Henriquejr spotted a content update trailer for Wolcen: Lords of Mayhem:

Wolcen: Arise - Trailer (Chronicle 1 Content Update)

loading...

Check out the upcoming Summons Revamp with Wolcen: Arise, the third content Update for Chronicle 1: Bloodtrail. Coming soon.

Wolcen: Lords of Mayhem will receive three further content updates this year according to the June update.

Development Update - June 2021

Hello everyone,

Today we want to give you more information on the timeline we are currently aiming for, and whilst we will always keep you up to date with our progress please bear in mind that it might be subject to change if we think a feature needs more development time.

Bloodstorm Part II (Content Patch 2) was released on May 18th and brought:

• New monsters,
• New environments,
• Loot Filter improvements,
• Animation improvements for almost every skill in the game,
• The Sarisel and Tributary items marked in the stash/inventory,
• Quality of Life improvements.

Early/Mid July: Content Patch 3

This content patch will bring:

• Summons Revamp,
• New environments,
• New skills' damage type variations,
• New Cosmetic Armor,
• Quality of Life improvements.

The changes to the summons that we are implementing are massive - they will include:

• Complete cosmetic revamp - Models, animations, and VFX entirely redone,
• Skill mechanics redesigned - Improved behavior and control,
• Having them respawn automatically,
• Seeing their damage in their tooltips and on-screen
• Power scaling with your character, equipment, and Gate of Fates nodes.

September/October: Content Patch 4

This content patch will bring:

• New end-game activities and rewards system,
• New monsters,
• New environments,
• New skills damage type variations,
• New Cosmetic Armor

Our goal is to add new mission types and better rewards mechanics for our end-game system, we will give you more details on these in future Development Updates.

November/December: Content Patch 5

• New environments,
• New monsters,
• Controller Support,

We have a dedicated team working on Controller Support and are making sure the feature is ergonomic and player-friendly. We’re aiming for a release in November/December, although, as previously stated, this might be subject to changes based on how well we progress on its development.

Crafting: We initially planned on implementing a few changes to the User Interface and crafting items description, as well as changing the Abyssal Tear item’s behavior. However, the Crafting system as it currently is needs more than a few tweaks, thus, we will take more time to work on this feature, and will let you know about the changes we are planning in an upcoming Development Update.

Bug fixing: We will continue to work on bug fixing, as we have always done. Improving the core of the game is still a priority in our workflow. We will add bug fixing patches in between content patches whenever possible, as well as bug fixes within Content Patches like it was the case for Bloodstorm Part II.

Quality of Life improvements:

We will keep browsing through all the suggestions you send us daily, identify which ones are the most upvoted/asked for, and try to select some of them to be added to each content patch

We will tell you more about the features previously announced here in our future Monthly Development Updates.

Thank you very much for your support.

PC Gamer reports that Wolcen: Lords of Mayhem has received a big content update called Bloodstorm. Additionally a second part to the Bloodstorm content is being worked on now.

Update 1.1.1.1, aka the Bloodstorm update four new environments—playable in Endgame expeditions, and 13 environment variations, including charming additions such as the "blood-curdling swamp" and "the stagnant graves". There are also 30 new difficulty levels and, perhaps most importantly, pets will now pick up gold for you. Thanks, little guy.

Damage type modifiers have been redesigned, new visual effects have been introduced for skills such as Annihilation, Anomaly, Mark of Impurity, and Tear of Etheliel. Expect new monster animations and significant skill rebalances as well.

[...]

Thanks Farflame!

New content has dropped for Wolcen: Lords of Mayhem called Bloodtrail.

Wolcen Chronicle 1: Bloodtrail - Now Available

• Wolcen Bloodtrail website
• Wolcen Chronicle 1: Bloodtrail Announcement
• Patch Notes 1.1.0 [Part 1/2 - New Content & Balancing]
• Patch Notes 1.1.0 [Part 2/2 - Bug fixing]

loading...

The latest update from Wolcen: Lords of Mayhem announces that the first Chronicle will be available soon which will feature gameplay improvements and new content.

Wolcen Chronicle I: Bloodtrail - Coming Soon

Hello everyone,

We will soon be releasing our first Chronicle for Wolcen: Lords of Mayhem. Chronicle I: Bloodtrail is our first Free Content Update for Wolcen and it includes gameplay improvements and new content.

More details about the content of this update will be shared as we approach its release.

With Chronicle I: Bloodtrail, we also wanted to make a complete reset of the economy. Therefore, characters created before the release of the Chronicle will be moved to a separate Game Mode called Legacy, and they will not be able to interact or trade with characters created after the release of Bloodtrail. They will, however, still be able to interact or trade with the other Legacy characters.

Since the release of the game in February, we have released 17 patches for Wolcen in order to improve balancing, performance, servers, and fix the most common and critical issues. These last months, we’ve been preparing for Chronicle I: Bloodtrail, and although we chose to remain silent, we’ve been listening to your feedback and used them to enhance the game experience and improve the foundations of Wolcen.

This update is only the beginning of a new Wolcen’s journey, and we hope that you will join us for it.

Thank you for your support.

Couchpotato spotted a team update of the Wolcen: Lords of Mayhem devs:

Team Status Update

What's up and what's coming?

Hello everyone!

We know that you’ve been expecting some news from the status of the team and our progress on future content, and we would like to share a bit more about the upcoming plans for Wolcen.

Our team is currently working on two fronts: the final Second Dawn patch(1.0.16.0) with its bug fixing and balancing review, which will be delivered in late July, and the first Chronicle(1.1.0) for which we’re currently aiming for Autumn 2020.
The Chronicle will bring additional content, gameplay changes, performance improvements, and we will start to communicate in more detail about it around early September. Stay tuned though, we might start to tease a bit about it sooner than that through various social media ;)

We’re now making our final touches to the Second Dawn bug fixing patch, our Communication and QA teams are currently in contact with various players of Wolcen to gather their opinion on bug fixing, QoL improvements, and balancing changes. This feedback will allow us to refine some of our priorities for Second Dawn and future Chronicles.

In other news, Wolcen Studio is growing. Almost 10 new talented members have joined our team since the release, and we’re still recruiting for a lot of positions. We’re all progressively coming back to the office following the pandemic, but we’re now almost 50 and our current office is getting a bit crowded. Therefore, we also plan to move to new offices by the end of the year to be able to welcome everyone on-site if the circumstances allow it, and we will do our best to make sure that it doesn’t affect our schedule for the second Chronicle.

Finally, we will soon add a Support page on our website to facilitate contact with our Customer Support team. Instead of going through the Contact web form, you’ll now have a dedicated page to contact our Support team, who will answer your requests as soon as possible.

Thank you for your continued support!

@DSOGaming Wolcen Studio announced their future plans for Wolcen: Lords of Mayhem.

Operation: Second Dawn

We initially planned to put a top priority on new league content and on the new Chapter shortly after the release of the game. We’ve decided to swap the priority between the production of new content and bug fixing, game stabilization, quality of life, and recruitment during the next 4 months.

This decision comes with a name: Operation Second Dawn. Its goal is to focus on fixing several issues and invest in resources and infrastructures to make sure that the game will grow on a healthy base and a happy community.

Testing improvement

This is one of our primary objectives: reinforce the testing. We’re now working with an external QA team to improve our testing process, spot issues sooner, and fix them before a new version goes live.

On that note, we want to inform you that patch 1.0.10 will be deployed early next week instead of this week. We’ve made some changes that require extensive testing and we want to make sure that it works properly.

Story improvements

We want to bring some love to Chapter 3 and improve the diversity and the pace to make its gameplay events and encounters more appealing. In addition to adding more visual diversity, we will also add new enemies and new enemies variants.

Quality of life improvements

Localization quality and clarity, the possibility to rebind left-click(we heard you!), a Gate of Fates search function, ailment stack numbers on monsters, a new quest reward system to avoid having a window in the middle of your screen when you receive your reward(along with the possibility to stack your reward and collect them whenever you want), and more...

Balancing

You can also expect balancing improvements in addition to bug fixing. Our goal is to improve the skills that are currently less played, there should not be a lot of damage reduction or skill nerfs. The Patch 1.0.10.0 will start to bring some improvements in that direction.
We will, however, continue to intervene on extremely unbalanced skills, items, or nodes as we did for Bleeding Edge if any come to our attention.

[...]

Thanks Farflame!

OverbyteGaming checked out the action RPG Wolcen: Lords of Mayhem:

Better than Diablo? [Wolcen REVIEW]

loading...

Snare and Lee discuss the recent release of Wolcen from Wolcen Studios. Enjoy!

Rhykker has reviewed Wolcen: Lords of Mayhem, which will be released tomorrow:

Wolcen Full Release: First Impressions (Gameplay Review)

loading...

A new update for Wolcen: Lords of Mayhem explains what is involved with crafting and announces that the game is going offline until February 13th when the game will be released.

Henriquejr spotted Kickstarter update #114 for Wolcen: Lords of Mayhem:

Update #114

Next hotfix: Animation cancel improvement, Simplified Chinese localization

Hello everyone!

We would like to inform you that a hotfix is planned for next week. In addition to bringing improvements to Bladestorm and fixing a few bugs like the Consuming Embers buff, the hotfix will also contain:

Animation cancel improvement: The setup for this system was not optimal in the latest version for certain skills(Consuming Embers for example). With the next hotfix, all skills will be properly set up with the animation cancel system when the character performs a “movement”. Potions and dodge roll will also count as “movements”, therefore have a higher priority over skills when they are used. This will drastically improve the fluidity of actions in-game and survivability in dangerous situations.

Chinese localization: Thanks to Wshepherd(传说娘), Spendaem(夜紫尘) and MshKai(陌上花开), we will be able to restore the Simplified Chinese localization in the game. We want to thank these awesome members of our community for their help, they’ve done a great job and we’re more than happy to reintroduce Chinese in Wolcen: Lords of Mayhem.

German localization improvement: CoTTo has also provided us with the latest files of the German localization and we will update it with the hotfix planned next week. Many thanks to him as well!

On a side note concerning localization, we will now be using the Crowdin website for future localizations of the game. We find it to be quite user-friendly and practical for our use, so any member of the community from any language can participate in making the game available in tons of languages at the release.
If you wish to contribute, you can contact me(Calistaen) on Discord: http://discord.gg/wolcenstudio

Another hotfix is planned following this one to improve loading times and memory issues leading the game to shut down on start-up.

Thank you for your support!

The last content patch for Wolcen, before the launch of the game next year January, has been made available.

It’s time to face the Wrath of Sarisel! You can read the Changelog for this Content Patch here. Please restart your Steam client to download the update.

Wrath of Sarisel brings 5 new skills and their modifiers, area modifiers, Altars, and the Sarisel challenge. With this, new affixes have been added in the game, and you will now be able to trade items, gold, and primordial affinity! Animation cancel is also back, and the gameplay feeling is now much smoother thanks to it.

Some known bugs are being worked on and will be fixed as soon as possible, we already plan to make a hotfix tomorrow. Our priority will be to fix:

- Some spells sometimes stop dealing damage (more frequently affecting Annihilation)
- Sometimes channeled skills cast stays stuck until the resource bar is emptied
- Crashes can occur during the campaign

More info at the link.

The release date for Wolcen has been set to January 2020, with probably a more accurate date coming closer to the release.

This is about the content patch 2, Wrath of Sarisel:

We’ve already explained a bit the idea behind this feature in this news. Wrath of Sarisel will introduce a challenging mode requiring cooperation and coordination to face and destroy Sarisel’s half breed sent after you. There will be a more detailed announcement to explain this feature since there is a lot of details to cover, but you’ll get the idea of the type of content you will have in this video. Some of the future act 2 environments were used as well, so you’ll also have a sneak peek on future areas, and on another Apocalyptic form in action! The Apocalyptic forms will also be the object of a future announcement, where we will introduce all of them and their dedicated skills.

Wrath of Sarisel Content Patch will be available in late September/early October.

And about the release date:

After Wrath of Sarisel and its debug phase including several hotfixes, the team will focus entirely on the release of the game. There is still work to do, but not having to divide our forces on an additional patch will allow us to go faster than the last few months.

This will lead Wolcen: Lords of Mayhem’s release date to January 2020.

The release content will include:

• 3 Acts of an epic and immersive campaign that will continue for years
• A new endgame storyline, tied to the campaign
• Multiplayer and cooperative content
• Character level up to 90
• 21 archetypes in the Gate of Fates
• 40 skills(including summoning skills!) with 12 to 16 modifiers per skill
• 4 Apocalyptic forms with their dedicated skills and attacks
• Crafting
• Pets
• Character customization including the female character
• 10 tiers of armors, special armors, and very cool uniques
• Armor skin transfer and tinting
• Customizable game rules thanks to area alterations
• Secondary/optional content

But that’s not all! Wolcen’s development won’t end with the release of the game, it will be the beginning of a long story of additional free content, new Acts, new items, new and returning features that will enrich the game and continuously provide new challenges and activities for players.

We’re really excited about the next few months and the arrival of the release. Of course, we will keep you informed about all these announced features, so you can learn a bit more about this awesome content as we move towards the release of the game.

And here is the Gamesom video.

The 3 next skills that will be available in the upcoming content 1 update of Wolcen have been made public.

Gunslinger’s Brand is a new skill that allows you to mark targets and shoot them automatically once you have finished marking them or if you release the spell. Targets can be either monsters or locations and can be selected by a click. It offers a brand new experience with ranged weapon targeting and we can’t wait to have your feedback about the feeling of this skill.

Gunslinger’s brand requires a ranged weapon (bow/pistol) to be used.

Animated GIFs of this and the two other skills can be found at the link.

The Wolcen team is providing an update on the various parts of the game that are being worked on, including numerous visuals for act 2, armor tiers 5 and 6, female character armors and enemies.

Our team is currently working on the last pieces of Act II and started working on the first pieces of Act III about a month ago. Without specification about when or how you’ll come to explore these environments, here are a few unfriendly places that you will explore during your adventure.

In this update for Wolcen: Lords of Mayhem, we get to see a number of new skills and a new feature called 'Animation Cancel', which speeds up your game as the time it takes to use a skill and see the effect is reduced by removing some of the animations.

We’re happy to inform you that this highly anticipated improvement is progressing well, and we plan to make its first version live with the next Content Patch. Developing and tweaking such a system takes time and requires testing in the field, but even if it will be the first version, it will already reduce drastically the feeling of clunkiness in the game.

There are some animated GIFs at the link to show this.

Besides that the Autoturret skill, that places a turret that starts shooting at your opponents, and Warpath, which is a charge skill, are being shown in an animated fashion.

Henriquejr spotted Hotfix 1.1.4 for Wolcen: Lords of Mayhem.

Hotfix 1.1.4 for Wolcen: Lords of Mayhem

• The experience granted through Act I has been rebalanced to fit player’s challenges
• The Expeditions' rewards have been reviewed
• Improved client & server CPU performances
• Candidate-fix for items disappearing in stashes. Please let us know if you still encounter the issue and provide us with as much detail as you can.
• French localization has been added. It's just a first pass so if you see anything odd, please tell us and we'll fix it.

[...]

Wolcen: Lords of Mayhem content patch 1 trailer.

loading...

Wolcen’s Act I will offer you at least 4 hours of story and ends on an epic multi-phase boss fight. With Content Patch 1, in addition to the story mode, we're adding more skills modifiers, we double the choices on the Passive Skill Tree, many creatures have been added and more...

Check the patch note here

Thanks porcozaur!

With content patch 1 for Wolcen,  being made available in two weeks, more depth is added to the passive skill tree.

We want the Passive Skill Tree to allow several options:

• Make a straight-forward archetype by following conspicuous paths
• Refine passive skills according to your attacks and spells (and their modifiers)
• Build around itemization and unique items (more advanced)

Therefore, we keep these 3 elements in mind when we design something for the Passive Skill Tree, Active Skill Tree, or even Unique items. It’s very important for us to have synergy between all of this to bring depth and interest to the game.

One of the most important and tricky things is to allow various kinds of builds to travel through most of the themed section without feeling they “wasted points”. We also want you to make choices and don’t feel forced to take certain paths, even if there will be very powerful nodes for some build types.

For instance, if I want to build a character based on daggers and toxic ailment, I can either choose to focus on the rogue-themed sections and have something that works well, or explore the Cabalist section and specialize the character into ailment damage and application.

A preview into what content patch #2 for Wolcen delivers, is now available and stes the following to be part of it:

Today we want to share with you some preview on Content Patch 2. As a reminder, CP2’s deadline is internally planned for July and will include:

[*]The new “Wrath of Sarisel” Cooperative Game mode: specific enemies designed to push cooperation between players.

[*]“World Modifiers”: add different mods in random dungeons, including monsters and reward spawns, increasing its challenge, but also increasing its rewards. (example:  All enemies of the dungeon are Specialists and Elites...)

[*]Player customization for male characters, including alternative skin colors, heads, beards, hairs and eyes.

[*]New active skills and new passive skills sections.

We have set the list for the new skills, and here is a preview of their concept:

Whirlwind

Requires Rage. Your character spins in the cursor’s direction and deals damage to everything in its path.

Bull’s eye

Requires Rage. This skill will allow you to mark creatures or spots around your character. Upon release, the marker targets the enemy's last placement, if the mark is on the ground the projectile will target its direction.

Turret

Requires Rage. Creates a turret that shoots projectiles. A quick tap creates an automatic turret that will shoot in the direction of the cursor at the moment of its creation. Maintaining the skill allows you to control the turret and use it as a channeled skill.

Charge

Requires Rage. Your character performs a charge in the cursor’s direction, bumping creatures on his way and dealing a bit of damage. When the target is reached, it deals AOE damage based on the distance traveled with it. 

Devastation

Requires Rage. This skill is a 3 steps attack. Your character performs a cleave that will grow and deal more and more damage at each blow. Upon reaching 3 attacks, the loop starts over.

We will develop more about these skills as we approach Content Patch 2. We want this patch to offer more options to warriors and ranged shooting archetypes since they have less variety than mages archetypes at the moment.

Next to that there is also more info on the current content patch 1, like the skill tree and a character wipe.

A new update for Wolcen: Lords of Mayhem details all the new content for Patch 1.

Content Patch 1: new creatures, PST upgrade, damage type modifiers

Posted by SolarFall Games (Creator)

[DE translation]

[RU translation]

Hello everyone!

Here is a quick follow-up on our progress for Content Patch 1 planned for May 30.

Creatures

Cultists

____

The Cultists of the Sleeper are led by Demons of Souls. They are gifted with soul magic, using it to freeze their foes and raise the deads.
They have 3 types of attacks, including two different types of summoning.

Lost Souls

______

Lost Souls are forced out of their after death journey to serve followers of the Sleeper. Souls are fundamentally very cold, that is why their attacks can freeze you.

Alastor

_________

The Alastor is an assassin of the Republic. Unseen, unheard, deadly, he comes straight from the shadows to end you. The Alastor has 5 skills, although his specialty is to kill at close range, he can easily evade and attack you from the distance as well.

Passive Skill Tree

We’re currently adding depth to the Passive Skill Tree to offer more options.

Ring 1 talents will be upgraded from 15 to 24 nodes.

 ____

Ring 2 talents will be upgraded from 15 to 30 nodes.

____

That change will go with an increase of the passive points that you will be able to attribute at each level, although the level cap remains level 20. Along with these additions, the major nodes will be much more impactful since reaching them will require a more important investment in points.

[...]

Thanks Farflame!

Henriquejr spotted Kickstarter update #93 for Wolcen: Lords of Mayhem:

Introduction to Wolcen’s story

We wanted to share with you  some story elements so you can understand the context surrounding the  main character and his companions before you start the story, in order  to give you keys that will improve immersion. Although the “spoilers”  term is always subjective and related to an intimate perception, I’ve  ensured that these elements only give you contextual information that  your character already has when the game starts.

A fantasy world

Wolcen is a world of magic with some technological hints, with Enneracts at the heart of each practice.
Energy  crystals are fueled with Enneracts energy to power pistols and engines  in some parts of the world, while others rely on a more religious,  mystical, or even scholarly approach of these artifacts.

Yet,  magic is rather uncommon and often associated with witchcraft. The  knowledge of the occult is even more rare: people have heard of spooky  stories and yet the average person wouldn’t know what a demon is, aside  from a concept to scare children.

This is due to the fact that  supernatural evil forces almost always plot from the shadows, corrupting  and enthralling mortals rather than using bruteforce. Only rare world  crisis trigger open-roaming evil creatures like undead, monstrosities or  demons.

[...]

The latest update for Wolcen: Lords of Mayhem announces that the game has entered Beta.

Wolcen's Gameplay Beta is Live!

29 Mar @ 9:55am - calistaen

It’s been a long year since the last update on the Alpha, and our team went through a lot to offer you this new experience with Wolcen: Lord of Mayhem.

It’s a new game.

One year ago we made the risky decision to redesign the game entirely. We had much higher quality standards, and we were aiming to support the game for many years with regular content updates. We asked patience from you, a lot of it, while we reworked every aspect of the game: art direction, monsters, skills, animations, levels, visual effects, level design, artificial intelligence, game systems… We added a lot of enthusiastic people to the team to make it possible and now there are about 40 very passionate people working on this project.

And it led the game now to offer much better performance, polished gameplay, more readable actions and…4 players Multiplayer/Coop!

Today, we can finally share this Gameplay Beta with you, and yet it’s only the beginning of a new era for Wolcen: Lords of Mayhem and Wolcen Studio.

There are still some bugs in the Gameplay Beta that we know of and will fix with regular hotfixes in the next few weeks. Balancing will also be closely monitored and tweaked based on your feedback and what we can observe. Finally, there will be content patches, one you already know of is the Wrath of Sarisel content patch that we will present properly in future news.

We still have a lot to reveal, our teams are currently working on the other acts of the game and we will continue to share our progress with you through the Trello board.

Now, it is time to take a look at our new trailer and enjoy the Gameplay Beta! You can check the Changelog on our previous news.

Thank you once more for your support. And most of all: have fun!

loading...

The soundtrack of Wolcen: Lords of Mayhem has been recorded with The City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra:

Wolcen’s soundtrack recording in Prague and Beta Passive Skill Tree presentation

Hello everyone!

On February 18 and 19, 2019, Daniel Dolui and Simon Majar, two co-founders of Wolcen, went to Prague with Jean-Gabriel Raynaud and Cédric Baravaglio, composers, to record our original soundtrack with the amazing Prague Philharmonic Orchestra.

Since the beginning of Wolcen, music means a lot to us, many of us are musicians here and we believe music is primordial in a video game. We’ve been working with our talented composers for 2 years, they made an incredible job, and we can’t wait for you to listen to the complete Soundtrack.  In the meantime, we want to share these great moments with you and discover our two wonderful composers:

loading...

[...]

Thanks henriquejr!

The active skill tree of Wolcen has been improved and they made a video to show it.

And as far as updates go, they had this to say:

We are still working on the Beta transition, you can track our progression on the latest Trello Roadmap.
Each week the status of the tasks are updated, you will also find there a weekly update on the game's progression, for the Beta and the final release.

This week, we finalized the new Passive Skill Tree for the Beta and we are currently testing it, along with a "mercenary mode" that will be available for the Beta. This mode will allow you to explore the Act I environments and slash Act I creatures, with various objectives and awesome rewards upon completion.
We are now working on the second game mode that will be available for higher challenges, we will tell you more about this mode later.

Finally, we know you're waiting for this transition, we are working hard to make it happen as soon as possible, so hold on just a little longer, we're getting close!

@OnlySP The internal roadmap for Wolcen: Lords of Mayhem has been released to the public.

In a move of unprecedented developer transparency, the developer, WOLCEN Studio, has released its own Trello page to the public, complete with details of the game’s progression. The developer is no stranger to large updates, with the last significant addition coming in April 2018.

A few interesting details have been elucidated on the page, including changes to the core gameplay including additions to passive skill trees, new implementation and balancing of skills, and changes to boss modifiers. The Trello page itself acts as a relatively lengthy document, so fans should certainly give it a good read.

[...]

Thanks Farflame!

The latest update from Wolcen: Lords of Mayhem explains the Resource Opposition System.

New video: Resource Opposition System... And Happy New Year!

12 JANUARY - CALISTAEN

[DE translation][www.wolcen-game.de]

Hello everyone!

First of all, all the Wolcen team wishes you a very happy new year 2019! It's been a while since we didn't provide you with an update regarding our global progression, but we will, very soon :)

As you perhaps already know, following Technical Beta 1 and 2, we gathered a lot of useful information, mostly client and server crash reports that our teams are currently working on to solve as many issues as possible and improve the stability of the game when we make the Gameplay Beta transition.

Your contribution to these tests also allowed us to gather bug reports and feedback that we're taking into consideration. There are still critical issues we're working on fixing before making the transition, and some revamp that we want to finish as well in order to avoid an early character wipe.

We will provide you with more global advancement news next week, in the meantime, we hope that you will appreciate this new video about the Resource Opposition System in Wolcen: Lords of Mayhem.

loading...

[...]

The community manager for Wolcen: Lords of Mayhem answers some community questions.

loading...

Following your votes on Discord, here are the responses to the top 10 questions. Other questions will be answered in a future devblog. The Technical Beta is now over and we're working on the Gameplay Beta transition for all our users. If you want to support us, you can purchase Wolcen: Lords of Mayhem on Steam.

A new gameplay video has been made available for Wolcen.

Next to that there is also information about the beta.

As explained in the last news, the Beta transition will be handled in 2 phases of testing before we release it for everyone. The goal of these tests is to experiment the brand new content we prepared for you and ensure that the network and servers are handling it properly. Once the experience is stable and satisfying, we will release the Beta.

Phase 1 starts in a few days now, on October 11th, and we wanted to inform you regarding the content you’ll be able to test for the first week of this technical Beta.

Besides that the update contains various information about weapons, skills, creaturs, hubs, dungeons and multiplayer information.

Since the main goal of this technical Beta is to see how the game reacts on our servers in Multiplayer, you will be able to experience the game with your friends! In the future, we will implement a matchmaking functionality so you can automatically find a group and play with other players, but for this version, you will only be able to add friends in your friend list if you wish to play with other players. This list is dissociated from Steam, so you will have to add your friends manually.

We will tell you how this system works exactly next week with the T-Beta launch news.

And about the beta:

We have decided to remove the story from the Beta content(coming after phase 2) to make a pure Gameplay Beta. This will allow us to deploy the content in regular patches as we move towards the release of the game, and drive the Beta tests on a pure gameplay aspect. That way, you will have regular new features to experiment through time.

The Gameplay Beta will allow you to explore all the different environments of the Act I, without being driven by the story. An NPC will be available in Stormfall to allow you to travel through the different maps, and the enemies will be scaled to your level (or the level of the party leader if you're in Multiplayer).

Of course, we will tell you more about the Beta content, as we approach its release date.

A new update for Wolcen: Lords of Mayhem focuses on fail states modification for the Beta.

Fail states modification for the Beta

[DE translation]
[RU translation]

Hello everyone!

September and our Beta transition are approaching really fast! Today, we would like to share a little more about some changes planned.

Let’s talk about the fail state in Wolcen: Lords of Mayhem!

"Down But Not Out" (DBNO) system

Following your feedback regarding character respawn, we have come up with a system that allows you to respawn at the same spot where your character was defeated, but also keeps character death penalizing in case this happens.

Let’s be a little more specific:

System bases

When a character reaches 0 health, he enters the Down But Not Out state. He’s able to slowly crawl, but cannot perform any other action. While in DBNO state, the player is ignored by enemies, temporary positive and negative status effects are removed, and he cannot take any damage.

So, how can you recover from that state?

"Revive tokens"

When a player joins the game in single-player mode, he is granted a limited amount of revive tokens, determined by the difficulty chosen.

When reaching the DBNO state, players will have the possibility to use one of their revive tokens to get back on their feet and return to combat. Upon using that token, all nearby enemies are knocked-down, and during a short time of recovery, the character is invulnerable. This protection is removed when the player performs any kind of action or movement.

The number of revive tokens is limited, and when the player runs out of it, the character dies if he reaches 0 health again.

The game will offer the possibility to gain temporary revive tokens by performing different special actions or getting different bonuses.

Revive tokens are only available in single-player mode.

DBNO in Multiplayer

There are no revive tokens in Multiplayer, you rely on your friends and they have to bring you back when your character reaches the DBNO state. During the “resurrection” sequence, both players are locked-in, unless the reviving player cancels it by moving or casting a skill.

Depending on the difficulty settings, the revived character comes back with more or less health, and the sequence can or cannot be interrupted by creatures surrounding the characters.

There will be other variations to this DBNO system in Multiplayer, including high-risk situations that will push cooperation in ways you’ve never experienced in a hack and slash game before. We will have more to share about this in future updates.

Game Over

Game Over occurs when your character dies, or when all the characters of your party are dead. When this happens, you respawn in the last visited town, and all creatures respawn as well. This gives waypoints an additional value that we appreciate a lot.

In single-player, all your revive tokens are restored when your character dies.

We wanted this system to allow a good balance between players looking for a hardcore gaming experience with punishing death, and a more casual approach of character defeat. It’s also setting a natural difficulty progression and allows players to master the game a bit before getting into real trouble.

This system will be implemented for the Beta, we hope that you will like it, we’re looking forward to your feedback about it!

Know that we have additional features planned for Multiplayer situations, such as being able to spectate a friend, and revive directly on him once every member of the party goes out of combat, which avoids respawning in town and using the teleportation on your friends. But it might not be available for the Beta, so we will talk about that again later.

That's all for today :) Remember you can see some Beta preview on our Trello Beta Roadmap board, each week a picture is posted, based on your votes, so you can get a glimpse of what's to come. Some lore elements are sometimes added as well for those of you who would like to know more about the Wolcen universe.

Thank you very much for your patience during this big transition, and for your support. We can't wait for you to play the new game we have made with love for you!

Thanks Couchpotato!

A new update for Wolcen: Lords of Mayhem talks about fixed camera rotation and beta.

Beta and Fixed camera rotation

Hello everyone!

We would like to provide you with some updates on the Beta. We're progressing well on all the features planned, and everyone in the studio is working hard to honor the deadline for the Beta transition.

If you wish to see some previews, you can visit the Trello Beta Roadmap[trello.com] and vote for the preview that you would like to see ;) Every Monday, another sneak peek is posted based on your votes.

Presently, our developers are all focused on the creation and implementation of all the new creatures, effects, characters, weapons, armors, animations and environments, and of course Multiplayer, just for you! We're all really excited about this, and we're quite confident you will be too.

Now, let's talk about the rotating camera. As told in the Beta news, the feature was removed because we realized it was barely used and considered confusing. We know you don't all agree on that point, and that some of you were disappointed by this choice. Although we're confident you will appreciate the change, we would like to tell you a little more about the other reasons why we made that change and share with you another preview of the Beta game.

When we first started the development of Umbra, we tried many camera configurations. Different focal, distances, angles, and movement... As the development progressed, we started identifying a few small issues, and in the end, we realized that the rotating camera didn't serve the gameplay like we expected.

Here at Wolcen Studio, we want the quality of gameplay to come first.
When something goes in the way of a good game experience, we seek out solutions to make it better. That's what we did for the rotating camera.

For the Beta version of the game, we want to improve the camera by streamlining its behaviour, get the ‘perfect' settings, and freeze the rotation control for players.

One of our main priorities on Wolcen, with quality of action, is visual quality. Passionate artists work hard every day here to deliver a beautiful experience, and having only one camera angle greatly improves our ability to achieve this objective.

In the meantime, level design is clearer for the player, and it should be easier for you to enjoy and follow the flow of the action without getting lost or lose the rhythm of the adventure.

Last but not least, optimization is facilitated, and production time of a given area is reduced, allowing us to do more content of a higher quality.

At the end, this was a great experiment for us. The top down camera has the advantage of giving a great visibility of gameplay, and we really want to make the most out of this possibility.

We hope that this explanation made our choice a little more clear for you. Of course, you will have the opportunity to tell us what you think about these changes during the Beta in September.

See you soon!

Tobe4funas checked out Wolcen: Lords of Mayhem:

Wolcen: Lords of Mayhem REVIEW - Diablo 2 on Steroids!

loading...

Wolcen: Lords of Mayhem - action rpg similar to Diablo 2. Absolutely loved how it captures the atmosphere and how it looks overall. It's currently in alpha (going into beta this September), so there's little content at the moment and obviously some bugs and stuff, but I'll be personally waiting eagerly for this one to come out.

An update for Wolcen: Lords of Mayhem is available, providing more information about the multiplayer support, the beta roadmap, some office stuff and pets!

Beta Roadmap

The global Roadmap is nice, but it doesn’t give you many details about what’s currently happening for the Beta. Therefore, we’ve decided to open a new Beta Roadmap, more detailed about the Beta content. Each week, we will add images of the work in progress based on your votes on Trello.

To vote, you have to own a Trello account(free) and vote for what you wish to see.
The section with the highest votes each week will be granted with an image added on the Beta Roadmap.

Be careful, though, spoilers are to be expected, do not visit the Beta Roadmap if you wish to discover the content by yourself when it’s in the game

A new update for Wolcen: Lords of Mayhem details what the next patch will bring and when to expect the beta. Thanks henriquejr!

Past content, future content, Beta, and a nice surprise!

[German translation]

There is a lot to say today. Before presenting you the huge surprise we made for you at the end of this news, I would like to share some information. Let’s start with…

1. News about the next patch

We want to give you an update on the development of Wolcen: Lords of Mayhem, and how things will go in the next months.

In January this year, we shared with you the Roadmap for 2018. In that Roadmap, we told you that we will release the true Act I of the game. We would like to clarify what “the true Act I” means:

- Multiplayer/Coop
- An entire new storyline
- Apocalyptic form
- New creatures
- New environments
- New quests and dialogues
- New NPCs
- New player characters
- New animations
- New armors

But also on a more technical point:

- Improved quality of assets and textures
- New shaders and visual effects
- Whole new particle effects with improved quality
- Huge optimization pass on everything
- New gameplay mechanics

Basically, we are improving the quality of everything, so it fits better our ambition, and yours.

Since the entire actual environment, armors, and characters will be modified or improved to allow the final version of the game to be implemented, we’ve decided to focus our attention on the Beta transition and no longer add content to the actual version of Wolcen.

This leads the next patch to be planned for the end of September.

We still plan to check regularly on crashes and game breaking bugs to apply hotfix for the most annoying ones, in order to improve your game comfort on the Alpha. Our Community Manager, Jessica (Calistaen on Discord/Steam), is always here to take care of you. So, please, keep giving us feedback and bug/crash reports so we can monitor these issues.

In September 2018, we will officially move into version 0.9 of Wolcen: Lords of Mayhem, meaning: Beta! For this update, all characters and stashes will be wiped, and you will have a whole new game to explore.

We’ve already been working on that content for the last months, in parallel of the patch 0.5.0.5 that we applied at the end of March.

Actually, we’ll do better than that and show you the work we’ve done at the end of this news with a nice cool new video (I told you there was a surprise!).

2. What other changes are planned for the Beta?

Before preparing to move into Beta, we had to reconsider some implementations planned during the Kickstarter. There were a lot of discussions in the office around these elements, and a lot of feedback gathered to reach a final decision. However, we’re confident that these choices will improve the production flow, the game flow, and the overall quality of the game.

The Open World

Since we hope that Wolcen: Lords of Mayhem is only the first chapter of a long story, it seemed important that the universe is properly introduced. Having an open world ARPG is an interesting challenge and we’re still enthusiastic about having one for Wolcen, but we will most likely keep the idea for a later title.

Therefore, each act of Wolcen: Lords of Mayhem will have its own map with different areas in it, and the transition between acts will be handled by teleportation/events. However, each act will be connected to a region and we’re making our best to ensure the game fluidity feels as close as possible to an open world.

Also, the environment will still allow random dungeon, optional random quests, and modifiers. So you’ll always have diversity on the maps.

The rotating camera

We wanted to try the rotating camera to customize player’s experience in the game. After checking our feedback, it seems that the feature is not used by a lot of players, and even considered quite confusing and disorienting.

Developing the game with a rotating camera forces us to make the view perfectly polished on 360° which adds a substantial amount of work for a feature barely used. To us, it means that the time spent taking into consideration the rotating camera could be used as well on more interesting features for the community. All these elements comforted us in the idea to put this feature aside and make the camera viewpoint more popular.

There will still be some cool camera effects though, and the game will be even more beautiful because we will have a full control on what you see when you play your character, but you will no longer have the possibility to rotate your camera in the game.

3. Will the game be completed?

[...]

Yes, the game will be finished and released. The Wolcen Team is growing for you, and most of all, thanks to you and your awesome support since the Kickstarter campaign. Let me assure you that we are all dedicated to making this great game flourish.

Later, I will show you around the studio and introduce all these new faces you don’t know yet.

But for now, as promised, I’ll let you take a sneak peek at what’s been done by the Wolcen team these last few months, and what you can expect when the game moves into Beta in September. Our team is very enthusiastic about this transition, and we hope you will like it despite the waiting it represents.

Thank you all for your support, now and always :)

loading...

Here's the changelog for Wolcen: Lords of Mayhem - update 0.5.0.5:

Update 0.5.0.5: changelog

Hello everyone !

The patch 0.5.0.5 is now live. Here are some details on what we applied and the changelog.

1. Bug and crash fixes

We want players to have an enjoyable environment while testing the game. In order to do so, we gathered tons of feedback on various crashes and bugs to fix a maximum of them. Of course, we could not handle absolutely all of them, some issues are related to content that will eventually be deprecated and replaced in the new Act I, but we managed to fix a great amount of issues that were reported in the last few months.

Beside bows and the targeting revamp we introduced on our previous devblog , we have some new content added with the patch 0.5.0.5. Including…

2. Ice spells

We revamped the frost nova to make it cooler than ever, along with 2 new frost spells you will now have access to: Frost Meteor and Frost Lance.

Frost Nova now boast new skill modifiers as well as new particle effects. These include the ability to remove the skill’s cooldown, to cast at cursor location, to use it as a damage dealer, and more.

Frost Lance is a projectile spell that takes time to take form before launch. Skill modifiers include tweaks to the launch time, damage tweaks depending on the distance travelled, and more.

Frost Comet is a rock of frost forming above the ground and crashing down a few moments after. Skill modifiers include tweaks to the launch time, increased explosion radius at the expense of adding a cooldown, leaving a cold area that slows targets down, and more.

Ready to experience some devastating Frost spec?

3. Resistance balancing

All resistance sources have been rebalanced. Henceforth, to resist a third of incoming damage you will now need ten times a monster level in resistance points. Also, you will need twenty times a monster level to resist half the damage.

As promised, you can read the changelog now. Thank you again for all your support, we’re glad to have you as our community 😊

CHANGELOG

GENERAL:

• Lightning related crashes have been fixed.
• Several (tons of) game crashes have been fixed.

VISUALS:

• Each overkill type now has an associated visual effect.
• The silhouette visual feedback when hovering characters or objects with mouse has been reworked.
• The blinking on-hit visual feedback has been reworked.
• Added golden effect on Elite enemies.

UI:

• Merchants no longer restock if you have the merchant UI open.
• Time displayed under the minimap is now the real time instead of the in game time.
• Gems will now appear Teal-colored on the ground.
• Fixed the left hand item not being unequipped when resetting the passive skill tree and having titan strength.
• Fixed the close button of the bounty UI.
• Fixed a bug allowing players to put items in locked player chest panels.
• Fixed a bug causing gem sockets artefacts to appear in the inventory grid when unsocketing gems from an item.

QUESTS:

• Picking up a quest item with a full inventory will properly update the quest objective.

TECHNICAL:

• Merchant NPC RAM optimization.
• Pressing a skill key during a dodge roll as a male character will no longer cast the skill two times when exiting the dodge roll.
• Changing the AST of a skill after it was cast, and before it was triggered, will now correctly use the initial skill parameters when triggered.

ENVIRONMENT:

• You should no longer get blocked between two random dungeon parts in random dungeons.
• Corrupted Random Dungeon is deactivated for maintenance. Halaku’s door has been fixed. Missing Materials in the corrupted area have been replaced.

GAMEPLAY:

• Passive damage resistance formula has been modified and its impact on gameplay has been increased.
• A few ROS transfers were not making use of your transfer time modifiers.
• Snaring enemies by Dashing on them was not always working. We fixed it.
• Decreased the effect on attributes on damage and dodge chance.
• Ironguard passive effect no longer disappears when using it.
• It is not possible to equip Ironguard without a Shield anymore.
• Fixed a bug allowing you to keep a templar weapon from the Weapons Tutorial quest.
• Fixed the “machine gun” attack speed issue with pistols.
• The level 5 requirement has been removed on tier 1 gems.
• Fixed a bug causing the players to go through the ground when knocked down, teleporting them to random locations.
• The attack range of melee and ranged weapons has been unified.
• All basic weapon combo now uses 2D shapes for their targeting, resolving several issues and allowing to cleave on many targets with one hit.
• Fixed various bugs with the Active Dodge/Dodgeroll.

MONSTERS:

• New enemy: Undead Butcher! The Butcher is a powerful foe wielding a Cleaver and a Hook at the same time. Beware of its belly-mouth!
• New enemy: Pithus Watcher.
• New enemies: Wormaggot and Corrupted Wormaggot.
• Halaku now inflicts less damage.
• Halaku’s skulls now inflict physical damage, making it less punishing for melee characters.
• The corrupted slug will now move faster upon detecting a target.

ITEMS:

• New weapon type: Bows!
• Several issues about items, gems and potions have been fixed (items duplication, crashes, infinite gold, incapacity to use, etc.).
• Fixed a bug causing items to disappear when unsocketing a gem with a full inventory.
• Fixed a bug causing items to be downgraded on character loading.

PASSIVE SKILLS:

Assassin:

• Mass Murder’s description has been changed to avoid confusion.

Elementalist:

• Decreased Overheating damage, which should decrease the amount of unwanted deaths.

ACTIVE SKILLS:

• New Active Skill: Frost Lance.
• New Active Skill: Frost Comet.
• Reworked Active Skill: Frost Nova.

The estimated time for arrival for the Wolcen: Lords of Mayhem patch 0.5.0.5 is March 27th:

 New global roadmap and ETA on patch 0.5.0.5

Hello everyone!

We’ve been pretty busy this week but here is a little update on the ongoing work.

Wolcen global roadmap

I’ve made a new informative Roadmap about the progression of the team on the final content for Wolcen: Lords of Mayhem. It’s more specific about the skills and gameplay features you can currently test in game, those we’re currently working on, and the planned ones.

Wolcen Global Roadmap - 2018 Edition

The elements you will find in this Roadmap are here to reflect the overall advancement of Wolcen: Lords of Mayhem so you can keep track of the progress separating the actual version from the release version.

These features are not related to the planned updates during the Early Access Alpha or the Beta and are still subject to changes during the development of the game. Meaning that even if some elements are “in progress”, it will not mean that it’s planned for the next update. For instance, Act II, III, IV and V are not supposed to be accessed during the Alpha or the Beta version of the game, only at the release, but you will know when we’ll be working on them.

I’ve used some tags on the different elements so you’ll be well informed, here is a little explanation about them:

Red - Important Read me Really: Means you really should read
Green - Completed: Just means it's done
Orange - In Alpha testing: Currently available in the EA Alpha of Wolcen: Lords of Mayhem but still in testing so still subject to changes
Purple - In progress: Means we're currently working on it
Dark Blue - Pending refactor: Means we're currently revamping it
Light Blue - Planned: Means we will be working on it later

We hope that this new Roadmap will give you a better global vision on the actual status of the game and its progression.

When is patch day?

The patch is planned for release on March 27th. It will include a lot of bug and crash fixes, some optimization, UX improvements, bows and new spells. We’ve focused a lot on the feedback we received to solve the current issues in game and allow a more enjoyable test environment for our community.

If you feel like you’ll be nostalgic about some of these issues in the future, enjoy it while you can and take pictures, because it will be fixed in the next update:

• Lightning issues
• Dodgeroll issues
• You will no longer get stuck in water
• The invisible walls in random dungeons should not occur anymore
• The game will update quest objectives even if the inventory is full
• Issues with duplicate/crashes/infinite gold/incapacity to use items
• The items will no longer risk being downgraded after a logout
• Items will no longer disappear when you remove gems with a full inventory
• “Machine gun” attack speed exploit with pistols will not be possible anymore
• You won’t be able to keep templar weapons when leaving the training area
• Overheating will no longer kill the character

We’re also changing the time in game and replace it with the system time. And last but not least, the gems will have their own color on the ground so you won’t miss them anymore.

And that’s all for this week!

As always thank you all for your support and see you next week with a nice screenshot of the month presenting you exclusively one of our latest enemy and environment.

Thanks henriquejr!

The Wolcen team have interviewed their own Game Writer in this update.

What is a classic day for you at Wolcen Studio ?

“Hello” to everyone of course! Then I alternate between my stationary and my mobile work. My stationary work starts with choosing the emotional/epic/movie music that will stimulate my imagination. Then I check what lore aspects I have to provide to each department, I work on the staging, the dialogues, and the quest design. My mobile work consists on ensuring the global understanding of the narrative content by other production aspects throughout the company.

What are the tasks you’re focused on for Wolcen: Lords of Mayhem ?

Presently I’m working on the lore to provide material for the Concept department including the environments, characters, factions. I’m also working on the dialogues’ tone.

What has been determined on the storyline so far ?

All 5 acts are defined, all environments, the story, the creatures, the characters and the cutscenes. All we have to do now is bring all these elements to life and fill the boxes.

Aiming low wasn’t part of the instructions I was given. And boy, what a ride it’s going to be. It’s action packed, unforgiving, brutal and in its own special way : heartwarming. It’s both familiar to what you may have experienced in other hack’n’slash, and way more character-centric than what this game-genre have explored so far. The story is carried by and for the characters and they will not be soulless quest givers waiting for you to do the job. You will succeed together or fail together : but you will rely on them as much as they rely on you. No messiah syndrome in Wolcen.

Henriquejr spotted Kickstarter update #73 for Wolcen: Lords of Mayhem:

Work in progress: bows, new targeting system, overkill effect, bug fixes

Hello everyone !

For today's news I wanted to keep you updated on some features and additions to the game we're currently developing. First of all, hang tight...

BOWS!
You’ve been asking them for a while now, and here they finaly are! Bows will be implemented on the next update with new animations and combos. Unleash the fury of arrows on your foes and discover our fancy bow models. We have 6 models so far, but if the toy department make more, then there will be more of them ;)

NEW TARGETING SYSTEM
Hadrien/Nyhlus is working on a new targeting system that may be partially implemented in the next update. This should solve most of the targeting issues with various spells and weapons and improve considerably the gameplay comfort. Here are a few words from him to explain that feature:

Until now, the calculation of the trajectory for some spells could be imprecise or unpredictable. We use several different techniques, depending on the attack: physical projectiles, explosions, proximity calculation, raytracing and such.

Thus we decided to develop a simpler system in order to streamline spells handling and make the gameplay clean and predictable, without any surprise or mistake during target acquisition. On the other hand, the creation of such a system would allow us to see and debug in real time the calculations done by the spells during the targeting phase, how it behaves and what’s the issue when it doesn’t work.

[...]

Henriquejr spottet the 2018 Roadmap for Wolcen: Lords of Mayhem:

2018 Roadmap for Wolcen

Hello everyone !

The last year has been significantly important for the development and the evolution of Wolcen. From version 0.3.5 to 0.5.0.4a we released a dozen patches and pushes at least as many hotfixes. 2017 was about giving our players substance to start enjoying the content of the game and the core features of Wolcen and we worked hard to update the game twice every month.
[...]

2018, the year of Rebirth

We’re putting a lot of hopes in 2018 and made the proper arrangement to make these hopes come true. We are still in the process of planning the additions to the game and calculating the time and efforts needed to achieve our goals, but we plan to sweat a great deal this year. And not only because we’re on the French Riviera.

Updates status
With the team growing and the development reaching a critical point for the future of the game, we plan to apply updates every 2-3 months with major and quality content addition. The pace we had didn’t allow us to optimize the game and reduce significantly the amount of crashes as well as making the proper testing. We want to provide more quality to Wolcen, we heard the need for more optimization, content, and less crashes despite the Alpha status of the game and we want to improve on that. This will lead the next patch to be pushed in March.

Linux version status
Wolcen has proven to be a very challenging game to make and maintain, and we’re all highly motivated to lead it to its release and even more. Despite that passion, we’re facing the real problem of time required by all the corrections and additions we must make to make this game great. Knowing that, having a second version of the game for created content as well as maintenance would present a very high difficulty with our current staff, specially without penalizing the PC version itself. As much as we would like to provide the Alpha and Beta version to Linux users, we must face the fact that this will be more time consuming than productive for the game. Therefore we have decided that the Alpha and Beta version will not be implemented on Linux.

Scenario
The last month was very productive and we anchored the core elements of the 5 acts storyline. Regarding the way we’re going to tell the story, we want to innovate on the narrative style, and we hope that you will enjoy what we plan. We will also use the social networks to introduce the main characters, villains, and areas, without spoiling too much of course ! Wolcen Studio now has a hero fully dedicated to that side of the development and we’re confident things will move forward much faster thanks to him.

Gameplay
There will be a lot of improvements in the Gameplay as well. Here is a non-exhaustive list of what we plan for this year:

• Shrines
• Crafting
• Multiplayer
• New act I and more !
• Minions
• New PST sections
• New skills in active skill tree
• New spells
• New monsters, bosses, and AI behaviors
• New NPCs
• New item types including weapons (bows!), armors and trinkets
• More new music and sounds
• Combo improvements
• Apocalyptic form !

We will also internally work on the future content of the game’s scenario but so far we don’t plan to release it for the Alpha or the Beta to provide a testing environment for spoiler sensitive players.

Animation & FX
Addition to the team will allow us to improve the animations, characters and FX in the game to make it even more epic and enjoyable. We want to keep the same visual quality for Wolcen and even improve it if we can. We also plan to work on the player's characters, both male and female, to improve their looks and behaviors, as well as providing cool options to personalize your experience of the game.

Environment
With the development of the scenario, we plan to create a lot of new environments that will support the story of the game and allow players to explore the world of Wolcen, including new areas for the Republic faction and new corrupted zones, as well as other new areas we prefer to keep silent at the moment to avoid spoiling.

Audio
We plan to add voices in the game to improve the game experience and the immersion. They will not be implemented until we’ve finalized the content, but they are planned. New musics are also in the pipes.

In conclusion
The 2018 calendar for Wolcen is very fraught with content. We will continue to focus on the gameplay content more than the scenario release. The gameplay elements need much more testing than the story, and we don't want players to refrain from testing because they're worried of being spoiled. We will then focus on the endgame content to allow player to have fun while testing the game and its features. Patches applied less often will allow us to add more content in a more stable environment so our Community can enjoy the game while testing it.
Don't forget your feedbacks will always help us to make the game even better so do not hesitate to provide them to us, it’s really important for us to know how you feel when you play Wolcen: Lords of Mayhem.

Of course, we didn’t cover everything you should know regarding this year, but we will continue to update you on the status of our team, so you will know soon enough :)

Once more, thank you all for your support. This means a LOT to all of us.

The Wolcen Team

Henriquejr spotted some Kickstarter news for Wolcen: Lords of Mayhem:

Attributes refactor and new Character Sheet

Hello everyone !

First, I would like to make an IMPORTANT REMINDER FOR OUR KICKSTARTER BACKERS. It came to our attention that some of you didn't receive their mail with their Steam key. If you didn't receive your Steam key, please contact us so we can send it back to you. You can send us a direct message via Kickstarter or send us an email to contact@wolcengame.com with your name and email linked to your Kickstarter account. As a reminder, all backers supporting us starting from 9 US$ are eligible for a Steam key.

Now, let's introduce our new features ;)

As you well know, Wolcen allows you to be totally free in the development of your character and doesn't make you chose between predefined classes. We want to keep that philosophy, and expand the interest of every attribute no matter the playstyle you chose.

ATTRIBUTES REFACTOR

Since we weren't satisfied with the current way attributes has an effect on stats, we devised a non-linear complex formula that can determine the effect of an attribute on a stat, based on that attribute's value compared to the level of an element. This will allow our players to shape their character's core attributes. We want you to be able to have viable specialized profiles from level 1 (like a crit-based build), explore interesting builds adapted to your playstyle, and allow you a huge buildup of attributes in endgame without blowing damage numbers up.

Attributes were renamed to reflect all their values. For instance, we wanted strength to mean more than "big muscles", so we renamed it Ferocity to reflect more aggressiveness and mightiness. It's easier then to imagine a mage being ferocious or a warrior having a strong willpower.

Here is the list of attributes effects and what they affect:

Ferocity

• Defense Ability (compared to armor level)
• Attack Speed (compared to weapon level)
• Melee Damage (compared to monster level)
• Critical Hit Damage (compared to monster level)

Agility

• Dodge chance (compared to monster level)
• Ranged damage (compared to monster level)
• Critical Hit Chance (compared to monster level)
• Move speed

Willpower

• Spell damage (compared to monster level)
• Ailment chance (compared to monster level)
• Health regeneration
• Spell resistance (compared to monster level)

Toughness

• All resistances (compared to monster level)
• Stamina Regeneration
• Defense Regeneration
• Maximum Health

We will provide the details on the formula later should anyone feel interested ;)

NEW CHARACTER SHEET

The UI for the character sheet has been modified accordingly and expanded to allow players to see exactly what their characters can do. We wanted a character sheet that would present relevant information to the players in their main window and allow them to see the total effect of their attributes without worrying about the formula.

The exhaustive list of stats can be consulted on the side window of the character sheet. We also revamped those, by removing old obsolete stats and adding new relevant ones.

That is all for today, see you next week for our new devblog ! And as always, thank you all for supporting us :)

The latest from Wolcen: Lords of Mayhem covers the work in progress on Sockets and Gems.

Work In Progress: Sockets and Gems

Hi everyone!

While work on update 0.5.0.4 is progressing at a rapid pace, many of its features are still being worked on or finalized. Today, I'd like to present a highly requested feature (and staple of the Hack and Slash genre): Socketable items and gems.

Because Wolcen is a classless game, items can roll with many kind of affixes on them, reducing the probability of getting an item that is appropriate for any given playstyle. While loot hunting can be exhilarating, especially after getting the item of your dream, it can also be frustrating if getting there takes too much time.

Entering Gems:

A Gem grants an affix to an item it is socketed into. Which affix depends on the socket type. There are three socket types: Offensive, Defensive and Support.

Items of a given type will often roll the same socket type: weapons will roll offensive sockets, armors pieces will roll defensive sockets and accessories will roll support sockets. This will not always be the case though, and you may sometimes get an armor piece with an offensive or support socket!
Gems are divided into types and tiers. The first iteration of this system will ship with 14 gem types, each divided into 5 tiers. A gem's tier will define how powerful its affixes are. As the game's level cap will be increased, we will add more gem tiers.

Some types of affixes will not randomly roll on items anymore, and will only be available by adding a gem to an item. This will lower the randomness in getting desired affixes, and will provide more control over build orientation. Some affixes will stay as random rolls but will also be available through gems, allowing players to double-down on affix-stacking. New affixes will also be added to the game.
Put a Fire gem in an offensive socket, and your weapon will inflict fire damage!

In addition to the 14 regular gem types, we are also adding unique soul gems: unique items will have one or more of their affixes pre-socketed as unique gems. You will be able to unsocket this unique gem and put it in a unique socket, granting that unique power to a different item. Soul Gems can only be socketed into dedicated sockets. Those will be quite rare on non-unique items, but unique items will always come with a unique socket.

You can put as many gems in an item as it has sockets, and their effect will stack!

Removing gems socketed into an item requires the services of the Jeweler, a new NPC. He will do it for a fee, of course :)

That's all for today! Next week, we'll cover another feature of update 0.5.0.4.

Henriquejr spotted Kickstarter update #61 for Wolcen: Lords of Mayhem:

Work In Progress: Defense and Resistance mechanic

Hi everyone! 

My name is Alan and I’m the resident game designer and community manager here at Wolcen Studio. I’m the one who usually writes these articles, even though I often speak for the team as a whole. 

Today I’d like to present two of the new features that you’ll be able to experience in update 0.5.0.3, the revamped defense and enemy resistance mechanics.
One of the challenges of building a modern Hack and Slash game like Wolcen resides in designing mechanics that are both deep and easily understandable to players. I always felt like armor in RPGs was difficult to conceptualize due to the reliance on complex mathematical formulas, which results in arbitrarily chosen numbers for armor values. How do you tell how much armor you need? Is 56 a lot of armor points? Plus I wasn’t satisfied with the current armor formula, as it was difficult to balance and forced me to give huge amounts of hp to the player even at level one.
The solution? Take the same basic principle of mitigation within armor range, but applied to the entire health pool once, complete with a way to visualize it.
[...]

Fextralife checked out the Early Access version of Wolcen: Lords of Mayhem:

Wolcen Lords of Mayhem Features

• Dynamic combat system: fast-paced combat system with weapon-based combos and charged attacks. Dodge, Dash, Hack, Slash and unleash devastating spells on your enemies.
• Open World: Discover the world and enjoy it at your own convenience.
• Custom player: choose your gender and customize your player, skin color, hair, beard, eyes etc.
• Tons of Loot: Weapons, Armor, Potions and randomly generated magic effects for more game play diversity.

Story and Setting

Before I get into the story and setting within the game, I’d like to first fill you in about how this game has evolved from a mod designed for Cryengine, to its current state.  The game was originally known as Umbra and had humble beginnings in an apartment in 2013 developing into a prototype that was featured at GDC 2015.  After getting some buzz, completing a Kickstarter campaign that raised $400,000 and becoming a full fledged indie studio we now have the early access title that is Wolcen Lords of Mayhem.

So now for the game. You play as a former officer of the Army of the Human Republic. After somehow developing magical powers, you are sentenced to death by your own people and decide to flee.  After escaping death, you are recruited by a mysterious group know simply as, Templars.  This is where your story begins.  You play through escaping an initial dungeon where at it’s end you activate a waypoint that is noticed by one of the Templars who brings you to the main town of Amarth where you will be sent on your first quest.  The story isn’t anything special but definitely borrows from other games.  There was even a soldier in the town who “Can’t fight anymore because I took an arrow to the elbow.”  Sound famliar at all?

[...]

Summary: Wolcen Lords of Mayhem is a game that has come from basically a proof of concept mod to a game that has a ton of potential.  WOLCEN Studio has been changing the game for the better since it was offered for early access last year.  They still have a long way to go but have a good base of a game that could flourish into something big.  The developers have a good rapport with the community and even offer a roadmap that shows what they have planned for gameplay, features, new abilities and even multiplayer coming to the game.  The game itself needs a little more content and polish if it wants to take on the big boys but it's in a position to make some waves if it shores up the ship. Note that this review score reflects its early access state and current price and is subject to change upon full release.

Score 7.5

Thanks Farflame!

A new update for Wolcen: Lords of mayhem is now availabe on Steam EA. It brings a new targeting system, a redesign of the elemental storms and some more stuff.

Update 0.5.0.1 will improve many aspects of the game, including a new targeting and player input system.
You can now lock onto enemies, easily move through hordes and more. The game should feel more responsive now!
With the new input system, auto-attack when holding the mouse button ans switching targets is now deactivated by default, but you can still turn it on in the game settings.

Elemental storms have been redesigned too, for a result that is far closer to the initial idea of elemental interaction. The old elemental storms will be turned into powerful area-of-effect spells that will add to the arsenal of elemental mages. ;)

In addition to that, we drastically reduced the size and complexity of the pithus caves. Going through them should be a far more pleasant experience (when it comes to exploring spider-infested caves at least).

Wolcen: Lords of Mayhem Early Access version 0.5 comes with a new trailer:

Wolcen: Lords of Mayhem - Early Access Trailer

loading...

Wolcen: Lords of Mayhem got a new update:

Update 0.5 : New world map, new quests, new monsters and more!

Hi everyone!  

Update 0.5 is finally here! It may have taken a few late nights, but the team pulled it off and we are very excited to reveal our new world map and questline!

The new world map is much bigger and denser than the old one, and yet only represent less than a quarter of the final version of map! There’s new environments to explore, new monsters to kill, and other surprises! 

3 new randomly generated dungeon architecture have been added, which adds more variety to dungeon layouts. The new questline covers most of Act1 of the game, and will give you a preview of the lore and story of Wolcen. We will periodically add more content to Act 1, including side quests, treasure and optional bosses. You can now listen to the Main Theme of the game while in the main menu. This will give you a glimpse of the new original soundtrack being composed for Wolcen. 

A fog-of-war now hides parts of the minimap that haven’t been explored yet. This will further help with orientation in dungeons. All minimap icons have been redone and new icons have been added too.

We are aware that there might be some performance issues, and optimization will be a big focus for the next updates. You can get the game at a discount during the Steam summer sale. Now is the perfect time to jump in!  

There’s a lot more detail in the update’s changelog,  so peruse at your leisure! Have fun!

Wolcen Studio

Thanks henriquejr!

Update 0.4.2 of Wolcen: Lords of Mayhem, sees the addition of a minimap and improved dashing amongst some other changes, that can be found here.

While developing update 0.5, progress has been made on a major feature that many of our players have been requesting for a long time : the minimap !
So here is update 0.4.2, feature a working minimap and overlay in dungeons, improved auto-dashing and more changes !

The new minimap is still work-in-progress and will be refined and improved in update 0.5, but is precise-enough for players to orient themselves within even complex environments.

This latest update for Wolcen: Lords of Mayhem is about the traps in the game.

My name is Lucas, I am a gameplay, network and UI programmer here at Wolcen Studio and you may know me as Caracole on the game’s Discord and Steam forums. I have been working on Wolcen: Lords of Mayhem for over a year now and have been responsible for the development of the housing system, cloud mode and all the new UI that we’ve been rolling out for a year now (the new main menu, new character sheet, item comparison system, and so on…).
Internally, I am also known as “the guy who like to clean up his room” because I regularly do some cleanup, formatting, refactoring and optimization of the code in order to keep everything clean and maintainable as the project has some code that is a few years old, not necessarily up to date or still used.  

On a daily basis, I am mainly working with Alexandre, our 2D artist, regarding UI integration and Hadrien when he requires UI for, for example, the passive skill tree, the active skill tree or his new quest manager.  

Recently, I have been working on the Dungeon Challenge, a game mode in which you will build your very own dungeon, using the same system as the Housing, to mine precious resources.
However, you will have to defend your dungeon and mines against other players trying to steal you and will have at your disposition creatures but also traps, which are today’s subject.

The Development of Wolcen continues with making version 0.4.1 available, which provides new spells, new items and force-move.

While the team is heavily focused on building the world and quests for update 0.5, work has continued toward improving other aspects of the game.
This update adds new spells and items to the game, and adds the highly requested force-move key !

Use Conflagration to ignite your foes by throwing fire from the tips of your fingers. You can even use both hands ! Thunderbolt will throw electric orbs that will damage anyone who stands in their path. With the right upgrade, they can fire electric arcs and even explode !
Holy Dive makes a return and now inflicts sacred damage. Fall from the skies and smite your enemies at the landing point !
Disruption also makes a comeback with its own modifiers. Use your powers to plant umbral bombs that will detonate after a few seconds !

Learn more about the quest system of Wolcen: Lords of Mayhem in this development update:

Work In Progress: Quests system

Hi everyone ! My name is Hadrien and I am Gameplay and Rendering programmer here at Wolcen Studio, but you may know me as Nyhlus on the game’s Discord and our Steam forums. I have worked on Wolcen : Lords of Mayhem for over a year now, and I’ve created several features that changed the way you play, like the rotating Passive Skills Tree (PST) or the Resource Opposition System (ROS). Yeah, I’m the guy putting acronyms everywhere. And today’s feature is not really different, because I call it the NQM and it will change your whole experience of Wolcen in the future : the New Quest Manager.

You probably feel like me on this : Wolcen current quests are not that cool. They are too short and not very interesting, and that’s not what we want you to experience. We want the open-world to be challenging, rewarding and immersive, and this usually comes with solid quests that bring you hours of fun gameplay without repeating themselves too much. Such quests surely are a challenge to script, but we also needed a robust system that would be easy to maintain and to debug, because quests bugs can be really annoying and quite hard to fix. So a few months ago I started the development of the NQM, along with my colleagues from the Environments department who started to work on the new version of the open-world, and together we tried to design a system that would be super-powerful and easy to setup at the same time.

The implementation on my side was a bit tricky and needed a lot of strictness, because the world state had to be precisely saved and loaded depending on your progression inside each available quest, and data management needed to be handled carefully but I made it through with a lot of testing. Creating the system also required a global rework of the quests User Interface, so as to show different windows for rewards, tracking objectives and accepting / declining quests. This has been achieved by my colleague Lucas, the UI-Master of Wolcen.

[...]

Thanks henriquejr!

Henriquejr spotted Kickstarter update #51 for Wolcen: Lords of Mayhem:

Update 0.4.0: Active skills tree, Cloud mode, Daily Dungeon and more!

Hi everyone !  

Update 0.4.0 is now available !  

WARNING: Because of deep changes brought to the save files and the game in general, this update wipes saves that are older than 0.4.0 experimental. If you created your character on 0.4.0 experimental, only your inventory, active skills and passive skills and passive skills will be reset. We apologize for the inconvenience.

With this update, we are introducing the “Cloud mode”. In this mode, your save data (character, chest, house…) will be stored on our servers. You can still play in offline mode (with everything stored on your harddrive and no internet connection required) by clicking the “switch to offline” button on the main menu.
Multiplayer co-op is not available yet but Cloud mode is a first step in its direction.

With Cloud mode and 0.4.0, we are also introducing the daily dungeon: a daily randomly generated dungeon shared by every players. The daily dungeon is bigger than the random dungeon you are used to and should offer more challenge with more elite enemies and a boss at the end you have to kill to finish the dungeon. A new beautiful Orc Dungeon architecture is also available.

Furthermore, the daily dungeon is timed and offer you a way to compete with your friend for who finishes the dungeon the fastest.
You can access the daily dungeon by talking to Don John in Amarth. You will also find the leaderboard next to him.
The daily dungeon is only accessible in Cloud mode. 

With 0.4.0 also comes the new active skill tree which offers you customization options for each and every skill like more range, more damage, cost reduction, but also a few gameplay variants that completely modify the way the skill will work. We aim to develop 10 variants for each skill in the future, meaning a highly customizable gameplay.  

Two new enemies are also joining the party with 0.4.0 : the Grave Keeper, an elite warrior of the zombie horde who wields a deadly sword and leads its minions into the melee. 

And the Orc Warlock, a powerful sorcerer manipulating dark magic and taking an ethereal form to avoid direct fights 

Finally, with this update come a lot of bug fixes, optimization, balancing and QOL improvements like, for example, the automatic positioning of the item’s text to avoid overlap.

In this case EA means Early Access, which started just over a year ago for Wolcen. The devs are looking back at what that year has brought them.

Wolcen, or Umbra as it was known at that time, started as a mod for the original Crysis, that gave users the tools to develop RPGs on CryEngine. Our CEO Daniel Dolui work for years on this project, with the goal of creating something reminiscent of the look and feel of Diablo 2, but made with modern technology. You can still find videos of this project on youtube, like this one or this one.  

As time went on, more people shared Daniel’s vision and joined the project, allowing the first working prototype see the light of day.  

2 years after, with a team of 4, a second prototype was ready to be presented at GDC 2015. It already featured many skills, armors pieces, impressive particle effects and a randomly generated dungeon. 
The prototype caught the attention of hack and slash enthusiasts, and word spread of a next-gen, class-free hack and slash being developed.
The very small team realized that fully realizing their vision would require expanding the scope of the project in a significant way. 

In may 2015, the Kickstarter campaign was launched and was a huge success, as we received almost twice the amount of funds. More than 11000 people gave us their trust, even though we weren’t big names, so the four of us left our bedroom to create our game studio and our licence. Wolcen studio was born. 

In march 2016, Wolcen was launched into Early Access, allowing us to build upon our relationship with the community.

Nothing is mentioned about a release date in the next year or so.

Wolcen: Lords of Mayhem has been updated to version 0.3.7:

Update 0.3.7 : Skull Crusher, new armors and more !

Hi everyone !

Update 0.3.7 has been deployed ! A new monster is awaiting in the grass fields, the mighty Skull Crusher. We’ve already revealed some of his moves in a previous devblog and you can now fight against him if you wish to test your skills.

To help you turn the tide in your favor, we’ve added three new sets of armor to the game : two light and a medium armor set. Proper affixes should roll on those new armor types, so players can better gear their characters according to their playstyle.

We also improved the Orc Charger. His charge is now smoother, and he’ll fall to the ground when hitting a wall.

This should be the last update before our next big milestone, update 0.4.0, which will introduce new major mechanics and new content. A lot of background work has been done in the past weeks in order to prepare for this huge update, so expect changes in overall balance and feel of the game.

[...]

Thanks henriquejr!

Here's a new Kickstarter update for Wolcen: Lords of Mayhem:

Update 0.3.6 - Mage Staves and Hit Animations!

Hi everyone !

Today we are releasing update 0.3.6, which finally brings Mage Staves to the game !

The power of the Staff

Each Staff comes in four variety, depending on its elemental type. As you’ll see, each element has a different attack style ! We’ve included Fire, Frost, Lightning and Umbra staves, and more elements will be added in the future. Using staves will let you damage the enemy while letting your umbra regenerate. Because of this, Unlimited Power has regained its status as a proper spender.

Our animator has also worked hard to add hit reaction to every enemy in the game. Combat should feel more satisfying now, as monsters will express pain with each blow they take.

Continuing, we also have a preview of a new monster that you'll soon have to fight against:

Introducing the Skull Crusher

In one of the previous article, we showcased one of the new monster that were being designed, the Ghoul.

This time we’d like you to meet the Skull Crusher !

And we made sure the big guy deserves his nickname. Now twice as big as before, and wielding a gigantic maul, the Skull Crusher is ready to crush skulls, including the player’s.

[...]

Thanks henriquejr!

A new video for Wolcen is available showing the new Ghoul and arrow shooting Orcs that keep a minimum distance to you and flee when in danger.

Wolcen: Lords of Mayhem has been updated again and has a long lists of fixes and additions.

Update 0.3.3 is now available for you to enjoy !
The team has worked hard to provide quality of life improvements to the game.
You’ll see a new item tooltip UI. Comparing items will be easier than ever !

There is a progress bar when charging an attack, teleporting to town or learning a spell.

The changes and additions can be found at the link. One thing to note is that this update will reset your progression.

Wolcen's latest update includes a player chest, a new character sheet, a passive blocking mechanic, and much more. The update weighs in at a whopping 8gb, but the devs have promised that it's the last one that big - future updates will be much smaller.

GENERAL:

* New: Player chest ! The player chest is now available in Amarth. You will also find a player chest in the housing furnitures for you to access your gear from your house. The player chest is shared between your characters.
* New: audio assets and audio system, triggering “horde” sound according to the number of enemies around
* Improved: Many of the content has been splitted for better loading times and, in the future, smaller updates. It should be the last 8Gb update! We now have 68 .pak, and we plan to split the data even more.
* Improved: Faster loading times. We once again optimized many files and you should gain a few seconds.
* Fixed: Plants near the river will now only give ferns, so players will always have enough to complete “The Cure” quest.
* Improved: The camera position has been slightly adjusted
* Removed: Halloween event dungeon.

Read the complete changelog here.

Aubrielle takes an early look at Wolcen, the good looking ARPG made in CryEngine.

On the surface, Wolcen may not look much different than a lot of favorite Diablo-like ARPGs.  It includes fast-paced action combat, loot, intricate skill trees, and unlockable portals to take you quickly from one zone to another.  But it differs in a few key ways.  For one thing, CryEngine technology allows for beautiful weather and atmospheric effects never before seen in a game this style.  Rain-slicked streets and puddle-ridden dirt roads glimmer with the light of sunrises or guttering torches.  Forests come alive with realistic trees and undergrowth, and are made gloomy by low-lying fog or sullen, miserable rain.  Even from an isometric view, it's absolutely clear what the sky looks like, even if you can't see it directly.  CryEngine allows a developer to easily render realistic atmosphere in their RPGs, doing far more to immerse the player than the less sophisticated environments used in many recent ARPG titles.

Wolcen: Lords of Mayhem has been updated bringing it to version 0.3.1. Click here for the changelist.

Hi everyone !
After the release of patch 0.3.0 last week, which added a host of new features like the passive skill tree and housing, the team decided to follow up with patch 0.3.1 this week.
We listened to the community's feedback and made some changes to the passive skills tree, and added new skills too.

Brutal Strike make a return in a completely new form, and players will be able to spin around thanks to the new Whirlwind spell.

We also made big improvements to player navigation. Players should not fall into the ground or fly in the air anymore, and can now go through destroyed objects and debris without any issues.

New housing assets are available as well.

And of course, you can expect the usual bug fixes and various balance changes.

Finally, there is a chance you could encounter some orange-headed enemies in the randomly regenerated dungeons...

Here is the complete changelog, have fun and happy halloween !

...

GENERAL:
* Modified: You now gain 3 Passive Points each Level instead of 2!
* Modified: Since the PST has been modified, we were forced to reset your progression in it.
* Fixed: The player was sometimes flying in the air when colliding with physical objects.

ENVIRONMENT:
* Improved: View distance of objects
* Improved: Fog performance
* Fixed: Missing physics on Mountains.

UI & VISUALS:
* New: Option to disable the ambient light around the player (activated by default).
* Modified: The White part of the ROS (indicating current consumptions) is back.
* Modified : Old blood decals have been removed from enemies.
* Fixed: The Reserved Resource feature in the ROS was malfunctioning on the Rage side.
* Fixed: Particle profiler displaying when too much particles on screen.
* Improved: Small reflection on Health globes
...

Henriquejr spotted Kickstarter update #38 for Wolcen: Lords of Mayhem:

Experimental Update 0.3.0: Passive Skill Tree and Housing preview !

 Hi everyone !

Today we are excited to finally bring you a taste of both our new Passive Skill Tree and Housing systems in the form on a experimental update !  

This update is optional, and only players who wish to experiment and give early feedback should opt-in. There are a few things to know if you do want to download the patch :  

•  You need to create a new character.  
•  Only the first two rings of the tree are available for now. 
•  A few skills cannot be activated because some mechanics have yet to be implemented (stances, mob aggro, …) 
•  Some skills depend on under-used mechanics (light armor specialization, backstab, shadow and sacred damage, …) 
• The location of skills in the sub-classes will be subject to changes, and the skills themselves are being balanced. 
•  Lore quotes are being written and will be added periodically. Feel free to submit yours if you think it fits a particular skill ! 
•  Stat points attribution in the character sheet will remain. 
•  You can respec your skill points for free by talking to the Loremaster. It won’t always be that way, of course. 
•  You can spend skill points and rotate the tree by visiting the Gate of Fates in Amarth. The tree can also be consulted at anytime by pressing P. 
•  You can be attacked and die while looking at the Passive Skill Tree in the wilderness. 
•  There are a few known bugs with housing. Those are being fixed and will be detailed in a dedicated forum thread. 
•  Furniture can be bought with gold for now, but crafting materials will be made available in the future. 
•  Your house can be accessed by talking to the house master near the bridge in Amarth 
•  The update adds auto-dashing attacks. Dashing can be disabled and enabled at will using the dedicated button on the UI or with the F key. 
•  Changes have been made to enemy health and damage, as well as weapon damage and armor. Further changes will be made during the week in order to provide balance.
• The maximum level is now capped at 20

This update comes with many other improvements and a partial rebalance of many game elements. This Branch will be updated over the week as we listen to feedback and bug reports.
Once the short testing period ends, the update will be made available to everyone with a detailed changelog and will pack even more improvements. This is by far the biggest update we ever made for the game, and dedicated feedback threads will be created in the forums.  

To download this preview patch, open the properties window of the game in Steam, and choose the experimental version in the betas tab.  

We can’t wait to see what kind of builds you come up with and watch your houses being built !  

Have fun !

Now that Wolcen is half a year in early access an update is provide on the state of development.

It has been a little over six months since Wolcen released in Early Access, so we thought it would be a good time talk about the development of the game, and where things are headed.
When the Kickstarter debuted SolarFall Games was comprised of 4 people, and Umbra (oh, nostalgia) was just a playable prototype. Back then, the goal was to make a cool but smaller hack and slash using CryEngine.
But that had to change when the game was funded with almost twice the goal reached in pledges. It was clear players craved for a Hack and slash with deep character customization and beautiful graphics.

Just as the team grew in size, so did the scope of the project. Wolcen is being made into a bigger, and ambitious game than what we had initially planned. We are working hard to turn old mechanics into innovative features like our new passive skill tree, the resource opposition system or the housing system.
Our goal is to make a really great game that can keep players engaged for years to come, the kind of game that we would like to play.  

Because of that, as many of you already guessed, the game will not come out in October as it was announced a year ago. At the time we did not fully realize the sheer volume of work that was to come. Videogames are often delayed, and this time is no exception.  

We would also like to address the state of the Linux port. Yes, it is still planned, but at this time, the team has to focus on a single platform in order to improve the current alpha. Our small team does not currently have the manpower to maintain two platforms at the same time and we still have to implement core features, fix bugs and improve the game’s stability on the PC version before we can move to Linux.
 We will try our best to release a working Linux version as soon as we possibly can, but we might have to migrate to CryEngine V first.  

The team is getting ready for the release the biggest patch to date, which will contain the new passive skill tree among may other cool things!  

We want to think our backers for their support, they made this game possible, and we hope to accompany them through the journey ahead of us.

The devs of Wolcen: Lords of Mayhem announce their new passive skills tree, in which they want to make hundreds of passive skills available.

The design phase of the new Passive Skill Tree started soon after the launch of Early Access, and went through many iterations before we decided on the actual rotating version. We knew from the beginning that we needed a system that allowed a considerable amount of freedom when it comes to builds and gameplay variety, as there is no class system in the game. 

We sat down and spent time planning each section of the rings, making sure every one of them adds a layer of fun and fantasy to the gameplay and offer interesting skill combinations with other skills.
We even made a real world rotating tree made of cardboard !
We want players to be able to craft their gameplay experience by finding their path through a series of templates inspired by various archetypes. Sections that are closer to the center of the Tree represent broader and well known fantasy archetypes, while sections situated farther away from the center are more specialized and advanced.

Last week an update for Wolcen: Lords of Mayhem became available featuring the update for 0.2.8, including the female gender that you can select now as well.

Hi everyone!
Today we are happy to present you the female character!
It was a stretch goal during our Kickstarter, and one of the most demanded feature, so here is a small video presenting her, and her customization options:

A list of other new and updated features can be found at the link.

A Kickstarter update about the housing in Wolcen: Lords of Mayhem:

Work In Progress: Housing

Hi everyone !
In today’s devblog, we’ll be giving you a sneak peak at the current state of the housing system. 

You may remember the housing from our kickstarter video. Needless to say we’ve made huge progress since then but the core stayed the same : offering you the possibility to build your very own home, from the floor and walls to the furnitures.
Your house is also a place where you’ll be able to rest, store items, put the legendary armors and weapons you are not using on display using arms rack and much more !

Once you’ve purchased the land, you’ll have to lay down the foundations of you home by placing some floor and walls chosen from a wide range of options : stone, wood, marble...

[...]

We are very close to having a first playable version of the housing for you guys and we can’t wait to see your creations! 

Stay tuned, as we are working on a huge, game-changing update that will transform the way the game is played. This is something that we have been teasing for a while, and is almost ready to be released. See you on the forums!

In this development update for Wolcen: Lords of Mayhem the first animated gifs showing decapitation and dismemberment are available. Also there is some footage on new combos:

We also have more footage for Two Handed Axe Combos as well as special attacks for weapons. Those will consume Rage (and refill Umbra), with various effects and synergies. The Dual Daggers Rend will make all enemies around bleed for a small amount of damage, but each strike form the combo will increase the bleed damage significantly.
The Two Handed Sword Charged attack will strike enemies in a straight line for massive amounts of damage that increases with each enemy pierced. Make sure to impale as many enemies as you can ! The Two Handed Axe Charged attack strikes in an arc in front of the players, hitting all foes caught in the blast. The damage and range of charged attacks will vary depending on how much you charged it. Release the button too soon and it will be cancelled, too late and you won’t do maximum damage. Timing will be of the essence ! 
The version you are seeing right now isn’t finalized. The final one will have particle effect to make it awesome and help you see the charge levels.

And the camera system has been revamped.

By default the camera now has a smoothing effect that always the players to veer off center, allowing you to see more of the world. There’s a slider to control the amount of sway, and a dissociated camera option to always have the player on the center of the screen. Raise the slider and uncheck the dissociated camera option to return to a traditional camera style (but still smoother than it was before), or put the slider to the minimum for a super-immersive and cool looking console-style camera. The choice is yours !

Some major gameplay changes are explained in Kickstarter update #30:

PATCH 0.2.0 : REDESIGNED MAIN UI AND MAJOR GAMEPLAY CHANGES!

Hi everyone !  
Patch 0.2.0 took a long time to make, as it brings some game changing features to the alpha.  

The Resource Opposition System (Umbra vs Rage) is now implemented, and a whole new UI has been designed for it !
The new melee system and magical effects shown in our devblog video are now released ! 

 Weapon Based Combos 

We really wanted combat in Wolcen to feel visceral and satisfying, and weapons to represent more than just a bunch of statistics. Now your basic weapon attack (left click) will be replaced with a combo skill depending on the type of weapon equipped. Each combo is different and features unique animations, ranges and cleave angles, as well as special effects like a chance to stun. Experienced players will be able to take advantage of mid-combo bonuses by timing their strikes, and more casual players will get to enjoy awesome animations. 

 This is the very first iteration of this system, for this reason there might be a few minor issues, but we really want to hear your feedback on this. The next versions will add a special move assigned to right click (like a charged attack or a guard if you have a shield equipped), and an auto-dash feature, allowing you to close-in on the enemy with a fast attack.

Our second big feature is one we call “Resource Opposition System”. Early during development it became clear to the team that resource management was an issue in the game. Being classless, it featured three different resource pools: Mana, Rage and Stamina. Players were able to empty one of those resources, and they would still have enough to cast powerful spells with the other, and then still have enough for defensive spells that used Stamina. Our solution was a system we affectionally dubbed “Le Sablier” Le Sablier was an hourglass-shaped resource gauge that could rotate on itself. It featured a single resource pool that changed type between mana and rage depending on which side of the hourglass it was in. Mana flowed into Rage when it was up, and Rage slowly dripped into Mana. This system would in theory solve many issues of the old one and would add a lot of depth to the gameplay.

In the first iteration of this system you could shift the hourglass-vial whenever you wanted to, but it was too confusing to do that in the middle of combat. We then switched to an automatic system. Because this system imposed a strict rule that resources had to transfer from the top section to the bottom one, the hourglass had to shift every-time a resource was spent. This had the unfortunate side effect of slowing the gameplay down, so we made the difficult choice of cancelling this system.

We then developed a system not so different using simpler gauges, that allowed for resources to transfer quickly both-ways. Stamina was streamlined into points, and rolling uses one stamina point. It also was the perfect opportunity to finally rename Mana into Umbra, the magical energy of the game.

With this new system called Resource Opposition System, both Umbra and Rage will be useful, whether you play as a mage, warrior or a hybrid type of character. Because each resource fills the other in some way, every spell in the game can be useful no matter what your play style. New passives will allow warriors to transfer Umbra into rage when hit, or delay the time before Rage starts to fill Umbra. Mages will be able to accelerate the rate at which Rage gets transferred into Umbra. There is only one resource pool, and players will have to manage how it is spread across Umbra and Rage.

[...]

Thanks henriquejr!

Henriquejr spotted some news for Wolcen: Lords of Mayhem:

PATCH 0.1.9: HUGE PERFORMANCE IMPROVEMENTS, WEATHER SYSTEM, WEAPON TRAILS, DEATH SYSTEM WIP, NEW LOCALIZATION AND MORE !

Hi Backers, it's update time ! Here's the complete changelog :

GENERAL: Huge performance improvements. The performance shouldn’t decrease over time now. 
New: Weather system version 1.0. The sky is now more dynamic, with giant clouds blocking the sun, and rain all over the world of Wolcen.

 Hi Backers, it's update time ! Here's the complete changelog :

GENERAL:Huge performance improvements. The performance shouldn’t decrease over time now. 
New: Weather system version 1.0. The sky is now more dynamic, with giant clouds blocking the sun, and rain all over the world of Wolcen.

New: Dynamic weapon trails! The system is now fully fonctionnal. It will alow use to add nice trail effects to all weapons and skills using sets of particles. Most weapon particles are currently WIP. 
New: Once dead, you can only respawn in Amarth. Enemies will respawn. Every looted items on the ground will disappear.
New: Merchant purchases will now use gold limitation.
New: Active Effect for various magic icons (burn, open wound, movement speed) – Still WIP, some effects are not displaying icons at the moment.
Fixed various crashes involving enemies projectile 

 UI:
Improved: The HUD displaying loot icons is now running in 60 frame per second – Icon struttering is fixed.
Fixed: Waypoints name weren’t displayed on minimap.
Fixed : various bug displaying item details
New : Tooltip for Character Sheet details have been added
Improved: The Book tutorial will not appear out of the tutorial area
Fixed: Missing icons in the Passive Skill tree 

 LOCALIZATION:
Improved: English localization thanks to Squidcake!
New: Spanish localization by ldtime. Thank you ldtime!
New: French localization.
Fixed : A lot of missing strings have been replaced in both English and French. So Wolcen is now in English, Spanish, French, Chinese, German, and soon hungarian! Thanks to our awesome community. You guys you are doing a great job.  The fonts are work in progress. 

 GAMEPLAY:
Improved: Dead impulse is now more realistic. Most enemies doesn’t feel like weighing 20kg anymore.
New weapons to loot !
Improved: Enemies with elemental aura and affinity don’t have a permanent aura anymore – The effect is now active for a limited time, then disappears, and appears again (regular pulse)
Fixed a glitch allowing the player to move fast after a dodge (space bar) Greatly reduced bleed damage inflicted by butchers
Improved: Dialog boxes stay now 15secondes instead of 7.
Fixed: All enemies are now affected by the dead impulse (some of them were just falling on the ground).
Fixed: The player will never be blocked in a non walkable area (fixed – the previous patch was not 100% working) 

 ENVIRONMENT:
Improved: Optimize the polycount of the ferns by approximately 200%
Improved: Ennemies spawning on screen
New Megascans assets with an area reworked.

 CHARACTERS:
Fixed : Capes are now properly saved and loaded  

 ANIMATION: Various fixes for player animations
Ogre default attack modified

Expect performance improvements and new game features such as dynamic weather from Wolcen: Lords of Mayhem which has a new kickstarter update.

Hi Backers, it's update time ! Here's the complete changelog :

GENERAL:Huge performance improvements. The performance shouldn't decrease over time now.
New: Weather system version 1.0. The sky is now more dynamic, with giant clouds blocking the sun, and rain all over the world of Wolcen.

New: Dynamic weapon trails! The system is now fully fonctionnal. It will alow use to add nice trail effects to all weapons and skills using sets of particles. Most weapon particles are currently WIP.
New: Once dead, you can only respawn in Amarth. Enemies will respawn. Every looted items on the ground will disappear.
New: Merchant purchases will now use gold limitation.
New: Active Effect for various magic icons (burn, open wound, movement speed) - Still WIP, some effects are not displaying icons at the moment.
Fixed various crashes involving enemies projectile

UI:
Improved: The HUD displaying loot icons is now running in 60 frame per second - Icon struttering is fixed.
Fixed: Waypoints name weren't displayed on minimap.
Fixed : various bug displaying item details
New : Tooltip for Character Sheet details have been added
Improved: The Book tutorial will not appear out of the tutorial area
Fixed: Missing icons in the Passive Skill tree

LOCALIZATION:
Improved: English localization thanks to Squidcake!
New: Spanish localization by ldtime. Thank you ldtime!
New: French localization.
Fixed : A lot of missing strings have been replaced in both English and French. So Wolcen is now in English, Spanish, French, Chinese, German, and soon hungarian! Thanks to our awesome community. You guys you are doing a great job � The fonts are work in progress.

GAMEPLAY:
Improved: Dead impulse is now more realistic. Most enemies doesn't feel like weighing 20kg anymore.
New weapons to loot !
Improved: Enemies with elemental aura and affinity don't have a permanent aura anymore - The effect is now active for a limited time, then disappears, and appears again (regular pulse)
Fixed a glitch allowing the player to move fast after a dodge (space bar) Greatly reduced bleed damage inflicted by butchers
Improved: Dialog boxes stay now 15secondes instead of 7.
Fixed: All enemies are now affected by the dead impulse (some of them were just falling on the ground).
Fixed: The player will never be blocked in a non walkable area (fixed - the previous patch was not 100% working)

ENVIRONMENT:
Improved: Optimize the polycount of the ferns by approximately 200%
Improved: Ennemies spawning on screen
New Megascans assets with an area reworked.

A big update for Wolcen: Lords of Mayhem has been released:

Update 0.1.7

Hi everyone !
First of all, we want to thank all of you for the help and feedback you provided us until now !
It has really helped us debugging and shaping the game, and we are working hard to fix the remaining crashes, glitches and other bugs.
We understand that performance and UI issues are the main problem at the moment, and we are working on it. In a close future we will also focus on decreasing loading times and adding new replayable mechanics.
For today, we are bringing a lot of new stuff, including a whole new dodge-roll mechanic in the game and 13 new skills as well! Here is the changelog, and a small video update.  

Cheers,
Wolcen Studio

loading...

GENERAL:
New: (Game changing) Dodge system: Press the space bar to perform a quick escape move. It costs 5 stamina points, available per default.
New: 13 new Skills New/Fix: Magic effects for weapons and armor are now generated as normal adding a lot of new items modifiers in the game
New: Added a minimap arrow pointing to the current quest Objective (gold for main quest, silver for secondary quest)
New: Added a small animation for newly equipped items in the Equipped Slot of the Inventory
Fixed: graphical options are now saved (low effect mode, SVOTI, and distant depth of field)
Fixed: Camera rotation issue
Fixed: Camera stuttering – The player acceleration has been increased while the basic inertia stays smooth
Fixed: Dual Wielded weapons were not correctly restored when loading a characters
Fixed: Several crashes involving Orc skills Improve: the random generated dungeons are now less subject to invisible walls, we are working on a full solution.
Modified: The max camera distance has been increased by 10%

UI:Fixed: Various missing localization (@ui_something)
Fixed: Dialog Box border removed
Improved: Active Skills UI: Tooltip on Power and Utility
Improved: Top screen health bar design
Improved: Passive Skill Panel looks decent now
Modified: Text font for each UI panels
Modified: Close button is now similar in each main UI windows

ENVIRONMENT:Fixed: Unending night in the open World Modified: new lighting for the Character Selection
Fixed: remove the player chest in the dungeons
Modified : Reduced the number of bandits and outlaws spawns

AUDIO:Modified: Replaced the (annoying) sound when you learn a spell
Fixed: Some sounds were ignoring the Volume parameters

CHARACTERS:
New: Level of Details of “Ogre”.
New: Level of Details of “Pythus”.
New: Level of Details for “Old Zombie”.
New: Level of Details for “Champion Orc”.
Improved: Burn particle for Pithus based models and skeleton models
Improved: Driller model has new detailed texture (but the Improve: Eye shader for the player

AI:
Modified: NightStalkers no longer chase the player. However, they will teleport and attack if the player comes too close
Improved: Fluid movement for Infernal Dogs

ANIMATION:
New: Default dodge animation for one handed and two handed poses
New: Idle animation for NightStalker
Improved: Dual wielding movement animations
Improved: Dual wielding right attack animation
Modified: Ghoul animations

FX:
New: Two handed Glass Hammer (looking really good :))
Improved: Effect of used Rage Globe on Player
Improved: Explosion and trail of the Fire Rain Skill
Improved: Effect of Charger Orc

GAMEPLAY :
New Skills: Each of these skills can be looted on enemies. Each skills has various chances to be found.
List of new skills:
Umbra Ray: Cast multiple magic rays to nearby enemies. Only works if enemy are present
Blizzard: A small blizzard will damage and snare affected enemies
Chain Lightning: Lightning strikes several targets, bounding from one to another
Deep Strike: Strike a group of enemies by teleporting on them. You will have a chance to stun them on landing.
Lightning Bolt: Combo spells striking fast moving projectile all around
Magnetic Strike: A fast casted, localized, lightning explosion
Bloodbath: Enemies can no longer target you, and you steal health of the enemies nearby
Force Shield: Provide you a chance to drop incoming attack or projectile
Mass Frenzy: Enemies start to attack each other
Ground Stomp: Stun all enemies nearby
Umbral Bomb: A powerful explosion after a long delay in a localized area
War Cry: Increase you armor and rage rating during a limited amount of time Absorption Shield: Absorb incoming damage and make projectile bounce (can possibly strike enemies nearby)

Wolcen: Lords of Mayhem (formerly Umbra) is now live on Steam:

Trailer:

loading...

The cost of entering Early Access for Wolcen: Lords of Mayhem (fka Umbra) is set to $20, which is lower than the tier where alpha access became available in the Kickstarter. Because fo that all those who pledged $20 or more will now be eligible to participate in the alpha. However this also means that those who pledged more at the time to get alpha access, pledge too much.

We will be releasing Wolcen: Lords of Mayhem on Steam in just about two weeks, but before we do, there’s some important information we want to share with you, our backers. Considering today's Early Access landscape and our desire to create a strong, robust community around our game, we have decided to set the price of the alpha version of the game to 20 USD at the start of Steam Early Access on March 24. This initial price will allow the game to be more accessible to those still discovering it for the first time, providing even more voices to help shape the experience as it grows.

We realize that some of you may have concerns at this news – and we understand that, had we had this information at the time of our Kickstarter campaign, you may have decided to invest your money differently. Your good will and support has allowed us to build this company, this team, and this game, and we want to ensure your contributions feel appropriately valued and appreciated as we continue forward. To that end, we plan on updating a number of our various backer tiers with additional rewards to reflect this new initial Early Access release price. Keep in mind that these new bonuses are in addition to – not in place of - the rewards each relevant tier will already be receiving:

All backers of the WARRIOR tier will now receive alpha access to the game on Steam Early Access.

All backers of the KNIGHT and above tiers will earn entry to the Early Access alpha, as well as an additional exclusive cosmetic weapon skin pack.

All APPRENTICE-level backers will receive alpha access, the previously described weapon pack, and an additional exclusive item. We have a few options we’re considering for what this item will be – it might be special armor, an exclusive pet skin, or something else entirely inspired by the community! If you qualify for this tier or above, you can reply directly to the email we sent you until April 7 with any suggestions for things you’d like to see. All backers of the SORCERER tier and above will receive all the previously listed exclusive items, as well as the Digital Deluxe Edition of the game (when it is available), with an estimated value of at least 39 USD. It will include an exclusive pet skin, a digital design works art book, and several exclusive cosmetic assets, both for character customization and for the Dungeon Challenge to come. And we’d like to add some other form of exclusive on top of these rewards, so again, if you have other ideas for things you’d like to see, we’d love to hear them – just reply directly to this message for your ideas.

@PC Gamer Farewell Umbra and Solarfall Games and say hello Wolcen: Lords of Mayhem and Wolcen Studio respectively. This name change has also come with an announcement. The game will be available on Steam Early Access March 24th.

loading...

The action-RPG Umbra looked pretty decent when we laid eyes on it last year, and it made enough of an impression to almost double its $225,000 Kickstarter goal. But much has changed since then. The title, for one thing, which is now Wolcen: Lords of Mayhem, and the name of the studio making it: formerly Solarfall Games, now Wolcen Studio. And on March 24, it will go live on Steam Early Access.

The Early Access release will contain the "basics" of the game, with large areas of the world open to explore, classless character advancement, and elemental magic effects. It will continue to evolve over the Early Access period (which of course is the whole point of Early Access), beginning with the addition of Apocalyptic Form, a "core combat mechanic" expected to arrive shortly after launch that enables players to "evolve their special abilities and appearance" to match their style of play. Personally, I'd expect more than a new haircut and a nice change of clothes from something called "Apocalyptic Form," but maybe there's more to it than it sounds.

Wolcen released a new teaser to go along with the Lords of Mayhem name change, and it looks pretty sweet. There's nothing about it that's obviously revolutionary, but the eye candy is nice, and that's a good place to start. Until the Early Access version lands, you can find out more about what's coming at umbragame.com-the name may have changed, but URLs are forever-but do note that with the Steam launch looming, preorders through the site are no longer being taken. (The studio said the preorder button will be removed in the near future.)

A new development update for Umbra popped up, which talks about what will be in the alpha release.

We wanted to share how we’re going to be updating things over the coming weeks and months regarding the release of the Alpha early access on Steam. We have been working very hard on the game to provide you an exciting Hack and slash experience

A part of open world will be ready to explore; the different areas were meticulously refined in order to offer diversity in terms of gameplay and ambiance. Going from place to place will always have a different feeling depending of the path you choose to take and the time of the day. Enemies with dynamics level will randomly spawn making sure that you always have something to slay at any place. You will have to custom you build with skills depending of the situation.

The main story will begin right away with the mysterious templars helping you. The system of quests and the story line will be updated every patches to craft the adventure step by step until the final release. Randomly generated dungeons will be present on the open world. You will have to explore the world to unlock the different styles of environments generated.

Different class of weapon and armor are available at the beginning but expect a lot more to be added along the way. We'll continue to tune the features in terms of quality and quantity each month.

Craft, housing and dungeon challenge will not be available at first because we wanted to focus more on the core of the game before releasing these features.

Also, some of us will be present at the GDC in San Francisco at the Crytek booth, the game will be playable so come hang out with us if you are in the area !

Another release that is being delayed to next year is the alpha release for Umbra.

It has been a long time since our last news, so we wanted to give you a small update about the game's development and the team !

We are now seven people working full time on Umbra, in addition of our various partners !

The development of the game is still keeping us very busy, and because we want provide you the best early access possible, we chose to delay the release of the game to early 2016. That way, it will give us more time to improve the version and include a bit more content that we originally planned. We are building some very exciting features, such as a brutal boss fight, a nice fraction of the open world to be explored and much more !

A German fan site for Umbra summed up the features that were talked about in that stream. Google translate says this, which I converted into this:

• The Office had unfortunately been found later than planned
• This resulted in a delay of one month
• Currently, the Solarfall Games team consists of 7 employees
• The first Alpha version is scheduled for mid-December
• The known information regarding modding, animal companions and mercenaries were clarified again
• The Stream showed the GDC 2015 prototype
• The first multiplayer mode will be available about 3 months after the Alpha release in a patch (March 2016)
• The game looks, in the current version, once again better than in the prototype version

Thanks Eye.

The stretch goal for The Dungeon Challenge Replay Mode for Umbra has been unlocked.

This stretch goal unlock the Dungeon Challenge Replay Mode ! This will allow you to see exactly how other players take on the challenge of the dungeon you've created, so you can work to make it as deadly as possible !

We want, once again, to thanks everybody who took part in this great adventure ! The game evolved a lot recently, we now using the 3.8.3 version of the engine, and we refactored many features, to be more clean and scalable. The HUD has been rewrited to fit any resolution and we fixed a lot of bugs, and the game content is growing a lot since we all moved in the same place to work on the game.

We want to apologize again for the delayed reaction we had on some issue of backer downloading our prototype. We are working hard to create the best Early Access version possible, and our focus was very oriented to the game creation itself.

That being said, we are thinking about various option to fix these communication issue we have and we hope to make things much better in a close future !

Here is some news about Umbra, although it actually is more about the team moving to a new office, that they now will increase their team size and should be getting some more work done.

We are very happy to come back to you today with some fresh news about our studio!

We had a lot of delays recently due to our office setup that took much more time than expected. We are now fully operational in our new place, and have started to work in a common place few days ago.

We are currently working on several side of the game. We are now running on CryEngine 3.8.3, and by jumping from a version to another, the game looks even better now !

We also took backer’s feedback in consideration since we improve performance a lot !

We want to thanks everyone who spend time on our forum to share ideas with us, some of them are very interesting and will be implemented in the final game !

Now that we have the proper place to work, we will be able to bring you more regular and frequent update! Stay tuned, and don’t forget to come on our forum to share your ideas for the project.

Jonas Ek (TGG) made a preview for Umbra playing the recently released prototype:

So I made a 11 minute long Umbra prototype preview about one week ago (I have been playing the prototype build for hours and hours now). So, yeah, I've grown tired of Diablo 3 over time, I have been in search for something better, something new, and something exciting. Well, my search might be over thanks to Solarfall Games and their open-world, hack n slash RPG Umbra. However, I should point out that the final version of Umbra won't be released until October next year. Nevertheless, I think that Umbra will be worth the long wait. Besides, this gives SolarFall Games quite a lot of time to polish, tweak, kill off bugs and improve Umbra before the game gets released next year. Nevertheless, so far so good I have to say, I'm still waiting for some news updates for Umbra though, as it's been almost two weeks since Solarfall posted anything new about Umbra.

A new prototype for the crowdfunded Umbra has been released. All backers (with an high enough tier) got this email:

In this prototype you can experiment the basics of the gameplay, have access to various spells, and kill some monsters in randomly generated dungeons.

In the beginning, follow the main path and walk over the bridge. Go to see the human with a "!" above his head and click on "Start bounty" in the menu in order to create a portal to a randomized level.

Once you accomplish the mission, go talk to the character that opened the portal to get a reward.

In the main menu, you can click the "Help the Devs" button : By clicking this button, you will connect your game session to our server. This will allow us to gather some gameplay related info, for us to test our metric system. It will really help us in the game development process, so please click this button! You will have to click this every time you start the game.

Commands

• [left click] Move and "weapon attack"
• [middle click] Turn the camera
• [1,2,3,4, right click] Use spells
• [I] Open/close Inventory. Drag and drop item to equip them.
• [S] Open/close Active skill menu
• [T] Teleport (to use at the end of the dungeon)
• [A,S,D] Use the potion on your belt

You can zoom in/out with the wheel.

System Requirements

Operating System
Windows Vista SP1, Windows 7, Windows 8.

CPU
Intel Core 2 Duo 2GHz, AMD Athlon 64 X2 2GHz or better (multi-core processor is strongly recommended).

Memory
4 GB RAM (8 GB recommended).

Video Card
NVIDIA series 400, Radeon HD 6000 Series or better (DirectX 11 minimum)

You may have to install the windows VCRedist, two .exe installer are in the 'VCRedist' folder at root. Please install all vcredist, x86 and 64, for 2010, 2012 and 2013 version !

Acknowledgements
This is an early prototype and does not represent the final quality of the game. You may encounter bugs and crashes, we are working on it. Not every feature is included in this prototype.

A status update for Umbra, which is about non-development stuff is made available by SolarFall Games.

As you know, a month ago our Kickstarter ended and so it is now time for us to give you some news, after this long period of silence!

We have been very busy lately, setting up all of the details of the post Kickstarter element, such as the migration of the website to a newer one, retrieving backers information, working on the creation of our forum and more!

We also chose a place to have our studio and this will allow us to perform at a much more efficient work place - rather than the Skype based system we used previously, and it will really be a great improvement for the game! We will post some pictures once we've finished moving in!

We have also been working on the forum for our website! It is now just a matter of week before we open it and we can’t wait to see the various ideas you guys have to share with us!

The prototype is also being prepared for backers of rank Wizard+, and should be delivered in just under a month.

Last thing, the exclusive Kickstarter rewards will be removed from the pre-order section of our website real soon! The classic Kickstarter reward will be replaced soon with a more classical shop, so spread the word, it is the last week to get the exclusive rewards of the Kickstarter.

We hope to have more exciting news to share with you guys real soon!

In their first post Kickstarter update for Umbra, Solarfall Games provides some feedback on what their plans are for the short and long term.

After a long month of working on the Kickstarter, we at SolarFall Games are counting down the days for us to get back to working on Umbra. We barely got any sleep over the last month, so we'll be taking a short break while Kickstarter collects the funds from the campaign! This usually takes around two weeks, so once that has been taken care of, and after getting some rest, we'll get back to Umbra non-stop.

So, to sum things up, depending on your reward tier, this is the order in which you'll get your rewards:

Forum Badge: Couple of months from now

GDC Prototype: Couple of months from now

Alpha Access: November-December 2015

Beta Access: 2016 (Month To Be Determined)

Full Release For Umbra: November 2016

Physical Rewards: After The Game Has Launched

Congratulations to SolarFall Games!

Update #17 on the Kickstarter page:

Thank you! 

It has been an amazing ride for all of us at SolarFall Games, and we couldn't have reached this achievement without all of your support.

Our Kickstarter was an intense and very rewarding experience. We started with a pretty excited but anxious state of mind and quickly rejoiced when we saw how many backers were supporting our game! Kickstarter management is a very hard and intense activity, but all the backers comment and their keen interest in what we wanted to offer inspired us to keep going strong! The community also provided us with some valuable feedback and interesting ideas, and once again, we're thankful for that! 

Press coverage has also been great during the whole campaign, and we also want to thank all the Youtubers and Twitchers - Gronkh, Natsuma_Z, AbilityDrain, Irregular Dave and more - that featured our game on their channels, as well as all the media outlets that helped us to spread the word about Umbra !

Umbra has ended at over 180% funded, thanks to 11k backers, which is definitely higher than our initial goal! Umbra has now become the most funded French game project on Kickstarter, and we can’t thank you enough for this! Umbra will now be a bigger and better game thanks to all of your help.

So, what’s next?

In the followings months, we'll open the forum, and all backers at their respective tiers will get access to the forum, as well as their precious forum badges!

We will also make sure we get all the prototype access ready for backers at the Wizard or higher tier in the following two months so that you can get a glimpse of what Umbra is all about !

For a few more days, people who didn’t get a chance to pledge at the Kickstarter will be able to purchase reward packs on our website, featuring the exclusive content for the Kickstarter. But once that time is up, we will switch to a more classical pre-order shop, and all the Kickstarter exclusive rewards will be gone! So if you know someone who missed the Kickstarter for Umbra, or who didn't have access to a credit card, be sure to share with them the link to our website!

And after that… well, we will restart working on the actual game!

We plan to release the Technical Alpha on Steam Early Access (around November-December 2015). We will also restart to work on our Devblog, to show you some of the cool tech we use in the game!

And for those of you that haven’t done so already be sure to find us in our social media pages below:

• Twitter
• Facebook
• IndieDB

Daniel Dolui, SolarFall Games, Creator of Umbra

Thank You!

The Kickstarter for Umbra is currently $25K away from reaching the stretch goal in which a female character is added and with just 50 something hours to go that might or might not make it in.

The latest update however is about what mercenaries and animal companions are about in Umbra.

How many mercenaries or pets can you have at any given time? 

At first? Per the default set up, players will only be able to have one of each as they take on all the dungeons, missions and side-quests we’re creating for Umbra… but there’s a twist! Depending on how you build your hero, you will gain access to a set of passive skills that will improve your relationship with your pets and with the mercenaries you can hire, and this will allow you to have up to THREE dog companions and THREE mercenaries with you at once! 

 Like we’ve said over and over, we want players to play Umbra the way they want, and the game is very permissive for character building. Therefore, high-level passive skills allow for a lot of “super-effects” such as this one! Can you imagine running around a dungeon with the Umbra WarDog, the Zombie WarDog and the Frost Wolf by your side? Or how about a fierce group of experienced mercenaries to cover your back. 

And since, again, players can enjoy playing Umbra anyway they want, they can even select to go at it solo with NO PETS and NO MERCENARIES at their side for an even greater challenge! How will YOU take on this grand journey?

With 3 days to go SolarFall Games has finally reached their first Umbra multiplayer game element:

"Umbra is something that the SolarFall Games team and I have worked on for the last four years and we're ecstatic to see that the gaming world is as excited for the game as we are." said Daniel Dolui Lead Programmer and Game Director at SolarFall Games. "We've now unlocked our first multiplayer element, Hero Defense Mode! This is a replayble mission with randomized elements where players need to defend a temple, whilst achieving side missions outside of it.  It's fast, frantic and most importantly, fun!"

Umbra has so far achieved over $324,000 in pledges (144% funded), in-game canine pets for backers have been revealed, unlocked localisation for Russian, German and Spanish and also a global leaderboard so that players can claim bragging rights for the highest level, highest damage or even being the richest player in the world!

Umbra is an open world action-RPG taking place in a corrupted world that is falling apart. You are a former soldier, forced to flee the death penalty because of your magic powers. Being tracked down by humans and hunted by the monsters of the Wild, you are recruited by a mysterious group of Templars, and thus your epic adventure begins...
 
Currently Umbra's funding is now over $327,000, with 3 days to go on the campaign and there's still time to back the CryEngine3 based hack 'n' slash RPG from just $15!

-> Kickstarter page

In their latest update for the Umbra Kickstarter the devs talk about the apocalyptic form.

The Apocalyptic Form is an ultimate power every player will have, and it will allow you to shapeshift into your very own avatar of destruction. You will build your apocalyptic form thanks to the various Apocalyptic Upgrades that will be unlocked according to your playstyle in Umbra, and you can mix and match up to three of them at once to create your particular Apocalyptic Form.

Now, enough talk, take a look at the video below!

On the link above you will also find two more videos of a play-through using the alpha prototype of the game.

In the 10th Kickstarter update for the Umbra campaign we are provided with information on character customization and a new Reward Tier.

In today’s update, we want to share with you the early work available for the basic character customization elements in Umbra. As stated before, the initial funding features a male character hero with several customization options, which is why we can develop Umbra with the funds from our main goal of $225,000. Again, we're incredibly thankful of all of your support, and with your help we're aiming at creating a great looking female character with her own personalization options, fully integrated into the lore for Umbra.

We also want to let everyone know that we're adding a new tier called Beast Tamer at $135, which will include Pet Skin 3 for... the Fire Wolf! You can see the concept art for this new pet skin below. Everyone at $135 or higher will be getting this new Kickstarter exclusive Pet Skin, so those of you at Duke or higher don't need to do a single thing since you're already getting this new Pet Skin!

Umbra has already reached 6 of 13 stretch goals on Kickstarter with 8 days to go.

Nathan O'Grady (Invision Game Community) has written down his first impressions - some snippets:

Umbra is an upcoming next-gen hack n’ slash title from indie developers SolarFall Games. Their first project as a team of like minded games industry professionals, Umbra is inspired by Diablo II and aims to offer plays a rich RPG action adventure with huge levels of personalisation, customisation, open gameplay and excitement. The game is currently pre-alpha, and is just under two weeks away from completing its successful Kickstarter campaign. I was invited to take a look at just a small piece of what Umbra was all about ahead of any initial builds being completed, and I was happy to accept the offer!

(...)

The level which I played through in Umbra was remarkably well constructed considering it was randomly generated. Things did not look at all out of place, and if you did not know better you would believe the dungeon which I found myself fighting through had been purpose built rather than created by a computer as I sat and waited. My mission was to claim a bounty in this dungeon, which of course lay on the head of an enemy towards the end of it. As I fought my way through, I had plenty of chance to try out different skills, appreciate the environment around me, and generally just enjoy the game. I felt comfortable playing, and happy with the entire experience around me, which for a single level in a pre-alpha game is a pretty impressive achievement too. Everything flowed well from start to finish, and I was never caught out by any nasty bugs or problems. It all felt very nice to play.

As a whole then, my first look at Umbra was a very positive experience indeed. I did not find anything I didn’t like about what I was seeing or what I was playing – it all felt extremely well developed for a project which as yet is in a very early stage of development. There are a number of other exciting features which I did not get to see which sound like they will be fantastic additions to the game too, such as fully customisable house building and multiplayer co-op and challenges among many others. At this very early stage then, Umbra already appears to be surpassing what anyone would likely be expecting of it. If things continue along a similar road, the final product will be well worth the investment of the backers who have helped it!

Zulai Serrano (iDigitalTimes) has interviewed Lead Programmer and Game Director at SolarFall Games Daniel Dolui:
Umbra: The Modder-Friendly Indie Game That May Put Skyrim To Shame

Some snippets:

iDigi: Players will be able to customize their homes in Umbra. Can you elaborate on the housing system and what makes it unique?

The house will be built thanks to resources find during the game. You will need to first look for the requested elements and then collect them, and then come back to where you want your house and create it. You will be able to customize the ground and the walls, choose how to light the house and decorate with varied furniture.

The best housing element will be unlocked thanks to achievement in the game, and you will be able to create a statue of your own self slaying a boss for example!Another cool feature about housing in Umbra is the ability to build your home and showcase weapons, armors and other items all over the place!

iDigi: How customizable is the game? Will it be modder-friendly (like Skyrim) when the time comes?

I started to develop games as a modder, so I would love that people change and mod the game as much as they want. Pretty much all game system and assets of Umbra are based on XML files, really easy and obvious to edit. We know that modding is something that can really push a game and we want to offer the possibility to people to really change the face of the game.

So integration of assets to our game system should be quite easy. If people want to go deeper into customization, they will then need to access Crytek’s Sandbox. It is a Crytek product, so we won’t be able to distribute it. The current version is currently available on subscription on Steam, but some assets are still compatible with FreeSDK, especially for weapon, props and animation creation.

With over $250K, three of the stretchgoals for the Umbra Kickstarter are realized and it is on to the next stretch goal, with the most interesting one (in my opinion) being the stretch goal at $320K: multiplayer support.

Anyway, this update is about the random dungeon generation and an explanation of the end game.

In today’s video update, we are going to show you how Umbra’s level generation works. It will allow us to give you a glimpse of its capabilities, both for gameplay replayability and for modders who will get their hands on Crytek’s Cryengine sandbox. Since some team members started to work on videogames in the world of mods, we would love to see our game modded, and we have therefore designed the game system in Umbra on XML files to make sure people will be able to easily mod them!

Please note that Sandbox is a Crytek product, so we will not be able to redistribute it with the game. We try to keep as much compatibility as possible with the freeSDK version, but the optimal way for people to mod the game will be to get an EAAS access.

Now that the Kikstarter for Umbra has reached its goal, it is time for the stretch goals.

We kick things off with a special thank you gift to all backers who are pledging for at least a digital copy of Umbra. If we reach $230,000, all backers at Warrior or higher will get a Kickstarter-exclusive green necklace that will grant them an extra boost to the gold and experience they earn as they play... wait, we already reached $230,000 didn't we? Then now you're all getting a free KS-exclusive item!

Next up we have a highly requested stretch goal: GamePad support! You're currently making your way to this second stretch goal, and right now you're at around 33%, which considering the huge push we had over the weekend, is actually closer that you think!

When launched, Umbra will be available in English and French. But knowing that we have fans from all over the world, we've also added a stretch goal to include localization to Spanish, German and Russian, so that more of you can experience Umbra in a new way. So if you want to play Umbra in English, French, Spanish, German and Russian, you know what to do! Of course, multiplayer is one of the first big steps for Umbra as it adds a new mode that can be played either online or over a LAN connection. And we can't implement multiplayer into Umbra without your support, so please don't forget to share the link to the campaign so that you can bring even more backers here who want to see Umbra grow!

And right after the first multiplayer mode we have one of the other highly requested stretch goals... a main female hero for Umbra! This won't be a re-skin of the male hero. This female hero will be a proper female

protagonist with her foot set firmly in the lore for Umbra, and we definitely want to see her implemented into the game.

There are several other stretch goals in the list which you can check below, so please spread the word and tell all of your friends about Umbra so that we can all work toward reaching all stretch goals!

We interviewed Daniel Dolui from SolarFall Games, the indie studio behind Umbra. The currently are on Kickstarter and already reached their go with 13 more days to go.

Here is something from the interview:

RPGWatch: What in your opinion are the best features of Umbra?

Daniel: My favourite is the Apocalyptic Form and the possibility to have a build without any class restrictions. It allows me to play some archetype I always dreamed about, like a "Necro Barabarian" - a big barbarian with a two handed sword fighting in the middle of his undead minions - and add to it the apocalyptic form, a really nice feature I enjoyed in a pen and paper RPG game I played in the past.
The ability to craft your weapon with our very special crafting system and the possibility to create your house from elements gathered in the world is a very nice addition to the game.
Also, our particle effects are really nice, and it looks really cool in the middle of the action.

Umbra Double Feature Theatre!

Almost $200,000 pledged by close to 6,000 backers! That means that any moment now we’ll be less than $25,000 away from making the game a reality!

Today, we are going to share a long video with footage for Umbra. We recorded a gameplay video that will let you see more about the game and the skills you’ll be using. We also detail some of the game features that are already implemented, as well as others that will be available in the final game.

Also, as a bonus, we added the one-hour twitch session with Crytek that took place two days ago! It was a great time, and we had a lot of fun sharing this session with Crytek and with all the viewers, and the video is quite instructive about the game! Oh, and if you want to get some of your friends and followers on social media join us to fund Umbra, be sure to share both videos with them!

SolarFall Games brings us another Kickstarter update for Umbra, which currently is $50K away from reaching it's $225K goal. The update is about the lore of the game.

Many of you have asked about the story of the game, so today, we are going to give you some extra details about it. We already gave you a look at Lambach, one of the first bosses you will meet in the game, but let us now take a deeper look into the world of Umbra. 

As we described in our Kickstarter page, Umbra’s story is rich, and an important lore has been created for the story. You will discover a large part of the game’s story thanks to the main quest, but a lot of information will be provided by reading a large amount of books found in the game. Each one will provide information about the universe, and might even lead you on to track a secret place full of treasure! 

For this update, we decided to provide you with an extract of the current rough draft of one of the books that you will be able to read in-game. Once funded, we’ll be able to revisit and expand the drafts we have for the lore of Umbra, polishing the story and improving on the writing. We hope you will enjoy the world we are creating with your help!

Update #4 for the Umbra Kickstarter brings us more information on the housing model used in the game.

We want players to have their own place of peace, an area of their own thanks to their hard work while fighting in the wild. We want you to showcase your trophies and hard earned items in a unique place that you build yourself! Are you ready? Then come join us to discover Umbra’s housing module!

Umbra’s housing system allows you to build your house from the ground to the walls, adding furniture throughout the place; allowing you to showcase armors, weaponry and trophy kills.

The following video is an early working prototype of the housing module, allowing you to see the possibilities and to give you an idea what it will look like once the game is finished!

Codex veteran Zed interviewed Umbra's Game Director and Lead Programmer Daniel Dolui:

Umbra is a hack-n-slash action RPG from the frenchies over at SolarFall Games. RPG Codex would normally not bother too much with a game of this sort, but Umbra is an unusually interesting game. At least to me, and that's all that matters (haah!).

A snippet:

Aside from the graphics – what sets Umbra apart from the legions of other action RPGs?

The Apocalyptic Form is the feature I am the most excited about. Apocalyptic Form is a customizable ultimate power every player will get. It allows you to turn into a personalized Avatar of Destruction for some time. It is built from up to three “Apocalyptic Upgrade” options, unlocked by your character according to your play style. Apocalyptic Upgrade can very different, for example, getting horns on your head to rush and knock down every enemies, or getting wings to make huge leap and access unreachable areas, having a third hand to equip with a new weapon and fight, or having an Aura of Death raising undead everywhere you walk. I can’t wait to see the combos that players will find and how they will manage to get the most out of it!

The freedom of development, allowing you to pick any skill from any specialization will also bring a lot of interest to me. I always wanted to be a barbarian with a huge mace walking in the middle of my zombie horde!

Our crafting module is also really cool, and quite a bit different from other games. We hope that people who don’t enjoy crafting will actually like ours, since it is a quite addictive and rewarding skill based mini-game.

Elemental Effect Interaction, managing the effects of Lightning / Fire / Water / Ice is also a very cool addition to the gameplay and will bring tons a great combos to the game.​

The Kickstarter page for Umbra is providing an update on one of the bosses in the game.

Today, we are making a special update about an early concept of a boss from Umbra: The mighty and Dreadful Lambach ! It will be a good way for you to discover some of our unrevealed gameplay elements, and learn a bit more about the lore of the game.

Lambach used to be an ambitious human scientist of the Republic, but his limited understanding of the world lead him to explore the land of the occult. His main interest was the secrets of life and the human body. By reading a tome of ancient knowledge and forgotten religion, he slowly discovered forbidden secrets that humans should have never been aware of.

He tried to enter in contact with unearthly entities, but he failed at every try. He pushed his research more and more, visiting the most cursed places in the world, digging into graveyards and exploring forgotten crypts to harness infernal books and artifacts.

In the second Kickstarter update for Umbra, they talk about reaching the $100K milestone in just 4 days and share more details on the environment and gameplay.

They also explain that you get two keys at the Warrior level and up.

Many backers have asked about the Steam copy of the game and the DRM-free copy of the game. How will it work, is that 2 different copies, and will the armors, weapons and pet skins be available for each copy? 

We discussed internally about that – initially, we wanted them to be unique for the backer – and finally thought that it would be much better for us to build a community around the game, as well as to show our support for those of you who believe in us.

So yes, Kickstarter backers will get two digital copies of the game, and depending on the tier at which each of you are backing, the armor sets, pet skins, etc. will apply to all the copies of the game you're getting. This means you can gift one of the copies of Umbra to a friend (yay!) because what we want is to finish our game and to get as many people as possible to play it.

Therefore, the higher you pledge the more stuff you get!

Things are going well at the moment for Umbra as far as their Kickstarter is concerned. They gathered $55K in just 2 days with stil 29 days to go to try and reach the requested $225K.

They now provide us some information on gamepad control, DRM and Linux. In addition there are also two video previews of the game.

We hear what you're saying, and we understand that some of you are curious to see what our stretch goals are, and what the amounts for said stretch goals will be. At this time, we're completely focused on getting the campaign funded and feel that revealing stretch goals so early in the campaign is not the way to go, but rest assured that you WILL get to see them soon.

As for gamepad support, here is the current status: There is an early implementation of pad and Xbox controller in the game. However, this implementation is not fully complete, and would require more work to fulfill. This is why pad/xbox controller support has been set as a stretch goal, we want to do things properly and not just give you a slap dash port of controls. We want it to feel right, natural if you will and this will require time to develop, especially the menu systems for spells and actions.

About DRM, yes, there will be a no-DRM version of Umbra for Kickstarter Backers! This is on top of the Steam backers you'll all get for your pledge (so don't forget to vote on our Steam Greenlight page).

Linux version? Yes we will support it!

The Kickstarter for Umbra has launched a few hours ago and they are asking for $225K, to be reached within 30 days.

An isometric view open world action-RPG taking place in a corrupted world falling apart. You are a former officer of army of the Human Republic, forced to flee the death penalty because of the magic powers you have unwillingly developed. Being tracked down by humans and hunted by the monsters of the Wild, you are recruited by a mysterious group of Templars. And thus an epic adventure begins in which you will wander the world to fight inhuman, mutated monsters and discover the terrible secret of the extinguishing mankind.

The game features a unique mechanic called Apocalyptic Form that allows players to shape shift into a highly customized character! You’re free to mold your character thanks to a deep and rich customization system. And thanks to our complex crafting mini-game and our housing module you will be able to make your adventure feel as YOUR adventure!

As you can see from our video, the detailed environments, intense action and impressive effects are beautifully created thanks to the next-gen technology of the CRYENGINE.

A gameplay mechanics video has been released for the action RPG Umbra.

In this video we explain the two basic gameplay mechanics of Umbra; the first one is the Resource Opposition system which is intended to provide balance to the freedom of character development that the player has." said Daniel Dolui, lead programmer at SolarFall Games, "The second is all about Elemental Effect Interaction, where players manage the effectiveness of Fire, Lightning, Water and Ice according to the combination of character's skills and the environment in which they take place.

We also added four screenshots to our database. Note that the Kickstarter for this game will launch May 13.

Umbra is a new hack-and-slash RPG game from a developer called Solarfall Games, and thanks to Black Rune I now have a new game trailer from GDC 2015 to share.

Umbra melds much-loved hack-and-slash gameplay with state-of-the-art graphics, and underpins it all with a truly modern AI. Inspired by the classic Diablo 2 game, Umbra aims to deliver an intense and rich action RPG game. Personalization of your character build is free, deep and highly customizable, and many secret are hidden in the world.