Wartile News

Hi Everyone

This week Steam runs a Midweek Madness sales with games developed from Denmark, to celebrate the Danish Games Week where developers from Denmark get the chance to meet and share experience, discovering new talents and talk to investors and publishers.

In the spirit of sharing our experience, we have collected some of the highlights of our creative process of making Wartile, and want to share this with all of you who are interested.
We have divided it up into three chapters covering, Environment art, Character art and finally Community and Game Play

Environment Art

In the beginning, we wanted to create a game that embraced the childhood memories of playing or gaming with figurines in miniature environments. Just like when playing games like Dungeons & dragons and Warhammer.

In the early stages, we made a tile-based system testing some of the core battle mechanics as a physical board game. We wanted to emulate the feeling of playing in a miniature world coming to life, where the game was in constant motion, but still with the flavor of turn-based mechanics.

When developing the game within the Unreal 4 Engine, we tried out a few early iterations on the visual side. The Goal was to create a diorama fell while also clearly communicating the strategical options available. With the top left, we tried to work with partly procedural generated tiles and foliage.

Our first gameplay trailer made three years ago under the working title TACTILE.
https://vimeo.com/122986004
We learned that defined tiles as part of the environment on the board significantly enforced the tactical aspects of the game, while also gave the board an appealing visual appearance.

To capture the feeling of playing on a diorama board we froze the water in its motion, creating a strong dynamic feel, with explicit references to handcrafted miniature models.

The clear-cutting of the diorama boards helped us frame the gameplay area while also creating a strong visual identity for Wartile.

All the boards are custom made, each one with a different visual setting and a new type of game challenge. Here you can get an exclusive inside peek of how we create the boards.(Warning - Pretty nerdy)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3IySI8G4Ycg
To further enforce the miniature look and feel, we made use of the Tilt-Shift effect on the camera, adding blur in the for- and background while still having the figurines in perfect focus.

We proudly believe that we have established a unique visual identity for Wartile that fits the type of game we have been trying to create, and are looking forward to pushing the boundaries even further in the future.


Enjoy the raidings

Kind regards

Wartile Dev Team

Hi everyone

Stepping out of Early Access was an awesome experience, and we have been pleased to see Wartile being enjoyed by so many people. During the first few weeks, we were busy fixing bugs and adjusting features that had slipped through our testing. we also implemented achievements with a slight delay.

Wartile is much more than just a game; it’s a system that we intend to keep expanding on to make it bigger, better and richer by adding more content and keep polishing the gaming experience. We aim to both build new content for everyone already part of the universe, but also to improve features and mechanics that we can learn from our community need more attention.

Here are some of the new things we are working on

Ability timing and communication
We feel that that ability used by enemy figurines could communicate better and we are working towards making it clear which abilities are being used and inform you if you can counteract them. An example of this could be showing that a figurine is actively casting an ability, allowing you to stun the figurine to stop the casting. In general, abilities will be the same but with more information, if you can avoid or prevent them.

Battle Encounters
We intend to improve the overall presentation of encounters and their tactical challenges for the player in a relaxed and exploration-friendly environment offering the player more time to plan for each encounter while also enforcing the narrative experience of each board.

New Battle board
Draugr is on the move, and dark clouds of evil will soon cover Midgard.

Work in progress preview

Small adjustments
We are revisiting Alfablot to make sure that players can complete the difficulty tiers instead of dying trying. The same goes for some of the masochist achievements, that might need a second sanity check, together with other reported issues.

The Dark Ages
We have also started working on something bigger for Wartile, and we can reveal that things are looking grim in Midgard, and the realm will soon enough be needing its heroes again.

PAX East
Also: April is around the corner, and PAX East is about to begin. And as you now have already guessed it: We’ll be at PAX this time, for the first time. Showing off something… new for the game which will come to the PC Version as well but which affects the game itself and its future, too. Sounds cryptic? Well, to make it a bit more precise: Soon you’ll have another option to chose how you want to control your Vikings! Meet us in Hall A, Booth 10052 to learn more.

We are keeping our cards close, but want to let you know that we are cooking like crazy from our office in Copenhagen and we are looking forward to sharing more.

Greetings and Happy raiding
The Wartile Dev Team

Hi everyone

Stepping out of Early Access was an awesome experience, and we have been pleased to see Wartile being enjoyed by so many people. During the first few weeks, we were busy fixing bugs and adjusting features that had slipped through our testing. we also implemented achievements with a slight delay.

Wartile is much more than just a game; it’s a system that we intend to keep expanding on to make it bigger, better and richer by adding more content and keep polishing the gaming experience. We aim to both build new content for everyone already part of the universe, but also to improve features and mechanics that we can learn from our community need more attention.

Here are some of the new things we are working on

Ability timing and communication
We feel that that ability used by enemy figurines could communicate better and we are working towards making it clear which abilities are being used and inform you if you can counteract them. An example of this could be showing that a figurine is actively casting an ability, allowing you to stun the figurine to stop the casting. In general, abilities will be the same but with more information, if you can avoid or prevent them.

Battle Encounters
We intend to improve the overall presentation of encounters and their tactical challenges for the player in a relaxed and exploration-friendly environment offering the player more time to plan for each encounter while also enforcing the narrative experience of each board.

New Battle board
Draugr is on the move, and dark clouds of evil will soon cover Midgard.

Work in progress preview

Small adjustments
We are revisiting Alfablot to make sure that players can complete the difficulty tiers instead of dying trying. The same goes for some of the masochist achievements, that might need a second sanity check, together with other reported issues.

The Dark Ages
We have also started working on something bigger for Wartile, and we can reveal that things are looking grim in Midgard, and the realm will soon enough be needing its heroes again.

PAX East
Also: April is around the corner, and PAX East is about to begin. And as you now have already guessed it: We’ll be at PAX this time, for the first time. Showing off something… new for the game which will come to the PC Version as well but which affects the game itself and its future, too. Sounds cryptic? Well, to make it a bit more precise: Soon you’ll have another option to chose how you want to control your Vikings! Meet us in Hall A, Booth 10052 to learn more.

We are keeping our cards close, but want to let you know that we are cooking like crazy from our office in Copenhagen and we are looking forward to sharing more.

Greetings and Happy raiding
The Wartile Dev Team

Hi everyone
We hope that you already experienced many successful raids and that you are enjoying Wartile. To spice up your adventures further, we have with update 1.0.11 added achievements to the game, to both give you new challenges and rewards while playing Wartile.



In addition to achievements, we have added numerous improvements and bug fixes to reported issues.

We would also like ensure everyone that we are still developing on Wartile to make it a better, larger and sharper experience, but we can't reveal much at this time.


New Features:

• Achievements are here! 58 exciting new achievements which will both challenge and reward you during your time in the Wartile universe.
  
• Added a page counters to Figurine Customization, Deck Builder, and Merchant scenes, to make it easier to find and give a better sense of how many items you have collected and cards you have unlocked.
  
• Added a clockwork cursor when hovering interactable objects and waypoints.
  

improvements:

• Added a sound cue when equipping tokens
  
• Added sound cue when picking up items like mead
  
• [Tears of Eir] Picking up the Trap on Tears of Eir should now add a trap card to the deck to allow for several uses of the Card
  
• [Tears of Eir] Added slight delay to completion of the Bear Trap quest
  
• [Heidrun Clan] Improved lighting on the reward scene on the Heidrun Clan battleboard
  

Bug Fixes:

• [Thor’s Wrath] Optimized battleboard to prevent random crashes on some computers
  
• [Trial of Tyr] Figurines could not move after being released from cage event.
  
• Fixed an issue that caused the token menu to appear while a unit is moving from rack to management
  
• [General][Tutorial hints] You were able to move the camera while the tutorial hint video was running. The video tutorial now properly blocks inputs (aside from closing the window)
  
• [Alfablot] Fixed an issue where Spirits could teleport away during stun chains.
  
• [Alfablot] Spirits on the second difficulty tier was holding an incorrect weapon.
  
• Fixed an issue that caused the "cycle figurine cards" hotkey to stop working
  
• Pressing New Game did not reset figurines sitting by the bonfire at the start screen.
  
• At the customization menu, the camera did not always behave as expected when leaving the menu.
  
• During the Intro Sequence it was possible to use Battle Cards on the battlefield and figurines.
  
• Resetting key bindings removed the Pause Game Key. This is no longer the case
  
• Fixed an issue when completing objectives that caused the game to continue playing while inputs were blocked.
  
• [Niflheim] The enemy Draugr that spawns in would attack player figurines before the enemies visually landed.
  
• [Alfablot] Fixed an issue that that caused enemy spirits to have the "selected" effect on them when disappearing and reappearing
  
• Made improvements to the visual experience of the Ymir's Cage "break animation".
  
• Unique token Eir's Retribution no longer grants its reward when defeating temporary (weak) enemies.
  
• [Trial of Tyr] Fixed a bug that caused the stunned animation to continue after a figurine was released from the cage event.
  
• When unlocking new Battle Boards and new units in the Tavern, they should visually drop down from the sky when entering Campaign menu
  
• Fixed a bug that caused the Grinding Stone "pickup marker" to sometimes be inside particularly large units.
  
• [Interactive Objects] Added additional to interaction of interactive objects and figurines being in combat. In particular, quest object (say Dark Forest Totems) will be blocked by adjacent enemies.
  
• Fixed a bug that caused players to be able to click on figurines during the Reward scene and have them be selected and move a little.
  
• Fixed a bug that sometimes caused the game to get stuck during the loading screen if you opened the options menu at a particular timing.
  
• Fixed a bug that in certain situations allowed enemy figurines to move onto blocked tiles.
  

Good luck on your future raid!

Best regards

The Wartile Devs

Hi Everyone and welcome to the Wartile universe. We sincerely hope that you enjoy Wartile and are grateful for all the feedback that we have received since we left Early Access just one week ago.

As it often happens with games when exposed to a broader audience with different playstyles, taste, and expectations. We see lots of feedback pointing in all directions, and we are still trying to digest all the input into something that we can take action on.

We have just released a patch focusing on solving some of the issues reported the last few days, and we hope that this will clean out most of the annoying problems.

You should also know that we are working on another patch implementing achievements into the game.

With this patch we have also made it possible to full pause the game by pressing (default key) P, allowing the player to explore the battle board and enemy positions. No interactions are possible during the pause, it's meant for coffee breaks and as a tactical reflection/exploration break.

Patch notes 1.0.8

• All key bindings now work. There was a problem specifically affecting movement keys, that didn't allow you to rebind to specific keys.
  
• [Customization] Some helmets didn't scale up when equipping them on figurines that had the Jotnar’s Mass token equipped
  
• [General] Ylva´s Crow can now only attack through obstacles if there is a valid path to the enemy.
  
• We have added a pause button to the game. Default keybind is "P"
  
• [Start Screen] The effects that affect adjacent allies (e.g. Heimdall's inspiration) no longer activate on the start screen
  
• [General] Enemy units could get stuck when moving to specific tiles (on bridges, under breakable objects, in towers, etc.) when a player character moved to the same tile in a rather specific timing.
  
• The graphic effect on Slow-time has been reduced. Now it mostly only affects the color and no longer blurs.
  
• Text on the Story Card for Jotunheim read "[...]from to Jotunheim[...]". Now reads "to Jotunheim"
  
• [Niflheim] Draugr can no longer spawn spawn and move around after the end of the level on the reward screen.
  
• In the start screen, the slight camera movement would stop after clicking exit game. This is no longer the case.
  
• [Customization] When unequipping items the character stats did not update. In addition, the portrait didn't update. These are now fixed.
  
• [Niflheim] Fixed grammatical error on the story card in the menu.
  
• [Alfablot] primary objective is now correctly spelled "Altar" instead of "Alter". In addition, "Frayr" is now correctly spelled "Freyr" on the same card.
  
• [The Rescue & Monastery] Some of the treasure spawn locations in the Monastery was not possible to interact with. These can now be interacted with.
  
• Changing the windowed mode option did not properly trigger when clicking save.
  
• [Niflheim][Dark Forest] Some Breakable objects was placed in a way that did not show the health bar below it. These have now been adjusted.
  
• Items and Tokens in the unit management had both "Item Count" and "Sell/Buy Gold Value" shown. Gold has been removed as it is only usable in the Merchant. Item Count is already shown as a widget below the item/token and has now been removed from the tooltip as well.
  
• We have fixed several spelling/grammatical parts of Figurine Stories
  
• [Alfablot] A tree branch obscured the Token rewards in the reward scene. This has been adjusted.
  
• [Thor’s Wrath] The player could move characters into a specific table. This is no longer allowed.
  
• [Trial of Tyr] Unit that was captured in a cage has the stunned animation over its head even after it had been released. This is no longer the case.
  
• Many grammatical and spelling errors fixed throughout the game (We still have more to go through!)
  
• When no save game exists, the start screen did not have any units. This is now remedied. In addition, the start screen will now add new units as you progress through the game.
  
• [GUI] The character selector from the Unit Customization screen did not get properly removed in some menu interaction situations.
  
• [General] When opening the options menu the player coul still click on UI and Objects in game. This is no longer the case.
  
• Fixed a bug that caused the tooltip to show up behind the Epilogue UI
  
• [Complete Level] When finished the main mission "continue" and "end level" now have a tooltip explaining their function.
  
• Fixed a bug that allowed you to enter new menus while the "Name Changer" UI was present.
  
• Added poses to characters in the Start screen.
  
• [Customization][GER] "Sundering glaive" had too many "-" in front of the value it subtracts when the effect triggers
  
• French Localization - Another token was incorrectly named: Ymir's cage
  
• [Customization][GER] "Heimdallr's Inspiration" had a missing value
  
• [Customization][GER] "Hels Heimsuchung" had a missing Value
  
• [Customization][GER] "Blessing of Eir" had the wrong item description
  
• [Menu][GER] There was not a translation implemented for "leave board"
  
• [Loka][GER] Incorrect Text-String: "Diese Schaltfläche bringt Dich in's Menü zurück" when destroying a token. This has been fixed.
  

We are aware that Thor’s Wrath sometimes crashes upon load, we are looking into this issue. For now, it usually works when loading it up the second time.

Portuguise is now fully supported thanks to Tiago :)

We hope that these bug fixes will improve the overall enjoyment of Wartile and want to ensure everyone that we continuously are addressing bugs and improving features based on feedback and our observations.

Best regards

Wartile dev Team