At long last, on May 1st, Wispfire's high seas adventure will be complete! Following the release of Books 1 and 2 of Herald: The Interactive Period Drama, we are finally ready to release the thrilling conclusion to the story of Devan Rensburg and The Herald with Herald: Complete Edition, which will include the previously-released Books 1 and 2, along with the all-new Books 3 and 4, which conclude the story. [previewyoutube=aQ0re9phgQI;full][/previewyoutube] Herald: Complete Edition is a narrative high seas adventure where player choice is vital. As Devan Rensburg, you will navigate an alternate history 19th century where the west has united into a colonial superpower known as The Protectorate. Aboard the HLV Herald, a luxurious merchant ship bound for Devans home country, players will begin to unravel a conspiracy that spans the globe. Herald: Complete Edition tasks players with navigating complex politics and social norms despite inhabiting the role of a man with very little power. The narrative of the game will force players to make tough, realistic choices as they deal with a world rife with racism and intolerance due to bitter class divisions. Will you boldly call out injustice, risking an already-tenuous position, or will you bite your tongue and weather it, hoping that it will win you influence that you can use later on to make a tangible difference? Where other games put the player in a position of power, Herald: Complete Edition challenges the player to contend with the reality of an unjust world, and the restrictions that come with it. While this game has been in development for over a decade, its message is more important now than ever before. Despite Devans relative powerlessness, the actions the player takes in his role can have a massive impact on his found family. At its heart, Herald: Complete Edition is a game about how everyone, no matter how powerless, can do something to change the world in a small way, and we hope that lesson stays with players long after they reach the end of our story. Please help us spread the word, join our BlueSky and Discord to celebrate the upcoming launch. More news on the release of Herald: The Interactive Period Drama - Complete Edition will be posted soon. For everyone who bought Herald: Book I and II, we will have an offer to upgrade to the Complete Edition at a discounted price for you. More info on how this upgrade works will be released soon, we are still ironing this out with Valve. In the meantime, do not forget to wishlist the Complete Edition on Steam! https://store.steampowered.com/app/2199510/Herald_The_Interactive_Period_Drama__Complete_Edition/

[ 2025-03-14 17:05:50 CET ] [ Original post ]

[previewyoutube=9LAXei_FjVA;full][/previewyoutube] Wishlish the new Complete Edition: https://steam.pm/app/2199510 The DLC page for Book III and IV will launch later this year.

[ 2022-11-07 14:45:55 CET ] [ Original post ]

Herald is taking part in AdventureX 22!

We're excited to announce that Herald is taking part in the digital Steam event of AdventureX 22. For the duration of the event you will be able to get Herald Book I & II for 60% off.

Herald Book III & IV

We will also be revealing the first teaser for Book III & IV, which will complete the journey of Devan Rensburg and the HLV Herald. This final chapter will be coming to Steam next year

Livestream by MangoBtuber

For the event we've teamed up with MangoBtuber. Mango will be livestreaming Herald Book I & II, first here on Steam, and then starting from 21:15 CET on her Twitch.

[ 2022-11-03 17:56:22 CET ] [ Original post ]

Wispfire is live streaming tonight about the latest Herald patch; 1.2.0. Join us to learn everything about the new features of this quality of life patch for Herald Book I & II. You can watch us on our Twitch channel: https://www.twitch.tv/wispfiregames Or if you've missed the live stream, rewatch it later on Twitch and YouTube. To celebrate the launch of this new patch, Herald Book I & II is now on sale fore 50% off!! Sale ends on Monday the 27th.

[ 2019-05-23 18:50:29 CET ] [ Original post ]

Before the year closes, a short update from Wispfire. In the past year our studio has been a bit in limbo. We were stuck in-between finding money to continue with Herald, and doing a lot of other stuff like work-for-hire projects, giving talks, doing guest lectures and pitching new projects that we want to do once Herald is finished. It sure has been a ride, but it has finally bore its fruits. In the most recent update we showed you a bit of Herald: Book III & IV in development, and we also went in depth about our situation regarding funding for the project. We were struggling to work on Herald without the neccesary funds to pay for the more expensive parts, like voice acting and 3D animation. Regarding this particular roadblock, we have some exciting news that we can share. In 2019, Wispfire will partner with researchers from the Utrecht University of the Arts to do a reasearch project on Interactive Narrative Design, with Herald's final books as the subject of the research. To do this research we applied for a grant with the Creative Industries Fund NL, and we got the grant! This grant is a giant step towards finishing Herald, because it pays for our livelihoods, which in turn frees up a budget for voice-acting and animation. The research will also provide us ample opportunity to experiment with gameplay mechanics that we will be able to use in Herald: Book IV and future projects. There is even more that we can't share yet, but will be exciting once we get to it, so expect to hear back from us soon. For now, thank you for sticking with us, we've grown imensely from trying to keep ourselves standing in this competitive industry. But since 2018 marked our fifth aniversary, we're confident that we will be able to weather the troubles still hiding along our way. We would like to thank all of those who played Herald since its release, and we hope to see you again in 2019, the year in which we will resume full-time production on Herald Book III and IV again! :D - The Wispfire Team

[ 2018-12-31 16:11:43 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello all, it's been a long time since we gave you an actual update on development, so we thought we tell you where we currently stand with Herald. All of it is taking a lot longer than we want it to, and this is mainly because we have been trying to find funding for Book III and IV, but sadly haven't been successful in doing so. There are some very expensive parts of development that we can't do without a significant budget. Reality is that Herald is a hard sell on the current market, story-driven adventure games are a niche, and we can't finish the game with only half a team working on it. To make up for this we're currently working on several side projects to support ourselves, as well as pitching new concepts to publishers that might be more lucrative and interesting for them to invest in. Such a project could potentially help fund Herald too, or at least buy us time to build a name for ourselves that will sway a party to invest in it. Don't worry though, we aren't planning to cancel Herald anytime soon, it is just that we need to postpone the release date until we see an opportunity to properly finish it. As such, we aren't going to make any promises now, since that would be irresponsible from our part. But rest assured that we will keep you updated on any new steps we undertake to support Herald's development and secure its release.

Book III ----- [Images can be minor spoilers for some]

In the past few months we have at least managed to build up a structure within the company that gives us the opportunity to work on Wispfire, while at the same time do some other work that earns us enough money to live from it. Herald is sadly not part of that structure anymore at the moment, but it is our ultimate goal to include it again sooner or later. And to prove to you that we haven't sat still over the past year, we wanted to give you a sneak peek into what is in store for book III. In book III we finally get to see more of the Rani's lavish palace. The splendor of former glory is seen in the image below, which is the first of several extravagant rooms inside her personal quarters that you will visit in book III. [spoiler]
[/spoiler] Of course Tabatha Veazie and her uncle Louis Morton have their own private quarters aboard the Herald too. This large cabin is an area in book III as well. Below is a screenshot of this area that shows Lady Tabatha's side of the room. [spoiler]
[/spoiler] Now bear in mind that these are all development screenshots that we use to pitch the game to investors and publishers. These aren't the final product, and many things could still change once we're back in full swing. But these images do give you a glimpse of what is in store for when you will finally be able to enter these new areas in the game. Notice the relative darkness of the images? Aside from just being nice moody lighting, it's also a hint to the direction that the story is going into. In book III night will have fallen over the palace as you start telling the rest of your story to the Rani, and darkness will settle in over our protagonists as well. The secret that the Herald harbors will come to light, and we'll discover why the Rani wants Devan to tell her his story. The way you will help Devan tell that story to her will ultimately determine the fate of many.

Thank You

Thank you for checking in on us and reading this update. Once again, we're sorry we can't give you more clarity on the release date. We hope you'll bear with us for a while though. We'll always keep you updated on the most recent developments, and we'll post it here if there are any things of note about Herald or other story-driven games we're going to develop. Remember that you are always free to ask us any questions. For more specific requests we'd advise you to send us an email through info@wispfire.com. Yours, The Wispfire Team

[ 2018-09-21 14:37:17 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hey everyone! Have you been thinking about buying Herald: An Interactive Period Drama Book I & II, but weren't quite convinced if it's your style of game? We've just released our free demo for Steam. This is the same demo we've used to show off the game at trade shows during production, but updated with the latest tech and bug fixes.
The demo takes about 15 minutes to complete and features a unique conversation with the Rani, a flyover of the Herald, and a modified version of the 'Missing Gun' quest from the main game. If you want to play the demo, you can find the 'Download Demo' button on the right-hand side of the store page. Unfortunately, because of the way Steam works it is not possible to play the demo on an account that already owns the main game. - The Wispfire Team

[ 2017-05-12 17:16:03 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hey everyone! Have you been thinking about buying Herald: An Interactive Period Drama Book I & II, but weren't quite convinced if it's your style of game? We've just released our free demo for Steam. This is the same demo we've used to show off the game at trade shows during production, but updated with the latest tech and bug fixes.
The demo takes about 15 minutes to complete and features a unique conversation with the Rani, a flyover of the Herald, and a modified version of the 'Missing Gun' quest from the main game. If you want to play the demo, you can find the 'Download Demo' button on the right-hand side of the store page. Unfortunately, because of the way Steam works it is not possible to play the demo on an account that already owns the main game. - The Wispfire Team

[ 2017-05-12 17:16:03 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hey everyone! We're excited to announce the release of the first Feature Patch for Herald: An Interactive Period Drama. This free patch adds support for dual analog stick controllers such as the Xbox 360 controller, the XBox One controller and the Sony Dualshock 4.
As many people have indicated to us, Herald is a very suitable game to play from the comfort of your couch. It's even more fun to play together with someone and get into fights over what dialogue options to choose. Couch gaming with a mouse has its downsides though, so even before Herald released we were already planning to add controller support, but unfortunately it didn't make it in for launch. Now we could have just slapped a cursor on your right analog stick, pretended it's a mouse and called it a day. But we didn't want to deliver that kind of sub-optimal experience, so instead we overhauled the control scheme specifically for the couch experience.
If you have a GamePad connected you can go to the Gameplay Settings menu in options and choose 'Use Gamepad' to control Devan directly with the left analog stick.On the other hand we didn't want to lose the point and click elements of the game, so we did actually also slap a cursor on your right analog stick, with which you can inspect and interact with the environment. If we were able to identify your controller, dialogue choices show the appropriate button images for dialogue choices. If we were unable to identify it, the Xbox buttons will be used as default. The journal and in-game menus have also all been modified to be usable with only controller input. And of course, if you'd rather play with a mouse (or a Steam Controller), you can just turn the 'Use Gamepad' option off in the settings and keep playing with click-to-move as you're used to. If the game detects there's no controller connected, everything stays the way it was. But that's not all! We've also made some other improvements here and there, and added another piece of music. Details are in the changelog below. We hope you enjoy the update, and if you run into issues or have comments, feature requests, etc, let us know in the community hub! - The Wispfire Team
Herald version 1.1.0 New Features: - Controller Support for most Dual Analog Stick gamepads. - Alternative control scheme for controllers. Select 'Use Gamepad' in the Game Settings menu to switch between click-to-walk with the mouse and direct control with a gamepad's left analog stick. - Steam Trading Cards! Notes: - The Steam Controller works best with the 'Use Gamepad' setting turned off. - If your dual analog stick controller doesn't work with Herald, and you think it should be supported, please drop by the community forum! We have only been able to test a limited number of controllers and will patch in more later. - Daniel now has his own theme, which can be heard when he tells you about himself in the Galley. Changes: - When quitting the game, you now get a warning that you will lose unsaved progress since last checkpoint. - The graphic for checkpoints (spinning compass) now also says 'saving.' underneath, so you know your progress is safe. - NPCs' dialogue boxes now disappear when you click on them. - Various dialogue choice texts and help notes were rewritten for clarity. Bugfixes: - Sometimes the game would not remember whether you found out certain information about Senator Morton, making a later dialogue branch harder to reach than it should be. This has been corrected. - VSync & Target framerate are now correctly reset after cinematic interludes.

[ 2017-03-31 19:17:59 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hey everyone! We're excited to announce the release of the first Feature Patch for Herald: An Interactive Period Drama. This free patch adds support for dual analog stick controllers such as the Xbox 360 controller, the XBox One controller and the Sony Dualshock 4.
As many people have indicated to us, Herald is a very suitable game to play from the comfort of your couch. It's even more fun to play together with someone and get into fights over what dialogue options to choose. Couch gaming with a mouse has its downsides though, so even before Herald released we were already planning to add controller support, but unfortunately it didn't make it in for launch. Now we could have just slapped a cursor on your right analog stick, pretended it's a mouse and called it a day. But we didn't want to deliver that kind of sub-optimal experience, so instead we overhauled the control scheme specifically for the couch experience.
If you have a GamePad connected you can go to the Gameplay Settings menu in options and choose 'Use Gamepad' to control Devan directly with the left analog stick.On the other hand we didn't want to lose the point and click elements of the game, so we did actually also slap a cursor on your right analog stick, with which you can inspect and interact with the environment. If we were able to identify your controller, dialogue choices show the appropriate button images for dialogue choices. If we were unable to identify it, the Xbox buttons will be used as default. The journal and in-game menus have also all been modified to be usable with only controller input. And of course, if you'd rather play with a mouse (or a Steam Controller), you can just turn the 'Use Gamepad' option off in the settings and keep playing with click-to-move as you're used to. If the game detects there's no controller connected, everything stays the way it was. But that's not all! We've also made some other improvements here and there, and added another piece of music. Details are in the changelog below. We hope you enjoy the update, and if you run into issues or have comments, feature requests, etc, let us know in the community hub! - The Wispfire Team
Herald version 1.1.0 New Features: - Controller Support for most Dual Analog Stick gamepads. - Alternative control scheme for controllers. Select 'Use Gamepad' in the Game Settings menu to switch between click-to-walk with the mouse and direct control with a gamepad's left analog stick. - Steam Trading Cards! Notes: - The Steam Controller works best with the 'Use Gamepad' setting turned off. - If your dual analog stick controller doesn't work with Herald, and you think it should be supported, please drop by the community forum! We have only been able to test a limited number of controllers and will patch in more later. - Daniel now has his own theme, which can be heard when he tells you about himself in the Galley. Changes: - When quitting the game, you now get a warning that you will lose unsaved progress since last checkpoint. - The graphic for checkpoints (spinning compass) now also says 'saving.' underneath, so you know your progress is safe. - NPCs' dialogue boxes now disappear when you click on them. - Various dialogue choice texts and help notes were rewritten for clarity. Bugfixes: - Sometimes the game would not remember whether you found out certain information about Senator Morton, making a later dialogue branch harder to reach than it should be. This has been corrected. - VSync & Target framerate are now correctly reset after cinematic interludes.

[ 2017-03-31 19:17:59 CET ] [ Original post ]

To celebrate the imminent release of Patch 1.1.0 - the Controller Update, Herald will be 20% off over the weekend! If you were interested in Herald, but didn't buy it yet, now would be the time to act. And if you have any friends or relatives who you think might like Herald, now would be an excellent time to gift it to them as a present! The Controller Update is the first feature patch for Herald and it releases today. It adds a new control scheme specifically designed for dual analog stick controllers. With the update it is even easier to play Herald from your couch, perhaps together with a friend! Read the upcoming community announcement for all the details on this first patch for Herald: An Interactive Period Drama. And if you've bought and played the game, leave a review and let us know what you think. And if you like Herald, join us on our social media channels and share our news about this sale and the Controller Update. We'd really love your support! https://twitter.com/wispfire https://www.facebook.com/wispfire http://heraldgame.tumblr.com/ - The Wispfire Team

[ 2017-03-31 17:18:30 CET ] [ Original post ]

To celebrate the imminent release of Patch 1.1.0 - the Controller Update, Herald will be 20% off over the weekend! If you were interested in Herald, but didn't buy it yet, now would be the time to act. And if you have any friends or relatives who you think might like Herald, now would be an excellent time to gift it to them as a present! The Controller Update is the first feature patch for Herald and it releases today. It adds a new control scheme specifically designed for dual analog stick controllers. With the update it is even easier to play Herald from your couch, perhaps together with a friend! Read the upcoming community announcement for all the details on this first patch for Herald: An Interactive Period Drama. And if you've bought and played the game, leave a review and let us know what you think. And if you like Herald, join us on our social media channels and share our news about this sale and the Controller Update. We'd really love your support! https://twitter.com/wispfire https://www.facebook.com/wispfire http://heraldgame.tumblr.com/ - The Wispfire Team

[ 2017-03-31 17:18:30 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hey everyone! We're very glad to see the positive responses Herald has received! OPNoobs: "Herald is a delight to play. It has a cast of complex, interesting, and incredibly voiced characters, beautifully captivating art design, and a fresh and fun story that will leave you wanting more." 9/10 http://opnoobs.com/reviews/indie/adventure/herald-an-interactive-period-drama-book-i-ii TheHighEndGamer: "The world is engrossing and believable, the characters likeable or intolerable depending on the decisions you make." 4.5/5 Stars http://www.thehighendgamer.com/herald-interactive-period-drama-review/ If you're interested in getting to see a little bit more of the game before you buy it, then we would recommend the following let's play video of our demo for a good and unbiased view of what the game entails: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZNxulQIDKE The video does contain some minor spoilers! Cheers, The Wispfire Team!

[ 2017-02-24 14:53:37 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hey everyone! We're very glad to see the positive responses Herald has received! OPNoobs: "Herald is a delight to play. It has a cast of complex, interesting, and incredibly voiced characters, beautifully captivating art design, and a fresh and fun story that will leave you wanting more." 9/10 http://opnoobs.com/reviews/indie/adventure/herald-an-interactive-period-drama-book-i-ii TheHighEndGamer: "The world is engrossing and believable, the characters likeable or intolerable depending on the decisions you make." 4.5/5 Stars http://www.thehighendgamer.com/herald-interactive-period-drama-review/ If you're interested in getting to see a little bit more of the game before you buy it, then we would recommend the following let's play video of our demo for a good and unbiased view of what the game entails: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZNxulQIDKE The video does contain some minor spoilers! Cheers, The Wispfire Team!

[ 2017-02-24 14:53:37 CET ] [ Original post ]

A story three years in the making, Herald: An Interactive Period Drama has finally released! Whoohoo!
It's only been a day since release, and we've already received some very positive reviews :) But still, if you enjoyed the game after playing it, it would help us tremendously if you'd write your own review on the store page. And if you'd like to spread the word without much hassle, check out the social media posts below, and share them :) Twitter: https://twitter.com/Wispfire/status/834462412782841856 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/wispfire/videos/722309987937204/?permPage=1 Tumblr: http://heraldgame.tumblr.com/post/157576545639/herald-an-interactive-period-drama-book-i-ii If you have any issues with the game, post it in the forums, or mail us at: info [at] wispfire.com Cheers, The Wispfire Team.

[ 2017-02-23 19:08:38 CET ] [ Original post ]

A story three years in the making, Herald: An Interactive Period Drama has finally released! Whoohoo!
It's only been a day since release, and we've already received some very positive reviews :) But still, if you enjoyed the game after playing it, it would help us tremendously if you'd write your own review on the store page. And if you'd like to spread the word without much hassle, check out the social media posts below, and share them :) Twitter: https://twitter.com/Wispfire/status/834462412782841856 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/wispfire/videos/722309987937204/?permPage=1 Tumblr: http://heraldgame.tumblr.com/post/157576545639/herald-an-interactive-period-drama-book-i-ii If you have any issues with the game, post it in the forums, or mail us at: info [at] wispfire.com Cheers, The Wispfire Team.

[ 2017-02-23 19:08:38 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hey everyone! We're soooo excited! Herald is launching in a couple of hours, and to celebrate we will host a devstream via our twitch channel at 5:15PM GMT/10:15AM PST
We will play through a few older versions of Herald and discuss all the crazy stuff that happened since then! Cheers, The Wispfire Team

[ 2017-02-22 14:09:51 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hey everyone! We're soooo excited! Herald is launching in a couple of hours, and to celebrate we will host a devstream via our twitch channel at 5:15PM GMT/10:15AM PST
We will play through a few older versions of Herald and discuss all the crazy stuff that happened since then! Cheers, The Wispfire Team

[ 2017-02-22 14:09:51 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hey everyone! Herald will be releasing tomorrow (for real this time) on Steam, Humble Store and GOG.com :D
The correct buttons have already been pressed - we can't wait! Cheers, The Wispfire Team

[ 2017-02-21 17:14:44 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hey everyone! Herald will be releasing tomorrow (for real this time) on Steam, Humble Store and GOG.com :D
The correct buttons have already been pressed - we can't wait! Cheers, The Wispfire Team

[ 2017-02-21 16:49:40 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hey everyone! We have great news! The Mac and Linux versions of Herald: Book I & II will be releasing alongside with the Windows version on Steam when the game launches Wednesday, this week! The screenshot below was the most relevant one we could find...

[ 2017-02-20 17:23:43 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hey everyone! We have great news! The Mac and Linux versions of Herald: Book I & II will be releasing alongside with the Windows version on Steam when the game launches Wednesday, this week! The screenshot below was the most relevant one we could find...

[ 2017-02-20 17:23:43 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hey there! Warning: the content in this message is unbelievably stupid. There comes a time in everyone’s life where you go: oh crap. Well, that moment just arrived today when we realized we had been so swept up in making sure Herald would be as flawless as possible that we forgot to press probably the most important button on Steam - meaning Valve has yet to review our game Herald: Book I & II for release. The basic gist is that we’re a complete bunch of perfectionist morons for having had a build ready WEEKS IN ADVANCE and still managed to forget to press a SIMPLE BUTTON. As such, we need to delay the Steam release of Herald Book I & II to next week, the 22nd of February. In a metaphorical sense the HLV Herald was expecting to depart in a few hours, but got delayed due to mandatory safety inspections. Now if only the Titanic had done this beforehand… If you received a review key for the game, then fret not! Your key will still work and you are free to write and publish a review. Backers and people who pre-ordered will still receive their DRM-free copy today! As it doesn’t use Steam. We’re very sorry for the inconvenience Cheers,

[ 2017-02-16 19:54:59 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hey everyone! Herald is releasing tomorrow at 6AM PST! To celebrate, we have released Herald's Launch Trailer! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J6nJnoFz_p0 Spread the word! Share our video! Cheers, The Wispfire Team!

[ 2017-02-15 16:01:08 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hey everyone! Based on the most voted outcome of the first vignette, we have continued Herald's story in Vignette #2! Due to Herald's release on the 16th, we have delayed the next video and also allowed people to vote through an annotation poll in the video itself! (click the little "i") :D https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wZQoKT7UVNA Voting ends on Monday the 20th, 11:00 AM GMT. On Thursday the 23rd we will release a new vignette which will be a direct continuation of the choice with the most votes in total! Let us know your choice in the comments or on our forum Cheers, The Wispfire Team

[ 2017-02-09 21:34:17 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hey Everyone! To prepare you for the upcoming release of Herald, we made a special interactive video to illustrate what kind of choices you’ll be making. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kIJTkJx3CSI In this interactive vignette you are presented with a conflict set aboard the Herald, and at the end you can vote to choose how our main character, Devan Rensburg, responds to the conflict. [img=https://68.media.tumblr.com/cebe0f6598764a063435040ff3e024ac/tumblr_inline_okrad9X6tl1tobz54_540.png][/img] [img=https://68.media.tumblr.com/78b4ab40104164c00dce797e5e5f636e/tumblr_inline_okradxq4jN1tobz54_540.png][/img] Voting happens on our forum and ends on Monday, 11 AM GMT! You need to login in order to vote - but signing up can be done quickly through facebook or twitter. Next Thursday we will release a new vignette which will be a direct continuation of the choice with the most votes in total! We'd much appreciate it, if you'd share the video! Cheers, The Wispfire team

[ 2017-02-03 15:38:40 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hey everyone, We're proud to announce the release date of the PC version of Herald Book I & II! [img=https://ksr-ugc.imgix.net/assets/015/283/320/22693f3943eccc0a342c2f777d913922_original.png?w=639&fit=max&v=1485354734&auto=format&lossless=true&s=7df98ca1498634b1002f7ddc34c04bef][/img] Mac and Linux versions will be released at a later date. We want to test and optimize those first - and since we don't have any machines at the office running either of those operating systems, it'll have to wait after release. Apologies for Mac and Linux users eagerly awaiting the launch. To celebrate, we've released a new video featuring our voice cast talking about Herald's characters and themes and showing new, updated, gameplay. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sT31cFFpev8 If you'd prefer a more constant stream of Herald updates, than you can also follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Tumblr. Spread the word! Cheers, The Wispfire Team.

[ 2017-01-25 14:53:23 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi everyone, Happy new year! After a much needed holiday (well, only four of us actually had one, the rest continued working), we're back on track on finishing Herald Book I & II for Q1 2017. Everything's coming together - just a quick scope of what still needs to be done: Herald has quite a lot of voice acting, about +3000 lines, - more than any game any of us (or maybe even any Dutch indie developer ever) has experience with. Going through all the recordings, filtering and cutting through the bits we need and placing them all in the game, is no easy task. We're about half way there, and expect to be finished with this soon.
Development-wise we're adding some final tidbits, like end credits, while finishing some technically complex scenes from the game. Art-wise everything's done - and our three art members are currently adding some extra touches, fixes and effects to areas we'd like to improve.
  Once all this is finished, we'd probably like to add some extra time for performance improvements and some more polish, as we ramp up the marketing to overdrive. The reason we haven't specified a specific release date yet is because we want to be as certain as possible that we can deliver you a quality experience once Herald releases. Herald is our first title, and we want to give it the best we've got. The Chinese zodiac marks this as the year of the fire rooster - a year which, according to predictions, should offer a great challenge to people born in rooster years and (we assume) roosters in general.
What a coincidence. Until then, expect to be hearing from us. ;) Cheers, The Wispfire Team.

[ 2017-01-11 15:33:37 CET ] [ Original post ]

We made a change to our store page. Instead of 2 parts, Herald consist of four books - Part 1 will be Book I & II. This was done to avoid confusion with the original 4 'chapters' and to allow for the possibility for us to release book 3 and 4 separately. The titles for Book I & II are:

[ 2016-12-14 14:34:05 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi folks! We're going to keep this post short in the text department, for we are busy setting up a few big announcements as we near Herald's release! The past two months, we announced the full cast: https://youtu.be/f8jXiykvYQI

• Vivek Bhurtun as Devan Rensburg, the main character and steward of the HLV Herald. 
• Marta da Silva as Lady Tabatha Veazie, one of the Herald's most prestigious passengers. 
• Troy Rodger as Aaron Ludlow, employed as the second officer aboard the Herald in service of the merchant navy.

https://youtu.be/ou6_O51gsx4

• Bas Sligting as Cornelis Hendriksz, captain of the HLV Herald. 
• Neela Bhurtun as The Rani, a mysterious woman asking about your voyage. 
• Connor Mckinley as Louis Morton, an esteemed senator and one of the Herald's most prestigious passengers.

https://youtu.be/t1sEdBcvNY0

• Gideon Da Silva as Caleb Haywood, the boatswain. 
• Mandela Wee Wee as Undra Aubertain, the chef cook. 
• Creso Filho as Daniel Barros, the chef's help.

https://youtu.be/DrGi5cyuJ-I

• Jim Sterling as Robert Stoxan, a somewhat odd passenger.
• Bill Dick as Rupert Brunswick, first officer of the Herald.
• Christian Kippelt as Nikolaus Gehrig, the ship's doctor.  
• Yuri Theuns as Ian Douglas, the cabin boy.

~*~*~Art, art, art~*~*~ To fill up this week's update, here is a collection of early Herald concept art we posted this month:
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ~*~*~Shout out~*~*~* While showcasing Herald at AdventureX, we couldn't help but notice a little game with a wonderous art style, The Little Acre.  'While searching for his father, Aidan travels to a strange new world. Lily - his heroic daughter - sets off after him. Fully voiced and with hand-drawn animations, The Little Acre is a lovingly crafted adventure.'
  Cheers, The Wispfire Team

[ 2016-11-28 14:46:55 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hey folks, This update is a continuation of the ones we did on our greenlight page: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/updates/427548124 You can also sign up on our mailing list to receive them via mail.
We've started beta testing chapter 1. You can still sign up for the beta on our forums. If you would like to help us out in improving the game before release, your support would be greatly appreciated.
Together with the Beta, we also launched our own forum. We're still experimenting with what works best for our growing community. If you have the time, filling in a short survey could help us with that.  ~*~*~Current System Specs~*~*~ One of the main tasks which lies ahead of us is improving the game's performance whichever way we can. Currently, when you play the beta, you can get a stable ~30fps on the highest settings and 1080p with graphics cards ranging around the 100 dollar price tag. The laptop from which I'm typing this update can do this and has a gtx 765m. As things stand now, if you run the game from your integrated graphics card, like the Intel HD Graphics 4600 found in my laptop, you will only reach ~30fps if you play the game in 720p on the lowest settings. ~*~*~Shout-out~*~*~ Through the Woods is a narrative-focused horror game made by our Norwegian friends at Antagonist Games. They also ran a kickstarter around the same time we did. It's awesome to see how far they've come since then. It's available now, on steam!
http://store.steampowered.com/app/368430/ Cheers, The Wispfire Team

[ 2016-10-28 13:49:10 CET ] [ Original post ]

Whoohoo our Steam Page is online!

With Herald nearing its release, we thought it'd be a good idea to have the steam page already online. You can now wishlist our game! Also, if you'd like to take an active part in polishing the game, you can join our PC Beta by posting on our brand-new forum! Cheers, The Wispfire Team

[ 2016-10-21 16:02:16 CET ] [ Original post ]