Hello, minions!
How are you? How’s your crusade against everything that is good and alive going? Great? Moriana is pleased with your engagement - as we are!
Looking at the latest statistics, you have been very busy necromancy adepts. Thank you so much for such a colossal commitment!
Exactly one month ago, we launched the Early Access version of Be My Horde on Steam, and we couldn’t have dreamed of a better start! Thank you all for your support. Your reviews, feedback, and suggestions give us the much-needed boost to continue our work on the game. As we mentioned in previous announcements, this is just the beginning of this adventure!
Today, we celebrate. We’ll look back to calmly check out what the hell happened in the last four weeks. We’ll take a look at the present to share with you what the hell is going on in Polished Games right now. And, of course, we’ll take a look ahead to tease a little bit about what the hell will happen. Grab your snacks and drinks - let’s go!
THE DAY MORIANA MET YOU
It happened on June 18th at 7:00 p.m. (CEST). It was evening, but still bright outside. The sun was still fighting the night, and it was quite warm and nice on the other side of our windows. The whole Polished Games team gathered on our internal Discord server for a video call. We live in various places in Poland, so we work remotely. We started counting from 10 to 1, and at the right moment, Krzysztof Dadełło, the Game Director, pressed that magic green button, and… nothing happened because, on Steam, you need to confirm the release by typing the correct command, and we forgot about it. :D
Well, that was anticlimactic after all that countdown, and the champagne was opened too early. However, in the end, after a few more seconds, Be My Horde was available for everybody to try out. We crossed our fingers and spent one of the longest nights of our lives in front of our computer screens. We had no idea what would happen next.
After one month: 💀 Over 8,000 players purchased Be My Horde! 💀 The game received 263 reviews on Steam, with 88% of them positive! 💀 A beautiful community started to grow with all of you great people leaving us plenty of reviews and fantastic feedback! Our game has been played by many streamers and YouTubers - big and small: 💀 Both Smokaloke and Bonkol had fun becoming the seductive necromancess! 💀 DangerouslyFunny made a video about Be My Horde! 💀 Angory Tom also enjoyed our game! 💀 We’ve been reviewed, among others, by GameGrin, GameSpew, and CD-Action; the latter is one of Poland's most significant game-related site. For our small indie team, so much has happened that it feels like months have passed since the release. However, apparently, this whole chaos is just getting started…
EVEN BEFORE THE LAUNCH
Be My Horde is a small, simple project that we started working on mostly to learn new things and to gather a crew. At the end of 2023 and the beginning of 2024, we hired new people for the company, and we knew we couldn’t throw ourselves into a big, massive project right away. We had to make something smaller to learn to work as a team. So, we put a lot of effort and heart into Be My Horde, but at the same time, we didn’t have big expectations… And then the launch happened.
You can’t imagine how happy we are that so many people met Moriana, our glorious necromancess. However, we think that’s enough talking about the past. Our trip down memory lane ends here, and we’re back in the present.
WE ARE COOKING
The first major update was launched some time ago, and we’re happy it has been warmly received. We gathered more feedback, and as we speak, we are crafting a new update. We want to apologize for not sharing many details. We have that approach that sometimes we are a little bit afraid of showing what we’re working on. Don’t get us wrong; we love to be transparent - honestly answering your questions and letting you look behind the scenes occasionally. But at the same time, we don’t want to share something that is not ready and that we’re not sure we’ll even implement.
It is tempting to say: “Hey, we’re working on the X feature,” to hear your reply: “Oh, that’s great, we can’t wait,” and then find out, through tests, that perhaps the X feature isn’t such a good idea for Be My Horde. And then, we need to tell you: “Hey, do you remember that X feature that you were excited about? Yeah, it won’t happen…”. We really want to avoid that. That’s one reason we’ve never shared any roadmap with you, even if it’s a common thing to do during Early Access. We want to ENSURE that what we’re preparing is good and will meet your expectations.
For now, about the preset, we can share that we’re working on and polishing (hehe) the next major update that will happen in August. We’re thinking more about the first half of that month than the second half, but still, we don’t want to throw any dates in your direction not to disappoint you. What will you find in this closest update? We won’t tell you - sorry. At least not now. However, we think may tell you a little bit more about our plans for the future!
AND WE WILL BE COOKING!
We have our general internal plan for Early Access. If everything goes according to plan, we’re considering launching Be My Horde in full sometime in Q1 or Q2 of 2025. As we mentioned many times before, we don’t want to make our Early Access phase too long. We feel like those 8-9 months from the launch are enough to polish (hehe) the game correctly, add much-expected content, and improve the gameplay.
Regarding the content, our plan is to create 2-3 additional levels. Now, the game has just the basic one, the plains, but we want to implement a few more. Each would have its own look, extra mechanics, and completely new enemies ready to be slaughtered and added to your malevolent horde.
At the end of each level, you’ll meet a boss. A powerful unit with unique abilities, challenging to defeat. Killing such a foe would mean that the level has been beaten. Naturally, our first step in this direction would be officially closing the first level you can already play by adding the boss to it. We already have a plan for him and some ideas. Unfortunately, we know he won’t be implemented with the closest major update, but maybe with the next one, sometime in September-October.
Various levels and their bosses will also allow us to tell an engaging and funny… story! Yes, we will add more lore to Be My Horde to share more about who Moriana is and generally prepare a proper script. Keep in mind that it won’t be anything spectacular; our game isn’t a massive RPG with plenty of characters and choices. But we feel and got confirmation through your reviews and suggestions that Be My Horde needs a cool story. Even if it's a simple one!
So yes, we will spend a lot of time improving the gameplay, polishing (hehe) the features, and making the experience of becoming a powerful necromancess much more enjoyable. But at the same time, we want to implement a lot of new content regarding levels, enemies, abilities, and the story mentioned.
We hope you’ll like it!
FAREWELL AND BACK TO WORK YOU, MEASLY PEASANTS
That’s it for now. We bow ourselves under Moriana’s whip and are back to work. We are aware that we say it very often, but THANK YOU! For supporting this small project. For your reviews, feedback, and suggestions. For spreading love to Moriana among your friends and family. All of it means a lot to us and motivates us to continue our work.
This weekend, we are planning a little celebration. There will be a party and sleepless nights. But after that, on Monday, we will roll up our sleeves. We genuinely hope you’ll enjoy what we’re cooking for you.
If you have any questions or further suggestions, please share them here on the Steam forum or our Be My Horde Discord server.
Take care, our lovely horde and…
PRAISE BE MORIANA!
The Polished Games Team
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2499520/Be_My_Horde/