Home Realm can no longer be restarted as intended
- Incorrect number of Democorns will no longer be present after reloading Ponygrasp (MPD)
- Volcanic Bridges on Lavafall and Caldera now correctly have lava beneath them instead of Water
- Reported Map Size should be consistent in all menus now
- Fixed an exploit which allowed access to locked MPD levels without owning the DLC
- Fixed map editor placed beast den for a single faction showing black incorrect tooltips
- Fixed an issue wherre Garrisons in range of a Posession door never activated
- Fixed an issue that resulted in defences being buffed multiple times by a garrison
- Prevented tavern getting stuck when a table was deleted.
- Tavern table now has correct amount of need satisfiers
- Fixed an issue where Inhibitor’s would no longer be owned by the Empire if the Empire player had a Dungeon Core that was destroyed
- You can no longer cast a number of Warband associated abilities (Such as Add to Warband or Peaceband) on the Warband icons. Preventing such things as accidentally adding all units to the Peaceband
- Added handling of units in walls on map load that got there from saving under extreme lag conditions
- Fixed workers refusing to mine golden rats and piggies
- Fixed up the frostweaver animsation and prevented the passive ability triggering the hit animation
- When you mine Walls as a possessed worker, your workers will now correctly claim the tiles
- Fixed an issue that prevented workers from collecting gold/defence parts
- Neutral Vampires should no longer die in Prisons
- Titan Sin Summoning cost increase now also increases the excess Sin Cap to allow late-game summoning after all aspects are researched
- Prevented Siege shrine effect persisting after level change
- Alchemy Artefact now correctly works for clients
- Improved Forge spell reliability in MP for clients
- Fixed an issue that caused some defences and constructs to never build in MP
- Fixed Unit mood constantly showing as “Content” for clients
- Fixed the orientation on the Temple Guard’s shield
- Corrected an issue that caused some parts of the Archons neck to be split
- Evil Arcane Portcullis is no longer incorrectly rotated
- Fixed a number of broken team colour instances on Theme ceilings
- Possession door projector added
- Fixed rotated tile in mira theme water
- Fixed founders theme core floating
- Fixed projector wall not being the right size when building aureate monolith
- Removed red tiles in Empire Sanctuary
- Ally & Enemy Titan canceled icon improvements
- Fixed golden statues returning to their original after save & load
- Fixed Canceling selection of a min. 3x3 room leaves a blue mark in prop place
- Prevented an issue which could cause the menu to animate off of the screen
- Adjusted team colouring for Dwarf floor tile
- Numerous Text & Translation fixes
Upcoming Steam Pricing Adjustments, New Currencies
As you may be aware, regional prices on Steam are advised by Valve, and yesterday we received an email informing us that they had updated their pricing matrix. The changes have introduced several new currencies into Steam’s systems to offer a better customer experience for these regions. They have also adjusted existing prices to better reflect the strength of those currencies against the US dollar, and the local purchasing power of those regions. As such, with the exception of the USD, which prices are based off, and the Euro, which remains unchanged, all other currencies in the matrix now have new advised values. Items have either increased or decreased in price from their current standings, in most cases by relatively minor amounts. As this is the first major change to advised regional pricings for many years, we have considered the advised changes carefully, weighing up the repercussions for both ourselves and our customers. We’ve considered how this works into our continued support of WFTO and our future as a company, as well as how it may affect your lives. From this careful deliberation we have decided not to follow the advised changes to the letter. Rather, we will only be adopting the advised prices where the relative cost of the game in local currencies has decreased compared to previous values. We will not be increasing the price of the game for any region.
As a business we recognise the need to maintain appropriate levels of pricing, as the strengths of various currencies and buying powers across the world fluctuate; the advice offered by Valve in this regard is both appropriate and fair. It is a fact that many economies are in very different positions to where they were years ago, when these prices last changed, and that in most cases the price of video games has not risen in line with inflation, despite increasing development costs. Simply put, Valve’s advice is something that we expect many publishers to follow, and we believe that for the good of the industry this is a sensible action. With that said, Valve also advised developers to “always do what’s best for your players”, and this is something that resonates strongly with us. As a team of not just dedicated developers but also gamers and consumers, we want to ensure that the game can continue to reach a wide audience who will enjoy it for years to come. As a British-based developer, we know firsthand what it’s like to live in a country where the economy is in flux due to recent political changes; we know what it’s like to feel the squeeze of a currency weakening, and we don’t want that to be a barrier to the enjoyment of our games. Furthermore, we do not wish latecomers to feel as though they are punished, especially as WFTO is now an ageing game - one which is still supported and developed, but ageing nonetheless. We do not believe it would be as fair on those affected by price increases as it might be for a new title. We also believe in pricing our products based on our perception of what is fair for the work we’ve dedicated to them, and for now we do not feel that there is a need to increase any prices to achieve this.
With all this said and done, we plan to review our pricing at least once a year, and we can’t say what will happen when we do so. We cannot rightly say that price increases will be off the table if we feel they are appropriate, though they will always be carefully considered; and regardless of any changes, we’ll be sure to inform you appropriately. Rest assured that we would never ever increase the price of any of our products without giving you a window of warning. It should also go without saying that we will of course follow Valve’s guidelines for any future titles, and as such you can expect the next expansion to use the advised pricing structure. But as always we will aim to ensure that our prices are not only fair for our team but also our fans. And of course we’re always happy to receive feedback from you on any of these matters. It’s important to us that you feel your voice is heard, so please don’t hesitate to get in touch through any of our channels. Now, after that incredible wall of text, here’s the nitty-gritty of the changes:
The pricing of all WFTO products in the following currencies has been reduced to reflect the new pricing matrix. We have submitted the pricing changes and expect them to be approved by Valve within the next few days, so if you're amongst the following currencies keep your eyes peeled for reduced prices in the near future.
The following local currencies are now supported by Steam, and as such these regions have new prices in line with the pricing matrix. As above we have submitted the changes to allow these currencies and expect them to be approved in the coming days and weeks. The actual time will depend on Steam of course.
[ 2017-09-21 16:29:27 CET ] [ Original post ]
Darkest greetings Underlord,
We have a short and sudden announcement today regarding the pricing of War for the Overworld for several regions around the world, as well as our pricing strategy moving forward. This is all part of our continuing efforts to be as transparent as possible in our business practises, and should in no way reflect on any company other than ourselves.
We’re making this announcement today to make it clear why certain actions are being taken and because we didn’t want you, our customers, to be caught off guard.
What’s This All About?
As you may be aware, regional prices on Steam are advised by Valve, and yesterday we received an email informing us that they had updated their pricing matrix. The changes have introduced several new currencies into Steam’s systems to offer a better customer experience for these regions. They have also adjusted existing prices to better reflect the strength of those currencies against the US dollar, and the local purchasing power of those regions. As such, with the exception of the USD, which prices are based off, and the Euro, which remains unchanged, all other currencies in the matrix now have new advised values. Items have either increased or decreased in price from their current standings, in most cases by relatively minor amounts. As this is the first major change to advised regional pricings for many years, we have considered the advised changes carefully, weighing up the repercussions for both ourselves and our customers. We’ve considered how this works into our continued support of WFTO and our future as a company, as well as how it may affect your lives. From this careful deliberation we have decided not to follow the advised changes to the letter. Rather, we will only be adopting the advised prices where the relative cost of the game in local currencies has decreased compared to previous values. We will not be increasing the price of the game for any region.
Why No Increase?
As a business we recognise the need to maintain appropriate levels of pricing, as the strengths of various currencies and buying powers across the world fluctuate; the advice offered by Valve in this regard is both appropriate and fair. It is a fact that many economies are in very different positions to where they were years ago, when these prices last changed, and that in most cases the price of video games has not risen in line with inflation, despite increasing development costs. Simply put, Valve’s advice is something that we expect many publishers to follow, and we believe that for the good of the industry this is a sensible action. With that said, Valve also advised developers to “always do what’s best for your players”, and this is something that resonates strongly with us. As a team of not just dedicated developers but also gamers and consumers, we want to ensure that the game can continue to reach a wide audience who will enjoy it for years to come. As a British-based developer, we know firsthand what it’s like to live in a country where the economy is in flux due to recent political changes; we know what it’s like to feel the squeeze of a currency weakening, and we don’t want that to be a barrier to the enjoyment of our games. Furthermore, we do not wish latecomers to feel as though they are punished, especially as WFTO is now an ageing game - one which is still supported and developed, but ageing nonetheless. We do not believe it would be as fair on those affected by price increases as it might be for a new title. We also believe in pricing our products based on our perception of what is fair for the work we’ve dedicated to them, and for now we do not feel that there is a need to increase any prices to achieve this.
The Future
With all this said and done, we plan to review our pricing at least once a year, and we can’t say what will happen when we do so. We cannot rightly say that price increases will be off the table if we feel they are appropriate, though they will always be carefully considered; and regardless of any changes, we’ll be sure to inform you appropriately. Rest assured that we would never ever increase the price of any of our products without giving you a window of warning. It should also go without saying that we will of course follow Valve’s guidelines for any future titles, and as such you can expect the next expansion to use the advised pricing structure. But as always we will aim to ensure that our prices are not only fair for our team but also our fans. And of course we’re always happy to receive feedback from you on any of these matters. It’s important to us that you feel your voice is heard, so please don’t hesitate to get in touch through any of our channels. Now, after that incredible wall of text, here’s the nitty-gritty of the changes:
Reduced Regional Prices
The pricing of all WFTO products in the following currencies has been reduced to reflect the new pricing matrix. We have submitted the pricing changes and expect them to be approved by Valve within the next few days, so if you're amongst the following currencies keep your eyes peeled for reduced prices in the near future.
- Indonesian Rupiah
- Malaysian Ringgit
- Philippine Peso
- Singapore Dollar
- Thai Baht
- Korean Won
- Indian Rupee
- Chilean Peso
- Peruvian Nuevo Sol
- Colombian Peso
- South African Rand
- Hong Kong Dollar
- Taiwanese Dollar
- Saudi Arabian Riyal
- Emirati Dirham
- CIS Territories USD Regional Price
New Currencies
The following local currencies are now supported by Steam, and as such these regions have new prices in line with the pricing matrix. As above we have submitted the changes to allow these currencies and expect them to be approved in the coming days and weeks. The actual time will depend on Steam of course.
- Vietnamese Dong
- Ukrainian Hryvnia
- Australian Dollar
- Polish Zloty
- Argentine Peso
- Israeli New Shekel
- Kazakhstani Tenge
- Kuwaiti Dinar
- Qatari Rial
- Costa Rican Colon
- Uruguayan Peso
Hotfix Patch 1.6.3f1 for OS X
It wails from the nether Aether, sending a tingle down even a Behemoth's spine. Cheers, – Brightrock Games Team Discuss this update on the Steam Discussion Boards Click here to chat about this update on our Discord Never miss an update! Sign up to our newsletter!
[ 2017-09-07 13:48:02 CET ] [ Original post ]
Darkest greetings Underlord,
It is somewhat unusual for us to announce a hotfix patch with the full hurrah, but today we’re unleashing a fix to an issue that has plagued a specific subset of users for quite some time. At long last players on OS X based systems should no longer have issues with the pre-rendered cinematics, and may breathe a sigh of relief. It may be a small change, but we know it makes a big difference for some.
For those affected we know this has been a long time coming, so we have to thank our fans on Apple machines for their enduring patience. We apologise that it has taken so long for this issue to be resolved, and we hope that you continue to enjoy WFTO.
Patch 1.6.3F2 Release Notes
- Fixed a major issue that resulted in the game crashing on all macOS computers when attempting to play any in-game pre-rendered cutscene
It wails from the nether Aether, sending a tingle down even a Behemoth's spine. Cheers, – Brightrock Games Team Discuss this update on the Steam Discussion Boards Click here to chat about this update on our Discord Never miss an update! Sign up to our newsletter!
New Maps, Discounted Expansion Bundle, and the Future
Patch 1.6.3 is now bounding its way to you through the bowels of the Underworld. Within you’ll find a bunch of new maps for Skirmish and Multiplayer, kindly donated by our volunteer QA team, to help fill out the default map roster. There are also additional multiplayer stability improvements, as well as a number of bug fixes. You can read about the maps and the full patch notes here.
We’ve made some changes to how the content on our Steam Store page is laid out and presented, offering easier ways to get multiple pieces of content. This won’t affect most of our existing customers, but we thought it prudent to inform you just in case!
We’ve packaged the game’s content expansions into a single discount bundle, offering a small bargain if you’re yet to pick up Heart of Gold and My Pet Dungeon. Frankly, there’s never been a better time to complete your WFTO experience! Naturally, when we release the final expansion, we’ll be adding that as well.
To make it easier to distinguish purely cosmetic content from gameplay expansions, we’ve decided to group the cosmetics into a bundle as well. This means that both the Underlord Edition content and Worker skins can now be found in a single purchase and at a small discount.
We’ve decided to group the seasonal Worker skins together into a single DLC, aptly titled “Seasonal Worker Skins”. This is to help simplify the DLC list by compressing them down into a single item.
We always endeavour to make sure that all our fans remain informed of where WFTO’s development is headed, and today we’re going to do just that. From our previous posts on the subject, the situation is largely unchanged; so for anyone who has read those, you can feel safe knowing that there’s still something in the works!
[ 2017-08-04 18:20:54 CET ] [ Original post ]
Darkest greetings Underlord,
The work on War for the Overworld marches on, and we’re really starting to make headway on the huge changes that will be due as part of our final major updates. But in the meantime, we have a small content update to unleash, and some improvements to our expansion and DLC offerings on the Steam Store.
We’ve also been working on our next project, which is really exciting for us, and marks the next step in our company’s journey! This has allowed us to reflect on where we’re going with WFTO’s final expansion, so we’ll also be talking a bit about that as well.
New Maps and Patch 1.6.3 Now Available
Patch 1.6.3 is now bounding its way to you through the bowels of the Underworld. Within you’ll find a bunch of new maps for Skirmish and Multiplayer, kindly donated by our volunteer QA team, to help fill out the default map roster. There are also additional multiplayer stability improvements, as well as a number of bug fixes. You can read about the maps and the full patch notes here.
New Expansion Bundle and Steam Store Updates
We’ve made some changes to how the content on our Steam Store page is laid out and presented, offering easier ways to get multiple pieces of content. This won’t affect most of our existing customers, but we thought it prudent to inform you just in case!
Expansion Bundle
We’ve packaged the game’s content expansions into a single discount bundle, offering a small bargain if you’re yet to pick up Heart of Gold and My Pet Dungeon. Frankly, there’s never been a better time to complete your WFTO experience! Naturally, when we release the final expansion, we’ll be adding that as well.
- All the content, easier to manage!
Cosmetics Bundle
To make it easier to distinguish purely cosmetic content from gameplay expansions, we’ve decided to group the cosmetics into a bundle as well. This means that both the Underlord Edition content and Worker skins can now be found in a single purchase and at a small discount.
Seasonal Worker Themes Packaged
We’ve decided to group the seasonal Worker skins together into a single DLC, aptly titled “Seasonal Worker Skins”. This is to help simplify the DLC list by compressing them down into a single item.
- The gang, together at last!
Looking to the Future: Expansion 4
We always endeavour to make sure that all our fans remain informed of where WFTO’s development is headed, and today we’re going to do just that. From our previous posts on the subject, the situation is largely unchanged; so for anyone who has read those, you can feel safe knowing that there’s still something in the works!
- A thing in the works!
- New single-player campaign with a focus on Underlords and replayability
- New Underlord AI
- New Aspects in the Veins of Evil
- New Dungeon Themes
- And much more
Patch 1.6.3 Release Notes
Loose Ground - 1v1 - by Biervampir
Keeping your footing here is the least of your worries - what with artefacts just waiting to be seized. Eutharia’s Realm - 1v1 - by Fireeye
Underlord Eutharia dwelt here in eons gone by. Would you and your opponent care to poke through her carcass? Sub-Zero - 1v1 - by nutter666
Within the freezing depths of this tundra, you'll find all you need to dig in and build a well-fortified dungeon. But your rival is not the only thing that stirs beneath the ice. Blood Hazard - 1v1v1 - by Biervampir
A particularly potent Underlord met their end here. Will it be you, or your enemies, that donate to the pool of blood? Borehole - 3P FFA - by Biervampir
A newly-discovered realm which is unfortunately short on gold. It stands poised for an epic showdown of Underlord frugality. Populace - FFA or 2v2 - by Green.Sliche
Peopled by you and your fellow Underlords, this realm is a pressure cooker of gold and ambition. But only one can rule. Prepare for a battle of biblical proportions. Stardust - FFA or 2v2 - by Green.Sliche
Deep in the Aether, where gold twinkles like stars and chasms gape like black holes, four Underlords try to avoid oblivion.
Rituals
[ 2017-08-03 14:29:44 CET ] [ Original post ]
Darkest greetings Underlord,
We’ve just unleashed another patch for War for the Overworld upon the unsuspecting citizens of Kairos. Within you’ll find a bundle of new maps for Skirmish and Multiplayer, constructed by our incredible volunteer QA team, as well as a number of stability improvements for Multiplayer and a few bug fixes.
We’ve also prepping a short statement on our future plans, and an explanation of some changes to our Steam Store, which we'll be uploading if not tonight then tomorrow!
Patch 1.6.3
Seven New Skirmish Maps!
Loose Ground - 1v1 - by Biervampir
Keeping your footing here is the least of your worries - what with artefacts just waiting to be seized. Eutharia’s Realm - 1v1 - by Fireeye
Underlord Eutharia dwelt here in eons gone by. Would you and your opponent care to poke through her carcass? Sub-Zero - 1v1 - by nutter666
Within the freezing depths of this tundra, you'll find all you need to dig in and build a well-fortified dungeon. But your rival is not the only thing that stirs beneath the ice. Blood Hazard - 1v1v1 - by Biervampir
A particularly potent Underlord met their end here. Will it be you, or your enemies, that donate to the pool of blood? Borehole - 3P FFA - by Biervampir
A newly-discovered realm which is unfortunately short on gold. It stands poised for an epic showdown of Underlord frugality. Populace - FFA or 2v2 - by Green.Sliche
Peopled by you and your fellow Underlords, this realm is a pressure cooker of gold and ambition. But only one can rule. Prepare for a battle of biblical proportions. Stardust - FFA or 2v2 - by Green.Sliche
Deep in the Aether, where gold twinkles like stars and chasms gape like black holes, four Underlords try to avoid oblivion.
Gameplay Changes
Rituals
- Assembly ritual now completes all defences in one cast, with the exception of the Sentinel and Stone Knight, which only take 5 Defence Parts per cast
AI Improvements
- Improvements to targeting checks mean that units should now respond to attacks more reliable
Performance Improvements
- Drastically improved main menu performance
- Improved the FPS in pre-rendered cutscenes
Multiplayer
- General improvements to multiplayer stability
Visual Improvements
- Removed gap in Hero and Hero Crypt Chasm border
Miscellaneous Changes
- Cian Noonan, our QA Analyst, is finally credited in the game’s credits! Yay for him
- War for the Overworld Level 5 speedrun achievement is now set to 23 minutes
Bug Fixes
- The Possession camera should no longer become locked and broken if a Spirit Worker expires while being possessed
- Doors will now correctly display their locked state in Multiplayer
Compiled 1.6.3 Hotfixes
Crashes
- Playing the game with the official Russian translation will no longer crash the Crucible
Units
- The Eternal now correctly absorbs 90% of damage done to the owner's Dungeon Core
- The Eternal now correctly resists 50% damage, down from an unintended 75%
Multiplayer
- Fixed a few broken elements from when we made under-the-hood changes to Multiplayer - fixes Blood Money, and potentially the torture workflow
- Clients in Multiplayer should once again be able to toggle defence states
Levels
- War for the Overworld Level 5’s Shifting Bond ritual now goes slower over time, rather than being suspended for a fixed period and then going at a fast pace (attempt #5894 to fix this rare issue)
- Fixed incorrect rotation on the Siege Doors in War for the Overworld Level 13
- Increased the height of the Emperor's throne in War for the Overworld Level 13; now he can sit up straight and see the throne room once more
- Fixed an issue where the Emperor's throne would disappear after loading a save of War for the Overworld Level 13
- Fixed a critical issue where the Drawbridge on War for the Overworld Level 13 would become impassable following a save and load in which it was lowered
Visuals
- Prevented duplicate VFX on Research Shrine
- Prevented the Empire Arcane Core from having a brown Underlordy base
- Fixed a material on the Bafu projectile that became corrupt in a build
- Fixed a broken defuse on the Behemoth, which would cause him to pop out of existence instead of fading upon death
- Fixed a missing material in the Chasm on War for the Overworld Level 3
- Evil Arcane theme Possession Door is now correctly team coloured
Audio
- Improved sound disable on prop death to be more robust
Mutators
- The Disable Payday mutator will now correctly disable Payday when checked
Performance
- Additional minor performance improvements which can yield up to 15% increased FPS in extremely late games, and minor improvements throughout earlier stages
Miscellaneous
- Fixed "corpses" typo on Crypt info panel
- Corrected an issue that could cause offline saves on GOG versions to become unloadable
- Fixed My Pet Dungeon level name ordering for IT, ES, PL, and RU languages
- Improvements to the GOG Leaderboards for Crucible; should now display more consistently
- Small typo correction in the overwrite message for save games
- Fixed an issue where Skirmish achievements would not be awarded if the name of the opponent AI was translated
- Fixed missing non-English versions of a narrator line on War for the Overworld Level 6
- Fixed an issue that would prevent the Steven Fright achievement from being awarded
- The achievement for defeating Kasita on Master difficulty has been correctly renamed in-game to "Yanis Varoufakis", to match the achievement list
- Fixed a typo in the Wither ability description for the Cultist
- Removed a broken miscellaneous line from Mendechaus
- Fixed a typo in certain abilities on the Firebreather and Behemoth
Dungeon Keeper is 20 Today!
My first experience of Dungeon Keeper was shortly after its release in 1997 when I was just a wee lad of 6 years. I remember my older brother bringing this game home and watching him play it on our old Windows 95 desktop that was primarily used for my father’s work – but also for such gaming classics as Doom, Theme Park and Command and Conquer. As I watched my brother play I just knew I had to have a go! This game looked like nothing I’d ever seen – the incredible isometric view, dynamic lighting, unique creatures, and ability to dig, shape and build rooms captured my imagination immediately. I waited… and waited while my brother played. Days later I finally got my chance! I sat down in the big seat, eager as you might imagine a 6-year-old would be, and played my first level. So eager was I to build that I forgot to give my Imps time to fortify the walls. My dungeon was destroyed by the invading heroes before it even began! Rather pathetically I had lost the first level.
From an early age I knew that I wanted to be a game developer, after all my father had been one for my entire life so it seemed like a natural fit. Back in those early days I never would have imagined I’d have been directly responsible for one of the most popular modern Dungeon Management games. I don’t entirely remember how old I was when I first played a Dungeon Keeper game. I know that I was certainly quite young, perhaps 7 or so when I dove headfirst into Dungeon Keeper 2. I was always a big fan of strategy games such as Command and Conquer and Populous: The Beginning, and something about DK2 really called to me. Though I wouldn’t encounter the original until much later, I can truly appreciate how much is owed to it.
Dungeon Keeper was a game I played far before I ever considered becoming a game developer. It was a game I found myself reinstalling often to get that unique management game fix that only the DK series seems to have ever given. My gamedev story in brief is one of self-learning and a lot of failed experiments. A lot. I have the DK series to thank for the high benchmark I pressured myself to achieve, and it was a constant inspiration and driving force as my attempts to make games became progressively more complex.
Although I never played DK1 as a kid, its sequel completely grabbed my attention. Atmospherically, Dungeon Keeper 2 was captivating. The gritty colours, the eerie sounds, the twisted style of the landscape, made the dungeon management experience so inviting and addictive. Being introduced to the game by my friends, I was immersed into a dark world so unlike many other games. It felt as if few games were willing to explore the point of view of the bad guy, which made the whole experience even more exciting. For me, creating an army of my favourite creatures and traps meant playing so many hours of skirmish matches. I feel games like Dungeon Keeper are so inspirational for their integrity of their vision and feeling.
Hello. Many years ago now I remember having an absolute blast when playing Dungeon Keeper 2 online with my friends. We’d almost every weekend get together and devise strategies to see who could crush the others first. From my experiences playing I was inspired to teach myself programming so that I could develop video games, and started working on a prototype in the UDK engine with similar principles to Dungeon Keeper. I’m sure you can find footage of that if you look around. It was a huge challenge – Dungeon Keeper is an extremely unique game and honestly something of a technical marvel for its time.
I think I’m one of the few members of the team who didn’t play Dungeon Keeper as a child – you know, how sometimes a classic will pass you by for some random reason. Thing is, I loved Theme Park. Maybe my innocent childhood self just wasn’t ready to be the bad guy! But I think discovering it as an adult, without the aid of nostalgia, just shows how much of a timeless experience Dungeon Keeper is. In particular for me, the strength of the setting is striking: the innovative mix of weird and otherworldly creatures, some of whom just don’t get along; the happy and hapless world full of places called “Flowerhat” and “Lushmeadow-on-Down”. The black comedy is always there, and I can only marvel at the succinct wit of the script, and deadpan delivery of Richard Ridings. Who can forget the intro to the first level: “The people of Eversmile are plagued only by aching facial muscles, and not anthrax as we had hoped.”
These days there are dozens of Dungeon Management games, either released or in production, all inspired by a single progenitor to some degree. Dungeon Keeper is to us what games like Wolfenstein or Doom are to the FPS genre – a true genre-defining classic that has inspired countless people to carry the torch and get into game making themselves. We’re proud to have been one of the most influential of the Dungeon Management games in recent times, and to have been the first to achieve a successful Kickstarter, Early Access, launch, and post-release support cycle that is still going to this day! It is our honour to truly have been a project by fans of Dungeon Keeper, for fans of Dungeon Keeper. Dungeon Keeper 1 and Dungeon Keeper 2 are available to purchase from GOG.com! Cheers, – Brightrock Games Team Discover Dungeon Keeper on GOG.com! Click here to chat about this update on our Discord Never miss an update! Sign up to our newsletter!
[ 2017-06-26 19:27:41 CET ] [ Original post ]
Darkest greetings Underlord,
Today is an auspicious occasion for the denizens of the Underworld! For you see, twenty years ago today, a little game known as Dungeon Keeper was unleashed upon the world by Bullfrog Productions and Electronic Arts.
- Evil certainly was very, very good - Dungeon Keeper - Electronic Arts - Bullfrog Productions
- The pioneering gameplay of slapping Imps - Dungeon Keeper - Electronic Arts - Bullfrog Productions
- ’Twas still good to be bad - Dungeon Keeper 2 - Electronic Arts - Bullfrog Productions
- This evil was less good - Dungeon Keeper Mobile - Electronic Arts
- We hope you’re having fun being evil again
Lee Moon – Community Manager
My first experience of Dungeon Keeper was shortly after its release in 1997 when I was just a wee lad of 6 years. I remember my older brother bringing this game home and watching him play it on our old Windows 95 desktop that was primarily used for my father’s work – but also for such gaming classics as Doom, Theme Park and Command and Conquer. As I watched my brother play I just knew I had to have a go! This game looked like nothing I’d ever seen – the incredible isometric view, dynamic lighting, unique creatures, and ability to dig, shape and build rooms captured my imagination immediately. I waited… and waited while my brother played. Days later I finally got my chance! I sat down in the big seat, eager as you might imagine a 6-year-old would be, and played my first level. So eager was I to build that I forgot to give my Imps time to fortify the walls. My dungeon was destroyed by the invading heroes before it even began! Rather pathetically I had lost the first level.
- Most decidedly not the screen I received on the first level - Dungeon Keeper - Electronic Arts - Bullfrog Productions
Josh – Managing Director & Lead Designer
From an early age I knew that I wanted to be a game developer, after all my father had been one for my entire life so it seemed like a natural fit. Back in those early days I never would have imagined I’d have been directly responsible for one of the most popular modern Dungeon Management games. I don’t entirely remember how old I was when I first played a Dungeon Keeper game. I know that I was certainly quite young, perhaps 7 or so when I dove headfirst into Dungeon Keeper 2. I was always a big fan of strategy games such as Command and Conquer and Populous: The Beginning, and something about DK2 really called to me. Though I wouldn’t encounter the original until much later, I can truly appreciate how much is owed to it.
- Keeper Klan is still a hot location for Dungeon Management fans!
Scott Richmond – Director, Producer, Programmer
Dungeon Keeper was a game I played far before I ever considered becoming a game developer. It was a game I found myself reinstalling often to get that unique management game fix that only the DK series seems to have ever given. My gamedev story in brief is one of self-learning and a lot of failed experiments. A lot. I have the DK series to thank for the high benchmark I pressured myself to achieve, and it was a constant inspiration and driving force as my attempts to make games became progressively more complex.
Patrick Hore – 3D Artist
Although I never played DK1 as a kid, its sequel completely grabbed my attention. Atmospherically, Dungeon Keeper 2 was captivating. The gritty colours, the eerie sounds, the twisted style of the landscape, made the dungeon management experience so inviting and addictive. Being introduced to the game by my friends, I was immersed into a dark world so unlike many other games. It felt as if few games were willing to explore the point of view of the bad guy, which made the whole experience even more exciting. For me, creating an army of my favourite creatures and traps meant playing so many hours of skirmish matches. I feel games like Dungeon Keeper are so inspirational for their integrity of their vision and feeling.
Nano Boucher – Director, Programmer
Hello. Many years ago now I remember having an absolute blast when playing Dungeon Keeper 2 online with my friends. We’d almost every weekend get together and devise strategies to see who could crush the others first. From my experiences playing I was inspired to teach myself programming so that I could develop video games, and started working on a prototype in the UDK engine with similar principles to Dungeon Keeper. I’m sure you can find footage of that if you look around. It was a huge challenge – Dungeon Keeper is an extremely unique game and honestly something of a technical marvel for its time.
- What WFTO looked like circa 2007-2008
Tim White – Writer
I think I’m one of the few members of the team who didn’t play Dungeon Keeper as a child – you know, how sometimes a classic will pass you by for some random reason. Thing is, I loved Theme Park. Maybe my innocent childhood self just wasn’t ready to be the bad guy! But I think discovering it as an adult, without the aid of nostalgia, just shows how much of a timeless experience Dungeon Keeper is. In particular for me, the strength of the setting is striking: the innovative mix of weird and otherworldly creatures, some of whom just don’t get along; the happy and hapless world full of places called “Flowerhat” and “Lushmeadow-on-Down”. The black comedy is always there, and I can only marvel at the succinct wit of the script, and deadpan delivery of Richard Ridings. Who can forget the intro to the first level: “The people of Eversmile are plagued only by aching facial muscles, and not anthrax as we had hoped.”
Conclusion
These days there are dozens of Dungeon Management games, either released or in production, all inspired by a single progenitor to some degree. Dungeon Keeper is to us what games like Wolfenstein or Doom are to the FPS genre – a true genre-defining classic that has inspired countless people to carry the torch and get into game making themselves. We’re proud to have been one of the most influential of the Dungeon Management games in recent times, and to have been the first to achieve a successful Kickstarter, Early Access, launch, and post-release support cycle that is still going to this day! It is our honour to truly have been a project by fans of Dungeon Keeper, for fans of Dungeon Keeper. Dungeon Keeper 1 and Dungeon Keeper 2 are available to purchase from GOG.com! Cheers, – Brightrock Games Team Discover Dungeon Keeper on GOG.com! Click here to chat about this update on our Discord Never miss an update! Sign up to our newsletter!
Share with the wider community on the Foundry
At Brightrock we consider community content to be one of the greatest things in PC gaming, and something we can’t get enough of. We want to bring this experience to our GOG.com players as well, and that brings us to the Foundry.
Whilst Steam has the Steam Workshop on which WFTO has thousands of custom creations, we knew that there was no place where non-Steam players could share and download maps and translations from. This is what we’re looking to solve with the Foundry. We’ve set up this special page on our website as a repository for players to share, download and discuss their creations. We’ve already filled it up with some of the most important and popular maps and translations from our Steam community, to help you get your hands on the best content developed so far. Now we’d like to invite you, our players, to help populate the Foundry with awesome content, and we look forward to helping you develop even better community content in the future! If you’d like to find out how to use the Foundry, then click through to this knowledgebase article. As we move forward towards the last updates of WFTO, we’re keen to see what our community comes up with in terms of content, and we’re very interested to hear what improvements you’d like to see to the content creation tools. We’re also looking to resurrect our community spotlight, to reward the very best content in the community with small gifts and news spotlights, as our way of thanking the dedication and commitment of creators. We hope this new initiative will inspire everyone to get involved! Cheers, – Brightrock Games Team Discuss this update on the Steam Discussion Boards Click here to chat about this update on our Discord Never miss an update! Sign up to our newsletter!
[ 2017-06-23 15:53:08 CET ] [ Original post ]
Darkest greetings Underlord,
The last few weeks have been incredibly busy for us here in the depths of the development dungeon, with the recent launch on GOG.com dominating much of our work. We have to say that it’s been an absolutely incredible success, and we’re extremely pleased that we can now finally offer War for the Overworld as a solid DRM-Free experience!
With this huge launch now behind us we’ve taken a step back and thought even more about what we can offer, to improve the experience of players that don’t want to participate in the Steam platform.
Introducing the Foundry
At Brightrock we consider community content to be one of the greatest things in PC gaming, and something we can’t get enough of. We want to bring this experience to our GOG.com players as well, and that brings us to the Foundry.
Whilst Steam has the Steam Workshop on which WFTO has thousands of custom creations, we knew that there was no place where non-Steam players could share and download maps and translations from. This is what we’re looking to solve with the Foundry. We’ve set up this special page on our website as a repository for players to share, download and discuss their creations. We’ve already filled it up with some of the most important and popular maps and translations from our Steam community, to help you get your hands on the best content developed so far. Now we’d like to invite you, our players, to help populate the Foundry with awesome content, and we look forward to helping you develop even better community content in the future! If you’d like to find out how to use the Foundry, then click through to this knowledgebase article. As we move forward towards the last updates of WFTO, we’re keen to see what our community comes up with in terms of content, and we’re very interested to hear what improvements you’d like to see to the content creation tools. We’re also looking to resurrect our community spotlight, to reward the very best content in the community with small gifts and news spotlights, as our way of thanking the dedication and commitment of creators. We hope this new initiative will inspire everyone to get involved! Cheers, – Brightrock Games Team Discuss this update on the Steam Discussion Boards Click here to chat about this update on our Discord Never miss an update! Sign up to our newsletter!
Patch 1.6.2 Now Available!
We’ve introduced some serious new netcode with Patch 1.6.2 which should drastically improve the quality of multiplayer matches. We’ve had this on the Public Test Branch for just over a week and the response has been positive so far. Want to give it a go? Here’s some tips to get you started! Finding a Multiplayer Match What would a multiplayer patch be without multiplayer matches? Head on over to our Discord and join the Matchmaking channel to find other players with whom to go head to head! Don’t forget if you’re going to host you’ll need to port forward! Reporting Issues We’re looking to try and improve the experience for our multiplayer fans as much as possible, so if you run into an issue while playing please get in touch with a bug report via User Echo.
We’ve reworked our netcode to deliver significant improvements to the Multiplayer experience.
Units
[ 2017-06-14 16:18:04 CET ] [ Original post ]
Darkest greetings Underlord,
It’s been on the Public Test Branch for little over a week, and now with the release of our GOG version we’re proud to say that Patch 1.6.2 is now finally going live! It brings with it a variety of improvements, but none more so than those for Multiplayer. So read on, Underlord, and discover what magic lies in the bowels of:
Patch 1.6.2 - Multiplayer Mayhem
We’ve introduced some serious new netcode with Patch 1.6.2 which should drastically improve the quality of multiplayer matches. We’ve had this on the Public Test Branch for just over a week and the response has been positive so far. Want to give it a go? Here’s some tips to get you started! Finding a Multiplayer Match What would a multiplayer patch be without multiplayer matches? Head on over to our Discord and join the Matchmaking channel to find other players with whom to go head to head! Don’t forget if you’re going to host you’ll need to port forward! Reporting Issues We’re looking to try and improve the experience for our multiplayer fans as much as possible, so if you run into an issue while playing please get in touch with a bug report via User Echo.
Release Notes
Multiplayer Improvements
We’ve reworked our netcode to deliver significant improvements to the Multiplayer experience.
- Multiplayer behaviours should be much more consistent with gameplay, for example:
- Constructs and defences are more reliable
- Casting Recall on the Worker Rally no longer breaks the Worker Rally
- Unit actions are now consistent between client and host
- We’ve implemented new systems to combat desyncs by slowing the game down, giving it time to catch up after network issues
- Visual issues have been greatly reduced, for example:
- Reduced instances of units visually teleporting
- VFX should be correctly synced to unit location
- “Ghost” units have been exorcised
- Possessing a unit should no longer cause unit shields to break for your opponent
- Unit shields no longer become detached from their unit
- Workers who are undertaking a task should no longer become lost
- Implemented support for cross-platform play with GOG Galaxy players
Performance Improvements
- Multiplayer code no longer runs in single-player, which yields a small performance boost for all players
Visual Changes
- Improvements to the gold pile highlight
- Significantly improved the Crackpot/Gnarling working animation
- Improved the floor texture for the Empire barracks
- Campaign map highlighting improved
- Made some changes to the lights on the main menu scene to improve contrast between rendered objects and UI objects
- Small changes to the Archive Lectern lights
- Glowing runes are now present on Arcane/Evil Arcane theme door frames
- Fixed a number of significant issues with the Dwarven Core
- Arcane themes now use a new arcane portcullis frame
- Improved Archon emissive map
- Reduced the VFX height of the Necromancer’s heal which should improve combat clarity when they are present
Levels
- Made some slight visual tweaks to War for the Overworld Level 13
Bug Fixes
Units
- Shambler no longer incorrectly has a wage
- Porkzilla can now correctly deal damage to units and defences once more, praise the bacon!
- Corrected an issue that caused the Behemoth’s heal rate to be far higher than it should have been - it now correctly generates 0.75% health per second
- Fixed highlight on all Archive props
- Evil Arcane theme glowing runes now match what is engraved in the wall
- Necromancers on War for the Overworld Level 8 now correctly use the Necromancer Possession effect
- Fixed team colouring on a number of objects:
- Sovereign Theme door frame
- Sovereign Theme connector
- Sovereign Theme Midas Door
- Santa Worker
- Empire and Phaestus theme wall lights
- Kickstarter theme Dungeon Core will now display the correct damage states
- Kasita and Draven Cores on War for the Overworld Level 12 should now animate correctly
- Corrected highlighting on Empire and Phaestus themes
- Texture corrections on War for the Overworld Level 8 water gates
- Fixed Rocky Earth normal map
- Fixed Gold Shrine highlighting
- Overworld Gateway unit shields should now display more reliably
- Snowy Sacred Earth now uses the correct textures, instead of the Snow textures for Sand walls
- Phaestus theme now correctly uses the Underlord props rather than Empire props
- Fixed compression settings for some stray textures
- Fixed the transparency on the Overworld Gateway
- Improved the visuals of the standard theme wall torch
- Minor improvement to the lamps in the Empire Lair
- Fixed an issue with the highlight on small dropped gold piles
- Heightmap data of Empire Slaughterpen and Barracks now matches that of their Underlord counterparts
- Destroyed and claimed Overworld Gateways can no longer be used to dismiss units
- Improved the effect that is played when Mira is capturing the Kenos on War for the Overworld Level 10, by fixing clipping and misalignment
- Further improvements to the Shifting Bond ritual progress on War for the Overworld Level 5, in an attempt to fix a long standing issue
- Removed ping column in lobby due to it being unimplemented at this time
- Fixed an issue where the host would always try to send a copy of a map to the client even if it was not required
- Fixed an issue where the location of units and them taking an action would not be correctly synced
- Improved floating emoticon compression quality to prevent pixelation
- GameText - Minor grammar corrections
- GameText - Fixed "Claim" Worker task type to correctly display as "Unclaim" when unclaiming enemy tiles
- Removed unused textures
Public Test: v1.6.2 - New Multiplayer Netcode
1.6.2PTB1 includes a number of changes intended to dramatically improve the multiplayer experience. We’ve been redeveloping our netcode, which in our tests has shown significant improvements. Now we’re eager to see how that works in real life and to do that we need your help! Accessing the Public Test Branch Gaining access to the PTB is almost as easy as snapping your evil fingers. Simply do the following:
We’ve reworked our netcode to deliver significant improvements to the Multiplayer experience.
Units
[ 2017-06-08 13:11:21 CET ] [ Original post ]
Darkest greetings Underlord,
Chained away in the darkest corner of our dungeon the code imps, beavering away with their gnarled hands, continue their never-ending task of improving the inner workings of War for the Overworld - all so that you might enjoy the fruits of their labours even more.
Recently, on a rare expedition beyond the confines of the coding chamber, one of these wretched beings encountered a rare artefact - no less than the source code for an integral component of our multiplayer systems! Darting back to the chamber exuberant in his find, this fervent little fellow locked himself away, determined not to see the light of day again until his task was complete.
We’re now proud to say that for the first time in weeks he has re-emerged with a new WFTO build - one that we’re pleased to share with you today via the Public Test Branch. That’s right, we’re reopening the test branch for public exhibition with this new 1.6.2PTB1 build!
1.6.2PTB1 - A New Multiplayer
1.6.2PTB1 includes a number of changes intended to dramatically improve the multiplayer experience. We’ve been redeveloping our netcode, which in our tests has shown significant improvements. Now we’re eager to see how that works in real life and to do that we need your help! Accessing the Public Test Branch Gaining access to the PTB is almost as easy as snapping your evil fingers. Simply do the following:
- Right click War for the Overworld in your Steam Library
- Select Properties from the drop down menu
- Click the Betas tab
- From the drop down select Publictest
- Wait for the update to download
Release Notes
Known Issues
- Glacial Doors do not animate for the client
- Unit mood is not visible to the client (all units are always displayed as content) Multiplayer chat does not work on macOS
- When you place defences/constructs as the client, it will show the purchase cost multiple times
Multiplayer Improvements
We’ve reworked our netcode to deliver significant improvements to the Multiplayer experience.
- Multiplayer behaviours should be much more consistent with gameplay, for example:
- Constructs and defences are more reliable
- Casting Recall on the Worker Rally no longer breaks the Worker Rally
- Unit actions are now consistent between client and host
- We’ve implemented new systems to combat desyncs by slowing the game down, giving it time to catch up after network issues
- Visual issues have been greatly reduced, for example:
- Reduced instances of units visually teleporting
- VFX should be correctly synced to unit location
- “Ghost” units have been exorcised
- Possessing a unit should no longer cause unit shields to break for your opponent
- Unit shields no longer become detached from their unit
- Workers who are undertaking a task should no longer become lost
Performance Improvements
- Multiplayer code no longer runs in single-player, which yields a small performance boost for all players
Visual Changes
- Improvements to the gold pile highlight
- Significantly improved the Crackpot/Gnarling working animation
- Improved the floor texture for the Empire barracks
- Campaign map highlighting improved
- Made some changes to the lights on the main menu scene to improve contrast between rendered objects and UI objects
- Small changes to the Archive Lectern lights
- Glowing runes are now present on Arcane/Evil Arcane theme door frames
- Fixed a number of significant issues with the Dwarven Core
- Arcane themes now use a new arcane portcullis frame
- Improved Archon emissive map
Levels
- Made some slight visual tweaks to War for the Overworld Level 13
Bug Fixes
Units
- Shambler no longer incorrectly has a wage
- Porkzilla can now correctly deal damage to units and defences once more, praise the bacon!
- Fixed highlight on all Archive props
- Evil Arcane theme glowing runes now match what is engraved in the wall
- Necromancers on War for the Overworld Level 8 now correctly use the Necromancer Possession effect
- Fixed team colouring on a number of objects:
- Sovereign Theme door frame
- Sovereign Theme connector
- Sovereign Theme Midas Door
- Santa Worker
- Empire and Phaestus theme wall lights
- Kickstarter theme Dungeon Core will now display the correct damage states
- Kasita and Draven Cores on War for the Overworld Level 12 should now animate correctly
- Corrected highlighting on Empire and Phaestus themes
- Texture corrections on War for the Overworld Level 8 water gates
- Fixed Rocky Earth normal map
- Fixed Gold Shrine highlighting
- Overworld Gateway unit shields should now display more reliably
- Snowy Sacred Earth now uses the correct textures, instead of the Snow textures for Sand walls
- Phaestus theme now correctly uses the Underlord props rather than Empire props
- Fixed compression settings for some stray textures
- Fixed the transparency on the Overworld Gateway
- Improved the visuals of the standard theme wall torch
- Minor improvement to the lamps in the Empire Lair
- Heightmap data of Empire Slaughterpen and Barracks now matches that of their Underlord counterparts
- Destroyed and claimed Overworld Gateways can no longer be used to dismiss units
- Improved the effect that is played when Mira is capturing the Kenos on War for the Overworld Level 10, by fixing clipping and misalignment
- Further improvements to the Shifting Bond ritual progress on War for the Overworld Level 5, in an attempt to fix a long standing issue
- Removed ping column in lobby due to it being unimplemented at this time UI
- Improved floating emoticon compression quality to prevent pixelation
- GameText - Minor grammar corrections
- GameText - Fixed "Claim" Worker task type to correctly display as "Unclaim" when unclaiming enemy tiles
- Removed unused textures
Donate to GamesAid with The Cynical Imp!
The Underlord may not slap a minion in their minionship except in the explicit circumstance where the said minion has refused to excavate a tile designated by the said Underlord’s Hand.
The Underlord must establish a Payday giving scheme whereby minions can donate a portion of their earnings to charity, tax free.[/olist]
He has also prepared this short broadcast for you:
https://youtu.be/JMS-tQxTFdY
So unless you want your dungeon to be as empty as a room after a Chunder’s fart, you should have a good think about this.
The Cynical Imp is ready to hit the campaign trail across all non-Campaign game modes!
Download The Cynical Imp skin from our website or Steam - select your bundle and 100% of all Brightrock Games proceeds will be donated to the GamesAid Digital for Good initiative. Larger donations will grant access to the previously-exclusive Kickstarter and Founders Dungeon Themes!
Thank you for your generosity,
– Brightrock Games Team
Support via our Charity Page!
Support Via Steam!
Click here to chat about this update on our Discord
Never miss an update! Sign up to our newsletter!
[ 2017-05-10 11:20:30 CET ] [ Original post ]
Darkest greetings Underlord,
Would you like the good news or the bad news first? Given your outlook, I suppose you’re eager for the bad: Your Workers have formed a union, the National Union of Dungeon Excavators. But it’s because of the good news: You’ve been working them into the ground!
The leader of this union is a veteran Worker, The Cynical Imp, who’s come out of retirement just to head this campaign.
The Cynical Imp is proffering these terms, and is threatening a Workers’ strike if you don’t agree:
[olist]
Patch 1.6.1 Now Available!
We have released a brand new Charity Worker Skin and enabled the ability to purchase previously exclusive Kickstarter Dungeon Themes with 100% of our proceeds being donated to charity. Find out more here. (Steam Store Page)
Level 12
[ 2017-05-10 11:20:16 CET ] [ Original post ]
Darkest greetings Underlord,
Alongside our release of the gentlemanly Cynical Imp charity skin and the much anticipated charity sale of previously exclusive Kickstarter Themes, we have pushed a small update which addresses a few minor issues, mostly visual.
Please take a few moments to read our announcement post regarding our partnership with GamesAid in order to support a good cause and help make lives better through the power of gaming!
Charity Skins & Themes
We have released a brand new Charity Worker Skin and enabled the ability to purchase previously exclusive Kickstarter Dungeon Themes with 100% of our proceeds being donated to charity. Find out more here. (Steam Store Page)
- Added support for The Cynical Imp & The Cynical Imp (Classic) Charity Worker Skins
- Added support for charity versions of the Kickstarter and Founders Themes
Visual Improvements
- Improved the transparency on some wall props in the Torture Chamber
- Improved the animation transition for the Inhibitor
- Implemented new Gnarling attack voice lines
- Improved the lighting in the Main Menu scene
- Improved team colouring on the Arcane and Evil Arcane themes
- Improved highlighting on:
- Korvek Core
- Evil Arcane Core
- Arcane Core
- Dark Empire Core
- Dwarven Core
- Founders Core
- Empire Core
- Kasita Core
- Kasita Silver Core
- Kickstarter Core
- Mira Core
- Sovereign Core
- Rhaskos Core
- Perception Shrine
- Overworld Gateway
- Crucible Goldstone
- Mana Shrine
- Manufacturing Shrine
- Research Shrine
- Slaughterpen Pig Pen
- Tavern Spit Roast Oven
- Alchemy Lab Cauldron
- Main Campaign level 13 Drawbridge Winch
- Lord O’ Theland
- Coleem Magnanimous
- Improved the Korvek Core dead state
- Improved the team colouring on Korvek’s theme
- Improved the team colouring on the Sovereign theme
- Improved Mira’s Core to make it more of a focal point
- Improved the lava on the Foundry wall
- Improved the team colour effect for the basic Worker
- Improved the Colossus Forge smoke effect on Heart of Gold campaign level 3
- Made improvements to some Arcane and Evil Arcane wall variants
Level Changes
War for the Overworld
Level 12
- Minor dialogue improvements
Bug Fixes
Units
- Removed a broken script from the Shadow unit which would cause an error message in output logs with no other noticeable effects
Visual
- Fixed an issue that caused caused Coleem Magnanimous’ unit shield to clip into his head
- Fixed an issue that resulted in a gap appearing between some walls in the Arcane theme
- Fixed an issue that caused camera clipping when possessing the Arcane Worker
- Fixed a visual issue on the Arcane and Evil Arcane theme Portcullis
- Fixed some transparent models on the Empire Torture Chamber wall
- Fixed an issue that caused the Evil Arcane Wooden Door to have its shield clip into itself
- Fixed an issue that caused a small part of the Hero Garrison prop to be incorrectly transparent
- Hine-Po will no longer display a broken texture file when converted in the Torture Chamber
- Corrected an issue that caused preplaced Artefacts to clip through the floor
- Corrected an issue that caused some clutter props to clip through the wall in the Hero Garrison
Levels
- Prevented an issue on War for the Overworld Level 11 that was caused by a faulty voice line
Miscellaneous
- Corrected an issue that prevented DLC Worker themes being loaded from a save game correctly
Patch 1.6 Hotfixes
Units
[ 2017-04-28 15:29:27 CET ] [ Original post ]
Darkest greetings Underlord,
At the start of this month we unleashed the My Pet Dungeon DLC and Patch 1.6, and your response to both has truly blown us away! The new game mode has met with roaring appreciation from our fans and we’re pleased that all our hard work and toil over the past few months has not gone to waste!
But the work does not stop there! With new features inevitably come new bugs; fortunately our stalwart QA volunteers and of course our ever patient community have been reporting issues left right and centre, and our development Chunders have been fixing them just as fast!
Since release we’ve pushed out hotfixes at regular intervals, but now we’re winding down to focus on upcoming content. But in case you haven’t been following thus far we’re going to provide a complete rundown of all the fixes and changes since My Pet Dungeon was unleashed.
The following list includes patch notes from these hotfixes, though additional changes are undocumented:
- 1.6f8 – 4 April
- 1.6f9 – 7 April
- 1.6f10 – 10 April
- 1.6f11 – 12 April
- 1.6f12 – 20 April
Compiled Patch 1.6 Hotfixes
Gameplay Changes
- Rallying Beasts will now also rally the Beastmaster
- Made improvements to the way that Artefacts are dropped by Workers when there is no space in the Archive
- Lava damage has increased from 50 to 200
- Revenants now fade much faster
Level Changes
- Gave the player 5 more minutes on War for the Overworld Level 11 before Mira channels the Kenos
- Added an optional objective to War for the Overworld Level 3 to encourage the player to prepare for the attack
- Made some tweaks to War for the Overworld Level 3 – the areas Empire units can come from should now be much clearer
- Added new level end voice-over for War for the Overworld Level 5
- Minor increase to research speed that increases throughout the campaign mode, about 30% increase level on level
My Pet Dungeon
- Gold Rust’s Ember Lord’s treasure objective now completes once you claim the first Artefact
- Made improvements to Snowhope to prevent some objectives becoming impossible to complete
Visual Improvements
- Minor improvements to the Kasita Theme ceiling
- Improved the visuals and animation of the Korvek Core
Performance Improvements
- Vastly improved performance when large numbers of gold piles are on screen
Possession
- Improved hit detection for the Shambler
- Improved the Possession camera for the Shambler
- Improved feedback when adding a unit to your Possession raid group
- Improved the Possession Cam Bobbing option
UI Changes
- New unit portraits for:
- Beastmaster
- Behemoth
- Succubus
- Bafu
- Augre
- Terror
- Shadow
- Necromancer
- Cultist
- Oculus
- Ghoul
- Revenant
- Wraith
- Shambler
- Crackpot
- Chunder
- Arcane Chunder
- Chilly Chunder
- Chilli Chunder
- Chunderling
- Chunderoid
- Gnarling
- Vampire
- Moved the unit chat indicator to the new Floatymoticon system
- Prevented pixelation of the Floatymoticons on low settings
- Improved formatting of My Pet Dungeon arrow on the main menu
- Crucible and My Pet Dungeon lobbies now remember player selections for themes and mutators
Localisation
- Made various improvements to the German translation
- Minor improvements to the French translation
- Corrected some Dungeon Theme translation names
Bug Fixes
Units
- Fixed an issue that caused the Magma Weaver to take damage from Lava
- Made a temporary tweak to the Worker Dash ability to prevent a known issue – this will be improved upon at a later date
- Prevented the Archon from spawning Wraiths in Chasms
- Fixed an issue that prevented Annex from being cast correctly
- Fixed an issue that occurred if a cutscene played while in Possession
- Fixed an issue preventing the creation of Warbands in Possession
- Fixed an issue preventing Possession recall in special cases
- Corrected an underlying issue that would cause Gateways to spawn too many units
- War for the Overworld Level 10’s speed run achievement is now rewarded for the correct time
- Prevented the player getting stuck in War for the Overworld Level 2 by selecting the wrong research in the Veins of Evil
- Fixed an issue that locked the Wrath branch of the Veins of Evil on My Pet Dungeon Level 4
- Lady Aetna’s voice lines on Heart of Gold Level 4 now stop after her death – there can be only one disembodied voice in War for the Overworld, mwahahahahaha ha!
- Fixed an issue that caused the objective panel to disappear on War for the Overworld Level 3
- Fixed the Kasita Theme on Heart of Gold Level 4 which was using the correct colour
- Corrected some issues with the Hell’s Deep objectives (My Pet Dungeon)
- Fixed an issue that prevented players from claiming gold dropped by units spawned from the My Pet Dungeon Gateway
- Fixed an issue that prevented the description text of My Pet Dungeon maps from being translated
- Stopped My Pet Dungeon Toybox units playing their Tavern speech Removed some broken rituals from Hell’s Deep (Unleash Kenos for example)
- Fixed the Toybox tutorial line failing to play
- Prevented ice tiles reverting to Dirt in My Pet Dungeon
- Corrected an issue preventing some players from playing the second My Pet Dungeon map for free
- Clicking the My Pet Dungeon purchase banner in-game now correctly redirects you to the Steam Store
- Fixed a rare issue resulting in the My Pet Dungeon user-interface disappearing
- Placing a Neutral room in God mode now works as intended Multiplayer
- Worker Rally flags in Multiplayer will now only show for the player placing them as intended
- Removed duplicate entries from the Empire Theme selector
- Prevented a rare situation where a Worker would try to walk into the centre of a prop
- Fixed an issue that caused Shadows to run through Lava unnecessarily
- Fixed an issue that prevented the hide user interface button from being displayed
- Fixed the “Translation No Longer Supported” box failing to display
- Fixed a regression that resulted in players becoming locked in the Extras menu
- Fixed an issue preventing the narrator’s voice from being controlled by the volume slider
- Fixed an issue that caused the Worker fortify VFX to play incorrectly
- Fixed various issues with the Arcane Theme
- Fixed various minor code errors
- Corrected a mismatch between a miscellaneous narrator voice line and subtitle
- Fixed an issue that prevented Micropiglets and Rats being unloaded when changing level
- Prevented multiple null reference exceptions
- Prevented some rare crash cases
Happy Easter from Bunny Worker
[ 2017-04-12 12:46:01 CET ] [ Original post ]
Darkest greetings Underlord,
Though barely... Alas the darkness is receding, and sunlight is returning to Kairos. But all is not lost. Sprouting from his warren like a daffodil, Bunny Worker rises with a ravenous appetite - for chocolate eggs!
This cocoa connoisseur will burrow deep in search of chocolate. And you know the thing about chocolate is that it’s brown. And the thing about dirt is that it’s also brown. So keep that nugget dangling on a stick, and this fervent little fellow will burrow out all your dungeons till next winter!
Crack open your Bunny Worker skin on Steam and receive a special launch discount for a limited time - then watch him burrow through all non-Campaign game modes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vCs0Maetae4
Priced at just £0.79 / $0.99 / 0.99€, the Bunny Worker is waiting for you on the Steam Store. You can also grab him at a discount in our Worker Skin Collection.
In addition, backers of our original Kickstarter campaign using the Steam version of the game will receive this skin for free.
Happy Easter, Underlord!
– Brightrock Games Team
Click here to chat about this update on our Discord
Never miss an update! Sign up to our newsletter!
Daily Deal - War for the Overworld, 75% Off
[ 2017-04-03 17:00:00 CET ] [ Original post ]
Today's Deal: Save 75% on War for the Overworld!*
Look for the deals each day on the front page of Steam. Or follow us on twitter or Facebook for instant notifications wherever you are!
*Offer ends Wednesday at 10AM Pacific Time
My Pet Dungeon Patch 1.6 Available Now!
My Pet Dungeon is a new game mode DLC available now on Steam for £5,59 - but we’re also giving you the opportunity to try before you buy with a 2-level free trial available to everyone as of Patch 1.6!
My Pet Dungeon is a distinctly different experience from all our other game modes thus far, with a much greater emphasis on dungeon building, exploration and discovery. Each level challenges the player to build a dungeon and raise enough points to progress onwards to the next land. My Pet Dungeon makes for a relaxing break from the day-to-day conquest of Kairos!
Want to know more? Take an in-depth look at the new features with our previews: Preview 1 - My Pet Dungeon reveal Preview 3 - Snowy Terrain Preview 4 - God Mode
We’re certainly not forgetting to give you plenty of extra goodies in the accompanying patch as well. Patch 1.6 is filled to the brim with quality-of-life improvements, as well as a few additional features to help round out your experience:
If that has whet your appetite then you can read the full patch notes!
Finally, we know how Underlords both new and old are always hunting for a bargain to get the best value from their hard-stolen gold. So to celebrate the game’s second anniversary we’ve bundled together all the content and expansions for WFTO into one lovely anniversary package, which gives you a 10% discount! So if you’ve yet to embrace your inner Underlord there’s no better time than right now. We won’t keep you any longer Underlord - get out there and construct the greatest dungeon this side of Uther’s Landing! Cheers, – Brightrock Games Team Click here to discuss this update on the Steam forums Click here to chat about this update on our Discord Never miss an update! Sign up to our newsletter!
[ 2017-04-03 15:31:09 CET ] [ Original post ]
Darkest greetings Underlord,
For millennia you have slept with nothing but the dreams of long-decimated realms to keep you company - the journey through the Aether is harsh after all and the search difficult, but at last you stand on the precipice of a new realm, Kairos.
But before the attack can begin there are preparations to be made. While you wait why not take a moment to relax and engage in that most favoured activity of all Underlords: dungeon building. Surely there’s something you can do to pass the time? How about this all-new My Pet Dungeon mode, and the dozens of changes in Patch 1.6?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sv-rFykrrn0
My Pet Dungeon Game Mode ( £5.59 / $7.99 / €7.99 - 2-Level Free Trial)
My Pet Dungeon is a new game mode DLC available now on Steam for £5,59 - but we’re also giving you the opportunity to try before you buy with a 2-level free trial available to everyone as of Patch 1.6!
My Pet Dungeon is a distinctly different experience from all our other game modes thus far, with a much greater emphasis on dungeon building, exploration and discovery. Each level challenges the player to build a dungeon and raise enough points to progress onwards to the next land. My Pet Dungeon makes for a relaxing break from the day-to-day conquest of Kairos!
Key Features
- New My Pet Dungeon Sandbox-Style Campaign - Narrated as ever by your despicable mentor Mendechaus (Richard Ridings)
- Eight All-New Levels - Focussed on exploration, discovery and dungeon building (2 levels available for free!)
- Unique Scoring System - Earn points by building the greatest dungeon in the Underworld; earn enough to unlock the next level
- Bonus Objectives - Complete special objectives to earn extra points, such as raising your minions’ Levels or slaying dozens of heroes - all at your own pace
- Room Unlock System - Rooms unlock over time, freeing your research up to focus on other Aspects
- The Toybox - A special room unique to My Pet Dungeon, allowing you to pick up and drop enemy units into your dungeon as though they were mere toys
- Wave Spawning - Spawn waves of enemy units to put your dungeon through its paces through new controls
- Three Unlockable Themes - Unlock the long-awaited Empire Dungeon Themes at last, newly refined to work as playable themes
- Winter Wonderland - Discover a new snowy terrain theme as your minions crunch through frozen underground caverns
- God Mode - Realise your omnipotence with the power to shape the very land, spawn in units and much more - all in real time
Want to know more? Take an in-depth look at the new features with our previews: Preview 1 - My Pet Dungeon reveal Preview 3 - Snowy Terrain Preview 4 - God Mode
Patch 1.6: Creature Comforts (Release Notes)
We’re certainly not forgetting to give you plenty of extra goodies in the accompanying patch as well. Patch 1.6 is filled to the brim with quality-of-life improvements, as well as a few additional features to help round out your experience:
- Possession Mode improvements for user feedback, as well as dozens of new Possession views to make playing each creature a different experience
- Balance changes allowing for a better-paced dungeon management experience
- Combat AI improvements such as reworked repositioning and fleeing mechanics to increase combat clarity
- UI improvements for additional feedback on unit need fulfillment
- New waterfall and water chasm terrain, along with an all-new water shader
- Community requested Autosave and Hardware Cursor options
If that has whet your appetite then you can read the full patch notes!
The Anniversary Collection
Finally, we know how Underlords both new and old are always hunting for a bargain to get the best value from their hard-stolen gold. So to celebrate the game’s second anniversary we’ve bundled together all the content and expansions for WFTO into one lovely anniversary package, which gives you a 10% discount! So if you’ve yet to embrace your inner Underlord there’s no better time than right now. We won’t keep you any longer Underlord - get out there and construct the greatest dungeon this side of Uther’s Landing! Cheers, – Brightrock Games Team Click here to discuss this update on the Steam forums Click here to chat about this update on our Discord Never miss an update! Sign up to our newsletter!
Announcing Skargz - Our Next Title!
Skargz is a truly genre-busting game inspired by the virtual desktop pet games from the 90s. We’re confident there’s nothing out there quite like it – riding on a wave of nostalgia while also redefining what it means to be a virtual pet. We’re sure we’re not exaggerating when we say this is a new frontier for the VDPMSG genre! Upon installing the game from your CD-ROM drive you’ll immediately find a newly laid Skarg egg on your desktop. Then the fun begins: Adopt – An adult Skarg might be able to dice a Highguard at fifty yards, but junior’s gonna need a little hand being born: slap the egg 1,000 times to help him break free! Nurture – Treat your newborn Skarg well and he will soon grow up to be a truly adorable killing machine. When he’s done devouring your Recycle Bin, be sure to sate him with plenty of Micropiglets, lest he eat your Start button next.
[ 2017-04-01 09:32:03 CET ] [ Original post ]
Darkest greetings Underlord,
There has been much speculation over the last year regarding what Brightrock Games title will next grace your PC gaming device. Knowing our passion for 90s and 00s classics you may have supposed such games as “Themed Hospital Manager”, “Dark Grey & Light Grey” or even “Populist: The Start”, which would all be natural stepping stones for Brightrock in the future.
Fortunately today the speculation will end! In pursuit of our mission to create “genre-twisting simulation games” we’ve pondered the question, “What can we make that will truly reinvigorate this ailing genre?” While watching a stray dog urinate on a lamp post, the answer came to us like a bolt of lightning! So without further ado we’re pleased to announce:
Skargz – A Virtual Dungeon Pet Management Simulation Game
About Skargz
Skargz is a truly genre-busting game inspired by the virtual desktop pet games from the 90s. We’re confident there’s nothing out there quite like it – riding on a wave of nostalgia while also redefining what it means to be a virtual pet. We’re sure we’re not exaggerating when we say this is a new frontier for the VDPMSG genre! Upon installing the game from your CD-ROM drive you’ll immediately find a newly laid Skarg egg on your desktop. Then the fun begins: Adopt – An adult Skarg might be able to dice a Highguard at fifty yards, but junior’s gonna need a little hand being born: slap the egg 1,000 times to help him break free! Nurture – Treat your newborn Skarg well and he will soon grow up to be a truly adorable killing machine. When he’s done devouring your Recycle Bin, be sure to sate him with plenty of Micropiglets, lest he eat your Start button next.
- CTRL+Z won’t undo that
- Just call me Clickety!
- Pentium 75 processor
- Windows 95
- 40 MB free hard drive space
- 16 MB RAM
- CD-ROM
- Monitor
- 16 Bit Sound Blaster or compatible sound card
- 256 colors video card
Feature Preview: God Mode
God Mode is a feature of My Pet Dungeon that you’ll unlock after completing the entire 8-level campaign. Upon doing so you’ll find a new section of the lobby has opened up, allowing you to enable and disable God Mode, as well as apply your own mutators. But what is this God Mode? Simply put, by enabling God Mode you’re giving yourself the power to modify the terrain and spawn any unit from thin air - in real time. Think of it like using the Map Editor whilst playing the game, giving you the power to alter the level with the frivolity of a god!
[ 2017-03-31 16:38:18 CET ] [ Original post ]
Darkest greetings Underlord,
The second anniversary of War for the Overworld, and subsequent release of My Pet Dungeon and Patch 1.6, are just around the corner! You’ve seen the major features revealed over the previous three posts; but we’ve still got one more reveal to go!
So without further ado we’d like to introduce: God Mode.
https://youtu.be/3Lw26La5U4w
Omnipotence at Your Fingertips
God Mode is a feature of My Pet Dungeon that you’ll unlock after completing the entire 8-level campaign. Upon doing so you’ll find a new section of the lobby has opened up, allowing you to enable and disable God Mode, as well as apply your own mutators. But what is this God Mode? Simply put, by enabling God Mode you’re giving yourself the power to modify the terrain and spawn any unit from thin air - in real time. Think of it like using the Map Editor whilst playing the game, giving you the power to alter the level with the frivolity of a god!
- INFINITE POWER!
- This is the horror that awaits upon spawning 648 Democorns
Terrain Updates Coming Soon!
My Pet Dungeon takes place in the astral planes of the Aether – so far from the stars in fact that things can get pretty chilly. So it’s no surprise to find terrain like this:
You’ll find the snow theme in various My Pet Dungeon maps; and rest assured that in the next major update following 1.6 you’ll be able to hear the crunch of snowy footfalls in your own creations!
Back in Kairos there’s urgent terrain news too! See, that dimwitted excuse for an Empire has for decades now been spoiling the water sources with their disgusting habits, such as going to the toilet. This naturally drips down into the Underworld, which is why you’re no doubt familiar with the green-goop excuse for water in your dungeons. An Underlord may be ungodly, but that doesn’t mean they should live in a sewer! So you’ll be glad to hear that in the wake of your ongoing purge of the Empire, the water sources have started to clean up.
[ 2017-03-28 16:26:01 CET ] [ Original post ]
Darkest greetings Underlord,
Last week we introduced you to the new My Pet Dungeon mode and gave you a sneak peek at the new Possession improvements coming in Patch 1.6. But today we have the coolest update of all: the brand-new snowy terrain theme, plus water!
https://youtu.be/BA0q3qwQ5Eo
Snow Place Like Home
My Pet Dungeon takes place in the astral planes of the Aether – so far from the stars in fact that things can get pretty chilly. So it’s no surprise to find terrain like this:
- What is this, Christmas?
You’ll find the snow theme in various My Pet Dungeon maps; and rest assured that in the next major update following 1.6 you’ll be able to hear the crunch of snowy footfalls in your own creations!
Water, Water, Everywhere!
Back in Kairos there’s urgent terrain news too! See, that dimwitted excuse for an Empire has for decades now been spoiling the water sources with their disgusting habits, such as going to the toilet. This naturally drips down into the Underworld, which is why you’re no doubt familiar with the green-goop excuse for water in your dungeons. An Underlord may be ungodly, but that doesn’t mean they should live in a sewer! So you’ll be glad to hear that in the wake of your ongoing purge of the Empire, the water sources have started to clean up.
- Not a turd in sight! Until the Chunders wade in…
- Brings a tear to the eye, doesn’t it?
Possession Updates Coming Soon
Possession is a really cool feature very much unique to this genre, and one that we’ve always wanted to do much more with. The scope for the feature is incredible, and there are many ways we could explore the mechanics behind it. Sadly for the longest time this feature has gone neglected, barely seeing changes since release except some minor improvements all the way back in Patch 1.1. But in Patch 1.6 we’re revisiting it, and breathing some new immersive life into this unique first-person view.
One of the Possession features most heavily requested by our valued community is a much more immersive experience – they want to truly feel like they’re seeing the world through the eyes of their minions, and what unique twists that would put on their perceptions. Well we’re not one to duck away from a challenge! We’ve spent weeks meticulously reviewing and redesigning each creature’s vision – you can see the results for yourself:
There’s more than just fancy new vision though – we’ve also made improvements to the Possession experience, mostly focussed on providing better feedback in response to your actions. For example, upon making an attack you’ll see additional feedback on the action, as well as witnessing a satisfying flash upon landing a blow on your adversary. Similarly, performing a heal on an ally will also deliver a flash to show that your spell has hit home.
We’re also giving the much overlooked Possession Door a quick makeover with some swanky new textures as well as a couple of new features.
[ 2017-03-23 17:10:40 CET ] [ Original post ]
Darkest greetings Underlord,
Imagine you could dive into the mind of anyone you know – what would you see through their eyes? Would the world be different? Could you walk a mile in their shoes? Now you can answer these questions and more via the vastly-improved Possession spell! Assume the identity of one of your minions and see the world in a whole new way. Literally.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bfwWOG2DQ9k
Possession Update
Possession is a really cool feature very much unique to this genre, and one that we’ve always wanted to do much more with. The scope for the feature is incredible, and there are many ways we could explore the mechanics behind it. Sadly for the longest time this feature has gone neglected, barely seeing changes since release except some minor improvements all the way back in Patch 1.1. But in Patch 1.6 we’re revisiting it, and breathing some new immersive life into this unique first-person view.
- Angry Augres see the world in red.
Unbelievable Sights, Indescribable Feelings
One of the Possession features most heavily requested by our valued community is a much more immersive experience – they want to truly feel like they’re seeing the world through the eyes of their minions, and what unique twists that would put on their perceptions. Well we’re not one to duck away from a challenge! We’ve spent weeks meticulously reviewing and redesigning each creature’s vision – you can see the results for yourself:
- Crackpot vision is quite the experience – comparable only to ingesting Whaleshrooms
- Insect-o-vision courtesy of your friendly neighbourhood Skarg
Beyond the Eyes – User Experience Improvements
There’s more than just fancy new vision though – we’ve also made improvements to the Possession experience, mostly focussed on providing better feedback in response to your actions. For example, upon making an attack you’ll see additional feedback on the action, as well as witnessing a satisfying flash upon landing a blow on your adversary. Similarly, performing a heal on an ally will also deliver a flash to show that your spell has hit home.
- Flashing has never been so much fun
Choose your Door
We’re also giving the much overlooked Possession Door a quick makeover with some swanky new textures as well as a couple of new features.
- You shall not pass! Unless you’re an ethereal consciousness possessing a lesser being
- What’ve they got in there, the Chunder King?
Announcing My Pet Dungeon, New Game Mode!
Alongside Patch 1.6 we’ll be releasing a new paid DLC by the name of My Pet Dungeon, something diehard Dungeon Management fans will no doubt recognise and one of the things that has long been requested by our community. Like the Crucible this DLC will include an all-new game mode, but this time focussed on building and exploring in an enhanced sandbox format. Think something similar to the Home Realm but on steroids and with a whole new batch of toys to play with!
When we announced changes to our original plans for Patch 1.6 we were expecting some backlash, since the second expansion and the Skirmish AI update were now coming later in 2017 or even early 2018. We were pleasantly surprised and emboldened by your response with many of you saying you’re happy to see even more going into the game than originally planned. The success of Patch 1.5 and Crucible has given us an opportunity to work on some things that both we and many of our fans have always wanted to see in the game, but that we didn’t have the time to develop before. My Pet Dungeon is a mode that has been requested by the community since the earliest days of WFTO’s development, being a much loved feature in one of our biggest inspirations: Dungeon Keeper 2. We felt that with the extra time available to us we now had the perfect opportunity to slot this in. We’re intending it to be a mode where the player can kick back and relax - after all Crucible was quite intense, and with the AI update we expect Expansion 2 will also be pretty hectic. Think of this as the calm before the storm.
With that said My Pet Dungeon is certainly not being developed in isolation. There’s a veritable horde of extra features, optimisations and improvements that permeate the foundations of Patch 1.6, which again we would have otherwise never had the opportunity to do. Moreover all the work we’re putting in will help ensure that the final update and expansion, now known as Patch 2.0, will be the most complete experience of WFTO possible.
Obsidian is a new kind of terrain coming in Patch 1.6, which looks strikingly like Impenetrable Rock. In truth it is extremely hard volcanic rock which can only be destroyed by detonating nearby Brimstone. This means we can use it to create one-way passages, since the player can only approach the Obsidian from the Brimstone side - we’ll be making full use of this in My Pet Dungeon. Obsidian will also be placeable via the Map Editor, so you can enrich your own creations!
[ 2017-03-21 17:38:52 CET ] [ Original post ]
Darkest greetings Underlord,
The drums of war are beating in the distance, something stirs in the darkness and the realm of Kairos knows not what approaches from the swirling mass of the Aether. But before the grandest of schemes can be realised there is time for reflection, for a brief escape from the machinations of the mad god.
In this moment of calm there is no better time to engage in an Underlord’s most favoured activities - building dungeons and toying with mortals, friend and foe alike! To that end we’d like to introduce My Pet Dungeon!
https://youtu.be/8CtGFQQ5LU4
New Game Mode DLC: My Pet Dungeon
Alongside Patch 1.6 we’ll be releasing a new paid DLC by the name of My Pet Dungeon, something diehard Dungeon Management fans will no doubt recognise and one of the things that has long been requested by our community. Like the Crucible this DLC will include an all-new game mode, but this time focussed on building and exploring in an enhanced sandbox format. Think something similar to the Home Realm but on steroids and with a whole new batch of toys to play with!
- We know you’ve always wanted your own petting zoo
- New My Pet Dungeon Campaign - 8 Levels geared towards exploration, construction and discovery
- Unique Scoring System - Build your dungeon and earn points to progress to the next level
- Bonus Objectives - Each level features bonus objectives which award extra points in return for completing tasks, such as levelling up your units
- Room Unlock System - Rooms in these levels unlock sequentially, freeing your research up for other Aspects and pacing your exploration and expansion
- Toybox - A special room that appears only in My Pet Dungeon levels and allows you to pick up and drop enemy units directly into your dungeon
- Wave Spawning - Spawn waves of enemy units at a combat Level of your choosing via new controls, to test out your creations
- Three Unlockable Themes - Three classic Empire Dungeon Themes finally unlockable
- Two Unannounced Features - Check back Next Tuesday & Friday for more!
The Philosophy of My Pet Dungeon & Patch 1.6
When we announced changes to our original plans for Patch 1.6 we were expecting some backlash, since the second expansion and the Skirmish AI update were now coming later in 2017 or even early 2018. We were pleasantly surprised and emboldened by your response with many of you saying you’re happy to see even more going into the game than originally planned. The success of Patch 1.5 and Crucible has given us an opportunity to work on some things that both we and many of our fans have always wanted to see in the game, but that we didn’t have the time to develop before. My Pet Dungeon is a mode that has been requested by the community since the earliest days of WFTO’s development, being a much loved feature in one of our biggest inspirations: Dungeon Keeper 2. We felt that with the extra time available to us we now had the perfect opportunity to slot this in. We’re intending it to be a mode where the player can kick back and relax - after all Crucible was quite intense, and with the AI update we expect Expansion 2 will also be pretty hectic. Think of this as the calm before the storm.
With that said My Pet Dungeon is certainly not being developed in isolation. There’s a veritable horde of extra features, optimisations and improvements that permeate the foundations of Patch 1.6, which again we would have otherwise never had the opportunity to do. Moreover all the work we’re putting in will help ensure that the final update and expansion, now known as Patch 2.0, will be the most complete experience of WFTO possible.
New Terrain: Obsidian
Obsidian is a new kind of terrain coming in Patch 1.6, which looks strikingly like Impenetrable Rock. In truth it is extremely hard volcanic rock which can only be destroyed by detonating nearby Brimstone. This means we can use it to create one-way passages, since the player can only approach the Obsidian from the Brimstone side - we’ll be making full use of this in My Pet Dungeon. Obsidian will also be placeable via the Map Editor, so you can enrich your own creations!
- More obstinate than Brimstone? That’s Obsidian!
Patch 1.5.2 Available Now!
In November, slightly before the release of Patch 1.5, we announced our plans for the endgame of WFTO. We also gave you a timeline for our final expansion, as well as the next and final major patch. As we’ve often said in the past the nature of videogame development is fluid - circumstances change and so inevitably plans change. We’re happy to say that, thanks in part to the success of Patch 1.5 and the Crucible, we’re looking to develop more content over 2017 than originally intended. This changes our original timeline in the following ways:
Since the Crucible launched we’ve seen a number of you asking if we plan to reset the leaderboards in the event that exploits are discovered, or clear cheating is occurring on the board. This is an issue we’ve been considering for some time and not one with an easy answer. For the most part we’re happy with a number of strategies that are seeing use in Crucible mode and we’re pleased to witness some neglected Aspects supporting these strategies. In a few cases we’ve seen some clever use of game mechanics that even we did not expect and we’re usually happy to let these continue. However in some cases there are times where an Aspect can be used to completely break the mode, such as the “Prison and Arena” exploit fixed in this patch. These are issues we want to address as soon as possible to help maintain the balance and intended play of the Crucible. We have decided not to reset the leaderboard for this patch as we don’t wish to have legitimate scores removed due to a small number of exploitative scores. However we are planning a leaderboard reset in the future, namely with Patch 1.6. This patch is likely to see some major balance changes that will ultimately change how the game is played and how effective some strategies are. To maintain a fair playing field on the leaderboard we plan to reset it at this time due to the scope of the incoming changes. We may also reset the leaderboard to coincide with other major patches with balance changes.
Quick Freeze
Level 3
Level 4
[ 2017-02-02 14:51:34 CET ] [ Original post ]
Darkest greetings Underlord,
The eternal work continues unabated within the foundries at Brightrock Games! The hammering of steel and the sound of arcane machines can be heard beyond the doors as our Augres and Cultists mould the shape of things to come.
Speaking of which, in addition to unleashing Patch 1.5.2 on you today we’re also announcing a change to our previously revealed plans for War for the Overworld. So pull up a pew and let’s delve into the changes both present and future!
The Future of WFTO
In November, slightly before the release of Patch 1.5, we announced our plans for the endgame of WFTO. We also gave you a timeline for our final expansion, as well as the next and final major patch. As we’ve often said in the past the nature of videogame development is fluid - circumstances change and so inevitably plans change. We’re happy to say that, thanks in part to the success of Patch 1.5 and the Crucible, we’re looking to develop more content over 2017 than originally intended. This changes our original timeline in the following ways:
- New content will be introduced throughout the year, including an all-new oft-requested game mode in the first half of the year
- The next expansion is no longer releasing in Q1-Q2 but much later in the year, or even early next year - overall quality will be higher
- The Skirmish AI update will now release before the next expansion
Upcoming Crucible Leaderboard Reset
Since the Crucible launched we’ve seen a number of you asking if we plan to reset the leaderboards in the event that exploits are discovered, or clear cheating is occurring on the board. This is an issue we’ve been considering for some time and not one with an easy answer. For the most part we’re happy with a number of strategies that are seeing use in Crucible mode and we’re pleased to witness some neglected Aspects supporting these strategies. In a few cases we’ve seen some clever use of game mechanics that even we did not expect and we’re usually happy to let these continue. However in some cases there are times where an Aspect can be used to completely break the mode, such as the “Prison and Arena” exploit fixed in this patch. These are issues we want to address as soon as possible to help maintain the balance and intended play of the Crucible. We have decided not to reset the leaderboard for this patch as we don’t wish to have legitimate scores removed due to a small number of exploitative scores. However we are planning a leaderboard reset in the future, namely with Patch 1.6. This patch is likely to see some major balance changes that will ultimately change how the game is played and how effective some strategies are. To maintain a fair playing field on the leaderboard we plan to reset it at this time due to the scope of the incoming changes. We may also reset the leaderboard to coincide with other major patches with balance changes.
Patch 1.5.2 Release Notes
Gameplay Changes
Potions
Quick Freeze
- Now creates a patch of frost when it expires, preventing further Quick Freeze potions from being used in that area for a short time
Level Changes
War for the Overworld
Level 3
- Improved the robustness of several scripts in this level to prevent players from becoming stuck at certain objectives, specifically placing the first Blade Lotus
Heart of Gold
Level 4
- Small improvements to the ending sequence, making it easier to trigger the final cutscene
UI Changes
- Players will now be informed if their Steam Cloud storage is full when attempting to save games or maps - in the event that Steam Cloud storage is full the process will complete locally
Map Editor Changes
- Added an edit button to the Finished maps menu which will open the selected map in the editor
Crucible Changes
- Improvements to the Earthquake feature’s detection of path blocking via Prison and Arena tiles, which should address a serious exploit
AI Improvements
- Fixed a rare case where units would endlessly run into a closed enemy door without attacking it
- Made a number of improvements to Worker AI to prevent them looping in and out of combat if they have no specific tasks to perform
- Cultists are now able to attack doors
- Threat map now immediately updates when a defence is built and takes into account the DPS of a defence
Visual Improvements
- Performed a pass on and added new VFX for a number of Survival units
Miscellaneous Changes
- Improvements to corrupt save handling so that the loading process fails more gracefully, preventing an issue where it would be impossible to load other levels after attempting to load a corrupted save file
Bug Fixes
Units
- The Duke and Sir Roussimoff should now correctly receive their wages
- Necromancers will no longer try to raise Ghouls from destroyed Empire gateways, preventing an endless loop of abject failure
- Possessed Matriarchs can now move as intended after using their Crusade ability
Map Editor
- Crucible maps can no longer be imported as they are not supported by the Map Editor
- Fixed an issue where importing a map and reducing the number of factions on it would cause issues at publishing
- Fixed an issue where the Artefact of Sin was not placeable in the Map Editor
Levels
- Fixed an issue where pre-placed props on Level 12 were rotated 90 degrees into the ground
- The vault door in Heart of Gold Level 4 can no longer be destroyed by normal units
- Fixed an issue in Level 10 where revealing the Inhibitor on the west side of the map could cause all units on the west side to engage your forces immediately
- Fixed a long-standing issue in Level 5 where some units could be assigned an Empire patrol path which would appear on their tooltips as “activity: other”
UI
- Fixed a localisation error where the Spanish and Polish translations for community translation advice were switched
- Minor text corrections for some Possession ability tooltips
- Changing the visibility state of unit shields via the hotkey will now correctly reflect the state change in the menu
- Increased the height of the unit shields for Wooden Doors and Portcullises for increased visibility
Visual
- Fixed a long-standing visual issue where some tile tops would have visible seams between tiles
- Artefacts will no longer show a box highlighted beneath them when hovered with the Hand of Evil
- Fixed an issue with the walk animation of the Duke
- Fixed the highlighting issues with the Kasita theme Dungeon Core
- Fixed an issue where the Fog of War could become incorrectly revealed on specific maps
- Fixed an issue with the torture corruption VFX that caused it too look incredibly garish
- Small corrections to the Arcane Chunder Nova ability animation and VFX
Multiplayer
- Map names will correctly update for clients searching for a game in the lobby if the map is changed by the host after the client started searching for a game
- Fixed an issue where clients could not load a multiplayer game immediately after playing a Crucible match
- Multiplayer lobbies will once again correctly close if the host disconnects Closing a slot that contains a hard AI will now correctly be reflected on clients’ screens
Patch 1.5.1 Available Now!
What we can share however is that we have just unleashed Patch 1.5.1, and with it we’re finally updating the DRM-Free build to include all the wonderful content that we’ve added since Heart of Gold (with the same usual restrictions). You'll be able to get your grubby mitts on it next week! Even the Crucible is stopping by, so if you can’t stand those pesky DRM services at the very least you’ll be getting some mass slaughter in Mendechaus’ terrifying Crucible challenge. We also have some cautiously good news for those interested in a GOG release. We’ve been talking with the chaps over at GOG.com and we’re hoping to potentially release a “complete” edition after all upcoming features are done. More on that as it develops.
Anyway, we’re sure you’re eager to hear what’s changed in Patch 1.5.1. Feature-wise we’re a little light on the ground but that’s because we’re hard at work on much bigger things for WFTO. We’re sure you’ll certainly appreciate all the fixes and minor changes we’ve made though!
[ 2017-01-13 18:56:13 CET ] [ Original post ]
Darkest greetings Underlord,
As we step out of the darkest times that will forever be remembered as the year 2016 we look forward to the bright future that is 2017. We’re already hard at work on our new year’s resolutions to bring you even more quality content for War for the Overworld and hopefully to make great strides on our next title.
We’re pleased to say that the release of Patch 1.5 and the Crucible DLC has gone down incredibly well and we’re looking forward to what your response will be to the exciting new content we have planned! We can’t share any details yet but as soon as we can we’ll be posting up a storm, so keep your eyes peeled.
DRM-Free Build Update coming soon and GOG
What we can share however is that we have just unleashed Patch 1.5.1, and with it we’re finally updating the DRM-Free build to include all the wonderful content that we’ve added since Heart of Gold (with the same usual restrictions). You'll be able to get your grubby mitts on it next week! Even the Crucible is stopping by, so if you can’t stand those pesky DRM services at the very least you’ll be getting some mass slaughter in Mendechaus’ terrifying Crucible challenge. We also have some cautiously good news for those interested in a GOG release. We’ve been talking with the chaps over at GOG.com and we’re hoping to potentially release a “complete” edition after all upcoming features are done. More on that as it develops.
Patch 1.5.1 Release Notes
Anyway, we’re sure you’re eager to hear what’s changed in Patch 1.5.1. Feature-wise we’re a little light on the ground but that’s because we’re hard at work on much bigger things for WFTO. We’re sure you’ll certainly appreciate all the fixes and minor changes we’ve made though!
Gameplay Changes
Units
- Workers
- Can now collect items from unclaimed ground
Environment
- Artefact of Sin
- Now grants the user 1 Sin (down from 3)
- Artefact of Greater Sin (New)
- Grants the user 3 Sins
Community Translation
- Added a number of missing translation keys including map names and descriptions for Skirmish and Sandbox modes
Map Editor
- Disabled “quadrant pivot” mirror tools on non-square maps as they do not work
Crucible
- Gateways are now numbered in a more intuitive manner
Mutators
- Mutator mode in the lobby is now coloured based on its state:
- Mode Default - White
- Map Default - Yellow
- Custom - Orange
- Unavailable Aspects now grant access to the next tier of Aspects as if they had been researched, to prevent players becoming trapped in the Veins
Veins of Evil
UI
- Increased text size in some areas of the UI such as the debrief screen and Achievements menu
- Added a message when changing maps with custom mutators, warning that they won’t carry over to the new map unless saved as a preset
Bug Fixes
Crashes
- Fixed a crash that could occur when loading a custom map
- Fixed a number of exceptions that could lead to very rare crashes
Units
- Dwarven Arcanists no longer punch books to learn their secrets (but Arcane Chunders still learn via cranial impact)
- Fixed an issue where the Kasita and Silver Kasita Workers had incorrect Possession camera positions
- The Democorn now has fancy ability icons as intended
- Extremely powerful units such as Titans will no longer live even after their owner has died
Defences
- Blueprints for Midas Doors will correctly take damage rather than draining your gold reserves
- Blueprints for Glacial Doors will no longer create Permafrost blocks upon receiving their first construction part
- It is no longer possible to attack blueprints with no parts by rallying units on top of them
Rooms
- Fixed a collision issue in the Slaughterpen that would cause Workers to get stuck
Environment
- Workers will no longer bring an infinite number of Artefacts to Research Shrines under certain conditions
- Improved the selection box for loose gold and gold stored in the Vault
Crucible
- Fixed an issue where the “Goldstone under attack” alert could play before the first wave starts
- Large versions of units will now be tortured at the correct height on the Torture Rack
- Fixed an issue where the wave’s survived on the final scoreboard would not match the in-game value (this did not affect the leaderboard)
- Achievements will now show as earned immediately on the debrief screen if they have recently been earned
Map Editor
- Corrected an issue where importing a map and increasing the number of factions would cause all faction-owned objects to be deleted
- Claimed tiles of the same faction can now once again replace room tiles
- Fixed an issue where changing the owner of a Titan in the Map Editor context menu would cause the original owner’s Titans to be locked in the
- Veins of Evil upon game start
- Fixed an issue where holding the Escape key on the Public menu would cause the menu to exit and the game to appear frozen
- Baby Democorns will no longer die over time in the Map Editor
Levels
- Fixed an issue on Level 5 of the WFTO Campaign where saving and loading before converting Rhaskos’ Core would cause the Sanctuary reveal cutscene to trigger without revealing the Sanctuary
- Fixed an issue in Level 3 of Heart of Gold whereby continuously clicking the forge at 1,000,000 gold before you are told to would cause an infinite number of Colossi to spawn, rendering the level incompletable
- WFTO Level 7 should now complete under all circumstances Fixed an issue where the Dungeon Core was damaged from the start of some Campaign levels
- Several improvements to Underlord voice lines in Level 12
- Fixed the Artefacts of Sin in Campaign mode to ensure they grant only one Sin
- Fixed an issue in the Home Realm where gold piles would spontaneously appear at the Empire gateway
- Fixed the “This is my time” voice line from Rhaskos in Level 7 being played at the wrong time. Get it right Rhaskos!
UI
- Fixed an issue where loading a game could cause the creature UI to disappear at certain UI scaling options
- The “My Score” tab on the Crucible leaderboard can now correctly display rankings higher than the player’s
- The “Replay” button on the narration window on the summary screen now reads as “Repeat Narration” for the sake of clarity
- Objectives are now correctly visible in non-campaign modes
- Fixed a number of areas where text would overlap in certain languages
- Fixed an issue where selection would not complete if the cursor moved over the UI
- Fixed an issue with the debrief screen scrollbars which would appear in some languages
Visual
- Fixed a bug where the placement colour for rooms could remain on the floor after releasing the mouse when the player does not have enough gold
- Fixed an issue where highlighting Blood tiles would cause them to permanently change colour
- Silver Kasita Theme now uses the correct ceiling
- Fixed a small visual fault with the Spirit Chamber podium
- Parts of the Perception Shrine should no longer be visible through the Fog of War
- Corrected the ceiling height for Lava Chasms
- Research VFX should correctly play on pre-placed Archive lecterns
- Fixed some visual artefacts which would occur when Mandalf was on screen
- Fixed a number of issues where tiles would appear incorrectly rotated in some pre-placed rooms
Multiplayer
- Fixed an issue where units could spontaneously start “dancing” at a player’s Core
- Made some improvements to try and ensure the client always receives a map debrief screen when the host leaves
- Improvements to downloading maps on the client
Audio
- Corrected some errant voice-over in Crucible
Mutators
- Mutator changes should now always be correctly applied when changing tabs on the mutator menu
Miscellaneous
- Restarting a Skirmish level will now once again maintain your settings such as player colour, theme, etc.
- Fixed a number of unit names so they display properly
- Corrected a number of translation keys on code side
Season's Greetings Hotfixes
While we’re at it something arrived for you through the swirling snow of the Aether, a sort of message as it were, from a team of Engineers claiming to know you personally. Does “Brightrock Games” ring a bell? It seems they’re starting their own holidays now and will be back to work in the new year. They sent you a card as well – oh, how delightful!
This one again? I’m not sure whether that’s a compliment or an insult! I trust you’re not being too lenient on them Underlord? Charity is not a virtue you are meant to possess. In any case it seems they’ve not left without doing some work: they mention something about working on hotfixes, whatever that means, right up until their closure today. Here, they sent a list of everything they’ve achieved since their last message.
Crucible [ 2016-12-22 16:33:19 CET ] [ Original post ]
Season’s greetings Underlord,
It’s that time of year once more when the peasants of the Empire are tucked up all cosy and nice in their warm, safe houses, preparing great feasts while their offsprings eagerly await the daring charity of a rather portly home invader. What overbearing joy…
They can enjoy it while it lasts, for soon the plan will come to fruition and their homes will be invaded by a somewhat less charitable bunch. Not even their goodly Emperor Uther will be able to protect them from the oncoming apocalypse. But first there are preparations to be made, and I have special plans for loyal minions such as yourself. For now though you should enjoy this brief reprieve.
Season’s Greetings from Brightrock
While we’re at it something arrived for you through the swirling snow of the Aether, a sort of message as it were, from a team of Engineers claiming to know you personally. Does “Brightrock Games” ring a bell? It seems they’re starting their own holidays now and will be back to work in the new year. They sent you a card as well – oh, how delightful!
This one again? I’m not sure whether that’s a compliment or an insult! I trust you’re not being too lenient on them Underlord? Charity is not a virtue you are meant to possess. In any case it seems they’ve not left without doing some work: they mention something about working on hotfixes, whatever that means, right up until their closure today. Here, they sent a list of everything they’ve achieved since their last message.
Patch 1.5 Hotfixes F6-F14 (December 14th to 21st)
Crucible
- Added player high score to the Leaderboard section on Lobby and
- Summary screen at all times
- Rejigged the order some VO lines play in
- If a Boss Kill artefact cannot be picked up normally it will instead spawn at the Dungeon Core
- Added a map ping when a Goldstone is being attacked
Community Translation
- It is now possible to add a custom image as the workshop image to a Community Translation file
- Made the way community translation works more flexible. This should not affect existing translations
- Improved translation parser’s tolerance to empty lines, which can occur when manually editing CSV files
- Crucible map names & descriptions now have translation keys
UI Changes
- Replaced Sapper Icon on Map Editor Mutators Menu with Crackpot
- Introduced some updated unit portraits for a number of units
- Crucible Available” arrow now has a kickass fade in
Bug Fixes
Crucible
- Leaderboard now correctly shows 10 players instead of 9
- Fixed an issue where your camera could become locked if you played two Crucible levels in a row
- Unlockable worker skins are no longer unnlocked until you unlock them… Sorry
Daily Deal - War for the Overworld, 75% Off
[ 2016-12-13 18:00:00 CET ] [ Original post ]
Today's Deal: Save 75% on War for the Overworld!*
Look for the deals each day on the front page of Steam. Or follow us on twitter or Facebook for instant notifications wherever you are!
*Offer ends Thursday at 10AM Pacific Time
Patch 1.5 Release Notes
Endless Waves of Enemies
Through our new mutators we’re going to be putting the power in your hands: tweak gameplay mechanics through dozens of intricate sliders or simply ban units or Aspects from the game entirely. The choice is yours!
We always want to bring War for the Overworld to as many fans across the world as we can, but with the limited resources of an indie developer it is often difficult to justify the costs of localisation, especially this late into the game. Inspired by the efforts of some of our most dedicated community members, we’re giving players the opportunity to bring the game to their native language like never before.
You may recall a certain April Fool’s joke we made a few years ago. Well now it’s your worst nightmare in the Crucible! The horrendously friendly Democorn can also be used in the Map Editor. It arrives with the following abilities:
Reskinned units which use a combination of abilities taken from existing units, and which will soon be assaulting you in the Crucible. These units can also be used in the Map Editor.
[ 2016-12-13 11:42:06 CET ] [ Original post ]
Darkest greetings Underlord,
We’ve arrived at last to our next major iteration of War for the Overworld. Patch 1.5: Trial by Fire!
We’re extremely pleased with how the new features in this patch have turned out, and with the content offered by the free Crucible DLC there are a huge number of changes to consider. In terms of brand new features we don’t think we’ve ever brought something quite this significant to bear before!
No doubt you want to get stuck right in and you will be able to do so immediately via Steam! But if you want to find out more about the patch you can of course read our release post, or have a browse through the full release notes below.
Patch 1.5: Trial by Fire
New Game Mode: Crucible
Endless Waves of Enemies
- With waves divided into sets of five, each set heralds its own diverse theme, but all are unified in the solitary goal of your destruction.
- Face off against devastating bosses in the final wave of each set - kill them quick enough and earn a reward!
- Up to 100 pre-determined waves will appear before you based on the selected challenge; if you somehow survive those you’ll be forced to face off against random sets of enemies.
- Six all-new Crucible levels have been added to the game, each of which has a unique layout and design to push your survival skills to breaking point.
- Each realm has a set of three lanes and in many cases each lane will have its own twist to make your defence that little bit tougher.
- Each map has three sets of Goldstones, all new shrines that gift you gold for every second they remain intact. Naturally if your foes get their way that won’t be for long.
- Feel like turning up the heat? The Advanced challenge will push you to the brink and beyond, so demonstrate your mastery of the game in this mode.
- New challenges will be added at a later date.
- While playing the Crucible mode you have access to three powerful abilities to help you last “just a few more rounds” in exchange for a modest sum of gold. But be warned: each cast increases the cost of the Lifeline exponentially.
- Apocalypse destroys all enemies, except for a few particularly strong examples, within a hair's breadth of your Dungeon Core and Goldstones.
- Safeguard will protect your Goldstones from damage for a short while, giving you time to think.
- Need some time to breathe? Respite will delay the next wave so you can shore up your defences.
- Each level and challenge combination features its own Steam leaderboard. Think you can take down the devs at their own game? Want to prove you’re the very best? Well now you can!
- New unlockable Worker skins are available to those stalwart Underlords that survive 25, 50, and 75 waves.
Mutators
Through our new mutators we’re going to be putting the power in your hands: tweak gameplay mechanics through dozens of intricate sliders or simply ban units or Aspects from the game entirely. The choice is yours!
- Mutators are now available in Skirmish, Sandbox, and Multiplayer modes.
- There are 28 Gameplay Mutators to adjust till your heart’s content, and more to come in future patches!
- You can define the availability of Aspects from the Veins of Evil - unlock them from the start for all players, or block them entirely.
- You can enable and disable unit spawning for each unit on an individual level.
- You can create custom mutator sets and save them, so you’ll never lose your favourite settings.
- Mutators can be applied via the Map Editor to define a set of “Map Defaults” which players can choose to play with when they play your map: great for those creators looking to make a specific challenge.
Community Translations
We always want to bring War for the Overworld to as many fans across the world as we can, but with the limited resources of an indie developer it is often difficult to justify the costs of localisation, especially this late into the game. Inspired by the efforts of some of our most dedicated community members, we’re giving players the opportunity to bring the game to their native language like never before.
- The game now supports the ability to upload translation files of the game’s text assets to the Steam Workshop. You’ll find these tools in the Extras menu.
- To make the translation process as easy as possible we’ve created a set of documentation and template files, and we’ve set up a forum where you can communicate with like-minded individuals or ask us questions directly.
- Players can then downloaded community translations from the Steam Workshop.
New Unit: Democorn
You may recall a certain April Fool’s joke we made a few years ago. Well now it’s your worst nightmare in the Crucible! The horrendously friendly Democorn can also be used in the Map Editor. It arrives with the following abilities:
- Basic Attack - Headbutt the target.
- Painbow - Fire a painful rainbow.
- Double Painbow - What does it mean?
- Horny Charge - Fly at the target like Pegasus possessed and deal massive damage.
- Friendship is Magic - Passively turn all nearby units that die into Baby Democorns. Because if the world needs anything, it's more Democorns.
- Disco Inferno - Cause every nearby unit to stop what it's doing and party like it's 1999.
New Unit Variants
Reskinned units which use a combination of abilities taken from existing units, and which will soon be assaulting you in the Crucible. These units can also be used in the Map Editor.
- Baby Democorn
- Baby version of the terrifying Democorn
- Does not possess the Disco Inferno, Double Painbow or Friendship is Magic abilities, but is just as fabulous
- A baby Behemoth
- Along with being adorable, the Babymoth is significantly less deadly, being weaker all round and not possessing the powerful passive damage aura or health regeneration of its grown-up form
- An altered version of the Frost Weaver for use in custom maps and the Crucible
- Unlike the standard Frost Weaver this version will follow Rally flags and doesn’t melt down over time
- A demon from the Aetherial Rung of Gold, located somewhere between Phaestus and Kasita’s Home Realm
- Hits things hard; looks pretty; doesn’t do much else
- A demon which lives halfway between the Aetherial Rung of Fire and the Aetherial Rung of Ice, hence its liquid status
- Has a fiery aura that burns nearby enemies; also hits things hard
- A mutant Bafu that navigates and hunts with sonar instead of smell
- Has a powerful screech attack that knocks enemies back
- Combat version of the Spirit which is literally big-headed
- Looks awesome and glows green
- Shoots necrotic bolts of death
- A large Chunder whose father ate boulders for breakfast
- Bigger, better, and stronger than a normal Chunder, but much slower
- An ice-cold Chunder whose father gorged on snowballs
- It will inspire others nearby to also chill out, slowing their movement and attack speeds
- A flaming-hot Chunder whose father gorged on chilli peppers
- The Chilli Chunder has been imbued with flame, and a powerful flame breath ability
- It can also launch itself at enemies by igniting its own flatulence and flying through the air
- A flying Chunder whose father gorged on Bafu
- Quite possibly the best unit in existence
- King of the Chunders, and the strongest of them all
- The Baron also eats his gold, rather than depositing it in a Vault
- A baby Chunder
- Came second to the Babymoth in the “adorable dangerous demons” competition
- A nutty pyromaniac and eponymous ruler of The Cult of the Ember Lord
- Along with the normal abilities of an Ember Demon, the Ember Lord will also set anything nearby on fire whilst summoning an endless stream of smaller Ember Demons
- The oldest Oculus in existence
- She went blind a long time ago, but is still a deadly force to be reckoned with
- A resolute Skarg which went for a swim in a volcano and didn’t feel a thing
- This terrifying older brother of the Shadow is far more deadly despite its inability to turn invisible
- So-called because of its many-eyed, many-horned carapace
- A magical Chunder whose father gorged on spellbooks, and/or Arcanists
- With skilled use of their stomach they are able to actually burp out magical incantations to bombard their foes
- These monks have been forced to wear incredibly uncomfortable brown robes
- Would-be slayer of Vampires, if he wasn't roaring drunk
- The ranks of the Arcane Order are not only limited to humans
- These dwarves are adept at spell slinging, although their short stature makes aiming a tad difficult
- An upwardly-mobile skeleton attempting to leave its dead-classness behind
Gameplay Changes
Units
- Revenants (spawned by Archon & Well of Souls)
- Can now navigate around and through defences much better which should cause them to be more effective in defensive lines
- Will now summon Restless Spirits instead of Revenants - ghostly spirits that shoot death beams
Defences
- Well of Souls
- Will automatically spawn Revenants when full
Artefacts
- Artefact of Assembly
- Now applies Defence Parts much faster and is guaranteed to complete all defences thanks to German engineering!
Level Changes
War for the Overworld
- Level 6
- Increased the amount of time available for the player to complete the “Prison Architect” achievement
- Small adjustments to make the level slightly easier
Visual Changes
- Themed Templars, Sappers and Wardens have been added to the Empire Arcane Theme
- The Gargoyle energy beam is no longer absurdly bright
- Lightened the textures on the Stone Knight and his shell - he now “pops” a little more
- Bombards have been given a fresh coat of paint
- To prevent confusion with his brother the “Empire Worker”, the Sapper has removed his backpack, so they now look nothing alike
- Improved Mira Theme lighting
- Removed some overly bright lights from the Empire Prison
- Wraiths from the Uprising ritual now look visually distinct from Revenants which are spawned by the Archon and Well of Souls
UI Changes
- Completely rewrote the unit health shield subsystem - it should be a lot more stable now and work as intended
- You will now be alerted when units have been rallied for too long
- Unit shields will now show up for a short time after a unit has gained a level
- Three states are now available for unit shields: Always On, Always Off and Default - these can be cycled with Ctrl+Shift+S
- Tweaked a number of tooltips and other text assets for a better fit
- There is now a short delay when right-clicking the Core icon and it taking you to the Core’s location, after sacrificing a Worker via the icon
- Added the ability for Underlord Edition owners to open the Dungeoneer’s Guide to the Underworld via the Extras menu
- Disabled the “Translation Incomplete” message that would appear for French and German players - the translation has actually been complete since the third week of April... Oops...
Map Editor
- Made a number of small quality of life improvements to the Map Editor
- New Crucible units are placeable in the Map Editor, available under a new tab
Audio Changes
- Added a number of voice lines specific to Inhibitors
Multiplayer Changes
- Some internal improvements have been made as part of the Crucible DLC to make Multiplayer more stable
Performance Improvements
- Massive streamlining of all the textures in the game, reducing memory footprint by up to 400MB at no visual cost
Miscellaneous Changes
- Rally flags can no longer be placed inside a Prison or Arena
Bug Fixes
Crashes
- Fixed a crash that could occur when importing a map and changing the number of players
Units
- Fixed a notification that would appear claiming that a unit had no Lair when it was removed from the Arena due to a KO
- Flying units can no longer incorrectly pass through a raised Blade Lotus
- Fixed an issue where units turned into gold statues by Aureate Monoliths would continue moving if they were in collision range with another unit when they were converted
Defences
- Fixed an issue where Ramparted defences could not be sold
- Fixed an issue where units spawned from a Ramparted Well of Souls could not always escape the Rampart
- Enemy defence blueprints that have parts placed will no longer be invisible after loading a save game
Rooms
- Building a Vault under gold piles when your storage capacity is currently full will now correctly distribute gold into the new Vault tiles
Spells & Rituals
- Shockwave can no longer hit units through walls, through obstacles, or inside the Prison or Arena
- Fixed an exploit whereby possessing a minion and clicking very fast to work a Barracks prop would cause it to level very quickly
- Fixed an issue where certain VFX could be visible through walls while in Possession mode, in particular the Worker Rally flag VFX
Potions
- Fixed an issue with the Transmutation potion where it was not possible to drop the potion on a non-valid block, even if there were valid blocks in range
Environment
- Fixed an issue where ranged abilities could disappear when flying over a Chasm
- VFX for Inhibitors will no longer reappear after their destruction
Map Editor
- Temple Guards will no longer be spawned with 60 experience in the Map Editor
- Fixed an issue where the Sapper was displayed twice in the Map Editor
- Gold is now correctly removed from the minimap if removed using an Earth tile rather than the Remove Gold tool
Levels
- Fixed a number of of problems where conversations and narration would play at incorrect times in Heart of Gold Level 4
- Enemies no longer spawn from destroyed portals in Heart of Gold Level 3
- Fixed an incredibly rare scenario where a delay in loading a save game could cause loops in level scripts not retriggering properly
- The Overworld Gateway in Level 6 no longer starts at reduced health
- Fixed an issue where Underlord Marcus did not say his full line in Level 4
- The Inhibitor in Level 3 should now have the correct health value
UI
- Fixed dozens of typos for the English language
- Fixed an issue whereby the game would not alert you if a unit had become unhappy or angry
- Fixed an issue where unit shields would not display correctly for certain defences
- Unit shields should no longer show for invisible targets after loading a saved game
- Units that are turned to a gold statue will no longer show in their Warband
- Fixed an issue where a certain UI message that appeared for deprecated languages would continuously appear after each Level if not correctly dismissed
- Severe crackdown on the right to congregate - as such units in the
- Peaceband will no longer appear as if they were in “Group 63”
Visual
- The Possession mode camera will no longer clip into the Spirit Worker
Multiplayer
- Fixed a hang that could occur in three-player matches when the match was started when only two players had the map
Audio
- Fixed some cases where 3D audio was incorrectly playing as 2D Audio
- Lava SFX are now correctly affected by volume control
Patch 1.5 Free Crucible DLC Now Available
Crucible mode is a free-for-everyone DLC. A complete reimagining and reconstruction of the long-standing Survival Prototype, you will face off against unending waves of ever-stronger enemies, until eventually your defences crumble, the evil mentor proclaims your defeat, and, all being well, you rise up the global leaderboard! We’ve excavated metric tons of earth to bring you heaps of Crucible mode content: KEY FEATURES
Want to know more about Crucible mode? Then step back in time and take a gander at our previous previews: Preview 1 - Waves, Lanes, Goldstones, Bosses, New Fiery Units Preview 3 - Lifelines, Challenges, Leaderboards, New Golden Units Preview 2 and Preview 4 also revealed new Arcane and Chunder units respectively
Patch 1.5 itself, like all our major patches, represents yet another refinement of WFTO’s core systems. This time we’re putting the power in your hands with mutators, modifiers, and new translation tools:
It may not be the largest major patch we’ve ever unleashed (that lofty title is well held by Patch 1.4), but nevertheless it promises to be one that shakes the Underworld to its very foundations. Want to get to your Hand of Evil all over the complete list of changes in Patch 1.5? Read the full release notes! There’s much still to come from WFTO, but we won’t hold you back any longer, Underlord. Go forth and begin your trial by fire. All being well, you’ll go up in smoke. Cheers! – Brightrock Games Team Click here to discuss this update on our forums Click here to chat about this update on our Discord Never miss an update! Sign up to our newsletter!
[ 2016-12-13 11:38:25 CET ] [ Original post ]
Darkest greetings Underlord,
It is time to rouse from your slumber and prove you still have what it takes to survive in the dark depths of this world. Patch 1.5: Trial by Fire, and the Crucible mode DLC are here at last, and both completely free to everyone.
Patch 1.5 is a major stepping stone in our quest to make War for the Overworld feature complete and self-sustaining for the rest of eternity. Let’s cast an evil eye upon the diabolical content that is rising up to your Steam library right now, from our very own game dev dungeon.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-VMvfBEJk7E
Crucible Mode DLC (Free)
Crucible mode is a free-for-everyone DLC. A complete reimagining and reconstruction of the long-standing Survival Prototype, you will face off against unending waves of ever-stronger enemies, until eventually your defences crumble, the evil mentor proclaims your defeat, and, all being well, you rise up the global leaderboard! We’ve excavated metric tons of earth to bring you heaps of Crucible mode content: KEY FEATURES
- New survival-style Crucible game mode
- Six all-new maps designed exclusively for the new Crucible mode
- Two unique challenge modes, from the scalding to the incinerating
- Global leaderboards on which to challenge your evilest rivals
- Dozens of new units and variants including the Democorn, Mandalf the Maroon, and the Chunder King himself, Baron von Pukemuch
- Three powerful Lifeline abilities, should you enter into dire straits
- Three prestigious new Worker skins to unlock should you survive long enough
- New Crucible voiceover from the evil mentor himself, Richard Ridings
- We’re confident that you’ll be begging for mercy before the day is out, but don’t take our word for it! Enter the Crucible and see how long you can squirm before death becomes you.
Want to know more about Crucible mode? Then step back in time and take a gander at our previous previews: Preview 1 - Waves, Lanes, Goldstones, Bosses, New Fiery Units Preview 3 - Lifelines, Challenges, Leaderboards, New Golden Units Preview 2 and Preview 4 also revealed new Arcane and Chunder units respectively
Patch 1.5: Trial by Fire
Patch 1.5 itself, like all our major patches, represents yet another refinement of WFTO’s core systems. This time we’re putting the power in your hands with mutators, modifiers, and new translation tools:
- Dozens of Gameplay Mutators for Skirmish, Sandbox, and Multiplayer modes (Preview 4)
- Availability Modifiers for all units and all Veins of Evil Aspects (Preview 4)
- New community translation tools via the Steam Workshop (Preview 2) (Forum)
- Dozens of other changes & fixes!
It may not be the largest major patch we’ve ever unleashed (that lofty title is well held by Patch 1.4), but nevertheless it promises to be one that shakes the Underworld to its very foundations. Want to get to your Hand of Evil all over the complete list of changes in Patch 1.5? Read the full release notes! There’s much still to come from WFTO, but we won’t hold you back any longer, Underlord. Go forth and begin your trial by fire. All being well, you’ll go up in smoke. Cheers! – Brightrock Games Team Click here to discuss this update on our forums Click here to chat about this update on our Discord Never miss an update! Sign up to our newsletter!
Patch 1.5 Preview 4: Mutators
Mutators are gameplay modifications that we’re allowing you to apply to your Skirmish, Sandbox, and Multiplayer games. Through these you can tweak a number of core game elements such as speed, XP multiplier, research rate, and much more! Just take a look at this list:
There are around two dozen mutators in total. We had to design a new menu just for them! With all these options you might find that there are a few specific configurations that you want to come back to time and again. Fortunately we’ve got you covered on that! We’re introducing the ability to save and load presets of your mutators, allowing you to quickly recall your preferred set(s). Naturally we want players to be aware if they’re going into a match with mutators, so when you join a lobby you’ll now be able to see the mutator set that is in play, as well as being able to open the mutator menu yourself to see exactly what changes have been made. And we’re not stopping there! We already have plans for more mutators post Patch 1.5, and if we have our way there’ll be some truly crazy options coming your way.
We recognise that not every player is going to want to delve deeply into mutators to overhaul the gameplay. Fortunately working on mutators has allowed us to introduce a few other long-requested custom features, chief of which is toggling the availability of units and Aspects.
Hate Chunders? Well now you can make them extinct. (You devil, you.) Via the menus you’ll be able to change the availability of units, rooms, defences, spells, rituals – pretty much everything – for all players in the match. For the Veins of Evil this means you’ll be able to switch an Aspect between being unlocked from the start, researchable through the Veins, or not unlockable at all. Units meanwhile can have their spawning enabled or disabled. With all these tweakable options making their way towards Skirmish, Sandbox and Multiplayer modes we can’t wait to see how this affects the flow of the game, and what unique ways you’ll find to spice up your subterranean escapades!
We couldn’t let you leave without one last preview, and we have no doubt that it’ll prove to be the most popular one yet! There’s no big mystery here, just a gaggle of Chunders. But what is truly special is that this family portrait gives us an unprecedented insight into the secret lives of these beautiful creatures.
“Alright then, look this way, and say, ‘Cheese!’” You see, as is common knowledge, Chunders are literally what they have eaten. Or more specifically, they are what their parent has eaten. That is to say when a Chunder devours something quite extravagant, it will vomit out an offspring likely to have inherited some property of the food. Can you guess what each Chunder’s parent was scoffing down? Well, that about wraps us up here, Underlord. But we shall be seeing you again very soon on Monday, when Patch 1.5 is released! Cheers! – Brightrock Games Team Click here to discuss this update on our forums Click here to chat about this update on our Discord Never miss an update! Sign up to our newsletter!
[ 2016-12-09 17:56:03 CET ] [ Original post ]
Darkest greetings Underlord,
We bet you’re itching to get your hands on Patch 1.5 with all the goodies it’s bringing: the new Crucible mode, community translation, and mutators! Wait, what’s that? We haven’t talked much about mutators yet, have we?
Well fear not because today in our final preview we’re going to be looking at the third big feature of Patch 1.5: Gameplay Mutators!
Gameplay Mutation
Mutators are gameplay modifications that we’re allowing you to apply to your Skirmish, Sandbox, and Multiplayer games. Through these you can tweak a number of core game elements such as speed, XP multiplier, research rate, and much more! Just take a look at this list:
There are around two dozen mutators in total. We had to design a new menu just for them! With all these options you might find that there are a few specific configurations that you want to come back to time and again. Fortunately we’ve got you covered on that! We’re introducing the ability to save and load presets of your mutators, allowing you to quickly recall your preferred set(s). Naturally we want players to be aware if they’re going into a match with mutators, so when you join a lobby you’ll now be able to see the mutator set that is in play, as well as being able to open the mutator menu yourself to see exactly what changes have been made. And we’re not stopping there! We already have plans for more mutators post Patch 1.5, and if we have our way there’ll be some truly crazy options coming your way.
Availability Modifiers
We recognise that not every player is going to want to delve deeply into mutators to overhaul the gameplay. Fortunately working on mutators has allowed us to introduce a few other long-requested custom features, chief of which is toggling the availability of units and Aspects.
Hate Chunders? Well now you can make them extinct. (You devil, you.) Via the menus you’ll be able to change the availability of units, rooms, defences, spells, rituals – pretty much everything – for all players in the match. For the Veins of Evil this means you’ll be able to switch an Aspect between being unlocked from the start, researchable through the Veins, or not unlockable at all. Units meanwhile can have their spawning enabled or disabled. With all these tweakable options making their way towards Skirmish, Sandbox and Multiplayer modes we can’t wait to see how this affects the flow of the game, and what unique ways you’ll find to spice up your subterranean escapades!
Crucible Unit Preview: Chunderful!
We couldn’t let you leave without one last preview, and we have no doubt that it’ll prove to be the most popular one yet! There’s no big mystery here, just a gaggle of Chunders. But what is truly special is that this family portrait gives us an unprecedented insight into the secret lives of these beautiful creatures.
“Alright then, look this way, and say, ‘Cheese!’” You see, as is common knowledge, Chunders are literally what they have eaten. Or more specifically, they are what their parent has eaten. That is to say when a Chunder devours something quite extravagant, it will vomit out an offspring likely to have inherited some property of the food. Can you guess what each Chunder’s parent was scoffing down? Well, that about wraps us up here, Underlord. But we shall be seeing you again very soon on Monday, when Patch 1.5 is released! Cheers! – Brightrock Games Team Click here to discuss this update on our forums Click here to chat about this update on our Discord Never miss an update! Sign up to our newsletter!
Patch 1.5 Preview 3: Survival Mechanics
Looking at all the horrors that are set to beset you in the Crucible you might think that we’re throwing you in with nothing but a prayer. Well that’s certainly true, but at least we’re throwing you in with a prayer that can be answered – three in fact!
Apocalypse will obliterate enemies that come within a hair’s breadth of your Dungeon Core! Lifelines are a new mechanic that we developed especially for Crucible mode. Each of these three incredibly powerful spells will no doubt be pivotal in saving your bacon from that other, angry bacon that will soon be rampaging through your dungeon. You see, each Lifeline has the power to destroy or delay your enemy, giving you more breathing room.
Goldstones taking a pummelling? Safeguard will make them immortal for a short while. However, powerful as these spells may be we can’t just let you use them without a care in the world. Each time you unleash one of these devastating abilities you’ll find the gold cost to unleash it again has increased. Use one without forethought and you’ll find yourself paying through the nose to unleash it again.
It’s difficult to capture the fact that Respite delays the next wave, so here’s a picture of our art director, Pat, and a clock instead. Lifelines ultimately won’t save you from a fate worse than death, but at least they’ll delay the inevitable long enough for you to get a new high score! Speaking of which…
Ever since the original Survival Prototype made its way into the game we’ve seen regular requests for a leaderboard to be added so that the most competitive Underlords can compare their scores. Well at long last we’re pleased to announce that the Crucible will include fully-functional leaderboards in the Steam version of the game!
There’s some serious board leading occurring here. What else is there to say on the topic of leaderboards that you don’t already know we wonder. Well at the very least we can say that each map and challenge combination has its own leaderboard, so if you’re not so savvy in one combination then perhaps another will see you rising through the ranks.
But what are these challenges we mentioned? Well to put it simply they are collections of changes and mutators that adjust your experience in Crucible mode. This could be anything from making gold incredibly scarce, to making it so that every enemy you see is a Chunder! Although we’ll only be launching Crucible mode with two challenges – the standard mode and a “master” mode – you can rest assured that there are plenty more in the works.
So you think yourself a master? Mendechaus would like to put that theory to the test.
What do we have here? Some of Kasita’s pet treasures gone wandering? I suppose nobody told them that gold isn’t the strongest metal in Kairos, and rather unfit for combat.
Golden soldiers – be bewitched at your peril. That about wraps us up for this preview, but we’ve still got one more on the way this Friday. Mendechaus is almost ready to put you through his Crucible. Are you ready for your impending trial? Click here to discuss this update on our forums Click here to chat about this update on our Discord Never miss an update! Sign up to our newsletter!
[ 2016-12-06 18:01:23 CET ] [ Original post ]
Darkest greetings Underlord,
Patch 1.5 draws ever closer but there’s still more to share before it goes
live. Come take your metaphorical seat and let us regale you with a deeper look into the mechanics of Mendechaus’ vicious Crucible.
But first, if you missed last week’s pair of updates be sure to read up on the fundamentals of the Crucible mode, as well as the insight we gave into the new community translation tools which are on their way.
Throwing you a Lifeline
Looking at all the horrors that are set to beset you in the Crucible you might think that we’re throwing you in with nothing but a prayer. Well that’s certainly true, but at least we’re throwing you in with a prayer that can be answered – three in fact!
Apocalypse will obliterate enemies that come within a hair’s breadth of your Dungeon Core! Lifelines are a new mechanic that we developed especially for Crucible mode. Each of these three incredibly powerful spells will no doubt be pivotal in saving your bacon from that other, angry bacon that will soon be rampaging through your dungeon. You see, each Lifeline has the power to destroy or delay your enemy, giving you more breathing room.
Goldstones taking a pummelling? Safeguard will make them immortal for a short while. However, powerful as these spells may be we can’t just let you use them without a care in the world. Each time you unleash one of these devastating abilities you’ll find the gold cost to unleash it again has increased. Use one without forethought and you’ll find yourself paying through the nose to unleash it again.
It’s difficult to capture the fact that Respite delays the next wave, so here’s a picture of our art director, Pat, and a clock instead. Lifelines ultimately won’t save you from a fate worse than death, but at least they’ll delay the inevitable long enough for you to get a new high score! Speaking of which…
The Leading of the Boards
Ever since the original Survival Prototype made its way into the game we’ve seen regular requests for a leaderboard to be added so that the most competitive Underlords can compare their scores. Well at long last we’re pleased to announce that the Crucible will include fully-functional leaderboards in the Steam version of the game!
There’s some serious board leading occurring here. What else is there to say on the topic of leaderboards that you don’t already know we wonder. Well at the very least we can say that each map and challenge combination has its own leaderboard, so if you’re not so savvy in one combination then perhaps another will see you rising through the ranks.
A Challenge for All
But what are these challenges we mentioned? Well to put it simply they are collections of changes and mutators that adjust your experience in Crucible mode. This could be anything from making gold incredibly scarce, to making it so that every enemy you see is a Chunder! Although we’ll only be launching Crucible mode with two challenges – the standard mode and a “master” mode – you can rest assured that there are plenty more in the works.
So you think yourself a master? Mendechaus would like to put that theory to the test.
Crucible Unit Preview: Hearts of Gold
What do we have here? Some of Kasita’s pet treasures gone wandering? I suppose nobody told them that gold isn’t the strongest metal in Kairos, and rather unfit for combat.
Golden soldiers – be bewitched at your peril. That about wraps us up for this preview, but we’ve still got one more on the way this Friday. Mendechaus is almost ready to put you through his Crucible. Are you ready for your impending trial? Click here to discuss this update on our forums Click here to chat about this update on our Discord Never miss an update! Sign up to our newsletter!
Patch 1.5 Preview 2: Community Translation
Community translation is where fans put their collective heads together and bring a product from its native language into their own, so that others who are not so savvy in the complexities of other languages can also enjoy the experience. In short it will allow dedicated multilingual fans to share their experience of WFTO with others by translating the game. Though this has been done before with WFTO (looking in particular at the incredible Japanese translation!) it has previously been achieved through ad hoc methods which could cause issues in the long run.
Instead of forcing players to go the roundabout route of directly translating and modifying our game files, we’re now implementing a more robust system:
One of the problems of being a relatively small indie developer working on your very first title - especially when that title is as narrative, text and speech heavy as WFTO - is that you have to make very strict choices on where you invest your resources. Unfortunately translation of games is extremely expensive and in many cases it becomes difficult for us to justify the investment, especially so far after launch when the greatest portion of sales are behind us. This presents a double whammy as we’re very keen on updating the game with new features and content (just like this patch!), but this new content may not be translated into as many languages as we’d like.
Now our dedicated Aussie fans can bring you the authentic fair dinkum Australian Edition! As a developer we want to see the game reach as many potential fans as possible, and it’s much to our regret that we can’t finance the official translation into all the languages we would like. As you may know we also had to drop several languages from our official translations after launch, as these were originally funded by our physical distribution partner, and their budget did not support post-release content. Supporting community translations helps both us and our fans by giving the community the tools to better address these issues.
If you’re a dedicated fan, or a member of an interested translation team, please get in touch via our forums! We’d love to work with you to bring WFTO to your language.
There are those that might say this update was a little too text heavy, but fear not we have more of the game-changing features of Patch 1.5 coming to you next Monday, with a further look into Crucible mode! In the meantime we’ll leave you with this cheerful lot - our new arcane brethren! Though it seems one of them has slipped in unnoticed...
Someone’s been gorging on spellbooks. Click here to discuss this update on our forums Click here to chat about this update on our Discord Never miss an update! Sign up to our newsletter!
[ 2016-12-04 17:30:19 CET ] [ Original post ]
Darkest greetings Underlord,
Back once more for another insight into the upcoming Patch 1.5? Well you’re right on time! Our dedicated engineers are just putting the finishing touches on a somewhat small but no less significant undertaking, if we do say so ourselves. So today we’re going to take a brief look at the upcoming community translation features in Patch 1.5.
What is Community Translation?
Community translation is where fans put their collective heads together and bring a product from its native language into their own, so that others who are not so savvy in the complexities of other languages can also enjoy the experience. In short it will allow dedicated multilingual fans to share their experience of WFTO with others by translating the game. Though this has been done before with WFTO (looking in particular at the incredible Japanese translation!) it has previously been achieved through ad hoc methods which could cause issues in the long run.
So What’s Changing?
Instead of forcing players to go the roundabout route of directly translating and modifying our game files, we’re now implementing a more robust system:
- We will be providing templates for translators to fill out. These will be similar to our existing translation files, so existing translations should not be majorly affected.
- These templates can then be dropped into the game files and uploaded to the Steam Workshop.
- This means that translation files can be downloaded in a one-click process via the Workshop.
- They will then be added to the Options menu’s Language list, where they will become a selectable language.
- We will be providing concise updates for translators to use whenever we make changes to the game text. So you’ll always be ahead of the curve when new content releases!
- To centralise all this information we’ll be updating our forums and Knowledge Base to contain all the tools you’ll need to create and keep translation files up to date.
- To further support unofficial translations we may consider asking dedicated teams to provide translations for our Steam store pages, which would direct players of a particular language to download the community translation from the Workshop.
Why is This an Important Feature?
One of the problems of being a relatively small indie developer working on your very first title - especially when that title is as narrative, text and speech heavy as WFTO - is that you have to make very strict choices on where you invest your resources. Unfortunately translation of games is extremely expensive and in many cases it becomes difficult for us to justify the investment, especially so far after launch when the greatest portion of sales are behind us. This presents a double whammy as we’re very keen on updating the game with new features and content (just like this patch!), but this new content may not be translated into as many languages as we’d like.
Now our dedicated Aussie fans can bring you the authentic fair dinkum Australian Edition! As a developer we want to see the game reach as many potential fans as possible, and it’s much to our regret that we can’t finance the official translation into all the languages we would like. As you may know we also had to drop several languages from our official translations after launch, as these were originally funded by our physical distribution partner, and their budget did not support post-release content. Supporting community translations helps both us and our fans by giving the community the tools to better address these issues.
Get in Touch!
If you’re a dedicated fan, or a member of an interested translation team, please get in touch via our forums! We’d love to work with you to bring WFTO to your language.
Crucible Unit Preview: Mysteries of the Arcane
There are those that might say this update was a little too text heavy, but fear not we have more of the game-changing features of Patch 1.5 coming to you next Monday, with a further look into Crucible mode! In the meantime we’ll leave you with this cheerful lot - our new arcane brethren! Though it seems one of them has slipped in unnoticed...
Someone’s been gorging on spellbooks. Click here to discuss this update on our forums Click here to chat about this update on our Discord Never miss an update! Sign up to our newsletter!
Patch 1.5 Preview 1: Basic Survival
Come Underlord, Mendechaus invites you into his bloody arena that is known only as the Crucible, an unending challenge which will push even the greatest amongst your kind to their breaking point and beyond. You may remember the previous Survival Prototype. Though some of the principles we explored there still exist, you’ll find this to be an entirely new beast to contend with. Let’s take a closer look at some of the new mechanics! Endless Waves of Foes As before you’ll find enemies dispatched by the dozen, all with the singular purpose of destroying your Dungeon Core.
We’re almost done for this preview, but there’s something very special we want to share with you. See, both we and Mendechaus realised that the regular cast of units on their own just wouldn’t quite cut it for the Crucible. So we decided to expand their ranks with new unit variations, and a few new faces here and there. In each of our previews for Patch 1.5 we’ll be sharing with you a bunch of these new units. Map-makers can also rejoice as many of these units will also be available in the Map Editor!
That wraps up this preview of Patch 1.5. Check back on 1 December for our next instalment! Cheers! – Brightrock Games Team Click here to discuss this update on our forums Click here to chat about this update on our Discord Never miss an update! Sign up to our newsletter!
[ 2016-11-28 18:39:51 CET ] [ Original post ]
Darkest greetings Underlord,
Fresh from last week’s State of the Game post we’re hitting the ground running in our very first preview of the upcoming Patch 1.5!
Rather than keep you salivating over the prospects of the major feature of Patch 1.5 we’re instead going to spend our first preview focussing on just that - the new Survival mode, which we’ve renamed to Crucible!
Step into the Crucible
Come Underlord, Mendechaus invites you into his bloody arena that is known only as the Crucible, an unending challenge which will push even the greatest amongst your kind to their breaking point and beyond. You may remember the previous Survival Prototype. Though some of the principles we explored there still exist, you’ll find this to be an entirely new beast to contend with. Let’s take a closer look at some of the new mechanics! Endless Waves of Foes As before you’ll find enemies dispatched by the dozen, all with the singular purpose of destroying your Dungeon Core.
- Foes emerge in waves from the Aether.
- Lava is as much a tool as it is an obstacle.
- The part where it's marked vital might be of importance.
- They come in all shapes and sizes. But mostly terrifying and gigantic.
Survival Unit Preview: All Fired Up!
We’re almost done for this preview, but there’s something very special we want to share with you. See, both we and Mendechaus realised that the regular cast of units on their own just wouldn’t quite cut it for the Crucible. So we decided to expand their ranks with new unit variations, and a few new faces here and there. In each of our previews for Patch 1.5 we’ll be sharing with you a bunch of these new units. Map-makers can also rejoice as many of these units will also be available in the Map Editor!
- Is it just me, or is it getting hot in here?
That wraps up this preview of Patch 1.5. Check back on 1 December for our next instalment! Cheers! – Brightrock Games Team Click here to discuss this update on our forums Click here to chat about this update on our Discord Never miss an update! Sign up to our newsletter!
The Future of WFTO - State of the Game
One of the questions we’re often asked regarding WFTO is what our plans are for the future and whether we’ll be releasing any further DLC. It’s a question that we’ve not officially answered until now. https://youtu.be/K7oosduOcrU Unfortunately Bard Bowl is not a thing. Getting right to the point we’re now preparing to roll out the last few updates that WFTO will receive, and these will come in the form of three major content sets: Patch 1.5, Patch 1.6, and a second DLC. Once this content is out WFTO will be considered content complete. What this means is that we will no longer be actively developing WFTO once Patch 1.6 and DLC2 are released. Naturally this doesn’t mean we’re abandoning it completely, in fact we’ll still roll out patches to fix issues as and when they’re needed so we’ll still be taking an active role there. However what it does mean is that we will be moving the majority of our development resources onto our upcoming second project. We understand that this news will no doubt leave some of you saddened as it does us. In a way this will be the end of an era but it has been a great run and not many games can claim to have seen so many new features as WFTO has during its post-release cycle. But all good things must come to an end and it’s important that we share with you some perspective on when that is likely to be.
As mentioned above there are two more free major patches that we will be releasing for WFTO, and an additional paid DLC. Now to give you an idea of what to expect we’re going to do something uncommon for us and that’s release something of a roadmap. But please note the dates here are working dates and are not considered final - they’re purposefully vague for that reason.
Patch 1.5 is the next major update in our pipeline and it’s one that has been promised for quite some time. Kickstarter backers should recall that we promised a flex goal as part of our Kickstarter campaign, and through a vote that was held on our backer site it was decided that Survival mode would be getting an overhaul. The focus of Patch 1.5 is to deliver on that promise to our backers, and as a result the Survival mode will receive a complete pass to take it from the prototype concept stage to a fully-fledged game mode.
You may remember this image from our Halloween post! Yeah it’s relevant. Here’s some of the things you can expect from the Survival mode overhaul:
Patch 1.6 & Expansion 2 will release alongside one another with complementary goals. We’ve often wondered how we would end our development of WFTO, after all for the past four years we’ve done very little but develop it! We’ve decided that we want to leave it in the strongest state possible, and we’re eager to do what we can to make sure that WFTO continues far beyond the end of our support. Sadly we can’t share too many details at this point but we’re confident that what we’ve got planned will please a great number of people. There are a few things we can share though, so at the very least you can expect:
Back when we announced the formation of Brightrock Games we mentioned we were looking to the future and that we very much had a new project in the works. That project is currently in a design phase and some of the team are already spending a bit of time on it, while the rest of us focus on polishing off WFTO. The inevitable question of course is: “What is this secret new project you’re working on?” And unfortunately at this time we cannot answer that question in so many words. We want what we’re developing next to be very solid before we start showing it in the public space, but we’re sure there’ll be announcements sometime next year and we’ll no doubt be putting out a few teasers as well. At the very least we can tell you what it isn’t: It’s not War for the Overworld 2. While we love WFTO we feel that we’ve gone as far as we can with it for now. After what is quickly becoming half a decade of work we’d like to take a break. A second game in the WFTO universe is something we might do in the future - it’s certainly something we talk about from time to time in the office. With that said we’re sure what we have planned will be an enjoyable romp and it’s something that we’re looking forward to sharing with our fans when the time is right. We hope that you will choose to join us on our next adventure, and if you’re eager to hear more sign up to our newsletter to be sure you won’t miss it! Finally, as the lights dim on WFTO we promise that we won’t be leaving it without the appropriate aftercare. We know that many of you love the game and we hope you will continue to love it just as much as we do. Thank you all for making our dreams come true and thank you for believing in us throughout both good times and hard times. You make everything we do worthwhile. Click here to discuss this update on our forums Click here to chat about this update on our Discord Never miss an update! Sign up to our newsletter!
[ 2016-11-22 17:41:54 CET ] [ Original post ]
Darkest greetings Underlord,
It has been over a year since we last ran a State of the Game post, in which we look where War for the Overworld is currently and where we plan to take it in the many months to come. With the game creeping up to its two year anniversary we feel it’s about time that we layout our plans for the endgame - what you can expect and what’s to come after for us.
We’ve got quite a lot of detail to share with you, so sit back, relax and grab some refreshments because it’s going to be a long post.
The Future of WFTO
One of the questions we’re often asked regarding WFTO is what our plans are for the future and whether we’ll be releasing any further DLC. It’s a question that we’ve not officially answered until now. https://youtu.be/K7oosduOcrU Unfortunately Bard Bowl is not a thing. Getting right to the point we’re now preparing to roll out the last few updates that WFTO will receive, and these will come in the form of three major content sets: Patch 1.5, Patch 1.6, and a second DLC. Once this content is out WFTO will be considered content complete. What this means is that we will no longer be actively developing WFTO once Patch 1.6 and DLC2 are released. Naturally this doesn’t mean we’re abandoning it completely, in fact we’ll still roll out patches to fix issues as and when they’re needed so we’ll still be taking an active role there. However what it does mean is that we will be moving the majority of our development resources onto our upcoming second project. We understand that this news will no doubt leave some of you saddened as it does us. In a way this will be the end of an era but it has been a great run and not many games can claim to have seen so many new features as WFTO has during its post-release cycle. But all good things must come to an end and it’s important that we share with you some perspective on when that is likely to be.
Roadmap to Final Release
As mentioned above there are two more free major patches that we will be releasing for WFTO, and an additional paid DLC. Now to give you an idea of what to expect we’re going to do something uncommon for us and that’s release something of a roadmap. But please note the dates here are working dates and are not considered final - they’re purposefully vague for that reason.
- Patch 1.5 - Survival Mode, Mutators & More - Q4 2016
- Patch 1.6 - Q1-Q2 2017
- Expansion 2 - Alongside Patch 1.6
Patch 1.5 - Survival Mode & More
Patch 1.5 is the next major update in our pipeline and it’s one that has been promised for quite some time. Kickstarter backers should recall that we promised a flex goal as part of our Kickstarter campaign, and through a vote that was held on our backer site it was decided that Survival mode would be getting an overhaul. The focus of Patch 1.5 is to deliver on that promise to our backers, and as a result the Survival mode will receive a complete pass to take it from the prototype concept stage to a fully-fledged game mode.
You may remember this image from our Halloween post! Yeah it’s relevant. Here’s some of the things you can expect from the Survival mode overhaul:
- New maps
- Entirely new waves with new units
- New gameplay mechanics
- New VO
- Leaderboards
- More to be revealed
Patch 1.6 & Expansion 2
Patch 1.6 & Expansion 2 will release alongside one another with complementary goals. We’ve often wondered how we would end our development of WFTO, after all for the past four years we’ve done very little but develop it! We’ve decided that we want to leave it in the strongest state possible, and we’re eager to do what we can to make sure that WFTO continues far beyond the end of our support. Sadly we can’t share too many details at this point but we’re confident that what we’ve got planned will please a great number of people. There are a few things we can share though, so at the very least you can expect:
- Completely overhauled Skirmish AI
- New maps
- Lots of VO for various characters (including some fan favourites)
- And more!
Brightrock Games - Looking Beyond WFTO
Back when we announced the formation of Brightrock Games we mentioned we were looking to the future and that we very much had a new project in the works. That project is currently in a design phase and some of the team are already spending a bit of time on it, while the rest of us focus on polishing off WFTO. The inevitable question of course is: “What is this secret new project you’re working on?” And unfortunately at this time we cannot answer that question in so many words. We want what we’re developing next to be very solid before we start showing it in the public space, but we’re sure there’ll be announcements sometime next year and we’ll no doubt be putting out a few teasers as well. At the very least we can tell you what it isn’t: It’s not War for the Overworld 2. While we love WFTO we feel that we’ve gone as far as we can with it for now. After what is quickly becoming half a decade of work we’d like to take a break. A second game in the WFTO universe is something we might do in the future - it’s certainly something we talk about from time to time in the office. With that said we’re sure what we have planned will be an enjoyable romp and it’s something that we’re looking forward to sharing with our fans when the time is right. We hope that you will choose to join us on our next adventure, and if you’re eager to hear more sign up to our newsletter to be sure you won’t miss it! Finally, as the lights dim on WFTO we promise that we won’t be leaving it without the appropriate aftercare. We know that many of you love the game and we hope you will continue to love it just as much as we do. Thank you all for making our dreams come true and thank you for believing in us throughout both good times and hard times. You make everything we do worthwhile. Click here to discuss this update on our forums Click here to chat about this update on our Discord Never miss an update! Sign up to our newsletter!
Happy Halloween from Brightrock Games
Here we have the newest member to join the Cult of the Underlord, who has passed the first test of assembling her very own robes and spellbooks. Christine’s impressive feat marks her as the first primarily-overworld dweller to join the cult.
This impressive Halloween costume represents the first (and likely last) time we’ll see a character brought to life in such a manner, and we’re deeply honoured and impressed by Christine’s work. As game developers it genuinely makes our day to witness the creativity of our audience.
Still, the cult will always demand more from its novitiates, and the next trial for Christine is to discover the true meaning behind the identity of Brian, and what role this elusive creature will play in shaping things to come.
Just who the hell is Brian anyway? We’ll be sure to update you if she ever finds out, but as we’ve yet to see any Cultist rise beyond the rank of Novitiate, we’re sure it will be some time before we hear back on that front. In the meantime you can discover more about Christine on her blog, Certainly Strange. Give her a follow, won’t you, Underlord?
With all this focus on one particular minion we can’t forget those that have been left behind in your dungeon, and it seems the Chunders have been busy - procreating! You see, Chunders are asexual and reproduce by vomiting up their children. But the children are genetically modified by whatever the Chunder was eating at the time!
Flame on! Indeed, it appears that at some point in the night one particularly hungry Chunder made his way to the Tavern and gobbled down a trough-full of chilli peppers, before vomiting out this little firecracker! So what in the name of Kira was the next guy’s parent scoffing?
What is it they say? You are what you eat? We’re not quite sure what to do about them yet, but we’re certain we’ll think of something suitably sadistic. Meanwhile, across the realm in a nearby stronghold the season’s festivities have not been lost on the forces of the Empire, who have gone to the trouble of designing their own Halloween costumes. Sadly they’re not a very original lot, and they’ve all turned up to the party in the same costume, much to the horror of the Arcanist!
Well one of us is going to have to change!
For shameless self-promotion purposes we also want to highlight to those of you who have yet to join the Cult of the Underlord, or perhaps know someone who would make a most diabolical member, that War for the Overworld and its expansion, Heart of Gold, are currently on sale around the World Wide Cobweb. You can pick up WFTO at 50% off, Heart of Gold at 10% off, and the Gold Edition (the main game, plus the Underlord Edition and Heart of Gold) at up to 40% off. If you’re looking for a bargain, then look no further than our store page! We hope that some of you may use this opportunity to bring a little more malevolence into the world. Finally we’d like to close off with a personal message from all of us. We hope you enjoy your Halloween night whatever it is you may be doing - partying, trick-or-treating, or just heading home from work for an evening of WFTO. We’d like remind you all to take care of yourselves and others. Halloween has some of the highest rates of injuries to pedestrians, so stay aware of your surroundings and always travel with friends, especially in light of recent clown-related events. And if you’re driving tonight be especially mindful of child pedestrians. Cheers! – Brightrock Games Team Click here to discuss this update on our forums Click here to chat about this update on our Discord Never miss an update! Sign up to our newsletter!
[ 2016-10-31 17:21:06 CET ] [ Original post ]
Darkest greetings Underlord,
Our most favoured season has been unleashed, when innocent pumpkins are massacred the world over.. Amidst the chaos, the minions of Kairos are slowly converting the good people of the surface world, spreading the word of Mendechaus far and wide. A new Cultist would appear to be the first recruit ...
Cultist Costume by Christine “Steenaire” Clarke
Here we have the newest member to join the Cult of the Underlord, who has passed the first test of assembling her very own robes and spellbooks. Christine’s impressive feat marks her as the first primarily-overworld dweller to join the cult.
This impressive Halloween costume represents the first (and likely last) time we’ll see a character brought to life in such a manner, and we’re deeply honoured and impressed by Christine’s work. As game developers it genuinely makes our day to witness the creativity of our audience.
Still, the cult will always demand more from its novitiates, and the next trial for Christine is to discover the true meaning behind the identity of Brian, and what role this elusive creature will play in shaping things to come.
Just who the hell is Brian anyway? We’ll be sure to update you if she ever finds out, but as we’ve yet to see any Cultist rise beyond the rank of Novitiate, we’re sure it will be some time before we hear back on that front. In the meantime you can discover more about Christine on her blog, Certainly Strange. Give her a follow, won’t you, Underlord?
Devilish Happenings in the Underworld
With all this focus on one particular minion we can’t forget those that have been left behind in your dungeon, and it seems the Chunders have been busy - procreating! You see, Chunders are asexual and reproduce by vomiting up their children. But the children are genetically modified by whatever the Chunder was eating at the time!
Flame on! Indeed, it appears that at some point in the night one particularly hungry Chunder made his way to the Tavern and gobbled down a trough-full of chilli peppers, before vomiting out this little firecracker! So what in the name of Kira was the next guy’s parent scoffing?
What is it they say? You are what you eat? We’re not quite sure what to do about them yet, but we’re certain we’ll think of something suitably sadistic. Meanwhile, across the realm in a nearby stronghold the season’s festivities have not been lost on the forces of the Empire, who have gone to the trouble of designing their own Halloween costumes. Sadly they’re not a very original lot, and they’ve all turned up to the party in the same costume, much to the horror of the Arcanist!
Well one of us is going to have to change!
Help Build the Ranks of Evil
For shameless self-promotion purposes we also want to highlight to those of you who have yet to join the Cult of the Underlord, or perhaps know someone who would make a most diabolical member, that War for the Overworld and its expansion, Heart of Gold, are currently on sale around the World Wide Cobweb. You can pick up WFTO at 50% off, Heart of Gold at 10% off, and the Gold Edition (the main game, plus the Underlord Edition and Heart of Gold) at up to 40% off. If you’re looking for a bargain, then look no further than our store page! We hope that some of you may use this opportunity to bring a little more malevolence into the world. Finally we’d like to close off with a personal message from all of us. We hope you enjoy your Halloween night whatever it is you may be doing - partying, trick-or-treating, or just heading home from work for an evening of WFTO. We’d like remind you all to take care of yourselves and others. Halloween has some of the highest rates of injuries to pedestrians, so stay aware of your surroundings and always travel with friends, especially in light of recent clown-related events. And if you’re driving tonight be especially mindful of child pedestrians. Cheers! – Brightrock Games Team Click here to discuss this update on our forums Click here to chat about this update on our Discord Never miss an update! Sign up to our newsletter!
Patch 1.4.3 Release Notes
[ 2016-10-28 16:53:40 CET ] [ Original post ]
Darkest greetings Underlord,
The season of dark revelry is nearly upon us and to celebrate the occasion we’re unleashing another patch to hold you over on the road to patch 1.5. With this patch we’ve seen a huge number of bugs squashed under our heels and indeed in terms of pure bug fixes this is the second largest patch ever.
Dozens of bugs were reported via our public bug tracker, while many more were uncovered through the stalwart efforts of our QA volunteers and code team.
We hope you enjoy Halloween loyal Underlords and rest assured that we’re hard at work on major new features for the coming months. Stay tuned!
V1.4.3 Release Notes
Gameplay Changes
Potions
- Wormhole
- In Multiplayer will now depossess a unit if it is possessed
Defences
- Aureate Monolith
- Reworked a few intricacies behind the function of the “steal gold” active ability
- Will now only absorb player-owned gold statues if they are not tagged as decorative
- Will only absorb gold piles on own ground if they are not stored in a Vault (enemy-owned statues and gold will absorb regardless of these limitations)
- Statues or gold on the territory of allies will not be absorbed under any circumstance
Titans
- Colossus
- Applied the same rules from the Aureate Monolith’s “steal gold” changes
Level Changes
- Level 8 Necromancers can now be assigned to individual rally groups
War for the Overworld
- Level 8
- Time till first wave spawn increased by 30 seconds
- Time between each wave spawn increased by 15 seconds
- Improved the reliability of the event that occurs when all members of the Phaestian family have been killed
- Destroying the Dungeon Core will no longer cause bosses to enter a KO state
Heart of Gold
- Level 2
- Level 4
Visual Changes
- Changed the Heal spell VFX so that it correctly represents which units in the area are being healed (most damaged first, remaining heal applied to next most damaged, etc.)
- Removed the smoke VFX from Ember Demons because it’s bad for their health, your FPS and being able to see what the hell is happening
Audio Changes
- Dampening of other sound levels during narration will transition more smoothly
Multiplayer Changes
- In the event of a client disconnecting they will now be replaced by a medium difficulty AI with the “Oberon” personality
- When clients need to download a new map from the host, the download process will be added to the load bar before the match begins
Performance Improvements
- Made some improvements to try and resolve a few minor memory leaks
Miscellaneous Changes
- Added help lines for the Warbands interface
Bug Fixes
- Fixed a rare stack-overflow crash caused by the Shadow’s Shadow Strike ability
- Fixed an issue where Glacial Doors would continue to regen health after being destroyed potentially leading to a crash in Multiplayer games
Crashes
- AoE attacks from units will now correctly hit doors and Dungeon Cores once again
Combat
- Fixed a longstanding but unnoticed issue where units would have two copies of every ability, doubling the effectiveness of some passive abilities
- Fixed a visual issue with the movement and behaviour of Slaughterpen piglets and Prison rats
- Fixed a rare scenario where Campaign units could become “brain-dead” after being attacked, persisting until they were attacked again
- Stone Knights and Sentinels will no longer reduce the attraction rate of Gnarlings and Templars
- Units affected by the Recall spell will now correctly flee from units that are attacking them, even if they are attacked again
- Fixed an issue where Revenants spawned by Vampires outside of the Arena could spawn inside the Arena and attack units within
- Ghouls that are spawned by a Necromancer who is Level 5 or above will no longer count as Wraiths for the purposes of the Wraith rally flag
- The Witch Doctor should once again use all his abilities correctly
- Enemy Shadows no longer produce VFX while invisible
- Fixed an issue where the AI on Spirits would seize up after a brief period of scouting
- Fixed an issue where a unit that was picked up from a fight could still be attacked by other units and die in the Hand of Evil
- Ghouls should no longer spawn inside the Arena as a result of an interaction between the Necromancer and his rally flag being placed in the Arena
- Empire units should only enter via Overworld Gateways and Underlord units only via Underworld Gateways
Units
- Rampart blueprints should no longer persist after the defence they are built upon is destroyed
- Blade Lotuses should now correctly hide their defence shields from enemies when hidden
- Fixed a visual issue where the Aureate Monolith’s active ability could leave behind “fake” gold tiles if the gold was obscured by Fog of War when activated
- Defence blueprints will no longer become invulnerable after loading a save game
- Bone Chiller blueprints no longer play their passive sound
- Fixed an issue where the Bone Chiller’s active ability would not have an effect if triggered shortly after the defence was completed
Defences
- Units that are leaving the Arena to respond to a rally flag will no longer generate a “Units under attack” alert at the Arena
- Fixed an issue where Foundry trays would not be filled correctly after loading a save game if the trays were full at time of saving
- Spirit Chamber props no longer start in a raised position and instantly move downwards in a jarring manner
- Fixed a visual glitch where part of the Spirit Chamber prop would not be visible until it was used
Rooms
- Using the Unclaim spell on a shrine you own will no longer generate a “Shrine is under attack” alert from Mendechaus
- Fixed an issue where spells with low mana cost would stop working if the player had too many Mana Shrines
- Statues created by the Blood Money spell will no longer default to a T-pose after being dropped
- Rats no longer viciously start breaking the game if you turn them into golden statues
- Gold statues created by Blood Money from units that were rebelling at the time they were converted can now be picked up
- Prospector ritual now correctly displays Artefacts and unclaimed Overworld Gateways
- Bloodmonied Vampires will no longer default to their sleep pose when picked up
Spells & Rituals
- Units that become stuck between a rock and a hard place should be less likely to break the laws of physics and phase through the floor to continue their relentless attack on unsuspecting surface dwellers
- Brimstone will now continue to explode after loading a save game that was created while it was exploding
- Fixed an issue where corner walls would not be fortified if fortifying a convex corner.
Environment
- Fixed an issue where Brimstone would explode when replaced after importing a map
- Rooms built as 6x5 will no longer continue to have all props if multiple rows are removed at once as a result of a bypassed check
Map Editor
- Default walls in Oberon’s Home Realm will no longer be treated as normal Earth Walls upon resetting the Home Realm
- Rescued several Workers from their stony prison within the Impenetrable Rock on Level 7
- Fixed a visual issue where the tutorial highlight in Level 1 would appear to move in a jarring manner
- Fixed an issue in the Heart of Gold Level 4 ending sequence where the Colossus could be assigned to a different group than normal
- Several Artefacts on Skirmish level Golden River should no longer be trapped in walls
- Bridges on Level 8 now use the correct theme
- The Defiled Priestess hero from Level 8 now uses the correct shader
- Fixed an issue where the Colossus on Heart of Gold Level 4 would be unable to attack after loading a save game
- Fixed an issue in the Campaign outro where Lucius could destroy Oberon’s core with a shockwave
- The Emperor should now always remain visible when addressing the player during the Level 13 opening
- Fixed an issue where Workers could become stuck on Level 9 if dropped into combat beside the first Garrison
- Missing props from Marcus’ barracks on Level 4 reintroduced
- Fixed Mendechaus VO being out of order during the opening parts of Level 2
- Mandalf should no longer have a chance to technically occupy a Prison even after escaping it
Levels
- Fixed a scaling issue that would cause the unit bar to disappear when it runs off the screen due to being scaled up in the options menu
- Fixed an issue where the Garrison tooltip would display its attraction rate at one less Augre per prop than the actual attraction rate, causing a number of issues with the tooltip
- Fixed an issue where the introduction arrow could obnoxiously remain on screen during cutscenes
- Renamed introduction arrow to “Obnoxiously large but extremely important arrow that is all too often ignored by players”
- Fixed it being possible to keep a tooltip from the options menu on screen during cutscenes
UI
- Clients can no longer trigger rituals during the cooldown period of their Sanctuary, preventing an issue where they would not be able to trigger rituals after the cooldown ended
- Fixed an issue where a client’s Alchemy Lab cauldrons could become locked if they started a potion of a new type very quickly after picking up an existing potion
- Clients in Multiplayer should now correctly receive a notification when one of their opponents begins to spawn a Titan
- The alert for toggling the Arena and Crypt mechanics will no longer be played for all players in a game
- Clients should no longer see Veins of Evil Aspects for Titans as available while their Titan is alive
- Clients should now properly see minion attraction rates on their tooltips
- Clients should now no longer receive a warning on their Tavern tooltips telling them that there is no Spit Roast
- Fixed an issue where flying units belonging to client players could attack units inside the Arena from outside the Arena, provided that the host was not looking at the time, like some cruel schoolyard bullies
- Clients in lobby should now be able to see AI Personality settings
- Fixed an issue where custom maps containing a “.” character could not be shared across via the lobby
- Minions possessed by clients will no longer be immune to Bone Chiller,
- Frost Weaver and Quick Freeze potions, and the minion will be depossessed
- If the host ends the game while in Possession the client’s cursor will no longer disappear
- Clients killed while in Possession will no longer lose their cursor
- New Spirit Chamber props for the client will no longer appear half raised
- When viewing units via Prophecy the client should no longer see them stuttering
- Shockwave should no longer be able to knock units out of the Arena in Multiplayer games
- Clients should now correctly receive an alert when their enemy casts a ritual that could affect them
- Clients should now correctly see updates to a game lobby’s map while on the lobby selection screen
- Using Wormhole on the host in Multiplayer will no longer cause a desync in data between host and client
- Fixed an issue where clients would not download custom maps if the custom map was already selected when they joined the lobby
- Fixed an issue where the client’s menu background would go black if the host ended the game while the client was in Possession
- Fixed an issue where dying in Possession when fighting a Colossus or in the radius of an Aureate Monolith would cause the cursor to disappear
Multiplayer
- Gold piles which are generated from units dying will now correctly adjust to the correct height of the floor, preventing scenarios where gold piles were flying above ground or stuck below ground
- Multiple translation issues corrected
- Multiple typos corrected
- Multiple fixes to the highlighting system to reduce the occurrence of highlighting of VFX planes
- Fixed an issue where Kasita’s colour in the Campaign could change to green after various save and loading shenanigans
- Eternal Shield will now appear correctly on versions of the Kasita Core
- Corrected an issue that would cause V-Sync to be on and fixed to 60fps even if disabled
- Users with a refresh rate above 60hz will now see V-Sync set to their refresh rate
- Camera rotation and zoom speed are no longer directly linked to FPS; as such at 60fps+ the camera will no longer move faster than the speed of sound
- Objects dropped by the hand (i.e. gold piles, defence parts) can no longer apply to enemy units
Miscellaneous
Hotfix Patch 1.4.2f9 Now Live
[ 2016-09-24 18:15:08 CET ] [ Original post ]
Darkest greetings Underlord,
We’ve just launched a quick hotfix for a number of serious gameplay bugs that appeared in a recent patch. You might not have witnessed these issues if your games did not run over a certain time span but they could prove derailing if you did.
Please read below for the full patch notes. If you encounter any further issues please log bug reports to us directly via user echo. All the issues fixed today are a result of public reports, so please don’t underestimate the value of your report! :)
V1.4.2f9 Release Notes
Bug Fixes
- Corrected a few typos in various tooltips
- Some corrections to pathfinding AI particularly for units becoming unable to find their way back to locations in a players dungeon. Leading to an AI loop where they proceed to ignore any further needs.
- Fixed an issue on Level 6 where units rescued from prisons would not “wake up” and behave normally
- Slaughterpen Pigs should no longer become uneatable over the course of a long game session, causing mass hunger through your dungeon
- Energy injectors have been fitted to unit beds, preventing them from falling asleep forever in certain conditions
- Fixed the tavern tooltip occasionally displaying 101% filled
The Dungeoneer's Guide - Now Available!
[ 2016-09-09 15:48:52 CET ] [ Original post ]
Darkest greetings Underlord,
Years of waiting have finally paid off Underlord, and a long promised treasure has just been delivered to your steam folders!
Yes indeed The Dungeoneers Guide to the Underworld is finally complete and those amongst you who own the Underlord Edition of the game will find this exquisitely crafted tome dropping into your game folder as we speak!
“But what is the Dungeoneer’s Guide” we hear you ask. We’ll forgive you for not knowing, after all for many years it has been unclear just what we’d deliver, all because we wanted to bring you something truly special.
To sum it up the Dungeoneer’s Guide is a lovingly assembled 48-page PDF, filled to the brim with knowledge and art on the denizens of Kairos, you’ll find details on all the original WFTO units as well as the forces of the Empire. You’ll even find some as yet unexplored backstory on the history of the world!
The Dungeoneer’s Guide is our love letter to the bygone days of physical game manuals, which those of us old enough to remember will have a fond place in our hearts for. These ancient relics contained knowledge on the world and the creatures within it that could not be found in game, they provided insight and made a great read while you laid in bed dreaming of your next gaming conquest.
We’ve also thrown in our three part short story series “All that is Gold” which tells the tale of one particularly heroic dwarf and his adventures through Phaestus during the events of “Heart of Gold”
So grab your copies of the Guide, give them a read and enjoy all the love we’ve put into them, we hope they were worth the wait.
Cheers!
– Brightrock Games Team
Click here to discuss this update on our forums
Click here to chat about this update on our Discord
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Hotfix Patch 1.4.2f5 Now Available
[ 2016-09-05 15:42:53 CET ] [ Original post ]
Darkest greetings Underlord,
Last week we launched the v1.4.2f5 hotfix to the public test branch. This hotfix corrects a critical issue in patch v1.4.2 which would cause some saved games to crash on load with the “R6025” error. We have now launched this hotfix for the general public.
This issue was caused due to a fault in the Unity version used to build v1.4.2 of the game and has been solved through an update to the Unity Engine in this hotfix as well as a few minor corrections to fix a few issues caused by that change. You can read the full details of this issue on our Knowledgebase.
As with all Engine Updates unusual issues may occur and we decided to keep this in testing for an extended period in order to root out most of these issues but if you do encounter new issues please let us know via User Echo.
V1.4.2f5 Release Notes
Miscellaneous Changes
- Minor tweaks to how Lava and Water ambience sounds are managed
Bug Fixes
- Fixed a critical issue where the game would crash for some players when loading save games on specific levels or loading specific multiplayer maps
- Corrected a few instances where certain audio files would not be played correctly
- Fixed an issue where the loading screen wouldn’t correctly block user input
- Temporary Spirit Workers should now once again take damage over time
- Corrected some minor typos on campaign levels 5-12
Public Test: v1.4.2f5 Hotfix Patch
[ 2016-09-02 13:54:26 CET ] [ Original post ]
Darkest greetings Underlord,
We have just launched a small hotfix on to the public test branch to correct a critical issue that was plaguing a few of our players. You can read the full details on the issue here, but to quickly summarise this issue would cause the game to crash on loading certain saves or Skirmish maps, and would often present with an “R6025” error message.
This issue was caused by a flaw in the version of Unity used to build v1.4.2 of WFTO, and the main change included in this hotfix is that it is built in a new version of Unity, which could have further reaching implications. As such we are going to leave this as an opt in patch while we conduct further tests.
If you are affected by this issue you can find details on how to opt in via our knowledgebase. If you find any problems in this build please be sure to report them directly to us via User Echo.
V1.4.2f5 Release Notes
In order to benefit from these changes you will need to opt into the Public Test Beta Branch
Miscellaneous Changes
- Minor tweaks to how Lava and Water ambience sounds are managed
Bug Fixes
- Fixed a critical issue where the game would crash for some players when loading save games on specific levels or loading specific multiplayer maps
- Corrected a few instances where certain audio files would not be played correctly
- Fixed an issue where the loading screen wouldn’t correctly block user input
- Temporary Spirit Workers should now once again take damage over time
- Corrected some minor typos on campaign levels 5-12
Patch 1.4.2 Now Available
Mana
Vampire We felt that the Vampire was far too easy to shut down with a simple Prison. With this change it will require additional micromanagement to keep your rival’s vampire out of his hands.
Colossus
Gild
Work-A-Lot Work-A-Lot was a huge boon to your working minions and its effects far outweighed the costs of deploying it. As such we’ve increased the cost while simultaneously reducing its effects to make the reward more proportionate to the cost.
Well of Souls
Level 4
Units in combat would previously switch their target regularly in order to use their abilities against the most effective target, however this could cause confusion in the swirling melee.
[ 2016-08-08 14:11:06 CET ] [ Original post ]
Darkest greetings Underlord,
In our last update we mentioned that patch 1.4.2 was just around the corner and that it’ll include a whole bunch of changes and fixes for you.
Well the time is finally upon us and we’ve made quite a few changes that should bring greater balance to multiplayer games, as well as fix a few of the issues you’ve reported directly to us via our User Echo service. Please be sure to get in touch if you have further issues and we’ll have them fixed soon. Now without further ado, read on for the notes!
Balance Changes
General Gameplay
Mana
- Mana regen in Skirmish and Multiplayer decreased by 25%
- The cost of researching Sins has increased by a flat 35%
- Unit spawn rates during the early game have been reduced - this spawn rate will gradually increase over time to normal levels
Units
Vampire We felt that the Vampire was far too easy to shut down with a simple Prison. With this change it will require additional micromanagement to keep your rival’s vampire out of his hands.
- The Vampire now loses 3.3% health every second while in Prison - as such he will die (and respawn in his owner’s possession) after 30 seconds unless regularly healed
- Heal no longer takes priority above all other abilities
- Basic attack cooldown increased from 2s to 5s
- Basic attack damage increased from 50 to 75
- Health down from 3,000 to 2,250
- Respawn time increased from 30s to 45s
- Gold cost increased from 7,500 to 10,000
- Base bonus XP when dropped in the Spirit Chamber increased from 500 to 750
- Bonus XP multiplier when dropped in the Spirit Chamber decreased from x3 to x1.5
Titans
Colossus
- Movement increased from 5 (average) to 5.5
- Basic attack range increased from melee to melee + 2.5m
- Basic attack damage increased from 800 to 1,200
Spells
Gild
- Now applies a flat happiness boost to the Sentinel when cast upon one - this should help manage the unhappiness spiral that can occur
Potions
Work-A-Lot Work-A-Lot was a huge boon to your working minions and its effects far outweighed the costs of deploying it. As such we’ve increased the cost while simultaneously reducing its effects to make the reward more proportionate to the cost.
- Cost increased from 750 gold to 1,500 gold
- Work-A-Lot efficiency boost decreased from x5 to x3
- XP decreased from 2,500 to 1,250
- Wormhole now causes walls surrounding the user’s Dungeon Core to explode
Defenses
Well of Souls
- Base damage increased from 35 to 45
- Damage required to spawn each Wraith doubled
Campaign Changes
Level 4
- The player can no longer place a Beast Den until they have claimed the one near their Core
- Players will now be alerted that they cannot use the Construction ritual to construct Outposts in this level
Graphics Changes
- The Silver Kasita theme has a new ceiling
- Wisdom Juice potion VFX will now show the correct impact size
- Minor tweaks to the appearance of cosmetic Fog of War
Performance Improvements
- Improved load balancing of game updates, ensuring the game works accurately under high load, while still running smoothly
- Simplified cosmetic Fog of War rendering now updates more efficiently
- Refactored Water and Lava ambient sounds and clarified culling - this will reduce the number of sounds attached to Water and Lava tiles and aid performance slightly
Audio Improvements
- Added over sixty new narrator lines for the following:
- Dungeon Cores being destroyed
- Minions being rallied for too long
- Miscellaneous Dynamic Tutorial System lines
- Artefact of Mana usage
UI Improvements
- When attempting to join a multiplayer game a new dialog will appear displaying “Connecting” until the game successfully connects or encounters a connection error
AI Improvements
Units in combat would previously switch their target regularly in order to use their abilities against the most effective target, however this could cause confusion in the swirling melee.
- Units will now switch their combat targets less often, preferring to prioritise their current target over others except in exceptional circumstances
Map Editor Improvements
- It is now possible to change the faction of Shrines and Gateways using the Paint Faction tool
Miscellaneous
- Death alerts will no longer play when disposable units perish (Wraiths, Ghouls, Frost Weavers, etc.) (Public Ticket: 1060)
- Several small fixes to in-game text
- Updated several Skirmish and Sandbox map descriptions
- It is now possible to manually specify an IP address to join via Multiplayer (in the event of games not showing up due to adapter settings or if you wish to connect via tunnel you can now use this feature)
Bug Fixes
- Fixed a number of issues which could cause crashes in Multiplayer
- Fixed a rare issue which would cause some custom maps to be unloadable
- Fixed a bug in the Prison tooltip which would cause it to incorrectly display the number of prisoners held (Public Ticket: 1062)
- Fixed an issue where Titans would not be available in the Heart of Gold Home Realm
- Sappers will no longer dramatically pause before playing their death animation, since Underlords don’t appreciate amateur dramatics
- Fixed an issue where the Oculus would not take damage from the Lightning spell (Public Ticket: 1091)
- Fixed an issue where Glacial Doors which were pre-placed and locked in the Map Editor would incorrectly appear to be open, even though they were logically closed (Public Ticket: 943)
- The Stairway to Heaven Achievement in Heart of Gold level 1 is now correctly achievable (Public Ticket: 1042)
- Fixed an issue where locked doors on maps created in the Map Editor would would render only the lock if viewed through the initial Fog of War
- Fixed an issue where a Stone Bridge on the Skirmish map “Triad” had incorrect health values and under which the ground would be black
- Sappers which are turned into golden statues will no longer lock mana for the owning player (Public Ticket: 1138)
- Fixed an issue where units which were classed as “hover” units could become stuck in Chasms
- Fixed an issue in Multiplayer where the client would no longer be able to produce potions in an Alchemy Lab cauldron if they had previously cancelled a potion in that cauldron
- Fixed an issue where using the Pivot mirror tool in the Map Editor could cause unusual behaviours (Public Ticket: 1039)
- Fixed several issues with the Siege Doors on main campaign level 13, such as units becoming stuck behind them and the incorrect display of whether the door was open (Public Ticket: 1101)
- Titan Summoning Stones will now create the correct alert when attacked
- Fixed a bug where Haste potions would increase the work speed of affected units (should only affect movement speed)
- Clicking the back button in a Multiplayer lobby now correctly takes you back to the game list rather than the main menu
- Fixed a bug where the Blood Money spell did not work on Heart of Gold bosses in the Home Realm
- Fixed a bug where the player could not dismiss a Titan in any campaign level with three slaps (Heart of Gold Level 4 still does not allow it as doing so would result in mission failure)
- The Aloha Worker will now correctly make sounds for digging, walking and running
- Fixed an issue with the display of the Kickstarter death animation
- Dungeon Cores will now cull at the correct point off the edge of the screen
- Mandalf can no longer be converted if the Torture Rack is in Execution mode (Heart of Gold level 1)
- Fixed an issue where minions could die in the Arena in the Home Realm or from loaded save games
- Fixed an issue where slider values in the options menu were not updated when dragged - now values will update in real time
- Doors will no longer be destroyed if new “wall” blocks are placed in the opposite orientation locations
- Fixed an issue where players could hear VO regarding other players’ Spirit Chambers in multiplayer games
- Fixed an issue for clients in multiplayer which prevented them from managing the unit pool for the Beast Den
- Fixed an issue where clients in multiplayer were unable to continue researching artefacts if an artefact had previously been used on that particular prop
- Fixed an issue where Workers would become trapped while mining gold if they were assigned the “Unfortify” action as a priority. This was due to their inventory being full, preventing further gold from being added, but they were still treating the “Unfortify” action as a priority.
- The Silver Kasita Dungeon Theme can now be correctly selected as an Empire theme in the Map Editor
- Fixed an issue where parties of Empire units could spawn on main campaign level 13 but would never act
- Workers should no longer be able to blink into an Arena or Prison
- The Ember Demon’s passive AOE should no longer damage enemies in Prison
- Fixed an issue on main campaign level 13 where the player was not correctly benefitting from all Kenos effects
- Fixed an issue on main campaign level 13 where the dwarven Ironworks was not producing defences
- Fixed an issue on main campaign level 13 where the announced “Disciple attack” would never arrive
- Workers will no longer drop any gold they’re carrying into the Tavern Spit Roast whenever they also drop pigs in
- The Skirmish map “Flood” now loads again
- Fixed an issue with main campaign level 7 where units would not die when reaching the Aum
- Fixed an issue where unit beds would visually disappear after saving and loading
- Fixed an issue where the final cutscene in Heart of Gold Level 4 could stutter
- Fixed an issue where Mandalf the Gold would not spawn under the intended conditions in Heart of Gold Level 4
- Bombards should now once again be able to hit units which are over or on the other side of a Chasm
- Fixed an issue where the Blade Lotus would no longer attack after being toggled from a disabled state to an enabled state
- Units should now always be able to engage enemy units that are extremely close to a player’s Dungeon Core
- Empire forces now receive basic training on the use of walls, fixing a longstanding issue where Templars could ignore the presence of a Rampart and attempt to path through it, even if no appropriate path existed, causing their demise
That covers this patch for now! Rest assured we’ll be keeping our eyes on your feedback, and there’s plenty more to come in the coming weeks and months!
Cheers!
– Brightrock Games Team
Click here to discuss this update on our forums
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Heart of Gold: Recap and Short Story Compilation
We’ve seen an incredible response to Heart of Gold, but perhaps that’s a little too underwhelming. To truly understand how staggeringly positive the feedback we’re receiving is, here are a few numbers from our Steam user review scores:
During the run-up to Heart of Gold’s release we teased you with a series of short stories that revolved around a particularly stalwart dwarf and the heroes of Phaestus, during the events of the new campaign. We enjoyed having the opportunity to expand the lore of War for the Overworld, and tell a portion of the story from a different perspective. If you missed out on these the first time around then we have a treat for you: we’ve compiled them into a single, collected volume, gussied them up in the style of the upcoming Dungeoneer’s Guide, and uploaded them for your reading pleasure!
As you can see they’ve turned out rather well! You can view and download the collected volume here. In addition we will be adding this compilation to the Underlord Edition of the game at the same time we add the Dungeoneer’s Guide. We hope you’re looking forward to that!
In case you missed the announcement a few weeks ago, we recently released the first minor patch for War for the Overworld. This included a number of changes to both the visual stylings of the game, and mechanics such as unit spawning. We also rolled out dozens of bug fixes and made some improvements to other areas. You can read the full release notes for patch 1.4.1 here. This isn’t it for support in the wake of patch 1.4. Patch 1.4.2 is due out in the coming days so please keep your eyes open for it!
For Heart of Gold we looked to deliver a more solid and compelling story, and part of that was setting the scene for the war spilling over into the dukedom of Phaestus. We developed the opening cinematic to set the scene, and we’ve had a great response from it. As such we’ve opted to upload the full video to YouTube for your enjoyment! https://youtu.be/WweV4MdD0zI Cheers! – Brightrock Games Team Click here to discuss this update on our forums Click here to chat about this update on our Discord Never miss an update! Sign up to our newsletter!
[ 2016-07-21 16:19:55 CET ] [ Original post ]
Darkest greetings Underlord,
Nearly two months have passed since we unleashed the very first expansion to War for the Overworld, Heart of Gold, alongside the staggeringly massive patch 1.4. But there was no rest for the evil, as we released hotfixes around the clock to ensure the biggest issues that cropped up were fixed as quickly as possible. We topped that off with patch 1.4.1!
Overall the reception to Heart of Gold and patch 1.4 has been overwhelmingly positive, and we’re pleased that our hard work has resulted in the latest version of the game being something we can all be incredibly proud of. In this recap we’re going to take a quick look into the reception so far.
We’ve also got a nice downloadable extra for you, as well as a link to the opening cinematic of Heart of Gold, so you can easily watch it again. Read on, Underlord!
What You’re Saying About Heart of Gold and Patch 1.4
We’ve seen an incredible response to Heart of Gold, but perhaps that’s a little too underwhelming. To truly understand how staggeringly positive the feedback we’re receiving is, here are a few numbers from our Steam user review scores:
- Overall score: 77.02% (Compared to 72.95% during the release of Patch 1.0, showing continued improvement)
- Score since patch 1.4: 89.18% (up from 79.05% during patch 1.3)
- Heart of Gold overall score: 92%
- “Took a while but this is like the only Kickstarter game I backed that is actually worth playing now.”
“I encourage anyone who was turned off by the initial mess to give War for the Overworld another shot. It’s now a wonderful game in and of itself, but more than that the devs should be congratulated and rewarded for never giving up on their vision.”
“[…] thanks to dedicated work by the developers (which continues to this day, I might add) this one has blossomed into a wonderful strategy title.”
“The team at Brightrock Games further improve their craft with this carefully designed DLC, which I might add was free for backers and early adopters, though I would have paid money on day one for it anyway.”
All That is Gold – Short Story Compilation
During the run-up to Heart of Gold’s release we teased you with a series of short stories that revolved around a particularly stalwart dwarf and the heroes of Phaestus, during the events of the new campaign. We enjoyed having the opportunity to expand the lore of War for the Overworld, and tell a portion of the story from a different perspective. If you missed out on these the first time around then we have a treat for you: we’ve compiled them into a single, collected volume, gussied them up in the style of the upcoming Dungeoneer’s Guide, and uploaded them for your reading pleasure!
As you can see they’ve turned out rather well! You can view and download the collected volume here. In addition we will be adding this compilation to the Underlord Edition of the game at the same time we add the Dungeoneer’s Guide. We hope you’re looking forward to that!
Reminder: Patch 1.4.1 is Out Now
In case you missed the announcement a few weeks ago, we recently released the first minor patch for War for the Overworld. This included a number of changes to both the visual stylings of the game, and mechanics such as unit spawning. We also rolled out dozens of bug fixes and made some improvements to other areas. You can read the full release notes for patch 1.4.1 here. This isn’t it for support in the wake of patch 1.4. Patch 1.4.2 is due out in the coming days so please keep your eyes open for it!
Watch the Heart of Gold Cinematic Opening
For Heart of Gold we looked to deliver a more solid and compelling story, and part of that was setting the scene for the war spilling over into the dukedom of Phaestus. We developed the opening cinematic to set the scene, and we’ve had a great response from it. As such we’ve opted to upload the full video to YouTube for your enjoyment! https://youtu.be/WweV4MdD0zI Cheers! – Brightrock Games Team Click here to discuss this update on our forums Click here to chat about this update on our Discord Never miss an update! Sign up to our newsletter!
Introducing User Echo 2.0
[ 2016-07-06 17:28:16 CET ] [ Original post ]
Darkest greetings Underlord,
The team here at Brightrock Games is always looking for ways to make everyone’s lives just a little bit easier. To that end we’ve taken the User Echo bug tracker, we launched a few months ago, and given it a complete overhaul. We’re calling it User Echo 2.0!
Our goal is to make it so that the process of reporting a bug and keeping track of it is simple and clear to all of our fans. We’ve also taken all the information that was previously strewn across our forums and compiled it into a pair of incredibly useful knowledge bases - one for War for the Overworld and one for our other services.
Click here to discover User Echo 2.0.
Here’s a full list of changes:
- Introduced a new landing page so we can support multiple services and expand in the future
- Added two knowledge bases, one for War for the Overworld and one for other services - these will contain answers to common issues
- Overhauled the statuses and processes behind bug tickets to make them clearer to reporters and thus easier to track
- Changed “Needs more information” to “Pending customer” - because there’s more than one reason we might be waiting for you
- Added “Completed - Next Patch” - All tickets will automatically be marked as this when completed internally, and will change to complete when a patch is rolled out
- Added “Pending Third Party” - If we can’t fix your issue we might need to approach a third party (such as Unity or Coherent UI), so we will set tickets to this while we await their response/fix
- Rejigged colours - because the colours needed a new jig
- Moved “General help and support” from the community forum to User Echo
- Added links to various other services such as the community forum and Discord
- Tidied up all the text and images - we’re sure you’ll notice the improvement!
- 295 users registered
- 390 reports opened
- 8,149 unique visits; 31,420 page views; 2,137 comments
- Average time until first reply: 25.5 hours (6.2 hours since UE 2.0)
- Average time until issue completed: 15.7 days (2 Days since UE 2.0)
- 86% user satisfaction rating overall
Celebrate Summer with Aloha Worker!
[ 2016-06-20 16:34:53 CET ] [ Original post ]
Brightest greetings Underlord!
While you’ve been tunnelling your way through the molten dukedom of Phaestus, summer has arrived (though barely if you live in the UK). Now you step forth onto the northern shores of the world, witnessing golden sands and turquoise seas, flush from the heat of Mount Phaestus!
Your Workers haven’t seen the sun in aeons, and while most skulk away from the light and back away into your dungeon, Aloha Worker is unpacking his suitcase - bucket and spade? Check! Flip-flops? Check! Hawaiian shirt? Most certainly, check!
Though judging by his skin tone, he might have forgotten to pack the sunscreen ... Anyway, you’ll need to be careful, Underlord - if this craze catches on the next thing you know you’ll have an entire dungeon full of flowery-coloured minions, more dazzling even than Kasita’s Home Realm!
https://youtu.be/pgGa0gqsl1g
Unpack your Aloha Worker skin on Steam and receive a special summer discount for a limited time - then bask with him in Skirmish, Sandbox, Scenario, and Multiplayer modes!
Priced at just £0.79 / $0.99 / 0.99€, the Aloha Worker is waiting for you on the Steam store.
You can also pick up all our current Worker Skins as part of a single bundle for a small discount!
In addition, backers of our original Kickstarter campaign using the Steam version of the game will receive this skin for free!
Have a lovely summer, Underlord ... And don’t forget the sunscreen.
Cheers!
– Brightrock Games Team
Click here to discuss this update on our forums
Click here to chat about this update on our Discord
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Patch 1.4.1 Now Available
[ 2016-06-17 15:59:27 CET ] [ Original post ]
Darkest Greetings Underlord,
Reception to Heart of Gold and patch 1.4 has been absolutely fantastic, we’re pleased to see so many of you enjoying the latest iteration of War for the Overworld. As we promised yesterday we have a new minor but not insubstantial patch for you today, chocked full of features and fixes based off community feedback.
It’s also a good day to be a DRM-Free player as we’re finally updating the build from v1.2.3 to this very patch. That means you can finally put the map editor to use and experience all the improvements we delivered in Patch 1.4.
We’re sure you’re eager to see what’s changed so without further ado read on Underlord!
Major Changes
DRM Free Version Updated
- The DRM-Free build of War for the Overworld has been updated to v1.4.1, if you own the DRM-Free version you can download it via Humble
- Achievements & Unlockables have been added to the DRM-Free version
- Be aware Heart of Gold, Steam Workshop, and several other features are not present in the DRM-Free build as they rely on the Steamworks API (see the DRM-Free FAQ)
Cosmetic Fog of War Improvements
- Revealed areas that are not actively part of current gameplay (such as the top of neutral terrain) are now darkened
- Important gameplay elements such as gold and claimed territory remain lit
- This causes these elements of the game pop more compared to the background and helps to reinforce a darker atmosphere while allowing lighting to shine
- https://youtu.be/GSFm0pTdf5Y
Normalized Unit Spawning
- We’ve normalized the unit spawning values so you can more reliably figure out how large a room needs to be to attract a certain number of units.
- 1 Prop per unit:
- Sanctuary - Cultist or Priestess
- Archive - Cultist or Priestess
- Foundry - Chunder or Warden
- Barracks - Gnarling or Templar
- 1.5 Props per unit:
- Spirit Chamber - Witch Doctor
- Alchemy Lab - Crackpot or Firebreather
- Torture Chamber - Succubus or Inquisitor
- Crypt - Necromancer or Matriarch
- 2 Props per unit
- Garrison - Augre or Juggernaut
- 4 Props per unit
- Arena - Beastmaster or Huntress (Every flat edge tile counts as a ‘prop’)
- Room tooltips have been updated to display this information.
UI Changes
In-Game UI
- Added a glow effect to active rally flags, making it clear which flags are currently active
- Warbands are now automatically expanded when active, displaying the cancel button
- Improved look of the ability selection in possession UI and added a little number above each ability to show their associated hotkey
- Room tooltips now show how many units the room has attracted versus how many units it can possibly attract at its current size
- It is now possible to switch abilities in Possession with the scrollwheel
- Improved accuracy of the “Zoom To” function eg. when a unit portrait or any other button is right clicked.
Menus
- The “Heart of Gold Now Available” and “Access Heart of Gold” arrows can now be dismissed permanently by clicking a small X button
- Updated the descriptions of several Skirmish maps
Tooltips
- Construction Ritual will now explain that it cannot construct Outposts on certain maps
- Upgraded Barracks Tooltip now correctly accounts for training support slots which can be used by Gnarlings to support other minions
Map Editor Changes
- Unidentified artefacts are now random by default, if no weight is set for any effect (previously these would always identify as gold artefacts)
- Neutral defences can no longer be placed (they were not fully supported and resulted in various issues)
- Existing Neutral defences on custom maps will self-destruct upon map start
Campaign Changes
Level 11
- Removed a sequence in Level 11 where the player was forced to view the introduction of a summoning stone
Level 12
- Delayed the initial rush by Underlord Draven by an additional 4 minutes. Allowing the player more time to prepare
Heart of Gold Level 3
- Resolved an issue that prevented roaming parties of heroes from attacking your dungeon and providing a steady source of bodies to turn to gold...
Heart of Gold Level 4
- Reduced the level and number of units that attack the player as they defeat enemy bosses
Other Changes
Gameplay
- Sentinels and Stone Knights can now be dismissed by throwing them into a Gateway
- It is now possible to transform critters (micropiglets and rats) into golden statues with the Blood Money spell
Performance Improvements
- Improved the memory and processor footprint of critters (micropiglets and rats)
Audio Improvements
- Added sounds to Lava, Lava Falls and Water
Bug Fixes
- “You have found a neutral minion” alert now correctly plays only when a unit joints your side rather than when it is just visible to any player
- Fixed Taverns in Seastead II and Flood
- Fixed HoG outro narrator line could play too fast if user was had game speed set to 150%
- HoG2 - Empire forces no longer scream when leaving the combat zone peacefully… how disappointing...
- Disabled one of the Matriarch’s abilities in the Arena to prevent incorrect behaviour
- Sappers no longer require sleep, enhancing their performance in several campaign levels. The same cannot be said for coders.
- Fixed a repeating voice line on level 2
- Fixed level 13 waves being blocked by the main siege door
- Fixed an issue with the Glacial door which could occur upon loading a saved game
- While chatting in multiplayer games the spacebar won’t skip our beloved narrator’s lines
- Beds are once again correctly removed in multiplayer games
- Clients in multiplayer games will now see units XP correctly
- Clients in multiplayer games will now correctly see units training in Barracks
- Titan Stone spawning VFX will now disappear if the stone is destroyed early
- All clients in multiplayer are now correctly informed if a titan has been slain
- Fixed the Spirit Chamber flooring issue under the prop
- Fixed an issue which caused barracks to produce noise even when concealed by fog of war
- Fixed an issue where Stone Knights would not use the full range of available attack animations
- Beds are now correctly only shown if their tile is visible
- Fixed an odd case where a spirit could survive when dropped onto a Spirit Chamber prop
- Fixed a visual glitch that occured when viewing allied Sanctuaries
- Fixed a deserialization process in MightyQuest (Which impacted quite a small portion of campaign players)
- Fixed Survival not finishing on Core death
- Fixed a rare case where a Unit could still damage another while in Hand or outside Arena
- Adjusted win condition on C9 to prevent occurrences where it was not possible to win, despite achieving objectives
- Fixed and issue where the Bonechiller VFX could remain after the bonechiller is destroyed
- Fixed an issue where unit shields could get left behind if the unit was teleported away and then revived
- “Unit lost” alerts no longer play when Blood Money is cast on a minion
- Fixed an issue where Rituals were greyed out, when new Rituals were started and canceled, while a current Ritual was active
- Fixed an issue where doors would close automatically while a worker is fortifying an adjacent wall from inside the door, which pushed the worker, causing them to restart the task and thereby trapping them in a never ending circle of fortifying hell
- Fixed an issue where Constructs placed on higher terrain than ground zero (eg. Volcanic bridge) could never be sold
- Fixed an issue where the barracks in older saved games only had one training slot and only attracted half the correct amount of Gnarlings
- Fixed an issue where flying units fruitlessly tried to fly on the top of walls, causing no visible issues but a few background errors which in turn lead to lag
- The Sin Orb will now correctly flash when Mendechaus reminds the player they have a sin available
- Clients in multiplayer can now correctly see the units current activity in tooltip, unit panel and warband detail panels
- Fixed an issue where clients in multiplayer were unable to add units to the peace band/group
- Fixed an issue which didn’t inform the UI for clients in multiplayer about an active rally flag, preventing the rally flag cancel button from being correctly highlighted
- Fixed several issues found in user logs which may resolve some unreported bugs or lag issues
- Fixed an issue where loading an original campaign level while playing heart of gold or vice versa would cause the player to load with an incorrect Underlord colour
- Fixed an issue where enemies killed in the arena would take an extended period of time (to rot and disappear) before their fight slot was once again made available. Enemies slain in the arena now disappear after 3 seconds (down from 120)
- Fixed an issue on Heart of Gold level 4 where the work slot of a prop could be moved outside of map bounds, making minions unable to find them
- Fixed an issue where minions that are immune to lava damage were still taking damage from lava if dropped directly onto it from the Underlord’s hand.
Reddit AMA Recap
Dr Kersh kicked us off with the big questions [quote=Dr Kersh]Q: Do you regret releasing the game in a beta state and getting not so good reviews vs what would you get now? Do you have plans to re-release it as a goty edition to try to get new reviews? How many more big DLC have you planed for the game?[/quote] [quote=Scott] Most definitely. It has been the single biggest failure in our short history so far. Even today if you search for our game on YouTube you'll find TotalBiscuit's harsh but completely fair preview of the release version as the top result. There is no doubt that kind of initial reception hurts us even today, over a year later. Those are the cards we played. We're on the other side of it now and pushing our hardest to recover from it. This latest release goes a long way from the games' perspective, but possibly more importantly I think it has improved our relationship with our fans - We're not here to make a quick buck and run. We want to build a reputation for a quality dev house.[/quote] [quote=Josh] 1. Yes and no. Yes because, well, it was pretty awful all around. There's no denying that and no excusing it. But we simply had no other choice other than not releasing the game at all - the entire team had gone several months without pay and various other things were already in motion, the boxed release being one. 2. We attempted to do that when releasing this DLC and get very little traction with the press, both traditional and enthusiast. A 'complete' edition later after all planned content is released may be something else we try, but that's still a while away! 3. Can't say for sure right now. We've got some free content already in the works though - more info in this answer.[/quote] Shazzam606060 looks for some advise on how to kickstarter his career as a voice actor. [quote=Shazzam606060]How did you do the voice work for the game? I was/am looking to get into doing some voice acting, specifically for video games, and frankly it seems that the barrier to entry is quite daunting, so any tips or advice for someone to either get into game design or VO would be amazing.[/quote] [quote=Dante] For VA, we worked with an arseload of incredibly talented people. Richard Ridings, Lani Minella, Stephen Fitts, Lauren Synger to name a few. They made bringing these characters to life an absolute pleasure. I got into acting on an amateur level back in 2009. I don't think I actually recorded anything that didn't make me cringe until this time last year. As with most things, it's really about practice, and hurling yourself at the work for as long as it takes to hone your craft. A couple of general things: You don't need an extravagant mic to record something worth listening to. Listen to yourself. If it makes your testicles shrivel back up inside your body, get used to it. Being good is on the other side of that wall, and the only way is through. Dick around. Experiment with voices. Learn accents. Go psychotic on car rides. Mastering the vocal apparatus is an extended learning process, and one of the best ways is to play with it. Have fun with performance, it'll keep you going. As for penetrating the industry: send demos to people! Take a look around subreddits like /r/gamedevclassifieds or /r/recordthis, the indieDB boards, the TES/Fallout mod communities, whatever it takes to get practice in while making connections. If you're good, you enjoy it, and you try, you'll inevitably find something. I wish you the best of luck. It's a riot.[/quote] Arscortica takes an interest in the artisitc side of development and Pat’s all too happy to answer. [quote=Arscortica]Q: As far as visual design goes: Was it your intention to have WftO appear a little bit darker/mature than the original DK games? I.e., in the design of design of the torture chamber (and the actual pained screams coming from it), the blood-filled sanctuary, and the spirit chamber? I'm curious about the visual design ideas behind the Beastmaster and the Behemoth. For the former, most people probably would have expected some kind of minotaur rather than a micropiglet of unusual size. Meanwhile, the Behemoth with its enormous tusks sorta reminds me of a mix between the Demon of Doom Classic and a (very large) zergling from Starcraft 1. Just in how far was the Huntress inspired by the Demon Hunter class from Diablo three? Or was it more of a case of convergent evolution?[/quote] [quote=Pat] Both the tone and the lighting have been intentionally made darker to push the flavour of our vision for this game. It’s been challenging balancing these aspects to a level we were happy with, making sure we kept in mind both our audience and the performance of the game. Making sure the atmosphere we intended to create worked in conjunction with the readability of all the units and rooms, was something that also took multiple iterations and much consideration. It’s been really interesting gauging the suitable balance between gore and humour across the whole game. It was important for us to pay homage to this genre of game whilst pushing it out further with our ideas. Certainly the characters are indicative of this mixture of classic designs and more unique ones. The Behemoth is a personal favourite of mine, developed by our concept artist, Bobby. I can see the aspects it draws from different designs which make it feel very suited in the War for the Overworld setting, but it has a freshness which makes it really different from the traditional dungeon creatures. I like the likeness in your description of the Behemoth. I see it more as the lovechild between a cat and a mutated dinosaur. I think a convergent evolution has been common in the process of most designs since we wanted to mix familiarity and recognisability with our own style.[/quote] Meanwhile Dante asks all the questions you needed to know about Richard Ridings. [quote=Dante] Does Richard Ridings have a firm handshake? Is he as awesome as he seems? How did he get to be so big and strong?[/quote] [quote=Lee] Richard Ridings handshake is as firm as a steel girder. He is even more awesome than he seems, so awesome that his voice will melt you if you're exposed outside of protective gear. He became strong by voicing the Mountain in Game of Thrones and eating Peppered pigs.[/quote] There’s so many more questions that we answered; many about the state of the game, upcoming content or even a little on future projects. Be sure to drop by and read it all! For now we’ll be leaving you with news that Patch 1.4.1 will be releasing tomorrow! There’s a few small features requested by the community included as well as dozens of fixes and other tweaks, we hope you’re looking forward to it! Cheers! – Brightrock Games Team Click here to discuss this update on our forums Click here to chat about this update on our Discord Never miss an update! Sign up to our newsletter!
[ 2016-06-16 18:16:38 CET ] [ Original post ]
Darkest Greetings Underlord,
On the 31st of May we undertook our third ever Reddit AMA. We invited all members of our community to participate by asking us anything that came to mind, and we have to say we were incredibly impressed with the turnout.
For those who missed it you can read the whole thing here. Otherwise sit back whilst we regale you with some of the highlights.
Highlights
Dr Kersh kicked us off with the big questions [quote=Dr Kersh]Q: Do you regret releasing the game in a beta state and getting not so good reviews vs what would you get now? Do you have plans to re-release it as a goty edition to try to get new reviews? How many more big DLC have you planed for the game?[/quote] [quote=Scott] Most definitely. It has been the single biggest failure in our short history so far. Even today if you search for our game on YouTube you'll find TotalBiscuit's harsh but completely fair preview of the release version as the top result. There is no doubt that kind of initial reception hurts us even today, over a year later. Those are the cards we played. We're on the other side of it now and pushing our hardest to recover from it. This latest release goes a long way from the games' perspective, but possibly more importantly I think it has improved our relationship with our fans - We're not here to make a quick buck and run. We want to build a reputation for a quality dev house.[/quote] [quote=Josh] 1. Yes and no. Yes because, well, it was pretty awful all around. There's no denying that and no excusing it. But we simply had no other choice other than not releasing the game at all - the entire team had gone several months without pay and various other things were already in motion, the boxed release being one. 2. We attempted to do that when releasing this DLC and get very little traction with the press, both traditional and enthusiast. A 'complete' edition later after all planned content is released may be something else we try, but that's still a while away! 3. Can't say for sure right now. We've got some free content already in the works though - more info in this answer.[/quote] Shazzam606060 looks for some advise on how to kickstarter his career as a voice actor. [quote=Shazzam606060]How did you do the voice work for the game? I was/am looking to get into doing some voice acting, specifically for video games, and frankly it seems that the barrier to entry is quite daunting, so any tips or advice for someone to either get into game design or VO would be amazing.[/quote] [quote=Dante] For VA, we worked with an arseload of incredibly talented people. Richard Ridings, Lani Minella, Stephen Fitts, Lauren Synger to name a few. They made bringing these characters to life an absolute pleasure. I got into acting on an amateur level back in 2009. I don't think I actually recorded anything that didn't make me cringe until this time last year. As with most things, it's really about practice, and hurling yourself at the work for as long as it takes to hone your craft. A couple of general things: You don't need an extravagant mic to record something worth listening to. Listen to yourself. If it makes your testicles shrivel back up inside your body, get used to it. Being good is on the other side of that wall, and the only way is through. Dick around. Experiment with voices. Learn accents. Go psychotic on car rides. Mastering the vocal apparatus is an extended learning process, and one of the best ways is to play with it. Have fun with performance, it'll keep you going. As for penetrating the industry: send demos to people! Take a look around subreddits like /r/gamedevclassifieds or /r/recordthis, the indieDB boards, the TES/Fallout mod communities, whatever it takes to get practice in while making connections. If you're good, you enjoy it, and you try, you'll inevitably find something. I wish you the best of luck. It's a riot.[/quote] Arscortica takes an interest in the artisitc side of development and Pat’s all too happy to answer. [quote=Arscortica]Q: As far as visual design goes: Was it your intention to have WftO appear a little bit darker/mature than the original DK games? I.e., in the design of design of the torture chamber (and the actual pained screams coming from it), the blood-filled sanctuary, and the spirit chamber? I'm curious about the visual design ideas behind the Beastmaster and the Behemoth. For the former, most people probably would have expected some kind of minotaur rather than a micropiglet of unusual size. Meanwhile, the Behemoth with its enormous tusks sorta reminds me of a mix between the Demon of Doom Classic and a (very large) zergling from Starcraft 1. Just in how far was the Huntress inspired by the Demon Hunter class from Diablo three? Or was it more of a case of convergent evolution?[/quote] [quote=Pat] Both the tone and the lighting have been intentionally made darker to push the flavour of our vision for this game. It’s been challenging balancing these aspects to a level we were happy with, making sure we kept in mind both our audience and the performance of the game. Making sure the atmosphere we intended to create worked in conjunction with the readability of all the units and rooms, was something that also took multiple iterations and much consideration. It’s been really interesting gauging the suitable balance between gore and humour across the whole game. It was important for us to pay homage to this genre of game whilst pushing it out further with our ideas. Certainly the characters are indicative of this mixture of classic designs and more unique ones. The Behemoth is a personal favourite of mine, developed by our concept artist, Bobby. I can see the aspects it draws from different designs which make it feel very suited in the War for the Overworld setting, but it has a freshness which makes it really different from the traditional dungeon creatures. I like the likeness in your description of the Behemoth. I see it more as the lovechild between a cat and a mutated dinosaur. I think a convergent evolution has been common in the process of most designs since we wanted to mix familiarity and recognisability with our own style.[/quote] Meanwhile Dante asks all the questions you needed to know about Richard Ridings. [quote=Dante] Does Richard Ridings have a firm handshake? Is he as awesome as he seems? How did he get to be so big and strong?[/quote] [quote=Lee] Richard Ridings handshake is as firm as a steel girder. He is even more awesome than he seems, so awesome that his voice will melt you if you're exposed outside of protective gear. He became strong by voicing the Mountain in Game of Thrones and eating Peppered pigs.[/quote] There’s so many more questions that we answered; many about the state of the game, upcoming content or even a little on future projects. Be sure to drop by and read it all! For now we’ll be leaving you with news that Patch 1.4.1 will be releasing tomorrow! There’s a few small features requested by the community included as well as dozens of fixes and other tweaks, we hope you’re looking forward to it! Cheers! – Brightrock Games Team Click here to discuss this update on our forums Click here to chat about this update on our Discord Never miss an update! Sign up to our newsletter!
Hotfix Patch 1.4.0f10 Release notes
In-Game UI
All Home Realms
[ 2016-06-03 19:19:29 CET ] [ Original post ]
Greetings All, We've just unleashed another hotfix patch unto the world and this one includes fixes for a large number of user reported issues. Remember if you're suffering from an issue please report it to us on our Bug Tracker!
UI Improvements
In-Game UI
- Improved the contrast of the gold cost numbers for payday overlay
- Added secondary icon for Artefact identified notification
- Added secondary icons for Ritual ready and Ritual activated notifications (to differentiate own, ally and enemy rituals)
- Removed active state tooltip from gold vortex, instead the gold vortex is now always active.
- Added a new loading screen drawing
Campaign Improvements
All Home Realms
- Your Dungeon Core is now correctly indestructible
- Fixed Kasita’s identity crisis - She no longer identified as Oberon
- Fixed the reminder to use blood money on Mandalf
- Cultists are now correctly grabbable after being affected by a booby trap
- Fixed the “Gold Statue” achievement
- Fixed a potential issue preventing entrance by the west gate
- Closed the door next to O’Theland, so he once again has some privacy (to brush his hair)
Performance Improvements
- Optimized audio assets, as a result memory usage has been reduced by approximately 600MB
- Optimized a number of subsystems, increasing FPS on large maps with large numbers of units by 15% to 20%
Bug Fixes
- The game will now provide an informative error dialogue before quitting if an issue is encountered during loading.
- Fixed an exploit where the Help button could be used to scout/cheat in multiplayer
- Fixed an issue where high level units (with wages between 1000 and 1333) would suddenly stop doing jobs (eg. Torture, Potion brewing, Ghoul summoning, Garrison recharge, ...) after having payday
- Fixed gold statues counting towards the player’s population and thus slowing down the spawn rate from gateways
- Fixed support units (eg. healers) incorrectly applying their buffs (eg. Heal) to units in range while they sleep (which made them visually toggle from sleeping to buffing animation)
- Huntress now fights with her full toolset, she can once again get rid of Vampires forever!
- Fixed an issue with Vampires failing to drink blood from victims in a loop, causing the game to lag
- Fixed an issue where your own units could die after fighting in the arena, if they got a damage input modifying debuff applied (such as the Cultist’s “Desecration” ability.)
- Fixed imprisoned empire units didn’t move inside the prison, when they were following a patrol route
- Fixed the “Barracks too small” notification. This popped only when the Barracks was big enough, while it was supposed to notify the opposite
- Fixed an issue that caused a crash on game load due to a Japanese language translation mod which was out of date
- Fixed an issue which prevented Augres from recharging the Garrison Aura, when the game was saved and loaded after the Aura was halfway depleted
- Fixed that Cultists ignore newly added channeling slots in the Sanctuary, when it is enlarged while a Ritual is channeled
- Fixed possession doors sometimes playing their lock sounds in unintended circumstances
- Fixed a lot of subtle and minor errors and issues found in player logs
- Fixed an issue where unused Veins of Evil slots would show lock icons, making the player think it was inaccessible content
- Fixed an issue where the payday overlay can extend past the gold bar when payments are higher than 100% of owned gold
Hotfix Patch 1.4.0f10 Release notes
In-Game UI
All Home Realms
[ 2016-06-03 19:19:28 CET ] [ Original post ]
Greetings All, We've just unleashed another hotfix patch unto the world and this one includes fixes for a large number of user reported issues. Remember if you're suffering from an issue please report it to us on our Bug Tracker!
UI Improvements
In-Game UI
- Improved the contrast of the gold cost numbers for payday overlay
- Added secondary icon for Artefact identified notification
- Added secondary icons for Ritual ready and Ritual activated notifications (to differentiate own, ally and enemy rituals)
- Removed active state tooltip from gold vortex, instead the gold vortex is now always active.
- Added a new loading screen drawing
Campaign Improvements
All Home Realms
- Your Dungeon Core is now correctly indestructible
- Fixed Kasita’s identity crisis - She no longer identified as Oberon
- Fixed the reminder to use blood money on Mandalf
- Cultists are now correctly grabbable after being affected by a booby trap
- Fixed the “Gold Statue” achievement
- Fixed a potential issue preventing entrance by the west gate
- Closed the door next to O’Theland, so he once again has some privacy (to brush his hair)
Performance Improvements
- Optimized audio assets, as a result memory usage has been reduced by approximately 600MB
- Optimized a number of subsystems, increasing FPS on large maps with large numbers of units by 15% to 20%
Bug Fixes
- The game will now provide an informative error dialogue before quitting if an issue is encountered during loading.
- Fixed an exploit where the Help button could be used to scout/cheat in multiplayer
- Fixed an issue where high level units (with wages between 1000 and 1333) would suddenly stop doing jobs (eg. Torture, Potion brewing, Ghoul summoning, Garrison recharge, ...) after having payday
- Fixed gold statues counting towards the player’s population and thus slowing down the spawn rate from gateways
- Fixed support units (eg. healers) incorrectly applying their buffs (eg. Heal) to units in range while they sleep (which made them visually toggle from sleeping to buffing animation)
- Huntress now fights with her full toolset, she can once again get rid of Vampires forever!
- Fixed an issue with Vampires failing to drink blood from victims in a loop, causing the game to lag
- Fixed an issue where your own units could die after fighting in the arena, if they got a damage input modifying debuff applied (such as the Cultist’s “Desecration” ability.)
- Fixed imprisoned empire units didn’t move inside the prison, when they were following a patrol route
- Fixed the “Barracks too small” notification. This popped only when the Barracks was big enough, while it was supposed to notify the opposite
- Fixed an issue that caused a crash on game load due to a Japanese language translation mod which was out of date
- Fixed an issue which prevented Augres from recharging the Garrison Aura, when the game was saved and loaded after the Aura was halfway depleted
- Fixed that Cultists ignore newly added channeling slots in the Sanctuary, when it is enlarged while a Ritual is channeled
- Fixed possession doors sometimes playing their lock sounds in unintended circumstances
- Fixed a lot of subtle and minor errors and issues found in player logs
- Fixed an issue where unused Veins of Evil slots would show lock icons, making the player think it was inaccessible content
- Fixed an issue where the payday overlay can extend past the gold bar when payments are higher than 100% of owned gold
Reddit: Ask us Anything @ 7PM UK time
[ 2016-05-31 15:48:04 CET ] [ Original post ]
Greetings Underlords,
Just issuing a quick reminder in case you missed it the first time. We'll be hosting a Reddit AMA at 7PM UK Time where you can ask us anything you want about WFTO, HoG, Game Development, our lives or well anything. Don't miss it!
Here's the full announcement:
Patch 1.4 and Heart of Gold are available now, and they’ve been met with an overwhelmingly positive response from you. We’re pleased that the changes we’ve made and the new expansion have met, and in some cases, exceeded your expectations!
Anyway we’d like you to know that we, the Brightrock Games team, will be holding an “Ask Me Anything (AMA)” discussion on Reddit and we’re eager to invite you all to join us and well... ask us anything!
Just pop on over to /r/IAmA at 7PM UK Time on Tuesday the 31st of May and we’ll be answering anything that comes in. We’ll have a few different members of the team from different disciplines so feel free to ask us questions on what it’s like to work in those fields, questions on WFTO, about our lives as indie devs or anything you can think of!
Team members who will be participating:
- Josh “Simburgur” Bishop - Creative Director
- Scott “Strich” Richmond - Programmer & Producer
- Tim White - Writer
- Patrick “Patackular” Hore - Art Director & 3D Artist
- Lee “Noontide” Moon - Community Manager
- Dante De Glanvill - SFX Artist, Voice of Duke Magnanimous and more!
Hotfix Patch: 1.4.0f7 Released
[ 2016-05-31 10:48:34 CET ] [ Original post ]
Greetings Underlords, We're still hard at work addressing the issues that you've reported to us. This morning we have another couple of hotfixes for you, associated particularly to rare issues that occur in campaign progression. The fixes are as follows:
- Fixed an issue that could occur on Level 13 of the vanilla campaign where certain units could not cross the drawbridge.
- Fixed an issue in Heart of Gold level 2 where the optional tutorial objective instructing the player to use an outpost would not trigger.
Hotfix Patch: 1.4.0f5 Released
[ 2016-05-30 18:07:24 CET ] [ Original post ]
Hey Folks, We have a special delivery for those of you affected by the resolution issue since Patch 1.4. Hotfix 1.4.0f5 has just released and should have resolved these issues for you moving forwards. Having worked with our community through the weekend and this bank holiday Monday we isolated the issue which caused resolution to default to 640x480 on first start-up post Patch 1.4 which affected a small subset of AMD Brand graphics cards. Soon after it was reported we identified a work-around for those of you affected and fortunately this appears to have resolve the issue for anyone who used it. Users who have already been affected by this issue should find their resolution set to 1024x768 on next login, this will allow those of you affected to change your resolution to your desired with ease. Anyone else who was liable to be affected is unlikely to be so but please keep us posted as we'd like to know if this issue crops up for anyone. We apologise for the inconvenience and hope you enjoy WFTO! Anyone affected by the issue where you're unable to tag tiles in-game we are still looking into the issue but there is a work-around in the topic linked above. Please get in touch as the more information we have the quicker we will be able to resolve the issue for everyone. Cheers, Lee
Reddit AMA on Tuesday with WFTO Team!
[ 2016-05-29 21:17:15 CET ] [ Original post ]
Hello Everyone!
Patch 1.4 and Heart of Gold are available now, and they’ve been met with an overwhelmingly positive response from you. We’re pleased that the changes we’ve made and the new expansion have met, and in some cases, exceeded your expectations!
Anyway we’d like you to know that we, the Brightrock Games team, will be holding an “Ask Me Anything (AMA)” discussion on Reddit and we’re eager to invite you all to join us and well... ask us anything!
Just pop on over to /r/IAmA at 7PM UK Time on Tuesday the 31st of May and we’ll be answering anything that comes in. We’ll have a few different members of the team from different disciplines so feel free to ask us questions on what it’s like to work in those fields, questions on WFTO, about our lives as indie devs or anything you can think of!
Team members who will be participating:
- Josh “Simburgur” Bishop - Creative Director
- Scott “Strich” Richmond - Programmer & Producer
- Tim White - Writer
- Patrick “Patackular” Hore - Art Director & 3D Artist
- Lee “Noontide” Moon - Community Manager
- Dante De Glanvill - SFX Artist, Voice of Duke Magnanimous and more!
Heart of Gold - Now Available!
Heart of Gold is the first paid expansion pack for War for the Overworld. It can be purchased at wftogame.com/buy, and on Steam, Green Man Gaming and Humble. Early Adopters of War for the Overworld, those that bought it before Mar 3rd 2015, will find that they already own the DLC! Key Features
Patch 1.4 is our biggest one yet, weighing in at well over 20 pages of release notes (without the majority of bug fixes!). It includes a huge number of quality of life changes, balance changes and even new features such as the brand new tutorial system. Ever wondered what an Aspect actually does? Now you can find out in-game! Key Features - free to all players
Our trilogy of short stories concludes with “The Colossal Dwarf” as Gidro Brunnsen faces down the inevitable demise of the dukedom of Phaestus, and the most formidable soldier in Kasita’s horde. Here's an extract from the story to whet your appetite: "May gold guide you, my children …” And with that, the Duke retired to his throne room through the thickest stone doors Gidro had ever seen. He tried to peek inside, at the golden glow beyond – but the doors slammed shut, shaking the ground. He smiled at the the Phaestian coat of arms ornately carved across both doors – the Duke’s huge axe set against the backdrop of Mount Phaestus, and a strange spherical object amidst the axe head." Click here to read the full story! Now with all that said we’re sure you’re eager to destroy the dukedom of Phaestus, so we won’t keep you any longer. Until next time Underlord, – WFTO Team Click here to discuss this update on our forums Click here to chat about this update on our Discord Never miss an update! Sign up to our newsletter!
[ 2016-05-27 19:29:26 CET ] [ Original post ]
Darkest greetings Underlord,
It’s a glorious day indeed - once again the drums of war echo through the darkest caverns of Kairos, hundreds of minions marching, scuttering and squelching towards the dukedom of Phaestus, ready to usher in a new age of darkness and destruction.
Yes indeed after months of development, testing and indeed teasing tidbits to our community, Heart of Gold is finally on its way to you down the tubes of the Internet - and with it comes the absolutely massive patch 1.4, Gold Rush!
https://youtu.be/2qS7VcDmOQ4
Before you head off to begin your conquest, why not familiarise yourself with the key features of this momentous release.
Heart of Gold
Heart of Gold is the first paid expansion pack for War for the Overworld. It can be purchased at wftogame.com/buy, and on Steam, Green Man Gaming and Humble. Early Adopters of War for the Overworld, those that bought it before Mar 3rd 2015, will find that they already own the DLC! Key Features
- An expanded story told across 4 brand new, fully voice acted Campaign levels, this time played from the perspective of Underlord Kasita. The levels are more open-ended than in the original game, directly addressing feedback from our most loyal Underlords.
- New enemies to wage war against including the wizard Mandalf the Maroon, and the entire family of the Duke of Phaestus!
- An additional 4 Aspects to master: Sentinel (defence), Gild (spell), Aureate Monolith (construct), and a new golden Titan - the Colossus.
- Three new Dungeon Themes, including a new theme for Kasita with Dungeon Core, tiles and walls, Worker skin, and a much-requested custom Underlord hand.
- New terrain such as lava chasms and lava falls, which help bring the volcanic land of Phaestus to life!
Patch 1.4: Gold Rush
Patch 1.4 is our biggest one yet, weighing in at well over 20 pages of release notes (without the majority of bug fixes!). It includes a huge number of quality of life changes, balance changes and even new features such as the brand new tutorial system. Ever wondered what an Aspect actually does? Now you can find out in-game! Key Features - free to all players
- Contextual tutorial system
- Revamped Titan system
- Improved combat
- New unit voices, VFX, animations and behaviours
- Significant performance improvements
- New UI features and options such as area of effect indicators on spells and defences
- Improvements to the original campaign
- A rebalancing of practically everything
- New localisation into French and German
Short Story: The Colossal Dwarf
Our trilogy of short stories concludes with “The Colossal Dwarf” as Gidro Brunnsen faces down the inevitable demise of the dukedom of Phaestus, and the most formidable soldier in Kasita’s horde. Here's an extract from the story to whet your appetite: "May gold guide you, my children …” And with that, the Duke retired to his throne room through the thickest stone doors Gidro had ever seen. He tried to peek inside, at the golden glow beyond – but the doors slammed shut, shaking the ground. He smiled at the the Phaestian coat of arms ornately carved across both doors – the Duke’s huge axe set against the backdrop of Mount Phaestus, and a strange spherical object amidst the axe head." Click here to read the full story! Now with all that said we’re sure you’re eager to destroy the dukedom of Phaestus, so we won’t keep you any longer. Until next time Underlord, – WFTO Team Click here to discuss this update on our forums Click here to chat about this update on our Discord Never miss an update! Sign up to our newsletter!
Patch 1.4 Release Notes
[ 2016-05-27 18:41:22 CET ] [ Original post ]
Darkest greetings Underlord,
It's an auspicious day. Not only are we releasing Heart of Gold (In fact it's already out!) but we've just push Patch 1.4 as well which is astonomically large.
It's our biggest patch and as such we actually can't fit the patch notes here so please head on over to our website to learn all the exciting things that are in the latest patch!
Keep your eyes peeled in the next few minutes for the full Heart of Gold announcement!
Click here to read the Release Notes!
Until Next time Underlord,
- WFTO Team
New DLC Available - War for the Overworld: Heart of Gold, 10% off!
[ 2016-05-27 18:07:00 CET ] [ Original post ]
War for the Overworld: Heart of Gold, all new content for War for the Overworld is Now Available on Steam and is 10% off!*
Heart of Gold continues where the story left off, with 4 earth-shattering new Campaign levels, a smattering of new defences, units and spells, and a gleaming new Dungeon Theme.
*Offer ends May 30th at 12 PM Pacific Time
Introducing Brightrock Games
Team 2Never before have such a bunch of ugly mugs come together to create games. We’d like to introduce ourselves properly so you can put some lovely faces to our delightful names. Please observe the diagram above. You'll find every member of our core team, what they do and what corner of the world they hail from!
We’re the same bunch of people, just operating under a new company and name. Subterranean Games was formed to develop and launch War for the Overworld, joining together the developers who were then based all around the world. Now that task is (mostly) complete, we’re rebranding and reorganising ourselves as we look to build a sustainable studio for the future. The core team has already relocated to a new office in central Brighton, England, and we’ll continue to work with the same talented band of freelancers. We’ll still use the Subterranean Games name to publish War for the Overworld, but Brightrock Games is now the developer, starting from the new expansion, Heart of Gold.
Updates to War for the Overworld will continue apace as they always have done, and the team is also looking to the future and their next project. The future’s bright (we went there).
You can expect the same service, authenticity and transparency that you've come to expect from us over the years. Think of it like we’ve changed our hat. We’ve taken off the mining helmet and put on the space helmet. But we’re still the same person underneath, deep down inside ... Honest, guv’nor!
We’re based in Brighton (mostly) and we rock! Or is it something to do with that classic movie, Brighton Rock? Or bright rocks in the sky aka meteors? Or bright rocks in the ground aka prized jewels? Probably the last two. Or maybe any of them. Or maybe some we haven’t thought of yet - let us know!
We’re looking to build a stronger relationship with you chaps than ever before. As such we’d like to invite you all to chat with us live on the Brightrock Games Discord - you’ll find us to be rather pleasant when you get to know us. Follow us on Facebook and Twitter to make sure you catch our other updates. We hope to use these channels quite soon to share with you much more about what we’re working on.. You can also make sure you never miss an update from us regarding WFTO and beyond by signing up to our newsletter. Cheers! Brightrock Games brightrockgames.com Click here to discuss this update on our forums Click here to chat about this update on our Discord Never miss an update! Sign up to our newsletter!
[ 2016-05-26 19:25:02 CET ] [ Original post ]
Dear players!
We’re pleased to officially announce the formation of Brightrock Games! Astute members of our community will know this has been a long time coming, with many of our public-facing services having already changed over to the new name.
Meet the team!
Team 2Never before have such a bunch of ugly mugs come together to create games. We’d like to introduce ourselves properly so you can put some lovely faces to our delightful names. Please observe the diagram above. You'll find every member of our core team, what they do and what corner of the world they hail from!
What happened to Subterranean Games?
We’re the same bunch of people, just operating under a new company and name. Subterranean Games was formed to develop and launch War for the Overworld, joining together the developers who were then based all around the world. Now that task is (mostly) complete, we’re rebranding and reorganising ourselves as we look to build a sustainable studio for the future. The core team has already relocated to a new office in central Brighton, England, and we’ll continue to work with the same talented band of freelancers. We’ll still use the Subterranean Games name to publish War for the Overworld, but Brightrock Games is now the developer, starting from the new expansion, Heart of Gold.
What does this mean for War for the Overworld and the future?
Updates to War for the Overworld will continue apace as they always have done, and the team is also looking to the future and their next project. The future’s bright (we went there).
In short:
You can expect the same service, authenticity and transparency that you've come to expect from us over the years. Think of it like we’ve changed our hat. We’ve taken off the mining helmet and put on the space helmet. But we’re still the same person underneath, deep down inside ... Honest, guv’nor!
Why “Brightrock”?
We’re based in Brighton (mostly) and we rock! Or is it something to do with that classic movie, Brighton Rock? Or bright rocks in the sky aka meteors? Or bright rocks in the ground aka prized jewels? Probably the last two. Or maybe any of them. Or maybe some we haven’t thought of yet - let us know!
How can I keep up to date with Brightrock Games?
We’re looking to build a stronger relationship with you chaps than ever before. As such we’d like to invite you all to chat with us live on the Brightrock Games Discord - you’ll find us to be rather pleasant when you get to know us. Follow us on Facebook and Twitter to make sure you catch our other updates. We hope to use these channels quite soon to share with you much more about what we’re working on.. You can also make sure you never miss an update from us regarding WFTO and beyond by signing up to our newsletter. Cheers! Brightrock Games brightrockgames.com Click here to discuss this update on our forums Click here to chat about this update on our Discord Never miss an update! Sign up to our newsletter!
Heart of Gold Release Date Preview: Gild
Let’s not dilly-dally around! We’re happy to announce that Heart of Gold will be joining your Steam libraries on the 27th of May - that’s just a week from now! We know the delay last month was disappointing for many of you, but it has proven to be very fruitful, with more features and polish being poured into the bubbling cauldron of creation. We hope you’ll all enjoy the expansion when it releases!
If you remember back to our very first Heart of Gold preview those many months ago, we introduced the Sentinel, a new defence that will be gracing your Veins of Evil in the Heart of Gold expansion.
These golden statues will emerge from their sarcophagi once triggered by your Hand of Evil, or by a nearby enemy, ready to stand toe to toe with your foes. Their forms makes them immune to the common necessities of living minions, such as food and sleep, but they do demand a hefty sum at payday. Let’s hope your coffers are brimming! Being non-fleshy, they also can’t be healed by conventional magic - only by gold itself, which is where the Gild spell comes in!
Weaving arcane magics is of course a doddle for one as powerful as you. So it’s no surprise that you already have a new trick up your sleeve: Gild is a brand new spell that will automatically become available once you’ve unlocked the Sentinel, or the as yet unannounced Colossus. https://youtu.be/FarlSl_l-wA Gild will serve you well in supporting your Sentinels, as it will expedite the process of healing them. Unlike normal spells it doesn’t cost any mana, but instead requires gold from your Vault. Gild will take 500 gold directly from your Vault and drop it on the highlighted unit. For those wealth-focussed minions, this will simply serve as an extra bonus to their payday, and make them very happy. However, for Sentinels and the Colossus, it will patch up the broken plates of their armour, and heal them for a significant amount. (They can also be healed simply by dropping piles of gold onto them.) Gild is certainly a must-have ability for supporting your front-line golden warriors, but it’ll also serve as an excellent way to make those particularly sensitive minions in your army happy with your rulership. Simply find one who’s unhappy via the Creature tab, and cast Gild on them!
It seems you’ve been enjoying our short stories thus far, and are eager to devour more of our delicious lore surrounding Heart of Gold. We’re certainly not going to disappoint this week, as we continue the story of the stalwart artisan, Gidro Brunnsen, as he journeys deeper into the land of Phaestus. Delve into his precious little mind and explore his backstory, before you ruin his future in Heart of Gold! Here’s a brief excerpt - if you want to read the whole thing, check out its thread on our forums.
[ 2016-05-20 16:43:48 CET ] [ Original post ]
Darkest greetings Underlord,
Another few weeks have passed and it’s time to look once more into the murky primordial depths that is Heart of Gold. This time we’re going to investigate the new spell, Gild, and take another look at the Sentinel, the new defence.
We’ve also got the continuation of our previous short story, as well as the announcement you’ve all been waiting for! So be prepared to delve once more into the land of Phaestus!
Heart of Gold Release Date
Let’s not dilly-dally around! We’re happy to announce that Heart of Gold will be joining your Steam libraries on the 27th of May - that’s just a week from now! We know the delay last month was disappointing for many of you, but it has proven to be very fruitful, with more features and polish being poured into the bubbling cauldron of creation. We hope you’ll all enjoy the expansion when it releases!
The Sentinel
If you remember back to our very first Heart of Gold preview those many months ago, we introduced the Sentinel, a new defence that will be gracing your Veins of Evil in the Heart of Gold expansion.
These golden statues will emerge from their sarcophagi once triggered by your Hand of Evil, or by a nearby enemy, ready to stand toe to toe with your foes. Their forms makes them immune to the common necessities of living minions, such as food and sleep, but they do demand a hefty sum at payday. Let’s hope your coffers are brimming! Being non-fleshy, they also can’t be healed by conventional magic - only by gold itself, which is where the Gild spell comes in!
New Spell: Gild
Weaving arcane magics is of course a doddle for one as powerful as you. So it’s no surprise that you already have a new trick up your sleeve: Gild is a brand new spell that will automatically become available once you’ve unlocked the Sentinel, or the as yet unannounced Colossus. https://youtu.be/FarlSl_l-wA Gild will serve you well in supporting your Sentinels, as it will expedite the process of healing them. Unlike normal spells it doesn’t cost any mana, but instead requires gold from your Vault. Gild will take 500 gold directly from your Vault and drop it on the highlighted unit. For those wealth-focussed minions, this will simply serve as an extra bonus to their payday, and make them very happy. However, for Sentinels and the Colossus, it will patch up the broken plates of their armour, and heal them for a significant amount. (They can also be healed simply by dropping piles of gold onto them.) Gild is certainly a must-have ability for supporting your front-line golden warriors, but it’ll also serve as an excellent way to make those particularly sensitive minions in your army happy with your rulership. Simply find one who’s unhappy via the Creature tab, and cast Gild on them!
Short Story: The Aureate Artisan
It seems you’ve been enjoying our short stories thus far, and are eager to devour more of our delicious lore surrounding Heart of Gold. We’re certainly not going to disappoint this week, as we continue the story of the stalwart artisan, Gidro Brunnsen, as he journeys deeper into the land of Phaestus. Delve into his precious little mind and explore his backstory, before you ruin his future in Heart of Gold! Here’s a brief excerpt - if you want to read the whole thing, check out its thread on our forums.
- Gidro waited. And waited. And began to wonder if he was the victim of yet another prank. A twinkle caught his eye, then the rock face in front of him began to glow. It glowed brighter and brighter, until Gidro swore the sun itself was rising inside the cavern. He shielded his eyes. There was a metallic ring, and the light receded.
Heart of Gold preview: A Constructive Review
In the Heart of Gold announcement post we stated that Heart of Gold would be releasing this month. However, based on the current state of Heart of Gold we don’t believe it will be ready for the original target. As such we are pushing the release back to May. We know that this news will be disappointing to the many of you who are excited to see Heart of Gold grace your Steam libraries - we’ve seen regular calls from you for a clear and set release date. So far we have tried to avoid being specific with our release dates on all content since release, as we feel that announcing specific dates will lead to greater disappointment if we decide that upcoming content requires more work. As a general principle we try to stick to the “done when it’s done” philosophy of development, and when circumstances have forced us away from this it has proven extremely damaging. The good news is that this delay will give us time to further develop and polish all the content coming in Heart of Gold. It will give us another session with Richard Ridings to record more voice-over for the mentor, and give us more time with other third parties to deliver on areas such as cinematics, translation and more. It’ll also give us the chance to integrate, test and polish more features internally and make sure the campaign stands out as the best WFTO experience yet!
https://youtu.be/D00-7rBcNIo A glimmering totem of awesome power, the Aureate Monolith is a powerful construct that will certainly help you keep your coffers well stocked. Friends and foes foolish enough to fall unconscious within it’s influence will never awaken again, trapped forever as golden statues. The Aureate Monolith is a new construct that will be slotting neatly into the Veins at the end of the neutral tree. It occupies a unique role of enhancing the result of combat by instantly turning fallen friends and foes into golden statues to be mined. It’s also capable of stealing gold directly from the earth, statues, or even your rivals.
Once placed an Aureate Monolith will project a small field around itself; any unit that is rendered unconscious in this field is instantly turned into a gold statue. Setting up killzones with Aureate Monoliths and Bombards, or other defences, will certainly provide a useful source of income. When clicked the Aureate Monolith will draw in all gold within its radius and deposit it within your Vaults. This includes gold from wall tiles, statues, piles and even gold from enemy Vaults! Stick one of these next to your enemy’s Vaults and watch all their shiny treasures disappear from their possession. However, once the Monolith has drawn in all the surrounding gold, it will explode. The Aureate Monolith is positioned to be used as both a defensive and offensive tool if you want to turn over a frightful profit when facing down an enemy.
We know how much you loved our previous short story that released alongside the Sentinel Preview, so we thought we'd once again dive into the world of Kairos and explore the adventures of Gidro, a particularly unfortunate dwarf who is currently making his way to the southern Phaestian border. To save space we're going to preview the story here, but if you want to read the full version then head on over to it's thread on the forum!
Given the subject of this week’s teaser we felt that we should remind you of a little known feature in WFTO: decorative statues! We originally introduced this upon fan request when we implemented the Blood Money spell, but we feel it will have special relevance within the Heart of Gold expansion.
To turn your golden statues into permanent fixtures with which to showcase your domination, simply cast Lightning on any golden statue within your dungeon. As part of patch 1.4 we’re adding bases to these statues to better differentiate them from the ones you want melted down for scrap! That covers our teaser for this week. We’ll be back in the near future for more previews, so keep your eyes peeled and don’t forget to sign up to our newsletter to make sure you never miss an update! Until next time Underlord, – WFTO Team Click here to discuss this update on our forums Click here to chat about this update on our Discord Never miss an update! Sign up to our newsletter!
[ 2016-04-27 17:44:48 CET ] [ Original post ]
Darkest greetings Underlord,
It’s been a little over a week since our reveal of the new Titan mechanics in patch 1.4, and we’re sure you must be salivating at the prospect of getting your hands on that and the Heart of Gold expansion.
Today we’re going to look at one of the new Aspects being introduced in Heart of Gold - the Aureate Monolith, we also have a new short story for you. But first we have an unfortunate announcement regarding the release date.
The Bad News
In the Heart of Gold announcement post we stated that Heart of Gold would be releasing this month. However, based on the current state of Heart of Gold we don’t believe it will be ready for the original target. As such we are pushing the release back to May. We know that this news will be disappointing to the many of you who are excited to see Heart of Gold grace your Steam libraries - we’ve seen regular calls from you for a clear and set release date. So far we have tried to avoid being specific with our release dates on all content since release, as we feel that announcing specific dates will lead to greater disappointment if we decide that upcoming content requires more work. As a general principle we try to stick to the “done when it’s done” philosophy of development, and when circumstances have forced us away from this it has proven extremely damaging. The good news is that this delay will give us time to further develop and polish all the content coming in Heart of Gold. It will give us another session with Richard Ridings to record more voice-over for the mentor, and give us more time with other third parties to deliver on areas such as cinematics, translation and more. It’ll also give us the chance to integrate, test and polish more features internally and make sure the campaign stands out as the best WFTO experience yet!
New Construct: Aureate Monolith
https://youtu.be/D00-7rBcNIo A glimmering totem of awesome power, the Aureate Monolith is a powerful construct that will certainly help you keep your coffers well stocked. Friends and foes foolish enough to fall unconscious within it’s influence will never awaken again, trapped forever as golden statues. The Aureate Monolith is a new construct that will be slotting neatly into the Veins at the end of the neutral tree. It occupies a unique role of enhancing the result of combat by instantly turning fallen friends and foes into golden statues to be mined. It’s also capable of stealing gold directly from the earth, statues, or even your rivals.
Once placed an Aureate Monolith will project a small field around itself; any unit that is rendered unconscious in this field is instantly turned into a gold statue. Setting up killzones with Aureate Monoliths and Bombards, or other defences, will certainly provide a useful source of income. When clicked the Aureate Monolith will draw in all gold within its radius and deposit it within your Vaults. This includes gold from wall tiles, statues, piles and even gold from enemy Vaults! Stick one of these next to your enemy’s Vaults and watch all their shiny treasures disappear from their possession. However, once the Monolith has drawn in all the surrounding gold, it will explode. The Aureate Monolith is positioned to be used as both a defensive and offensive tool if you want to turn over a frightful profit when facing down an enemy.
Short Story: The Aureate Artisan
We know how much you loved our previous short story that released alongside the Sentinel Preview, so we thought we'd once again dive into the world of Kairos and explore the adventures of Gidro, a particularly unfortunate dwarf who is currently making his way to the southern Phaestian border. To save space we're going to preview the story here, but if you want to read the full version then head on over to it's thread on the forum!
- The gold dust swirled in front of him. He wobbled, his eyes watering in the heat, and squinted through the blinding orange glow. Steadying himself, he focused hard and watched the golden dust whoosh away down the tunnel and out of sight.
Gidro put one foot gingerly in front of the other, and tried not to look over the edge of the road ... at the bottomless pit of lava-coloured doom. Dwarves were never meant to scale such heights. How could anyone live in this god-forsaken land? No wonder he’d never heard of Phaestus - it was nothing but a volcanic ruin!
Decorate your Dungeon
Given the subject of this week’s teaser we felt that we should remind you of a little known feature in WFTO: decorative statues! We originally introduced this upon fan request when we implemented the Blood Money spell, but we feel it will have special relevance within the Heart of Gold expansion.
To turn your golden statues into permanent fixtures with which to showcase your domination, simply cast Lightning on any golden statue within your dungeon. As part of patch 1.4 we’re adding bases to these statues to better differentiate them from the ones you want melted down for scrap! That covers our teaser for this week. We’ll be back in the near future for more previews, so keep your eyes peeled and don’t forget to sign up to our newsletter to make sure you never miss an update! Until next time Underlord, – WFTO Team Click here to discuss this update on our forums Click here to chat about this update on our Discord Never miss an update! Sign up to our newsletter!
Kickstarter Update - Shipping Now
With all that said the War for the Overworld Kickstarter is now nearly complete, with almost all rewards fulfilled to the best of our capabilities. But there’s still a few more things to remind you of and assure you that we’ve not forgotten:
[ 2016-04-18 15:34:57 CET ] [ Original post ]
Hello Backers,
It’s been a long time coming but it’s finally happening. Our fulfillment provider began shipping your physical rewards to you late last week - some of you (in the UK) should have already begun to receive your rewards.
We know that you’ve had to wait a long time for this and we can only apologise for the regular delays in shipping your rewards. We’ve learned a lot of lessons from this campaign and if we ever do this again we’ll be sure to carry those on!
Regardless, we hope that the end result will have been worth the wait and that you enjoy your physical goodies, whatever they may be.
We here at Brightrock Games (yup that’s a new name, full announcement soon ;) ) would like to thank you all for your continued support and patience. Without your backing and dedication we could never have brought War for the Overworld to market, and certainly never continued to support it through dozens of free updates as well as the upcoming expansion Heart of Gold!
Your generosity has helped us to transition our operation from a group of plucky fans distributed across the world into a studio centred in the heart of Brighton, with big plans for both the present and future. Together with you we’ve celebrated our successes while weathering and learning from our failures. We hope that our commitment to you has shined through during the project and beyond.
A Few Reminders
With all that said the War for the Overworld Kickstarter is now nearly complete, with almost all rewards fulfilled to the best of our capabilities. But there’s still a few more things to remind you of and assure you that we’ve not forgotten:
- The Dungeoneer’s Guide is still in production and is nearing completion. We hope to have this released and into your Steam folders during the summer.
- Just before release you voted on what flex-goal you would like to see. You voted for an enhanced Survival mode, so expect to see that in a free update after Heart of Gold.
- The DRM-Free build will be updated sometime after Heart of Gold, though as always with the standard caveats (limited updates, no Steamworks features, no DLC).
- We’re looking to start community translations post Heart of Gold. If you want to see translations into your language or just want to see better ones, drop by this thread and sign up!
- Finally, we’d like to remind you all that Heart of Gold is free to you as backers once it releases, and you should already see it linked to your Steam Account. If you’ve not played in awhile this will be the perfect time to jump back in!
Patch 1.4 Preview: Titanic Revelations
We’ve been listening to feedback on the Titans since the game launched last year. With the changes coming in 1.4 we’re looking to make them more impressive, powerful and less readily available. In the current game, once you have unlocked the aspects in the Veins that you need you can continue to spam Titans at an alarming rate, with barely any cost or repercussion. This results in tactics such as the fabled Behemoth rush strategy which has been a thorn in the side of multiplayer players for many months. To address this we’re making several changes to the Titan system so that they fit their purpose as living super weapons more snugly:
As a final message today we’d like to acknowledge the excellent work put into the April Fools patch notes by our voluntary QA Team, especially Fireeye who played a key role in organising the whole thing. If you enjoyed our April Fools patch notes this year you can have a look back at previous years by checking out the April Fools category! Until next time Underlord! – WFTO Team Discuss this update on our forums! View this update on our website
[ 2016-04-02 17:17:27 CET ] [ Original post ]
Darkest Greetings Underlord,
Yesterday we posted some truly ambitious release notes for the upcoming patch 1.4. Unfortunately we must announce to you today that in fact those were a cleverly conceived ruse, concocted by the brilliant minds at Brightrock Games and their merry band of volunteer QA analysts.
Indeed we are talking joke of the decade, jape of the century and April, May, June and July fools all at once. What’s that? You weren’t fooled at all? Alas it appears as though our carefully concocted plans were foiled.
No matter, we feel that we owe you an additional announcement today so today we’re going to expand, very briefly, on the new Titan systems that are being added in Patch 1.4.
Titans in 1.4
We’ve been listening to feedback on the Titans since the game launched last year. With the changes coming in 1.4 we’re looking to make them more impressive, powerful and less readily available. In the current game, once you have unlocked the aspects in the Veins that you need you can continue to spam Titans at an alarming rate, with barely any cost or repercussion. This results in tactics such as the fabled Behemoth rush strategy which has been a thorn in the side of multiplayer players for many months. To address this we’re making several changes to the Titan system so that they fit their purpose as living super weapons more snugly:
- All three Titans have received significant stat buffs, positioning them unconditionally as the strongest units in the game. Deploying one of these will certainly be a game changing moment.
- All Titans now cost 3 Sins rather than 1, raising the requirement for owning one.
- Upon selecting a Titan from the Veins a summoning stone will appear near the player’s core, this stone will remain for five minutes and can be damaged or destroyed, after 5 minutes the desired Titan will spawn.
- All players will receive a warning both when a Summoning stone is placed and when a Titan is spawned.
- Titans will spawn with HP directly proportional to the remaining HP of the summoning stone.
April Fools
As a final message today we’d like to acknowledge the excellent work put into the April Fools patch notes by our voluntary QA Team, especially Fireeye who played a key role in organising the whole thing. If you enjoyed our April Fools patch notes this year you can have a look back at previous years by checking out the April Fools category! Until next time Underlord! – WFTO Team Discuss this update on our forums! View this update on our website
Patch 1.4.2016 Preview Release notes
Worker
Lightning
Haste Potion
Overload
Barracks
Wooden Door
Replacement Earth
Gold Shrine
[ 2016-04-01 10:42:48 CET ] [ Original post ]
Darkest greetings Underlord,
With WFTOs first expansion, Heart of Gold, on the cards this month we felt that now would be a good time to share some highlights from the upcoming v1.4.2016 patch. Among these pages you’ll find some of the changes we’re most excited about, many of which have been inspired by your own suggestions.
So without further ado we’d like to introduce you to Patch 1.4.2016 “Fools Gold” which will be releasing alongside Heart of Gold this month!
Read on Underlord!
General Changes
- Following ample of feedback concerning the game’s pace, we have come to the conclusion that the gameplay is much too slow for many players. Because of this, the game speed slider now is locked at 150% speed for skirmish games and scenarios, and 200% speed for the campaign.
- To emphasize the game’s comical nature, the main menu screen will now permanently feature the backside of a Chunder.
- To prevent the game from being overly repetitive, the “Load” function now randomly loads one of the player’s save files rather than the desired one.
- As we felt that the Home Realm didn’t feel fresh and exciting enough, it now will automatically be reset roughly once every thirty minutes.
- Given that you never actually venture to the Overworld, the game’s title has been changed to “War for the Underworld (WftU)”.
- Impenetrable Earth can now be mined but it will take your workers 24 hours to excavate a single tile.
Units
Worker
- Workers no longer lock any of the player’s mana, but instead lock RAM. Every worker above the fifth one will lead to increasing performance issues for the player, making a good balance between worker numbers and hardware quality crucial.
- Mistreated workers can now form unions.
- Workers may now level up to level 60. Players who buy the Heart of Gold DLC may level their workers up to level 70.
- To aid players with a defensive playstyle, workers will now prioritize fortifying walls over all other tasks unless manually ordered around by the player.
- Now has a significantly higher spawning rate than all other minions as we felt there weren’t enough of them on the battlefield.
- Renamed to Goblin.
- Cultists now know who Brian is.
- To enhance the simulation experience expected from War for the Overworld, units will now refuse to work, eat or sleep in rooms which contain a chunder due to the unbearable stench.
- Due to their volatile potions, picking up and dropping a Crackpot will now cause it to explode, killing the unit and destroying all wall tiles in a small radius.
- Now makes suggestive noises when torturing units in the Torture Chamber
- We have removed the Succubus “Over the Shoulder” victory pose. We felt the pose was far too sexual and did not fit her character as a “vile demonic temptress of men and women”. All other aspects of the Succubus remain the same.
- Based on popular community feedback the Succubus will now have scalable breast size, you can find the new “Bazonga” slider in the gameplay options menu.
- There is now a small chance that the Succubus “Charm” ability will backfire, causing her to fall in love with the target. In this case they will both return to surface world to produce a batch of quarter demonic children who will subsequently star as badly written RPG characters.
- In respect to his Augmented status the Augre has received new voice lines such as “I never asked for this”, “What a shame” and “My vision is augmented” He’s also taken to wearing sunglasses, despite being underground.
- All Augres have mysteriously grown a tail.
- Will now refuse to eat pigs in the Slaughterpen due to family matters (but you can still trick him to eat in the tavern. You monster)
- Fixed a bug that caused the Shadow’s invisibility to be non-functional. The Shadow is now invisible to all players as intended (including his owner).
- Now turns into a level 1 Dragon upon reaching level 10.
- Is now correctly referred to as “Bad Ass Flying Unit”
- Fixed a VFX bug that caused the Vampire not to sparkle when he stands close to light sources.
- Now literally an unstoppable force, once spawned will choose a random direction and velocity then crash through any wall, object, defence, unit or Dungeon Core that gets in it’s way until it leaves the map.
- Now literally and immovable object. The eternal cannot take damage and cannot move from it’s spawn coordinates under any conditions. If a Behemoth collides with an eternal units will crowd around and debate the philosophical implications until the game crashes.
- Removed from the game to make room for a new titan.
- A new Titan, the Horned Reaper has been added to the game
- The Horned Reaper can be summoned using a Magical Talisman and will last 60 seconds, or until slapped
- The Horned Reaper is far, far more powerful than the other Titans in the game and will cause them all to flee instantly upon seeing him.
- Magical Talismans can be purchased from the Steam store for $1.99, or in a bundle of 10 for $15.99
Spells
Lightning
- Can no longer be called down on the same tile twice.
- Will now remove 250 gold per cast from all affected units, unless those units have Health Insurance. Will ruin the life of any unit unable to pay.
- Now actually makes the target minion mad.
- Fixed a bug which made it impossible to cast this spell on enemy minions.
- Fixed a bug which made it impossible to use this spell in the “water” tiles of Rhaskos’ realm.
- Fixed a bug where Blood Money would affect other biological aspects of the target creature. Now only the blood is affected, instantly killing the creature but leaving a perfectly preserved golden copy of it’s circulatory system that you can submit to a museum.
- Due to heavy criticism by animal rights’ groups, micropiglets spawned by ‘Magical Meat’ now come equipped with parachutes to soften their landing.
- Turns the target minion into a micropiglet for 30 seconds.
- These pigs can be eaten by other minions.
- However, this can have unexpected side-effects when the 30 seconds are up.
Potions
Haste Potion
- Now makes affected units turn blue for the duration of the potion’s effect to make it easier to tell them apart from minions that can’t go fast.
- Wormhole now has three distinct effects:
- May open a wormhole to a alternate dimension where the servants of the Empire are evil, Underlord minions are good and everyone has hysterically unstylish facial hair. Apart from Dwarves, who have no facial hair and are thusly shunned by their allies.
- May open a wormhole to an alternate universe where the servants of the Empire are a spacefaring race of doctors who seek out and cure all maladies.
- May open a wormhole into deep space causing all affected minions to be lost permanently and potentially causing a permanent rupture in the space time continuum.
- Also houses ravenous worms.
Rituals
Overload
- The enhanced mana regeneration caused by this ritual has been further increased. However, if the players does not cast enough spells during the ritual’s time of effect and they return to full mana, the mana bar will explode, killing the player.
- Now automatically casts upon building a Sanctuary.
- Now queues up the Armageddon ritual after completion.
- Now causes all units in the player’s command to rebel and depose them. Causing an instant loss and deleting the game from their hard drive.
- Literally ends the world. DO NOT USE
- Icon replaced with a big red button with a sticky note saying “DO NOT USE”
Rooms
Barracks
- The player can now stuff additional micropiglets from the Slaughterpen into the training dummies of the barracks, which increases the work efficiency of minions training at the enriched dummies.
- Every 1,000th meal will now be a ‘Jackpot Dinner’, which will be (loudly) announced by Mendechaus and followed up with a delightful rendition of ‘Disco Inferno’ whilst nearby minions show off their newly implemented “Dance” animations.
- Both of these bridges have been removed in order to encourage players to use the Volcanic Bridge spell.
- Micropiglets will now leave the Slaughterpen and stalk your dungeon. Beware.
Defenses
Wooden Door
- As we felt that players were not polite enough to their minions, the wooden door now remains closed to minions trying to pass through it unless the player holds it open for them with the hand of evil.
- Same as above, except the player has to pull it up instead of holding it open. As an added side effect, letting go of the portcullis will cause it to squash whatever unfortunate minions may currently stand under it.
- All Midas Doors are now subject to VAT (Value Added Tax) and will now cost an additional 20% of their previous price.
- To limit the amount of micro-management needed for effective use of the Glacial Door, it can now no longer be opened at all.
- Glacial doors can now shift across the map gradually at a pace of 1 meter per day.
- Augrum walls are now made from Augres instead of defence parts.
Constructs
Replacement Earth
- To encourage well-planned dungeons the price of “Replacement Earth” has been increased to 10,000 gold, each additional replacement earth will increase this price by 5000 gold.
- Can now only be built in 2v2 games and only if the player formally announces he will go “Support” while in the mutliplayer lobby or at the start of the game.
- Ember demons spawned from the rift now place an additional rift every 5 seconds, these additional rifts are free from mana locking and will spawn further Ember demons which will then create further rifts, until the game crashes.
Shrine Changes
Gold Shrine
- To simulate the hyperinflation that an unlimited source of gold would produce, all gold prices in the game will increase by 5% for every 10,000 gold mined from a Gold Shrine.
- Manufacturing Shrines have been tweaked so that they now continue to produce defense parts indefinitely until claimed by an Underlord. This adds a cool new gameplay element that forces the player(s) to claim the shrine before the accumulated mass of defense parts crashes the game.
New Artefact: Transfer Creature
- This new artefact will allow the player who activates it to transfer one of their minions to the next single player level or multiplayer game they play.
- Only works with level 1 minions.
Misc. Changes and Bugfixes
- Fixed a bug that made it impossible for the player to claim the Kenos before Mira did in Campaign Mission 10.
- Fixed a bug that prevented the three AI Underlords in Campaign Mission 12 from attacking all at once.
- Removed Herobrine.
- Fixed several bugs that allowed the player to win against the Steven Fright
- AI personality on any difficulty setting.
- Fixed the bugs on the floor of the game’s main menu.
- Fixed two bugs that caused the Imperial attack waves in Campaign Missions 7 and 9 to attack much later than planned.
- The game should now feel snappier.
- Replaced Placeholder Bard Voiceovers with the correct Voiceovers recorded by Simburgur.
- Minions will no longer cross the river to the west.
Announcing WFTO's first expansion, Heart of Gold!
Priced at just £5.59 / $7.99 / 7.99€, the Heart of Gold expansion will be released on Steam in April 2016. Heart of Gold also constitutes the Early Adopter Bonus (FAQ) for those that purchased War for the Overworld on or before May 2nd, 2015 (which includes Kickstarter backers, Early Access customers, and owners of the physical Underlord Edition). These Underlords will be able to download Heart of Gold from Steam for free when it launches.
This expansion is the next in a long line of updates that have added heaps of new content and fixes since launch. Some of the meatiest updates so far: 4-player multiplayer; a map editor with Steam Workshop support; balance passes to improve single-player and multiplayer; addressing player feedback on the UI, room efficiency, adjustable game speed and more. Heart of Gold will release alongside Patch 1.4 which will introduce a huge range of changes and improvements to the base game including:
[ 2016-03-24 15:14:19 CET ] [ Original post ]
Darkest greetings Underlord,
The Emperor is gone and the Empire rudderless, the balance of power easily swayed to any Underlord that is not 600 feet under. You will now assume the role of rival Underlord, Kasita, and with the mentorship of the deliciously sardonic Mendechaus (voiced by Richard Ridings), you will sate your thirst for wealth and power in the golden and volcanic dukedom of Phaestus.
The word in the Underworld is that Kasita’s heart is a giant gemstone, hewn from the dirt by her prospecting workers. They say molten gold flows through her cavernous, subterranean arteries, and that soon her temper shall erupt in an all-consuming gold rush of greed! Miserly miners beware ...
War for the Overworld’s first expansion, Heart of Gold, continues where the story left off, with 4 earth-shattering new Campaign levels, a smattering of new defences, units and spells, and a gleaming new Dungeon Theme! This builds upon the 39 free patches that have massively improved the game since launch, including the recently released patch 1.3 with a map editor and Steam Workshop support.
https://youtu.be/Afp3HYVXFtA
Heart of Gold features:
- An expanded story told across 4 brand new, fully voice acted Campaign levels, this time played from the perspective of Underlord Kasita. The levels are more open-ended than in the original game, directly addressing feedback from our most loyal Underlords.
- An additional 4 Aspects to master: Sentinel (defence), Gild (spell), Aureate Monolith (construct), and a golden Titan - the Colossus. More details to be revealed soon.
- A new Dungeon Theme for Kasita, which includes a Dungeon Core, new tiles and walls, a Worker skin, and a much-requested custom Underlord hand.
- New terrain, system overhauls, map editor features and much more!
Priced at just £5.59 / $7.99 / 7.99€, the Heart of Gold expansion will be released on Steam in April 2016. Heart of Gold also constitutes the Early Adopter Bonus (FAQ) for those that purchased War for the Overworld on or before May 2nd, 2015 (which includes Kickstarter backers, Early Access customers, and owners of the physical Underlord Edition). These Underlords will be able to download Heart of Gold from Steam for free when it launches.
Patch 1.4
This expansion is the next in a long line of updates that have added heaps of new content and fixes since launch. Some of the meatiest updates so far: 4-player multiplayer; a map editor with Steam Workshop support; balance passes to improve single-player and multiplayer; addressing player feedback on the UI, room efficiency, adjustable game speed and more. Heart of Gold will release alongside Patch 1.4 which will introduce a huge range of changes and improvements to the base game including:
- Revamped Titan system
- Revamped combat
- New unit voices, VFX, animations and behaviours
- Significant performance improvements
- New systems such as the peace warband to keep specific units out of combat
- Improved AI which makes use of Titans and Artefacts properly
- Improved UI including a new payday overlay
- Many balance improvements including a revamp of the unit leveling system, making high level units more valuable
- Many more gameplay improvements
Kickstarter - Physical Rewards Update
[ 2016-02-08 17:39:41 CET ] [ Original post ]
Darkest greetings Underlord,
Over the course of the new year thus far we've been settling into our new office, in the past few weeks we've moved in and are working once more. It's still something of a building site but we're looking forward to sharing it with you once finished.
Today we're delivering an update on the status of our long awaited physical rewards for our Kickstarter backers. We're pleased to announce that we're rapidly approaching fulfillment and if all goes according to plan will be shipping within a months time.
Pop on over to our website to read the full post and see the latest images.
Until next time Underlord,
- WFTO Team
Click here to read this update on our website
Click here to discuss this update on our forums
War for the Overworld
Brightrock Games
Brightrock Games
2015-04-02
Strategy Singleplayer Multiplayer Coop
Game News Posts 133
🎹🖱️Keyboard + Mouse
Very Positive
(6092 reviews)
http://www.wftogame.com
https://store.steampowered.com/app/230190
The Game includes VR Support
LinuxBuild [5.27 G]
War for the Overworld - Underlord Edition Content
War for the Overworld - Heart of Gold Expansion
War for the Overworld - The Cynical Imp (Charity DLC)
War for the Overworld - Crucible Expansion
War for the Overworld - My Pet Dungeon Expansion
War for the Overworld - The Under Games Expansion
War for the Overworld - Seasonal Worker Skins
War for the Overworld - Map Editor
Tired of invading dungeons? It's time you build your own!
Do you feel you are in a slump? Monotonously disembowelling evil guys in endless quests for gold and a slightly better pair of boots? You are starting to wonder... are heroics really your calling? Welcome to the War for the Overworld!
War for the Overworld is a Dungeon Management Game that employs your favourite aspects of the RTS and God Game genres. You play an all-powerful, malevolent Underlord, long banished to the Aether. With unrivalled dark power and an insatiable desire for bloody conquest, you will arise once more, and reclaim your realm!
In your absence, the Underworld lost its way. It became feeble and afraid of the Empire of the Overworld, which grew strong and boldly comfortable in its quiet retirement from evil-slaying. Carve out your dungeon from the soil and stones of the Underworld, and build dozens of unique rooms to attract a myriad of creatures to your halls to work and fight for you.
In addition to your faithful followers, you have destructive spells and powerful rituals to cast upon any unsuspecting goodly Hero (or rival Underlord) who dares to breach your unhallowed halls. With your unmatched dark powers and mighty army of bloodthirsty minions, you are ready for your War for the Overworld!
Do you feel you are in a slump? Monotonously disembowelling evil guys in endless quests for gold and a slightly better pair of boots? You are starting to wonder... are heroics really your calling? Welcome to the War for the Overworld!
War for the Overworld is a Dungeon Management Game that employs your favourite aspects of the RTS and God Game genres. You play an all-powerful, malevolent Underlord, long banished to the Aether. With unrivalled dark power and an insatiable desire for bloody conquest, you will arise once more, and reclaim your realm!
In your absence, the Underworld lost its way. It became feeble and afraid of the Empire of the Overworld, which grew strong and boldly comfortable in its quiet retirement from evil-slaying. Carve out your dungeon from the soil and stones of the Underworld, and build dozens of unique rooms to attract a myriad of creatures to your halls to work and fight for you.
In addition to your faithful followers, you have destructive spells and powerful rituals to cast upon any unsuspecting goodly Hero (or rival Underlord) who dares to breach your unhallowed halls. With your unmatched dark powers and mighty army of bloodthirsty minions, you are ready for your War for the Overworld!
Key Features
- Build Your Dungeon - Excavate and build your dungeon beneath the earth of the Overworld. Design its layout as you see fit, creating an underground fortress filled with a wide variety of rooms, each with a unique use and purpose.
- Evil Is Back - Play as an Underlord who has awakened from a deep slumber after countless years drifting in the Aether. This realm hosts a variety of enemies — both Heroes and Underlords will stand in your path as you fight for dominance of the Overworld
- Veins of Evil - Choose from over 60 rooms, spells, potions, rituals, defences and constructs in the Veins of Evil as you progress through the game. There are a plethora of possible Vein combinations you can use to conquer the Overworld. Create your own unique flavour of evil!
- Fortify Your Domain - Build a wide variety of defences within your walls to defend against — and destroy — those who seek to invade your domain.
- Cast Wicked Spells - Call down unholy magic to strengthen your dungeon, route enemy forces, flood corridors with Micropiglets, or simply turn a meddlesome Hero into a geyser of giblets.
- Unleash Devastating Rituals - Punish your foes or empower your own forces with game-changing Rituals that can do anything from raising an undead army, to instantly fortifying your entire dungeon.
- Command Powerful Minions - Over 20 minions await your call, and will gladly work and fight under your banner... if you provide them with all the creature comforts they demand.
- Conquer the Overworld - Play through a feature-length campaign, facing off against the Emperor of the Overworld as you fight for complete supremacy in the Realm of Kairos
- Destroy Your Rivals - Take the fight to your rival Underlords in Skirmish or Multiplayer matches with up to four players.
- Challenge Ruthless AI - Team up with a friend or fly solo and challenge devastatingly sophisticated AI Opponents in Skirmish or Multiplayer!
- Shape the Underworld - Create entirely new Skirmish, Scenario, Sandbox and Multiplayer levels in the Map Editor and share them with other Underlords via Steam Workshop!
- Test Your Mettle - Run the gauntlet of the prototype Survival mode and see if you can top the high score against waves of enemies!
MINIMAL SETUP
- OS: Ubuntu 12.04 or higher
- Processor: Dual Core CPU @ 2.5GHzMemory: 4GB RAM
- Memory: 4GB RAM
- Graphics: Nvidia GT450 512MB or better. ATI 4870HD 512MB or betterG3D Mark: 1500Hard Drive: 7GB available spaceSound: Speakers or headphones Additional Linux Requirements: glibc 2.14 or later libstdc++6 or later GCC 4.9 or later Only the latest video card drivers are supported OpenGL 3.0 support is required Full Knowledgebase Article
- OS: Ubuntu 16.04 or higher
- Processor: Quad Core CPU @ 2.5GHzMemory: 8GB RAM
- Memory: 8GB RAM
- Graphics: Nvidia GTX 560 1GB or better. Radeon 8950 HD 1GB or betterG3D Mark: 3000Hard Drive: 10GB available spaceSound: Speakers or headphones Additional Linux Requirements: glibc 2.14 or later libstdc++6 or later GCC 4.9 or later Only the latest video card drivers are supported OpenGL 3.0 support is required Full Knowledgebase Article
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