Greetings, medieval adventurers!
We realize it’s been quite a while already since our last update, so we thought we’d take the opportunity to share where we are and what’s coming out by us in the near future.
For those of you who are not aware, we the devs behind Cursebreaker are a small Finnish team. We say this to promote an event running for the first time - ‘Finnish Games Week’ - which is also taking place as a Steam event and our game’s participating by continuing to run a discount during this period. The event’s about shining a spotlight on Finnish-produced games – you might be surprised how many there are! – and we encourage you to browse the event page and see what the other crazy Finns have been cooking; there are a lot of cool games to discover at www.finnishgamesweek.com and on Steam at https://store.steampowered.com/sale/FinnishGamesWeek2025!
Sober Reflections on Cursebreaker
In our last messaging we alluded to some upcoming game fixes and potential dragon content, and we haven’t abandoned our intention to deliver on these, progress has just been slow. In part that’s been due to a growing realization for a need to prototype new projects and improve our tools for the future, and later in this post we actually have news to share on a potential new game! Aside from that, we continue to be just a really small team and have to deal with the constraints that come with that, and there’s been a bit of burnout too for sure.
Truthfully, our dragon quest hasn’t progressed much beyond on paper, but we will be wrapping together an update with gamefixes soon, hopefully alleviating some of the jank that’s present. Speaking of... we are well aware that the game is janky, and have to acknowledge that it probably always will be to some extent. That’s because when we began, our “team” was essentially two enthusiastic hobbyists accompanied by a rotating mix of other enthusiasts, part-timers and interns.
Early development consisted of a lot of trial and error, and in fashion most typical to enthusiasts and inexperienced teams, the project became too ambitious off the boot and only kept creeping in scope in its early days. Much of the work was done without much organization or proper documentation either, resulting in a lot of the inconsistencies and jank that's stayed with the game to this day. Ultimately, the painful lesson we had to learn is that while fixes and polish can be applied at the tail end of development, to some degree the project just ought to be made right from the beginning.
To be clear, we’re not trying to excuse the problems our game has, but to explain why the game is the way it is. If at times it has seemed like the game wasn’t done by a very professional studio, well, that’s because it wasn’t really. And to be fair, a lot of you probably figured that out anyway; our's is hardly the first janky indie to launch on the platform and certainly won't be the last.
But against the odds, so many of you managed to find it in the marketplace and have thoroughly enjoyed the game regardless of its issues! Nothing's more heartwarming for a developer than to see people find your game who really 'get it' and play it just the way you envisioned it. And it’s given us a shot at truly being professionals today and we couldn’t be more grateful!
Our team today has solidified into a programmer, a writer, a 3D modeler and a part-time dev who also creates our music. We all still have to wear multiple hats to get it all together, but we feel more experienced, organized and prepared for future projects than ever.
As for Cursebreaker, we’ll continue to look at fixing what’s feasibly fixable. With some issues, though, we’ve already gone as far as we can at this stage; primarily, deep-rooted performance problems are tied to the game’s core systems and can’t be helped much beyond remaking the entire project. In areas where performance is most jarring, so especially around Haywind, we recommend setting draw distance down – we know it won’t eliminate the problem, but it should help.
On a lighter note, we found a some old pictures and recordings of bugs from the early days of development, and felt compelled to share them here:
Early versions of the game did indeed have a more HD style before we scaled it back for bad performance and scope reasons. There even was a playable demo-build in these graphics at one stage, if any of the earliest followers of the project have stuck around, they may remember it.
Link to the full album:
New Project: Frost and Glory!
As mentioned, we’ve been prototyping potential new projects over the recent months and we’re ready to unveil Frost and Glory – a more light-hearted, tongue-in-cheek RPG set in a wintery, alpine, open-world town where you take part in a snow blaster tournament! That’s to say, you get a gun that launches snowballs and a lot of different targets to shoot at!
“Snowfall City is hosting a legendary snowblaster tournament, and you’re set to compete! Enter a light, wintery open-world RPG with a cheerful atmosphere, level-up talents through snow-slinging trials, recruit companions, outplay tricky rivals, and rise from rookie to seasonal champion!”
Frost and Glory is thematically quite a break from Cursebreaker, so if you’re really keen on the medieval death and darkness, it might not be your cup of tea. Much of the design and gameplay should feel familiar though, so if you liked Cursebreaker, there ought to be plenty to enjoy here too!
(Still under development.)
For this project, we’ve been experimenting with a cartoony art-style that’s visually more consistent, while also creating more expressive characters with facial animations. The end-result, we think, is a sharper and more polished looking game that also happens to run a lot better. Whether we can avoid becoming overburdened by some of these new visual and animation standards remains to be seen, but for a smaller project it’s been interesting to see what we could pull off.
In any case, please do check out the store page by clicking the link below and wishlist if you want to wishlist it – we are putting out a demo in time for Steam Next Fest starting Monday, October 13! So be on the lookout for that and maybe give the demo a spin. No information yet on when the game is set to release.
As a final note for any Cursebreaker enthusiasts who may feel put off by the looks of this new game, rest assured we do intend to return to more serious and gritty themes in the future…
Community News: The Wiki and Interactive Map Are Back!
As some of you might have noticed to your dismay, the beloved Cursbreaker Wiki and interactive map were recently offline. Well, we have great news for you; just prior to publishing this post we got word that these tools are back live again!
To be clear, these fantastic resources aren’t developed by our team but by a talented and passionate member in our discord community. He deserves great praise from us - creating these resources must have come at no small effort!
Wiki:
https://cursebreaker.wiki/doku.php?id=start
Map
https://cursebreaker-map.online/
We’ve been in touch with the creator behind these tools and discussed ways to provide more direct access to in-game data, which may help him enhance both the map and wiki further. We'll be sure to post an announcement if and when the Wiki and Map get upgraded!
But that's all the news we have for now, so as always, it's time we wish you happy gaming!
Pura
