Greetings Wielders!
A few months ago we shared that a small team at Lavapotion had been working on something new: Wielders of the Essence, a fast-paced survivors-like set in a familiar world. Some of you wishlisted it. Some of you raised an eyebrow. Either way, we have an update! Wielders has changed quite a bit since then. And there will be a playable demo launching February 23rd during Steam Next Fest.
When we first revealed Wielders, it was a fairly straightforward survivors-like. It worked, and it was fun, but in a genre with a lot of strong competition it felt like it needed something more. So we started experimenting, looking at ways to give each run a bit more long-term weight. That led us to introduce incremental progression.
The structure now revolves around shorter runs where every attempt, win or lose, gives you resources. Those resources are used to develop your town, unlocking new Wielders, troops, spells, and skills over time. If you’ve played Songs of Conquest, you may recognize the pattern. We tend to gravitate toward systems where progress carries forward. Why not learn from ourselves?
We've made a new trailer that shows the changes better than we can describe them here, a picture says a thousand words, and there is a lot of pictures in a video.
View game pageSo what’s it like playing Wielders of the Essence? Well, you start a run on a randomly generated map. Enemies gather. Spells fly. Your troops fight alongside you. Maybe you fall early. Maybe you make it to the later waves. Either way, you return to your town with something to show for it.
Back in town, you expand, unlock, and adjust. The next run is slightly different. Slightly stronger. Slightly more controlled, and perhaps you have a new plan in mind, a goal to reach. That rhythm between field and town is what the game is built around. And yes, there is an Essence system of sorts in here as well!
Build all the stuff!
And since we can’t resist talking about our favorite game, Songs of Conquest is still going strong. We know many of you are here for Songs of Conquest, and only that. Nothing has changed on that front. We are still on track with Rise Eternal, Yulan, and everything else we’ve outlined. Wielders is a smaller project running alongside our main development.
And now to a little call to action regarding the game this devlog is all about. Try the demo, test it for yourself. If you’re curious, our demo goes live February 23rd during Steam Next Fest. Give it a few runs and let us know what you think. We’re especially interested in hearing from the Songs of Conquest community.
View game pageIf you want a reminder when it launches, add Wielders to your wishlist and Steam will notify you, they are nice like that.
See you next week,
/Anders & the Lavapotion Team (especially that small group that works with Wielders of the Essence)