So, we finally published the Steam page for Undead Horde 2: Necropolis. Welcome! We wanted to show a lot of varied game content from our different environments before going live so it took us until early September to reach this point. I'll start our updates with a brief history of the project and where we are at this point and what we're doing next.
Undead Horde is our second best selling title to date after DYSMANTLE, so making a sequel has been on the table for some time. Also, after many of us working over four years on DYSMANTLE (and some of us are still working on DYSMANTLE) and after releasing Skeletal Avengers, we wanted to do a project which we could finish in a bit over a year or so. With this background we decided it would be a suitable time to continue the Undead Horde saga a bit!
In early 2022 we started working. The goal was to create a game which is definitely Undead Horde, but with enough changes to offer something fresh.
There are three major differences with UH2 compared to UH1. I'll outline them here so you know better what to expect.
The first major difference are the raise mechanics. In UH1 you could raise only the exact unit you just killed. In this game we have something called the "Raise Wheel". You can assign 1-5 units onto the wheel and then decide on the go which unit you want to raise from enemy remains. Enemies leave behind remains which are the source of your undead warriors.
The second major difference is the game hub. In UH1 it was called the crypt but in UH2 you get a whole city called Necropolis. In the beginning the city is razed by the living. In the process they also capture all the denizens into soul jars and take them back to the lands of the living. These were just some innocent souls frolicking happily in the Necropolis after their death. However, the living invented this thing called Soul Jar which they use to capture the souls back. The souls are not happy for this: Who would like to live in a jar for all eternity.
In any case - the player's goal is to rebuild the Necropolis and bring back its denizens. Each additional denizen can be assigned to a building which can yield various benefits like new abilities, perks or stat bonuses. They also make the city more lively as they walk around.
The third major difference is connected to the first. Since the connection between the raised unit and killed unit is broken, we are now able to create a unique set of minions for the player. There are over a dozen types which are all unique. They include your standard skeletons but then extend to more exotic units like hierophants, liches and death knights.
So those were the three major differences. There are more, but these are the most obvious. They make the game feel fresh as even the core gameplay changes a bit when you can decide which kind of undead you raise instead of just mirroring the enemy throughout the whole game.
Currently we're working on polishing the first chapter on the game and and some parts of the second and third chapters. This will most likely be the extent of our early access release. We'll be looking for alpha testers in the near future, so stay tuned for that and join our discord for all the latest 10tons gossip: https://discord.gg/10tons