Darkest greetings Underlords, Yesterday, your cultists brought word of an astounding new development in the War for the Overworld multiverse which, as many of you no doubt surmised, was a most ingenious and clever ruse in honour of a special day in which we get to make stupid jokes. Read all about it here!
Unfortunately the chatlog is not a work of parody, people actually talk like this to each other. Indeed there is no WFTO MMO, which would be a singularly foolhardy idea as a follow up to a popular cult dungeon management game almost as ill-fated as a perhaps overly-greedy mobile entry into such a franchise. But you neednt be told that, do you, Underlord? In any case, what follows April Fools day every year is a day even more special to us: War for the Overworlds birthday, April 2nd; the day the game released from early access in 2015. Theres a lot to get through, including a small War for the Overworld patch, whats next for us at Brightrock, the return of the pen & paper RPG, and finally, an announcement regarding our latest game Galacticare. Read on Underlord!

Ten Years of War for the Overworld

Thats right: War for the Overworld turns ten today! Technically its even older if you consider the two and a half years of Early Access before that, but whos counting? (Us. Unfortunately, were now 10 years older and no longer bright faced youths but grizzled game developers in our own right!)
The Archive, the oldest screenshot on the Steam Community which haunts us to this day. What followed release was three years of active development, endless patches, expansions, free content, imps, the works all to try and build a dungeon management game that would leave our fans and customers satisfied that WFTO, in the end, reached its potential. We hope that those of you reading this feel that, despite the pitfalls and stumbling blocks that first ol game of ours went through, it ultimately filled a space thatd been left empty in your libraries and even in the genre and provided many hours of entertainment.
An Archive for the Modern Era, with distinctly less cultists smashing their heads into bookcases Were celebrating this marvelous milestone with a new patch. It brings a new worker skin; the opportunity to unlock the most exclusive skins in the game, including the dev only skin; several more visual upgrades; performance enhancements; and more. You can find the summary for that and the release notes below! When we first started on this journey, we couldnt have imagined wed still be sharing our love of dungeon management with you all these years later. WFTO has been a journey and a half and one were all very proud of. We hope youve had a blast with us along the way and that youll join us for the next decade of Brightrocks story!

Partnership with Mythwright & The Future

Were sure youre all wondering whats next for Brightrock now that Galacticare and its first expansion (more on that below) are out of the door. Despite the wider turmoil and uncertainty in the industry, things are going well for us at Brightrock. Were expanding the studio to increase our capacity, bringing on new coders, designers, and more, with the goal of boosting our ability to make more great games and get them out to you more often.
The team in Warsaw shortly after the release of Galacticare, gathered to celebrate and discuss future plans Weve also partnered up with Mythwright, who will be taking over publishing responsibilities for War for the Overworld and several upcoming projects. These new games are quite varied in their size, scope, and genre and one of them does involve returning to the underworld (but itll likely be a few years before we have much to share on that one).
For War for the Overworld, Mythwright will be polishing up the store pages and making a few other minor changes behind the scenes (with the overall aim of allowing us to focus on development instead). This has included price drops in a few currencies, as well as tweaking the bundling options (the Ultimate Edition now includes the Seasonal Worker Skins and has a higher bundle discount percentage). Were extremely excited about our partnership with Mythwright and the future of Brightock. We cant wait to share more details about our upcoming projects with you!

Patch 2.1.3 Highlights

New Worker Skin: Wizened Worker

To celebrate War for the Overworlds 10th anniversary, we did the most evil thing we could think of cancelling our remote-work arrangement and calling Stumpy the Blood Imp back into the dungeon. Hes been with us since the beginning, and there are no insipid retirement plans in the Underworld! We must admit that he is getting on a bit, though
He now joins your dungeon, world-travelled, world-weary, and suffering from an other-worldly case of scoliosis. He says its due to carrying the results of his labours in his backpack for a decade. We say hes trying to squeeze us for work injury-related compensation.
Whatever the case may be, Underlord, simply launch War for the Overworld at any time to unlock this Wizened Worker for your own collection for free and in dark perpetuity.

Formerly Exclusive Skins Now Unlockable

One of the communitys most prevalent wishes since the game wrapped has been to complete your skin collections imp skins, were hoping which was impossible due to several exclusive skins which have become unobtainable over the years: These skins are:

• The Yogscast Worker, given out as a special code as part of the Yogscast Jingle Jam event in 2017
• The Golden Worker, given out to select community members who made great contributions via map creation, fan art, QA volunteering, and more
• The Silver Worker, given out only to developers of War for the Overworld.

Weve heard you, and were giving you the opportunity to earn these fancy, exclusive imps!
We want to somewhat retain their rarity so that snagging them is an accomplishment, rather than simply giving them out. Firstly, well ask for a donation to charity; as such, youll need to own any tier of the Cynical Imp Charity Bundles. Then, to unlock each skin, youll need to complete a specific selection of achievements as detailed in the unlocks menu in-game. You asked for it, Underlord now prove you truly want to earn these precious skins. We look forward to the first player who shows off their new, formerly developerexclusive Silver Skin for completing practically the whole game!

Visual & Graphics Updates

This patch includes more visual updates across the game, with several rooms receiving a lighting & materials pass.


Weve also rolled out the new character shader to the Skarg, which needed a little bit of an uplift.

More

Of course, theres more than that including some performance improvements, a fix here and there, and more general stuff. See the full patch notes below!

The Oni Ashigaru Worker Returns

Per yearly tradition, the Oni Ashigaru worker has returned for you to claim. Simply log in before the end of April and he will join your collection permanently!
Dont miss out for if you fail to catch the wandering warrior, he will be gone for another year!

Wicked Ones x WFTO Pen & Paper RPG Now Free!

Were pleased to announce that the War for the Overworld supplement for Wicked Ones, which allows you and some friends to conspire and build your dark lair as faithful servants to your Underlord (a combined GM/Player character) is now completely free!
Its an innovative take on both Pen and Paper roleplaying and the Wicked Ones system. If you havent given this a go, and fancy something new to try out, grab your free copy today!
Wicked Ones itself entered the public domain last year so is available to download for free. So were also releasing the supplemental book as a free download. Download the War for the Overworld Wicked Ones Campaign Supplement Download Wicked Ones via this link! Note: The paid/charity version of the WFTO Campaign Supplement originally included the Dungeoneers Guide to the Underworld. As the supplement is now free and under particular licence terms that allow redistribution we have removed the Dungeoneers Guide from these files. The Dungeoneers Guide is available in the Underlord Edition of War for the Overworld.
Finally, if you love the art in this gorgeous book as much as we do, please give the artist - Victor Costa - a vigorous applause with your single, massive, evil hand.

Galacticare: The Voice Beyond Expansion & Daily Deal

Looking beyond the borders of your dungeon walls, we also have news from the far reaches of space - our new game Galacticare has released its first story expansion! [previewyoutube=yB7h1v0Jmh0;full][/previewyoutube] Galacticare: The Voice Beyond features an all-new story campaign which picks up shortly after the events of the original game. The galaxy is aflame and an invasion of vicious machines from beyond the galaxys edge is ripping through known space. Galacticare jumps into action aiding the victims of the invasion, but must fend off attacks from robotic saboteurs seeking to undermine their every effort. Equipped with new security Craftech, and faced with an array of deadly new conditions, Galacticare must quickly adapt and unravel the mysteries of the ancient CABAL. Galacticare: The Voice Beyond is available now! https://store.steampowered.com/app/3334930/Galacticare__The_Voice_Beyond/ Not yet grabbed Galacticare? Theres no better time than the present! For the next few weeks its available at its lowest ever price as part of the Steam daily deal! Get ready to save the galaxy, one patient at a time. https://store.steampowered.com/app/494730/Galacticare/

War for the Overworld Patch 2.1.3 Release Notes

Features

• The Wizened Worker, a new worker skin is available for free in non-campaign modes and features unique animations, VO and a high-detail mesh and texture.
• The once exclusive Yogscast, Golden and Silver workers are now able to be earned via achievements if you own any of the Cynical Imp charity bundles

Visuals

• Several rooms have received an art update, enabling shadow casting and revised lighting:
  • Foundry
  • Empire Foundry
  • Alchemy Lab
  • Empire Alchemy Lab
  • Crypt
• Several room props are now classified as important for shadow casting, and will now render on shadow settings important or higher:
  • Archive Workbenches
  • Beast Den Portal
  • Crypt Pyres
  • Alchemy Lab Cauldrons
  • Foundry Anvils
• The Following Units have received shader and material updates:
  • Skarg
• Increased the default brightness from 30 to 35
• Decreased the effects of cosmetic darkening game-wide slightly for readability improvements
• The Evil Hand now illuminates a greater radius
• Improved Worker Run animations

Performance

• Decreased the Medium shadow distance value
• Significantly decreased the rendering overhead of the following objects:
  • Natural Lava Tiles
  • Gold Piles (Vault & Dropped)
  • Founders Theme Walls, Floors, Ownership Indicators, Connectors
• Optimised rendering of the Sovereign theme slightly, especially when shadows are enabled
• Slightly reduced the performance cost of Shadows being enabled

Miscellaneous

• Added an option which allows the player to select non-recommended shadow settings, this is disabled by default. If you were previously using non-recommended shadow settings then your shadow settings will be disabled by default.

Bug fixes

• Fixed an issue in Level 2 of the Heart of Gold campaign where the artefacts would become invisible after loading a save
• Fixed Empire Theme lights being so intensely bright theyll burn the eyes out of anyone who wanders in the dungeon

Until next time Underlord, Brightrock Games

[ 2025-04-02 15:00:32 CET ] [ Original post ]

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!

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!