Greetings Heroes!
The Last Spell is now one year old! One year filled with Nights, monsters and heroes fighting to survive. One year of updates and players' feedback allowing us to improve the game.
One year, one candle. Off to many more!
To celebrate this first year of The Last Spell, we are sharing with you some insights about the production of the game, from 2018 to 2022. Have a good read!
FIRST IDEA FOR THE LAST STAND SPELL
In 2018, The Last Spell was just an idea our Creative Director gave to Jacques, the Art Director:
"I'm working on something, an asymetric tactical with a handful of heroes battling against a horde of monsters."
And this became the first concept art of the game, then called The Last Stand.
FIRST TESTS & CLOSED BETAS
Summer 2020 saw The Last Spell being tested by players for the first time with the Steam Festival, Gamescom, Closed Beta and the Prologue.
We conducted a second Closed Beta in May 2021, and THANK THE GODDESS we did it because together we found a few nasty things! Players, we owe you one.
STATS & NUMBERS
The Last Spell launched on June 3rd, 2021 and our biggest incredible optimistic objective was 20 000 sales in a week.
We did 60 000.
Fun facts: More than 20% of our users played 40h+. This number goes down to 4% when we look at... those who played 100h+. Which-is-quite-a-lot.
The average time played on The Last Spell is 26h 15min. So just enough time to get beaten to death by Gildenberg at least 10 times.
LAKEBURG: MAP & REWORK
Lakeburg was the very first map we created. We wanted something both simple and adaptable as we didn't know if it would be the only map of the game or not.
Now that we have a broader vision for TLS, we thought it was time to give this map a unique look and gamestyle!
THE MONSTERS OF THE LAST SPELL
When we create new monsters, our priority is to make them easily recognizable and "readable" from the battlefield and their different sides (front/back). What can this monster do? Is it a giant threat? Which behaviour can I expect?
Each monster must look terrifying or unsettling. Too many limbs, blood, bones, excrescence, spikes... And sometimes, they get it all. Monsters also follow a certain colour scheme: the redder an enemy is, the more dangerous it is.
Inspiration for our monsters comes from multiple types of medium: video games, comic books, movies, tv shows...
Here are some examples:
- Ripper: Necromorph in Dead Space
- Boomer: Left 4 Dead
- Hunter: Van Helsing
THANK YOU
It's been 1 year, since we launched The Last Spell in Early Access. One year that players helped us shape its future.
To all of you defending the last bastion of humanity, thank you. We couldn't have done it without you.
May your Nights be short.
Love from Ishtar Games
