Those Who Rule News

Hey everyone!

Sorry for the late update, but I've narrowed down the release month to January 2025!!

I've been nose to the grindstone on polishing up the demo for the Steam Next Fest that we'll be participating in starting TOMORROW! Really excited to see how it goes, as it's usually a major source of visibility for indies. This one has over 3,000 games participating though so we'll have to wait and see.

We also have a shiny new trailer to announce the new launch month.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Between all the demo updates and trailer creation, I also had time for finishing up chapter 8, focusing on a more tight experience. I have a new process for designing maps that I think is going to be super engaging:


The new demo is also released now, still up to chapter 3, but I've gotten a ton of feedback that I've already incorporated into the game.

• Chapter 8 complete.
  
• UI Revamp complete.
  
• NEW demo build pushed with all the changes.
  
• New trailer.
  
• New final logo for the game.
  
• Updated the Steam page with new trailer, screenshots, gifs, and descriptions.
  
• Updated all weapon icons.
  
• QoL: Turn indicators for player/enemy/ally phase.
  
• QoL: Hitting tab to focus on the next playable character.
  
• QoL: Button delay when popping up dialogue options.
  
• QoL: Objective UI shows at start of the chapter.
  
• Fixes to better support 4k.
  
• Windowed mode.
  
• Fix: Player input not being re-allowed sometimes after objective UI.
  
• Various other small fixes/QoL requested by people in the demo survey. I hit a good chunk of them, but if there's still something you really want to see let me know!
  

For future changes, this next week I'll likely be focusing on doing the best i can in Steam Next Fest. During and after that it's pure chapter creation! At 12 hour days, chapter 8 took me ~4 days (map, new items, characters, events). I'm pulling 6-7 days a week right now so the goal is to have the chapters done by end of November. Leaving December/January for polish/playtesting.

• Chapter, chapters, and more chapters.
  
• Finish up remaining elite classes.
  
• Implement interesting items/weapons to enhance gameplay. (I'd love to hear your ability ideas to potentially put in the game!)
  

Thank you everyone for the continued support. It feels surreal approaching the finish line, but there's still much work to be done, and I'll make sure to keep you all in the loop every step of the way.

Cheers,
Eldin T.

Hey everyone!

So about that last update about surviving a round of layoffs... I'm going full time on Those Who Rule!

In all seriousness, it was a mutual separation so I won't bore you with the details, but I now see a much more realistic pathway to a December/January release. As many of you following the game may know, this has been a passion project I've been doing on the side. I realistically have 2-3 hours a day before work. That is now going to be 10-14 hours a day, and I've never been more excited in my life! Let's jump into some changes.


Chapter 7 complete. New characters, new events, new items, effective weapons. Also a slightly different angle to the map, as I was experimenting with a more traditional isometric view for better readability.

With the new schedule, I'm targetting this upcoming October Steam Next Fest as the one where we'll showcase Those Who Rule. Next Fest's are all about the demos, so I'm doing the final round of polish on the game UI. Right now the demo is still in the old art style for characters/maps/UI, but I'll be pushing an update in September to get it looking like the final version of the game you've all been seeing. Here are some examples:

New battle info and action bar UI.


New unit info UI.


New level up UI. And many many other UI changes.

• Chapter 7 complete.
  
• Revamp/final polishing of all the game's UIs to have a more consistent art style.
  
• Effective weapons, doubling damage against certain unit types. Starting with the warhammer that is effective against armored units.
  
• New playable units: Benjen and Rho.
  
• New refinements (starting chapter 3): Sword/Lance/Axe bane - Gives +10 Hit/Avd against and +1 Atk/Def against the specific weapon.
  
• Made it so starter weapons have an empty refinement slot so you can use the new refinements in chapter 3. This way you can specialize where your units excel earlier on.
  
• AI improvements to increase their ability to flank.
  
• Tab now shows all enemy ranges instead of enemy ZoC.
  
• Various bug fixes.
  

• Finish UI polishing and release an updated demo for upcoming Steam fests.
  
• New game trailer.
  
• Create a couple of the final elite classes (last tier of promotion) to showcase in the trailer.
  
• Back to chapter creation to get the game finished and a release date set.
  

I'm extremely excited that I'll be working on TWR full time for the rest of the year. It's an opportunity to chase a dream, and I'm going to grab it with both hands. Expect big updates in the coming months. I couldn't be more grateful to each and every one of you who've wishlisted/left feedback/followed the game. I wouldn't be able to make this jump without you.

THANK YOU!

Best,
Eldin T.

Hey everyone!

Survived a round of layoffs IRL. It shook me up, so progress slowed a bit, but not by much!

Chapter 6 is all done, and it's one of the best ones yet. A huge turning point in the story, new victory/defeat conditions, and side objectives.

We also added some new status effects for chapter 6: Burn and Poison.

Burn: Lose 1 HP, doubling each turn until extinguished by standing still for one turn. Cannot block while burning. Unblockable status effect.

Poison: Lose X HP at the start of each turn. Healing received reduced by half.

Burn is the first status effect that isn't blocked by shields, which I think will add a lot of variety to enemy attacks. Even if you have a unit with a tower shield, you still need to be careful about enemies that can inflict burn (torch carriers in Ch6 for example).

I also saw a lot of people in their playthroughs keep trying to click enemies in range before selecting a tile to move to. This was also heavily requested in the feedback forms, so I've added it into the game! A simple QoL, but something I think a lot of people will use. I also made it so it will respect the path indiciator.

• Chapter 6 map and events complete. (Raided Village)
  
• Finish remaining advanced classes: Priest, Acolyte.
  
• New status effect - Burn: Lose 1 HP, doubling each turn until extinguished by standing still for one turn. Cannot block while burning. Unblockable status effect.
  
• New status effect - Poison: Lose X HP at the start of each turn. Healing received reduced by half.
  
• Clicking an enemy unit in range will auto-move you and bring up battle info UI.
  
• Bleed status updated to also reduce movement by half.
  
• New Victory condition: Defend area for X turns.
  
• New Defeat condition: Certain units entering area (torch wielders).
  
• New healing AI.
  
• New ally units: town elder and militia.
  
• New playable units: Kaelith and Cassidy.
  
• New items: Stat growth rings, improve growth of a particular stat by 20%.
  
• Fixed an issue with forge UI re-rendering when backing out after making a refinement.
  
• Fixed an issue where changing weapons would keep re-animating the battle info UI.
  
• Fixed an issue where level up UI now properly shows the previous level before leveling up.
  

• Chapter 7 map and events complete. (Dungeon)
  
• Chapter 8 map and events complete. (Mountain pass)
  
• (Probably overambitious, but I'm gonna push for it) Chapter 9 map and events complete. (Port town)
  

As always, thank you all for your continued support. A rough month, but being able to always unleash my creative energy on the game really is becoming therapeutic. I'm falling in love with level/environment design and I hope you're all enjoying what I'm cooking up.

All the best,
Eldin T.

Hey everyone!

All moved into the new place and have a ton of new stuff to show, let's jump right in!


Warrior - Crushing blow: Perform a massive swing, dealing and taking double damage this round of combat. If the unit is killed, fear any enemies around the unit until the end of their next turn.


Hero - Heroic Charge: Charge an enemy within 3 tiles, knocking aside any units in the path, and staggering them if they're enemies. Unit gains fortify equal to 50% of their def, rounded down.


Rogue - Concealed Movement - If there are no enemies within 1 tile on turn start, gain Hidden, letting you pass through enemy ZoC.


Scout - Keen Eye - At the start of your turn, apply the Marked status to the enemy with the least HP within 3 tiles, reducing their defense and avoid.


Arland promoting into one of the three promotion options of the Defender class: Knight, Sentinel, Crusader

• Almost all advanced classes complete: Raider, Warrior, Hero, Lancer, Scout, Longbowman, Hunter, Blade, Rogue, Sentinel, Crusader, Knight.
  
• 2 Abilities for each class, along with a custom model that will change the appearance of your unit.
  
• New status effect - Feared: Reduces unit's ATK and HIT.
  
• New status effect - Marked: Reduces unit's DEF and AVD.
  
• New status effect - Hidden: Ignores enemy ZoC.
  
• New status effect - Fortified: Increases unit's DEF. Clears all negative status effects.
  
• New status effect - Bleed: Lose percentage of your HP at the start of each turn. Note: An enemy dying from this status will still give EXP to the unit who caused it!
  

• Finish remaining advanced classes: Priest, Acolyte.
  
• Chapter 6 map and events complete.
  
• Chapter 7 map and events complete.
  
• Tentatively update the demo so people who play it can get the new art style and QoL changes.
  

I want to let the work do the talking, so I won't blather on too much, but thank you all so much for your support, especially through these past 2 months of life transitions. I'm nailing down a new cadence that is allowing me to move a lot quicker, let's see how much we can crank out in July!

Best,
Eldin T.

Hey everyone!

As mentioned a couple of updates ago, I am going to be away for the end of May and most of June on vacation, and then I'll be moving to a completely new state for work.

Even though the next 4 weeks will be a bit hectic for me, I still wanted to get out a quick update to you all before I go offline for a bit. As mentioned in the last update, May has been fleshing out the rest of the advanced classes, and we're down to 2 left!

Here is a quick showcase of the Raider class, which gains strength the more units they kill on a map. They also have a powerful leaping strike that allows them to skip over zones of control to get to backline units. Be careful, as they can be left in a vulnerable position without support!
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Experimenting with more powerful abilities has been a blast, and I can't wait to showcase more of them. Once we're settled into our new home I'll have more to show for the next update. Until then, thank you all so much for your support, and I'll talk to you soon!

Cheers,
Eldin T.