Greetings Kinfolk,
Thanks for your continued interest in Blight: Survival! As development begins to ramp up, we felt this was the perfect time to take a moment and answer some of your most asked questions about the game’s progress.
How big is Blight: Survival’s dev team?
We’re happy to share that over the past few months the Blight: Survival team has grown significantly. What started out as two passionate developers at Haenir – Ulrik and Mads, Blight: Survivals’ original creators – has now expanded to include several dozen full-time developers at Behaviour, working to help execute their creative vision.
At the time Behaviour came on board, Haenir already had a solid foundation in place, represented by a conceptual demo, showcasing the core gameplay, as seen in the trailer. As compelling as this demo is, it remains just that – a small, polished section of the game. While Blight: Survival still has a very long way to go, the addition of level designers, narrative writers, programmers, UI/UX devs, concept and VFX artists, animators, sound designers, QA testers, directors, producers, and more, is a huge step forward.
Through it all, Ulrik and Mads remain deeply involved as Creative Directors. They continue to ensure Blight: Survival stays true to their original vision, while benefiting from Behaviour’s expertise to broaden their scope, refine core features, flesh out new systems, and deliver the game we all can’t wait to play.
What’s the team been up to?
Developing a game like Blight: Survival is a massive undertaking, and a lot of the team’s efforts take place long before anything ever appears in-engine.
An incredible amount of work goes into creating critical documentation and design planning for things like our core mechanics, world-building, enemy behavior, and how it all connects.
Every week our team gathers for showcase meetings and internal playtests where we get to see how each department’s amazing work will ultimately fit together. Whether we’re looking at new 3D models, animations, enemy AI behavior, combat mechanics, or major gameplay features being tested (dismemberment!), it’s thrilling to see the limbs fly and the world continue to take shape week by week.
While progress has been steady as we test, iterate, and refine the Blight: Survival experience, we’ve still got a long road ahead. It’ll be a while before we’re ready to talk about a launch window, but as development progresses you can expect us to run public playtests to help gather feedback and finetune the game.
When can I playtest the game?
We know many of you out there are understandably eager to get your hands on Blight: Survival. While we’re still a ways off from holding large-scale playtests, we’re looking at running some very limited closed playtests via our Playtest Squad throughout this year.
Want in? Register right here for a chance to be selected.
Can you show us more of what you’re working on?
If you haven’t been following our latest updates on Discord, here’s a quick roundup of what we’ve revealed over the past few months.
The Evolution of the Blight
A glimpse into how the Blight corrupts those that it touches.
Type XIV Swords and Weapon Customization
A first look at some of the weapons you’ll be able to wield in Blight: Survival – fragments of three 14th-century Type XIV swords. While just a sample, these pieces hint at our ongoing experimentation with weapon customization.
New Enemy: “Gravestrider”
One of the enemies recently revealed was the Gravestrider, a Blight-infected monstrosity, fully rendered in-engine.
New Biome: “The Marshlands”
“The Wailing Tree”
Iterating on concept art helps the art team align on the desired look and feel of an aera. The Wailing Tree is a perfect example of this process. It evolved through several iterations, each crucial for refining the overall design, before becoming the disturbing landmark you’ll eventually encounter in-game.
“Before the ages of kings, the Wailing Tree chimed a hymn of ancestral bones. But the Baron’s terror stripped the boughs of their holy song. Laden are they now with sewn hands and rusted garlands, and final prayers spoken only in a whisper.”
When will we get more news about the game?
We hear you loud and clear. You want to see more of Blight: Survival, and we can’t say we blame you. The good news is we’re finally getting to a stage where we’ll be able to show off more of what we’ve been crafting on a regular basis, so stay tuned!
Add Blight: Survival to your Steam Wishlist to guarantee that you don’t miss a single upcoming reveal, and you can also join us on Discord to be part of the discussion!
-The Blight: Survival Team