Greetings, Vikings!
Today we have exciting news to share.
Official website
There is a lot of information, we welcome you to read the update details on our new official website. It's not yet fully completed, as we are now devoting time to the progress you will find below.
This is a place where the game info, news and patch details will be published. We will continue to post updates on Indiegogo with links to full notes.
Independence
As you know we had hard times before and were considering investors to be able to implement everything at the highest level set with the reworks beginning. The strive for this level is strongly powered by the amount of attention the game got, which seemed impossible at start, the millions of views on YouTube and so many people providing feedback, awaiting the launch.
At the time of receiving the grant, the investors question was not closed.
However, during the last months of progress we assessed the strength of our boosted work and realized that we can provide enough content on our own, which means saving independence.
Early Access launch
As we said earlier, the feedback we receive from you is very diverse - from the requests of survival elements in a realistic setting of the Viking Age to traveling through the worlds of Norse mythology, smashing enemies with Mjolnir. All the wishes are united by the core gameplay we are working on.
VALHALL is a Viking universe. It will have different parts presented as different games, each of which devoted to its own story fitting to global lore, and corresponding game modes which differ by genre.
The first part is VALHALL: Harbinger.
It covers the beginning of Ragnarok from the perspective of the people of Midgard. While there was no visible sign of it, we start with Viking fighting with each other and their local problems. Only some of the warriors get a chance to be the first to witness the omens of the end of the world and influence the course of events.
That way this story chapter includes both realistic and fantasy settings available through different game modes.
In addition to lore-modes combination, Harbinger is being built the way you can play it from the beginning, not just test the mechanics we are adding in.
This leads us to possibility to launch Early Access earlier and continue independent development. Actual Beta tests with initial modes will take place during Early Access period.
VALHALL launches in Early Access in the 4th quarter of 2020
The date will be announced with the next update in September
There will be multiplayer battles, arenas, but also Harbinger will feature single player modes. We got a huge amount of its requests before and it fits for the development process. Let's take a look what comes first.
Wield Mjolnir evolves to absolutely another game mode with a big world, different weapons, story, Norse mythology creatures and being played solo. Mjolnir abilities will provide unique gameplay, this is not just press and throw. The mode will be available at launch and a little earlier for tests.
Multiplayer hub in Viking village, where you can fight on the arenas, will be added to the next patch and improved in Early Access.
There also will be a Massive battle game mode - a cinematic experience of being a Viking on the big battlefield.
As promised, you can find short term roadmap on our website. It covers only a part of what we will provide these months and what will be available in Early Access.
Ultimate supporter status
Today we grant you an ultimate supporter status.
That means you will receive game keys to all future VALHALL parts - free access to all of the next game modes of new genres.
Battle Royale
Another chapter of VALHALL will be devoted to BR mode. We want to give you experience of it that you could not have imagined when supported the game.
The previous map that some of you could check in Alpha will be fully reworked to become a real field to host a battle between the forces of the gods.
It will become available during Early Access separately from Harbinger.
Items
In-game items from perks will appear in your inventory in the middle of Early Access.
We are making Weapon customization system so you could not just have your skin on weapon, but do combinations with different blades, pommels and so on.
Also you guys get a lot of items from perks and bonuses, we want to fill them with more models. We are not working on cosmetics too much yet, but you can see the quality of the items.
Keys
Steam keys will be sent to all backers with “Early access & full game perk” closer to the launch by email. We will announce that separately. For everyone else, your tests app in the library will unlock Early Access at launch.
NDA lifting
You will be able to make videos and stream the game without NDA a little earlier than launch. We will announce about it in the next update.
Patch
Today’s update is the biggest for the last time and is a small part of what we are preparing for the coming patches.
New one-handed sword attack animations.
Slash : 0,40, 140,180,220,320 degrees.
Stab: left, right.
New two-handed axe attack animations.
Slash : 0,40, 140,180,220,320 degrees.
Stab: left, right.
Staged blood on weapons and fists.
Randomized sets of blood that appear by stages on weapon after you hit somebody.
New ground decals.
More different blood decals from different weapons attacks.
Knife.
Stab your foes in a quick way. Goes to 4th slot (num key 4).
Mjolnir model 2.0.
Basing on received feedback we decided to make a more canonical Thor’s hammer. We will fully finish it soon. You can find it in the patch.
Characters launching physics.
Now Mjolnir hits are more precise. Also enemies fly away more physic accurately depending of how you perform an attack.
Flying to space when dead fix.
Now your character does not explode when dies with Mjolnir in hands.
Pick up UI.
Organic weapon name showing up when aim at it.
Inventory system.
You can switch between different weapons by keys 1,2,3,4,5.
Slots:
1 – custom equipped melee weapon.
2 – custom equipped melee weapon.
3 – bow
4 – knife
5 – fists
There are certain restrictions, for example, you can't carry two two-handed axes.
Weapon swapping.
Hold E while looking at another weapon to swap with the current one.
Unarmed mode.
Press the key of the current slot number and you will holster your weapon and enter unarmed mode.
Map increase.
The first map block increase.
FPP/TPP animation system overhaul.
Weapons now have own set of animations for FPP/TPP with different blending rules. You will feel it in the game. For example, there is FPP idle with sword, FPP walking, FPP running, and the other corresponding animations for TPP. Everything blends well so your movement is diverse and smooth.
More.
Other improvements.
The next patch will be in mid September - multiplayer will come back with it.
Skål!
Blackrose Arts