Warlander News

After several months spent in our dark cave, crafting and honing Warlander’s Pre-Alpha Demo, we have finally brought it into the light and presented it to the world! It is never easy showing something you’re proud of to people, let alone the world but the initial reactions are overwhelmingly positive and we are both satisfied and grateful for that.


Here is a small list of influencers (so far) that have helped us to show Warlander to our future players. Many thanks and blessings of the Forest upon all of them!



MrH3d4ch3

MrH3d4ch3 summarised his Warlander combat experience.

“It's quite slow and that was one of the things that put me off when I was watching some gameplay of it on IGN. But, once you got it in your hands it feels a lot better. … The slow hits make you think what you're gonna do…”


Lord Squidius

After playing through the whole Demo, Lord Squidius said the following about his experience.

“... I don't know how many people are working on this game, but that was fantastic. Throughout the whole thing, I was on the edge of my seat.”

“So far, just gameplay, the way the combat feels, it is satisfying to slice and dice your enemies.”


Leon_Lonewolf

Leon_Lonewolf expressed his enjoyment of the games dismemberment…

“What I did like actually is that you can dismember people and use their body parts as currency. That I really liked!”

And gave Warlander his approval. “I'd say this is definitely something worth looking into. I'll definitely put this on my watchlist...

So yeah - a definite thumbs-up!”


JasonOfArgo

Jason pointed out, while still getting accustomed to the combat style…

“This game punishes you for going all in… like, you can’t get greedy at all!”

In the end, he gave his verdict of Warlander’s combat “... that kind of combat, that kind of like having to read the field and knowing the right time to attack… that’s always fun and it got me hooked.”


Click4Gameplay

Click4Gameplay described the combat really well.

“Stamina based would be the term for describing this combat system, but it’s much deeper than that actually - in Warlander it’s very important where you land your hits, so you can’t just spam attack and win…”

He also pointed out some interesting details that happen during combat.

“Sometimes, even when it seems like you decapitated your enemy, you will have to do an extra strike, because apparently there is still 10% head left - really nice attention to detail. Or, for example, you can cut off their legs than do an Execute move…”


We’re hard at work continuing to reach more influencers so more of you can hear their thoughts and opinions and experience Warlander’s Pre-Alpha Demo for yourself. Please stay tuned as we will surely expand the list of influencers who have decided to showcase the Demo!

Until then, please wishlist us on Steam and join us on Discord, Facebook and Twitter!


With Forest’s blessings,
CDG Team

Hi everybody,

Here is the exclusive IGN's Warlander Hands-On Preview.

We hope you'll enjoy it!

Cheers!
CDG Team

We talked a lot about the game, its assets and combat, but what do “tired, poor, huddled masses yearning to breathe free“ say after playing Warlander? Look no further.

In the last couple of weeks Warlander underwent a lot of changes. We worked on the gameplay and the way combat works, and went through intensive testing in order to get feedback from the only relevant people that can give it - the players. So we decided to share some of the impressions we received from the testers:



“Enemies are interesting, and I have the feeling that the game punishes you if you make a mistake, and I like that. Some of the powers like sword throwing are interesting and the interaction with the environment is fun as well. I feel that the tagline of the game “Tactical Swordplay” really connects with the game.”
Ana

“The graphics look really good. I think that the game pushes you to think before you act. The enemies also look as they are thinking and being tactical. Enemies show variety, both in looks and behaviour - I love the art and graphics. I loved the targeting - you get to see where the hit will land and that’s great!”
Alex

“Slicing is great, you can kill enemies pretty fast if you know what to do. I think that not everything should be explained in a game… let the players explore and find out for themselves. I would love if I could explore a little bit more, to see what’s hiding behind that door or corridor…”
D.J.

“Targeting and aiming are quite interesting, but what is great is dismemberment… it’s really incredible! The skill tree is great. It’s enjoyable and easy to understand and it does not overwhelm you with information.”
Mathew



These are just a few short testimonials from the people who played the Demo. Soon, you’ll have the opportunity to enjoy our newest gameplay video, so stay tuned. And don’t forget to wishlist us on Steam, and join us on Discord, Twitter and Facebook.

Yours truly,
CDG Team

Greetings to all!

The internal testing of gameplay changes has finally begun! Almost all of our team is hard at work collecting and processing the data so we can refine and perfect the changes to Warlander's combat. Of course, we will share the most relevant takes from the tests - possibly even a video of the new gameplay once we are satisfied.

So, stay tuned for our next devblog! Until then, we wanted to share one of Warlander's wallpapers with all of you - called "Bound by the Blade."
Just right click on it and save it wherever you like.



Please wishlist us on Steam, follow us on Twitter and Facebook if you haven’t already and come talk to us on Discord!

For the past few weeks, the internet has been buzzing with talks of slicing, dicing and dismemberment. So, we want to join the conversation and remind the world about one of Warlander's core mechanics.

We hope you'll enjoy it and find it inspirational as well!

GDC Team



Let’s talk about innovative slicing mechanics of Warlander! It is unique from both gameplay and technical aspects, and we will cover both in this blog.

Imagine a situation where you find yourself surrounded by enemies. You have nothing else but your trusty light-blade. How will you defend yourself? Will you decide to cut off a leg and cripple an enemy, throwing him out of the fight? Will you try to sever your opponent’s arm to disarm him? Or you can try to behead your enemy with one swift strike? In Warlander you can do it all, based on your decisions and aiming skills.

Progression of your skills and powers actually depends on the slicing mechanics and your skill at aiming. As you fight enemies you will be able to cut off arms, legs and heads and collect them as bloody trophies. They won’t just hang on your wall as decoration, but we will discuss all of this in greater detail in a separate blog post.



How did our slicing mechanics came to pass, you might wonder? One morning, our creative director woke up and thought to himself “How about a game where a barbarian carries a lightsaber?” This was the initial design idea that defined Warlander.

One of the main inspirations for the combat system was Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy, mainly because of the ragdoll physics and the feeling of cutting enemies with a lightsaber. But, combat in Jedi Academy is light-footed, fast paced and has a feeling of “zero gravity” to it. Not appropriate for our massive but nimble barbarian!

Another game featuring slicing mechanism is Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance. This game features a “blade mode” where the protagonist slows down time and cuts his enemies to pieces. We find this very satisfying and entertaining but risk-free. This is why we implemented our slicing mechanics in real time. In Warlander, enemies will defend themselves and strike back while you aim and slice.



So, guided by the question posed by our creative director and inspired by the aforementioned games (among many others) we decided to create our slicing combat mechanics because we wanted to give a sense of control to our players. Unlike in modern hack and slash games where characters perform complex choreography of cuts and slashes with one button pressed, the players control the blade in Warlander. We don’t want the game’s engine to decide the place where the sword will strike, and what kind of injury it will cause. Instead, we leave all of these decisions to the players and we believe this makes our combat more challenging, skill-based, immersive and ultimately fun.

We posted some GIFs of our Warlander’s combat showcasing the slicing mechanics on Reddit a couple of months ago. The initial response of the community was overwhelmingly positive and we can assure you - the slicing mechanics feel as good as they look! A lot of people also wanted to know how did we achieve the real-time mesh slicing in Unity. So, we’ve spoken to Danilo - our programmer lead. A word of warning - it is a bit tech savvy!

“At first, we created a system with a predefined sliced-up body, basically a group of individual body parts that would be created by slicing up the original body mesh inside the editor. Once the parts were set-up, they would be added to a character who would carry them around hidden.

Then, when a body part was cut, we would replace the original body mesh with this predefined group of meshes that the original skeleton would continue to control - minus the sliced one - that would be dropped on the ground using physics.

We were not too happy with results, as a predefined cut will always show on the same place no matter where we hit the character. Also, seams would be visible on places where the remaining parts of the body meet.”





“That’s why we created a new system that calculates precise cuts in real time based on the direction the blade was moving. We would construct a plane using the weapon’s velocity vector, then we would detect bones above and below the plane and create separate meshes for each group. We would go through each bone of each group and collect vertex weight data. Any vertex not weighed to any bone in the group would be discarded from group’s mesh.

Of course, we would have to add vertices where the plane intersects with the original mesh and cap the holes in a new meshes, mapping cap faces to a meat texture. If that particular cut was also a killing blow, we would assign a ragdoll system to each group and let the physics do the rest.”

We hope that Danilo’s explanation gives you an idea of how we achieved real-time mesh slicing.

That’s it - for now - about Warlander’s slicing mechanics! Be sure to subscribe to our newsletter to receive updates about Warlander! Also, you can follow us on Discord, Twitter and Facebook. We will post as often as possible and would love to get your feedback and questions.