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How We Killed Our UI | Devlog #3



[h2]Hello, minions![/h2]

Some might think that creating minimalistic games with limited information on the screen is easy. Wrong. It requires a proper approach and a lot of work. From the very beginning, we wanted Be My Horde to have almost no UI. However, we still needed to convey all the necessary information to the players so they could enjoy the gameplay and fulfill this fantasy of becoming a formidable necromancer. So, we had a long process of eliminating various on-screen elements, and… we created a whole video devlog about it!

[h2]How did we achieve the minimalistic user interface? What obstacles did we have to overcome to keep the game readable? In general, How We Killed Our UI?[/h2]

Check out the video below and let us know what you think about this devlog!

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Praise be Moriana!
The Polished Games Team


https://store.steampowered.com/app/2499520/Be_My_Horde/

Changes in Be My Horde, the upcoming announcement, or HOW ARE WE DOING PART 2?



[h2]Hello, minions![/h2]

How are you today? Have you slain any knights lately? Did you remember to show love to Moriana? Let us know, and in return, we’ll tell you How We Are Doing!

Well, it’s amazing for our team to compare the Be My Horde demo with the full game we’re currently working on—in terms of visuals and gameplay solutions, they are VERY DIFFERENT TITLES. And we’re thrilled to share some insights with you very soon.

Before we delve into some details, we want to thank you—as always and monotonously, but sincerely—for your support! Thank you for playing the demo, sharing your feedback, and sometimes just sending us a “hello” message on our Discord server. It all means a lot to our small team of passionate geeks who have created the game about the sexy necromancer.

Okay, shall we?

[h2]BE MY HORDE IS CHANGING[/h2]

As we already teased, Be My Horde has undergone significant changes in the last month. We were in Boston at PAX East at the end of March, and that event gave us such a huge boost that in the last four weeks (which felt like a full year!), we've greatly improved our upcoming game. We’re talking about new units, new visuals, new interactive elements in the levels, completely new features, and… we’re not going to show any of it to you just yet :(. We apologize for teasing so much, but we really want to do it properly. You know, make one big strike combined with a huge announcement... And by “huge,” we mean “gigantic.” In 5-6 weeks, we should be ready to present a new trailer with a piece of very cool and intriguing news. All we can say now is to stay tuned because soon a lot of things are going to happen, and we hope you’ll help us make some noise around Be My Horde.

At this moment, all we can offer is this small, regular screenshot from the current version we’re working on. It has some work-in-progress elements in it, so a few things are about to change, but just compare it to the available demo, and you’ll see how much we’ve added and changed in the game.



[h2]HOW WE KILLED UI[/h2]

As we speak, we’re also editing the next video devlog where we’ll take a closer look at something that Be My Horde pretty much doesn’t have: the User Interface. From the very beginning of this project, we wanted to create a simple, almost non-existent UI, but it wasn’t as easy a task as you can imagine. It had its challenges, enough to make a full video out of it. If you nerds are interested in such details about the game development process, then stay tuned; we should share the devlog in the first half of May.



[h2]MAY YOU BE MY HORDE[/h2]

And speaking of May, we’re planning another exciting and fun contest in the upcoming month for all of you, where you’ll have the chance to win not only a Steam key to the full version of Be My Horde upon its launch but also some cool goodies. We should share more info very soon; in the meantime, be sure to keep testing your skills in the demo as the mentioned contest will once again be connected to it.



[h2]HORDE OF DRAGONS[/h2]

In other, less vital news for you, we’re going to attend the upcoming Digital Dragons event in Kraków, Poland. We won’t be showcasing Be My Horde there, but it’s still a great opportunity for us to integrate and spend some time not just in front of our computer screens. It’s also going to be a great opportunity for our marketing guy to do some networking, when we’ll be having some fun. A good moment to relax a little bit right before the aforementioned huge announcement.

That’s it for now. We’re aware that we didn’t actually share any detailed information, but trust us when we say that very soon, you won’t be able to open your fridge without encountering some news about Be My Horde. We’re gathering strength and resources to shower you with some cool stuff in the near future. Remember to wishlist the game to not miss any of it. Play the demo, share your feedback with us, and join our official Be My Horde Discord server.

Praise be Moriana!
The Polished Games Team


https://store.steampowered.com/app/2499520/Be_My_Horde/

Hero... Victims of Be My Horde



[h2]Hello, horde![/h2]

How are you? We know we’ve been quiet here on Steam for a couple of weeks, but it doesn’t mean we haven’t been working on Be My Horde - quite the opposite, in fact! Attending PAX East gave us a huge boost, and we were very busy analyzing feedback and creating new stuff for our game. And we’re going to show you all of this, just not now. We want to be sure that what we’re creating is ready and polished (pun very much intended) before we showcase it to you. Nevertheless, the waiting shouldn’t be long, and in the upcoming weeks and months, we’re about to throw a lot of news at you.

But in the meantime, here's a more loose text where we’d love to take a closer look at the heroes (and by that we mean VICTIMS) of Be My Horde. You know what they say - know your enemies… especially when you can make them your allies (ah, necromancy is truly the highest of art!).

PEASANT

[h2]Type: Melee
Characteristic: small, weak, and poor[/h2]


The most basic unit that you can find at the very beginning of the game. These little folks normally wouldn’t draw the attention of the goddess Moriana, but you always need to start somewhere! It’s good to make a small army of undead Peasants before facing more powerful foes. Besides, if quantity is more important to you than quality, Peasants are definitely perfect for you as it's fairly easy to quickly build a big army out of them. Maybe Warriors or Knights are more formidable, but you know how it is - like Sheldon Skaggs from the Witcher books series said: “Every swordsman's an arse when the enemy's not sparse”.

Trivia: Internally, we call the Peasant unit “Kacperek,” which is a diminutive of the Polish name “Kacper”.

PRIEST

[h2]Type: Healing
Characteristic: old, slimy, but with a magical touch[/h2]


Battle isn’t only about blindly hitting enemies. Be smart and provide your sinister army with someone who can heal wounds. Here comes the Priest unit. It may not be tough - just a few hits are all that it needs to be put into eternal rest (at least until Moriana won’t disturb it), but its healing abilities can be vital for your horde's survival. It is generally a good idea to not let enemy Priests live too long, as they can heal your opponents as well!

Trivia: It's yellow for a reason.

WARRIOR

[h2]Type: Melee
Characteristic: tough, violent, and bald[/h2]


When you see the Warrior unit, be sure to grab one as soon as possible. It’s tough, and even one of them can put down a few Peasants. Nevertheless, a single Warrior can still be an easy target. Start by finding lone individuals or groups of two or three of those ginger-beard lumberjacks. But beware, in bigger groups, those axes can do a lot of damage to your precious horde (especially when they come in huge, unstoppable waves). The good thing in our game is that you can quickly turn the tables.

Trivia: Primarily, he was called Bandit, but because players assume the role of the antagonist, enemy units shouldn’t be bad guys. And so, the Bandit became simply the Warrior.

SHEEP

[h2]Type: Exploding
Characteristic: fluffy and deadly[/h2]


In the full game, we plan to add more types of units (most of them are melee kind at the moment), like RANGED ones. But for now, we wanted to give you a glimpse of the variety, and we heard players love explosions. And so the idea to add to the demo… exploding Sheep. These fluffy friends are your most impressive allies. When they are still alive, they don’t pose a threat to you. But when you kill one and resurrect it, you basically get a bomb on legs. Whenever someone kills your Sheep, it explodes, taking some opponents with it in a blast. Position it in battle wisely - it’s better to cause a big BOOM when a group of Knights are next to it, and not just a bunch of measly Peasants. Also, don’t worry, your Sheep won’t harm your minions; there’s no friendly fire in Be My Horde… yet.

Trivia: The exploding Sheep is an Easter egg that refers to a similar unit you can find in our previous game - Realms of Magic - which (going deeper) is the reference to the units in Warcraft 3.

KNIGHT

[h2]Type: Melee
Characteristic: armored, shining, and painfully noble[/h2]


Do you know how it is when you do more and more crime in GTA, and more deadly law enforcers arrive to ruin your happy trigger adventure? Well, that’s the case with Knights in Be My Horde. Killing Peasants will eventually draw the attention of the authorities (but not right away, as the fellows working in the fields aren’t super important to the noble ones of this world), and Knights will appear to destroy your horde. Even a single Knight can be dangerous, so you definitely want to avoid huge groups of them, especially the ring of death they can create around you, the constantly tightening loop around your neck.

Trivia: Knight is the very first unit drawn for Be My Horde by our artists.

CAVALRYMAN

[h2]Type: Melee
Characteristic: looks cool, but smells bad[/h2]


Fast and super dangerous - Cavalrymen can charge through your horde and sometimes pose a direct threat to Moriana. Their long lances prove that sometimes size indeed does matter (but very rarely! - quick note from our marketing guy). Getting one of them is very difficult, and often they can take a lot of damage before dying. But it’s worth it to get some of them and shout “Be My Horse!”. Having 5 or 6 Cavalrymen in your squalid army can decide about winning or losing.

Trivia: Because Cavalryman sits on a horse we had to give all other units a special strike sound when they hit it.

PALADIN

[h2]Type: Melee (area damage)
Characteristic: big, fat fellow with a hammer[/h2]


That’s how a peak performance looks like. Paladins appear at the very end of the demo, so if you encounter them, be sure you’ve done well and survived for quite some time! Nevertheless, they frequently help players meet their final demise. Paladins are super dangerous with their huge hammers, which cause area damage, hurting a few minions in a small radius. But fear not! If you build a properly huge horde, you have a chance to stand against them as they are a little bit weaker than Cavalrymen, making Paladins easier to kill. In the end, is there a better way to humiliate the forces of good than by adding some of the noblest of the protagonists to your army of evil?

Trivia: Paladin got his area damage ability because we wanted to thin out the player's horde at the end of the demo. So you can say that we made him quite a powerful unit only to make you all rage quit the Be My Horde demo.

As we said at the beginning, the units you encounter in the demo are just a part of what we’re preparing for the full game. We’re testing completely new foes as we speak, like the mentioned ranged units and much more. So for sure, there will be a second episode of “Victims of Be My Horde” (quite catchy, don’t you think?).

We're getting back to work, and you make sure to check out the Be My Horde demo. We wait for your feedback and suggestions. Stay tuned for more info; we will definitely share some soon!

Praise be Moriana!
The Polished Games Team


https://store.steampowered.com/app/2499520/Be_My_Horde/

From Vampire Survivors RIP-OFF to a unique game | Devlog #2



[h2]Hello, minions![/h2]

We're super busy at PAX East in Boston. Yesterday we had so many players willing to try the Be My Horde demo. Today, we expect even more of them.

But in a meantime, we promised you another devlog, and we are about to keep that promise. The new video is now live on our YouTube channel! This time, we take you back to the very beginnings of the project, talking about the first prototypes and our main inspirations. We also address the elephant in the room and talk about similarities between our game and Vampire Survivors. So, grab some snacks and dive deep into the development world of Be My Horde with us. Moriana is waiting!

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Praise be Moriana!
The Polished Games Team

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2499520/Be_My_Horde/

We have a small gift due to PAX East



[h2]Hello, minions![/h2]

What a week we've had (and it's far from over for us)! For the past few days, we've been working hard to deliver the awaited DEMO UPDATE, and at the same time, we've been preparing for PAX East in Boston. And today's the day. We're thrilled to let you know that a new version of the demo is AVAILABLE NOW on Steam, and the mentioned event has just started.

So, if by any chance you're in Boston right now, make sure to visit us at the Games from Poland booth to have a chat with us and test the updated demo! But if you don't have the opportunity, don't worry; you can always reach us on our Discord server and play the demo no matter where you are (as long as you have your PC, laptop, or Steam Deck with you, of course). So, what have we added to the game?

[h2]NEW UNITS[/h2]

We present completely new characters you can recruit to your army of the undead. In the end - the more, the merrier, wouldn’t you agree? And each one of them is unique in their own way.



Priest is the first-ever HEALING UNIT in Be My Horde. By adding him to your horde, you provide your minions with longer life… we mean, unlife… They increase your warriors' afterlife existence, that's what we wanted to say! It's smart to get some of them as quickly as possible, so the next enemy waves won’t thin out your army too much.

Sheep is a rare unit, but it's really a special one. By resurrecting a sheep and adding it to your horde, you give yourself… a bomb. Because our sweet and wooly friend CAN'T attack the foes directly, but when it dies, it goes with a blast causing an explosion that can take the life of a few opponents. So, use this animal wisely!



[h2]NEW EVENTS[/h2]

Until now, you could play the demo for 10-11 minutes, with skilled players reaching maybe the 12-13 minute mark. Now, with new units, we've also added new events and rebalanced the demo in total, giving you the opportunity to survive even 14, 15… maybe 16 minutes! Much more is happening in the game, so even if you already had the opportunity to play the Be My Horde demo, be sure to give it one more shot.

Of course, even with the new additions, the demo is just a glimpse of what we're preparing for you. And we're not talking only about the next units or events. I'm talking about completely new features and abilities, so stay tuned for more info.

For now, we're going to keep an eye on our booth at PAX East and spread the cult of Moriana among unbelievers. Keep your fingers crossed for us!

Praise be Moriana!
The Polished Games Team


https://store.steampowered.com/app/2499520/Be_My_Horde/