Windstorm: The Legend of Khiimori News

Welcome back to another Dev Diary, couriers!
Today we want to dive into the survival and exploration aspects of our game. We know that some of our wonderful players are already sold on the idea of simply being able to ride a horse through a gorgeous environment, but some of you long for meatier gameplay and today we want to give you all some insight into what that will look like in Windstorm: The Legend of Khiimori.


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[h2]Surviving on the Steppe[/h2]

To successfully navigate the Mongolian Wilderness, you will have to keep an eye on and take care of the hunger, thirst, stamina and health of your horse and avatar. How easy or hard it is to keep these gauges filled depends on the environments you move around in: Drinking water might be easy to find in green valleys, but scarce on missions to the Gobi Desert, and on trips to snowy mountain peaks it might be harder to forage for food and find appropriate shelter.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
Thanks to the success of our Kickstarter campaign, we’ll also be working on expanding our Crafting systems to include Cooking, which will let players collect ingredients - from plants they find to animals they hunt - and prepare nourishing meals for themselves or their horse while traveling.



But that's not all! By reaching the “On the Hunt” Stretch Goal, we will also offer advanced hunting: Fishing, new Animals and a Hunting Glossary will be added to the final game.




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[h2]Progressing in an Open World[/h2]

While we want to give players a lot of freedom to explore the vast Wilderness, there will also be areas that can only be reached once certain conditions are met. In our design process we’re calling these limitations “progression gates”. Though of course ideally, they will be almost invisible to the player in the end and just feel like organic continuation.

What this might look like in the end is that you reach a river that you can’t traverse unless your horse possesses a special skill for extra jump capacity. To eventually overcome this obstacle, you’ll have to find some NPC in the world who can help you train your horse in this particular skill, or breed new horses for specific attributes.




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[h2]Focus and Features[/h2]

Depending on your play style and preferences, you will have quite some options for which features to focus on and spend time with. Our Feature Chart aims to illustrate this:



When Windstorm: The Legend of Khiimori launches in Early Access this Summer, we won’t have all of the features on this chart implemented yet. We’re aiming for a viable product and a satisfying gameplay loop that gives you something to do in the world, but doesn’t quite offer all of the planned complexity yet.

Because we want our passionate community to understand our plans for upcoming features and when to expect them to be added. We’ll soon put together a proper roadmap that’ll keep getting updated throughout Early Access, where you can see what’s planned for which update and get more info about specific features. We at Aesir Interactive would like to offer you transparency and inform you regularly about our plans for Windstorm: The Legend of Khiimori.

Any questions or feedback? Feel free to leave a comment!

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[h3]Previous Developer Diaries can be found here:[/h3]

• #01 | To the Steppes
• #02 | An Open World
• #03 | PC Early Access
• #04 | Horse Training and Horse Care
• #05 | All Eyes on Khiimori
• #06 | Cantering towards Crowdfunding
• #07 | Looking Forward to Next Year
• #08 | Updates from the Steppe

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[h3]Join the Community[[/h3]

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To say that things are busy in our team right now would be the understatement of the year! Our Kickstarter Campaign has left its initial funding goal far behind and is cracking stretch goal after stretch goal. Our communities are more active then ever, keeping our community team on its toes to answer questions from thousands of interested backers and potential players across platforms.

Today, we want to recap some of the most important info and revelations and new bits of material that we’ve been sharing on other channels recently!

Our game reached 100’000 Wishlists on Steam recently – a number that’s admittedly a little bit terrifying, because that’s A LOT of people to make happy – but it’s also incredibly exciting and validating to know that this audience is here, more than eager to get their hands on the game we’ve been making.

[h2]New Gameplay Clips[/h2]
This gameplay clip shows a glimpse at our mission system, horse trading, inventory, route planning, resource collection and powder pouches:
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

This clip of the character exploring different weather conditions on foot gives a bit of insight into how the passage of time may affect the game world:
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

This video shows a look at our breeding mechanics and how coat color inheritance will work in the game
While our core loop, missions and horse care mechanics are still very much deeply work-in-progress, we’re happy to share what we can:
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Recently, our coders, artists and game designers have put a lot of work into crafting, missions and horse behavior, among other things, and will soon be working on the initial missions that the player will face when starting the game.

[h2]Story Teaser[/h2]

We’re also thrilled to give you a bit more information about our game’s narrative: the game takes place in two different, intertwined periods of time. Mika’s stallion Windstorm from the Kaltenbach Ranch got sick and only ancient knowledge may be the last help. Thus, Mika connects with Naranchimeg, or Naraa for short, a girl from 13th century Mongolia, who sets out to find a cure by unravelling the myth of the Khiimori, the legendary “wind horse”!

The game’s clear focus is in the 13th century setting, with the present day Kaltenbach story providing framing.

After the conquest of Chinggis Khan, the steppe itself saw a time of relative peace and stability, which is where we chose to set our game. With the great Khan gone, his successors rapidly began growing the infrastructure and thus the prosperity of their realm; an accomplishment that is based not only, but above all, on horses. The empire’s achievements, both in war and peace, were built on and carried out by their steeds.

Managing such a vast empire needed fast new ways of communication. Enter the legendary Yam courier system and its brave riders! This is where you come into play. Thrive as a Yam courier, accept a large variety of missions, gain fame and manage to survive the open wilds of Mongolia, with a bow in hand, and the wind as your two-faced ally.

[h2]Horse Breeds and Other Additions[/h2]

With the 300k Stretch goal reached last week, we’ve also been able to confirm the addition of two new horse breeds: To fit our setting and time period, we’ve chosen the Akhal-Teke and Ferghana horse as our next two additions. The plan is that these exotic horses will not roam the steppe on their own, but can be bought from the merchants that import them into Mongolia.

We’re further excited to confirm more horse and rider customization, cooking meals for yourself and your horse, and the addition of a storyteller NPC who will introduce you to Mongolian myths and legends. We’ll share more info on how exactly all of those things are planned to look in the game over the coming weeks and months!

[h2]Onto the Final Stretch[/h2]

For the next 4 days, our focus remains on the Kickstarter campaign, at least where marketing and community efforts are concerned. If you haven’t done so yet, we highly recommend you check out our campaign and consider becoming a backer. While the reduced Early Bird rewards are all taken, there’s still a lot very cool exclusive content to secure. Every pledge counts, every backer helps us get this game closer to the true vision of where we want it to be.

Every pledge counts—every backer helps us get this game closer to the true vision of where we want it to be. See you all soon!



[hr][/hr]
[h3]Join the Community[/h3]
Facebook Instagram TikTok Twitter

Discord Twitch Website

Hello, Couriers!

To say that things are busy in our team right now would be the understatement of the year! Our Kickstarter Campaign has left its initial funding goal far behind and is cracking stretch goal after stretch goal. Our communities are more active then ever, keeping our community team on its toes to answer questions from thousands of interested backers and potential players across platforms.

Today, we want to recap some of the most important info and revelations and new bits of material that we’ve been sharing on other channels recently!



Our game reached 100,000 Wishlists on Steam recently—a number that’s admittedly a little bit terrifying, because that’s A LOT of people to make happy. It’s also incredibly exciting and validating to know that this audience is here, more than eager to get their hands on the game we’ve been making!

[hr][/hr]
[h3]🎬 New Gameplay Clips[/h3]
While our core loop, missions and horse care mechanics are still very much deeply work-in-progress, we’re happy to share what we can:

• This gameplay clip shows a glimpse at our mission system, horse trading, inventory, route planning, resource collection and powder pouches.
  
• This clip of the character exploring different weather conditions on foot gives a bit of insight into how the passage of time may affect the game world.
  
• This video shows a look at our breeding mechanics and how coat color inheritance will work in the game.

Recently, our coders, artists and game designers have put a lot of work into crafting, missions and horse behavior, among other things, and will soon be working on the initial missions that the player will face when starting the game.

[hr][/hr]
[h3]📘 Story Teaser[/h3]
We’re also thrilled to give you a bit more information about our game’s narrative: the game takes place in two different, intertwined periods of time. Mika’s stallion Windstorm from the Kaltenbach Ranch got sick and only ancient knowledge may be the last help. Thus, Mika connects with Naranchimeg, or Naraa for short, a girl from 13th century Mongolia, who sets out to find a cure by unravelling the myth of the Khiimori, the legendary “wind horse”!

The game’s clear focus is in the 13th century setting, with the present day Kaltenbach story providing framing.

After the conquest of Chinggis Khan, the steppe itself saw a time of relative peace and stability, which is where we chose to set our game. With the great Khan gone, his successors rapidly began growing the infrastructure and thus the prosperity of their realm; an accomplishment that is based not only, but above all, on horses. The empire’s achievements, both in war and peace, were built on and carried out by their steeds.

Managing such a vast empire needed fast new ways of communication. Enter the legendary Yam courier system and its brave riders! This is where you come into play. Thrive as a Yam courier, accept a large variety of missions, gain fame and manage to survive the open wilds of Mongolia, with a bow in hand, and the wind as your two-faced ally.

[hr][/hr]
[h3]🐎 Horse Breeds and Other Additions[/h3]
With the 200k Stretch goal reached last week, we’ve also been able to confirm the addition of two new horse breeds: To fit our setting and time period, we’ve chosen the Akhal-Teke and Ferghana horse as our next two additions. The plan is that these exotic horses will not roam the steppe on their own, but can be bought from the merchants that import them into Mongolia.



We’re further excited to confirm more horse and rider customization, cooking meals for yourself and your horse, and the addition of a storyteller NPC who will introduce you to Mongolian myths and legends. We’ll share more info on how exactly all of those things are planned to look in the game over the coming weeks and months!



[hr][/hr]
[h3]🏁 Into the Final Stretch[/h3]
For the next 9 days, our focus remains on the Kickstarter campaign, at least where marketing and community efforts are concerned. If you haven’t done so yet, we highly recommend you check out our campaign and consider becoming a backer. While the reduced Early Bird rewards are all taken, there’s still a lot very cool exclusive content to secure.

Every pledge counts—every backer helps us get this game closer to the true vision of where we want it to be. See you all soon!



[hr][/hr]
[h3]Join the Community[/h3]
Facebook Instagram TikTok Twitter

Discord Twitch Website

FULLY FUNDED in less than 20 hours 🤯🤯🤯
THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH!!!!!
This is absolutely amazing! Now it's time to get the stretch goals out. 100k we're coming 😍



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Check out the full trailer and interview only available on Kickstarter
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]


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Don’t miss out on the few limited and exclusive rewards that are left. Go to our Kickstarter page right now and claim your favourites!

More rewards are available on our Kickstarter campaign

[hr][/hr]
[h3]Join the Community[[/h3]
Facebook Instagram TikTok Twitter

Discord Twitch Website

Windstorm: The Legend of Khiimori is now live on Kickstarter 😱😱😱

We’ve got a brand new trailer, new features being confirmed (hunting, anyone?), exciting rewards (we can’t wait to get our hands on those resin statues ourselves!), console release confirmations, developer insights, behind the scenes footage AND MORE.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]