Third-person 3D Action RPG with Dungeon Crawling and City Building. Revive your enemies once again and make them fight alongside you!
Latest Updates from Our Project:
November Project Update: New HUD + Alternate Outfit
6 months ago
– Wed, Nov 08, 2023 at 05:49:00 AM
Hi everyone!
This time we don't really have much to say. We keep working on the game at a steady rate (most of the originally planned monster models are done, as their attacks VFX).
We are still busy with the refactoring of the code that controls the games entities, which is going well, but taking a bit more time than we expected. In the meantime, we are also redesigning the HUD of the game, so it looks better and has more animations and all that (it was a bit too static).
There is a lot of information to show on screen, we had to design carefully with lots of "floating" messages and parts that hide themselves when they are not needed so they don't eat much of the screen.
Here you can see a comparison of the first HUD we had (top), the new one, and how it looks when EVERYTHING is being displayed at once (that shouldn't happen a lot though)
We've also been working on the alternate outfits that were result of the "Social Stretch Goals" of this campaign, see Kara with Sanzo's outfit!
With this one, we have the 3 "classic outfits", based on the original game. Remember that these outfits will be free DLCs for all backers!
Lastly, this past week we were at Paris Game Connection (a business event inside Paris Games Week) having meetings with some publishers and investors and pitching the game to them. We have a good feeling about some of these meetings and hope a deal comes into fruition!
That's all for today's update, a rather short one. And as usual, we take this opportunity to recommend a campaign from someone we know...
Check this Kickstarter project! Mariachi Legends by Halberd Studios
After finishing the fantastic 9 Years of Shadows (which we had a collaboration with in the first Sword of the Necromancer, in the form of a special unlockable weapon, Europa's Halberd), our friends at Halberd Studios are working in a new awesome project: Mariachi Legends.
Based on Mexican folklore, this is a new Metroidvania game in which you will control a detective who made a deal with Death itself to gain the powers to transform into a superpowered being named La Sombra in order to dismantle a violent gang.
Explore a vibrant town, power up with traditional Mexican cuisine and fight the powerful members of the Mariachi Legends gang until you find the man who defied Death's authority and became immortal!
They have almost reached the base goal (only about 2000€ left!), but Halberd Studios has a lot planned for this game in the stretch goals. Take a look to their project and back them if you like what you see!
Kind regards! See you in the next update!
October Project Update: Magic + Boss and Revenant backer design results!
7 months ago
– Tue, Oct 10, 2023 at 09:14:51 AM
Hi everyone!
We keep on working on the game, still implementing the feedback we got from our time at Gamescom and Indie Dev Day. In fact, we are redoing the way the characters and enemies work to help us make those changes easier.
Without entering into much detail, we are making the features of character and enemies (or how we name it, the "Entities") more modular, so things are less intertwined between them and fixing one thing has less risk of breaking another.
This is something that is taking a bit of time, but was necessary, as the way it was before made making any big change very difficult. We want to future-proof things a bit so when we tune up controls or movements of the Entities it doesn't result in too much work.
As this is something we can't actually show you because it's an internal part of the game (and from the outside it mostly looks like it looked before unless you play the game yourself), we will explain one of the features of the game: Magic!
Koko's Spells
Both Tama and Kara can use the Sword of the Necromancer (if case you didn't notice the logo of the game, yep, there are two of them) and summon monsters, but Koko refuses to use it, so she's more limited in her moveset, right? Thanks to Magic, that's not the case!
Instead of a submenu to summon monsters, Koko has access to several magic spells she will obtain throughout the adventure
The effects of these spells may vary between healing, support or attack, here you have some examples:
Kuraci: Heals everyone inside the area but the user. Remember, Koko can't heal herself!
Sildo: Temporarily increases the defense of the user and nearby allies
Lanco: Throws magic spears to the target
These are the ones that can be seen in the gif above, but there are more!
Spegulo: Creates an aura around the user and nearby allies that temporarily reflects magical projectiles
Fokuso: Temporarily increases the Critical Hit ratio of the user and nearby allies
Forlogajo: Creates a copy of the user that can be used as a decoy for enemies
... and more!
After using a spell, you won't be able to use it for a while, and they also have a small Stamina cost (as does summoning), but being able to cast magic makes Koko a very versatile character. The spells can also be enhanced by speaking to a certain character and spending some resources.
We hope you enjoy trying the spells and introducing them in your combos and builds!
Boss and Revenant backer design results
In our last update we showed you the designs backers in our Discord server came up with for the 2 Revenants and 2 Bosses we would include in the game as part of the Stretch Goals. We had a voting period, and these are the results!
The winners are:
Revenants: Lucefine and Ophelia
Bosses: Ophelia (again? :P) and Cancellardore
Coincidentally (or maybe not, and that's why people chose them), these Revenants and Bosses are two setsof Revenant + Boss. So the idea of Ophelia's author (Storm) was that you fought the boss version and after you defeated it you obtained Ophelia as a Revenant, while Lucefine and Cancellardore have some sort of relation according to Notafiumi (their author, who also won the Monster Design Contest with Atterrenti!).
We love that attention to detail, and we will keep it in the game, to the extent that is possible for us and makes sense with the rest of Sword of the Necromancer's lore.
We have already started working on them, first by adapting their designs to the game's style!
Thanks a lot to the rest of backers who participated in our Discord, we would love to include all the designs, but that'd be a lot of work! Also, if you are a backer who pledged for the Monster or Boss tiers, check your email! We have sent you the guidelines to submit your designs!
And to end this update...
Check this awesome Kickstarter project! Cataclismo by Digital Sun
Our friends at Digital Sun (makers of Moonlighter and The Mageseeker - A League of Legends Story) have just started their crowdfunding campaign for their new game Cataclismo.
Cataclismo is a gloomy mix of real-time strategy and tower defense featuring base builder mechanics. Construct your fortress by day stone by stone, up to the last detail and defend against the hordes of Horrors that will attack you mercilessly at night
They are looking for a bit of help to self-publish and expand the game, so if you like what you see, go back them!
That's all for today's update. Until the next one! Kind regards!
September Project Update: Back from Gamescom/Indie Dev Day +Vote for the Revenant and Boss backer design to appear in the game!
8 months ago
– Wed, Sep 13, 2023 at 05:24:09 AM
Hi everyone!
This has been a VERY busy month. We had to prepare the demo for Gamescom (August 22-27th), go to Germany for almost a week and do lots of meetings while attending our space in the Indie Arena Booth.
Lots of people stopped by our space in the Indie Arena Booth to try the game
We got lots of feedback, and lots of bugs, but the game was very well received! After getting back from Germany, we had a small time off and then got back to work, to fix as many things as possible for the next event: Indie Dev Day in Barcelona, which was this past weekend (September 8-10th). After having ironed a couple of things, the reception was really great this time!
However, there's still work to do to make the game feel better.
We have also talked with several publishers interested in the game. In the following weeks we will see if we can close a deal with any of them, which would help development a lot. This deal may imply some changes in the project, as the release date (because it has to conform to what the publisher desires or thinks it's best) but we won't change anything about the product itself that does not fit our vision, so you don't need to worry about that.
Almost everyone who tried the demo was surprised about the game's features, like the City Building aspect of the game. It was very nice to see people smile when they saw that they could do this or that. Anyway, we have to work on communicating better what can be done in the game.
Most people didn't expect this AT ALL
We also were visited (both in Gamescom and Indie Dev Day) by people who played the first game (even some backers! It was nice to see you in person) and they were very pleased with the jump to 3D from the first one (one backer even told us he was very concerned, but ended up liking it a lot!).
We plan to make the demo we showed at Gamescom/Indie Dev Day available for backers at some point. We still need to fix many things we were told, and also make sure it works correctly (the demo crashed at some points), so please be patient.
Vote for the backer designed Revenant and Boss!
Some backers in our Discord server have been designing Revenants and Bosses to appear in the game. After the deadline (set to August 31st), now the voting starts!
Here the Revenants
And now the Bosses
Thanks to all the backers who contributed with their designs and backstories!
You can know more about the Revenants and the Bosses, and how your fellow bakcers have imagined them by going to the #backers-revenant-design and #backers-boss-design channels.
In the #backers-sotnr-private channel (like the two channels above, only available for those who have confirmed their backer status by answering the post-campaign survey sent on March 11th) you will find a poll for Revenants and another for the Boss Monsters. Vote and discuss there!
The winner will be selected on October 6th
That's all for this update, but before ending...
Check this Kickstarter campaign! Anima: Song of the Abyss
Anima Song from the Abyss is an action role-playing game (ARPG) with hack and slash style elements in which players explore an interconnected world. In the adventure you will take simultaneous control of two different characters, the knight Soren and the strange entity Noein thought a journey that will take them through the remains of an ancient extinct civilization to discover the secret of its fall...
August Project Update + Backer Boss and Revenant design deadline approaching!
9 months ago
– Mon, Aug 07, 2023 at 02:43:30 AM
Hi everyone!
This will be a rather short update.
We are very busy working on having the Gamescom demo ready. Remember we'll be in the Indie Arena Booth from August 22nd to 27th. This will be the first time we showcase Sword of the Necromancer: Revenant publicly and we are a bit nervous.
We are polishing mechanics and other things. We'd love to have more things for the demo, but we run out of time.
One of the mechanics we've been working on is the parry. In the original game, shields could block attacks in front of them, and that was pretty much it. If the shield had attributes like "Mirror" you could deflect a magic attack back to the enemy, but this was done automatically.
"Mirror" keeps existing in Sword of the Necromancer: Revenant, but we have added an additional feature to all shields: the ability to parry attacks!
You can parry both melee and projectile attacks (and even deflect some of them), also reducing the stamina consumption from blocking the hit! It needs a bit of practice though, so we included two ways of performing the parry:
Holding the shield and releasing at the exact time of the hit (meaning that while you're guarding you're protected)
Performing the parry motion directly (quicker and easier to time it but more risky)
Note that you can't protect behind the shield forever, nor all attacks can be parried. For every successful block or parry, you'll spend a certain amount of stamina. If you run out of stamina while using a shield, your guard will break, you will receive damage, and you won't be able to use the shield for a short while.
If you check the video above, you'll notice that there is a minimap in the bottom right of the screen. This is also one of the things we've been working on lately.
Making a minimap that works for open fields, cities and procedural levels was quite a challenge, but we found a nice solution that seems to work fine. The minimap also displays height differences in terrain and highlights special structures and buildings like shops or inns.
Boss and Revenant designed by backers - deadline August 31st
Remember that you can submit your boss monster and Revenant design in our Discord server until August 31st! After that date, we will have a poll to choose which one makes it into the final game!
That's all for today, kind regards!
Whispike Survivors is out TODAY! Special discount for Switch owners & free Key for Fan Edition Backers!
10 months ago
– Thu, Jul 20, 2023 at 04:45:26 AM
Whispike Survivors releases today July 20th on PC, PS4/PS5 and Nintendo Switch!
The Xbox One and Xbox Series versions will be available on August 3rd. The game will launch with a 10% discount on its usual price of $2.99/2.99€/£2.69/500円, but owners of the original Sword of the Necromancer game on Switch will have a whooping discount of 50%! Mind that the discount for Switch owners in Europe will be available next week.
For its PC/Steam version, the game includes a Streamer Mode! Streamers can have people from the chat appearing as enemies in the game as they participate. Defeating these special enemies grant bigger bonuses than usual. Also, when using Streamer Mode, the player's score will be uploaded to an exclusive Streamer Leaderboard, so you can see which is the best player among streamers!
Setting up Streamer Mode is super easy! Here you can see how
To Fan Edition and above backers
If you completed your Backerkit survey, you'll find a Steam key for Whispike Survivors in your digital downloads section!
You'd help us a lot if you all played Whispike Survivors today or during this weekend. That'd be much appreciated!
Final words
This game started as an inside joke between the team, that we decided to take a step further for April Fools, making a prototype in a couple of days as if it were a game jam. Seeing that people liked the joke and the idea, we continued working on the game from time to time when we were a bit burnt out with the main project (being of course Sword of the Necromancer: Revenant).
We ended up with a (fun, we think) little game that we wish you enjoy. Any benefits from this would be invested in making Sword of the Necromancer: Revenant better, of course!
