HexWind News

Hey VR die-hards. We’ve got a smaller Update 24 live now with new elemental enemy weapons, trap variants, and a special new enemy type. Let’s dive in.
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[h2]Elemental Traps and Enemy Weapons[/h2]
Most enemies now have elemental variants for their weapons. You can tell the difference based on color and visual effects treatments. For the current update, this is cosmetic, but in Update 25 the elemental alignment of your loadout will determine which elemental weapons cause you to take the most damage. Keeping a close eye on your loadout will help make sure you’re not especially vulnerable to that flashy flaming sword! Some traps now also have elemental variants which will work the same way. We’re making these changes to reinforce the importance of ability loadout selection, as we get closer to finishing the element system.

[h2]New Enemy! Flying Skulls[/h2]
You’ll definitely notice the newest enemy in our menagerie - Flying Skulls are lower tier enemies who still pack a punch. They’ll fly around before dive-bombing you with explosive damage. Make sure to take them out before they get too close!
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Update 24 was a quick one, setting up some significant board design and element loadout alignment changes coming in Update 25. Come on over to our Discord server at Discord server to let us know what you think!

Hey VR die-hards. Update 23 is live with new combat encounters to flesh out our expanded mission environments from Update 22. Let’s dive in.

[h2]New Combat Encounters[/h2]
Supporting the new mission environments from the last update, we’ve added a collection of new combat encounters across most mission types. You’ll now see new traps spawning rolling and bouncing obstacles to dodge or deflect, designed with the new level layouts in mind. We’re having a ton of fun playing around with these in the heat of combat, so get in and tell us what you think.

[h2]Difficulty Balancing[/h2]

We also shipped the first in a big set of changes to difficulty balancing, particularly for campaign mode. We’re going to expand campaign mode to the full 5-act structure and we want to ensure a reasonable difficulty curve across those acts - whereas right now difficulty is pretty chaotic both in individual missions, and in mission sequences. You should see a bit less volatility between two consecutive missions after this update - it’s unlikely you’ll get an incredibly easy mission full of trash mobs followed by an unbeatable mission of elite knights, or vice versa. That said, if you still find yourself running into really big swings in difficulty from mission to mission, please let us know!

[h2]Leaving Early Access - The Final Push[/h2]

We’ve made a ton of progress on HexWind in the last few months, and we’re almost ready to announce a date to leave early access. From our whole team, THANK YOU, to all of you who played HexWind, left us feedback, gave a review, or even liked an update post. At Charm Games, we’ve been around a long time now - approaching 10 years - and we’ve worked with a lot of amazing partners over the years on our other games. But HexWind is as indie as it comes - because we don’t want anyone to get between us and players like you. As an exclusively VR developer from day one, we’ve cast our lot in with all of you who just want to see amazing games that can show you something special in VR.

The reality of doing this right now is we live and die based on whether you like our work enough to buy it, review it, and tell someone about it.

So if you tried HexWind and are having a good time, please leave a review!

If you like what you see but have to be careful with money, try the demo and let us know what you think!

If you’re interested but you’ve been burned by other early access games, add HexWind to your wishlist!

If you’re a VR player but lean toward other genres, tell your friends with a headset about us!

Each of those can make a huge difference for a small developer like us. We're determined to keep the VR fires burning in HexWind. If you want to help as we get close to the 1.0 release, come over to our Discord server!

Hey VR die-hards. Update 22 is live with an expanded set of worlds to explore and an overhaul on the visuals of the off-hand. Let’s dive in.

[h2]Procedurally Varying Environments[/h2]
After spending the last few weeks on combat it was time to turn our attention to the mission environments. We want every run through the HexWind board to feel fresh and unique so we have been working on an expanded set of environments and how we can introduce more variance into the world every time you enter a mission. This week we have introduced a few new Fire, Earth, Ice and Chaos environments for you to check out and some randomness in what you will see each time you enter.

There will be more of these to come as we continue to build out the world. You should see some more interesting battleground layouts and some great new visuals. Look out for the flaming skull in the sky. That’s one of our favourites!

[h2]Off-Hand Visual Refresh[/h2]

The off-hand has been taking on more abilities over the past few weeks. This week we reworked the visuals on the off-hand to be a little more functional while still delivering on beautiful visuals.

[h3]Shield and Dash[/h3]
The shield now stays stowed until you need it and you can bring it out in a flash by pressing the grip button. This also puts you into dash mode so you can punch through enemies with your fist. We now get the combo meter out of your way when you dash to make sure you don’t trigger a combo unintentionally.

[h3]Spell Ammo[/h3]
When you have a spell equipped on the off-hand you can always see how much ammo you have left with a clear bar of energy in the centre of your arm. This should read more clearly than the bracelet on the wrist we were previously using.

[h3]Dash Feedback[/h3]
We have tried to make it much clearer when you are ready to dash and when you are not. A new dash indicator has been added that shows you when you are in range and also whether you have enough mana to perform a dash so you can react accordingly in every situation.


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We hope you enjoy the new ways to experience HexWind that we added this update. Come on over to our Discord server at Discord server to let us know what you think!

The Charm Games Team

Hey VR die-hards. Update 21 is live with a new ability slot focusing on Dash and defensive magic, with three new elemental abilities. Let’s dive in.

[h2]Bracer (Passive) Slot[/h2]
The big change in this update is the new Bracer ability slot. Magic in this slot is intended to modify Dash or to provide a defensive advantage in combat. The bracer is the third and final ability slot we wanted to add in Early Access for HexWind, to give more options for defensive combat moves and choices for passive effects to take into combat. You’ll see new elemental themed visuals on your off-hand depending on which ability you’ve chosen in the bracer slot. With the bracer and the small shield attached to it, you can now deflect or absorb projectiles with both hands, giving a bit more control in the chaos of combat.

[h2]New Bracer Abilities[/h2]
To go along with the new bracer slot, we’ve included three new elemental abilities:

Storm Surge carries a shock of Storm Magic that damages your target and up to two nearby enemies when you land a punch after using Dash.

Cold Front projects a wave of Ice Magic when using Dash, damaging your target and any enemies behind it.

Flame Ward spawns up to three orbs of Fire Magic which orbit you and damage any enemy they touch. Orbs are consumed when they cause damage, and respawn over time.

We added these abilities in a slightly rough visual state just because we’re finding them so fun we didn’t want to sit on them. We’ll have updates to the visuals and combat feedback coming in Update 22. Check out the new abilities, come over to our Discord server to let us know what you think!

Hey VR die-hards. Update 20 is out now, and continuing our current focus on fleshing out combat mechanics we’ve revamped the Dash ability. Let’s dive in.

[h2]New and Improved Dash[/h2]

Updating and improving basic combat moves is our current focus and Dash is the first ability to get some love with significant changes this week. We wanted Dash to be more focused and tactical within combat versus the dodge-ish move it has acted like until now. We also wanted to make it a core combat move instead of unlocked only when you’ve chosen that card. So, Dash is now always available in combat regardless of your loadout, costing mana to use.



Dash is also now a targeted ability - you will see a round target indicator pop up on an enemy within range. To Dash, hold up your hand and punch toward that enemy - you’ll dash toward them and land a hit which will one-shot kill a basic enemy and damage stronger enemies. If you’ve played Arkham Shadow, you’ll get the general idea. Our team is enjoying the new Dash a ton, we hope you will too!

[h2]Daily Run Leaderboards[/h2]

Now that Daily Run mode is in place, you can browse through past leaderboards to see the winners. Check it out in the back of the Mausoleum behind the Sarcophagus, and go find your name there!

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We’re continuing to make big changes pretty quickly and your feedback helps a ton - come on over to our Discord server to let us know what you think!
The Charm Games Team