17 Feb 2026Developer post

New Free Update: Legacy of the Chieftains

NovaMundi is a game of exploration and tactical combat inspired by the history of the Muisca people, the indigenous civilization that inhabited the Andean highlands of South America at the time of the 16th-century European arrival. Lead a band of warriors to defend their homeland

NovaMundi is a game of exploration and tactical combat inspired by the history of the Muisca people, the indigenous civilization that inhabited the Andean highlands of South America at the time of the 16th-century European arrival. Lead a band of warriors to defend their homeland from invaders, guided by ancestral traditions and the wisdom of the spirits. Delve into mysterious caverns to earn their aid, and face a new challenge every time across generated landscapes of steep valleys and perilous jungle.

We are back!

I wanted to take this opportunity to remind you all that we are a very small team of developers from Colombia, every small bit of support matter a lot for us - whether you share the game, Wishlist it, or buy it and leave a positive review; your individual action is leaving a BIG mark on the future of the game and our studio.

Without further ado, let's talk about the new version! It introduces one of the most important changes to the game’s structure so far: Chiefdom Origins.

From now on, each run begins with a choice: your hometown. Your origin determines the chieftain under whose influence you were raised, shaping your worldview, your strengths, and the advantages you carry into your adventure. No two expeditions will feel the same.

At the beginning of a new run, you will choose your original Chiefdom, which will grant two unique advantages that reflect its historical character. Here are some of the chieftains available for you to choose from.

Bogotá, Chieftain of Muyqyuta

At the heart of the highlands lies Muyqyuta, ruled by the powerful chieftain Bogotá, whose authority extends through vast networks of tribute and commerce. Wealth flows constantly into the city, and its people learn the art of negotiation from an early age. Those raised in Muyqyuta begin their journey with greater riches and a keen instinct for trade, able to secure favorable deals wherever they travel.

Saymoso, Chieftain of Duitama

The indomitable chieftain Saymoso is known for its defiance and battlefield courage. Duitama’s warriors are hardened by generations of resistance, trained to strike with force and endure immense hardship. Those raised under Saymoso grow into powerful and resilient fighters, capable of surviving trials that would defeat others.

Eucaneme, Chieftain of Hunza

Seat of the great chieftain Eucaneme, Hunza stands as the dominant power of the northern Muisca lands. Rivalry and warfare forged its people into leaders and conquerors, feared and respected across the country. Those raised under Eucaneme grow into formidable warriors and natural authorities, earning prestige quickly and overwhelming their enemies through strength and reputation.

Nompanim, Chyquy of Suamox

Suamox, the Sacred City of the Sun, is guided by the great chyquy Nompanim, guardian of ritual and cosmic order. As the spiritual heart of the Muisca world, it commands reverence from all who know its name. Those raised in Suamox carry divine authority, earning recognition swiftly and standing protected under the favor of sacred forces.

Chiefdom Origins transform the early game. Military-focused runs now will feel distinct from economic ones, and exploration-heavy builds will allow you to explore alternate ways of survival.

This is a foundational change for NovaMundi, and it opens the door to deeper regional mechanics in future updates. This system strengthens replayability while reinforcing NovaMundi’s cultural and narrative core.

As always, thank you for supporting this project — and welcome back to the Andes!

Original post

14 Jan 2025Developer post

NovaMundi: Improved Combat [1.0.2]

I decided to continue development of NovaMundi to address some of the feedback we have received about the game after its release; updates won’t be constant but hopefully we’ll take it to a point where the player experience is smoother. Combat Player Experience A point of the game

I decided to continue development of NovaMundi to address some of the feedback we have received about the game after its release; updates won’t be constant but hopefully we’ll take it to a point where the player experience is smoother.

Combat Player Experience

A point of the game that is often noted as a weakness is the player experience while in combat; of course there are many things that build up to that, so better start working on them.

One painful item on this regard was the irresponsiveness of unit selection; there have been layered things that led to this, and some of them had been fixed already in 1.0.1, however, this version includes a further small but important change to reduce the pixel perfect accuracy required to select units; there’s now some tolerance for that so you can now click somewhere near the unit, and that should do the trick.

Another point that causes frustration to the player is the units AI; units would stand there while their nearby friends were being massacred, and even sometimes when THEY were being attacked. In order to fix this I had to include a way to set the stance of the unit (because there are some times when you actually need the unit to stay away from combat to prevent it from dying). So you can now set the stance of each unit to aggressive or defensive, which will affect how it reacts to what is happening around.

Aggressive units will engage in combat with the nearest enemy, and will turn back and fight whoever attacks them while running to some direction; Defensive units will instead conserve their movement commands regardless of being hit, and will stay where you put them (they will still attack back if they are attacked once they’ve finished moving).

Another weirdness was units being stuck walking against a wall or against a unit for cases where pathfinding failed (or just in edge-ish cases with a lot of units cramped together in close spaces). The solution for this, for now, is that units will drop their movement command if they happen to be stuck in this situations. This seems to be ok for most cases based on experimentation.

Some other smaller fixes were done to this, including cases where units would crash their behavior if their targeted enemy was killed in the middle of action, removing some unwanted colliders from enemies such as the Giant Tarantulas and Scorpions, and prevent rocks in paramos from being ignored in pathfinding.

Finally there was a TINY error causing a huge feeling disruption (in my opinion). The running animation for units was offset by a single frame, which caused it to jump awkwardly when it was looping.

Inventory Player Experience

While it didn’t have as many improvements as combat, there were some important changes here too.

Players can now select how many of a given item to drop; this was more significant before the relaxation on the carry capacity, but still might come in handy for situations where your party is almost massacred and left you carrying around a lot of stuff, so you don’t have to go through an awkward flow of dropping maize one grain by one.

Also, the items in the barter screen are now sorted using the same criteria as the loot screens, which is a huge improvement to make it easier to find stuff to trade (especially if you plan to dump all the excess weapons and armor that you got as loot)

More UX Improvements

The Quests window was improved to display quests grouped by “arc”; right now there are three arcs; this change serves mainly to separate the mini quests from the main questline.

The camping flow was improved to warn the player when going to sleep with injured or sick units, so that he can apply treatment before passing the night.

Hunting encounters (deer) have been disabled for now, since their implementation is outdated and requires some tweaking I cannot do now.

Audio

QuietGecko and team have been working on improving some aspects of audio; this version bundles the first pack of such changes which includes adding footsteps sounds for the units, as well as UI sounds for the map and journal screens. More improvements are on the way.

Weight Balancing

Another item that was making the late game very frustrating was how little your expedition could carry, so it was very easy to end up super encumbered and having to cache things unnaturally with chieftains and they backtracking to them when you needed them (ugh).

After some iterations of tweaking, starting by reducing the weight of European equipment to prevent punishing the player from wielding better items (what?), I ended up reducing the weight of supplies to about 30% while increasing the carry capacity to 150%; this required some tweaks in the scale of item weights to allow for more granularity.

Visual Improvements
While this was not the focus in this version (there’s currently no 3D artist onboard, so we cannot really improve this hugely for now), I did some visual improvements including tuning the saturation of the vegetation in the wetlands, which I think was a bit too high. I also reduced the tiling of their terrain textures.

I also tweak the combat maps for paramos, which had a huge amount of tiny vegetation which looked super weird.

I also included new portraits for the chieftains Bogotá and Saymoso. I’m hoping some day we’ll have custom portraits at least for all the chieftains.

Original post

09 Nov 2024Developer post

Devlog: The last month of indie development and marketing for NovaMundi 1.0

It's been almost a month but I finally managed to publish the story about the Full Release of NovaMundi on Steam, everything that happened the last month of development and marketing. Check it out at

13 Oct 2024Developer post

NovaMundi Full Release 1.0 now available!

NovaMundi, the Procedural Exploration and Tactical Combat game from Slashware Interactive, is now out of Early Access,. Deep in the heart of the XVI Century Andean highlands lies the vast nation of the Muisca. While traveling to trade with allied cities, your caravan has an unexp

NovaMundi, the Procedural Exploration and Tactical Combat game from Slashware Interactive, is now out of Early Access,.

Deep in the heart of the XVI Century Andean highlands lies the vast nation of the Muisca. While traveling to trade with allied cities, your caravan has an unexpected encounter with outlandish invaders, marching towards your land with determination. It now falls in your hands to find a way for the Muisca to repel the Spanish invasion.

Lead a party of explorers and warriors, with each playthrough generating new landscapes teeming with indigenous villages, huntable wildlife, and hostile bandits and soldiers that your expedition will encounter on their journey. Discover local villages to recruit more forces, barter with traders, or make an offering at a temple for combat blessings.

The members of your party must be strategically managed if your group is to survive the perilous weeks ahead. Navigate their way through South America’s dense jungles and cold highlands. Reach all the Muisca towns, convince their leaders to join the alliance, and summon them to repel the Spanish invasion and secure the Muisca homelands!

NovaMundi Key Features:
- A plot-line inspired by the Spanish incursion on South America in the XVI Century
- “Real-Time with Pause” combat: Take your time to plan your strategy
- Detailed procedurally generated landscapes inspired by the geography of the Andean highlands
- Day and Night cycle and simulated weather conditions that affect your expedition performance
- Discover the fauna and flora of South America and learn about their indigenous cultures

"NovaMundi presents the players with countless hours of exploration and tactical combat challenge as they adapt to the ever changing conditions of every new run,” says Santiago Zapata, Founder of Slashware Interactive. “Instead of generating massive pieces of unremarkable land, it creates very focused locations dotted with tactical combat where the players have to carefully decide their moves based on the equipment of their units and their enemies.”

The development of NovaMundi was accompanied by experts in the history and language of the Muisca including José Manuel Gómez, a descendant and up-keeper of the originary indigenous culture, who provided the team with knowledge based on the most recent investigations to give the game a touch of authenticity in the portrayal of the indigenous people and their settlements, which is mixed with a little bit of historical fiction to provide the players with an exciting setting where they can still learn.

Original post

12 Oct 2024Developer post

NovaMundi Stories 5 - The Sue

- There is honor in defeat, Colima… Now we know how well fortified that town is, and return for their food and women. - And what good will that do us Nabilo? We have almost no food reserves. We won’t last another moon. The small Panche warband had been recently defeated. They had

- There is honor in defeat, Colima… Now we know how well fortified that town is, and return for their food and women.

- And what good will that do us Nabilo? We have almost no food reserves. We won’t last another moon.

The small Panche warband had been recently defeated. They had come from far away to raid the Muisca, but not for glory as they usually did, but for food and women. And how they needed both… A Panche warrior could never marry someone from the same tribe, for all members are siblings, and they constantly needed children and women to bear them, because they were constantly at war; against the Muisca, different Carib peoples, and even other Panches. But in this particular warband’s tribe, there were not many women except for their mothers and sisters, and there was not much food left.

They chose the lands of the Muisca to raid because news had gotten to them about a lot of infighting and strangers from beyond the seas who were attacking the Muisca, but apparently, they were also helping them, for the Muisca who defeated their warband had fighters with white skin.

The invaders were a weird bunch. They looked malnourished and sick, and yet they fought like jaguars. They were quick, cunning, and had terribly effective weapons and protection. It took only a couple of them helping the Muisca for their whole warband to rout.

The sun moved across the sky while the defeated Panches patched their wounds. When the twilight hour came, footsteps were heard. A huge retinue appeared. The scouts were wounded so no alarm was given. Despite this, and despite everyone else’s wounds, all warriors readied weapons.

White men accompanied by Muisca warriors surrounded the encampment. A bearded man who had a long shiny knife strapped to his hip took a couple of steps alongside an unarmed Muisca and said some unintelligible words.

- The most honorable Gonzalo de Burgos wants to speak with your leader. Said the Muisca
- What for? And why would we talk to him? Who is this Gonzalo you speak of? Asked Curima.
- He is the ally of my chief, Suamecheguya. As to why you should talk to him, I’d say it’s because he has an offer you may want to hear, especially after attacking the lands that my chief claims as his.
- Then I’ll speak on behalf of my brothers.

The bearded man started talking, making several circular hand movements pointing at the other white men and the accompanying Muisca. He then pointed at their weapons and signaled a white warrior, who threw a bag filled with food at Curima’s feet.

- Master Gonzalo recognizes the struggle and chaos the land is in. He represents his chief, the king of Spain, a land beyond the sea; who sent him and many others to help us in all regards. Master Gonzalo has decided to side with my chief; Suamecheguya, in his struggle against his uncle, who currently acts unlawfully as chief of the town you raided today. Master Gonzalo wishes to offer you a chance at revenge. He also offers some superior weapons to the ones you use and my chief offers food. Declared the translator.
- We would demand some of the women of that town too. Replied Curima.

The translator started talking in Muysccubun, the language of the Muisca, and then in the language of the white men. The would-be-chief, adorned in emeralds and gold, started to argue angrily while Gonzalo de Burgos appeared to think while looking at Curima’s warband with a slight look of disgust, which he hid so fast Curima wasn’t sure it was ever there.

After a few minutes of arguing, Gonzalo placated the young pretender and said some words, which the translator reproduced as soon as he finished talking.

- We find the terms acceptable, but no woman inside the inner walls may be touched, and you must agree to join master Gonzalo in other attacks against other Muisca domains.

Curima didn’t need further convincing. He grabbed his axe and his spear and said:
- Then let’s butcher your brothers, Muisca.

Original post

04 Oct 2024Developer post

NovaMundi Stories 4 - The Panche Menace

"…No, no, no. *YOU* shut up. You don’t deserve respect just because you’re the host. You stole 5 families that should be paying tribute to ME, not to mention the deers your hunters killed “accidentally”. I was letting them get fat, Eucaneme! They were not for you." Screamed Chuns

"…No, no, no. *YOU* shut up. You don’t deserve respect just because you’re the host. You stole 5
families that should be paying tribute to ME, not to mention the deers your hunters killed “accidentally”. I was letting them get fat, Eucaneme! They were not for you." Screamed Chunsica.

"I agree with Chunsica, why should we ally with you? If anything we should ally *against* you. You never sent a messenger back thanking me for my generous gift. Clearly you don’t respect us." Replied Raga.

"Ha! That’s rich! Of course you would agree with Chunsica! You two teamed up to raid two of my villages! I refuse to join forces with him or you, Raga." Refuted Saymoso

Eucaneme’s bohio was supposed to be a place of dialogue, where the four chieftains could reach an agreement to protect each other against the Panche menace, and Eucaneme as a host should be calm and wise. And he really was trying, but oh how he hated Chunsica. How dare he accuse him of stealing those families? They moved recently to one of the villages in the outskirts of his domain, he got notice about them just two days ago. And the deer? Hard to believe it as it may, it really was an accident. The hunters had been drinking that day and didn’t notice when they crossed the big twin rocks of the west.

His wife touched his shoulder. A signal from her to maintain calm. But Chunsica wouldn’t let him…

"Why so silent Eucaneme? Did the cuy eat your tongue? Or is it that your wife stole your manhood? That would explain why you only have one!" Said Chunsica with a smirk.

"How dare you, you honor-less bastard? Are you trying to project your failings on me? Do you really think anyone here would believe that you have many wives but that their beauty is such that you can only be seen with one?" Said Eucaneme while getting closer to Chunsica

Raga and Saymoso decided to take sides, with Raga insulting Eucaneme and Saymoso insulting Chunsica. The discussion reached its boiling point when Chunsica punched Eucaneme’s face.

When the blood touched the soil, Eucaneme and Chunsica’s wives disappeared. They were the only women inside the bohio, and Saymoso and Raga saw this as an opportunity to join in the fight. Were weapons permitted inside the bohio, death would have visited the chieftains that day.

Water. Cold water. The chiefs were stunned. The cold water of the paramos bit them harder than any punch or kick. Looking down on them were Curima and Guana, respectively Eucaneme and Chunsica wives. They had a stern look on their faces, only interrupted by a furtive smile directed at each other. These were powerful and like-minded women. They were not just adornments or trophies of their husbands. They were counselors and their complements, and so; they acted as such.

"Are you children?" Spoke the women in unison.

"Our children, *YOUR* children are in danger, not even when they play inside the walls of the cities are they safe! I had to carry mine here to this city instead of leaving him with the other women because I felt unsafe!" Said Curima with her furrowed brows.

"I don’t think anyone is saying that any offense suffered should be ignored. You are men of honour and wrongs should be righted! But NOT NOW." Argued Guana.

"We all face a common threat! And we can’t rely on the help of the powerful lords of Muequetá or Hunza, they are too busy playing at who is the biggest rooster in the coop!" Added Curima.

"What will you do, captains of the Muisca? Will you fight, or let the Panches take what’s yours?" Replied Guana

Still on the ground, covered in what now was cold bloody mud, all chiefs looked at each other and nodded. Eucaneme was the first to stand up, and offered his hand to Curima in help while Saymoso helped Raga.

"Let us bury the hatchet… For today at least. Then… We shall see where the spirits guide us." Declared Eucaneme.

Having said that, all chiefs agreed to form a temporary alliance, to defend their lands from the panches. They agreed to meet again the following day to discuss strategies and responsibilities. And then, one by one they left the bohio. The last one to leave was Chunsica, and before he could walk through the portal, Curima grabbed him and said:

"Please accept my apologies, and an invitation to pass the night with us and share our food. Me and my husband would love to have you, and I’d love your wife’s company."

"We accept." Replied Guana.

Eucaneme and Chunsica shared an understanding stare and then laughed. Their feud was over.

Original post

27 Sep 2024Developer post

NovaMundi Stories 3 - Tomagata the unready

Tomagata had sacrificed his childhood and teen years to the divine realms. To study the mysteries of the land, the spirits, the gods, and the language of the long-gone ancestors, he didn’t play, he didn't drink and, while it was not prohibited, he was yet to know the embrace of a

Tomagata had sacrificed his childhood and teen years to the divine realms. To study the mysteries of the land, the spirits, the gods, and the language of the long-gone ancestors, he didn’t play, he didn't drink and, while it was not prohibited, he was yet to know the embrace of a woman.

All these sacrifices were not asked from him by the spirits, the gods of even doctrine. He sacrificed all of that willingly so he was able to study at the Cuca near his town; a sacred precinct where priests received their sacred knowledge from elder holy men.

But years had taken their toll. He felt lonely, sad, and longed for the things he missed because of his stay at the Cuca. However, soon he would be a chyquy, a priest in his own right.

Tomagata only had to attend his teacher with the burial rites of their chief’s daughter, who was sadly put to death by a mysterious disease. It was easy, he just needed to carry himself respectfully and attend to whatever the priest requested.

Tomagata had everything ready. With the help of a goldsmith he had made a Tunjo for the dead woman. It was a golden representation of her. Alive in a way, it was both an offering to all spiritual beings and a representation of the woman. He would also bring, at his teacher’s request, some emeralds and yopo seeds.

The emeralds would serve to placate any angry spirits, including the dead woman’s, and to ensure her safe passage to the worlds beyond. The yopo seeds were for his teacher. Consuming them would allow him to see the spirits and guide the girl.

Tomagata smiled. When he got the seeds, the man who sold them felt very comfortable with Tomagata, and confessed consuming some, even without the proper training. He claimed it was the most fun experience he had in his life. Absolute ignorance!

Night fell, and Tomagata and his master walked to the site. His master explained the rite was to take place inside a nearby cave, with an opening to a beautiful lagoon. His master reminded him that all Muiscas came from the water and that caves served as portals; veils to other worlds. A spirit touched by the water, and then guided through a cave, would have an easy time finding its way beyond. Not only that, but with the help of the yopo seeds, he could talk to any spirits, be them of dead people, of the land, or the gods themselves.

For the Muisca there was not much difference between gods and other spirits. The land itself was full of them. The only difference was power and rank.

Before arriving, Tomagata was already feeling as if he were about to doze off. He knew all of this. It was boring, it was repetitive. And so, when they arrived and the priest started to work, Tomagata could only fantasize about finishing his studies and doing the fun things people did, like getting drunk which chicha...

And that’s when he remembered the merchant and what he said about the yopo seeds. What would be the harm in taking a handful and consuming them inside the cave? No one would notice!

And so he did. At the start, nothing happened. But progressively as minutes passed, he noticed how the cave’s walls began to breathe, how the lagoon sang outside, and he felt the earth, the rock, the soil; caressing him. The earth was alive, and the spirits of the land were greeting him! And then, suddenly… Black, followed by a thousand colors.

Chía, the moon, descended and entered the cave. With a luminous flash appeared Chaquén, god of cities, and Bochica; god of civilization and protector of humanity. They talked in booming voices about an upcoming threat that had already reached the lands of the Muisca, but Tomagata couldn’t keep up with their words.

The visages of the gods vanished and Tomagata was engulfed by visions of steel, fire, smoke, disease, and treason. He screamed, full of horror and despair, and started to claw at the vision, wanting nothing but freedom from this knowledge.

He begged for release and got it. Everything suddenly turned black and with a gasp, he breathed, noticing himself wet. On top of him, surrounded by angry people, was his master, who had just thrown water on him.

“You are not ready”.

Original post

22 Sep 2024Developer post

NovaMundi Stories 2 - A Master Potter

Uta Bobesicca (clan Blackberry) was made of cousins, siblings, parents, and elders. It was a small clan, and all of its members, save for the little ones, were self-sufficient. Bobesicca was blessed with talent and abundance. Such was this uta’s abundance that its young members h

Uta Bobesicca (clan Blackberry) was made of cousins, siblings, parents, and elders. It was a small clan, and all of its members, save for the little ones, were self-sufficient. Bobesicca was blessed with talent and abundance.

Such was this uta’s abundance that its young members had forgotten how important community links are.

Umbala was a potter from the clan Bobesicca. His skills were renowned and the pots he made were coveted from the lands of the Tayrona to the lands north of the Andes. Such was his skill that his pride took the best of him. He was sure that every pot he made, he could trade. And so, he seldom saved pots or food for days of scarcity.

One beautiful morning the news was made known: A biohote; a great celebration, was planned to happen soon! His goods would be in high demand, so much so that his status would grow and he could become a powerful man!

And so, with this idea in his mind, he began to work like never before. He made one, ten, one thousand pots! His uta’s warehouse was full of pots to trade and carry chicha, emeralds, salt, maize, and other foods. All those pots were already promised. Even before leaving town, all pots had owners, from chiefs and priests to merchants and other utas.

Just a week before the biohote was planned to take place, a calamity struck. Having all the promised pots already done, Umbala dedicated himself to drink and recreation, sure about his future; too proud to think hardships could happen to such a skilled potter, he started to drink too much chicha.

One afternoon, hunters brought deer.

The spirits had blessed them with strong, big deer to skin, and abundant meat to prepare! Happy as the hunters were, they left the bodies near the warehouse used by Umbala to store his pots, so they could go and have chicha to celebrate. Umbala himself had drunk a lot of the substance that day.

Turns out, that the biggest of the deer was not dead, but dying! And stricken by a final jolt of strength and energy, it stood up, and disoriented as it was, ran into the warehouse!

Drunk as he was, Umbala couldn’t do anything but look horrified at the dying deer, which in its final moments destroyed all his pots before collapsing.

With his head cleared by this horror, Umbala shrieked with terror and sadness! “I’ll die of hunger!” he cried, “I have nothing to trade, and no saved food or goods to live off while I make more pots!”, he whined.

Umbala was at a loss. He was alone in this world, and due to his arrogance he would die of hunger in isolation… Or so he thought!

After crying for a long while, Umbala still had his hands covering his eyes, so he didn’t notice how surrounded by love he was until he felt hands and arms around him. “Fa ia achuene”, “everything is good now”. All the members of Bobesicca surrounded him, and even some hunters and neighbors!

Many had brought food, and others brought clay and hands.

With their help, Umbala wouldn’t become a powerful man from one day to the next. But he would survive and thrive again.

Umbala enjoyed the biohote, and successfully bargained for time to make the pots he couldn’t make. But the greatest of gifts his community gave him, was that of growth.

The Muisca people may be fierce, and we may even be harsh in our punishments! But we support each other! Something every chief and every kid should remember! We are all children of Bachué!

Original post

17 Sep 2024Developer post

NovaMundi Stories 1 - Curima's Wisdom

Sué, god of the sun smiled, making Curima wrinkles create beautiful shadows. She was old. Even old people considered Curima an elder. “The ancient one”, she was called behind her back. And only behind her back, for she was the mother of the old Chief. No one else was awake. As sh

Sué, god of the sun smiled, making Curima wrinkles create beautiful shadows. She was old. Even old people considered Curima an elder. “The ancient one”, she was called behind her back. And only behind her back, for she was the mother of the old Chief.

No one else was awake. As she grew older, the need for sleep scattered like her great-grandchildren after doing some mischief.

Because of this, she alone prepared the fire, and some food like quisbún; a sweet corn cake made with cheese, butter, and milk. It was her clan’s favorite food, and she loved to cook it.

The smell awoke the little ones, who with a ruckus started helping the old woman. Her grandchildren followed their kids, and after a while, her only son, the old chief, arrived. He had slipped away while she started to cook to meditate, and of course, to slack off and not help. He would get a burnt quisbún, and a kiss on his forehead for that.

“Today is the day, mother. Are you sure you want to go? This is not an easy trip for a chutoca.” Said the chief worryingly.

“Who are you calling an old woman you ancient oaf? I can do the trip.” Spat Curima to his son.

“Besides, you need me. People respect you here because you’re their chief, but we’re meeting others who don’t respect you. They’ll respect my wisdom and knowledge.” Said Curima while patting her son’s back.

The children finished their meal quickly, followed by their parents. Minutes later, one of the kids entered the house again: “Caca! Caca! Warriors are asking for you and grandpa!” screamed the kid.
“Stop calling me grandmother! I’m your great-grandmother! What will the neighbors think?” smiled Curima.

A large retinue was waiting outside. Everyone was ready to depart, save for the chief, who was still adorning himself with gold. The trip would be long, but his status demanded to be in full regalia even during a stroll. While waiting among the warriors, Curima heard them gossiping.

“Is a meeting between the chiefs necessary? Couldn’t the Zipa or the Zaque as heads of the federation just demand them to bury the hatchet and work together?” whispered one of the warriors.

“Zipa? Zaque? Did no one ever educate you, child? For years the federation has been such just in name. The chieftains of Muequetá and Hunza are constantly warring succession wars or launching fruitless attacks on each other. Zaquesazipa, called Zipa by some, is called an usurper by others, and I wouldn’t put it behind him to ally himself with the invaders.” Said Curima, horrified.

The warriors stayed silent and looked at Curima with respect. She was wise, she was powerful. Her voice carried whispers from the ancestors, and knowledge of the heavens. This silence would not be broken for hours, and even then, it would be Curima who would break it.

The chief did not dare to break the silence his mother achieved, so with his eyes, he commanded the men to start the long march.

After some hours had passed, Curima grew tired of the silence and said: “Son, do you remember we already did this trip? Twice in fact. The first time you were a baby so you wouldn’t remember, but the second one I hope you do remember.”

“Ah, yes! We accompanied my father to meet with some other chiefs. Issues with the Panches, right?” Said Curima’s son.

“Other visitors had to camp outside the walls, but we stayed with that town’s chief. Why was that?” He added.

Curima smiled and answered: “The first time we went, your father punched our host in the face. They got into a huge fight and wouldn’t stop. So our host’s wife and I decided to throw cold water on them to separate them. Both of us did so spontaneously, at the same time, and without communicating our intentions. We became fast friends”

“So my father fought our host, and after that, he still managed to get an alliance to fight off the Panche raiders?” Inquired the chief.

“Ha! Of course not. But I talked to your father, and our host’s wife, and she talked to him. It was a good thing that your dad and our host were the only two chiefs with only one wife each. They were easier to guide!” Laughed Curima.

The chief smiled.

Time passed. Days were born and died. And suddenly, the whole retinue arrived in a walled town.

A very old woman, rivaling Curima in her amount of wrinkles, was waiting outside, surrounded by children. An old man, younger than the crone, adorned with the regalia of a chief, was behind her with a stern look.

The man pointed to the visiting group, and the woman smiled when she saw Curima.

“I’ve missed you, you old bag”

“I’ve missed you too, old bird”

Original post

07 Sep 2024Developer post

NovaMundi 1.0 Full Release coming soon, October 12th!

NovaMundi is an exploration game with tactical combat in which you lead a group of indigenous warriors to traverse the vast and dangerous territories of the Andean mountains seeking to unite the Muisca populations and prepare them to stand against the upcoming invasion efforts fr

NovaMundi is an exploration game with tactical combat in which you lead a group of indigenous warriors to traverse the vast and dangerous territories of the Andean mountains seeking to unite the Muisca populations and prepare them to stand against the upcoming invasion efforts from European powers in the XVI century.

NovaMundi now has a Full Release date: October 12th, 2024!

We are working hard to make it through the finish line with something worthy. We appreciate all the help you can provide letting your friends and content creators about the game; share about it in your gaming communities!

We picked the October 12th date because of its importance for indigenous communities in America, which we believe greatly aligns with the message of NovaMundi.

As we work towards it, there's a new Early Access version available and it comes with many important improvements!

The visuals when you start the game have been greatly improved; the start time of the day has been changed so it begins a little bit earlier and you now get to see the sunrise, including activating the mist of the mountains for dramatic effect. I like how it ended up.

The parameters for Mist to appear have been tweaked around so it should now be more likely to end up caught on it (previous version it was much less likely to happen, and only in the paramo biomes which make a minority of the map).

Now let’s talk about combat. The movement speed for units in combat has been tweaked to avoid “The Flash”-like super quick units and enemies when they were wearing ornaments of speed or otherwise had elevated stats. They are now quicker but the speed calculations were divided in tiers instead of escalating infinitely.

Critical fixes were made to the Spanish units; their attack power was being duplicated because of an error in the animations setup! their armors were also nerfed a little bit to make them a bit more beatable (they are still super challenging, don’t worry!). Their danger values were also changed to prevent a lot of them jumping at the player at once too soon.

The quantity of blowgunners per enemy party has been capped to two; this is both to avoid battles been too easy but also too many poisoned units. Enemy parties now can also have Muisca units on their side (traitors!) giving them much more variety.

Caverns are now populated with more enemies and sport some visual improvements; get ready for a bigger update for caverns on Full Release, or maybe before!

Let’s now check some changes on the UI/UX side, some of which were long-standing.

The biggest change comes in the shape of multi-step tooltips; hovering over an item or unit will now show some basic info about it, and then after 2 seconds you should see more detailed info; this helps navigate loot and inventory screens without the extended info cluttering the display, while at the same time obtaining useful info when needed. Detailed info for weapons and armor was also extended to include the strengths and weaknesses vs different damage types.

An indicator was added to the Quests button, it turns on whenever you have new quests available; this is accompanied by notifications when you are assigned a new quest or when you complete one, so you don’t miss them!

The title screen and the new game flow have been revamped for clarity. This also included rewriting the credits completely (they were severely outdated!)

Some more assorted bugfixes and improvements:

Improved image for the directional cursor in the minimap.
Reduced reputation gained for discoveries.
Death and injury sounds are enabled back
The ages-old “unit skating” bug is hopefully gone now
Knife attacks were causing no damage at all
Upcoming improved Intro
We are working to improve the intro of the game including a set of great illustrations made by Laura Rubio, as well as a voice-over in the Muyscamuy language, translated and acted by Jose Manuel Gómez. It’s going to be great.

Interview in National Radio
Most of the devteam assembled again to be interviewed by a Colombian national radio station. I’ll share more about it when it’s available online!

Original post

19 Jul 2024Developer post

NovaMundi – Battlegrounds [0.43]

It’s been over seven months since the last version of NovaMundi, I did a preview post back on May 31 of what was coming, but the new version is finally out! I will try to summarize what we are shipping here: Combat Areas At long last, there are now several maps where combat takes

It’s been over seven months since the last version of NovaMundi, I did a preview post back on May 31 of what was coming, but the new version is finally out! I will try to summarize what we are shipping here:

Combat Areas
At long last, there are now several maps where combat takes place, based on whether you are close to a town, or the biome where the engagement took place (plains, forests, wetlands or even mountain “páramos”); additionally the maps are much bigger now, so instead of a simple faceoff you’ll have to maneuver your units around to meet your enemies.

Overworld Movement
Time compression has been removed, instead you will be able to “sprint” in the overworld, to move quicker at the expense of stamina. This will allow you to maneuver and evade chasing expeditions or animal packs.

These chasing expeditions are now affected by terrain, as well as the visibility of your expedition (so they will move slower if they cannot see you while you are in a forest or during the night). Your party itself will move slower during nigh time as well, since you never know what you are going to step into.

A critical fix was implemented to the “lost track” checks, so it should now be possibly to lose them without walking for days.

Invaders Camps
You will now see invader camps scattered thru the map. You can decide to raid them for some cool lot in exchange for a hard battle.

New Weapon: Blowgun
Blowguns have been reintroduced to the new units model; you can now equip and use them. They have extra range and can inflict negative status effects in your enemies…

…however, you are most likely to suffer these maladies in your own party, as the enemy groups often have a couple of these guys at least. So keep some healing herbs around!

Combat Flow
The combat flow has been improved with attack animations now playing continuously instead of breaking to idle status, this makes battles feel much more exciting.

Additionally, units now move MUCH quicker in battle, they actually run this time!

Icons and UI
With her passage through Slashware, talented illustrator Alicia Mendez (who also did a lot of foundational work for Yuhalak) left us some sweet icons for:

The perks you can use to personalize your runs
The status effects for units (poisoned, sick, healing, etc)
The modifiers for items (magical, high/low quality, special, etc)

She also helped us with some UI art for the floating dialogs which make the game looks much more smooth.

The item modifier icons are also shown now in the unit detail panel, so it’s easier to check what kind of stuff you have on.

Camping
Camping has been simplified: You no longer have to carry tents around, or pick up the camp manually when you finish using it. You can also now be ambushed by wild enemies, and they are no joke!

A cap was also introduced to prevent consecutive ambushes during the same night.

Discoveries
Animal discoveries have been divided between big animals and small critters; small critters continue working mostly the same but are uncapable of causing a lot of damage to many party members (some of them won’t even do any damage).

Big animals will now spawn hostile wild animal packs that will attack you most of time time, and they are no joke! They have been integrated more seriously into combat, you can now see their remaining hit points and other stats when clicking on them.

Discoveries also now provide a reputation bonus (that you can use to hire units); their overworld icons have been changed and you will now be able to see them from afar. For plan discoveries you will now get a notification of the amount of items you grabbed as well.

UI Art
Art by Inkiluana has been added to the game over screen which had been neglected for too long.

The main menu art has been replaced back with the beautiful art created by Simernio, years ago.

Caverns (Duitama Cave for now)
Some small fixes were made before focusing in the “spelunking” facet, likely coming next month; giant spiders were fixed so they can actually attack, and other animals were added to the cave for variety. The number of spawned enemies was also increased. And a blue shimmering light was added to the altar so you don’t miss it.

And that’s it for now! I hope you find these changes exciting… we continue working towards the full release, keep an eye out!

Original post

04 Oct 2023Developer post

NovaMundi – Clash on the Highlands [0.42.1]

NovaMundi is a procedural exploration game with tactical combat in which you lead a group of indigenous warriors and explorers to traverse the vast and dangerous territories of the Andean mountains seeking to unite the Muisca populations and prepare them to stand against the upco

NovaMundi is a procedural exploration game with tactical combat in which you lead a group of indigenous warriors and explorers to traverse the vast and dangerous territories of the Andean mountains seeking to unite the Muisca populations and prepare them to stand against the upcoming invasion efforts from European powers in the XVI century.

NovaMundi is available now on Steam Early Access! GET IT NOW (or wishlist it) if you like what you see!

Version 0.42 focuses in COMBAT, it’s the result of about two months of work of the team and, while there still some improvements to be done in the balancing, UI and visuals, it already changes a lot of how you much approach the game. Here are some of the most important changes brought by this version:

Combat
As promised in the previous update, you will now be able to change the weapons, armor and accessory equipped on your units; we implemented nor only a bunch of base weapons and armor, but also many magical, special and quality modifiers that affect the stats and special effects associated with each. Shields were also added, adding the possibility of fully blocking attacks in exchange of sacrificing a stat boost. There are also now Cursed items you cannot remove with variations of the magical effects of the uncursed item.

Closely related to this are the concepts of weapon and armor types, for instance “blunt” weapons are effective against “hard” armor. This is also reflected now in the floating UI in combat.

Enemies with an equipped ranged weapon will fall back to a stone knife when the enemies are at melee range; they switch back after the combat is over or they are able to put some air between them and their enemies.

The responsiveness of selecting units and changing commands has been improved greatly.

The battle loot calculations have been changed to not include food, and give weapons based on these equipped by the defeated enemies, damaging their quality level randomy.

A new item, the Condor’s Blessing, is featured as rewards in towns and can be used to level up.

Exploration
You can now be ambushed while camping, and you cannot camp or enter towns if you are being chased by an enemy.

The max number of units in your expedition is now 12.

Trade
Each town will now value items differently, which can be helpful to know where to buy and where to sell.

The inventory of the wandering merchants inventory reduced and randomized.

Perks
A lot of new perks implemented including Kiss of Chia, Follower of Huitaca, Gullible

And that’s it for now! I hope you find these changes exciting… we continue working towards the full release, keep an eye out!

Original post

06 Sep 2023Developer post

The Combat System Open Beta is on! (v0.40.0)

IT IS TIME! Time for what you say? TIME TO BETA TEST! The combat system is now feature-complete! At least mathematically speaking… We’re still missing some models, UI elements, and sound effects. Some adjacent systems are also missing, but hey! You can whack things now in a much

IT IS TIME!

Time for what you say?

TIME TO BETA TEST!

The combat system is now feature-complete! At least mathematically speaking…

We’re still missing some models, UI elements, and sound effects. Some adjacent systems are also missing, but hey! You can whack things now in a much more fun way!

Of course, this means the update is not ready for an official release, you deserve a polished and great product! But we can’t do this alone.

While we’ve tested this update’s features a lot, we would appreciate your help to cover all situations; since the player’s skill influences whether a battle is hard or not, an experienced player will have a much easier time playing than a newbie, and we can’t balance the whole game as if all players are experts... that’s where you come in!

Right now, you can access the open beta by going into your Steam games library, right-clicking on NovaMundi, and following this menu route:

Properties…->Betas

On the “Betas” menu, you’ll see a “Beta participation” drop-down menu. Click on it and select “openbeta Open Beta Testing”. You can opt out of the beta at any time by following the same route and just clicking “none” on the drop-down menu.

If you decide to participate in the beta, we thank you! And we would love to hear all feedback from you!

To do this, just go to the Steam forums or better yet, to our Discord server at https://discord.gg/u8aZDw9

What can you expect?

You will now be able to find or acquire weapons and armor, and equip them to your units
There is, of course, a new set of weapons and armor types
The equipment can now be affected with quality and special effect modifiers, as well as Magical blessings and Curses.
The equipment for the enemies is also generated considering these modifiers, and the loot acquired is generated directly from it
Ranged weapon users carry a knife to defend themselves when enemies get too close.
You’ll also find that the leveling system has been revamped.

We are looking for feedback mainly in three areas:

Are the systems fun? Does combat seem fair? Are there weapons that are very OP?
Is the leveling system fun? Is it worth it to protect an experienced unit? Is a level-up an exciting thing? Do you perceive the increase in power from level to level? Is the pace of level-up good?
Are there any bugs? A bug is anything that you perceive shouldn’t happen or isn’t working as intended!

When reporting a bug, please provide as much information as possible! What were you doing when it happened? Can you reproduce it? How can it be reproduced?

We hope you have a lot of fun with this beta, and we’re looking forward to hearing from you!

Game on!

Original post

29 Aug 2023Developer post

Combat system improvements info, Beta is coming soon!

Hello everyone! My name is Stoltverd , and I’m one of the developers here at Slashware. Today, I’ll be taking Slashie’s place to tell you about an upcoming update on Novamundi’s combat. And let me tell you… It’s big. We’ll finally allow characters to change/equip weapons: no more

Hello everyone! My name is Stoltverd, and I’m one of the developers here at Slashware. Today, I’ll be taking Slashie’s place to tell you about an upcoming update on Novamundi’s combat. And let me tell you… It’s big.

We’ll finally allow characters to change/equip weapons: no more will characters be limited in their weapon selection to what they were carrying at the moment of their recruitment. Archers will use spears and clubs if you need them to do so! That doesn’t mean they should… but they can. No more will you be screwed if your frontline is destroyed. And talking about ranged weapon users, all of them will now carry a knife to defend themselves when enemies get too close.

In regard to weapons, new types will be included. All are unique in how they work and look and the damage they inflict. Some inflict piercing damage, others slashing or blunt; and all of them interact in different ways with the new armors that are coming.

But that’s not all! Equipment pieces can now have many different modifiers. Quality, special effects, and magical blessings, all can modify how a weapon is used and works.

Watch out though… Some equipment pieces may very well be cursed!

Equipment and how combat works are not the only things we touched. We transformed every aspect surrounding them too, including how to acquire equipment, how enemies get it assigned, and how they use them, how the leveling system works, how much experience is awarded to characters, how to keep track of units and their effects during combat, consequences of combat outside of the battlefield, and a long ETC…

This update is really going to be huge, you can expect a changelog several pages long. It involves reworks of many different systems, UI, and more… It’s been a true labor of love from all of us here at Slashware, and we can’t wait for you to get your hands on it!

This beta will be available for players on the beta testing group of our discord who have already acquired the Early Access version during next week. We hope to see you there!

Original post

20 Jul 2023Developer post

NovaMundi – Towns of the Muisca [0.41]

NovaMundi is a procedural exploration game with tactical combat in which you lead a group of indigenous warriors and explorers to traverse the vast and dangerous territories of the Andean mountains seeking to unite the Muisca populations and prepare them to stand against the upco

NovaMundi is a procedural exploration game with tactical combat in which you lead a group of indigenous warriors and explorers to traverse the vast and dangerous territories of the Andean mountains seeking to unite the Muisca populations and prepare them to stand against the upcoming invasion efforts from European powers in the XVI century.

NovaMundi is available now on Steam Early Access! GET IT NOW (or wishlist it) if you like what you see!

Version 0.41 focuses on improving the exploration experience in many ways, read below for full info.

The biggest change for this version is that Muisca towns have been greatly expanded, filled with life, and given each one a unique identity. You will find different craftsmen working on them, merchants populating the markets, and guards defending the fenced areas. This was a long time coming and I’m happy we were finally able to include it.

Doing this required some heavy refactors in the procedural generation and in the structure of the game initialization, to make sure all the critical places could be placed adequately without clipping water bodies and steep mountains, and allowing scrapping the process and restarting if needed.

Additionally, the dialogs for all the townspeople have been revised, and some additional sidequests were added to match what they meant since there were some loose chats.

We are already working hard on the improvements over the combat system; as a preview to the next version, you will see the equipment slots for weapons and armor for the party members; note that you will still be unable to change them… that’s coming up very soon! We are adding different types of weapons and armor, damage types, mystical modifiers, and special effects. You are gonna love it!

As you can see, the “morale” of each individual member of the Expedition is now displayed on the status screen; we have finally made it so that it affects the proficiency of the units in combat; in addition to having adequate sleep, you will now have to feed you expedition with varied food if you want to keep their spirits up.

Finally, Some changes were made in the economy so that these different kinds of food can be more easily procured in towns (amidst many small tweaks to make it feel more alive and changing)

And that’s it for now! I hope you find these changes exciting… we continue working towards the full release, keep an eye out!

PS: Bonus sneak peek… we are also revamping the intro of the game to better convey the story and the context of the adventure.

Original post

NovaMundi

Updates & announcements

New Free Update: Legacy of the Chieftains

Bogotá, Chieftain of Muyqyuta

Saymoso, Chieftain of Duitama

Eucaneme, Chieftain of Hunza

Nompanim, Chyquy of Suamox

Critical bugfix [1.0.3]

NovaMundi: Improved Combat [1.0.2]

Devlog: The last month of indie development and marketing for NovaMundi 1.0

v1.0.1 - UX fixes!

NovaMundi Full Release 1.0 now available!

NovaMundi Stories 5 - The Sue

NovaMundi Stories 4 - The Panche Menace

NovaMundi Stories 3 - Tomagata the unready

NovaMundi Stories 2 - A Master Potter

NovaMundi Stories 1 - Curima's Wisdom

NovaMundi 1.0 Full Release coming soon, October 12th!

NovaMundi – Battlegrounds [0.43]

NovaMundi - Icons of Status [0.42.3]

v0.42.2 with small fixes

NovaMundi – Clash on the Highlands [0.42.1]

The Combat System Open Beta is on! (v0.40.0)

Combat system improvements info, Beta is coming soon!

v0.41.1 - Small hotfix

NovaMundi – Towns of the Muisca [0.41]