Hello, horde!
How are you? We know we’ve been quiet here on Steam for a couple of weeks, but it doesn’t mean we haven’t been working on Be My Horde - quite the opposite, in fact! Attending PAX East gave us a huge boost, and we were very busy analyzing feedback and creating new stuff for our game. And we’re going to show you all of this, just not now. We want to be sure that what we’re creating is ready and polished (pun very much intended) before we showcase it to you. Nevertheless, the waiting shouldn’t be long, and in the upcoming weeks and months, we’re about to throw a lot of news at you.
But in the meantime, here's a more loose text where we’d love to take a closer look at the heroes (and by that we mean VICTIMS) of Be My Horde. You know what they say - know your enemies… especially when you can make them your allies (ah, necromancy is truly the highest of art!).
PEASANT
Type: Melee Characteristic: small, weak, and poor
The most basic unit that you can find at the very beginning of the game. These little folks normally wouldn’t draw the attention of the goddess Moriana, but you always need to start somewhere! It’s good to make a small army of undead Peasants before facing more powerful foes. Besides, if quantity is more important to you than quality, Peasants are definitely perfect for you as it's fairly easy to quickly build a big army out of them. Maybe Warriors or Knights are more formidable, but you know how it is - like Sheldon Skaggs from the Witcher books series said: “Every swordsman's an arse when the enemy's not sparse”.
Trivia: Internally, we call the Peasant unit “Kacperek,” which is a diminutive of the Polish name “Kacper”.
PRIEST
Type: Healing Characteristic: old, slimy, but with a magical touch
Battle isn’t only about blindly hitting enemies. Be smart and provide your sinister army with someone who can heal wounds. Here comes the Priest unit. It may not be tough - just a few hits are all that it needs to be put into eternal rest (at least until Moriana won’t disturb it), but its healing abilities can be vital for your horde's survival. It is generally a good idea to not let enemy Priests live too long, as they can heal your opponents as well!
Trivia: It's yellow for a reason.
WARRIOR
Type: Melee Characteristic: tough, violent, and bald
When you see the Warrior unit, be sure to grab one as soon as possible. It’s tough, and even one of them can put down a few Peasants. Nevertheless, a single Warrior can still be an easy target. Start by finding lone individuals or groups of two or three of those ginger-beard lumberjacks. But beware, in bigger groups, those axes can do a lot of damage to your precious horde (especially when they come in huge, unstoppable waves). The good thing in our game is that you can quickly turn the tables.
Trivia: Primarily, he was called Bandit, but because players assume the role of the antagonist, enemy units shouldn’t be bad guys. And so, the Bandit became simply the Warrior.
SHEEP
Type: Exploding Characteristic: fluffy and deadly
In the full game, we plan to add more types of units (most of them are melee kind at the moment), like RANGED ones. But for now, we wanted to give you a glimpse of the variety, and we heard players love explosions. And so the idea to add to the demo… exploding Sheep. These fluffy friends are your most impressive allies. When they are still alive, they don’t pose a threat to you. But when you kill one and resurrect it, you basically get a bomb on legs. Whenever someone kills your Sheep, it explodes, taking some opponents with it in a blast. Position it in battle wisely - it’s better to cause a big BOOM when a group of Knights are next to it, and not just a bunch of measly Peasants. Also, don’t worry, your Sheep won’t harm your minions; there’s no friendly fire in Be My Horde… yet.
Trivia: The exploding Sheep is an Easter egg that refers to a similar unit you can find in our previous game - Realms of Magic - which (going deeper) is the reference to the units in Warcraft 3.
KNIGHT
Type: Melee Characteristic: armored, shining, and painfully noble
Do you know how it is when you do more and more crime in GTA, and more deadly law enforcers arrive to ruin your happy trigger adventure? Well, that’s the case with Knights in Be My Horde. Killing Peasants will eventually draw the attention of the authorities (but not right away, as the fellows working in the fields aren’t super important to the noble ones of this world), and Knights will appear to destroy your horde. Even a single Knight can be dangerous, so you definitely want to avoid huge groups of them, especially the ring of death they can create around you, the constantly tightening loop around your neck.
Trivia: Knight is the very first unit drawn for Be My Horde by our artists.
CAVALRYMAN
Type: Melee Characteristic: looks cool, but smells bad
Fast and super dangerous - Cavalrymen can charge through your horde and sometimes pose a direct threat to Moriana. Their long lances prove that sometimes size indeed does matter (but very rarely! - quick note from our marketing guy). Getting one of them is very difficult, and often they can take a lot of damage before dying. But it’s worth it to get some of them and shout “Be My Horse!”. Having 5 or 6 Cavalrymen in your squalid army can decide about winning or losing.
Trivia: Because Cavalryman sits on a horse we had to give all other units a special strike sound when they hit it.
PALADIN
Type: Melee (area damage) Characteristic: big, fat fellow with a hammer
That’s how a peak performance looks like. Paladins appear at the very end of the demo, so if you encounter them, be sure you’ve done well and survived for quite some time! Nevertheless, they frequently help players meet their final demise. Paladins are super dangerous with their huge hammers, which cause area damage, hurting a few minions in a small radius. But fear not! If you build a properly huge horde, you have a chance to stand against them as they are a little bit weaker than Cavalrymen, making Paladins easier to kill. In the end, is there a better way to humiliate the forces of good than by adding some of the noblest of the protagonists to your army of evil?
Trivia: Paladin got his area damage ability because we wanted to thin out the player's horde at the end of the demo. So you can say that we made him quite a powerful unit only to make you all rage quit the Be My Horde demo.
As we said at the beginning, the units you encounter in the demo are just a part of what we’re preparing for the full game. We’re testing completely new foes as we speak, like the mentioned ranged units and much more. So for sure, there will be a second episode of “Victims of Be My Horde” (quite catchy, don’t you think?).
We're getting back to work, and you make sure to check out the Be My Horde demo. We wait for your feedback and suggestions. Stay tuned for more info; we will definitely share some soon!
Praise be Moriana!
The Polished Games Team
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2499520/Be_My_Horde/