Good Monday morning/afternoon/evening mercs!
I hope you're all doing well and are excited for the upcoming holidays. It's crazy to think that we're already in December, where on earth has all the time gone?
Steam Page & Release Date Changes
Before we dive into what we've been working on throughout November, we want to take a step back and update you all on where the game sits as a whole. We've always aimed to be as transparent as possible, and we think it's important to address where our minds have been the past couple of months.
We've had many of you questioning why the game's release date is still listed as 2025 on our Steam page, and if that is still accurate. Rightfully so, as we're now almost at the end of the year.
Unfortunately, the answer is no. Our ambition and intention was always to release the game by the end of 2025, but it has become clear that is not possible with the time we have left. As such, we have postponed the release until 2026.
We've known for a short while that we weren't going to meet our 2025 release date but held off updating this information on the Steam page because we wanted to tie this in with a full store front update and lots of brand-new exciting content.
As you may know, the current video and imagery on there is from way back in 2023 and doesn’t really reflect the game in its current state!
With so little time now remaining this year however and us racing toward an extremely important playtest in just three weeks time, we’ve now had to make the unfortunate decision to postpone the Steam update to the start of next year so that the entire team can keep every ounce of their focus on working towards the playtest.
We know there will be people out there disappointed to read this and from the entire team we can only apologise and assure you that we’re giving everything we have to get Vahrin’s Call in your hands.
With that being said, we don't want this to seem like it's all doom and gloom. Far from it in fact, because we do have some exciting news to share.
The game is in a fantastic place.
We're pushing to hit our end of year targets, so that we can come back strong in the new year, with more of an emphasis on marketing the game for its upcoming release.
It may surprise some of you to know that we have a release date trailer fully finished and ready to go. The only thing holding us back from sharing it with you all is (shock) the release date itself. As such, it's not ready for your viewing pleasure just yet, but hopefully this paints a clearer picture of just how close the game is to being complete.
So what do we have for you this month? Well, why don't we take a look at some of the things the team has been working on throughout November, before rounding off today's blog?
Creature Hair
I find it appropriate to cover the updates to our creature hair first. After all, we said last month that we'd take another look at the Aurochs, once it had received the same treatment as the Greti.
As you can see below, not only has the Aurochs' new coat of fur been finalised, but the same goes for the Wolfhound!
I've come to realise I'm too sensitive with animals like this.
Sure, you can slay them, obtain unique materials and use them to craft all manner of awesome items, but come on. I mean look at them. Could you really harm such innocent creatures?
I'll beat the game with a stick if I have to..
NPC/AI Improvements
Touching briefly on NPC AI, the progress in this department over the last month has been awesome.
The AI for human NPCs has been massively updated and refined, and we're now moving onto creatures, beasts and bosses to give them the same treatment.
Perks and Character Experience
Finally, I want to talk to you guys a little bit about Perks and Character Stats, as they're being balanced and fine-tuned as we speak!
As you delve the depths of Vahrin and its surrounding areas, you'll develop your skills as a mercenary, unlocking new items and abilities, while growing more powerful with every action you take.
Through interacting with the game's many mechanics, you'll obtain character/perk experience.
Character experience can be used to upgrade your core stats, whereas perk experience can be used to specialise in playstyles of your choosing, by unlocking different skills and abilities.
The systems for these mechanics have been almost fully finalised for some time now, and the balancing for you to obtain experience for each of these perk specialisms is actively being worked on.
As always, what follows from this is rigorous QA testing to determine if everything is working as intended, as well as obtaining general feedback on how levelling up feels from a balancing point of view. After all, we don't want you guys having to kill 10,000 enemies just to level up once, but we also don't want you lightly tapping an enemy and then suddenly having the power of a god.
Watch as I attempt to keep this next section short for once. No waffling allowed..
Closing Thoughts
Thank you all very much for reading today's update!
Once again, we're sorry that we waited this long to delay the game's release window to 2026, but we hope you're as excited as we are for what's to come after the Christmas break.
As always, thank you all for your continued support and kind words. We read each and every comment from you guys on all platforms.
You can expect one more Steam post from us this year, just before we head off for the holidays~
Take care!
- The Titan Roc Team
