KickStarter The Way of Wrath - early bronze age RPG with fort management and dynamic open world

[Hellwalker]

Links:​

• Wishlist on Steam!
• Wishlist on GOG!
• Wishlist on Epic Store
• Official Website
• Kickstarter (A lot of lore and game info)

Join Discord Community

Game Info & Screens​

Spoiler

• Early Bronze Age-inspired fictional setting, with a huge emphasis on experiencing life through the eyes of ancient humans.
• You play a war chief of a small tribe trapped in a small valley and entrenched in a ruined fort. You have 10 days to prepare for a massive siege.
• Full character creator and classless skill progression.
• Choose from five different origins: unique story missions, unique dialogue options, and skills.

• Tactical RPG combat with two combat systems you can switch between at any time. Turn-based and Real-Time-with-Pause.
• Entirely and intricately hand-crafted. Every battle, every location, and every quest is a high effort, hand-crafted experience.
• Party-based game. You can recruit story companions, create characters, and play with the custom party.
• A very intricate, down-to-earth story, about a human conflict and human nature. Every NPC friend or foe is a named character with their own motivations and storyline.

• Choices and Consequences. Different outcomes to quests, combat encounters, and significant changes to the meta-story.
• For management. You can recruit ~50 allies, and you have to get them through 10 days in a brutal cold environment, and enemy attacks.
  You can order allies to rebuild defenses, gather resources, upgrade buildings, manufacture traps, and when wounded you have to heal them in a hospital.
• Deep exploration. The world is a character in itself, and it is unforgiving. Survive environmental hazards, hunt, trap, and fish. Discover interesting encounters and items in each nook and cranny.
• Feel like a leader. Create new laws, pass on judgment, and chart a path forward for your tribe.

• Mastery: Special exploration-centric skill system. Crafting, Survival (Hunting + Fishing), Herbmixing(Medicine), Cooking, BeastTamer (Pets).
• You can romance companions and other characters.
• Inspired by classic RPGs like Baldur's Gate 2 & Gothic.
• 10 days - uniquely reactive handwritten story. Each day is like a story chapter, when you sleep, the consequences of your choices on the current day, shape what you will find the following day. Enemy factions, neutrals, and allies all "make moves" and their story moves forward based on what happened before.

Special thanks to fellow codexian Keldryn. Cheers Man!

 

[rusty_shackleford]

Camera feels too close in this screenshot, is this the size of a typical battle?

 

[Hellwalker]

Camera feels too close in this screenshot, is this the size of a typical battle?

Camera can be zoomed in/out and rotated to get better view of the battle. Average battles will be larger.

 

[Durwyn]

I hate this art style. Seen it 1000 times, looks like generic crap. Other than that, it seems ok.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Ok, good luck.

 

[Norfleet]

That's a seriously short range to be shooting someone with a bow from.

 

[cherry blossom]

Best of luck to you, and I like the look.

Camera feels too close in this screenshot, is this the size of a typical battle?

Camera can be zoomed in/out and rotated to get better view of the battle. Average battles will be larger.

When your game requires camera management to always get the best views, that is poor design that dumps that "responsibility" on the player. It is a burden, unfun and virtually all "isometric" games with 3D perspective do this, Codex sweethearts included. Whoever thought that 3D perspective was a good thing for isometric games...

 

[santino27]

Looks like it could be interesting. Looking forward to seeing more.

 

[Reinhardt]

Camera feels too close in this screenshot, is this the size of a typical battle?

Camera can be zoomed in/out and rotated to get better view of the battle. Average battles will be larger.

Can you please make different icons for party and enemies because even in this small battle i have no idea about turn order.

 

[rashiakas]

These are obv. mockups and not real screenshots.

 

[frajaq]

Are there classes/archetypes?

 

[Hellwalker]

Best of luck to you, and I like the look.

Camera feels too close in this screenshot, is this the size of a typical battle?

Camera can be zoomed in/out and rotated to get better view of the battle. Average battles will be larger.

When your game requires camera management to always get the best views, that is poor design that dumps that "responsibility" on the player. It is a burden, unfun and virtually all "isometric" games with 3D perspective do this, Codex sweethearts included. Whoever thought that 3D perspective was a good thing for isometric games...

Thank you!
Very good point about cameras. (The choice of 3D camera instead of fixed angle camera in our game was mainly due to some of things we wanted to pull off with the level design.)
What I meant to say about the screenshot is that camera is not locked to that particular view. It’s just a view we used to capture that screenshot and it's not the view the battle will start with. The battle camera setup itself has a complicated behavior. Each action/state of battle has its own camera logic and will try to “default” the camera in the most winning position for that particular action.(Melee Attack, Running, Choosing AOE target). The camera controls are there more to give player the freedom to study the battlefield. (And of course to cover the cases where camera logic fails to find a good position.:D)

Camera feels too close in this screenshot, is this the size of a typical battle?

Camera can be zoomed in/out and rotated to get better view of the battle. Average battles will be larger.

Can you please make different icons for party and enemies because even in this small battle i have no idea about turn order.

Sure! I'll try to color code the enemy/AI ui and make it more pronounced.

Are there classes/archetypes?

Classes will be there to give you starting skills, but you can freely choose which skills to take. Including customization of starting skills.
Skill are organized under archetypes (Aggressive style, Defensive style, Trickster style - not the in-game names) but this is more for the convenience and the simplicity of the UI.
Perks will do the most of the heavy lifting when it comes to giving roleplay depth and personality to the player characters Combat profession.

 

[Norfleet]

Is it normal that all battles will be fought at knife range, making ranged weapons seem as comically pointless and silly as they do in the screenshot, especially when characters inevitably miss shots at targets 3 feet away?

 

[Reinhardt]

especially when characters inevitably miss shots at targets 3 feet away?

Did you ever tried to hit moving target 3 feet away with bow and arrow?

 

[Outmind]

I read that as fart management at first. Now I'm disappointed.

 

[Tavernking]

Is it normal that all battles will be fought at knife range, making ranged weapons seem as comically pointless and silly as they do in the screenshot, especially when characters inevitably miss shots at targets 3 feet away?

Imagine a turn-based RPG where you can shoot enemies with your bow up to 180m away.

 

[Hellwalker]

We'll be sure to show the larger battle area with the next combat demonstration :D

The render shots of one of the first armors you can get in the game. The metals are scarce and the time is in short supply, so the smiths had to get creative with the materials.

 

[Forest Dweller]

I read that as fart management at first. Now I'm disappointed.

The South Park games have what you're looking for.

 

[Hellwalker]

Hey!
I'm getting closer to gameplay video. Meanwhile a small sneak peek of combat:



Also posted a small devlog on steam.
TLDR we'll have video out soon and arena gauntlet style closed combat beta will follow. Sign Up Form.
I though of adding some sort of scoreboard and inviting top player to help design nasty optional boss battle. What are your thought on something like that?
Cheers!

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

Are hits guaranteed or does game use some formula to calculate change to hit?

 

[Hellwalker]

Are hits guaranteed or does game use some formula to calculate change to hit?

At this moment hits are guaranteed and I'm experimenting with RNG Critical Strike,Graze Hits and Afflictions. (Higher/Lower damage than normal and status effects like bleed or stunned). This might change with testing.

 

[zaper]

Sold.

 

[Hellwalker]

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

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

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

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

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



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



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

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

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

What’s Next?
With combat polish almost finished, we’ll soon move on to world interactions, questing and dialogue. Getting closer to gameplay video.

***
More cool new stuff about development, game play, characters and lore is coming soon! Cheers!

 

[Hellwalker]

Hey! here are some new Armor, sword and shield designs for one of the elite enemy group’s player will fight against in the game.
As the metal is rare and valuable commodity in the The Way of Wrath, fighting these enemies will prove extra challenging; and prying equipment from their corpses extra rewarding.

 

[Hellwalker]

Hey all, we have been busy these past weeks working on combat, level design and one thing we are ready to show is the character creation!
It was quite a big one for two people to pull off :D



*The game is still in active development so UI, Stats, Descriptions etc are under heavy iterations still and will be better.

Along with visual appearance, skills and perks you can select characters origin details and reputation. These represent your avatars life before the game events.

You’ll be able to select your ethnicity, origin story and the reputation you have earned during the war. Origin story provides story background for your character, unlocks some unique encounters and dialogues. Life as a Shaman will be far different from that of a warrior. Similar to Gothic games you'll be treated differently by people with different social standings depending on your origin.

It also comes with useful stat and skill bonuses to reflect your characters experience before the game events. If you’d like to start from more of a blank character, you can always pick the “Wanderer” option.

Reputation alters some of the reputation stats by which other characters will judge your actions. Whether you are cruel or benevolent, always honest or a trickster. Some dialogue checks and story resolutions will be easier/harder depending on how the characters feel about your reputation and personality.

Class and Profession options are more there to give you starting build presets. They act as archetypes, which you can freely ignore to pick your own skills, attributes and perks.

We’ll be back soon with more updates showing combat and level design. As a bonus, a new concept piece.