Jotunnslayer: Hordes of Hel News

Hey Jotunnslayers!

It's been a while since our last dev blog, and that's because we've been busy fixing, rethinking, designing, redesigning and improving Jotunnslayer based on your incessant waves of invaluable playtest feedback—thank you so much for that once again!

Today, we want to update you on the progress we've made in response to some of the topics you've frequently mentioned, as well as the current status of the build. So, in this episode of the Jotunnslayer Dev Blog #6, let's scratch the surface of the following:


Screen Shake - It's worth mentioning again that the screen shake issue has been addressed and the option to turn it off or reduce its visibility in the game will be available in the demo version. We've implemented a screen shake intensity slider, allowing you to adjust it from 0% to 200%.

Gameplay Mechanics - Based on your feedback, skill evolves have been added to the game. That being said, every skill now has its ultimate level. Since we are currently focused on refining the system architecture, some additional skills and items are on hold for now. We completely understand how eager you all are for new builds and content, and we promise that we are committed to delivering them over time. Rest assured, we have big plans for this game!

New Class Releases - We’re hard at work on the public demo, which will introduce a new character, the Seeress. Following that, two additional classes will be available in Early Access, with more classes to be added in future updates.

THE DARK SEERESS







New God Releases - New gods are definitely in our plans. While they won’t be implemented in the upcoming demo due to our current workload, they will be available in later versions and updates.

Quest Diversity - Even though other priorities have taken precedence for now and our team has been producing new content at a certain pace, we’ll definitely make quests more diverse in the Early Access version.

How about the UI/UX? Has it undergone any changes?

The GUI has been completely reworked, and the new version will be featured in the public demo. It’s sleeker and designed to allow for seamless addition of new content in the future. We’re eager to hear what you think of it!

Virtues (formerly Temple) UI BEFORE



Virtues UI AFTER











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In the second part, we want to share some exciting news that you might have been expecting:

Cologne, Jotunnslayer is coming to Gamescom!

If you’re planning to attend, be sure to drop by our booth at the

Indie Arena Booth, Hall 10.2, Booth F010g-E019f
August 21 - 25
Gamescom, Cologne

Let’s take this opportunity to meet, chat, and, of course, try out the exclusive Gamescom build of Jotunnslayer with plenty of new content!

Plus, beware—you might leave our booth sporting some Viking-style temporary tattoos!




We hope to see you there!
All you Vikings, feel free to keep leaving us questions in the Q&A thread on Discord.
More news (and some face reveals) is on the way!
Cheers!

Hey Jotunnslayers!

We've got some really cool news today!

We don't want to limit you to just our feedback forms after the playtest build—we want to hear your questions in free form, too!

That's why we're launching a Q&A thread on Discord , where you can drop all your questions for the dev team behind Jotunnslayer: Hordes of Hel anytime!







We'll gather your questions and prepare a video episode where you'll get to see our faces for the first time and hear directly from us about our plans, thoughts, and anything else you want to know.

So simply put… COME AND ASK!

Based on the volume of questions in this initial round, we'll prepare a video where our dev hero will cover your questions firsthand. And if not all the questions are addressed in the first Q&A dev episode, no worries—we'll do another one soon after.

Thanks for being here and unselfishly sharing your ideas and suggestions, helping us refine Jotunnslayer into an experience you won't want to leave.

See you in the Q&A dev sessions!
Cheers!

Hey Survivors!

Thank you so much for participating in the Jotunnslayer playtest and for the incredible feedback you've shared so far. Like we already mentioned multiple times, your input is invaluable at this stage of development. Remember, our next milestone is a polished and fine-tuned public demo, so your help during this playtest phase is crucial!

WE HEAR YOU!

While we've received plenty of praise for the overall experience in Jotunnslayer: Hordes of Hel, we want to share our future development direction, focusing on common feedback themes that we aim to improve.

Content Variety

We want more variety, too!

Have in mind that the playtest offered just a small glimpse of what's to come - one character and a single level. On the other hand, the Early Access release will feature a much larger pool of content, including more characters, weapons, gods, map and modifiers. We’ll also continue adding even more content periodically after the EA release.

Character Building

We're constantly improving character builds, but despite our efforts to ensure multiple viable options for each class, some ideas may not have hit the mark. In that sense, our next step is to analyze which builds are most popular, which skills are underused, and how we can enhance variety.

Impact of Skill Choices

We’re introducing evolved versions of each skill at level 4 to provide exciting goals and reward players for specializing their builds.

Challenge and Difficulty

Using analytics, we'll identify difficulty spikes and uneventful moments in players' runs to ensure a smoother and more engaging experience.


ANYTHING IMPROVED IN THE MEANTIME?

Absolutely! While focusing on new content and fine-tuning gameplay mechanics, we are making several technical improvements:

New Video and Controls Settings:

- Framerate cap
- Screen shake intensity
- Controller vibration intensity
- Key bindings





Better PS4 controller support
Enhanced support for ultra-wide screen resolutions

Performance optimizations:
- Ice shader optimization
- VFX pooling and culling improvements
- Decal renderer optimization
- Multiple bug fixes


THE ULTIMATE GOAL

Our core vision with Jotunnslayer focuses on a strong, polished game experience built around action roguelike and survivor genre pillars. But no worries, we also see vast opportunities for improvement and exploration. With our current ritual/event system, there's ample space to develop unique map mechanics, rituals, and bosses, making Jotunnslayer truly stand out is what we all strive for.


REQUEST YOUR SPOT IN THE PLAYTEST

The playtest period has been extended until further notice.

Sign up now to secure your spot!

Help us shape the future of Jotunnslayer. The feedback form is at the end of the playtest—please don't skip it!


If you haven’t already, join our awesome community of Survivors on Discord.

Thanks for helping us out!
Until the upcoming improvements, keep on slaying!
Cheers!

Hey Survivors!

Thrilling news today, just like we promised!

To celebrate all the feedback we've collected from this playtest and the incredible engagement from our growing and amazing community, we've decided to grant access to everyone who has requested a spot in this closed playtest.

No more waiting lists – everyone gets in!

The only thing we ask is for you to provide us with your feedback. You can fill out the form at the end of the build or send your thoughts directly on Discord.

Please don't forget to do that for us!

If you haven't already, sign up for the playtest and join our growing horde of survivors on Discord and help us build Jotunnslayer together!

Cheers to opening the gates of the Norse underworld to all of you survivors!
Never stop slaying!

The Jotunnslayer: Hordes of Hel Team

Hey Survivors!

We're happy to share that the number of sign-ups for our playtest has exceeded our expectations. Your constructive feedback is incredibly valuable as we develop Jotunnslayer together, and we’re thrilled with the response rate so far.

To show our appreciation, we’ve decided to extend the playtest and grant more of you access to this closed beta before we release the public demo. We'll be granting 200 access slots per day to ensure that everyone interested gets a chance to play. Access will be given in waves to manage the feedback analysis workload effectively.

While we refine the game experience based on your feedback, we're working hard to deliver a public demo in the upcoming weeks that you’re going to love!

WHAT'S NEW IN THE PLAYTEST BUILD?

And since the team has already started fine-tuning and implementing your feedback at full steam, a new build is now available for playtesting with the following fixes:

Gameplay

- Lowered the amount of XP needed for level-up (Max Level changed from 20 to 25)
- Reduced damage from Skeleton arrows and Suiciders
- Increased explosion delay for Suiciders
- Decreased Bone Jotunn contact damage
- Decreased movement speed of Loot Bat
- Removed collision on treasure chests
- Added XP drops from Objectives
- Reworked XP rewards from Objectives & Items, which now increase with hero progress
- New skill for later versions of Skeleton Spellcaster
- Removed Trinkets from chest rewards
- Reduced prices of Temple Passives

UI

- Added missing icons for Skills and Difficulties
- Reworked Character Statistics on the Pause Screen
- Simplified HUD
- Tweaked Minimap zoom

Technical

- Added optional data collection for gameplay improvement purposes
- Minor performance optimizations

SFX

- Added Objective Completed and New Objective sounds
- Added new Bone Jotunn ability sounds
- Added Brazier sounds
- Added Suicider spawn, death, and explosion sounds
- Added Loot Goblin hit and death sounds
- Added Freya and Thor passives trigger sounds

Bugs Fixed

- Enemies spawning outside of the map
- Mouse cursor disappearing when switching to gamepad
- Circular spawn waves not working correctly

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Finally, let's wrap up today’s Dev Blog with some words from our Lead Game Designer, Marek Hlavaty:

Recently, we conducted a closed test to see if our game is ready for a public demo. After addressing major issues found in our internal test last month, feedback indicates the game is fun to play. Based on this feedback we continue to improve the experience, and we are on track to deliver a public demo we know you will enjoy. Thanks to everyone who provided feedback—it was truly invaluable!

I’d like to add that we’re particularly curious about our quest system. Currently, each run has fixed quests, allowing players to prepare but making the gameplay somewhat repetitive. To mix things up, we’re considering randomizing quests based on your suggestions.

Random quests might be unbalanced—some runs could be very tough, others too easy. But we're willing to give it a try. For this, we need a diverse pool of quests. We have some ideas, but we want to hear yours too!

Share your quest ideas on our Discord. Your suggestion might just make it into the game! We look forward to your contributions as always!

Keep up the amazing job!

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Thanks for being here and helping us shape Jotunnslayer: Hordes of Hel into a hell of an adventure!

Stay tuned for more updates, and keep slaying!

Cheers,
The Jotunnslayer Team