Hello, Warchiefs!

In the last update, we summarized all the hard work that went into rebuilding our RPG system and improving our game. We showcased some of the gameplay improvements on a small level.
Since then, we've worked on building up the rest of the prologue chapter with new areas, new combat encounters, and an all-new story.



Depending on which origin you choose, you will enter the prologue chapter with a different background story and motivations. Instead of a linear main story like in our previous demo, the story will present you with a number of possible goals, and it will be up to you how you want to solve them.
It's a playground for learning about the game world, its cultures, conflicts, and game mechanics and seeing how it all comes together. It enables you to confidently take on epic challenges in the main campaign.



You will get to meet the leaders of your faction, see how they approach ruling their people, where they failed or succeeded, and plan how you want to forge the path ahead.
So, what comes next?



The initial pass with the quests is 70% complete, and we'll continue working on finishing the quests in the prologue chapter and preparing the project for the upcoming beta tests. It will involve adding and polishing missing dialogue, refining hunting and siege mechanics, and enhancing the overall game experience. As soon as the project is reasonably polished, major bug-free, and ready for player feedback, we'll commence the beta tests!



Dev With Community

Since day one, we've aimed to build The Way of Wrath with input from players and our community. We used to have numerous activities in our Discord channel but had to pause them while we focused on technical aspects. Now that we're back to creating content, it's time to restart our activity sections!
One such section is our "Dev with Community" segment, where you can share your ideas and desires regarding what you'd like to see in the game and help us research some topics.



In addition to all that, we'd like to share major topics that we'd love to receive your feedback on! We'll be sharing these in future development updates.
To kick things off, we want to begin with something unique and interesting!

[h2]Yarbogha Cult [/h2]

One of the origin stories you can select during character creation for your character is the mysterious wandering shaman Yarbogha. You mediate between your people, the Thein, and the ever-ravenous manifestation of death that they believe in. To Thein, the cycle of decay and rebirth is dark and terrifying. They see the earth as a cannibal that devours what it gives birth to, stealing souls destined for the skies and dooming them to roam the earth. It is up to you to keep its hunger in check with rituals and balanced judgment.



The ten-year war your people fought has left countless corpses for the earth to feed on. It has upset the balance, and according to Yarbogha's beliefs, this can lead to an apocalyptic outcome. If the war continues, death's appetite could become insatiable, and great calamity will follow.

As a Yarbogha, you seek to prevent this outcome at all costs. You will have a unique opportunity to inspire your allies with spiritual zeal, wrest control from warring chieftains, and inspire(terrify) Thein to walk a more righteous path.

[h2]Basically, start your own cult. [/h2]
Even as one of the playable origins in an RPG, the cult mechanics cannot be as expansive as they would be in a dedicated cult simulator game, we thought a lot of interesting things could be done even with the limitations we have.



So as the first Dev with community topic, we wanted to ask this question:

If you were to start your own dark cult, what kind of mechanics, roleplay options, and stories would you want to encounter?

Thank you for supporting us! As always, if you have any questions, you can reach us through comments, Email, or our Discord Channel.
Cheers,
The Way of Wrath Team

Hearty Greetings Warchiefs!

The year is nearly done and it's been a while since our last development update, so we wanted to share a bit about what we've been working on these past few months.

In every game's development cycle, there comes a time of reckoning!



A time when every developer has to stare into the eyes of all their ambitions and pay a price for each and every one of them. The time of slaying bugs and the toil of polishing. "The dreaded last 10% that is really the 90%".

And so, this time has arrived for us, and what a glorious ordeal it has been! Menus upon menus, features upon features, systems upon systems! Sleeves have been rolled up times beyond counting. To-do lists compiled on scraps of paper, digitally etched in apps, and sinfully heaped upon sleazy back alleys of Discord chats. Devlogs have swelled with entries to such an extent that if written on a piece of paper, they would comically unfurl onto the ground and keep rolling into the far horizons.

But finally, FINALLY! There is a light at the end of this long tunnel. What was once an ocean of work has now dwindled to a mere handful of puddles. In just 2 or 3 weeks, we will complete all the features planned for the game.



Once we are done with improvements and our tests are blissfully free of bugs and our features start to gleam with a well-polished sheen and sparkle, we can move on to the next stage of development.


So, what comes next?

Next is the fun part! We'll be assembling all the quests, locations, battles, and mechanics that we designed, and we'll be developing the remaining content for the story campaign. We'll share some of it as demos and beta tests, and we'll improve our game based on your feedback.



But what are the fruits of such labor we imagine you ask with a gusto?

There are many!

All game systems and RPG mechanics were rewritten with custom implementations to support the numerous features we wanted to include in the game.



The game now accommodates two combat modes: Turn-based and Real Time With Pause. Players can switch between these modes at any point during battles and can save the game mid-battle.



Complex battle situations can now be tracked, allowing for the creation of interesting skills and status effects. For instance, stances that increase damage based on the number of surrounding enemies, or altered victory conditions for specific battles to fit intricate story scenarios.



New fishing, hunting, and trapping systems promise to enhance gameplay immersion and enrich exploration, providing more rewarding experiences.

An entirely new layer has been added to fort and outpost management systems, offering more immersive UIs and strategic options. For example, constructing a scouting camp to spy on enemy camps to warn you of impending attacks, or learn of vulnerabilities in their defense.



Additionally, there are numerous new gameplay features we'll delve into next year, such as an advanced pet system and a new mastery exploration skill tree.

Visual updates include new shaders, fog, and lighting effects! These range from fluffier snow with dynamic trails, to advanced armor shader that highlights the complexity of our model design, to weather effects. The game graphics have been upgraded.



The audio system has undergone an overhaul. Different surfaces now produce distinct footstep sounds, while dynamic audio creates atmospheric effects, such as a whistling gust of wind from cracks between cliffs, intensifying as you approach.

The game can be played with a Mouse and keyboard or a controller. And you can switch between them at any time on the fly. We have designed custom UI and controls for each device!



Speaking of controls, you'll be able to use A,W,S,D, direct movement, or point-and-click style movement. The camera also took on more of a third-person game aspect during exploration.



And speaking of UI. We made ours super modular. So now we can have multiple menus and font sizes, and we can override each individual menu on different devices. What works on a giant TV, might not work on a handheld device. And we can have that covered.



When will the game be released?

We'll announce the exact release date in a few months. We have a very good idea of how much time it will take us to finish the rest of the game content, but we still have to deal with some unknowns, such as Q/A and polishing time. The extent of polish and tweaking required will become clearer once the game reaches more players. Bearing this in mind, we're working very hard for a 2024 release.

We wish you great holidays and we'll come back with awesome new stuff next year!

Hi everyone! The Way of Wrath and other games published by Hooded Horse are all featured at the Hooded Horse Publisher Sale. Come check it out!

Hooded Horse Strategy Publisher Sale

[previewyoutube=bwcg7R7QfIE;full][/previewyoutube]

Hello Warchiefs!

If youve been following our game you would have seen images of fearsome Yarbogha, a solitary traveling shaman who acts as an emissary between death itself and the living, administrating burial rites and passing judgment upon the guilty.


(A 3D Printed and Hand-Painted figurine of Yarbogha shaman)

But you may remember, Thein people, the player faction in the game, had another type of shaman called the Skybound!

Unlike Yarbogha, Skybound are much more involved in everyday Thein lives. Their power rivals that of the strongest Thein Warlords. Skybound guide Thein people with a strict spiritual doctrine that has allowed Thein to thrive in the harshest arctic wastelands they call home.

Where Yarbogha dominate the battle through terror and raw brutality, the Skybound inspire their allies through fearsome battle dances and use secret shaman tools, gadgets, and concoctions to control the battlefield. Players who chose the Skybound origin will enjoy a unique experience in social interactions with other characters.

It is finally time to introduce Skybound in all their black & bronze winged glory!







Thein believe they come from the skies, and they shun things of the earth. The word Skybound honors the Shamans connection to the skies, and the unearthly, alien visage of the garments inspire reverence and fear in all who meet them.


Motion Capture

Designing and modeling Skybound was just one-half of the creative process. To truly come alive in the game we needed to design awe-inspiring rituals and movements for shamans to employ during battles.




And to that end, the peace on the streets of Tbilisi was disturbed by soul-chilling howls and incantations.



Intricate battle dances and bizarre ritual movements could be observed from the windows of our animation recording room.

Dato, our art director put his sanity on the line and channeled his inner shaman.



With the help of our Motion Capture system, we recorded realistic animation of shaman rituals, battle dances, melee attacks, and NPC activities. All in all, we recorded over 300 life-like animations to improve the immersion and depth of our game.

Whats Next?!
We are getting closer to a new and improved beta demo! We are now polishing and implementing the remaining features and iterating upon the new story and quests. We hope youll enjoy all the improvements and changes we made, and we cant wait to share the game with you ^_^



Stay tuned, and well be back with more updates!
As always, if you have questions or feedback, you can reach us on our website, or our Discord Channel.
Cheers,
The Way of Wrath Team

Hello Warchiefs!
Were back with a new progress update!
It has been an incredibly busy few months. A lot of new features and tech are coming together all at once. It was hard work getting it all sorted, almost like an adventure in itself! And it was all in service of a good goal, to realize the potential of our game and create for you an awesome and really fulfilling experience. It makes us very happy and thankful to have this chance.



Now, where to start? Hmm... Lets start with music. We have a new main music theme!

A new original main music theme
Grab your best headphones, and make sure there are no weapon-like objects near you. Our melody may accidentally awaken the warrior spirit within you and you might accidentally destroy your earthly possessions (Sorry poor lightbulb). Have a listen!

[previewyoutube=Gc1klj1jLHk;full][/previewyoutube]
(Song Of The Tribes - Copyright @ Animmal 2022 All Rights Reserved)

I hope you enjoyed it as much as we did. So much effort and thought went into developing the music style and setting the mood for the game. Our composer, Zviad Mgebry, started with several pages worth of notes from us and he really understood the essence of what we wanted to achieve. He did an amazing job of bringing it to life.



Each instrument was carefully chosen to evoke the spirit of the ancient world in an authentic way. Including some unique handcrafted instruments!

The theme had to reflect inspirations from many ancient cultures but also stand out in its own style. The pacing had to remain fresh and have that magic of the unexpected all good game soundtracks possess. All the symbolism of the Thein tribes had to be woven in through the composition.

Huge progress with audio
Together with our sound designer Beso Kacharava and his team at POSTRED Interactive we have developed a lot of game sound systems. Including the footstep system, where each surface generates a distinct sound. From now on, walking in the snow will have this awesome cozy & crunchy feeling to it!



We also created a dynamic wind system that changes sound depending on where you are in the world and what the current weather is. Bone-chilling wind gusts will greet you as you ascend tall peaks or stand next to narrow mountain passes, and howling winds will dominate the soundscape during terrible snowstorms.

[previewyoutube=cc1jDn5LLmQ;full][/previewyoutube]
(Im not even sure I want to know how leopard sounds transformed into this!)

The new dynamic ambient tracks will bring the game world to life. Frozen bog ambience got some of the most high-tech treatment. The audio team used custom spatial dynamic audio systems and binaural audio recordings. Through the creative use of dynamic sounds they recreated the emotional and psychological effects nature can evoke when exploring such environments. If you have ever been alone in a forest during twilight hours, youll know how the most ordinary sounds can become eerie and otherworldly as your mind plays tricks on you.



A lot of game features have a new sound design. It would surprise you how many individual sound files are involved in creating something as simple as UI notification.
Each notification sound has to serve a purpose. What emotions should it evoke? Reward, urgency, satisfaction, loss? Is it a unique sound that should be very memorable and demand immediate attention - like a leveling-up event - or does it have to be almost invisible, yet remain satisfying, like a sound for picking up loot? Each answer may come in the form of one or multiple sound effects and they can feature truly bizarre combinations of audio sources. Can you guess which sounds the audio team used to create XP-Gain notification?
[previewyoutube=B-cRZRVz-sc;full][/previewyoutube]


Pathfinding and Movement

Pathfinding and Movement upgrades are finally getting into a polished state. This proved to be an especially tricky thing to accomplish. The system had to work with multiple controls (AWSD/Gamepad, Mouse Hold, and mouse click modes), and two different combat modes.
We added new turning animations for improved aesthetics. New ladder/ledge climbing and jumping functionality really opened up what we can do in level design. Especially during combat. But it will also enrich exploration with many new hidden areas for you to find!

Hud and Menu
Weve completely overhauled the game HUD. It now dynamically switches between mouse & keyboard and Gamepad controls. We have added new functionality to switch weapon sets and arrow types directly from the HUD. We updated art and UI composition to work well with both real-time and turn-based combat.



Almost all the game menus are now implemented with new art, improved layout, and gamepad support.

GWB Game awards
The Way of Wrath was nominated as a finalist in GWB Game Awards. Were very happy to be in the company of such amazing games and congratulations to the winners!



Whats Next?!
Our main goal right now is to prepare an updated demo, where you'll be able to play part of the all-new story and experience many gameplay features, as well as try out different origin stories. We have a few more features to tackle and polish before well be ready to share this new update demo. You will be able to play it next year during select game festivals and special beta events. We'll make announcements about play opportunities in advance.

With pathfinding and movement systems overhauled, we are now ready to return to NPC activities and routines. We want to put our Motion Capture System to good use and give NPCs many extra activities to do besides just standing around. And with the fort management, resource outposts, and all those cooking spots, there is a lot for your allies to do!



With new hunting/stealth gameplay, well need to update areas of the forest where you encounter wild animals. Large predators will need wider areas to roam, and players will need ample new hiding places!
Thanks to stretch goals unlocked on Kickstarter, we can add cool new gameplay features to our pet system. Well be adding a few key new features for the upcoming demo, and then well continue adding more ways to interact with your digital friends in future updates.
As we decided to give new story starting points to each of our character origins, well be going through the story in more detail to make sure it all comes together nicely and gives a balanced and fulfilling walkthrough no matter which origin you choose.



Theres plenty of interesting work left to do, but we are getting very close to the next stage of development where we can share our game with the community, iterate based on feedback and player insight, and prepare the game for release. After working so long on these improvements, we cant wait to hear your feedback and ideas about our game!

Stay tuned, and well be back with more updates.

As always, if you have questions or feedback, you can reach us through comments on Steam Forums, our website, or our Discord Channel.

Cheers,
The Way of Wrath Team

The Way of Wrath was featured in Hooded Horses Publisher Showcase at PAX East. The showcase revealed new content and announcements across Hooded Horses strategy games.

[previewyoutube=ze8o334XRxs;full][/previewyoutube]

The Way of Wrath can be wishlisted here.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/969330/

The trailers for The Way of Wrath and the other games featured in the showcase can be found at the Hooded Horse Publisher Page on Steam:

https://store.steampowered.com/publisher/HoodedHorse

Hi everyone!

In celebration of PAX East, we will be streaming on the store page. Come check the game out!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/969330

Hey Everyone!
In this update, we wanted to share our progress and show off some new armors you can wear in the game.



Development is going great. We're wrapping up core development on most new gameplay systems and now working on polishing the player experience, replacing prototype stuff with final UI and art.

A New Real-Time combat option has been implemented, and Turn-Based combat greatly improved. You'll even be able to switch between them mid-combat and also save the game during combat.

We're implementing full gamepad support and most common movement styles with mouse and keyboard. (Point and click, Mouse hold, AWSD)

Next, we'll be polishing the player experience with new features and working on finishing a new prologue chapter that will be like a mini demo version of the game. It will server as both tutorial and the story will offer deeper insight into the last days of the 10-year war that precedes the main campaign story. You'll also have unique play experience and story starting point depending on which origin you pick. We'll share with more about opportunities to play Prologue Beta in future updates.


New Armors
In The Way of Wrath, you'll find different armors that fit different playstyles and roleplay roles. Armors and weapons are also made from a variety of materials and this changes their stats and the difficulty of crafting.

Hunter's armor is one of the lightest, giving great bonuses when stalking your prey through the woods or sneaking around enemy camps.



You can upgrade most armors by adding additional layers of protection to get an enhanced version of the armor. And of course, this comes with the visual upgrade!



Because you are locked from the outside world, you will be scavenging or looting all the resources you need. And most of the time you'll be crafting your own armors. Everything you can hunt or harvest will be very useful, as, besides yourself and your party, you have a whole fort of allies to supply with equipment.

Players who like to balance speed and protection will like berserker's armor. Which comes with unique bonuses to keep you in the battle flow.



And of course, it comes with an enhanced version.



Armors come in two parts in The Way of Wrath. Base armor and helmets. Helmets have a unique role and they can affect how charismatic or how intimidating you appear to other characters. Combined with the reputation you gain from your action, these stats can open many new ways to solve conflicts in the story and increase the power of some of your abilities.

Last but not least, for the players who want to stand toe to toe with any foe we have something special!



And yes, even this armor has a beefier, enhanced version you can craft if you are brave enough to hunt for the materials you need.



We'll share Shaman armors and higher-tier armors in future updates.

As always if you have questions or feedback you can reach us through comments here, on our website, or our Discord Channel.

Cheers,
The Way of Wrath Team

We have some exciting news!

We at the development studio Animmal have teamed up with the indie game publisher Hooded Horse! We're very excited about this partnership as Hooded Horse has a unique developer-friendly approach, they are hardcore RPG & Strategy gamers at heart and we instantly clicked with the team.

To celebrate this news we have a cool new trailer put together by the Hooded Horse team to share with you!

[previewyoutube=9gyBE37TuIQ;full][/previewyoutube]

We also have more to share--a victory in a local startup competition, the latest progress on the game, and more. Come check out the update post here to get the full details: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/animmal/the-way-of-wrath-rpg/posts/3362571

What we have been working on
We've been hard at work on the prologue chapter of the game and improving the play experience. We've also added & reworked some major game features.

We've improved many UI and feedback systems to make each activity more enjoyable.





We've changed and improved some existing systems

[h2]
New interaction System[/h2]
We used to have a modular interaction system, where each item could have any number of possible interactions, and when you hovered a mouse on an item in the game world, the icons for the possible interactions would show up. This worked great for complex story items that had multiple possible interactions (Use, Take, Examine). But it was kind of a chore for items with one possible interaction like picking up loot or harvesting plants.



You had to first move the mouse cursor over the interactive object, then move the mouse cursor to the interaction icon. We changed this to a dual system, where if the item has single interaction you can directly click on an interactive object in the world, and if it has multiple interactions the UI icons with choices will show up.



This is one of the many such game development iterations that happens a lot during game development. While stuff like this can seem trivial, often small details like these can have a significant impact on how enjoyable basic gameplay interactions are.

And we have added/overhauled others

[h2]Mastery System[/h2]
We mentioned this before in the updates as a possible iteration on exploration skills, but after a lot of thought, we decided this was something we needed to test in the first demo shared with you.

The non-combat activities will get their own progression system. Hunting, Fishing, Herbmixing, Crafting, and Cooking will now become Mastery Skills.

Each mastery skill will have its own experience bar and levels. Each time you perform the activity associated with these skills, you'll gain skill experience. (Similar to how skill progression works in games like The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim. )

For example, when you cook the food you gain cooking experience, crafting an item gives you crafting experience, and so on.



This is the basic way to gain experience in these skills. But, the main reason we are excited about Mastery System is in special challenges you can perform to gain a large experience boost. These challenges come in many shapes: Story Quests, Achievement/Trophy style tasks, Exploration Challenges, and secrets.

Leveling up a mastery skill will allow you to take on more difficult and rewarding activities, and it will also unlock new skills and perks.

With the mastery system, we want to make exploration more rewarding, activities more fun and in general, improve the impact each player interaction has on their progression and immersion into the game world.


The combat progression will still use a classic skill tree, where you unlock new skills with skill points you gain from leveling up.

But we are also considering introducing additional depth to combat by creating some combat-based mastery skills.

This could take shape of skills based on playing style. Aggressive, Defensive, Trickster. It could be broken down to weapon types your character wields. For example, the more you use swords and other similar weapons, the more sword-related features you'd unlock to make your weapon choice more meaningful.

This is something we are still brainstorming and you are welcome to send us your thoughts and ideas on this.

[h2]Wound System[/h2]
The way we handle damage, healing, wounds, and environmental hazards have gone through many iterations. And we feel we found a nice balance between complexity, fun, and impactfulness with the newest iteration.

We settled on a smaller number, of multistage wounds that take multiple steps to heal and that reward exploration and experimentation.

When your character will fall in battle, suffer through extreme environmental hazards, or has bad experiences in story encounters they will gain wounds.

Wounds are a serious business, and they will have a noticeable impact on your gameplay. Untreated wounds can deteriorate into a version of wound or disease with severe penalties, and treated wounds can sometimes take days to heal.

Wounds are treated with medicine, which is very often inspired by real-world folk cures.

Special activities you can find in the game world (Taking hot/cold baths) can speed up the healing of the treated wounds. (Or delay them.)

Very superstitious Thein will also be happy to share with you many mystical and unusual treatments to heal your ailments. You'll have to use your best judgment when choosing which healing methods you want to try.

The Way of Wrath Inspirations

We spent our lives playing and replaying, reading and re-reading, watching and re-watching amazing works of art and entertainment. We obsessed over what made them work, why we loved these experiences and how could this knowledge help us create new projects that we could be proud of.


The Way of Wrath takes inspiration from many great games, books, and tv series. The non-exhaustive list: Baldurs Gate, Planescape: Torment, Deus-Ex, Legend of Zelda, Thief, Gothic, System Shock, Elder Scrolls: Morrowind, The Divinity Original Sin, Warlord Chronicles, Deadwood, The First Law, The Heroes, Vikings, Connan: The Barbarian. And last but most certainly not the least. The real history of the earth.

In Part 1 of our inspiration article, we'll talk about some of the books and tv series that inspired us.

[h2]Warlord Chronicles[/h2]


Warlord Chronicles is a trilogy of books about Arthurian Legends by Bernard Cornwell. His take on the Artur is a more realistic one. No Camelot, Sword in stone, or honorable knights and the round table. Artur is a warlord and the story follows his struggles to push back the attacks by invading Anglo-Saxon tribes.

The books do a wonderful job to bring to life a world as it might have been seen by humans living in the dark ages of Britain. Where the powers of druids, curses, and myths were real things in the eyes of the average human.

This vivid depiction of the ancient world had a great impact on us. It fueled our fascination with the ancient world that served as a basis for our setting. We wanted to depict life, as it might have been lived by ancient humans, and to turn real the perception of the world they had.

While reading these books we also came to one realization. All the mystical and supernatural elements in most fantasy books are clearly described and explained. This takes away from the very mysticism and the allure of the unknown such elements are usually meant to evoke. After a while, the fictional world feels safer and more structured than the real world we live in. You know whether gods are real and the extent of most magical powers.

We wanted to avoid this feeling of a safe and structured world. And we did away with the mechanics of a reliable narrator. Everything you learn is just a personal opinion of the character who shares the knowledge, biased by their culture and opinions. To learn the truth you have to rely on personal experiences. (or failing that try to find the truth by looking at the subject from multiple points of view and try to deduce what might have really happened.)


[h2]Deadwood
[/h2]



Deadwood is one of the best TV series out there and we took deep inspiration from its handling of character and character-driven stories. Its characters feel real, they have flaws and impulses. Conscious and subconscious goals, they stumble through the world and try desperately to cling to something that will give them meaning. The clash of their personalities and desires is weaved into a masterful tapestry of character conflict-driven stories. Each episode builds upon the previous events and creates an impactful narrative.

This served as inspiration for us to make each NPC a unique character and give them their personal branching storylines that reacts and builds upon character choices and other quests.


[h2]The First Law Trilogy & The Heroes [/h2]


These are fantastic fantasy books by Joe Abercrombie. The low magic aesthetics, more realistic characters, and cynical tone left their impact on us and we incorporated these inspirations into our design.

[h2]Vikings [/h2]

TV series had its ups and downs but it further fueled in us desire to explore more types of historical characters as the base for our protagonists. We wanted to design a setting where we could tell stories about warlords, conquerors, Rulers, diplomats, traders, priests, inventors, and many other possible professions.

Thanks for reading!
Always feel free to ask us any questions you have, or share any ideas you want to. You can reach us through Steam Forums, Our Discord Channel or our website.

We are very happy to announce our Kickstarter campaign is funded at 131% and we are now fighting for Real-Time with Pause combat addition.

[previewyoutube=pjIlXiBnT1k;full][/previewyoutube]

On February 1st we launched our Kickstarter Campaign and 860+ amazing backers supported us to reach our goal and have the funds we need to greatly improve the quality and features of our game.

In addition to our base funding goal, our community helped us unlock our First Stretch goal "New best friends" which adds advanced pet mechanics and more pet variety.

Now we are close to our second stretch goal "Real-Time with Pause Combat" which will add this very popular combat mode to our game. And when you start your adventure you'll be able to choose between Turn-Based and Real-Time battle systems.



If you are excited about this feature, you can help us by pledging any of the awesome awards we have in our Kickstarter campaign. Or by spreading the word on social media by sharing these posts: Facebook & Twitter




We want once again to thank you, everyone, for joining our game development journey and we are very eager to get started on development and create for you a much better and bigger game, that we hope you'll love to replay for many years to come.


Cheers!
The Way of The Wrath team

What a week we have had!
So many new players to join our community, many awesome ideas, and our Kickstarter Campaign is now 60%+ funded! We are very keen on reaching 100% soon to unlock many stretch goals like Real Time With Pause combat addition, voice acting, tactical gameplay advancements, advanced pets and localization.



In today's diary we'd like to share with you about Choices & Consequences
We have posted a few more updates on the Kickstarter. We avoided writing you with daily updates and articles, to avoid spamming you and planned to write these articles on steam with more of a delay between updates. But if you would like for us to post such articles 3~4 times a week. Then we'd be very happy to share them here as well. Let us know in the comments!
#1 Justice system and Law
#2 Superstitions and Omens
#3 Character Creation Options
#4 Hunting Mechanics
#5 Factions

Choices and Consequences

Choices and Consequences in interactive stories can be very exciting when done right, and they can be very frustrating and disappointing when they dont quite work or matter in games.



Without some sort of futuristic storyteller AIs, that can spin the tales in real-time and populate the game with cinematics, simulated voice acting and build new game maps in an instant. The C&C of video games will be a limited experience. There is only so much handcrafted content you can have in a game, and there is a limit to how long procedural stories can keep their impact.


But within these limitations, its possible to create engaging C&C stories that add to replay value and make your experience more personal.


So, what makes choices good and interesting? We believe the choices work best when they let you achieve your overarching plans and explore the personality of your character. Help to build relationships with other characters and challenge you with interesting dilemmas.


And they are at their worst when you are ambushed by unexpected choices with vague implications on their outcomes. That leave you confused and frustrated over being forced into picking between good old "bad & worse".


We try to include what we believe to be good values of C&C into the choices we design.



When we iterate over our quest we ask ourselves.


[h2]Are you able to have agency over your story? Can you make your own plans and follow your own goals?[/h2]

We try to design quests and gameplay in a way that clearly introduces you to the dilemmas and problems at hand. And after that gives you freedom and options to solve those dilemmas the way you see fit.


Almost every problem the player faces will have multiple solutions. Some tied to players' reputation or skills, some to previous choices, and others can be discovered through deeper exploration. There are many degrees to failure or success and there are no wrong choices.


[h2]Are you already invested enough into the world to care about the choice you make? [/h2]

With our day passage system and personal stories for each NPC, you will get to know each character and faction very well over the course of the game. Choices you make will affect them deeply, and you will get to experience many consequences during your playthrough rather than only at the end of the story.


[h2]Does the dilemma make sense? Does it resonate with you?[/h2]

We chose to focus the story on character conflicts and make their problems grounded in the reality of the setting. This way we get more opportunities to focus dilemma on things that feel relevant and real to the world you are exploring. Things that have more chances to make you really think about how you and your RP character would approach such problems.



[h2]Are you able to make an impact on and share meaningful experiences with characters you care about? [/h2]Listening to exciting character backgrounds can be fun, but if you dont get to experience similar stories with those characters during gameplay it sometimes can feel like their best stories happened without you. We focused on exploring characters through shared experiences with players, rather than their past.


There are many more considerations that go into C&C, and well explore them in future updates and quest design live-streams.


Tell us what you love or hate in C&C in the comments. We'd love to hear what you think!

This is huge! We have launched Kickstarter Campaign!


[previewyoutube=x8zISINhHUU;full][/previewyoutube]

On our campaign page you'll find a beautiful description of the game with a new trailer, gifs, lore, and awesome rewards for you to get.



We are very excited about this opportunity to expand the scope of our game. We have amazing mechanics planned that will make the game more interactive, more tactical, add more fun minigames.



With stretch goals, we'll be able to add Real-Time with Pause combat option, Voice acting, expand level design, improve visual and audio quality. We'll be able to take the game on another level and create for you a game you will love to play and replay for many years to come.



Join us on our adventure! Leave your mark on our RPG. Will you answer our call?

More than three years ago there was an epic rain in the city of Tbilisi in Georgia. The roads had turned to small rivers and unable to get home from a work-related meeting I took shelter in my friend's tiny basement room that his indie music band rented for practice. We decided to wait out the rain there.

It had been a long time since we had gotten together and soon we got to talking about our favorite games. As it often happens it didn't take long for us to start talking about old games and all the things we missed about them. The handcrafted open world of Gothic, the epic story and companions of Baldur's Gate, the interactivity of Ultima and Zelda, the open-ended design of Thief or Deus Ex, the feeling of being alone with the environment of Tomb Raider.

We talked with great excitement about all the cool features and design trends that seemed lost to time. And the inevitable question soon followed. "Why does no one make games like these anymore?"

Except for this time, it was followed with another question. "Why don't we make it ourselves?"



We grabbed pen and paper, laid it out like a battle map on the wooden board perched on a bunch of bricks that served as a recording studio table, and got to designing our concept. Nothing was hypothetical, we had spent tens of thousands of hours learning and practicing our craft. By that time we had worked on many projects for over 12 years, including indies, big corporations, outsource, video games, board games, even an award-winning animation short.

We were seeing that the path from drawing doodles in school and making mods for Morrowind as teenagers to professional game dev had paid off. We didn't just have a dream before us but a solid concept, with a solid pipeline to make it a reality.

When the rain had stopped and I walked out with a head full of ideas, my mind had never felt clearer. It was time for us to make an RPG game of our own.

Three years of really hard work later, we have designed all the core systems and mechanics. We are really excited about what we have accomplished. We are seeing the soul of our favorite legendary RPG's come to life in our game and so much that is new and exciting.

But we know that it can be better. It's possible for us to win more time to focus on gameplay and story and really polish up each piece of the content. And there are specific mechanics currently out of our scope that can bring the whole picture together into something truly special.

We want to make those mechanics a reality. We want to make something worthy of the great classics that inspired us to become game developers and pursue our dream of following in their footsteps. We want to make you an awesome RPG that you'll enjoy playing and replaying for many years to come.

In just five days we will be launching a Kickstarter campaign. Where we'll have a new playable story demo for you to play, much of the lore to discover, and awesome rewards to get.

With Kickstarter's base goal, we'll be able to hire talented people to help us with amazing quality music, sound, atmospheric effects, and text editing. This will give us more time to focus fully on gameplay, story, and level design and fill every nook and cranny of our game world with exciting details for you to discover.



If we can reach stretch goals, we'll be able to add amazing mechanics to the game (We'll share stretch goals in our newsletter soon). Add voice acting and translate the game into more languages.

We need your help to make this a reality. To push beyond our limitations and deliver you a truly remarkable RPG. A game designed fully on your feedback and a game where we would not have to sacrifice anything from our vision of the game.

If you are excited about our project and want to help us craft a bigger and better game there are five things you can do to help.

• Sign up for our newsletter or join our discord so we can share with you a preview of our Kickstarter page and hear your feedback.
  
• Tell your friends who might be interested in our game about our campaign.
  
• On February 1st and 2nd help us share the game on social networks and in gaming groups. If we can get funded in under 48 hours, the KS algorithm will highlight us and we'll have a very big chance to hit many stretch goals. This is why it's important to have a large activity on the first two days.
  
• Follow our Kickstarter page so we can panic less and not get heart attacks before the launch :D
  
• And if you are able and willing, back us on Kickstarter. We have awesome exclusive rewards, and you'll be the first to play the game and shape it with your feedback. Our development will be fully transparent to our backers and you'll get to play each update of the game.
  

We invite you to join the new community metagame on our Discord.

[previewyoutube=9Qr5MaPyhQo;full][/previewyoutube]

Choose your tribe, earn glory, and win challenges in fun competitions. Check out the new Tribe Wars website and take a quiz to learn which tribe you like best. The savage Bear, the cunning wolf, or the wise eagle.



In Tribe Wars you can earn glory for your tribe in community challenges, grow your influence, and unlock new loot for your tribe. Which will feature unique in-game customization options and bragging rights.

For the first Tribe Wars challenge, let's kick things off with something fun and simple.

A shaman cursed a mighty warrior and it has lost its shape. Finish the drawing to help the warrior break the curse and regain its true form. You can use basic drawing software like MSPaint or online apps like https://aggie.io/



The best images will win glory for your tribes. And each contribution will earn you
Share the images in the comments, Discord, or on Facebook/Twitter with #TheWayOfWrath #TribeWarsChallenge hashtags.


Good luck warriors. May the glory be with you always.

We invite you to join our new community-driven streams - Community Forge! In our second stream, lets design new armors for The Way of Wrath RPG together! Best ideas will become part of the game.

[previewyoutube=UYfWmJDMzLY;full][/previewyoutube]

You can Join streams on Facebook, Steam-Broadcast, and Twitch.

Links:
Steam: https://steamcommunity.com/broadcast/watch/76561198037893332
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thewayofwrath/
Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/animmalstudio

We've got a big announcement!

[previewyoutube=09dCav_27v0;full][/previewyoutube]



This is going to be epic! Join us on this adventure and let's have some fun!

Kickstarter is a unique opportunity to get exciting rewards. Exclusive physical items, sign-ed collectors edition, hand-crafted obsidian amulet, or even to become a designer and create characters or quests! And most importantly, you'll get to play the game early and shape it with your feedback!



We'll have special community events where we'll design characters, easter eggs, combat maps with you!

We'll host special developer streams with more sneak peeks into the game and new dev-diaries.

If everything goes well Kickstarter will start on February 1st and we've got a lot to prepare! While we wait for the Kickstarter launch we want to hear your feedback about everything! What are you hoping out of our RPG? Stretch goals, features, customizations, new languages, rewards, ideas - everything! Jump into our Discord Channel and take part in community voting!

This is a third-year we are working very hard on The Way of Wrath. The development is fully self-funded and we're spending all our free time working on the game while supporting ourselves with asset sales and minimal outsourcing work.

In this time we've come very far! We've built all the core RPG features and many unique ones, created a new fictional universe, a new story, and designed many open-ended, deep, and multi-faceted quests for you to explore. We've laid the foundation for a fully-realized open-world RPG.



We are very proud of what we achieved on this crazy adventure with just a two-person team from a country where the serious game industry is just taking shape. We are very thankful to you for sharing this journey with us and keeping us sane.

Now we are at a place in development where with little extra resources we can add new key features and add more intricate depth to the gameplay, to hire the help we need to give content extra time, love, and attention for it to really come alive and become great. To drastically Improve polish. And if we reach stretch goals we'll be able to add new languages, voice acting, new gaming platforms, new gameplay mechanics, and maybe even a new additional combat type.

Kickstarter is a chance for us to push the game beyond our limitations, stay independent, and fully realize our vision. All the while giving you cool rewards and unique items that we'd not be able to do otherwise. We're hoping with your help we can achieve this dream and create for you a truly remarkable game.

You can already sign up to be notified when the Kickstarter Goes Live! https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/animmal/the-way-of-wrath-rpg

P.S. Beta details coming very soon!

Hello Everyone!
We have a quick update and preview of our Arena Progress.



Instead of the Steam Autumn Festival, well be taking part in Steam Winter Festival. But youll still get to play the demo wed show at the Autumn Festival. Well just move it to date aimed a short while after Autumn Festival ends. We expect to start on the 20th~25th of October. With the exact date coming soon. You can join beta here: https://www.thewayofwrath.com/beta . If you already signed up for the previous beta you are good to go, we'll send you the key.

In this demo/beta youll play a special combat-focused game mode. (Working title Arena. )
Youll create a party of four characters and fight in life or death rounds against vicious enemies. After each battle, youll chill in a special party camp where you can use the loot won in battles to craft weapons, armor, medicine, shaman tools, and more.



To help you quickly get started with arena runs, we made a selection of character builds for you to pick. You can also create your own character archetypes, which will be saved on your profile and you can re-use them in the next arena runs.

Weve made a number of improvements to character creation. Especially in regards to the skill tree. You get a nice overview of all the skills. Attributes were re-imagined into their own skill trees. This way youll get greater control over the physical attributes you want to boost, and get new awesome skills inspired by attributes. Like special feasts of strength, or dexterity. Combat is grouped in Melee, Ranged, and Shaman trees. And exploration skills get their own trees. Each skill will get a neat little video preview so you can easily visualize the use range and the shape.




In the coming days, well share many cool details and work in progress visuals for the arena. Some cool community activities are also brewing.




Stay tuned and thank you for keeping us company on this development journey!

Discord Group: https://discord.gg/x45c2dN
Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/thewayofwrath
Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheWayOfWrath

Hey! We are back with bunch of updates and dev diary ^^
[previewyoutube=BMV-qP2cWZI;full][/previewyoutube]

Its been a few weeks since the last beta, and a lot happened. Preparing the first beta, changing combat style and updating systems took a lot of months of hard work. First, we took some time to rest and recover our energy. It's very easy to overwork yourself in indie development, and it's something we all need to watch out for and take time to rest to stay healthy.

Then we organized all your feedback and bug reports and started working hard to implement it in preparation for the next beta. Weve improved controls, combat feedback, rewrote character creation, and made big changes to the skill system.



We also thought very hard on our release plans. We want to release a more polished and fun game, without any game breaking bugs. So rather than rush and overwork ourselves again we decide to take more time for this and release the game in February or March of next year.

But, there will be many exciting things happening before that. In September we want to start our next beta that will feature a new game mode centered around combat. More on this in a bit.

In October well take part in the Steam Autumn Festival! If we can make it in time, here youll be able to play updated story mode with a new intro map and try out many new mechanics.



Another exciting thing is the Kickstarter Campaign. We are now preparing a draft page for it and we want to share it with you. We are hoping for your feedback to make an awesome Kickstarter campaign with rewards and stretch goals that are interesting to you. If the campaign is successful it will be a big boost to us and the quality of the game. It will allow us to do things beyond what we can do with self funding. And also hopefully bring many new friends to our community. During Kickstarter well also release many exciting updates about the game and new art and trailers.



Now back to combat beta. Here you take control of four characters and fight in the series of challenging and brutal tactical battles on different maps. Each battle will have different scenarios. In some, you can place traps and ambush enemies. In others, you might be ambushed, or have to assault or defend a fortification.



After a battle you will collect loot and resources and then go to a special party camp. Here you can craft and upgrade your armor and weapons, heal and level up your characters and craft tools like medicine, traps and bombs. We also planing this game mode in the final game as a free DLC.
We are hoping with your help to greatly improve our combat, AI and skills.

Thank you for reading. Let us know what you think and stay tuned for many more exciting updates! Cheers!

Hello!



It's been an amazing two weeks for us. We're very happy we got to show you all the first preview of our game. We got so much amazing feedback and so many useful bug reports. We want to thank you all for your help and support!

June 30th marks the end of our first beta. After a lot of thought and analyzing our development plans. We decided not to extend the first beta, and instead, we'll take a little time to develop the game further outside the public update cycle. We'll fix the bugs, do a deeper investigation of crashes, improve and polish the game, add more content and features and we'll return with even more awesome Beta 2.0. By our estimates, it should go live in around 2 to 3 weeks' time.

In the Beta 2.0, you'll get to try out a new combat arena mode, new story pieces, more of the exploration gameplay and preview of minigames, and other exciting features!

You'll be able to continue playing the game on June 30th and we'll close the first beta on July 1st.

If you signed up for our first Beta you will automatically be eligible for Beta 2.0, and we'll write you an email when it starts.

Thank you for playing and we can't wait to get to the next beta and share with you a bigger, more polished game, much improved by your suggestions and bug reports!



Cheers!
- The Way of The Wrath Team

Hello!

Today's patch fixes some pathfinding issues on the game scene, some combat issues, and adds some more dialogues and small story encounters.

If you experienced crashes after the character creation, please let us know if that problem still persists. We implemented additional safeguards, but as we are unable to recreate the issue on any of our machines, we can't confirm if they were successful. We are still investigating the other crash issue that happens after the intro logo.

Next, we'll focus on adding a save/load system to the game. Adding the Arena mode and further implementing your feedback to improve the game and add Quality of Life updates.

Soon, we'll also release a new dev diary with more information about the current state of development and future plans for the game.




With The Steam Summer Festival over, you can still continue playing The Way of Wrath demo by signing up for our beta, which will extend access to the game until June 30th. https://www.thewayofwrath.com/beta
We'll also hold at least one more Beta before the Early Access release. And we'll be sure to send you keys to that too.

When reporting bugs it would be very helpful for us if you included the log files. Log files must be taken from the game run where the bug occurred, as they get updated every time the game is run.

If you encountered a non-game crashing error the log would be located at:
C:Users{YourUserName}AppDataLocalLowAnimmalTheWayOfWrathPlayer.log

If the game crashes for you. Please check that no antivirus, overlay, or other applications could be interfering with the game and its access to RAM memory. If the game still crashes please send us log files from:
C:Users{YourUserName}AppDataLocalTempAnimmalTheWayOfWrathCrashes

You can share logs on our Discord or Email: info.animmal@gmail.com

Thank you, and we'll see you tomorrow with more improvements!

Hello!

Thank you all for playing the game, sending feedback, and bug reports. Many of the bug reports and log files you sent helped us track down bugs in a matter of minutes. We are very grateful for your help!

The Steam Summer Festival ends on June 22 @ 10 AM PTD. To continue playing The Way of Wrath demo beyond the Festival you can sign up for our beta, which will extend access to the game until June 30th. https://www.thewayofwrath.com/beta
We'll also hold at least one more Beta before the Early Access release. And we'll be sure to send you keys to that too.

Today's patch brings another set of combat fixes and improvements.

• The enemies should no longer get stuck in running animation during combat. (More fixes coming soon to resolve this issue outside combat).
  
• The dead party members should correctly respawn after the battle is won.
  
• Player turn should no longer be skipped.
  
• It's now possible to use keys 1 to 0, to activate the first 10 slots in your quick bar. This way you have faster access to abilities in combat. Bindings for more slots and the ability to change key bindings coming soon!
  
• The character creation should now have tooltip descriptions for origin tab items. More in-depth descriptions of some options, like ethnicity options, coming soon.
  
• The character creation skills should correctly show action point cost.
  
• Some interactive items should now have a highlight effect to help you identify interactive plants in the scene.
  
• More inventory "paper doll" issues resolved.
  

Hello!

I'd like to once again thank you all for your feedback and bug reports. We are re-playing the game dozens of times each day as we playtest. And there are many issues we are aware of and have them on our bug list. But in just two you have helped us find so many issues we missed or issues that simply didn't occur on our computers no matter how many times we replayed the game.

We are very grateful for this!

Especially when you send us log files, it helps us track down and fix the bugs much more easily.

Today's patch is focused on bringing the first set of combat improvements. We still have more issues to resolve and improvements to implement, but hopefully, today's fixes will already improve combat experience.


• Inventory tooltips for Weapons and Armor should now correctly show important stats.
  
• Turn-Order/Initiative portrait bar now has additional glow so you can better tell enemy/ally combatants apart.
  
• You can now move the mouse over Turn-Order/Initiative portrait and you'll see corresponding combatants name and health bar.
  
• When you hover the mouse over combatant, Turn-Order/Initiative portrait bar will increase in size so you can easily identify them. Later we'll add smoother size transition so the effect looks better.
  
• Enemy should no longer skip their attack if they were out of attack range and moved in attack range.
  
• Enemy will no longer try to move if it's already in attack range.
  
• Enemy will ignore combatants with Deathguard active if their damage is higher than target's health. Deathguard can be activated using certain skills like Iron Will. Player character also has permanent Deathguard activated, this is a temporary measure to prevent game over screen from appearing until we can resolve save/load issues. (This means enemies might ignore player when players health is low and there are other targets.)
  
• Bow skill should no longer target wrong/offscreen combatants.
  
• Options Menu should no longer set the resolution to the lowest one your monitor supports.
  
• Options Menu windowed mode should no longer show "Class" options.
  
• We added an option to turn off the typing effect in dialogues.
  
• Dialogue with Ruta character about missing Earthbound should no longer repeat.
  
• If you tell Nuria to go away, the screen should no longer be stuck in faded out mode.
  
• Portraits should no longer show two characters in one spot.
  
• Tree chopping bug should now be fixed.
  

Hello Everyone!

I'd like to start with a huge thank you to everyone who played our game! Your feedback and bug reports are already proving invaluable. And we'll do our best to implement fixes and polish as fast as we can, so you can have smooth gaming experience.

When reporting bugs it would be very helpful for us if you included the log files. Log files must be taken from the game run where the bug occurred, as they get updated every time the game is run.

If you encountered a non-game crashing error the log would be located at:
C:\Users\{YourUserName}\AppData\LocalLow\Animmal\TheWayOfWrath\Player.log

If the game crashes for you. Please check that no antivirus, overlay, or other applications could be interfering with the game and its access to RAM memory. If the game still crashes please send us log files from:
C:\Users\{YourUserName}\AppData\Local\Temp\Animmal\TheWayOfWrath/Crashes

You can share logs on our Discord or Email: info.animmal@gmail.com





In a moment you should receive our newest game patch update.

Some of the key fixes we focused today:

• Most of the inventory bugs should now be fixed. Let us know if you run into any issues.
  
• We added Take All button when looting corpses.
  
• Options Menu should no longer hide the quick slot bar.
  
• Audio options should now work correctly. You might need to set sound volumes again.
  
• Options added to the title menu.
  
• In Audio we added the option to disable the Move Cursor sound.
  
• We added an option to skip the intro.
  
• We added tooltips for some missing character creation skill icons.
  
• In the last battle, characters should no longer appear under the floor.
  
• Improvements to level pathfinding. More to come!
  

[previewyoutube=efchn006ieo;full][/previewyoutube]

The Way of Wrath is an open-world role-playing game set in alternative prehistoric earth, governed by shamanistic laws.



You take charge of a ragged group of survivors, and in the span of a just a few days, you must prepare for a massive siege launched against you by enemy forces.



Your home base is an ancient fort where you gather your allies, build your defenses, hold shamanistic rituals, sit in judgment over disputes & crimes, and make your battle plans.



Beyond the fort is a beautiful, lovingly hand-crafted open world that you can explore. You can hunt for food, gather valuable resources, solve choice-driven quests, and sabotage enemy plans.



Each NPC in the game, whether friend or foe, is a unique character with their own dynamic stories that react to player choices and the passage of time.



In the Steam Summer Festival Demo, you will take part in a siege to take control of the fort. You will experience the beggining of the story. Create your character, fight in tactical turn-based battles, and meet a host of colorful characters.

The game is now in beta stage, its still in development and the quality will improve when the game is released.

[previewyoutube=YS7GLEmeymE;full][/previewyoutube]

The Way of Wrath was born out of our love for old-school RPGs. We took everything we admire about classic roleplaying games, including interactive story, tactical combat, a beautifully handcrafted world, and mixed in new elements like survival and fort management, creating our own unique take on the genre.

We hope you enjoy the game and we would love to hear your feedback!



Consider Wishlisting the game to get notified when it's released.

You are also very welcome to join our Discord Channel or sign up for our newsletter.

We're excited to host a live Q-A event on the steam summer festival. We'll be more than happy to answer any questions, suggestions, and ideas you'd like to share!

Join us on Steam Chat or our Discord Channel!

Hey, Hey! Two man team behind The Way of Wrath - Dato and Sandro, will walk you through the game demo. We'll talk about our design decisions, inspirations, game mechanics, and what features we plan to add in the future.



The Way of Wrath is an open-world RPG with a dynamic, player choice-driven story, a rich set of features, and many unique mechanics.







See you on the live stream!

It's been a long time since we've released an update, and we come back with video developer diary!
[previewyoutube=1S9XXml9owU;full][/previewyoutube]

We've been very, very hard at work these past few months to get the game in your hands. We've made a lot of improvement, changes and added new content. We're very close to releasing the Beta, and we'll announce exact dates next week.


Here are some recent videos you might have missed:

[previewyoutube=7o7EOKjpndI;full][/previewyoutube]

[previewyoutube=p6Vgh7-CMwU;full][/previewyoutube]

[previewyoutube=2bF4kxU9LlE;full][/previewyoutube]

Thank you for following us and we would love to hear your feedback in forums or on our Discord Channel! winter2019coolyul
Beta Sign Up Link: https://www.thewayofwrath.com/beta

Video Developer Diary.
Hey everyone! Were here with the next video diary, focused on character creation. Weve improved the look of our charactersand shaders, especially hair, skill detail, etc. Expanded options with scars and small details. And we talked about what it took for a two person development team to develop a full-featured character creator. Let us know what you think with comments, and wed love to see your feedback on what you want to be added to the character creator.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDA3YBK-vww

The Early Access News.

Our demo is coming along nicely, and soon well have the first playable parts of the campaign. But we have a bit of a dilemma ahead of us, and well need your feedback. We want to make sure when we launch the Early Access we meet the expectations of our players. So the demo in terms of length and features we launch with is at a good place. We will start with a closed beta first to hear your opinions about the demo and based on your feedback decide how long to keep the game in the beta and when it is a good time to launch with Early Access.

We want to involve the community as much as possible as we develop The Way of Wrath and we think the best way to do that is start with the beta. We reallyappreciate your feedback and hope you can take part in this and help us launch a good Early Access. You can sign up for the beta with this link: https://www.thewayofwrath.com/beta
With the next announcements, we will write exact details and dates.

More updates!


Now that the demo is shaping up, we have more content to share! We want to keep the announcements like this for the bigger and important news. So, you can have a choice of how much development details you want to see. To follow smaller updates, we opened a forum topic here on Steam: https://steamcommunity.com/app/969330/discussions/0/1749021567529040216/
You can also:
Join our Discord channel: https://discord.gg/x45c2dN
Our Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/thewayofwrath/
Or follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheWayOfWrath

Cheers and thank you for following us, and all your support!

Hello everyone!
Along with written Devlog, we started production of video diaries where well show the behind-the-scenes process of creating our game and speak about different aspects of gameplay, story, art and many other things.

In the first video, our Art-Director guides you through the armor creation process. How is the armor designed, what considerations go into its conception? How artistic vision has to work together with game-design and try to be grounded in the reality of the game setting.

[previewyoutube=fSmQbNeX4Qg;full][/previewyoutube]

Stay tuned for more video diaries! Have questions or feedback? Drop by our Discord Server.

[h3]You heaved a stone upon a stone to build your shelter and thus youve etched your mark on history. [/h3]
The White Grave. Grim name for a grim place. A name given to the frozen valley and ruined fort nestled in its mountains. A land that spews hot fire from its depth,land of avalanches and landslides, land constantly reshaped. Land of deadly cold and blinding sun. Where nature's fury rages constant.

Its said this place cannot be tamed, it shuns civilization, burying all signs of its existence. Only one structure stands in defiance to this claim.

[previewyoutube=kHYUn1ggXOs;full][/previewyoutube]

Built from bones of the earth, the fort of the White Grave guards the only reliable passage through the, otherwise impenetrable, mountain range that split the Thein lands to the north from Empire of the south. It has been a sight of many battles and bears scars from them all. This will be a place where players make their last stand against the fury of their countless enemies.

[previewyoutube=HQWHnUzIWvQ;full][/previewyoutube]

Fort is the heart of the game. Its a home base and shelter for the player and their allies. Area of the final battle and many important events of the game. Most of the efforts go towards securing and rebuilding this place. It was, and is, the most challenging area of the game for us to design and it is immensely important for us to get this right.

When we started thinking about the fort, the first thing that came to both of our minds was that we wanted for it to feel like home. We thought of our favorite exploration games and those towns, houses, or spots on the map we loved to return to, time and time again, after our long adventures. And this has been a constant guiding point in our efforts at building the fort, to capture the magic of that experience.

This is also a big reason we really want to launch The Way of Wrath as Early Access. We need your help and input in shaping this place to be the most memorable, engaging and personal experience it can be. We are putting all our efforts, experience and knowledge into getting this right. But, ultimate the game is to beexperienced by you, the players, and with the genre as complex as a role-playing game it is almost always your input that turns the game into a great and engaging experience. We hope youll support and help us in this endeavor.



Visually we wanted the fort to be different and memorable so it could stand out, but also feel familiar and approachable. Fort architecture had to fit perfectly within the game world and harsh mountainous landscape it was built in. It proved quite a challenge, and we looked at many of the earths cultures for inspiration. In effort to understand how the lands have shaped the cultures of the people living on them and how the people would shape and transform the land.

For some elements we didnt have to look far. Our home country Georgia is in the mountainous region of Caucasus, and there are several regions within the country like Tusheti and Svaneti where even today people live in a very harsh landscapes and natural conditions. Famous towers and rock structures created by their ancestors were a perfect base for sparking our architectural designs. For others we had to take long journeys through time and space, scouring the prehistoric world for its architectural legacies.





The story of The Way of Wrath is told through time. Daysto be precise. Each new day in the game is a story turn that advances the state of the world and the Fort is one place where this advancement is most felt.

At first it is a ruined, ragged place and morale of your allies is at its lowest. There is no shelter, food or much of a hope of surviving what is to come. People huddle in nooks and crannies amidst collapsed towers and buildings, shunning company and dreaming of warmth while freezing to their deaths.

Through the players effort things can turn around. Resources can be mined to repair the fortifications and buildings. Clear rubble, fix the roofs, light the fires and create shelters. Food, alcohol, and warmth of fires can bring people together. Progress on the defenses and players acts of valor can inspire hope. (Or perhaps harsh disciple and tyrannical order will be what gets the job done?)

[previewyoutube=-4N0NJJp8fw;full][/previewyoutube]

Progress on the Fort and recruitment of new allies unlocks many activities, quest and experiences. From different crafting stations like a furnace, medicine mixing table, and shaman circle, open flame cooking or brewing stews in pots, to dueling ring and various minigames you can play with companions. Decorating your quarters with trophies, capturing animals for your farm pens. There are a lot of fun things to do.






[previewyoutube=j4j1xqc2IFY;full][/previewyoutube]

Story is part of each activity in The Way of Wrath and all the characters have their agendas. Nothing is as simple as giving an order through the UI screen. Making sure allies follow through with instruction given to them will be a constant concern for the player. Simple jobs can turn into several day-long quests, and morale, discipline, personalities and competencies of the allies who are assigned tasks can have large consequences.



[previewyoutube=FV3b2qZ3F8k;full][/previewyoutube]


We will share more on this and many more details with the next Devlog entries in The Game Features series! We'll be sharing many of those in the next few weeks leading up to EA.

We want to thank again each of you for following and supporting us, and we hope to see you soon with EA and Full Game releases!

Cheers and we wish you happy 2020! - The Way of Wrath Team.

Hey! Hey!
IndieDB Awards
The Way of Wrath is in the running for best upcoming indie RPG on IndieDB! We have gone through stage one of IndieDB voting and become part of best 100 indie games of 2019/2020.
Stage 2 voting has begun and as of now there are 4 days left until voting is closed and winners announced.
You can check out the awards on IndieDB Voting Page. The Way of Wrath is under UPCOMING -> Role Playing category.



We would love if you checked out the voting page and if you like our game consider giving us a vote. Your support means a lot to us!

Facebook Group
In addition to our Discord Channel: https://discord.gg/x45c2dN we have opened a Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/thewayofwrath/ for the game.

Similar to steam community and our discord channel this is another place to follow development, news and updates about the game and chat with fellow players.
Well also start sharing more of the work in progress stuff(*cough* fort *cough*), and even some design idea & reference brainstorming.

If you use Facebook consider checking it out and joining our group. We would love to have you there too!

Development
We are hard at work at finishing closed betas mentioned in previous post and early access build for the game. Right now the fort visual development is wrapping up and well be sharing the images and videos verysoon. We are very excited to show it to you and hear your feedback. Fort is an integral part of the game, a place for the player to call home. Its important for us to get it right.

We are also preparing a series of articles introducing the game story, lore, setting, gameplay, characters and other important aspects of the game. These should launch in January soon after the holidays.

Stay tuned for more updates and thank you for all your support!

Hey, Hey! We got something important to share about our game. But, first lets talk about Poznan.

Whats Poznan? Well, its a beautiful city in the heart of Poland and a week ago it hosted a series of amazing gaming events which we had the pleasure to be a part of. Its also the first event where we had the booth for our game and our company!



It was a lot of fun! Almost hundred thousand players visited Poznan Game Arena and Game Industry Conference event to play many Indie and AAA games from all over the world and see the cosplay show, listen to an amazing game music concert, load up on neat game merch. [Sips from Kerrigan cup, then puts the cup down on Kerrigan coaster]. And watch hundreds of talks from game industry veterans. Including the one from Josh Sawyer! [That we missed like idiots. :(]




We loved meeting polish game-dev community; the industry is booming in Poland. Everyone is very friendly and eager to share their experiences and help out fellow game developers. Advise, feedback and bits of wisdom we received was invaluable and its already helping us to create a better game and make smarter business decisions.



Heeding advice from our friends from Venatus, we stayed for two more days in Poland and got to explore amazing cities of Poznan and Warsaw. We had loads of fun exploring the sights on electric scooters, eating soups from plates made out of bread and drinking the most amazing craft beers.



Now back into our home town of Tbilisi, Georgia. Were hard at work on our game. All the advice we got from the event gave us a lot of food for thought. We decided to take a bit more time for our Early Access launch to create a more polished, larger and more interesting EA experience for our game.

We plan to start Early Access in February 2020.

But we know many of you have been waiting to try the game sooner. So, we decided to host exclusive beta tests for our community. A personal early, early access where you can play the game for free and help us with your feedback with making a better game.

For helping us out in testing the game, well also have unique in-game award for our players who take part in beta.

The beta will be in two waves, first well have combat only beta with survival mode style arena. And soon afterwards the story campaign beta. Well be posting announcements about dates very soon.

Stay tuned for more updates and drop by our Discord Channel to chat with developers and fellow players.

Whoah Its been a busy few weeks for us and we have something exciting to share!

[previewyoutube=LWN6wfSSuHg;full][/previewyoutube]

8 minute gameplay video with Combat, Dialogue, Cut-scenes and other juicy, good new stuff.
*The footage is from a work in progress game. Final product will look more polished and include more visual feedback for combat and dialogues.

Dont have that long? Heres a shorter video focusing on key parts: https://youtu.be/OxqlDS1qLfg

Quests & Exploration
The story & gameplay events in The Way of Wrath can be resolved in many interesting ways. The choices you make, the characters you recruit, your reputation and skills, all play a role in defining how you can approach story events.

The game will reward exploration & experimentation with some of the more interesting and unique ways to progress in quests.



It is important for us to capture that magical moment where its fun to play around with your game. When its exciting to explore what's possible and rewarding to gauge different reactions from the world and NPCs.



Next well be focusing on the Fort, Exploration & Mini-games. Well fill the world of The Way of Wrath with many memorable surprises and events.

Stay tuned for more cool videos and progress updates! Join our Discord channel to share your ideas, feedback or just have a friendly chat with developers and fellow players. https://discord.gg/V6kPup

As a bonus, here is the fresh new battle soundtrack from our game.
[previewyoutube=HecgAIRvxaM;full][/previewyoutube]

*Nuria is actually quitedifferent in the final game. The character had to borrow appearance while its true form is in the works. :D

We have the character creator!!! It took a massive amount of work for a small team of two people to pull this off so we are very proud ^_^

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wAvHH4rq-v4&feature=youtu.be

*The game is still in active development so, the UI, Descriptions, Stats and other details will be much more polished in the final game.



Along with visual appearance, skills and perks you can select characters origin details and reputation. These represent your avatars life before the game events and they will play a large role in how other characters will treat you. Though you can also change reputation through your actions during gameplay.

Youll be able to select your ethnicity, origin story and the reputation you have earned during the war. Origin story provides story background for your character, unlocks some unique encounters and dialogues. Life as a Shaman will be far different from that of a warrior. It also comes with useful stat and skill bonuses to reflect your characters experience before the game events. If youd like to start from more of a blank character, you can always pick the Wanderer option.



Reputation alters some of the reputation stats by which other characters will judge your actions. Whether you are cruel or benevolent, always honest or a trickster. Some dialogue checks and story resolutions will be easier/harder depending on how the characters feel about your reputation and personality.
Class and Profession options are more there to give you starting build presets. They act as archetypes, which you can freely ignore to pick your own skills, attributes and perks.

Well be back soon with more updates showing combat and level design.

Armor, sword and shield for one of the elite enemy groups player will fight against in The Way of Wrath.



With metal equipment and rigorous training these battle-hardened veterans will be a constant threat to players survival.





Despite the challenge and the great danger, defeating well equipped enemies yields a valuable reward in form of awesome loot.

As the first thunder rolled across the land and all men bowed their heads in terror; One looked up in wonder.



Fear was always a fundamental force in shaping the human perception of the world. Spawning countless myths, monsters and beliefs. Above all else, fear of the unknown always had the greatest hold on the mind. Those who mastered this fear, often became the shepherds of the human fate.

In the world of The Way of Wrath, those who embrace the unknown and learn its mystical ways hold great power over common people. Few can match Thein Shamans with that skill. They clothe themselves in gruesome ornaments, and wield the name Yarbogha - emissaries of death.



Players who choose to follow this path will have unique powers and role in the game. In a fight they can use rituals dances and words of power to demoralize enemies or inspire allies. They are masters of healing and death. Mixing balms and healing drafts, or crafting devious poisons and traps.



It is a great sin to kill a shaman. Before they even dare take on this fearsome and mysterious foes, warriors must seek blessings of an allied shaman, or wait for enemy shaman to make the first strike. Those who kill shamans without mystical aid or provocation are believed to be cursed and will be shunned by all. Smart player can use this to great advantage in battle.

Outside combat they act as judges, advisors, healers, ritual masters and exorcists. Few, if any will dare to questions the Shamans word. But while feared and respected, they are seldom accepted by the common folk. Shamans lead solitary lives. They wander the land, seeking hidden wisdom and offering their services to those they come across.



Only a shaman can train another shaman and charges are chosen with care. They often seek children who are undaunted by Shaman's gruesome reputation and can look them in the eye without showing any fear.



To complete their training, a young shaman has to travel high up into the impenetrable mountains and climb the tallest peak. There in the blessed land above the clouds they spend years alone, praying in silence for wisdom and power.

Current Development Status:
Combat polish is going well and were near the end. We have polished UI, added notifications and visual hints to give better feedback to the player. We expanded camera with additional features to better track progress over the battlefield. AI is coming along.

Whats Next?
With combat polish almost finished, well soon move on to world interactions, questing and dialogue.

***
More cool new stuff about development, game play, characters and lore is coming soon! Cheers!
Meanwhile, you can check our steam forums or join our Discord.